to be Duties, Murder or Adultery to be Sins, he would not recur to Miracles for an Argument. These and the like Duties are enforced in the Gofpel, but were always Truths and Duties before our Saviour's Coming And we are in poffeffion of them without the Help of Miracles or Revelation. And these are the Doctrines by which we try the Miracles.

But the Doctrines which are to be proved by Miracles are the new revealed Doctrines of Chriftianity, which were neither known. or knowable to the Reafon of Man: Such are the Doctrines of Salvation and Redemption by Chrift, of Sanctification and Regeneration by the Spirit of God: And who ever yet brought these Doctrines to prove the Truth or divine Original of the Miracles?

I shall only add, that what has been said it concerns those chiefly to confider, who hold faft and admire the Principles of Natural Religion, but defpife or overlook the Proofs of Christianity. If they will but confider the Tendency of their own Principles, they are not far from the Kingdom of God: For the fame Reasons, that oblige them to believe in God, oblige them to believe in Christ also. And, as we have one God the Father of all,

fo

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-fo fhould we have one Faith, and one Lord, even Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Redeemer of us all. And let them take heed, that, having been made Partakers of fo much Grace, to the Acknowledgment of the one true God, they fall not the more irrecoverably under Condemnation by obftinately refusing to acknowledge his only and eternal Son, Jesus Christ the righteous.

What is Man that thou art mindful of him? and the Son of Man, that thou visitest him?

HEN we confider the Care of
Providence over the Children of
Men, as it is manifefted either
in the Works of Nature or of
Grace, we naturally fall into the

Reflection of the Text, and wonder to fee fo much done for Men, who seem to have no Merit or Defert equal to the Concern. fhewed for them. If we look up to the Heavens, and view the Sun, Moon, and Stars, and confider the Power by which these mighty Bodies were formed, the Wisdom and Contrivance by which their Motions are regulated and adjusted; we fee plainly, by X 2 the

the Benefit we receive from them, that they
were intended for our Service: And yet what
are we, that we should be fo ferved? If we
look round this Earth, the Place of our Ha-
bitation, we find it filled with many Kinds of
Creatures, and adorned by the bountiful Hand
of Nature as if it were meant to be a Seat
of Pleasure and Happiness; and we are fure
that this Part of the World, at least, was made
for the Benefit of Man: Here he is Lord,
and has Dominion over the Works of God;
for on Earth there is no Creature to rival him
in Power and Wisdom, or that can challenge
any Share of Authority with him. But this
Lord of the Earth, does he not come into
it helpless? is he not wretched whilft he is in
it, and oftentimes miferable when he is to go
out of it? What muft we fay then? that this
noble Palace was erected and adorned merely
to be turned into an Hofpital to receive the
Blind and the Lame, the Diseased in Body
and Mind; to be the Seat of him who is like
a Thing of nought, and his Days like a Sha-
dow that paffeth away

?

If we go on from the Works of Nature to the Works of Grace, the fame Reflection will purfue us ftill. One would imagine, that Man, who had received fo much from God, fhould at leaft continue to ferve and

obey