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CONTENTS.

DISCOURSE I.

The neceffity of revelation.

I-COR. i. 21.-The world by wisdom knew not God. 137

DISCOURSE II.

The fuperior excellence of revelation, or the Bible
a book containing matter worthy of God to re-
veal, and adapted to the circumstances and ne-
ceffitics of mankind.

PSALMS, Xix. 7, 8, 9.- The law of the Lord is perfect,
converting the foul: The teftimony of the Lord is fure,
making wife the fimple: The ftatutes of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart: The commandment of the
Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes: The fear of the
Lord is clean, enduring forever: The judgments of the
Lord are true and righteous altogether.

DISCOURSE III.

48.

Particular evidences of the divine authority and
infpiration of the Old Teftament.

LUKE, xvi. 29, 31.-Abraham faith unto him, they have
Mofes and the Prophets; let them hear them. And
he faid unto him, if they hear not Mofes and the Proph
ets, neither will they be perfuaded though one rofe
from the dead.

DISCOURSE IV.

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85

Particular evidences of the divine authority and
infpiration of the New Teftament.

2 PET. i. 16-For we have not followed cunningly de-
vifed fables, when we made known unto you the power

and coming of the Lord Jefus Christ, but were eye wit-
neffes of his majesty.

DISCOURSE V.

126

Prophecies of the Old Testament fulfilled in Jefus
of Nazareth.

Acтs, x. 43.-To him gave all the Prophets witnefs. 177

DISCOURSE VI.

A general view of the accomplishment of prophecy.
2 PET. i. 21. For the prophecy came not in old time by
the will of man; but holy men of God fpake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost.

DISCOURSE VII.

214

The facred fcriptures tranfmitted to us without
any material alteration or corruption.

PSALMS, CXXXviii. 2.-Thou haft magnified thy word
above all thy name.

DISCOURSE VIII.

Objections against revelation answered.

251

ISAI. xl. 21.-Produce your caufe, faith the Lord; bring
forth your strong reafons, faith the king of Jacob. 278

DISCOURSE IX.

The importance of an intimate acquaintance with
the fcriptures, with general reflections on the
whole fubject.

JOHN, V. 29. Search the fcriptures.

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322

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ERRATA.-Typographical errors in this work are hot very numerous or very important. A few, however, have efcaped the corrector's eye--the principal of which are as follows:

Page 31, Jine 17 from top, in part of the copies, dele a, between fuppofe and prayer.-P. 34, 1. 38, for appears read appear.-P. 67, 1. 26, for promifer r. promises.-P. 70, 1. 13, for derived r. devifed.-P. 83, 1. 3, for truths r. truth.-P. 88, 1. 24, for confirmed r. confined.-P. 127, 1. 20, for importunely r. importunately-1. 29, for fet r. fat.P. 217, 1. 32, and p. 235, twice in l. 13, for bare r. base. -P. 230, 1. 4, for Gadaza r. Gadara.-P. 277, i. 1o, for ftatute r. flatutes.-P. 295, l. 3 of the note, dele that. -P. 336, 1. 30, after it infert is.-P. 368, last line, in part of the copies, for of r. from.

DISCOURSE I.

1 CORINTHIANS, i. 21.

The world by wisdom knew not God.

WISDOM, abfolutely confidered, is one of the effential perfections of Jehovah. Divine wisdom, like all the other perfections of Deity, knows neither bounds nor limits, but embraces in one comprehenfive view, things paft, prefent, and to come. From the fountain of his own inexhaustible fullnefs, God has been graciously pleas ed to communicate a portion of wisdom to his creatures, particularly to his creature man He has taught him more than the beafts of the field, and made him wifer than the fowls of the air. Wisdom, as applicable to man, is in fcripture, frequently put for religion and virtue. Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is underflanding. In the more ufual acceptation of the term however, and frequently in facred writ, by wisdom we are to understand an intelle&tual endowment, common to perfons of different and oppolite moral characters, and is generally confidered as implying two things. ft. Prudence and difcretion, which although an endowment of nature, may be cultivated and improved by experience. 2dly. Knowledge, which is principally acquired. man who inherits from nature, or rather from nature's God, a found judgement, a retentive memory, and accurate reafoning powers, efpecially if thefe powers are cultivated by a proper education, and improved by application, and when the exercife of thefe powers is under the direction

B

The

of prudence and difcretion, is denominated a wife man. Such wifdom properly improved, tends to the difcovery of many things ufeful and important to mankind. Such was the wisdom of the heathen world before the coming of the Mefiah. Many of their more enlighted characters poffeffed accurate reafoning powers, cultivated and improved by education and application. In the exercise of thefe powers, they made numerous important difcoveries in various arts and fciences. In feveral branches of knowledge, each fucceeding generation might, and probably did improve on the acquirements of that which preceded. But notwithstanding all the wisdom of the world, and all the difcoveries which were made during the long period of four thousand years or upwards, in which there was an abundance both of time and opportunity to make the trial, we are told by the Apostle, that the world by wisdom knew not God.

The text, taken in connexion with the other claufes of the verse, may be thus paraphrafed. q. d." After God "had, agreeably to the dictates of his own infinite wisdom, "permitted the wisdom of this world to make a fair and "long trial, during the fpace of four thousand years, and "it had been found by experience that no progress what"foever had been made in arriving at the true knowledge "of God and our duty, by all the efforts of human wif "dom, it pleafed God mercifully to interpofe, and by

In

the preaching of the Gofpel, (a mean which human "wifdom never could have discovered, and which, when "difcovered, the wife men of the world were difpofed to "treat as foolishness,) to fave them that believe." tending by the leave of providence, to take a brief view of the evidence of the infpiration of the Holy fcriptures of the old and new Teftaments, and of the divine original of the Chriftian religion, as it refts on the foundation of the Apoftles and Prophets, what I propose from these words is rather a preliminary difcourfe, introductory to the main fubject. My defign is to illuftrate the truth contained in the text, which afferts the infufficiency of human wisdom as a guide in matters of religion, and to fhow that divine revelation is of courfe, neceffary to direct mankind in the

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