SERM. ftroyed from among the People. And pray VIII. what are become of that obftinate People who

refused to hear him? Where are now the Jews, who rejected and flew him?—All fcattered and difperfed in every Country abroad, and scarce a fingle Man of them to be found in their own. Indeed had their City and Temple been ftill ftanding; and the Jews continued to dwell and worship there as before; we might have had Reason to doubt, whether He, whom they had fo cruelly used, (and they yet unpunished) could have been that Prophet, the Rejection of whom, according to Mofes's Prediction, was to be followed by fo fevere a Cutting off and DeftruEtion But fince their Temple and City both were, within a few Years after the Death of Jefus, utterly deftroyed, and not so much as one Stone left upon another; (the Romans rooting up the very Foundations with a Plough ;) and fince also the whole Body of the People were either destroyed or carried away Captive, and fold like Slaves in the Markets of all Nations, to the Amount of above 1,100,000 in all; both which Miffortunes Jefus himself had foretold them fhould come upon them, for not receiving him; fince these Things, I fay, were the

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Confequences that enfued; it is another good SER M. Proof, not only that Jefus was a true Prophet; but also that he was the very Prophet foretold by Mofes, the Refusal and Rejection of whom should be fo revenged. Accordingly St. Peter, when he preached to them the Sermon, out of which I have taken my Text, being fenfible that that Judgment was coming upon them, called upon them, if they could, to repent and avert it. Repent you therefore (faith he) and be converted, that your Sins may be blotted out: ver. 19.

For Mofes truly faid unto the Fathers, &c. Which Prophecy being now clearly proved to have been perfectly compleated in the Perfon of Jesus; I fhall now

In the Clofe, and by way of Application, take Notice of the Memento and Call, which both Mofes and Peter give unto all Men to hear and attend to him, and the Judgment which they denounce against those that hear him not. Him fhall ye bear, &c.-As thefe are Words of great Concernment to all to whom this Prophet is known; I shall endeavour to fix and settle them in their Minds, by confidering them orderly, Line by Line, and by making my Obfervations as I go along. L 2 Mofes

SERM.

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Mofes TRULY faid unto the Fathers, A Prophet fhall the Lord your God raife up unto you: From which Words we may now infer the Counter-Part of what we have proved already: We have proved Jefus to be the great Prophet whom Mofes foretold, because he fo exactly answered and correfponded to whatever Mofes predicted of him: And therefore now we may further affirm that, fince the Prophet foretold by him is really come, and has fo fignally and in every Circumftance, fo exactly verified his Prediction; Mofes is proved to be a true Prophet by the coming of Jefus, as well as Jefus is proved to be the Prophet whom Mofes foretold. But on Jefus rather than Mofes are we now to attend: Though which ever of them we hear, he will fend us to the other. Mofes and the Prophets will fend us to Jefus : And as Witneffes to himself, Jefus will refer us back to them.

But to proceed with the Text-A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you:

-HIM SHALL YOU HEAR. And if indeed he is not to be heard, to what Purpose was he raised up? And yet we have been told that this Prophet has taught us nothing but what is as old as the Creation. Nothing

but

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but what Mankind have been able to difcover S ER M. of themselves, ever fince they were endued with Reafon. Surely it is ftrange! that the only begotten Son of God fhould come down from Heaven, fhould clothe himself with Flesh to converfe with Mankind, should expofe himself among them to Sufferings and Contempt, and at last yield himself up to an ignominious Death; and all this only for the Sake of republishing the Religion of Nature, which Men, by the Help of their Reason alone, are able to defcry!

But if the Truths which Jefus taught us, and the Rules he has given us, were nothing more than the Refult of the Reason of a private Man; how came his Doctrines fo far to exceed the Rules of all the Philofophers and Legiflators that ever were before him? How came the Son of an obfcure Carpenter in Judæa, a heavy and unpolished Corner of the World, to draw up fuch an admirable Scheme of Morality, as furpaffed all the Depth and Wisdom of the Grecians, the politeft and most fagacious of all Nations upon Earth; and outfhone the Precepts of the greatest Sages amongst them, as Lycurgus and Solon, Pythagoras and Socrates, and Plato and Ariftotle, as much as the Light of the Sun at Noon

L 3

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SER M. Noon furpaffes the twinkling of the Stars at Night? How fhould one Man, in two or three Years preaching, nay in one short Difcourse, advance the Ethick Doctrines to an infinitely greater Height and Perfection, than any or all of the Sects of Philofophers had ever done before; notwithstanding they had made it the Business and Study of their whole Lives, and that for many Ages together?And yet all this is confeffedly true: And therefore if they make a meer Man of Jesus Chrift; they must at least acknowledge, with the Officers that came to the Chief Priests and Pharifees, that never Man Spake like this Man, John vii. 46. And if not; then, furely, never must any Man be heard like bim. He, above all, must be heard and obeyed, not only in the Rules he lays down for our Practice; but in all the Matters also he proposes to our Belief.

And this alfo Mofes, or rather [as appears by the Text, as it stands in the Book of Deut.] God himself does by Mofes ftrictly enjoin, Him fhall ye hear, IN ALL THINGS WHATSOEVER HE SHALL SAY UNTO YOU. And if fo; we must hear him in whatever he says of himself, as well as in whatever he fays befides, And then are we again obliged to receive