Design for the Providence of God to be concerned in, and therefore can never be a Reason for his giving this fort of Evidence to Mankind.

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But farther; Let us fuppofe a Man free from all thefe Prejudices, and then fee what we can make of this Evidence. If a dead Man fhould come to you, you must fuppofe either that he speaks from himself, and that his Errand to you is the Effect of his own private Affection for you, or that he comes by Commiffion and Authority from God. As to the firft Cafe, you have but the Word of a Man for all you hear: And how will you prove that a dead Man is incapable of practifing a Cheat upon you? Or, allowing the Appearance to be real, and the Defign honeft, do you think every dead Man knows the Counsels of God, and his Will with respect to his Creatures here on Earth? If you do not think this, and I cannot fee poffibly how you fhould think it, what Ufe will you make of this kind of Revelation? Should he tell you that the Chriftian Faith is the true Faith,. the Way to Heaven and Happiness, and that God will reward all true Believers; you would have much less Reason to believe him, VOL. III. D than

than now you have to believe Chrift and his Apostles: And therefore, if you reject Christ and his Apostles, neither can this new Evidence prevail with you: For, fuppofe that a Man from the Dead fhould prefume to teach you a new Religion, to inftruct you in new Rites and Ceremonies, to institute new Sacr fices and Oblations; would you think yourfelf warranted by a fufficient Authority to do and practise as he taught you? Would you not require better Evidence of his knowing the Will of God, than merely feeing him come from the Dead? And yet this is the Cafe: Should an Unbeliever receive the Gospel upon fuch Evidence, he receives a new Religion; for to an Unbeliever it is new, and the whole Weight of his Faith must rest upon the Credit and Authority of this Man from the Dead; and it would be as reasonable for an Unbeliever to receive a perfectly new Doctrine upon this Authority, as to receive an old one, which he before difbelieved. But, on the other fide, fhould you suppose this Man to come by the particular Order and Appointment of God, and confequently that what he fays is the Word and Command of God; you must then be prepared

pared to answer fuch Objections, as you are now ready to make against the Miffion and Authority of Chrift and his Apoftles. First then we afk, how this Commiffion appears? If you fay, because he comes from the Dead, we cannot reft here; because it is not felfevident, that all who come from the Dead are inspired: And yet farther than this you cannot go; for it is not fuppofed that your Man from the Dead works Miracles. The Miffion of Chrift we prove by Prophecies, and their Completion; by the Signs and Wonders he wrought by the Hand of God; by his Refurrection, which includes both Kinds, being in itself a great Miracle, and likewise the Completion of a Prophecy : Which Circumftance, as was before ob ferved, adds great Weight to his Authority. Befides, we are often urged to shew, that the Authors of our Religion were free from Intereft and Design, and that our Faith is not founded in the Politics of cunning and artificial Men; and we must defire you to do the fame good Office for the Prophet who comes from the Dead. As for ourselves, we appeal to the known History of those who were Founders of our Religion: There you may find them perfecuted, afflicted, and tor, D 2 mented:

mented: Their Gain was Mifery; their Re

compence, Hatred from the World; and their End, in the Eyes of Men, was Deftruction. These are the Proofs of their worldly Cunning and Policy, and the Refults of their deep-laid Defigns. But how will you fupport the fufpected Credit of one from the Dead? He comes, and tells his Story, goes off, and there is an end of him: And unless you can prove there are no evil Spirits, or no evil Men dead, you cannot clear him from the Sufpicion, nor fathom the Depth of his Defign: He appears to you like the Wind, the Sound of which you hear; but whence it comes, or whither it goes, you know not. If you will listen to the Evidences of the Gofpel, we will shew you in whom we have believed; we will fhew you Men like ourselves, armed with the Power of God, with Innocence of Life, with Patience in all manner of Affliction, and at laft fealing with their Blood the Truth of their Miffion. But, if you cannot digeft this Evidence, in vain do you call out for Help from the other World; for neither would you be perfuaded, though one rofe from the Dead. And this will farther appear,

Thirdly,

Thirdly, By confidering the Temper of Infidelity: For where Unbelief proceeds, as generally it does, from a vitiated and corrupted Mind, which hates to be reformed; which rejects the Evidence, because it will not admit the Doctrine, not the Doctrine, because it cannot admit the Evidence; in this Cafe all Proofs will be alike, and it will be loft Labour to ply such a Man with Reafon or new Evidence, fince it is not Want of Reafon or Evidence that makes him an Un believer. And this Cafe chiefly our Saviour feems to have in his View; for the Request to Abraham to fend, one from the Dead was made in behalf of Men who lived wantonly and luxuriously; who, as the Pfalmift ex preffes it, had not God in all their Thoughts, The rich Man in Torment could think of no better Expedient to rescue his Brethren from the Danger they were in of coming into the fame Condition with himself, than fending one from the Dead to admonish them, and to give them a faithful Account how Matters stood there, and how it fared with him. To which Abraham anfwers, that they had already fufficient Evidence of these Things; that they wanted no Means of Knowledge, if they would make use of those they had; D: 3

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