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Mofes TRULY faid unto the Fathers, A Prophet fhall the Lord your God raise 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 corresponded 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 Witnesses to himself, Jefus will refer us back to them.

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But to proceed with the Text-A Prophet fhall the Lord your God raife 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

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but what Mankind have been able to discover 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, thould clothe himself with Flesh to converfe with Mankind, fhould expofe himself among them to Sufferings and Contempt, and at laft 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 AriAtotle, as much as the Light of the Sun at Noon

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SERM. 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 Bufinefs 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 Jefus Chrift; they must at least acknowledge, with the Officers that came to the Chief Priefts and Pharifees, that never Man fpake 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 alfo he proposes to our Belief.

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

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receive him as more than Man: For we muft SER M. receive him as the Son of God, which he affirmed, and by inconteftable Miracles prov'd, himself to be. So great is the Difference between this Prophet, Jefus, and any one that ever appeared before him. As the Author of the Epiftle to the Hebrews speaks, God, who at fundry Times and in divers Manners, pake, in Time paft, unto the Fathers, by the Prophets; bath, in thefe laft Days, fpoken unto us by his Son; whom he hath appointed Heir of all Things, by whom also he made the Worlds: Hebr. i. 1, 2. A Character high and august indeed! and fufficient to justify us in receiving him not merely as a Prophet, but as much more than a Prophet: Nor will that comparative Character exprefs his Dignity: For much more than a Prophet his Forerunner John the Baptift was pronounced by Jefus himself to be: Luke vii. 26. Who yet confeffed Jefus to be one mightier than be, the Latchet of whofe Shoes he was not worthy to unloofe: Chap. iii. 16. He was but the Meffenger that was fent before his Face: Matt. xi. 10. Whereas Jefus himself is declared to be THE HIGHEST, the LORD himfelf, whofe Prophet John was, and whose Ways he went before him to prepare, Luke ì. 76.

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The Prophet then being fo great, fo divine; we, moft affuredly, are devoutly to liften, not only to his moral Precepts, but alfo to the feveral Revelations he has made,; and the pofitive Inftitutions he has commanded us to obferve. It is the fashionable Doctrine, indeed at present, that Morality is the whole. and fole of Religion; fufficient of itself without Sacraments or Faith: And indeed could we fhew ourselves perfect in the one, without the Helps of the other; there then might fome Room be left for Debate. But did you ever know a Man, I mean a Man who profeffed Christianity, that ever lived up. to the moral Precepts contained in the Gofpel, and did not observe the pofitive ones alfo? And who did not, after all, place his Confidence and Truft, not in his own imperfect Performances, but wholly in the Merits of his Bleffed Redeemer? The Question perhaps may feem invidious to fome; but as the Subject demands it, I will put it plainly: Did you ever find that they who afcribe fo much to Morality, and fo much prefer it to all the other Doctrines of the Bible; are themselves fuch fhining Examples of Morality, as you would fingle out and chufe to fol low I doubt not in the least, but there

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