to Prophecy, which differs widely from a Declaration in Favour of the Superiority of Prophecy: For ftill they may stand both upon a Level, and their Powers may remain equal. Allowing then that He has taken both these Points right, it appears that our Saviour has not decided the Question as he would have it. But we are not yet fure that He has not mistaken the Design of the Parable. We find that it was spoken to the Pharifees, who it is faid were covetous. Accordingly a Rich Man is made the chief Character in the Parable. The Ufe he made of his Riches was not, to communicate to others, and to relieve the Wants of the diftreffed: For when Lazarus was laid at his Gate full of Sores, and defiring to be fed with the Crumbs which fell from the Rich Man's Table, we do not read that He had any Relief except from the Dogs, which came and licked his Sores: But He applied them to the Indulgence of his Appetites, and spent them upon himself in all the Splendour and Luxury of Life. He was clothed in Purple and fine Linnen, and fared fumptuously every Day. This is all that is related of his Life. We find him next in very different Circumftances, in the Torments of Hell. For He died, and was buried, and in Hell he lift up his Eyes, being in Torments. Now what do we imagine our Saviour expected his Hearers should understand to be the Cause of his Punishment? Surely thofe Crimes alone which He had reported of his Life, amongst which a Rejection of the Gofpel has no Place.

He now, in his Turn, becomes a Supplicant, and begs first for a Relief of his own Miseries. But, when this is denied him, he petitions next for a Prevention of the Miseries of his Relations. Then He faid, I pray Thee, Father, that Thou wouldeft fend Lazarus to my Father's Houfe: For I have Five Brethren; that he may teftify unto them, left they also come into this Place of Torment. What was he defirous that Lazarus fhould testify to his Brethren? We can fuppofe it to be Nothing elfe than that which his own Cafe fuggested and which Lazarus had been a Witness to, the Event of a luxurious and immoral Life, and the Miseries which attended the wicked in a future State. He thought that this could not fail of deterring them from pursuing his Steps in Life, and thereby would prevent their coming into the fame Place of Torment with himself. Abraham faid that an Attention to Mofes and the Prophets, which they were already poffeffed of, was fufficient to effect what he defired. They have Mofes and the Prophets; let them hear them. And be faid, nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. The ordinary Methods of Admonition, which they have been fo long accustomed to difregard, will make no Impreffion upon their hardned Minds; but fo aftonishing a Call as this could not fail of striking their Attention, and producing their Reformation. And Abraham Jaid unto him, if they hear not Mofes and the Prophets, neither will they be perfuaded though one roje from the dead.

FROM

FROM this View of the Parable it does not feem in the least probable, that the Truth of the Gofpel was what the Rich Man defired to have his Friends perfwaded of. There is no Room to imagine that the Characters of this Parable are taken from fuch as were fuppofed to have had the Gospel preached unto them. And except they were fuch, the Reception of the Gospel cannot poffibly be concerned in the Difcourfe. A Difbelief of its Truth was not amongst the Sins for which the Rich Man himself suffered. Nor is there the leaft Intimation that he wanted to have charged Lazarus with any other Commiffion, than to testify unto them the Truths which arofe from his own fad Example. But what must entirely clear up the Matter is that he himself exprefsly tells us for what End he wanted to have fent to his Brethren a Herald from the dead: not, to perfwade them to embrace the Gospel, but to repent: But if one went unto them from the dead, Says He, they will repent. It is clear then that the Point of Perfwafion is not the Truth of the Gofpel, but the Neceffity of Repentance and a virtuous Life in Order to future Happiness. Whence it will follow as clearly, that the Means of Perfwafion recommended by Abraham under the Name of Mofes and the Prophets, could not be thofe Predictions of the Meffiah which were contained in the Old Teftament, because these, of all the Parts of the Scriptures, could have the least direct Tendency to bring about the desired End. I hope we need not be reminded here that

by

by a familiar Custom of speaking, Mofes and the Prophets was a Term fignifying the whole Volume of the Jewish Scriptures. Whatever Rules of Life then were diffeminated through thefe Scriptures, whatever inftructive Precepts or Examples they contained, whatever Descriptions and Monuments were to be found in them of God's eternal Juftice and Mercy, whatever they taught of his Hatred to Vice and Love of Virtue, whatever Motives and Encouragement they held up to Mankind to draw them to the practice of the latter, or whatever Denunciations of Vengeance they proclaimed to deter them from the former, these were the Parts in them peculiarly fitted to imprefs upon the Minds of Men a Sense of their Duty, to reclaim them from their Errors, and to awe or allure them into the Study of Godlinefs: And therefore these must have been the Parts which Abraham is made to point out to the Regard of those whom he wanted to bring back into the Paths of Life. And whoever is fo hardned as not to be wrought upon by these powerful Arguments, whoever refuses to hear the Voice of Mofes and the Prophets inftructing him with the greatest Clearnefs and Authority, and giving undoubted Proofs of their divine Commiffion, fuch an one, of fo ftubborn and infenfible an Heart, would not be moved nor perfwaded though one rofe from the dead: For even a Meffenger from the dead could not bring clearer Discoveries of the Will of God, nor ftronger Credentials of his bearing the divine Authority, than

had

had already been unsuccessfully applied to them. It is not then the Prophecies, but the Doctrines fupported by the Authority of the sacred Writings, that are here spoken of as fufficient to work a Reformation in any Mind yet open to Conviction. And therefore it is a Mifapplication of this Parable to produce it as an Argument of our Saviour's Opinion concerning the Efficacy of Prophecy and Miracles in attesting the Truth of his Gofpel. And it is ftill a greater Mifapplication of it to produce it as an Argument that his Opinion was in Favour of the fuperior Efficacy of the former.

SINCE then it may be done without any Tref pass on the facred Authority of our Saviour, let us reason of the relative Powers of Prophecy and Miracles, and endeavour to fet them in fo clear a Light, that it may be eafy for every one to compare them together, and to form a clear Notion of their mutual Proportions. The plaineft and most natural Way to this is to gain a distinct Knowledge of the Things to be compared, their separate and independent Powers. By what Virtue is it then that Prophecy becomes a divine Evidence of the Miffion of him for whose Sake it is given, and whence is its Power derived? The Solution of this Queftion cannot be very difficult: It requires Nothing more than a little Attention to the Steps by which we are led to see the Evidence of Prophecy. When we see a Prophecy given out long before the Time of the Event which it foretells, or clearly foretelling a

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