Spiritual perfection, unfolded and enforced from 2 Cor. VII, 1 having therefore these promises,…

Infidelity, whether proceeding from secret Atheism, or open Deism, rejects revealed Religion, as unnecessary and groundless. But the Arguments that are drawn from the clear and living Springs of Nature to prove the Being of God, are of such Convincing Evidence, that none but those whose Interest it is, that there were no Supreme Lawgiver and Judge to Call them to an Account for their Actions, can doubt of his Eternal Existence. Now that there is a God, being proved, the necessary Consequence from that Principle is, that he must be honoured and served according to his own Will, and that it becomes his Wisdom and Goodness to reveal his Will to Men, the Rule of their Duty, and that this be done in the most instructive and permanent way, in Writing, that is less liable to Corruption than Oral Tradition, and that the Holy Scripture has in it such Conspicuous Characters of its descent from Heaven, besides the most undoubted Testimony that it was written by Men Divinely Inspired, and Infallible, that without violating the Rules of sound Discourse we must yield our Assent to its Divine Authority, and supernatural Doctrines revealed ⟨p. 93⟩in it. I shall not here amplify and illustrate these particulars, having in some Discourses, formerly published, of the Existency of God and the Immortality of the Soul, and the Divinity of the Christian Religion, manifested how desperate the Cause of the Atheists and Deists is to unprejudiced Minds.

Infidelity, whether proceeding from secret Atheism, or open Deism, rejects reveal'd Religion, as unnecessary and groundless. But the Arguments that are drawn from the clear and living Springs of Nature to prove the Being of God, are of such Convincing Evidence, that none but those whose Interest it is, that there were no Supreme Lawgiver and Judge to Call them to an Account for their Actions, can doubt of his Eternal Existence. Now that there is a God, being proved, the necessary Consequence from that Principle is, that he must be honour'd and serv'd according to his own Will, and that it becomes his Wisdom and Goodness to reveal his Will to Men, the Rule of their Duty, and that this be done in the most instructive and permanent way, in Writing, that is less liable to Corruption than Oral Tradition, and that the Holy Scripture has in it such Conspicuous Characters of its descent from Heaven, besides the most undoubted Testimony that it was written by Men Divinely Inspired, and Infallible, that without violating the Rules of sound Discourse we must yield our Assent to its Divine Authority, and supernatural Doctrines reveal'd