took the propereft Methods in his Power to preserve and promote the Knowledge and Practice of Religion among his Defcendants.

It cannot therefore be denied, that Mankind after the Flood had confiderable Advantages, if they had been careful to make a right Improvement of them. That awful Catastrophe of the Deluge, which they knew was fent as a Punishment for the Wickedness of the old World, naturally led them to reflect with Horror on the Crimes and Vices, which the Men of that impious Generation had been guilty of. And the extraordinary Favour fhewn to that excellent Perfon Noah, fhould have made them fenfible, that the Way to please God, was to perfevere in an uniform Course of Righteousness and true Holiness. Such was the Effect which the extraordinary Difpenfation of Divine Providence ought to have had upon Mankind, not only in the Ages immediately after the Flood, but in all the following Ages, as long as the Account of it fhall be preferved in the World. It is amazing, that notwithstanding all this, Men fell foon after the Flood from the Knowledge and Worship of the living and true God, into a State of deplorable Darkness, Idolatry, and Corruption of Manners. Yet in this State of Things, God did not VOL. I. I i utterly

utterly abandon Mankind, but graciously interpofed for upholding the Knowledge and Practice of true Religion in the World. For this Purpose, in about two hundred Years after the Death of Noah, he gave an extraordinary Call to Abraham, from whom many Nations proceeded. He favoured him with renewed Revelations of his Will, and vouchfafed to establish a gracious Covenant with him, and promised, that in his Seed fhould all the Families of the Earth be bleed. It pleased God afterwards to erect the Jewish Polity, the proper Defign of which was to preferve the Knowledge and Worship of the one true God in Oppofition to the spreading Idolatry, and to prepare the Way for that more perfect Difpenfation of Religion which was to be brought by the Son of God himself, the great Saviour of Mankind, who had been promifed and foretold at fundry Times, and in divers Manners, from the Beginning. He accordingly came in the Fulnefs of Time, to bring the cleareft and fullest Revelation of the divine Will, that had ever been given to Mankind, to free them from Condemnation and Wrath, to make Atonement for the Sins of the World, and to guide and affift Men by his Word, by his Example, and by his holy Spirit, in the Way to everlafting Life. This is the Difpenfation

Difpenfation which, to our unfpeakable Comfort and Advantage, we are now constituted under, and which shall continue to the Confummation of all Things, when the present Scheme of Divine Providence towards Mankind fhall be compleated. Then fhall that Day of the Lord come, in the which the Heavens fhall pass away with a great Noife, and the Elements fhall melt with fervent Heat, the Earth alfo, and the Works that are therein, fhall be burnt up. 2 Pet. iii. 10. Those good Men who shall then be found alive upon the Earth shall be fnatched from the midft of a World in Flames. They fhall not die, but shall be wonderfully changed; and fhall, together with the risen Bodies of the Saints, which had lain many Ages in the Grave, be caught up in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air. And thenceforth they shall be for ever with the Lord, happy in the blissful Vifion and Enjoyment of God and the Redeemer unto all Eternity.

On the General Conflagration.

DISCOURSE XXIV.

2 PETER iii. 10, II.

The Day of the Lord will come as a Thief in the Night, in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great Noife, and the Elements fhall melt with fervent Heat, the Earth alfo, and the Works that are therein, fhall be burnt up. Seeing then that all thefe Things fhall be diffolved, what Manner of Perfons ought ye to be in all boly Converfation and Godliness!

TH

HE Subject which these Words prefent to our Thoughts is of great Importance, and well deferves our serious Confideration. We are apt to be ftruck I i3

with