THIS Revelation has laid open the great Secrets of Providence from the Creation of the World, explained the prefent State of Things, and given Man all the Information that is neceffary to quiet his Anxieties, content him with his Condition, and lead him fafely to everlasting Reft and Happiness.

IT is now only neceffary, that the poor Wisdom of Man do not exalt it felf against God, that we fuffer our Eyes to be opened by him that made them, and our Lives to be conducted by him, in whom we live, move, and have our Being.

FOR Light is now come into the World, if Men are but willing to come out of Darkness.

As Happiness is the fole End of all our Labours, fo this Divine Revelation aims at nothing else.

IT gives us right and fatisfactory Notions of our felves, of our true Good and real Evil; it fhews us the true State of our Condition, both our Vanity and Excellence, our Greatnefs and Meanefs, our Felicity and Mifery.

BEFORE this, Man was a mere Riddle to himself, and his Condition full of Darkness and Perplexity. A reftlefs Inhabitant of a miferable diforder'd World,

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walking in a vain Shadow, and difquieting himself in vain.

BUT this Light has difpers'd all the 'Anxiety of his vain Conjectures; it has brought us acquainted with God, and by adding Heaven to Earth, and Eternity to Time, has opened fuch a glorious View of Things, as makes Man even in his present Condition, full of a Peace of God which paffes all Understanding.

THIS Revelation acquaints us, that wè have a Spirit within us, that was created after the Divine Image, that this Spirit is now in a fallen corrupt Condition, that the Body in which it is plac'd, is its Grave, or Sepulchre, where it is enflaved to fleshly Thoughts, blinded with falfe Notions of Good and Evil, and dead to all Taste and Relish of its true Happiness.

IT teaches us, that the World in which we live, is alfo in a diforder'd irregular State, and cursed for the Sake of Man; that it is no longer the Paradise that God made it, but the Remains of a drowned World, full of Marks of God's Displeasure, and the Sin of its Inhabitants.

THAT it is a mere Wilderness, a State of Darkness, a Vale of Mifery, where Vice and Madness, Dreams and Shadows, variously please, agitate, and torment the fhort, miferable Lives of Men.

DEVILS alfo, and evil Spirits, have here their Refidence, promoting the Works of Darkness, and wandering up and down feeking whom they may devour.

So that the Condition of Man in his natural State, seems to be, as if a Person fick of Variety of Difeafes, knowing neither his Diftempers, nor his Cure, fhould be enclosed in fome Place, where he could hear, or fee, or feel, or tafte of nothing, but what tended to inflame his Disorders.

THE Excellency therefore of the Chriftian Religion appears in this, that it puts an End to this State of Things, blots out all the Ideas of worldly Wifdom, brings the World it felf to Ashes, and creates all a-new. It calls Man from an animal Life and earthly Societies, to be born again of the Holy Ghoft, and be made a Member of the Kingdom of God.

IT crushes into nothing the Concerns of this Life, condemns it as a State of Vanity and Darkness, and leads Man to a Happinefs with God in the Realms of Light.

IT propofes the Purification of our Souls, the enlivening us with the Divine Spirit; it fets before us new Good and Evils, and forms us to a glorious Partici pation of the Divine Nature.

THIS is the one fole End of Chriftianity, to lead us from all Thoughts of Reft and Repofe here, to separate us from the World and worldly Tempers, to deliver us from the Folly of our Paffions, the Slavery of our own Natures, the Power of evil Spirits, and unite us to God, the true Fountain of all real Good. This is the mighty Change which Christianity aims at, to put us into a new State, reform our whole Natures, purify our Souls, and make them the Inhabitants of heavenly and immortal Bodies.

IT does not leave us to grovel on in the Defires of the Flesh, to cast about for worldly Happiness, and wander in Darknefs and Exile from God, but prepares us for the true Enjoyment of a divine Life.

THE Manner by which it changes this whole State of Things, and raises us to an Union with God, is equally great and wonderful.

I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life, faith our bleffed Saviour, no Man cometh unto the Father but by me.

As all Things were at firft created by the Son of God, and without him was not any thing made that was made, fo are all Things again reftor'd and redeem'd by the fame Divine Perfon.

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As nothing could come into Being with out him, so nothing can enter into a State of Happiness or Enjoyment of God, but by him.

THE Price and Dignity of this Redemption at once confounds the Pride, and relieves the Mifery of Man. How fallen must he be from God, how diforder'd and odious his Nature, that fhould need fo great a Mediatour to recommend his Re pentance! And on the other Hand, how full of Comfort,that fo high a Method, fo ftupendous a Means fhould be taken, to reftore him to a State of Peace and Favour with God!

THIS is the true Point of View in which every Christian is to behold himself. He is to overlook the poor Projects human Life, and confider himself as a Creature through his natural Corruption falling into a State of endless Misery, but by the Mercy of God redeem'd to a Condition of everlasting Felicity.

ALL the Precepts and Doctrines of the Gospel are founded on thefe two great Truths, the deplorable Corruption of human Nature, and its new Birth in Chrift Jefus.

THE one includes all the Mifery, the other all the Happiness of Man.