596 TheExcellencyandUnaverfalityof Vol. II. 2. If we confider the Nature ofthisRevelation it will appear to be deigned for the general ufe and benefit ofMankind. The Matters revealed, whether concern ing God or our felves, this World or the other, are of Univerfal Concernment; The Laws of this Religion are not calculated for any particular Place or Nation, One more than another ; and the Arguments andEncouragements to the Obedience} of thefe Laws, are equally fitted to work upon all Capacities and Conditions, and apt to affe& them alike, becaufe they equally touch the Interefts and Concernments ofall Men : for fince all Men are equal in the immortal duration oftheir Souls, and equallyobnoxious to the Judgment of God in another World, it concerns all Men alike to underftand their duty, and the way to gain the favour of God, and thereby to efcape the endlefs and intolerable Miferies, and to obtain the unfpeakable and everlafting Happinefs of another World : and todire&, and excite Men heretó, the whole Revelation ofthe Gofpel, all theDoctrines, and all the Laws ofit, do plain.. ly tend. There is nothing in the Chriftian Religion, but what is fit for all Men to know and pra&ife, inorder to their prefent Peace and Comfort, and their future and eternal Happinefs ; and thefe thingsfurely are of univerfal and equal Concern- ment to all Mankind. 3. The Predi&ions and Prophecies' concerning the Meffias, and the Dodrine which lhould be delivered to the World , do plainly fhew , that this Revelation fhoùld be univerfal. In the firft promife to Abraham, it is plainly foretold, that in his Seed, that is, as theyews always underflood it, in the MefJiar, all the Nations ofthe earth fhould be ble/fed. And there are innumerable Predi&ions in the Pro- phets of the Old Teftanìent to this purpofe. I (hall mention but a few of many. Pfd. 2. 8. Af of me, (faith God to his Son,) and Ifhallgive thee the Heathenfor thine inheritance; and the uttermolt parts ofthe earthfor thypoffeffion. Pfal. 72, 57. fpeaking of theMeffìas, Men(hall be ble/fed in him, all nationsfhall call him ble/fed. Ifa. q.9.6. Iwillgive thee (lays God there concerninghim) for a light totheGen- tiles, that thou mayfl be mySalvation to the ends ofthe earth. 4. And laflly, This Revelation was a&wally publifh'd to the World, God giving remarkable Countenance andAfliftance fromHeaven to the firft Preachers and Pub- lifhers ofit. The Apoftlesof our Lord and Saviour, in virtue of hisCommilìon, and by his exprefs Command juft before his Afcenfion, went forth and Publifh'd his Dodrine to the World. Having upon the day of Pentecof, according to his promife which he made to them before his Death , and renewed to them after hisRefurredion, when he was going to his Father, J fay, having according to his exprefs Proinife, received the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghoft, they began to publifh the Gofpel firft to theyews ; and being rejected by the greateft part of them, they preach'd it to the Gentiles g and as a Confirmation of the Doctrine which theyPreached, they witneffed the Refurredion of Chrift from the Dead, as the great Evidence of the truth of his Doctrine; and to give confirmation to this Teftimony, God enabled them to work Miracles, and particularly to raife the dead to life, whichwas a con- firmationof theirTeftimonybeyond all exception: and in order to themore fpeedy' and effedual propagation ofthis Dodrine, Godwas pleafed towork a ftrange Mira- cle never wrought upon anyoccafion before or fine ; he endowed theApoftles and firft Preachers ofChriftianity with a poweroffpeaking all Languages,which they had occafion in theirTravels tomake ufe of, withoutever having ftudiedor learned them and this miraculous Gift was common to all the Apoftles, andcontinued till the Go- fpel was publifh'd'by them in moft parts ofthe then knownWorld; greater Evidence thanwhichGodcannotbeimagined to give ofhis defign to communicatetheKnowledge of this Dodrineuniverfally, and to allNations: and if it was rejededinfomeplaces, and the progrefsof it obflruded in others, this doth not hinder but that Goddeigned it to be univerfally known, and that it is in its ownNature fit to be a Law to all r Mankind ; and God who in his fecret Council bath not thought fit as yet to grant the Knowledge of this Dodrine ofSalvationtofome parts ofthe World, may in his due time fend this Light into thofe dark places of the earth, which: are full of the habitations ofbarbaroufnefs and cruelty, and grant the knowledge of Salvation to them. In the mean time, what caufe have we to blets God, to whom this Light came
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