Mart. i. 22, 23. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet, saying; Behold, a Virgin Mall be with Child, and Mall bring forth a Son, and they shall call his Name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with Us.

T is a very usual Method with Serm.
Unbelievers;----And yet here,

1.
I
before I proceed, it may

be
proper

and necessary to pre

mise, that by Unbelievers I would at This Time be understood to VOL. V.

B

SER M. mean, not, men of such a disposition as 1.

St Thomas was before his Conversion ; rational and inquisitive persons, Lovers of Truth and Virtue, men defirous to know and to obey the Will of God, and careful to keep a Conscience void of Offence both towards God and towards Men; yet, at the same time, sensible of the Difficulties wherewith the Divine Providence has thought fit to permit even very inportant Truths to be sometimes attended; and careful, for That Reason, not to be imposed upon, nor to receive things without good Evidence, either of Reason, or of Revelation: These, I say, are not the Unbelievers I would at present be understood to have in View. For concerning fuch persons as thefe, our Saviour seems

to speak, when he says, they are not far Mark xii. from the Kingdom of God. But there is 34. another fort of Unbelievers, who, having fore seek all possible opportunities, not of SER M.

1. enquiring into, and impartially examining, but of cavilling against the Authority of Christ and the Truth of his Religion, as being the great Support and Confirmation of these Doctrines of Nature, with the Belief of which all Notions of Fatality of Neceffity, and all Licentiousness either of Sceptical Opinions or of Vicious Practice, is altogether inconsistent.

Now of This sort of Unbelievers, I say, the usual Method is to attack fome particular uncertain Doctrines in the Systems of disagreeing Sects of Christians, and then conclude that they have destroyed Christianity itself: Or they set themselves to expose particular Weak Writers; and then leave it to be supposed, that Ali Defenders of the Doctrine of Christ are Fools : Or they pick perhaps out of Better Writers fome inconclusive Reasonings, and weak Arguments ; trusting it will thence be inferred, that there is no Strength in the Strongest : Or they represent Chriftianity as relying upon some Foundation, upon which it does not rely; and then conclude thar ic has no Foundation at all: VOL V. B 2

Or

I.

SER M. Or they demonstrate some Facts to be no

Proofs of the Truth of the Gospel, which
never were intended for Proofs; and then
infer, that there is no Proof of it at all: Or
they dress up particular Facts or Doctrines,
in ridiculous Circumstances; and then re-
present the Things themselves, as Objects
of Ridicule : Or they lay great Stress up-
on some very obscure, or more difficult
Prophecy : and thence infer, that no Stress
is to be laid upon Any : Or because, in
the nature of the Thing, almost Any single
Prophecy may poisibly be imagined appli-
cable, in some sense or other, to Some
Other person ; therefore all of them toge-
ther, centring uniformly in Christ and in
Him alone, yet are not rightly in Fact ap-
plied to Him.
The words of

ту

Text are a particular and very remarkable Instance of Some of the Cases in the foregoing Obfervation. It has been supposed by Many, that this fingular and miraculous Fact, of the manner of our Lord's Birth, recorded thus in the Beginning and first Entrance of the Gospel-History, both by St Matthew and St. Luke; and urged more

over by St Matthew as an unquestionable Serm.

1.Verification of an Ancient and (at first Sight) as remarkable a Prophecy, as any is to be found in the whole Old Testament : It has been supposed (I say) by Many, that This Miraculous Fact, thus circumstantiated, and thus ushering-in the whole following History of the Gospel, must needs have been intended by the Evangelist, as a primary and fundamenal Part of the Proof of our Lord's divine Commission. Which since in reality it could not possibly be; as being a Fact which, in the nature of things, could not itself be proved, till the Truth of Christ's Miffion and the Veracity of his Followers had first been clearly established: Hence they have endeavoured to destroy the Authority of the Sacred Writer, as insisting (at the very Beginning of his History) upon a Proof which could not possibly be of any Use towards the Conviction of Unbelievers; and as confirming it by a Prophecy, which they think cannot be shown to be rightly applied, since the Words may be capable of another Interpretation,