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"For, let the result of an inquiry into secondary senses be what it will, the prophecies which testify of Christ, according to their primary sense, are sufficiently numerous to supply us with arguments for the truth of our religion.”—MARSH's Lectures, xxii. p. 61.

Having mentioned the name of Warburton, it would be very negligent in me were I not to press upon you, if your minds are in any respect unsatisfied as to the subject, by no means to omit the perusal of the sermons preached at the lecture founded by that great scholar expressly for this subject. Perhaps few institutions have been more fortunate in a succession of able men; and you will find in their works not less learning than strong argument blended with piety.

EDWARD.

There have been a great number of publications on the book of Revelation; but I believe there is little agreement. Do you consider this as a serious objection?

MR. B.

It has been considered by Michaelis as an objection against the book itself; but if you read his remarks upon it, you should also examine the arguments of Dr. Woodhouse in its defence. It is not at all surprising that difference of opinion should exist upon this subject, when the figurative language in which it is couched, together with great part of it being yet unfulfilled, is duly considered. It is confessedly the most difficult

portion of the prophetical records, and has had in consequence the greatest number of commentators, That out of so many, much nonsense should have been produced, is not at all surprising to any who remember, that

"Fools rush in, where angels fear to tread :"

but it would be no great proof of wisdom on that account to discard from consideration the works of sober and learned men, more anxious to follow the guidance of Scripture, than to claim an office not much lower than that of the prophet himself, as some have done, in expanding obscure intimations into detailed predictions of events yet in the womb of time.

EDWARD.

The Apocalypse carries on the declarations of prophecy to the end of the world; so that we have now a complete chain of evidence of this nature, from the fall of man to his final judgment. It surely is a strong argument for Christianity, that not one link of this chain should have been broken.

BEATRICE.

When I consider the chances that must have happened in every age, the number of particulars in which it was exposed to danger, and the number of enemies who would gladly have detected a failure, it appears to me that a special providence has watched over it.

MR. B.

I feel confident, that the more you examine this subject, the firmer will be your conviction upon it. I have generally observed that those who have had the least confidence in it, argued from theory rather than examination. Now there are few subjects in which theory, unaccompanied by examination, is more apt to mislead; and it never surprises me, therefore, to find such persons speaking of it as unsatisfactory. It is very much to be wished, that those who doubt upon the subject should seriously account for the facts of the case, go into the detail, and trace up the phenomena to some other cause, if they have not a divine origin. When the probabilities come to be compared between the believer's account and that of the sceptic, I have no doubt the latter would not be very ambitious to transmit them to posterity side by side.

CONVERSATION XVI.

MR. B.

In the evidence of miracles and prophecy, we have such strong attestations to the truth of Christianity, that it perhaps is not easy to add any thing which shall not appear weak in comparison; but there are yet some considerations of great importance, as confirming their evidence, and as affording additional reason to believe, "we have not followed cunningly devised fables." That which I shall now bring before you is the evidence afforded that Christianity is the one dispensation for which all others were preparatory, and which shall last to the end of time.

EDWARD.

That this may be the case is exceedingly probable from what we have already seen; but it will greatly strengthen my conviction if established, as overthrowing the infidel objection that a revelation should be for all ages.

MR. B.

That the Bible clearly states the dependence of each dispensation of Divine Providence upon that which preceded it, must be admitted by every one 'who reads it; and he who does not read it can have no claim for an answer to an objection founded upon

wilful ignorance. It may, however, be useful to recall to your minds some of the leading facts.

Of the first dispensation under which man was placed we know little; nor is it of importance to the proof of the truth of Christianity that we should know more, since the necessity for that revelation only arose from the abrupt termination of the happiness of our first parents in Paradise, by the fall,

From the fall to the time of Abraham, we find no especial provision made for the securing the continuance of religion upon the earth, beyond the occasional exertions of some zealous servants of God. Man appears to have been left in a great measure to develope his own powers and dispositions during a period of about one-third the whole time that has elapsed since the fall.

BEATRICE.

The consequence we know was most fatal to the interests of mankind, as well as of religion; for the "whole earth was full of violence, and the imaginations of the heart of man were only evil, and that continually."

MR. B.

That this statement is correct, all the light which remote antiquity can afford seems to testify; the general tradition appearing to have been, that man deteriorated from bad to worse. The general experience of mankind seems to testify that man is unable to live in society without religion. When the

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