son and conscience; we are not so lost to all feelings of gratitude to God; we are not so lost to all the dictates of experience and truth, as to follow him in his infatuated wanderings. We derive from the very necessities of man, connected as they are with the other direct testimonies which we shall soon review, an invincible argument in favour of our religion.

I. Let me then, in conclusion, urge upon all before me, the practical application of the topic which we have been thus considering. Let me remind them of that temper of teachableness and prayer in which the question is to be studied. Let me urge every one to examine, in this temper, the proofs of the necessity of revelation. Let each person ask himself what he ever knew, or what he now knows practically, of the being and perfections of God, the holy law, the atonement for sin, the means of overcoming temptation, and actually living a holy and humble life, except as revelation shines with its friendly light? I do not wait for his reply. I know that in proportion as he imbibes the right disposition of mind, he will acquire, by his own observation, an increased capacity of judging of the need there is of a divine revelation. He will confess, that, whatever others may say or think, he feels that without Christianity man can never be rescued from the gulf of sin and misery in which he is involved. His own necessities expound to the practical student the common state of mankind.

II. Then let us recollect what thankfulness we owe to God for the advantages we possess in this Christian and protestant country. What praises should we render to the Author of all goodness for casting our lot in a land of light and knowledge. After reviewing the darkness of the world, can we avoid exclaiming, "Blessed are our eyes for they see, and our ears for they hear !" If there be a humble

state of mind, can we avoid thanking God continually for having been "delivered from the kingdom of darkness," for having been blessed with the Christian revelation of light and peace ?

III. Again, what unaffected compassion should this subject inspire for the heathen and Mohametan nations" that sit in darkness and the shadow of death!" If we were to consider only the temporal afflictions and calamities flowing from the want of the Christian doctrine, where is there a heart so hard that would not feel some movements of sympathy, when he beholds the souls of his fellow-men degraded-reason obscured-idolatry the most debasing triumphantthe light of truth extinguished-the dark and sensual passions enslaving the nobler powers-war raging with unmitigated fierceness-the whole female sex depressed, injured, enslaved―man, the glory of the creation, dethroned? Where is there the tender, the humane heart, that would not weep over a fallen world even in these respects, and be prepared to weigh with candour the evidences, which the goodness of God has supplied, of his revelation of " peace and goodwill to man" in Jesus Christ?

But when to these temporal miseries of the heathen world, we subjoin those which spring out of their spiritual condition; when we consider the perfections of God, his law, the accountableness of man, the immortality of the soul, and eternal judgment; and when we remember, moreover, that it is through the torpor of Christians that divine truth has not yet visited them, can we rest quiet without using all means, by the propagation of missions, and the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, to put a stop to the woe and desolation of sin? And can we forbear to feel a horror at that cold-blooded infidelity which, from pride and the love of moral darkness, denies the aid of mercy to a ruined world, saps the faith of Christians where it can, and deals in scorn and sar

casm and objection against the healing doctrine of salvation? O, let the unbeliever remember that the guilt of rejecting revelation, is a crime from which, at least, the heathen, with all their vices, are free: for they have never contracted the peculiar guilt of spurning this immense benefit and all its accumulated proofs; nor have they ever rendered themselves, by habits of obdurate resistance to truth, incapable of appreciating the evidence, and welcoming the message of eternal mercy.

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LECTURE IV.

THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

2 THESS. III. 17.

The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write.

WE proceed now to give some details of those direct Evidences of Christianity, by which its truth and infinite importance may be best imprinted on the youthful mind.

And here we, first, naturally ask, How do we know that the gospels and epistles were really composed by the apostles and disciples whose names they bear, and are deserving of credit as histories, so that a fact ought to be accounted true because it is found in them? Or, to speak the language of criticism, How do we know that the books of the New Testament are authentic and credible ?

I say, of the New Testament, for none who admit the authority of that part of the Holy Scripture, can doubt the truth of the other. The two, indeed, are so indissolubly connected, that a very few observations will serve to show the authenticity and credibility of the Old Testament, when the authority of the New has been once established.

At present, I confine myself to the question of authenticity. But before I enter on it, I

pause

for a

moment, because it may perhaps strike a young person as a difficult thing, to show that the books of the New Testament were really written and published by their respective authors in the first century. The distance of time may seem to him so immense, as to render any satisfactory evidence hopeless. How is it possible, he may ask, to prove that writings published seventeen or eighteen centuries since are genuine? Besides, his inexperienced mind may perhaps be startled at the very proposal of bringing the sacred scriptures to a merely historical test, in common with any other ancient writings. The very sacredness of the subject, and the awe with which we have justly instructed him to regard the Bible, may lead him rather to shrink from such a proposal. He may think it more natural and satisfactory to go at once to the divine inspiration of the New Testament, without entering on the historical question of, what has been so often proved, its authenticity.

And, undoubtedly, this is the shortest, and in some respects, the easiest course. We should then only have to prove the inspiration of the scriptures from the impress of the divine hand which is upon them, from the numerous arguments employed by our Lord and his apostles in support of their mission, and from the divine effects which Christianity produces. This is what we incidentally do in almost every sermon, and in common cases it is sufficient. But such a plan will not answer my present design, which is to lead the young, step by step, over the primary grounds of their faith, and thus to bring them to a full persuasion of the nature and obligation of the Christian religion.

Nor indeed need we fear the consideration, in their proper place, of any of those previous historical evidences which the goodness of God has furnished us with, as the first stepping-stones to our faith. It is