to render a true account of Chrift's miffion, comprising only a fhort period of his life;" within the compafs of this period they are to record the doctrines he preached, the miracles he performed, and the circumstances of his death, paffion, and refurrection; to this undertaking they are fairly committed; this they are to execute as faithful reporters, and if their reports fhall be found in any effential matter contradictory to each other or themselves, let the learned author late mentioned, or any other opponent to Christianity point it out, and candour must admit the charge; but in the matter of a pedigree, which appertains to Jofeph, which our church univerfally omits in it's service, which comprises no article of doctrine, and which, being purely matter of family record, was copied probably from one roll by Matthew, and from another by Luke, I cannot in truth and fincerity fee how the facred hiftorians are impeached by the nonagreement of their accounts. We call them the infpired writers, and when any fuch trivial contradiction as the above can be fixed upon them by the enemies of our faith, the word is retorted upon us with triumph; but what has infpiration to do with the genealogy of Jofeph, the fuppofed, not the real, father of Jefus? And indeed what more is required for the fimple narration of

any facts than a faithful memory, and fincere adherence to truth?

Let this fuffice for what relates to the birth of Christ and the different ways, in which men argue upon that myfterious event: If his coming was foretold, and if his perfon and character fully answer to thofe predictions, no man will deny the force of such an evidence: If we are fimply told that a virgin did conceive and bear a fon, it is a circumftance fo much out of the ordinary course of nature to happen, that it requires great faith in the veracity of the relater to believe it; but if we are poffeffed of an authentic record of high antecedent antiquity, wherein we find it expressly predicted, that fuch a circumftance fhall happen, and that a virgin fhall conceive and bear a fon, it is fuch a confirmation of the fact, that, wonderful as it is, we can no longer doubt the truth of the hiftorians who atteft it. Now it is not one, but many prophets, who concur in foretelling the coming of the Meffias; his perfon, his office, his humility and fufferings, his ignominious death and the glorious benefits refulting from his atonement are not merely glanced at with ænigmatic obfcurity, but pointedly and precifely announced. Had fuch evidences met for the verification of any hiftorical event unconnected with religion, I

Luppole

fuppofe there is no man, who could compare the one with the other, but would admit it's full concordance and completion; and is it not a ftrange perverfenefs of mind, if we are obftinate in doubting it, only because we are fo deeply interested to believe it?

I have faid there was but one temple upon earth, where the only true and living God was worshipped, the temple at Jerufalem: The Jews had derived and continued this worship from the time of Abraham, and to him the promises were made, that in his feed all the nations of the world fhould be blessed. Where then are we naturally to look for the Meffias but from the ftock of Abraham, from the descendants of that family, in which alone were preserved the knowledge and worship of the only true God? If therefore the religion, which Chrift founded, does in fact hold forth that bleffing to all the nations of the world, then was that promife fulfilled in the perfon of Chrift, who took upon him the feed of Abraham,

N° CXVI.

N° CXVI.

WE are next to enquire if the character

and commiffion of the Meffias

were

marked by fuch performances, as might well be expected from a person, whose introduction into the world was of fo extraordinary a nature.

We are told by one of the facred hiftorians, that the Jews came round about him and said unto him, How long doft thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Chrift, tell us plainly: plainly: Jefus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not; the works that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me.

In this paffage Chrift himself appeals to his works done in the name of God to witness against all cavils for his being the true Meffias. The fame question was put to him by the difciples of the Baptift, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? The fame appeal is made to his works in the reply he gives to thefe enquirers.

It follows next in order that we should ask what thefe works were, and it fo happens, that the person who performed them, has himself enumerated

enumerated them in the following words; The blind receive their fight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleanfed and the deaf hear, the dead are raifed up and the poor bave the gospel preached unto them. These are works it must be acknowledged of a moft benevolent fort; they are not indeed so splendid as the miraculous act of dividing the Red Sea for the people of Ifrael to march through it, and again commanding it to close upon their pursuers in the rear and fwallow up the army of Pharaoh; they are not of fo tremendous a character as those afflicting plagues with which Moses punished the Egyptians; but would thefe, or fuch as these, have been characteristic of a mediator? Chrift came to fave and not to destroy the world, and the works above defcribed are no lefs merciful in their nature, than miraculous.

When the Jews therefore tauntingly affert the fuperior magnificence of the miracles wrought by Mofes, which we admit to have been in all refpects fuitable to the commiffion which Mofes was encharged with, they fhould with equal candor admit, that the lefs fplendid, but more falutary, miracles of Chrift, were no less suited to the merciful commiffion, which he came amongst us to perform. There is indeed more horrible grandeur in the fpectacle of a vast army

fwallowed