Scripture, are related in plain unadorned narrative; and both of them appear to stand on the same foot of historical evidence.

2d. Some parts of Scripture, containing an account of miracles fully sufficient to prove the truth of Christianity, are quoted as genuine, from the age in which they are said to have been written, down to the present.

3d. The Epistles of St. Paul, from the nature of epistolary writing, and moreover from the circumstance of their being written, several of them, not to particular persons, but to churches, carry with them an evidence of authenticity, beyond common historical narratives. Also, the first Epistle to the Corinthians is quoted in a particular manner by Clemens Romanus, in an epistle of his own to that church. In them the author declares that he received the Gospel in general, and the institution of the Communion in particular, not from the rest of the Apostles, but from Christ himself; so that the testimony of St. Paul is to be considered as detached from the rest of the Apostles.

4th. Christianity offered itself to the world on the basis of miracles; a circumstance that distinguishes it from all other religions. For it does not appear that Mahometanism was received in the world, on the foot of supposed miracles, i. c. public ones; for as Revelation itself is miraculous, it must necessarily imply some pretence to miracles, and it is a well-known fact that the religion of Mahomet was propagated by other

means.

5th. It is the operation of miracles, at the first rise of a religion, that gives it a just and almost irresistible claim to belief. For single instances

VOL. XLIV.

of this sort are easy to be accounted for, after parties are formed, and have power in their hands; when the leaders of them are in veneration with the multitude, and political interests are blended with religious claims and religious distinctions. 6th. Education, prejudice, and authority, were united against Christianity in the first ages of it; so that the real conversion of such numbers is a real presumption that somewhat more than human power was exerted in its propagation.

7th. If it be objected to the argument from martyrdom, that a multitude of enthusiastical people, in different countries and ages, have laid down their lives for the sake of the most idle follies imaginable, we answer, let us distinguish between opinions and facts. If a man lays down his life for an opinion, it is the strongest proof of his believing it to be true; but if a man lays down his life for a fact which came under the observation of his senses, this, his belief, or rather knowledge, is a proof of that fact. This was the case with some of the Apostles, and their contemporaries. Now it is a circumstance of great weight, though not of equal weight, that the martyrs of the next age, having full opportunity of informing themselves whether they were true or not, gave equal proof of their believing them to be true.

8th. Nothing can destroy the evidence of testimony in any case, but a proof or probability that persons are not competent judges of the facts to which they give testimony, or that they are actually under some indirect influence in giving it in a particular case. Until this be made out, the natural rules and principles of belief require that such testimony be admitted. It can never be sufficient to overthrow direct historical evidence, to throw

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out indolently, that there are so many principles from which men are liable to be deceived themselves, and to be disposed to deceive others, espe cially in matters of religion, that one knows not what to believe.

Now prophecy is the second fundamental article on the strength of which Christianity rests its claims to belief; and, in the long and manifold tissue of prophecy, whatever inconsistency there was in the Christian system would most certainly be detected.

1st. Let it be observed, that the obscurity or unin telligibleness of one part of a prophecy does not in any degree invalidate the proof of foresight arising from the manifest completion of those other parts which are understood. For suppose a writing partly in cipher and partly in plain words at length, and that, in the part understood, there appeared the mention of several known facts; it would never come into our thoughts to suspect that, if we understood the whole, perhaps we might find that those facts were not in reality known by the writer.

2d. For the same reason, though a man should be incapable, for want of learning, or opportunity of inquiry, even so much as to judge whether particular prophecies have been throughout completely fulfilled; yet he may see in general, that they have been fulfilled to such a degree as, upon very good ground, to be convinced of foresight more than human in such prophecies. d. A long series of prophecy being applicable to such and such events, is itself a proof that it was intended for them, according to the rules by which

we naturally judge and determine in common cases parallel to this. A man might be assured that he understood what an author intended by a fable, or a parable, related without any application or moral, merely upon seeing it to be easily capable of such application: and every reader takes it for granted that such persons and such events are intended in a satirical piece of writing, merely from its being easily applicable to them, and might be in a great degree satisfied of it, though he were not enough informed in the affairs, or in the story of such persons, to understand half the satire. 4th. The ancient Jews applied the prophecies to a Messiah, before his coming, in much the same manner as the Christians do now.

5th. The primitive Christians interpreted the prophecies respecting the state of the church, and of the world in the latter ages, in the sense which the event seems to confirm and verify.

But besides this direct and fundamental evidence afforded by miracles and prophecies, there is also a wide field of collateral and circumstantial argument for the truth of Christianity. Now these circumstantial proofs, though each is to be considered separately, yet ought they afterwards to be combined, to produce their full effect; for the proper force of the evidence consists in the results of these several arguments, contemplated through their relations to each other, and united under one view.

It is well worth observation, that the Scripture itself, regarded as a whole, holds out no inconsiderable evidence. For if we consider the great length of time the whole relation takes up, near six thousand years of which are passed; and how great a variety

of matter it treats of: that the natural and moral system, as well as the history of the world, is contained in the first book, evidently written in a rude and unlearned age; and that the subsequent books exhibit the common and prophetic history, and the particular dispensation of Christianity when we consider the very large scope for criticism, and the numberless opportunities of detection all this must afford, it is impossible to suppose that, if it were untrue, it would not, in an age of knowledge and liberty, have been proved false. Its not having been proved false, therefore, is a strong presumptive proof of its truth; and the strength of this presumptive proof will be in proportion to the probability that, if it were false, it might be shown to be so.

Now suppose a person entirely unacquainted with history, to store up in his mind certain leading passages from Scripture, without being sure but that the whole was a late fiction ;-let this person be informed of the correspondent facts recorded in history, and be told to unite them all under one view: for instance, let him be told that the profession and establishment of natural religion in the world is greatly owing to this book, and the supposed revelation contained in it; that its chronology and common history are entirely credible; that this ancient nation, the Jews, of whom it chiefly treats, appear to have been in fact the people of God in a distinguished sense; that there was a rational expectation among them, raised upon prophecies, of a Messiah to appear at such a time; and that accordingly one appeared at this time, claiming to be that Messiah; that he was rejected by that nation, and received by the Gentiles, not on the evidence of prophecy, but of miracles; that the religion he taught supported itself under the greatest difficulties, gained ground, and at length be