moft open and declared enemies of thefe witneffes, their own countrymen and contemporaries, have attributed to magic, or to the agency of evil fpirits, the greater number of thefe miracles-for if the contemporaries of the witneffes have admitted, or denied, or in any way noticed fuch miracles, it will fol low, of course, that they could not be an impofition of any fubfequent age; but, befides this, we have fufficient historical evidence, that the books in which these miracles are recorded (that is, the four Gofpels, and the Acts of the Apostles) "are quoted or alluded to by a series of chriftian writers, beginning with thofe who were contemporary with the apoftles, or who immediately fucceeded them, and proceeding in clofe and regular fucceffion, from their time to the perfent ;" and there is the greatest reafon to believe, that thefe books have continued the fame, at leaft fubftantially fo, and as to all the material facts, from the apoftolic age down to this day. b

To advance argument in support of plain facts would be fuperfluous, or it would not be

(a) Paley's Evid.

(b) ibid.

1

difficult to fhew, from the very nature of the cafe, that miracles must have been performed, or at least believed to have been performed; for, unless fuch had been the case, our reafon informs us, and the experience of the prefent age in cafes fomewhat analagous makes it evident that fuch a religion, in fuch an age, and among fuch a people, could not have been propagated at all; much less by those poor and illiterate men who really did propagate it, and that too with fo much rapidity, and in opposition to the interests, prejudices, power, and learning of mankind.

(c) The means which our missionaries peffefs of msk. ing converts to the chriftian religion, are, I believe, in every refpe& fuperior to thofe poffeffad by the apostles; the power of performing miracles excepted: Yet with every other advantage on their fide, what flow progrels do they make in the work! With what difficulty do THEY make a fingle profelyte,* while the APOSTLES could add thonfands to the number of believers in a few days! In Europe, where there are fo many Jews, how rarely can they now make a convert of one; yet of the multitudes of people whom the apoftles converted, a large proportion were Jews!

* See Reports of the Millionary Societies, eftablished for the purpofe of propagating the Gofpel in the Eaft Indies, in Greenland, among the South-Sea Iflinders, an 1. the Indians on this Continent.

PROPOSITION IV..

That the miracles in question, were really performed.

THE fate of this propofition depends al

together upon that of the three preceding ones: If I have fucceded in fetting those afide; if it has been fhewn (and I trust it has, fuppofing the premifes to be admitted) that the first and fecond are morally impof ble, and that the third is abfolutely false; it follows, that there is a moral certainty of the fourth propofition being true; and if fo -if the miracles be true-of the religion being true likewise. d

(d) It is poffible our final conclufion may yet be objected to, and that by an argument to the following effect. "Your reafoning goes to prove, that the first and fecond

propofitions are meral impoffibilities. They indeed appear to be fuch; but you cannot deny that the miracles themfelvet, being phyfical impoffibilities, are liable to rejection on a fimilar ground. Admitting, therefore, that you have fucceeded in fetting the first and fecond "propofitions afide it only amounts to this--that it is mo"rally impoffible the teftimony can have been falfe, and

phyfically impoffible the miracles could be true." T this it is anfwered-we do not admit thefe miracles to have. been physical impoffibilities; they might have been the refult of a phyfical predetermination in which cafe they would not be a violation of phyfical order, but they would be particular difpenfations of that order. Supreme intelligence beheld at

Summary of the Evidence, conclufions deduced from the preceding arguments, &c.

WE have now taken a curfory view of the

principal evidences of chriftianity. We have feparately confidered its prophecy, its miracles, and its internal evidence, and have feen, I think, that from each of thofe heads, may be drawn the moft weighty arguments in fupport of the divine origin of this inftitution. If, then, fuch is the refult of an

ence the whole series of things, and miracles entered from eternity into that feries, as a condition of the greateit good. If it be admitted that there is a God-that this world had a Creator, it cannot be denied that fuch MIGHT at least, have been the cafe; nor can it he denied that, if nature has received laws, he who has impofed those laws, has the power of fufpending, modifying, or diding them as he pleases. We are not, therefore, poffcffed of fufficient data upon which to pronounce, that miracles are physical impoffibilities. But even allowing the above statement of the cafe to be correct, viz. “that it is morally impoffible the teftimony can have been false, and phyfically impoffible the miracles could be true;-as thefe oppofite (fuppeled) impoffibilities, cannot both of them have been really impoffible-as either the miracles mnt have been true, or the teftimony falfe, the question then comes to this-on which fide is the probability, or the leaft improbability? Now it appears to me, that this question can be decided without difficulty, for it having, I truft, been3 Bewn that the witneffes had no inducement to give fel

examination of thofe evidences in a detache d point of view, what an addition of weight does each of them receive when confidered in connection with the others? when, like individual members of a well ordered community, we behold them mutually supporting, and supported by each other? Suppose we take a momentary view of the fubject in this light, and endeavour, in few words, to trace this connection? •

From the flate of mankind previous to the introduction of chriftianity, the importance of a revelation to the improvement and happiness of our fpecies, is obvious. A revelation, then, being manifeftly wanted, we find that a certain perfon, in the characteftimony, it follows, that, if they did give fuch teftimony, they became impoftors without any mo tive whatever, which is to fuppofe an effect without a caufe; but in fuppofing the miracles to have been true, we affign an adequate caufe or motive for the extraordinary exertion of omnipotent power in the performance of them, viz.—to convince mankind of the truth of a revelation, manifeftly wanted, and of ineftimable value; and which effect could not have been produced by any other means, at least that we are acquainted with, than that of miracles.

(e) In the following feries, fome few facts, not before noticed, are introduced from the evangelical hißory; not as being of effential importance in themfelves, but because they were neceffary to shew the coppegion of the evidences.