ends, in order to derive all the advantages they were designed to convey.

The external evidences are first in point of time, and superior in respect of authority; they are as the outward credentials of an act of a human legislature, proving the source whence it emanates, and the obligation which it imposes.

The internal evidences are second in point of time, and subsidiary as it regards the divine authority of revelation-they spring from the excellent and appropriate contents of the law itself.

But though the internal proofs are second in point of time, they have a force peculiar to themselves, and such as no human laws can possess. For as revelation proceeds from the infinitely wise God, and relates to the eternal salvation of mankind, the matter of it must have a perfection and an interest far surpassing all that the wisest acts of human legislation can possess.

The internal evidences, in fact, raise us from the mere conviction of truth, to the love and admiration of it. The external proofs are addressed to mankind generally, to awaken their attention; the internal, to disciples who have already received the religion, and have

a confidence in all its declarations.

The ex

ternal evidences prove that the religion is obligatory; the internal show that it is good. The one attests the authority of the divine. Legislator; the other proves to us the wisdom and efficacy of his enactments.

The internal evidences are, therefore, in some respects, of a more satisfactory kind, and bring more repose to the inmost soul of man than the external. The one makes an impression upon the understanding through the medium of the senses; the other upon the heart, by means of its best affections and hopes. know that a revelation is come from God, is one thing; to perceive its divine excellency, and feel its salutary effects, is another.

To

The internal evidences are also more intelligible to the great mass of Christians. They can understand, indeed, sufficiently, as we have shown, the external evidences. When the case is laid before them on the testimony of the great body of learned and enlightened men, whom they are accustomed, in all their most important concerns, to trust, they can perceive the general force of the accumulated and uncontradicted facts. Still they cannot receive fully and adequately all the parts of the question, because this requires a preparation of historical knowledge, habits of critical inquiry, and

a good acquaintance with the general laws of reasoning and the course of events throughout the different ages of time. But to understand and feel the internal evidences, demands only a sincere and lowly mind. The humblest peasant can discern, in the starry firmament, the marks of the wisdom and glory of God; though the philosopher alone can demonstrate the laws of the planetary system.

Nor is there any thing more calculated to confirm the faith of young persons, and fix them in the love and obedience of the gospel, than a persuasion of the unspeakable excellency of the matter of it. For, though we ought to receive with implicit belief a revelation which is once proved to have come from God; yet, such is the nature of man, he always follows what he considers to be good, rather than what he is merely convinced to be true.

The internal evidences, therefore, are amongst the chief inducements to faith in every age. It is indeed an unspeakable act of divine goodness, first to surround Revelation with the majestic glories of miracles and prophecies; and to fix immovably our faith afterwards, by the display of all its softer moral beauties of holiness and grace.

Infidelity will never be silenced in Christian countries, till we unite more closely the inter

for every blessing on the grace and mercy of God.

Thus, as the physician proves his skill and experience in treating the complicated diseases of his patients, by telling them all they feel, and explaining the source of their sufferings, anticipating their description of them, reconciling the apparent contradictions of their story, and suggesting new points which they had not recollected-doing all this in a thousand cases, and with invariable truth of observation. the Bible proves its claims to the confidence of men, by discovering all the secrets of their malady, opening to them the unobserved depths of their heart, and telling them the history of their contradictory feelings and desires, however little suspected by themselves.

So

III. But further, the Bible provides a REMEDY FOR ALL THE WANTS OF MAN;—which though surprising and incomprehensible in many respects, yet is in other views most exactly suited to his reasonable and accountable nature, and obviously adapted to his wants and necessities.

This is, in fact, the peculiar point of suitableness in Revelation. Every thing else would be inferior, distant, uninteresting, unless as connected with this. The Bible not only

speaks with authority, and opens the whole of man's state, but, having done this, provides an adequate and most surprising remedy.

If man be in the weak, fallen, ignorant condition, which we have described; then the suitableness of a Revelation is only another word for the suitableness of the remedy which it makes known.

Now, no other religion ever proposed to him any distinct and efficacious relief. What did heathenism pretend, with its contemptible deities and its unmeaning ablutions and rites! It was calculated, no doubt, to fall in with the universal impression on man's heart that he needed some guide for divine worship, and some atonement for sin; but it gave no specific information, and offered no adequate succour.

The prominent discovery of Revelation is, that pardon and grace, light and strength, hope and joy, life and salvation, are made known in the mercy of God our heavenly Father. A dispensation of grace by the Son and Spirit of God is the glory of the gospel, and constitutes it those good tidings of great joy' which precisely suit the extreme misery of our state.

This remedy is adapted for man in this important respect, that it not only prescribes a

1 Luke i. 14.