not pretend to have any pre-eminence. The claim which they advance. sits so easy and natural upon them, that the most critical eye cannot discern any trace of that kind of delusion which has often been exposed to public view; and they are so unlike any enthusiasts whom the world ever saw, that, as far as outward appearances are to be trusted, they "speak the words of truth and soberness."*

But you will not trust to appearances. It becomes you to examine the words which they speak, and you are in possession of a standard by which these words should be tried, and without a conformity to which they cannot be received as divine. Reason and conscience are the primary revelation which God made to man. We know assuredly that they came from the author of nature, and our apprehensions of his perfections must indeed be very low, if we can suppose it possible that they should be contradicted by a subsequent revelation. If any system, therefore, which pretends to come from God, contain palpable absurdities, or if it enjoin actions repugnant to the moral feelings of our nature, it never can approve itself to our understandings. It is unnecessary to examine the evidences of its being divine, because no evidence can be so strong as our perception of the falsehood of that which is absurd, and of the inconsistency between the will of God and that which is immoral. When I say that a divine revelation cannot contain a palpable absurdity, I am far from meaning, that every thing contained in it must be plain and familiar, such as reason is already versant with. The revelation, in that case, would be unnecessary. Neither do I mean that every thing contained in it, although new, must be such as we are able fully to comprehend; for many insuperable difficulties occur in the study of nature. We have daily experience, that our ignorance of the manner in which a thing exists, does not create any doubt of its existence; and in the ordinary business of life, we admit without hesitation, the truth of facts which, at the time we admit them, are to us unaccountable. The presumption is, that if a revelation be given, it will contain more facts of the same kind; and it addresses you as reasonable creatures, if it require you, in judging of the facts which it proposes to your belief, to follow out the same principles upon which you are accustomed to proceed with regard to the facts which you see or hear. If the books of the New Testament be tried with this caution by the standard of reason, they will not be found to contain any of that contradiction which might entitle you to reject them before you examine their evidence. There are doctrines, to the full apprehension of which our limited faculties are inadequate; and there has been much perplexity and misapprehension in the presumptuous attempts to explain these doctrines. But the manner in which the books themselves state the doctrines, cannot appear to any philosophical mind to involve an absurdity. The system of religion and morality which they deliver is every way worthy of God. It corresponds to all the discoveries which the most enlightened reason has made with regard to the nature and the will of God; and it comprehends all the duties which are dictated by conscience or clearly suggested by the love of order. The few objections which have been made to the morality of the

• Acts xxvi. 25.

gospel, as being defective in some points, by not enjoining patriotism or friendship, or too rigorous in others, admit of so clear and so easy a solution, that nothing but the desire of finding fault, joined to the difficulty of discovering any exceptionable circumstance, could have drawn remarks so frivolous from the authors in whose works they appear.

You may, then, without much trouble, satisfy yourselves that neither the manner in which the writers of the New Testament advance their claim, nor the contents of their books, afford any reason for rejecting that claim instantly, without examining the evidence.I do not say that this affords any proof of a divine revelation; for a system may be rational and moral without being divine. This is only a pre-requisite, which every person to whom a system is proposed under that character has a title to demand. But we state the matter very imperfectly when we say, that there is nothing in the manner or the contents of these books which deserves an immediate rejection. A closer attention to the subject not only renders it clear that they may come from God, but suggests many strong presumptions that they cannot be the work of men. These presumptions make up what is called the internal evidence of Christianity.

The first branch of this internal evidence is the manifest superiority of that system of religion and morality which is contained in the books of the New Testament, above any that was ever delivered to the world before. Here a Christian divine derives a most important advantage from an intimate acquaintance with the ancient heathen philosophers. He ought not to take upon trust the accounts of their discoveries which succeeding writers have copied from one another. But setting that which they taught, over against the discourses of Jesus Christ, and the writings of his Apostles, he ought to see with his own eyes the force of that argument which arises from the comparison. Do not think yourselves obliged to disparage the writings of the heathen moralists. The effort which they made to raise their minds above the grovelling superstition in which they were born was honourable to themselves; it was useful to their disciples, and it scattered some rays of light through the world. It does not become a scholar, who is daily reaping instruction and entertainment from their works, to deny them any part of that applause which is their due; and it is not necessary for a Christian. You may safely allow that they were very much superior in the knowledge of religion and morality to their countrymen; and yet, when you take those philosophers who lived before the Christian era, and compare their writings with the books of the New Testament, the disparity appears most striking. The views of God given in these books are not only more sublime than those which occasional passages in the writings of the philosophers discover, but are purified from the alloy which abounds in them, and are at once consistent with, and apposite to the condition of man. Religion is here uniformly applied to encourage man in the discharge of his duty, to support him under the trials of life, and to cherish every good affection. To love God with all our heart, and strength, and soul, and mind, and to love our neighbour as ourselves, the two commandments of the Gospel, are the most luminous and comprehensive principles of morality that ever were taught. The particular

precepts, which, although not systematically deduced, are but the unfolding of those principles, form the heart, regulate the conduct, descend into every relation, and constitute the most perfect and refined morality, a morality, not elevated above the concerns or occasions of ordinary men, but sound and practical, which renders the members of society useful, agreeable, and respectable, and at the same time carries them forward by the progressive improvement of their nature to a higher state of being. The precepts themselves are short, expressive, and simple, easily retained, and easily applied; and they are enforced by all those motives which have the greatest power over the human mind. That future life, to which good men in every age had looked forward with an anxious wish, is brought to light in these books. There is not in them the conjecture, the hesitation, the embarrassment which had entered into the language of the wisest philosophers upon this subject. But there is an explicit declaration, delivered in a tone of authority which becomes that Being who can order the condition of his creatures, that this is a season of trial, that there will hereafter be a time of recompense, and that the conduct of men upon earth is to produce everlasting consequences with regard to their future condition. To the fears, of which a being who is conscious of repeated transgressions cannot divest himself, no other system had applied any remedy but the repetition of unavailing sacrifices. These books alone disclose a scheme of Providence adapted to the condition of sinners, announced, introduced and conducted with a solemnity corresponding to its importance, admirably fitted in all its parts, supposing it to be true, to revive the hopes of the penitent, to restore the dignity, the purity, and happiness of the intelligent creation, and thus to repair that degeneracy which all writers have lamented, of which every man has experience, and to the cure of which all human means had proved inadequate. This grand idea, which is characteristical of the books of the New Testament, completes their superiority above every other system, and gives a peculiar kind of sublimity to both the religion and the morality of the Gospel.

The second branch of the internal evidence of Christianity arises from the condition of those men in whose writings this superior system appears. We can trace a progress in ancient philosophy; we see the principles of science arising out of the occupation of men, collected, improved, abused; and we can mark the effect which both the improvement and the abuse had in producing that degree of perfection which they attained. To every person versant in the history of ancient philosophy, Socrates must appear an extraordinary man.— Yet the eminence of Socrates forms only a stage in the progress of his countrymen. His disciples, who have recorded his discourses, were men placed in a most favourable situation for polishing and enlarging their minds; and the Roman philosophers trod in their steps. But, if the books of the New Testament be authentic, the writers who have delivered to us this superior system, were men born in a mean condition, without any advantages of education, and with strong national prejudices, which the low habits formed by their occupations could not fail to strengthen. They have interwoven in their works their history and their manner of thinking. The obscurity of their station is vouched by contemporary writers, and it was one of the

reproaches thrown upon the Gospel by its earliest adversaries. Yet the conceptions of these mean men upon the most important subjects, far transcend the continued efforts of ancient philosophy; and the sages of Greece and Rome appear as children when compared with the fishermen of Galilee. From men, whose minds we cannot suppose to have been seasoned with any other notions of divine things than those which they derived from the teaching of the Pharisees, who had obscured the law by their traditions, and loaded it with ceremonies, there arose a pure and spiritual religion. From men, educated in the narrowness and bigotry of the Jewish spirit, there arose a religion which enjoins universal benevolence, a scheme for diffusing the knowledge of the true God over the whole earth, and forming a church out of all the nations under heaven. The divine plan of blessing the human race, in turning them from their iniquity, originated from a little district,-was adopted, not by the whole tribe as a method of retrieving their ancient honours, but by a few individuals, in opposition to public authority,-and was prosecuted with zeal and activity under every disadvantage and discouragement. When his contemporaries heard Jesus speak, they said, "Whence hath this man wisdom? How knoweth this man letters, having never learned ?"* When the Jewish council heard Peter and John, they marvelled, because they knew that they were ignorant and unlearned men ;"+ and to every candid inquirer, the superiority of that system, and the magnificence of that plan contained in the books of the New Testament, when compared with the natural opportunities of those from whom they proceed, must appear the most inexplicable phenomenon in the history of the human mind, unless we admit the truth of their claim.

A third branch of the internal evidence of Christianity arises from the character of Jesus Christ. It is often said with much truth, that the gospel has the peculiar excellence of proposing in the character of its author, an example of all its precepts. That character may also be stated as one branch of the internal evidence of Christianity, whether you consider Jesus as a teacher, or as a man. His manner of teaching was most dignified and most winning. "Never man spake like this man." He taught by parable, by action, and by plain discourse. Out of familiar scenes, out of the objects which surrounded him, and the intercourse of social life, he extracted the most pleasing and useful instruction. He repelled the attacks of his enemies with a gentleness which disarmed, and a wisdom which confounded their malice. There was a plainness, yet a depth in all his sayings. He was tender, persuasive, or severe, according to circumstances; and the discourse, which seemed to have been dictated to him merely by the occasion, is found to convey lasting and valuable counsel to posterity. His character as a man, is allowed to be the most perfect which the world ever saw. All the virtues of which we can form a conception, were united in him with a more exact harmony, and shone with a lustre more bright and more natural, than in any of the sons of men. His descending from the glories of heaven, assuming the weakness of human nature, and voluntarily submitting to all the calamities † Acts iv. 13.

* Matt. xiii, 54. John vii. 15.

which he endured for the sake of men, exhibits a degree of benevolence, of magnanimity, and patience, which far exceeds the conception that Plato formed of the most tried and perfect virtue. The majesty of his divine nature is blended with the fellow feeling and condescension implied in his office; and although the history of mankind did not afford any model that could here be followed, this singular character is supported throughout, and there is not any one of the words or actions ascribed to him, which does not appear to the most correct taste to become the man Christ Jesus. It is not possible that a manner of teaching, so infinitely superior to that of the Scribes and Pharisees, or that a character so extraordinary, so godlike, so consistent, could have been invented by the fishermen of Galilee. Admit only that the books of the New Testament are authentic, and you must allow that the authors of them drew Jesus Christ from the life. And how do they draw him? Not in the language of fiction, with swoln panegyric, with a laborious effort to number his deeds, and to record all his sayings, but in the most natural artless manner. Four of his disciples, not many years after his death, when every circumstance could easily be investigated, write a short history of his life. Without attempting to exhaust the subject, without studying to coincide with one another, without directing your attention to the shining parts of his history, or marking any contrast between him and other men, they leave you, from a few facts, to gather the character of the man whom they had followed. Thus you learn his innocence not from their protestations, but from the whole complexion of his life; from the declaration of the judge who condemned him; of the centurion who attended his execution; of a traitor, who having been admitted into his family, was a witness of his most retired actions, who had no tie of affection, of delicacy, or consistency, to restrain him from divulging the whole truth, and who might have pleaded the secret wickedness of his master as an apology for his own baseness, who would have been amply repaid for his information, and yet who died with these words in his mouth, "I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood."* Had Judas borne no such testimony, an appeal to him was the most unsafe method in which the writers of this history could attest the innocence of their master. But if the wisdom of God had ordained, that even in the family of Jesus the wrath of his enemies should thus praise him, it was the most natural for one of the evangelists to record so striking a circumstance: and I mention it here, only as a specimen of the manner in which the character of Jesus is drawn, not by the colouring of a skilful pencil, but by a continual reference to facts, which to impostors are of difficult invention, and of easy detection, but which, to those who exhibit a real character, are the most natural, the most delightful, and the most effectual method of making their friend known. "Shall we say," writes Rousseau, no uniform champion for the cause of Christianity, "shall we say that the history of the gospel is invented at pleasure? No. It is not thus that men invent. It would be more inconceivable that a number of men had in concert produced this book from their own imaginations, than it is that one man has furnished the subject

• Matt. xxvii. 4.