A reason given of our hope on the practical grounds I have before stated, and in this spirit of meekness and fear, will neither betray the interests of religion, nor provoke the feelings of an opponent. On the contrary, if any thing can touch the conscience of an unbeliever, it is a firm but modest testimony thus borne to the evidences of religion, connected with a pure and consistent course of life. This is our best defence, as our apostle himself declares in the words which follow the text: Having a good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you as evil-doers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

It is upon these general principles that I propose to deliver the course of Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity, of which this is the first.

I am indeed far, very far from thinking that it is advisable to dwell continually on the evidences of our religion. The excellency of all its doctrines and precepts is such as to bring its own proof with it to every candid and serious mind. The business of life is carried on, not by defending principles, but by acting on them. It is our wisdom, as the ministers of religion, to take for granted, for the most part, the pre

liminary questions which have so often been proved, and to employ ourselves in the unfolding of the Christian faith, and in the application of it to the heart and conscience. But I conceive that the language of the text, the example of our Lord and his apostles, and the necessities of the case, make it obligatory upon us, from time to time, to give such public instructions as we find to be requisite, upon the grounds of our faith. The text has the force of an universal rule. It is addressed to the Christians in common who were scattered over different provinces in Asia, and it directs them to be always ready to give an answer to every man, whether friend or foe, who asked a reason of the hope that was in them. We are not indeed always to enter at any length upon the apology for our religion; but we are always to be ready, to be prepared with such information that we may not be taken off our guard; to have always the faculty of stating clearly and conclusively the reasons of our faith; and though this may be done briefly where the whole subject is thoroughly understood, yet the previous information takes a wide circuit; and in a learned and inquisitive age like the present, it seems to be the duty of the minister of religion, as well as of parents and instructors of youth, to communicate the materials of such a defence, and point out the chief points necessary to be

attended to, and the best course of argument to be taken.

Nor, again, do I consider it to be expedient in the sacred temple of the Most High, and during the course of the public devotions, to enter upon the whole wide question of the Evidences of Christianity, which has become, through the perverseness of the human mind and the numberless topics connected with the history of Christianity, an inexhaustible subject. This is better resigned to those learned authors whose labours have enriched this department of our literature.

But there is a practical and much more important, as well as easy, view of the subject implied in the direction of the text; which, after laying the foundation of the historical evidences sufficiently to bring the religion before us as of divine origin, dwells chiefly on the holy effects which it produces in the life of the believer, displays the internal excellencies of the religion itself, and thus appeals to the conscience and heart of every sincere enquirer.

It seems to me one of the most unhappy effects of a declining piety in these later ages, that the Evidences of Christianity should so often have been separated from its characteristic excellency, the revelation of a hope for lost

man in the death of Jesus Christ our Lord." This is to rob the great argument of its practical and most persuasive topics-it is to leave the question of Christianity as a dry theory and barren speculation-it is to forget all the topics connected with the ruin of the fall, and with the blessedness of that stupendous scheme of recovery which is most calculated to affect the heart of man. It is to construct a portal, and take away the edifice into which it should conduct us.

If the question can only be replaced on the practical footing where the early centuries left it, with such addition of historical matter as the space of time demands, I am persuaded, that to a plain understanding, the evidences of Christianity may be easily made out in a clear and satisfactory manner. Let men study it in a teachable spirit, let them trace it out in the sacred records themselves, let them see that the historical testimonies lead to the inward excellencies of the religion itself, as raising up sinful man to a hope of everlasting life by the Son and Spirit of God; let them perceive the mutual relation of the different branches of the

6" A disposition too generally exists to consider the question of evidence as something apart from the Bible; or something which we ought to study before we venture to make ourselves acquainted with the Bible."

Franks's Hulsean Lectures, 1821, p. 45.

subject, and they will be as competent to form a sound judgment on every part, not excepting the historical, as juries are on the questions of fact which are continually submitted to their decision.

The points in such practical cases rest ultimately on common sense. To discuss all the difficult parts of our jurisprudence is one thing; but to be able to seize the matter of fact, and determine upon the credibility of testimony, is another. So in the question of the Christian religion, a plain man may be soon puzzled and bewildered with the endless sophistries of an adversary, and yet when the whole subject is simply and practically opened, and the leading points of the evidence placed in due order before him, he may be able to come to a safe and just conclusion.

He cannot, indeed, mistake. The goodness. of God has provided him with such a mass of external testimony, and the internal evidence is throughout so level to his capacity of judgment, that he cannot fail of being able to give a sufficient answer to every one that asketh him a reason of the hope that is in him. And it is for the sake of others, rather than for himself, that in a literary and sceptical age, it is desirable he should be furnished with the means of a solid and argumentative defence of his