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

Accordingly, there are not wanting motives, partly of a general nature, and partly derived from the peculiar circumstances of our country, to engage us in the present design.

1. The young require it of our hands. We must deliver down to the next age what we received from the preceding. We must not let the inexperienced Christian go out into the world merely with the general persuasion of the truth of his religion. We must give him some furniture of knowledge in a day like the present, when irreligion stalks abroad, when the spirit of inquiry is pushed into the regions of impiety or scepticism, and the mind is exposed to the injection of harassing doubts and suspicions. We call on the young to ratify the engagements made for them at their baptism; and it is but right that we should put them in possession of the chief reasons of the hope which we trust is beginning to animate their breasts. They need something more than the simple word of their parents and ministers.

2. The lapse of time requires it of our hands. We are now so far removed from the age when Christianity took its rise, that the facts of it rest on a longer series of testimonies. The proof of the authenticity of the sacred books demands an arrangement of the train of wit

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nesses.

The miracles must be defended. The volume of prophecy, as it unfolds, requires more time and care. We must establish what we say of the first promulgation of the gospel by an appeal to facts. The internal character and the blessed effects of Christianity must be cleared from the errors and misrepresentations which have in different ages obscured them. The obstructions of a long array of errors, which the corruption of man has engendered, must be swept away. Now all this cannot be done without pains and attention. The distance of time does not, indeed, weaken the force of conviction when produced by the proper testimonies; but it weakens the impression of the facts till the testimony is detailed: and it allows also of any thing being said. The wide space of eighteen centuries gives room for assertions and misrepresentations of every sort-absurd enough when examined-but still requiring to be examined, or outweighed by other and more practical considerations. The title-deeds of the heavenly inheritance are as authentic as in the first age, and where the hope of it is powerful on the heart and life. the process of proof is easy; but they require from the lapse of time, a more laborious examination, to obviate all the difficulties of a scrupulous mind.

3. Then the decayed state of piety, and the neglect of religious education, require this of our hands. The tendency of human nature is so strong to a secular and worldly and formal tone of religion, and the external peace which Christianity has in this country long enjoyed, favours so much the insidious evil, as almost to have extinguished amongst us that bright flame of holy faith and hope in our crucified Lord, which sustained the martyrs and confessors of the primitive Church. In such a day, infidelity, the infidelity of the heart, always spreads, because Christianity being defended chiefly on the footing of external evidences, and the strong-hold of religion, its inward grace and spirituality, being less generally understood, the rising generation are unprepared for a subtle adversary. Men hang loosely upon the Christian profession. Religious education is neglected. The precious deposit of the faith is handed down with little care. The Bible is not studied. The young are unfurnished with knowledge and unfortified with holy principles of judgment. In such a day it is essential to restate the vast importance of Christianity, its irrefragable evidence, its internal excellency, its mighty benefits. In such a day it is necessary to pause in the ordinary course of pastoral instruction, and confirm the minds of the

young, and supply the omissions of education, and solemnly inculcate the paramount obligation of Christianity. In such a day it is more than ever necessary to rekindle the flame of Christian faith and hope, by awakening, if it please God to bless the attempt, the consciences of men, and calling them up from a mere indifferent adhesion to the national creed, to a warm and practical perception of the blessed hope which Christianity inspires, and for the sake of which all the external evidences have been accumulated.

4. Then, in the present age, we have seen the moral desolations which a spurious philosophy has spread far and wide-we have heard the loud claims set up for the sovereignty of human reason we have witnessed the scorn with which all ancient institutions and established usages have been treated--we have been astonished to see a wild and enthusiastical scheme of pretended benevolence raised on the ruins of all personal virtue and all domestic and civil duties. The altar and the throne have been overturned. The most daring and unblushing attacks have been made upon our holy religion--attacks addressed to the common people, and sapping all the foundations of good order and subjection. The storm has spent itself. The irruption has proved by its devastations its own