might, by God's blessing, imprint it on the inmost soul. We took up the argument on the admissions of natural religion; and have traced out, step by step, the evidences of the truth and importance of the Christian revelation, as they would be presented to the mind of a candid and sincere enquirer. We have not confined ourselves to a simple proof of each point, but have aimed at exhibiting the accumulated force of the respective testimonies, so as to augment and deepen the impression of the unutterable value of the Christian religion, and the immense obligation under which every one lies, to receive and obey it.

In the present volume, we have gone through the proofs of the authenticity, credibility, divine authority, and complete inspiration of the sacred books; reserving the consideration of the internal evidence for another occasion.

Previously to our entering upon these topics, we considered THE TEMPER OF MIND in which the question should be studied; and showed that some measure of docility and willingness to examine the question with fairness; of earnestness in the pursuit; of prayer to God; and of a practical obedience to truth, so far as it was known, were essentially necessary, and might be most reasonably required. It appeared, however, that in infidels, whether

we looked at the literary, the careless, or the low and uneducated classes, this temper was so entirely wanting, that their impiety, mockery of all religion, debasing principles of morals, and general self-conceit and immorality, sufficiently proved the badness of their cause."

The NECESSITIES of mankind next engaged our attention, and we found that the Heathen nations before the coming of Christ, were plunged into a most fearful gulf of ignorance, idolatry, vice and misery, with nothing to recall them to the knowledge of the true religionwithout hope, and without God in the world. We saw moreover, that the superior light of Deists in Christian countries, was borrowed from the very Christianity which they reject-that the Pagan nations now are in precisely the same state of misery and darkness, as those before the coming of Christ; and that the condition of Christian countries, in proportion as the Christian religion is inadequately known and obeyed, confirms every other argument in favour of the indispensable necessity of a revelation from God, if man was ever to be raised from a state of hopeless degradation, blindness, and woe. 10

These points, preliminary as they are, were sufficient to settle the whole question with 10 Lect. III.

a sincere mind. dressed such a cry of misery to the Father of mercies; and the want of all religious feeling in the opponents of revelation, so betrayed the wretched motives of unbelief, that any one taking up the Bible, and seeing the adequate and complete remedy which it proposes for human guilt, might be convinced of its divine original; and would be led from the very temper of piety and teachableness which we have supposed him to possess, to acquiesce at once in a revelation which meets all the wants of a ruined world.

The necessities of man ad

But we proceeded, in the next place, to consider the arguments for the AUTHENTICITY of the books of the New Testament; and we first illustrated the manner in which ancient books are proved every day, to be the real and undoubted productions of their professed authors, namely, by testimony traced up from age to age, and recorded in undoubted memorials and public writings, till we arrive at the book sought. And we showed, that it was morally impossible that the New Testament should have been falsified, considering the notoriety of the facts, and the early diffusion of the books; and that its authenticity rests on precisely the same evidences, though infinitely stronger, than men are uniformly governed by in all like cases.

From these general remarks, we proceeded

to show, that the direct testimony to our books may be distinctly traced up from the present age to the apostolic; that the canon of scripture was cautiously settled; that the utmost integrity is apparent in all the testimonies of the Christian church; that Heathen and Jewish adversaries admitted our books; that manuscripts now extant are of a date reaching back to the very time when Jerome had the autographs, or the transcripts of them, in his hands. 1o

12

We next proceeded to enquire into the CREDIBILITY, or full and entire trustworthiness of all the matters recorded in these authentic books. And here we stated, that in the same way as other histories are proved to be worthy of credit, so were our sacred books-we showed that the proofs of authenticity included, in this case, the proofs of the facts contained in the writings-that the contemporary heathen historians record all the main facts on which Christianity rests-that the Jewish historian Josephus, though an enemy to the Christian faith, confirms in a thousand instances, the gospel narrative-that Mahomet dared not to call in question its truth-and that the internal character and style of the writings, the evident simplicity and circumstantiality of the history, the number of the witnesses, their holy lives, the pure doctrine they taught, and

12 Lect. IV. and V.

the sufferings they endured, even unto death, in attestation of facts of which they were competent witnesses, and which passed under their own observation, made it impossible that they should deceive us.

sus

And this authentic and credible character of the New Testament, was not merely established, but established by an accumulation of testimony which almost oppressed the mind. Every kind of proof of which the case was ceptible, poured in upon us. The evidence was shown to be augmenting by the labours of learned men, by the investigation of medals, the recovery of manuscripts, the illustration of ancient facts in history, continually in every age. In fact, no ancient books have an one hundredth part of the evidence which surrounds and encircles the holy scriptures. Men are acting every hour in their most important temporal concerns, with infinitely less reason, than the case of Christianity demands. The reliance placed on the credit of witnesses in our courts of judicature, is folly, compared with the rational confidence inspired by the testimony of Moses and the prophets, of Christ and the apostles. We showed, in short, that the evidences for the authenticity and credibility of the New Testament are unparalleled -the world never saw any thing resembling it.