confining however this sketch, towards the conclufion, to the particular history of our own Church;-Thirdly, to ftate in a fummary manner the arguments in general which are adducible in proof of the truth of Chriftinity;-And Fourthly, to point out the general fources of objection against it, and to fhew that a forcible removal of thefe offences by divine interpofition would be inconfiftent with the doctrines themselves of Revelation ; concluding the whole with a particular account of thofe objections which are advanced against Christianity from the pretenfions of philofophy.

To begin then with ftating in historical order the fubftance of our Religion, as it extends from the most remote circumftance any where revealed in Scripture to the publication of the Gofpel after the ascension of Christ.

The declarations of Scripture, which form the fubftance of our Religion, ascend to the remoteft fubject from which it is poffible that any information should commence. They inform us that from everlasting, from a duration which numbers have no powers to exprefs and the mind of man no faculties to comprehend, is God: that he is a Spirit, is

• Pf. xc. 2.

C

d

poffeffed of life in himself, and is infinite in perfection, but incomprehenfible in his nature; and farther, that through his own free goodness he originally created, and continually preserves, whatever else besides himself has exiftence both in heaven and in earth.

The first intelligent beings, created by him, are sometimes in Scripture called Spirits from the refined conftitution of their nature; at other times they are called angels from their ministration in the divine economy. Various are the ' paffages of holy writ, which affure us that they were created upright; while at the fame time the fall of fome among them most unhappily demonftrates that they were created also free agents and capable of fin. Why they fhould be permitted thus to fall, and why when fallen they should afterwards be permitted to tempt other creatures to involve themselves in a fimilar fate, are circumstances left among the fecret things of God. Nor lefs unresolved by Revelation are the questions, "whether any

Jehovah" and "I am," the appropriate names of God in Scripture, are immediately derived from his inherent life. And by an oath, referring to this diftinguishing property of the Godhead, the Almighty was often pleafed to confirm his promifes: As I live faith the Lord." Num. xiv. 21. Rom. xiv. 11.

f John viii. 44. Jude vi.

B 4

part

part of matter were created at fo early a period as the first intelligent creatures; and whether thofe creatures were clothed with material bodies?" Revelation, while it draws arguments for our inftruction from the conduct, condition, and agency of superior beings, informs us indeed concerning particular circumftances of angelic history; but, to the utter disappointment of vain curiofity, it fays nothing profeffedly with regard to this history.

Deftined for human ufe, it confines itfelf to human concerns. After a full, but indefinite, affertion, that "in the beginning God "created the heaven and the earth," it confines its profeffed information concerning the material creation to such circumstances, as particularly relate to man and the fyftem which he inhabits: inftructing us, that all the various objects, which we perceive and admire around us, were originally produced and have fince been preserved by the all-perfect God; and alfo, that, among the productions of the material world, this all-perfect Being having formed man's body from the duft of the earth, was pleased in a distinguishing manner to breathe into his noftrils the breath of life. Thus ani

: Gen. i. 1.

mated

mated with a spirit of heavenly extraction, man was faid to be formed in the Image of God, was conftituted fovereign of this lower world and was invested with the good things of it.

At the fame time to prove his grateful obedience under these bleffings, and to fit him (as 1 hath been inferred) for greater in another and eternal ftate, conditions of trial were impofed upon him. Like the angels, man was created upright and a free agent. By the wisdom of God obedience to a pofitive precept was enjoined him; and by the fame wisdom the fallen angels were permitted to fuggeft temptations to the contrary. His own choice led him to difobedience, and to death, the predicted confequence. And this confequence, it might be feared, would contain under it not merely a privation of animal-life here, called temporal death; but (what in the regular courfe of things must be expected to follow from the guilt of free and corrupted agents) that privation also of the enjoyments of eternal life hereafter, which is called the second or eternal death.

But the univerfal progenitor of mankind having thus fallen through the temptation of

See Bishop Bull concerning the first covenant and the state of man before the fall, in the third volume of his Sermons and Difcourfes, 8vo. p. 1079, 1091, &c.

fuperior

fuperior and malicious beings, and having entailed upon his pofterity a depraved and infirm nature; man was not left doomed to thofe endlefs evils, which might thenceforth have been dreaded as the unavoidable punishment of his voluntary and unexpiated fin. His great Creator graciously and immediately interpofed to provide a remedy for his fall. But fo much did it coft to redeem his foul, that the remedy must astonish every rational creature. The 1 eternal fon of God (whose coexistence in nature with the Father forms part of the incomprehenfibility of the Godhead) was in process of time to take upon him the nature of man. In that nature, united with his own in the fame Perfon, he was to give mankind all the * instruction neceffary for them; and by the meritorious sufferings of that nature, thus intimately connected with the divine, he was to make 'atonement for their fins, and to provide them with the most extenfive means of escaping those dreadful confequences of their cor

k

i Ifaiah ix. 6. Zech. xiii. 7. Rom. viii. 32. Heb. ii. 16. k Deut. xviii. 18. Even the Samaritans appear to have been fully convinced, that, when the Meffiah came, "he fhould tell "them all things." John iv. 25,

1 See, concerning the atonement made for us, Acts xx. 28. Rev. i. 5. Rom. iii. 23-26, and the whole of the 53d Chapter of Ifaiah, and of the 9th and 10th Chapters of the Epiftle to the Hebrews.

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