VIE W, &c. OST of the writers, who have undertaken to prove the divine origin of the Christian Religion, have had recourse to arguments drawn from these three heads: the prophecies still extant in the Old Testament-the miracles recorded in the Newor, the internal evidence arifing from that excellence, and those clear marks of fupernatural interpofition, which are so confpicuous in the religion itself. The two former have been fufficiently explained and enforced by the ablest pens; but the last, which feems to carry with it the greatest degree of conviction, has never, I think, been confidered with that attention, which it deferves. I mean not here to depreciate the proofs arising from either prophecies, or miracles: they both have, or ought to have, their proB 2 fer per weight; prophecies are permanent miracles, whose authority is fufficiently confirmed by their completion, and are therefore folid proofs of the fupernatural origin of a religion, whose truth they were intended to testify; fuch are thofe to be found in various parts of the fcriptures relative to the coming of the Meffiah, the destruction of Jerufalem, and the unexampled ftate in which the Jews have ever fince continued, all fo circumftantially defcriptive of the events, that they seem rather histories of past, than predictions of future tranfactions; and whoever will seriously confider the immense distance of time between fome of them and the events which they foretell, the uninterrupted chain by which they are connected for many thousand years, how exactly they correspond with those events, and how totally unapplicable they are to all others in the history of mankind; I fay, whoever confiders thefe circumftances, he will scarcely be perfuaded to believe that they can be the productions of preceding artifice, or poste rior application, or can entertain the leaft doubt of their being derived from superna tural inspiration. The miracles recorded in the New Teftament to have been performed by Christ and his Apostles, were certainly convincing proofs of their divine commiffion to those who saw them; and as they were feen by fuch numbers, and are as well attested, as other historical facts, and above áll, as they were wrought on fo great and fo wonderful an occafion, they must ftill be admitted as evidence of no inconfiderable force; but, I think, they must now depend for much of their credibility on the truth of that religion, whofe credibility they were at firft intended to fupport. To prove therefore the truth of the Chriftian Religion, we should begin by fhewing the internal marks of divinity, which are stamped upon it; because on this the credibility of the prophecies and miracles in a great measure depends: for if we have once reafon to be convinced, that this religion is derived from a fuperna tural origin, prophecies and miracles will become fo far from being incredible, that it will be highly probable, that a supernatural revelation fhould be foretold, and enforced by fupernatural means. What pure Christianity is, divefted of all its ornaments, appendages, and corruption, I pretend not to fay; but what it is not, I will venture to affirm, which is, that it is not the offspring of fraud or fiction: fuch, on a fuperficial view, I know it muft appear to every man of good fenfe, whose sense has been altogether employed on other fubjects; but if any one will give himself the trouble to examine it with accuracy and candor, he will plainly fee, that however fraud and fiction may have grown up with it, yet it never could have been grafted on the fame stock, nor planted by the fame hand. To ascertain the true fyftem, and genuine doctrines of this religion, after the undecided controverfies of above seventeen centuries, and to remove all the rubbish, which artifice and ignorance have been heaping upon it |