under their own observation, made it impossible that they should deceive us.

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 susceptible, poured in upon us. The evidence was shown to be augmenting continually in every age, by the labors of learned men, the investigation of medals, the recovery of manuscripts, and the illustration of ancient facts in history. In fact, no ancient books have a 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 unparalleledthat the world never saw any thing resembling it. No religion was ever recorded in sacred books, by the first founders of it, and submitted at the time to the inspection and investigation of mankind, but the Christian. And against all this evidence nothing can be alleged. There is no counter-statement, there is no other account of the rise of Christianity. The New Testament stands without a competitor.* And

yet all this overpowering evidence is only the beginning of a series of proofs.

We came, next, to consider the magnificent apparatus which surrounded the DIVINE AUTHORITY of the religion contained in these authentic and credible books.

And here we, first, contemplated with admiration the MIRACLES of our Lord and his apostles. And having proved that the facts involved in each miracle, viewed abstractedly from their cause, were undeniably established by the testimonies which supported the credibility of the narrative generally; we considered the number and variety of our Lord's mighty works, the palpable and clear suspension of the laws of nature which they exhibited, the circumstances of publicity under which they were performed, the abiding effects of them, the prophetic oracles of the former Testament which were accomplished by them, and the national usages and monuments which were, in * Lect. vi.

consequence, set up at the time, and which subsist to the present day. Such miracles, supported by such evidence-a whole nation witnesses to them—a new and holy religion set up from the first on the footing of them-interwoven indissolubly with the religion, in attestation of which those who wrought them lived, and suffered, and died—such miracles the world has never seen, except in the previous dispensation of the same revelation by Moses. The unsophisticated conclusion of the human mind, on perusing the records of them, is, that the Christian religion is of God.*

And what shall we then say of the prodigious scheme of PROPHECY fulfilled in every past age, and fulfilling now before our eyes? What shall we say of a scheme which, beginning with the fall of man, accompanied the Jewish church in each period, and stretches on to the consummation of all things— which centred all its predictions in one divine person, the Son of God-which exhibited all the wisdom of the Almighty in the arrangement of its several parts and its growing accomplishments which bore the stamp of a holy God in the pure and devoted piety of the prophets themselves—and which subserved the most important ends of religious instruction and consolation? But why do I remind you of the prophecies in their scheme and plan, when I see the accomplishment of them surrounding me with wonder-when the person of the Messiah unites a thousand most extraordinary indications of prescience-when Jerusalem trodden down by the gentiles, and the Jews dispersed before our eyes, are a standing miracle -when the desolations of Nineveh, and Tyre, and Babylon remain to the present day—when the Arabs and Egyptians are witnesses of the prophetic inspiration-when the sketch of the division of empires in the wonderful predictions of Noah, and the mystic image of Nebuchadnezzar, is being filled up in every age when the great apostasy of the western church strikes the heart with dismay in one view, and yet relieves it in another from the oppression which such corruptions, if not marked out in the word of prophecy, would have produced? And whither do not the unaccomplished parts of the great scheme lead the laboring faith of the Christian ?†

But, my brethren, I check myself. When was there such a combination of moral proof for the truth of any one subject, as conspires to illustrate the Christian evidences? All the wisdom, and power, and goodness, and sovereignty of the

* Lect. vii.

Lect. viii. and ix.

Almighty are displayed before our obedient faith. It is not merely a stream of evidence; it is a swelling tide-a flood which bears along the vessel, and against which not a gust or breath of objection can be raised. It stands alone. It bears the unequivocal impress of the majesty of the one revelation which the blessed God has vouchsafed to man.

And why should I add a word on the PROPAGATION of Christianity, and its BENEFICIAL EFFECTS, except to say, that they constitute of themselves independent proofs which nothing can invalidate; and that, when connected with the preceding, they complete and conclude the external evidences of Christianity?*

Nothing can be added. So far as we can judge, the case admits of no stronger evidence. All the attributes of the Almighty, refulgent in the MIRACULOUS powers-diffused all around in the word of PROPHECY, as reflected in the events of the world for six thousand years-concentrated in the PROPAGATION of the gospel; and blessing mankind daily in its BENEFICIAL EFFECTS, emblazon the Christian revelation with a glory which bursts upon every eye, and penetrates every heart which is not wilfully closed and hardened by perverseness and obduracy.

And the whole evidence is sealed by the doctrine of the DIVINE INSPIRATION of the Scriptures, which, though employing a human channel, renders every thing infallible as to the matter of the revelation which it conveys; and thus unites the highest emanations of the wisdom and power of God with the most compassionate exercises of his condescension and grace.t

And yet the whole of these evidences form but one division of the great subject. Those arising from its suitableness to the state and wants of man, and the intrinsic excellency of the revelation itself, are yet to be considered, and will constitute a body of proof, as complete in its kind, and as powerful in its demands upon our faith, as that which we have been now reviewing. But we conclude,

1. It is surely not too much to say, that on any subject of worldly prudence, such a mass of evidence would be considered as rising to a moral demonstration which no reasonable man could resist-it would be considered as an act, not so much of faith, as of COMMON SENSE, to follow such proofs-the man who refused so to do, would be condemned by all the *Lect. x. and xi.

+ Lect. xii. and xiii.

rules of conduct which he is compelled to follow every day of his life. We might more reasonably question the existence of Julius Cæsar, Alfred or Charlemagne or the authenticity and credibility of the histories of Thucydides, or Bede, or Davila, or Clarendon-or all the facts and histories in the world, than we could deny the facts, and miracles, and truth of the Christian religion. We must reject the evidences of our senses, we must spurn the testimony of all past history, we must throw into confusion the elements of all knowledge, we must dig up the foundations of civilization, and law, and science, and jurisprudence, we must extinguish conscience and put off our whole intellectual and moral nature, before we can consistently reject the evidences of Christianity.

I rely not on one or two minute points. I press not the accuracy or force of all the particular facts and arguments I have adduced. I proceed on the broad and commanding features of a divine religion, which present themselves on whichever side we view it. It is not one thing only, but every thing, that converges and concentrates its light on the Christian doctrine.

And yet such is the obvious excellency of that doctrine in itself, that it requires but little external proof. Any one of the points we have been reviewing is enough, and more than enough, to form the credentials of a religion, bearing on its very surface all the impress of the holy and gracious Creator and Preserver of mankind. It wants, so to speak, no historical evidence; and yet it possesses every species of it in the highest degree. Its purity challenges of itself the reverence and obedience of mankind; and yet it comes surrounded with all the splendor and attraction of miraculous powers and predictive inspiration.

2. Whence is it, then, that men are so backward to receive this divine guest? Whence is it that with no one solid reason to be advanced against it, objections and difficulties are continually urged? Whence is it that men who act on infinitely less evidence every day of their lives, refuse to act upon the evidence of the Christian revelation? Whence is it that the cause of infidelity, unsustained by argument, survives and is propagated ?*

*Not one of the chief works on the evidences of Christianity was ever answered. Who has answered Lardner-Michaelis-Paley-Porteus-T. H. Horne ?-or even the brief and select arguments of Lyttleton and Leslie ?-Whereas Gibbon's elaborate objections against Christianity received thirty or forty satisfactory replies at once!

The answer to these inquiries is, the simple fact, that when the rules of ordinary judgment are applied to Christianity, we have TO OVERCOME THE RELUCTANCE OF THE HUMAN HEART. The reception of Christianity is a joint act of the understanding and the will. Men assent readily enough to the slightest external proofs, when a thing meets their inclinations, and falls in with their taste and habits. Men assent readily enough to the highest and most incomprehensible doctrines of mathematical science, and venture every thing upon the truth of the practical consequences of them, because these things touch not their passions, and vices, and moral inclinations. But in religion the same men start aside, reason inconclusively, act the most absurd part, deny their own convictions, and violate all the dictates of prudence and truth. The fall of man, and the disorder of all his powers is such, that he is credulous to excess, can believe without proof, and follow without inquiry, when his affections lead the way; whilst no force of evidence can win his heart, if he dislike the inferences to which he knows his assent must conduct him.

3. It is to lead you to break through this unreasonable opposition of the passions; it is to determine you by the grace of God (without which we can do nothing aright) to yield to the force of conscience, and the claims of true reason early in life, before vice has hardened your hearts, and converse with the wicked has emboldened you to resist evidence-that we have addressed this course of Lectures to you.

To the candid and sincere mind, all is light in the Christian doctrine to the heart pre-occupied with vice and irreligion, all is darkness. Christianity is a probation of the state and feelings of all to whom it is addressed. If it be examined with any thing of simplicity, its evidences shine forth brightly upon the view, they convince the understanding, they awaken the force of conscience, they bow the will; and the inquirer prostrates himself at the footstool of the divine majesty when revealing his grace to his dependent and sinful creatures. The whole soul receives an impression of the glory, and wisdom, and foreknowledge, and power, and mercy of God. The discoveries of revelation fall in with the wants, and miseries, and forebodings of every heart. The remedy proposed suits precisely the fears of the guilty mind, and the apprehensions which natural religion, illuminated by the Christian revelation shining around it, injects at times into the stoutest breast. Especially, young persons, who have been educated in the

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