account, whatever was done for his fake to them. One may challenge any man to produce, before Chriflianity, among the Heathen world, fuch a complete fyftem of morality, reaching all the duties of life, without any defect; and full without overflowing, or any redundancy, as the Scriptures contain. And it is needlefs to tell any man of plain fenfe, that there must be always a proportion between the caufe and the effect. Now, if we exclude the divine power, what proportion can we find between the caufes of Christianity, and Christianity itself? Chriftianity is a religion, which has difabufed the world, and refcued it from thofe many vicious practices, fuch as the expofing of infants, polygamy, &c. which were univerfally defended among the Pagans, and from human facrifices, and from innumerable abominable and brutal rites; a religion fo perfective of human nature, and fo expreffive of the divine; that we want ideas to carry us to a conception of any thing beyond it. And who were the authors or caufes of this religion? Why a fet of men bred up in low life to mean employments, which cramp the native powers of the mind. And can we feriously think, that a fet of unlettered, unenterprifing men, could open feveral rich mines of truth, which had efcaped the laborious researches of the profoundeft fcholars, and the happy fagacity of the moft penetrating wits? Since therefore every effc&t must have a competent and proportionable caufe; and fince the fuppofed natural caufes aud authors of Chiiflianity, confidered as mere men, exclufive of divine infpiration, were plainly unequal to the tafk, nor could ever have brought to light fuch doctrines, as exceeded whatever the philofophers before had done; though, laying afide their dregs, we fhould draw off the very flower and fpirit of their writings: it is evident, we muft have recourfe to fome fupernatural and adequate caufe which interested itfelf in this affair. And to whom, but to the Father of Light, in whom there is no darkness at all, can we be indebted, that now, perfons of the flendereft capacities may view thofe elevated and beneficial truths in the trongest point of light, which the finest fpirits of the gentile world could not before fully afcertain; that our meaneft mechanics, with a moderate fhare of application, may have jufter and fuller notions of God's attributes, of eternal happinefs, of every duty refpecting their Maker, mankind, and themfelves, than the most diftinguitted fcholars among the Heathens could attain to, after a life laid out in painful refearches ? Seed. 181. Various reasonings in favour of Chriftianuty. God only knows, and God only can tell, whether he will forgive, and upon what terms he will forgive the offences done against him; what mode of worship he requires; what helps he will afford us; and what condition he will place us in hereafter. All this God actually has told us in the golpel. It was to tell us this, he fent his Son into the world, whofe miflion was confirmed by the higheft authority, by fign from heaven, and miracles on earth; whole life and doctrine are delivered down to as by the most unexceptionable witneffes, who fealed their teftimony with their blood; who were too curious and incredulous to be themselves impofed upon, too honeft and fincere, too plain and artless, to impofe upon others. What then can be the reafon that men ftill refufe to fee, and perfift in "loving darknefs rather than light?" They will tell you perhaps that it is because the gopel is full of incredible myfteries; but our Saviour tells you, and he tells you much truer, that it is "becaufe their deeds are evil." The mysteries and difficulties of the gofpel can be no real objection to any man that confiders what myfteries occur, and what infuperable objections may be started, in almost every branch of human knowledge; and how often we are obliged, in our most important concerns, to deride and to act upon evidence, incumbered with far greater difficulties than any that are to he found in Scripture. If we can admit to religion that is not free from myflery, we muft, I doubt, be content without any religion. Even the religion of nature itfelf, the whole conftitution both of the natural and the moral world, is full of myftery; and the greatest nystery of all would be, if, with fo many irrefiftible marka of truth, Chriftianity fhould at laft prove falfe. It is not then becaufe the gefe has too little light for thefe men that the reject it, but because it has too much For "every one that doth evil hateth th light, neither cometh to the light, left deeds fhould be reproved." The light the gofpel is too prying and inquifitive fo fuch an one. It reveals certain thing which he could wish to conceal from all th world, and if poffible from himself. Na is this all; it not only reveals, but it reproves them. It ftrikes him with an evidence he cannot bear; an evidence not only of its own truth, but of his unworthy conduct. The gofpel does indeed of end him; but it is not his understanding, it is his conscience, that is fhocked: he could eafily credit what it requires him to believe; but he cannot, or rather he will not, practife what it commands him to do. It is plain that fuch a man cannot reffibly admit a revelation that condemns Sim; and it is as plain that the man of virtuc cannot purn the hand that is gracicurly ftretched out to reward him. If he is a truly virtuous man, that is, one who incerely labours to know his duty, and incerely intends to perform it, he cannot bet wifh for more light to guide him in the avigation, more affittance to fupport aim in the difcharge of it; more happiness to crown his perfeverance in it, than bare analone can afford him. This is what all rebet and wilt Heathens most ardently red, what nature has been continually ing out for with the utmost earnestnefs of expectation. When with a mind thus ed he fits down to examine the gospel, gelto me the least shadow of a reafon he fhould reject it? He finds in it a gion, pure, holy, and benevolent, as the God that gave it. He finds not only its Tural precepts but even its fublimeft myitenes. calculated to promote internal fanctity, piety, univerfal philanthropy. He fods it throughout fo great and noble, fo congenial to the finest feelings, and moft geaerous fentiments of his foul; that he canBut but with it may be true, and never yet, I believe, did any good man wish it to be true, but he actually found it fo. He fees every expectation of nature answered, ry infirmity fupported, every want fuped, every terror dilipated, every hope armed; nay, he fees that God has ne exceeding abundantly above all that be could either afk or think;" that he has en him,what reafon could hardly have the de of, eternal happiness in a life to come. It is not a matter of indifference wheyou embrace Christianity or not. Though reafon could answer all the purits of revelation, which is far, very far rom being the cafe, yet you are not at liety to make it your fole guide, if there be a thing as a true revelation. We are fubjects of the Almighty; and whether e will acknowledge it or not, we live, dcannot but live, under his government. her His will is the law of his kingdom. If he has made no exprefs declaration of his will, we mult collect it as well as we can from what we know of his nature and our own. But if he has exprefsly declared his will, that is the law we are to be governed by. We may indeed refufe to be governed by it; but it is at our peril if we do; for if it proves to be a true declaration of his will, to reject it is rebellion. But to reject or receive it, you may alledge, is not a thing in your own power. Belief depends not on your will, but your understanding. And will the righteous judge of the earth condemn you for want of understanding? No; but he may and will condemn you for the wrong conduct of your understanding. It is not indeed in your power to believe whatever you please, whether credible or incredible; but it is in your power to confider thoroughly, whether a fuppofed incredibility be real or only apparent. It is in your power to beftow a greater or lefs degree of attention on the evidence before you. It is in your power to examine it with an earneft defire to find out the truth, and a firm refolution to embrace it wherever you do find it; or on the contrary, to bring with you a heart full of incorrigible depravity, or invincible prepoffeffions. Have you then truly and honeftly done every thing that is confefledly in your power, towards forming a right judgment of revelation? Have you ever laid before yourself in one view the whole collective evidence of Christianity? The confistence, harmony, and connection, of all its various parts; the long chain of prophecies undeniably compleated in it; the attonithing and well-atttefled miracles that attended it; the perfect fanctity of its author; the purity of its precepts; the fublimity of its doctrines; the amazing rapidity of its progrefs; the illuftrious company of confeflors, faints, and martyrs, who died to confirm its truth; together with an infinite number of collateral proofs and fubordinate circumstances, all concurring to form such a body of evidence, as no other truth in the world can fhew; fuch as must neceflarily bear down, by its own weight and magnitude, all trivial objections to particular parts? Surely thefe things are not trifles; furely they at least demand feriouinefs and attention. Have you then done the gofpel this common piece of juilice? Have you ever fat down to confider it with impartiality and candour; without any favourite vice or early prejudice, without any fondR 4 nefs his diftinguished kindness, perfectly well informed and thoroughly interested, in every tender fcene that it defcribes, foothing itself with the recollection of little domeftic incidents and familiar converfations, and tracing out not only the larger and more obvious features of the favourite character, but even those finer and more delicate ftrokes in it, which would have eluded a lefs obferving eye, or lefs faithful memory, than thofe of a beloved companion and friend. Our divine lawgiver fhowed his wif dom equally in what he enjoined, and what he left unnoticed. He knew exactly, what no Pagan philofopher ever knew, where to be filent and where to fpeak.——— That which principally attracts our notice in St. John's writings, and in his conduct, is, a fimplicity and fingleness of heart, a fervent piety, an unbounded benevolence, an unaffected modefty, humility, meeknefs, and gentleness of difpofition Thefe are evidently the great characterific virtues that took the lead in his foul, and break forth in every page of his gofpeland his epiftles. To know what friendship really is, we must look for it in that facred repofitory of every thing great and excellent, the gofpel of Chrift.- nefs for applaufe, or novelty, or refinement, Our Saviour has affured us that he will confider every real Chriftian as united to him by clofer ties than even thofe of friendfhip. This affurance is given us in one of thofe noble ftrains of eloquence which are fo common in the Sacred Writings Our Lord being told that his mother and his brethren ftood without, defiring to fpeak with him, he gives a turn to this little incident, perfectly new, and inex preffibly tender and affectionate. "Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? And he ftretched forth his hands towards his difciples, and faid, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever fhall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the fame is my brother, and fifter, and mother." Bishop Porteus. Origen has obferved, with fingular fagacity, that he who believes the Scripture to have proceeded from him who is the Author of nature, may well expect to find the fame fort of difficulties in it, as are found in the conftitution of nature. And in a like way way of reflection it may be added, that he who denies the Scripture to have been from God, upon account of thefe difficulties, may, for the very fame reason, deny the world to have been from him.- Chriftianity being fuppofed either true or credible, it is unfpeakable irreverence, and really the most prefumptuous rafhnefs, to treat it as a light matter. It can never justly be efteemed of little confequence, till it be pofitively fuppofed falfe. Nor do I know a higher and more important obligation which we are under, than that, of examining moft feriously into the evidence of it, fuppofing its credibility; and of embracing it upon fuppofition of its truth. Butler. The Chriftian revelation has fuch pretences, at least, as may make it worthy of a particular confideration: it pretends, to come from heaven; to have been delivered by the Son of God; to have been confimed by undeniable miracles and proprecies; to have been ratified by the blood of Chrift and his apoftles, who died in Certing its truth: it can fhew likewife an innumerable company of martyrs and confeffors: its doctrines are pure and holy, its precepts juft and righteous; its worship is a reafonable fervice, refined from the errors of idolatry and fuperftition, and spiritual, like the God who is the object of it: it offers the aid and affiftance of heaven to the weakness of nature; which makes the religion of the gospel to be as practicable, as it is reasonable; it promises infinite rewards to obedience, and threatens eternal punishment to obftinate offenders; which makes it of the utmost confequence to us foberly to confider it, fince every one who rejects it takes his own foul against the truth of it. Look into the Gofpel; there you will fnd every reasonable hope of nature, nay every reasonable fufpicion of nature, cleared up, and confirmed, every difficulty anfwered and removed. Do the prefent circumstances of the world lead you to fufpect that God could never be the author of fuch corrupt and wretched creatures as men now are? Your fufpicions are just and well founded. God made man upright;" but through the temptation of the devil fin entered, and death and destruction followed after. Do you fufpect, from the fuccefs of virtue and vice in this world, that the providence of God does not interpose to protect the righteous from violence, or to punish the wicked? The fufpicion is not without ground. God leaves his best fervants here to be tried oftentimes with affliction and forrow, and permits the wicked to flourish and abound. The call of the gospel is not to honour and riches here, but to take up our cross and follow Chrift. Do you judge, from comparing the prefent ftate of the world with the natural notion you have of God, and of his justice and goodness, that there must needs be another state in which juftice shall take place? You reafon right; and the gospel confirms the judgment. God has appointed a day to judge the world in righteoufnefs: then thofe who mourn fhall rejoice, thofe who weep fhall laugh, and the perfecuted and afflicted fervants of God fhall be heirs of his kingdom. Have you fometimes mifgivings of mind? Are you tempted to mistrust this judgment, when you fee the difficulties which furround it on every fide; fome which affect the foul in its separate state, fome which affect the body in in its state of corruption and diffolution? Look to the gofpel: there thefe difficulties are accounted for; and you need no longer puzzle yourfelf with dark questions concerning the state, condition, and nature of feparate fpirits, or concerning the body, however to appearance loft and destroyed; for the body and foul fhall once more meet to part no more, but to be happy for ever. In this cafe the learned cannot doubt, and the ignorant may be fure, that 'tis the man, the very man himself, who fhall rife again : for an union of the fame foul and body is as certainly the reftoration of the man, as the dividing them was the destruction. Would you know who it is that gives this affurance? 'Tis one who is able to make good his word: one who loved you fo well as to die for you; yet one too great to be held a prifoner in the grave. No; he rofe with triumph and glory, the first-born from the dead, and will in like manner call from the duft of the earth all those who put their truft and confidence in him. But who is this, you'll fay, who was fubject to death, and yet had power over death? death? How could fo much weaknefs and fo much strength meet together? That God has the power of life, we know ; but then he cannot die: that man is mortal, we know; but then he cannot give life. Confider; does this difficulty deferve an anfwer, or does it not? Our bleffed Saviour lived among us in a low and poor condition, expofed to much ill treatment from his jealous countrymen: when he fell into their power, their rage knew no bounds: they reviled him, infulted him, mocked him, fcourged him, and at lalt nailed him to a crofs, where by a fhameful and wretched death he finished a life of forrow and affiction. Did we know no more of him than this, upon what ground could we pretend to hope that he will be able to fave us from the power of death? We might fay with the difciples, "We trufted this had been he who fhould have faved Ifrael;" but he is dead, he is gone, and all our hopes are buried in his grave. If you think this ought to be answered, and that the faith of a Chriftian cannot be a reafonable faith, unless it be able to account for this feeming contradiction; I befeech you then never more complain of the gospel for furnishing an anfwer to this great objection, for removing this ftumbling-block out of the way of our faith. He was a man, and therefore he died. He was the fon of God, and therefore he rofe from the dead, and will give life to all his true difciples. He it was who formed this world and all things in it, and for the fake of man was content to become man, and to tafte death for all, that all through him may live. This is a wonderful piece of knowledge which God has revealed to us in his gofpel; but he has not revealed it to raife our wonder, but to confirm and establish our faith in him to whom he hath committed all power, "whom he hath appointed heir of all things." Had the gospel required of us to expect from Chrift the redemption of our fouls and bodies, and given us no reafon to think that Chrift was endowed with power equal to the work, we might juftly have complained; and it would have been a fanding reproach, that Chriflians believe they know not what. But to expect redemption from the Son of God, the refurrection of our bodies from the fame hand which at first created and formed them, are rational and well-founded acts of faith; and it is the Chriftian's glory, that he knows in whom he has believed. That the world was made by the fon of God, is a propofition with which reafon has no fault to find: that he who made the world fhould have power to renew it to life again, is highly confonant to reafon. All the mystery lies in this, that fo high and great a perfon fhould condefcend to become man, and fubject to death, for the fake of mankind. But are we fit perfons to complain of this tranfcendent mysterious love? or, does it become us to quarrel with the kindness of our bleffed Lord towards us, only becaufe it is greater than we can conceive? No; it becomes us to blefs and to adore this exceeding love, by which we are faved from condemnation, by which we expect to be rescued from death; knowing that the power of our bleffed Lord is equal to his love, and that he is "able to fubdue all things to himfelf." Sherlock. 184. Chrift and Mahomet compared. Go to your natural religion, lay before her Mahomet and his difciples arrayed in armour and in blood, riding in triumph over the fpoils of thoufands and ten thoufands, who fell by his victorious fword. Shew her the cities which he fet in flames, the countries which he ravaged and deftroyed, and the miferable diftrefs of all the inhabitants of the earth. When the has viewed him in this fcene, carry her into his retirements, fhew her the prophet's chamber, his concubines and wives, and let her fee his adulteries, and hear him alledge revelation and his divine commiffion to juftify his lufts and his oppreffions. When the is tired with this profpect, then thew her the bleffed Jefus, humble and meek, doing good to all the fons of men, patiently inftructing the ignorant and the perverfe. Let her fee him in his moft retired privacies, let her follow him to the mount and hear his devotions and fupplications to God. Carry her to his table, to view his poor fare and hear his heavenly difcourfe. Let her fee him injured but not provoked; let her attend him to the tribunal, and confider the patience with which he endured the fcoffs and reproaches of his enemies, Lead her to his crofs, and let her view him in the agonies of death, and hear his laft prayer for his perfecutors, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they |