tures, and broke all those fetters which shackled human reason. Philosophy crept humbly in her train, and now ungratefully claims all the honour and praise to herself. Luther, Melancthon, and Cranmer, preced. ed Lord Bacon, Boyle, Newton, and Locke.

Christianity is not to be charged with the crimes of those who have as. sumed the name of Christians, while their conduct has shown that they were utterly destitute of every Christian sentiment. It is not peculiar to the Christian revelation, that it has sometimes furnished a pretext for introducing the very evils and oppressions which it was designed to remedy. The mischiefs, which, through the corrupt passions of men, have been the accidental consequences of Christianity, ought not to be imputed to its spirit. Nothing is better calculated to diffuse real comfort, peace, and happiness throughout the world: and a candid comparison of the morals of professing Christians throughout the world, with those of heathen nations in a similar stage of society, will demonstrate the beneficial effects of Christianity.

V. Historical facts attest the benefits conferred by the Gospel on the world.

Wherever Christian Missionaries have gone, the most barbarous heathen nations have become civilised. The ferocious have become mild; those, who prowled about for plunder, have acquired settled property, as well as a relish for domestic happiness. Persons, who dwelt in caves or huts have learnt from missionaries the art of building; they who fed on raw flesh have applied to agriculture; men who were clothed in skins and were ignorant of manufactures, have become acquainted with the comforts of apparel; and the violent and rapacious have renounced their rapine and plunder.

The ancient inhabitants of Germany, Hungary, Scythia, Denmark, Sweden, and the aboriginal inhabitants of Britain and Ireland, as well as the modern inabitants of North and South America, the East and West Indies, Greenland, South and West Africa, are all illustrious monuments of the blessed effects produced by Christianity.

VI. The PRACTICAL EFFICACY of Christianity,

Especially when contrasted with the effects of infidelity, is seen more conspicuously and more satisfactorily in the holy, useful, and exemplary lives of real Christians in the private walks of life, and in the peculiar supports and consolations which they enjoy under adversity and afflic tions, and in the prospect of futurity: while infidelity offers, and can offer, no ground or prospect of support to its unhappy professors.

SECTION V. The peculiar Advantages, possessed by the Christian Religion over all other Religions, a demonstrative Evidence of its Divine Origin and authority.

It is the peculiar and distinguishing excellency of the Christian Religion, that it possesses advantages which no other religions or revelations have: at the same time it has none of the defects by which they are characterised.

No other religions are confirmed by ancient prophecies, or by the blood of an infinite number of sensible and intelligent martyrs, who voluntarily suffered death in defence of what they had seen and believed. And although other

religions may pretend to be confirmed by signs and remarkable events, (as the Romans ascribed the success of their arms to their deities, and the Mohammedans consider the successes of their prophet as a proof of the divinity of his mission ;) yet it is not prosperity or adversity simply considered, but prosperity or adversity as foretold by Goa or his prophets, which is a certain character of true religion.

Nor has the Christian Religion any of those defects, by which other religions are characterised. It is not designed for the satisfaction of the carnal and worldly appetites of men, as that of the Jews, who aspire after temporal prosperity and worldly pomp; nor is it a medley like that of the ancient Samaritans, made up of a mixture of the Jewish and Pagan religions; nor has it any of the faults or extravagant superstitions of the various religions of the heathen nations, ancient or modern.

The superiority of the Christian Religion over every other is particularly evident in the following respects:

I. In its Perfection.

Other religions, as being principally of human invention and institution, were formed, by degrees, from the different imaginations of several persons, who successfully made such additions or alterations as they thought convenient. But it is not so with the Christian Religion: which was wholly delivered by Christ, is entirely contained in each of the Gospels, and even in each epistle of the apostles.

II. In its Openness.

Other religions durst not show themselves openly, and therefore were veiled over with a mysterious silence, and an affected darkness. But the Christian Religion requires no veil to cover it, no mysterious silence, no dissimulation or disguise; although it proposes to us such objects as are contrary to our prejudices and received opinions.

III. In its Adaptation to the Capacities of all Men.

In heathen countries, the philosophers always derided the religion of the vulgar; and the vulgar understood nothing of the religion of the philosophers. But the Christian Religion is alike suited to the learned and to the unlearned, having a divine efficacy; and an agreeable power suitable to all hearts; and it is most wonderfully adapted to those habits and sentiments which spring up in proportion as knowledge and refinement advance.

IV. In the Spirituality of its Worship.

The heathen worship was corporeal and grossly sensual, both in its object and in its rites. But the Christian Religion gives us for the object of our worship,-not a God in human form,-but a God who is a Spirit, whom it teaches us to honour not with a carnal but with a spiritual worship. (John iv. 24.)

V. In its Opposition to the Spirit of the World.

While all other religions induce men to seek after the pleasures and profits of the world, in the worship of God; the Christian Religion makes us glorify God by renouncing the world, and teaches us that we must either glorify God, at the expense of worldly pleasures, or possess the ad. vantages of the world with the loss of our religion.

VI. In its Humiliation of man, and Exaltation of the Deity.

All false religions debase the Deity and exalt man: but the Christian Religion debases man and exalts the Deity.

VII. In its Restoration of Order to the world.

The heathen religions degraded their deities to an equality with them. selves, and elevated four-footed beasts, fowls of the air, and creeping things, yea, even their own vices and imperfections, to the rank of gods. But the Christian Religion alone restores that order which ought to be established in the world, by submitting every thing to the power of man, that he might submit himself to the will of God.

VIII. In its Tendency to eradicate all evil passions from the heart.

Other religions chiefly tend to flatter the corrupt desires and propensities of men. But the Christian Religion tends to eradicate those desires and propensities from our hearts, and teaches us utterly to renounce them.

IX. In its Contrariety to the covetousness and ambition of mankind, and in its aversion to policy, and corruption, all of which were promoted by other religions.

X. In its Restoration of the Divine Image to Man.

Other religions would have God to bear the image of weak and sinful man; but the Christian Religion teaches us, that men ought to bear the image of God, which is a most powerful motive to holiness.

XI. In its Mighty effects.

False religions were the irregular, confused productions of the politest and ablest men of those times; whereas the Christian Religion is a won derful composition, which seems to proceed only from the most simple and ignorant sort of people; and, at the same time, is such as evinces that it must have for its principle the God of holiness and love.

To conclude this argument :-if we contrast the advantages, which infidelity and Christianity respectively afford to those who embrace them, we shall perceive the evident superiority of the latter. The deist is not happier, or more useful, in society, than the real Christian, nor can he look into futurity with more composure. But the latter is both happy in himself, and useful in his day, and he looks forward to futurity with humble and holy tranquillity. At least, he is as safe in his death as any of the children of men. The deist, on the contrary, by rejecting all moral

evidence, forfeits all things, and gains nothing; while the Christian hazards nothing, and GAINS ALL THINGS.

SECTION VI.-Inability to answer all Objections, no just Cause for rejecting the Scriptures.-Unbelievers in Divine Revelation more credulous than Christians.

EVEN though all the difficulties which are alleged to exist in the Sacred Writings could not be accounted for, yet this would be no just or sufficient cause, why we should reject the Scriptures; because objections are, for the most part, impertinent to the purpose for which they are adduced; and if they were pertinent, yet, unless they could confute that evidence, they ought not to determine us against the Bible. If the various arguments by which our Religion appears to be true, cannot be disproved (and disproved they cannot be,) all the objections which can be conceived must proceed from some mistake; and those arguments, together with the conclusions deduced from them, ought not to be rejected on account of the objections, but such objections ought to be rejected on account of the arguments. There is no science without its difficulties, and it is not pretended that theology is without them. But difficulties can never alter the nature of things, and make that which is true to become false.

To a considerate mind, all the objections which can be invented against the Scriptures, cannot seem nearly so great as that which arises from infidelity, from the supposition that God should not at all reveal himself to mankind; or that the heathen oracles, or the Koran of Mohammed should be of divine revelation.

Nothing is more frequent than the charge of superstition and credulity, which is brought by modern unbelievers against Christianity: and yet this charge attaches with no small force to the opposers of revelation. For it is much more easy to believe the facts recorded in the New Testament, than to suppose them false, and believe the absurd consequences which must follow from such a supposition. It is much more credible that God should work a miracle for the establishment of a useful system of religion, than that the first Christians should act against every principle that is natural to man.

They, who will not be convinced by the present evidence of the truth and certainty of the Christian Religion, would not be convinced by any other evidence whatever.

No man of reason can pretend to say, but that God may require us to take notice of some things at our peril, to inquire into them, and to consider them thoroughly. And the pretence of want of greater evidence, which is sometimes made, will not excuse carelessness or unreasonable prejudices, when God has vouchsafed to us all that evidence, which was either fit for him to grant, or reasonable for men to desire, or of which the nature of the thing itself, that was to be proved, was capable.

CHAPTER VI.

RECAPITULATION.-MORAL QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF THE
SCRIPTURES.

I. Such are the principal proofs for the genuineness, authenticity, credibility, and inspiration of the Holy Scriptures and taking the whole together, every candid inquirer must be convinced that we have every possible evidence for their truth and divinity, which can be reasonably expected or desired. How absolutely NECESSARY a revelation was, to make known to mankind the proper object of their worship, and to communicate to them a just rule of life, is manifest from the deplorable state of religion and morals in the Heathen world, both ancient and modern.

II. The manner in which the sacred Scriptures have been transmitted to us, their language and style, together with the minute circumstantiality of the facts and doctrines recorded in them, added to the moral impossibility of imposing forged writings upon mankind-are all indisputable proofs of their GENUINENESS and AUTHENTICITY.

III. Equally satisfactory is the evidence for the CREDIBILITY of the writers. For they had a perfect knowledge of the subjects which they have related, and their moral character was never impeached by their keenest opponents; their accounts were published among the people, who wit