selves with cavilling at same circumstances attending the Revelation, without daring to encounter its grand evidence; that is, they have been laboriously attempting to prove it to be improbable, or absurd, to suppose that to have been, which, nevertheless, plainly appears to have been fact. One most weakly and sophistically pretends to prove, in defiance of the common sense of mankind, that the light of nature is a perfect rule, and, therefore, that all revelation is needless, and indeed impossible. Another disguises the miracles of Christ, by false and foolish representations of them, and then sets himself to ridicule them as idle tales. And a third takes a great deal of fruitless pains to show, that some prophecies referred to in the New Testament are capable of another sense, different from that in which the apostles have taken them. These things have been set in a very artful and fallacious light by persons, whose names will be perhaps transmitted to posterity, with the infamous glory of having been leaders in the cause of infidelity; but not a man of them undertakes directly to answer what has been said to ascertain the grand fact. Nay, they generally take no more notice of the positive evidence by which it is even demonstrated, than if they had never heard it proposed; though they cavil at incidental passages in those books in which it is most clearly stated. And as for what they have urged, though perhaps some, who before were weary of Christianity, may have taken occasion from their writings to reject it; and others, for want of consulting the answers to them, may have been unwarily ensnared; yet the examination of these points has

been greatly for the honour and vindication of the truth, which seems, on this occasion, to have been set in a clearer and stronger light than ever, at least in these later ages.

The cause of Christianity has greatly gained by debate, and the Gospel comes like fine gold out of the furnace, which the more it is tried, the more it is approved. I own, the defenders of the Gospel have appeared with very different degrees of ability for the work; nor could it be otherwise amongst such numbers of them. But, on the whole, though the patrons of infidelity have been masters of some wit, humour, and address, as well as of a moderate share of learning; and generally much more than a moderate share of assurance; yet, so great is the force of truth, that (unless we may except those writers who have unhappily called for the aid of the civil magistrate in the controversy,) I cannot recollect, that I have seen any defence of the Gospel, which has not, on the whole, been sufficient to establish it, notwithstanding all the sophistical arguments of its most subtile antagonists.

This is an observation, which is continually gaining new strength, as new assaults are made upon the Gospel. And I cannot forbear saying, that, as if it were by a kind of judicial infatuation, some who have distinguished themselves in the wretched cause of infidelity, have been permitted to fall into such gross misrepresentations, such senseless inconsistencies, and such palpable falsehoods, and, in a word, into such a various and malignant superfluity of naughtiness; that, to a wise and pious mind, they must appear like those venemous creatures, which

are said to carry an antidote in their bowels against their own poison. A virtuous and well-bred Deist must turn away from some modern pieces of this kind with scorn and abhorrence; and a Christian might almost be tempted to wish, that the books, with all their scandals about them, might be transmitted to posterity, lest when they came to live, like the writings of some of the ancient heathens, only in those of their learned and pious answerers, it should hardly be credited, that ever the enemies of the Gospel, in such an enlightened age, should be capable of so much impiety and folly.

Thus I have given you a brief view of the chief arguments in proof of Christianity; and the sum of the whole is this:

The gospel is probable in theory: as considering the nature of God, and the circumstances of mankind, there was reason to hope a revelation might be given; and if any were given, we should naturally apprehend its internal evidence would be such as that of the Gospel is, and its external such as it is said to be. But it is also true in fact, for Christianity was early professed, as it was first introduced by Jesus of Nazareth, whose life and doctrines were published by his immediate attendants; whose books are picserved still in their original language, and in the main are faithfully translated into our own. So that the books of the New Testament, now in your hands, may be depended upon, as written by the persons whose names they bear. And admitting this, the truth of the Gospel follows by a train of very easy consequences; for the authors certainly knew the truth of the facts they relate; and considering what

appears of their character and circumstances, we can never believe they would have attempted to deceive us; or if they had, that they could have gained credit in the world; yet they did gain it in a remarkable manner; therefore the facts they attested are true. And the truth of the Gospel evidently follows from the certainty of these facts, and is much confirmed by what has happened in the world since the first publication of it.

I shall conclude what I have to say on this subject with a few words by way of reflection.

1. Let us gratefully acknowledge the divine goodness, in favouring us with so excellent a revelation, and confirming it to us by such an ample evidence. We should be daily adoring the God of nature, for lighting up the sun, that glorious, though imperfect image of his own unapproachable lustre, and appointing it to gild the earth with its various rays, to cheer us with its benign influences, and to guide and direct us in our journeys and our labours. But how incomparably more valuable, is that dayspring from on high which has visited us, that Sun of Righteousness which is risen upon us, to give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace? Oh Christians, (for I now address myself to you, whose eyes are so happy as indeed to see, and your ears as to hear,) what reason have you for daily and hourly praise! when your minds are delighted with contemplating the riches of Gospelgrace, when you view, with wonder and joy, the harmonious contrivance of our redemption, when you feel the burden of your guilt removed, the freedom

of your address to the throne of grace encouraged, and see the prospect of a fair inheritance of eternal glory opening upon you; then, in the pleasing transport of your souls, borrow the joyful anthem of the Psalmist, and say, with the humblest gratitude and self-resignation, "God is the Lord, who hath given us light; bind the sacrifice with cords, even to the horns of the altar." Adore God, who first commanded light to shine out of darkness, that, by the discoveries of his word, and the operations of his Spirit, he has shined in your hearts, to give you the knowledge of his glory, as reflected from the face of his Son. Let us all adore him, that this revelation hath reached us, who live in an age and country so distant from that in which it first appeared; while there are to this day, not only dark corners, but regions of the earth, which are full of the habitations of idolatry and cruelty.

Let me here peculiarly address myself to those whose education and circumstances of life have given them opportunities of a fuller inquiry into the state of those ancient or modern nations, that have been left merely to the light of unassisted reason; even to you, sirs, who are acquainted with the history of their gods, the rites of their priests, the tales, and even the hymns of their poets, (those beautiful trifles,) nay, I will add, the reasonings of their sagest philosophers, all the precarious, and all the erroneous things they have said, where religion and immortality are concerned. I have sometimes thought that God gave to some of the most celebrated Pagan writers that uncommon share of genius and eloquence, that they might, as it were, by their art, embalm the