might challenge you to shew how you can account for the reception of these writings, at the time when the verbal instructions of the declared writers were fresh in the recollection of those who heard them, nay even while they were yet alive, unless they had been their genuine productions. We might remind you of the opportunities of accurate information which these writers had enjoyed; of the improbability that the narrative which they committed to writing would differ from that, which they constantly published by word of mouth, which they began to declare immediately after the events had happened, in the very place where they occurred, in the hearing, and in defiance, of those, who were interested and disposed to contradict their statement. Such a contradiction was impossible. For when they stated, that "Jesus was a man approved of God by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him in the midst of them," the Apostles of Jesus could add, "as ye yourselves also know." They "could not but testify the things which they had seen and heard ;" and their testimony was incontrovertible, and uncontradicted, except with regard to the consequences which they deduced from the facts, and the system which they promulgated in the world, by the command, and according to the instructions, of their Master himself. There have been those, indeed, who have denied that

there is any difference between history and fable ; and who therefore contend, that we can place no reliance upon the testimony which evinces the reasonableness of our faith, and that nothing is certain but Metaphysical truth. That which they would substitute for Christianity is uncertain indeed; but their very statement sufficiently betrays a conviction, that nothing, except that which subverts the credit of all history whatever, can undermine the foundation upon which we ground the authenticity of the Scriptures; and that he who has, in whatever method, retained or regained a conviction of that nature, has already entered on the path, which, if pursued, will assuredly conduct him to a belief of the divinity of the Gospel. For, having been so far disposed to allow the credibility of the Christian story, as to be willing, with candour and attention, to peruse its records, he will perceive that "Christianity was founded on argument" both by Jesus and his Apostles. The acknowledged reality and character of certain facts, and the prior existence of certain prophecies, form the basis of their reasonings. And the more we consider these reasonings, in connexion with the occasions

a See the citations from a French writer, in the Appendix to Bishop Van Mildert's Boyle's Lectures, Vol. II. p. 516, 517. His Lordship justly remarks, that the resolution, "je m'abstiendrai toujours d'entrer dans la discussion des faits," "involves an implied concession of no small importance."

upon which they were advanced, and with reference to the circumstances to which they allude, the more decided will be our conviction even of the credibility of those facts themselves; and the more readily also shall we acquiesce in the conclusion, that the nature of those facts, the whole design which is displayed in them, and the manner of its accomplishment, bespeak not merely the divine permission, but the special intention and interposition of God, that he might "give witness of his Son."

III. You will already have perceived, that we are not about to discuss such questions connected with the evidences of our religion, as might lead us to any depths of abstract reasoning. Yet we mean not to undervalue such. In their place, for the refutation of objections which proceed upon such grounds, and for the satisfaction of those, whose minds are harassed with difficulties of that nature, such abstruse inquiries have their use and value. But the belief of Christianity does not result from these only, or chiefly. There is a path which humbler minds may pursue, and which leads to the same end by a less intricate and circuitous route; nor need the wisest and most discerning be ashamed to walk therein. Take the Bible itself into your hands, and inquire how the religion of Jesus was first offered to the acceptance of mankind; upon what grounds, and

with what arguments it was then defended and enforced. And if you are unable to shew that the faith of those, who in that age embraced it, was irrational, you will feel obliged to allow the sufficiency of its evidence, and that we can have no plea for rejecting it. Examine, indeed, as accurately as you please, every objection, whether of an historical or metaphysical nature; but still remember the abundance, the strength, and the consistency of the direct arguments in its favour; and beware how you suffer objections and theories, which in fact do not interfere with that positive evidence, to weaken its impression on your mind.

I am desirous to set before you, as faithfully and distinctly as I can, the evidences of Christianity as they are presented in the discourses of our Lord, and in the accompanying narrative of the Evangelists. We are apt either wholly to neglect, or imperfectly to attend to, this view of the subject. Yet I know not any writings, in which the state of the question is so fully, strikingly, and satisfactorily exhibited. It is, perhaps, not too much to assert, that the vindication of his mission by Jesus himself is such as ought to silence, if not to reclaim, the unbeliever; but it is undoubtedly such, as affords an ever present and effectual means for confirming the faith of the believer. Almost every chapter of the Evangelic records instructs us, not only in Christian

doctrine, and duty, but in those arguments and considerations, which persuasively teach "the certainty of those things in which we have been instructed;" and which may, in an hour of doubt and temptation, recall the conviction to our minds.

A disposition too generally exists, to consider the question of evidence, as something apart from the Bible; as something which we ought to study before we venture to make ourselves acquainted with the Bible. But a knowledge, a full and accurate knowledge, of its contents, is necessary, that we may judge of the force and application of any of the arguments in favour of Christianity; and that we may also ascertain whether there is ground for the several objections, which some have thought proper to advance. I believe that he, who has carefully read the Scriptures, particularly in the original, will find his faith very little harassed by objections and cavils; for he will have seen that they have seldom any foundation, but in the objector's ignorance of the Bible, or in his misinterpretation of it, or sometimes, we fear, in wilful perversion. So that the objector is generally combating the phantom of his own brain; and those things, which the Scriptures really narrate, reveal, and require, still rest on the same evidence, and authority. We even contend, that the Scriptures actually include a statement of the evidences for the religion which they teach. We