argument which cannot be addreffed to fceptics or unbelievers. A man must be a Chriftian before he can receive it. The inspiration of the hiftorical fcriptures, the nature, degree, and extent of that inspiration, are questions undoubtedly of ferious discusfion, but they are questions amongst Christians themselves, and not between them and others. The doctrine itself is by no means neceffary to the belief of Chriftianity, which muft, in the first inftance at least, depend upon the ordinary maxims of historical credibility *.

In viewing the detail of miracles recorded in these books, we find every fuppofition negatived, by which they can be resolved into fraud or delufion. They were not secret, nor momentary, nor tentative, nor ambiguous; nor performed under the fanction of authority, with the fpectators on their fide, or in affirmance of tenets and practices already established. We find also

*See Powell's Difcourfes, difc. xv. p. 245.

the evidence alledged for them, and which evidence was by great numbers received, different from that upon which other miraculous accounts reft. It was contemporary, it was published upon the fpot, it continued; it involved interefts and queftions of the greatest magnitude; it contradicted the most fixed perfuafions and prejudices of the perfons to whom it was addreffed; it required from those who accepted it, not a fimple indolent affent, but a change, from thenceforward, of principles and conduct, a fubmiffion to confequences the moft serious and the most deterring, to lofs and danger, to infult, cutrage, and perfecution. How fuch a flory fhould be falfe, or, if false, how under fuch circumftances it fhould make its way, I think impoffible to be explained: yet fuch the Chriftian ftory was, fuch were the circumstances under which it came forth, and in oppofition to fuch difficulties did it prevail.

An event fo connected with the religion, and with the fortunes, of the Jewish people,

as one of their race, one born amongst them, establishing his authority and his law throughout a great portion of the civilized world, it was perhaps to be expected, should be noticed in the prophetic writings of that nation; efpecially when this perfon, together with his own miffion, caufed alfo to be acknowledged the divine original of their inftitution, and by those who before had altogether rejected it. Accordingly we perceive in these writings, various intimations concurring in the perfon and hiftory of Jefus, in a manner, and in a degree, in which paffages taken from thefe books could not be made to concur in any perfon arbitrarily affumed, or in any perfon, except him, who has been the author of great changes in the affairs and opinions of mankind. Of fome of these predictions the weight depends a good deal upon the concurrence. Others poffefs great feparate ftrength: one in particular does this in an eminent degree. It is an entire defcription, manifeftly directed to one character and to one fcene of things: it is extant in a writing, or collection of

writings, declaredly prophetic; and it applies to Chrift's character, and to the circumftances of his life and death, with confiderable precifion, and in a way which no diverfity of interpretation hath, in my opinion, been able to confound. That the advent of Chrift, and the confequences of it, should not have been more diftinctly revealed in the Jewish facred books, is, I think, in fome measure accounted for by the confideration, that for the Jews to have foreseen the fall of their inftitution, and that it was to merge at length into a more perfect and comprehenfive difpenfation, would have cooled too much, and relaxed, their zeal for it, and their adherence to it, upon which zeal and adherence the prefervation in the world of any remains, for many ages, of religious truth might in a great measure depend.

Of what a revelation difclofes to mankind, one, and only one, queftion can properly be asked, "Was it of importance to mankind to know, or to be better affured

of?"

of?" In this queflion, when we turn our thoughts to the great Chriftian doctrine of the refurrection of the dead, and of a future judgement, no doubt can poffibly be entertained. He who gives me riches or honours does nothing; he who even gives me health does little, in comparison with that which lays before me juft grounds for expecting a restoration to life, and a day of account and retribution: which thing Chriftianity hath done for millions.

Other articles of the Chriftian faith, although of infinite importance when placed befide any other topic of human enquiry, are only the adjuncts and circumstances of this. They are however fuch as appear worthy of the original to which we afcribe them. The morality of the religion, whether taken from the precepts or the example of its founder, or from the leffons of its primitive teachers, derived, as it should feem, from what had been inculcated by their master, is, in all its parts, wife and pure; neither adapted to vulgar prejudices, Dd4

nor