sanctioned and made the children of God in the covenant of baptism.

So far as the assent is given to, or this conviction raised by, the mere force of reason, influenced only by the evidence for Christianity, it is of the same nature with the belief, that there was such a man as Cæsar, and such a city as Babylon; and that faith which rests solely on the sufficiency of the vouchers for our religion, and the arguments brought to support it, is but human or historical faith. But human as it is, if we examine it by the rules or tests laid down for that purpose, we shall find it built on a foundation, never to be shaken in a rational and considering mind.

First, the miracles attested, which make the proofs, and in part, the very matter of this faith, are neither impossible, for God was able to perform them, and all we see and know of his creation, is at least equally miraculous.

Nor, secondly, at all improbable, since it may be rationally presumed, that he who wrought so many miracles for our temporary accommodation here, might think fit to work some, were they needful, for our reformation and eternal happiness hereafter. That a teacher, sent from God for these purposes, was necessary, Socrates and Plato, who saw that necessity before he came, are sufficient vouchers; and our own reason tells us, he could never have satisfactorily proved his mission, but by miracles. Miracles therefore, to be performed for that purpose, were probable before his coming into the world, and consequently when performed, proved uncontestably, that he came from God.

Thirdly, as to the means of knowledge, both in point of capacity, and opportunity, in the reporters of our Saviour's history they were unquestionably sufficient. They could hear his doctrines, and they could see his miracles, as well as men of higher education. The testimony they have given of both is ample, clear, and preserved with more care and scrupulosity by far, than any other record known to mankind.

Fourthly, the integrity of these reporters is as little to be questioned, on the footing of historical credit, as their means of knowledge. No men ever gave more or higher proofs of their honesty than they did, which appears,

Fifthly, from the impossibility of their having had any

manner of worldly interest in our belief of their testimony. So far were they from this, that poverty, persecution, and contempt, were all the rewards in this life their master promised them, or they met with, for being his witnesses; whereas had they declined the painful and terrible office, they might have followed their worldly business as profitably, and passed their days as comfortably, as other men.

Sixthly, to encourage our faith, and leave us no room for suspicion, they laid down two pledges of the greatest value to themselves, and of the most unquestionable security to us, for the truth of all they attested, namely, their lives and their souls; their lives, by dying freely and resolutely under the hands of men who had no quarrel with them, but on account of their obstinacy in preaching Christ and his resurrection to the world; and their souls, which nothing could so effectually have destroyed for ever, as knowingly and wilfully endeavouring to pass on mankind a system of religious lies and impostures. Known fallacies have no martyrs.

Lastly, There are not any, there never could have been any witnesses to attest a report contrary to that made by the Christian witnesses, that is, to attest a whole history of negatives, such as, that there were no such persons as Christ and his apostles, or, that they wrought no such miracles, preached no such doctrines, wrote no such books, as the Scriptures. There never was one man who had any opportunity of knowing the truth or nullity of these facts, that so much as offered to lay down the smallest pledge, not to say his life or his soul, to prove any such nullity. The witnesses therefore for the truth of Christianity, who were many thousands in number (for I take in all that wrought or saw the miracles) all competent in means of knowledge, all honest, all martyrs or confessors for the truth of their report, stand unopposed by any contrary witnesses, and even backed by the testimony, in several particulars, of bitter enemies to Christ and his religion, especially the Jews of his time, who knew there were such persons, as he and his apostles, who owned them as preachers of the religion, writers of the books, and workers of the miracles, we ascribe to them. Nay, the Jews of all ages since allow the reality of our Saviour's miracles, but attribute them, as his contemporary Jews did, to the power of an evil spirit.

Supposing now, that the man, so often already mentioned as cured by Christ of his blindness, should have staggered the incredulity of some rational Jew, by constantly maintaining the reality of the miracle wrought on him; and by the just and powerful reasonings from thence, which we find he made use of immediately after the fact; and supposing the Jew thus wavering, should hear a large body of men, in the same peremptory manner attesting the other miracles, particularly the resurrection of Christ; should see them perform themselves a number of miracles, as much above, or contrary to nature; and should see them cheerfully offer themselves to the most tormenting sorts of death, rather than renounce their testimony, or even bury it in silence, must he not give up his reason, or yield his assent?

Hence, on the whole, it is plain that the faith of the first Christians was built on self-evidence, or the testimony of their senses, for they saw the miracles with their eyes; and heard the doctrines with their ears, which together constitute the evidence and matter of Christian faith. We also have the testimony of our senses for the reality of a written record, wherein those miracles and doctrines are attested. So far our faith hath, all along, stood on a foundation furnished by primary and incontestible truths.

The secondary or demonstrative truths deduced from those primary or self-evident axioms, at first did, do now, and for ever will, lend it all their lights. The unanswerable reasonings of him who was cured of his blindness, are to the full as cogent now as ever, if the record is admitted as true and genuine.

That it is both, is evident from its having been made on the spot where, and at the time when, the miracles were wrought, and the doctrines delivered, and universally examined by those living witnesses who could have easily detected its falsity, had it been unfaithfully drawn up; and would as surely have exposed that falsity if detected; for why should they have died for a record which they knew to be false ?

That the record once made, was preserved in its original purity, immaterial and unavoidable variations notwithstanding, is demonstrable, first, from the sacredness of the re

cord itself, which could not be corrupted without the most impious sacrilege; secondly, from the infinity of copies and translations, continually and carefully perused by all the churches; and thirdly, but more especially, from the perpetual appeals to this record, made in all ages, by the different sects of Christians, each intensely watchful over all the rest, and over all their copies or translations, and ever recalling them, in case of material deviations, to a collation with the original.

Could such reasonings as these be fairly offered for the divinity of a religion, only not absurd, superstitious, or hurtful in its nature and tendency, they must prove satisfactory, or reason itself must be given up. But when they are brought in their full force for a religious system, as evidently and confessedly divine in the wisdom, utility, nay, necessity of its doctrines and ordinances, as it is here proved to be in its miraculous attestations, how is it possible for wickedness itself, though abetted by prejudice, to withstand their force? Could philosophy with her utmost efforts, have found out a system, capable, in any tolerable degree, of clearing up the doubts, rectifying the corruptions, or ensuring the happiness of mankind, though vouched by no divine interpositions, a slight pretence for resting in that philosophy might with some colour have been set up. But when it is found, as it really is, that the true wisdom can be obtained, the true righteousness promoted, and the true, the temporal and eternal happiness of all men established, on the principles of Christian faith alone; and farther, that God hath incontestibly proved these principles, as is really the case, to be his own immediate dictates, by his own immediate miraculous interpositions; what room is left for infidelity? None in reason; none any where, but in wilful blindness and wickedness. A report made by innumerable witnesses, sealed with their blood, and established on unanswerable demonstrations, deduced from indisputable axioms, is evidence, or there is no such thing among mankind. The matter of our faith in the gospel, no less, I will be bold to say, even more, than in the assassination of Cæsar is matter of certainty; and so are our hopes founded on that faith. The expression therefore, sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life,' is more strictly pro

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per and logical, than hath been commonly imagined. We must either believe, or do violence to our own reason, which tells us, that, if there is any such thing as truth, it must be found in a religion, so very agreeable to reason, so absolutely necessary to the virtue and happiness of mankind, and so vouched as a record of facts, that all history must be faise, all countries, persons, transactions, which have not fallen immediately under the cognizance of our senses, must have no being. We must therefore either be Christians, or divest ourselves of reason, and be brutes. We must believe, or renounce, the immortality of our souls. We must be Christians, or nothing.

It is true, there are many things delivered to our faith in the record mentioned, which are not only miraculous, but highly mysterious also. This, however, is no reason why they should be thought impossible, or even improbable, by a mind wholly mysterious to itself, clothed in a body, and surrounded with a world, altogether mysterious and miraculous, both in their origin and formation. Infidelity, in the face of such evidence as hath been here sketched out, is no less mysterious, and would seem as miraculous, were it not universally known, that men have a power of turning away their attention from evidence, when they do not relish either it or its consequences; that weak arguments are sufficient to make a man judge as he is previously inclined to do; and that the strongest, cannot bring his reluctant understanding to a determination in spight of him.

Having said what time would allow on the evidence of Christian faith, as purely rational, human, and historical; I shall now proceed to take a short view of that faith as efficacious and divine, that you may understand, how, 'from faith to faith the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel.'

This method, pointed out by the text, appeared highly proper to me, because we must freely believe as men and rational creatures, whose faith God will not force, ere we can believe as Christians. The spirit will not inspire that which it is the peculiar office of right reason to inculcate; but will improve, by grace, that which we have already acquired in a due use of the natural faculties, and revealed instructions afforded us.