confirmation of the truth of the whole fyftem of revelation, as perhaps no force of prejudice will be able to refift. Of fuch importance to the whole world will be the extraordinary providence which has attended, and which still attends this people.

Laftly, the very great corruptions of christianity have been the occafion of many. perfons abandoning it, and writing against it, in this learned and inquifitive age; by which means, the evidences of it have stood fuch a teft as no fcheme of religion was ever put to before; and yet, instead of appearing to difadvantage under the fevere fcrutiny, this trial has been a means of purging it from its many corruptions; men of the greatest virtue, learning, and diligent inquiry, and even many of thofe who have the leaft worldly intereft in promoting the belief of it, are its fteadicft friends; and its enemies are generally fuch perfons as have manifeftly never given fufficient attention to the fubject, or have not had a competent share of learning to qualify them to judge for themfelves; and it is alfo notorious. that,

that, very many of them are men of profligate lives and characters, whofe minds muft, therefore, be unfavourably difpofed with respect to the evidences of chriftianity; so that they must be exceedingly biaffed, and confequently, very incompetent judges in the cafe.

Befides, the things that modern unbelievers cavil at are, generally, trifling circumftances, many of which a better tranflation of an obfcure paffage in the books of fcripture fufficiently obviates; or else they are levelled not against what christianity really is, but what it has been fuppofed to be, in ignorant and corrupt ages; and no unbeliever has pretended to detect the impofture of christianity in the fame manner in which other impoftures have been detected, namely, by fufficient historical evidence; nor have they at all accounted for the rife and propagation of it, on the fuppofition of its being falfe.

Upon the whole, it does not appear to me that the wifdom of man could have de

vifed

vised the circumftances of a miraculous hiftory, fo as to make it fo truly credible as that of the gospel is. If those who are now the most ingenious of its adverfaries had had the choice of the circumstances, and had prescribed them a priori, it is very probable that they might have been fo ill adapted to the end, that the belief of it would have failed, in the natural courfe of things, long before this time; whereas, as things are now circumftanced, the original evidence is fo admirably adjufted, as to be fufficient, without any new revelation, to eftablish the chriftian faith, perhaps, to the end of the world; and this confideration certainly furnishes a ftrong additional evidence of the truth of chriftianity, and alfo ferves to give us a ftriking idea of the wifdom of God, and the weakness of man,

SECTION

SECTION V.

Of the credibility of the Old Testament biflory,

F I be asked why I believe the history

IF

of thofe divine interpofitions which are recorded in the Old Teftament, I may anfwer, that I am under a neceffity of admitting this, in confequence of believing the hiftory of Chrift and his apoftles, as it is written by the Evangelifts. For we there find that the faith of the Jews was alfo the ferious belief of Chrift and his apoftles, and that one of the arguments which they made use of for the proof of his divine miffion was the fulfilment of the prophecies of the Old Teftament, in which the character of Chrift, the principal circumftances of his hiftory, and the nature and extent of the kingdom of God under him. were particularly pointed out.

In

In fhort, it is manifeft, from the whole tenor of the New Teftament, that Chriftianity is only a part of one grand difpenfation of religion, and that it is the completion and proper fequel of Judaism; for we there find it every where taken for granted, that God revealed his will in a more imperfect manner to Mofes, and the fucceeding prophets, before the more perfect revelation of it by Christ and his apoftles.

But, independent of this kind of evidence which ought to have the greatest weight with all Chriftians, there is not wanting fufficient reafon to believe that the Jewish religion is true and divine, admitting what has been already proved, viz. the authenticity of the books of the Old Teftament. That the divine being interpofed in a miraculous manner in the affairs of the Jewish nation, and, more especially, that he dictated the law which Mofes communicated to the children of Ifrael, we have the teftimony not only of Mofes himself, and of all the prophets who wrote the

books