obedience, which sealed the same doctrine in the first age. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Come with us and you shall partake of these blessings. Behold the effects of them visible and prominent in the holy lives and patient sufferings of Christians. We appeal to the misery and ignorance and vice of which you yourselves cannot but be conscious. We invite you to receive the Christian redemption, to comply with the invitations of mercy, and to seek the aid of the Holy Spirit. What evidence can you require more? That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ."

If we go on to the ninth or tenth or twelfth century, the reason assigned would be substantially the same in the case of the sincere and devout Christian; but the external evidences would now lean more directly on historical testimonies. The authentic books of scripture would have to be traced back through each preceding century, to the first. This part of the statement would require to be enlarged, as the space of time stretched on and lengthened the series of testimonies. Doubts also might now be easily raised by an objector, from the mere lapse of time, from the existence of various heresies, and the corruption of manners, flowing from a decay of vital piety, in the church. And if the Christian advocate did not himself fully understand the inward grace and power of his religion, he might be perplexed by cavils, and linger in some field of debate or other, perplexed in the maze of subordinate questions.

But to the holy and devoted Christian the reason would chiefly point, as it had ever done, to the hope that was implanted in him by the divine doctrine. Anselm and Bernarde gave an answer of their faith with similar warmth, and in nearly the like terms with Ambrose and Augustine;d

(c) Fathers of the 11th and 12th centuries.

(d) Fathers of the 4th and 5th centuries.

as these had done in the language of Irenæus and Tertullian; and they again in that of the first Christians.

In the eighteenth or nineteenth century the Christian renders the reason of his faith, with no essential difference, if only that faith burn brightly in his breast; that is, if he be really what he professes. The identity of true religion in the human heart-the renovation of a fallen nature; the redemption by the cross of Christ; the joy of pardon; the peace and love which flow from the inhabitation of the Holy Spirit; the blessed fruits of holiness in life, and the calm and triumphant anticipation of the glories of heaven in death, stamp upon him the same impress of a divine. religion as was recognized in the apostle's days. But the deducing of the external evidences on which all this rests, must, from the nature of the case, require more care and attention. The human understanding and conscience, indeed, to which the evidences are addressed, are the same as in the first age. The historians-Jewish, Pagan, Christian, contemporary with the apostles, and attesting the facts of our religion, lie open to every inquirer. The sufficiency of the evidences contained in the authentic Christian writings, to produce conviction, is just the same. But it is obvious that the arrangement of testimonies, the statement of arguments, the marshalling of witnesses, the clearing of difficulties, the answering of objections, with regard to a subject which for eighteen hundred years has been exposed to the assaults and sophistries of a corrupt and fallen world, must demand habits of research, and the faculty of weighing and removing objections. Still the Christian may now, as in every preceding age, give in a few words the apology for the hope itself which he cherishes-not a reason of all the parts of a divine revelation, (which a finite mind is incapable of from the nature of the case,) nor an answer to every cavil which ingenuity may invent, nor an account of all the historical matters connected with Christianity-but a reason of the hope that is in him, of the practical hold he has of Christianity, of the end and scope of the religion,

(e) Fathers of the 1st and 2nd centuries.

of the authority on which it rests, of the proofs offered by our Saviour and his apostles to Jewish and Gentile inquirers, of the blessed effects it produces, and of the test to which every one may bring it by submitting to its directions and making a trial of its promises.

Different Christians will state this reason with different degrees of propriety and force; and the same Christian will take a wider or narrower range of external testimonies, according to the character of the persons whom he addresses. But the object of the humble believer will ever be to bring men to the most satisfactory of all evidences, that arising from the inward power and efficacy of religion in renewing the human heart, kindling the love of God, raising man from the ruins of the fall, inspiring him with the noble aim of pleasing God, and communicating to him a lively hope of everlasting life. Whether the plain, unlettered Christian can enter upon the historical proofs or not, he can study the Bible itself, can follow the divine series of evidences adduced by our Lord and his disciples, can humbly sue for the promised grace of the Holy Spirit, and thus lay hold on that substantial, moral, and spiritual benefit, which speaks by its holy effects, and when once obtained, almost supersedes the necessity of other kinds of evidence.

This has proved the best defence of Christianity in every age. Like the sun in its noonday warmth, it is its own witness. The outward evidences are only introductory to the inward. Christianity is a principle of spiritual life-a divine armory against our spiritual adversaries—our compass and chart during a tempestuous voyage—the bright morning star in a dark and doubtful night-the only means of reconciliation between a sinner and his offended God-the spring of holiness and peace and joy—the way and pledge and earnest of everlasting life. The best reason of this religion is the effects of it in the heart and conduct. With this the external arguments assume their proper place as attesting a divine revelation; without it, they are cold and defective, and void of all salutary and efficacious fruit.

After these remarks on the answer to be given by the Christian of the reason of his hope, I need scarcely observe,

that he is never to forget that meekness and fear with which the apostle in the text commands him to present it.

The Christian learns from every doctrine of his religion the importance of a soft and gentle spirit. He knows the corrupt tendencies of a fallen nature generally, and therefore watches against severity, harshness, petulance, airs of superiority and contempt in his spirit and manner, especially when giving a reason of his faith. He endeavours to imitate the lowliness and meekness of his Saviour. He cultivates that caution and benevolence and unaffected humility, which become a man who has received such benefits from the hands of God, and who is most anxious to win over his opponent to a share of those immense blessings which Christianity proposes.

And with this meekness towards man, he will join fear towards that transcendently glorious being whose greatest gift to a fallen world he is called to defend, lest he should injure the cause of Christianity by an indiscreet' or inconclusive defence-lest he should dishonor those incommunicable prerogatives and attributes of the great God, which should inspire a holy awe and reverence, when any part of his ways is to be vindicated by a creature like man, before his fellow-worms of the earth.

A reason given of our hope on the practical grounds I have before stated, and in this spirit of meekness and fear, will neither betray the interests of religion, nor provoke the feelings of an opponent. On the contrary, if any thing can touch the conscience of an unbeliever, it is a firm but modest testimony thus borne to the evidences of religion, connected with a pure and consistent course of life. This is our best defence, as our apostle himself declares in the words which follow the text: Having a good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you as evil-doers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

It is upon these general principles that I propose to deliver the course of Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity, of which this is the first.

I am indeed far, very far from thinking that it is advisable to dwell continually on the evidences of our religion. The

excellency of all its doctrines and precepts is such as to bring its own proof with it to every candid and serious mind. The business of life is carried on, not by defending principles, but by acting on them. It is our wisdom, as the ministers of religion, to take for granted, for the most part, the preliminary questions which have so often been proved, and to employ ourselves in the unfolding of the Christian faith and in the application of it to the heart and conscience. But I conceive that the language of the text, the example of our Lord and his apostles, and the necessities of the case, make it obligatory upon us, from time to time, to give such public instructions as we find to be requisite, upon the grounds of our faith. The text has the force of an universal rule. It is addressed to the Christians in common who were scattered over different provinces in Asia, and it directs them to be always ready to give an answer to every man, whether friend or foe, who asked a reason of the hope that was in them. We are not indeed always to enter at any length upon the apology for our religion; but we are always to be ready, to be prepared with such information that we may not be taken off our guard; to have always the faculty of stating clearly and conclusively the reasons of our faith; and though this may be done briefly where the whole subject is thoroughly understood, yet the previous information takes a wide circuit; and in a learned and inquisitive age like the present, it seems to be the duty of the minister of religion, as well as of parents and instructors of youth, to communicate the materials of such a defence, and point out the chief points necessary to be attended to, and the best course of argument to be taken.

Nor, again, do I consider it to be expedient in the sacred temple of the Most High, and during the course of the public devotions, to enter upon the whole wide question of the Evidences of Christianity which has become, through the perverseness of the human mind and the numberless topics connected with the history of Christianity, an inexhaustible subject. This is better resigned to those learned authors whose labors have enriched this department of our litera

ture.