that he might leave us that invaluable treasure which his writings contain.

We have no need of further evidence than we find in Josephus, of the exact accomplishment of what was prophesied concerning the destruction of Jerusalem. But our Lord had also foretold the long-continued desolation of the temple. And we cannot forbear mentioning the awful sanction which was given to that part of the prediction. For it is well known, that a heathen historian has assured us, that when Julian the apostate, in deliberate contempt of that prediction, solemnly and resolutely undertook to rebuild it; his impious design was frustrated miraculously, again and again; the workmen being consumed by globes of fire, which broke out from the foundations.

The prediction of St. Paul concerning the man of sin, and the apostacy of the latter times, is also well worthy of our remark; and though a great part of the book of Revelations be still concealed under a dark veil, yet the division of the Roman empire into ten kingdoms, the usurpation, persecution, and idolatry of the Romish church, and the long duration of the papal power with several other extraordinary events, which no human prudence could have foreseen, and which have happened long since the publication of that book, are so clearly foretold there, that we cannot but look on that part of the Scripture as an invaluable treasure: and it is not at all improbable, that the more visible accomplishment of some of its other prophecies, may be a great means of reviving the Christian cause, which is at present so much on the decline.

The preservation of the Jews, as a distinct people, is another particular, under this head, which well deserves our attentive regard.

'Tis plain that they are very numerous, notwithstanding all the slaughter and destruction of this people in former and latter ages. They are dispersed among various and most distant nations, and particularly in those parts of the world where Christianity is professed; and though they are exposed to great hatred and contempt on account of their different faith, and in most places subject to civil incapacities, if not to unchristian severities; yet they are still most obstinately tenacious of their religion which is the more wonderful, as their fathers were so prone to apostatize from it; and as most of them seem to be utter strangers entirely to piety or humanity, and pour the greatest contempt on the moral precepts of their own law, while they are so attached to the ceremonial institutions of it, troublesome and inconvenient as they are. Now let us seriously reflect, what an evident hand of Providence is here ;-that by their dispersion, preservation, and adherence to their religion, it should come to pass,

that Christians should daily see the accomplishment of many remarkable prophecies concerning this people; and that we should always have amongst us such a crowd of unexceptionable witnesses to the truth of those ancient Hebrew records, on which so much of the evidence of the Gospel depends: records which are many of them so full to the purpose for which we allege them, that, as a celebrated writer very well observes, "Had it been represented that the whole body of the Jewish nation had been converted to Christianity, men would certainly have thought the assertion had been forged by Christians; and have looked upon them in the same light with the prophecies of the Sybils, as made many years after the event which they pretended to foretel."

And to add no more here, the preservation of the Jews as a distinct people, evidently leaves room for the accomplishment of those Old and New Testament prophecies, which relate to their national conversion and restoration: whereas that would be impossible in itself, or at least impossible to be known, if they were promiscuously blended with other people. On the whole, it is such a scene in the conduct of Providence, as we are well assured, cannot be paralleled in the history of any other nation upon earth: and affords a most obvious and important argument in favor of the Gospel.

Thus has Christianity been further confirmed since its publication, by what God has done to establish it. It only remaius that we consider,

2. What confirmation it receives from the methods which its enemies have taken to destroy it.

And these have generally been, either persecution, or falsehood, or cavilling at some particulars in the revelation, without entering into the grand argument on which it is built, and fairly debating what is offered in its defence. Now who would not think the better of a cause for being thus attacked?

At first it is known, that the professors, and especially the preachers of the Gospel, were severely persecuted. In every city, bonds and imprisonments awaited them. As soon as ever the apostles began to preach Jesus and his resurrection, the Jewish rulers laid hold on them; and having confined and scourged them, strictly prohibited their speaking any more in his name. A little while after Stephen was murdered; and afterwards James and some other of the apostles. Now certainly such a conduct evidently betrayed a consciousness that they were not able to answer the apostles, and to support their own cause by the fair methods of reason and argument, to which, so far as the history informs us, they made no pretence, but attempted to bear them down by dint of authority, and to silence them by brutal force.

It would be needless to attempt shewing particularly how these unrighteous methods were pursued in succeeding ages and distant countries. The savage cruelties of Nero to these innocent and holy men were such as raised the pity even of their enemies. Yet this was one of the least extensive and destructive of the ten general persecutions, which arose in the Roman empire, besides several others in the neighboring countries, of which ecclesiastical history informs us.

These early enemies of the Gospel added falsehood and slander to their inhumanities. They endeavored to murder the reputations of Christians, as well as their persons; and were not ashamed to represent them as haters of the whole human species, for no imaginable reason but that they would not associate themselves in their idolatrous worship. Nay, they charged them with human sacrifices, incest, idolatry, and all the cries for which themselves and their false gods were indeed justly detestable but from which the Christians knew how to vindicate themselves, highly to their own honor, and the everlasting reproach of these malignant and pestilent accusers. And they have not failed to do it in many noble apologies, which through the divine Providence are transmitted to us, and are incomparably the most valuable of any ancient uninspired writings.

Such were the infamous, the scandalous methods, by which the Gospel was opposed in the earliest ages of the church; and it must be added, that the measures more lately taken to subvert it, especially among ourselves, seem rather to reflect a glory on it. The unhappy enemies of the Gospel of the Son of God have been told again and again, that we put the proof of it on plain facts. They themselves do not and cannot deny, that it prevailed early in the world, as we have shewn at large. There must have been some man or body of men who first introduced it; and even themselves, notwithstanding all their obstinacy and perverseness, generally confess that Christ and his apostles were the persons; which is a manifest acknowledgment of the most forcible argument they can give against their own debased principles.

Now which of these schemes will the unbelievers take ? It seems that the deists of the present age fix on neither, as being secretly conscious they cannot support either; but they content themselves with cavilling at some circumstances attending the revelation, without daring to encounter its grand evidence; that is, they have been laboriously attempting to prove it to be improbable, or absurd, to suppose that to have been, which nevertheless plainly appears to have been facts. One of them most weakly and sophistically attempts to prove, in defiance of the common sense of mankind, that the light of na

ture is a perfect rule, aud therefore, that all revelation is needless, and indeed impossible. Another disguises the miracles of Christ by false representations of them, and then treats them as idle tales. A third takes a great deal of fruitless pains to shew, that some prophecies referred to in the New Testament are capable of another sense, different from that in which the apostles have taken them.

These things have been set in a very artful and fallacious light by persons, whose names will perhaps be transmitted to posterity with the infamous stigma of having been leaders in the cause of infidelity: but not a man of them undertakes to ascertain the grand fact. Nay, they generally take no more notice of the positive evidences by which it is even demonstrated, than if they had never heard it proposed; though they cavil at incidental passages in those books in which it is most clearly stated. And as for what they have urged, though perhaps some who were before weary of Christianity, may have taken occasion to reject it, and others for want of consulting the answers to them, may have been unwarily ensnared; yet the examination of these points has been greatly for the honor and vindication of the truth, which seems on this occasion to have been set in a clearer and stronger light than ever, at least in these latter ages.

The cause of Christianity has greatly gained by debate, and the Gospel comes like fine gold out of the furnace, which the more it is tried, the more it is approved. It must be owned, that the defenders of the Gospel have appeared with very different degrees of ability for the work; nor could it be otherwise among such numbers of them: but, on the whole, though the patrons of infidelity have been masters of wit, humor, and address, as well as of a moderate share of learning, and generally much more than a moderate share of assurance; yet so great is the force of truth, that (unless we may except those writers who have unhappily called for the aid of the civil magistrate in the controversy) we cannot recollect to have seen any defence of the Gospel, which has not, on the whole, been sufficient to establish it, notwithstanding all the sophistical arguments of its subtle antagonists.

This is an observation that is continually gaining new strength, as new assaults are made upon the Gospel; and we cannot forbear saying, that as if it were by a kind of judicial infatuation, some who have distinguished themselves in the wretched cause of infidelity, have been permitted to fall into such gross misrepresentations, such senseless inconsistencies, such palpable falsehoods, and in a word, into such various and malignant superfluity of naughtiness, that to a wise and pious mind, they must appear like those venomous creatures,

which are said to carry an antidote in their own objections, particularly a noble Lord, who has given up several of the deistical objections, and even acknowledged the divine original of the Gospel; for he asserts, "That no religion ever appeared in the world, whose natural tendency was so much directed to promote the peace and happiness of mankind.” He declares, that "No system can be more simple and plain than that of a natural religion as it stands in the Gospel." He avers, that, “he will not say, that the belief that Jesus was the Messiah, is the only article of belief necessary to make men Christians. There are other things doubtless contained in the revelation he made of himself, dependent on, and relative to this article, without the belief of which I suppose our charity would be very defective. But this I say, that the system of religion which Christ published, and his evangelists recorded, is a complete system to all the purposes of religion, natural and revealed. It contains all the duties of the former, it enforces the whole law of faith, promising rewards and threatening punishments, which he declares he will distribute when he comes to judge the world." The same writer alloweth that the Gospel is in all cases one continued lesson of the strictest morality, of justice, of benevolence, and of universal charity. He professeth a great concern for true charity, in opposition to theology, and says, that "genuine Christianity was taught of God." And not to multiply passages to this purpose, he pronounces, that "the Christian system of faith and practice was revealed of God himself, and it is absurd and impious to assert, that the divine Being revealed it incompletely and imperfectly. Its simplicity and plainness shew, that it was designed to be the religion of mankind, and also manifest the divinity of its original." After reading these quotations and a great variety of others, which might be produced from his Lordship's writings, the reader may easily judge what religion has to fear from this noble writer's arguments, and we will venture to assert, that he has himself entirely confuted his own objections.

Thus have we given the reader a brief view of the chief arguments in proof of Christianity, and the sum of the whole is this:

The Gospel is probable in theory, as considering the nature of God and the circumstances of mankind, there was reason to hope a revelation might be given; and if any were given, we should naturally apprehend its internal evidence would be such as that of the Gospel is, and its external such as it is said to be. But it is also true in fact; for Christianity was early professed, as it was first introduced by Jesus of Nazareth, whose life and doctrines were published by his immediate at