PREFACE TO THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION, CONTAINING THE FORMER PART OF THE HISTORY OF CHRIST. I HAVE long been convinced, that if any thing can stop that progress of infidelity and vice, which every wise man beholds with sorrow and fear; that if any thing can allay those animosities, which (natural as they are) have so long inflamed us, and pained the heart of every generous christian; in a word, that if any thing can establish the purity and order, the peace and glory, of the church, or spread the triumphs of personal and domestic religion among us, it must be an attentive study of the Word of God, and especially of the New Testament; that best of books, which, if read with impartiality and seriousness, under the influences of that blessed Spirit by whom it was inspired, would have the noblest tendency to enlighten and adorn the mind, and not only to touch, but to animate and transform, the heart. The station of life in which Divine Providence has placed me, rendered it peculiarly necessary for me to make these sacred oracles my principal study; and having, to my unspeakable delight and advantage, felt much of their energy, I long since determined, that it should be the main business of my life as an author to illustrate them, and to lead my fellow-christians into a due regard for them, by endeavouring, in as plain and popular a manner as I could, to display their beauty, their spirit, and their use: and I thankfully acknowledge the goodness of God to me, in giving me health and spirits to finish so considerable a part of my design, though I have so much other business daily on my hands, and have been obliged to execute this in a much more laborious manner than I at first apprehended would have been requisite. The title I have given to the work sufficiently explains its original design, which was chiefly to promote family religion, and to render the reading of the New Testament more pleasant and improving to those that wanted the benefit of a learned education, and had not opportunity or inclination to consult a variety of commentators. And I thought it proper still to retain the title of The Family Expositor, even when I had made some alteration in the plan; because that is still the leading view of the greater part of the work. In pursuit of this, I have given a large Paraphrase on the sacred text, well knowing that this is the most agreeable and useful manner of explaining it to common readers, who hardly know how to manage annotations, especially when they are to be read to others. The chief objection against this way is, that when a whole verse, and much more when several verses are taken together, (as they frequently are,) it requires a great attention, and in some places considerable penetration, to trace the exact correspondence between the respective clauses of the text and the paraphrase. There are some performances of this kind in our own language, as well as in others, in which such liberties are taken, that I freely confess that, were it not for the initial references, or opposite column, I should not be able to guess from the paraphrase itself what the scripture was which it pretended to explain. This must undoubtedly give the greatest advantage for disguise and misrepresentation; and where those glosses are read by themselves without the scriptures, (which I know has been the case in some families,) it is really exchanging the prophets and apostles for modern divines. To prevent this intolerable evil, I have formed my paraphrase so, that it is impossible to read it without the text, having every where interwoven the words of scripture with it, and carefully distinguished them from the rest by the Italic character; so that every one may immediately see, not only the particular clause to which any explication answers, but also what are the words of the sacred original, and what merely the sense of a fallible man, who is liable, though in the integrity of his heart, to mislead his readers, and dares not attribute to himself the singular glory of having put off every prejudice, even while he would deliberately and knowingly allow none. I thought it might be some additional improvement of this work, and some entertainment to the more accurate reader, to give the text in a new version; which I have accordingly done from the original, with all the care I could. There are so few places in which the general sense will appear different from our received translation, that some will perhaps think this an unnecessary trouble: but I can by no means repent it, as it has given me an opportunity of searching more accurately into several beauties of expression which had before escaped me, and of making some alterations, which, though they may not be very material to the edification of men's souls, may yet in some degree do a farther honour to scripture; raising some of those ornaments which were before depressed; and sufficiently proving that several objections urged against it were entirely of an English growth: ends which might yet more abundantly be answered by a new version of the Old Testament, which has suffered much more in our translation, as it is natural to suppose it must. I thought it might also conduce to the usefulness of this Exposition to digest the history of the four Evangelists into one continued series, or, in other words, to throw it into the order of an harmony. By this means, each story and discourse is exhibited with all its concurrent circumstances, as recorded by the sacred penmen; frequent repetitions are prevented; and a multitude of seeming oppositions are so evidently reconciled, as to supersede many objections, and render the very mention of them unnecessary. My reader will hardly imagine the pains that this part of the work has cost me, both in examining the order of the several texts, and collating the different accounts in each, in such a manner, that no one clause in any of the Evangelists might be omitted, and yet the several passages to be inserted might make one connected sense, and, without any large addition, stand in a due grammatical order. I was the more sensible of this labour, as I laid it down for a maxim to myself, when I entered on this work, that I would study as much as possible to make it an original in all its parts. Accordingly, the first copy of it was drawn up with hardly any other assistance than that of the Greek Testament, which Í endeavoured to harmonize, to translate, to paraphrase, and to improve, just as if none had ever attempted any thing of that nature before me. Afterwards I was obliged to compare it with what others had done; and, as may easily be supposed, I found in many instances an agreement, and in many others a difference, betwixt them and myself. Where we differed, I endeavoured impartially to examine the reasons on both sides; and where I have perceived myself indebted to any, for leading me into a more just and beautiful version, explication, or disposition, than I had before chosen, I have generally, and, so far as I can recollect, universally, acknowledged it; unless where the hint came from some living friend, where such acknowledgment would not have been agreeable. There are, no doubt, many other instances in which the thoughts that seemed originally my own, might be suggested by memory, though I knew not from whence they came; and a thousand more are so obvious, that one would suppose they must occur to every attentive reader, who has any genius and furniture for criticism. To have multiplied references and quotations in such a case, would have been, I think, a very useless and burdensome piece of pedantry, and might (as I fear has been the case with Pfeiffer and Wolfius) have discouraged the reader from consulting any, in so great a crowd. I could not well brook the drudgery of transcribing the works of others, and should scorn the meanness of dressing myself up in borrowed plumes; but if any imagine me a mere compiler, I shall not be greatly concerned at their mistake, but say, with the modest and excellent Mons. Rollin, "If the things themselves are good, it signifies very little whose they are.' The Notes are, at the desire of many friends, entirely added to my first scheme; and when I saw so many persons of learning and rank were pleased to encourage my undertaking, I thought it would be no unacceptable expression of my gratitude to them, to insert several which I should otherwise have omitted. Some of them seemed absolutely necessary to justify the version and paraphrase, in what might seem most peculiar in it: several more refer to the order, and give my reasons for leaving the general track where I have left it, and for not leaving it much oftener, where some very learned and ingenious authors have taken a great deal of pains (though, I persuade myself, with a very good intent) to lead us out of the way: and as several of these are modern writers, the remarks are such as do not commonly occur. The rest of the notes consist, either of some observations on the beauty and force of various passages, which I do not remember to have seen elsewhere; or of references to, and observations upon, considerable writers, whether they be or be not professed expositors of scripture, who seem in the most masterly manner to examine or to illustrate and confirm the sense I have given. These are generally but very short; because it would have been quite foreign to my purpose, and utterly inconsistent with my scheme, to have formed them into large critical essays: but I hope they may be some guide to young students, who, if they have libraries at hand, are in great danger of being lost in a wood, where, I am sorry to say it, they will find a multitude of prickly and knotty shrubs, and in comparison but few pleasant and fruitful trees. It has appeared to me an office of real and important friendship to gentlemen in this station of life, to endeavour to select for them the most valuable passages which occur in reading, and to remit them thither, not only for the illustration of scripture, but also for their direction in studying the evidences and contents both of natural and revealed religion. This I have done with great care and labour in a pretty large work, which perhaps may be published after my death, if surviving friends should judge it proper. To that I have generally referred those citations which relate to polemical divinity; and at present only add, that, with regard to these notes, I have endeavoured to render them easy and entertaining, even to an English reader; and for that purpose have cautiously excluded quotations from the learned languages, even where they might have served to illustrate customs referred to, or words to be explained. That deficiency may be abundantly made up by the perusal of Elsner, Albert, Bos, Wolfius, Raphelius, Fortuita Sacra, &c.† books which I cannot but recommend to my young friends, as proper not only to ascertain the sense of a variety of words and phrases which occur in the apostolic writings, but also to form them to the most useful method of studying the Greek classics: those great masters of solid sense, elegant expression, just lively painting, and masculine eloquence, to the neglect of which I cannot but ascribe that enervate, dissolute, and puerile manner of writing, which is growing so much on the present age, and will probably consign so many of its productions to speedy oblivion. Que m'importe d'ou il soit, pourvu qu'il se trouve utile.-Roll. Man. d'enseign. Vol. I. p. 75. + As some of the books mentioned above are not very common among us, it may not be improper to insert their titles: viz. Jacobi Elsner Observat. Sacra, 2 vol. 8vo. Traject, ad Rhen. 1720. Alberti Observ. Philolog, Lugd. The Improvement of each section is entirely of a practical nature, and generally consists of pressing exhortations and devout meditations, grounded on the general design, or on some particular passages, of the section to which they are annexed. They are all in an evangelical strain, and they could not with any propriety have been otherwise. I am well aware that this manner is not much in the present taste, and I think it at once a sad instance and cause of our degeneracy that it is not. If it be necessary that I should offer any apology, it must in short be this; I have with all possible attention and impartiality considered first the general evidences of the truth of christianity, and then those of the inspiration of the New Testament, which seems to me inseparably connected with the former; and, on the whole, am in my conscience persuaded of both, and have been confirmed in that conviction by the most laboured attempts to overthrow them. It seems a necessary consequence of this conviction, (and I am astonished it should not be more generally attended to,) that we are with the humblest submission of mind to form our religious notions on this plan, and to give up the most darling maxims which will not bear the test of it. I should think any impartial reader must immediately see, and every judicious critic be daily more confirmed in it, that the New Testament teaches us to conceive of Christ, not as a generous Benefactor only, who, having performed some actions of heroic virtue and benevolence, is now retired from all intercourse with our world, so that we have no more to do with him than to preserve a grateful remembrance of his character and favours; but that he is to be considered as an ever-living and ever-present Friend, with whom we are to maintain a daily commerce by faith and prayer, and from whom we are to derive those supplies of divine grace, whereby we may be strengthened for the duties of life, and ripened for a state of perfect holiness and felicity. This is evident not only from particular passages of scripture, in which he is described as always with his church, (Matt. xxviii. 20.) as present wherever two or three are assembled in his name, (Matt. xviii. 20.) as upholding all things by the word of his power, (Heb. i. 3.) and as Head over all to his church; (Eph. i. 22.) but indeed from the whole scope and tenor of the New Testament. These views are therefore continually to be kept up; and for any to pretend that this is a round-about method, (as some have presumed to call it,) and that men may be led to virtue, the great end of all, by a much plainer and more direct way, seems to me only a vain and arrogant attempt to be wiser than God himself; which therefore must in the end appear to be folly, with whatever subtilty of argument it may be defended, or with whatever pomp of rhetoric it be adorned. it The New Testament is a book written with the most consummate knowledge of human nature; and though there are a thousand latent beauties in it, which it is the business and glory of true criticism to place in a strong point of light, the general sense and design of it is plain to every honest reader, even at the very first perusal. It is evidently intended to bring us to God through Christ, in an humble dependence on the communications of his sanctifying and quickening Spirit; and to engage us to a course of faithful and universal obedience, chiefly from a grateful sense of the riches of divine grace manifested to us in the gospel. And though this scheme is indeed liable to abuse, as every thing else is, appears to me plain in fact, that it has been, and still is, the grand instrument of reforming a very degenerate world: and, according to the best observations I have been able to make on what has passed about me, or within my own breast, I have found that, in proportion to the degree in which this evangelical scheme is received and relished, the interest of true virtue and holiness flourishes, and the mind is formed to manly devotion, diffusive benevolence, steady fortitude, and in short, made ready to every good word and work. To this therefore I am determined, at all adventures, to adhere; nor am I at all ashamed or afraid of any scorn which I may encounter in such a cause; and I would earnestly exhort and entreat all my brethren in the christian ministry to join with me, as well knowing to whom we have committed our souls; and cheerfully hoping, that He, Bat. 1725. Lamberti Bos Exercitat. Philolog. Franek. 1700. Lamberti Bos. Animadvers. Franek, 1715. Lamberti Bos. Observat. Miscell. Leovard. 1731. Rapheli Annotat. Philol. in Nov. Test, ex Xenophonte, Polybio, et Herodoto collecta, 3 tom. Lunen. 1731. Wolfii Cura Philolog, et Critice, 4to. Hamb. 1725. PREFACE. by whom we have hitherto, if faithful in our calling, been supported and animated, will at length confess us before the presence of his Father and the holy angels, in that day when it will be found no dishonour to the greatest and wisest of the children of men to have listed themselves under the banner of the cross, and constantly and affectionately to have kept their Divine Leader in view. I cannot flatter myself so far as to imagine that I have fallen into no mistakes, in a work of so great compass and difficulty; but my own conscience acquits me of having designedly misrepresented any single passage of scripture, or of having written one line with a purpose of inflaming the hearts of christians against each other. I should esteem it one of the most aggravated crimes to make the life of the gentle and benevolent Jesus a vehicle to convey such poison. Would to God that all the party names, and unscriptural phrases and forms, which have divided the christian world, were forgot! and that we might agree to sit down together, as humble, loving disciples, at the feet of our common Master, to hear his word, to imbibe his Spirit, and to transcribe his life in our own! I hope it is some token of such growing candour on one side, as I am sure it should be an engagement to cultivate it on the other, that so many of the reverend clergy of the establishment, as well as other persons of distinction in it, have favoured this undertaking with their encouragement. To them, and all my other friends, I return my most hearty thanks; and shall remember, that the regard they have been pleased to express to it, obliges me to pursue the remainder of the work with the utmost care and application; and earnestly entreat the farther assistance of their prayers, that it may be conducted in a manner subservient to the honour of the gospel and the edification of the church. In these volumes I have been desirous to express my gratitude to the subscribers, by sparing nothing in my power which might render the work acceptable to them, both with respect to its contents and its form. The consequence of this is, that it has swelled to a number of sheets, which by more than a third part exceeds what I promised in the proposals; which, though at a great expense, I chose to permit, rather than I would either sink the paper and character beneath the specimen, or omit some remarks in the notes which appeared to me of moment, and rose in my mind while I was transcribing them. But I hope this large addition to what was at first expected, will excuse my not complying with the importunity of some of my friends, who have requested that I would introduce this work with a dissertation on such points of Jewish antiquity as might be serviceable for the fuller understanding the New Testament, or with a discourse on its genuineness, credibility, inspiration, and use. As to the first of these, (a compendious view of such articles of Jewish antiquity as may be a proper introduction to the critical study of scripture,) I do with great pleasure refer the generality of readers and young students to the general preface to the Prussian Testament, published by Mess. L'Enfant and Beausobre; which preface was some years since translated into English, and suits the purpose better than any thing I have seen within so small a compass. As to the latter, I purpose, if God permit, when I have finished the second volume, to publish, with another edition of my Three Sermons on the Evidences of Christianity, two or three discourses more on the inspiration of the New Testament, and on its usefulness, especially that of the Evangelical History; to which I may perhaps add some farther directions for the most profitable manner of reading it. At present I shall only add, that daily experience convinces me more and more, that as a thousand charms discover themselves in the works of nature, when attentively viewed with glasses, which had escaped the naked eye; so our admiration of the holy scriptures will rise in proportion to the accuracy with which they are studied. As for these histories and discourses of Christ, I may say of them, with far greater justice, what Simplicius doth of Epictetus, in the passage of which my motto is a part, and with which I shall conclude my preface: "The words themselves are generally plain and intelligible: but I have endeavoured thus to unfold them, that my own heart might be more deeply impressed with the spirit and certainty of them; and that others, who have not themselves equal advantage for entering into it, might be guided into their true interpretation. But if, on the whole, any reader continue entirely unaffected with them, there is little prospect that any thing will reclaim him till he come to the tribunal of the invisible world.”* Northampton, Nov. 27, 1738. PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION, CONTAINING THE SECOND PART OF THE HISTORY OF CHRIST. THE publication of this Second Volume of the FAMILY | EXPOSITOR hath been delayed so long beyond my own expectation, and that of my friends, that it may perhaps seem necessary to introduce it with an apology for that delay. But it would be tedious to enumerate a variety of circumstances which have concurred to occasion it. It is generally known, that the unusual severity of the last winter laid a kind of embargo on the press; and they that are at all acquainted with the business of printing, will easily apprehend that, under the most faithful and careful direction, a work of considerable bulk is liable to many other inter * Και εισι μεν οἱ λόγοι σαφεις - χειρον δε ίσως, κατά το δυνατον διαπτύσσειν αυτός. Ο τε γαρ γραφων, συμπαθέτερος τε άμα προς αυτός γενήσεται, και της αλήθειας αυτών κατανοητικώτερος και των φιλομαθών ruptions, even where the manuscript is entirely finished before the impression is begun. But, after all, the chief reason why this hath been published no sooner, is (what I hope my subscribers will easily excuse) the large addition I have made of more than fifty sheets to the hundred which I was by the proposals obliged to deliver. On the mention of this, I think myself obliged to renew my thanks to those, who, by honouring me with their names and encouragement on this occasion, have put it into my power to publish the work with such improvements; and shall think myself happy if those improvements, how οἱ προς λόγες ασυνηθέτεροι, ισως εξεσι τινα χειραγωγίαν εκ της ερμηνείας αυτών. Ει δε τις ύπο τέτων μη πασχή των λόγων, ὑπὸ μονων αν των εν άδε δικαςηρίων υπευθυνθείη. Simplic. in Epictet. Proem. ever laborious and expensive to the author, may render it more acceptable and useful to them. The tables prefixed to the first volume are concluded in this, and represent the disposition of the harmony in so clear a view, that by comparing them together it would not be difficult to find any particular text. But a deference to the request of some of the subscribers engaged me to add another table at the end of this volume, (of the same kind with that in Mr. Bonnel's Harmony,) which will at once direct both to the section and the page where any verse may presently be found. I cannot pretend so much as to conjecture when the remainder of my undertaking will be completed. I shall however proceed in it as fast as my health and other affairs will permit. In the mean time, I think it necessary to observe, that I have by the advice of some considerate and judicious friends, deferred the index, and some other things which I intended to have thrown into an appendix here, till I have finished what I am preparing on the Acts; that so they may stand, as they very properly will, at the end of the historical books of the New Testament. How far the subscribers to these two volumes may think it proper to encourage the rest, must be referred to themselves. In the mean time, as that must be exceeding precarious which depends on the continuance of one man's life and health, I would desire permission here to take leave of my friends, at least for the present, with such a serious address as may be the most substantial expression of my sincere gratitude and respect. I should have thought, my honoured friends, that I had made you a very unworthy return for this public token of your regard to me, if I had offered you merely an amusement, though ever so critical and polite. It had been much better, on both sides, that the work should never have been | undertaken or perused, than that these divine authors should be treated like a set of profane classics; or that the sacred and momentous transactions they relate should be handled and read like an invented tale, or a common history. I have often reminded myself of it, and permit me now, Sirs, solemnly to remind you, that these are the memoirs of the holy Jesus, the Saviour of sinful men, whom to know is life eternal, and whom to neglect is everlasting destruction. We have here the authentic records of that gospel which was intended as the great medicine for our souls; of that character which is our pattern; of that death which is our ransom; of him, in short, whose name we bear as we are professed christians, and before whose tribunal we are all shortly to appear, that our eternal existence may be determined, blissful, or miserable, according to our regard to what he has taught, and done, and endured. Let not the greatest therefore think it beneath their notice; nor the meanest imagine, that, amidst all the most necessary cares and labours, they can find any excuse for neglecting, or even for postponing it. Had I not been fully convinced of the certainty and importance of christianity, I should not have determined to devote my whole life to its service; (for, on the principles of natural religion, I know the soul to be immortal, and should expect nothing but its ruin in the ways of the most sanctified fraud;) but as I am thus convinced, I must make it my humble request to every one that enters on the perusal of these volumes, that they may, for a little while at least, be the employment of his retired hours; and that as he proceeds from one section to another, he would pause and reflect, "Whose words do I hear? Whose actions do I survey? Whose sufferings do I contemplate?" And as all must know they are the words, the actions, and the suffer ings of Jesus the Son of God, our supreme Lord, and our final Judge, let it be further and very seriously inquired in what degree the obvious and confessed design of the glorious gospel has been practically regarded and complied with: "Can I, in my heart, think that I am a disciple whom such a Master will approve, and whom he will choose for his attendant in that world of glory to which he is now gone?" Let the plainness of this advice be forgiven; for such is the temper and conduct of most who call themselves christians, that if this religion be true, their cold and unaffecting knowledge of the history of Christ, and of the purposes of his appearance, will only serve to furnish out matter for eternal self-accusation and remorse: and he is, at best, but a learned and polite infidel, who would not rather be the instrument of conducting the lowest creature, capable of reading or hearing these lines, to the saving knowledge of a crucified Redeemer, than fill the most refined nation with his own applause, while the grace of the Saviour is forgotten, or his service neglected. I have yet one further request to add to those of my readers who are heads of families; which is, that they would please to remember the title of the work, and consider it as chiefly intended, in its most essential parts, for a Family Expositor. I heartily rejoice in the reason which I have to hope, that, low as our religious character is fallen in these degenerate days, acts of domestic worship are yet performed by multitudes of christians of various denominations: yet I cannot but fear, that the Scriptures are not so constantly read at such seasons as they formerly were; an omission which must be to the great detriment both of children and servants. One would think, that those who believe the divine authority of Scripture, and its infinite importance, should be easily prevailed upon to restore this useful exercise, at least for one part of the day; and I would hope, that what I here offer them may render it more agreeable and useful. It would give me inexpressible delight to find that this is the case in those families with which I am most intimately acquainted, and would be an encouragement to hope this work may be proportionably useful in places and times to which neither my observation nor intelligence can extend. I shall conclude this preface with my hearty prayers, that, weak and imperfect as these labours are, the divine blessing may every where and always attend them; and that it may rest on all who have patronized them, and on all who shall peruse them! May every prejudice against the truth of christianity, or against its power, be vanquished! May the most insensible minds be awakened to attend to religion, and may the weak and languishing be animated to press on to greater attainments in it! May those that are preparing for the service of the sanctuary, (as every part of this performance is their concern,) be by every part of it more abundantly furnished for the various duties of their important office! And may those who are yet but babes in knowledge, through the divine blessing, grow by that sincere milk of the word which is here presented, as I trust, in its genuine simplicity! In a word, may many persons, families, and larger societies, receive devout pleasure and solid lasting improvement from it; that the great God, of whom and through whom are all things, may in all be glorified, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who in all the sacred volumes, and especially here, is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, to whom be everlasting honour, love, and obedience! Amen. Northampton, August 9, 1740. PREFACE TO THE THIRD VOLUME OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION, CONTAINING THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. THE nature and design of this work, and the principles on which it hath been undertaken and conducted, have been so largely represented in the preceding volumes, that it is unnecessary here to enlarge upon them. But, as what I now present to the reader concludes the historical part of the New Testament, this seems a very proper place to recollect the promise which I long since made, of offering some remarks on the excellence and usefulness of that history, which may dispose the reader more frequently to review it, and to study it with the greater application. It must be universally granted, that the excellence of any performance is to be estimated by considering its design, and the degree in which it is calculated to answer it. The design of the gospel history is summed up in the words which I have placed for my motto; which, though they are taken from the conclusion of St. John's gospel, are applicable, not only to all the other evangelists, but likewise to the Acts of the Apostles, that invaluable appendix to them. "These things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, ye might have life through his name." I shall beg leave to show how admirably the history before us is calculated to answer both these ends, viz. to produce a conviction of the truth of christianity, and to make those good impressions on the heart, which may secure the eternal life and happiness of the reader; which no speculative conviction, even of the most sublime, comprehensive, and important truths, will itself be able to do. I apprehend that, in proportion to the degree in which these two premises can be illustrated, the excellence and value of this history will immediately appear; for no man is so far infatuated as to dispute whether obtaining life, eternal life, be an end of the highest importance, how light soever he may in fact make of it, and how wantonly soever he may barter it away for every trifle that strikes his imagination, or fires his passions. Obvious as the hints are which occur on these heads, I will touch a little upon them; that we may more evidently see how much we are indebted to the divine wisdom and goodness in giving us so invaluable a treasure as these books contain, and how highly we are concerned to attend diligently to the contents of them. First, Every intelligent reader of this evangelical history must have seen, that it is admirably adapted to produce and support in all attentive and impartial minds a strong conviction of the truth of christianity, and by consequence of the divine glories of Jesus the Christ, as the Son of God. It is evident, that our most material arguments for the demonstration of the truth of christianity are drawn from miracles, from prophecies, from the character of its founders, and from the genius of the religion itself. Now, though all these receive great illustration from the epistolary parts of the New Testament, and some of them, especially the second, from the Old; yet it is certain, that the grand basis and foundation of them all, is what we read in the History of Christ and his Apostles. There we are informed of the miracles which they wrought, of the character they maintained, and of the system of religion which they published to the world; and the application of Old-Testament prophecies to Jesus of Nazareth, is, beyond all controversy, to be justified chiefly from what we find there. These books do in the most authentic manner, as we have demonstrated elsewhere, show us who Jesus of Nazareth was, and what he professed himself to be. They give us an account of the very high pretensions he made to an immediate mission from God, and to a most intimate relation to him as his Son, in a peculiar and appropriate sense, not communicable to any other. They give us also, as in this connexion it is very fit they should, a very large and circumstantial narration of a variety of miracles which he wrought. Their number appears to be very great; so that a late writer, who had considered them very accurately, reckons up sixty-nine relating to particular persons, besides twenty other instances, in all of which several, and in most of them multitudes, yea, frequently great multitudes, are mentioned, not merely as the spectators, but as the objects, of his miraculous power, which must on the most moderate computation arise to many hundreds; not to mention those yet more numerous miracles which were performed by his apostles in his name, wherever they came, especially after the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them; or the variety of supernatural gifts and powers with which they were endowed, and which in many thousands of instances they communicated to others. It is further to be recollected here, that these miracles were not of such a kind as to leave any room for a doubt, whether they lay within the natural efficacy of second causes or not; since the most hopeless and inveterate diseases gave way, not merely to some trivial application of means, whether internal or external, but to a touch or a word; and death itself obeyed the voice of Jesus, and of his servants speaking by his authority. : Now I could wish, that any one who feels himself inclined to scepticism with regard to christianity, would sit down and read over any one of the evangelists in this particular view that he would take the stories of the several miracles in their succession, and after having attentively weighed them, would ask his own heart, whether, if he had seen such facts as these, he would not immediately have been convinced in his own conscience, that this was indeed the seal of Heaven set to the commission of the person who performed them; and, consequently, whether, if these things were really done by Jesus, and his missionaries in his name, he must not be compelled to acknowledge that christianity is true. Let any impartial and rational man in the world judge whether, if any impostor had arisen, falsely and blasphemously arrogating to himself the high titles of the Son of God and Saviour of men, God would have honoured his lips with this wonderful power over diseases and death, or his dead body after a public execution with a resurrection : that is, in one word, whether he would have interposed to give such credit to him, as it is not pretended he hath ever given, in any other instance, to the best of men in the best of causes. Every man's heart will surely tell him, with the circumstances of such facts full in his view, that the only question is whether they be themselves credible; and that, if this be allowed, the divine attestation to the authority of such a Teacher follows, by a connexion which can never be broken, and which probably few men living will have an inveteracy of prejudice sufficient to gainsay. The historical books of the New Testament do also ad |