and fanciful speculations, all hypothetical reasonings or analogical inferences, that seem to militate against the truth of religion, may be totally erroneous; and though they may tend to excite a transient doubt, they cannot justify a settled unbelief. Being exclusively regarded, or being united to a misapprehension of the real nature of the Christian religion, the understanding may embrace them as convincing; but such conviction is neither rational nor consistent, it is only a misapplication of the name of freethinking. For, as Christianity appeals to reason and submits its credentials, -a -as it courts and commands the most trying scrutiny, that scrutiny the unbeliever is bound, upon his own principles, to engage in. If he be fearless of wavering in his unbelief, he will not shrink from the inquiry; or, if truth be his object, he will not resist the only means of its attainment, that he may either disprove what he could only doubt of before, or yield to the conviction of positive evidence and undoubted truth. This unhesitating challenge religion gives, and that man is neither a champion of infidelity, nor a lover of wisdom or of truth, who will disown or decline it.

To the believer such a subject is equally important and interesting. The apathy of nominal Christians, in the present day, is often contrasted with the zeal of those who first became obedient to the faith. The moral influence of the Christian religion is not what it has been, or what it ought to be. The difference in the character of its professors may be greatly attributed to a fainter impression and less confident assurance of its truth. Those early converts who witnessed the miracles of our Lord, and of his apostles, and heard their divine doctrine, and they who received the immediate tradition of those who both saw and heard them, and who could themselves compare the

a

moral darkness from which they had emerged, with the marvellous light of the gospel, founded their faith upon evidence; possessed the firmest conviction of the truth; were distinguished by their virtues, as well as by their profession, according to the testimony even of their enemies; cherished the consolations, and were inspired by the hopes of religion; and lived and died, actuated by the hope of immortality and the certainty of a future state. The contrast, unhappily, needs no elucidation. The lives of professing Christians, in general, cease to add a confirmation to the truth of Christianity, while they have often been the plea of infidels against it. Yet religion and human nature are still the same as they were when men were first called Christians, and when the believers in Jesus dishonoured not his name. But they sought more than a passive and unexamining belief. They knew in whom they believed; they felt the power of every truth which they professed. And the same cause, in active operation, would be productive of the same effects. The same strong and unwavering faith established on reason and conscious conviction, would be creative of the same peace and joy in believing, and of all their accompanying fruits. And as a mean of destroying the distinction, wherever it exists, between the profession and the reality of faith, it is ever the prescribed duty of all, who profess to believe in the gospel, to search and to try, "to prove all things, and hold fast to that which is good ;" and to "be able to give an answer to every one that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them."

To the sincere Christian, it must ever be an object of the highest interest to search into the reason of his hope. The farther that he searches, the firmer will

a Plinii Epist. lib. x. ep. 97.

be his belief. Knowledge is the fruit of mental labour, the food and the feast of the mind. In the pursuit of knowledge, the greater the excellence of the subject of inquiry, the deeper ought to be the interest, the more ardent the investigation, and the dearer to the mind the acquisition of the truth. And that knowledge which immediately affects the soul, which tends to exalt the moral nature and enlarge the religious capacities of man, which pertains to eternity, which leads not merely to the contemplation of the works of the great Architect of the universe, but seeks also to discover an accredited revelation of his will and a way to his favour, and which rests not in its progress till it find assurance of faith or complete conviction, a witness without, as well as a witness within, is surely "like unto a treasure which a man found hid in a field, and sold all that he had and bought it." And it is delightful to have every doubt removed by the positive proof of the truth of Christianity, to feel that conviction of its certainty, which infidelity can never impart to her votaries,—and to receive that assurance of the faith, which is as superior in the hope which it communicates, as in the certainty on which it rests, to the cheerless and disquieting doubts of the unbelieving mind. Instead of being a mere prejudice of education, which may be easily shaken, belief, thus founded on reason, becomes fixed and immovable; and all the scoffings of the scorner, and speculations of the infidel, lie as lightly on the mind, or pass as imperceptibly over it, and make as little impression there, as the spray upon a rock.

In premising a few remarks, introductory to a sketch of the prophecies, little can be said on the general and comprehensive evidence of Christianity. The selection of a part implies no disparagement to the whole.

Ample means for the confirmation of our faith are within our reach. Newton, Bacon, and Locke, whose names stand pre-eminent in human science, to which they opened a path not penetrated before, found proof sufficient for the complete satisfaction of their minds. The internal evidence could not be stronger than it is. There are manifold instances of undesigned coincidences in the Acts and Epistles of the apostles, which give intrinsic proof that they are genuine and authentic. No better precepts, no stronger motives, than the gospel contains, have ever been inculcated. No system of religion has ever existed in the world at all to be compared to it; and none can be conceived more completely adapted to the necessities and nature of a sinful being like man, endowed with the faculty of reason and with capacities of religion. And the miracles were of such a nature as excluded the idea of artifice or delusion;-they were wrought openly in the presence of multitudes; they testified the benevolence of a Saviour, as well as the power of the Son of God. The disciples of Christ could not be deceived respecting them; for they were themselves endowed with the gift of tongues, and of prophesying, and with the power of working miracles; they devoted their lives to the propagation of the gospel, in opposition to every human interest, and amidst continual sufferings. The Christian religion was speedily propagated throughout the whole extent of the Roman empire, and even beyond its bounds. The written testimony remains of many who became converts to the truth, and martyrs to its cause; and the most zealous and active enemies of our faith acknowledged the truth of the miracles, and attributed them to the agency of evil spirits. Yet all this accumulation of evidence is disregarded, and every testimony is rejected unheard, because ages have since intervened,

and because it bears witness to works that are miraculous. Though these general objections against the truth of Christianity have been ably answered and exposed, yet they may fairly be adduced as confirmatory of the proof which results from the fulfilment of prophecy, and as binding infidels to its investigation. For it supplies that evidence which the enemies of religion, or those who are weak in the faith would require, which applies to the present time, and which stands not in need of any testimony,-which is always attainable by the researches of the inquisitive, and often obvious to the notice of all,-and which past, present, and coming events alike unite in verifying;-it affords an increasing evidence, and receives additional attestations in each succeeding age.

But, while some subterfuge has been sought for evading the force of the internal evidence, and the conviction which a belief in the miracles would infallibly produce, and while every collateral proof is neglected, the prophecies also are set aside without investigation, as of too vague and indefinite a nature to be applied, with certainty, to the history either of past ages or of the present. A very faint view of the prophecies of the Old and New Testament will suffice to rectify this equally easy and erroneous conclusion. Although some of the prophecies, separately considered, may appear ambiguous and obscure, yet a general view of them all-of the harmony which prevails throughout the prophecies, and of their adaptation to the facts they predict-must strike the mind of the most careless inquirer with an apprehension that they are the dictates of Omniscience. But many of the prophecies are as explicit and direct as it is possible that they could have been; and, as history confirms their truth, so they sometimes tend to its illustration, of which our future inquiry will fur