over the glass, are indecent and despicable. Shameful herein is the conduct of many vain babblers. They should be excluded society. When the ancient Philosopher Anaxagoras had expressed in one of his books a doubt concerning the existence of God, the book was burnt by a public decree of his fellow-citizens, and he himself banished his country. These were Heathens and Republicans. What would they have said to the Philosophisters of the present day? No person, we may venture to say, ever honestly examined the whole of the evidence for the truth of the New Testament, who did not find it satisfactory. Indeed, the Gospel itself is so pure,* that no decent man can reject it. Hence we find, it has ever been the custom of Unbelievers to attack the corruptions of religion, which more or less prevail in all countries; and, through the sides of those human appendages, to wound the cause of truth itself. These arts, however, are inconsistent with honour; and no person of the least integrity of mind can be capable of them. Modest men too, who have not thorougly examined the arguments for and against Scripture, will be silent. If they cannot believe in Jesus, they will be extremely cautious upon what

can be too much so. It may be much questioned whether any objection whatever has been made to the great truths of Religion and the Sacred Writings, which has not been fairly and honestly answered in one or another of the above authors. But no writer has taken so much pains to state and answer Objections to the Scriptures, as Mr. Stackhouse in his New History of the Holy, Bible. If the serious reader finds himself pressed with difficulties, he will do well to apply to that great work, where he will find them exhibited at length, with such answers as are generally satisfactory.

To these it may be recommended to the serious reader to add Knox's Christian Philosophy, where he will find the internal evidence of Christianity insisted on pretty much at length. The work, however, does not apper to me altogether unexceptionable, though highly valuable. He seems to set the external and internal evidences of the Gospel too much in opposition one to the other.-— There is, moreover, an asperity and superciliousness, on some occasions, in his expressions, which ill become the subject on which he writes, and which he very justly condemns in the late Bishop Warburton and others. The work, however, I trust, will do much good, by calling the public attention to inward religion.

*The reader may see the purity of the Gospel drawn out at length in Newcombe's Observations on our Lord's Conduct; Hunter's Observations on the History of Jesus Christ; and Harwood's Life of Christ.

ground they reject him. They will remember that Newton examined the evidence of his divine mission, and was satisfied; that Locke examined, and died glorying in his salvation. They will recollect that West, Jenyngs, Littleton, and Pringle, were all at one time Unbelievers; all undertook, like wise men, to examine the grounds of their Infidelity; were all convinced that they had been dangerously mistaken; all became converts to the religion of the Son of God; and all died, declaring their belief in him, and expectations from him. Thomas Paine, therefore, and his humble followers, may abuse and misrepresent the facts and doctrines contained in the Sacred Code, as Bolingbroke, and other deistical, but immoral men, have frequently done, with learning and ability greatly superior; they may nibble at it, like the viper at the file in the fable; but they only display their own malignity, and want of solid information. It is not every dabbler in science that is qualified, either to vindicate or oppose the Bible with effect. Deep and various learning are necessary for this purpose. The experience of past ages might convince any man, that it will be found hard to kick against the pricks, and to resist the evidence with full satisfaction of mind. All bitter sarcasms, therefore, with which Infidels so unmercifully load the best of books,* are unbecoming, and should be suspended, lest they recoil upon their heads. It has stood the rude shocks of learned Jews and Heathens, Heretics and Unbelievers of former ages, and it is not about to receive its death-wound from the feeble assaults which the present numerous set of Deists are capable of making upon it. We challenge all the Unbelievers in Christendom to account, upon any merely human principle, for the scriptural prophecies concerning the kingdoms of Israel, Judah, and Egypt; or concerning the cities of Tyre, Nineveh, Babylon, and Je,

in* For most of the learning that is now in the world we are debted to the Bible. To the same book likewise we are indebted for all the morality and religion which prevail among men. Nay, even the absurd tales and fables which we read in the writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans are nothing more than perversions of the several histories and characters recorded in the Old Testament. See Jortin's First Charge, vol. vii. of his Sermons.Gale's court of the Gentiles; and Bryant's Mythology. Consult too Dryden's Preface to his Religio Laici.

Fusalem. Nay, not to take so large a compass, but to bring the matter to one point, we defy any man, on simple human principles, to account for the present state of the Jews. Would we give ourselves time soberly to compare the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy with the history and dispersion of that extraordinary people, we could not fail of having our minds strongly impressed with conviction. This one argument is invincible, and not to be fairly got over by all the wit -of man, as the late accomplished, but irreligious, Chesterfield, was honest enough to declare.*

But, if we turn from these prophecies to those which respect human redemption, and the Saviour of mankind, we shall find they are extremely remarkable and minute, and absolutely conclusive for the Messiahship of Jesus Christ, the son of Mary. We will consider the predictions and fulfilments at some length, and boldly appeal to the common sense and reason of the most prejudiced man upon earth, whether there be not something far beyond the mere powers of nature in these strange coincidences.

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1. It was predicted, many centuries before it came to pass, that Messiah should come into the world for the redemption of human beings.-Messiah did come into the world, four thousand years, after the first prediction was uttered.†

2. Messiah is frequently prophesied of under the character of him that was to come.--Jesus Christ is several times described in this form by the writers of the New Testament.‡

* See Jones's Life of Bishop Horne, p. 332.

† Gen. iii. 15; Isa. ix. 6, 7; Matt. i. 18-25. Dr. Eveleigh in his Sermons says very justly, "The great object of the prophecies of the Old Testament is the redemption of mankind. This, as soon as Adam's fall had made it necessary, the mercy of God was pleased to foretel. And, as the time of his accomplishment drew nearer, the predictions concerning it became gradually so clear and determinate, as to mark out with historical precision almost every circumstance in the life and character of infinitely the most extraordinary Personage, that ever appeared among men.-Any one of these predictions is sufficient to indicate a prescience more than human. But the collective force of all taken together, is such, that nothing more can be necessary to prove the interposition of Omniscience, than the establishment of their authenticity. And this, even at so remote a period as the present, is placed beyond all doubt." Sermon vi. p. 210.

Compare Hab. ii. 3, 4; Psalm cxviii. 26; Isa. xxxv. 4; lix. 20;

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3. In ancient times there were four monarchies in the world, one succeeding another, more famous than all the rest. It was foretold, that Messiah should appear under the last of them.-Christ was born after the destruction of the three first, and while the fourth was in all its glory.*

4. Messiah was to come among men before the destruction. of the second temple.-Jesus Christ preached in that temple; and it was totally destroyed within forty years afterwards.t

5. Messiah was to come into the world before the dominion of the Jews was taken away.-Christ was born that very year when Augustus Cæsar imposed a tax upon the Jewish nation, as a token of their subjection to the Roman government.‡

6. When Messiah should make his appearance among men," it was to be a time of general peace, after dreadful wars and convulsions.When Jesus Christ came into the world, the Roman wars were just terminated, the temple of Janus was shut, and universal peace reigned through the empire.

7. Messiah was to make his appearance among men, at a time when there should be a general expectation of him.When Jesus Christ came into the world, all nations were looking for the advent of some extraordinary person.

Ixii. 11; Dan. ix. 26; Zech. ix. 9; Mal. iii. 1; Matt. xi. 3; John i. 30; iv. 25; xi. 27; Acts xix. 4. See Chandler's Defence, ch ii. sect. 1. p. 160-167.

* Compare Daniel ii. and vii. with Luke ii. and iii.

+ Compare Haggai ii. 7, with Matthew xxi. 23. See Josephus. + Compare Genesis xlix. 10, with Luke ii. 1-7.

SCompare Haggai ii. 6, 7, 9, with the Roman History of this period.

Compare Haggai ii. 7-9, with Matthew ii. 1-10, and John i. 19-45.

The Heathens, as well as the Jews, had a firm persuasion, that some extraordinary person should arise in the world about the time of our Saviour's birth. Suetonius says, "There was an old and fixed opinion all over the east, that it was decreed by Heaven, that about that time some person from Judea should obtain the dominion over all."

Tacitus mentions the same prophecy, and almost in the same words: "Most of the Jews had a persuasion, that it was contained in the ancient books of their priests, that at that very time the east should grow powerful, and some person from Judea should gain the dominion."

8. Messiah was to have existed with God before the foundations of the world were laid.-Jesus Christ was in the beginning with God, and by him the worlds were made.*

9. Messiah was to be one, who had been the fellow, the equal and the companion of the Almighty. Jesus Christ thought it not robbery to be equal with God, and was with him from eternity.†

10. Messiah was to be the Son of God.-Jesus Christ was confessedly the only-begotten Son of God.

11. Messiah was to have had an eternal, and ineffable generation.-Jesus Christ was the Son of God, prior to his being born of the Virgin Mary, in a way not to be explained by mortal man.Ş

12. Messiah was also to be the Son of Man.-Jesus Christ sustained this character, and seemed to have a pleasure in being called by that name.

13. Messiah was to be born according to the ordinary course of nature, but to descend from a pure Virgin.--Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary.

To these testimonies of the Scriptures and Heathen writers we may add that of Josephus, who says in his History of the Jewish War, b. vii. c. 12. "That which chiefly excited the Jews to the war against the Romans, was a dubious oracle, found in their Sacred Writings that about that time, one of them from their parts should reign over the world."

See this subject drawn out more at large by Mr. Charles Leslie, in his Short and Easy Method with the Jews, and again in his Truth of Christianity demonstrated. This last Treatise, together with his Short and Easy Method with the Deists, are absolutely conclusive in favour of the Gospel. One may defy the most subtile Deist in the world to refute those two treatises. They are indeed unanswerable, except by sneer and sarcasm.

* Compare Proverbs viii. 22, 23, with John i. 1-3; Colossians i. 16, 17.

† Compare Zechariah xiii. 7, with Phil. ii. 6, and John i. 1. Compare Psalm ii. 12: Proverbs xxx. 4; Hosea xi. 1; Matthew iii. 17; xvii. 5.

Compare Micah v. 2, with John i. 1,

|| Daniel vii. 13; Matthew viii. 20.

¶ Compare Genesis iii. 15; Isaiah vii. 14; and Jeremiah xxxi. 22; with Matthew i. 22, 23.-It would be well if the opposers of the supernatural incarnation of our Saviour, would soberly read over Dr. Clarke's very sensible discourse on the miraculous birth of Christ, in the 5th volume of his Sermons. My own Essay on the Authenticity of the New Testament too may be consulted, especially the Addenda.