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manifestation of the Meffiah, was the very time in which, by the concurring teftimony both of the friends and enemies of Christianity, the Lord Jefus did appear. You may certainly know, that the Jewish Prophets did foretel a fuffering Saviour, a Saviour that fhould be wounded for our tranfgref fions, bruifed for our iniquities; that fhould make his foul an offering for fin; and that should be cut off, but not for himself: And you are equally certain from all other hiftorians, as well as from the Evangelifts, that our Lord Jefus did undergo fuch op. probry, mifery, and death, as was foretold of the Meffiah by the Prophets.-You may certainly know, that it was foretold in the Prophets, that the fceptre fhould not depart from Judah, and a lawgiver from between his feet, until the coming of the Meffiah; but that, after his death, the Jewish facrifices should ceafe, and their holy city and fanctuary be destroyed and made defolate: And that the event does affure us, that the circumftances of the Jewish nation did exactly anfwer to thefe Prophecies, both before and after the death of Jefus Chrift.-You may certainly know, both by the Jewish and Chriftian Prophecies, that under the Gofpel difpenfation the Jews were to be rejected of God; and to continue defpifed and difperfed among all nations; but the Gentiles to come to the light of the Meffiah, and fee his righteousness and glory: and that the event is agreeable to the prediction.-You may certainly know, that the rife of Antichrift was predicted to be after the fall of the Roman empire, when that could no longer let or reftrain him; that he fhould appear under the guife of a minifter of religion, in the temple of God; that he should pretend to all power and figns, and lying wonders; that he fhould make war with the faints, and overcome them; that he thould refide in the great city, that was then

built upon feven mountains, and reigned over the kings of the earth, which was true of the city of Rome only. And you may confider, whether all this is not true of the Pope and the Roman Papacy. -You may certainly know the amazing progrefs of the gofpel in the first ages of Christianity, in the face of the most formidable and powerful oppofitions; and its continuing progress against all the attempts of its heathen and papal enemies. You may know the excellency of its doctrines, and the glorious effects it hath upon the hearts and lives of true believers.-You may know (as, bleffed be God, multitudes do know by experience) how it conquers mens corruptions, changes their natures, pacifies their confciences, fills their fouls with light and joy, ftrengthens them againft temptations, fweetens the afflictions of life, and fortifies them against all the pains and terrors of death.And you alfo may know, that this gofpel is the gofpel of Chrift, and confequently that these won. derful effects, which fo apparently carry a divine fignature upon them, are produced by him.-All thefe things, and others of a like nature, which might be mentioned, are immediately open to your view, moft vifible and certain; and one would think that thefe alone would fatisfy the mind of a. ferious and impartial inquirer into the truth of Christianity And efpecially when thefe are accompanied with fuch other credentials of our holy reli gion, which (though not so directly in view, yet) by neceffary confequence give us the fame affu❤ rance and certainty of the truth.

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But it is time I should come more directly to an fwer the objection; and to fhew you, how it may by neceffary confequence be known, that the facts, upon which Christianity principally depends, are certainly true.

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You yourself muft own, it is impossible that those doctrines can be false, which are attefted by fo many and fuch kind of miracles, as are faid to be wrought by our Lord Jefus Chrift and his Apostles. -For God cannot fet his feal to a lie; nor confirm a horrible impofture, by his immediate atteftation from heaven.

You must own, that it is impoffible for the Apoftles, and other witneffes of these miraculous operations, to be themselves deceived, while they had all the means of certainty in the cafe before us, that ever any man had in any cafe whatsoever.

You must likewife own, that it is impoffible for a great number of fober, judicious, and apparently honeft men, to fpend their lives in a continued confpiracy against their own ease, comfort, honour, life, and eternal welfare, for no other motive but to deceive the world, and bring eternal ruin upon. themselves and their fellow-creatures; as thefe must have done, if they knew thofe facts to be false, which they published at their peril, and fealed with their blood.

You must also own, that it was impoffible to deceive the world about them, at the time when thefe facts were done, by reporting, that fuch miraculous operations were openly performed before them all, which none of them knew any thing about.

You will certainly own, it is impoffible that, they could deceive the churches to whom they wrote, by vain pretences, that each one of thefe had themselves the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, fuch as tongues, miracles, healing, prophecy, and the like, when every one of them knew that there was nothing in it.

You muft, in like manner, own it impoffible for fuch multitudes of people, for fo long a tract of time, to be impofed upon by prétences of miracu

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lous operations; and none of them ever detect the imposture, so much as in one fingle inftance, while all of them had the opportunity of doing it when they pleased, if the facts had not been true.

Can you imagine it any ways poffible, that fuch multitudes in the first ages of Christianity, in fuch diftant countries and nations, fhould confpire together to acknowledge thefe facts, and the doctrines founded on them, at the peril of their lives; and no man among these profeffors themselves, or among the heretics and apoftates that fell away from them, fhould difcover the fraud, either living or dying?

You will certainly own it utterly impoffible, that fo many thousands, in fo many lands, could with joy and cheerfulness fubmit to fuch poor and afflicted lives, and to fuch cruel and barbarous deaths, as were the common lot of the first Christians, in confirmation of a religion, founded upon facts which they knew to be falfe.

And you must acknowledge it also altogether impoffible, at any time after thefe facts were pretended to be done, to palm the hiftory of them upon the world, if it was falfe; and to perfuade fq many nations to receive it for truth.-It were impoffible to perfuade any nation, and much more all the early nations of Christendom, that at fome diftant forgot. ten age there were a number of men that came among them, taught them the doctrines of Chriftianity, confirmed the fame by miracles, baptized them into the faith, and established a fettled order of the miniftry in their churches: From which time, they have all of them profeffed the Chriftian faith, had the New Testament in their hands, and enjoyed a continued fucceffion of minifters and ordinances. Let an attempt of this kind be made upon our Indians, and try if any one man among them can be impofed upon to believe these things.

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To this I may add, that it is abfolutely impoffible, at any one time, to have obtruded the inspired writings upon the world, if they were indeed fpurious; and to have made all the Chriftian nations believe, that these were written in the apoftolic age, fpeedily tranflated into divers languages, publicly kept, and publicly read and preached in their churches; that they and their fathers before them had always reverenced and efteemed them as the rule of their lives, and their guide to eternal happiness.-What fuccefs, but fcorn and derifion, could be hoped for from fuch an attempt?

I may once more fubjoin to all this, that it is at leaft highly improbable, that the early writers against Christianity fhould never deny these facts, if they were not notoriously true, when they could not want advantages to detect any fraud or deceit that can poffibly be fuppofed in a cafe of this kind. -And it is yet more improbable, that any of the adverfaries of Chriftianity fhould confirm the truth of these facts, as we find fome of them do, if they had not been moft apparently and undoubtedly true.

And now, Sir, what can be wanting, what can you demand or defire more, to confirm you in the faith of Christianity? It is established upon the veracity of God himself; upon those facts, by which he has from Heaven attefted to the truth of it; and thefe facts are verified by evidences which cannot poffibly deceive us.-By believing therefore, we fet to our feal that God is true: But he that believeth not, maketh him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

You may perhaps tell me, that if you had seen thefe miracles yourfelf, you would have believed them. But has not every body elfe the fame claim to this fort of fatisfaction as you; and the fame rea fon to defire to be eye and ear witneffes of fuch mi

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