than human means to have been employed in promulgating and supporting his religion; the cause and the effect are utterly inadequate, and the influence of the one upon the other perfectly unintelligible.

THIS religion, taught at firft by a few obscure, unlettered, and perfecuted men, most of whom were put to death for no other reafon but because they taught it, was in a fhort time spread over part of Afia, and a great part of Europe; notwithstanding the bloody perfecutions which it had to encounter, from Nero to Dioclefian.— Think of the power engaged to bear it down, and that by which it was to be fupported; and can there be any doubt, that truth, and miracles, and the protection of heaven, must have been on its fide? Was any other religion ever introduced in this manner? The Mahometan was brought in by a commander at the head of a victorious army, and in a part of the world which has never in any age been eminent for liberty or literature: nay, to this day, flavery and ignorance are the infeparable attendants of the religion of Mahomet.The Jewish was established in one fmall nation only, and had for its apparent author the greatest man of that nation, and met there with no confiderable opponent; which, by the by, confidering its burdenfome ceremonies, could hardly have

happened, and we are fure did not happen, without the aid of miracles. The pagan religions were a fort of political inftitutions, adapted to the ignorance and credulity of thofe who received them; fo that they had no oppofition either to fuffer or to fear: nor indeed do they seem to have been confidered as of moment enough to excite serious controversy, far less to kindle perfecution. No man ever laid down his life for the honour of Jupiter, Neptune, or Apollo: but how many thousands have fealed their Chriftian teftimony with their blood.

ANOTHER fingularity in our religion is, that it has been more spoken against than any other.Every part of its evidence has been repeatedly examined, objected to, and vindicated. Equally friendly to freedom and true philofophy, whereever it has existed in any tolerable purity, it has raised the attention of inquifitive men; the greateft philofophers that ever lived have inquired into it, and found it true; and the utmost acutenefs of fophiftry has been employed to prove it' falfe. What is the confequence of all this? It is, that the evidence of our faith remains at this day as clear and complete, as it has been in any age fince that of the apostles and their immediate fucceffors. Light minds, from inattention or ignorance; profligate minds, from a diflike to its ри

rity; and vain minds, out of oftentation, and from the love of fingularity, may have apoftatised from it; but the Chriftian who has made it his ftudy, and knows the reason of the faith that is in him, will not admit, that any argument has ever been brought against it, which has not been refuted. Can this be faid of any other religion, or of any fyftem of unchriftian opinions, that ever was heard of? Nay, I trust there are, and I believe it will not be doubted that there are, many thousands of learned and rational Christians, who, if they were called to fo fevere a trial, would cheerfully lay down their lives for the honour of God and their Redeemer. Is the zeal and fincerity of the unbeliever equally to be depended on? Would any disciple of Bolingbroke, Hume, or Voltaire, fuffer martyrdom in the cause of his mafter?

THESE fingularities in the fate and fortunes of Chriftianity feem to fhow, that it could not have either been fo generally known, or fo long existed, if it had not been fupported by means more than human. There are in it other fingularities, which prove, that it deferved to be fo fupported, and that it could not have been the work of human wifdom.

THE evidence arifing from these has been called its Internal Evidence; and is, in the opinion of

fome learned men, so great, that scarce any other is neceffary to prove our religion to be from

heaven.

FOR firft, the morality of the gospel gives it an infinite fuperiority over all fyftems of doctrine that ever were devised by man, Were our lives and opinions to be regulated as it prescribes, nothing would be wanting to make us happy: there would be no injuftice, no impiety, no diforderly paffions; harmony and love would univerfally prevail; every man, content with his lot, refigned to the divine will, and fully perfuaded that a happy eternity is before him, would pass his days in tranquillity and joy, to which neither anxiety, nor pain, nor even the fear of death, could ever give any interruption. The beft fyftems of pagan ethicks are very imperfect, and not free from abfurdity; and in them are recommended modes of thinking unfuitable to human nature, and modes of conduct which, though they might have been used in a political view, did not tend to virtue and happiness universal. But of all our Lord's inftitutions the end and aim is, to promote the happiness, by promoting the virtue, of all mankind.

AND fecondly; his peculiar doctrines are not like any thing of human contrivance. Never 'man fpoke like this man,' One of the firft

names given to that difpenfation of things which he came to introduce, was the kingdom, or the reign, of heaven. It was juftly fo called; being thus diflinguished, not only from the religion of Mofes, the fanctions whereof related to the prefent life, but also from every human fcheme of moral, political, or ecclefiaftical legislation.

THE views of the heathen moralift extended not beyond this world; thofe of the Chriftian are fixed on that which is to come. The former was concerned for his own country only, or chiefly : the latter takes concern in the happiness of all men, of all nations, conditions, and capacities.A few, and but a few, of the ancient philofophers spoke of a future ftate of retribution as a thing defirable, and not improbable: revelation fpeaks of it as certain; and of the prefent life as a state of trial, wherein virtue or holiness is neceffary, not only to entitle us to that falvation which, through the mercy of God and the merits of his Son, Chriftians are taught to look for, but also to prepare us, by habits of piety and benevolence for a reward, which none but the pure in heart can receive, or could relish.

THE duties of piety, as far as the heart is concerned, were not much attended to by the heathen lawgiver. Cicero coldly ranks them with the focial virtues, and fays very little about them.