of the will of God to be of the highest importance, the Author of the following disquisition, at once to satisfy his own mind, and to qualify himself for a faithful and beneficial performance of the duties of the Christian ministry, for which he had been educated, many years ago determined to study the scriptures diligently, with no other illustration than what they reflect upon each other; and more especially those prophetic parts of them which, if duly fulfilled, must afford the strongest and most convincing evidence of the divine authority of the revelation itself; and almost necessarily lead to a right understanding of the nature of that religious Covenant to which they bear a supernatural attestation.

He had remarked, indeed, that amongst its professional teachers all the ablest advocates for the truth and divine authority of the Gospel, as if they knew of no certain, demonstrative proof which could be adduced in a case of so much importance, seemed to content themselves, and expect their readers 'should be satisfied, with an accumulation of probable arguments in its favour. in its favour. And the Author has even been told, that the case admits of no other kind of proof. He is happy, however, to have learned, from the only in

fallible authority, the direct contrary. And he begs all professed Christians of that persuasion to consider, whether it could be reconciled to any just ideas of wisdom in an earthly Potentate, if he should send an ambassador to a foreign state to mediate a negociation of the greatest importance, without furnishing him with certain indubitable credentials of the truth and authenticity of his mission. And to consider further, whether it be just or seemly to attribute to the omniscient, omnipotent Deity, a degree of weakness and folly which was never yet imputed to any of his human creatures: for unless men are impious and hardy enough to pass so gross an affront upon the tremendous Majesty of Heaven, the improbability that God should delegate the Mediator of a most important Covenant to be proposed to all mankind, without enabling him to give them clear and indisputable proof of the divine authority of his mission, must ever infinitely outweigh the aggregate sum of all the probabilities which can be accumulated in the opposite scale of the balance. So that to all those who know of no other proof of the divine authority of the Gospel, no rational proof of it exMere human testimony, whether re

ists.

corded in written liistory, or deduced to us -by oral tradition, is manifestly incompetent to afford satisfaction to any unprejudiced mind respecting communications of a super-natural kind. And with regard to miracles, under the Old Covenant, God Himself, by his prophet Moses, cautioned the Jews against receiving the religious doctrines of any pretended prophet, though he should even work miracles to convince them, because they Would be liable to be deluded and deceived by such evidence:* and under the New Covenant he has warned us, by his prophet Jesus, in the persons of his Apostles Paul and John, that the false and fabulous superstition, which would for so many centuries supplant the true religion of the Gospel, would be embraced by the people, in consequence of their delusion by “signs and lying wonders,† anil all the ̈“ deceivableness of unrighteousness." This being the case with miracles considered in themselves alone, God, by his prophets both of the Old Covenant and the New, hath given ́us another, an infallible criterion by which to distinguish the true from a false religion, and, -as I have shewn in the following pages, refer

Deut xiii. 1-5.

+ Thess. ii. 9, 10. Apoc. xiii. 13, 14, and xix. 20.

us solely to the testimony of completed prophecy, which he would not have done, if any 'other had been necessary, or to be depended upon with equal certainty and satisfaction of mind.

In religion, as in every other science founded in truth, if we recur to its first principles, we shall find them self-evident propositions, by means of which the truth of all its doctrines. may be clearly and satisfactorily demonstrated. For instance, that the whole is greater than 'any of its parts, is not a more unquestionable truth than the proposition, that no effect can exist without some adequate producing cause, And on this axiom is founded, that certain, satisfactory demonstration, which the visible structure of the universe, and all it contains, affords us of the being of a God. From the very same axiom-if predictions of any men ́exist, respecting events that were not to take place till many ages after the deaths of those men themselves; which predictions are known to have been promulged to the world several centuries before their completion, and which history and our own experience inform us have been punctually accomplished-a sure demonstrative proof arises, that the prophets could have received their information only

through a revelation, communicated to them by the Deity, of his will and decrees concerning the events of futurity; for such prophecies are effects which no other cause is competent to produce.

In the course of an investigation formed upon this plan, and pursued upon these grounds, the Author soon found himself convinced of the truth of Christianity, as taught by its first preachers; but was led also, to remark many obvious inconsistencies and improbabilities in several of the canonical scriptures of the New Covenant, which he could not account for, on a supposition. that the authors were men of that veracity and information of their subject, which must be expected from the Apostles and other miracu lously gifted disciples of Jesus Christ. He therefore resolved to examine thoroughly into the nature of those proofs of the genuine authenticity of the books of the New Testament, which, till then, he had taken for granted, and supposed to be uncontrovertibly demonstrated; and was astonished to find, upon what slight and unsatisfactory grounds scriptures of the greatest consequence have been universally received by professed Christians, as the infallible, word of God. From his studious