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with the prophet that God has shown man what is good. In the instructions of Jesus when he gathered the anxious crowds around him, I see none of those mystical, ill-digested, and repulsive speculations, which are engendered in the minds of men, heated by pride and clouded by bigotry, and which belong to the barbarous theology of a disputing and rude age. But the light which shines around me, in the resplendent teachings of Jesus, is clear, and leaves me at no loss as to my duty. The persuasions and practical lessons of virtue, as they fall from his lips in the tenderest tones of kindness, touch my soul; his heavenly consolations comfort me under every adversity; his glorious revelations inspire me with holy desires, and aspirations, which find no resting place but in Heaven.

I learn from the prophet to ask what does the Lord require of me but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God; and I am taught by Jesus that if I would enter into life I must keep the commandments; and that whoever does the will of his Father in Heaven the same stands to him in the relation of a brother. I see at once that the great ends of the religion of Jesus are to make men holy, benevolent, useful and pious; to assure them of God's protecting care, his constant aid, and his universal providence; to teach the immeasurable importance of moral conduct; and raising the veil which hides the future from our sight to give us a glimpse of heaven and immortality.

Holding our own conclusions in modesty, humility and charity, let us have no fear that we shall be condemned for any involuntary or unavoidable error; for any deficiency of knowledge or belief, which we had not the capacity or the means of escaping; nor doubt at all that while we faithfully use the light we have

58 DIRECTIONS FOR UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES.

and conform to those great laws of duty and happiness which nature, experience, and revelation plainly teach and confirm, that we shall secure the favor of that impartial and holy Being, who reckons with his servants according to the talents, which he has given them. The precepts of Jesus, and the letters of his apostles, every where confirm them, inculcate an unspotted purity, a universal benevolence, and an entire devotion and resignation of every thing to God. If we are at a loss for the application or extent of any of these precepts and principles, we have it in the perfect example of Jesus, an example in human nature showing the practicableness of his precepts, and encouraging men by his triumphs.

The life of Jesus can leave no one at doubt or uncertainty as to his duty. It furnishes the rule and the application. If a man would know what is good he has only to follow Jesus, as, in their artless, unadorned, but affecting and eloquent manner, the humble historians of his life have presented his character to mankind. It is an example of benevolence, purity, usefulness, and piety, which no conceptions of the human mind have ever surpassed. It is surrounded with a halo of moral glory. The disciple, who humbly learns of him, shall find rest to his soul. The sincere imitation of Jesus is in itself worth infinitely more than the combined wit of all the brightest geniuses that ever shone on earth, and the united subtlety and wisdom and science of all the theologians and philosophers of ancient and modern times.

SERMON V.

THE PROOF OF CHRISTIANITY INDEPEND. ENT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

ACTS i. 8.

YE SHALL BE WITNESSES UNTO ME, BOTH IN JERUSALEM, and IN ALL JUDEA, AND IN SAMARIA, AND UNTO THE UTTERMOST

PART OF THE EARTH.

EVERY serious mind must feel greatly concerned whether Christianity is true or not. If a man feels no interest in the great questions about which Christianity is concerned, if to him it is not and has never been matter of most serious consideration, whether God has made any direct communications with his creatures or not, whether Jesus of Nazareth is or is not the medium of such communications, whether the sacred scriptures contain or not a correct account of them, and whether we may or may not there find grounds for expecting a future life, we have great reason to distrust the soundness of his moral judgment.

There is a great diversity in the original constitution of different minds, and in the faculties with which

they are endowed. There is as great a diversity in their education and training, and the influences of situation, society, and nameless circumstances, to which the judgment is exposed, are as various as can be conceived. Different minds will of course see things under different aspects; the same evidence will often produce on different minds a different impression; and in some cases, a different impression on the same mind, when considered at different times. Whatever confidence therefore we may feel in our own conclusions, we must not prematurely condemn those persons whose opinions differ from ours even in respect to subjects, which seem most plain; but must leave it to that Being, who is the searcher of hearts, and who alone thoroughly understands the human mind, every principle of character and every spring of human action, to determine the merit of any man's faith or the criminality of his unbelief. Reflection must convince us, that the judgments, which we are prone to form and confidently pronounce in many cases, may be very different from that which he forms and by which we must ultimately abide. But with regard to those who can treat the subject of religion with disrespect, or regard its momentous truths with indifference or levity, accompanied as they are by evidence, which, to say the least, has satisfied many of the most inquisitive, the wisest and the purest minds that have ever lived, we may with reason think them deficient in understanding, or discretion, or the common principles of moral rectitude. Every inquiry therefore, connected with the great truths of religion will always be pursued with seriousness and interest by intelligent and candid minds, be the results of such inquiry with such persons what they may.

The principal evidence of the truth of Christianity is the writings of the New Testament. If we admit these writings to be authentic, that is, the productions of the individuals, whose names they bear; and genuine, that is, containing a true statement of the facts, which they relate, there is of course an end to the discussion, and the great question is affirmatively decided. In a single discourse, having in view a different object than to prove the genuineness and authenticity of these writings, it is impossible for me to offer any thing more than a few cursory remarks on these points.

rest.

These writings then purport to be the production of the individuals, whose names they bear; they have been ascribed to them ever since they have been known; they have never been ascribed to any other persons; they rest therefore upon the same evidence that the genuineness of other ancient or modern writings We have the same reasons for believing that the histories which bear the names of Matthew, Mark and Luke, are their productions, and the letters, which bear the name of Paul are his, as we have for believing that the histories ascribed to Cæsar and Tacitus, and the letters purporting to be the letters of Cicero and Pliny are theirs. To deny this without any proof of the contrary, which no man pretends to adduce, would be to violate the first principle of historical credibility and to render all history uncertain.

Next, these writings have all the appearance of being authentic, that is, a true statement of facts. They refer to particular times and dates, places and persons, and to existing customs and local facts, which perfectly correspond with what we learn from other independent histories of the same period, concerning

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