tentimes have been, and all eafily may be fhewn to be, in the highest degree, irrational and abfurd. As they are con tinually calling upon Chriftians to bring Mofes and the Prophets to the bar of reafon, and to pay no regard to their writings, only fo far as they appear rational, it is highly proper to bring their own fyltems to the fame touchstone. In treating on the obfcurities in fcripture, it was observed that fome things are revealed, rather as mate ters of faith, than as matters of knowledge, it being highly reasonable to expect, in a revelation from heaven, many things above our comprehenfion. Here a well attefted revelation is fufficient to authorize our belief. On this head infidels are conftantly accufing Chriftians of superstition, credulity, and implicit faith, for affenting to what they are pleased to call irrational, abfurd and incomprehenfible doctrines. Yet if we examine the deitical creed, or take a view of what a perfon must believe, in order to renounce the fcriptures and become an infidel, and compare: it with the creed of Chriftians, it will be readily feen who goes fartheft in affenting to irrational, abfurd, and incom prehenfible propofitions; and that it requires a much ftronger faith, or rather a much greater degree of creduli ty, to affent to the dogmas of deifm, than is neceffary for the cordial reception of all the pretended abfurdities of the chriftian fyftem.

Before a perfon can be established in the belief that the Old Testament is a fiction, he must believe, either that a vaft congregation, of upwards of fix hundred thousand men, befides women and children, believed that a series of ftapendous miracles, for the reality of which an appeal was inade to their fenfes, were wrought before their eyes, while no fuch: miracles were wrought; or he must believe that every one of that great congregation combined with Mofes to impofe the belief of them on potterity, although. the works themfelves were not calculated to advance their national honour, and the laws they received, faid to be fanctioned by these miraculous works, were peculiarly con trary to their inclinations, as they prohibited, by the fanc tion of the feverest penalties, practices to which they had

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the ftrongest propenfity. If, on the other hand, he admits the reality of thefe works, but supposes them to be performed by the intervention or agency of evil fpirits, this will involve him in as great, if not in a greater abfurdity. It will fuppofe that Satan, the great upholder of pagan idolatry, who had for a long time wrought, and still continued to work fo many strange feats among the heathen nations, with a view to confirm them in their fuperftitions, was, in this inftance, fo far divided against himself, as to work a series of stupendous miracles, for the exprefs purpose of establishing a law to destroy that idolatry and fuperftition it was fo much his intent to uphold; and all this while it can scarcely comport with their boasted reason, to believe in the existence of fuch a being as Satan. Or he must believe that a body of laws, pretending to be fanctioned by a series of miraculous facts of a most public nature, and many of them exprefsly founded upon and deriving their authority from these facts, were introduced into, and impofed upon the nation, on the credit of these facts, while the people who received the laws knew that no fuch works were done. He must also believe that the most ignorant, vicious, and fuperftitious of all people, as the Jews have been invariably represented, by the modern patrons of infidelity, invented and adopted the best constitution in the world, without the aid of any fupernatural revelation, at a time when all other nations were funk into the groffeft idolatry and fuperftition; and that this fame ignorant and fuperftitious people, did, even contrary to their own inclinations, eftablish a law enjoin. ing the worship of one God and of him only, in oppofition to the idolatrous customs univerfally prevalent, at a time when all the world befides was funk into the groffeft polytheifm. He must believe that the most ambitious, tricking, intriguing man in the world, as Mofes must be if an impoftor, framed and introduced the most excellent, the most impartial, and the most difinterested fyftem of laws which ever appeared in the world. Or, if he rather chooses to efpouse the opinion that these are not the gen pine laws of Mofes, but the forgery of later times, he must

believe that, at a certain time, the whole nation was so totally deprived of all recollection of past events, as to receive a new system of laws and cuftoms, and believe them to be their ancient laws and cuftoms, by which they had been governed ever fince they became a nation. To perfuade even an individual of common fagacity and penetra tion, much more a whole nation, of a thing fo evidently abfurd, would be a task, the accomplishment of whichwould furpass the powers of either the wisdom of Solomon, or of the intriguing, tricking policy of Machiavel::

As many, and, if poffible, greater abfurdities must be admitted, before we can believe the New Teftament to be a cunningly devised fable. We must believe that a character might be pointed out feveral hundred years before he was born,, as a glorious perfonage who was to come into the world, and that the time and place of his birth, the particular stock and family from which he was to defcend, the manner of his appearing, the reception he was to meet with in the world, together with all the principal actions of his life, as well as his fufferings, death, refurrection, and glorious afcenfion up into heaven, fhould be diftinctly foretold, and that this perfonage actually did appear at the appointed time, and in every particular anfwer to what had been foretold of him in these ancient prophecies, and yet these predictions be nothing more than the common tricks of fortunetellers, and the perfon fo foretold and defcribed an impoftor. Or we must believe that, notwithstanding all the vigilance of the most eagle eyed adverfaries to prevent it, these pretended predictions have been all forged in latter ages, and that fo much ingenuity and address has been displayed in effecting these forgeries, that enemies who had the originals in their hands, and who both poffeffed every defirable opportunity and advantage for detecting a fraud, and had the strongest inclination to make fuch a difcovery, have been fo completely deceived as to believe them to be genuine. We must also believe that, on an appeal made to their fenfes, multitudes believed that a series of extraor dinary facts, attefting Chrift's divine miffion, were publicly done before their eyes, while no fuch works were done,

and that a few illiterate fishermen fo effectually impofed the belief of these falfehoods upon mankind, that all the art and learning of the world was not found to be able to difprove them. We must believe that the Apostles, joint-ly agreed to bear witnefs to a falfehood, knowing it to be fuch, not only without any worldly motive and induce-ment, but in direct oppofition to their own prejudices, paf-fions, and worldly interests, and although they hereby ex-pofed themselves to the moft grievous fufferings and cruel deaths, they continued to perfevere in this their teftimony, knowing, at the fame time, that he to whom they bore witnefs was an impoftor, by whom they themselves had been firft duped, before they attempted to deceive others.. In addition to this, we must believe that, without any divine aid, and with no more powerful means than the labours of a few illiterate fifhermen, armed with no other weapons than thofe of perfuafion, this impofture, under the name of christianity, prevailed in a fhort time, to an aftonishing degree, although it had to encounter all the vul-gar prejudices and corrupt paffions of Jews and Gentiles,. as well as to meet all the oppofition which could be made: to it, either by the wit, malice, craft, or cruelty of the world, or from the religious prejudices of Jews or Gentiles, or the pretended miracles to which an appeal was made to uphold the pagan fuperftition. A perfon must: have a very implicit faith indeed, to fwallow fuch a heap of abfurdities. So clear and convincing are the evidences of our holy religion, that it must be inclination rather than the want of proper means of conviction which must make a man an infidel. The humbling tendency of chriftian doctrines, and the purity of chriftian precepts, are first difrelished, and, in order that all uneafy remonstrances of confcience may be avoided, its evidences are called in question. If all the objections against chriftianity were examined to the bottom, they would be found prin cipally to originate from this fource. People find it dif ficult to believe chriftianity and gratify their inclinations at the fame time, without feeling fome uneafy qualms of

confcience. They therefore labour hard to become unbelievers.

I fhall conclude this discourse with the maxim by which it was begun. That if the chriftian religion be true, it is tremendously true. So it will be be found at laft by those who despise and deride its doctrines and tram-ple on its precepts.