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"For the same reason that I believe the antiquity of Virgil's Poems, Cæsar's Commentaries, or Sallust's Narrations: and in the concurring testimony of all intervening ages. Should any one ask why I believe that the several books were written by the persons whose names they bear; I answer, for the same reason that I believe the Georgics to be the production of Virgil; Jerusalem Delivered, that of Tasso; Paradise Lost, that of Milton; an Essay upon the subject of Miracles, to be the work of Hume; and a refutation of that Essay, the performance of Campbell. Should any enquire whether the sacred pages have not been greatly corrupted? I answer, we have no more right to believe them corrupted than the above named histories and should we believe them corrupted we must at once be ignorant of antiquity. We are also informed by modern Authors, of the highest reputation and first talents, that they have not been corrupted, as appears from the oldest manuscripts, and an appeal to the earliest versions and ancient Fathers. So many corresponding circumstances plead in favour of the Gospel, that I must either disturb all ancient records, or admit the authenticity of those which display the duty and hopes of a christian.

In reasoning upon the truth of Christianity, we may appeal to its internal evidences, and to the purity of the doctrine and precepts of the system itself. The early triumps of this religion furnish another powerful argument in its support; especially if it be remembered, that in the estimation of the world it was neither honourable, profitable, nor popular. Under every disadvantage, and struggling under the most terrible persecution, it has maintained its ground for nearly two thousand years, as it is now seventeen hundred and eighty-six since they were distinguished by the name of Christians at Antioch, and that being forty-two after Christ's time on earth, makes the date of eighteen hundred and twenty-eight.

Another argument for the truth of the christian religion arises from the completion of prophecies; of which, some preceded Jesus, and were accomplished in him, and others were uttered by him, and came to pass during his life; (such were the treachery of Judas, and the cowardice of Peter;) and in a few years after his crucifixion we find the memorable destruction of Jeru salem took place, the destruction of which he had foretold.

The character of Christ, and the miracles which he wrought, are evidences of the divinity of his mission. On these grounds then, if any should enquire why should we be christians? we may answer, not because we were born in a christian country, and educated in christian principles; not because we find the most illustrious characters that has appeared upon earth, such as

Bacon, Boyle, Locke, Clarke and Newton, were among the professors and defenders of Christianity: not merely because the system itself is so admirably calculated to amend and exalt human nature; (which no one will doubt, for it is evident to all reasonable beings, that have read the Gospel, that the precepts therein taught are the most holy, just and upright of any that have ever been given to man,) but we may say, because the evidence accompanying the Gospel has convinced us of its truth.

The secondary causes, assigned by unbelievers and deists for the rise, progress and early triumphs of the christian religion, do not in the least, agreeably to my judgment, account for it. Volney, the greatest deistical author and reasoner that I have yet read, does not in the least, (though he laboured hard in his Ancient Ruins,") account satisfactorily for the rise, progress, &c. of the Christian religion; I must, therefore, stand acquitted in the eye of reason, though I continue to believe and profess the religion of Jesus Christ.

Arguing from effects to causes, I think I have philosophy on my side. And if I am reduced to a choice of difficulties, I am certain I shall not encounter so many, in admitting the miracles ascribed to Christ, as in admitting the arbitrary suppositions and conjectures of his enemies.

That there once existed such a person as Jesus Christ; that he appeared in Judea in the time of Tiberius; that he taught a system of morals superior to any inculcated in the Jewish schools; that he was crucified at Jerusalem; and that Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor by whose sentence he was condemned and executed; are facts which no one can reasonably call in question. The most inveterate deists admit them without difficulty: and, indeed to dispute these facts would be giving the lie to all history. As well might I deny the existence of any person thirty years ago; as well might I, by all means, deny that there ever existed such persons as the Cæsars as to deny that there once existed such a person as Jesus Christ, and as well may we call in question the Orations of Cicero as the discourses of Jesus Christ. We are morally certain that one entertained the Romans with his eloquence, and that the other enlightened the Jews with his wisdom. But it is unecessary to labour on these points, because they are generally conceded to. They who affect to dispise the Evangelists and Apostles, profess to reverence Tacitus, Suetonius and Pliny, and we have an account that these eminent Romans bear testimony to several particulars which relate to the person of Jesus Christ, his influence as the founder of a sect, and his crucifixion. From a difference in human authority, all, therefore, acknowledge that the Christian religion derived its name

from Jesus Christ, and many of the deists are so just to its merits, as to admit that Christ taught better than Confucius, and practised better than Socrates or Plato. To come then to the question: "Why are you a Christian?" I answer, because the Christian religion carries with it external marks of its truth; because, not only without the aid, but in opposition to the civil authority, in opposition to the wit, the argument, and violence of its enemies, it made its way and gained an establishment in the world; because it exhibits the accomplishment of Prophecies, and presents many which have since been fulfilled; and because its author displayed an example, and performed works, which bespeak not merely a superior, but a Divine character. Upon these several facts 1 ground my belief as a Christian; and till the evidence on which they rest can be invalidated by counter evidence, I must retain my principles and my profession.

CHAPTER VII.

OF THE BEING OF A GOD.

THAT there is such a being as God, the Supreme Being, the First Cause, or Creator of the Universe, and the only true ob ject of religious worship, no one can reasonably deny. God, (says Sir Isaac Newton,) is a relative term, and has respect to servants. It denotes, indeed, an eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect being:but such a being, without dominion, would not be God. The word God, frequently signifies lord, but every lord is not God. The dominion of a spiritual being, or Lord, constitutes God; true dominion, true God. From such true dominion, it follows,' that the true God is living, intelligent, and powerful; and from his other perfections, that he is supreme, or supremely perfect. He is eternal and infinite; omnipotent and omnicient; that is, He endures from eternity to eternity, and is present from infinity to infinity. He governs all things that exist, and knows all things that are to be known. He is not eternity or infinity, but eternal and infinite. He is not duration and space, but he endures and is present; He endures always, and is present every where; and by existing always and every where, constitutes the very thing we call duration and space, eternity and infinity. He is omnipresent, not only virtually, but substantially; for

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without substance cannot subsist. All things are contained and move in him, but without any mutual passion; that is, e suffers nothing from the motions of bodies, nor do they undergo any resistance from his omnipresence. It is confessed that God exists necessarily, and by the same necessity, he exists always and every where. Hence, also, he must be perfectly similar; all eye, all ear, all arm, all perception, intelligence, and action; but after a manner not at all corporeal, not at all like men, after a manner altogether unknown to us. He is destitute of all bodyand bodily shape, and therefore cannot be seen, heard, or touched; nor ought to be worshipped under the representation of any thing corporeal. We know him only by his properties, or attributes, by the most wise and excellent structure of things, by final causes; but we adore and worship Him only on account of his dominion: for God, setting aside dominion, providence, and final causes, is nothing but fate and nature.

The existence of the Deity, obvious to all, and carrying irresistable conviction with it, is evident from the contrivance and fitness of things for one another, which we meet with throughout all parts of the universe. There is no need of nice or subtil reasoning in this matter; a manifest contrivance immediately suggests a contriver. It strikes us like a sensation, and artful reasoning against it may puzzle us, but without shaking our belief. No person, for example, that knows the principles of optics, and the structure of the eye, can believe that it was formed without skill in that science, or that the ear was formed without a knowledge of sounds. All our accounts of nature are full of instances of this kind. The admirable and beautiful structure of things for final causes exalts our ideas of the contriver: the unity of the design shows him to be one. The great motions in the system, performed with the same facility as the least, suggest his Almighty power, which gave motion to the earth and the celestial bodies with equal ease as to the minutest particles. The subtilty of the motions and actions in the internal parts of bodies, shows that his influence penetrates the inmost recesses of things, and that he is equally active and present every where. The simplicity of the laws that prevail in the world, the excellent disposition of things in order to obtain the best ends, and the beauty which adorns the works of nature, far superior to any thing in art, suggest his consummate wisdom. The usefulness of the whole scheme, so well contrived for the intelligent beings that enjoy it, with the internal disposition and moral structure of those beings themselves, show his unbounded goodness. These are the arguments which are sufficiently open to the views and capacities of the unlearned; while, at the same time, they ac

quire new strength and lustre from the discoveries of the learned. The Deity's acting and interposing in the universe, shows that he governs, as well as formed it; and the depth of his counsels, even in conducting the material universe, of which a great part surpass our knowledge, keep up an inward veneration and awe of this Great Being, and dispose us to receive what may be oth-. erwise revealed to us concerning Him.

It has been justly observed that some of the laws of nature, now known to us, must have escaped us if we had wanted the sense of seeing. It may be in his power to bestow upon us other senses, of which we have at present no idea, without which it may be impossible for us to know all his works, or to have more adequate ideas of himself. In our present state we know enough to be satisfied of our dependency upon Him, and of the duty we owe to Him, the Lord and disposer of all things. He is not the object of sense; his essence, and indeed, that of all other substances, is beyond the reach of all our discoveries; but his attributes clearly appear in his admirable works... We know that the highest conceptions we are able to form of them are still beneath his real perfections; but his power and dominion over us, and our duty towards him, are manifest.

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Though God has given us no innate ideas of himself, yet, having furnished us with those faculties our minds are endowed ed with, he hath not left himself without a witness; since we have sense, perception, and reason, and cannot want a clear proof of him as long as we carry these faculties of the soul about us. show, therefore, that we are capable of knowing, that is, being certain that there is a God, and how we may come by this certainty, I think we need go further than ourselves, and that undoubted knowledge we have of our own existence. I know it is beyond question, that a man has a clear perception of his own being; he knows certainly that he exists, and that he is something. In the next place, man knows, by intuitive certainty, that bare nothing can no more produce any real being than it can be equal to two right angles. If, therefore, we know that there is some real being, it is an evident demonstration, that that being from eternity had a beginning, and what had a beginning must be produced by something else. Next, it is evident, that what had its beginning from another, must also have all which is in, and belongs to its being, from another too: all the powers that it has must be owing to, and received from the same source. This eternal source, then, of all beings, must be also the source and origin of all power; and so this eternal being must be also the most poweful. Again, man finds in himself perceptions and knowledge: we are certain then, that there is not only some being, but some

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