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النشر الإلكتروني

VI

nay throw light upon the subject before message contained in the scriptures does to things false or doubtful. There a religious impostors, deluded enthusiasts, a ly usurpations; but all religion is not en or priestcraft: General declamations to only prove that men are unable or umcilli tinguish betwixt the genuine and the co which evinces, that either their understa their hearts are very faulty.-The apos just before his martyrdom, endeavouring disciples might be able after his deceas the things he had taught them always in brance, added, -" For we have not follo "ningly-devised fables, when we made you the power and coming of the Lo " but were eye witnesses of his majesty : "ceived from God the Father honour ai "when there came such a voice to him

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"excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in " whom I am well pleased. And this voice which

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came from heaven we heard, when we were with "him on the holy mount." But aware that the belief of this event depended entirely on his testimony, with that of James and John, he subjoined -" We have also a more sure word of prophecy, "whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as to a "light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, " and the day star arise in your hearts'."

It may indeed be argued very forcibly, that the publick miracles, recorded in scripture, could never have obtained credit among contemporaries, had they not been actually performed; and that no future generation of Israelites or Christians could possibly have been persuaded, that their forefathers had always believed them, had the report been afterwards invented and propagated. Would it, for instance, by any method be practicable, to bring the inhabitants of this nation to believe that a hundred years ago the Prince of Orange, at the revolution, marched an army through the German ocean, and that this had always been known and credited?

The argument therefore from miracles openly performed, or publickly attested, before those possessed of power, and engaged by interest, reputation, and inclination to disprove them, is very conclusive: and perhaps no past event was ever so fully authenticated, as the resurrection of Christ, on which the whole fabrick of revelation in some respects depends. Yet to us the word of prophecy may be said to be still more sure: for a system of predictions of remote events, which no finite mind could possibly foresee, is interwoven with every part of the scriptures, and reaches from the first promise of the seed of the woman, to the close of the sacred canon. These have been exactly fulfilling through successive ages, in respect of the Jews and the surrounding nations; the coming of the Messiah, and every circumstance of that grand event; with the subsequent concerns of the church and of the world to this present day. This forms such a demonstration, that the Bible is indeed the word of God; that the more carefully it is examined with a serious and impartial mind, the fuller conviction it must produce. It is indeed a kind of unobtrusive permanent miracle, which escapes the notice of the careless, but gives entire satisfaction to the diligent enquirer: and to this, all who have doubts on the subject, will "do well " to take heed, as to a light shining in a dark "place," till their own experience of the blessed effects produced by the gospel, prove an inward witness, the dawn of eternal life in their souls.

2 Peter i, 16-19.

We might adduce many other arguments in confirmation of this truth, from the nature and tendency of the sacred oracles; the character of those

in every age, who have most firmly believed them; the efficacy of the pure gospel on the minds and conduct of mankind, in rendering them wise, holy, peaceful, and happy; and the manifold blessed consequences, which must follow, if all men did indeed repent of sin, believe in Christ, worship God spiritually, love him supremely, and love one another with a pure heart fervently. But these few hints are sufficient to shew that our religion is no vain or doubtful matter, but an authenticated revelation from God; and that men oppose it, because it testifies of them that their works are evil, and cannot be made consistent with the "" lust of "the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of "life."

Neither is it a superfluous or unnecessary thing. Whatever plausible and soothing notions students in their retirement may entertain; facts undeniably prove, that reason, untutored by revelation, uniformly leads men into atheism, idolatry, impiety, superstition, or enormous wickedness. Renowned and elegant Greece and Rome sunk as deep into these absurd abominations, as the barbarians whom they despised. The philosophical Athenians were ignorant worshippers of an unknown God, amidst their highest improvements; nor have the most celebrated modern unbelievers been preserved from most gross absurdities, or lamentable ignorance. How perplexed and unsatisfactory are their discourses, when they attempt to shew, in what way speakably more than gold and precious to relish it " as sweeter than honey and "comb."

The message of God is no vain thin it is exactly adapted to the condition o and fully adequate to the case of the mo sinner upon earth. If a man's crimes ever so numerous, complicated, and during the whole course of a long life; pensities, habits, and connexions, ex the combined force of many formida tions; and if his difficulties and distresse in the extreme;-yet, by attending to the gospel in humble faith, he shal guided into the way of peace, find effe tance in the path of duty, be extrica perplexities, made victorious over all e finally be brought to the enjoymen felicity. Indeed whenever we mistake

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