Illustration. Had there been in the New Testament, what there are in the Koran, precepts authorizing coercion, in the propagation of religion, the case would have been different. If Christianity be charged with every mischief of which it has been the occasion, though not the motive; the answer is, that if malevolent passions be there, the world will never want occasions. It is owing to Christianity, or the want of it, that the finest regions of the east, the peninsula of Greece, together with a great part of the coast of the Mediterraneat sea, are at this day a desert, or that the banks of the Nile, whose fertility is not to be impaired by neglect, nor destroyed by the ravages of war, serve only for the scene of a ferocious anarchy, or the supply of unceasing hostilities. Europe itself has known no religious wars for some centuries, yet has hardly ever been without war. THE CONCLUSION. 195. In religion much depends on the order of our inquiries. He who takes up a system of divinity, believing that every part must be true, or the whole false, approaches the discussion with great disadvantage. Illustration. Under this prejudice we are all in some meaBure introduced to our religious studies; the doctrines of religion come to us before the proofs, hence persons of hasty tempers have rejected the whole We ought first to examine the general truth of its principles, and then enquire into its doctrines. What is clear in Christianity, is sufficiently valuable; what is dubious, unnecessary or of subordinate inportance. 196. The truth of Christianity depends upon its leading facts, and upon them alone. Of these we have sufficient evidence. We have uncontested and incontestible points, to which the history of the human species hath nothing similar to offer. Illustration. A Jewish peasant, without force or influence, changed the religion of the world. After he had been put to death, his companions asserted his upernatural character. founded on supernatural operations, and in testimony of these assertions they suffered persecution and death. A very few days after this person had been publicly executed, and in the very city in which he was buried, these his companions declare, with one voice, that his body was restored to life: in this fact they persisted, in the face of those who had killed him, and who were armed with the whole power of the country. As to these facts, the Christian story hath never varied; nor has any other ever been set up in its room. All sects, in all ages, have concurred in representing these facts in the same manner. 197. The particulars of the gospel mission we have from the persons engaged in it, and their companions, in four hooks, the authenticity of which is established by stronger proofs than belong to almost any other ancient book. 198. These books also bear strong internal evidence of their truth, inasmuch as the writers understood the history, and usages of the times, to wich they refer. 193. In comparing these books with one another, we find them varying, so as to repel suspicion of confederacy, and so agreeing under this variety, as to shew they had one real transaction for their common foundation. 200. The four narratives are confined to the history of the founder, and end with his ministry. The story is carried on by a person connected with the business, and the substance is confirmed by a number of original letters, written by one who is the principal subject of the history. 201. The miracles were not secret, nor momentary, nor tentative, nor ambiguous, nor performed under the sanction of authority, with the spectators on their side, uor in affirmance of tencts already established, 202. The evidence of these miracles was con temporary; published on the spot; involved questions of the greatest magnitude; contradicted fixed prejudices; and it required from those who accepted it, principles and cooduct which might expose them to outrage and persecution. 203. The event, as might be expected, was noticed in the prophetic writings of the Jews; had the consequences been more distinctly revealed, it would have cooled their ardour for an institution, which was eventually to give place to one more perfect. 204. The great importance of revelation is to be estimated from the doctrine of a resurrection from the dead; the other articles of the Christian faith are but adjuncts to this; its morality is wise and pure, neither adapted to vulgar prejudices, nor flattering popular notions, nor excusing established practices, but calculated to promote human happiness. 205. The Deity, to fir the institution, vouchsafed a miraculous attestation; he then committeck its future progress to the natural means of human communication. In this, Christianity is analogous to most other provisions for human happiuess. The provision is made, and left to act according to the laws of a more general system. 205. If the constant recurrence to our observation of contrivance, design, and wisdom, în the works of nature, fix upon our minds the belief of a God, all is easy. In the couusels of such a being, it is not improbable that there should be a future state, or that we should be acquainted withe it. 206. A fature state rectifies every thing; because, if moral agents be eventually happy or miserable, according to their conduct in the stations assigned them here, it seems not very material by what rules these stations are assigned: it therefore solves all objections to the divine goodness. 207. A higher degree of assurance was neces sary than that drawn from the light of nature, to overcome the shock which the senses receive by the appearances of death. 208. Since a future state, and the revelation of a future state, are not only perfectly consistent with the attributes of God, but also remove many difficulties: since there is such a strong body of historical evidence that such a revelation has been communicated, we may set our minds at rest with the assurance, that in the resources of creative wisdom, expedients cannot be wanted to carry into effect what the Deity hath intended. Illustration. Either a new and mighty influence will des cend upon the human world, to resuscitate extinguished consciousness; or amidst the other wonderful contrivances with which the universe abounds, and by some of which we see animal life, in many instances, assuming improved forms of existence, acquiring new organs, new perceptions, and new sources of enjoyment; provision is also made, though by methods sccret to us, for conducting the objects of God's moral government through the necessary changes of their frame, to those final distinctions of happiness and misery which he hath declared to be reserved for obedience and trangression, for the right and wrong employment of the faculties and opportunities with which he has entrusted us. |