A. No; the belief in the first instance, at least, must depend upon the ordinary maxim of human credibility. We cannot address an argument from inspiration to a sceptic.

Q. Do we find every supposition of fraud negatived in our detail of miracles?

A. Yes; they were not secret, nor momentary, nor tentative, nor ambiguous.

Q. Was it to be expected, that an event so connected with the Jewish nation, as the establishment of a new religion by one of their race, should be noticed in their prophetic writings?

A. Yes; and we accordingly find in those writings, various intimations concurring in the person and history of Jesus.

Q. What question can properly be asked as to what a revelation discloses to mankind?

A. One and only one. Was it of importance to mankind to know, or to be better assured of?" When we turn our thoughts to the great Christian doctrine of a resurrection and a future judgment, no doubt can possibly be entertained on this question.

Q. What are the other articles of the Christian faith, which are of infinite importance when placed beside other topics of human inquiry?

A. They are only the adjuncts and circumstances of this; still they appear worthy of the original to which we ascribe them.

Q. How did the Deity act, after having, upon the greatest of all possible occasions, vouchsafed a miraculous attestation ?

A. Having given the institution what alone could fix its authority at the beginning, he committed its future progress to the natural means of human com munication.

Q. What hypothesis solves the objection to the divine goodness drawn from the promiscuous distribution of good and evil?

A. The belief of a future state of rewards and punishments. This one truth changes the nature of things, gives order to confusion, and makes the moral world of a piece with the natural.

Q. Why was a higher degree of assurance, than any argument drawn from the light of nature could give, necessary?

A. To overcome the shock to the senses, from the effects and appearances of death, and the obstruction which from thence arises to the expectation of a continued or future existence.

Q. What does the regular experience of sleep

make certain ?

A. That whatever thought be, it can be completely suspended and completely restored.

Q. What is inferred from the circumstance of the great powers of nature all being invisible?

A. That a particle, minuter than all conceivable dimensions, may be the vehicle of consciousness; and that being so, it may transfer a proper identity to whatever shall hereafter be united to it; may connect the natural with the spiritual.

I

Q. What conclusion should we arrive at from all the foregoing considerations ?

A. Whether these, or any other attempts to satisfy the imagination, bear any resemblance to the truth or not, when a future state, and the revelation of it, is perfectly consistent with the attributes of the Being who governs the universe-we ought to 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 purposed.

SUMMARY.

Q. HAVING thus gone through the whole work, it will be useful to conclude with a summary of its contents;-What, therefore, does the first part con

tain ?

A. The subject is introduced by a preparatory consideration of the antecedent credibility of miracles The first part, which is then entered upon, is devoted to the direct historical evidence of Christianity, and wherein it is distinguished from the evidence alleged for other miracles. This evidence is gathered from the proof of two propositions: the first asserts the labours and sufferings of the original witnesses of the Christian miracles, voluntarily undergone for their belief in those miracles, and their consequent change of life This proposition is supported, 1. By evidence from the nature of the case. 2. From profane testimony. 3. By indirect evidence from the Scriptures and ancient Christian writings. 4. By direct evidence from the same. 5. By inference from that evidence. 6. By showing that the story for which they suffered was miraculous. 7. By indirect proof that it was the same as we have. 8. By direct proof of this from the Scriptures. 9. By proofs of the authenticity of the Scriptures, under

eleven different heads. 10. By a recapitulation of the foregoing evidence. The second proposition asserts, that persons pretending to be original witnesses of other miracles, have not acted in the same manner in consequence of their belief; and this proposition is supported by the consideration of some specific in

stances.

Q. What is the object of the second part.

A. An investigation of the auxiliary evidences of Christianity; under this head are considered, 1. Prophecy. 2. The morality of the Gospel. 3. The candour of the writers of the New Testament. 4. The identity of Christ's character. 5. Its originality. 6. Conformity of Scripture facts with foreign accounts. 7. Undesigned coincidences. 8. The Resurrection. 9. The propagation of Christianity, with reflections upon it, and the success of Mahometanism.

Q. To what is the third part devoted?

A. To a brief consideration of some popular objections. I. The discrepancies between the several Gospels. 2. Erroneous opinions imputed to the Apostles. 3. Connexion of Christianity with Jewish history. 4. Rejection of Christianity. 5. Infrequency of early Christians' appeal to miracles. 6. Want of universality in the reception of Christianity. 7. Supposed effects of Christianity. 8. Conclusion.

THE END.

T. C. Hansard, Pater-noster-row Press