council of the nation; they could by such notorious lies, engage thousands of citizens and some aldermen, to put all their trust in the villain hanged at their special request?

(4.) You believe, that christianity is a gross imposture; and yet you cannot deny, that thousands of learned Romans and wise Greeks, who agreed to despise the jews above all other men, took for their Saviour that very Jesus, of whom his own countrymen had been ashamed, and whom they had crucified as an impostor. Is not this as absurd as to believe, that thousands of wise Englishmen, and sensible Frenchmen, could be induced by the absurd tale of two or three Hottentots, to worship a certain Hottentot, whom the whole nation of Hottentots had condemned to be hanged, as being more worthy of an ignominions death than the bloody ringleader of a seditious mob?

(5.) If you believe with one of the popes, that the history of Christ "is a mere fable,” and that there never was such an extraordinary person, you believe that the heathens, the jews, and the mahometans, have agreed with the christians, their sworn enemies, to carry on the most amazing imposture. For Pliny, Tacitus, Ducian and Suetonius, heathen authors, who lived soon after Christ, make express mention of him : as do also Mahomet, many of the rabbies, and Julian the Emperor, that powerful and crafty apostate, who not only never denied Christ's existence, but openly acknowledged that Paul, Mark, Matthew, and Peter, were the authors of the gospels and epistles, which bear their name. Now is not this as ridiculous as to believe, that the pope, the mufti, and the inquisitors, have laid their heads with Messrs. Voltaire, Hume, and Rousseau, to favour a forgery subversive of popery, mahometanism, and infidelity?

(6.) If you deny the authenticity of the four gospels, which are the only ancient histories, that we have of our Saviour; and yet believe, that there was such a personage as Jesus Christ, whose fame so spread

through the Roman Empire, that in less than 330 years, he was not only reckoned superior to the Roman Emperor, but to Jupiter himself; and that nevertheless not one historian, during all that time, gavę the world a particular account of him: (which must be the case, if the four gospels are a forgery:) Might you not as reasonably suppose, that if a blazing meteor appeared in our day, and eclipsed the stars, the moon and the sun itself: no astronomer for several centuries would take particular notice of so wonderful a phenomenon?

(7.) If the gospel is a delusion, you believe that St. Paul, who was a man of sense, learning and intrepidity, was seduced by....no body, to preach for near 30 years, with astonishing zeal and matchless hardships, an imposture, against the abettors of which, he just before breathed nothing but threatnings and slaughter. Would it be half so absurd to believe, that Mr. Wilkes has suddenly commenced the minister's advocate, goes through the kingdom to recommend the present administration, and accounts it an honour to be mobbed, whipt, or stoned in every borough, for his excessive attachment to the king?

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(8.) The instantaneous conversion of thousands, was wrought by means of public appeals to notorious matter of fact. Hear the language of the Apostles to the jews This ye yourselves know, Acts ii. 24. Ye know the thing done through all Judea, Acts x. 37, 38. The king knoweth these things. This thing was not done in a corner, Acts xxvi. 26. Now if Christianity is not founded upon indubitable facts, might you not as well believe, that twelve men broke loose from bedlam, brought last year thousands of deists over to christianity, by saying to them, "Ye know"....what you are perfect strangers to; that is, "Ye know".... that we are a pack of bedlamites?

(9.) If the gospel is forged, you believe that the Corinthians, &c. handed down to posterity, as a sacred treasure, epistles where St Paul mentions their amaz

ing conversion from gross immoralities; congratulates them about the spiritual or miraculous gifts, in which they abounded, 1 Cor. xii 1. and gives them particular directions, how to use the gift of tongues to edification; when yet they were totally unacquainted with any such things. Might you not with equal wisdom believe, that, if Mr. Wilkes wrote to the house of commons, a congratulatory epistle about their having received by the laying on of his hands the power of speaking Turkish, Arabic, and Chinese, they would carefully transmit his letter to the next generation, as a divine performance; and that none of Mr. Wilkes's enemies would ever expose the impudence of so absurd a pretension?

(10.) If you say that the Apostles were fools, you must believe, that foolish fishermen laid a scheme with so much wisdom, and carried it on with so much art as to deceive multitudes of Greeks, noted for their acuteness, and numbers of Romans famous for their prudence. Might you not as well believe that twelve poor, unarmed idiots, once combined to take the strongest towns in Europe, and accomplished their strange design by means, that strike the profoundest politicians with astonishment?

(11.) If you affirm that the Apostles were cheats and liars, you run into as great a difficulty, for you must believe that the greatest knaves that ever existed contrary to their own principles and advantage, went through the world, exposing themselves to the greatest hardships and severest tortures unto death, to recommend both by their example and precepts, the strictest piety towards God, and the most scrupulous honesty towards man; perpetually denouncing eterpal destruction to cheats and hypocrites, and the torments of a lake that burneth with fire and brimstone to every one who loveth or maketh a lie. Would it be more absurd to believe, that the twelve greatest epicures in England, have for a course of years, fulfilled a mutual agreement of preaching night and day,

abstinence and fasting through the three kingdoms, merely to have the pleasure of starving to death for their pains?.

(12.) To conclude: If the gospel (and consequently the scripture) is an imposture, you suppose that some poor Galilean fishermen, only by means of an absurd lie, which they told without wit, and wrote without elegance, foiled the multitude of the Jewish and Pagan priests, who had prejudice, custom, possession, learning, oratory, wealth, laws, governors, and emperors on their side; yea, and truth also, upon your principles, at least when they decried the gospel as a cheat. Would it be more ridiculous to believe, that David killed Goliah, with a grain of sand, and cut of his head with a spire of grass: or that our sailors sink men of war with a puff of breath, while our soldiers batter down ramparts with snow-balls?

O ye sons of worldly wisdom, drop your unjust prejudices; candidly weigh both sides of the question, and you will soon see, that in rejecting the gospel as an imposture, you display a far greater degree of credulity, than we do in cordially receiving it.

After this short defence of the oracles of God, and this little attack upon the persons who suspect their authenticity, I hope I may (consistently with the plan of an appeal to reason) produce from the scriptures, a few more arguments to prove the original depravity and lost estate of mankind.

XXXI. ARGUMENT.

The spiritual life. of the soul consists in its uni on with God, as the natural life of the body does in its union with the soul: and as poison and the sword kill the latter, so unbelief and sin destroy the former.

The first man was endued with this two-fold life; God, says the divine historian, breathed into him the breath of lives, and he became a living body and a living soul: he had both an animal life in common with beasts, and a spiritual life in common with angels. St. Paul, who calls this angelical life, the life of God, intimates that it consisted both in that experimental knowledge of our Creator, wherein, says our church, "standeth our eternal life," and in righteousness and true holiness, the moral and most glorious image of the supreme Being.

To suppose man was created void of this essential knowledge and holy love, is to suppose he came very wicked out of the hands of the parent of all good: For what is a rational creature, that neither knows nor loves his Creator, but a monster of stupidity and ingratitude, a wretch actually dead to God, and deserving present destruction?

When the Lord therefore said to man, in the day that thou eatest thereof, that is in the day that thou sinnest, thou shalt surely die, it was as if he had said; "In that very day, sin shall assuredly separate between thee and the God of thy life: Thou shalt certainly lose the glorious view, which thou hast of my boundless goodness and infinite perfections; Thou shalt infallibly quench the spirit of ardent love, and stop the breath of delightful praise, by which thou livest both to my glory and thy comfort: And thy soul dead in trespasses and sins, shall remain in the filthy prison of a mortal body, till death breaks it open, to remove thee to thy own place."

And was not this Adam's case after his fall? Did he not know that he was naked, stript of the glorious image of his Creator? Did not guilty shame immediately prompt him to hide and protect, as well as he could, his degenerate and enfeebled body? Devoid of the ardent love he felt for God before, and of the pure delight he enjoyed in him, was not he left the wretched prey of tormenting fears? Did he not evidence

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