must be confidered as a confirmation of his authority but admitting the force of all this, and fuppofing these things to be true, how and on what evidence, it may be asked, fhall we be convinced that they are fo? Some of them are established facts open and apparent to every eye: and our belief of the others we may fairly reft on the authority of the holy fcriptures, which the following, amidst other arguments, fix on the most folid grounds of credibility.

If the holy scriptures were written at the time and by the perfons they are afferted to have been, as the writers had the fulleft opportunity of knowing the reality of the facts which they record, and those of the new teftament especially were under no imaginable temptation to publish them, nay had every inducement to conceal them, if they had not thought them true; we cannot confiftently with our manner of ac

ting in all other serious concerns avoid acquiefcing in their teftimony. And that they were fo written, is evinced by our enemies the Jews, who maintain the authority of one part of them, which is also confirmed by, and strengthens the credibility of the other. They are indeed fupported by all the evidence that can establish the credit of any writings, and abundantly more than any other, which are univerfally received, and whofe authenticity has never been queftioned. They were no fooner written, than copies of them were taken and difperfed throughout the feveral churches, and they were quoted and appealed to in the various controverfies which arose in the early times of christianity both with friends and foes. It may be obferved alfo, that not a few of the facts which they contain are supported by the concurrent teftimony of heathen authors. And if any of them had been false, there were not wanting enemies, who

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who easily could, and with transport would have detected and expofed their falfehood, and at once have precluded the facred records from that glorious triumph, which they afterwards obtained, from the numberlefs perfons of all ages and countries, who, with an unexampled conftancy, bore atteftation to the truth and value of them with their lives. In fhort, so strong and fecure is the evidence, on which the authority of the holy fcriptures is founded, that amidst the daring attacks with which the chriftian religion hath been affaulted in every form which malice and ingenuity could fuggeft, few have been the attempts made to overthrow that evidence, though the fuccefs of fuch an effort must have enfured the fall of the whole fystem, and without which all other attacks could make but little impreffion.

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THE bible being thus firmly established as the revelation of God, it follows that it is incumbent upon all, without exception, to whom it is made known, first, to examine with care, and then to believe with reverence, and to practise with fincerity whatever it requires. Limited as our faculties. are, we cannot wonder that in a revelation given by infinite wifdom there should be fome things which exceed our reason, which, however, fince they do not, when rightly confidered, contradict it, we are bound upon fuch a teftimony to receive as implicitly, and believe as firmly, as we do those truths which our reafon is competent to understand.

AND fince the Almighty created us at first, and supports us continually, and thus has an absolute right to our obedience, he might with perfect juftice have prescribed to us any commands within our power to perform

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perform, And we could not have reafon to complain of any want of goodness, what ever had been the conditions of obtaining his favor, fince he has propofed to us no lefs a recompence than eternal happiness, and promised us fuch affiftance as will enable us to attain it. Infinite wifdom and goodness certainly would not have established the chriftian dispensation, if it hạd not been proper and neceffary for mankind. But fince God has thought fit to establish it, he undoubtedly requires our compliance with it; and according to his constant denunciations, will refent and punish, as a most affronting indignity, our neglect of it.

ABSOLUTE univerfal obedience to God in all respects, i. e. a total furrender to our Creator of our understandings, our hearts, and our lives, is what both fcripture and reafon dictate-doctrines the moft unçonnected with the present state of things, and apparently