though they had hereby overturned Christianity, have ever been to him the cause of a moment's uneasiness. If Christianity be of God, as he verily believes it to be, they cannot overthrow it. He must be poffeffed of but little faith who can tremble, though in a form, for the fafety of the veffel which contains his Lord and Mafter. There would be one argument lefs for the divinity of the Scriptures, if the fame powers which gave existence to the Anti-Chriftian dominion had not been employed in taking it away. But though truth has nothing to fear, it does not follow that its friends fhould be inactive. The Lord confers an honour upon his fervants in condescending to make use of their humble efforts in preferving and promoting his intereft in the world. If the prefent attempt may be thus accepted and honoured by HIм to whose name it is humbly dedicated, the writer will receive a rich reward.

*

KETTERING,

October 10, 1799.

* The powers of Europe, fignified by the Ten Horns, or Kings, into which the Roman empire fhould be divided, were to give their kingdoms to the Beast. They did fo; and France particularly took the lead. The fame powers, it is predicted, shall hate the Whore, and burn her flesh with fire. They have begun to do fo; and in this bufinefs alfo France has taken the lead. Rev. xvii. 12, 13, 16, 17, 18.

INTRODUCTION..

THE controverfies between believers and

unbelievers are confined to a narrower ground than those of profeffed believers with one another. Scripture teftimony, any farther than as it bears the cha-, racter of truth, and approves itself to the confcience, or is produced for the purpose of explaining the nature of genuine Christianity, is here out of the queftion. Reafon is the common ground on which they muft meet to decide their contefts. On this ground Christian writers have fuccefsfully clofed with their antagonists: fo much fo, that of late ages, notwithstanding all their boaft of reafon, not one in ten of them can be kept to the fair and honourable use of this weapon. On the contrary, they are driven to substitute dark infinuation, low wit, profane ridicule, and grofs abufe. Such were the weapons of Shaftesbury, Tindal, Morgan, Bolingbroke, Voltaire, Hume, and Gibbon; and fuch are the weapons of the author of The Age of Reafon. Amongst various well-written performances in anfwer to their feveral productions, the reader may fee a concife and able refutation of the greater part of them in Leland's Review of the Deiftical writers.. It is not my defign to go over the various topics

ufually difcuffed in this controverfy, but to select a fingle one, which I conceive has not been fo fully attended to but that it may yet be confidered with advantage. The internal evidence which Christianity poffeffes, particularly in respect of its holy nature, and divine harmony, will be the fubject of the prefent inquiry.

Mr. Paine, after the example of many others, endeavours to difcredit the Scriptures by reprefenting the number of hands through which they have paffed, and the uncertainty of the hiftorical evidence by which they are fupported. "It is a mat"ter altogether of uncertainty to us, he says, whe"ther fuch of the writings as now appear under "the names of the Old and New Teftament, are "in the fame ftate in which thofe collectors fay "they found them; or whether they added, alter❝ed, abridged, or dreffed them up."* It is a good work which many writers have undertaken, to prove the validity of the Chriftian history; and to show that we have as good evidence for the truth of the great facts which it relates as we have for the truth of any ancient events+ whatever. But if in addition to this it can be proved that the Scriptures contain internal characteristics of divinity, or that they carry in them the evidence of their authenticity, this will at once answer all objections from the supposed uncertainty of historical evidence.

Hiftorians inform us of a certain valuable medicine, called Mithridate, an antidote to poison, and which is ftill in reputation. It is faid to have been "Invented by Mithridates, king of Pontus; that

"the receipt of it was found in a cabinet, written "with his own hand, and was carried to Rome by "Pompey; that it was tranflated into verse by De

mocrates, a famous phyfician; and that it was "afterwards tranflated by Galen, from whom we "have it."* A modern caviller might take it into his head to object to the authenticity of this history; he might alledge that the preparation has paffed through fo many hands, and that there is fo much hear-fay and uncertainty attending it, that no dependance can be placed upon it, and that it had better be rejected from our Materia Medica. But of what account would fuch an objection be in the estimation of mankind? They would afk, Has it not been tried, and found to be effectual; and that in a great variety of inftances? Such are Mr. Paine's objections to the Bible; and fuch is the answer that may be given him.

This language is not confined to infidel writers. Mr. Locke fpeaks of what he calls "Traditional Revelation," or Revelation as we have it, in fuch a manner as to convey the idea, that we have no evidence of the Scriptures being the Word of God, but from a fucceffion of witneffes having told us fo.t But I conceive thefe facred writings may contain fuch internal evidence of their being what they profefs to be, as that it might with equal reafon be doubted whether the world was created by the power of God, as whether they were written by the infpiration of his Spirit: and if fo, our. dependence is not upon mere tradition.

It is true, the fcriptures having been conveyed

Chambers's Dict. Mithridate.

↑ Human Und. B. IV. Chap. xviii.

to us through the medium of man, the work muft neceffarily in fome refpects have been humanized; yet there may be fufficient marks of divinity upon it to render it evident to every candid mind that it is of God.

We may call the Mofaic account of the Creation, a tradition, and may be said to know through this medium that the heavens and the earth are the productions of divine power. But it is not through this medium only that we know it: The heavens and the earth carry in them evident marks of their divine original. Thefe works of the Almighty fpeak for themselves; and in language which none but those who are wilfully deaf can misunderstand. Their found is gone forth throughout all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. Were any man to pretend that its being a matter of Revelation, and to us merely traditional Revelation, that God made the heavens and the earth, and therefore that a degree of uncertainty muft neceffarily attend it; he would be reminded that the thing itself carried in it its own evidence. Let it be candidly confider ed whether the fame may not be faid of the Holy Scriptures. They will admit of hiftorical defence; but they do not require it. Their contents, come through whofe hands they may, prove them to be of God. It was on this principle that the gofpel was proclaimed in the form of a teftimony. The primitive preachers were not required by him who fent them to prove their doctrine in the manner that philofophers were wont to establish a propofition; but to declare the counsel of God, and leave it. In delivering their meffage, they commended themselves to every man's confcience, in the fight of God.

It is no objection to this statement of things that