which God ever made to man. What! when God has provided a scheme for the salvation of mankind before the ages; when he has proposed that scheme by many successive revelations of himself; when he has separated a chosen family from the rest of the world, to serve as a repository of his counsels; when he has sent out many holy men and prophets, to signify before hand the glories of a new kingdom, which he meant to establish upon earth, and to prepare men for the reception of it; when, after all these preludes, he has astonished the world with the completion of his adorable counsels, by sending forth his only-begotten Son, the express image of his person, to take upon him our nature, and to suffer and die for us; and by raising up apostles and evangelists, under the guidance of his Holy Spirit, to record these amazing transactions, and, by the attestation of stupendous miracles, to spread the knowledge of them over the face of the earth: when this, and much more has been done by the Almighty, to usher in the gospel, think not that all this mighty aparatus is to be thrown away on your caprice or obstinacy; and that, after all, we may be at liberty to reject his whole design, or take as much or as little of it as our wayward fancies should suggest to us. No: as well may we think to overturn the everlasting mountains, or push the earth itself from its centre, as to defeat or set aside one tittle of that eternal purpose which God hath purposed in Christ Jesus. To whomsoever the sound of the gospel comes, whether he will hear, or whether he will forbear, by that gospel he must stand or fall. Through faith in Christ, he may inherit the promises; if he withhold that faith, it is not at his option to have no concern in the threatenings of his affronted Sovereign. Accordingly, the gospel proceeds on the footing of my text. He that believeth, is exempted from condemnation, and entitled to eternal life; but he that believeth not, is condemned already, because he hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, but prefers darkness to it, from the consciousness that his deeds are evil. For every one tha doeth truth, and acts as an accountable being, cometh

(a) Bishop Hurd.

to the light, and accepts and rejoices in the gospel, which sheds it upon a darkened world.

These, then, are the antecedent considerations. Whether Christianity be true or not, you are under the essential obligations of religion as due from à creature to his Creator; and if it be true--as it most assuredly is-it is not left to our option, but we are bound by the most solemn sanctions to believe in it and obey it. These are primary principles. May your hearts yield to them! You see how the case stands. We do not so much argue as entreat and persuade.

Let us proceed:

II. To remind you that CHRISTIANITY IS SO EXCELLENT IN ITSELF, THAT THE SLIGHTEST EXTERNAL EVIDENCE IS SUFFICIENT TO OBLIGE MEN TO OBEY IT.

I need not surely dwell on this point. You have not so soon forgotten the adaptation of Christianity to the obvious state and wants of man. You have not so soon forgotten the excellency and elevation of its doctrines, the purity and beauty of its morals,d the inimitable character of its Founder, and its tendency to promote in the highest degree the welfare of mankind. The impression is still deep of the internal constitution and frame-work of Christianity. How worthy of God, how suitable to the whole state and desires and aspirations of man. Yes; the remedial, consoling nature of the gospel, its soothing and purifying character, its gentle and yet powerful operations of grace upon the heart, its knowledge of all the secret springs of human conduct, proclaim, as with the voice of an angel, the author from whence it sprung. The three facts there disclosed, the FALL OF MAN, the REDEMPTION OF MAN, the RESURRECTION OF MAN, have the impress of God upon them, and answer to the exact necessities of a ruined world. To comply with the demands of such a religion, is to act on all the obligations of natural religion, only in a higher degree and with new energy. To follow it, is to obey what conscience dictates, only in a purer and more uniform manner. To believe in

(b) Lect. xiv. (c) Lect. xv. (d) Lect. xvi. (e) Lect. xvii.

(f) Lect. xviii.

it, is to find a remedy for all our moral maladies, and an incentive to all our duties. Its mysteries are the sources of the most holy affections of the heart, and the most strenuous obedience of the life. All is congruous, pure, elevated, consoling, efficacious.

1.4

Such, then, being the excellency of Christianity, the obligation of obeying it rests on no minute and doubtful details of evidence; almost any external proof is enough for deciding the question practically; the lowest probability carries with it weight enough to turn the scale. I enter, therefore, into no dispute about this thing or that thing. I sweep away all petty considerations, and I put it on this broad footing-the religion is so excellent that it binds man, in point of conscience as a moral agent, under the government of Almighty God, if the outward and historical evidences be at all satisfactory. Such a religion wants no evidence but itself. And every man that knows any thing of its real character, and is not totally lost to all sense of right and wrong, feels this.

Take any part of the wide subject of evidences that you please the authenticity, the lives and deaths of the apostles, the propagation, the miracles, the prophecies-there is enough in any one to carry the practical judgment along with it. I am not now arguing-when we treated the evidences in their intellectual and moral force, we showed the whole extent of them-I am now persuading, recalling, re-impressing.

Remember, in human life man is governed by probabilities; he is compelled often on the most momentous occasions to act on a very low probability; he not unfrequently takes steps with the chances strongly against him; as when the duration of life, or the success of a scheme of commercial enterprize is calculated upon. Where an object is in itself desirable, and the plan commends itself to their judgment, men seldom wait for evidences at all, but act at once on the innate dictate of feeling. Especially if a remedy be brought for a disease, or a deliverance announced for a captive, or a beneficial gift proffered to one in distress, men

do not wait for arguments and the balancing of probabilities, but they feel, accept, appropriate the benefit.

Much more, then, doth Christianity bring with it all the moral obligations that can bind man. Here is a remedy divinely procured. Here is a deliverance wrought at immense cost; here is a gift which will enrich us for eternity. We want not arguments and intellectual discourse, or very little of them; we want not evidences and credentials, or only in the slightest degree; we want feeling, perception of our need, a heart to welcome, to believe in, to obey the joyful proposals.

The mistake, if there should be one in receiving it, cannot be fatal where the whole religion is so holy, so lovely, so beneficial to man. To receive such a Revelation cannot but be safe, right, obligatory. To reject it, indeed, would require quite another course. Because, whilst a few evidences are enough to warrant our obedience where all falls in with our previous duties and corresponds with the voice of conscience; to reject such a religion would demand positive proofs, stronger and more conclusive than those by which it is supported-which has never even been pretended. To receive a Revelation so pure and excellent on its own intrinsic merits, is one thing; but to refuse its claims, if we take that course, will require the complete establishment of a case against Christianity. We must then go into the whole positive body of historical evidences, and each of these must be outweighed by positive historical evidences on the other side. Common sense and conscience dictate this distinction. I may receive a holy and good religion without going fully into evidences, if I please; but I cannot reject it without a thorough examination. But such an examination no one, with whom we are concerned, will venture to propose.

It is important, however, that this consideration should press with its full weight upon the heart. I am speaking of the moral obligation which lies on every human being to obey the Christian religion; and I say it is so infinitely excellent and holy, that we need not trouble ourselves with reviewing and committing to memory the detail of evidences;

the slightest recollections are enough to carry the cause. The case proves itself.

I go further: a single reflection settles the question. If there be any Revelation given from God to man, the Christian is that Revelation; since no other can for an instant be compared with it in respect either of outward proof or internal excellency; and this Revelation actually accomplishes the purposes for which it professes to be given -the restoration of man to himself, to, God, to happiness. This consideration is enough to sway the judgment of any reasonable and accountable creature.

And do you not feel this? Do you not know that you do not want proofs, but obedience; that the obstacles to faith are not in Christianity, but in yourselves? Yes, I am persuaded you suspect at least that such a holy religion is indeed from God; and must and does claim and demand your submission. I remind you, then, of the obligation which these principles bring with them. I ask you in the sight of that Almighty God, before whose bar we shall soon stand, whether you are not bound to yield to a Revelation of his grace so rich and exuberant as that of Christianity? I want to gain you to salvation. I dispute not-I persuade. I want a cordial, penetrating sense of guilt to awaken your fears. I want a view of a reconciled Father in Jesus Christ, to attract your love. I want a perception of your need of the influences of the Holy Spirit to lead you to prayer for the blessing. I want the hopes and prospects of immortality to animate your efforts. I set aside reasoning. I speak to the conscience. Be the evidences forcible or slight; be they few or many; be they demonstrative or only probable; they are enough, on the lowest estimate, to carry with them the moral obligation of such a religion. But how much are these reflections strengthened, when we consider,

III. THE REAL SIMPLICITY, VARIETY, INDEPENDENCE, AND FORCE OF THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

We made the concessions of the former head, in order to disarm opposition and touch the heart. We left the conscience to its spontaneous influence. We said that