I hope you may now fee the Neceffity of a Savi our, both to expiate your Sin and Guilt, which your Repentance can never do; and to fanctify your depraved Soul, and make you meet for the Service and Enjoyment of God.-If thefe are obtained, you must be certainly and eternally fafe: But if you dare venture into Eternity without them, I must needs fay, you don't want Courage. You fee, I have addreffed you with an unreferved Freedom and Familiarity. I have overlooked the Distance of your Character; and treated you as if we were in the fame State of Equality now, as we shall quickly find ourselves before the Tribunal of our glorious Judge.--The Cause requires this at my Hands; and I fhould have been unfaithful, I had almost faid unmerciful to you, if I had not failed of the Decorum, which would have been my Duty to have obferved in any other Cafe. I fhall therefore depend upon your candid Interpretation of this unpolifhed Addrefs; and your kind Acceptance of the faithful Designs and Defires of, SIR, Your most Obedient humble Servant. LETTER II. Wherein a brief and general View is given of the Evidences of the Chriftian Religion. SIR, O U tell YOU 66 me, my Letter had almost thrown you into a Fit of the Spleen." But I can't but hope, from your " awful Concern, left you meet with the Confufion I have therein defcrib"ed," that it will have a better Effect.-I acknowledge, -- knowledge, that "a pathetic Declamation cannot "be received for Argument." And that, "your "Faith must be built upon Evidences, that will "reach the Understanding, as well as the fofter "Paffions of the Soul." But what Evidence do you defire or want of the Truth of Christianity? Confider, Sir. Confult yourBooks and your Friends. Make your Demands as large as you or they can contrive; and whatever rational Evidence you are pleased to ask for, fhall be at your Service.. I have myfelf, with particular Application been confidering, what reafonable Evidence can poffibly be confulted or defired, which the glorious God has not already given us, Confirmation of the Chriftian Inftitution; and I find nothing wanting, which we are capable of receiving. And I cannot but prefume, that if you likewife would impartially and in earneít put yourfelf upon the fame Enqui ry, you must meet with a full and complete Satiffaction. You will certainly acknowledge, that the great Creator is capable fome Way or other to communicate his Will to intelligent Beings, with fufficient Evidence that the Revelation is from him.-Now what I defire of you is to fit down, and confult upon fome fuch Means of doing this, as would ftrike your Mind with the ftrongest Conviction, ob→ viate all your Doubts; and give you the fullest Confirmation of the divine Original of such a Revelation. When you are come to a Point, confider the Credentials of Chriflianity; and fee wheyou can find what you yourself would demand, and what you fuppofe molt likely to give you Sa ther tisfaction. Would you expect from fuch a Revelation, a reafonable Account of our first Original ?-Look into the Mofaic Hiftory of the Creation; and there you you will find, how the World, and how yourself, originally fprang from the divine Fiat; and in what Manner we are the Offspring of God. Would you expect a Narrative of fuch Circumftances of God's Difpenfations towards us from the Beginning, as would be correfpondent with our conftant Experience and Obfervation ?-The fame History will inform you of those irregular Affections, and vitiated Appetites and Paffions, which every Man finds in himself; and which have brought fuch Destruction and Mifery upon the World, in all its fucceffive Periods, fince Adam's Fall. Would you expect, that there fhould be early Intimations of the Method of our Recovery from the State of Sin and Guilt, which we had brought ourfelves into by our Apoftacy?-You will there alfo find the gracious Promife, that the Seed of the Woman Shall break the Serpent's Head; and deliver us from the deadly Effects of his malicious Temptation. Would you defire to find a particular Prediction of the promised Saviour, by whom we are to obtain a Redemption; his Lineage and Defcent, the Time, Place and Manner of his Birth, the Circumstances of his Life, Death and Resurrection, a particular Description of the Nature, the Subjects, and the continual Progrefs of his Kingdom? Read the Prophecies of the Old Teftament; and read the Hiftory in the New; and you will find fuch a Correspondence and Agreement, as will afford you Matter of fulleft Satisfaction, that they are both from God. Would you expect, that there should be fome Means to keep the promised Saviour in the continued View of God's People, before his actual and perfonal Manifeftation; and to keep alive their Faith and Hope in him?-What were all their Sa crifices, crifices, their legal Purifications, their Prieft-hood and all their long Train of Rites and Ceremonies> but Inftitutions purpofely adapted to that End? Would you expect repeated and renewed Teftimonies from Heaven, to the profeffing People of God, that their Religion was from him; and that their Faith and Hope, excited by thefe typical Inftitutions, were built upon a fure Foundation-Such were the Miracles frequently wrought among them, the Manifeftation of the divine Prefence in the Shechinah, their Urim and Thummim, their frequent Oracles, their Succeffion of Prophets, whofe Predictions refpecting the Jews themselves, and the Nations round about them, were continually fulfilled and fulfilling before their Eyes; and the Accomplishment of many of them are apparently open and visible to us alfo. Would you fuppofe, that near the predicted Time of the Saviour's Appearance, not only the Jewish Nation, but all others that were acquainted with their facred Books, would live in raised Expectations of this great and wonderful Event?You will find in the Gospels, in Jofephus *, Tacitus †, and Suetonius ‡, that this was the Cafe in Fact. Would you expect, that when the Saviour did appear, he would by the Holiness and Beneficence of his Life, and by numerous, open, and uncontested Miracles, give fuch Atteftation to his divine Miffion, as would be fufficient Evidence, that he was indeed the Meffiah fo frequently predicted, and fo earnestly expected?-Don't the facred Hiftorians answer your highest Expectations in this Refpect?-In them you find, that the Dead were raifed, the Sick healed, the maimed reftor'd to the De Bell. Jud. Lib. vii. Cap. 31. † Hist. Cap. 13. Ufe Use of their Limbs, the Sight of the Blind recovered, the Deaf brought to their Hearing, the Lepers cleanfed, the Demons ejected; and, in a Word, that the whole Time of his Ministry was a continued Succeffion of the most beneficent and astonishing Miracles; Miracles as surprising in their Nature as their Number, such as vastly exceeded the Power of all created Beings; and were therefore the strongest Teftimony from Heaven, that this Saviour moft certainly was what he profeffed himself to be. Would you expect, that this Saviour should verify his divine Mission to future Times, by Prophe cies of fucceeding Events?-Don't the Evangelifts afford you many Inftances of fuch Predictions, which have been clearly and fully accomplished? -In these Hiftorians you will find, how he foretold the Treafon of Judas, the fhameful Fall of Peter, with the Flight of all his Disciples, in that gloomy, dreadful Night, when the Shepherd was fmitten, and the Sheep Scattered. In these you will find, how he foretold the Time and Manner of his own Death, the Term of his Continuance in the Grave, with his glorious Refurrection and Ascension. You will there alfo find him foretelling the Miffion, divine Inspiration, miraculous Powers, and glorious Succefs of his Apostles, and their Fellowlabourers in the Gofpel Miniftry.-Thefe Hiftorians do likewife fet before you, his particular Prediction of the Destruction of Jerufalem, and the Abolition of the Temple, with the Prodigies which preceeded, the Tribulation which accompanied, and the Difperfion of the Jewish Nation which followed that amazing Defolation.-And don't it furprize you to find from Jofephus, that the twenty fourth Chapter of Matthew, and the twenty first Chapter of Luke, are more like a History than a Prophecy of that dreadful Event?--If you should C yet |