Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

linefs and Purity of the Divine Being; and that there is therefore great Neceflity of a Saviour to bring us to God, and to rectify our depraved Nature. You may certainly know, that there are a great Variety of Predictions of fuch a Saviour, difperfed through the whole Old Teftament; and that the whole Nation of the. Jews always did, and still do, from thence live in raised Expectations of a Meffiah.-You may certainly know, that there were a great Number of Rites and Ceremonies religioufly obferved and practifed among the Jews; and that Sacrificing, in particular, was not only enjoined upon them, but early and generally practifed among all Nations. For none of which Things can there be any Manner of Reason given or imagined, unless they were Types and Adumbrations of an expected Saviour.-You may certainly know, that the Time perfixed in the Jewish Prophecies for the Manifestation of the Meffiah, was the very Time in which, by the concurring Teftimony both of the Friends and Enemies of Chriftianity, the Lord Jefus did appear.-You may certainly know, that the Jewish Prophets did foretell a fuffering Saviour, a Saviour that fhould be wounded for our Tranfgreffions, bruifed for our Iniquities, that frould make his Soul an Offering for Sin; and that should be cut off, but not for himself: And you are equally certain from all other Hiftorians, as well as from the Evangelifts, that our Lord Jefus did undergo fuch Opproby, Mifery and Death as was foretold of the Meffiah by the Prophets.-You may certainly know, that it was foretold in the Prophets, that the Scepter fhould not depart from Judah, and a Lawgiver from between his Feet, until the coming of the Meffiah; but that after his Death, the Jewish Sacrifices fhould ceafe, and their holy City and Sanctuary be deftroyed and made defolate: And

the

that the Event does affure us, that the Circumftances of the Jewish Nation did exactly answer to thefe Prophecies, both before and after the Death of Jefus Chrift. You may certainly know, both by the Jewish and Chriftian Prophecies, that under the Gofpel Difpenfation the Jews were to be rejected of God; and to continue defpifed and dispersed among all Nations; but the Gentiles to come to the Light of the Meffiah, and fee his Righteoufnefs and Glory and that the Event is agreeable to the Prediction. You may certainly know, that the Rife of Antichrift was predicted to be after the Fall of the Roman Empire, when that could no longer let or restrain him; that he fhould appear under the Guife of a Minifter of Religion, in the Temple of God; that he fhould pretend to all Power and Signs, and lying Wonders; that he should make War with the Saints, and overcome them; that he fhould refide in the great City, that was then built upon feven Mountains, and reigned over the Kings of the Earth, which was true of the City of Rome only. And you may confider, whether all this is not true of the Pope and the Roman Papacy.-You may certainly know the amazing Progrefs of the Gospel in the first Ages of Chriftianity, in the Face of the most formidable and powerful Oppofitions; and its continuing Progrefs againft all the Attempts of its heathen and papal Enemies. You may know the Excellency of its Doctrines, and the glorious Effects it hath upon the Hearts and Lives of true Believers. You may know (as, bleffed be God, Multitudes do know by Experience) how it conquers Mens Corruptions, changes their Natures, pacifies their Confciences, fills their Souls with Light and Joy, ftrengthens them againft Temptations, fweetens the Afflictions of Life, and fortifies them against all the Pains and Terrors of Death.-And

you

you also may know, that this Gofpel is the Gofpel of Chrift, and confequently that thefe wonderful Effects, which fo apparently carry a divine Signature upon them, are produced by him.-All these Things, and others of a like Nature, which might be mentioned, are immediately open to your View, most visible and certain; and one would think that these alone would fatisfy the Mind of a ferious and impartial Inquirer into the Truth of Chriftianity. And especially when these are accompanied with fuch other Credentials of our holy Religion, which (though not fo directly in View, yet) by neceffary Confequence give us the fame Affurance and Certainty of the Truth.

But it is Time I fhould come more directly to anfwer the Objection; and to fhew you, how it may by neceffary Confequence be known, that the Facts, upon which Christianity principally depends, are certainly true.

You yourself must own, it is impoffible that those Doctrines can be false, which are attefted by fo many and fuch Kind of Miracles, as are faid to be wrought by our Lord Jefus Chrift and his Apostles. -For God cannot fet his Seal to a Lie; nor confirm a horrible Imposture, by his immediate Attostation from Heaven.

You must own, that it is impoffible for the Apoftles, and other Witneffes of these miraculous Operations, to be themselves deceived, while they had all the Means of Certainty in the Cafe before us, that ever any Man had in any Case whatso

ever.

You must likewife own, that it is impoffible for a great Number of fober, judicious and apparently honest Men, to spend their Lives in a continued Confpiracy against their own Eafe, Comfort, Honour, Life, and eternal Welfare, for no other Ma

tive

tive but to deceive the World, and bring eternal Ruin upon themselves and their Fellow Creatures ; as these must have done, if they knew thofe Facts to be falfe, which they published at their Peril, and fealed with their Blood.

You must also own, that it was impoffible to deceive the World about them, at the Time when thefe Facts were done, by reporting, that fuch miraculous Operations were openly performed before them all, which none of them knew any Thing about.

You will certainly own, it is impoffible that they could deceive the Churches to whom they wrote, by vain Pretences, that each one of these had themfelves the extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit, fuch as Tongues, Miracles, Healing, Prophecy, and the like, when every one of them knew that there was nothing in it.

You must in like Manner own it impoffible for fuch Multitudes of People, for fo long a Tract of Time, to be impofed upon by Pretences of miraculous Operations; and none of them ever detect the Impofture, fo much as in one fingle Inftance, while all of them had the Opportunity of doing it when they pleased, if the Facts had not been

true.

Can you imagine it any Ways poffible, that fuch Multitudes in the firft Ages of Chriftianity, in fuch diftant Countries and Nations, fhould confpire together to acknowledge thefe Facts, and the Doctrines founded on them, at the Peril of their Lives; and no Man among these Profeffors themselves, or among the Heretics and Apoftates that fell away from them, fhould discover the Fraud, either living or dying?

You will certainly own it utterly impoffible, that fo many thousands, in fo many Lands, could with

Joy

Joy and Chearfulness submit to fuch poor and af ficted Lives, and to such cruel and barbarous Deaths, as were the common Lot of the first Christians, in Confirmation of a Religion, founded upon Facts which they knew to be false.

And you must acknowledge it also altogether impoffible, at any Time after these Facts were pretended to be done, to palm the Hiftory of them upon the World, if it was false; and to persuade fo many Nations to receive it for Truth. It were impoffible to perfuade any Nation, and much more all the early Nations of Christendom, that at fome diftant forgotten Age there were a Number of Men that came among them, taught them the Doctrines of Chriftianity, confirmed the fame by Miracles, baptized them into the Faith, and estastablished a fettled Order of the Ministry in their Churches: From which Time, they have all of them professed the Christian Faith, had the New Teftament in their Hands, and enjoyed a continued Succeffion of Minifters and Ordinances.-Let an Attempt of this Kind be made upon our Indians, and try if any one Man among them can be impofed upon to believe these Things.

To this I may add, that it is abfolutely impoffible, at any one Time, to have obtruded the infpired Writings upon the World, if they were indeed fpurious; and to have made all the Chriftian Nations believe, that these were written in the Apoftolic Age, fpeedily tranflated into divers. Languages, publicly kept, and publicly read and preached in their Churches; that they and their Fathers before them had always reverenced and efteemed them as the Rule of their Lives, and their Guide to eternal Happiness.- -What Succefs, but

Scorn and Derifion, could be hoped for from fuch an Attempt ?

« AnteriorContinuar »