The present conftitution of the world, with

tion, the religion, the liberty, or flavery of we offere

which fubfift in it, is but one ftage of the com

rious prophecies, which were of oid deverenc

tunes of individuals, nations and contre

fay what Tertullian, speaking of the accom: Linear

prophecy, faid in his Quicquid agitur premsa
detur audiebatur. The reader may find there

Bp. Newton in his Differtations on the Prophet

his Accomplishment of Scripture Prophecy

Argument in defence of Chriftianity by Ler
mons on the Circumstances of the Jewish Peল বাং

Truth of Chriftianity; by the author of the

tienne; by the author of an Effay in the ave

Independency of the Arabs; by Bishops Har

in their Sermons preached at Warburiots

and Henry More, in their respective wor..

his Sermon preached at Boyle's Lecture, 1

All the Actions recorded in the

P. 177-

T

晶

i

made, is a proof of nothing but that the means were adequate to the

end, the cause to the effect. A falfe religion may be speedily and

widely spread by force or by fraud; or it may, by degrees, gain an

extensive establishment in the world, from its being propitious to

the follies, the vices, and paffions of mankind; or from its being

first introduced in an unenlightened and credulous age; or in a

country fitted by peculiar circumstances to foster and fupport it; or

from a concurrence of many other human means. This may be

readily granted; but that the Christian religion should have been

quickly propagated from Judea through the Roman Empire, during

the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, &c. by the human abili-

ties of the Apofties, appears to me to be an incredible fact. Those

who think otherwise would do well, in addition to the fact itself,

to confider the prophecies which were fulfilled when it took place.

"What motive, fays Justin Martyr in his Apology (Reeve's

Tranf.), could ever poffibly have perfuaded us to believe a crucified man

to be the first begotten of the unbegotten God, and that he would come

to judge the world, had we not met with those prophetic teftimo-

nies of him proclaimed so long before his incarnation? Were we

not eye-witnesses to the fulfilling of them? Did we not fee the de-

folation of Judea, and men out of all nations proselyted to the faith

of his Apofttes, and renouncing the ancient errors they were brought

up in? Did we not find the prophecies made good in ourselves, and fee

Chriftians in greater numbers, and in greater fincerity, from among

the Gentiles, than from the Jews and Samaritans?"-This argu-

ment has been infifted upon by Henry More in the first vol. of his

works, where there is a chapter intituled, Veritas Evangelii demon-

Arata ex Succeffu; by J. Diane in a discourse printed 1725, intituled,

The miraculous Success of the Gofpel, a Proof of its divine Origin;

by Lefley in his. Short Method with the Deifts; by Millar in his Hif-

tory of the Propagation of Chriftianity, and Overthrow of Paganisin :

by. Tillotson in the 12th vol of his Serinons; by Leng in his Ser-

mons at Boyle's Lecture; by Jortin in his Truth of the Chriftian

Religion; by Leland in the 6th chapter of the 2d part of his Defence

of Chriftianity: by Bp. Atterbury in his two Sermons on the Mira-

culous Propagation of the Gospel; by Boffuet in his Difcourse on

Univerfal Hiftory; by Lardner in his Collection of Jewish Testi-

monies; by Powell in his 10th Discourse; by Benfon in his Reafon-

ableness of Chriftianity; and by Young in the 2d vol. of his Differ-

tations on Idolatrous Corruptions; where, also, there is a com-

pendious view, fupported by proper authorities, of the countries

through which the Apostles travelled in propagating the Gospel.

An Effsay on the Man of Sin, from Benson's Paraphrafe

and Notes on St. Paul's Epistles. p. 268.

That the Popish religion is the Christian religion, is a false po-

fition, and therefore Chriftianity may be true, though the religion

of

of the Church of Rome be, in many of its parts, an imposture.
This observation should be always kept in mind by such of our
young men of fashion, as are fent to finish their education by tra-
velling in Catholic countries. It may feem paradoxical to affert,
that the corruptions of any religion can be proofs of its truth, yet
the corruptions of the Chriftian religion, as practifed by the
Church of Rome, are certain proofs of the truth of the Chriftian
religion; inasmuch as they are exact completions of the prophe-
cies which were delivered by Daniel, St. Paul, and St. John, con-
cerning that apostasy from the faith, which was to take place, in
the latter times. I have known the infidelity of more than one
young man happily removed, by shewing him the characters of
Popery delineated by St. Paul in his prophecy concerning the Man
of Sin (2 Thef. ii. 1.), and in that concerning the apoftafy of the
latter times (1 Tim. iv. 1). Bp. Hurd, in his 7th fermon at War-
burton's Lecture, has given a concise history of the charge of An-
tichriftianism, which has, at different times, been brought against
the Church of Rome. Dr. Whitaker, Regius Profeffor of Di-
vinity at Cambridge, in his exercise for his degree at the Com-
inencement in 1582, supported this Thesis-Pontifex Romanus est ille
Antichriftus quem futurum Scriptura prædixit. He had, before that
time, refuted the forty arguments by which Nicholas Sander boast-
ed that he had demonftrated that the Pope was not Antichrift.
Whitaker's works are very well worth being looked into by those
who would know what can be faid for and against the other prin-
eipal points in controversy between Proteftants and Papists, as well
as against this primary pillar of the reformed faith-That the Hie-
rarchy of the Church of Rome is the Little Horn of Daniel, the
Man of Sin of St. Paul, and the Antichrift of St. John. The evi-
dence arifing from the completion of the prophecies relative to the
Rife, Character, and Fall of the Man of Sin, is an increasing evi
dence: it strikes us with more force than it struck our ancestors be-
fore the Reformation; and it will strike our pofterity, who shall
observe the different gradations of his decline, and his final ca-
tastrophe, with more force than it now strikes us.

Obfervations on the History and Evidence of the Refur-
rection of Jesus Christ. By GILBERT WEST, Efq.
Lond. 1767. 6th. Ed. p. 289.

The Resurrection of Christ is the very corner-stone on which the
hope of a Chriftian is built; for, if Chrift be not risen, Christianity is
an imposture; and if Christ be risen, Chriftianity is true, and Deifm
is a delusion. Whether Chrift be, or be not rifen from the dead,
is a question of fact, and must be decided (not by metaphyfical dif
quisitions concerning the power of God to work a miracle, nor by
nice fubtilties concerning the fufficiency of human teftimony to ef
tablish the credibility of miracles, but) by fainly estimating the
weight of evidence for and against the fact. The main arguments

which are brought to invalidate the fact of the Resurrection are des

duced from the real, or feeming, differences in the accounts which

the Evangelifts have given of the circumstances which attended it;

and much labour has been employed in harmonizing the several ac

counts. But what if it should be admitted (I do not fay that the

conceffion is necessary), that the accounts cannot in every little point

be made to agree? Will you for that reason disbelieve the fact itself?

As well might you have disbelieved the report of those who should

have faid, that they had feen the body of Cæfar dead, because you

would have found them disagreeing, probably, in some minute

points, relative to the number or situation of his wounds, to the

time or manner of his being stabbed in the Capitol. A flight difa-

greement between the writers of the New Testament, in their res

lations of matters of fact, is entirely analogous to what may be ob

servéd every day in courts of justice; no one, on account of a triffing

difference in the testimonies of the witnesses, ever thinks of quel-

tioning the existence of the fact in which they all agree, or of im

peaching either their integrity, or competency to establish the fact.

If the Evangelists do really differ from each other in their accounts

of the Resurrection of Jesus, it is a proof that they did not write in

concert, were not combined to impose a fable on the world'; and it

is a proof, alfo, that what they wrote was not inspired in the man-

ner which some, with more piety than judginent, have supposed it

to have been. Let the Deifts make the most they can of the varia-

tions which they think may be found in the Evangelifts; yet will

they never be able to prove, that the facts mentioned by these wri-

ters respecting the Birth, Life, Death, Refurrection, and Ateenfion

of Jesus Chrift, are not true : let them fasten upon the writers of the

New Testament as much human infirmity as they can; yet will they

never be able to prove that they were not divinely inspired in what

they delivered concerning the doctrines necessary to be believed, and

the duties necessary to be performed, by all true disciples of Jefus

Chrift.-The book which is here printed has been much esteemed; it

has been translated both into German and French, and may be of

great use to those whose religious principles are unfettled. Macknight,

in his Harmony, has endeavoured to reconcile the feeming inconfift-

encies in the Evangelists relative to the refurrection. Lardner pub-

lished some judicious obfervations on Macknight's plan. Benson has

given his fentiments on the subject of the Refurrection in his Life of

Christ, and has answered the objections usually made to it. Bp.

Newcome, in his Harmony, may be confulted on the subject with great

advantage. A pamphlet, published many years ago, intituled, The Trial

of the Witnefles of the Refurrection of Jesus, has been well received

in the world; but the most solid reasoning, on the subject may be

met with in a discourse concerning the Refurrection of Jesus Chrift,

by Humphrey Ditton, 5th ed. 1749. Fabricius, in the 44th chap.

of his Delectus Argumentorum, mentions 28 different authors on

the Refurrection, and in the 9th chap. of his Lux Evangelica he

adds above 20 more, nor would it be a difficult taik greatly to en-

large his catalogue.

OF

believe the Christian religion, is to believe that Mofes and the prophets, Chrift and his apostles, were endued with divine autho rity, that they had a commission from God to act and teach as they did, and that he will verify their declarations concerning future things, and especially those concerning a future life, by the event: or, in other words, it is to receive the scriptures as our rule of life, and the foundation of all our hopes and fears. And as all those who regulate their faith and practice by the scriptures are Christians; so all those who disclaim that name, and pass under the general title of unbelievers, do also disavow this regard to the scriptures. But there are various classes of unbelievers. Some appear to treat the scriptures as mere forgeries; others allow them to be the genuine writings of those whose names they bear, but suppose them to abound with fictions, not only in the miraculous, but also in the common part of the history; others again allow this part, but reject that; and, lastly, there are others who feem to allow the truth of the principal facts, both common and miraculous, contained in the scriptures, and yet still call in question its divine authority, as a rule of life, and an evidence of a happy futurity under Christ our faviour and king. He, therefore, that would fatisfy himself or others in the truth of the Christian religion, as opposed by these several classes of unbelievers, muft inquire into these three things :

First, The genuineness of the books of the Old and New Tefta

ment.

Secondly, The truth of the principal facts contained in them, both common and miraculous. And,

Thirdly, Their divine authority.

I will endeavour, therefore, to state some of the chief evidences for each of these important points, having first premised three preparatory propositions, or lemmas, whereby the evidence for any one of them may be transferred upon the other two.

VOL. V.

B

PROP.