A COLLECTION OF THEOLOGICAL TRACTS, IN SIX VOLUMES. By RICHARD WATSON, D.D. F.R.S. Printed for T. EVANS in the Strand, and in the Great Market, Bury St. Edmund's; J. and J. MERRILL, Cambridge; J. FLETCHER, and PRINCE and COOKE, Oxford; P. HILL, Edinburgh; and W. M'KENZIE, Dublin. M.DCC.XСІ. CONTENTS. Of the Truth of the Christian Religion. By DAVID HARTLEY, M. A. Lond. 1749. p. 1. This Tract is printed from the second volume of Doctor Hartley's Obervations on Man; it is written, as all the other parts of that work are, with fingular closeness of thought; and to be well understood, must be read with great attention. Grotius; Abbadie Fabricius; Limborch, Jacquelot; Houtteville; Pascal; Stillingfleet; Stackhouse; Benson; Clarke; Leland; Lardner; Macknight; Chandler; Jenkins; Stebbing; Fortin; Fofter; Nichols, and a great many other authors, have taken laudable pains in proving the truth of the Christian religion; but I know not any author, Grotius extepted, who has, in so short a compass, said more to the purpote on that fubject than Doctor Hartley has done in the tract which is here republished. Of the Truth of the Christian Religion. By JOSEPH ADDISON, Esq. p. 76. This posthumous Treatise of Mr. Addison has been much ef teemed both at home and abroad: the general argument contained in it has been carried to a greater length by other authors since his time; especially by Mr. Correvon of Geneva; by Professor Bullet of Besançon; and by Dr. Lardner, who has treated it in all its parts with great accuracy in his Collection of Jewish and Heathen Teftimonies to the Truth of the Chriftian Religion. There is, unfortunately, in many men, a strange prepoffeffion against every thing written by churchmen, in defence of the Christian religion ;that "Priests of all religions are the fame"-that " they defend altars on which their lives depend," with an hundred other expreffions of a fimilar tendency, are frequent in the mouths of unbelievers : we fincerely forgive them this wrong; but as the charge of felfishness and hypocrify cannot, with any shadow of propriety, be brought against Mr. Addifon, and fuch other laymen as have written in fupport of Chriftianity, we intreat them to give a fober attention to what these unprejudiced writers have advanced on the subject: furely eternal life is too important a concern to be jested away in farcastic witticism, and frothy difputation. Vol. V. Aa Of Of the Argument for the Truth of Chriftianity arising from the fulfilment of our Saviour's predictions concerning the destruction of the Temple, and the City of Ferusalem, and the dispersion of the Jews. Being the third chapter of the first vol. of a Collection of Jewish and Heathen Teftimonies to the Truth of the Christian Religion. By N. LARDNER, D. D. 1764. p. 103. The argument for the truth of Chriftianity which is taken from the history of the destruction of Jerufalem as related by Jofephus, compared with our Saviour's prediction of that event recorded by the Evangelifts Matthew, Mark, and Luke, has always been confidered as one of the strongest which can be urged, either against the Jews in particular, or against unbelievers in general. In modern times this argument has been illustrated by Jackson in the first volume of his works, 1673; by Tillotson in the 12th vol. (8vo ed.) of his Sermons; by Kidder in his Demonstration of the Meffiah; by Whitby in his Commentary on St. Matthew, and in his General Preface; by Sharpe in a discourse intituled, The Rise and Fall of the Holy City and Temple of Jerufalem, preached at the Temple Church, 1764; and, to mention no others, by Jortin in the first vol. of his Remarks on Ecclefiaftical History. This author has alfo well proved, not only that the Gospels, in which the predictions of Chrift relative to the destruction of Jerufalem are delivered, were written before that event ; but that the predictions themselves could not have been inferted into the Gospels, as interpolations, after the event: the reader will not esteem this to have been an unnecessary labour, who recollects the confidence with which Voltaire, with a view probably of evading the force of the argument in queftion, declares that the Gospels were written after Jerufalem was destroyed-fans doute après la destruction de Jerufalem.-Many an unbeliever is apt to think and say, that he would have faith in the Gospel, if he could fee a man raised from the dead, or any one notable miracle performed in attestation of its truth. Now the completion of an ancient prophecy is, to us who fee the completion, a miracle; and I would fincerely recommend it to every one, who is not steadfast in the faith, to examine carefully, and liberally, whether the prophecies-concerning Jerufalem being trodden under foot of the Gentiles-concerning the fterility of Palestine the state of the Jewish people-the introduction of the Gentiles into the Church of God-the apostasy of the latter times--the independency of the Arabs-the fervitude of Ham's pofterity, &c. have not been literally fulfilled. These things are facts which fall within our own observation; and if we fearch the Scriptures, we shall find that these facts were predicted long before either we or our fathers were born. The |