And this evidence of our Lord's divine mission is of the more importance, because, our Saviour himself appealed to it as the grand proof of his being sent from heaven to instruct and to redeem mankind. For when he cast the buyers and sellers out of the temple, and the Jews required of him a sign, that is, a miraculous proof, that he had the authority of God for doing those things, his answer was, "Destroy this temple; (meaning his body) and in three days I will raise it up. When therefore, he was risen from the dead, his disciples. remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scriptures, and the word which Jesus had said;"* and they themselves constantly referred to the resurrection, more than to any other evidence, as the great foundation on which their faith has built.

* John ii. $9. 22,

The reason for this, perhaps, was, that this great event contained in itself, at once, the evidence both of miracle and of prophecy. It was certainly one of the most stupendous manifestations of divine power that could be present. ed to the observation of mankind; and it was, at the same time, the comple. tion of two most remarkable prophecies; that of our Saviour's above mentioned, and that well known one of king David's, which St. Peter expressly applies to the resurrection of Christ: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,. neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption."*

* Psalm xvi. 10. Acts ii. 27. On this subject of Christ's resurrection I must again refer my young readers to Dr. Paley, vol. ii, ch. ix. p. 2c9, and also to the conclusion of his work; the force of which it seems to me scarce possible for an unprejudiced reader to withstand.

CONCLUSION.

THESE are the principal proofs

of the truth of the Christian Religion. Many others of a very satisfactory nature might be added; but the question may be safely rested on those that have here been stated.

And when we collect them all together into one point of view; when we consider the deplorable ignorance and inconceivable depravity of the heathen world before the birth of Christ, which rendered a divine interposition essentially necessary, and therefore highly prob able; the appearance of Christ upon earth, at the very time when his presence was most wanted, and when there was a general expectation throughout the East, that some great and extraordinary personage was soon to come into the world; the transcendent excellence of our Lord's character, so infi

nitely beyond that of every other moral teacher; the calmness, the composure, the dignity, the integrity, the spotless sanctity of his manners, so utterly inconsistent with every idea of enthusiasm or imposture; the sublimity and importance of his doctrines; the consummate wisdom and perfect purity of his moral precepts, far exceeding the natural powers of a man born in the humblest situation, and in a remote and obscure corner of the world, without learning, education, languages, or books; the rapid and astonishing propagation of his religion, in a very short space of time, through almost every region of the East, by the sole efforts of himself and a few illiterate fishermen, in direct opposition to all the power, the authori ty, the learning, the philosophy, the reigning vices, prejudices and superstitions, of the world; the complete and marked opposition, in every essential point, between the character and religion of Christ and the character and religion of Mahomet, exactly such as might be expected between truth and falsehood;

the minute description of all the most material circumstances of his birth, life, sufferings, death, and resurrection, given by the ancient prophets many hundred years before he was born, and exactly fulfilled in him, and him only, pointing him out as the Messiah of the Jews and the Redeemer of mankind; the various prophecies delivered by Christ himself, which were all punctually accomplished, more especially the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans; the many astonishing miracles wrought by Jesus, in the open face of day before thousands of spectators, the reality of which is proved by multitudes of the most unexceptionable witnesses, who sealed their testimony with their blood, and was even acknowledged by the earliest and most inveterate enemies of the gospel; and, lastly, that most astonishing and well authenticated miracle of our Lord's resurrection, which was the seal and confirmation of his own divine origin, and that of his religion; when all these various evidences are brought together, and impartially weigh.