condemnation of all who deny or even dispute their imperious dogmas! In a word, how plainly does the one prove itself the offspring of that wisdom which "descended from above, which is full of mercy and good fruits;" while the other betrays the influence of spiritual delusion working on spiritual pride, and displaying in its effects foul marks of the earthly and corrupted source from whence it springs!

CONCLUSION.

We have now examined the various circumstances which would have detected the influence of enthusiasm in the first teachers of Christianity, if it had in any degree existed; and it has, I trust, appeared that they were totally exempt from its dominion. The FACTS which determined them to follow their Lord during his life, and after his death to maintain his resurrection and Divinity, were so plain and certain, so contrary to their original expectations, and received with such slowness and caution, as fully exempt the apostles from all suspicion of being the dupes of delusion and credulity. We have also seen that the miracles which they wrought to convert men to the belief of the Gospel were so great and unquestionable, the proofs they employed so just and consistent, that no fanaticism could have gained credit to such facts or suggested such reasonings.

And as they were thus evidently free from the two essential and leading characters of enthusiasm, credulity and dogmatism, so also they betray none of those minuter marks of weakness or extravagance which detect that want of discretion and soberness of mind ever attendant on fanaticism. Their CONDUCT discovers nothing of the melancholy, the austerity, or the abstraction of enthusiasts; nothing of that contempt of order and propriety which such men ever display. All their actions were consistent with reason and directed by utility-intrepid and persevering, but cool and steady. In preaching the Gospel, they guarded their safety and reputation, as far as was consistent

with their sacred work. If they despised the favour of man, it was only when they could not obtain it without violating their duty to God. If they cheerfully encountered shame, and suffering, and death, it was to secure themselves, and lead mankind to obtain the reward of an eternal life.

And as in their private conduct and views they were rational and sober, in the government of the church they were prudent and cautious, mild and decorous, zealous without violence, and steady without obstinacy. They were ever careful to avoid every occasion of offence, and prompt to conciliate and concede, as far as concession was justifiable, making due allowance for every prejudice, and guarding against every cause of dissension. They provided wisely and effectually for the edification and harmony, the rapid spread and the permanent security of the church of Christ.

Nor do their WRITINGS, breathe the spirit of sobriety less evidently than their lives. The style of fanatics is ever obscure, arrogant and violent; the style of the New Testament is the very reverse of this. The historical writings plain and calm and unexaggerated, detail the facts which establish the unparalleled perfection of their Divine Lord with the particularity and consistency of truth, and the most signal coolness and impartiality. While the epistles are in the highest degree natural, rational and affectionate, suited to the occasions which produced them, and to the relation which the writers bore to the different persons whom they addressed-instructing their ignorance and encouraging their virtues; rebuking their offences without bitterness; vindicating their own characters from calumny, without betraying any excessive resentment; and maintaining their own authority, as religious instructors and guides, without any trace of spiritual pride, any arrogant claims to full perfection of virtue.

Next to the style and subject matter of their writings, we have examined the nature of the several moral precepts they deliver, and this has appeared most strongly contrasted with the errors of fanaticism. Men infected with this, ever neglect or corrupt morality. Their devotion is gloomy and extravagant; their principles of social conduct unnatural and erroneous; their ideas of personal merit and self-regulation wild, harsh and

impracticable. The morality of the Gospel is free from all these defects, and eminently distinguished by the opposite excellencies; teaching heart-felt piety to God, without any affectation of rapturous ecstasy or extravagant fervor-a piety chastened and controlled by discretion and humility. We perceive that its just pre-eminence is allowed to internal sincerity, while to outward rites and observances their due importance is preserved. Every virtue has its just order and value in the Christian scheme; every social duty is taught in the clearest manner, and enforced by the strongest motives; towards our neighbour strict equity and active benevolence is inculcated. While the mind is trained to rational and habitual self-government, founded on piety, promotive of internal purity, and leading by constant vigilance to final perfection.

Such is the system of Christian morality. Surely such a system as this, not only could not have been the offspring of wild, senseless fanaticism, but so far transcended all preceding efforts of human reason, as well as all natural powers and attainments of its authors, that it can scarcely be ascribed to any force but the dictates of Divine wisdom providing for human happiness.

To this system of morality the Gospel adds a scheme of speculative doctrines, in which every certain truth of natural religion is maintained in the strongest manner, is confirmed by new proofs, and placed in the clearest light; and in which all doubts as to our present relation to God, and our future expectations, are decided exactly in that way, which coincides with the opinions of the most enlightened reason, and best promotes the interests of virtue and religion; and this undebased by any mixture of those fictions and extravagancies which fanaticism would almost inevitably have dictated. And even the most abstruse and mysterious doctrines of the Christian scheme, do not appear to have been such, as were likely to originate in any delusions of imagination, but rather such as were directly connected with, and evidently grounded on the plain facts of the Gospel history, and thence clearly supported by a divine authority.

It should not be forgotten, that in the course of this inquiry many facts and circumstances have forced on our observance, the sincerity and integrity of our Lord and his apostles; their

complete freedom from all mercenary and ambitious, all narrow and interested views, so that it seems to be established beyond controversy, that they were neither deceivers, nor deceived. And if this is admitted, the facts they attest are certainly true, and as certainly Christianity is of divine original.

It deserves also to be noticed, that many circumstances have accidentally occurred in the course of this inquiry, confirming in the strongest manner the genuineness and authenticity of the New Testament. The particularity and consistency of the Gospels, the references in the epistles to private and local and domestic particulars, their containing answers to questions and letters coming from persons to whom they are addressedthese, and a variety of other particulars, render it almost wholly incredible, that these epistles should not have been the writings of the apostles whose names they bear. And if so, the whole series of facts on which Christianity rests, is established beyond the possibility of doubt.

Indeed the supposition that the New Testament was not genuine and authentic, carries with it inextricable difficulties. Whoever were its authors their system of morality proves, they were in the highest degree pious, honest and rational; and anxious for the improvement of mankind in purity and virtue, justice and benevolence. And how is it possible to reconcile with this the idea of their being guilty of the grossest forgery, and imposing upon the world the most atrocious and impious falsehoods as to the Divine conduct and Divine dispensations— leading men to adore a crucified deceiver as the Son of God and Judge of the world?

The true reason why men are not sufficiently impressed with the view of the direct evidence of the Gospel is, that they do not sufficiently reflect on the extreme absurdities and contradictions they must fall into if they deny the force of that evidence. They only attend to the objections, which they conceive lie against the admission of Christianity, but reflect not on the infinitely greater difficulties which attend its rejection. There is no medium between believing the Gospel to be entirely false or entirely true. Either its authors were what they claim to be, messengers from God; or they were the grossest impostors, and

at the same time the wildest fanatics that ever appeared in the world; deceivers and fanatics to such a degree as involves a direct contradiction. In truth, on this supposition every thing is contradiction and perplexity. The improvements on all former schemes of morality and religion, which the teachers of the Gospel introduced, are unaccountable. Their steadiness in encountering shame and persecution is unaccountable. Their success in reforming the Jews and Heathens, in overturning that gross system of idolatry, which was supported by the people, the priests, and the emperors, is unaccountable. Finally, it is wholly unaccountable, how fanatics or deceivers should have instituted a scheme of religion which has survived the ruins of the Roman empire; which though corrupted and debased by the ignorance and superstition of the dark ages that succeeded, carried in itself the means of detecting these corruptions, and reforming those abuses. A religion, which, though it has been the subject of more violent opposition, more close investigation and more acute objection, than the human mind ever has employed on any other subject, has yet sustained this fiery trial, and still remains unshaken and unconfuted. A religion, which inspires the noblest hopes, and supports the purest virtues that can adorn the human mind; which so far as it has prevailed, has softened the manners and reformed the vices of mankind, and which, whenever it has been neglected, abused, or forsaken, has proved its excellence by the very vices and miseries which have attended, and chastised such perversion and apostacy,

Such is the religion, whose divine original, as I am myself from my heart convinced of, I have in the preceding work endeavoured to illustrate and defend. And if it is indeed of divine original, it is assuredly the first duty of every human being, to whose acceptance it is offered, to examine it with candid attention, and when satisfied of its truth, to receive it with humble reverence; to practise what is plain, and believe what is clearly revealed; to examine with humility, and interpret with caution whatever may appear doubtful and obscure; to acquiesce in the ignorance of what Divine wisdom has not judged it necessary for man clearly to understand, but to be careful to improve the instructions it has deigned to bestow.