ness, and he went and hung himself.
Here was no decisive evidence of
genuine repentance; he was sorry,
but it was the sorrow of the world
which worketh death. "He fell
into perdition." None of them is
lost but the son of perdition.
"Judas by transgression fell, that
he might go to his own place."

"Lord let not all my hopes be vain,
Create my heart entirely new,
Which hypocrites could ne'er attain,
Which false apostates never knew.”
L.

LETTER II.

On the Evidences of Christianity.
Addressed to a young Person of
Sceptical Opinions.
MY DEAR FRIEND,

In the time of Ezra, five hundred years before the coming of Christ, when the Jews had regained their liberty under Cyrus the Persian monarch, and the city and temple of Jerusalem were rebuilt, the different books of the Old Testament, historical, prophetic, moral, and devotional, had not only been written, but published and received as genuine writings. They were soon afterwards united with the Pentateuch, and for a series of ages appealed to by all parties in the Jewish state, as books of the highest authority in subservience to the law. During our Lord's ministry, the Old Testament scriptures were not only owned by the Jews themselves, and publicly read in the synagogues, but were appealed to by our Saviour and his apostles, as the standard of divine truth. They had also been translated into the Greek and Syrian languages, and were generally known and acknowledged by the learned in all parts of the civilized world.

In reference to the New Testa

I will now endeavour to redeem my promise, by inviting your attention to the authenticity of the scriptures. It appears to me that there is no fact, recorded on the page of history, confirmed by greater evidence than the genuineness of the sacred books, the acknowledged repositories of the christian religion. By the testimony of Josephus, and ment it is equally certain, that the other ancient writers of unquestion- profession of Christianity has exable authority, as well as by the isted in the world for nearly eighcontents of the Old Testament it- teen centuries, during the whole of self, it is proved beyond a doubt which, subsequent to the death of that the people of Israel had existed the apostles, the books now before in the land of Canaan, as a distinct us have been quoted and appealed nation, for a period of fifteen cento by its different advocates, in disturies before the commencement of puting among themselves, or repelthe christian era. During the whole ling the accusations of unbelievers. of that period, they were distin. It is as unquestionable as a fact of guished from other nations, by the this nature can be, that the people peculiarities of their civil and reli- who first received the gospels and gious institutions, which, as they epistles from their several authors, believed, had been established and felt a deep sense of their importrecorded by divine authority in the ance as the compositions of inspired five books of Moses, their undoubt- men, and employed the utmost care ed lawgiver. In all the proceedings to have them handed down for the of their rulers, whether they were benefit of posterity unmutilated and men of piety or not, the genuineness unimpaired. In multiplying copies and authority of those writings were of the Old and New Testament, never questioned, but uniformly ac- every precaution appears to have knowledged and maintained, been used, both by Jews and Chris

tians, to prevent mistakes. And the to be the truth. It can scarcely be divisions and controversies which imagined that the five books of have taken place in all periods of Moses, and other historical parts of the christian church, are a sufficient the Old Testament, would have proof, that no material alterations been received with universal confior gross corruptions of the original dence by the people of Israel, even could have been attempted, to serve when the events recorded must have the interests of a party without be- been fresh in their memories, if the ing discovered and exposed. In statements contained in them had short, my dear sir, there are no been untrue. Some of the facts are books come down to us from ancient indeed very extraordinary, which sages, whose genuineness and pu- may seem to justify suspicions. But rity are better verified, or more in- the greatness of these events would dubitable, than the holy scriptures. have rendered the imposture more In reading a book professedly his- notorious, and enabled every man torical, our first inquiry is, whether of common sense to detect the cheat. or not the statements contained in The miraculous events moreover it are true. If the events in ques- are interwoven with the common tion happened at a time or place, history in a manner so intimate and in which we had no means of know- inseparable, that if the latter be ing them by personal acquaintance, true, the former cannot be fallait would be right to inquire, whe- cious, but the whole must stand or ther the character of the historian, fall on the same ground. But the the nature of the events themselves, writings of the prophets are foundthe manner in which he states them, ed on the facts affirmed in the histhe sources from which he derived torical books, and by a continual his knowledge, and the testimony reference to past events and wellof other historians, sufficiently con- known customs, prove beyond a firm the veracity of the facts re- reasonable doubt, the credibility of lated. If the writers of national the statements which those books history were to publish a number of contain. fictions, falsehoods, or misrepresentations intermingled with the truth, many of their contemporaries would be induced to expose the deception, and consign their writings to contempt. In matters of great interest and universal concern, whether they be ancient or modern, near or remote, the truth or falsehood of a narrative is for the most part closely scrutinized and sufficiently confirmed.

If then, my dear friend, we examine the scripture upon these principles, we shall find in the particular mention of times and places, persons and circumstances, and in the whole texture and style of writing, abundant proof that the sacred writers intended to record nothing but what they believed and knew

If, moreover, we proceed to the New Testament, we shall perceive in the narratives written by the four evangelists, every appearance of the most sacred regard for truth. The facts which they record respecting our Saviour's doctrine, miracles, death, and resurrection, are amply verified by the acts of the apostles and the epistolary writings. Had they been untrue or even doubtful, the opponents of the gospel wanted neither ability nor inclination to expose them to public scorn. But their veracity in the most essential particulars is corroborated by the acknowledgments of the Jewish Sanhedrim, and by the testimony of Josephus, Porphyry, Celsus, Pliny, and a numerous host of writers, in the first three centuries, enemies as

well as friends. In short, whether structions were delivered; they were men of God, whose names should be embalmed in our memories, and spoken of with gratitude as the excellent of the earth.

we appeal to the books themselves, or to the foreign and circumstantial evidences of their credibility, no solid reason can be adduced to impeach the truth of a single narrative, much less to invalidate the claims of the whole volume.

Although bad men are sometimes made the instruments of moral good, yet it seems reasonable to expect, that the character of persons raised up by Divine Providence for important purposes, should, in a great measure, correspond to the work as signed. If the prophets and apostles were indeed the messengers of God, inspired to communicate to the world a revelation of his purposes and commands, it is but just to anticipate, in the discharge of their commission, those evidences of faith and piety, wisdom and integrity, purity and benevolence, fortitude and perseverance, which would verify their pretensions, and furnish an example of the truth and excellence of their religion.

In the character of Moses and the Jewish prophets, it must be confessed, we do not find an entire exemption from moral defect; nor can absolute perfection be looked for in any man. But no person, I conceive, can take an impartial review of their whole conduct, and, at the same instant, consider the time and circumstances in which they performed their part; without admiring the simplicity and purity of their manners, their manifest superiority to a selfish and vain ambition, the elevated fervour of their devotions, and the manly firmness they displayed in the hour of difficulty, martyrdom, and death. Their characters, viewed in comparison with the greatest sages of antiquity, instead of sinking, will rise in our esteem. In a dark and benighted age, they appeared as stars of the first magnitude. And though persecuted, in many cases, by the people for whose Lenefit their inVOL. XVII.

With respect to the apostles of Christ, the same things may be affirmed more forcibly, and with stronger evidence. Though they had neither learning, opulence, nor power to promote their cause, they went forth in pursuance of their Lord's com mission, as the avowed ministers of a new and a divine religion, intending to overturn, by their instructions, those false and pernicious systeins of superstition which had been established for ages, and were every where supported by the great. And yet they were neither madmen, impostors, nor fanatics; but they spoke the words of truth and soberness, commending the gospel to every man's conscience in the sight of God, and, at length, suffering martyrdom in attestation of the doctrine they delivered.

What then, my dear Sir, shall be said and thought of the character of Christ himself, in whom, even his bitterest adversaries could find nothing to justify their malice, or to substantiate their charge? His unexampled excellencies, as delineated by the four evangelists in their simple unstudied narratives, leave on the Christian's mind a deep and indelible conviction that the authority he assumed was real, and the doctrines taught by him entitled to universal credence. That the author and finisher of our faith was a model of every virtue that can adorn humanity, or benefit the world, has been acknowledged indeed by many, who, at the same time, denied the truth, or questioned the authority of his doctrine. But no person, possessing the wisdom and virtue of our Saviour, to say nothing of his divine nature, could either be imposed upon himself, or attempt to impose on others, by assuming a commission for which

2

Miscellanea.

there were usand, and out of this were to be found in every one of his