been mingled with that religion taught in fcripture, and many attempts have been made to found abfurd and contradictory fyftems, upon the fountain of divine truths; yet the contradictions and abfurdities which are to be found in fyftems, compofed by fallible men, are not chargeable on chriftianity itfelf as revealed in the fcriptures. Diftin&t from the idea of infpiration, fcripture hiftory is calculated for the most noble purposes, scripture doctrines are vaftly important, containing truths worthy of God, and of the utmost confequence to mankind, truths of fuch a nature that they never could have been discovered in any other way than by revelation. Scripture morals are most excellent, tending to promote the welfare of fociety here, and to make individuals happy, both here and hereafter, and while an admirable harmony prevails throughout the various parts, the fcope of the whole is to give glory to God. Here let us paufe and reflect whether thefe be the marks of a cunningly devised fable or of a revelation from God. Let it be obferved that, if the fcriptures are in reality a forgery, contrived by defigning men to impofe upon the credulity of mankind, they muft be a forgery, inreated by the worst of men, aiming thereby at the worft of purpofes, and influenced by the worst of motives. But can it be fuppofed that the worft of men, the very dregs of the human race, as all impoftors muft be, if they attempted to forge a religion, fhould forge one on which not a fingle trait of their own profligate character fhould be impreffed, one which fhould give no toleration whatfoever to any unruly paffion or vicious inclination, but was in all points of view oppofite to every depraved difpofition of the human heart, and should ftrictly forbid all thofe things to which the depraved inclinations of men are fo univerfally prone? That the worst of men, acting for the worft of purposes, and influenced by the worst of motives, fhould do all this, without propofing to themselves any temporal reward, or the gratification of any one corrupt inclination, is a molt extraordinary fuppofition indeed and one which cannot be admitted without the utmost stretch of credulity. The very idea of fuch a forgery is impoffible. There are other schemes befides chriftianity which

have made fome pretentions to revelation. But have they not all been destitute of any such characters or marks of divinity? In ancient paganifm, we fee a mixture of midnight darkness, error, and fuperftition, blended with the practice of such external rites as frequently contained in them the height of cruelty and impiety. Their fyftem of morality, both in refpect to extent, principle, and motive, was very defective, and the groffeft immoralities frequentby paffed for acts of piety and devotion. The religion of Mahomet has, ftampt upon it, the most evident marks of fraud and imposture; is calculated to inspire the worst of paffions, cruelty, malice, and revenge, and tends to the practice of unbounded licentioufnefs. It is true it contains fome precepts of morality, borrowed from the chriftian revelation, yet this fyftem is a firanger to purity of heart, and the eternal rewards it holds up to view consist only in a paradife of fenfual delights, where there is every thing to please a carnal vicious appetite, but nothing to fatisfy a holy or virtuous mind. As the founder of it was a man of profligate morals, fo he made use of his religion as an engine to forward his schemes of ambition, and to establish a temporal dominion. But no fuch thing appeared in the character and life of the founder of the christian religion. This fubject, however, will be reaf fumed in a future difcourfe. At prefent I conclude with this obfervation, that if the fcriptures are so excellent, and contain fo many marks of divinity, then we are under obligations to prize and efteem them. Let us fearch them daily, and endeavour to regulate our hearts and lives by the pattern of holiness which they exhibit.

DISCOURSE III.

LUKE xvi. 29, 31.

Abraham faith unto him, they have Mofes and the Prophets; let them hear them.

And he faid unto him, if they hear not Mofes and the Prophets, neither will they be perfuaded, though one rofe from the dead.

fol

THESE words are a part of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, (if it may be called a parable,) which we have recorded at large, from the 19th verfe to the end of this chapter. Our bluffed Lord communicated many emn and interefting truths to his heaters in parables, but among all his difcourfes of that kind, we will find none more plain or more important than this. Indeed it has been a queftion among commentators whether it ought to be denominated a parable at all, and not rather a piece of hiftory, literally true, which our bieffed Lord related from his knowledge of the unften world. Our Saviour does not call it a parable, nor does he add any particular illustration or explanation of it to his difciples No fuch explanation appears to be neceffary. In it we have a rela tion of the very different fituation of two perfons in this world, and the still unspeakably greater difference between them in a future fate. The anxiety dif:overed by the rich man that Abraham would fend Lazarus to warn his bethren, who were ftill in the world, left they should allo come into that place of torment, cannot be fuppofer' to arife from any benevolent affection which he had to his brethren or his Father's houfe, but rather from a fear, left,

H

by their coming into that place of horror and despair, they fhould add to his own torment, as he had probably been, by his evil example, the means of hardening them in wickedness. This request is denied, and his brethren are referred to Mofes and the Prophets. The fentiments here expreffed by the rich man, who was in torments, are agreeable to impreffions which are prevalent among many. Mankind are prone to overlook, or at least to undervalue, those means which God has instituted, and to which providence has favoured them with a daily, free, and unreftrained accefs. They thus reafon with themselves. If they could be favoured with fuch and fuch extraordinary means; if they were to fee the truths of the Gofpel confirmed by inconteftable miracles; if it had been their lot to fee and converse with Chrift in the flefh, or live in the age of infpiration; or if one was to be fent from the dead to inform them of what paffed in the unfeen world, and warn them of their danger; or, if God was to fend an Angel from heaven to preach the everlasting Gospel, instead of one in their own nature, a man of like paffions with them. felves-they would believe and turn from their evil ways. But experience has proved this to be fallacious, by fhowing how little effect the moft ftupenduous miracles have, many times, had upon the minds of men. Extraordinary means, at least means which the imaginations of men would devife, if they may be called means, may alarmı, bewilder, and frighten, and might, probably, promote the caufe of fuperftition, but it is the fpirit, with the word, that quickeneth. If the hearts of the children of men are not foftened in the use of ordinary means, there is no profpect that a change would be effected, either by extraordinary operations of providence, or by even, inverting the courfe of nature. It is accordingly added, If they bear not Mofes and the Prophets, neither will they be perfuaded, though one rofe from the dead. But the particular purpofe, which I have in view in difcourfing from these words, is to confider them in the light of an attestation, given by our bleffed Saviour, to the truth or divine original of the writings of Mofes and the Prophets, or of the various writings fing the Old Teftament. The par

ticular defign of this difcourfe, taken in connexion with thofe which precede and follow it, will be to prove by facts, that the facred books compofing the Old Teftament, are divinely inspired, or that Mofes and the Prophets are worthy to be heard, and their writings received as containing an effential part of that revelation which God has been pleased to give to mankind.

Before I proceed directly to the proof of the authenti city of the Old Testament, it may not be amifs to take a brief view of religion, as revealed in the writings of Mofes and the Prophets. This may be confidered under two periods.

ift. As it appeared under the patriarchal difpenfation. Under this difpenfation, religious rites were few, and revelation confined within a narrow compafs. It confifted in the true knowledge and unadulterated worship of the living and true God, as diftinguished from the prevailing. idolatry of the times; in a firm belief in, and reliance upon, both his general and particular providence ; in a hope of pardoning mercy to penitent finners, and in a confidence in God as the great rewarder of those who dili gently feek him, which rewards they were taught to expect, not merely in this life, but principally in a future and better world: For we are told that they fought a better country, even an heavenly. From the earliest period, they had an expectation, founded firft upon one, and afterwards upon a variety of promifes, that a great Saviour· would, in due time, appear in our nature, who was to redeem mankind from the ruins of the apoftacy, and whofe fufferings and death, for the purpose of fatisfying divine justice, for the fins of men, were prefigured by the very ancient rite of facrificing. In thefe divine promifes the Patriarchs had a firm faith, in which they lived and died. The whole of the revelation of a Meffiah made to our fir parents, was, at first contained in that, comparatively, ob fcure promife, that the feed of the woman fhould bruife the ferpent's head. In the call of Abraham, and the promise. made to him that in his feed fhould all the families of the earth be bleffed, this revelation became fomewhat more plain and diftinct. This faith in the promifes, connected.