A VIE W OF THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. OST of the writers, who. have undertaken to prove the divine origin of the Chriftian Religion, have had recourfe to arguments drawn from these three heads the prophecies ftill extant in the Old Testament, the miracles recorded in the New, or the internal B internal evidence arifing from that excellence, and those clear marks of fupernatural interpofition, which are fo confpicuous in the religion itfelf: The two former have been fufficiently explained and inforced by the ableft pens; but the laft, which feems to carry with it the greatest degree of conviction, has never, I think, been confidered with that attention, which it deferves... I mean not here to depreciate the proofs arifing from either prophecies, or miracles: they both have or ought to have their proper weight; prophecies are permanent miracles, whofe authority is fufficiently confirmed by their com pletion, pletion, and are therefore folid proofs of the fupernatural origin of a religion, whofe truth they were intended to testify; fuch are thofe to be found in various parts of the fcriptures relative to the coming of the Meffiah, the deftruction of Jerufalem, and the unexampled ftate in which the Jews have ever fince continued, all fo circumftantially defcriptive of the events, that they seem rather histories of past, than predictions of future tranfactions; and whoever will seriously confider the immenfe diftance of time between fome of them and the events which they foretell, the uninterrupted chain by which they are connected for many thousand B 2 years, years, how exactly they correfpond with thofe events, and how totally unapplicable they are to all others in the history of mankind; I fay, whoever confiders thefe circumstances, he will fcarcely be perfuaded to believe, that they can be the productions of preceding artifice, or pofterior application, or can entertain the leaft doubt of their being derived from fupernatural infpiration. The miracles recorded in the New Teftament to have been performed by Christ and his Apostles, were certainly convincing proofs of their divine commiffion to those who faw them; and as they were feen by fuch numbers, and are as well |