Imatges de pàgina
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THE CONCLUSION.

T is in vain to say any thing by way of address

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to perfons who will not read or think upon a fubject. To the profligate and unthinking among the unbelievers I fhall, therefore, fay nothing, because they will not give themfelves the trouble to read what I might be disposed to say to them; but to the more moral, fpeculative, and thoughtful unbelievers, into whofe hands this treatife may poffibly fall, I would obferve, and they must agree with me in it, that, in juftice to themselves and to the fubject, they fhould give it the most serious and deliberate examination. To men of reafon and reflection the evidences of christianity muft appear the most interefting of all fubjects of inquiry. For what can be more fo than fully to afcertain, that the prefent ftate is not the whole of our existence, but that Jefus Chrift, by the appointment of God his father, will come again to raise all the dead to a future endless life, and to give to every man according to his works. This is the great object and end of chriftian faith; and those who believe this important doctrine receive it on the authority of Jefus Chrift,, whofe divine miffion was attefted, as they believe, by fuch mi

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racles as no man could have performed, without the presence and concurrence of God.

Now before any perfon seriously rejects chriftianity, containing fuch important doctrines, he fhould certainly endeavour to fatisfy himself, at leaft on what foundation it is that he founds his diffent; and that fuch perfons may more eafily and effectually interrogate themselves upon the subject, I fhall briefly propose a few leading questions, which may perhaps affift them to afcertain the ftate of their own minds, and lead them to fuch reflections, or difquifitions, as may be of most use to them with refpect to it; at the fame time that they may serve as a kind of recapitulation of a few of the principal arguments in favour of christianity.

Is it not an indifputed fact, that there was fuch a perfon as Jefus Chrift, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate in Judea?

Is it not alfo a well known fact, that he had some followers when living, but, notwithstanding his ignominious fufferings, which difconcerted and difperfed all his adherents, many more after his death; and that he was even acknowledged by them to be the Meffiah, foretold by their antient prophets, though he sustained a character the very reverse of what was expected by all the Jews, the good as well as the bad?

Are not the gospels, and the book of Acts, which contain the history of the life of Christ, and of the

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propagation of his religion in the world, authentic writings? Were they not confidered in all the early ages, both by the friends and enemies of christianity, as the genuine productions of the early difciples of Chrift?

Can this be admitted, without admitting also, that what they relate concerning Chrift and his apoftles is, in the main, true, at least that they did fomething above the power of man; especially, that Chrift did actually rife from the dead, as he had foretold, and as a proof that what he taught he had by commiffion from God?

Is it probable that fuch men as the apostles were, fhould have been able to fhake off the strongest Jewish prejudices, which no other Jews, whether, with respect to morality, they were good or bad men, were ever able to do? Can they be fuppofed capable of inventing fuch a ftory, and efpecially of making it gain credit with the world, in fuch an age as that in which they lived, and circumstanced as they were for that purpose?

Admitting this to be poffible, can any fufficient motive be affigned, to induce fo many of them, not only to enter into a scheme of this nature, but, what is much more, to carry it on, with a perseverance unknown to the profeffors of any scheme of religion before them, in the face of all difficulties that could be thrown in their way, and to die

with all the marks of joy and confidence, without ever confeffing the impofture?

If the leading facts above-mentioned cannot be difputed, except upon fuch principles as must invalidate all antient hiftory, and fet afide all human teftimony,, every argument a priori, fuch as those which arife from the confideration of the fufficiency of the light of nature, the natural incredibility of miracles, &c. will certainly not deserve a hearing. How fpecious foever they may be represented, their influence will not be felt.

It will be clearly perceived that, whether it might have been reasonable to expect it, or not, God who made the world has actually interpofed at various times in the government of it; giving fome of his creatures, at leaft, fuch information refpecting their conduct here, and their expectations hereafter, as he judged to be useful and convenient for them; and whatever difficulties may attend the fpeculative confideration of a future life, it will not be doubted but that we fhall in fact live again, give an account of our felves to God, and receive according to our works.

APPEN

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