to be satisfied that that religion into which they were baptized is consonant to these lofty expectations,that it is agreeable to all that their yet uncorrupted nature has taught them to believe of God, and all that they are so willing to hope of man.

It was under these views, and to avoid all abstract disquisitions, that I submitted to you lately a few general observations upon the subject; and to shew to those of my younger hearers, who are now acquainted with the history of the human race, that the evidences of the Gospel rest upon this very history; -that every thing which belongs to it, is in opposition to all that we know of the character or progress of human nature ;-and that therefore the ob vious and candid conclusion must be, that it arose. from a higher source than human wisdom, and must be finally resolved into the immediate providence and inspiration of God.

The first evidence which I stated was that which arose from the very nature of this religion; that it was altogether different from any which man had ever known;—that the age in which it arose was that of the last and highest improvement of the ancient world; that we were in a situation, therefore, to compare all the noblest attainments of human wisdom with the truths which the Gospel revealed; -that the comparison was altogether in favour of Christianity; and that, when it was farther considered in what country, and under what circumstances this religion arose, it was impossible (from all we

know of man,) to attribute it to mortal wisdom, or to mortal foresight.

The evidence which I stated, when we were last assembled, was that of its success ;-that, "while "the word of God grew and multiplied," it was from its own inherent energy, and not from any circumstances of human support ;--that, amid opposition and persecution, it triumphed over the strongest passions and prejudices which belong to man;-that, in the first instance, all the improvements of the Roman world ended in raising the Gospel to the throne;-And that, when this mighty empire was destroyed by barbarian power, this mighty revolution also ended in bringing all these rude multitudes into the pale of Christianity,-in making them renounce their religious opinions, while they retained every other, and in subjecting them voluntarily, and without effort, to the new and grateful Light which then arose upon them. Of effects so strange, so unexampled, and so unaccountable upon all the known principles of human nature, there are only two causes (as I said) which can be assigned;either, that the immediate agency and interposition. of God was employed in conducting this progress of truth; or, that there was in all minds, whether civilized or barbarous, a want and expectation of illumination from Heaven; and that the doctrines of the Gospel were fitted to answer this want, and gratify this deep expectation. In either case, that the religion of the Gospel was thus proved to be true, either from the history of man, or from the con

sideration of his original character and constitution.

I am now, my brethren, to suggest to you another consideration. From the view of the religion of Jesus Christ, in its own nature, and from the success which, in opposition to all known and experienced causes, has attended it, I am, in the present hour, to request you to carry your eyes backward,-to remember the circumstances which preceded it in the earlier history of the world,—and, from this point of view, to observe another evidence which belongs to it, and which undoubtedly belongs to it alone.

Obscure as was the birth of our Saviour, and humble as were the circumstances of his first appearance in the world, it was yet an event preceded by a longer and a loftier train of preparation than any which has ever taken place among mankind. It was foretold by a series of prophets through many hundred years;-it was signified by the institutions of a whole nation;-incorporated every where with their belief and policy;—and typified, from the earliest antiquity, amid every ceremony of their civil or religious service. It was prepared by a previous revelation from Heaven itself;-by a dispensation of a kind altogether unlike every thing else that has been known among mankind; and which, while it goes back to the earliest dawn of time, is, from its first hour to its last, prophetick of Him "who was to come," and altogether imperfect without his arrival.

To such an evidence, to the evidence of a for mer and a preparatory revelation, no other religion upon earth had ever any pretensions. If this preparatory revelation was true, and if all its predictions were accomplished in the advent of our Saviour, the conclusion here again is inevitable, that " He was the person who was to come," and that "we ought to look for no other."

Upon this subject, upon the truth of the Jewish faith, and upon the consequences which follow from it, I am at present to offer you, my younger brethren, a few general observations. I dare enter into no particular detail. I have to state only, that such a religion (as you all know) did exist in the first ages of mankind, and, from the nature of that religion, to implore of you to consider whether it was of man or of God?

1. When in this view you look, in the first place, at the state of the world, when the Jewish nation began, and when the Jewish religion was instituted, you see the inhabited earth covered with all the darkness and immorality of barbarous times ;you see, amid all the early tribes of which society then consisted, a deep ignorance of the unity of God, and all the sad consequences which follow from the want of that first principle of human knowledge and human comfort;-you see the faint traces of patriarchal religion debased by all the terrours of superstition, or by all the licentiousness of a gross idolatry; you see the moral feelings of nature sinking under the dominion of imposture, or

sacrificed to the purposes of priestcraft and delusion. When from this prospect you turn your eyes to the people of the Jews, you see the "one "God" revealed and worshipped; you see the lowest of that peculiar people in possession of a discovery to which no other people were yet approaching; you see the worship of this God instituted with deep solemnity,-the belief in his name incorporated with every civil and every religious establishment of their nation;-and the great moral law, which was given by Him in ages so distant, remaining still the moral law of nature, in its highest and most improved generations. To what cause, my brethren, are we to attribute this striking exception to all that we know of the character of man, and to all that we observe of the actual progress of human nature? If it be different from all we know of mankind, it is not to be accounted for from the usual principles of our nature. If it be superiour to all we know of these ages,—if the religion of the Jews is above all that we perceive in the contemporary opinions of mankind-it is to be accounted for only from a higher cause than human wisdom; and must ultimately be resolved into the will and inspiration of heaven.

2. When we look, in the second place, to the history of religious opinions, we find every where that the authors of them considered and bequeathed them as complete and perfect. Whatever we may suppose to be the motives of the religious legislators of mankind, whether vanity, enthusiasm, or benevo