Part the Second.

IF

CHAP. I.

F there be in existence a book which professes to have been " given by inspiration of God;" to be of such importance as that we may "not add unto, neither diminish aught from it;" to tell us how God's favour may be obtained not to have used all the means within our reach of ascertaining whether this book do really come from him, and declare his will, is to manifest the most insulting disregard of that Being to whom it is ascribed. It is to do something less for his honour and reputation than we should do for those of a friend. If this book do really come from our Maker, it is the duty of all to whom it is sent to seize and disseminate the strongest proofs of its doing so, that they can possibly lay hold of, to the end that they may gain for it the honour due to the donation of a God. If it do not come from him, we should take no less pains to vindicate his name from the aspersion which is thrown upon it by attributing to him something in which he has had no part, and which therefore is a lie upon the face of it. In any case we are bound to examine the question with diligent, humble, unremitting industry, as we would escape the charge of being ruinously regardless of the honour of our Maker.*

*I know not how Hume, the best perhaps of a bad set, would be able to escape this charge, if we may depend on Boswell, who in his life of Dr. Johnson, (vol. 1, page 470) says that Mr. Hume owned to a clergyman in the Bishoprick of Durham, he had never read the New Testa ment with attention."

If, sometime after the death of a pious, wise, and muchloved friend and teacher, there should appear in the world a book purporting to have come from his hand, narrating his life, and declaring certain before unknown facts, whose credibility must depend entirely on the character of him who recorded them, we should think no pains too great to discover whether they were recorded. by our lamented instructor, or by some one else. We should spare no inquiry to determine whether we might feel for this book the regard and reverence which its having been written by one so dear to us, and of whose wisdom and virtue we were so sure, must needs procure for it; or whether we must regard it as the production. of some impostor whose artifice ought to be detected and exposed. We should be most anxious to decide whether this same book came from one on whose veracity we might rely; or from one, who having set out with a lie might tell us nothing else but lies.

And if we brought ourselves to believe that the book in question did proceed from our departed "guide, philosopher, and friend," we should pay to his memory the compliment of making ourselves masters of the doctrines it contained; and not merely of understanding them, but of catching their spirit, (which frequent perusal alone could give us) and of conforming to the posthumous advice of onc whom we had so revered on earth. We should strengthen our good resolutions by frequently contemplating the recorded example of him whom we set up as our model. there where alone it was now possible to contemplate it. We should drink deep and often of his doctrines, from that source where alone they were certainly unmixed, or unpolluted with grosser matter. We should never search for them in any distant channel, whilst it was possible for us to go to the fountain head.

And shall we be less anxious to vindicate the honour of our Maker? To ascertain, if there be a book attributed to him, whether it come from him or not? and if the doctrines contained in this book have in our opinion

view, his example who came from heaven that we might Shall we be less anxious to drink

"learn from" him?

deep and often from that

fountain of living water" at its source, there where alone we may find it certainly pure and unadulterated ?

If there be any thing to man more difficult than all others, it is to acquire that spirit of perfect charity and forgiveness which requires us not only to forgive, but to return good for evil. Yet we acknowledge our obligation to do so.

Shall we then, if we have attained to a belief in the divine origin of the "collection called the Scriptures," and if we pretend to the character of consistent beings, fail to study those pages where this doctrine is best explained, most emphatically enforced, and perfectly exemplified? Shall we not with pious persever "devoutly read therein by day, and meditate by

ance

night?"

CHAP. II.

On the accordance of the Scripture Doctrine of Atonement with the necessity of such a sacrifice to save, corrupt Man, as deducible by the inferences of Reason, from the necessary character of an all-perfect Governor of free and intelligent beings.

IF a

IF then, there exist in the world, a book such as I have been describing, purporting to be a revelation of what God wishes from us in this world, and means to

do with us in another, and if this book declare that all men are sinners, fallen short of the mark, unprofitable servants, and forfeit to the law, incapable of being saved by their own merits; it affirms nothing more than, as we have seen, is deducible by the inferences of reason from the necessary character of an all-perfect Governor of free and intelligent beings. But if this book promise reward to any (all being sinners) it does something con. trary to all probability and analogy; it supposes laws which may be violated with impunity, and not only so, but that he who violated them shall be promoted to a higher post than that whose duties he failed to perform ; it supposes recompense where there was no service; promotion where there was no desert. It supposes an increase of happiness to an unworthy servant, in whose life happiness had before preponderated. It supposes that servants may recommend themselves to their master, who confessedly do not fulfil what he requires of them, and gives them the power of performing. It supposes that a being may properly be raised who has evidently been. 100 high already; that he may be rewarded, not for having done his duty, but for not having wandered further from it; not for having been good (though endowed with free agency to act what part he chose, and one of a race of beings who could not have been made other than good) but for having been not so bad as his fellows. It sup poses that he shall have the prize, though he has not reached the goal, which had yet been within his reach, and of which if he had lost sight, it was wilfully. It presumes that with a long list of offences against him which he has never wiped out, nor can wipe cut, though he might have refrained from committing them, he shall, all on a sudden, by some unaccountable inconsistency not only see them expunged, but himself raised to great glory; not only shall the gallows which he had deserved, and which was prepared for him be taken down, but a crown of vast price shall be placed on his head; he shall sit in the presence of his Maker, and

such a book there is) point out some way in which that lustration may be performed which man can never effect: some expedient which shall vindicate the consistency of God from the charge not only of overlooking unexpiated sin, but of promoting the sinner; unless, I say, something of this sort be done, we can scarcely venture to believe a book which holds out such magnificent promises.

But such expedient this book does declare. It tells us of a lamb who was slain for our offences, of the full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, satisfaction, and oblation for us, of a Being who was wounded for our transgressions, and by whose stripes we are healed.

So far then this book has nothing in it contrary to reason, if we suppose a future reward at all, for there are, as we have seen, much greater absurdities, and improbabilities attendant upon any other account of the matter than this.

There is as I have endeavoured to shew a world of inconsistency to be tolerated, if we suppose sinful man to be raised for his own sake, which is got over if we suppose an all-sufficient atonement first made for him. There is a world of absurdity in supposing human laws relaxed in favour of a debtor, by whose delinquency the general security of personal property is invaded, and for whose particular description of offence, others have suffered there is, I say, a world of absurdity in sup posing that the said culprit shall be released without any satisfaction made either in his own person or another's to the general body, who have all collectively and individually á claim upon him for this payment. And this absurdity would be increased beyond measure if we suppose the culprit to be rewarded. But it would be done away with, if somebody else should consent to pay the debt. For the general claim is not against the offender,

I

*