years; but we are not told in what year this empire commenced. It is said, by Daniel, that the abomination which maketh desolate should continue in the holy place a thousand two hundred and ninety years. He then adds, "blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days," or prophetic years; xii. 11, 12. It has been conjectured, that the first of these numbers allows thirty years after the fall of anti-christ for the entire eleansing of the sanctuary; and that the second allows a period of seventy-five years for the universal spread of the gospel. Hence it is our best wisdom to profit by what we do know, till it shall please the Lord further to develope his mysterious counsel. Let us not, while we ask when the kingdom of God shall come, neglect, like the scribes and pharisees, to look for it in our own hearts. If it be not there, in vain should we be permitted to see it in the earth. Except we be converted, and become as little children, we shall in nowise enter the kingdom of heaven. What joy could we have at his approach, unless he were our Lord, and unless we were his servants. Let it therefore be our constant prayer, that he would enter our hearts in the regenerating power of his Holy Spirit, and create us anew in righteousness and true holiness. Let us, by patient continuing in well doing, seek for honor, glory, immortality, and eternal life.

SECTION X.

INTERNAL EVIDENCES OF THE TRUTH AND REASONABLENESS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION; OR, A DEMONSTRATION THAT IT IS AS WORTHY OF THE WISDOM, POWER, AND GOODNESS OF GOD, AS THE WORKS OF CREATION AND PROVIDENCE.

"The glorious gospel of the blessed God." PAUL.

BEFORE entering on this subject, which is confined he province of reason, it would be happy if every

one could ascertain, so far as to satisfy his own mind, the nature and degrees of evidence, which man in his dark and depraved state ought to expect of the truth of revealed religion. If the evidences of future glory were more strong to good men, the ravishment of hope would induce them to disregard the duties of life; and if the evidences of the truth of christianity were more strong to bad men, their moral liberty would be destroyed, and faith would no longer purify the heart. But if these evidences rise to such a mediocrity as to render men virtuous by receiving, or vicious by rejecting them, in my opinion, they highly accord with the moral government of God, and are such as we ought to expect. It is apparently for this reason, that the Deity conceals himself in his works of creation and providence, that mankind may become wise and virtuous by constant endeavors to trace his perfections.

The grandeur of God in the creation, and the harmony of the universe, have ever commanded the admiration of mankind. The variety of herbs and trees, flowers and fruits; the degrees of heat and cold, moisture and drought; the proportion of night and day to the labor and rest of men; and the length of summer to the growth and maturity of fruits, demonstrate that God has given a perfect finish to all his works; nor can the wisdom and experience of ages prove how any creature could have been better made, or more happily arranged. Hence it is inferred, that if Christianity be also of God, there ought to be a harmony and propriety in all its parts, which correspond with the works of creation and providence, and do equal honor to his wisdom, power, and goodness. Accord ing to these received and equitable principles, let us, with undisguised sincerity and proper diffidence, presume to examine the Christian faith; and I hope it will fully appear, that God has done what was best and fittest to be done for the restoration of his once noble, but now apostate, offspring.

I. In the first instance, there can be no absurdity in supposing that God, who hath permitted the fall,

might also permit the recovery of man, or restore him by some means to the divine favor. This, we may presume, he has done from a survey of his kindness to the sinful world. Vile and ungrateful as we are, he indulgently supplies our wants, and heals our diseases; and shall he not heal the immortal spirit, which is by far the most excellent part of all his works? Shall he not have compassion on the wounded conscience, and give hope and glory to the desponding mind?

II. It will be also admitted, that the Creator only could restore his degenerate creatures, and repair the ruins of our nature. Man is altogether incapable of renewing his soul in the divine image, and of regaining his forfeited paradise; feeble and ineffectual would all his endeavors be to emancipate himself from the fetters of sin and death, if unassisted by the power of God. And to expect restoration by a system of pure mercy, would obscure the divine justice, and be a daring presumption against the equity of providence, which so awfully punishes the wicked. A system of pure mercy, in the present state of things, would have been extremely ruinous to the morality of human nature; and how far it might have affected angels, we are incapable of judging, Eph. iii. 10.

III. We may therefore bring forward the grand question, and ask, what happier method could have been adopted to redeem and save mankind, than for one of the human race to be replenished with the fulness of the godhead; to be sanctified from his mother's bosom; to die meritoriously; and to take our humanity in triumph to heaven? Being innocent in his person, and divine in his nature, his death must be vicarious, and his merits of infinite worth. And could any method of recovery more strikingly display the equity of God, than for the nature which sinned to suffer? Or could his love of justice be more strongly made manifest than by the gift and punishment of

loved Son? Are not these merits every way nsurable to the expiation of guilt; and is it not

every way compatible with the divine government to accept of these as our propitiation? Let this inquiry be exemplified. Have we deserved the frowns of Almighty God? the Son hath trodden the wine-vat of the fierceness of his wrath. Have we made ourselves liable to the curse of the law? he was made a little lower than the angels, and tasted death for every man. Have we lost our innocence and rectitude? he was made a sin-offering for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. I proceed: the Creator having permitted our fall and ruin to take place in the first Adam, does it not vindicate his justice from the imputation of severity, that he hath permitted our recovery by Jesus Christ, the second Adam? If our original depravity was without our fault, our redemption was without our help. If we derive a corrupt and depraved nature from our parents, we may obtain a divine nature by Jesus Christ. If the fall was attended with the loss of paradise, the recovery invests us with the kingdom of heaven, and with innumerable blessings which did not belong to a state of innocence. "Not as the transgression so is the free gift. Where sin hath abounded grace hath much more abounded." We are now initiated into the mysteries of the glorious person and grace of God the Redeemer. Man has here no cause of complaint against his maker, but he is laid under the highest obligations of gratitude and love.

IV. In all disputes and differences which arise between nations or individuals, it is safest to refer them to a wise and virtuous arbitration. The having recourse to arms, or law, is a very unhappy way of terminating misunderstandings. On this principle, nothing can be objected against the mediatorial scheme by Jesus Christ. He is perfectly qualified for the office, being God and Man in his glorious person; and consequently, equally concerned for the divine honor, and the happiness of human nature. In him our affairs are in the hands of a friend, a brother, and

a coventut God.

And would we wish to take them out of his hands, and manage them ourselves, or transfer them to some Socinian Saviour?

V. Does any scheme of happiness, ever presented to the world, afford such comfort and hope as a view of the perfection and glory to which the human nature is elevated in the person of Jesus Christ? He was once encompassed with our infirmities, and with the sorrows of death; but now is exalted to ineffable glory, and invested with immortality and life. I say, in his glorious person; for in the resurrection and ascension of our blessed Lord, we have more than visionary schemes of happiness. All is substance and reality. "Handle me," said he, "for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have.” showed himself alive after his passion for the space of forty days, talked with his disciples at large concerning his kingdom, and permitted them to witness his ascension into heaven.

He

VI. The entrance of the Son of God into this lower world was not without a happy arrangement and preparation for his coming. A succession of prophesies and promises had illuminated the ancient dispensations with increasing lustre; and had so delineated his character as must have distinguished him from the sons of men, and insured the detection of all impostors. His offices and sufferings had been adumbrated by a grand assemblage of rituals, and the unfading glory of the gospel church reflected back by the transient splendor of the Jewish temple. He came to enlighten the nations, and assumed the office of a supreme teacher. He came to be a pattern of all rectitude and virtue, and placed himself on a level with mankind. He was subject to pain, poverty, sorrow, and death. He did not choose a savage and untutored age for his advent, but an age when government, commerce, and science had civilized the nations, and rendered them more capable of embracing the gospel revelation. He did not reside in some solitary island, or remote part the world, but in Judea, the centre of the nations>