LECT. VIII. putable; the constant and universal accompaniments and vouchers, in that age, of this benignant religion, whose divinity was thereby fully, clearly, and every where attested.

Coincidences between the document

facts.

Looking, then, at its actual history and conand all the dition, when it began its career, and at the means and nature of its subsequent progress, we trace a most striking agreement between its predictions and its documents. Even in its corruptions and perversions, its abuses and its disasters, as traced in another Lecture, we can find nothing but corroborations of the sacred testimony, and striking verifications of all that had been foretold, both of the nature, the instrumentality, the extension, and the perpetuity of the Messiah's kingdom. The anticipations of its founder and his friends, the continued but fruitless opposition of its enemies, even the very darkest pages of its history, and the partial success attained by brute force against it, all correspond with the mysterious developments made at its outset.

Scripture thereby ful.

filled.

Is there not, then, I ask, the most complete, the most remarkable fulfilment of the writings, denominated the Holy Scriptures, in the personal history of Jesus Christ, and that of the cause he established? Who dare deny, that both he and his disciples foretold that this cause should live and be triumphant over all opposition? And it has been so. Who can deny, that both he and they foretold that it should be bitterly opposed, yet that it should be spread abroad to all na

tions; and that, finally, all nations should em- LECT. VIII. brace it, and consider themselves abundantly, yea, divinely blessed, in the possession of it? And it is so, to a great and daily increasing extent. Who can deny, that Jesus Christ gave an express commission to his apostles, to preach the gospel to every creature, beginning at Jerusalem, which he foretold should be swept away, because it would reject them as it had rejected him? And it has been so. Who can deny, that Jesus Christ, at the present day, has a wider sway over the world than at any former period, and that his cause is evidently advancing in a most marvellous, self-moved, and triumphant manner, none appearing effectually to resist its march, and no other system daring to compete with it for the sovereignty of the world.

Is it possible to believe all this of a forgery? of a lie? or of any human fabrication, concealing its fraud through so many ages, and to such an extent, while resting exclusively on human resources? Assuredly, to believe this, requires a stretch of faith incomparably beyond that which is involved in the belief of miracles, and the cordial acceptance of Christianity as a divine religion. And he must be far more credulous of wonders, who attributes all we have been considering, to imposture and to man, than he who ascribes the whole to God.

of this argu

There has been, then, such a verification of the Conclusion great and comprehensive, the particular and ment.

LECT. VIII. minute assertions and statements of the sacred books, respecting the person, the doctrine, the character, and the kingdom of the Messiah, in the history of the Christian cause, from the first to the present day, as ought, we conceive, to produce conviction. Not one jot or tittle of the divine word has failed, either in reference to the Jews or Gentiles, friends or enemies, individuals, nations, or the world. The entire series of facts that has transpired, presents a complete and full counterpart to the prophecies and delineations, which none can deny were in existence, and in the keeping of the Jews long before the appearance of Christ, which they have carefully preserved ever since, and to the authenticity of which they still bear witness.

LECTURE IX.

ON THE DOCTRINE OF A DIVINE AND SPIRITUAL INFLUENCE,
AS REVEALED IN THE SCRIPTURES, AND AS REALIZED IN
THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY AND THE EXPERIENCE OF

CHRISTIANS.

All effects traceable to spiritual or immaterial causes Mental power the source of voluntary action in ourselves-How we are led to ascribe the invisible and mighty agency, operating through all material causes and effects, to a Divine and Infinite Spirit- Probability that the Divine Spirit exercises the same influence over human minds-Analogies which render such agency probable - The direct testimony of revelation as to its reality Facts verifying this testimony-In the first propagation of the gospel-In its continuance and success in the world-In the formation of the christian character, considered individually-Abuses to which the doctrine is liable-Connexion with an appointed instrumentality-General Conclusion of the course.

IN commencing this part of our subject, we may, LECT. IX. perhaps, be allowed to assume, that no consistent Divine and complete view of the whole system of the nature.

agency in

A final cause inferred.

LECT. IX. universe can be maintained, without admitting the doctrine of a divine and almighty agency operating in each object, sustaining the harmony, and presiding over the tendencies and issues of the whole. It may be, that a first and hasty glance at the system of nature, suggests to the mind the notion of a vast multitude of independent and self-sufficient causes, all operating by their own spontaneous agency. But, on closer observation and analysis, we find that none of these visible and secondary causes are any thing more than separate links in a chain; that, though to those which follow they bear the relation of causes, yet they are themselves but effects dependent on preceding causes, which may again be successively traced backward to others, till we arrive at that which is invisible and spiritual. For, as we advance upwards in every analysis, we not only find something still antecedent, but, when we have found that something, it proves, alone, inadequate to account for the mysterious results which follow it, and we are compelled to confess, that the power and efficiency of an Almighty Creator and Governor can alone supply an adequate explanation of that endless series of stupendous and wondrous operations which pass under our observation. After all our inquiries, we cannot persuade ourselves that the causes we can detect, by any physical analysis, are the exclusive agents of all that is before us. However long the series through which we may trace the