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thing of the present state of the Jews over the face of the earth can possibly doubt for a moment the truth of the New Testament, or the infinite and all comprehensive knowledge of Him whose words it contains. Here then is one portion of divine revelation that is incontrovertibly and absolutely proved to be the truth of God. My brethren, if he who predicted the ruin of this disobedient and refractory people, hath so minutely fulfilled the threatenings of his justice, will he not as circumstantially fulfil the promises of his mercy? Let us then with humble and contrite hearts, with a meek and obedient spirit believe that word in which he hath commanded us to trust, feeling assured that he will save to the very uttermost those that come unto God by him. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, and seeing that we have such great and precious promises of pardon and peace here, opening the way to an everlasting state of happiness and peace hereafter; let us, through the merits and mediation of Christ our Saviour, draw near unto God in full assur

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ance of faith, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need; that a promise being left us of entering into his rest, none of us may come short of it through unbelief: which God of his infinite mercy grant, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Saviour!

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SERMON X.

ON THE GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY OF THE

NEW TESTAMENT.

"But the Word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you."1. PETER i. 25.

It has been our object in the discourses which have been delivered on the truth of the Christian religion, to show in the first place the necessity, and therefore the probability of a revelation from God: And in the second place, to show that such a revelation hath been vouchsafed to mankind, and that Christianity is this revelation. The external evidence we have adduced to prove, that the Christian religion is from God, hath been taken from the testimony, not of the friends but of the most inveterate enemies of Christianity, and from the divine sanctions with which it hath come supported, arising from the credibility of the mi

racles which our Saviour performed, and the spirit of prophecy with which he was endued. My next object which will occupy our attention at this time, will be to show that the scriptures of the New Testament, which contain the religion of Christ, have come down to the present times without any material alteration or corruption, and that they are in all essential points the same as they came from the hands of their authors. The books which contain the history of Christ, and of the Christian religion, are the four Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles. That the Gospels were written by the persons whose names they bear, namely, by St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. John, there is no more reason to doubt than that the histories which have come down to us, under the names of Xenophon, Livy, or Tacitus were written by those authors. Many passages are alluded to, or quoted from the evangelists, exactly as we now read them, by a regular succession of Christian writers from the times of the apostles down to this hour; and at a very early period, their names are mentioned as the authors of their respective Gospels.

That in the various transcripts of these writings, however, as in all other ancient books, a few letters, syllables, or even words may have been changed, it is natural to expect: but that there has been any designed or fraudulent corruption of any considerable part, especially of any doctrine or any important passage of history, no one has ever attempted or been able to prove. Circumstances indeed would have made it quite impossible. No sooner had the original writings come out of the hands of their authors, than copies were immediately taken and sent abroad to the different Christian churches. We know from history, that these copies were publicly read in the religious assemblies of the first Christians. We know, also, that they were very soon translated into a variety of foreign languages, and these ancient versions, many of which still remain, were dispersed into all parts of the known world; even several of the original manuscripts remained to the time of Tertullian, at the end of the second century. There are numberless quotations from every part of the New Testament by Christian writers, from the earliest

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