truth of

men, who would account it an nonour to set the scriptures with their own blood: There yneet with the noblest strains of penitential and joyo devotion,

adapted to the dispositions and states of all travellers to Sion: and there you read those awful threatnings and cheering promises, which are daily fulfilling in the consciences of men, to the admiration of believers, and the astonishment of attentive infidels.

9. The wonderful efficacy of the Scriptures is another proof that they are of God. When they are faithfully opened by his ministers, and powerfully applied by his Spirit, they wound and heal, they kill and make alive, they alarm the careless, turn or enrage the wicked, direct the lost, support the tempted, strengthen the weak, comfort mourners, and nourish pious souls. As the woman of Samaria said of Jesus, Come see a man that told me all that ever I did: Is not this the Christ? a good man can say of the Bible, "Come see a book that told me all that was in my heart, and acquainted me with the various trials and dangers I have met with in my spiritual travels; a book where I have found those truths, which, like a divinely tempered sword, have cut my way through all the snares and forces of my spiritual adversaries; and by whose directions my soul has happily entered the paradise of divine and brotherly love. Is not this the book of God?"

10. To conclude: It is exceedingly remarkable, that the more humble and holy people are; the more they read, admire, and value the scriptures: and on the contrary, the more self-conceited, worldly-minded, and wicked; the more they neglect, despise, and asperse them.

As for the objections which are raised against their perspicuity and consistency, those who are both pious and learned know, that they are generally founded on prepossession, and the want of understanding in spiritual things; or on our ignorance of several customs, idioms, and cir

cumstances, which were perfectly known when those books were written. Frequently also the immaterial error arises merely from a wrong punctuation, or a mistake of copiers, printers or translators; as the daily discoveries of pious critics, and ingenuous confessions of unprejudiced inquirers, abundantly prove.

To the preceding arguments, I beg leave to add the following queries. Do not disbelievers, by supposing that the scriptures are a forged book, and consequently that christianity is a false religion, run upon the very rocks, which they seem so afraid of? And may they not be charged with indirectly setting their seal to opinions, far more incredible than those which they reject?

(1.) O ye Disputers of this world, if ye believe that Moses and Jesus Christ, St. Peter and St. Paul, publicly worked sham miracles for years, in various cities and countries, before thousands of their sharp-sighted opposers, without being ever detected in any of their tricks; might you not as reasonably believe, that thousands of shrewd men, were once turned into stupid asses?

(2.) If you believe, that the gospel is the production of human deceit; and yet, that in the prodigious number of apostates once concerned in carrying on the amazing villainy, such as Judas, Demas, Simon Magus, Alexander the Coppersmith, who did St. Paul much evil, &c. not one was ever found, that would prove the forgery: might you not as reasonably believe, that if Mr. Wilkes and all his friends knew of a gross villainy, carried on by the ministry, in order to turn the kingdom upside down; neither he nor any one of them, could ever be prevailed upon to disclose and prove it to the world?*

* Pliny, a learned and prudent Roman governor, who was employ. ed by the emperor Trajan in stopping the progress of christianity, wrote to him, that the apostates affirmed, the whole of their crime had been to meet before day and sing an hymn to Christ as to their God. His own words are, "Affirmabant hanc fuisse sumam vel culpæ suæ vel

(3.) You believe that, the miracles and resurrection of Christ, together with the gifts of the Holy Ghost, were nothing but enthusiastical or knavish pretensions: and yet you are forced to grant, that thousands of Jews, strongly attached to their religion, amazingly averse to that of Jesus, and guilty of persecuting him unto death, took him openly for their Saviour, a few weeks after they had seen him publicly scourged; and in the very city, in sight of which he had just been crucified between two thieves. Now, is not this as absurd as to believe, that if a few fishermen cried up the last person hanged in London for a notorious forgery; and if they affirmed that he was the Son of God, appealing to a great number of miracles, supposed to have been wrought by him in the squares and hospitals of the metropolis, and especially in St. Paul's church-yard: and maintaining that some of them had been acknowledged genuine by the *great council of the nation; they could by such notorious lies, engage thousands of citizens and some aldermen, to put all their trust in the villain hanged at their special request?

(4.) You believe that christianity is a gross imposture ; and yet you cannot deny, that thousands of learned Romans and wise Greeks, who agreed to despise the Jews

"erroris, quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire, carmenque "Christo quasi Deo dicere."

Some remarkable instances of this we have in the sacred books, published when the facts mentioned therein were notorious, and when some of the persons named were probably yet alive. After the resurrection of Lazarus, the chief priests and the pharisees gathered a council, and said, What do we? for this man does many miracles. If we let him alone, all men will believe on him. John xi. 47.-And after Peter and John had publicly cured the cripple, who used to beg at the gate of the temple; the rulers, and elders, and scribes, and Annas, the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem, saying what shall we do to these men ? for that indeed a NOTABLE MIRACLE has been done by them, is manifest to ALL them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it, Acts iv. 5-16:

above all other men, took for their Saviour that very Jesus, of whom his own countrymen had been ashamed, and whom they had crucified as an impostor. Is not this as absurd as to believe, that thousands of wise Englishmen, and sensible Frenchmen, could be induced by the absurd tale of two or three Hottentots, to worship a certain Hottentot, whom the whole nation of Hottentots had condemned to be hanged, as being more worthy of an ignominious death than the bloody ringleader of a seditious mob?

(5.) If you believe with one of the popes, that the history of Christ is " a mere fable," and that there never was such an extraordinary person, you believe that the heathens, the Jews, and the Mahometans, have agreed with the Christians, their sworn enemies, to carry on the most amazing imposture. For Pliny, Tacitus, Ducian and Suetonius, heathen authors, who lived soon after Christ, make express mention of him: as do also Mahomet, many of the rabbies, and Julian the Emperor, that powerful and crafty apostate, who not only never denied Christ's existence, but openly acknowledged that Paul, Mark, Matthew, and Peter, were the authors of the Gospels and Epistles, which bear their name. Now is not this as ridiculous as to believe, that the pope, the mufty, and the inquisitors, have laid their heads with Messrs. Voltaire, Hume, and Rousseau, to favour a forgery subversive of popery, mahometanism, and infidelity?

(6.) If you deny the authenticity of the four gospels, which are the only ancient histories, that we have of our Saviour; and yet believe, that there was such a personage as Jesus Christ, whose fame so spread through the Roman empire, that in less than 330 years, he was not only reckoned superior to the Roman Emperor, but to Jupiter himself; and that nevertheless not one historian, during all that time, gave the world a particular account of him: [which must be the case, if the four gospels are a forgery :] Might

you not as reasonably suppose, that if a blazing meteor appeared in our day, and eclipsed the stars, the moon, and the sun itself; no astronomer for several centuries would take particular notice of so wonderful a phenomenon?

(7.) If the gospel is a delusion, you believe that St. Paul, who was a man of sense, learning, and intrepidity, was seduced by-no body, to preach for near 30 years, with astonishing zeal and matchless hardships, an imposture, against the abettors of which, he just before breathed nothing but threatnings and slaughter. Would it be half so absurd to believe, that Mr. Wilkes has suddenly commenced the minister's advocate, goes through the kingdom to recommend the present administration, and accounts it an honour to be mobbed, whipt, or stoned in every borough, for his excessive attachment to the king?

(8.) The instantaneous conversion of thousands, was wrought by means of public appeals to notorious matter of fact. Hear the language of the Apostles to the Jews. This ye yourselves KNOW, Acts ii. 24. Ye KNOW the thing done through ALL Judea, Acts x. 37, 38. The king KNOWETH these things. This thing was NOT done in a corner, Acts xxvi. 26. Now if Christianity is not founded upon indubitable facts, might you not as well believe, that twelve men broke loose from bedlam, brought last year thousands of deists over to christianity, by saying to them, "Ye know" -what you are perfect strangers to; that is, "Ye know"that we are a pack of bedlamites?

(9.) If the gospel is forged, you believe that the Corinthians, &c. handed down to posterity, as a sacred treasure, epistles where St. Paul mentions their amazing conversion from gross immoralities; congratulates them about the spiritual or miraculous gifts, in which they abounded, 1 Cor. xii. 1. and gives them particular directions, how to use the gift of tongues to edification; when yet they were totally unacquainted with any such things. Might you not with equal wisdom believe, that, if Mr. Wilkes wrote to