did not transpire until many hundred years afterwards. There can be still less doubt, that there lived such a personage as Jesus Christ, in the reign of Tiberius Cæsar of Rome; but many of the events which he predicted, such as the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the Jews, have since transpired, or are now passing before our eyes. These prophets spoke by the Spirit of God, then, and were true men. So much of testimony as they give to the inspiration of scripture, is, therefore, valid. But both of these prophets, as well as many others, have quoted the scriptures as true, and repeatedly called the whole of them the word of God. (See Isai. xl. 8, and John xvii. 17.)

2. The proof of Miracles. This Saviour, moreover, professed to work miracles; and the express object of these miracles was, to prove that his doctrine was true, and that he came from God. The works that I do, said he, they testify of me. If he were a wicked being, and wrought miracles by magick, he would not have wrought them to prove such doctrines; if he were an unassisted being, he could not have wrought them at all. But were miracles actually wrought? A large number of men, who wrote the history of these miracles, declare that they witnessed them. (See Acts ii. 32, and i Cor. xv. 6.)

So many witnesses, and to so great a variety of miracles, could hardly have been deceived; and that they would not willingly give false testimony to others, is sufficiently manifest, from the consideration of the circumstances in which they gave it. They were a poor, weak, and despised party; it was in favour of a new and unpopular religion they testified; they had nothing to gain in this world from their testimony; and yet they submitted to pain, and poverty, and contempt, and death itself, rather than yield the fact that these miracles had been witnessed by them. Nothing like this can be found in testimony of any other religion under heaven. Other men have wrote of miracles; but not of miracles which they had themselves seen. Other miracles have been said to be wrought, but they were always in favour of a religion already received, and popluar in the eyes of men; and other men have even died in testimony of supposed truth; but it was always for the testimony of opinions, that they died, but never, as in this case, in testimony of facts. The miracles of revelation do, therefore, incontestibly prove its truth.

II. The second class of evidences in favour of the inspiration of the scriptures, are called internal EVIDENCES. The examiner holds

this sacred volume in his hand, and he looks away now from all historical evidences, to see what proof the book contains in itself.He will find,

1. That it is free from all absurd, impure and puerile representations, such as are unworthy of divine revelation. We have only to compare the Bible with a single chapter of the Koran, or any of those apocryphal books, which have attempted to imitate it, and we shall see that it came from a higher and a holier hand. Every where it is consistent, chaste, and altogether dignified.

2. Its doctrines and representations, are spiritual as well as pure, and they promote the happiness of those who recieve them. This proves that they did not come from a wicked being, and the superior degree in which they effect this happiness, above all other books, seems to refer them to a higher authority. The law of the Lord, said David, and experience has proved it to be true-the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. (Ps. xix.) In order to this,

3. They teach a remarkable morality. The ethics or moral principles of all other books are such, as are calculated to recommend them to men, either because they are necessary for present good, or in themselves a

greeable to the propensities of our nature. The morality of the Bible is precisely dif ferent. Every where it inculcates self-denial, and refers the motives for duty, not so much to the present as a future world. Take the following specimens of this:-Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Avenge not yourselves; In honour prefering one another. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, that ye may be the children of your Father in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil, and sendeth his rain on the just and on the unjust.

And it will mightily strengthen this part of our argument, if we look for a moment at the effect which this bible morality produces. Universally, where the Bible is received, the happiest consequences follow; and in no place, where it is not received, are men either civilized, free, or happy. The examiner might search from Greenland to the Cape of Good Hope, and trace the boundaries of every bright and happy spot, by the extent to which the Bible had been circulated; he might then run over the map of Turkey, internal Asia, the Islands of the sea, and every other region, not visited by this volume, and look there in vain for one substantial vestige of elevated, social, or religious morality. It is a remarkable fact, that there is not found in

all the writings of heathen antiquity, a single allusion to such a phenomenon as a radical change of moral character. Such a testimony in favour of the Bible, is invaluable.

4. This volume gives a true and consistent account of the character of man. Human nature is found to be corrupt, fickle and unfaithful, unjust, proud, and altogether selfish. Is it not remarkable, then, on any other supposition, than that the Bible is of God, that, many thousand years ago, we should have had such representations on this subject as the following? The whole imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, continually. (Gen. vi. 5.) Trust ye not in any brother, for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders. (Jer. ix. 4.) And men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. (ii Tim, iii. 2, 3, 4.) Let any person read the 14th Psalm, or the 1st and 2d chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, and compare these descriptions with what he has learned of human nature by experience, and