well have been in the fame cafe, though they had lived in our Saviour's time.

It is not therefore for want of fufficient evidence, that men difbelieve the great truths of Religion; but plainly for want of integrity and of dealing ingenuoufly and impartially with themfelves, that they fuffer not the arguments of Religion to have that weight and influence upon them, which in the judgment of right reason they ought manifeftly to have. So long as men permit their paffions and appetites to over-rule their reason, it is impoffible they fhould have due apprehenfions in matters of Religion, or make any right and true judgment concerning these things. Men that are strongly biaffed and prejudiced even into worldly affairs, it is well known how hard and difficult it is for them to judge according to reason, and to fuffer the arguments and evidences of truth to have their due weight with them.

Gop has afforded us, as has been largely and particularly fhown in the foregoing difcourfe, many and certain proofs of the truth of our Religion; even as certain as any matter of fact is capable of havinp. And we now exhort men to believe, not what is barely poffible and excellent, and probable, and of the utmost importance in it-felf; but what moreover they have all the pofitive evidence, and all the reafon in the world

to oblige them to believe. To conclude.-No man of reafon can pretend to fay, but God may require us to take notice of some things at our peril, to inquire into them, and to confider them thoroughly. And pretence of want of greater evidence will not excufe careleffnefs or unreasonable prejudices; when God has vouchfafed to us all that evidence, which was either fit for him to grant, or reasonable for men to defire; or indeed which the nature of the thing itself to be proved, was capable of.

End of Mr. Clark's Discourse.

LECTURES

ON THE

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY,

BY

HENRY HUNTER, D. D.

John 1. 18.

No man hath feen God at any time: the only begotten Son, which is is the bofom of the Father, he hath declared him.

MAN ftands in an intimate relation to various orders of Beings. Some are his inferiors, and fubject to his power and authority. Some are on a level with himself, but with endless fhades of difference. Some rife above him on a scale of unknown, of unbounded excellence. He himself is on a progreffively afcending or defcending scale, of moral rectitude or depravity; and the termination of his moral exiftence is haftening to decide in what direction his futute and everlasting progrefs is to continue. Man early in life feels himself dependant, indebted, accountable. But

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on whom is he ultimately dependant, to whom is he chiefly indebted, and to whom is he finally refponfable? The profecution of this inquiry leads him step by step up to Deity; and he foon discovers that of all the relations in which he is placed, thofe in which he ftands to God are by far the most interefting and important. He finds that there is a fource of being and felicity whom he hath not seen, whom he knows very imperfectly, but of whom he wishes to know more, and more clearly, more fatisfyingly. He finds himself under a weight of obligations which it is impoffible for him ever to difcharge, yet feels himself disposed to make some return. And he finds that he has contracted much guilt towards this beneficient Creator and Preferver, the consciousness of which fills him with many an uneafy apprehenfion, and fuggefts many an anxious inquiry. Thus a variety of emotions are excited in the human breaft, according as the man confiders himself in the light of a dependant, a debtor, or a criminal, fuch as a sense of fubmiffion, of gratitude, of fear, and of hope.

BUT though man poffeffes faculties, by the exercise of which he may acquire the knowledge of his relation to Deity, and is confcious of the powerful emotions which they excite within him yet his unaffifted faculties are totally infufficient

to inftruft him in the nature and the will of God; in the duties impofed upon him by the Author and supporter of his being; and in what he has reafon to fear from his difpleafure, or to expect from his goodness. Left to himself, therefore, the firft of human beings is in a state of the most deplorable ignorance and uncertainty, in matters of the highest moment to him. His prefent exif

tence is dark and comfortless, and a difmally oppreffive cloud hangs over futurity. Religion is just as necessary to man as food and clothing, with this difference, that while he is furnished with an instinct capable of diftinguishing between food and poison, and with a fagacity capable of preparing and adapting his raiment to his circumftances, he poffeffes no inftinctive principle, no innate fagacity, to direct him in difcovering, diftinguishing and applying the proper nourishment, clothing, and ornament of his better part, the immortal mind. We accordingly find the acutenefs, ingenuity and good fenfe of individuals, and of nations deftitute of a divine revelation, in things relating to the body and a prefent world, forming a complete, and a melancholy contraft, with their ftupidity and extravagance in religious opinions and practices. A fagacious, induftrious, obferving husbandman had invented a better mode of cultivating the corn-plant, the olive, the vine, N°. 11.

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