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after other gods, and ferve them. In the New Testament, St. Paul fays, "Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accurfed." Thus does holy fcripture forewarn us on this fubject; and, for our greater fecurity, fuppofes cafes, which it probably was foreseen never fhould happen. It cannot perhaps be fhewn from the Jewish hiftory, that any teacher of idolatry ever wrought among them a real miracle; but most certainly, as St. Paul feems to intimate, as foon might it be proved, that an angel from heaven, as that one of the apoftles, preached a gofpel different from the reft. But granting, for a moment, that either of these cafes had been realifed in fact, that a wonder had been performed by a fervant of Baal, or another gofpel taught by an apostle; still GOD is true, and the author of truth; the doctrine therefore, which oppofes his will already made known by a well attefted revelation, or directly contradicts those principles which are implanted in man, is indubitably false, and the teacher a liar.

Gal. i. 8.

Irenæus adv. Hæres. L. IV. c. xiv. quotes the following declaration of Juftin Martyr: αυτῷ τῷ κυρίῳ δι' αν επείσθην,

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Before this tribunal, none of the pretenders to divine inspiration, that ever stood up to delude mankind, can maintain their cause; much less can thofe, with whom we now are concerned, the impoftors who appeared among the Jews, juft before the final overthrow of the ftate; of whofe audacious claims, besides that the exploits, which they promised to exhibit, never were performed, this alone was a fufficient confutation; that their defigns, as Jofephus teftifies, were more impious, their attempts more pernicious to the welfare of their country, than the outrage of those, who, in the midst of the city, and in open day, murdered their brethren; and profaned the festivals, and polluted the temple, with the blood of affaffination'. That which tended to deftroy peace upon earth, most affuredly did not come down from heaven.

Groundless, however, as the pretenfions of these deceivers really were, there is nevertheless one reflexion, which their appear

άλλον θεον καταγγελλοντι παρὰ τὸν δημιεργον. It is allo preferved by Eufebius, H. E. L. IV. c. xviii.

i B. J. L. II. c. xiii. §. 4.

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ance, together with other the peculiar circumstances of that age, feems to justify, with which I fhall conclude; namely, that with regard to the evidences of truth, as well as in other views, GOD is no refpecter of perfons. It is not meant, that the proofs of revelation are, in every age, altogether the fame, in kind and degree. This is not neceffary, nor, perhaps, morally poffible. With different men they will have different weight; and in proportion as they are viewed by a mind of larger powers and with greater attention, the more complete and fatisfactory will be the general conviction. But, at the fame time, the force of the proofs themfelves seems to vary less than fome have imagined.

"I bless myself, and am thankful," said an excellent, but fometimes fanciful, author of the last century, "that I lived not in the days of miracles; then had my faith been thrust upon me; nor fhould I enjoy that greater bleffing, pronounced to all that believe and faw not." But he feems not to have furveyed, with fufficient attention, the features of thofe times; or not to have rated,

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fo highly as he ought, the proofs afforded to later ages.

The faith of a Chriftian, as it is this day, fo was it always, a rational affent. At the outfet of the gospel, miracles were wrought; without which, undoubtedly, it never could have made any progress in the world. There were fuccessful impoftors, there were deeprooted prejudices, and every motive of a temporal nature, which can influence man, combined to oppofe it; and these difficulties could not have been furmounted, but by the clearest, most convincing, and, as it were, fenfible demonstration.

Such was the cafe of the primitive church, and the earliest converts. We, their fucceffors in later generations, are not only freed, by the bleffing of providence, from the hardships and perils, wherewith they were preffed; but enjoy, moreover, many advantages to them unknown. The difcourfes which they heard, and the miracles which they faw, are recorded for our inftruction, in a well attefted book; which, by means of modern inventions, is acceffible to all; and we have alfo the additional and increafing light of prophecy. It may therefore be regarded

garded as a moft certain truth, that in thofe, who refift such accumulated proofs, the evidence of no former age would have wrought conviction. They would not have been perfuaded, had they beheld, with their own eyes, one rife from the dead'.

1 See Luke xvi, 31.

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