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FROM what has been discoursed, the Truth of the Christian Religion is e∣vident by all the arguments, by which any Religion can possibly be proved to be Di∣vine; and if there be any such thing as true Religion, the Christian Religion must beit: and if this be made appear, it is all that need be said in defence of the Christian Re∣ligion, to any one but an Atheist.
The Scriptures are defective in nothing that is requisite in a Divine Revelation, but have all that can be required in the highest degree; to instance here only in Miracles, and in those only of our Saviour and his A∣postles. Our Saviour wrought his Miracles in the midst of his Enemies, and extorted a Confession from the Devils themselves of his Divine Power. And if the Apostles had not been well assured, and absolutely certain of his Resurrection, they would never have had the confidence, and the folly, (for it could have been no less) to maintain so soon after his Death, in Je∣rusalem, the City where he was Crucify'd, that he was risen from the Dead; they would never have chosen that, above all places, to Preach this Doctrine, and work their Miracles in, if they had not been true: at least, they would never have done it, at the great and solemn Feast of Pentecost, to provoke the Jews to expose them to all the World for Impostors; no, they would have taken time to have laid their design with some better appearance and contrivance: to be sure, they would have avoided Jerusalem as much as they could, and, above all times, at so solemn a Festival as that of Pentecost, they would have gone rather to the remotest corners of the Earth 〈◊〉〈◊〉 have told their story, than have run the hazard of such a
discovery. But when they stood the Test of all that the Jews could say or do to them; when in that very City, where he had been so lately Crucify'd, they told the Jews to their face, and before that numerous concourse of People, which was then met together at Jerusalem, that they were Murtherers, that they murther'd their Messias, but that he was risen from the Dead, and that by vertue of his Resurrection they spoke those Languages, and did those Works, which they then saw and heard. This was plain and open dealing, and there could be no de∣ceit in it; if any thing of this could have been disproved they had been for ever silenced, but their worst enemies were so far from being able to disprove what they said, that about three thou∣sand Converts were made on the day of Pentecost.
The innocent and Divine Life of our Sa∣viour, the holiness and excellency of his Doctrine, the simplicity, and meekness, and constancy of his Disciples, the continuance of Miracles for several Ages in the Church, the wonderful Propagation of the Gospel by a few, poor, ignorant, despised, and persecuted Men, every passage, every cir∣cumstance, in the whole dispensation of the Gospel, is full of evidence in proof of it. But thus much in this place shall suffice, all
particulars having been largely insisted up∣on in their proper places.
And since, as sure as there is a God, there must be a Revealed Religion; if any Man will dispute the Truth of the Christian Re∣ligion, let him instance in any other Religi∣on that can make a better Plea, and has more certainty that it came from God; let him produce any other Religion that has more visible Characters of Divinity in it, and we will not scruple to be of it; but if it be im∣possible for him to shew any such, (as has been proved) then he ought to be of this, since there must be some Revealed Religion; and if that Religion which has more evi∣dence for it than any other Religion can be pretended to have, and all that it could be requisite for it to have, supposing it true, and which it is therefore impossible to disco∣ver to be false if it were so. If this Religi∣on be not true, God must be wanting to Mankind in what concerns their eternal In∣terest and Happiness; he must be wanting to himself, and to his own Attributes of Goodness, Justice, and Truth. And there∣fore he, that upon a due examination of all the Reasons and Motives to it, will not be a Christian, can be no better than an Atheist, if he discern the consequence of things, and will hold to his own Principles, for there can be no Medium, if we rightly con∣sider the Nature of God, and of the Chri∣stian
Religion; but as sure as there is a God (and nothing can be more certain) the Gos∣pel was revealed by him.