christian religion, as it is plane from many instances in the new testament, that the Jewish converts of that generation understood them to relate to our Lord; which is a sufficient reason for our believing them. Since they knew the true intent and meaning of them, and on account of their knowing it, were converted; the prophecies for this reason should by us be regarded as divine testimony in favor of Christ Jesus.—Then as to miracles, they are to be sure a means of proving and spreading the christian religion, as they shew the divine mission of the Messiah, and rouze the mind to attend to the power by which these mighty works were wrought. Thus miracle and prophecy shew the teacher came from God. They contribute to the establishment of his kingdom, and have a tendency to produce that faith which purifies the heart, and brings forth the new birth.
But the greater evidence for the truth of our holy religion, appears to me to be that which converted the primitive christians, to wit, the powerful influence which the Gospel has on the minds of those who study

it with sincerity, and the inward discoveries Christ makes to the understanding of the faithful by his light and good spirit. This exceeds the other evidences, if the heart be honest. The Gospel is irresistible, when the spirit of God moves upon the minds of christians. When the divine power, dispensed through Christ, assists and strengthens us to do good, and to eschew evil, then christianity appears a religion worthy of God, and in itself the most reasonable. The compleat salvation deserves our ready acceptation. That religion must charm a reasonable world, which not only restores the worship of the one true God, and exhibits, in a perfect plan, those rules of moral rectitude, whereby the conduct of men should be governed, and their future happiness secured; but, by its blessed spirit, informs our judgments, influences our wills, rectifies and subdues our passions, turns the biass of our minds from the objects and pleasures of sense, and fixes them upon the supreme good. Most glorious surely is such a gospel.
But does not this operation of the spirit, (I said) which you make the principal evidence for christianity, debase human nature, and make man too weak, too helpless and depending a being? If voluntary good agency depends on supernatural influence

and enlivening aid, does not this make us mere patients, and if we are not moral agents, that is, have not a power of chusing or refusing, of doing or avoiding, either good or evil, can there be any