57 



If it should be charged against these doctrines that they are 

 subversive of religion; I reply that such a charge is totally un- 

 founded. The Christian religion is proposed upon authority * the 

 ground of its adoption is faith } and this is a part of the religion 

 itself. If the truths of Christianity were such as were capable of 

 being made manifest by natural proofs, there would have existed no 

 necessity for a revelation in order that they might be embraced. 

 Christianity sets nature aside, and entirely out of the question: it is 

 proposed by its author that it should be accepted in the way of 

 confidence, or trust upon his authority; and whether natural testi- 

 mony concur with or oppose the system, is a point which does not at 

 all affect the grounds or terms upon which it is recommended. 

 The true and only source of proof, by which the existence and 

 moral government of the Deity can be consistently established, is 

 revelation : and the belief must be taken up upon this ground, in what- 

 ever point of view nature or physical testimony might be regarded. 

 It is allowed by the most orthodox, that the facts recorded in the 

 New Testament, as the miracles, &c. of Christ, are out of the com- 

 mon order of nature, and that they exhibit a power of which no man 

 has ever had the faintest glimmering of experience. Yet these 

 histories are believed, in the way that is proposed, viz. that they 

 should be accepted as matters of faith. If natural evidence 

 tended to produce the same belief as that enjoined by revelation, 

 nature would be referred to as a testimony of the truth of revela- 

 tion: the system of revelation would only be an exposition of 

 the system of nature. But revelation is proposed only upon one 

 ground, viz. faith : and it is even contrary to our religion to adopt 

 it upon any other basis. 



I cannot help thinking that some who have cited natural evi- 

 dence in proof of the truth of revelation, have gone further than 

 they were sanctioned by the creed they professed. They have 

 endeavoured to establish Christianity, or some leading points of 

 this scheme, upon a different foundation from that upon which it 

 was proposed: and as their attempts, if they were even more 

 complete and successful in their issue, can make nothing in 

 favour of a scheme, which, to be adopted as the letter requires, 

 must be adopted upon another basis; so the total failure of these 

 attempts can detract nothing from the credibility of the revealed 

 accounts. In short, it matters not how nature is represented, in 

 what light she is made to appear, or upon what party her services 

 are engaged : her voice in the affair is protested against, and the 

 inadequacy of her testimony declared, by the proposition of a 

 system upon a higher authority, upon an authority superior to 

 that of nature. 



The ground upon which Christianity is proposed, viz. faith, 



is one, which, though founded upon our experience, as every kind 



of evidence must be, is capable of superseding other evidence, 



which is also founded upon our experience ; this happens every 



K 



