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.
A
RATfONAL
DE:rFENCE OP
TFiE
GOSPEL.
DERM.
XVr
pel of Christ,
is,
that
they
are
not
sufficiently
attested,
that.there
is
not,ground
enough given to
credit the
di-
vinity
of
them in
our
age.
'They
are ready
to
say,
"These
things were done,
ac-
cording
as
ourselves
profess, above
sixteen hundred
years
ago,
and
we
have
not
sufficient
credentials
to
ven-
ture
our
faith
upon
at
this.day."
it
would
be
too
long here to
repeat
over to
you
half
the
grounds
we
have for faith
in
this gospel.
That
there
was
such a man
as
Jesus
Christ
;
that
he lived
at
such
a
time
at
Jer
i
alern
;
that
he
wrought wondrous
works in
his own
country;
is
not
at
all
disbelieved
by
those
that
,profess any
reasonable
faith in human history.
The
Jews
themselves, who were
his
greatest
enemies, do
not
deny that
he
wrought those
miracles, which others could
not
work
;
but they
pretend,
that
he did
it
by
some
magic
art,
by
diabolical charms
:
and
wrought, miracles
not
by
The
power
of
God,
but
by
virtue
'derived
from
spells
and
evil
spirits.
So
that
the miracles he
wrought
were
not
disbelieved and denied,
but
the heavenly
spring
of
them
is
impiously perverted and
turned
downward,
as
though
Christ
borrowed
his
power from
hell
to
transact
these
affairs.
But
the holiness
and
the heavenly
temper
of
the
gospel
of
Christ
refutes
this
accusation.' Satan
was never knòwn
to
demolish
his own
kingdom
of un-
godliness
in
such
a
manner
as
this.
The
gospel
of Christ
in every
part
of it
has
a most singular and
sublime
ten
-
dency
to
advance
the name,
the
attributes, and the ho-
nour of
God,
whom
Satan hates with
a
perfect hatred::
He
would
never lend
his
assisting
hand
to
support a
scheme
of
religion
so
divine and
holy.
Never
was
any body
of
loctrines
and
of
duties
-so
composed and calculated
to
promote the
glory
of God;
nor
the good
of
man,
as
this gospel
does.:
Our
peace
and
happiness
would
be
secured by
it
on
.
earth,
if
all
'men
would
comply
with it,
and
our
felicity
after death
is the
great and
indefeasible proposal and
design
of
it
:
Now Satan
is
a
restless
enemy to.men,
his fellow
-crea-
tures,
as well as
to
God,
his
Maker;
and
he
would
never
exert
the remains
of
his
angelic power
to
encou-
rage
and defend.such
a
pious and beneficent
religion.
But the most amazing progress and success
of
the gos-
pel
is
another
argument that preves
it
to
be divine, even