and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST, and his APOSTLES, &c. 427 book againft Celfus, mentioning their being call out of Jerufalem, the place to which their worfhip was annexed, deprivedoftheir temple and facrifice, theirreligious rites and folemnities, and fcattered over the face of the earth, ventures to affure them with a face of confidence, that they would never be re-eflablifhed, fince they had committed that horrid crime againft the Saviour of the world. This was a bold affection in the good man, who knew how this people had been fowonderfully re-eftablifhed in formertimes, when theywere .almoft fwallowed up, and in the moll defperate Pate ofdefolation, as in their deliverance out of the Babylonifh captivity, and the oppreffions of Antiochus Epiphanes : nay, he knew that within lefs than an hundred years before his own time, the Jews had made fuch a powerful effort for their re-eflablifhment under Barchocab, in the reign of Adrian, as (hook the whole Roman empire: buthe founded his opinion on a Pure word of prophecy, and on the punifhment they had fo jelly incurred; and we find by a long experience of fifteen hun- dred years, that he was not mifiaken, nay, that his opinion gathers firength daily, fince the Jews are now at a greater diflance from any probability of fuch a re-eflablifhment, than they were when Otigen wrote. In the primitive times, the Chriftian reli- gion fhowed it's full force and efficacy on the minds ofmen, and by many examples demonftratedwhat greatand generous fouls it was capable of producing. It exalted and refined it's profelytes to a very high degree of perfeaion, and fet them far above the pleafures, and even the pains, ofthis life. It ftrengthened the infirmity, and broke the fiercenefs of human nature. It lifted up the minds of the ignorant to the knowledge and worshipofhim thatmade them, and infpired the vicious with a rational devotion, a flricl purity ofheart, and an unbounded love to their fellow- creatures. In ptopòrtion as it fpread through the world, it Teemed to change. mankind into another fpecies of beings. No fooner was a convert initiated into it, but by an eafy figure he became a new man, and both ailed and looked upon himfelf as one regenerated and born a fecond time intci another (late of exiflence. But we find no argument made a flronger inipreffion on the minds of thefe eminent Pagan converts, for-ftrengthening their faith in the hiftory ofour Saviour, than the pre= diction relating to him in thofe old prophe- tic writings, which were depofited amonggft the hands of the greate(t enemies to Chrifti: anity, and owned by them to have been ex- taut niany ages before his appearance. The learned Heathen converts were aftonilhed to-fee the whole hiflory of their Saviour's life publifhed before he was born, and tò find that the evangeliffs and prophets, in their accountsof the Mefliah, differed only in point of time, the one foretelling what fhould happen to him, and the other de- fcribing thofe very particulars as what had actually happened. This our Saviour him- fell was pteafed. to make ufe of as the firongeft argument of his being the pro.; mifed Meffiah, and without it would hardly have reconciled his difciples to the ignominy of his death, as in that remarkablepáffage which mentions his converfation with the two difciples, on the day ofhis refurre&ion, St. Luke xxiv. 13. to the end. Betides, the Heathen converts, after having travelled through all human learning, and fortified their' minds with the knowledge of arts and fciences, were particularly qualified to ex- amine thefe prophecies with great tare and impartiality, and without prejudice orpre poffeffion ; fo as to eftablilh in their minds the firm belief of the truth and excellency of the Chriflian religion, beyond the leaf" degree ofà doubt, concerning it r s. DIRECTIONS 111111i1Mliir-
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=