The Evidences of Christianity in Their External Or Historical Division

THE

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY

THEIR EXTERNAL OR HISTORICAL DIVISION:

EXHIBITED IN

A COURSE OF LECTURES,

BY CHARLES PETTIT M'ILVAINE, D. D.

BISHOP OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE STATE OF

OHIO.

Sint casta deliciæ meæ scripturæ tuæ; nec fallar in eis, nec fallam ex eis.

AUGUSTINE.

NINTH EDITION.

REVISED AND IMPROVED BY THE AUTHOR.

PUBLISHED BY THE

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK.

REAR

varsity uf
MICH

Entered by the author, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1832, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

Right of publishing transferred to the American Tract Socie y.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE I.

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS,

The difficulty of presenting the evidences of Christianity arises, not

from any lack of arguments, but from the difficulty of a just selec-

tion and arrangement where materials are so abundant,

I. The high importance of the investigation proposed,

The question is, Is the religion of Jesus Christ, as exhibited in the New

Testament, a revelation from God, and consequently possessed of a

sovereign right to universal faith and obedience?

We must have the religion of Christ or none,

Deism, the only imaginable substitute, shown to offer no refuge, 25

The investigation urged on the experimentally convinced Christian, as

a matter of spiritual pleasure and improvement, and as a matter

of duty to the cause of truth, and to the good of his neighbor, 34

The same urged on the merely nominal Christian, as necessary to a
rational and steadfast belief of what he professes not to doubt, and
for a deeper impression of the solemnity of its truth,
3€

The investigation derives additional importance from the peculiar

character of the present times, as those of licentiousness, under the

boast of freedom, in such inquiries,