Full Title:
The Life of our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ: With consideration and discourses upon the conception, nativity, circumcision, baptism, temptation, preaching, miracles, passion, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. Including several unanswerable arguments obvious to the meanest capacity, in defence of the divinity of our holy redeemer, and the truth of the Christian religion. Likewise, the lives, acts and deaths of the holy evangelists and apostles, as recorded by the primitive fathers, and ancient writers of unquestionable veracity. By J. Taylor. Greenfield, Mass: Thomas Dickman, 1796.
To the Reader:
The whole duty of man is to fear God, and keep his commandments, and the principal design of his creation is, That he may glorify God upon earth, and by the merits and intercession of Jesus Christ may enjoy eternal happiness in the presence of God in the world to come, wherein is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand are pleasures forevermore. To attain this everlasting inheritance, it is absolutely necessary to acquaint ourselves with God, and our blessed Saviour, and to be fully persuaded of the truth of the divinity of Jesus, and of the certainty of his being the Messiah, promised to the patriarchs and apostles some thousands of years before; who, in the fulness of time, made his appearance for the salvation of all that sincerely believe in him, and walk in obedience to his holy precepts and doctrines. This small tract is designed for the purposes aforenamed, that all true Christians may know in whom they have believed. For which many undeniable arguments and considerations are advanced, which may be comprehended by the meanest understanding, and may put to silence such abandoned wretches as deny the Lord that bought them; who being resolved to continue in a course of prophaneness and irreligion, endeavour to harden their consciences, and persuade themselves, that there is no God, nor future state of punishment, because they desire it may be so. I have also added the lives of the holy Evangelists and Apostles, with their martyrdom for preaching and publishing the good tidings of salvation to the barbarous nations with such mighty success, that thousands were converted, and afterwards suffered death for the profession of the gospel, and asserting the truth and certainty of the Christian religion, against all its opposers: These things are written for our instruction, and may so fortify us, that it may not be in the power of those deceivers who are abroad in the world, to weaken our faith and confidence in the mercy of God, and the merits of our blessed Saviour, that we shall at last attain everlasting life and happiness.
Eighteenth-Century Reading Room 