This will at once be answered, if the Gospel assertion be established, that life and immortality were brought to light. We need not adduce any other of the mysteries of revelation: we may safely rest the question here, and say with the apostle to the Gentile world— Behold! I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump (for the trumpet shall sound), and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Mark to how short an issue the argument is now brought! Either the apostle is not warranted in calling this a mystery, or the deist is not warranted in calling Christ's mission nugatory and superfluous.

It now rests with the deist to produce from the writings and opinions of mankind, antecedent to Christianity, such a revelation of things to come as can fully anticipate the Gospel revelation, or else to admit with the apostle that a mystery was shown; and if the importance of this mystery be admitted, as it surely must, the importance of Christ's mission can no longer be disputed; and though revelation shall have added nothing to the heathen system of morality, still it does not follow that it was superfluous and nugatory.

Let the deist resort to the heathen Elysium and the realms of Pluto in search of evidences to set in competition with the Christian revelation of a future state; let him call in Socrates, Plato, and as many more as he can collect in his cause; it is but lost labour to follow the various tracks of reason through the pathless ocean of conjecture, always wandering, though with different degrees of deviation. What does it avail though Seneca had taught as good morality as Christ himself preached from the Mount? How does it affect revealed religion though Tully's

Offices were found superior to Saint Paul's Epistles Let the deist indulge himself in declaiming on the virtues of the heathen heroes and philosophers; let him ransack the annals of the Christian world and present us with legions of crusaders drenched in human blood, furious fanatics rushing on each other's throats for the distinction of a word, massacring whole nations, and laying nature waste for a metaphysical quibble, it touches not religion; let him array a host of persecuting Inquisitors with all their torturing engines, the picture indeed is terrible, but who will say it is the picture of Christianity.

When we consider the ages which have elapsed since the introduction of Christianity, and the events attending its propagation, how wonderful is the history we contemplate! we see a mighty light spreading over all mankind from one spark kindled in an ́ obscure corner of the earth. A humble persecuted teacher preaches a religion of peace, of forgiveness of injuries, of submission to temporal authorities, of meekness, piety, brotherly love and universal benevolence; he is tried, condemned, and executed for his doctrines : he rises from the tomb, and breaking down the doors of death, sets open to all mankind the evidence of a life to come, and at the same time points out the sure path to everlasting happiness in that future state. A few unlettered disciples, his adherents and survivors, take up his doctrines, and going forth amongst the provinces of the Roman empire, then in its zenith, preach a religion to the Gentiles directly, striking at the foundation of the most splendid fabrics Superstition ever reared on earth. These Gentiles are not a rude and barbarous race, but men of illuminated minds, acute philosophers, eloquent orators, powerful reasoners, eminent in arts and sciences, and armed

with sovereign power: What an undertaking for the teachers of Christianity! What a conflict for a religion holding forth no temporal allurements! On the contrary, promising nothing but mortification in this world, and referring all hope of a reward for present sufferings to the unseen glories of a life to

come.

The next scene which this review presents to us shows the followers of Christianity suffering under persecution by the heathen, whom their numbers bad alarmed, and who began to tremble for their gods: in the revolution of ages the church becomes triumphant, and, made wanton by prosperity, degenerates from its primitive simplicity, and running into idle controversies and metaphysical schisms persecutes its seceding brethren with unremitting fury; whilst the popes, thundering out anathemas and hurling torches from their throne, seem the vicegerents of the furies rather than of the Author of a religious peace: the present time affords a different view; the temper of the church grown milder, though its zeal less fervent; men of different communions begin to draw nearer to each other: as refinement of manners becomes more general, toleration spreads; we are no longer slaves to the laws of religion, but converts to the reason of it; and being allowed to examine the evidence and foundation of the faith that is in us, we discover that Christianity is a religion of charity, toleration, reason, and peace, enjoining us to "have compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous, not rendering railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing; knowing that we are thereunto called, that we should inherit a blessing.

VOL. 11.

G

No. LXII.

DARK and erroneous as the minds of men in general were before the appearance of Christ, no friend to revelation ever meant to say that all the gross and glaring absurdities of the heathen system as vulgarly professed were universally adopted, and that no thinking man amongst them entertained better conceptions of God's nature and attributes, juster notions of his superintendence and providence, purer maxims of morality, and more elevated expectations of a future state, than are to be found in the extravagant accounts of their established theology. No thinking man could seriously subscribe his belief to such fabulous and chimerical legends; and indeed it appears that opinions were permitted to pass without censure very irreconlilable to the popular faith, and great latitude given to speculation in their reasonings upon natural religion; and what can be more gratifying to philanthropy than to trace these efforts of right reason which redound to the honour of man's nature, and exhibit to our view the human understanding unassisted by the lights of revelation, and supported only by its natural powers, emerging from the darkness of idolatry and breaking forth into the following description of the Supreme Being, which is faithfully translated from the fragment of an ancient Greek tragic poet:

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Let not mortal corruption mix with your idea of God, nor think of him as of a corporeal being such as thyself, he is inscrutable to man; now appearing like fire, implacable in his anger; now in

thick darkness, now in the flood of waters; now he puts on the terrors of a ravening beast, of the thunder, the winds, the lightning, of conflagrations, of clouds: him the seas obey, the savage rocks, the springs of fresh water, and the rivers that flow along their winding channels; the earth herself stands in awe of him: the high tops of the mountains, the wide expanse of the cerulean ocean tremble at the frown of their Lord and Ruler."

This is a strain in the sublime style of the Psalmist, and similar ideas of the Supreme Being may be collected from the remains of various heathen writers.

Antiphanes, the Socratic philosopher, says, “That God is the resemblance of nothing upon earth, so that no conception can be derived from any effigy or likeness of the Author of the Universe."

Xenophon observes, "That a Being who controls and governs all things must needs be great and powerful, but being by his nature invisible, no man can discern what form or shape he is of."

Thales, being asked to define the Deity, replied that "He was without beginning and without end." Being farther interrogated, " If the actions of men could escape the intelligence of God?" he answered, No, nor even their thoughts."

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Philemon, the comic poet, introduces the following question and answer in a dialogue: "Tell me, I beseech you, what is your conception of God?" "As of a Being, who, seeing all things, is himself unseen."

Menander says, that "God, the lord and father of all things, is alone worthy of our humble adoration, being at once the maker and the giver of all blessings."

Melanippidas, a writer also of comedy, introduces this solemn invocation to the Supreme Being, "Hear