THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES A PICTURE OF CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY. BY ROBERT FELLOWES, A. B. OXON. THE SECOND EDITION, WITH CORRECTIONS AND CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS. Certainly it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in Charity, reft in Providence, and turn upon the poles of Truth. LORD BACON'. Sontion, JPRINTID FOR JOHN WHITE, BOOKSELLER, HORACE'S HEAD, FLEET-STRFET. 1799. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. A Principal defign of the prefent pub- lication is, by a delineation of the character of Jefus, to difplay the genuine unfophifticated fpi- nt of his religion; and to mew what ought to be it's influence on the affeQlons and the conduct of men in private life and in public ftations. Some philofophers of our times have recommended a fpirit of univerfal philanthropy, to the extinction of all local and individual partialities.* I have * Among the moft Gngnlar of thefe is Mr. Godwin, author of an elaborate work, called " Political Juftice." Mr. G. certainly poffeffo great vigor of mind ; but how often does he become a mere dreamer of dreams, and a compounder of abfurdities ! His fyftem is totally im- practicable; and even if it were pra&icable it would be pernicious: it would abolilh all the endearments of love and charity, and fteel the human heart againft it'* bed fyrapathiei, with a more than (loical in- Onfibilitj-. (iv ) endeavoured to fliow, that though Chriftianitjr infpires univerfal benevolence, it encourages thofe individual fympathies which are it's founda- tion; and without which, univerfal philanthropy is but as a " founding brafs or a tinkling cymbal.'* The name of philanthropy may make a fweet found, but it is but a found without the obfer- vance of the leffer charities. Many have reprefented the Chriflian temper as of the morofe and fullen kind; and have thought it criminal for a Chriftian to engage in the buftle of the world, and to mare in the gaie- ties of life. But the example of Jefus fanclions no fuch conclufions. He did not make fading and prayer the key to heaven. He did not enjoin the fad but the cheerful countenance. Habits of solemn devotion he commanded and he praftifed ; but his example proves that, that fpecies of devotion is moft agreeable to heaven, which abouads moft in a6ls of beneficence to man. The builders of theological fyftems feem ufually to have paid too much attention to the writings of St. Paul, and too little to the doc- trines and the practice of Chrift; but I think that a modern believer has very little concern with the epiflles of the Apoftle. Thofe epiftles were written on particular occasions and on tem- porary topics, to combat the fleeting herefies, the local and perfonal corruptions of the day. They can, therefore, but feldom be applied to the general doctrines of Chriftianity. Had Chriflians uniformly attended to this, we mould probably never have heard of that diftin&ion between faith and chanty, with which enthufiafts have polluted pure Chriftianity, A Chriftian ought exclufively to confider what were the do6lrines, and what was the prac- tice of Jefus; which may eafily be collected from the accounts which the Evangelifts have left us of his aclions and his difcourfes; and according to thefe we ought, as much as poflible, to regu- (vi) late our do&rine, our affeclions and our prac- tice. The doftrines of Jefus, as they have been delivered by the Evangelifts, are plain and fim- ple to all capacities ; but the epiftles, filled with allufions to evanefcent topics, and to fchifms which no longer disturb the church, are involved in a ten-fold obfcurity, in which even fagacity and learning will be for ever bewildered. Why then, when we can walk in the light, mould we prefer ftumbling in darknefs? Is it becaufe we delight more in error than in truth ? or becaufe we imagine that there is no piety, where there is no myftery? Another caufe which has greatly contributed to obfcure the true genius of the Chriftian fyf- tem, is, that the majority of thofe who have fet themfelves down to the ftudy of the fubjeft, have rather endeavoured to make Chriftianity conform to their opinions, than make their opi- nions conform to Chriftianity. Slaves to fomc darling theory or fome early prepofleflions, they ( vii ) have rather fought for texts to confirm thefe, than to elucidate the truth by rational and dif- paflionate enquiry. This is a principal reafon why we have fo many fchemes of Chriflianity, and fo many feels of Chriftians. Individuals, inftead of endea- vouring to difcover the truth, as it is in Jefus, have endeavoured to pervert it, to their own narrow prejudices and partial views. But I truft that we have arrived at an age, when the enquirers into the doclrines of revelation, HO longer blinded by the obftinacy of bigotry or the credulity of fuperfthion, will cheerfully re- linquifh error to embrace truth; and will be lefs direcled by vanity than by love to God and to mankind. Had the evidences and tenets of the Chriftian religion been conftantly inveftigaied with thefe affections, and with no other biafs than a biafs to benevolence, Skepticifm could never have prevailed fo much in the world; there would have been lefs bitternefs and difcordancy among believers ; and infidelity would, at lead, have wanted one fubjeft of triumph, in the implacable animofities of Chriftians againft Chriftians. It is an abfurd and a dangerous notion, that we can ferve the caufe of revelation by limiting the right of free difcuflion, or checking it by perfecution. Perfecution always incraafes the evil it is intended to remedy; and religious opi- nions, which refped the intercourfe between man and his maker, ought for ever to be free from human interruption. They are too facred for the cognizance of any earthly tribunal. There feems to be a principle in human na- ture, ever jealous of the lead ufurpation on the right of private judgment, particularly in religi- ous concerns; and which, though it often feem irregular and capricious in it's operations, was yet providently planted in us, by divine wifdom, as a ftrong auxiliary to truth, and a counteract- ing caufe of tyranny and perfecution. Had not mankind poffeffed this principle of counter- aftion, Chriftianity, when the miraculous eilu- fions of the Holy Spirit had ceafed, might have funk lifelefs and exhaulled under fucceffive per- feeutions. Truths, the mod ufeful to mankind, which have commonly been attacked at their firft appearance, by bigotry or by malice, might have pcrifhed as foon as they were born, and the mo- ral and the intellectual world might have been co- vered with darknels. It was this principle which animated Luther and the early reformers, and Ihook the folid and artfully cemented fabric of Popery to it's bafe. It is this principle, which arming the confidence and the reafon of man with an energy, proportionate to the fury that op- pofes their free exercife, has fo often caufed the diffufion of opinions, to keep pace with the rage that has flrugglcd for their fuppreflion. As it is the collifion of mind with mind, that difcovers new truths and elucidates old, Chrif- tians ought by no means to difcourage the dif- cuflion of the evidences of their religion. They ought rather to court fuch difcuflion, and engage in it themfelves, without any of that fpirit of bitternefs, which often difgraces even the advo- cates of a good caufe, and degrades the invefti- gation of facred truths into a petty perfonal contention. Truth fhould be fought for truth's fake; not for the pleafure of expofing an adverfary, or for the glory of viclory, but for the fake of dimi- nifhing error and of diffufing knowledge. And furely the truths of Chriftianity, of all others, ought not to be difcufled with rancour, but in the mild fpirit of him from whom they came. The Chriftian ought to anfwer argument by ar- gument, and not to feek the energies of logic in the vindictivenefs of perfecution. Let the be- liever and the unbeliever know, that Chriftianity can ftand by argument; that it can derive no ftrength from rage, and perfecution ; and that y that only deferves the name of faith which is founded on fober and rational conviclion. It is full time that the evil fpirit of perfecu- tion mould be laid at reft for ever. After the experience of eighteen centuries, it is time that mankind fiiould at lad be convinced, that opi- nions, if true, can never be vanquifhed by op- preflTion, and if falfe, many a melancholy page in hiflory might have taught us, that human er- rors yield more certainly to mildnefs than to rage, to reafon than to punimment.* * When a political fydem is getting into difrepute, there feems to me to bt: but one way to retrieve it's character and to maintain it's authority ; and that is, by making the people in general feel the happinefs it pro- duces, and their intereft. in fupporting it. When the benevolent Count Rumford undertook to reform the moral ii-utiments of the Bavarian beggars, he firft rendered them eafy and com- iortablc in their circumftances. A man is never fo much averfe to mo- rality as when lie is ftarving with hunger. That diftrefs which is irn. trievable breaks the fpirit of independence, the fource of honed and virtuous endeavour, and produces the lowed ftate of moral degradation. In this abjed ftate, the individual, cealing to perceive the bleflings of civil order, grows impatient of it's reftraints and anxious for it's diflb- lution. He becomes fit for all kinds of atrocities ! If eafy circurr. fiances do not always produce morality, they are, at leaft, mofl favcnu- ( xii) Chriftian charity fhould incline us to for- bearance towards each other; chriftian humility ought long ago to have inftrufted mankind, that thofe who claim the right of perfecuting others for their opinions, are themfelves as fallible as thofe they perfecute. Let us have done with able to it's production ; for he who is in a ftate of wretchednefs, ap- proaching to defpair, can hardly fail of being hoftile to thofe laws of political juftice, which conftitute the individuality of property, and v/hich are the ftrong bafe of focial morality, and the facred cement of civil government. No revolution could poflibly take place in that coun- try, where every individual was interefted in the prefervation of civil order; or, in other words, was attached by a reciprocal intereft, to the praftice of the duties of reciprocal juftice. The governors of mankind cannot give too much attention to this principle, if they wifh to identify their own power with the interefts and the affeftions of the people, and to unite all the gradations of civil fociety, by the connecting bond of a fympathetic benevolence. A communion of happinefs is not only not incompatible with a dif- parity of property, but is inattainable without it. The greateft happinefs which mankind can enjoy on earth, arifes from a benevolent intercourfe with each other. Were all men equal in circumftances, there would be no room for a reciprocity of kindnefles. A difparity of conditions occafions a difparity of wants, and gives rife to moft of the affeftions which gladden life. The complicated and diverfified circumftances of mankind warm into life and ftimulate into aftion thofe benevolent fympathies which are the ornaments of our fpecies, and the prolific caufes of a reciprocity of happinefs. Without them we mould be abforbed in a brutal felnfhnefs, and acquainted with none but the loveft enjoyments. that vehement, dogmatifing, intolerant and fart- guinary fpirit, which in former ages burned it's viclims in the flames; and which, in the prefent, has opened far and wide the flukes of human gore, and filled the earth with fpe&acles of mifery ! ! ! The times themfelves, by their awful and tremendous afpeft, portending the wrath of hea- ven on our prefumption, our animofity and our crimes, ought to induce us to return to a fyflem of reciprocal benevolence and moderation. To fuffer a mere difference of opinion to make us as hoftile to each other, as if we were beings of a different fpecies, appears a ftrange mockery of the religion we profefs; whofe features are mildnefs, and whofe precepts are love. Were the defolating animofity, which at this moment feparates from each other ftates and in- dividuals, to be perpetual, even a righteous man might be alinoft tempted to loath exiftence ! But ( xiv ) kt us hope, that thefe days, dark and difmal as they now appear, will be fhortened by the All- wife and All-good Difpenfer of individual and of national felicity. Though at this moment the world be teeming with revolutions, though thrones be tottering to their fall, though changes the moft important have happened fo rapidly, that they almoft appear as the vifiorls of a dream, let us with calm refignation, truft that the Divine Providence is bufily employed in this folemn drama; arranging all it's parts on the wifeft plans, and difpofing them, notwithftandirig the gloomy fadnefs of intermediate di {orders, for a conclufion, favourable to virtue, to piety aad to happinefs. HARBURY, AHUL 3, i 7 08 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. JL HE favourable reception of the firft edition of this work, has encouraged the author to publifh the prefent, enlarged, and he hopes, im- proved edition. The manner, in which he has treated the moft important of all fubjefts, has, he trufts, however difpleafing it may have been to fome few individuals, been generally approved. The lovers of bitternefs, the fomenters of animofity, and the champions of intolerance will take no pleafure in the following pages; but the author hopes, that the friends of revealed truth and of human happinefs will not have occafion to regret either the expence of the publication, or the time it may employ. The author is not the timid or obfequious votary of any party. ( xvi ) He has not been fcrupuloufly delicate about adU jufting his opinions to the ftandard of fafhion; carelefs of perfonal favour or emolument, he has feduloufly fought for truth in the fanftuary of the fcriptures. Inftead of tuning the har- mony of his notions to the breath of every fleet- ing intereft; he has endeavoured, with unfeigned fincerity, to direft the steps of his fellow crea- tures, by the torch of Chriftian love, to life eter- nal. If by the grace of Divine Providence, without which the author has an undoubting con- viflion that all hit exertions mujl be fruitlefs, he is made the inftrument of fpreading the un- fullied light of the true gofpel, or of exciting the flame of genuine benevolence in only one individual, he will feel a happinefs which wealth could not give, and which poverty cannot take away. ROBERT FELLOWES, Curate ofllarbury, near Southam, Warwick/hire. February 15, 1799. CONTENTS, TEXT. JL HE charafter of Jefus, as it has been rcprcfcnted fa the four Evangel ijls, an argument for the truth nfCkrtJliar.itj. J 4 The character of Chrift not fictitious ; arifcs out of die dif- cqyrfes, incidents, &c. connected with it; drawn by four dif- ferent hands; who, amid particular variations, agree cxaftly in the general and individual likenefs. The variations prove the abfence of any concert between the hiftorians. Such con- cert neceffary, if they had not defcribed tlie fame original. $ 6 The opinion, that the variations were the efiVft of Collufion, fuppofts taler.ts for impofture, incompatible with the f:niplu:ity of the Evangelifls. 6 11 On the fuppofUion, that the difcourfes. &c. of Jefus area- mixture of truth and fable ; the difficulty of diftinguifhing the one from the other, from the identity of character that pervades both 12 The genuinenefs of the difcourfcs involves ihe truth of the - miracles. ( xv m ) MM 13 Canftderations en the marks of energy and authority that charaC' , terifed the manner of Jefus; and of which the features are Accurately preferved in the narrative of the Evangclijis. 13 14 Jefus taught as one having authority. Contraft between the fpeaker and his circumftances. 34 ic Character of impofture. Had Jefus been an impoftor, he? mud have blended confummate arrogance with confummate art. ' The different impreflions of falfe and genuine autho- rity. The triumph of the latter over phyfical power. ij Casfar confcious of the authority of Cicero ; anxious to ob- tain advantage of it. 16 In Louis the XVIth, the authority of his manner furvived the wreck of his power. 1618 The authority of Jefus impreflive, without being afMed by any luftre of talents or of ftation. His energetic manner narked with fingular accuracy and difcriminatiou, by the four EvangeliRs. 39 so The grandeur of his manner did not accord with the poor. nefs of his circumftances. In his aftual circumftances, Jeiujj without divine energies, would have provoked dcrifron. io 21 The multitude judge by outward appearances. The con- temptuoufnefs of ChriiVs outward appearance rani fried in the eflential dignity of his manner ; and which caufed his faying, to be heard with attention. i 83 Inftances, in which the energy of hi manner, palfied the power of his enemies ; adapted to the character, the character to them, not likely to have been fabricated ; Corroborate tke truth of the narrative. * J 8 i ^ discrepancies in the manner of Jefus. Remarks on the Chri/lian miracles. n miracles analogous to the other o] Deity; if fiftitious, wou!4 have prayed their awa rcfutatioa *5 a6 TJie Chriftian miracles analogous to the other operatloas of the ftteu 87 28 Suppofmg them the fabrications of the hiftoriam ; they have related fo many lies with as much apparent vera:ity as they could facts, of which they were eye-witneffes. Their confci- oufnefs of truth evinced by their making no provifioas againft objections. 28 Truth characterifed by intrepidity, falfhood by the fubter- fuges of fear. 8 29 The character of the miracles correfponds with the purpofe of the revelation. 30 31 Dillinctions between forged and real hiftory. Difficulties to fuccefs in the former. The confiftcncy and veracity of th Zvangeliftj. 32 Jtemarks on the miracle of the blind man re/iored to fight by Jcfui, according to the account given by St. John ix. gjl 33 The blind man feen by Jefus ; the queflion of the Apoflles ; remarks on the introduction to the miracle. 33 34 Anfwer of Jefus ; characteriled "by confidence and energy. His cuflonl of giving, incidentally, the moft weighty counfels. 3 $ JefuS effects the cure by clay mixed with fpittle ; not the aft of an impoftor. 36 39 Inftead of lavifliing any panegyric on the phyfician, the Evangelift details a very natural and animated enquiry into the reality of the cure. 39 40 The man who had been blind, declares that Jefus had reftor- ed his fight He is brought before the Fnarifees, relates hit cure ; they call his parents. 40 41 Remarks on the proceedings of the Pharifees ; they queftion the parents ; referred back to the fon. The circumftantiality of the narrative. 4! 48 The Phar'fees artfully endeavour to divert the attention from the author of the miracle.' The anfwer of him, who had recei- ved his fight, to the peremptory affertiou of the Pharifees; re- toarks on it. ( XX ) PACES 42 43 The Phafifees incenfed ; their paflionate interrogatories* Their impatience repreiented to the life. Their vehemence ftimulates the poor man to greater boldnefs of fpeech. He is reviled by the Pharifees. Boldly defends Jefus. Their rage inflamed ; they cafl him out. 43 45 The dialogue that follows the miracle corroborates it'* rea- lity. Great dexterity exhibited in the reprefentation of this miracle, fuppofing it a fiction. The author's wifh that hit re- marks on it may ferve the caufe of revelatioa. 46 The charafier of Jefus illujlraled. 46 Early impreflions lay the foundation of character., 4750 The circumftances tn which Jefus was placed, in early life", not favourable to the produ&ion of fuch a character. 5054 Jefus, not initiated in the kaming of the Jews ; not infected with the national prejudices that prevailed in his time; he had either crafed the imprefftons of his youth, or waj, by the divine favour, exempted from their influence. 5456 A general (ketch of his character. Confpicuous for the paf- five virtues ; their excellence ; do not exclude more energetic qualities. 6 57 Jefus commends thofe virtues, which do not dazzle by their fplendour ; the pattern of his own Icifons ; acquainted with the efficient caufes of human happinefs ; his inftructions calculated to promote it. 57 58 Revenge predominant in the favage ftate; religion only, can abate it's ferocity ; phyfical caufes which promote it's expan- fion ; perverfe alfociations inflame it to fury. 58 59 Human happinefs effentially connected with benevolent fym- pathy. 59 6 Jefus, the only recorded victor of the revengeful paflions;^ meeknefs recommended by his example. 60 64 Our prefent affociations pafs with us into other dates of being ; the importance of this confideration. The humility of Jefus ; aa impreffive inftance of it. fAGIS 67 68 Kind attention to little children, charafieriftic of benevo- lence ; fo confidered by Jefus. 69 The Evangelifts make no parade of tloquence. 69 70 Jefus heals Peter's wife's mother ; heals the centurion's fer- vant ; his promptitude in doing good. }0 72 A ruler of the fynagogue befeeches Jefus to heal his daughter. News of her death. Jefus comforts the detracted father ; arrive* at the ruler's houfe ; the delicacy of his benevolence. 7274 A dead corpfe. The parents and fpeClator*. weep. Jefus re- pri-'fents the deceafed in a tranfe. The irritability of the mind in a (late of great flffliftion. Jefus derided. The dead railed. ~^_y5 The tendernefs of Jefus exemplified, near the city of Nain ; the funeral proceflion of a widow's only fon. The mifery of the mother, Jtfus comforts her; hi* ityle of condolence; he raifes the deceafed. 7678 The beneficence of Jcfui full of life and energy; heightened by the kindnefs of his manner; never loft fight of individual mifery. The rule of the general good, not fuited to the prafti- cal purpofes of lijje. 7880 The " general good" not an objeft of fympathy. Sympa- thy prompts to the relief of individuals. The relations of friendfhip, &c. not to be facrificed to the interefl of the com- munity. to 8 1 Mr. Godwin's rule of life more fallible and mifchievous than that of fympathy. The rule of life propofed by our Saviour. |i 8s Virtue confift* in ferving the detail of fociety. The quan- tity of public happinefs more increafed by individuals, aiming at partial than at general good, Sz 88 Univerfal benevolence, infcparable from individual attach- ments ; adociation produces them. The gradual expanfion of our affections, Partial without univerfal, univerfal without partial benevolence. 89 91 Particular affeftions, give birth to general. In Jefus, uni- verfal did not abforb partial love. 91 The domeftic affeftioni a cordial to the heart. 5193 Friendfhip derives it's energy from fympathy. Kifldrti lovo ftrengthemcd by inurcourfe-. f xxii ) PACBS 93~95 True friendfrup partakes of the facrednefs of kindred lov<. Jefus fanftions the flame of priTate friendfbip. His conduft on the death of Lazarus. He receives intelligence of Lazarus'* ficknds; delays vilking him. Lazarus dies. Why, Jefus would not fee him in hi r , laft ficknefs. 9598 Martiia goes to meet Jefus. Mary fits ftill. The unity and coufiilency of th:n characters, Jefus tells Martiia. that her bro- ther fhall live again; fhe fetches her filler. Jefds deeply affec- ted. The Jews remark his affeftion for Lazarus. He pro- ceeds to the totnb, raifes the dead. Eulogy on his friendfhip. 98 99 J e ^ us not negligent of kindred love. Providence wills fa- mily love. Sympathy improves it; a fource of exquifite happlnefs. gg 1O 4 Conjugal love productive of happinefs ; Chriflian reftraints on marriage ; it's religious obligations ; only adultery can juf- tify it's diffolution. Mifchievous confequences of fcparating marriage from the Chriftian fan&ions. Habitual intercourfe fmooths oft the incongruities of temper, &c. Conjugal affec- tion, want of in brutes; it's interefting appearance in mankind. The tranfports of fancy fhort-lived. Mutual eftecm lafts thro' life. Pure affeftion renewed after death. iOiOg The patriotic sff^clious, their ufe ; capable of univerfal dif- fufion. A good Chriflian will love his country ; but will not facrifice juflice and benevolence to the principle of patrir- otifm. 109 no Nations interefled in the profpertty of their neighbours. The want of benevolence blinds mankind to their true in- terefts. jio A good Chriflian will not be an advocate for offenfive war ; will cheerfully die for the liberties of his country. 1 1 1 113 Traits of patriotic affection in Jefus. 113 A good Chriftian will maintain the caufe of public virtue and of genuine piety. 414119 The pretended Evangelical preachers have injured Chrifti. anity. Their inftruaions different from thofe of Jefus. 119 128 Mr. Wilberforce's opinion of the corruption of human no? ture..~The doftrinc of imputed fin, contrary to our natural ( xxiii ) PAES fenfe of juflice. We do not inherit fin by defccnt from Adam ; not object* of punifhment, till we have finned in our own perfons. The curfe paffed upon Adam. The law to which he was fubjeft in Paradife. The confluences of tranfgrefling it. Sin, the violation of a known la%v. Guilt, reflected from a fenfe of duty. The doctrine of imputed Jin, fubvcrfive of moral rectitude ; gives unworthy notions of God ; not inlif- ted on by Jefus or his Apoftles. i ig 134 St. Paul, character of. J 34 *35 Every neceffary part of Chriftian knowledge contained in the four Gofpels and Acts. The reafon why Chriftianity is lefs plain now than it was at firft. TJ5 139 The difcourfes of Jefus inculcate practical goodnefs. His miracles, lefTons of benevolence. Opportunities of beneficence not to be neglected. The parables of Jefus, their practical tendency. 13g 1^6 Diverfe opinions on the redemption of man. Immortality the free gift of God; conditions appended to it ; all compre- hended in Charity. The precife nature of the atonement in- explicable. " To keep the commandments," of more impor- tance than to dive into the perplexities of myftery. 1^6 154 Jefus prays in retirement. Solitude congenial to devotion. It's fpirit languifhes without exerctfe, frequent abftracVton from fenfual objects, prevents corruption ; gives ftrength to advance in holinefs. In prayer, the thoughts mould not wan- der from the divine prefence. The devotion of Jefus, mar- ked by earncftnefs and folemnity. His prayer in the garden ef Gethfemane. Devotion the fource of confolation. Prayer ought not to fupplant religious praflice, Charafteriftic fea- tures of true devotion. 15^ The government of the thoughts, a religious duty. Licen- tious ideas, their mifchievous tendency. 155158 Chriftianity, friendly to innocent cheerfulnefs. It's fpirit contrafted with that of Calvinifm. 558 164 Theatrical amufemcnts, their tendency, &c. confidwcd, 164 Thf afFcftioiu, a fallacious teft of religion. ( xxiv } f AOEJ 165170 Divine love and focial the fame. The union of morality and religion. Benevolence abforbs felfifhnefs. The felfifh counteracts the focial principle. The influence of the latter; foftered by the relations of nature, &c. Chriftianity favour* the focial flame ; fanftions benevolence. Benevolent fympa- thy, the fum of religion. 170 171 Devout fenfation encouraged ; the aiTociate of true holinefs, to be kept diftinct from euthufiaftic fer\'or. 172 178 Gratitude ougjit to be cherifhed ; dcfcription of a grateful man. Gratitude to God defcribed. Jefus calls mutual love, a nt~j} commandment. The cifential principle of his doctrine. Has been grofsly neglected in the Chriftian world. Brotherly love of more confequence than modes of faith. The confe-. crating and coiifecrated clement of Chriftian piety. 179 3 e fas on the crofs, a martyr to trutk. 179 The death of Jefus and of Socrates. 180 182 Jefus prays for his enemies. A pifture of the tortured In- dian Revenge his ruling pafiion. His inlenfibility con- trailed with the tendernefs of Jefus. 182 183 Sympathy, implies a reciprocity of fenfation. We fym- pathife with the fufferings of Jefus. 183 187 Jefus fuffered for the truth. Truth, 'never mifchievous; counteracted by the malignity of error ; not to impute to the the firft the evils that belong to the laft. ^87 490 Truth and fallhood do not vary with circumftances. The contrary fuppofition. Every intereft fecondary to that of truth. Truth ought not to crouch to human policy. To be defended at every hazard. jgj A future lift an immaterial principle the truth of the rcfitr- reflion of Jefus practical inferences, 3c. 191197 An immaterial principle not difcoverable by the light oif nature. The mind feejns the produft of material organj. ( XXV ) JFAOES The fenlcs our only medium of knowledge. Ideas, called abllraft, have a fcnfual original. Abftraft terms, abbreviations. Xo abllracV ideas. The mind appears to perifk with the body. 157205 The principle of volition; whence it refults ; fympathifes with the changes of the body ; does not furvivs it. 205 208 A principle of confcioufnefs. Memory and confcioufuefs compared. Confcioufnefs not affefted by the wafte and changes of the body ; probably diftinft from the animal or- ganization ; St Paul's fpiritual body. 2O8 211 I the natural world no analogies of a continuation of con- fcioufnefs. Without fuch a continuation, no revival of the individual. 211 213 The general expectation of a future life, no proof of it; how excited ; a ray of confolation emitted from it. The more dark the intimations of a future flate from the light of nature, the more probable a particular communication from the Deity, on the fubjeft. 213 216 The faft of the refurreftion of Jefus fupported by " priori," as well as " pofteriori " evidence. The truth of any miracle depends on the arguments for the faft ; not on previous con- fiderations on the general courfe of nature. General laws compatible with moral government. jfi6 218 The Chriftian miracles confonant to the laws of tlie moral world. Mr. Hume's objection. The converfe of his cele- brated propofition true. *i8 221 The faft of the refurreftion confonant to the moft er.largei notions of the divine wifdom and goodnefs. That the Al- mighty would communicate intelligence of a future life, pro- bable from the faint and" imperfeft diftinftions between vice and virtue in this world. The knowledge of a future flate, necefTary for moral purpofes. j22 224 Provifion made by nature in favour of truth. Men never impoftors and liars without a motive. The motives of the ApofUes ? 224227 The love of life energifes the principle of felf-intereft . The different modifications and dircftions of felf-inte/eft. ( xxvi ) -tACM The motives of the Apoflles muft be referred to* future int*. reft, grounded on the conviclion, that Jefus was rifen from the dead. taS 231 Affent to teflimony, proportioned to the credibility of the witneffes. The Apoflles not inclined to credulity. The pains which Jefus took to manifeft the reality of his rcfurreftion. 31 235 The Apoftles boldly affert the truth of the refurreflion, be fore the Jewifh rulers. St. Paul's converfion a proof of it. *35 a 4 The recorded teflimony of the Apoftles is that which they delivered to the world ; has not been impaired by time. 240242 Objection to the fact of the refurreftion, from the conftant uniformity of the laws of nature. Our knowledge of their jpaft uniformity, refts on the credit of teftimony. 248 243 Chriftianity demands an afTent to teflimcny, on rational principles. The benefit of calm inveftigation. Objection, that prelent experience confirms the pail uniformity of ths laws of nature, and ihakes the credibility of the refurreftion. 43246 Teflimony, alone, proves the identity between the prefent and paft ftate of the phyfical and moral world. The great mafs of that knowledge true. The Skeptic exhorted to exa- mine the teftimony in favour of tVie refurreflion. 846 248 The Apoftles perfevered, in the midft of tortures, in affir-r ming the truth of the refurreftion. If that refurrection was not true ; unqualified wretohednefs the object of their vigor r ous purfuit. Such conduct as improbable as that a dead maa fcould rife to life. 548 249 The conduct of the Apoftle* confirms the truth of the mi* racks ; and the integrity of their teftimony. *49 250 It is more probable that the teflimony in favour of the re- furrection mould be tru, than the fact falie. Moral as well as natural laws. The refurrection of Jefus confonant to the firft ; the probable analogy of both. The truth of the refurrectian ; it's practical importance: Incites to dijintereftcd benevolence, &c. Chriftian hope. ( xxvii ) FACES 156 Thought! on t hi free difcujpon of the evidences of revtlatitn. 9 cfi 262 Conviction proportioned to the degree of knowledge, Faith according to conviction. The evidences of revelation fo arranged, that enquiry mud precede conviction ; the ufes of fuch enquiry. We are to pray for unbelievers. Their arguments to be refuted ; impotency of their abufe and ribalr dry. Revelation not intended to rule by constraint, but' choice. Difcuflion favourable to it's interdls. 6 3 264 Pojlcrift. ( xxv iii ) CONTENTS. TACZS 4 c Minute differences, in the relation of the fame fal. by different individuals, do not deftroy it's credibility. Hiftorians, fome. times, relate events in an order different from their natural. Matthew, Mark, and Luke had not fecn each other's gofpels. John wrote more particularly to explain the divine nature of Chrift. 7 9 Language Inadequate to reprefcnt all the tints and changes of fenfation. The imperfections of pifturefque description. The Rock of epithets fcanty and defeftive. JO 11 Gothic archite&ure ; in what it excells the Grecian. Gothic- 'churches, reprefentation* of woods, caves, &c. 15 Polifical diftinftion between power and authority. 37 References to paffages in the Evangelills, in which the author ritative manner of Jefus appears in a ftrong light. *A >6 Uleful inferences, from our Saviour's two miracles of de- ftruftion. 36 Not a particle oF adulation in the Gofpel-hiftory. g5_~Qg Men tinge the language in which they write with tlie language in which they think. The Greek of the Evangelids marked with Hebraifms; an argument againft the plenary infpiration of Scripture. The variations in the Evangelic memoirs, argu- ments for their credibility, as human compofitions, contrary to the fuppofition of a plenary infpiration. The conftructio* of Scripture to be adapted to the Eaftern idiom. 45 Conclufion of the miracle of the bjind rn^ui. ( xxix ) ?Acrs 46 50 Genius arifcs from early fympsthy. Antipathic* caufcd by perverfe aflfociations. Reafon often a feeble antagomft to fen- fation. The iniluer.ee of incidental impreflions furvives the remembrance of the impreffion. Knowledge of the power of early afTociation ; it's importance. Formation of a benevolent character. Every fpecies of gaming injurious to the benevolent principle. $ 53 The obftinacy of prejudice. Caufes which operate againfl the difcovery of truth. The difficulty of forming juft notioru on religious fuhjects. Differences of opinion in jeligion, * ought not to hinder mutual charity and forbearance, ii 64 The revival of confcioufnefs, 3 renewal of paft afibciations. Our next flate will lie a ftate of improvement. The benevo- lent and malevolent will pafs into different regions. The eter- nity of puni/kmeittt cannot be reconciled to our knowledge of the divine attributes. The language of Scriptua, on that fub- jcct, probably figurative. The ufe of punifhment ; that of tlic wicked will be of long continuance. 8-3 Howard, Count Rumford, Darwin, and Beddoea celebrated, g^ 86 Burke, character f. 86 88 RouHesu, on his character and writings, gg 0,1 Peter, the Apoftle, his character. 91 John, his benevolence. 106107 The power of aiTociation over the affections. The origia. of oar attachment to particular forms, The artifice and folly of the pretended Evangelical preachers' 1 39 1^0 Quotations from St. John and St. Malt. J 43 J fi f us ) 'I 1 * fource of eternal life. V44 145 Vital benevolence, tin? religion moft pleafing to Ged. 147 Quotations froru Mark and Matt. ( XXX ) ACtS 148 The moral as well as the phyfical tafte naturally good ; liable to be vitiated. 355 Count Rumford's opinion of cleanlinefs of body. Filthy thoughts, &c. corrupt the moral principle. i6a Modefty commended, from Med. Ext. 184 185 The majority of minds paffrve. Human knowledge, ia general, a mafs of prejudices. The produce of truth, propor- tionate to the extent and vigor of enquiry. The augmentation of knowledge tends to it's fimplification. joa 193 The fenfe of touch, on it's degrees of excitability in an- imals and men. Perception, a modification of fenfation. The other fenfes, a modification of the fame power, which conftitutei the fenfe of touch. 196 197 Importance of fixing definite fignifications to words. Tafte and intelligence fhewn in ufmg them with fitnefs, and combi- ing them with beauty. Education rightly begun by teach'ing the fignincation of words ; pains fhould be taken to excite the particular fenfations they exprefs. 197 209 Energy of volition calls forth vigor of intellect. Agreea- ble fenfation the chief purfuit of man. Early fympathy aflb- ciates the idea of Agreeable fenfutitn with particular purfuits. This ftimulates volition ; and leads to excellence. Genius may be created. Various reflections on the fubject. Why Sir J. Reynolds excelled in painting. Eagernefs never evinced in any purfuit not affociated with agreeable fenfation. What de- gree of encouragement favourable to genius ? Caies in which, neither favour nor neglect can wither the energies of. the active principle. 3>oa .Feeblenefs of volition in brufej. 203 Stiength of memory depends on ftrength of volition. 5205 206 The confcioufnefs of perfanality never abfent from us. ao6 Significations of identity. 206 S07 Renovation and decay of animal power. 507 The nature of the power of confcioufnefs. 415 Prefcience and Providence diftinguifhed. 22 The love of truth in Children ; how they come to aflbciate ( xxxi ) MCM falfliood with the pleafurej of felf-intereft. Thier otrly dlfcf fure of a love of truth. 123 The doctrine of counteracting motives, it's importance. 38 Various readings in Mills' New Teftamwit, 51 85* Chriftianity makes felf-intereft centre in benevolence. 6o 261 The aflaulu of Infidelity, not injurious to the Chriftia* caufe. French Infidelity had it's origin in the corruptions of Popery. The probable revival of pure Chriftianity in France... ERRATA. THE Reader is rcqucjled to corrcEi and pardon the fdlowiii; trratA - ths Author regrets that they arefo numerous ; but they were cccafioncd ty circumjlanccs, which he could not ccntroul. TAGS LINE 1O 3 Note, for wavering read waving. 11 16 7 5 note, forfoilage read foliage. for h'AfcA //;<; read zuA/rA. 19 5 for deviled read derived. *9 7 f r AT' *3 a for Eaangclijls read EvangeUJls. 26 14 for < read_/0. 49 23 note, for genetal read genial. 61 10 note, for will probably bt read will be. 62 18 note, for difgujl read dijiruji. 81 7 for wa/> read ma/}. 84 9 note, for million read millions . 86 7 29 9 note, for o//o profound read no< profound. note, for apathies read apathy. 9 20 note, for o/ VA< Apojiles read c/^Ae o^cr ^/ 9 21 note, for emotions read emotion. 92 3 hrftnfations readfenfation. 93 6 for /o of truth and limplicity ? We are, befides, to confider that die character of Jefus is not drawn by one perfon only ; but by four different hands; all of whom, palpably, defcribe the fame original. In particular circumftances, and, as it were, fhades of their narration, they differ ; but, amid a diverfity of circumftances, they do not exhibit the kafl caft of a divernty of character. A 2 This confideration is of great importance ; becaufe> had they been defcribing a fictitious character only, it is more than probable, that their differences would have deftroyed the appearance of it's individuality and identity. But, at prefent, thefe differences take no more from the individual likenefs, than if feveral painters ihould repre- fent the fame identic features, and only differ in a few minute folds or ornaments of the drapery. The Evangelifts preferve a perfect confiftency and Uniformity of character, amid a multitude of petty vari- ations ; and which variations only prove, that they did not write in concert , but that, like honeft men, they delivered the truth, and nothing but the truth, to the beft of their knowlege and conviction. But had they painted a non-exiftence, they muft have written in con- cert : for feveral perfons can never be fuppofed to have imagined a fimilar fiction, without the moft glaring dif- cordancies. * And, fuppofing that the Evangelifts did * In the relation of the fame faft, by different individuals, it will always happen that fome particulars will be mentioned by one, which are omitted by another; and " vice verfa." But this is not fufficient to (hake the credibility of any narrative whatever. Were any one, at thit moment, ( 5 ) write in concert, how are we to account for the parti- culai diflimilitudes which are vifible in their narration ? It may be faid, that by an cxcefs of refinement in fraud, fuch diflimilitudes were the efFe6t of collufion ; but this collufion, of which there is not the leaft ap- to fall down before ray door and break his leg, and were twelve perfonj prefent, it is more than probable that all the twelve would relate the fame faQ. in a fomewhat different way. They would differ in fome minute and incidental circumftances ; but they would all agree, without the leail vari- ation, that the man broke his kg. No one can have been much prefent in court* of juftice without ob- ferving the incidental variations that are conftantly occurring in the tefli- mony of even honed and credible witnefles. In the narrative of the refurre&ion, by the four Evangelifts, their feveral variations may be con- fidered either under the head of omiflions or additions ; or as mdifUnk difcriminations of the precife order of time, in which the incidental circumftances or ramifications of the fame event took place. It is by no. means uncommon for hiftorians, either for the fake of a more lucid ar- rangement of their fubjecl, or of placing fome great event in a ftronger light ; to invert the natural order of fome minute, immaterial and affocU ated occurrences, and to place them in an order different from their literal, arithmetical and chronological feries. It is by no means improbable, that the Evangdifts, in recording the refurrcftion, neglefted fome of the lead fractions of chronology. Hence there may arife fome apparent con- fufion in their feveral relation!. A3 pearance, mud be proved, before it can be believed ; * and, could it be proved, it would render the Evangelifts, in whom we cannot trace the leaft talents for impoflure, the ablefl impoftors th^t ever conquered the credulity of mankind. Which ever way the advocates for infidelity attempt to get rid of that argument for the truth of Chriftianity, which is fupplied by a candid examination of the cha-. rafter of Jefus, they will, I am perfuaded, find them - felves involved in contradictions and abfurdkies ; from which there is no efcape, but by allowing the integrity of the relators and the truth of the relation, Admitting the truth of the relation, the truth of the miraculous powers afcribed to Jefus, and the truth of * There is reafon to believe that neither Matthew, Mark, nor Luke had feen each other's gofpels, at the time of writing their own. John fcems to have written with a view to fupply the omiflions of the former Evangel ifts ; and particularly to give us a farther infight into the nature of Chrift's miflion, and of his union with and dependance on the Father, than they had done. Hence, in confidering the queflion of Chrift's di- vinity, we fhould pay particular attention to St. John's gofpel ; as that is more full and fatisfaftory on the fubjeft than the gofpel* of the other Evangelifts. C i ) the Chriftian religion follow of courfe : but there are * many Deifts, who, though they do not reject the whole, account of the clifcourfes, incidents and actions of Jefus,. are yet only willing to admit it, as an heterogeneous mixture of truth and fiction ; and, confequently, accord- ing to whom, the character of Jefus muft have been, in part, taken from life, and, in part, from imagination. For a moment, allowing this fuppofition, how are we to draw the line where the truth ends and the falfe- liood begins ? All the difcourfes and actions of Jefus, which are recorded in the gofpels, are intimately ce- mented together ; not by a connection of place, or by a continued chain of fubordinate caufation, but by a certain peculiarity of character; which cannot efcape the notice of the dilligent examiner ; but which hardly admits of a definition, through the imperfections of language.* * This peculiarity of character, is a good deal connected with the impreffivenefs, the majefty, and, at the fame time, the- genuine, unaffefted fimplicity of the manner ; (on which I have fpoken more at large in the next chapter;) but this is not all ; and language is as inadequate to catch all the fleeting and intermingling tints and combinations of fenfation, a* it is to delineate all the tints and combinations of nature's ever-varyinf lorms. On it's inadequacy, as it relates to pifturefque defcription, a fubjeft which has lately been fo much in fafhion, I will fay i few words. f By this peculiarity they are, if I may fo exprefs it, fo com- pletely identified with themfelves, and with each other, that Nature is charafterifed by diverfity. In every landscape or view, with which [he is adorned, though there may be a general caft of refem- blance, yet there is always a great variety in the colouring in the inter- mixture of light and (hade in the forms of particular objecls, and their feveral combinations. But try to transfufe an exaft likenefs of thefe things into the artificial net-work of language; and you will foon difcover that the terms of tafte are not fufficiently copious or precife to exprefs all the diverfified fenfations of beauty; and that the vocabulary of admiration is" fo jejune, that it is foon worn thread-bare. Even the pifturefque defcrip- tions of Mrs. Radcliffe, though combined with all the exquifite tafte of genius, and mellowed by the blufh of fentiment, foon tire upon the ear and pall upon the fenfe. In language, we may paint trie gener?! forms of rocks, woods, rivers, mountains and vallies. precipices, cataracts and torrents, and may group theie feveral objefts to-: " -r, fo as to gH r e a faint refemblance of Nature's fcene? ; but it is impoifible to hit, as it were, that verfalility of touch, which fh. every where employs; and which prevents the forms of any two objects, however iimilar, from being the fame. Hence we are foon wearied with that monotonons uniformity, which pervades the defcriptions of pifturefque travellers ; though we fhould have experienced neither languor nor fatiety in viewing the original fcenes. In nature, every thing is infinitely diverhned ; but the variety of her dreffes, herfhapcs, hercom- binations eludes the moft fubtle machinations of the genius of language. In language, we Ivve no other means of charafterifing the individuals of a fpecies of oh'iefts, thnn by the ufe of epithets. But the ftock of epi- thets, I do not mean, of thofe vacant founds, which are ufed merely for the purpofe of harmoniling periods (a purpofe, to which they are fo copt- oufly applied by modern writers), but of thofe epithets, which have a definite fignifkation, and which excite diftincl; ideas, the ftock is fcanty indeed ; and very inadequate to fhow that particularity and, a* it were, ( 9 ) it is impoffible to mark the reparation between the genu- ine and the fictitious hiftory. If we allow the difcourfes of Jefus to be genuine, and yet his miracles to be falfe, we fhall not efcape the greateft embarraflment. For the difcourfes afTert the miracles ; and the miracles confirm the difcourfes. Take away the genuinenefs of the one, and you deftroy the genuinenefs of the other. We mud either allow, that the difcourfes and the mira- cles are both genuine, or both fictitious. If we adopt the latter fuppoiition, we fhall flill be involved in thofe inconliftencies which I have mentioned above. Again if we fuppofc that the difcourfe?> of Jcfus are a mixture of truth and fiction, of what Jefus really fpoke, and what the Evangelifts imagined ; ftill it will be impofiible to diilinguifii where the firft ends, and the laft begins : for, in all the numerous difcourfes which the Evangelifts have afcribcd to Jefus, there is, without individuality, which is Nature's imprefs on every one of her works. By epithets, we can exprefs a few gencr?! ideas of magnitude, of form and colour; but we can fpecify only a vory (lender portion of that vaiiety of magnitudes, of ioims and tints which An Ur.-fccn f>ut Wctt-knawt Hand h . filtered, with a fort of careiel* profuiiou through the whole ex panic f creation. an identity of fenfe or of expreflion, an identity of man- ner, of ftyle and character. No man, of the leafl. acutenefs, can read the gofpels without being convinced of this. But this identity of manner, of ftyle and cha- racter, in the difcourfes, feems almoft impoffible to be reconciled with the fuppofition of their being a combi- nation of truth and fiction ; for falfehood never could have been patched upon truth, and particularly by dif- ferent hands, and in fuch a variety of inftances, without the point of their conjunction being very perceptible. A modern architect, might, with more probability of fuccefs, attempt to reftore the remains of an ancient pile of Grecian fimplicity, or of Gothic exuberance, * fo * It is furprifing how the artifls of the middle ages could communi- cate fuch lightnefs to fuch maffy fabrics ; how they could infinuate that airy, waveting grace, which is feen in their immenfe ramifications of {lone, which, growing from maffy columnar trunks, form a fhady, fo- lemn avenue from one part to another of their religious buildings ! How did they turn their beautiful arches and raife their heaven-fhooting fpires ? In every thing elfe, they feem to have been deficient in the firft principle? of tafte ; but in architecture they rivalled the excellence of Greece ; if not in fymmetry of proportions, at leaft in grandeur of defign, in flrength of execution, in fertility of invention, and in variety of decoration. The reafon fcems to be, that, in architecture, they followed nature, and looked into nature's book, for bold and maftcrly conceptions ; in architefture, they difclaimed all pricftcraft or prefcription while, in eyery thing elfa, they were the ftupid flaves of bigotry and fuptrftition. ( 11 ) that the mofr. diligent and curious obferver could not difcern the difference between the old work and the The features of truth, can feldom be brought into fuch an intimate, and, as it were, impalpable, and invin- cible union wi'th thofe of falfehood, as that the latter fhall be entirely concealed. And yet this extreme pro- bability muft have happened, on the fuppofition that the difcourfes of Jefus are a mafs of truth and fidlion. The AncientGotlis ufed to worfhip the Deity in groves and woods ; and, perhaps, fometimcs in thofe immenfe caverns, which are occafumally i'onned by nature sinong the rocks. When, in the progrefs of civiliza- tion, they left their woods and caves, and began to ereft artificial churches -r-they imitated in ftone, the fhade, ramilications and foiemnity of their woods, groves and caves. The doors, or arches, which lead to their i>b'\s of worfhip, they decorated with a profufionof foilage and tendrils; vyhich, with a fort of negligent wildnefs fpread over the way. 'This was either intended to reprefent the entrance to a cavern, about which are fcat- tcred a profufion of fhrubs, bines or wildflowers; or the opening into * wood, formed by the opposite trees, intertwining with each other. The great weft entrance into Litchlield cathedral is remarkable beau- tiful ; in the middle ariics the trunk of a tree, exaftly delineated ; and which, by an expanikm of it's branches, on each fide, forms a paffagc through two arches ; whence the whole avenue of columns, with their fprcading ramifications towards each other, and along the roof, forms a pcrfpeftivc, which flays attention by it's grandeur and it's beauty. ( 12 > Allowing the genulnenefs of the difcourfes, the trutli of the miracles is a neceffary deduction. In the dif- courfes, there is a frequent afiumption of miraculous powers, and a prefumption of their notoriety. On thefe powers, Jefus folely and exclufively refts the truth of his miflion. How would any perfon, of fuperior good fenfe and difcernment, as even the enemies to Jefus mufl allow him to have been, have falfely arrogated the pof- ieffion of fuch powers ? Would he have refled his whole claim to veracity on a groundlefs aflertion ? Would he have difgraced himfelf by a falfehood, of which, every peafant in Ifrael could have convicted him ? It will be no eafy matter to folve thefe difficulties, which I have flated, without allowing that Jefus deli- vered thofe difcourfes which the Evangelifts have af- cribed to him ; and wrought thofe miracles, with which they are fo frequently alTociated. A PICTURE OF CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY. Confederations on the marks of energy and authority that characterifed the manner of Jcfus -, and, oj which, the features are accurately prefaced in the narrative of the Evangelijls. OT. Mathew tells us (vii. 28.) that when Jcfus had finifhed his fermon on the moant " the people were aftonifhed at his do&rine ; for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the Scribes." The authoritative manner of Jefus, is diftin&ly feen through the whole of the Sermon. He appears rather like a king pronouncing his decrees, and invefted with power to enforce their obfervance, than as an humble peafant, without friends or power. The contraft, be- tween the manner of the fpeaker and his circumftances* is very remarkable ; and is a ilrong proof, that he was no impoflor. Impoflure is ufually obfequious and infmuating when in weaknefs ; prefumptuous and overbearing when in power. In the former ftate it flatters and carefles the the paffions of others ; in the latter it gratifies it's own. Now, were Jefus an impoftor, he muft have pof- lefTed a degree of arrogance, unufual even to fuch men ; and he muft have attained the very difficult art of giving it that air which commands attention and refpe6l, rather -than that which, particularly when aflumed in circum- ftances of inferiority and indigence, provokes averficn and difdain. Emotions of refpecl, feldom fail to be excited by that genuine authority, of which, an inward confciouf- nefs appears in the outward afpect ; while contempt is the ufual confequence of a fupercilious temerity ; which blufters, and apes the gefture of ftrength, to difguifo it's impotence. { 15 ) Genuine authority, whenever it is vifible ir^ the manner, foon transfufes it's influence into the breafts of the beholder ; it is formed to excite mingled fenfations of afFe&ion, of eftcem and reverence ; while afiumed and factitious authority, which is juftly named arro- gance, is calculated to produce no other emotions than thofe of contempt and ridicule. Genuine authority, often poflefles a force greater than that of phyfical power;* and the former, by 3 mere look or gefture, will, fometimes, counteract the ftrength of the latter or, at leaft for a moment, palfy it's action. Caefar feems to have thought his power weak, till he could frrengthen it by the authority of Cicero. The ufurper wifely difcriminated between moral and phyfi- * The true diftinftion between power and authority, as far as they are fubjefts of political confideration, is this. " Power is phyfical force ; afts by mechanical impulfion, and operates on the will by the fears: but authority is rather a moral force; which rules at pleafure the voluntary powers, by it's fafcinating fway over the affe&ions and the heart." See fcrmons to the " Friends o/ Peace." \irno. Fol. 57. White. cal force ; he was therefore anxious to aflbciate the ter- ror of his arms, with the refpeft which was attached to the virtue and the genius of Tully. Cicero, considered abftracl:edly as an individual, was of no importance; but, the authority he had obtained, and of which the the influence was combined with his very name, gave a fanclion to any caufe and any party he efpoufed. Louis the XVI. the laft and the beft of the French monarchs, was never greater than in his misfortunes. Stripped of phyfical power, he feemed great by the power of authority. When fummoned before the bar- barous tribunal, which condemned him to an undeferved death, the majefty of authority had furvived the wreck of the majefty of power. The manner of Louis, which was chara&erifed by true greatnefs, feems to have in- fpired fenfations of reverence, even in the breafts of his ferocious accufers. But, without that fplendor of eloquence, which in Tully captivated applaufe, or that fplendor of ftation, which, in Louis, dazzled the beholder, even in it's fet- ting ray, there feems to have been, in Jefus, an air of authority, at once impreffive and venerable. This made C 17 ) him command refpet in the garb of diftrefs ; and breath- ed around him a reverential awe of majefty, in circum- ftances, in which any common mortal would have been paiTed by with filent pity, or viewed with fcoffing info- lence. The manner of Jefus, ftamped with the genuine imprefs of an energy more than human, the Evangelifts have delineated with the greateft firnplicity, and without the leaft fliow of art, In all the difcourfes, which the Evangelifts have at- tributed to Jefus, there are evident traces of the dignity of thq fpeaker. * His auguft and impreflive mien, is * A {Inking inftance of the impreflive and authoritative manner o Jefus, may be feen in his inveftive againfl the Pharifecs, Matt, xxiii. The reader mould perufe the whole chapter with attention. It mews the energy, the animation and the pathos wtoicli Jefus could combine on proper occafions. In the viith and xth chapter* of John, there are many delicate and lively traits of that pecoliarly-impreflive manner, which made the peafant of Galilee, " who had not where to lay his head," appear as " one hav- ing authority." The laft difcourfes of Jefus to his difciples, detailed in John xiii. xiv. xv. xvi. are particularly deferving of attention. They arc very defcriptive of the manner of Jefus. I particularly recommend what I have faid on this fubjcft to the calm and candid confideraUon ot the author of the " Age of Reafon" and his followers. B preferred without much fulnefs of colouring, but with great delicacy of tint and precifion of outline, in the four pourtraits of Jefus, which have been drawn by the four Evangelifts. The fame features are curioufly kept, though in many different attitudes ; and the same manner is ob- ferved, with inimitable {kill, in a great diverfity of inci- dents and fayings. The manner of Jefus muft certainly have been noticed by the Jews, as an extraordinary trait in his character, and muft have been regarded with fome emotions of reverence, or they would not have faid of him, that " he fpoke as one having authority." The Evangelifts have, certainly, in their feveral hiftories, marked, with fingular nicety, the meeknefs, yet the en- ergy, the earneftnefs, the fincerity, and the air of con- fcious importance, which was obferved in all that Jefus uttered. Thefe combined qualities the aflbciates of genuine authority, commanded the refpedl: of the be- holder ; and excited fenfations, which artificial greatnefs in vain ftrives to emulate. Oil this occafion, in perufing the Evangelical hif- tory, we cannot help being ftruck with the apparent incongruity between the grandeur of the authoritative manner of Jefus, and the meannefs of his chcumftances. Whence could the Galilean pcafant have devised die imprefflvenefs'of his manner ? Whence could the faying of a poor, unfriended and houfelefs wanderer, have commanded as much attention as if they had come from one who had the fway of empires ? In the actual circumilances of Jefus (fuppofmg him not to have poflefled the divine powers which are af- cribed to him), it muft have been difficult, indeed impof- fible, for him to have preferved, in his whole deportment, in every word, in every gefture, all of which were ex- pofed to a fevere and malicious fcrutiny the air of ma- jefty and the impreflion of authority. If Jefus had been an importer, and with no append- ages of artificial grandeur, no recommendations of ex- ternal power, his very aflumption of the tones of authority, inftead of exalting, muft have degraded him B2 ( 20 ) in the eyes of the people. Inftead of commanding at- tention, he would have provoked laughter. The multitude are led entirely by appearances ; and they never affociate ideas of refpecl with the image of penury and of wretchednefs; The grtat, and feemingly irreconcileable, difparity between the manner of Chrift and his condition, would certainly have excited contempt and ridicule, rather than thofe emotions of ferioufnefs and awe, which genuine authority infpires ; if die meannefs of his condition had not difappeared in die real, not die afte&ed dignity of liis manner : What he fpoke commanded attention, becaufe it Was fpoken with genuine dignity; and becaufe the marks of a fuperior energy were feen tranflucent in Jefus, through the veil of humiliating indigence. It was diis that made even the mod inveterate Jews, at times, liften to him with filence and wonder. It was the manner of his fayings and the air of authority, with \vhich they were accompanied, that aJftonifhed the Jc\\s ( 21 ) as much as their (hrewdnefs. " Igneus eft illls vigor, tt caelcjlis origo." When the Pharifees and the chief prices fent oncers to take Jefus, thefe very officers, flruck with his man- ner, and with the dignified majeily, which attended whatever fell from his lips, were awed into emotions of reverence. They, therefore, returned to their employers without executing their commiffion : for " never," faid they '* did man fpeak like this man." John vii. 4G. \Y r hen a hand of foldiers were fent to feize Jefus, in the garden of Gethfemane, John (xviii.) tells Us, that Jefus " went forth and faid unto them, whom feek ye r" " They anfwered him ; Jefus of Nazareth." " Jefus faith unto them, I am he." This fimple but energetic declaration " / am he," he feems to have made, " as one having authority ;" and it marks the diftin&ion between that authority which is genuine, and that which is aflumed. For, the Evangelift fays, that * when . ( 22 ) Jefus had faid unto them, / am he, they went ba r ward and fell to the ground" A ftronger or more natural inftance of the influence of authority on the mind could not have been given. We fee moral fufpending die action of phyfical power. The unbeliever will tell me, that this incident is a mere fi<5lion of the Evangelift. I will only fay, that fuppofmg it a fiction, the hiftorian was more than an ingenious man, fo well to adapt the incident to the cha- racter, and the character to the incident. But I can, by no means, think that fuch an incident would have been related, or even thought of, if it had not taken place. Was an hiftorian fo unlettered, and fo little acquainted with the agency of metaphyfical pro- perties, likely to imagine, that the flmpk enunciation of Jefus, by the mere impalpable and fpiritual force of au- thority, without a particle of phyfical power, fhould make a band of difciplined troops drop their arms andf fall proftrate on the earth, ( 23 ) This impreffion is in perfect confiftency with the chara&eriftic energy, which the four Eaangelifts have with the moft perfect harmony, appropriated to the man-* ner of Jefus ; but it by no means leads to the conclufion that their relations are fabulous. The manner of Jefus, as it is delineated by the Evan- gelifts, is uniformly the fame; impreflive and authori- tative through the whole recorded period of his minif- try. Mean in his circumftances, there are no mean- nefles, no littlenefles in his manner. His ferioufnefs ne- ver dwindles into jocofenefs ; or contracts into churlim.- nefs ; his earneftnefs is never forfaken for levity ; and his fmcerity is too manifeft, too palpable even, for a moment, to excite diftruft. As he draws to the clofmg fcene of his fufferings, his manner fo artlefsly pourtrayed, in the fimple narra- tive of the Evangelifts, rather increafes than decreafes in it's dignity ; his laft difcourfes, are, if any thing, more impreflive and authoritative than any, which he had before delivered. * What he fet out with being, * Confult the Gofpcl of St. John, vii. x. xiii, xiv. xv. xvi. ( 24 ) he continued to be ; and in his character, as it is repre-* fented by the Evangelifts, there is not a fingle incon- fiftent or difcordant trait, which can lead us to fufpedl the truth of the hiftorians, or the accuracy of (he lik- aefs. A PICTURE OF CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY. Remarks on the Chrijlian miracles. IT is too common for man to make the ilifplay of his power the only motive to it's exercife : but the Deity does not affeft oftentatious greatnefs ; benevo- lence directs all his operations. The miracles of our Saviour, refemble the agency of divine wifdom, in the courfe of nature ; they are not a vain and idle difplay of power ; they combine goodnefs with greatnefs, vaft- nfs of might with copioufnefs of beneficence. * * There are but two miracles recorded of our Saviour, which do not bear the palpable marks of benevojence ; the definition of the fwine and of the fig tree. That Jefus mould mingle two miracles of deftruc- tion, with his numberlefs miracles of mercy, is not remarkable; if we cufjder th ufeful inferences that are to be drawn from them. Th mira- ( 26 ) Now, had the miraculous energies, which are af* cribed to Jefus, exified only in the imagination of the hiftorians, it is more than probable that the miracles, which they would have imputed to him, would have differed, materially, from thofe which the Evangelifts have recorded. Originating from the invention of man, they would have proved, like the fpurious wonders of Pythagoras or of Apollonius Thyancus, their own refu- tation. Their inutility, their abfurdity or their orienta- tion would have inevitably convidled them of falihood. When men give themfelves up to the invention of the marvellous, they foon ftumble into extravagancies and inconfift^ncies. It is hardly poflible for falfhood, fo clofely to counterfeit the language of truth, as inge- nioufly to afiimilate the features of fraud to the counte- nance of honefty, as not to leave the leaft femblance of of deception. .cle of the fwine, fhews us the importance of tie guidance of the Divine Providence, in our way through life; without which our own paflions, which are the mod potent emiffaries of Satan, will be our ruin ; and will hurry us, as the fiends hurried the fwine, into Deftruftion. The miracle of the fig tree teaches us, that God expcds us to be prepared to obey the fummons to eternity, infeafonand out offeafon,ln youth, manhood, and in age. ( 27 ) Suppofmg the ChrifKan miracles the fabrications ot impofture, it muft be confeffed, that the Evangelifts have related a feries of lies, with all the artlefs fimplicity, all the confiftency, all the apparent ingenuoufnefs, which \ve might expert in a narrative of fa6b, of which they were the eye-witnefles ; and which they could not have a iingle motive to difguife. In the relation of the Chriftian miracles, there is not a fmgle indication of the leaft wim to guard againu: any objections that might be made to their authenticity. This mews the undaunted confcioufnefs of truth. An impoftor is ufually, tremblingly anxious to anticipate objections ; of which he betrays the force by his eager- nefs to repel it. A certain bufy jealoufy of caution to corroborate truth, always excites fufpicion of falfliood. No fufpicion of falmood, can poffibly arife in the mind of any candid enquirer, from the unrefcrved, un- guarded detail of the Chriftian miracles. They are toltl as plain matters of far., of which, not the leafl doubt was entertained by the writers ; and who, confequently, took no pains to provide antidotes againft the diftruft of tkcir readers. Not haunted by the fears of impoflure, ( 23 ) they difdained to notice objections which \vere ground- lefs ; or to anfwcr cavils which were vain. Truth relies on it's native, inherent vigor ; white falfhood, whkh is allied to cowardice, fortifies itfelf againft danger, by fuperfiuous precautions ; it lengthens the line of it's defence, and expofes it's impotence, by the bufy fcrupulofity of it's fears. The miracles of Jefus bear, on the very face of them, an evidence of their truth ; they are aflbciated with no circumftances which can excite the fufpicioii of their being forgeries ; and they are juft fuch miracles as we might fuppofe, from the moft ferious exercife of our natural reafon, would have been performed, for die purpofe of confirming any revelation, which the divine \vifdom might vouchfafe to mankind. The Chriftian miracles are fupported by two kinds of evidence, one internal, the other external. The exter- nal evidence has been amply treated of by other writers, and I do not wifli to make a book, by retailing argu- ments that frequent ufe has worn thread-bare ; but I think, that the internal evidence has never yet been con- C 29 ) fultred wirh that attention which it deferves, or with that nicety of discrimination of which it is fufceptible. The ftrenrth of the internal evidence would be more clearly fliown, if any, the moil ingenious, infidel woull attempt to write the fictitious life of a perfon, faid to have been fent from heaven, on purpofe to promulgate a new religion, and to reveal the moft glorious and ufe- ful truths. Let the writer of this hiftory, which I am fuppofing, for the fake of argument, make the fub- jecl of his narrative perform a variety of miracles ; and let him try whether, with the utmoft labour, he could make them, in all refpedts, in their chara&eriftic fea- tures, in their minute and incidental circumftances, half fo natural or fo apparently real as thofe recorded in the gofpel Without any temerity of conjecture we might, I think, beforehand determine, that he, who fhould make this attempt, would not be able to produce a hillory, which (without regarding it's proof from teftimony, from the circumftauces of the times, or the records of contemporary hiftory,) would wear thofe artlefs and unvaruiflied features of genuinenefs, honefty and veracity, which are feen in every page of the memoirs which the Evangelifts have left us of Jefus Chrift. ( 30 } There will always be, from the very ftru6lure of the human mind, certain nice and peculiar diftin6tions be- tween forged and real hiftory ; which the writer of the former will overlook or will be unable to catch ; but which will, at lead, prevent his work from impofingon the generality of mankind, In fabulous memoirs, either fome relations will clafh with fome genuine circumfiances of contemporary hiftory, with fome manners or ufages of the fame place, tit the fame period, or the writer will dwell fo much on generalities, as to prove that he could not have been a contemporary of the times or the perfons he describes, or an eye-witnefs of the fals he records ; or elfe he will expatiate fo long and largely on particulars not diMinft, appropriate, lively and interefting but cold, fuperfluous, inappofite, incoherent as evidently to be-i tray an attempt to impofe. Nothing of this kind appears in the accounts of the Evangelifts. The hiftorians of truth, they have fur- mounted thofe difficulties, on which the hiftorians of forgery would have ftumbled ; they have been betrayed into no iriconfiftencies, either in relation to former parts ( 31 ) r>f their own narrative, or to the manner?, cufloms anil laws of the country, where the fa6ts occurred, or to the circumflances of contemporary hiftory ; they have re- lated occurrences in that unaffected, undifguifed man- ner, without too many or too few fpecialities, as eye- witneffes of the fails, and plain and honeft hiftorians naturally would do. They {hew no defire to comprefs and curtail, or to dilate and embellifh ; every thing they relate is told in a moft lively, natural and inartificial manner; the narrative of the miracles, they attefr, if it be generally brief, is always circumstantial ; and: when copious, it never tires by tedioufnefs of digrefiion or drynefs of detail. It's energy is not weakened by it's concifenefs ; and it's fpirit is never evaporated ia diffufenefs, A PICTURE OF CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY. Jlemarks on the miracle, of the blind man reftored to fight by Jcfus; according to the account given by St. John ix> i SHALL now proceed to corroborate and to exemplify feveral remarks, which have been made in the preceding pages, in a critical and circumflantial exa- mination of the miracle of the restoration of a bliml man to fight ; which is related by St. John ix. To this miracle, I humbly folicit the attention of fchofe, who are difpofed to imagine that there is no more credit due to the Chriftian miracles, than to the wildefl. fictions. r { 33 ) The miracle, I have felecled for the fubjecl: of thefc obfervations, is related more in detail than any of the reft. It bears, at fi'rft fight, evident figns of it's authen- ticity ; and which will be more apparent, if we contrail it with the moft fpecious wonders of pagan hiftory, or of popim artifice. It glows warm with the colouring of life and nature ; and fhows none of the awkward or incoherent combinations of a forgery. But let us pro- ceed to the account of the miracle itfelf. " As Jefus pa(Ted by, he faw a man who was blind from his biith. And his difciples afked him, faying; Mafter, who did fm, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" In this introduction, there is no trace of conftraint or artifice. The relation opens with the moft unaffected eafe and air of fmcerity. The firft incident does not feem to have been feigned, to introduce what fol- lows ; and yet it does not inappofitely coaiefce with it. To the queftion of his difciples, the Evangelift relates that Jefus anfwered, " Neither hath this man fumed nor his parents ; but that the works of God fhould be \ c ( 34 5 made manifeft in him. / mitft work the works of him that fent me, while it is day ; the night cometh when no man can work. As LONG AS I AM IN THE WORLD, I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD." Obferve, in this reply, that chara&eriftic confidence and energy, which marks almofl all the fayings which the Evangelifts have recorded of Jefus. The peculiarity of his manner, the difcriminating air of his addrefs is delineated, not with a coarfe, but delicate hand, in the words which are printed in Italics and capitals. It was ufual with Jefus, to drop, as it were, inciden- tally, and to incorporate with apparently-extraneous matter, the mod weighty fentences ; fentences which were uttered with impreffive dignity ; and which awak- en the mind to the moft fcrious reflections. " The night cometh when no man can work! " How much meaning, how much falutary and awful admonition is folded up in. this laft fentence! " As LONG AS I AM IN THE WORLD, I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD." Thefe words are another remarkable inftance of Chrifl's manner, fententious and dignified. They bear die cha- racter of majefty, and mow the unappalled confciouf- nefs of more than mortal dignity. ( 35 ) " When he had thus fpoken, he fpat on the ground and made clay of the fpittle ; and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And he faid unto him ; go, warn, in the pool of Siloam. He went his way therefore and warned, and came feeing." This, by no means, looks like the adl: of an irrpof- tor ; for fuch an one ufually affe6b more myftery ; and, at leaft, keeps his noftrums a fecret. Jefus, certainly, could by his fimple volition have efFedted the cure ; but he feems to have reforted to this fecondary means the more eminently to difplay his power. The power of God is never more glorioufly mani- fefled, that when he produces great ends by feeble inftru- ments. In the miracle which we are confidering, common fenfe muft have told the fpeclators, that the mixture of fpittle with dirt, could not have reftored fight to one born blind But fo fimple and infignificant an applica- tion only ferved to mew, more forcibly, the divine en- ergy that animated the phyfician. Had this miracle not been genuine and real, but one \vhich exifttd only in the imagination of the writer, C2 ( 3G ) who was delirous of impofmg it on the credulity of the" world, it feerr.s probable, that he would have made the hero of his tale adopt a more complicated and myfleri- ous mode of cure ; and, at the fame time, affect a greater degree of {kill. It is likewife probable that the narrator, after having told us that the blind man " went and wafhed and came feeing,*' would have indulged himfelf in fome expreflions of panegyric, * on the wif- dom or the benevolence of Jefus ; but inftead of this the Evangelift details a long converfation, which took place on the fubjedt of the cure ; and, at which, he feems to have been himfelf prefent. His account of it is fo vivid, and the tranfitions in the dialogue fo abrupt, and yet natural ; as they ufually are, on fubjects which pro- voke minutenefs of examination, and excite the impati- ence of contradiction. This will be vifible even through the medium of a tranflation. f * One firong proef of the truth of the gofpel hiftory is, that there is not a fmgle line in it, which breathes even a whifper of adulation. All is plain, unadorned narrative ; fafts occupy the place of eulogies. f There are very few perfons, who, though they may write other Ian- guages can think in any but their own. Much as tht-y may endeavour, they can hardly help tinging a foreign language with the peculiarities of their vernacular tongue, " The neighbours, therefore, and they which before had fcenhim that he was blind, faid ; Is not this he that The Greek of the Evangelifts, is tiffued with Hebraifms ; though they wrote in the hrft language, they thought in the laft. This, by the by, is an argument againft thofe, who pretend that the gofpds were written un- der the immediate and plenary influence of infpi ration ; for, had the :-, been infpired ; the language, in which thofe thoughts are con- veyed, muft have been infpired likewife; for very few ideas (thofe alone excepted which reprefent fenfible o'uje&s) can be communicated to tha mind of another, but through the medium of words. It may be faid that the Almighty could convey to the mind of man even the moft abftraft notioiiSj without the intermediate ufe of their ordi- nary figns. Jt is certainly wrong to limit the power of God ; but it is equally wrong to multiply miracles without neceffity. This is to criminate his wifdom, and, in fat, to queftion his power, which is always the pradicil influence of his wifdom. But it may be faid, that the divine communications were imparted to the Evnngelifts through the medium of language ; but that this language was rot the Greek but the Hebrew. To this, we muft reply, that Providence always takes the fhorteft method to accornpUfh his deiigns ; and that it is- therefore more natural to fuppofe, that had the hiftory of the Evangelifts teen written under the plenary energy of immediate infpiratior., the nar- rative would have been tranfmitted to their minds, through the medium of the language in which it was to. be written ; that the hiftorian might not be under the neceffity of tranflating into corrupt Greek, what was infpired in pure Hebrew. If infpiration were netcffary to the Evangtlifls, it was as neceffary that the language they wrote in fhould be infpired, as well as the thoughts ; in order to prevent thofe inaccuracies, which would otlier- v.-ife neceflarily occur, m tranfiatinj thought* out of a vernacular ir.to a foreign idiom ( 38 > fat and begged ? Some faid ; This is him : others faid He is like him : but he faid ; I am he ! " There feems, to me, to be no occafion whatever for fuppofing, that the hiftorical parts either of the Old or New Teftament were indited un- der a divine and uncontroulable influence. Had the Evangelifts fuch fhort memories, that they could not fpeak truth without the aid of infpiration ? Were they not competent to give a faithful narrative of tranfaftions, which had paffed either before their own eyes or the eyes of their contemporaries ? Like honeft hiftorians, rould they not confcientioufly rel rifees. The poor man, Simulated by the vehemence of his adverfaries, grows, in his turn, warmer in his manner ; and anfwers their feoffs by a dry but very farcaftic in- finuation. " I have told you," faid he, " already and ye did not hear ; wherefore would ye hear it again ? Will ye ftlfo be his difciples ?" ' Then they reviled him and faid ; Thou art his difciple 5 but we are Mofcs's difc iples. We know that God fpake unto Mofes ; as for this fellow, %ve knovr not whence he is." The poor man, now, inftigated by repeated contra- diction, and warmed with emotions of gratitude towards his benefactor, proceeds to defend him a^ainft the con- temptuous language of his accufcrs. Ke fays ; " Why, herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not finners ; but, if any man be a worfhiper of God, him he heareth. Since the world began, was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he couid do nothing." The rage of the Pharifees could no longer be re- ftrained ; they faid unto him ; *' Thou waft altogether born in fins, and dofl. thou teach us ? And they caft him Out." Had this miracle been a mere fiction of the hiflorian ; we cannot well fuppcfe that he would have inferted the fubfequent dialogue, which is a curious and fhrewd in- \eftigation of the fact, by the fpirit of (kepticifm j and which has not the leaft appearance of an ideal fabrica^ tion ; but which, as far as' internal evidence can go, proves the reality of the miracle, which it contefts. In the courfe of the dialogue, the gradations of paflion are marked with great vivacity, in the quicknefs of the tran- iltions, and the abruptnefs of the difpute ; and the whole, inftead of being the combination of ingenious artifice, fecms the eafy, natural and unaffe&ed relation of one,- who had feen and heard all that he relates, In the poor fufferer, who had received his fight, we behold reiterated obloquy roufing timidity into boldncfs ; and animating tryth from an indirect and trembling con- Teffion, into an open and manly avowal ; in the Pha-. rifees, we fee cunning, mortified into rage ; and baffled tilfhood, ending in angry violence. " They caft him, out." The narrative of falfe miracles is commonly it's own confutation ; and, if this miracle be a fictitious one, we jnuft allow that the unlettered Evangelift excelled in the delicate refinements of fraud ; and that he poHefTed the Cngular talent of habiting the guilt of fraudulent impofr ture not in fpecious or wanton ornaments but in the ( 45 ) niore winning, bccaufe genuine, attire of fimplicity and truth. * Would to God ! that any thing which I have faici on this miracle, could imprefs any one with fuch a con- viction of it's reality, as that it might remove the film of infidelity from his intellectual fight, and pour into it the light of immortality ! * The account of the miracle, does not conclude with the altercation b'tween the perfon who had received his fight and the Pharifees. Th Evangelift proceeds to relate it's moral influence on him on whom it had" bn wrought. Jefus having heard of his treatment by the Pharifees, faid unto him " Doft thou believe on the Son of God ?" " And he faid, Lord, I believe. And he worfhiped him. And Jefus faid, for judg- ment I am come into this world ; that they which fee not might fee, and that they which fee might be made blind." Obferve the authoritative manner of Jefus. A PICTURE OF CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY. The character of Jefus illujlrated. >*<- JL II E chara&er of individuals may be ufu- ally identified with the influence of early impreffions. Thofe impreffions, made at a time when the fufceptibi- lity of excitement is the greater!, and when the fenfa- tions poffefs a peculiar vivacity, commonly conftitute the bafis of character. They communicate to the mind and the affections their difcriminating features. In infancy, how frequently do we imbibe the feeds of thofe fympathies, which, invifibly, influence the happinefs or the mifery of our future lives ! ! ! * * That peculiar bent of mind, which discriminates individuals through life, and which, when it difplays itfelf, with a predominating ( 47 ) From the circumftances, in which Jefus appears td have been placed in early life, we might fuppofe, that a vigor, in any branch of art or fcience, is commonly called Genius, is pro- bably derived from early fympathies ; and which often take place fo early that it is irnpoflible to trace them to their original fource. Sir Jofhua Reynolds, as we are informed by Johnfon, in his life of Cowlcy, imbibed the firfl. fondnefs for his favourite art, from the perufal of Richardfon'* treat ifc on painting. ChartcrtoYi, probably derived his partiality for antiquities, from having brcn taught his letters from fome illumined leaves of an old miffal. The 11 range antipathies, hallucinations, or falfe and prepofterous com- binations of ideas, which we may frequently obferve among our fellow- creatures, fcem likewife, for the moft part, to be the refult of early afibci- at ion. When fenfations of a very lively nature have once been felt in the fenforium, their influence is likely to remain ; and reafon often in vai attempts to abate it. In this cafe, reafon is ufually found a feeble adver- fary to fenfation. In childhood, the power of fcnfation is ftronger than that of reafon ; but as reafon gradually unfolds it's energies, the power of fenfation becomes lefs, that of reafon greater; except in thofe particular inHances, in which fcnfation, aided by the adventitious force of fome ex- traordinary, incidental imprcflions, gains an afcendant over the reafon j from which the latter can never, afterwards, accomplilh it's deliverance. Thus, when young people have been frightened, through the folly of their mothers or their nurfes, by the tcrriffic tales of apparitions, and have, by this means, had the fenfation of fear powerfully excited, they can feldom, Si they grow up, entirely break the fpell of thefc terrible illufions. The k-nfation of terror, ftrong and over-bearing, pallies the exertions of the reafon ; and produces, under particular cirCumllances, a deplorable Hate wt mental imbecility; which precludes the power of countering the hallucinations of the fancy, by the energy of intellect. How does fancy make fools of us all! ! Even the afpiring genius of philofophy has bee iumetiines cruflied into cowardice by it's vain and iilufory ihadow* ! 48 very different charadler would have been formed, from that represented by the Evangelifts. The parents of We are liable to be ruled by the influence of incidents or impreffions, which we have forgotten ; or, in other words, fenlations are fubjeft to revival by affociation, when the caufcs which firft produced them are re- membered no longer. Who then can calculate die power of incidental impreflions ? and how ftudious ought thofe, who have the care of chil- dren, to be, that no imprefiions be made on their minds, which, as the very fagacious author of Zoonomia has obferved, may bias their affections or miflead their judgments to the ends of their lives. See Zoonom. ii. 386- Education, as far as it refpefts the formation of habits, cannot be begun too early. Habits which beget peevifii and unfocial tempers, and \vhich tend to moral depravity, by being affociated with malevolence, are probably often formed, by the mifmanagemer.t of mothers and nurfes, in the firft period of childhood. At that period, the faculty of affociation is mofl: alive and vigorous ; and which, according to it's peculiar deter- mination, ufually influences the temper and the character of man to the laft of bis days. Hew many ufeful leffons might the preceptors of youth learn from meditating deeply on the power and influence of early aflbciations!- How fubfervient might they render them to the caufe of fcience and of benevolence ! The evil etfecls of early imprcflions are readily feen ; but a wife fyilemof education would counteraft the bad and promote the good. \Ve fliould Le particularly folicitous to engraft into the heart, while it is yet incorrupt and innocent, habits of benevolence ; and which might rea- dily be efie&ed, by taking advantage of little incidents and cafual occur- rences, to conneft the praftice of benevolence with the vivacity of pleafur- able fenTation ; and which would be fubjeft to revival by affociation, when the incidents, which firft excited it, were forgotten. Were pleafur- tble feelings conneftid with the idea of benevolence, at a very early peri- od, and befcr; the love of feolual or felrifh pleafure had made any very deep imprcfilon on the heart, fo as to counteract the growth of the amia- ( 49 ) Jefus were poor, and lived in obfcurity ; gaining their livelihood by their humble induftry. They therefore fympathies, the ajfeflions would receive a forceable and originally-i'irtuout biafs; whiih the future intercourfe with, -or experience of the ordinary fclpjh- nc/s of mankind might modify, but would never dejlroy. The reader will excufe me, if I add another remark to this long note; of which, 1 hope the length will be excufcd, from it's relation to a moft important, nay, the moft important topic of human enquiry; The for- mation of the mind to fcience and to virtue. 1 will add, then, carelefs of the cenfurej winch the obfervation may bring upon me, from the trif- ling and the licentious, that if we wifh to encourage the free expanfion of the benevolent principle in children, ws ought never to put a card into their hands. Young people are brought up, with the notion that card- playing is a pretty, innocent recreation. They, therefore, at a very early period, learn to affociate the idea of gaming with many ideas of pleafure ; and not, as they ought, with fenfations of fhame, of pairt and diiappointment. I hardly know any admonition which a parent ought more afliduoufly to inftil into his child than this, that all gaming is a fpccies of robbery by delufion, that it engenders fraud and ends in mifery. Even the lefs fpecies of gaming, which are deemed fo perfectly harmlefs, and fo nicely adapted to fill up the yawning vacancies of fatui- ty, even thefe lead directly to a fatal depravation of the moral principle^ by extinguilhing the benevolent ?fKftions. I never knew a confirmed and habitual card-player, who had not a callous and unfeeling h: rt. It is indeed impoflible for any one long to ret.il u the ".cneral glow of one benevolent fympathy, who habitually alTociates, l;ke the inveterate card- player, fenfations of triumph and of pleafuro, with the vi- tibu and dif- appointment of others. Even the lead and molt innocuous i^ecies of gaming have a fztal tendency to imbue, with the talte of pleafure, the emotions of malevolence ; and, indeed, we cannot long be partakers in a fingle amufement, into which one drop of the fpirit of gaming t ' ^n iufuicd, without it's diminifhing the power of that fuiceptibiiity of catc^i- D ( 50 > could not afford to give him what among the Jetvs war, called a learned education.- He was, probably, brought up to the profeflion of his father j and, fuppofmg him no more than an ordinary mortal, the only means he had of acquiring that knowledge, which was requifite to em* power him to fubvert the religiaus inftitutions of his own country, and of the world, and to become the founder of a new and fpiritual worfhip, of a houfe of prayer for all nations, were, by attending the fynagogue, and the folemn feafts at Jerufalem, The whole literature of the Jews confifled of* one book the Law and the Prophets, with the comments and traditions of the Scribes and Pharifees. Thefe were ing the fenfations of others, and of mingling them with our own ; frorr* which fympathy flows, and by which benevolence is excited. Muft not then the higher and more criminal fpecics of gamig tend, with a direft and accelerated influence, to chill the bencvoknce of the heart, and to fear the fenfe of integrity of conduft ? Does not the fpirit of gaming, rank- ling in the heart, and gradually, but rapidly, undermining all within, infallibly create the crael' and defigning villain ? Doei he not loon learn to plunder the unwary without fhame, and even to triumph in proportion to the mifcry and indigence he produces ? Hear this ! ye heroes and hero- ines of Taro. Would to God, it could raife one blufh on your livii cheeks, or one emotion of reraorf* in your callous hearts ! ! ! ( 51 ) the only fources of wifdom, to which he could accefs ; but from thefe, had Jefus not been under a di- vine influence, imparting wifdom fro n abo*e, he in aft have been debarred by ignorance. For we gather from John vii. 15, 16. that he had received no literary inftruc* tion whatever. " How (faid the Jews) knoWeth this man letters, having never learned ?" Wha; learning he poflefled was not an artificial acquifition. " My doc- trine (faid Jefus, in reply to the objection of the Jews,) is not mine, but his that fent me." A child ufually imbibes, at leaft, fome portion of the prejudices of his parents, and of thofe among whom he is educated. The univerfal prejudices of the jews, at the time of the nativity of Jefus, are well known. Among thefe prejudices, one of the moft predominant, was the expectation of a triumphant Mefliah, a con- ceited opinion of their own, and a fupercilious diflain of all other nations. Thefe prejudices, inftilled by his parents and acquaintance, would have flowed foftly and almoft infallibly into the bofom of Jefus. And, had he been only an impoftor, it is more than probable that he would himfelf have been the dupe of thofe early prepof- D2 and certainly he would not have taken ft) direct a ftep to defeat his own views, by oppofnig the * When men are prejudiced againft truth, no proofs, even amounting to demonftration, are fufficicnt to convince them of it. Blinded by the prepoffeffions of error, they fee every argument that is advanced through a falfe medium. The Pharifees, though they would gladly have received the Mefliahj if he had appeared in the form and manner, in which their p'rcjudices had anticipated his corning; yet, nofwithllanding all the miraculous proofs of his divine nliffion, they turned from him with ab- horrence and difguft, when they found that his appearance and his cir- cumftances did not agree with their former darling expectations'. if we enter on the inveftigation of any two .opinions, with the leaft bias on either fide, or with any partial wiihes that the one may be falfe, the other true, we are almofl fure. and without knowing it, to be led into er- ror. We give too much weight to the arguments on one fide, too little to ihofe on the other. Thus it has often happened, that the fuppofed truths ef philofophets, have been no better than the abortion of infant prejudices. We muft continue to be led aftray by prepoffcfTions, while, inftead of feeking truth, for truth's fake, we fet up an idol of our own vanity in it's place ; and endeavour to adjuft the ftandard of truth to the ever-varying beam of our affe&ions. All truth is of importance; but religious truth is mofi important; as the greateft happinefs is connected with k. The firft impreflions of reli- gious truth are commonly made in childhood. If thefe impreflions hap- pen to be falfe or pernicious, they can feldom be removed, to make way for more falutary notions. If we fk down at an advanced period of life, to make up our minds on religious matters, and to adopt that mode o faith and worfhip which fhall appear moll agreeable to Scripture, fcruti- irized by candour and interpreted by reafon, it is ten to one, but we are miQed by the imperceptible and treacherous influence of pad affociations. Thus, religious opinions, even thofe which may be faid to be formed By mature confideratiorij are feldom untinft'iied with the prejudices of in- ( 53 ) luvourite, the long and univerfally received notions of ],'is countrymen. Had he afpired from ambitious or from perfonal views to counterfeit the Median, he would not have attempted to extirpate the prejudices of a whole people, but to turn them to account ; he would have taken advantage of every circumftance, to maintain the character he affumed ; and to make the popular opinion fubfervient to his temporal aggrandizement, But, in the very commencement of his miniftry, Jefus dire6lly combated the bigoted attachments, the fancy. This ought to teach us to treat the opinions of others without a/perity, to advance our own with modefty, and to defend them without bigotry. Of the many modes of faith, which exifl among Chriftians, one only can be right ; and it is arrogance and impiety in any man to fay that his is that one; and that, confequently, all others are erroneous. Io matters of religious opinion, no man is rafhly to condemn his brother; for no man can advance beyond probability in the proof that his way is the ri;;ht. But though I would encourage, in individuals, charity, for- bearance, and mildnefs in judging of the religious tenets of others ; yet I would, by no means, recommend a cold, languid and liftlefs ir.differ- /ice with refpeft to the complexion of their own. On the contrary, I earneflly exhort every one to embrace with warmth, but without acrimo- ny, with fteadinefs, but without perverfenefs, that mode of faith and worfhip which, from the beft and mod unprejudiced enquiry he can make, he confcientioufly believes the right; and then he may fecurely rely that God will pardon him, if he be in the wrong. A juft and merciful judge wiJI, we may be convinced, never punifh the adoption of opinions that were falfe, when jt was honeftly fuppofed thai they were true. ( 54 ) darling prepofTeffions of every Jew ; and boldly oppofed his fmgle and feeble arm, to ftem the current of thofc popular notions, which, at that time, rolled with a fierce impetuofity through the whole extent of Paleftine ; and of which, he, himfelf, had he been no more than man, could hardly have fuftained the overwhelming force. Whar individual can reiift the powerful influence of ge- neral fympathy ? When, therefore, Jefus fet up for the propagator of a new religion, he muft either have unlearned the pre- ju lices, and totally erafed the impreffions of his early years ; which, on the fuppofition of his mortality, is highly improbable ; or we muft allow that he was ex- empted by the peculiar bleffing of the divine influence, from the force of thofe primary aflbciations, which, according to the ufual laws of action, affect the cha- racter and the conduct to the clofe of life* Let us now look a little nearer into the character of Jefus, and inveftigate fame of it's peculiar and difcrimi- nating excellencies. In Jefus, we behold none of thofe fhowy and noify virtues, which dazzle vulgar eyes, and attract vulgav ( 55 ) praifc. In his character, there arc none of thofc orna- mental features, which are. more fubfervient to ambition than to utility. There is neither in his actions nor his fentiments the leaft of parade. There is no fafcinating (plendour, to cheat the judgment into admiration. There is every thing truly great, without the leaft fliow of grcatnefs. It is a character totally diftinct from that proud and fiery itnpetuoiity, which often panes for mag- nanimity ; from that fullcn apathy, which is fometimes miftaken for grandeur ; from thai undiftinguiming and vifionary zeal, which is the mimic of devotion ; and from that affectation of purity, which ufurps the name of holinefs. It is a character which is inimitable ; while it feems rather below than above the level of human imitation. The paflive virtues are it's moft confpicuous features ; and thefe, however they may be depreciated by com- mon minds, or however eafy of attainment they may be accounted, are, in truth, more difficult to be acquired, and more productive of happinefs, than the energies of a bufy and a turbulent difpofition. But, if the character of Jefus be difcriminated by the lovelieft features of gentlencfs, meeknefs and forbear- ( 56 J ancc, patience, humility and refignation ; flill it is marked with more energetic qualities ; by a benevolence, which is ever awake to the touch of fympathy, which is ever vigoroufiy employed in diffipating mifery. If lie be adorned by a mildnefs that refents no infult and retaliates no injury, he, at the fame lime, difplays a fpi, rit ardent in oppofing error and combating \vickednefs. Jefus begins his celebrated fermon on the mount, by beftowing the tribute of eternal bleffednefs on thofe un-- oftentatious qualities, and retired graces, which leaft excite the envy or the admiration of the world, It i$ obiervable, that he commends thofe affections and vir-r tues moft, by which he was himfelf moft eminently diftinguiihed. He was always the pattern of his own lefTons. He taught what he practiced ; and he practiced wh'at he taught. He was poor in fpirit ; he was meek, merciful and pure in heart. The more we examine the blamelefihefs of his life, and the fpirit of his doctrine, the more we fhall be con- vinced that, Jefus was thoroughly acquainted with the mind and affections ; and with the efficient caufes of human, happinefs or mifery. He knew that the great/ ( 57 ) fum of the afflictions of life was occafioned by turbu- lence, vindictivenefs and malignity of difpofition. Hence all public and private ftrife ; the feeds of animofity be-, t \vccn individuals and nations. On this account, Jefus laid fo much ftrefs upon the paflive virtues on the filent kindnefs of the heart. Were meeknefs, gentlenefs and forbearance univerfal, the fword might reft in it's fcabbard every kingdom and every houfe would be a temple of peace. The fiery fpirit of revenge is moft predominant, la that ftate of human nature, which is fartheft removed from the knowledge of the Deity and from religious purity. The nearer approaches which man makes to the divine perfections, the more will this favage paf- fjon be abated. But though revenge be a paffion utterly irreconcileable with the fpirit of pure religion, ftill the complete fuppreflion of it, is utterly impoflible to man without the divine afliftance. For man, being made, exquifitely fenfible to pleafure and to pain, has naturally a ddire for the firft, and an averfion for the laft. Hence, he cannot help aflbciating fome idea of malevolence with the image of thofe, who wilfully inflict painful fenfations., The paflion of hate begins, how.cyer faintly, to ferment the moment an injury is felt ; and, even in the gentleft of human bofoms, there is fome tranfient interval of paflion, before the religious fentiments or benevolent fympathies can check the angry effervefcence. Every phyfical fenfation of pain, is accompanied with a wifh to remove it ; and where is it fo natural to \vih to remove it, as to the caufe which occafioncd it? Hence the dellre of reverberating pain and retaliating injuries. A revenge of this kind, which is rather of g, phyfical than of a moral nature, would ceafe with the fenfations that produced it. But revenge, we know, often rankles in the heart, long after the caufe which firft excited it has ceafed to exert any painful influence. The fentiment of refentment is cherifhed by malignant reflections, when ic's firfl effervefcence has fubfuled i and is combined with many aflbciated ideas of honour or of pleafure, tjll cruelty almoft becomes a paftime. How much might we dimini/h the fum of humain mifcry, if we could, in fome meafure, reverfe the com-r mon order of human fympathies, and teach children vmiverfally to aiTbciate the idea of honour with forbear- ance, and of pkafure with forgivenefs ! ! ! How much rancour and bloodfhed might, by this means, be pre- vented ! ! ! The happinefs of individuals, is, I am in- clined to believe, always in a direct ratio with their benevolent fympathies ; the happinefs of mankind, confidered in the aggiegate, evidently is. Of all the perfons recorded in hiftory, Jefus feems the only one who ever obtained a complete triumph over the paflion of refentment ; and, in whofe bofom, it was totally-abforbed in the oppofite paffion of love. This love, he demonftrated by an nnifonn meeknefs and forbearance ; by the happinefs he diffuCed while he lived and when he died. He endured with patience, and without the leafl acrimony, perlecuiion, fcorn and in- fult ; he never returned railing for railing ; but, contra- ry wife, blefling. He exhibited that poornefs of fpirif, which is the higheft degree of magnanimity ; in as much as a victory over the angry paffions, and the in* dignant feelings that rage for rent ;n the bofom, is the rnoft difficult and moft glorious of atchievcments. The conqueror of Darius and of Periia was ruled, like a weak woman, by the guft of his refcntmenrs. But he, who triumphed over the crofs, was fignalized by a greater achievement than the fubjugation of kings, or \ 60 ) the fubverilon of empires ; by the maflery of himfelf ! He never performed any aHon, that, in the leaft, indi- cated refentment ; he never uttered a word of anger or a taunt of bitternefs. Such was the meeknefs and forbearance of him, yebo is, by a beautiful emblem of innocence, called the Lamb of God, Of this temper and carriage he fet us the example ; becaufe he knew that it would mofl effectually promote our happinefs here ; and fit us for an mtercourfe with the blefled fpirits hereafter ; who dwell in the manfions of peace, wheie turbulence and, pnalignity can never enter. Jefus laid the utmofl ftrefs, in mofl; of his difcourfes, on the importance of the placid and the benevolent af a feel ions ; and, probably, from their being the efiential charalerif;ics of that ftate of future happinefs, to which ^he gpod Chriilian hopes for a paffage through the grave. It is the opinion of the immortal Hartley, that the alTo- ciutions or fympathies, we contracl on earth, will ac- company us into a future flate. If this be true, and it js certainly no unfcriptural doctrine, but apparently f pnfirmed by the general tendency of the difcourfes of ( 61 ) Jefus, of what vaft conference is it to us, to cherifh the benevolent fympathies, and to indulge all the kind affections ! ! ! How ftudioufly ought parents to labour, to inftil them into their children, that they may grow- up with them, and, after this life, expand into immortal happinefs ! How earneftly ought we to check the pro- grefs of all malevolent fenfations ! How anxious fhould we be to avoid aflbciating any ideas of pleafure with tlic ilght of mifery, with the infliction of pain, or with any act of inhumanity ! The malignant paffions are, even here, the fource of the acuteft mifery, to thofe who un- fortunately indulge them ; and on the fuppofition, * I * The Scriptures give us reafon to expect a refurre&ion of the indi- vidual. What conftitutes individuality is the confcioufnefs of identity. t)ur refurrecTion, or return to life, will not be Complete, unlels the con- fcioufnefs, which conftitutes the individuality ot our prefeat being, lie annexed to our future. '1 hat this confcioufnefs be complete, it is necef- fary that thofe allocated fenforial motions and fympathies, which confti- tjite what may be called t our ignorance of the true Scripture idiom, and of Eallern phrafeologv, lead us to this climax of folly and preemption !!! From a ferious invelligation of the Divine attributes, and a candid and rational interpretation of Scripture, we may infer that the pun i foment of the wicked, in another woild, n dejigncdfor, and u.ill tend tit, thar *m:*, mufl neccjfarily be pf long continuance ; of a continuance fo Ion j V in the bold, unconditional and hyperbolical menace of the Eafteni lan- , . to merit the nan; rj tht e'cerlajling fire. Their agonies will, proba- bly, have a duraiian Leyund the icach of our narrow actions of time; of their own malignity. They will, in fome rtiea- fure, refemble the Devil, the real or allegorical element of evil ; who is painted, in fcripture, as continually- going about, feeking whom he may devour ; deftitute of a fingle fpark of one benevolent fympathy ; the image of pure, unmixed malignity ! ! ! Could he have been more forcibly delineated, either to excite terror or Abhorrence ? But let us return to the contemplation of it more pleafmg form* Of genuine humility, Jefus was a (hiking example, in his whole deportment ; in every gefture, every word^ every aclion. His humility was not the affectation of that virtue, which is fo often affumed in the world, to cover an intolerable pride. It was pure and unadulter-< ated ; not the {how, but the fubftance of a lowly heart. That the humility of Jefus was not a veil for arro- gance, or for vanity, he" gave the moft lively inftance, on the night before his crucifixion, in wafhing the feet I cJ will lafl til] the confcioufnefs of guilt has entirely vrnifhed 5 and the 'jlCrie L-i:f jf f it's OK'II tormenter. expands to the pleafures of benevolence. ( 65 ) of his difciplcs. This act of humiliation he performed* as a lafting admonition againft that pride of heart, which often makes man look with difdain on his brother-man. There is nothing more ludicrous, in the eye of a con- templative philofopher, and there can be nothing more impious, in the fight of heaven, than that fupercilious infolence, with which, ambitious vanity, raifed by acci* dental diftin6tions, regards thofe beneath it. Such a temper Jefus has forcibly reprimanded in the inftance I have mentioned. " Ye call me," faid Jefus, " mafter and loid ; and ye fay well, for fo I am. If I, then, your lord and mafter, have warned your feet, ye ought alfo to warn one another's feet. I have given you an example, that ye fhould do as I have done to you." John xiii. 13, 14, 15. As if he had faid, " If I, who was glorified with the father before the world was," John xvii. 5. can bend to the lowed offices ; and with^ out fullying my majefty, can perform thofe ab which are efteemed the moft fervile degradations ; {hall thy vanity, O man, render thee arrogant and overbearing ! Shalt thou deem thyfelf contaminated, by any adl of condefcenfion, becaufe thou happened to be raifed a ftep higher in the icale of wealth or honour, than thy bro- E ther ! If I did not refufe the garb of mortality, and; among mortals, the form of a fervant, fhalt thou, who, in the fight of heaven, art but a worm of the eanh, vainly fancy thyfelf made of better fluff than thy fellow- That meeknefs of temper and gentlenefs of mariners, which is the genuine ornament of the Chriftian, Jefus recommended to his difciples, in a way more perfuafive and interefting, than could have been done by all the ftudied graces of polifhed eloquence. Being afked by his difciplesj " Who is the greateft in the kingdom of heaven ?" " he called a little child, and fet him in the midfl of them ;" one, who was an image of benignity and fauvity of difpofition ; one, whofe heart was not yet debafed by a commerce with the world, or corroded by the paflions of envy or ambition. * " Whoever," faid Jefus, " fhall humble himfelf, as this little child, the fame is greateft in the kingdom of heaven." There is not, perhaps, a ftronger indication of either Sec Matt, xviii, 4neeknefs of fpirit or benevolence of heart, than a kind attention to little children ; the rofe-iingcd ivmbois of unfufpicious innocence, in whofe fmile there is a captivation, that touches every choid of tendernefs, and whofe eyes, beaming no guile, ought to inte- reft every beholder in their happinefs. He, who can behold the fmooth and benign features of infancy with* out emotions of complacency and fondnefs, hath a heart indifpofed to the foft inftillations of genuine benevolence. At the fight of playful childhood, our fympathy is awakened by the double attraction of it's helpleflhefs and it's innocence ; which will never fail, in the bread of the true follower of Jefus, to excite ftrong fenfations of tendernefs ; which he, who does not or cannot teel, muft, at leaft, be imbued with the venom of malignity. Jefus feems to have confidered a want of benevolence towards little children a proof of incurable depravity of heart. " Whofo," faid he, (hall offend one of thefe little ones, it were better for him, that a milftone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the fea." Again he fays ; " Take heed that ve defpife not one of thefe little ones ; for I fay unto E2 C 68 ) yon, that, in heaven, their angels do always behold the iuce of my father which is in heaven."* " Their angds do always behold the face of my father, which is in heaven." Who can think of this expreffion, and dare to make the little deflirute and orphaned innocent a victim of rapine, or a prey to for- row ? Who can think of this expreffion, when he con- templates the unwrinkled forehead of fmiling infancy, without it's infpiring in his breaft the foft flow of thofc benevolent fenfations, of which language cannot convey the charm ; and which, it is probable, refemble, though in a faint degree, thofe pleafures which will be tafted in heaven, by ** the fpirits of good men made perfect ?" The attentive kindnefs of Jefus, to little children, and his folicitude for their welfare, is no counterfeit or deceitful indication of the benevolence of his heart ; of which we may gather a number of other delicate and interesting traits, from the accounts, which the Evange- lifts have left of his amiable character. * Thefc expreflions feem to intimate, that little children are. in a more fpecial manner, dear to God, and the objcfts of his gaardia-n providence. ( G9 ) It muft be remembered, that the Evangelifts are no panegyrifts. They are plain and artlefs relators of matters of fact. They make no efforts to intereft the paffions ; they do not labour to lead men captive down the ftream of their fenfations. Brevity and (knplicity are the charadteriftics of their relations ; but tlieir bre- vity is often more eloquent than the difFufenefs of elo- quence ; and their Simplicity, which is the earneft of their fmcerity, is more interefting than the moft fplendid , If I were to behold a perfon weltering in his blood or writhing in agony, from a broken limb, on the high- way, he would inftantly excite my fympathy; and I fliould endeavour to procure him relief and confolation, with- out once confidering whether the community would be more benefited by his death than his recovery. But, according to the benevolent fyftem of Mr. Godwin, this calculation ought to be the preliminary to any exer- tions of kindnefs ; and, according to his notions, if the ( 79 ) interefts of the community could have been promoted by the death of this poor wretch, or if the relief admi- niftered could have been applied in fome other way, more productive of general good, then this act of humanity would become an act of injuftice. Mr. Godwin, in his Pol. Juft.- b. 2. c. 2. on jitji ice 1 intimates, that the relations of blood, of friendfhip and of gratitude are confideratkms beneath the regard of a rational being ; who, in his whole conduct, ought to ftu- dy the intereft of the community, though at the expenfe of any individual, even one as dear to him as a brother, a father or a benefactor. Mr. G. puts a cafe, to ihew how a man ought to act, when what he calls juftice clafhes with fympathy. If the palace of Fenelon, the author of Telemachus, had been on fire, and the alternative had been, that either the archbifliop or his valet muft perim rn the flames, Mr. Godwin would have preferred preferving the life of the former, a9 more conducive to the general weal \ evea though the valet had been his brother, his father or his fcenefa5k>r, C 80 ) Mr. G. thinks that an individual ought to facrificc all perfonal affections and dudes, to that one great duty, which he owes to the community. Did man approach nearer to a flate of pure intelligence, did he excel in that largenefs of mind and comprehenfion of view, which, at one glance, could difcern the aggregate intereft of the body politic, his reasoning would be juft ; but, at pre- fent, the rule by which he propofes to regulate human conduit is much more fallible than that of fympathy, or the preference of individual good to the good of the community. While we remain fo ignorant of that in which the general weal confifts, there feems no reafon, why, in the vain fearch of an ideal good, we mould exhale into airy nothingnefs, all the fweet though partial affections of family and of friendfhip. In the cafe which Mr. G. propofes, who would not prefer faving the life of his brother, his father or his benefactor, to that of the archbimop. Mr. G. fays, that the maxim of our Saviour, which directs us "to love our neighbour as ourfelves," is not modelled with the ftridhiefs of philosophical accuracy. ( 81 ) It certainly does not propofe, as a rule of life, a cold ab- ftraclion, intricate and embarrafling, which it muft be always difficult to underftand, and on which it can be feldom fafe to act; but it propofes a rule of life which comes home to every man's bofom ; and of which nei- ther the learned nor unlearned can miftake the applica- tion. It is a maxim, which he, who invariably purfues, will never act wrong. It will preferve him from every a<5l of injuftice and of inhumanity. It is a maxim, which gives life and energy to all the fweet domeftic affections, which ftrengthens the fentiment of love, of frienclmip and of gratitude, and which teaches us to identify our feel- ings with thofe of wretchednefs, in all it's forms. The virtue of individuals, feems to confift not fo much in ferving the aggregate, as the detail of fociety; not fo much in general as partial good ; for the influence of any fmgle adl on the whole map of fociety, is beyond the utmoft ftretch of calculation. When we behold mifery in it's minute derail, we can adjufl the means to the end, the relief to the necefiity. It is impoflible to do fo, if we drive to embrace a wider fphere of ac~tion too vaft for our grafp, too immenfe for our difcernment. F ( S2 ) Would but individuals, with a tender and mutual benevolence, flrive to promote the welfare of other indi- viduals, dear or endeared to them, by blood, by friend*- /hip or by gratitude, or by fome of the many tender incitements of fympathy^ the general happinefs would, ultimately, be much more effectually promoted by the beneficence of every man, directed towards particular and fpecific objects, than by the folitary and more ambi- tious exertions of each individual, to produce not partial but univerfal good. I think I may fafely fay, that no man was ever warmed with the genuine fire of univerfal benevolence, while he was entirely exempt from all local and perfonal attachments. No good man can be infenfible to the delicate and infinuating partialities of friendship, of kin- dred and of country. Thefe affections are almofl infe- perable fi om our frame ; and are produced by thofe numberlcfs aflbciations of ideas, and fenfations of paft and prefent time, of which we can neither calculate the power, nor controul the influence. The principle of aflbciation feems, indeed, by the wife author of all tilings, to have been made a part of our nature ; for the purpofe of conne&ing us by the flrongefl and deareft ( 83 ) tics with our families and our homes ; and making us feel> more vigoroufly, the inipiring glow of frieadlhip and of patriocifm. The breaft of an individual is too narrow to feel, with any diftin&nefs, the fentiment of univerfal philan- thropy. Our affe&ions muft, at leaft at firft, have fome diftincl: obje& on which to fix; an objedr, whofe magnitude is not too great for the excitement of lively and particular fenfations. What is termed univerfal philanthropy, is merely a general and confufed feeling, fcldom animating to energetic adtion. * As we muft proceed from particular to general truths, fo it is from * That philanthropy is counterfeit, which is not attended by benevo- knt fympathies and benevolent aftions. Since the death of Howard, (peace to thy afhes. and glory to thy memory, thou mir.iftering angel to the cells of mifery!) Count Rumford, the poor man's patron and every man's friend, deferves the foremoft rank in the lift of philanthropifts. Xor can the wreath of philanthropy well be denied to the brows of Dar- win and of Bcddocs ; whofe fingular ability and induftry, in foothingthe the mod calamitous of human afflictions, and in diminifhing the numerous ills, which life has to encounter from infancy to age, from the cradle to the grave, merit a ftatue on every fhore, where the traces of humanity are to be found. Among the illuftrious names, that human gratitude will tranfmit down the dream of time, there are few which pofterity will repeat with more reverence, than thofe of Darwin and of Jieudaes, F2 ( 84 ) individual affections alone, that the foul expands to thtf genuine, ardent and diffufive love of the human race, From the affedHons of family, of friendfhip, and of the fpot which was endeared to as by early intercourfe, by tender recollection, and by numberlefs afTociadons, fprings the love of our country ; and thence the heart kindling with increafed benevolence, and catching the flame of divine love, enlarges into a wider and wider fphere, till it opens to embrace the world. I am not, indeed, ignorant that many perfons have felt the heat of the partial and local affections ; have loved their kindred, their friends and their country; whofe bofoms never glowed with the fentiment of uni- verfal benevolence ;* and that many who have difclaimed * One of the perfons here alluded to, is Mr. Burke. Of the charafler of this extraordinary perfonage, I fliall prefent the reader with a flight fketch, not drawn from perfonal acquaintance, but from calm reflection on his conduft and his writings. The affeftions of Mr. Burke all gravitated towards his kindred, inca- pable of a wider expansion. Of philanthropy, he poffeffed but little ; or he would not have ftruggled fo long, and with fo much energy and obfti- eacy, to produce the extermination, by fire and fword, of twenty-four ut, like mod men of a fanguinary temperament, he feems to have been governed rather' by impulfe than reflection. The impetuofity of his tem- per often embarrafled him in errors ; and his firft emotions were too vehe- ment to be lading. What he felt, he felt ftrongly ; but the violence of Jus fenfations occafioned him to over-look the difproportion between his iirength and his refolutions. From the effervefcence of lieroifm, he funk into the languor of cowardice. He had zeal but it was not moderated l.'V prudence, nor confirmed by perfeverance. He was ready to entounteT ttanger, without meafuring it's magnitude ; eager in purfuit, he looked only at the end, without regarding it's intermediate obftacles. One inftant we behold him plunging into the foa, impatient to meet Jcfus, and made buoyant by faith, walking Readily on the waters the next, he faulters on the billows, and exclaims, in defpondency, " Lord, help me, I periih ! " When his mafler was apprehended, he inftantly drew his fword ; and, in a moment of paflion, prepared, like a brave man, for refiftance ; but vhen he faw the foldiers leading Jefus away to judgment, he followed the puullanimous example of the apoftles, who " forfook him and fled." Still the emotions of fear fecms to have been foon replaced by that of aQcftion ; arid Peter was never backward in obeying the impulfe of his foifations. He got admiflion into the hall of judgment; and, here, we inight fuppofe that he would not have appeared, unjefs he had fummoned courage to avow himfclf, and to live or to perifh with his mailer. But far otherwife ; his fortitude is. no fooner put to the left, than he even denies all knowledge of Jefus ; and, like moft perfons who are confcious of- felfhood, he endeavours to ftrengthen the weaknefs of his aflertions, by the effrontery of oaths and the wickqdnefs of perjuries. But obferve tho ( 91 ) love.l."* John was the congenial friend of his foul; and liear to him, as Jonathan was to David. Striped of the fweet domeflic afFe&ions, and clcfti- tute of the love of friends or kindred, how naked, defo- late and cheerlefs would the heart of man be ! ! ! Where, in mifery, fhoulcl we feck for refuge or for fympathy, if the benevolent fyftem of feme late moralifts were to be permitted to freeze into a cold, infenfate mafs every warm drop of happinefs which is inftilled into the heart, by the tender connections of family and of friendfhip ? No man can live long in the world, without con- tracting fome individual attachments. A congeniality of (Sentiments, or of manners, among thofe with whom we mingle in the intercourfe of life, will, naturallv, rapid vieiflitude of his fcnfations! One look from his fuffering inaftcr, whom he had fo lately and fo refolutely denied, was fumcient to melt him into tears and to rend him with remorfe. " He went out, and wept bitterly."- Such W as Peter! and fuch, alas! is too often the checquered iuw^e of thofe, who are moil renowned for their virtue or their piety ! * The character of John, which rendered him worthy of being beloved! by Jefus, fecms to have been diftinguifhcd by the moft amiable benevo-. !< nee. His Epiilles inculcate love to mankind, as the lum of all religion. i John iii..ii; jj, 17^ 18, 23: and iv. 7, 8, 11, 12, 16, 2Q, av. ( 92 ) excite a fironger degree of affe&ion to wards them, than towards others. Though friend/hip may fubf;ft, and perhaps with great livelinefs of fenfations, where there are fome few djflimilitudes of temper, of genius and man- ners, yet it cannot be cemented among thofe, between whom there is, in thofe refpe&s, a total and irreconcilea- ble difcordancy. Friendship derives it's energy and it's fpirit from the power of fympathy. We naturally love thofe moft, in whofe company we enjoy the greateft de- giee of pleafurable fenfation ; and this we certainly muft do, with thofe whofe habits approach the neareft to our own j with whom we can indulge a bland commu- nion of happinefs, to whom we can impart our joys and forrows, fure of their exciting cprrefponding vibra- fions in their fympathetic bofoms. It is obfervable, that thofe of the fame family arc ufually moft attached to each other, who are moft aflb- ciated in the intercourfe of childhood. Conftant inter- courfe tends to wear qway the afperities and diflimili-. tudes of difpofition, in which they differ from each other, as individuals ; and to bring them, in fome mea- fure to a common likenefs. It ftrengthens the affections f kindred, by the more powerful influence of fympathy, ( 93 ) Brothers and fifters, who fee little of each other, and, in whom, the ties of nature are not invigorated by a conftant and endearing intercourfe, and, particularly, at that period when the heart is moft fenfative to tender imprefiions, moft ready to affimilitate itfelf to the difpo- fitions of thofe around it, and to caft, as it were, anew, in the mould of aiTociation, have feldom any more than a very flight regard for each other ; a regard that may be juft kept alive by a fenfe of duty ; but which glows not with the fondnefs of love. Affe&ion arifes from fre- quently placing ourfelves in the fituations of others, from being allotted a {hare in their joys and forrows, from a kind interchange of fentiments and intercfts, from the impalpable agency of a thoufand namelefs fympathetic attractions, and is therefore chilled and withered with- out continual intercourfe. Friendship, when it is warm, genuine and fincere, partakes in a great meafure of the facrednefs of the kin- dred affections. It fuppofes an identity of interefts, it communion of fenfations, a reciprocity of love. Our friend is to us as a brother. Jcfus well knew that 'a tender and reciprocal friend- ihip can gladden the melancholy path of human life* He therefore fandlioned, by his example, that pure flame of private friendfhip, which infpires different perfons with an identity of interefts, and which, while it in- creafes the happinefs of individuals, need fubftract no- thing from the fum of general benevolence. That Jefus wa$ neither an enemy nor a flranger to the tender fympathies, we may learn from various parts of the Evangelic memoirs ; and, particularly, from his behaviour on the occafion of Lazarus's death, which is related in John xi. and which places the meflenger of immortality in a light equally amiable and interefting. The Evangelift tells us, in his plain and artlefs way, that " Jefus loved Martha, and her fitter, and Lazarus." Lazarus being taken ill, his fitters fent Jefus this concife but affecting meflage. " Lord, he whom thou Lo-cejl is fick." More, certainly, was not wanting to work on our Saviour's tendeniefs. Of courfe, we might ex- pect to read, that he haftened, without delay, to the fick bed ot his friend. No ; he waited two days in the place where he was. But was it apathy ? was it infenfibility to the call of fuffering friendfhip ? No ; the delay was ( 95 ) ctrtainly as painful to Jefus as it was to the fitters of Lazarus. But Providence never fends his funfhine but in the fulled feafons ; and Jefus manifefted the wifdom as well as the goodnefs of his father, who often fees it heft, for awhile, to withhold his bleffings, even from thofe he loves. In the mean time Lazarus died. Had Jefus been prcfent, he knew that he could not have refilled the lan- guifhing looks of his friend, or the felicitations of his fifters, to fave him ere he died. He therefore prudently declined going to the houfe till after his death. This is plainly intimated in the fpeech, of Jefus to his difciples.* " I am glad," faid he, " for your fakes, that I was not there to the intent that ye may believe ; neverthelefs let us go unto him." Martha, as foon as flie heard that Jefus was coming, went ancl met him ; but Mary fat ft ill. By the by, how well does this little incident mark the chara&eriftic eagernefs of Martha, and the graver and more penfivc turn of Mary ? and how well does it agree with what St. Luke x. has related of the two fifters ; of whom Martha is faid to be " cumbered about much ferving," tvhile Mary " fat at Jefus' feet, and heard his Word ?** How well is the unity of characters fupported in the four Evangelifts, and what can better prove that they are-not the hiftorians of fition but of fads ; and that they had fcen and converfed with the perfons they defcribe ? To pafs from this digreflion : "lord, if thou hadft been here," faid Martha, to Jefus, with her natural impatience, " My brother had not died !" "Thy brother," faid Jefus, " fhall rife again j" and again he gives the fame affurance, with more than ufual energy and folemnity* " I am the refurre&ion and the life ; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet fhall he live ; and whofoevcr liveth and believeth in me fhall never die." Martha now left Jefus to call her filler Mary > who, " when fhe had come where Jefus Was, and faw him, fell down at his feet ; faying unto him, Lord, if thou hadft been here, my brother had not ' died !" 'When Jefus beheld Mary, her fifter, and their friends overwhelmed in mifery, he feems to have been deeply affected. The Evangelift defcribes his grief in thefe plain but ftrong terms. " He groaned in the fpirit and was troubled j" and again " Jefus wept !" Over- Come by the tendernefs of his nature, he could not re- ftrain the figh of fympathy or the tear of friend/hip. The C violence of his forrow feems to have excited the notice of die Jews ; who, either from the fudden impulfe of admi- ration, or of envy, exclaimed : " Behold, how he loved him !" Jefus now, " groaning in the fpirit," goes up to the tomb, in which his friend was laid, and exclaims, in a voice which, at the laft hour, will awaken the myriads of myriads that have patted into the regions of forgetfulnefs, *- Lazarus, come forth." In an inftant, the fpirit of life returned to the body, which had begun to pafs into corruption. The behaviour of Jefus, in this fcene of affliction, fpeaks, in the moft captivating manner, the tendernefs of his feelings, and the warmth of his affections. His friendihip was not a fickly and tranfitory glow of fond- jiefs, the mere vapour of caprice, or the ebullition of appetite ; it did not originate from a familiarity in vice, nor was it polluted by the bafe alloy of venality and intereft. It was a friendship excited by fympathy. cherished by benevolence and preferved by efteem. It was formed of elements, not perishable, but immortal ; a friendship, which death does not extinguish ; but only transfers it into fouie happier country ; and places it in circumftances more genial to it's growth, and more G ( 93 j aufpicious to it's expanfion ; where no ftorms can /hake' the firmnefs of it's roots, and no blights wither the' beauty of it's branches. As jefus was not infenfible to fricndfhip, neither 1 was he callous to the affections, which ought to unite kindred blood. When agonizi'ng on the crofs, his own jteins did not make him forgetful of his mortal mother. He faw her ftanding by his crofs ; the thought of her deftitute condition awakened his fympathy ; and he 1 commended her, with peculiar earneftnefs, to the care of his beloved difciple. " Behold," faid he to the Evangelift, " thy mother !" The moft elaborate re- commendation could not have faid more ; and more was riot neceffary to be faid, to make the Apoftle feel the' love of a fon for the mother of his dying mafler. Providence, by having diftributed mankind into fami- lies, and willed the relations of hufband and wife, father -and child, of brother and filler, hath impreffed the feal of facrednefs on the kindred affections. But though' nature has fown the feeds of thefe affections, yet they will not fhoot up and bloflbm without careful cultiva- tion. They require the benign and foflering breath of ( 99 ) fympathy, to bring them to a vigorous maturity, and to enable them to (land againft the changes and inclemen- cies of life. But the kindred affedions, when they have L-cen ftrengthened by a long and continued interchange of kindnefles, and by a multiplicity of agreeable aflbci^ ations, are a fource of pure and exquifite happinefs* They referable that fragrant incenfe of piety, which the Spirit of love wafts from the heart of the righteous to the throne of the Eternal. Of all the affections which can warm the heart of man, that of conjugal love, which unites the blandifh- ments of all the kindred charities, with a thoufand addi- tional captivations, feems the beft adapted to increafe the fum of human happinefs. Perhaps, on no occaflon, did Jefus more clearly demonftrate his knowledge of the genuine fource of focial and domeftic blifs, than in the reftraints which he impofed on the nuptual union. He did not confider marriage as a mere tranfient aflbciation* to be formed as the appetite prompts, and to be diffblved as it decays. Our Saviour evidently confiders marriage as a reli- gious obligation. He fays, Matt. x. xi. 6. " What G2 God hath joined together, let no man put afunder." He here confecrates the relations of man and wife, by the fan&ions of the divine law ; which is fuperior in force to any civil inftitutions. Civil inftitutions may prefcribe the outward form, according to which, -mar- riage fhall be celebrated ; but the outward form, by no- means, conflitutes the facrednefs of marriage in a reli- gious view. The outward form gives the fandtion ol decency to the union of the fexes ; but that union, will ftill partake of the eflence of proftitution, unlefs it be aflbciated with the inward fenfe of a divine obligation, feelingly imprefled on the confcience of the contracting parties. Wherever matrimony is entered into without any religious confiderations of the moral duties it enjoins, it is a fenfual, profane and unhallowed connexion. Regarding marriage on Chriftian principle, nothing hut a6hial adultery can juflify it's diflblution ; and, in all cafes, adultery, wherever it is clearly eftablifhed, ought, inftantly, to cancel the validity of the marriage* Nay, in the eye of the Almighty, one adulterous de- fire, breathing it's pollution on the heart, ftains it with- the guilt of adultery. Matt. v. 28. Were we to regard marriage, without any relation to the divine law or to the Chriftian fan&ions, as a mere civil contract, then there would, no longer, be any reafon, why it fhould not ceafe when it became mutu- ally difagreeable to the parties concerned ; when it dif- appointed their mutual expectations, and they ceafed to will it's continuance. In this cafe, a mere incompati- bility of temper, would be a fufficient ground for a divorce. But to allow this, would be to offer a premi- um upon the univerfality of proftitution ; and to make the nuptials of mankind as tranfient as thofe of brutes. The difpofltion of individuals is as various as their features. No two tempers can be precifely fimilar ; and a difference in this refpe<5t, is no better argument for a divorce, than a difference of complexion. The tender aflbciations of familiar intercourfe, where marriage is entered into, with a fenfe of it's religious obligations, foon wear away the difcrepancies of the moft difcordant tempers ; and fmooth off the harm incongruities of tafte and manners. Both parties will confent to forego their mutual afperities, by a mutual accommodation. Whether we regard it in it's political importance, or it's fubferviency to focial and individual blifs, the ( 102 } marriage-tie cannot be confidered as too facred. It is marriage which renovates the world. It is the trunk, from which germinqrte all the domeftic charities, that bear the fruits of happinefs. Thofe who would divert matrimony of it's religious fahdtions, would flrip it of all it's moral, and even wither the bloom of it's phyfical attractions. It would foon fink into a debafed and brutal connection ; a fordid league for avarice or for luft. It is not the mere name or ceremony of marriage, that renders it facied. Every marriage, which is not contracted from a fenfe of mutual efleem, which is not fublimed by the endearments of fympathy, and hallowed by the fpirit of piety, is vitally and effentially proftiru- tion. The only true and genuine marriage, is that which is an union of mind and foul, as well as appetite ; not fpringing from the inconfiderate tumult of paffion, but the confiderate tranquillity of efteem ; not volatile, but permanent; not exhaled from humour and whim, but combined with all the beft affections of the heart ; and fattened on the confcience, by the glorifying ener-. gies of religion. < 103 ) In the brutes, there is nothing which can deferve the the name of conjugal affe6Hon. Their union terminates with the impulfe of the moment. In man it is far other- wife. In man, conjugal love afiumes a moral com- plexion. A thqufand affociations, blend it with a thou- fund captivations. It is refined by fympathy ; it is fublimed by fancy ; till, lofmg half it's animal groffiiefs it refembles the delicate intercourfe of purer fpirits. In man, the imagination, infpired by the paffion of love, adorns the beloved object with numberlefs atti ac- tions ; and forms a picture of perfection incompatible with the frailties of humanity. But the time, at laft, comes when the firft warm tranfports of fenfibility yiejd *, to the calmer emotions ; the conjugal tie, familiarifed, breaks the fpell of the enchantrefs. Then, when experience fhades with traces of frailty the blamelefs picture which fancy drew, then happy is it, if, when the firft blaze of tranfport is over, it leave behind it, that bland warmth of mutual efteem, which ieads through life, at that medium of temperature, which js equally diftant from rapturous forjdnefs, and from neg- ligent indifference. ( 104 ) The raviihed inquietudes of fenfation, and the exta- cies of imagination are too violent to be lafting ; but that mu^jr.l efteem which is fpiritualifed by the breath of religion, will furvive the gay illufions of fancy ; and, inftertd n f being abated, will be increafed, as time nips the bloom of youth, and the heart grows chill with the touch of age. Nay, it is probable that the pure and genuine flame of affection, which identified the interefts and the fenfations of two hearts, on this earth, will fliine for ever in a better country. Death will not diflblve the true undiffembled union of fouls. Hence, then, take comfort, thou wretched mourner, who art follow- ing to the grave one, who was long the fond companion of tiiy cravei in the wafte of mifery ! Our Saviour faid, that, in heaven, they neither marry nor are given in marriage ; but are like the angels. The phyfical bonds of love will perifh in the grave ; but it's moral bonds the delicate energies of fympathy will be everlafting. As there are fome affections which attach us to indi- viduals, fo there are others which connect us, by bonds of tendernefs, with the great mafs of fociety. As we ( 105 ) are fenfible to the glow of filial, parental, conjugal and friendly love, fo we ought to be alive to the patriotic affe^ions, which incline our hearts to fympathife with the welfare of the community, to which we belong, and the country, in which we were born. Some have, indeed, thought that the heat of patriot- ifm, which a good man feels ior the welfare of his na- tive country, ought to be extinguifhed in the fpirit of more comprcheniive patnocifm, which attaches him to the univerfal welfare of his fpecies ; without any par- tial or peculiar concern for the people, among whom he was bred, or the country, in which he was born. But, I thirk, that no man, unlefs he have wandered, from his very infancy, like a vagabond, over the earth, without ever fading or communicating the comforts of domeftic fociety, can well overcome thofe early affoci- ations, which endear him to the fields of his youth ; and which, as it were, ailimilate his nature to the language, to the manners, and the interefts of his native country. For that country can he refrain from burning with fomc fparks of a peculiar fondnefs ? Is fuch a partiality cri- minal ? Is it not rather a virtue, which afTociation !06 produces, but which heaven approves ? For, among very people, of every clime, whether barbarous or civil- ifcd, whether inhabiting fpots of luxuriant fertility, or ot eternal barrenness, the love of the ** natale folum" has ever been a predominant paffion : of which the e?y- tin&ion would cover the various regions of the earth with ihades of melancholy, and dry up the perennial fource of their intcreft, their captivations and their charms. * That philofophy, therefore., appears to me * The power of aflbciation, over the affcftions, will be feen in the infianre which I am going to mention, from Captain Cooke's laft voyage to the Pacific Ocean, .On Captain Clerke's arrival at the town of St. Peter and St. Paul, in Kamfchatka, Mr. King, 'Mr. Webfter and others were difpatched to the commanding officer, at Bclcherctfk ; on their way, they were lioipitabjy entertained, at .the Jittle village of Kiratchin. Whilft they were dining, in a miferable hut, the guefts of abfolute ftrangcrs, and at the extremity of the habitable globe, a folitary hall-worn pewter fpoon foon attracted their attention. " It's form," fays the narrator, '' was familiar to us ; and the word London was (lamped upon the back of it. It is ' inipoiliblc to exprefs the anxious hopes and tender remembrances this ex- ited in us. Thafe, who have been long abfcnt from their native country, will readily conceive what inexpreflible pleafure fuch trifling incidents can give." On the fubjeft of aflociation, I (hall dwell a little longer. Moft of our pleafures are derived from this fource. In the views of nature, many proljx'fts excite agreeable fenfations, which have nothing beautiful in ithemfolves ; and, for which, no other caufe can be afligned, than that thefe proi'pefts bear a refemblance to thofe which were connefted by us, in ouv infancy, with agreeable feufations. Thefe fenfations were excited by ca^fcs ( 107 ) of a pernicious caft, which would reduce the affections to an uniform level ; which would make an Englishman, as zealous for die profperity of France, or of China, or foreign to the beauty of the view itfclf ; but which, in the lapfe of time, have been intimately blended with it, and become parts of it. Similar views then produce th very fenfatiuns, which originated from afloclaied ideas. The fight of fields, which, in their form and pofition, referable thofe ia which our early days were fpei.t, would infpire us with delightful emo- tions ; and, at firft, without our knowing why ; for, we fhould not im- mediately recoUtft the fimilitude. Ideas of pleafure, having been affoci- ated with particular forms, or with this or that difpofition oi country, are lubjcft to frequent revival, when the caufes which firft produced them aii forgotten. We generally attach the idea of beauty to fmooth uudulaiiii.r fur faces ; and the contemplation of them, ariks. in the heait, feelings tii-c pleafe. The firft pleafures of men are excited by their mothers bicaft ; the agreeable fen&tions which the infant experiences in fuckir.g. are, after- wards, attached to the foftnefs, fmootlmcfs and whitcnefs of the milky fountain. His eyes feaft on it with placid rapture ; his little fii>ger> in various directions, gently, over the fweling breaft. Surfaces that have fimilar ipiral and waving lines, afterwards excite fimilar emotions. There is. perhaps, nothing either beautiful or ugly, but as it is aflbcioted. with ideas of pleafure or averfion, or with circumftances which have, fome way or other, interefted our feelings, or influenced our enjoyments. A good-natured German, in a journey, which he made on foot, thro' feveral parts of England, fays " When I was paft Bakewell, a place far inferior to Derby, I came by the fide of a broad river, to a fmall eminence, where a fine cultivated field lay before me. This field, all at once, made an indescribable and very pleafmg impreffion on me ; uhich, at Jirjl, I could not account for ; //// / rccolleflcd hiving feen, in my childhood., near tye village where J was educated, actuation Jlrikirgly Jimilar to that now Itjaie mt in England. See Travels by C. P. Moritz. 12010. Robiiifons. See Jlkcwifc Zoonom. vol. i. 145. ( 108 ) Siberia, as for that of Britain ; and extinguifli the par- tial flame of all local fympathies. Patriotifm, like extenfion, mult begin at a point ; but may be increafed, by gradual clifFufion, till it becomes a philanthropy, that knows no limits than the limits of nature. But as the circulation near the heart is more warm, frefh and vigorous than at the extremities, fo, every man's affedHon for his native country ought to be more fervent and vivid, than that philanthropic heat which may intereft him in the happinefs of diftant regions. A good Chriftian will be a citizen of his own coun- try, before he will claim the too often affected appella- tion of a citizen of the world ; a name frequently abufed to difguife a bafe infenfibility to the beft affe&ions of the human heart. But, though a good Chriftian will glory in a partial fondnefs for his own country, ftill he will feel a lively intereft for the happinefs of other nations. He will love juftice and benevolence even more than his country ; pnd he will never confent to violate thefe facred prin- ( 109 ) ciples, though, by the violation, he might increafe her oppulence or her grandeur. It is a very common notion, that kingdoms fink in misfortunes, in proportion, as their neighbours rife in profperity. Hence, that mean jealoufy and rivalry, that feparates and imbitters the great brotherhood of mankind. Hence, fo much bloodshed, and fo many wars. Nations do not confider that they ought rather to rejoice at, than to lament the increafe of each other's wealth and happinefs. Profperity is not confined to one fmgle channel ; it has numerous channels, which communicate with and affift each other. The profperity of our neighbour* always tends, fooner or later, to augment our own. The want of that benevolence, which is of the true Chriftian fort, prevents ftates as well as individuals from difcerning their real and efiential intcreft. Moil nations thirft, with the greedinefs of monopolies, for an exclu- five commerce ; of which they may prevent their neigh- bours from any participation of the advantages. But this is a delufive policy, which promifes great and pro- f no ) chices little benefit, for, if is for the good of mankind, that prosperity Jliould run in many channels > as the power of it's production is always increafed, in pro- portion to the multiplication of ifs fources. Nations, at prefent, boaft moft loudly of turning the balance of trade againft each other; but, I truft that die time is approaching, when the rivalry of avarice iliall be extinguifh.ee! ; and kingdoms ihall look for glory only in the rivalry of benevolence. To enrich his native country, a good Chriftian will never be an advocate for opprefling a weaker neighbour; he will fcorn to carry fire and fword, devaluation and rnurder into a foreign kingdom, to promote the fancied glory or fccurity of his own. A good Chriftian will confider war as murder, with an infinite aggravation of it's atrocity ; and he will refufe to unfheath the fword, except in the fingle cafe of the aggreffions of tyranny, cither from without or from within ; and then he will cheerfully hazard his fortune, and fhed his blood in the defence of his country, and for the prefervation of her liberties and her laws. Such will be a good political Chriftian 5 fuch we may ( 111 ) \tithout any impiety, imagine that Jefus would hav been, * were he living on earth, as a man, in the fociety 1 * Some divines have endeavoured to pcrfuade us, that the Author of Chriftianity was an advocate for paffive political fervitude. In the whol* compafs of the Evangelic memoirs, I know bat one padage, which has any direft relation to the important topic of civil obedience. The Jews having a(ked Jefus, whether it were lawful to give tribute unto Casfar or not. He replied, " Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites ? Shew me the tri- bute money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he faith unto tliem, Whofe is this image and fuperfcrrption ? They fay unto hirr^ Cacfar's ; then faith he unto them, Render therefore unto Gc/ar, the things that are Cafar's ; and unto Cod, the things that are God's." In the firft place : " Render unto Caefar, &c." means, gi% r e to Caefar his jvjl dues; but then this point remains to be confidered. What are the jujl dues of Caefar ? And this queftion is not to be determined by the arbitrary will of Co:far, but by the confideratieris of religion, of juftice and humanity. Were we to permit Czfar to determine his own rights and prerogative, according to his own caprice, we give him a licenfe to trample on the fscred rights of confidence and of juftice. This was not the intention of Jefus ; for he hzs qualified the obedience commanded on the firft part of the fentence, " Render, &c." by the reftriction \\hich is employed in the laft, ' ; kui unto God the things that are God's." A good Chriftian will cheerfully pay tribute, to whom tribute is due, cuftom to whom cuftoiri, honour to whom honoor; but if obedience be demanded of him, in cafes where he cannot confcier.tioufly pay it. ht vill courageously refift the tyranny that demands it. He will " not ftar him who can kill the body, but him who can deftroy both body and foul in hell." Man was not made by heaven for a flavc. This truth is written, by the hand of God, on every man's heart ; and it is a palpable and fcli-evi- dtnt propofition to every one, whofe mind has not been totally imbruu-d by long continued habits of obltquioufi'.efs to the fcourge of flavery. snd flii lafh of opprdlirn. ( 112 ) of men. In his character, we meet with feveral traits of that national attachment which is the eflence of pa- triotifm. In Luke xix. we read, that Jefus, defcending from the Mount of Olives, wept when he heheld the city, and the temple which was the boaft of every Jew, and the glory of his native land ; but which he knew \vould, in a few years, prefent only a melancholy fcene of ruin and devastation. This thought roufed an excla- mation of patriotic fympathy. " Would thou had known," faid he, " even thou, at leaft in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace ! But now they are hid from thine eyes !" The ftorm of divine fury, which was gathering againft his country, he faw ; and he flruggled in vain to avert, by reformation and repen- tance. His countrymen were blind to the danger, and infenfible to his exhortations. But Jefus, unable to bring the Jews to a ferious fenfe of the calamities, which were impending over them, and to open their eyes to the light of the gofpel of immortality, inftead of execrat- ing, with bitternefs, lamented with tendernefs their blindnefs and depravity, " O Jerufalem," faid he, " O Jerufalem, thou that killed: the prophets, and ftoneft them which are '^.t unto thee, how often would lhave gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Matt, xxiii. With artlefs but impaflioned eloquence, he mourned over the wilful obftinacy of his beloved city. He difcovers the fervency of a patriot, whofe affections centre in the welfare of his country ; and whofe foul breathes the warmeft willies for it's profperity. A good Chriftian will be a ftrenuous defender of public virtue and public piety. He will regard the decay of morality and of religion, as the greateft calamity that can befal his country ; and as the fure indication of a declining empire. He, who, in a public ftation, can countenance the lead relaxation of public integrity, or abet the abafement of the national character, by any acts of injuftice or of inhumanity, by the violation of any one focial or facred tie, is no Chriftian, but an ene- my to Chriftianity. A good Chriftian will glow with an honeft zeal, to preferve the religion which he vene- rates from any contaminating mixture from hypocrify and from bigotry from that foppery of worfhip, which mocks the Supreme Intelligence and from that extra- vagance and enthufiafm, which conceals the light of heaven under clouds and darknefs. a ( H4 ) Chriftianity has been frequently, though I truft un- defignedly, injured by thofe who are fometiines falfely filled Evangelical preachers ; who, lofmg fight of the rational practice of the gofpel, talk of nothing but what they call it's doctrines ; hut of which, it is plain, that as they know nothing theinfelves, they cannot make them clear to others. By pretending to explain thofe things, of which they have no diftincl: and definite ideas, they are betrayed into the grofleft inconfiftencies, and often the moft ludicrous abfurdities. The fublime mo- rality which Jefus inculcated, and which imprefles the fpirit of charity by the mofb awful fan&ions, they pafs over in contemptuous filence ; while they vainly labour to unfold the dark covering of the ark of the Chriftian myfteries. * * T':e turn of thefe expreffions is borrowed front a Mff. of Chatterton, in which he makes the fictitious Rowley offer to refute " at St. Mark's crofs, in the church-yard of St. Mary Redcleff," in Briftol, the heretical notions of John a Milverton, who feems to have embraced the doftrine* of Socinu?. The paflage I allude to, is as follows : " It is in vain for the wit of man, to pretend to unfold the dark covering of the ark of the Trinity; leaft, like thofe of old, he be ftricken dead and his reafon loft, by breathing in an element too fine and fubtle for his grofs nature." I fhall here fay fomething on the fubjecl: of the Pfcudo-Rowley, . fubjc& to which I have given muck attention j as is well known to my As the pretended Evangelical preachers affe to preach nothing but Jefus, it is flrange that they fhould fo friends ; and particularly ray much efteemed friend, Charles Gower, M. D. of Oriel College; a gentleman, diftir.guifhed by the integrity of his conduct, the opcr.nefs and kindnefa of his heart, and the diverfified copi oufnefs of his erudition. Thomas Chatterton, one of the moft extraordinary perfonages that has appeared in the prefent century, was bom at Briftol, Nov. 20, 1752. Hii prediliftion for antiquities was excited in his childhood. He feems, likewife, when almoft an infant, to have imbibed a paflion for fame, and a third for diflindUon. Traces of this were vifible in his earlieft. inter- courfe. He always ambitioufly fought the poft of pre-eminence among hif play-fellows. He was not willing to confider them as his equals ; he would have them his fervants. How often might the dawn of character be obferved in the fports and amufements of youth ? In the mind of young Chatterton, the love of pre-eminence was an impetuous and ruling paffion. It imparted an unwearied aftivity to the energies of his mind ; and infpired him with vigor, to refift that laffitude which arifes from inceflant exertion. In his meals, he ufed an almoft afcctic abftinence ; and he flept but little. The greater part of every night he devoted to the multiform occupations of genius ; his unquenchable paftou for fame almoft enabled him to counteract the ordinary calls of nature for rcpofe ; and without a confiderable portion of which common mortals would foon expire. To the early thirft of Chatterton for diflinftion, and which, more fortunately for the world than for himfelf, took a literary direction, I attribute his forgery of the poems attributed to Rowley. He well knew that any poems, appearing in his own name, and as the productions of a parifh-boy, would have excited but little attention ; and he certainly could not hope that they would caufe his reputation to emerge from the boforn of obfcurity. But he knew that the publication of poems, faid to II 2 ( 116 ) rarely recommend to the imitation and the pra&ice of of their followers, the flriking lineaments of his charac- have been written in the fifteenth century, and with all the harmony of numbers, which is perceptible in the writers of the eighteenth, would be a literary phenomenon, well calculated to excite general curiofify. Even in Briftol, where the heart is too ufually dormant to any emotions, but to thofe of gain or of voluptuoufnefs, a few fparks of curiofity and of inlercft were elicited ; and Chatterton found the fhadow of patronage (alas, it was but the fhadow !) in a furgeon and a pewterer. Another motive, which operated to the production of this wonderful forgery, was the defire of the young author to gratify his vanity, by impo- fmg on the learned world. This he did moft effeftnally. The garb of antiquity, which he aflumed, feems to have deceived fome of the moft profound antiquaries ; and the genuinenefs of the poems, might, to this day, have remained a matter of ambiguity, if the forgery of Chatterton had not been indifputably eftablifhed by the tafte of Wharton, and the precife and penetrating erudition of Tyrwhit. The moft remarkable circumftance, in the life of Chatterton, is the early maturity of his mind. His intellect, unTlke the intellect of moft men, does not feem to have attained it's greatnefs by a flow and gradual, but a rapid and almoft inftantaneous expanfion. Of that tafte, whofe divine irradiations are diipenfed to none but the man of genius, of that tafte, which is a fubtle and delicate emanation from a found judgment, quick perceptions and a vigorous intelligence, and which beftows the power' of difcerning beauties that are invifible to vulgar apprehenfions, and of forming combinations which ftrike univerfally by their juftnefs or dazzle by their fplendour, Chatterton poffeffed a more than common fliare, at a premature period. At the age of fixteen, he produced the tragedy of ALlh ; in which there are the marks of a mind vigorous in purfuit, powerful in combination and delicate in feleftion. In the perufal of vElla, who, that can fympa- thife with the varied agitations of the human bread, can refrain from expe- ( in ) tcr, and the moft prominent features of hi$ dolrine ! In a cant unmeaning jargon, they talk much of vital riencinj alternate emotions of foftnefs and of magnanimity now melted by the tendernefs of Birtha, now elevated by the heroiim of yElla? la the parting fcene, which is ably managed, the fpirit of the warrior predo- minates over that of the lover ; while Birtha, an exquifitely winning pour- trait of female frailty, is carried refifilcfsly down the flream of her fenfa- tions. The fong of the rainftrel is remarkable for it's fnnplicity, it's fweetnefs and pathos. " Come with a cornt-ccppt and theme, Drayne mie hcartys blodde awaie; L\fe and all yttes goode fjcorne, Dauncc bit nete, orfeajle by dale. My lore ys dtddc, Gon to hys death-bedde All under the wallow tree. &c. ?c." In " the Fragment of Godwin," the chonis of Freedom would not have difgraced the lyre of Gray. In the battle of Haftings, amid a profufion of fimilics and metaphors, the exuberance of a juvenile imagination, there are examples of the true fublime. " The Ballad of Charity" cannot be read without tender emotions ; for imagination inftantly fuggefts that the wrctchednefs of the poet, was fignified in that of the pilgrim. To form a true eftimate of the genius of Chatterton, we muft not for- get that the beauties of his poetry, are lefs refplendent, than they otherwife would be, from the perverted and antiquated diftion, and the often barba- rous and incongruous idiom, by which they are obfcured. Many of the words, ufed by Chatterton, were the coinage of his own fancy ; others are diftortcd from their common and regular acceptation in ancient writers; and the elegance of modern phraseology is blended with the factitious in- cruflations of antiquity. ( 113 ) faith ; but they fay little of vital benevolence ; without which faith can be but a found. How different their The fenfations which we experience in perufing fome of the beft of our ancient poets, are not unlike thofe which will be felt by a man of a cultivated fenlibility, who walks in a Gothic aide, when the rays of the moon are gleaming on the chambers of the dead; but thofe which we imbibe from the poetry of Chatterton, though they have lefs folemnity, have fomething more of foftnefs, as if we were fitting in an ancient choir, and and were now infpired by the grandeur of the fcenc now melted by the fweetnefs of the harmony. The genuine poet, is known by the degree of energy, with which he can influence our fenfations, and make them Jefpond to his matter volition ; who powerfully touches the chords of our hearts, and deprives us of the poffeflion of ourfelves. A fecond rate poet only plays about the heart ; but a poet of the fijfl order, like Shakcfpear in many pafiages and like Chatterton in a few, ftorms every avenue of the foul ; and makes us glow with enthufiafm, or fadden with defpair. The genius of Chatterton languiihed in the atniofphere of Briftol ; his productions were not to the tafte of the merchants, who were wallowing in the luxury of wealth ; while the poet was fullered to feel the pk-rcing anguifh of penury and of fcorn. He, accordingly, accepted the offers of fome London Bookfellers, who invited him to the metropolis. In April, 1770, he left his native city; glowing, probably, with thofe gay illufions of fame and fortune, with which hope is continually cheating the burning fancy of youth. But the fond expectations of poor Chatterton were ne- ver realifed ; and diflrafted with the recolleftion of paft negleft, and the profpeft of future mifery, he took poifon on the evening of the 241)1 of Auguft, 1770, of which he expired the next morning, when he wanted almoft three months to complete his eighteenth year. Far be it from me to become the apologiil of felf-murder ; but I tnuft fay, that when diftrefled genius (genius, whofe fenfations are fo trc-in- blingly delicate, and which feels mifery with ten times the poignancy of ordi- nary mortals), in th bitternefs of anguifh, fhuU out the hope of mercy difcourfes fiom the difcourfes of Jefus ! The inftruc- tions of Jefus, combine the pureft morals, with calm and fober but folemn devotion. They teach love as the eflential principle of piety. They do not found falva- tion, on the fhadowy bafe of a faith in doctrines which are infcruiable to the wit of man, and equally obfcurc to the ignorant and the wife. Mr. Wilberforce, in his View of Chriftianity, feems to fuppofe, that a fteady and undoubting conviction of the inborn and radical corruption of the human heart, is the foundation-ftone of righteoufnefs. In the 12mo. edit, of 1797. p. 18. Mr. Wilberforce fays of man, by becoming it'* own deftroyer, thofe ought, in fome meafure, to (hare the guilt of the crime, who refufed the patronage, by which it might have been prevented. Horatio! thou too art dcfcended to the duft of thy fathers, or I fhould be tempted to fay that which would awaken thy re- morfe!!! Mr. Warton has obfcrved, that Chaucer is like a genial day, in an Englifh fpriug; but Chatterton appears to refemble a meteor feen in a fummer fky ; which pafles away too foon for all it's deviations to be noted, or all it's luftre to be afcertained. To this not* I fhall only add, that, in the year 1790, I faw the mother and fifter of Chattei'ton. The mother was very iritirm and fickly; the After kept a day-fchool, and had, I think, one little daughter. They we;e ui indigent circuinilancea ! ( 120 ) that he is " tainted with fin, not flightly and fuperfi- cially, but radically and to the very core." 'And in p. 32. he fays, " It is here" (viz. in the doctrine of the original and innate corruption of mankind) : " never let it be forgotten, that our foundation mujl be laid; otherwife our fuperjlructure, whatever we way think of it, will one day or other prove tottering and in- fecure" It is furely ftrange, that our hopes of falvation mult be precarious and infecure, before we have debafed our natural fenfe of juftice fo far, as to give a cordial affent to the doctrine of imputed fin. Can any man, in his fenfes, and the exercife of whofe understanding is not palfied by the dwarfifh cowardice of fuperflition, acqui- efce in the notion of inbred and inalienable guilt ? Does fin confift, not in finning, but in palling our mother's womb ? Our mere defcent from Adam, does not make us fm- ful ; nor, till we have finned in our own perfons, can we be worthy objects of divine punifhment. That, as the defcendants of Adam, we are born under a curfe, I can fafely allow ; but what is the curfe? Not, furely, the curfe of eternal damnation, or of imputed fin, but the curfe of being mortal. We are all fubjet to death, which we might not have been, if Adam had not firmed. " Duft: thou art, and unto duft thou (halt return," was the curfe pafled upon Adam, on account of his tranf- grefiion ; and this curfe, which was paflfed on him, is entailed on his lateft pofterity. Adam, being made mor- tal, could not certainly tranfmit immortal energies to thofe who came after him. Let us now conflder the law, to which Adam was fubjecl in Paradife. He was made immortal on certain conditions ; and thefe conditions were to him a law, which he was bound not to difobey. " Of every tree in the garden," faid the Lord to Adam, " thou maycft freely cat ; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou (halt not cat of it ; for, in the day that thou eateft thereof, thou (halt furely die." As Adam was threatened with death, in cafe he eat of the forbidden fruit, we muft neceffarily infer that if h& had not eaten of it, he would not have died, But he had no fooner tranfgrefled the covenant, by adhering to which lie might have remained immortal, and exempt from ( 122 ) pain and difeafe, than he became mortal, and fubjet to thofe pains and miferies, and various bodily infirmities which are elfential to a ftate of mortality, and which, by wafting the power of the body, haften it's diflblution. The confequences, therefore, in which the difobedi- cnce of Adam involved his pofierity, are thefe; pain, difeafe, and death ! The fentence of eternal damnation, was not only not palled upon Adam and his defcendants, but, at the very moment that the fentence of death and the decree of mortality was pronounced againft them, a hope was held out to them ; a hope which was, indeed, at firft, faint and dubious, but which gradually grew clearer, as the ftar of Jacob approached the horizon, that the Al- mighty would, under the influence of the fecond Adam, reflore the fons of men to thofe immortal privileges, which they would have poiTefied, if the firft Adam had wot finned. " 1 will," faid the Lord to the ferpent, Gen. iii. 15. "put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy feed and her feed ; and it {hall bruife thy head, and thou fhalt bruife his heel." Here was an intimation, C 123 ) dark indeed and myfterious, but, not without gleams of folace, given to our firft parents that they fhould here- after, in the perfon of one of their defcendants, punifh the ferpent, by whofe guile they had been betrayed ; and that the wound, under which they languished, fhould not be incurable. This is notobfcurely fignified, by the wound itfelf being reprefented as a bruife only upon the heel, and not on any vital part. Thus we fee that Adam was punifhcd for his tranfgreflion by temporary ills, and by death, which is itfelf only a temporary ill ; but that the confolatary profpeft of a life after death, and a repeal of the fentence pafled on him was dimly fhadowed forth to him. How then can it be faid, with the leaft (how of truth, that we are by nature, and as it were, in right of our defcent from Adam, heirs of eternal wrath and worthy of eternal mifery ? For we fee that the fentence pafled on Adam himfelf was nothing more than death tempo- ral, and fljort-lived mifery. If the confequences of Adam's tranfgreflion are en- tailed on his pofterity, thofe confequences may be fum- med up in the mortality of our bodies. " In Adam all r* ) : die;"- as the Apoftle faid ; but to pretend that we arc vile and guilty in the fight of God, merely from having been born of Adam (a thing, by the by, which we had no means of preventing) , is to aflert what is as repug- nant to Scripture as it is to reafon. It feems, indeed, a downright abfurdity, to fuppofe, with Mr. W. that we are, by nature, neceflarily and inherently fmners ; that fin has been incorporated in every drop of blood that flows in the heart, and in every fibre that conftitutes the tiffue of the human frame. Sin, means a wilful violation of the laws of God ; and is the voluntary perverfion of that faculty whicli enables us to diftinguim between good and evil. Moral guilt, implies a concomitant confcioufnefs of duty ; and where this confcioufnefs is not, as it certainly is not either in infants orideots, there can be no guilt. Moral depravity, fignifies depraved affedlions and habits of adl- ing ; and which are not innate but acquired. To teach people that they are morally and effen- tially guilty, before they have committed fin, and doom- ed to eternal punifhment, before they have done any thing to deferve any puniihment at all, can only tend to ( 125 ) give the moft confufecl notions of moral virtue, to deftroy the vital fpirit of human rectitude, and to excite the moft unworthy ideas of the Supreme Being ; as of a malicious Demon, bringing myriads of fentient creatures into exiftence, on purpofe to torture them to everlafting ages. Had the doctrine that men are by nature tinners, and that guilt is radical and innate in every heart, been an effential part of Chriftian knowledge, our Saviour would, certainly, have infifted on it, as a preliminary to falvation ; and taught it as the rudiments of immortal- ity. He would have reprefented it as the only rock of Chriftian fafety, inftead of conferring eternal life on thofe who kept the commandments. Matt. xix. 17. In none of his difcourfes, did Jefus inculcate to his follow- ers, the neceffity of a conviction in the original and radi- cal corruption of human nature, as that only ground- work of piety, " without which, any fuperftru&ure that we might raife would be tottering and infecurc." Jefus feems everywhere to confider men as beings endu- ed with paflion and with reafon, and fufceptible of good as well as of evil. ( 126 ) The firft words in which both Jcfus and the Apo^les feem to have begun their preaching, were an exhorta- tion to repentance. " Repent ye," was their ordinary exordium. Now, repentance muft refer to acquired, not imputed guilt, that gv.ilt to which the will confcnt- ed, not that to which it could not be acceflary. It \vould have been madnefs to require men to repent of that fin which they had no concern in willing; and which was committed many ages anterior to their pof- fefllon of the faculty of volition. " I am not,'* faid Jefus, Matt, ix, 13. " come to call the righteous, but fmners to repentance." This implies that there were fome who needed no repentance. Had Jefus been an advocate for the doctrine of radical and inherent depravity, he would not have acknowledged that any were righteous ; fmce, in that cafe, all muft have been equally tainted, if not with perfonal, at leaft, with imputed guilt. When it was alledged as a charge againft Jefus, that he ate with publicans and fmners. *' They that be whole," faid he, " need no phyfician but they that are fick." Matt. ix. 12. This pciffjge intimates, that that corruption which Mr. Wilberforce deems univerfal, and innate in the whole mafs of man- kind, was only partial to individuals ; and, by it's being reprefented under the image of a ficknefs, we may fup- pofe that Jefus confidered it as rather accidental and acquired, than innate and unavoidable. He fecms to have thought the corruption of man rather a fecondary than a primary difeafe ; rather a ficknefs at the extre- mities than " at the core-" rather a local malady, than a total gangrene. That Jefus did not cfteem guilt innate in man, we may, likewife, plainly gather from the concife but im- preffive eulogy which he pronounced on the innocence of little children. " Of fuch is the kingdom of God." He makes the fpotlefs innocence of infancy emblematic of the pofleflbrs of the happy manfions. If men arc born, as Jefus evidently thought and openly declared, in a ftate of guiltlefs innocence, the notion of imputed fin is a mere chiinara, which ought no longer to be fuffered to throw it's bewildering and terrific gloom over the ferene beauty of the Chriftian fyftcm. * * I have dwelt a good deal on this fubjeft ; bccaufe I am of opinion tliat thoufands and thousands have been prevented from embracing Chi if- tianity by the imprudence of divines, in infilling, vrith f<> much vehemenc? , ( 128 ) Let it then, henceforth, pafs into the filence of obli- vion, along with the numerous corruptions of the true gofpel by bigotry and fuperftition. Let us boldly, but reverently, difcreetly and foberly, remove this and other incruftations of time, of ignorance and prejudice from the fyftem of Jefus ; and let us difplay the genuine and unvitiated fpirit of his religion to the world; of that religion which is to be found in a fair and liberal inter- pretation of his difcourfes and his actions. This feems the only way of determining with precifion what is, and what is not, Chriflianity. I am well aware that, in delivering thefe fentiments, I ihall render myfelf obnox- ious to thofe who love to range, with a certain confuf- ednefs of mind, in the dark perplexities of myftery, and forfake the guidance of reafon, in the coverts of fome inexplicable doctrine. I do not deny but that texts which feem to favour the doctrine of imputed fin, may be drawn from the on- the necefiity of aflenting to the doftrine of imputed fin a doftrinc which would found Chriftian morality on a frail and perifhable founda- tion a doftrine which militates againft the general tenor of Scripture, and which is contrary to the inoft enlarged notions of the Divine Good- nefs. ( 129 ) writings of St. Paul ; but, at die fame time, I could pro* duce from the fame writings patfages of an oppofite ten- dency ; and while the epiftles of that apoflle are fo little underftood and fo liable to inferences, which, perhaps, the Apoftle himfelf never thought of, I think it moft fafe, as well as wife, in confidering any difputed point of doctrine, to confine our attention folely and exclu- finely to thofe points of doctrine which Jefus himfelf plainly and unequivocally fanctioned by his autho~ rity, It cannot be denied, that the epiftles of St. Paul are interfperfed with many ufeful precepts for the regula- tion of life and conduct, in the various relations of focial intercourfe. He fometimes applies the general rules of our Saviour to fpecific duties. He details the relative obligations of hufband and wife, mafter and fervant ; and it ought never to be forgotten, that he has pro- nounced (1 Cor. xiii.) one of the moft comprehenfive, beautiful and fublime eulogies on charity, that was ever uttered. Regarding it merely as a fpecimen of human eloquence, it may vie with the fineft paflages in the fmeft productions of Greece or of Rome. T f 130 ) But rules for the conduct of life, or counfels of uni- verfal application form, comparatively, but a fmall part of the writings of Paul. They are, like rays, thinly fcattered through an expanfe of myfterious darknefs. The major part of his epiftles is filled with the abflrufe difcuffions of Rabbinical learning ; or relates to quef- rions which are, at prefent, of more curiofity than im- ptortance ; though, in his time, they interrupted the har- mony of the Chriftian community, and were debated with eagernefs, as points which were connected with an eternal intereft. But time has both ieffened their i : ntereft and darkened their meaning. The Epiftle to the Romans is bewildered with the polemical Chriftianity of that day ; and turns on points which were agitated, with no little vehemence, not only between the unbelieving Jews and the Judaizing Chrif- tians, but between the latter and the Gentile converts. The obfcurity of the writings of St. Paul is likewife increafed by the intricacy of his (lyle ; by the long pa- renthefes, which fometimes interrupt the fucceflion of his ideas ; and, at others, feems to perplex and confufe the order of his arguments. He likewife fo often reafons ( 131 ) in the perfon of his adverfary, that it is probable, that notions have often been imputed to Paul, which he rather combated than defended. He seems likewife, at times, to labour with myfterious meanings ; and which he failed in developing with fufficient perfpicuity. He was of the fe& of the Pharifees, who were wont to allegorife on the literal fenfe of Scripture. His writings have undoubtedly fome tincture of Cabbaliftical refinement ; and it may be doubted whether they do not occafionally glimmer with a ray of Grecian philofophy. The character of Paul was diftinguimed by intrepidity and energy. It had no littlenefles, no minute or dwarfifh features; all is force, grandeur and fublimity. He was impatient in purfuit; and indefatigable in exertion. Difdaining obftacles, they rather accelerated than re- tarded his progrefs. He refembled Caefar, as chara&err ifed by Lucan : " Nil faftum rcputans dum quid fuperefTet agendum." Previous to his converfion, he was a fierce and inex- orable, but a confcientious enemy to Chriftianity. Acts :vi. Attached, even to bigotry, to the rites of the 12 ( 132 ) Mofaic law, he exhibited an implacable rage againft the difciples of Jefus. Not content with perfecuting them at Jerufalem, his reftlefs fpirit purfued them to other cities, whither they had fled for fafety. Ac"ls xxvi. The honeft zeal of Paul was not abated by his con- Verfion ; it's direction only was altered. It flowed in a different channel, but with equal impetuofity. Of that religion, againft which* he had gone to Damafcus, breathing threatnings and {laughter, he became the un- daunted, the indefatigable and unftiaken advocate. His natural ferocity was tempered by the gentle fpirit of his new mafter. He no longer gave way to the in- temperate ebullition of his paffions ; he did not thirft for the blood of the unbelieving Jews, as he had for- merly done, for that of the believing Chriftians. He exhibited to the world an illuftrious example of Chrif- tian piety, dignified by the greatnefs of it's exertions, and the magnanimity of it's fufferings - t and he fhewed how the moft fublime feelings of devotion are compati- ble with the diligence of induftry, and with the ordinary occupations of life. ( 133 ) The prudent management of Paul was evinced hi bringing that heterogeneous mafs, which formed the lirft Chriflian focieties, into a benevolent union. Both the Jew and the Gentile converts were polluted by a thoufand diverfe fuperfUtions and prejudices ; and which muft have oppofed obftacles to their reciprocal friend- fliip, which nothing but great ability, combined with great moderation, great temper and perfeverance, aflliled by the divine influence, could have furmounted. Setting out on his million to convert the Gentile world what a dreary and tremendous profpecl: lay be- fore him ! Accumulated dangers prefled on every fide. He had prejudices to vanquifh ; animofities to foften ; he had to elude fecret treachery and open force ; he had to contend with the machinations of the crafty and with the violence of the powerful. But from thefe difficul- ties he did not fhrink, either on account of their variety, their multitude or their danger. He faw the grave be- fore him ; but he beheld the ftar of Jacob rifing beyond it's confines. Death was to him an object of hope and of exultation ; but he did not defy it's terrors, like the ambitious en- ( 134 ) thufiaft, impatient for the parade of martyrdom, or be- caufe if promifed the fading laurels of pofthumous fame, but welcomed it's approach becaufe he knew that it would bring him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. But while I am happy to pay the pious tribute of unfeigned homage tc the illuftrious Apoftle of the Gen- tiles, I muft frill adhere to this opinion, which I have entertained almoft ever fmce I have been able to exert the faculty of reflection, that all the Chriftianity with which it is neceflary for us to be acquainted, is con- tained, in the Four Gofpels and Acts. The fame opin- ion feems to have been held by a great and profound theologian. * "I have a flrong perfuafion," fays Lardner, " that the gofpel was plain at fir/I. It is contained in the. Four Gofpels and Acts, which are plain books. If Chriftianity be not plain now, I appre- hend it muft be our own fault fome how or other." The fault appears to me to be this that we do not fuf- ficiently confine our attention to the Gofpels, and par- ticularly to the difcourfes of Jefus, which comprehend : ; ' * Dr. Lardner. Sec his Works, vol. i. Lxxxviii. < 135 ) every necetiary article of faith or of practice. InfterxJ of endeavouring to render Christianity plain, too many divines wilfully perplex it with fubtleties. They rather labour to puzzle the understanding "rwVA queftions and jlrijts of words " than to inform it with that practical wifdom, " which maketh wife unto falvation." The difcourfes of Jefus, which we ought never to lofe fight of, when we are difcuffing any doctrinal or practical points of Chriftianiry, combine the pureft mo- rals with calm and fobei, but folemn, devotion. They teach love, as the efTential principle of piety. They do not found falvation on the fhadowy bafe of a faith in doctrines, which are infcrutable to the wit of man, and equally obfcure to the ignorant and the wife. The divine author of Chriftianity, inftead of wrap*, ping holinefs in myftery, and evaporating practical goodnefs in the flames of enthufiafm,* turned theatten- * The pretended Evangelical preachers, who have found a patron and difciple in Mr. Wilberforcc, endeavour to lay what they imagine the foun- dation ftone of righteoufnefs, by convincing their followers of their uni- t-crfal, inbred and radical corruption. An implicit affent to this dogma, they inculcate aj the rudiments of religion. Before they cheer their vou- ( 136 ) tion of his followers to aive beneficence ; and incul - cated that vital morality, which feeks the favour of hea- ven by increafing the happinefs of man. All the miracles of Jefus, as far as they can be ob- je6ts of human imitation, are leflbns of practical good- nefs. The power by which they were effected, will be ries with any glad tidings, they take uncommon pains to convince them that the guilt of Adam has eaten into the very cores of their hearts, that they are finful creatures, and merit, by the deftinies of nature, eternal dam- nation. When their difciples have fo far abandoned the ufe of their rea-. fon as to be immerled over head and ears in the abfurdtty of this do&rine, which they take care to fet forth in every image of horror which fuperfti- tion, hypocrify and folly, reciprocally operating on each other, can fug-, geft ; they then teach the fubmiflive novice, to take refuge in " afaving faith;" as, in Popifh countries, the vileft mifcreants are (or rather were) often invited to elude the purfuit of juftice in the walls of the fanftuary. On the fubjeft of this "fating faith," the mifnamed Evangelical preachers always labour to fublime the fer.fations of their hearers to a degree of ef- fervefcing tranfport and enthufiafm, far beyond the temperature of com-? nion fenfe and of moral obfervance. Raifed to a pitch of rapture, they imagine that they have nothing more to do than to grafp the crown of glory, though they have, perhaps, neglc&ed every habit of goodnefs, and all the benign graces of Chriftian benevolence, to which it is appended. Thus do thefe men the wolves in fheeps' cloathing impofe upon the credu- lity of the illiterate and unthinking part of mankind ; and they are often greedily liftened to by others, who, not liking the pains oj acquiring moral habits, luijh to get to heaven tuitk the leaji trouble. They, therefore, enter with alacrity on the cheap and commodious way of "faving faith." ( 137 ) tor ever beyond our reach ; but we may, without prc- fumption, afpire to catch the fpirit of beneficence, that prompted their execution. They tell us, in unequivocal language, to fympathife with wretchednefs in all it'* varieties. If we cannot raife the dead man from the bier, can \ve not adminifter confolation to the dying, and fmooth their paflage to the grave ? If we cannot make the lame to walk or the blind to fee, flill life prefents us with fufficient opportunities of doing good. Is there not a widow or an orphan left among us ? Are we ac- quainted with none whofe ftrength is wafting away in ficknefs ? with none, who have felt the rude hand of adverfity, and, in whofe eyes, the ray of hope has been extinguifhed by misfortune ? In the checquered forrows of life, in the melancholy viciffitudes of fufFering humanity, how many opportu- nities has the heart of being kind, and the hand of being bountiful ? And yet, how often, in a fit, perhaps, of fullennefs or difdain, in a moment of cold indifference, or of voluptuous felfiihnefs, do we fuffer thefe oppor- tunities to pafs unheeded by us ? But thefe are oppor- ( 13S ) trinities which are more precious than any thing of mere temporal eftimation, as they are connedted with an immortal intereft ; and ought to be regarded as the means which Heaven, whole wifdom may be traced in all it's apparently motley and fortuitous difpenfations, defigns to train up man for a flate of eternal bleflednefs, by habits of love, of gratitude and every tender fym- parhy. The majority of the parables of Jefus, of which fome are not more remarkable for ufefulnefs of inference, than for genuine beauty of competition, are of a prac- tical tendency. The feveral parables of the rich man and Lazarus, Luke xvi. of the Pharifee and the PublU can, Luke xviii. of the rich man, who laid up a treafure for himfelf, and was not rich towards God, Luke xii. of the indigent father and the undutiful fon, Luke xv. of the merciful matter and the hard-hearted fervant, Matt, xviiL of the good Samaritan, Luke x. all thefe parables inculcate various branches of piety, of a piety not enthufiaftic, vain and illufory, but fruitful, fober, intelligible and fuited to the purpofes of common life. They tend to fublime the narrow and felfim feelings ; ( 1*9 ) and to widen, around the individual, the horizon of mercy and of charity. The nature of our redemption, bv Jcfus, has been a fubje-fl of rnuch difpute among Chriftians. Some have entertained fuch high notions of it's efficacy, as to fup- pofe that no works which we can do, can at all conduce to our falvation. This doctrine is pregnant with infinite mifchief: and were it univerfally received, would be fatal to the inte- refts of juftke and benevolence. But it is abhorrent both to Sciipture* and to reafon. * " The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves (hall hear his voice;" (the voice of the fon of man ;) " and (hall come fort'n ; they that have done good unto the refurreftion of life, and they that have done till unto the refurreftion of damnation." John v. 281 29- In St. Matt. xxv. Jefus makes charity the principal ground of accep- tance, at the day of Judgment. Knowing the indolent reluftance of many readers to turn to any book that is not before them, and, particularly, when that book happens to be the holy Scriptures, I {hall make no apo- logy for tranfcribing the whole paffige to which I allude. " When the Son of man (hall come in his glory, and all the holy an- gels with him, then fhail he fit upon the throne of his glory ; And before him fhall be gathered all nations : and he (hall feparate them one from another, as a fhephcrd dividcth his fhecp from the goats : And he fhall ( 140 ) There is another opinion, that we are to be made im-f mortal and happy by works only ; and without any refer- ence to the conciliatory influence of divine love, mani- fefted in the perfon, and energetically operating in the fet his flicep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then (hall the King fay unto thofe on his right hand, Come, ye blefled of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world ; For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirfty, and ye gave me drink ; I was a ftranger, and ye took ma in : Naked, and ye clothed me ; I was fick, and ye vlfited me ; I was in prifon, and ye came unto me. Then fhall the righteous anfwer, faying, Lord, when faw we thee an hungered, and fed thee ? or thirfty, and gave thee drink ? When faw we thee a ftranger, and took thee in ? or naked, and clothed thee ? or when faw we thee fick or in prifon, and came unto thee ? And the King fhall anfwer, and fay unto them, Verily, I fay unto you, inafmuch as yc have done it unto one of the leafi of tkcfe, my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then fhall he fay, alfo, unto them on his left hand, Depart from me, ye curfed, into everlafting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat ? I was thirfty, and ye gave me no drink ; I was a ftranger, and ye took me not in ; naked, and ye cloth- ed me not ; fick and in prifon, and ye vifited me not. Then fhall they alfo anfwer him, faying, Lord, when faw we thee an hungered, or athirft, or a ftranger, or naked, or fick, or in prifon, and did not minifter unto thee? Then fhall he anfwer them, faying, Verily, I fay unto you, inaf- much as ye did it not unto one of the leaft of thefe, ye did it not to me. And thefe fhall go away into everlafting punifhment ; but the righteous into life eternal." No part of Scripture is more diftinft and defi- nite than this is. It admits of no equivocations ; it is fo clear that he " who runs may read ;" and it deferves the ferious confidcration of thofe perfons, who, trufting to the er.thufiaftic fumes of imagination, think that there is a faftr way to heaven than that of benevolence. ( 141 ) atonement of jefus. The truth, in this cafe, as in many others, feems to be placed between the extremes of the oppofite opinions. It appears to me, that of the eternal life which the Scriptures promife to mankind, the medi- atorial facrifice of Chrift is the eflential caufe, and benevolence the qualifying habit. Immortal happinefs is the free gift of God ; it is not a debt paid to juftice nor a tribute to merit. Nor is it a forced gift. We may either accept it or refufe it. If \ve accept it, we muft prove our acceptance an act of rational choice, and, at the fame time, of grateful remem- brance, by conforming to the conditions to which it i appended. Eternal happinefs is a covenanted mercy. If we will enter life, we muft keep the commandments ; we muft live in obedience to the precepts of the gofpel : but ftill this obedience does not, in the leaft degree, merit immortality. It is no equivalent, no fatisfaclion paid to the Almighty for fo high a privilege. This ftill remains the free-will offering of divine mercy, influenced by divine love. f 143 ) The necefiity of obedience does not at all invalidate the excellence of the free gift ; it rather increafes it, by fitting our natures for it's enjoyment The parent, who leaves his child an inheritance, fubjeft to conditions, of which the performance tends only to encreafe the enjoy- ment, is not furely lefs but more bountiful on that ac- count. The very reftriclions he impofes are adls of kindnefs and proofs of love. The conditions of the gofpel ought to be confidered in this light. Thefe con- ditions may be fummed up in one word, but of very extennve fignification, in Charity. Charity does not merely imply benevolent a6ts, but benevolent thoughts and affe&ions : in one word, Chriftian charity denotes a heart filled with that facred ftream of divine love which overflows in love to mankind. This is that qualifying habit, which I mentioned above ; and which divine mercy made a condition of future happinefs ; 'becaufc it tends to approximate us to the image of God ; and becaufe we could not be happy, even in heaven, without it. Jefus makes a happy immortality, as far as it is an adt of a man's own choice, to conuft in benevo- lence ; * though he refers the gift itfelf, not to our me- rits, but to the mere merey of God, through the medi- atorial facrifice of the Son, whofe " birth was of the womb of the morning ;" " whofe goings forth were from of old, from everlafting." f If the unbeliever afk me, How, and in what pre- cife manner the facrifice of Jefus could annul the mor- tality of the human fpecies, and procure for mankind an admiflion into manfions of eternal bleflednefs, I muft fairly confefs that I cannot explain it. It is enough for us to know, that we cannot be fitted for thofe manfions, without becoming like unto Jefus, in our benevolent affe&ions. It it enough for us, if we have adequate * See the paflage which I have quoted from St. Matt, page 139, 140. + Jefus reprefents himfelf as the fource of immortality, in the follow- ing paffages. " I am the way, the truth and the life ; no man cometh unto the father but by me. John xiv. 6. " I am the living bread which came down from heaven : if any man eat of this bread he fhall live for ever; and the bread that I will give is my flefh, which I will give for the life if the world." In a folemn invocation to his Father, a little before his agony in the garden, Jefus fays, " This is life eternal, thit they might know t/ue, the tnly true God; and Jefus Ckrijl whtm thin haji fent. Joha xvii. ,. f conceptions and a ferlous conviction of this truth) with- out perplexing the mind to unravel myfteries, which can never be comprehended, and which heaven never de- Jlgned that manjliould comprehend. In a future life, more pages of the book of revealed, as well as natural knowledge, will probably be unfolded to us : at prefent, there are many inexplicable points in both ; on w T hich, while our faculties are thus dim, it behoves us to be fiient. If, knowing our duty here, we perform it to the beft of our power, we ihall certainly be accepted of God. Whether we fquare our faith by the precepts of Athanafius, or Arius, or Socinus, we fhall enter into life, if we keep the commandments ; and follow, as nearly as poflible, the fteps of Jefus, which point the way to immortality. * Vainly to attempt to pierce the * I fi-cl a firm, ur.fliaken conviftion. that it is the vital benevolence of the heart and affe&tons. and not the mere aflent of the mind to any myf- .tcry of doftrine, which conftitutes that religion xvhich is mod plea/ing in the fight of God. There cannot be a more concife and juft defcription f religion than that by St. James i 2, 7. " Pure religion and undefiled tefore God and the Fsther is this ; To vlfit the poor and fatherkfs in their afiliftion. and to keep himfelf unfpotted from the world." C clouds and darknefs that furround the Chriftian fantu-' ary may wafte our time, but cannot improve our piety. To meditate on things that are above the fphere of our compreheniion, and on which, if we Jived for a thou- fand years we could never form any diftincl ideas, only ferves to bewilder the understanding, without mending the heart. The religion of Jefus confifts more in bene- ficent actions than in contemplative raptures ; more in the calm and ferene fenfations of meeknefs, gentlenefs and forgivenefs than in the wild emotions of enthufiafm. That this is a faithful delineation of the fpirit of the religion of Jefus, we may eaiily learn from an attentive perufal of his various difcourfes ; and particularly his inimitable fermon on the mount ; which is a fummary of the whole Chriftian doctrine ; and which exhibits a picture of mild, unoftentatious piety, foftcning the affec- Thcre are, certainly, good and bad men among all feh : and, perhaps, it would be difficult to fay, on which fide the fum of moral worth preponderates. Hence, ought we not to learn that what opinions we en- UTtain about certain dark and inexplicable matters, are not eftcntial to fal- vition ? And ought they to kindle any animofity between us ? Ought we to behold the mote in our brother's eye, and to negleft the beam in out wa ? How LOMS wuk Chrijtians continue TO HATE EACH orntR ? K ( 146 ) tions, purifying the thoughts, and infuflng into the foul the facred fire of pure, undefiled devotion j and of love human and divine. In Jefus there was a warm and exalted fpirit of devotion. In prayer he feems to have patted the intervals that were left to him from the exercife of charity, and the functions of his public miniftry. The Evangelifts frequently tell us of his retiring to a mountain to pray.* St. Luke vi. 12. tells us " that Jefus went out to a mountain, where he continued all night in prayer to God^" Retiring from the buftle of the world, he fought to give vent to the emotions of piety, in the tranquillity of fojitude. He went where ho might not be difturbed by the " bufy hum of men." The {hades of filence and of folitude are certainly moft congenial to thofe exercifes of devotion ; from which, man returns into the world with frefh energy to combat it's pollutions, and to refift it's temptations. * Sec Matt. xiv. i. John vi. 15, ( 147 ) The example, as well as the inflruftions, of Jefus* 'enjoin us, occafionally, to quit the intercourfe of fociety, in order to commune with our own hearts and with him who made us. In this hallowed commerce, the foul, as it were, breaths in a purer atmofphere ; where it's organs, refined from their groffnefs, expand with a more free and fpiritual energy. The fpirit of devotion, whofe habitual exercife feeds and keeps alive it's own flamo, is foon chilled into tor- por or weakened into latitude, by continued and nnre putting converfe with the gay and bufy world. No man's heart is proof againft the fedu6Hons of unceafmg diflipation. Unlefs the thoughts are turned by frequent abftra&ion from temporal and fenfual ob- je&s, and purified by the fire of the altar, they foon * " And in the morning, riling up a great while before day, he went, eut and departed into a folitary place, and there prayed, 7 ' Mark i. 35. ' When thou pray^ft, thou fhalt not be as the hypocrites are ; for they love to pray Handing in the fynagogues and in the corners of the ftreets, that they may be feen of men. But thou, when thou prayeft, enter into thy clofet, and when thou hail flint the door, pray to thy Father which i* in fecret." &c. Matt. vi. 5, 6. K2 ( 148 ) Regenerate mto filth and corruption. An occaiional fequeftration from the world is necefTary to liberate us" from the force of it's enchantments. The heart of man is naturally difpofed to what is good ; * virtue and beneficence feem moft congenial to to it ; they pleafe without any factitious charms ; but as it is, on all fides, accemble to temptations, corruption foon finds a way into it. To guard againft corruption, it becomes neceflary to cultivate the fpirit of devotion ; which, when it has become habitual, when God out father, and Jefus, his mefTenger of immortality, are the objects of our warmeft affections and our often-contem- * I am not ignorant, that many are of opinion, that the heart of ma is naturally more difpofed to evil than to good. But moral evil appear* as repugnant to his natural fentiments, as pain or phyfical evil is to his natural feelings. Moral and phyfical good have a more intimate conne&ion than is gene- rally fuppofcd. It is not improbable, that man is born with a moral, as well as a phyfical tafte ; but both are liable to be vitiated by improper management, and pcrverfe affbciations. Thus the moral tafte comes ta relim cruelty and injuftice ; as the phyfical tafte, by the fame fort of aber- ration from it's natural and healthy ftate, is brought to find a gratification in alcohol afld tobacco, nd a theufsmd natffwus aud anwhlfome drwks ad viands. plations, the fafcination of perifhable pleafurcs is broken, and rcafon tifes fuperior to the tyranny of the fenfes. From the (hrine of devotion, we gather ftrength to advance in holinefs. If our affe&ions are foured by the injuries of enemies or the treachery of friends, prayer is a fovereign balm to afluage the fretful acrimony of the heart. In the holy effufions of prayer, the fpirit of animofity is exhaled into a diviner element ; and we imbibe courage to imitate Jcfus in doing good ; carelefs whether the good we do, meet with imprecations of \vith praifcs. Our prayers to God ought to be aflbciated with fer^ vor and with ferioufnefs. When we are on the knees of devotion, we fhould fteadily keep our thoughts fixed on the Divine Prefence ; and fliould never forget, that God knows all we think, as well as all we fay, To be guilty of levity, in any work of moment, fhews littlenefs of mind ; but to fuffer any levity to debafe our worfhip of the Almighty, is to mingle folly with impiety. In his ads of religious adoration, Jefus feems, as far ( 150 ) as we can colle<5l from the fhort notices of the Evangc- lifts, to have been, in a moft peculiar manner, diftin- guifhed by earneftnefs and folemnity. The charafte- riftic fervency of his devotional exercifes may be feen by confulting John xvii. which contains a fublime, a feeling and impreffive interceflion to his heavenly father for his difciples and followers ; and which well defcribes the awful and dignified ferioufnefs of his devotion. Before his apprehenfion, Jefus retired to prepare for the laft hour of his ftay among mortals, in the fhades of the garden of Gethfemane. What warmth, what fin- cerity, what energy of piety is marked in his prayer, at that diftrefling moment ! " Father ! if thou be willing, remove this cup from me ; neverthelefs, not my will, but thine be done ! " This prayer does not lofe it's mphafis by it's concifenefs. Genuine anguifh is never Oiffufive. It is more given to taciturnity or abruptnefs than to prolixity. This prayer of Jefus will fuit every Chriftian, who, languifhing in forrow, lifts up his head to heaven, for that comfort which nothing in the world can beftow. Devotion is that fountain, frotn which mifery may fetch the purefi ftreams of confolation. The Evangelift tells us, that the prayer of Jefus brought an angel from heaven, to miniftcr comfort unto him. This feems to intimate the power of devotion ; of devotion warm, genuine and fincere. Angels of confolation, though invilible to our perceptions, are probably ever attendant on the righteous ; and whifper the fpirit of peace, in the inquietude of grief. The earneftnefs with which Jefus prayed increafed with his increafing defpondency. The Evangelifl, with- out any embellimment of rhetoric, tells us, that " he prayed more earneftly ;" and he has delineated the ex- quilite peculiarity of his agonies, by faying, that " his fweat was, as it were, great drops of blood, falling down to the ground." There is a principle of fatiety attached to all earthly objects ; the heart foon grows tired of them. It feeks for fomething imperimable on which to fix. The very organization of man, renders him incapable of unmixed and continued fatisfa&ion in what is fenfual and tran- fitory. i ( 152 ) The foul will, at times, languifli with wcarincfs, in the midft of every human enjoyment. The palled fenfe and the fick heart feek where to find reft ; but they find none here ; where they behold every thing in a ftate of uncertainty, of change and decay. They therefore turn for folace to him who is immutable. The power that made all things becomes the fubjedt of our adoration, the theme of our wonder, our gratitude and our praife. But we muft take care that we do not fubftitute prayer, which ought to be conhdered only as an incen- tive to, for the practice of religious duties. Devotion ought in us, as in Jefus, to be reforted to, not to fup- plant, but to fill up the interftices of practical piety. That alone is devotion, true and undented, which difpofes the heart to the production of human happinefs j or makes it fympathife more tenderly with human mi- fery. For this purpofe, prayer will firft quench in us, all ill-will and animofity towards all men ; for, devotion can be no better than idle mummery, if it be not affo- tuated with the fpirit of mildnefs and forgivenefs. ( 153 ) Before the heart can glow with that genuine love of God which prayer fuppofes, and of which it breaths .die fragrant incenfe, every fpark of malevolence towards our fellow-creatures muft be extinguished. Without this, praver, inftead of being an offering f \vcct and grate- ful to heaven, is only a fetid vapour, exhaled from cor- ruption. Prayer extinguifhes hate, in order to kindle love ; and the love, that is thus kindled, will not be narrow and partial, limited by exceptions, or debafcd by any alloy of bitternefs, but, like the fource from which it flows, and which is the afpiration of the Spirit of God upon the foul, in it's abftradlion from all low and perifh- able purfuits, it will embrace the expanfe of univcrfai nature. Prayer, while it warms and invigorates all the fym- pathies which intereft us in the happinefs of our family or our friends, at the fame time, infpires in the breaft the flame of univerfal benevolence. The human race, that are fpread over the whole globe, are the object of Chriftian prayer. The nearer approaches which the foul makes to it's great and glorious original, the more ( 154 ) it inhales the fpirit of a diffufive tendernefs. It ceafea to feel any little vulgar animofities. The flame of divine love, excited in the human breaft by the genuine fervor of prayer, exalts and refines all the affections, and makes every nerve of man thrill with the mild and delicious raptures of univerfal benevolence. So ftrenuoufly does Chriftianity infift on that piety which is uncontaminated by hypocrify, that it makes even the government of the thoughts a point of religious duty. On this occafion, it was well faid by Boerhave, as the judicious Paley has before remarked, " That our Saviour knew mankind better than Socrates." Impure ideas adminifter poifon to virtue ; and food to depravity. They taint the modefty of youth ; and they heat tliQ fenfuality of age. They injure thofe decencies which are eflential to purity of manners ; and that delicacy which is the charm of mixed fociety. Licentious ideas and licentious difcourfc, habitually indulged, diffever thofe combinations of chafte and ferious thought which arc the defence of virtue ; and inevitably lead to a fatal and incurable corruption. " Let no corrupt communi- cation proceed out of thy mouth," was the injunction ,pf divine wifdorn ; and the integrity of the moral prisi- ciple depends greatly on it's obfervance. * But let it not be fuppofed, that Chriftianitv is an enemy to the pleafures of innocence, to cheerful nefs of converfe, and the fparkling gaieties of fancy. The reli- gion of Jefus does not, as men of gloomy minds have too often imagined, direct us to be conftantly depretiTed with defpondency, meditating on eternity, or mufing over the grave. Are all the energies of man, who is * Count Rumford, vol i. 35. fays, " So great is the effeft of cleanli- jieTs upon man, that it extends even to his moral habits. Virtue never dwelt long with filth and naftinefs ; nor do I believe that there ever wa a perfon, fcrupuloufly attentive to cleanlinefs, who was a confummate villain." If outward filth and naflinefs of body have fuch an influence on the moral principle, furely a ftrongcr influence muft be exerted by filth and naftinefs of thought and fpeech. There is a conftant aftion and reaftiojt between words and ideas. Thus corruption operates with a double force. It is revolting, to obfcrve, in the converfation of the diffolute, the number of harmlefs and often facred expreffions, which they affociate with inde- cency, and which are no fooner uttered than they kindle the fenfual fire. If the young wifh to guard againft depravity, or the old to ftop it's pro- grefs, they cannot too fcrupuloufly fhun impurity of thought and fpeech. It may be laid down as a maxim, juftified by general experience, That there is no perfon, who is habitually foul-mouthed, whofc eileern is worth fee king, or whofe honcfly can be relied on. ( 136 ) faid to have been created in the image of God, to be damped by incelTant reflection on his latter end ? Are languor of foul and uneafmefs of confcience, dejection of fpirit and gloominefs of ideas the effential character- iiKcs of Chriflian piety ? Can we not be faved, unlefs we are continually darkening the imagination with the fuffcrings of the crofs ? Did Jefus direct that piety which borders on mifanthropy ; which, in the delufivc dreams of enthufiafm, beftows the tribute of falvation rather on the fervor of the lips, than of the heart ; on the aufterity of the devotions, more than on the benevo- lence of the conduct ? Did not Jefus himfelf fanctipn both by precept and example that piety which mingles with the world, without mingling in it's corruptions, or partaking in it's crimes ; which negle&s not the various duties of public and domeftic life ; and which is the kind promoter of focial kappinefs in all it's varieties ? Did Jefus reprobate thofe inoflenfive gaieties of heart, which form a part, and no inconfiderable part, of the captivations of life ? Did he reprefent the Chriftian temper of a gloomy afpe<5t, covering the face of it's vo- taries with tears and mourning ? Is he not himfelf con- flantly described in Scripture by the image of a lamb ? an image of cheerfulnefs, which we ought not to diflb^ ciatc from our ideas of religion. Is not the kind notice which he took of little children, of whom the charac- teriftic feature is gay and harmlefs mirth ; and his decla- ration, that of fuch is the kingdom of God, a fuflicient teftimony, that he wiflied rather to increafe than to di- minim the pleafurable fenfations of life ; and that the difpofition and the manners of a Chriftian fhould not be flirouded by the forbidding gloom, the fullen fpirit, and the weeping countenance of an enthufiaft or a fectary ? Is not the firft miracle that he wrought, at a marriage, in Cana of Galilee, a declaration that he did not come to banifh cheerfulnefs from the earth ; and that the profeflion of his religion was by no means incompatible with focial enjoyment ? Thofe who {ketch the figure of ChrifKanity with a defponding look, and a dejected pofture, muft be flrangers to it's genuine fpirit, fliedding joy upon (he heart, and banifhing fadnefs and afperity from the brow. At the clofe of the eighteenth century, let us not rake from it's aflies the fpirit of Calvin, fcowling with, the morofenefs of fanaticifm ; for ever lowering over the infernal abyfs, and fcattering fire and brimftone in the parhs of harmless pleafantry. Le.t us not c*njur ( 15S } top 'this fpirit from it's repofe, in order to eclipfe the fpirit of Jefus, bright, ferene, unclouded, benign and cheerful ; indulgent, to human frailty ; comforting the weary and the heavy-laden ; friendly to innocent plca- fure, and adverfs to that fenfual apathy and that haggard fuperflition, which would llrip vivacity of it's playful r nefs and fprightlinefs of it's fmile. The general complexion of human life is fufficiently melancholy, without any artificial expedients to cover It with more difmal hues. It is a more neceffary and more facred duty to feek for balm, with which to footh the afflicted, than for forrows, with which to deprefs the happy. If we plant the cyprefs and other emblems of grief among the habitations of the dead, there is no reafon why we fhould not permit the voice of gladnefs -to be heard in the chambers of the living. There are fome recreations which the Puritans of the laft century confidered .as flagrant fins. Among thefc, the amufements of the drama were more particu- larly the objects of their inve&ive. Mr. Wilberforee, whofe work is fliaded with the f fft ]T fombre tints of Puritanifm, feems to confider the theatres as inaufpicious to piety ; and as places to which a Chrif* tian ought not to refort. If Mr. Wilberforce do not choofe to be prefent at a play, becaufe the play-houfes are frequented by debau- chees, he might, on the fame ground of argument, ab- ftain from the fenate or the fandluary. Corruption and depravity are to be met with in every walk of life ; and under almoft every modification of focial intercourfe ; and if we will go where they are not, we muft go out of the world at once. I know no other alternative. But does not Mr. Wilberforce recollect, that the divine author of Chriftianity eat, without fcruple, at the fame table, with publicans and fmners ? Does he not know that virtue is proved by refitting temptation ; and that' he discovers the brighteil integrity who is challe amid feduclion, and incorrupt amid corruption. The corruptions, of which Mr. Wilberforce com- plains, are accidental not eflential to the theatre ; and it is probable that they would exift, with more criminal aggravations, if there were not a theatre io London.- A' ice and licentioufnefs. ingenious in expedients, would ( 160 ) foon find other haunts ; and which would only be more dangerous if they were more inveloped in the fhacles of myflery, and lefs expofed to that influence of public opinion, of which notwithflanding it's partial eccentri- cities, the general refill t is always favourable to the in- tcrefts of virtue, of di'iicary and of chaftity. The motive which prompts the amufements of man- kind, is agreeable fcnfation ; which admits of two divi- TO ANOTHER." My God ! if mutual love be the eflential and charadleriftic diftinclion of the true fol- lowers of Jefus, how long has it been unknown, nr how much has it been defpifed ! The annals of ecclefiaftical hifiory, dropping blood and breathing animoiity in almoft every page, teach us that Chriftians have been ufually more diftinguifhed by their bitternefs and afperity, than by their love and for- bearance towards each other ; and that they have fome- times difgraced the benign religion of their maftcr, by the perpetration of cruelties, at which reafon blufhcs, and benevolence turns pale. How often has bigotry, \vhofe blood rages with the luft of cruelty, prefumed that Chrift would be gratified by tying herefy to the flake, or putting it to the fword ? Has not^the leaft difference in the mereft minutiae of opinion, in matters of total indifference, or in queftions about infcrutable myfteries and inexplicable doctrines, frequently excited the. moft furious contentions in the Chriftian world? contentions which could only be appeafedl^y the {laughter of thofe among -whom they were agitated, and who ought to have been endeared to each other by a reciprocal affection. It has, alas ! but too long been forgotten by thofe, who have profeffed the warmeft zeal for the religion of Jefus, that brotherly Icve ought to be a- conn/ion bond C 1T7 ) of harmony and friendjhip, among all fects and deno* mina lions of Chrijiians. The various (hades and com- plexions of faith, that are found among Chriftians, ought no more to affeft their mutual good- will and kindnefs, than the earth is affe&ed by the tints or fliapes of the ever-changing clouds that fprinkle the horizon. Whatever may be our differences of opinion about modes of faith, or myfteries of doy the expreffion of a cordial fympathy, fmks into de- jeclion when attacked by fcorn, humiliation and infult. M2 ( 180 ) How beautiful is the prayer of jefus ! " Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do." Since the time of Jefus, there have been feveral, who, inhaling his fpirit of forgivenefs, have at the very mo- ment, in which they were undergoing the moft excru- ciating fufferings implored, the divine mercy on their relentlefs perfecutors. But does any part of hiflory, anterior to the Chriftian aera, prefent us with an inftancc of the fame kind ? The Indian, when tied to the flake, and put to a lingering death by the fevereft tortures, which are length- ened out, by ingenious cruelty, to their longed fpan of endurance, will bear pain with unfhaken firmnefs. The early habit of fupporting pain, aflifted by certain ferocious fentiments of national glory, and of individual ambition, generates that hardinefs which can ftifle the exclamations of fuffering ; but he who feems forti- fied by infenfibility againft mifery, rather excites the fublime fenfations of wonder, than the tender ones of commiferation. We cannot well fympathife with thofe fufferings which the fufferer does not feel. We often gaze on infenfibility with averfion, but never with ten- dernefs. C 181 ) What, in the midfl of his fufferings, are the ruling fenfations of the favage ? Are they thofe of benevolence an4 forgivenefs ? No ; they are the wild emotions of revenge, infuriated to madnefs. Every acceffion of pain or aggravation of torture only incenfes his vindictive rage. He utters the moft bitter and unrelenting execra- tions againft his perfecutors ; he calls on his friends and country-men to retaliate his injuries with ten-fold cru* elty. His imagination anticipates the tortures of his oppreflbrs ; it pourtrays them in every writh and look of agony ; and, fo powerful is the energy of the vindic- tive principle, that the pleafures of revenge, though diftant and uncertain, feem almoft to abforb the pain of actual fuffering. la the hour of agony, the favage would revolt at the doctrine of forgivenefs ; his indig- nant fpirit would fpurn it as an inglorious act of pufil- lanimity or folly. But lo ! the difference between barbarous rage and Chriftian mildnefs. In the picture of Jefus, fufFering on the crofs, what a mixture is there of heroifm with gentlenefs ? How is his fortitude tempered by fenft- bility ? He is not callous and impenetrable, but trem- blingly alive to all the frail but truly captivating emo- f 182 ) tions of humanity, He does not affect a proud fuperi- ority to thofe feelings of pain, of which the privation or rather the infenfibility is the refult either of a brutal apathy or a difordered brain ; and is never found in any character, that in the leaft deferves the name of amiable. The boafted indifference of the Stoic fchool is a point which mortality cannot reach ; or which no one, who is acquainted with the pleafures and the confolations of fympathy, would wifh to attain. Sympathy is excited by a reciprocity of interefts and of feelings ; or, in other words, the intereft which we take in the fufferings of others, is in proportion as we can identify their fenfations with our own. We can of courfe take no intereft in the mifery of one who is or feems to be infenfate to the touch of pain. We can feel with thofe that feel, and who would accordingly fym- pathife with us in the like circumftances ; but he, who is unconfcious of his own fufferings, cannot be fuppofed to be eafily affe&ed by the fufferings of others. The power of fenfation is affociated with fympathy, and, fyjppathy with the power of fenfation. Ms ( 183 ) The fufferings of Jefus excite a powerful intereft ; becaufe he feems himfelf to have felt them with exqui- fite anguifli. He was as feelingly confcious of his own miferies, as of thofe of others. When then we behold him ftretched out in agony upon the crofs, we cannot help melting into tendernefs. Our hearts glow with the filent raptures of love and fyrnpathy. We hear rather with fondnefs than with averfion his plaintive and piercing cries in his laft moments ; we do not regard them as marks of imbecility ; we cherifli them as indi- cations of humanity. They awaken emotions of ten- dernefs, mingled with thofe of admiration ; which are; excited by the magnanimity of his forbearance, when we behold him difdaining the foul fentiment of vengeance and foftening, in the midft of torture, to feelings of for- givenefs. His benevolence is not altered by thp tumult of barbarous outrage to which he was expofed ; his meeknefs remains unchanged to the laft ; and he dies^ as he had lived, in the divine and unblemiflied perfection of mildnefs and love. The fufferings of Jefus are greatly ennobled by this confideration ; that they were a willing teftimony to the truth. All truth, as well phyfical as moral is con- ( 134 ) need with the well-being of man ; but moral truth* is of the greateft confequence, as it relates to the influ- * A few men think for all the reft of the world. They give to opin- ions what fliapes and complexions they thiuk proper. The mere whittle of a name leads the mafs of mankind aftray, like a " will-with-a-wifp." It was once the fafhion to adopt no notions but thofe which had Arif- totle's fanftion. It is now a fort of high-treafon to call in queftion certain tenets, on which certain great doctors, who have fucceeded to the chair of prefumption and infallibility, in which the Stagyrite ufed to fit, have affixed their feal of approbation. The majority of minds are paflive ; they refemble wax which receives no impreffion, but that which is given to it by a power foreign to itftlf. Whatever opinions fome popular dogmatifls may prefcribe, they tranf- fer, without hefitation, to their own ftock ; without Raying to examine whether they be true or falfe, coherent or abfurd. Thus it happens, that by far the greater portion of what is called hu- man knowledge, is nothing but an incongruous mixture of prejudices, a crude confjftence of truth, of error, and of folly. Every opinion is a prejudice which is adopted without an enquiry into it's truth; and, if be on a perplexed and dubious fubjeft, without at leaft balancing the probabilities that make for it's fupport or it's refu- tation. Opinions adopted from the mere " ipfe dixit" of any authority, however great that authority may be, are equally prejudices with thole which are adopted without enquiry. However true the notions, in themfelves, may be which we adopt Without examination, they are no better than falfhood with refpeft to us, if not knowing the grounds on which they reft, we are neither able to juftify them to ourfelves nor to others. To affent to any proportion, vithout knowing the arguments on which it is eftablifhed, is a fhamelefs contempt for the facrednefs of truth. The firft indication of a refpeft for truth is a repugnance to form hafty conclufions, or draw hafty inferences ; but what cau tend more ftrongly to feafon the mind with error, and to ( 1S5 ) ence of human conduit on human happinefs ; and is not merely related to a prefent and perilljable, but to a kflfen the averfion to falfhood, than the habit of concluding without evi- dence, and of inferring without knowing why ? The majority of people indeed are obliged rather to aft than to think, and to employ the body more than the mind. But of thofe who have leifure for reflection, and whofe aggregate numbers may be called the moral ftreugth of nations, how few are there who do not fwallow opin- ions like apothecaries pills ? and they are ufually found to turn to a& little nourimment. But would men, inftead of adopting opinions at random, ferioufly examine their truth, and particularly the truth of thofe which have a con- fidcrable influence on the happinefs of mankind, would they but endea- vour to analyfc popular dogmas, inflead of being enchanted by the witc^ crsft of great names, that veil of ignorance would foon be rent, which now hides fome of the mo ft beautiful parts of the fhrine of truth. The produce of truth mufl be in proportion to the number of minds employed in it's production. If, inftead of one perfon thinking for a thoufand, that thoufand would venture to think for themfelves, the pro- grefs of mind and t'ne accumulation of knowledge would proceed with a thoufand times it's prefent velocity. There is no occafion to fear left the means of fupplying materials for the confumption of the aggregate energy of lo many minds, fhould at lad be exhaufted. Truth admits not the relations of quantity. It is an infi- nite feries ; and is fpread over an illimitable horizon. The continually augmenting mental power of finite intelligences tends, by condenfmg particular into general truths, to approximate all the vari- eties of human knowledge to unity; but without ever reaching it. The power of ultimate amplification belongs to God alone ; to whom all time is as one inftant preftnt, all fpace as one point, and all the multifarious laws and complicated mechanilin of unlverfal nature as finiple as a finglc grain of land upon the fhorc. ( 136 ) future and eternal intereft. It was for this truth, that Jefus fuftered ; and, in defence of which, lie has taught us to make life a willing facrifice. The diffufion of truth can never be effentially inju- rious to mankind. For, though it may require the fub- verfion of long-exifled errors, and thefe errors, by mingling with it's benign, their malignant influence, may caufe fome diibrders ; yet it fhould always be re- membered, that thefe diforders do not indicate the per- nicioufnefs of truth, but the obftinacy of error. All error being in itfelf an evil, the nature of counteracting caufes will always occafion fome evil to attend it's removal As any difeafe, long feated in the human frame, ftruggles againft the remedies that are taken to remove it, and is not at laft removed without much intermediate pain, fo difeafes in the body moral or politic feem, in fovne meafure, to feel the energies of a felf-preferving power ; and are feldom effectually fubdued without an obrtinate reiiftance. But we muft be careful not to impute to truth tliq ( 187 ) mifchiefs that belong to error ; for it may be efteemed an inconteftable maxim, that truth is never mifchie- vous. It neither has nor can have any tendency to cre- ate diforder or to engender mifery. Truth is indeed the perfection of order, and the confummation of happinefs ; the highefl attainment of reafon, and the fublimefl en- joyment of man ; There cannot be a more abfurd or ruinous notion entertained than this, That truth is occaiionally perni- cious. Truth and falfhood are not of a changeable but a ftxed nature. The firft is effentially and radically good ; the lafl is eflentially and radically bad ; independant of all local and temporal relations whatever. In the firft therefore coniifts the happinefs, in the laft the mifery of man ; and no modification of circumftances ought, for a moment, to be permitted to fet afide the facrednefs of truth, or the ignominy of falfhood. If we were once to admit that any accidental rela- tions whatever can alter the nature or deform the beauty We fhould bear witnefs to the truth " looking unt6 Jefus," whofe lips were never polluted with a fahlioodj and who taught his difciples that thofe {hall gain lifej who lay it down for his fake ; or for the fixed, eternal and unchangeable truths which he promulgated ; and which it is our duty to maintain, with unfhaken cou- rage, and at the expenfe of every worldly intereft. A PICTURE OF CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY. A future life an immaterial principle the truth of the rejurrection ofJefus practical inferences, Kc. Kc. X EW arguments for a future life aie fupplied by the view of nature. The world around us feems a perpetual ftruggle between life and death ; a fcene of inceflant decay ; a fcheme of deftruHon always going onj and never completed. The race of man appears as if born only to die. Succeflive generations fucceflively difoppear, and moul- der into dufl like their fathers. Virtue and vice, learn- ing and ignorance obey the common fentence of inorta - Jity, and meet together in the grave, What conftitutes the fpirii of man, or whether there be, in man, any fpirit, diftinct from his animal organi- sation, the light of: nature glimmering and dubious, cannot unfold to us. The human mind is often ftored \vith many fublime ideas ; it's conceptions foaring above worldly objects, at times, feem like the emanations of Pure Intelligence ; yet there are fome phyfical reafons for fuppofmg that this very mind which feems impreg- nated, as it were, with fire from heaven, is no more than therefult of the harmonious combination and vigor- ous exercife of material organs. * Our ideas are, * We excel the brutes in no organ fo much as that of touch ; and *'hich is the reafon why our fenfations are more exquifitc than theirs. Perhaps men differ from each other in nothing more than in the greater or lei's excitability of their fenfe of touch ; and, consequently, in the grea- ter or lefs delicacy and diftinftnefs of their fenfations. Perception is only a modification of fcnfation ; and perceptions are ftrong and vivid, as fenfations are diftinfl: and lively. Thus the man of genius differs from others principally in the faculty of fenfation. Our fcnfes of vifion, hearing, fmelling, lading may probably confift in a greater excitability of the lame power, which conlliiutes touch, refid- ing in the eye, the ear, the palate, 5t, entirely coafonant to the heft notions, which the mofl enlarged reafon can form ot" the dr. ire wifdom and goodnefs. It is a fadt, which it was worthy the fupreme difpofer to eflablifh, in order to determine the inconclafive reafonings, and to fix the wavering hopes of man about a future ftate. It is a fact, which, if it feem derogatory to the natural order of events, and to the general courfc of nature, was yet eflentially reqnifite to harmonife the chaotic confuilon that otherwife pre- vails in the moral world. If God be a moral governor, we muft fuppofe that he has placed eternal and immutable diftin&ions between virtue and vice, cruelty and benevolence ; but as we do not obferve fuch diftinflions here, as we do not behold happincfs invariably alTociated with virtue, or mifery with vice, we thence infer the probability that the Al- mighty would vouchfafe to his creatures fome confola- tory intelligence of another life after death, in which the irregularities of the prefent fcheme of things will be corrected; The knowledge of a future life is likewifc abfolutcly neceffary to fix moral truth on a ftrong foundation ; ( 220 ) and to flrengthen moral obligations, by an eternal necef- fity and importance. For, fuppofmg there to be no fu- ture life, morality has no other fan&ions than what temporary expedients, or than what the convenience or the caprice of individuals may beftow. Men are let loofe at once, from all reftraints, but thofe few which civil fociety impofes, and which can never reach that depravity which lurks in the hidden chambers of the heart. It is nothing but the conviction of a future life, and of a day of recompence after death, which can ope- rate to the prevention offecret crimes; crimes which may be committed with civil impunity, and without any dread of temporal ihame. It is this conviction alone which can purify the bofom from a bafe and nar- row felfifhnefs, and open the heart to the pleafures of a dtfmterefled benevolence. Where men have not the leaft hope or expectation of a life after death, felf, and felf only will be their idol ; they will not heed thofe moral relations, in the midft of which, man is placed ; and for the contempt of which he is accountable. They will feoff at thofe benevolent fympathies which tend to approximate the intereft of individuals to thofe of their fellow-creatures. ( 221 ) He who looks to the grave, as the fcene of endlefs annihilation, as the laft limits of human deftiny, will necefTarily feel a cold averfion to every generous adfc of felf-denial, and to every great exertion in the caufe of fuffering humanity. Far different will it be with him, who, beholding the glorious light of eternity, (hining beyond the " valley of the fhadow death," connects the influence of his prefent conduct with his future condi- tion ; and alTociates an immortal intereft with a fcrupu- lous regard to the obfervance of juftice, and the practice of benevolence. Of fuch importance is the belief of a continuation of exiftence beyond the grave ! Some fatisfa&ory infor- mation, on a fubjecl; of fuch infinite concern, it was certainly worthy the Governor of the world to commu- nicate ; and it is fo far probable, from previous con fe- derations, that the cafe of the refurreftion of Jefus, to which Chriftians appeal, as the medium of this commu- nication, is not a vain fable but a certain fadl. It now remains for us to confider, whether the refurrcclion of Jefus be fupported by probable and com- petent teftirnony. f 222 ) In the firft phice, it is more natural and eafy, from the influence of the principle of afTociution, to fpeak truth * than falfhood ; an:], perhaps, in the moft prorli- * Children poflcfs naturally a love for with and nn averfion to fals- hood. Were the nrll univerfally and judicioufly encouraged, it would never be vanquifhed by the fccond ; which, by bad management, is often changed from an averfion into an affeftion. When parepts puuifh their children for telling the truth, they caufe them, in future, to take an intcfrft in fclfhood. Their natural antipathy to the latter vanifhes ; and, as they grow up, they learn to aflbciate it with the pleafures of fclf-intereft. Parents cannot too foon inftil into their children this found maxim of true philofophy and genuine Chrif- tianity, that there is an intimate connection between falfhood and mifery. If, on any occafion, you punifh your child, when he ingenuoufly con- feffes the truth, you will, afterwards, caafe him to hefitate about confcffing It ; till, at lalt, perhaps, he will flatly deny it, or boldly perfift in a falfe aflertion. How foon does a prffion for difcovering the true relations of things, which is, in fact, no other than a paflion for truth, difclofe itfelf in chif- dren ! What is called infantine curiofity, is a fpecies of this pallion. It originates from a defirc to behold things in their juft and real, not their feeming, relations; and is mingkd with an averfion to be mifled by ap- pearances. You, perhaps, give your child a watch, or (ome other toy; and your almoft immediately find a delire excited to behold the infide and to dif- cover the true relation between that and the outfidc appearance. The principle of the love of truth in children is feen even in their cre- dulity. Conlcious of their own fmcerity, they are but too apt to think others equally fincere, till fad experience teaches them that fraud antl diffimulatior. are the too prevailing chan.teriflics of raaukind !!! ( 223 ) gate liars, the number of their affirmations which are true, or which they confcientioufly believe fo, greatly exceeds thofe which are falfe, or which they wilfully pronounce with a confcioufnefs of their untruth. Truth to be fpoken, and to be fpoken with confif- tency, requires no pains ; but falfhood, by counteracting the natural fentiments, and by being counteracted by thofe numerous affectations of ideas, which ferve as prefervatives to veracity, cannot be maintained, with any fleadinefs, without extraordinary exertions. Men are never importers and liars without a motive; and, as there always is, in every individual, from caufes which attach to his organization, a defire to fpcak the truth, that motive must be stronger than the biafs of nature and aflbciation, which inclines him to truth and linceritv. * * The doftrine of counteracting motives, has never yet been fumci- ently confidered or elucidated. Could we afcertain the force of oppofing motives, vt hich are, as oppofing powers at the two ends of a beam, with an accuracy approaching to algebraic precilion, we might then reduce the competency or incompctency. the truth or fahliood of tcilimony to mathe- matical certainty. ( 224 ) The primary and mod important queftion, which arifes in confidering the truth of the refurredlion of Jcfus, is this ; fuppofmg the fa6t a fcandalous impofture, what motive could the apoftles have had, fufficient to counteract: their natural love of truth, and to make them attempt to palm upon the world an unfounded falfhood ? Happinefs or agreeable fenfation, either in pofleffion or reverfion, is the common incitement to human action. Now, what intereft could the apoftles have had, in this afTertion, that " Jefus was rifen from the grave ? " an aflertion which involved them in an unexampled feries of perfecutions and fufferings ? In the time of the Apoftles, the love of life was as ftrong a principle of action as it is at prefent. The love of life is perhaps the ftrongeft principle in our nature. It is that which commences with the firft beat of the heart and continues to it's laft. Associated with the love of life is the defire of enjoying it, or, in other words, of agreeable fenfation. The combination of thefe two powers energifes the principle of felf-intereft. ( 225 ) This principle of felf-intereft is never totally extin- guifhed in the human breaft. It is often, as it were, dormant ; but is never dead. It is a fire, which is fome- time feen beaming benignly, at others burning deftruc- tively ; and fuel is never wanting in the heart to keep it in a ftate either of flow and gentle, or of furious and violent combuftion. It is to the principle of felf-intereft, that the motives of human action may always be traced ; though, in fome actions, we are obliged to afcend to the parent fource by a much more circuitous rout than in others. Self-intereft is a fountain, from which flow a variety of dreams, meandering in a thoufand directions. Thus, felf-intereft operates differently in different individuals ; fome purfue a real and palpable, others a propable and apparent imereft ; fome a prefent, others a future and diftant intereft. The great difference, therefore, between good and bad men is, that the latter act folely with a view to a pre- fent, the former more with a view to a future intereft and reward. While the one purfues happinefs through the medium of fenfuality, the other purfues it through ( 226 ) the medium of benevolence, or of agreeable fenfation, moral and refined. That the Apoftles had no 'prefent interejl in vievf when they affirmed, at the hazard of life and all it's enjoyments, that Jefus was rifen from the dead, cannot be denied. Their motives muft, therefore, be referred to a future intereft, an intereft which they were not to tafte till after death. Now the only probable ground on which this expectation could be raifed, was the con- viction of this truth, that Jefus was rifen from the dead; and this conviction muft have been ftrong and well- grounded indeed, when it could enable them to fubdue thofe propenfities of fenfe, which urge men to worldly pleafures ; and when it could caufe the hope of a future and invifible joy to abforb the energetic paflion of the love of life, which fo wonderfully ftrengthens the power of a prefent felf-intereft. Were the Apoftles and firft Chriftians fo totally diffe- rent in their nature from other men, that they acted not from the love of pleafure but of pain, not of happinefs but of mifery ? Did they feek thefe things for their own fakes ? for allowing the refurrection to have been ( 227 ) their own fiction, we can aflign no other motives what- erer to their conduct ; but if we allow the fact, we fhall then find an eafy and fimple folution of their behaviour ; and it admits of an explanation from the known prin- ciples of human nature, principles, from which man never deviates, any more than the planets from their orbits. The Apoftles did not purfue pain and fuffering for their own fakes ; agreeable fenfation was as much the object of their exertions as it is of human activity in general ; but, in order to obtain it, they voluntarily encountered a long and dreary ftate of intermediate af- fliction. They clearly faw that much prefent mifery lay before them, but that glory and immortality awaited them, at the end of their labours. Their conduct, there- fore, was regulated more by a future than a prefent felf-Jntereft ; by agreeable fenfation after death rather than before it. Allowing the conduct of the Apoftles and firfl Chrif. tians to have been fuch, as facred and profane hiftory concur to reprefent it, and, moreover, allowing the general principles and ruling motives of human action to have been the fame then, that they are at prefent, the truth of the refurrection of Jefus becomes eftablifhed P2 ( 22S ) by proofs which do not come far fhort of deraonftrative certainty, The degree of aflent which we give to teftimony Ought, certainly, to be proportioned to the credibility of the witnefles, and to their compatibility. The credit due to the witnefles for any fact is according to their character for veracity, and to the means they had of knowing the truths they aflert. I do not fee how the credibility of the witnefles of the refurrection can be impeached, either by their want of integrity, or com- mon fenfe, or competent information. In aflerting fuch a fact, they could not, as we have feen, have been biafled by any bafe motives of felf-intereft; for felf-hitereft inclined the other way ; and we cannot^ for a moment, imagine that they themfelves were de- ceived, or that their fenfes were impofed on. *lTie death of Jefus, on the crofs, was a fubject of public notoriety. Of this the Apoflles had palpable demonftration ; and they had proof, equally demonftra- tive, of his refurre&ion. And they were not difpofed { 229 ) to aflcnt to fuch a facl, without fuch evidence as was fully fatisfa&ory, and which could not be difputed. Credulity, which has rendered fo many the dupes of impofture, was far from being a trait in the characters of the Apoftles. Inftead of inclining to a faculty of of belief, they were rather difpofed to indulge doubts and to entertain cavils. The moft aftoniming miracles could hardly conquer their unbelief. " O fools," faid Jefus, " and flow of heart to believe !" Luke xxiv. 25, Though Jefus had repeatedly declared to his difciples, that he ihould rife again from the grave,* yet thefe declarations made but little impreflion on them. After his crucifixion, they feem to have mourned and wept, as for one whom they fhould fee no more ! Mark xvi. 1 0. And even after that they had been told, by Mary Magdalene, that Jefus was rifen ; St. Mark informs us, that they believed not; and St. Luke xxiv. 11. fays, that her words Jeemed to them as idle tales. * Vid, Matt, xx. 19. xxvi. 32. ( 230 ) Thus we fee that the Apoflles were, by no means, difpofed to believe, that Jefus was rifen from the grave, without fufficient evidence. They were too incredulous to have been made the dupes of impoflure, even if any had been attempted. But Jefus gave the Apoftles the moft convincing proofs that his refurre<5tion was neither a deceitful fabrication nor an ideal fuppofition ** Be- hold," faid he to them, Luke xxiv. " my hands and my feet, that it is I, myfelf ; handle me and fee me." He did not appear to them in a vifion of the night, when the vigilant and fcrutinifing powers of man are fufpen- ded ; and the imagination, liberated from all reftraint, is abandoned to the illufions of an ideal world. He did not appear to one individual only, in a ftate of folitude ; when his terrors might have overpowered his judgment. But he appeared to the eleven difciples, as they were aflembled together ; and offered himfelf to be handled and feen ; that they might be affured, that he was not a, mere phantom, conjured up by their own imagination. On this occafion, St. Luke xxiv. 41. tells us, that at fail " they believed not for joy.' 1 How natural and how lively is this reprefentation of the Evangelifts ! The events which we ardently defire, and yet but little expert we can hardly bring ourfelves to believe, when they come to pafs. The fulnefs of our joy almoft inclines us to doubt our own fenfcs, and to diftruft the reality of our good fortune. That the impreflion, made on the minds of the Apof- tles, might not be obliterated, and that every doubt which they could pofllbly entertain of the truth of his refurrection might be diflipated, Jefus appeared to them at/everal other times ; once when he convinced Tho- mas, who was not prefent at his firft appearance, John xx. again, John xxi. he fliewed himfelf to the difciples, at the fea of Tiberias ; when he converfed and eat and drank with them ; and again, in Bethany, when he af- cended into heaven, in the prefence of five hundred of the brethren ; of whom many were living when St. Paul wrote his Firft Epiftle to the Corinthians, Thus we fee that the refurre&ion of Jefus was con- firmed by indifputable teftimony, by witneffes, not in the leajl credulous or biaj/id, and who refufed to ad- mit it's truth till they could no longer doubt it. The bold and difmterefted declarations of the truth ef the refurredion, which the Apoflles made in the prc- ( 232 ) fence of thofe by whom Jefus had been crucified, and foon after that event, deferve particular attention. St. Peter, in a fpeech which he delivered on the day of Pentecoft, Acts ii. refolutely and undoubtingly affirms the truth of the refurrection ; and this he does, in defi- ance of that infamous lie, which the Jewifh rulers had propagated, That the difciples had ftolen the body. The Apoftle then tells them, " That God had raifed up that Jefus whom they, by wicked hands, had crucified and flain." Obferve what a folemn conviction of this important truth, muft have influenced the Apoftle at this .moment, and how fearlefs this conviction made him ! For, the mere ajfertion of the fact, at fuch a time, was a charge of atrocious murder and of fhamelefs falf- hood, againft the whole Jewifli government ; who had firft put Jefus to death, and then fabricated a lie, to con- ceal the truth of his refurrection. Was it probable, then, that any one of the Apoftles * would thus have * Confider the pufillanimity of the Apoftles, before the rcfurrefiion (when they all forfook their majler, and one pofitively denied him), and compare it with their open avowal of him, after his refurrcflion, an avowal -which no menace nor perfecution could, for a moment, induce them to rctraft. ( 233 ) dared to criminate thofe, who had fo lately nailed their matter to the crofs, if they had not been aflured, by irrefragable proofs, that Jefus had triumphed over the grave, and that opened to them a way from temporal pains to immortal happinefs ? When the Apoftles had miraculoufly healed a man, who had been a cripple from his birth, St. Peter told the admiring Jews, that they had not performed this cure through their own power, or holinefs ; but " through faith in the name of the Prince of life, whom God had raifed up, of which they were witnefTes." A6ts iii. 15. In the ivth of Ads, we read, that the Apoftles were apprehended for having preached, through Jefus, the refurre&ion from the dead : being carried before the great council, they were requi- red to tell, by what means they had made the impotent man whole. Not in the Icaft difmayed, they boldly- declared, " Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Ifrael, that by the name of Jefus Chrift, whom ye crucified, whom God raifed from the dead, even by him doth this man ftand before you whole. Neither is there falvation in any other," &c. This is the undaun- ted language of confcious truth. When the Apoftles were difmifled from the council, they were peremptorily ordered, neither to preach nor teach any more in the ( 234 ) name of Jefus. But Peter and John, unmoved by the menace, anfwered, that " they could not but fpeak the things which they hadfetn and heard. Another illuftrious witnefs of the refurreflion is St. Paul. To fuppofe that St. Paul, a man of ftrong natu- ral fagacity, verfed in all the learning of the Jews, ani- mated with the zeal of the Pharifees, and burning with rage againft the Cliriflians, fhould, in a moment, and without any caufc adequate to a divine influence, be- come the ftrenuous and indefatigable advocate of that religion which he had fo bitterly perfecuted ; to fup- pofe that he fhould, in an injlant, renounce all thofc notions in which he had been brought up, and the pre- judices of the feet, to which he had been fo warmly attached, is utterly incredible, and contrary to the well- known principles of human nature, and motives of hu- man conduct. His fudden and extraordinary converfion, can only be accounted for by allowing the truth of that miraculous interpofition of divine power, which is re- corded by St. Luke, and which is corroborated by the voluntary teftimony of St. Paul himfelf. The Apoftle of the Gentiles was convinced that the tale of the Jewifli rulers was an artful endeavour, to fupprefs the glorious ( 233 ) truth of the refurreftion ; for he faw and converfed with that Jefus whom they had crucified. But it may be faid, that, allowing the Apoftles to have been, in every refpec"l, credible and competent wit- nefles ; we cannot be affured that their teftimony, as recorded in the Gofpels -and A6b, dec. is that which they delivered to the world. It may be alledged that the validity of teftimony decreafes, in proportion to the dif- tance from the time when it was ftrft delivered, or that the probability of it's truth is inverfely as it's diftance. This objection, though it polTeCfrs fome weight, yet will be found not to have much, in the cafe of that teftimony, which the Apoftles and firft Chriftians gave to die truth of the refurredlion. The authority of teftimony is, by no means, dimi- nimed by the lapfe of time, unlefs it can be proved,*that it has been either mutilated or corrupted in it's defcent. If this cannot be proved, it's authority remains, at the end of a thoufand years, as ftrong, and effentially as convincing as it^was at die beginning. When we confider, dierefore, the evidence, by which ( 236 ) the truth of the refurreclion is eftabli/hed, we ought to inquire whether there be any proof of it's having been altered in it's defcent from it's original fource ? Of the writers, whofe written teftimony, in favour of ihe refurre&ion, has come down to us, we have not the leaft grounds for prefuming that the relation has ex- perienced any material changes or depredation, in it's tranfmiffion through fo many centuries. The facred books were preferved with fcrupulous fidelity ; and the diifentions, that begun to prevail in the Chriftian church, even in the age of theApoftles, greatly contributed to maintain the purity and integrity of the text, in all points of confequence. Had the Chriftian church continued, from it's firfl beginning to the prefent time, undifturbed by the jealouiies of fchifm, or the com- motions of faction, the charge, That the text of the fa-r cred books had been, at different periods, mutilated and perverted, to fuit the interefted views of prieftly artifice, might have been urged by the fkeptic with more force and plaufibility ; and could not fo readily have been refuted. But, fortunately, Divine Providence fo ordered it, that differences of opinion JJiould prevail in the ( 237 ) church from if s earliejl periods ; and thefe differences have not only prevented the religious principle from .finking into a fatal languor, but have eminently contri- buted to preferve, pure and inviolate from profane hands, the text of the facred writers. For, had one party- attempted to alter the books of the Evaogelifts, to fuit their private views, and to give a preponderance of au- thority to their favourite opinions, their attempts would inftantly have been expofed by the adverfe faction ; the cry of facrilege would have been raifed, which would have brought fhame and derifion on thofe, whofe au- dacity had perpetrated fuch an, outrage on the holy- volume. In the various difientions, about forms of faith and points of doctrine, which have taken place in the Chrif- tian church, and which certainly have not been charac- terifed by liberality, or foftened by mildnefs, all parties appealed to the fame authority, the records of the Apoftles and Evangelifts ; and feem to have combined, notwithftanding their mutual animofities, to preferve them pure and incorrupt. When the diflentions of the Chriftian church had ( 238 ) fettled into that dead and fatal calm, which, under the benumbing influence of an intolerant fuperilition, over- fpread the Weftern hemifphere, then, indeed, a fair op- portunity prefented itfelf, to mar the facred text, to fuit the purpofes of prieftcraft ; and to glut the rapacity of Papal ambition. But no fuch attempt was made ; and if it had been made, it muft have mifcarried ; firft, from the ignorance, \vhich prevailed among the clergy, of the original lan- guage in which the gofpels were written ; and, next, becaufe, if the manuscripts of the Weftern church had been furreptitioufly mutilated and interpolated, the genu- ine text would ftill have furvived in thofe of the Eaftern. or Greek church. That no corruptions have found their way into the New Teftament, which can, in the leaft, fhake the fun- damental ftability of the Chriftian religion, we may- learn from this, that, of all the various readings,* which * The various readings, in Mills's edition of the New Teftament, hate Ux-u computed to amount to thirty thoufand. ( 239 ) the diligence of critics has hitherto difcovered, there are none which, in the leafr, tend to invalidate the truth of any fat of importance. Amid an almoft incredible multitude of minute and unimportant variations, all the jnanufcripts of the Evangelifts which have hitherto been collated, harmonize in recording the facts, which are moft material to the caufe of revelation. There are verbal differences ; there are omiflions, and there are corruptions of little moment ; but when we give to thefe, their individual and their collective weight; they will be found rather to add to, than to deduct from the confiflency and the authority of the Evangelical tefti- mony. That the Evangelic records themfelves were writtea in the age to which they are afcribed, is fufficiently clear from contemporary hiftory ; and it is equally clear, that the validity of their atteftation to the truth of the mira- cles and of the refurrection of Jefus, remains the fame, at this day, as it was on their tirft publication to the world. Diftance of time has not therefore by any means impaired the confentient force of the apoflolic teftimony to the truth of the refurre&ion of Jefus from the dead j liecaufe the teftimony, in favour of this fa&, which was ( 240 ) given immediately after the event, has remained un- changed ever fmce. But Mr. Hume would fay, that allowing in all it's extent the iinccrity and the credibility of the teftimony, ftill, that the refurre&ion of a dead man to life, being contrary to the general laws of nature, and to all the accumulated obfervations of the great mafs of mankind en the operations of thofe laws, muft be neceflarily falfe, and what no teftimony can prove true. But I muft obferve, that we know little of the generality or permanency of the laws of nature themfelves, but from the teftimony of paft generations. When we predicate their univerfality, we , in fact ajjume the truth of tef- timony. It is from teftimony only, that we know that there has been, for the laft two or three thoufand years, a re- gular fucceflion of feafons or that the fea has experi- enced a flux and reflux, or that the air has been difturbed by tempefts, or that the moon has, at certain regular periods, waned and increafed, appeared and difappeared. Thefe are laws of nature ; but, of their univerfality, C 241 ) of the regularity and, as it were, continuity of their ope- rations, in time paft, we really know no more, than thofe have told us who have gone before us ; and whom we may number back for many ages, till we arrive at the confines of an impenetrable obfcurity. Did we not give fome credit to teftimony, we (hould, at laft, believe nothing but what came within the cognizance of our fenfes. It is only from teftimoHy, we know that this earth has been inhabited, by man, for five or fix thoufand years. It is only from teftimony, we know that this world has, during that period, been cheered by the in- fluence of the fun, or that the heavens have been illu- mined with flars. The philofopher may fay, that, obferving with his own eyes the great regularity which, at prefent, exifts in the motions of the heavenly bodies, and the great uniformity which is vifible, in what are called the laws of nature, he is convinced that their regularity and uniformity have always been the fame. But whence can the philofopher, \vho will give no credit to teftimony, believe, that with which none of his fenfes have made him acquainted ; Q ( 242 J and for which he can bring no other proof, than the proof of teftimony ; to which, he pretends that he ought not to aflent ? His belief of the univerfality and uni- formity of the laws of nature, muft depend on the credit which he gives to the teftimony of others, confirmed by the refearches of his own reafon into the natural order of things, at prefent exifting in the world. Now, does Chriftianity demand belief on lefs fub- ftantial grounds ? No ; it requires nothing more than an aflent to the truth of the teftimony, not againft rea- fon ; but on rational principles, and from ferious enquiry. Chriftianity, by no means, requires an acqui- cfcence in the truth of the teftimony, by which it is eftablifhed, without a previous examination into it's validity and it's credibility. It calls for fuch examina- tion firft, and for fuch acquiefcence afterwards : and I feel a firm perfuafion, that if the moft acute philofophers would but inveftigate the truths of Chriftianity, with that ferioufnefs and candour, which they themfelves would be the firft to recommend in other fubje&s of in- yeftigation, that they would be as ftrongly convinced that Jefus rofe from the dead, as they are that the earth has experienced, fqr the laft two thoufand years, regular ( 243 ) viciflitudes of fummer and winter, or that the moon has been fubject to periodical revolutions. The philosopher may fay, that he does not diibelieve fuch things, becaufc lie obferves the courfe of nature to be the fame at pre- fent, and that, therefore, in thefe cafes, his affent to pad teftimony is confirmed by prefent obfervation ; but, that when teftimony requires him to affent to the truth of a dead man's having rifen again to life, he cannot fubfcribe to it, becaufe it is contrary to prefent experi- ence ; and becaufe all the obfervations which he can make on the irrefiftible mortality of the human fpecics, and on the immutability of the laws of nature, contra- dict it's probability ; and are arguments againft it's truth, which no teftimony can eftablifh. It muft be allowed, neverthelefs, that we know no- thing of the identity between the prefent and the former courfe of nature but from the truth of teftimony. It is from teftimony we learn that there was, in former ages, the fame regularity and uniformity in the natural world, and the fame inftability, and, as it were, fragility in the moral, that there is at prefent. f 244 ) The moft fkcptical muft allow, that, at leaft, a con- fiderable part of human knowledge is founded on human teftimony. And though there may, in particular parts of fuch knowledge, as is derived from teftimony, be an intermixture of falfhood, ilili the great maj's of it is truth. From the influence of aflbciation, and from the grea- ter natural facility of fpeaking truth than fofhood, truth acquires a power over the heart that may eafily be di- minifhed, but is feldom, if ever, entirely extinguifhed. Hence, the combinations of falfhood are ufually th means of their own detection. Such is the fecret and invifible power of truth, that it is difficult indeed for any individual to be confident in a lie ; I mean fuch a lie as involves a multiplicity of events, an intricate detail of great and minute circumftances ; but for many indivi- duals to perfevere in fuch a fabrication, without fuch glaring incoherencies and inconfiftencies, as fhould be their own refutal, is next to impofEble. Falfhood, by being always aflbciated, at leaf}, with fome degree of averfion, requires a greater effort of the ( 245 ) mind than truth ; the latter, according with the natural feelings of rectitude, and connected with agreeable fen- fation, flows, as it were, from the heart with eafe and promptitude ; while the former counteracted, in almoft every ftep of it's progrefs, by the natural fentiments, the affections and the affociations of the mind has to encoun- ter obftacles, that are not readily fubdued. Thus we fee that nature has provided for the defence of truth, and particularly the truth of teftimony, by oppoling fo many difficulties to confillency in falfhood. Carrying the foregoing obfervations in his mind, let the moft fkeptical fit down to examine, with ferioufnefs and candour, the truth of that teftimony, by which the fact of the refurrection of Jefus from the dead is fub- flantiated. Let him carefully weigh the nature of the teftimony, it's multiplicity, it's variety, it's confiftency; and then let him compare it with the circumftances of the vvitnefles. Let the /keptic confider, amid a multitude of minute and unimportant variations, and which are rather a proof of undefigning integrity, than of defigning forgery, what a perfect confiftcncv and harmony there is in the whole mafs of the teftimony, and what an air of can- dour, of truth and fimplicity pervades the whole narra- tive of the tact, in the Four Evangelifts. There are no marks of that difguife, that duplicity, that embarrafT- ment, which are almoft neceflarily attached to falfliood. The relations of the Evangelifts poffefs thofe inimitable features of an eafy, unaffuming confidence, which are chara6teriftic of artlefs veracity. The fkcptic fhould, likcwife, contrail the circum- ftanccs of the witnefles with the teftimony they delivered. Did their teftimony tend to improve their circumftances ? Certainly not. It involved them in indigence and mi- fery ; but this indigence and mifery they voluntarily endured, rather than keep back the teftimony. Men never act without motives. The motive that could urge the Apoftles to perfjft in fuch a grofs and palpable falfliood, as the refurrccSlion of Jefus to life (fuppofmg it to be a lie of their own invention), muft have been ftrong indeed, to overcome their natural love of truth, and to fear their hearts againft thofe fenfations of remorfe and ihame, which, at leaft, in fome degree, ( 247 ) are the invariable aflbciates of impofiticm and of falf- hood. But, in the cafe we are considering, what motive could there have been powerful enough to operate this effect ? The profpect of fome great temporal advantage has often induced men to maintain, with refolute effron- tery, and, at every hazard, fome artful fcheme of inte- refted impofture ; but there never yet was an inftance, in which men have perfevered in fuch a fcheme, for the fake of pure, unalloyed and hopelefs mifery. And yet we place the Apoftles in thefe very circumftances ; we make mifery inconfolable, and wretchednefs unqualified, trie object of their wifhes, and the end of their exertions, if we fuppofe the refurreclion of Jefus to be nothing more than a cunningly deviled fable, of their own in- vention. Suppofing the truth of Chriftianity a fiction, it is abfo- lutely impofiible, that the conduct of the Apoftles (hould have been fuch as facred and profane hiftory concur to reprefent it ; and as the circumftances of the world, at that time, combine to prove that it muft have been. It is full as improbable, that twelve men, in their fenfes, {hould perfifl: in a lie, for the fole fake of exchanging com- fort for anguifli, and happinefs for mifery, as that a dead man fhould rife to life. The former is as great a devia- tion from thofe moral laws, which influence the courfe of human adtions, as the latter is from thofe natural laws, which caufe the mortality of the human fpecies. If the philofopher will not allow the truth of one miracle, he mull, at leaft, allow the truth of what is quite as miraculous, full as improbable, and quite as irreconcileable to the ordinary courfe of events. The conduct of the Apoflles, not to mention others,, who were all men of found judgment, good common- fenfe, and plain, unfophiflicated understandings, cannot pofllbly be reconciled to any experience of human nature, or to any knowledge of human motives, without allowing the truth of the Chriftian miracles, and parti- cularly that fundamental miracle, the adamantine bafe of the Chriftian dodrine, the refurredion of Jefus from the dead. Can any philofopher allow that the general principles of human nature, and the general incitements to human ( 249 ) aclion, were the fame in the days of the Apoftles, that they are at prefent, without allowing the fincerity and integrity of their teftimony, and the confequent truth of the facts which it records ? Can any philofopher, who is capable of calm and difpaflionate reflection, for a moment imagine that fo many individuals, all capable of feeling pain and pleafure, and diftinguifhing their differences, fhould, without a. tingle interefled motive, either of pleafure, fame or fortune, voluntarily engage in a long and heart-rending fcene of complicated ago- nies, for no other purpofe, than to vindicate aflertion* which they knew to be falfe ? In every view, which I can take of the fubje&, ft appears to me that the converfe of Mr. Hume's p repe- tition, is that, which in this inftance, we ought to era- brace; and that " it is far more probable that the refur- relion of Jefus fliould be true, than that the accumu- lated tcftimony in it's favour fhould be falfe." The Philofopher, who obftinately perfeveres in denying a miracle, which is so well attefted, only becaufe it appears to his dim perceptions and limited capacity, contrary to the ufual courfe of nature, feems, in fome degfce, to referable a perfon, who fhould refufe to believe, that ( 250 ) ether countries were fubject to the conclusion of earth- quakes and the desolation of volcanos, becaufe he had never observed them in his own ; and therefore might fuppofe'fuch phenomena, contrary to what his narrow obfervation might induce him to think the ordinary tourfe of nature. The, obftinate averfion to believe in a miracle, so well attefted as that of Chrift's refurre&ion, would va- nifli, if the unbeliever would confider that the world has moral as well as natural laws, and, that the refur- rec~t,ion of a dead man to life, though it may feem con- trary to the latter, might, in the particular inftance which is alledged, have been highly agreeable to the former ; and he fhould besides confider that a ferious and com- prehenfive enquiry into the fyflem of nature and the ways of providence, would prove natural and moral laws to be eflentially the fame, and to harmonize exactly in ail their operations ; and that the refurrection of Jefus from the dead, though apparently anomalous to the fait, might, at the time, and in the circumftances, in which it took place, have been analogous to both. Allo\vin- the truth of the refurreftion of Jefu?., the practical inferences', that are to be derived from it, mud be obvious to every one. The queftion about the nature of the fentient pn'nciple, whether it be formed of peridiahle or imperifhable materials, whether it be a -combination of grofs matter, or a fpark of zethereal fire, whether it furvive the body or mingle with it's duft, is of lirtle importance ; when we know that " Chrift is rifen from the dead, and become the firft fruits of them that flept. For fmce by man came death, by man came alib the refurreftion from the dead. For as in Adam all die, even fo in Chrift fhall all be made alive." Vid. 1 Cor. xv. The belief of a future flate of exiftence, is abfolutely neceffary to ftrengthen the power of felf-denial ; to in- cite to the practice of difinterefled virtue, and to refine benevolence from the pollutions of felfifhnefs. * I agree * Chr.ilianity does not propofe entirely to exlinguijh the principle of felf-int?Tv1, but to alter it's direftion, and by urging us to forego a lefs or temporal felf-intcreft, which repofcs with the duft of man in the grave, to afoire after an inttreft ample as eternity. For this purpofe, it conftantly places before our eyes the crown of glory that fadeth not away ; it points to a (late of happincfs beyond the grave, exempt from corruption and ( 252 ) v.-iih Mr. Godwin, that men may be brought to a& from diftinterefted motives, and that their general con- duct may be regulated on a fyflem of pure benevolence, but I deny that the principle which he affumes can ever produce this e'(Fe& ; nor can any principle whatever, whofe operations are limited within the horizon of this life, and have no relation to a fhate beyond it. The only poflible way, in which to make men al from motives of pure benevolence, (as far as it refpedb perfonal confederations or worldly intereft,) is by teach- ing them, univerfally to connect the idea of benevolence, and of every tender exertion of human kindnefs, with the hope, not of a prefent, but of a future and eternal re- compenfe, with an intereft greater than any which this "world contains. To effect this, the belief of a future exigence becomes an ejjtntiai requijlte ; and this belief decay; and teachrs us to confic'er the temple of charity as the only waf ty which it is to be approached " L?y not, 1 * faid Jefus with his chsraclcrift-c Simplicity of manner, t! tip for yourfclves trcafures upon earth, where moth and ruft doth cor- ru^-t, and where thieves break through and Heal. But lay up for youi> f-lvcs troafures in heaven ; w}iere neither moth nor ruft doth corrupt, aai iica- liiicves do aot break trro-.i^h nor ilcal..' 1 Vid. Matt vi. tight to be fo irnprefled, as that the flrength of it's conviction fhoulcl, in a great meafure> abforb every low, vain and fenfual confideration. Mankind cannot poffibly be induced, by any the mod fpecious argument, or theory, which is relative to thif life only , to omit, in their dealings and intercourfo with- their fellow-creatures, the fond and captivating calcula- tings of prefent intereft, and to praclife a pure benevo- lence; a benevolence, not prompted by temporal mo- tives, while they think this world the limits of their exigence, the everlafting boundary of all their percep- tions, their affections, their hopes and fears. But it is far different, when they look on this earth as the mere infancy of their being, and as a paflage to another; where their happinefs fhall be proportioned to the degree in which they have cheriftied and have exercifed the benevolent affections. It may be faid, that pleafurable fenfation being the conftant motive to, or object of human action, purer difmtereftednefs is unattainable by man. But let h be confidered, that the belief of a future ftate does not tend fo much to deftroy the principle of feif-intercft, as to ( 254 ) refine it from all it's bafe and polluted elements, and to fublime it into a pure and unalloyed dihutereftednefs, as far as any human and worldly recompenfe is concerned. It mutt likewife be considered, that in the breaft of the Chriftian, pleafurable fenfation, ceafing to be a motive to feirimnefs, will be changed into the ftrongeft motive to pure benevolence ; for, the further advances which the Chriftian makes in true holinefs, the more lie will efteem the joys of immortality, though at a dif- tance, a fource of purer happinefs than any intereft or polTeflion on this fide the grave. Who has not felt, and been cheered by the kind folace of hope ? Hope is an oblivion of mifery, and a fore-tafte of happinefs. She gilds life in it's darkeft moments ; and makes the heart fenfible to the touch of joy, even in the fevereft agonies. Were it not for this kind and feldom-failing viiitor to the breafts of the wretched, mankind would fink into languor under the leaft affliction. It is hope, which gives energy to forti- tude. It is hope, which keeps ib many thoufands of human fufferers light and buoyant above the waves of adverfity. It is hope, whofe benign and heavenly fmile, ( 255 ) adminiflers cordial comfort to the prifoner in his cell,' and the captive in his chains. But to whom is hope fo kind and conftant a comforter as to the Chriftian ? To whom does fhe impart fuch fweet or fuch Jailing con- folations ? In other breafts, hope alternately lives and dies ; but, in the bread of the Chriftian, fhe fhines with immortal beams ; and, inftead of forfaking him in his lail moments, fhe hails his clofing eyes to the light of " the everlafting hills ;" and offers to his grafp " the crown that fadeth not away." A PICTURE OF CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY. thoughts on the free difcujfion of the truths of revelation. man's conviftion, as far as it is rational, can be greater that the degree of his knowledge. Thofe tvho think otherwife, are only blind to their ignorance ; and their prefumption is folly. They are apt to be hardened in error, and to oppofe a mere ipft dixit to the plainefl arguments. A man's faith in revelation, and of courfe his obedi- ence to it's precepts, is ufually according to his convic- tion of it's truth. But the truth of revelation, not being perceptible to the organs of fenfe, or capable of a pal- ( 257 ) pable demonftration, can only be afcertaincd by diligent invefligation. Such inveftigation of revealed religion was certainly intended by it's all-wife author ; becaufe it's evidences are fo arranged and modified, that there can be no conviction of it's truth without ferious en- quiry. Had the Almighty intended to have precluded all difcuflion of the truths of revelation, he would have ren- dered it's evidence fo clear, fimple and indifputable, that no two people could have differed on the fubje&. At prefent, there are no two people who think precifely alike on all the points of Chriflianity. Why has the divine author of revealed religion per- mitted fo vaft a multiplicity of opinions on it's truth and doctrines ? Certainly for the fake of exciting enquiry, and of promoting difcuflion ; for which there would have been neither neceffity nor motive, if all men had thought alike on the fubjecl:. A complete unifor- mity of opinions might likewife, by promoting religious indifference, have been injurious to practical piety. The various ihadcs of faith and degrees of R ( 258 ) which prevail in the world, were likewife probably Jit- tended to teach us charity in our opinions, and humility in our judgments. Contented with our own conviclion, we aie not to imprecate anathemas on thofe who are not convinced in the fame way. If there be any to whom the evidences of ChrifHan- ity may feem infufficient or inconcluiive, from their wanting the inclination or the candour to give them a clue and fober confkleration ; are we juftified in perfe- cuting them, either for their ignorance or their illibe- ralky ? Certainly not. The genuine meeknefs of Chriftianity ought rather to incline us to behold their blindnefs with compaffion, and their errors with forbear- ance : and to pray that God may open their eyes to fee the truth ; or may touch their hearts with that convic- tion of it's importance, as may make them examine it's evidences with ferioufnefs and candour; and which cannot fail, in the end, of imprefling their minds with faith in Chrift Jefus. Chriftians feldom pray with thdt fervor and fmcerity which they ought, for the converfion of unbelievers. ( 259 ) They too often condemn them moft uncharitably to damnation, without ever breathing a wifh to heaven for their conversion to the light of immortality. The blef- fed Jefus evidently intended, that the converfion of unbe- lievers mould make one of the daily petitions of believ- ing Chriftians. " Thy kingdom come," is a fupplica- tion that Infidelity may vanifli, and that the belief and the practical influence of Chriflianity may prevail in all the world. But with what fincerity can we utter this petition, while a bitter jealoufy is rankling in our hearts ; while we ourfelves difcover none of that mild fpirit that was in Jefus, and rather ftrive to exafperate than convince the gainfayer ? b J -liw *k Jt4 .MiiSmtqA ->;>- n 'f,vt r. Jwk.nomnw pv I If Infidelity have any arguments to produce againft the truth of revelation, let them be calmly and rationally refuted : but if it can produce nothing but frothy abufe and virulent mifreprefentation, the beft reply is that dignified filence and compaffion which Jefus himfelf difplayed, when he was rebuked and reviled. Can we follow a better example than that of Jefus ? Falihood and rancour always counteraft themfelves. R2 ( 260 ) We are all convinced, that neither the {allies of wit, nor the perverfenefs of malice, can {hake the philofophy of Newton. Should we punifh the jackdaw for mocking the eagle ? Have we any reafon to dread, leaft the blafphemies of an individual fhould overturn the religion of the God of nature ? The mere fuppofition is a dif- grace to our belief. The feoffs of impiety cannot fnake tjie fabric of heaven. * * The writings of the infidel will not unfrequently be found to do more fervice than injury to the Chriftian caufe. The frequent aiTault of the citadel, keeps the garrifon awake. The attacks of the infidel, call forth the energies of the faithful, they excite ?rs:nments to ftrergthen the weak, or to confirm the wavering, which might otherwife never have appeared. It is a very common, but a very miftaken fjppofition, that the writ- jngs of the French Deifts produced that aftonifhmg degree of infidelity that prevailed in France. Thofe writings were only a fubordinats and fecondsry caufe. The primary ind eflential caufc, was the grofs and palpable corruptions of the Romifh Church. Thofe corruptions, ?ccu- mulating for centuries, at laft produced a monfter that devoured it's mother. The Deiflical philofophers might have haftencd his birth, but they had no fhare in his formation. If the Deiftical writers had been the effential caufe of the declenfioji of Chriftianity in France, the fame eaufe, flill operating, would have prevented it's revival. Chriftianity would have funk, to rife no more ! But there is the ftrongeft proof, that the corruptions of the church and the clergy, rather than the feoffs of the philofophers were the caufe of the prevailing infidelity in France: for the beft informed travellers into that country affurc us, that the infidelity ( 2G1 ) The Almighty who clifpenfed his religion to mankind, lias, no doubt, provided, in the common order of things, for it's prefervation ; and it is full as abfurd to fuppofe, that the Infidel cnn arreft the progrefs pf revealed truth, as that he can frop die flowing of the ocean. The mo- ral world, as well as the natural, has it's peculiar laws; though thofc of die latter are more open -to our obferva- tion, becaufe more familiar to our fenfes. Man being conftiruted a free and rational being, the evidence of revelation was fo difpofed, as that it might controul his conduit through the medium of his judg- ment. It was a rule to him, not by conftraint but by itfclf is d?' l'n!r^, low rlje carufe that produced it is no more ! The loatlt- fome fenfun!it.y, tlte proflitme venality, and the fplcndid hypocrify of thr French church and t';e French clergy have vanifhed, and the religion of Jefus is beginning to appear with more of it's primitive fimplicity. It it is now proballe t'^t Chriftianity will, in the courfe of a few years, when the prefent rtrocious tyranny of the directorial ruffians fiiall liave paffed away, ftrike a much det-per root than before into the minds and the affcftions of the French ; that the faith of the people, no longer cheated by the mummery of Popery, but founded on knowledge, will be im- moveable ; aud that all the combined powers of Deifm will be too feeble to do it any farther injury. In this perfuafion, as a Chriftian and a mi- nifVr of Jefus, I feel a happinefs that I cannot cxprcfs; and I humbly implore the Supreme Difyofcr that it may not be illufory. ( 262 ) choice. llznie it's truth was propofed as an object of rational enquiry ; and to this enquiry we are prompted by it's connexion, not with a peri/liable, but an eternal intcreft ; and whjch, confequently, renders it an object of fuperior importance to every human confideration. Thofe who think that the truth of revelation ought not to be difcuffed, are by no means it's bed friends. It's difcuffion feems to be an injunction of the Almighty, and defignedly rendered neceffary, by the very nature of it's proofs ; and of this I am firmly convinced, that the more it is difcuffed, the more will it's beauty be unfol- ded and it's truth be difplayed the more will the love of it's laws and the conviction of it's importance approach to univerfality. Men ought not to be Chriftians merely from herefay or from famion, but from conviflion. Every Chriftian fhould be able to give a reafon of the *' hope that is in him ;" and thofe who cannot do this, though they may not be Infidels, hardly deferve the appellation of believers. VV ITH that frank ingenuoufnefs which Is* fo congenial to a love of truth, and with that energy \vhich a good caufe always infpires, I have attempted to vindicate the combined, and (as I humbly think) indivi- fihle Jnterefts of revealed religion, of free enquiry and of human happinefs. * Inftead of adminiftering frefh fuel to that factious rage, and that fpirit of bitternefs which is * The author has been fcrupuloufly attentive not to contaminate this *olume with any infufion of political animofity. If the reader be anxious to be acquainted with his political opinions, he w.ll find them fketched with plainnefs, with fincerity, and with moderation, in " An Addrefs trt the People, &c." gvo. is. Cd. Rivingtons, and White. This little work which has been commended by critics, of a well-earned celebrity, (vid. Mont. Rev. Feb. 1799.) was written foon after Lord Nelfoifs victory, but (perhaps unfortunately for the author) the publication was delayed till Chriftmas; when the French arms, more destructive than the lava of Vefuvius, were preparing to revenge the loffcs of Aboukir in the plunder ( 26-1 ) unhappily fpreading through thcfe once-happy kingdoms, I have endeavoured to foften the animofities of faction by the precepts of benevolence, and to infpire even the breafls of bigots with Chriftian moderation. If I have contributed only a mite to this great end, it will cheer with many gleams of pleafure the bofom of one, who, in his way through life, has had much mournful expe- rience of it's viciffitudes ; and who can truly aver, that he never heard, without a wifh to footh, the piercing cries of human mifery. 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