either identified with Christianity, or subsists, in those who reject Christianity, through its still remaining power; as an evergreen severed from its root may for a time retain th appearance of life.

The fundamental truths of religion, as taught by Chris tianity, necessarily imply the fact, or, in other words, in volve the truth, that we shall always be subject to the mora government of God; to that government which connect happiness with the observance of those laws that are essen tial to the nature of every moral being, and suffering with their transgression. Under this aspect the practical bearing of religion appears. Thus, when assured of the truth which it teaches, we know all that is necessary for ou virtue and happiness. We know what may inspire the most glorious hopes, what may animate us in every effor for our own improvement and the service of our fellow creatures; we know all that we need to strengthen us for the endless course that lies before us.

With these truths settled in our minds, we may ente without anxiety on the examination of the many and oppo site opinions, true and false, which different parties among Christians have connected with their faith in Christianity In rejecting far the larger number of them as unfounded, an enlightened and well-informed man will perceive that he i merely arriving at conclusions, to which the progress of the human mind in knowledge and in correct modes of think ing has been gradually conducting us; and that this pro gress, while it has undermined those errors, has tended equally to confirm the evidence of the essential principle of religion. He will do honor to his predecessors, who without discerning all the truth, toiled and suffered i opening the way to it. He will not regard himself a superior to those, through whose labors his own intellec

has been formed, because through their assistance he has advanced somewhat further than they had done. He will not fancy, that in the present age there has been a great outbreak of wisdom, from some hitherto unknown source, which is to sweep away all that has been established and revered. Nor in his mind will pernicious errors and essential truths be so bound together by his prejudices, that he cannot free himself from the former without loosening the latter from their hold.

Far from it. Every truth concerning our religion and its evidences is connected with and confirms every other; and in removing an error we are establishing a truth. Then only may we hope, that the evidences of Christianity will be allowed their full weight, and the efficacy of its doctrines be obstructed only by the imperfections and passions essential to our nature, when it shall be presented as it is, separate from all the erroneous opinions and false doctrines, that have been connected with it. As one truth confirms another, so one error gives birth to another, often producing a numerous brood; and the system into which any important error enters, as an essential part, becomes either corrupted throughout, or inconsistent with itself.

These observations will not be regarded as out of place, when it is perceived that the inquiry on which we are about to enter leads to conclusions, different from the opinions which have been professed by the generality of Christians; though, unquestionably, the considerations on which those conclusions are founded have presented themselves to the minds of a great portion of intelligent believers.

I will venture to add a word or two more, having somewhat of a personal bearing. It seems to me a weighty offence against society, to advance and maintain opinions

on any important subject, especially any subject connected with religion, without carefully weighing them, and withou feeling assured, as far as may be, that we shall find n reason to change our belief. I may be excused, therefore for mentioning that the substance of what follows wa originally committed to writing more than ten years ag (in the summer of 1831), and that I have not since found occasion to make any essential change in my con clusions.

SECTION II.

On the Evidences and the Design of the Jewish
Dispensation.

THE belief that Moses was an inspired messenger o God follows from our belief in the divine origin of Chris tianity. He was, we suppose, miraculously commissioned to give to the Jews a knowledge of God, as the Maker and Governor of all things, and such other just conceptions of Him as they were capable of receiving; and to teach them to regard themselves as having been separated from the rest of men, by having been called in a peculiar manner to worship and serve Him. Beside the attestation to the divine origin of the Jewish dispensation furnished by Christianity, there are independent proofs of it, to which without dwelling upon them at length, it may be worth while to advert.

When we consider what the Jews were in other respects the simple, direct knowledge which they possessed of God as the sole Maker and Governor of the Universe, present ing so striking a contrast to the mythology of the mos

enlightened portion of the ancient world, affords the strongest confirmation of what they asserted, that its source was a divine revelation. This appears more clearly, when we reflect, that the idea of God was not with them a matter of speculation among a few philosophers, but formed the fundamental doctrine of their popular faith. The mere fact, likewise, of their most extraordinary belief, that they had been separated from all other nations, by being called to worship Him, admits, apparently, of no other solution than that their belief was true. The high and just representations of the Deity, the exalted language of piety, and the noble and enlightened views of duty, which we find in the Scriptures of the Jews, when compared with what appears in other portions of those Scriptures, with the prevailing character of the Jews themselves, and with that of other ancient nations, can, as far as we are able to discern, be referred only to the deep influences of a divine revelation upon their minds. We perceive these influences in the formation of poetical writings of a kind to which nothing similar can be produced. They are compositions of the most marked religious character, altogether unlike the poetry of other ancient nations. The individuals addressed are throughout regarded under one aspect, as distinguished from all other men by the peculiar relation in which they stood towards God. In the more eminent of these works, in those, for example, which have been ascribed to Isaiah, we perceive, that the powerful mind, the strong feelings, and splendid imagination of the writer, had been thoroughly wrought upon by religious convictions, which we cannot reasonably ascribe to the unaided progress of the human intellect among the Jews. Looking to the time when that people were already in possession of those wonderful books, we have to cast our view back to a period lighted only by a

few gleams of authentic history. Here, we see men collecting in groups to listen to the poems of Homer, in which the objects of their worship are pictured with the vices and passions of the gross and ferocious chieftains of the age; there, we behold the gigantic monuments which Egyptian superstition had raised to its monster gods; all around is the darkness and error of polytheism, in one form or other, except where a small people rises distinctly to view, separate from the rest of mankind; a people of which there are now no famous monuments, but its own continued existence and its sacred writings. Among the Jews, long before Socrates would have taught the Athenians the goodness and providence of the gods, there was a familiar conception of God; and their prophets could thus address them :

Jehovah

"Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? is the eternal God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He faints not, neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding."

"Thus says Jehovah, the King of Israel, I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God."

"Let the wicked man forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to Jehovah, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

"For your thoughts are not my thoughts, nor your ways my ways, says Jehovah.

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

They who habitually expressed these and corresponding conceptions of the Supreme Being, believed that they had derived them from express revelation; and there appears no good reason for doubting the correctness of their belief.