Jewish nation rejected this divine Saviour in the days of his outward manifestation, and if prejudiced deists still continue to reject his offered assistance, all that can be proved by their unrelenting obstinacy, is the greatness of their guilt and the depth of their depravity: just as the conduct of a patient who abuses his physician, suffices only to demonstrate the excess of his delirium.

Several reasons may be here produced, which might have engaged the Father of mercies to defer the external manifestation of our promised Redeemer, for a period of four thousand years.

1. It is probable, that as every thing is discovered to operate gradually in the natural world, the same order might be established in the moral world. Even since the time of Christ's outward manifestation, the influence of his redeeming power has but gradually discovered itself in our yet benighted world. He himself compared the gospel to a little leaven, which spreads itself by slow degrees over a bulky mass of meal and to a small seed from which a noble plant is produced. To this we may add, that a portion of time which appears long and tedious to us, appears wholly different in the eyes of the everlasting I AM, before whom a thousand years are no more than a fleeting day.

2. If immediately after the commission of sin, God had sent forth his Son into the world to raise us from our fall, before we had experienced the melancholy effects of that fall; such a hasty act, instead of manifesting the perfections of the Deity, would have drawn a veil of obscurity between us and them. The divine mercy discovered in Jesus Christ, might then have appeared as insignificant to us, as to the arrogant deist, who notwithstanding the crimes with which the world has been polluted for near six thousand years, and in spite of those which he himself has added to the prodigious sum, has yet the audacity to assert that there is no necessity for a redeemer, that man is good in his present state, and that he may conduct himself honourably through it, without the assistance of regenerating grace. Hence it appears, that the outward manifestation of the Messiah was wisely deferred to a period of time far removed from the commencement of the fall.

3. While the visible manifestation of Jesus was delayed, all things were put into a state of due preparation for so great an event. And in the mean time, the seed of rege

neration which was received by man, after God had pronounced the first evangelical promise, was as sufficient to save every penitent sinner, as the dawn of day is sufficient to direct every erring traveller.

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This merits an explanation. The first man to whom the promise of redemption was made, contained in, himself the whole of his posterity: and this promise, wonderfully powerful, as being the word of God, had an indiscri bable effect upon the whole human race, implanting in man a seed of regeneration, a Logos, a reason, a conscience, a light; in short, a good principle," which, in every sincere inquirer after truth, has been nourished by the grace of God, and seconded by the pious traditions of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, evangelists, or true philosophers. Unhappy is it for those, who stifling in themselves every gracious sentiment, have treated this internal principle, as the Jews once treated their condescending Lord, and as sinners still continue to treat a preached gospel. If such are not saved, it is not through want of an offered Saviour, but because they have wilfully shut their eyes against the twilight, the opening dawn, or the meridian brightness of the gospel day.

Nothing can be more unreasonable than the objection, to which we now return an answer. To argue that God would be unjust, if having given a Saviour to the world, he should not reveal that Saviour in an equal degree to all mankind, is to argue that God is unjust, because having given a sun to the earth, he has not ordained that sun equally to enlighten and cheer every part of the globe. Again-To insinuate that Christ cannot properly be regarded as the Saviour of mankind, because innumerable multitudes of men are not even acquainted with his name, is to insinuate that the sun is utterly useless to the deaf, because they have never heard the properties of that sun described, and to the blind because they have never seen his cheering beams. Lastly. To conclude that the gospel is false, because it has not rapidly spread itself over the whole world, or because it is not observed to operate in a more hasty manner the happy changes it is said to produce :→→ thus to argue, is to reason as inconclusively as a man who should say, The tree that produces Jesuit's bark, is an insignificant and useless tree: for, 1st, It grows not in every country. 2dly, It has not always been known. 3dly,

There are persons in the country where it grows, who look upon it as no extraordinary thing: and 4thly, Many who have apparently given this medicine a proper trial, have found it unattended with those salutary effects so generally boasted of.

Turning the arguments of our philosophers against their own system, we affirm that the Messiah was manifested in a time and place peculiarly suited to so great an event. With respect to the time; he lived and died when the human species had arrived at the utmost pitch of refinement and learning. Had he appeared two or three thousand years sooner, he must have visited the world in its infant state, while ignorance and barbarity reigned among the nations; but in the days of Augustus and Tiberias, mankind may be said to have reached the highest degree of maturity, with respect to knowledge and civilization. Now as it is necessary that he who bears testimony to any memorable transaction, should be a man and not a child; so it is equally necessary that Christ should have appeared in the most polished period of the world, as mediator between God and man.

Deists sometimes tell us that the force of historic evidence is greatly diminished by lapse of time, as a taper placed at too great a distance loses much of its brightness. If Christ then had offered himself a ransom for all, many ages sooner than unerring wisdom had ordained, the incredulous might have urged, that the history of a miraculous event, reported to have happened in so remote a period of time, was most probably corrupted with uncertain tradition, and rendered unworthy of credit.

On the other hand, if the accomplishment of the promise had been delayed some thousands of years longer, the faith and patience of believers would have been called to a proof incompatible with the weakness of humanity. And the impious might have said concerning the first coming of Christ what they have long ago tauntingly spoken of his second: "Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."

What is here observed with respect to the age in which the Messiah was cut off, is no less true, of the season, the day, and the hour. He offered himself a sacrifice for the sins of the people in the noon day, at the solemn feast of

the passover, and at that season of the year which naturally invited the dispersed Jews to visit the holy city. The place was, like the time, peculiarly adapted to such an event; a country in which the promise of Christ's coming had been frequently repeated. Moreover, he became obedient unto death in the time predicted by the prophets; before a people who possessed the oracles of God; under the eyes of the high priest; before Herod the king, together with the grand council of the nation; before Pilate, who was lieutenant of the greatest prince on earth; at the gates of Jerusalem, in the centre of Judea, and nearly in the centre of the then known world. Thus the external manifestation of our glorious Redeemer may be compared to a Sun, whose rising was preceded by a dawn which benignly opened upon the first inhabitants of the earth; and whose setting is followed by a lovely twilight, which must necessarily continue till he shall again ascend above our horizon, to go down no more. In this point of view the Scriptures uniformly represent the sacrifice of Christ. St. Paul expressly declares that "by one offspring he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified;" i. e. all those in every nation who fear God and work righteousness. We argue therefore with this apostle, that "as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life."

From these observations we conclude, first: That the gospel has been more or less clearly announced ever since the time in which a Redeemer became necessary to man. Secondly: That Jesus Christ openly manifested himself in a time most proper for such a discovery. Thirdly: That the work of redemption is as necessary to mankind as the assistance of medicine is necessary to those who are struggling under some dangerous disease. Fourthly: That an explicit knowledge of the Redeemer and his salvation is as desirable to those who feel themselves ruined by sin, as the certain knowledge of a physician, possessed of sovereign remedies, is consoling to the patient who apprehends his life in imminent danger. Fifthly: As languishing infants may be restored by the medicines of a physician, with which they are totally unacquainted, so Jews, Mohammedans, and Heathens, provided they walk

according to the light they enjoy, are undoubtedly saved by Jesus Christ, though they have no clear conception of the astonishing means employed to secure them from perdition. And lastly, that the grand argument advanced against the gospel by Mons. de Voltaire and J. J. Rousseau is abundantly more specious than solid.

CHAPTER XV.

Reflections upon the danger to which modern deists expose themselves.

IN refuting the objection of superficial moralists, proposed in the preceding chapter, we may perhaps have afforded them ground for another full as specious and solid.

Objection. "If it be allowed that in every age salvation has been extended to all the true worshippers of God, whether they have been pious Jews, such as Joseph, Hezekiah, and Josiah; just men among the Gentiles, such as Melchisedec and Aristides; or heathen philosophers who have walked in the fear of God, such as Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato. And if all these virtuous men have been saved without subscribing to the doctrines of the gospel, why may not deists and modern philosophers be permitted to enjoy the same salvation while they reject those doctrines ?"

The

Answer. There are three grand dispensations of grace. Under the first, every heathenish and unenlightened nation must be ranked; the Jews under the second; and Christians under the third, which is a dispensation abundantly more perfect than either of the former. followers of Mohammed may be classed with modern Jews, since they are deists of the same rank, and have equally deceived themselves with respect to that great Prophet who came for the restoration of Israel.

Those Jews, Mohammedans, and Heathens, who "fear God and work righteousness," are actually saved by Jesus Christ. Christ is the Truth and the Light; and these sincere worshippers, receiving all the rays of truth with which they are visited, afford sufficient proof that they