up in the present day as an example worthy to be followed in this country!

With regard to the influence of deism on individuals, we may remark that the effects which it produces are perfectly in unison with the principles which its advocates have maintained. In order to accomplish their designs, there is no baseness in hypocrisy to which they have not submitted. Almost all of them have worn a mask of friendship, that they might stab Christianity to the heart; -they have professed a reverence for it, while they were aiming to destroy it. Lord Herbert, Hobbes, Lord Shaftesbury, Woolston, Tindal, Chubb, and Lord Bolingbroke, were all guilty of the vile hypocrisy of lying, while they were employed in no other design than to destroy it. Collins, though he had no belief in Christianity, yet qualified himself for civil office by partaking of the Lord's Supper; and Shaftesbury and others were guilty of the same base hypocrisy. "Such faithless professions, such gross violations of truth in Christians, would have been proclaimed to the universe by these very writers as infamous desertions of principle and decency. Is it less infamous in themselves? All hypocrisy is detestable; but none is so detestable as that which is coolly written with full premeditation, by a man of talents, assuming the character of a moral and religious instructor, a minister, a prophet, of the truth of the infinite God. Truth is a virtue perfectly defined, mathematically clear, and completely understood by all men of common sense. There can be no haltings between uttering truth and falsehood, no doubts, no mistakes; as between piety and enthusiasm, frugality and parsimony, generosity and profusion. Transgression, therefore, is always a known, definitive, deliberate villany. In the sudden moment of strong temptation, in the hour of unguarded attack, in the flutter and trepidation of unexpected alarm, the best man may, perhaps, be surprised into any sin; but he, who can coolly, of steady design, and with no unusual impulse, utter falsehood, and vent hypocrisy, is not far from finished depravity.

"The morals of Rochester and Wharton need no comment. Woolston was a gross blasphemer. Blount solicited his sister-inlaw to marry him, and, being refused, shot himself. Tindal was

originally a protestant, then turned papist, then protestant again, merely to suit the times, and was at the same time infamous for vice in general, and the total want of principle. He is said to have died with this prayer in his mouth: "If there is a God, I desire that he may have mercy on me. Hobbes wrote his Leviathan to serve the cause of Charles I., but finding him fail of success, he turned it to the defence of Cromwell, and made a merit of this fact to the usurper; as Hobbes himself unblushingly declared to Lord Clarendon. Morgan had no regard to truth; as is evident from his numerous falsifications of Scripture, as well as from the vile hypocrisy of professing himself a Christian in those very writings in which he labours to destroy Christianity. Voltaire, in a letter now remaining, requested his friend D'Alembert to tell for him

a direct and palpable lie, by denying that he was the author of the Philosophical Dictionary. D'Alembert in his answer, informed him, that he had told the lie. Voltaire has indeed expressed his own moral character perfectly in the following words: Monsieur Abbé, I must be read, no matter whether I am believed or not."1 He also solemnly professed to believe the Catholic religion, although at the same time he doubted the existence of a God, and at the very moment in which he was plotting the destruction of Christianity, and introducing the awful watch-word of his party Ecrasez l'Infame,2 -at that very moment, with bended knee and uplifted eye, he adored the cross of Christ, and received the host in the communion of the church of Rome. This man was also a shameless adulterer, who, with his abandoned mistress, violated the confidence of his visitors, by opening their letters; and his total want of all principle, moral or religious—his impudent audacity, his filthy sensuality - his persecuting envy, his base adulation, his unwearied treachery, -his tyranny,- his cruelty,- his profligacy, and his hypocrisy, will render him for ever the scorn, as his unbounded powers will the wonder, of mankind.

The dishonesty, perjury, and gross profligacy of Rousseau, who alternately professed and abjured the Roman Catholic and Protestant religion, without believing either, and who died in the very act of uttering a notorious falsehood to his Creator, as well as of Paine and other advocates of infidelity, - are too notorious to render it necessary to pollute these pages with the detail of them.

VII. Since then the history and actual condition of mankind, in all ages, concur to show that a divine revelation is not only possible and probable, but also absolutely necessary to recover them out of their universal corruption and degeneracy, and to make known to them the proper object of their belief and worship, as well as their present duties and future expectations; it remains that we consider in what way such revelation would be communicated to the world.

There appear to be only two methods by which an extraordinary discovery of the will of God may be made to man; viz. either an immediate revelation, by inspiration or otherwise, to each individual separately, or else a commission, accompanied with indisputable credentials, bestowed on some to convince others that they came from God in order to instruct them in those things which he has revealed But it cannot seem requisite that the Almighty should imme. diately inspire, or make a direct revelation to, every particular person in the world: for either he must so powerfully influence the minds and affections of men, as to take away their choice and freedom of acting (which would be to offer violence to human nature); or else men would, for the most part, have continued in their evil courses and practices, and have denied God in their lives; though

1 Dwight on Infidelity, pp. 47, 48.

2 Crush the wretch! - meaning Jesus Christ.

3 See the publication entitled Vie Privée de Voltaire et de Madame du Châtelet, Paris, 1820, 8vo.

their understandings were ever so clearly and fully convinced of his will and commandments, as well as of his eternal power and godhead. But even if God were willing to vouchsafe some immediate revelation of himself to vicious and immoral persons, how can we be assured that they would be converted? Would they not rather find out some pretence to persuade themselves, that it was no real revelation, but the effect of natural agents, or of melancholy and a disturbed imagination? They might, perhaps, be terrified for the present; but there is every reason to apprehend, from the known infirmity and depravity of mankind, that such persons would soon stifle their terrors with their accustomed arguments for atheism and infidelity.

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Independently, however, of the inefficacy of immediate revelation to every man in particular, the supposing it to be thus made, would fill the world with continual impostures and delusions; for, if every one had a revelation to himself, every one might pretend to others what he pleased; and one man might be deluded by the pretence of a revelation made to another, against an express revelation made to himself. And this, we may conclude, would often happen from what we experience every day for if men can be perverted by the arts and insinuations of others, against their own reason and judgment, they might as well be prevailed upon to act against a revelation made to them; though revelations should be things as common and familiar among men as reason itself is. Immediate revelations, therefore, to every particular individual, would have been needless and superfluous; they would have been unsuitable to the majesty and honour of God; they would have been ineffectual to the ends for which they were designed; and would have afforded occasion for many more pretences to impostures than there are now in the world.

The only other way by which the divine will can be revealed to mankind, is that which the Scriptures affirm to have actually been employed; viz. the qualifying of certain persons to declare that will to others, by infallible signs and evidences that they are authorised and commissioned by God. What those evidences are, will be discussed in a subsequent page. It is however but reasonable to suppose, that divine revelations should be committed to writing, in order that they might be preserved for the benefit of mankind, and delivered down genuine and uncorrupted to posterity. In fact, oral tradition is so uncertain and so insecure a guide, that if a revelation claiming to be divine be not transmitted by writing, it cannot possibly be preserved in its purity, or serve mankind as a certain rule of faith and of life.

In illustration of this remark, we may observe, that writing is a more secure method of conveyance than tradition, being neither so liable to involuntary mistakes, through weakness of memory or understanding, nor so subject to voluntary falsifications, suppressions, or additions, either out of malice or design. "It is also a method of conveyance more natural and human. It is nothing extraordi

nary for a book to be transmitted pure and entire from generation to generation: but a traditionary doctrine, especially if it be of any considerable length, cannot really be preserved without a miracle, without the occasional interposition of Almighty God to renew the memory of it at particular intervals, or his continual assistance and inspiration to keep it always alive and vigorous. It is likewise a method of conveyance more complete and uniform, presenting itself to all at once, and to all alike, to be compared together; whereas a traditionary doctrine must be communicated by little and little, and without doubt communicated differently at different times by different persons. It is, moreover, a method of conveyance more general and diffusive. A man's writings reach further than his words; and surely we need not observe, that it is the practice of mankind, whenever they would publish any thing, to have it written or printed in a book."1

Further, experience shows that writing is a method of conveyance more lasting than tradition. It is an old and trite observation, that a word heard perishes, but a letter written remains. Jesus Christ is said to have performed many other miracles, and to have done many other memorable things, besides those which have been committed to writing;3 but, observe, how much more faithful record is than mere report; the few, comparatively speaking, which were written, are preserved and credited, while the many, which were not recorded in writing, have long since been utterly lost and forgotten. "Every thing, of any consequence, we desire to have in writing. By this, laws are promulgated; by this, arts and sciences are propagated; by this, titles and estates are secured. And what do we know of antient history, but the little that cometh down to us in books and writings? Tradition passeth away like the morning cloud; but books may live as long as the sun and moon endureth."4

To the preceding arguments for the usefulness and expediency of written revelation, arising from the uncertainty of oral tradition and the greater security and advantages of writing, we may add, that it is certainly more fair and open, more free from suspicion of any fraud or contrivance, to have a religion preserved in writing, there to be read and examined by all, than to have it left only with a few, to be by them communicated in discourse to others; as no two persons express the same thing exactly in the same manner, nor even the same person at different times. The heathen philosophers had their exoteric and esoteric doctrines, as they distinguished them; that is, some which they generally delivered, and others which they communicated only to a few select auditors: but the first propagators of Christianity, knowing no such distinctions, delivered the whole doc

1 Bp. Newton's Works, vol. iv. dissert. 2. pp. 19-23. 8vo. edit. The same line of argument, and nearly in similar terms, is stated and illustrated by Archbishop Tillotson, Works, vol. vi. pp. 233. et seq. London, 1820. 8vo.

2 Vox audita perit, littera scripta manet.

3 John, xx. 30. xxi. 25.

4 Bp. Newton's Works, vol. iv. p. 24.

trine which they professed to have received from God. The heathen priests had their mysteries, which were to be concealed from the profane vulgar, but Christianity can never be made too public.

Most other religions also are committed to writing for the use of their particular professors; and it would be a prejudice to the Christian religion if it did not enjoy the same advantage. "The Jews had what they called an oral law, as well as a written one; and the one as well as the other they asserted to have been given by God on Mount Sinai - the oral to serve as a comment or explanation of the written law. But, in process of time, these traditions multiplied so fast, that the Jews found it necessary to keep their traditions no longer as traditions, but committed them to writing; and they are now preserved in the books called the Talmuds. So fallible is tradition, so much more secure is writing, even in the opinion of the greatest traditionists; and if the doctrines of religion must, one time or other, be written, it is better surely to have them written by inspired authors at first, than by others afterwards."

Further, the importance of the matter, the variety of the subjects, and the design of the institutions, contained in those books, which Jews and Christians account to be sacred, are additional reasons why they should be committed to writing. "The matter is of no less importance than the whole will of God and the salvation of mankind, our duty here and our happiness hereafter; and if any thing deserves to be written, do not these things [deserve to be recorded] in the most lasting characters? The subjects likewise are very various, histories of times past and prophecies of things to come, orations and epistles, sublime points of faith, and plain rules of practice, hymns and prayers and thanksgivings, all too excellent to be forgotten, but too many all to be remembered. The Law was for a single nation; but the Gospel is for the whole world. For a single nation it was requisite that their laws should be written, or to what can they appeal, and by what can they regulate their practice? And if it was necessary for the law to be written, it was certainly much more necessary for the Gospel, which was designed to be both of perpetual and universal obligation, a religion for all ages and for all nations."

The necessity of a divine revelation having been proved, and the probability that such a revelation would be given to mankind having been shewn, it remains that we examine the pretensions of the Old and New Testaments to be that revelation. Among the numerous attacks which have been made on the truth of Christianity, one of the most formidable is that which is directed against the authenticity of the Scriptures. It has been asserted, that we derive a set of rules and opinions from a series of books, which were not written by the authors to whom we ascribe them; and that the volume to which we give the title of divine, and which is the basis of our faith and manners, is a forgery of later ages. It is therefore of importance to ascertain, first, the genuineness, authenticity, and incorrupt