is the work of impostors, we should be reduced to that wretched state which existed previously to the period when the glorious light of the Gospel was diffused over the world in the language of the inspired writer, we should sit in darkness and the shadow of death."

;

Our views of a future state would be confined to the same narrow and uncertain limits with those of the heathen. We should be involved in the same uncertainty respecting the Deity.

The Bible is, if I may be allowed the expression, a resting-place for the sole of our feet. It is the basis on which all our hopes are founded. While the sacred Scriptures afford the noblest precepts of morality, they encourage a due obedience to them, by a lively assurance of that reward which will be bestowed upon the good and faithful servant. While they inspire the most sublime and awful ideas of the Deity, they insensibly lead the mind to love and adore that unspeakable goodness which is unceasingly watchful over our present interests, and does every thing for us consistent with the free agency we possess, as intellectual beings, to secure our eternal happiness. No other writings, of any age or nation, contain the important information

conveyed by the Scriptures. No other writings, of any age or nation, can be put in competition with them. The conviction of this truth would induce an unprejudiced person to inquire whether they are, what they profess to be, an inspired work. If this be proved, in addition to their other excellencies, they possess an authority which removes every doubt, which might arise in the mind, respecting the important subjects revealed in them. If it be inquired of the Deist, on what authority he can anticipate a future state of existence, he has none to which he can appeal. The assertions of the most enlightened imagination, respecting so important a subject, delivered in the clearest and most eloquent manner, however specious they may be however ingenious—however to be desired,--are destitute of what alone can give them value, if there be no divine sanction, to which they may be referred, in vindication of their truth. Whatever may be advanced on so interesting a topic (and what can be more interesting than whether we shall hereafter live or not?) being unsupported by any authority but that of the speaker, carries no conviction to the soul, is no better than

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sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." The

same mode of argument may be applied to the Deist with respect to the providence of God. It may then be demanded of the Deist, upon what grounds he can satisfy us that the Deity is concerned about our conduct here; or that there is a future state of existence, in which he will reward or punish us, accordingly as we shall have been good or evil in this life. It might farther be demanded of him (since he denies that the will of God is revealed), where we are to look for a standard of good and evil? Whether this is to be determined by human laws, or by the arbitrary dictates of our own will? In short, there cannot be imagined a more discouraging view of human society than to suppose it deprived of the aids of revelation.

The Deist may, perhaps, endeavour to excuse his rejection of the inspired writings, by pleading that there are other religions which pretend to a divine origin. But the assertion that Confucius, or Bramah, or Mahomet, have many thousands, or even millions of followers, who are equally zealous in support of their respective tenets, is an argument more specious than satisfactory, substantiated as that revelation is, which we possess, by so many miracles, by so much internal and external

evidence. The Deist in vain endeavours to excite a suspicion against Christianity. None but those whose deeds are evil, and who, therefore, as Christ declares, "love darkness rather than light," can read with the same indifference the wild effusions of Mahomet, and the calm, but impressive pages of the Gospel.

Superstition, prejudice, indifference, and the sword, have assisted in supporting religions evidently false. Remove these obstacles to examination, and whatever is false cannot escape detection. But, because the Almighty, for reasons which human wisdom cannot penetrate, permits the existence of those religions which are false, are we, therefore, 'authorized in denying that God has ever made a revelation of his will to mankind? The evidence to the contrary is so great, and extends in so many incontrovertible and extraordinary instances, that before we can renounce it, all records of history, sacred or profane, must be annihilated; the sublimest writings that ever were composed, the most pure and elevated morality that ever was taught, the noblest sentiments that ever were conceived of the Deity, the only solid assurance we have of a future state, and the judgment to come-must be regarded as

cun

ningly-devised fables." The writings of the most learned and unprejudiced men, of different ages and countries, who have supported the same faith, who have suffered persecution, and even death, for the great truths they taught, must be rejected with contempt, as the work of impostors and cheats.

All the evidence, however, which can be adduced of this nature is rejected by the modern infidel. The external proofs which present themselves, as an insuperable bulwark of the sacred Scriptures, are passed over with little regard. The attack is made on the Bible itself, as unworthy the Deity. "Whenever we read," says a modern writer," the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortorous* executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God."

It is hardly possible to imagine that the person from whom such a passage proceeded had ever read the Bible. Can the writer produce a single sentence, either from the Old or New Testament, which encourages vice or vindictiveness? Yet how many thousands of passages are there of an opposite tendency? * The word used by the Author.