BY THE ABBÉ DE CAMBACÉRES.

55

et tous les vices; où se trouvoit rassemblé tout ce que l'antiquité payenne avoit pu imaginer de corruption et de licence, tout ce qu'elle avoit consacré par les charmes de la poésie et de la peinture, par les fêtes, les jeux et les spectacles—voilà où paroissent Paul et Barnabé, où ils prêchent, où ils tonnent; c'est sur cette terre ingrate qu'ils ôsent élever l'étendart de la Croix.-S. Paul enfin, dans ses deux Epîtres aux Chrétiens de cette ville célèbre la regarde comme la plus riche conquête de son apostolat, et la plus belle portion du troupeau de Jésus Christ.”

Speaking further of the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles, "ses premières écoles," says he, "ont été les places publiques; ses premières chairs, les tribunaux et les échafauds; ses premiers auditeurs, les sages et les philosophes; ses premiers triomphes, Rome et la Grèce devenues Chrétiennes au sein de l'idolâtrie."

The above extracts may serve to show how reasonable it is to turn to St. Paul's addresses to his Corinthian converts, for the most exalted and comprehensive views of the Christian dispensation.

In short, in St. Paul's admirable comparison of the first and second ADAM, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, we have the whole scheme of revelation displayed before us; we have the beginning and end of things unfolded to us, and brought together, as the consummation of all our hopes, all our expectations, and all our future prospects.

Without this knowledge, man might still for ever "walk in a vain shadow, and disquiet himself in vain;" but here, all difficulties which might perplex us, in regard to ourselves, our nature, history, and future destination, are solved; without this knowledge,

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ST. PAUL CHALLENGED INQUIRY.

there are in us all, contrarieties and contradictions, which might perplex and distress us from the cradle to the grave, such as the present corruptions, and, if I may so speak, littlenesses of our nature, compared with the grandeur of our hopes; the misery of man, as the sinful and sinning offspring of our first parents, compared with the glory of man, when made by adoption and grace, a child of God, and through CHRIST, an "inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.”

I have now shown, at the hazard indeed of offending against the taste of the times, by what are called learned references, that Christianity was not introduced into the world, as a religion that was to bear down men's understandings, and supersede all inquiry. There could not have been a more direct challenge to inquiry given than in St. Paul's address to the Corinthians; and we see it was a challenge taken up and accepted, by no mean combatants in the field of literature, of science, and philosophy; such as they were in those days; defective certainly; but by whom were these defects detected, exposed, and made known so effectually and so forcibly, as by those heathen philosophers, whose eyes became opened to the superior light of Christianity?

It is common to talk of the apostles as mere fishermen, and of Moses as no philosopher-were this all true to the letter, believers know well that, divine inspiration could at any time have overcome such deficiencies; but it is to shame and silence the contempt of unbelievers and the careless among the educated classes, that I am anxious to show, that Christianity from its very foundation (that is, as intimately connected with the history of the first Adam), passed the ordeal of critical examination, eighteen hundred years

KNOWLEDGE A QUESTIONABLE ATTAINMENT. 57

ago, and was pronounced to be indisputable, not merely as a divine relation, but historically and chronologically indisputable; and, therefore, not now to be set aside by any puny efforts of scepticism or infidelity; it need to be contradicted by positive and very clear facts.

If all that we see and know can be rendered intelligible to a certain extent by what we read in the books of Holy Scripture, and no otherwise, those who turn away from the information they might there find, must be left to reap the fruits of their own ignorance, for ignorance I must have leave to call it, being a defect of knowledge that might be removed. Nor should it be overlooked, that knowledge after all, is an acquirement capable of measurement, and I might add, of analysis-no person living can know every thing; nor can it be expected that the knowledge of any two individuals upon the face of the whole earth, should upon examination be found to be the same either in amount, substance, or quality; if we take account only of the quantity of the knowledge of any given individuals, as collected from casual observation, or study of books, it is very certain that we may arrive at very different results; the observation and study of one may have determined him to become a sound believer, while the observation and study of another may have made him an hardened infidel; and thus it is that persons accounted very wise, very learned, and very extensively informed, in a worldly point of view, may yet be grossly, nay inexcusably ignorant, of things of more consequence. To judge properly therefore of any man's knowledge as collected from the huge mass of information accessible to the public at large, it is almost as necessary to

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IGNORANCE, WHERE IN EXCUSABLE.

ascertain what he has not read and considered, as what he has; a man whose knowledge may not be over-rated in point of amount, may yet fall into great mistakes as to what he really does not know. While there is no end to the things, that by diligent research, and curious investigation, may become known to any man, there may be a few after all that should be known by every man.

There can undoubtedly be no truths so important, as those which relate to heaven, the earth, and man its chief inhabitant; if these three be unconnected, it must be granted, that to "eat and drink, for tomorrow we die," may be suitable enough to the short time we have to spend here; but if there be a book extant, of high and known character, which treats largely and most seriously of such a connection; and which in most plain terms tells us, that it is indeed, "appointed unto all men once to die," but AFTER THAT, "the Judgment," surely such information demands attention, and none can wilfully turn away from it without great hazard. It has been said, I know, and by persons reputed wise, that no man is accountable for his belief; but surely any neglect of proffered information on points of unquestionable importance, may render any man accountable for his unbelief, or at all events for his ignorance.

PART III.

HAVING now said almost as much as I intended to say of the sacred history of man, deliberately received and assented to, by most learned pagans, on the authority of St. Paul, as the minister of Christ, to the Gentile nations generally, but more particularly to the wisest and most accomplished of the Gentile nations, in fact the Grecians and Romans; I proceed to that of the earth, having of course, in this portion of my work, some observations to make on the researches and labours of our modern geologists. Labours I take leave to call them, for though I have not heard of their actually going to the bottom of wells to bring up truth from her proverbial hiding place, I have certainly heard much of their going to the bottom of most hideous caverns, in search of her, and of their having carried their researches so far, as to be able to tell us, not only all that has passed on the "heights above," of this terraqueous globe, but almost all that is passing, at the present moment, in the "depths below."

No man can be less disposed than myself, to depreciate the very curious inquiries of this eminent class of naturalists, though I shall hold myself excused from any obligation to declare, how many of their conclusions I am disposed to adopt, and from how many I have hitherto been led to withhold all concurrence. In truth, though I have passed much of my