it shall perish." "That Christ knew the thoughts of the heart, gave sight to the blind, and speech to the dumb, healed incurable diseases, and raised the dead." The Koran even attributes three advantages to Jesus Christ, which it refuses to Abraham, to Moses, and to Mohammed himself; the first is, "that he was translated soul and body into heaven," from whence (it is said in the Zuna) "he shall return to judge the world in righteousness." The second is, that he shall be called "The Word of God:" and the third, that he shall be named, "The Holy Spirit of God." (See Confusio Secta Mohammedanæ, by Johannes Andreas, and many others.)

I would remind my readers that the reason of the above quotations is first, to show, that though the Koran so much disfigures Christianity, for the chastising of disobedient and hypocritical Christians; yet it admits enough of our doctrines to overthrow idolatry, and the external empire of Satan upon earth; insomuch that in Africa and India, Mohammedanism prepares idolaters for the reception of Christianity: and secondly to nourish our hope, that the Mohammedans, who have already such exalted notions of Jesus Christ, will embrace the Gospel, when the great scandals of the Christian Churches shall be done away; the additions which Mohammed has made to the Gospel being founded only upon false miracles and absurd reveries. On the contrary, pure Christianity, contained in the Gospel, is so reasonable, that all who examine with candour are obliged to acknowledge the force of those proofs which demonstrate its truth. From the above citations it is evident, that both Jews, Pagans, and Mohammedans have acknowledged the existence of our grand Prophet in such a manner that it remains an indubitable fact.

If you imagine that Jesus Christ was a false prophet, you believe that it was by mere chance that the temple and city of Jerusalem were destroyed, according to his prediction: and that it is mere accident which preserves the Jews in their dispersion and opprobrious condition, so clearly foretold by Moses. Or you suppose, against all probability, that the harmony of the Jewish and Christian prophecies, in this respect, is an imposture, plotted between Jews and Christians, to impose upon the world. Upon this supposition you likewise imagine, that when Jesus Christ said to his disciples, "I will make you fishers of men:" “Lo, I am with you to the end of the world:" "The gates of hell shall not prevail against my Church;"-you imagine, I say, that when Jesus Christ spake thus, he saw by accident that his Gospel would spread through all the Roman empire, and that the most powerful monarchs, Diocletian and Julian, should not be able to overturn Christianity; that his holy doctrine would be disseminated through all parts of the known world, and would even civilize nations in a part of the globe not then discovered. You moreover think that it was by mere chance that Jesus Christ foretold, in these words, the vile hypocrisy and scandalous divisions of wicked Christians: "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold."

Notwithstanding this spiritual apostasy of Christians in our days, so

clearly foretold by Jesus Christ and his apostles, (compare Matt. xxiv, 10, with 2 Tim. iii, 1-5, and 2 Thess. ii, 3, and 1 John ii, 18,) we see the other part of our Lord's prediction accomplishing, and Christianity daily extending through Russia and Siberia, even unto China and the east; while in the west it is franchising the Americans from that savage ferocity so natural to them.

It is vain superstition, credulity, false philosophy, and the rank apostasy of baptized infidels and professing worldlings, which rush forward, like the raging waves of the boiling deep, to overwhelm the fair structure of Christianity and to sap its firm foundations. But all their waves are broken: the Rock on which she stands remains immovable; and the prophecies of the Redeemer are daily advancing toward their full and complete accomplishment. "His fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into his garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire," Matt. iii, 10.

Twenty absurdities flow from the system of incredulity; for if you believe with some that the son of Mary was an impostor, you believe that a man whose character was the most modest and the most virtuous in the eyes of reason, through his whole life played a part the most abominable and diabolical. You suppose that an ambitious man (for such was Jesus if he was not the King of kings) was formed in a manner so different from other men, as openly to attack the prejudices of those among whom he was going to establish his reign; and that, contrary to appearances and to the springs of the human mind, he had formed the plan of bringing about his purpose by the cross, and rising to immortal honours by a death the most infamous.

If you say Jesus Christ was not an impostor, but a virtuous man, though a great enthusiast, you weave another web of absurdities. As a fanatic, could he conduct himself through his whole life with a wisdom and moderation which could never be impeached? As an illiterate man, with a brain deranged by folly, could he produce a system of morality more perfect than those of all legislators and of all philosophers? Beside, enthusiasts betray, at one time or other, such extravagances as shock right reason and manifest their folly; on the contrary, in the conduct of Jesus Christ, as well as in his morality, nothing is seen but a wisdom replete with sweetness, as far from fanaticism as moderation is from fury.

"One thing which charms me in the character of Jesus (says J. J. Rousseau) is not only the simplicity of his manners, but the facility, the grace, and even elegance. Although he was not the wisest of mortals, he was the most amiable." (His third letter to Montaigne.)

Moreover, as a man, who never showed himself but to attack all kinds of vice, could he have been an honest man if he had supported false pretensions by roguery, continual fraud, and imposture? There is no medium; either Jesus Christ is the incarnate Word; and as such he has confirmed his assertions by true miracles; or he was the most daring of impostors when he said, "I am the light of the world,”— "Verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am." "All men ought to honour the Son even as they honour the Father." hath seen me hath seen my Father also." "I have a greater witness than that of John; the works that I do bear witness that the Father

"He who

hath sent me." "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not: but if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works." "Go and tell John what things ye have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised."

If, yielding to the force of this multiplied evidence, you acknowledge that Jesus Christ and his apostles sustained their mission by miraculous works, you do no more than was done by Caiaphas, Celsus, Porphyry, those ancient enemies of Christianity who examined these evidences even up to their source, and who wanted neither penetration to discover their falsity, nor judgment to demonstrate the same, had such a fraud existed. And in this case reason will oblige you either to receive the Gospel, or to say, with obstinate unbelievers, that Jesus Christ and his apostles performed their miracles by the power of magic. But is it not much easier to believe in the Gospel than in this occult science? Beside, is it not most unreasonable to suppose that devils would league with Jesus Christ and his apostles to destroy the empire of vice, to overturn idols, to enlighten mankind, and to carry all the moral virtues to their highest degree of perfection, both in theory and practice?

Your system involves you in the same embarrassment with regard to the apostles. You are obliged to acknowledge, that either they were the true envoys of God, or else that persons of the greatest simplicity in conduct and writing, wherein they have displayed the most shining virtues, were only a band of the most obstinate knaves and liars. For, in constantly attesting the resurrection of their Master as eye witnesses of the fact, and in persisting in their evidence even unto death, without ever recanting, they were deeply stained with the most palpable knavery, and sustained it with more guile than was ever found among sharpers, and with more stubbornness than was ever manifested by robbers, whereof one in twelve at least confess their imposture and guilt when conducted to the last place of punishment. On the contrary, here one of the twelve, who suffered himself to be seduced by the enemies of his Master, after having done justice to his character, took away his own life in despair, to which he resigned himself for having betrayed innocent blood.

And wherefore so much zeal and constancy? If truth, seconded by a series of clear and evident facts, and by supernatural succours from heaven, had not supported the disciples of Jesus Christ even to the last moment of their bold and unshaken confession, what motives, what rewards, could have so strongly attached them to a crucified Master, as every where to preach his cross, sharing his poverty, his troubles, and his death?

If Jesus Christ be not risen, as he foretold, and if he did not fulfil his promise in shedding upon the apostles miraculous gifts, our credulity must needs exceed all bounds, in believing that twelve ignorant, twelve poor Galilean fishermen, at the instigation of a knave who had deceived them, should take it into their heads to subvert all religions in the world, beginning with that of their fathers, and should have accomplished their project without any other support but that of lies and the cross of their Master; without any other arms than moral precepts which offend the passions; without any other bait than a doctrine which crucifies the

flesh; and without any other allurement than dogmas which subvert the pride of philosophers. Such are the notions of our infidels, who so justly merit the name of fine geniuses, critics, and connoisseurs, because they can digest opinions destitute of probability.

Ought one not to have a soul all credulity, and proof against every ray of sound reason, to persuade one's self that twelve blind persons, set out from London to go and sap all the foundations of all the strong cities in Europe and Asia; and that they had accomplished their design without being seconded by a supernatural power, and without any other weapons than their walking sticks? Monstrous as this absurdity may appear, it is no greater than to suppose that twelve Jewish fishermen, without miraculous succours, overturned the foundations of Judaism and of Paganism, throughout the known world, in spite of all efforts that were made by all the priests and princes to oppose the religion of Jesus Christ.

O ye Deists, ye may applaud yourselves for your incredulity! But remember, that if prejudice and passion favour your system, we have reason, experience, and facts; and, after all, the absurdities which you are obliged to swallow in rejecting revelation, are more difficult to digest than the dogmas at which you stumble without reason. And never forget that faith leads to a hope the most sweet, and to a charity the most perfect; while your opinions conduct you to gloomy despair, and to a license that, after having broken the yoke of revelation, will not fail to destroy that of conscience. Melancholy observation this! the truth of which might be easily demonstrated by a multitude of anecdotes upon your apostles, if these kinds of proofs had not something in them too odious.

THE THREE PRINCIPLES.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF THE REV. JOHN FLETCHER.

BY MR. MARTINDALE.

THE regenerated man who is created anew after the image of God, that is, in the image of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, feels in himself three principles of activity. First, a principle of life, which he hath in common with all other animals. Secondly, a principle of intelligence, which he hath in common with devils. And thirdly, a principle of love, which he hath in common with holy angels. These three principles, replaced in their natural order, and purified by grace, constitute what the sacred writers call "the new creature." The first, the most radical, the most central of the three principles, from whence the other two proceed, is particularly the image of the Father. The second, which flows from the first, is particularly the image of the Son. And the third, which proceeds from the other two, with which it harmonizes, though always perfectly distinct, is particularly the image of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, who is the Spirit of love, of peace, of joy, and of perfection, and

who, by his holy presence, accomplishes the mystery of piety in the souls of those who are baptized with fire, in the name and power of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

These three principles residing at once in a soul, of which they compose the essence, one of them may operate with vigour, when the other two remain inactive: as in those visionary distractions, which we call dreams; and when a pious person is struck with an apoplexy, his intellect and his will cease to act; or if seized with a burning fever, though his intellects may be deranged, his love appears always active. In his delirium he prays, he preaches, and endeavours the performance of good works. In a person completely renewed in the image of Jesus Christ, these three principles are always in perfect harmony, for "true wisdom," and "pure love," ceaselessly flow from what St. Paul calls the "life of God." Thus in God, the Word and the Holy Spirit are always in the Father, as the Father is always in each of the other two. If this union be considered, it will be in no way surprising, that, in the Holy Scriptures, the Father, the Word, and the Divine Spirit, are equally named God, as only making one and the same Jehovah.

The mystery of the incarnation did not annihilate the divinity of the Word; we owe Divine honours to the Son of Mary, because the Word united himself with his soul in a manner the most intimate, and because "it pleased the ever-blessed God, that in Jesus Christ should dwell all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," in order that in the kingdom of grace a plenitude of life, of wisdom, and of love should reside in Christ, Col. i, 19, and ii, 9, as in the kingdom of nature, a plenitude of vivifying energy, of light, and of heat, resides in the sun.

"But I do not see (says a philosopher) how the Word, who was from all eternity with the Father, could be at one and the same time in heaven and on earth; in the bosom of the Father, and in the child Jesus.”

There are many other things which you do not understand, which are nevertheless true. You do not comprehend how your Father communicated to you life, and the power of thought and reasoning: you do not understand how the lustre of the sun can be at one and the same time in the whole atmosphere, and in your eyes. For my part, I can. not conceive in what manner any soul can make its will, (to speak so,) incarnate with my hand, so as to move it at pleasure; since the same union does not subsist between my will and my ears: if I cannot fathom this little mystery of my being, shall I be surprised if there are depths in the Supreme Being which I cannot fathom?

A savage, who hath no knowledge of pen, ink, and paper, carries the will of his master sealed in a letter. This to him is an impenetrable mystery, which astonishes his reason. We shall cease to be surprised, when we emerge from the deep gulfs of our ignorance. There will come a time, perhaps, when the savages of the moral world shall be so far enlightened by the Gospel, as to comprehend how the Almighty could unite his eternal Word to the spotless soul of Mary's Son, as we can now understand how men can commit their thoughts to paper, and transmit them to future generations.

"But why did not God explain to us the whole mystery?" Such a question is worthy of the savage, who might demand, Why did not my master unfold to me all the mystery of the sealed paper, which contained