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what they will; surely candour ought to incline the adversary to impute the evils complained of, not to our religion, but to the depravity or folly of those wretched men, who have corrupted or disguised it by unwarrantable additions and misrepresentations; or who, knowing the power of religion over the human heart, have made use of its venerable name for the more effectual accomplishment of their own ambitious, sensual, or sanguinary purposes*. Is the physician's prescription to be blamed, because they who administered, or who swallowed the draught, have thought proper to mix it with noxious ingredients of their own contrivance? Or, while all our senses bear testimony to its purity, is the fountain to be undervalued, because men may have been so unwise, or so wicked, as to pollute the stream? As long as we have the means of knowing the genuine doctrine of the gospel, that is, as long as the New-Testament remains, it is not less repugnant to every idea of justice or candour, to impute to Christianity the evil deeds of those who profess it, than it would be to upbraid a pious and prudent father with the disobedience of a profligate son, or to arraign a good sovereign for the crimes of a rebellious subject.

2. What the second objection states, concerning the great men of pagan antiquity, I am not solicitous to controvert. The abilities displayed by some of those commanders, orators, historians, poets, statuaries, and architects, were, I confess, very great; and, perhaps, have not been excelled or equalled since their time. But this affects not the present argument. A Christian may be a great man, and his religion will in many cases help to make him truly so: but Christ and his apostles taught, and suffered, and died, not to make men renowned in this world, but to raise them to glory, honour, and immortality, in that which is to come. The persons, on whom he pronounced benediction, were, not the learned, the ingenious, or the mighty, but the pure in spirit, the pure in heart, the meek, the merciful, the penitent, and the lovers of righteousness and peace. To the heathen moralist and his disciple, whose views

did not reach beyond the present life, it might be a very interesting matter to know, by what means a man may so distinguish himself as to be admired by his fellow-citizens: but to the Christian, whose supreme concern it is to please God, and whose views extend forward to eternity, this is but a trivial consideration.

VII. By some well-meaning, but weak minds, and by some of a different character, who were vain of their philosophy, the apparent insignificance of the human race, may have been thought, to lessen the credibility of the Christian religion. Compared to the extent of our solar system, this earth is but a point; and the solar system itself, compared to the universe, may be little more. Now then, say they, is it possible to imagine, that such creatures as we are can be of so great importance, as that the Deity should send his Son, accompanied with so many displays of divine power, into this little word, to instruct us by his doctrine and example, and die on a cross to accomplish our salvation.

This, is, indeed an astonishing proof of the goodness of the great Creator, and of the condescension of that glorious Person, who, for our sake willingly submitted to such debasement. But the infinite goodness and power of God, though surpassing all comprehension, cannot exceed the belief of those, who know, that he, in order to communicate felicity, created this boundless universe, with all the varieties of being it contains; whom he continually supports and governs, and with every individual of whom he is continually present. The object may be too vast for any intelligence that is short of infinite: but to Him who sees all things, and can do all things, who had no beginning, and can have no end, all this must be easy; incomparably casier indeed, than it is for a father to take care of his child, or for a generous friend, to relieve his indigent neighbour. God's dispensations, with respect to man, may reasonably enough, overwhelm us with gratitude and adoration, and with a most humiliating sense of our unworthiness; but let us take care that they do not raise within us an evil spirit of unbelief: which they will not do, un

less we have the inexcusable temerity to judge of him by ourselves; and to infer, because our goodness is no. thing, that his cannot be perfect; and, because we are ignorant and weak, that he cannot be omniscient and almighty. Far less absurd would it be for the unlettered peasant to deny the possibility of calculating eclipses; for the blind to believe, that, because they cannot see, there is none else who can; and, for the poor to conclude, because they cannot relieve themselves, that it is not in the power of gencrosity to relieve them.

Great extent is a thing so striking to our imagination, that sometimes, in the moment of forgetfulness, we are apt to think nothing can be important, but what is of vast corporeal magnitude. And yet, even to our apprehension, when we are willing to be rational, how much more sublime and more interesting an object is a mind like that of Newton, than the unwieldy force and brutal stupididy of such a monster as the poets describe Polyphemus? Who, that had it in his power, would scruple to destroy a whale, in order to preserve a child? Nay, when compared with the happiness of one immortal mind, the greatest imaginable accumulation of inanimate substance, must appear an insignifiçant thing. If we consider, says Bentley, the digni'ty of an intelligent being, and put that in the scale, 'against brute and inanimate matter, we may affirm, ' without overvaluing human nature, that the soul of 'one virtuous man, is of greater worth and excellency, 'than the sun and his planets, and all the stars in the 'world.' Let us not then make bulk the standard of value; or judge of the importance of man from the weight of his body, or from the size or situation of the planet that is now his place of abode.

Our Saviour, as if to obviate objections of this nature, expresses most emphatically the superintending care of Providence, when he teaches, that it is God who adorns the grass of the field, that without him a sparrow falls not on the ground, and that even the hairs of our head are numbered. Yet this is no exaggera VOL. ii.

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tion; but must, if God is omniscient and almighty, be literally true. By a stupendous exuberance of animal, vegetable, and mineral production, and by an apparatus still more stupendous, (if that were possible,) for the distribution of light and heat, he supplies the means of life and comfort to the short-lived inhabitants of this globe. Can it then appear incredible; nay, does not this consideration render it in the highest degree probable, that he has also prepared the means of eternal happiness for beings, whom he has formed for eternal duration, whom he has endowed with faculties so noble as those of the human soul, and, for whose accommodation chiefly, during their present state of trial, he has provided all the magnificence of this sublunary world?

As far as our knowledge of nature extends, there is a wonderful subserviency of one thing to another. By means of comets it is probable, and by means of attraction it is possible, that our solar system may be connected with other solar systems. Our primary and secondary planets, all dependent on the great central orb, reciprocally transmit their influences; whereby our atmosphere is variously affected, and prepared for yielding nourishment to the innumerable tribes of animal and vegetable nature that surround us: and from man, to the most diminutive insect, and from the oak and cedar, to the smallest organised body, the microscope can discover, every individual being, is, not only complete in itself, consisting of parts mutually adapted, and operating to their respective ends, but is also subservient to the necessities of we know not how many other animal and vegetable species.-In unseen worlds is it not probable, that similar analogies may take place?

In this our first period of existence, our eye cannot penetrate beyond the present scene, and the human race appears one great and separate community: but with other worlds, and other communities, we probably may, and every argument for the truth of our religion gives us reason to think that we shall be connected hereafter. And if, by our behaviour, we may, even while here, as

our Lord positively affirms, heighten in some degree, the felicity of angels, our salvation may hereafter be a matter of importance, not to us only, but to many other orders of immortal beings. They, it is true, will not suffer for our guilt, nor be rewarded for our obedience, But it is not absurd to imagine, that our fall and recov. ery may be useful to them as an example; and, that the divine grace manifested in our redemption may raise their adoration and gratitude into higher raptures, and quicken their ardour to inquire, with every new delight, into the dispensations of infinite wisdom. This is not mere conjecture. It derives plausibility from many analogies in nature; as well as from Holy Writ, which represents the mystery of our redemption as an object of curiosity to superior beings, and our repentance as an occasion of their joy.

That mankind should, in every part of their duration, remain a separate community, and unconnected with all the rest of the universe, would be a very extravagant conceit. Yet even on this supposition, they would not lose their importance; and the religion of our Saviour, considered as the means of eternal happiness to millions of the human race, will appear a work of such benignity, as could only proceed from the best of beings, and of such magnitude, as to be worthy of the greatest.

It is a strange perversion of science, when men contract their views in the same proportion in which their knowledge of nature is extended. Yet this must be the case of those, who think it easier to divine power to make and preserve one world, than to create and govern ten thousand worlds, If we judge of the divine power from what we know of our own, both are impossible. And, to divine power, supposed to be infinitely superior to ours, both are not only possible, but easy, and equally so. The time was, when this globe was believed to be the universe; and the sun, moon, and stars, to have been framed for no other purpose, but to enlighten and adorn this our habitation. If he, who entertains this opinion, find no difficulty in conceiving

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