that it seems equally impossible that they should ever have been derived from the knowledge or the artifice of man.

And here I cannot omit observing, that the personal character of the Author of this religion is no less new and extraordinary than the religion itself, who "spake as never man spake," and lived as never man lived. In proof of this, I do not mean to allege that He was born of a virgin, that He fasted forty days, that He performed a variety of miracles, and after being buried three days, that He arose from the dead; because these accounts will have but little effect on the minds of unbelievers, who, if they believe not the religion, will give no credit to the relation of these facts; but I will prove it from facts which cannot be disputed. For instance, He is the only founder of a religion in the history of mankind which is totally unconnected with all human policy and government, and therefore totally unconducive to any worldly purpose whatever; all others, Mohammed, Numa, and even Moses himself, blended their religious institutions with their civil, and by them obtained dominion over their respective people; but Christ neither aimed at, nor would accept of any such power; He rejected every object which all other men pursue, and made choice of all those which others fly from and are afraid of. He refused power, riches, honours, and pleasure, and courted poverty, ignominy, tortures, and death. Many have been the enthusiasts and impostors, who have endeavoured to impose on the world pretended revelations, and some of them, from pride, obstinacy, or principle, have gone so far as to lay down their lives rather than retract; but I defy history to shew one who ever made his own sufferings and death a necessary part of his original plan, and essential to his mission. This Christ actually did; He foresaw, foretold, declared their necessity, and voluntarily endured them. If we seriously contemplate the Divine lessons, the perfect precepts, the beautiful discourses, and the consistent conduct of this wonderful person,

CONTRAST WITH PAGANISM.

69

we cannot possibly imagine that He could have been either an idiot or a madman; and yet if He was not what He pretended to be, He can be considered in no other light; and even under this character He would deserve some attention, because of so sublime and rational an insanity there is no other instance in the history of mankind.

If any one can doubt of the superior excellence of this religion above all which preceded it, let him but peruse with attention those unparalleled writings in which it is transmitted to the present times, and compare them with the most celebrated productions of the pagan world; and if he is not sensible of their superior beauty, simplicity, and originality, I will venture to pronounce that he is as deficient in taste as in faith, and that he is as bad a critic as a Christian. For in what school of ancient philosophy can he find a lesson of morality so perfect as Christ's Sermon on the Mount? From which of them can he collect an address to the Deity so concise, and yet so comprehensive, so expressive of all that we want and all that we could deprecate, as that short prayer which He formed for, and recommended to His disciples? From the works of what sage of antiquity can he produce so pathetic a recommendation of benevolence to the distressed, and enforced by such assurances of a reward, as in those words of Christ"Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; I was naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and visited me; ye I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? Then shall he answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto

you, Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me"? Where is there so just and so elegant a reproof of eagerness and anxiety in worldly pursuits, closed with so forcible an exhortation to confidence in the goodness of our Creator, as in these words-" Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin ; and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these: wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" By which of their most celebrated poets are the joys reserved for the righteous in a future state, so sublimely described, as by this short declaration, that they are superior to all description-"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him"? Where, amidst the dark clouds of pagan philosophy, can he shew us such a clear prospect of a future state, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the dead, and the general judgment, as in St Paul's first to the Corinthians? Or from whence can he produce such cogent exhortations to the practice of every virtue, such ardent incitements to piety and devotion, and such assistances to attain them, as those which are to be met with throughout every passage of these inimitable writings? To quote all the passages in them relative to these subjects, would be almost to transcribe the whole; it is sufficient to observe, that they are everywhere stamped with such apparent marks of supernatural assistance, as render them indisputably superior to, and totally unlike all human compositions whatever; and this superiority and dissimilarity is still more strongly marked by one remarkable circumstance peculiar to themselves, which is, that whilst

CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY RELIGION.

71

the moral parts, being of the most general use, are intelligible to the meanest capacities, the learned and inquisitive throughout. all ages perpetually find in them inexhaustible discoveries, concerning the nature, attributes, and dispensations of Providence. To say the truth, before the appearance of Christianity there existed nothing like religion on the face of the earth, the Jewish only excepted: all other nations were immersed in the grossest idolatry, which had little or no connexion with morality, except to corrupt it by the infamous examples of their imaginary deities: they all worshipped a multiplicity of gods and demons, whose favour they courted by impious, obscene, and ridiculous ceremonies, and whose anger they endeavoured to appease by the most abominable cruelties. In the politest ages of the politest nations in the world, at a time when Greece and Rome had carried the arts of oratory, poetry, history, architecture, and sculpture to the highest perfection, and made no inconsiderable advance in those of mathematics, natural and even moral philosophy, in religious knowledge they had made none at all-a strong presumption that the noblest efforts of the mind of man, unassisted by revelation, were unequal to the task. Some few, indeed, of their philosophers were wise enough to reject these general absurdities, and dared to attempt a loftier flight. Plato introduced many sublime ideas of nature, and its First Cause, and of the immortality of the soul, which being above his own and all human discovery, he probably acquired from the books of Moses or the conversation of some Jewish rabbis, which he might have met with in Egypt, where he resided, and studied for several years; from him Aristotle, and from both Cicero and some few others, drew most amazing stores of philosophical science, and carried their researches into divine truths as far as human genius alone could penetrate. But these were bright constellations, which appeared singly in several centuries, and even these with all this knowledge were very deficient in true

theology. From the visible works of the creation they traced the being and principal attributes of the Creator; but the relation which His being and attributes bear to man they little understood. Of piety and devotion they had scarce any sense, nor could they form any mode of worship worthy of the purity and perfection of the Divine nature. They occasionally flung out many elegant encomiums on the native beauty and excellence of virtue, but they founded it not on the commands of God, nor connected it with a holy life, nor hung out the happiness of heaven as its reward, or its object. .

....

At this time Christianity broke forth from the East like a rising sun, and dispelled this universal darkness which obscured every part of the globe, and even at this day prevails in all those remoter regions to which its salutary influence has not as yet extended. From all those which it has reached, it has, notwithstanding its corruptions, banished all those enormities, and introduced a more rational devotion and purer morals: it has taught men the unity and attributes of the Supreme Being, the remission of sins, the resurrection of the dead, life everlasting, and the kingdom of heaven; doctrines as inconceivable to the wisest of mankind antecedent to its appearance as the Newtonian system is at this day to the most ignorant tribes of savages in the wilds of America; doctrines which human reason never could have discovered, but which, when discovered, coincide with and are confirmed by it; and which, though beyond the reach of all the learning and penetration of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero, are now clearly laid open to the eye of every peasant and mechanic with the Bible in his hand. These are all plain facts, too glaring to be contradicted; and therefore, whatever we may think of the authority of these books, the relations which they contain, or the inspiration of their authors, of these facts no man who has eyes to read, or ears to hear, can entertain a doubt; because there are the books, and in them is this religion,