system which, after all, they secretly disbelieve. That there are many false pretenders to the faith of Christ is readily conceded; but after the names of all such have been struck off from the list of its genuine friends, there will yet remain a multitude of honest men, far above all suspicion, who, in life, and at death, have professed their sincere and heart-felt belief in the

religion of Jesus of Nazareth. To impugn their integrity, as men of veracity, would be alike absurd and unjust. They are, beyond doubt, entitled to all credit for sincerity, when, with the Bible in their hands, they exclaim, "We have not followed cunningly devised fables."

The great question then is, are they mistaken in the estimate which they have formed of the Bible? Are they under the influence of a delusion, though they fondly believe that they have embraced the truth of God? In deciding such inquiries as these, several considerations naturally occur to the mind, irrespective even of the direct evidences of the Christian Revelation.

What, then, has been the amount of intellectual

qualification possessed by Christians for investigating the truth or falsehood of their hopes? It may be true, indeed, that the mass of those who have embraced the gospel have been little elevated, in point of mind, above any other equal portion of the human race; although it cannot be denied, that in Christian countries the common people are much superior to their fellows in heathen lands. But be this as it may, can any one affirm that among the list of Christian advocates there are not to be found multitudes of men in the highest degree qualified to decide upon any question of evidence submitted to their notice? Will it be pretended that imbecility of intellect produced the faith of such men as Sir Isaac Newton, John Locke, Sir Matthew Hale, the Hon. Robert Boyle, Bishop Butler, Dr. Watts, Mr. Wilberforce, Dr. Paley, Dr. Beattie, Dr. Chalmers, and Robert Hall? Such a pretence, on the part of any infidel, would be equally fatal to his sense and candour. In grasp of mind, in depth of erudition, in diversity and extent of science, the pledged advocates of the gospel have had no rivals in the republic of

letters, or in the ranks of scepticism.* All who know any thing of the state of facts, must concede this point, that the sublimest exercise of reason is not incompatible with the most profound defer

"this is an

* The following eloquent passage, from a speech of the late Lord Erskine, delivered by him in the Court of King's Bench, on occasion of a prosecution for the publication of Paine's "Age of Reason," may not be unacceptable, as tending to illustrate the position, that superiority of intellect has been enlisted on the side of Christianity: "It seems, gentlemen," said his Lordship, age of reason; and the time and the person are at last arrived, that are to dissipate the errors which have overspread the past generation of ignorance. The believers in Christianity are many, but it belongs to the few that are wise to correct their credulity. Belief is an act of reason, and superior reason may, therefore, dictate to the weak.

"In running the mind along the list of sincere and devout Christians, I cannot help lamenting that Newton had not lived to this day, to have had his shallowness filled up with the new flood of light.

"But the subject is too awful for irony; I will speak plainly and directly. Newton was a Christian !-Newton, whose mind burst forth from the fetters cast by Nature upon our finite conceptions. Newton! whose science was truth, and the foundation of whose knowledge of it was philosophy; not those visionary and arrogant presumptions which too often usurp its name, but philosophy, resting upon the basis of methamatics, which,like figures, cannot lie. Newton, who carried the line and rule to the utmost barriers of the creation, and explored the principles by which, no doubt, all created matter is held together and exists.

"But this extraordinary man, in the mighty reach of

ence to the truth and excellence of Revelation. It is easy for some infidel demagogue to vaunt himself of his great wisdom and learning before an ignorant and vicious assembly; but let the

his mind, overlooked, perhaps, the errors which a minuter investigation of the created things on this earth might have taught him of the essence of his Creator.

"What, then, shall be said of the great Mr. Boyle, who looked into the organic structure of all matter, even to the brute inanimate substances which the foot treads on? Such a man may be supposed to have been equally qualified with Mr. Paine to look through Nature, up to Nature's God.' Yet, the result of all his contemplation was, the most confirmed and devout belief of all which the other held in contempt, as despicable and drivelling superstition.

"But this error might, perhaps, arise from a want of due attention to the foundations of human judgment, and the structure of that understanding which God has given us for the investigation of truth.

"Let that question be answered by Mr. Locke, who was, to the highest pitch of devotion and adoration, a Christian. Mr. Locke, whose office was to detect the errors of thinking, by going up to the fountains of thought, and to direct into the proper track of reasoning the devious mind of man, by shewing him its whole process, from the first perceptions of sense to the last conclusions of ratiocination; putting a rein, besides, upon false opinion, by practical rules for the conduct of human judgment.

"But, these men were only deep thinkers, and lived in their closets, unaccustomed to the traffic of the world, and to the laws which practically regulate mankind!

"Gentlemen! in the place where we now sit to administer the justice of this great country, above a century

entire history of the Christian era be appealed to as the proof, that the choicest spirits in each age, since the days of the apostles, have been the professed adherents of the gospel. Chris

ago, the never-to-be-forgotten Sir Matthew Hale presided,whose faith in Christianity is an exalted commentary upon its truth and reason, and whose life was a glorious example of its fruits in man,-administering human justice, with a wisdom and purity drawn from the pure fountain of the Christian dispensation, which has been, and will be in all ages, a subject of the highest reverence and admiration.

"But it is said by the author, that the Christian fable is but the tale of the more ancient superstitions of the world, and may easily be detected by a proper understanding of the mythologies of the heathen.

"Did Milton understand those mythologies? was he less versed than Mr. Paine in the superstitions of the world? No: they were the subject of his immortal song; and though shut out from all recurrence to them, he poured them forth from the stores of memory, rich with all that man ever knew, and laid them in their order, as the illustration of that exalted faith, the unquestionable source of that fervid genius, which cast a sort of shade upon all the other works of man. The mysterious incarnation of our blessed Saviour (which this work blasphemes in words so wholly unfit for the mouth of a Christian, or for the ear of a court of justice, that I dare not, and will not, give them utterance), Milton made the grand conclusion of the "Paradise Lost," the rest from his finished labours,—and the ultimate hope, expectation, and glory of the world.

'A virgin is His mother, but His sire

The Power of the Most High; he shall ascend

The throne hereditary, and bound His reign

With earth's wide bounds, His glory with the heavens.""