from the New Testament alone, could ever imagine the hierarchy of a national church to be such a ministry as it describes, or that its appointments and laws have any connexions or ends in common with the primitive Christian institutions? The latter are related to the religion, simply as means of promoting it, and they are invariably and exclusively in harmony with its spiritual character. If men learn any thing of the nature of the Christian faith, they know that it is not a system for the aggrandizement of its teachers, and their elevation to temporal power. They can perceive nothing of intention on the part of its Author, to give it incorporation with political governments, to make civil sovereigns the head of the Church, and to invest its pastors with the character and symbols of political legislators. It cannot, then, be supposed, that institutions which are founded in opposition to those of the Gospel, can tend to advance it. It is unreasonable and preposterous to expect, that institutions which are secular in their spirit and character, and which subvert the order of means essentially connected by the will of its Author with the whole economy of the Christian religion, can advance its interests. Accordingly, we shall find the power and influence of secular churches exerted against the diffusion of knowledge, and the liberty of conscience indispensable to the examination of proposed doctrines, to the rejection of error, and the reception of the truth;-we shall find a constant resistance, in their supporters, to the means by which ignorance and superstition are opposed, and the most vigorous determination to uphold the established forms and dogmas. In some instances, happily for mankind, the power of these bodies is diminished, and their spirit controlled; but the change is to be attributed, where these impaired energies are most observable, to innovations which were denounced as false and wicked, and the authors of which were punished as public disturbers, and which acquired by slow degrees the strength with which they pressed successfully against the despotisms that would have crushed them. Who will deny the decline of Church power, and the consequent extension of religious knowledge in this country, to be the result of proceedings to which the Church itself was averse? But where the political ascendancy still guards the exclusive pretensions of the Church, and invests her with supreme authority, we see hinderances to the Christian religion in number and in force sufficient to confirm us in our belief, that state religions, whatever be the profession, are connected with ends which true religion renounces; and that, as the Author of Christianity has provided, in its simple institutions and the spiritual power which accompanies it, for its preservation and extension, so, the impediments to its progress, can only be overcome by their introduction and prevalence. All secularities, all political alliances, all exclusive and excluding polities, are anti-Christian, and must cease to be known

when men shall be awakened and excited to the inquiries which fix their attention on the primary objects and true uses of a divine religion, and feel the powers of the world to come.

We have noticed the superior claims which these volumes present for our approbation, in the distinguished manner in which the Author treats of the uses of the religion of the New Testament. Such sentiments as the following pervade the work; and we extract the passage which contains them, as indicating the spirit in which the writer directs application of his arguments: it occurs in the Lecture on the trial of Christianity from experience.

What, we ask, is there in these internal perceptions of life and consolation and strength, derived from the doctrines of Christianity, which should EXCITE OUR ASTONISHMENT? Would not the wonder be, if there were no such feelings, no such inward witness to the soul? What! are there excellencies in human knowledge, and shall there be none in divine? What! is an intelligent, well-educated man allowed to have powers of expression, and means of exciting our surprise and pleasure, beyond those of a child, and shall not the language of apostles and prophets, and the discoveries concerning God and the soul and eternity, be admitted to awaken emotions beyond the mere trifles of human knowledge and instruction! What! are men of uncommon endowments, as Bacon, Pascal, Newton, allowed to rise above those of ordinary talents, and are they expected to take wider views, and make more important communications, and excite warmer feelings of wonder, admiration, gratitude; and shall not the great and infinite God be allowed to surpass all the petty communications of man, in the mysteries of his will, in the importance of his commands, in the depths of his mercy, and in the correspondent emotions of fear, love, faith, hope, grateful joy, affiance, awakened in the heart? What! do we allow that in the displays of glory and beauty in the works of creation, the natural perfections of God may be contemplated and known, and become to the pious and duly prepared mind, the sources of internal peace, thanksgiving, prayer, admiration, obedience, resignation; and shall we not admit, that men may see the moral perfections of God in the Gospel? Shall all his mercy and wisdom and infinite contrivance in redemption have no effect upon the soul?-Shall the stupendous fact of the incarnation be received with a tame indifference? What! do men allow that tidings of joy and deliverance in human things should call up proportionate affections; and that he would be thought a monster of ingratitude, who should receive with apathy the news of an immense act of royal clemency extended to him when condemned to death; and shall we not allow that the glorious and unexpected tidings of redemption from eternal death, should awaken all the gratitude of the soul? Shall not pardon and life and adoption and the hope of heaven, overwhelma the heart with some correspondent perceptions and

emotions?

Yes, it is most reasonable, that if there be such a thing as a Revelation from the great God, comprising such amazing discoveries as the Gospel, affecting such all-important interests, promising such mighty aids of the Holy Spirit, laying down such grounds of faith and love and

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from the New Testament alone, could ever imagine the hierarchy of a national church to be such a ministry as it describes, or that its appointments and laws have any connexions or ends in common with the primitive Christian institutions? The latter are related to the religion, simply as means of promoting it, and they are invariably and exclusively in harmony with its spiritual character. If men learn any thing of the nature of the Christian faith, they know that it is not a system for the aggrandizement of its teachers, and their elevation to temporal power. They can perceive nothing of intention on the part of its Author, to give it incorporation with political governments, to make civil sovereigns the head of the Church, and to invest its pastors with the character and symbols of political legislators. It cannot, then, be supposed, that institutions which are founded in opposition to those of the Gospel, can tend to advance it. It is unreasonable and preposterous to expect, that institutions which are secular in their spirit and character, and which subvert the order of means essentially connected by the will of its Author with the whole economy of the Christian religion, can advance its interests. Accordingly, we shall find the power and influence of secular churches exerted against the diffusion of knowledge, and the liberty of conscience indispensable to the examination of proposed doctrines, to the rejection of error, and the reception of the truth;-we shall find a constant resistance, in their supporters, to the means by which ignorance and superstition are opposed, and the most vigorous determination to uphold the established forms and dogmas. In some instances, happily for mankind, the power of these bodies is diminished, and their spirit controlled; but the change is to be attributed, where these impaired energies are most observable, to innovations which were denounced as false and wicked, and the authors of which were punished as public disturbers, and which acquired by slow degrees the strength with which they pressed successfully against the despotisms that would have crushed them. Who will deny the decline of Church power, and the consequent extension of religious knowledge in this country, to be the result of proceedings to which the Church itself was averse? But where the political ascendancy still guards the exclusive pretensions of the Church, and invests her with supreme authority, we see hinderances to the Christian religion in number and in force sufficient to confirm us in our belief, that state religions, whatever be the profession, are connected with ends which true religion renounces; and that, as the Author of Christianity has provided, in its simple institutions and the spiritual power which accompanies it, for its preservation and extension, so, the impediments to its progress, can only be overcome by their introduction and prevalence. All secularities, all political alliances, all exclusive and excluding polities, are anti-Christian, and must cease to be known

when men shall be awakened and excited to the inquiries which fix their attention on the primary objects and true uses of a divine religion, and feel the powers of the world to come.

We have noticed the superior claims which these volumes present for our approbation, in the distinguished manner in which the Author treats of the uses of the religion of the New Testament. Such sentiments as the following pervade the work; and we extract the passage which contains them, as indicating the spirit in which the writer directs application of his arguments: it occurs in the Lecture on the trial of Christianity from experience.

What, we ask, is there in these internal perceptions of life and consolation and strength, derived from the doctrines of Christianity, which should EXCITE OUR ASTONISHMENT? Would not the wonder be, if there were no such feelings, no such inward witness to the soul? What are there excellencies in human knowledge, and shall there be none in divine? What! is an intelligent, well-educated man allowed to have powers of expression, and means of exciting our surprise and pleasure, beyond those of a child, and shall not the language of apostles and prophets, and the discoveries concerning God and the soul and eternity, be admitted to awaken emotions beyond the mere trifles of human knowledge and instruction! What! are men of uncommon endowments, as Bacon, Pascal, Newton, allowed to rise above those of ordinary talents, and are they expected to take wider views, and make more important communications, and excite warmer feelings of wonder, admiration, gratitude; and shall not the great and infinite God be allowed to surpass all the petty communications of man, in the mysteries of his will, in the importance of his commands, in the depths of his mercy, and in the correspondent emotions of fear, love, faith, hope, grateful joy, affiance, awakened in the heart? What! do we allow that in the displays of glory and beauty in the works of creation, the natural perfections of God may be contemplated and known, and become to the pious and duly prepared mind, the sources of internal peace, thanksgiving, prayer, admiration, obedience, resignation; and shall we not admit, that men may see the moral perfections of God in the Gospel ?-Shall all his mercy and wisdom and infinite contrivance in redemption have no effect upon the soul?-Shall the stupendous fact of the incarnation be received with a tame indifference? What! do men allow that tidings of joy and deliverance in human things should call up proportionate affections; and that he would be thought a monster of ingratitude, who should receive with apathy the news of an immense act of royal clemency extended to him when condemned to death; and shall we not allow that the glorious and unexpected tidings of redemption from eternal death, should awaken all the gratitude of the soul? Shall not pardon and life and adoption and the hope of heaven, overwhelm the heart with some correspondent perceptions and emotions?

Yes, it is most reasonable, that if there be such a thing as a Revelation from the great God, comprising such amazing discoveries as the Gospel, affecting such all-important interests, promising such mighty aids of the Holy Spirit, laying down such grounds of faith and love and

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hope in Christ Jesus, delivering man from such complicated misery, and exalting him to such heights of holy peace and joy-it is most reasonable, that there should be such a thing as perceiving the excellency and glory of it, as feeling its efficacy, as having an inward witness of its fulfilment and operations in our own breasts. There is nothing to astonish us in such effects: the matter of astonishment would be, if Christianity did not assert, and Christians not experience them." Vol. II. pp. 246–248.

The unreasonableness of infidelity has often been shewn, and yet it has its abettors. And so, we apprehend, it will have, till the means of supporting and extending Christian truth shall be better understood, and more correctly employed by those who profess it. It is of the utmost importance, that men should learn to look on the Christian religion in its own native colours; not to form erroneous notions of it, by deriving them through the medium of secular and corrupt institutions, or the irregular and inconsistent exhibitions of too many who hold the truth in unrighteousness, or are ignorant of its living principles. But the unreasonableness of infidelity, and the wisdom of true religion, are in contrast with each other.

The credulity of unbelief is the most extraordinary of all phenomena in the moral world. It can repose on mere speculative objections, in the teeth of history and experience; and yet it can believe all the absurdities and impossibilities which the consequences of rejecting Revelation bring with them! It can reject all the mighty credentials of Revelation, on the footing of imaginary difficulties; and yet it can believe that Christianity had no founder, no origin, no cause, no authorbut was the product of chance and accident!

'No! such objections prove the truth of the religion which they impugn; such reasonings go to confirm the evidences they would destroy. The weapons of unbelief are thus wrested from its feeble grasp, and are turned against itself. Our foes fall by their own arms. Infidelity cannot stand, if left to its own cause. Its suicidal hand inflicts the mortal blow. Never was there such a case as that of infidelity exhibited before the eyes of mankind. Let the young and candid inquirer judge.

Christianity comes forth surrounded with facts, historical proofs, a series of prophecies fulfilling before the eyes of mankind, a supernatural propagation and preservation of the Gospel in the world, prominent and obvious good effects as to every thing that touches human happiness: Infidelity comes forth with petty objections, speculative reasonings, vain imaginations. Christianity invites you to believe on far stronger grounds of faith than men are governed by every day: Infidelity tempts you to disbelieve on grounds which no single human being ever acted upon in common life. Christianity draws her arguments not from human reasonings, but from God, from facts, from experience, from the plainest dictates of moral duty, from proofs tangible and level to our capacity of judging: Infidelity draws her objections from the corrupt heart of man, from theory, from conjecture, from the