Consider the wonderful fulfilment of these prophecies, which have their accomplishment so accurately in the person of Jesus Christ, that none, but he who is determined to blind himself, can fail to recognize him.

Consider the state of the Jewish people, both previously and subsequently to the coming of Christ; its flourishing state before the coming of the Saviour, and its miserable condition since they rejected him; for even at this day, they are without any peculiar marks of their religion, without a temple, without sacrifices, scattered over the whole world, the contempt and scorn of all nations.

Consider the perpetuity of the Christian religion, which has always subsisted from the beginning of the world, either in the Old Testament saints, who lived in the expectation of Christ before his coming, or in those who have received and believed on him since. No other religion has that perpetuity, which is the chief characteristic of the true religion.

Finally, consider the holiness of this religion, its doctrine, which gives a reason for all things, even for the contrarieties which are found in man, and all other peculiarities, supernatural and divine, which shine forth on every side.

And judge, from all this evidence, if it is possible to doubt, that Christianity is the only true religion, and if any other religion ever possessed anything which could hear comparison with it.

CHAPTER V.

PROOFS OF TRUE RELIGION, FROM THE CONTRARIETIES IN MAN, AND FROM ORIGINAL SIN.

I.

THE greatness and the misery of man are both so manifest, that it is essential to true religion, to recognize in man, a certain principle of extraordinary greatness, and also a principle of profound misery. For that religion which is true, must thoroughly know our nature, in all its grandeur, and in all its misery, and must comprehend the source of both. It must also give an explanation of those astonishing contrarieties which we find within us. If there be one essence, the beginning and the end of all things, true religion should teach us to worship and to love him exclusively. But since we find ourselves unable to worship him whom we know not, and to love anything beyond ourselves, it is essential that the religion which requires of us these duties, should warn us also of our weakness, and make known to us the remedy.

Religion, to make man happy, should teach him that there is a God; that we ought to love him; that it is our true happiness to be his, and our only real evil to be separated from him; it should show us that we are full of darkness, which hinders us from knowing and loving him; and that our duty, thus requiring us to love God, and our evil affections alienating us from him, we are in an evil state. It should discover to us the cause of this opposition to God, and to our real welfare; it should point out to us the remedy and the means of obtaining it. Examine all the reli

gious systems in the world on these several points, and see if any other than Christianity will satisfy you respecting them.

Shall it be the religion taught by those philosophers, who offer to us as the chief good, our own moral excellence? Is this, then, the supreme good? Have these men discovered the remedy of our evils? Have they found a cure for the presumption of man, by making him equal with God? And they who have levelled us with brutes, and held up as the chief good the sensual delights of earth, have they found a cure for our corrupt affections? The former say: Lift up your eyes to God, behold him whom you resemble, and who has made you for his worship; you may make yourselves like him; and, if you follow the dictates of wisdom, you will become his equals. The latter say: Look to the dust, vile reptiles that you are, and consider the beasts with whom you are associated.

What then is to be the lot of man? Is he to be equal with God, or with the beasts? How awful the distance! What shall be our destiny? What religion shall instruct us to correct our pride and all our sinful propensities? Where is the religion that shall teach us, our happiness and our duty, the weaknesses which cause us to err, the specific for their removal, and the way to obtain it? Hear what the wisdom of God declares on this subject, when it speaks to us in the Christian religion.

It is in vain, O man! that you seek in yourself the remedy of your miseries. All the light you have can only show you, that you cannot find within yourself either truth or happiness. Philosophers have promised you both; but they could give you neither. They know not your real happiness, nor even your real state. How could they have

cured those ills, since they did not even know them? Your chief evils are, pride which alienates you from God, and those sensual passions which fetter you to earth; and they have invariably fostered, at least, one or other of these evils. If they placed God before you, it was only to excite your pride, by making you believe that your nature was similar to his. And those who saw the folly of such a pretension, have led you to an equally dangerous precipice, by teaching you that your nature was on a level with the beasts, and that happiness was to be found in those lusts which you have in common with them. This was not the way to convince you of your errors. Seek not then from men, either truth or consolation. I am he who made you, and I alone can teach you what you are. But you are not now in the state in which I created you. I made man holy, innocent and perfect; I filled him with light and understanding; I made known to him my glory, and the wonders of my hand. held the majesty of God. He ness which now blinds him. or misery. But he could not bear such glory, without falling into presumption. He wished to make himself the centre of his own happiness, and to live independently of my aid. He withdrew from beneath my authority; and when, by the desire to find happiness in himself, he aimed to put himself on a level with me, I abandoned him to his own guidance; and, causing all the creatures that I had subjected to him to revolt from him, I made them his enemies; so that now, man has become similar to the beasts, and he is so far removed from me, that he scarcely retains even a confused notion of the Author of his being; so much have all his original impressions been obliterated and

Then the eye of man bewas not then in the darkHe knew not then mortality

obscured! His senses, uncontrolled by reason, and often overruling it, hurry him onward in search of pleasure. All creatures either afflict or tempt him, and they rule over him, either subduing him by their strength, or seducing him by their fascinations,—a control, the most cruel and imperious.

Behold then the present state and condition of men. They retain a powerful instinctive impression of the happiness of their primitive nature, and they are plunged in the miseries of their blindness and lust, which has become their second natnre.

II.

In the principles which I have here stated, you may discern the spring of those wonderful contrarieties which have confounded, while they have distracted and divided, all mankind. Watch now all the emotions of greatness and glory, which the sense of so many miseries cannot extinguish, and see if they must not have their source in another nature.

III.

See, then, proud man, what a paradox thon art to thyself. Let impotent reason be humbled; let frail nature be silent. Know that man infinitely surpasses man, and learn, from thy Maker, thy real condition, of which thou art ig

norant.

For, in fact, had man never been corrupted, he would have enjoyed truth and happiness with an assured delight. And had man never been any other than corrupted, he would never have had any idea of truth and blessedness. But wretched as we are, more wretched than if we had never felt the consciousness of greatness, we do retain a