have reclaimed millions from immorality?—a fact, too notorious to be denied by any impartial observer. Further, many of the immoral statements, which are said (but which cannot be proved) to exist in the Bible, are founded on a wilful inattention to the difference which exists between antient and modern manners. The characteristic of modern manners is the free intercourse of the two sexes in the daily commerce of life and conversation. Hence the peculiar system of modern manners; hence that system of decorum, delicacy, and modesty (founded on the morality of Scripture) which belong entirely to this relation of the sexes, and to the state of society in which it exists. But in the antient world there was nothing of this intercourse. Besides, the immoral actions which are recorded in Scripture are not related for our imitation, but for our caution.

OBJECTION X. The Bible inculcates a spirit of intolerance and persecution.

ANSWER.-The religion of Jesus Christ has been represented as of an unsocial, surly, and solitary complexion, tending to destroy every other, but itself. It does, indeed, tend to destroy every other, but in the same manner as truth in every subject tends to destroy falsehood, that is, by rational conviction. Jesus Christ uniformly discountenanced bigotry and intolerance in his disciples. Distinctions of nations, sects, or parties, as such, to him were nothing: distinctions of truth and falsehood, right and wrong, were to him every thing.

The moderation and liberality of pagan governments have been eulogised by the opposers of Christianity, who have asserted that persecution for religion was indebted for its first rise to the Christian system. The very reverse is the fact. Antient history records numerous instances of pagan governments that persecuted the professors of other religions.

Thus, the Athenians put Socrates to death, on account of his religious tenets; and Antiochus Epiphanes exercised the most horrid cruelties against the Jews for their religion. (1 Mac. i. 40-64.) Tiberius prohibited the Egyptian and Jewish worship, banished the Jews from Rome, and restrained the worship of the Druids in Gaul, while Claudius had recourse to penal laws to abolish their religion. Domitian and Vespasian banished the philosophers from Rome, and the former confined some of them in the islands, and whipped or put others to death. The violent

means and cruel persecutions which were adopted by pagan governors to annihilate the Christian religion, for three hundred years after its first origin, are too well known to be controverted.

Men, indeed, calling themselves Christians, have cruelly persecuted others; but the Gospel does not authorise such a conduct, and therefore is not chargeable with it. And facts and experience have proved (particularly in France during the revolution) that not the friends but the enemies of the Gospel-not sincere believers, but apostates and atheists,-have been the most cruel oppressors and persecutors, and the greatest enemies both of civil and religious liberty.

SECTION II. · - The wonderful Harmony and intimate Connection subsisting between all the Parts of Scripture, are a further Proof of its Divine Authority and Original.

Most of the writers of the Scriptures lived at very different times, and in distant places, through the long period of sixteen hundred years, so that there could be no confederacy or collusion: and yet their relations agree with, and mutually support, each other.

The same essential agreement, and the same dependency of one upon another, obtains also among the chief practical precepts, as well as between the doctrines and precepts of Christianity.

OBJECTION. -There are contradictions to morality as well as among the different writers themselves.

ANSWER. - These contradictions, as they are termed, are seeming only, and not real: they perplex only superficial readers. Noris there a single instance which does not admit of a rational solution, by attending to the original languages, and to the manners, customs, &c. that obtained in the countries where the scenes mentioned in Scripture were situated.

SECTION III. The Preservation of the Scriptures a Proof of their Truth and Divine Origin.

To nothing, indeed, but the mighty power of God, can we ascribe their preservation, amid all the attempts made to annihilate them.

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SECTION IV. The Tendency of the Scriptures to promote the present and eternal Happiness of Mankind, constitutes another Proof of their Divine Inspiration.

Were all men sincerely and cordially to believe the Bible to be a divine revelation, and to obey its precepts, how would the moral face of the world be changed! Wherever it has been thus embraced, the most beneficial effects have been the result.

I. The Writings of the earliest Professors of Christianity prove, that the first converts were reformed cha

racters.

1. For testimonies from the New Testament, compare Rom. vi. 21, 22. I Cor. vi. 9-11. 1 Pet. iv. 3, 4.

2. The various Christian Apologists, who were compelled to vindicate their character, bear ample testimony to their exemplary lives and conversation. Among these, the attestations of Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Origen, and Lactantius are particularly worthy of notice.

Though we cannot expect from PAGANS direct testimonies to the virtues of men whom they persecuted; yet the works of heathen writers incidentally furnish proofs of their innocence and worth. Pliny, for instance, in his memorable letter to Trajan, says, that the great crime of the Christians consisted,—not in the commission of any wickedness, but-in assembling together on a stated day before light to sing hymns to Christ as God. The apostate emperor Julian, also, in his epistle to an heathen pontiff, commended their charity and other virtues to the imitation of the pagans. If the Gospel were merely the contrivance of man, the virtues and holiness of the first Christians would be an inexplicable fact.

II. A Summary of the beneficial Effects of Christianity

on SOCIETY IN GENERAL.

The benevolent spirit of the Gospel has served as a bond of union between independent nations, and has broken down the partition which separated Heathens and Jews; has abated their prejudices, and has rendered them more liberal towards each other. Further, it has checked pride and promoted humility and

forgiveness; has rendered its sincere professors just and honest, and it has inspired them with firmness under persecution.

The benign influence of the Gospel has descended into families, and abolished polygamy; has diminished the pressure of private tyranny; has exalted and improved the female character; has improved every domestic endearment; given tenderness to the parent, humanity to the master, respect to superiors, and to inferiors ease: numberless charitable institutions unknown to the heathen world, have sprung from Christianity.

III. Beneficial Effects of Christianity on the POLITICAL STATE of the World.

A milder system of civil government, and a better administration of civil justice have been introduced: the horrors of war have been mitigated; and the measures of government have been directed to their proper objects.

IV. Beneficial Effects of Christianity on LITERATURE and the FINE ARTS.

Christianity has been the means of preserving and disseminating moral, classical, and theological knowledge in every nation where it has been established. The Law, the Gospel, the comments on them, and the works of the fathers, were written in Hebrew, Greek, or Latin, so that the knowledge of these languages became necessary to every man who wished to become an intelligent Christian. The Christian doctrines and precepts being contained in books, the use of letters became necessary to its teachers; and by them was learning preserved. Modern opposers of revelation ascribe all our improvements to philosophy: but it was religion,, the RELIGION OF CHRIST, that took the lead. The reformers opened to us the Scriptures, and broke all those fetters which shackled human reason. Philosophy crept humbly in her train, and now ungratefully claims all the honour and praise to herself. Luther, Melancthon, and Cranmer preceded Lord Bacon, Boyle, Newton, and Locke.

Christianity is not to be charged with the crimes of those who have assumed the name of Christians, while their conduct has shown that they were utterly destitute of every Christian sentiment. It is not peculiar to the Christian revelation, that it has sometimes furnished a pretext for introducing the very evils and oppressions which it was designed to remedy.

The mischiefs which, through the corrupt passions of men, have been the accidental consequences of Christianity, ought not to be imputed to its spirit. Nothing is better calculated to diffuse real comfort, peace, and happiness throughout the world: and a candid comparison of the morals of professing Christians throughout the world, with those of heathen nations in a similar stage of society, will demonstrate the beneficial effects of Christianity.

V. HISTORICAL FACTS attest the benefits conferred by the Gospel on the World.

Wherever Christian Missionaries have gone, the most barbarous heathen nations have become civilised. The ferocious have become mild; those who prowled about for plunder have acquired settled property, as well as a relish for domestic happiness. Persons who dwelt in caves or huts have learnt from missionaries the art of building; they who fed on raw flesh have applied to agriculture; men who were clothed in skins and were ignorant of manufactures, have become acquainted with the comforts of apparel; and the violent and rapacious have renounced their rapine and plunder.

The antient inhabitants of Germany, Hungary, Scythia, Denmark, Sweden, and the aboriginal inhabitants of Britain and Ireland, as well as the modern inhabitants of North and South America, the East and West Indies, Austral Asia, Greenland, South and West Africa, are all illustrious monuments of the blessed effects produced by Christianity.

VI. The PRACTICAL EFFICACY of Christianity,

Especially when contrasted with the effects of infidelity, is seen more conspicuously and more satisfactorily in the holy, useful, and exemplary lives of real Christians in the private walks of life, and in the peculiar supports and consolations which they enjoy under adversity and afflictions, and in the prospect of futurity: while infidelity offers, and can offer, no ground or prospect of support to its unhappy professors.

SECTION V. - The peculiar Advantages, possessed by the Christian Religion over all other Religions, a demonstrative Evidence of its Divine Origin and Authority.

It is the peculiar and distinguishing excellency of the Christian Religion, that it possesses advantages which no