enjoin the practice of every virtue;-and as we feel that human volition is finally determined by motives, we have reason to expect that such inducements to right conduct will be placed before us, as shall be vastly superior in themselves to all the allurements to vice; such as shall be calculated to operate with due force upon sober and reflecting minds, and induce them to yield obedience to the duties enjoined.

To the Jewish and Christian Dispensations alone can these characteristics be ascribed. They alone entertain such conceptions of the divine being, perfections, and conduct, as recommend themselves to the truest principles of reason; such injunctions as uniformly inculcate the duties of morality; and such motives as recommend themselves to the best interests, and most exalted views of responsible beings. These dispensations, therefore, demand our peculiar attention. The important truths they reveal, are not only consonant with those conceptions of a Deity, which we have proved to be most conductive to human happiness, and the most encouraging excitements to the uniform practice of virtue, but they are the sources whence those conceptions are derived. It is indubitable that, previous to these

dispensations, the world was immersed in religious ignorance, and since their promulgation, mankind have made a more rapid progress in religious knowledge, than could have been expected from the slow progress of ratiocination for a long series of ages. If any just inferences may be drawn from the many ages of total ignorance which preceded, to these Dispensations must the change be ascribed.

We shall therefore attempt to investigate the important principles contained in each dispensation, as far as they respect the moral state and nature of man, and as they discover to us the plans of Deity, in promoting the cause of virtue and happiness, through the medium of pure and undefiled religion. This investigation will manifest to us the close connexion that subsists between the different parts of the divine economy, and enable us to trace a perfect correspondence between the nature of man, his best affections, most exalted desires and expectations, and the plans of Providence concerning him.

We are now advanced thus far in our investigations respecting conduct :

The practice of virtue, personal and social, is essential to permanent well being

Pure and exalted sentiments of a Deity are the best security to the stedfast and uniform practice of every virtue :

Such sublime and influential sentiments are approved by the truest principles of reason :

Human Beings were liable, and very prone, to deviate from the paths of virtue and morality, in a state of imperfection and ignorance; and it is an undisputed fact, that they have deviated :

The Human race, universally plunged into the depth of ignorance and depravity, could not be expected to reclaim themselves :

Their restoration to knowledge, virtue, and happiness, was an object worthy of the divine interposition :

It appears to be most consonant to the wisdom of God, to respect that constitution of human nature which his wisdom had ordained; employing the instrumentality of natural causes, either physical or moral, to the utmost extent of their beneficial influence, and reserving the extraordinary exertions of his power for extraordinary

occasions.

Man being rendered susceptible of strong im

pressions from surrounding objects; being furnished with numerous passions and propensities, which were always operating, favourably or unfavourably, in his pursuits of Good; being endowed with rational faculties, by which he is enabled to profit by his own observation and experience, and by the experience and observation of others, and also to bring every principle, deserving to be received or rejected, to the test of reason; being honoured with the noble, but dangerous power of free agency, by which he chooses and determines for himself, forms his own character, and greatly influences his own destiny:-man, thus circumstanced, is ordained to be governed by very different laws than those which belong to physical impulse, or to the instincts of the brute creation. The supreme governor demands from him, in every stage of his progress in the pursuit of well being, the union of right affections and dispositions, with the unsophisticated dictates of his reason.

It remains for us to shew, that the Jewish and Christian revelations are founded upon the above principles: that the grand design of the former, was to promulgate those truths, concerning the being and attributes of God, which approve themselves to our reason, and are essential to our wel

fare; to inculcate those moral duties on which personal and social happiness so much depend; and also to preserve just sentiments of the Supreme Ruler, and the knowledge of religious and moral duties entire and uncorrupted, amidst the dark ignorance, and horrid depravities, which were prevalent in the world, and which must have been both universal and irremediable, without the divine interposition.-We shall also evince that the object of Christianity is to complete the plan of infinite benevolence, by. universally diffusing these pure principles of religion and virtue; by proposing the most encouraging motives to the practice of them; and by insuring final happiness to the righteous, that is, to such as shall be qualified to enjoy it.

We will presume that our readers believe in both Dispensations, as being of divine origin; nor would it be relevant to our design, were we to adduce any other evidences of this truth than such as are internal, and such as may present themselves from the obvious correspondence of the doctrines they teach, with the most rational conceptions of the Deity, and the moral state of the human race.