is not possible to read the account given of these monarchs who held the sceptre of the world, without pity and indignation. The narration of Suetonius, alternately elevates and depresses, informs and pollutes the mind of the reader: and if one moment we follow the warrior through his victories with delight, and participate his triumph, the next discovers him to us in his retirement, an object of horror and disgust, “committing all manner of uncleanness with greediness." The general contamination may well be imagined, when Horace obscures his genius with shameless indecency, and the elegant pen of Virgil sullied his pages with impurity. I dare not refer to my authority for this mortifying statement; but it is a subject which, alas, admits of no dispute. We observe in general, respecting the heathen world,

3. THAT THEIR SYSTEMS WERE TOO REFINED FOR THE COMMON PEOPLE. And here Christianity triumphs. Its morality is pure, simple, intelligible, adapted to the meanest capacity. All other religions on the face of the earth were formed, for the most part, for the rich, and for the wise. This was a grand defect in their system. Their theology was so complex, that the philosopher alone could comprehend its refinements, while the vulgar were abused with the grossest fables, as a substitute for religion. Its mysteries were professedly held back from the scrutiny of the crowd. But the gospel is the consolation of the poor. It has no mysteries which are dark to a plain understanding, and fathomable by the wise: no mysteries but such as are necessarily beyond the limited comprehension of reason; therefore equally obscure to the peasant and to the philosopher. Of its fundamental principles, "a wayfaring man" is a competent judge; and they descend

to the level of his uncultured intellect. Other religions required splendid sacrifices, such as a poor man could not present; priestly demands were made, beyond his ability of performance; and the temple was barred against him, because he could not pay the fee of entrance. But the religion of Jesus addresses itself to every description of men; and hides the poor under the shadow of its wings, from the ills and the injuries of life. Its adaptation to human infirmity, is universal. Other religions were the religions of the city, of the empire, of the century: and varied with the changes of custom. But Christianity is equally suited to the East, the West, the North, or the South; it is adapted to the European, the African, the Asiatic, and the American: all are implicated in the charges it brings against human nature, all are drawn in the characters it delineates, and all are interested in the discoveries which it makes of life and immortality. But we forbear-we are not desirous to pronounce an eulogium on Revelation, but to prove its necessity from the state of the heathen world before its introduction; in order to which, we request your attention further, to

III. THEIR UNCERTAIN CONJECTURES IN RELATION

TO FUTURITY.

To the mind even of the philosopher, futurity was like the chaos of Moses, fathomless, empty, without shape or order, and "darkness was upon the face of the deep." The poets sang of Elysian fields and Tartarean punishments; but these were regarded as the flights of an ardent imagination; and the fictions under which their theories were buried, were openly rejected by the wisest among them. Who does not pity the genius of the immortal Homer, laboring under

the pressure of this mournful ignorance? In vain he stretches the wing of his imagination to penetrate the secrets of futurity-not an object could be seen through the gloom. In vain he would carry the torch of reason into the world of spirits the shadows of death extinguish it. When he draws the picture of eternity with the pencil of fancy, he makes his greatest hero prefer a miserable life, ladened with all the woes of this valley of tears, to the highest honors which can be bestowed after death.* Some of the most enlightened among them, agitated the question respecting the immortality of the soul; yet their reasoning led them no higher than conjecture, and they could not attain the firmness of persuasion. Nor had it ever entered into their most sanguine expectations respecting the body, that HE who first constructed the machine, and took it in pieces, should again put it together, and frame it for immortality. This was an idea so totally novel to them, that when Paul preached at the Areopaguş, before the polished and enlightened Athenians, "Jesus and the resurrection of the dead, some mocked:" others said, "He seemeth to be a setter forth of new gods;" while a few concluded that they would "hear him again of this matter."

Revelation has done that for man, which neither reason nor philosophy could effect. In the exercise of the powers of our mind, upon the scenery by which we are surrounded, we rise to the great parent of all; and deduce some conclusions respecting his nature, from the operations of his hand: yet have we seen that these conclusions were frequently erroneous. The religion of nature cannot go further than to teach us, that there is a God, all powerful, all-wise, all-good;

⚫ See note 3, at the end of the volume.

and this is more than it taught the heathen world perfectly. But it leaves us ignorant of our relation to him: it is unable to unravel the more interesting parts of his character; it cannot develope the harmony of his attributes. A thousand inquiries are suggested, to which we receive no answer. We are placed in circumstances for which, on principles of reason, we cannot account; and perceive the existence of evil, unable to discover its source. We labor under a curse, from which, by the light of nature, we see no deliverance; and are in possession of an existence, for which we perceive no adequate end. Those things which are the most interesting, are also the most uncertain; and that which we know naturally, only serves to kindle a thirst to learn more, which, on the principles of nature and reason merely, cannot be satiated. For what has the light of philosophy done, but rendered darkness visible? It has strained the powers of reason and imagination, till they could be stretched no further; yet without bringing one hidden truth to light. It has perplexed and bewildered the mind by contradictory hypotheses. It has exhausted the charms of eloquence, and enervated the force of argument, in establishing favorite systems upon the ruins of those which preceded them, only to be pulled down in their turns, to make way for others equally absurd, and equally false. After dragging us through mazes of intricate reason. ing, it leaves us precisely at the point at which it found us, all uncertainty, obscurity, and suspense. "The world by wisdom know not God." We appeal to facts they are before you-and we confidently expect your decision upon their testimony.

It is here that Revelation takes up the process, and disperses the mist of uncertainty. It professes not in

deed to reason upon subjects beyond the comprehension of the human mind; but it reveals the fact and requires our assent to it: which we may safely give, al. though we do not comprehend the whole of that which is revealed. Those parts which we do comprehend, we conceive to be true and wise: may we not reasonably conclude that those which we do not completely understand are equally so; and that the deficiency is in our natural powers, and not in the subject investigated? Those who call upon you to relinquish your Bibles, have not attempted to fathom the depths of futurity. They rather wish you to consider the scanty period of "three-score years and ten," the boundary of the hopes, the joys, and the expectations of man. They place beyond death-ANNIHILATION! The thought is insufferable! Say, you who have dropped the parting tear into the grave of those whom you loved, is this a consoling system? Are the most tender connexions dissolved to be renewed no more? Must I resign my brother, my parent, my friend, my childFOR EVER? What an awful import these words bear! Standing upon the grave of my family, must I say to its departed members,-"Farewell! ye who were once the partners of my joys and sorrows! I leaned upon you for support; I poured my tears into your bosom; I received from your hands the balm of sympathyBut it is no more! No more shall I receive your kindness; no more shall I behold you! The cold embrace of death clasps your mouldering bodies; and the shadows of an impenetrable midnight brood FOR EVER upon your sepulchres!"-No!We cannot relinquish Christianity for a system which conducts us to this fearful close! When skepticism shall have provided a substi