being fundamentally good, and its laws being conducive to virtue, not only in word and deed, but in thought, the spring of action, the crimes of its professors can afford no just argument against it, though they exhibit a most lamentable proof of the corruption of human nature, which thus neglects or abuses the most perfect of institutions. I do not hesitate, notwithstanding all I have yet seen against it, to represent Christianity as the most perfect institution with which man has yet become acquainted; as superior in its nature and effects to every system of duty or rule of action, whether religious or scientific, which was ever taught, or which it is possible for mankind to discover or combine. Dr F. and Mr M., on the contrary, dwelling, apparently with much satisfaction, on the misconduct of many of its professors, and on its consequent inefficacy in numerous instances where its authority has been acknowledged, and where, therefore, its duties ought to have been obeyed, keep aloof from the investigation of its proof, of its intrinsic value, and.general effects. They, therefore, with very little. ceremony, rank it with the numerous superstitions which, in every age, have disgraced mankind; and they seem even to consider it as inferior, in truth and efficacy, to those philosophical systems which were taught in the schools of antiquity. On some minds, present evils have such an effect as to obscure

the good which accompanies them, and the passion for change, and ideal perfection, is often so strong, as to induce men to hazard it, before they have once reflected on the consequences, or have coolly considered the nature and advantages of what they enjoy. The evils of former times, as they have never experienced them, have on their minds a less poignant effect; and, what they do not themselves feel, they are apt to conclude especially if the conclusion will suit a favourite hypothesis) was never felt, and never existed. The operation of gratitude for present blessings, is generally too slight to resist the impulses of ambition, or to curb the luxuriance of a heated imagination. Improvement in virtue and happiness, is the avowed object of every political and religious schemer: Like the dog in the fable, however, we often find, that they hazard the substance for a shadow; a shadow which, in such circumstances, is generally attended with most serious evils. Thus vice and misery are often, we may say always, the only result of political turbulence and religious scepticism. Virtue and happiness shun their proud contaminated grasp, and retire to the peaceful shade of religious humility.

"Our two authors assert that Christianity is of human invention and authority, and that its influence on human life and manners has been hurtful. They support this position by a general appeal to the religious

systems of antiquity, &c. and by an unrestrained abuse of the characters of Christians. We shall endeavour to meet the objection in its full force, by taking a more particular view than they have thought proper, of the principles and conduct of Pagan nations, in various parts of the world; and we shall then probably be able to judge whether mankind has gained or lost by the introduction and dissemination of Christianity. The performance of religious duties is natural to the human race. To supplicate Heaven in affliction; to express gratitude in prosperity; and to look forward with fear or hope to eternity,-are duties so natural as to be found among every people, savage and civilized. So natural and so necessary, in the conduct of human affairs, are these sentiments of religion, that we find, in every state where they are gradually undermined, or publicly neglected, the fabric of government and individual happiness moulders away with equal rapidity, or falls at once into a dreadful ruin. Even the false systems of religion, though they have. naturally and essentially produced many crimes, have in this view been of most es-. sential service to mankind, and have preserved them from the most wretched state of human nature, total irreligion and anarchy, which know no law, and will submit to no authority, human or divine. The false religions, however, carry along with

them their own antidote. Though calculated, when opposed to total irreligion and downright atheism, to produce comparative advantage in the world at large; they are not therefore calculated to produce exalted virtue among individuals. On the contrary, they not only allow, but sanction some of the most degrading crimes ; aad in this, as well as in other respects, consists the striking dif ference between them and Christianity. The crimes of Christians are the effect of human depravity, the worst effects of which their religion has most essentially contributed to lessen; but those of Pagans were generally the effect of the system they professed; the supposed sanction of the Gods concealing from the unhappy votary the guilty nature of his conduct.

"The account of the origin of the world, the nature of the Gods, and the duties of religion, in all those nations on whom the light of revelation has not risen, is dark, contradictory, and absurd. The Theogonies of Chaldea and Phoenicia, as preserved from their own historians by Josephus, Eusebius, and Syncellus, are replete with the grossest absurdities, exhibit lamentable proofs of the progress of error, and afford a mighty contrast to the mild and consistent account which, in the Bible, we enjoy of revealed truth. Wild, however, as the notions of the Chaldeans appear to have been, from the account of one of their own his

torians, Berosus, whose treatise on their Theogony is preserved by Syncellus; and of the Phoenicians, from whose historian, Sanchoniatho, copious extracts are found in Eusebius,-they, on various occasions, so directly refer to the grand truths recorded by Moses, as cannot leave a doubt, on any reasonable mind, that they gradually degenerated from those original truths to the wild obscurity in which they have been thus veiled. The principles of the Egyptians were similar to those of the Phoenicians; and from Chaldea, Egypt, and Phoenicia, most other Pagan nations, with whose religious sentiments or practices we have become acquainted, derived their systems. Referring such of you, gentlemen, as may wish for complete information on these subjects, to the various writers on Mythology, and particularly to the Abbe Banier's Mythology and Fables of the Ancients, explained from history; to Bryant's enquiries on the same subject; and to Maurice's Indian antiquities, and History of Indostan, &c. I shall be as brief as possible, in what I have to adduce respecting the religion of Pagans. The origin of Paganism, I think, I have already pointed out; and I have now only to consider its more prominent features and general effects, among various tribes of men among whom it was and is established.

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The Egyptians, we know, were in very early times a most enlightened people; but