walks, bowers, temples, cities, bridges, navies, etc. etc.? He has not done these things. Can the deist tell us why he did not do it, when he could have done it just as easy, so as not to put us to all this trouble? If the deist will tell us this, and thus explain this part of his book of nature, we will engage to tell why the Deity did not make a special revelation to every man's mind, so as not to put us to all the trouble of searching after the evidences of truth. The fact appears to be, that God has wisely placed the objects of our natural wants at a little distance, but has given us powers and faculties to obtain them, thus making that exercise and employment so necessary to health and happiness, also essential to the supply of our natural wants. - We can all see, that this economy is one of the greatest physical blessings. So he seems in like manner to have placed the unexhausted stores of intellectual riches and divine wisdom at a little distance, but yet so near that every one, by the due improvement of his faculties, may obtain as much as is necessary for him. The evidences of the authority and truth of revelation are within the grasp of every person that will devote his mind seriously and candidly to the examination. The feeblest mind may find enough, and yet they are so capacious, so numerous, and so inexhaustible, that the strongest minds, such as Locke, Newton, and other giants in intellectual science, may also find enough to satisfy their every inquiry; so it is a fact beyond controversy, that the greatest students of nature, the greatest philosophers of this world, have been the best of chris

tians.

A constant and special revelation to every person would cut of all the pleasures of mental exercise, all free moral agency, and would destroy the very constitution of man, and would be a palpable anomaly to the whole system of divine economy.

2. The second objection is, if the Bible is a revelation from heaven, how comes it to contain so many indecent

and immodest.expressions, especially in some parts of the Old Testament?

This objection, from its peculiar delicacy, we would gladly pass over in silence, were it not for the fact, that it is in the mouths of many, who probably never gave the subject a single day's serious reflection; and it is tauntingly flung out as certain proof that the Bible is false and immoral.-Let it be then considered by such as only want the truth, that the Bible was given in such language as was then used and understood; and had it been given in any other, it would have been unintelligible. At the time of writing of the first parts of the Old Testament, men were like the heathen in their manners and tastes. Men associated with men, and did not mingle in common society and conversation with females. Consequently they had no ideas of refinement, delicacy or modesty. But the occurrence of these expressions in the Bible is mainly to forbid and condemn such habits as prevailed in such unrefined state of society. This very Bible was the means, and the only means, as history and facts plainly show, of bringing women forward, from that degraded vassalage, in which they have been ever held in all unchristian countries, to that rank in human society for which the God of heaven designed them. Here under the broad protection of christianity, women have stood forth as companions. Christianity has taught them that they have minds to cultivate and virtues to cherish. A social intercourse and mutual improvement of taste, manners, and conversational enjoyment have been the consequence. Now, men have ideas of modesty, decency, &c. and in the light of this refinement brought about by the Bible, they turn round and affect to be astonished at words used at a time that no others would have answered the purpose! But not in a single instance can it be found that any immodest, indecent, or immoral acts were laid down with approbation and encouragement. We should not go to the Bible for notions of fashionable

refinement as we would to a novel, but without levity, with the sincere desire of our hearts to learn our duty and do it.

3. If the Bible is a divine revelation, why was it not made in the beginning of creation, and continued to be known and understood by all men in all ages?

We answer. Had a full and complete revelation been given in the earliest age of the world, it must have consisted entirely of prophecy or the prediction of future events, as then nothing had transpired for history. And a published prediction of all the events recorded in the Bible might have prevented the occurrence of most of them, as they were dependant on human agency. Who can believe that the sons of Jacob would have disposed of their brother Joseph as they did; that Potipher's wife would have done as she did; &c. had all these things been plainly predicted to all of them? Who can believe that the Egyptians would have refused to give up the Hebrews, and suffered all the plagues which were designed "to show forth the power of God" and to inspire the confidence of those people who were to follow the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night? And who thinks the infatuated armies of Pharaoh would have followed the children of Israel into the red sea, had they known all these things before hand? Of course such a revelation must prove to be false.

It may be said, that God could cause all events to take place, as predicted. True, and he has done it, by putting forth a revelation, compounded of both history and prophecy, written in different ages, presenting a perfect chain of events, from the beginning of the world to the end, both predicted and recorded, harmonizing in all its parts, and unfolding its consistency and excellence from age to age as a stupendous concatenation of self vindicated truth.

Furthermore, we could not then compare the moral and social condition of mankind, who had not the blessings of revelation with that of those who had them, so as to discover the necessity, the worth, and the moral power of such

a revelation as we now do. Now we can look back upon the degraded ages of the world previous to the illumination of divine truth; and we can look around upon the nations on whom the sun of righteousness has never dawned, and we can see the same universal degeneracy-the same gross idolatries-the same universal poligamy, the same indecent abominations, prostitutions, the degradation of females, &c. every where abounding in every age and place that is not elevated with the moral influences, and virtuous principles of the gospel; and we can learn from thence the vast-the infinite worth and power of the gospel of Christ. If a single soul can survey the whole effect of christianity on the state of human society, and contrast it with the heathen and pagan nations of all ages, and all the kingdoms of the "false prophet," and yet feel opposed to christianity, he must possess the heart of a fiend and the nerves of a demon.

Thank God, a revelation has been made. It has been made exactly at the right time. It has been promulgated to all the extent that was necessary at this time for the accomplishment of its predictions; and it will continue to be promulgated till "the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ," till "his kingdom shall extend from the rivers to the ends of the earth," till "the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together,' ,"till "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea," till "all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him."

IV. The necessity of a divine revelation, considered.-In order to form an opinion of the necessity of a divine revelation, containing a transcript of the natural and moral attributes of Jehovah, his will concerning our actions, and our final destination, we must look at the condition of mankind where the Bible has been unknown; and com

pare it with the condition of men where it is known. If we shall find, from surveying the condition of man unenlightened with the gospel, a universal defect which neither learning nor philosophy nor any human device can supply or obviate, we shall then see the necessity of something more than we possess by nature. Hence we shall infer, that a wise and good God must have granted that which was so necessary for us. Then on the other hand, when we find the gospel to be the very thing and the only thing to complete and finish our happiness and the perfection of our condition, we shall be constrained to confess that the gospel was the great thing necessary to men, and was therefore the very thing which a wise and good God must have given to men.

1. It is a fact that among all nations unchristianized, the most imperfect, absurd, pernicious and degrading views of God obtained. And not only so but the most extravagant notions of worship and moral duty, and consequently the most degraded, corrupt and miserable condition of the people. The Roman empire in her ancient splendour, was probably the most refined and virtuous part of the pagan world. But what was the Roman empire? They had the refinements of human learning. They had great philosophy, great orators, great statesmen, heroes, conquerors, patriots, and all the greatness and goodness which unchristianized communities can attain to. Yet "temples and fanes were erected to all the passions, desires, fears and evils, to which mankind are subject. Suited to the various characters of the divinities were the rites of their worship. Many of them were monsters of the grossest vice and wickedness; and their rites were absurd, licentious, and cruel, and often consisted of mere unmixed crime, shameless dissipation and debauchery. Prostitution in all its deformity, was systematically annexed to various pagan temples, was often a principal source of their revenues, and was, in some countries, even compulsory upon the fe