IMMORTALITY is the glory of man: take it away, and he finks into infignificance. They debafe human nature who confider death as the close of their existence. But you fhudder at the degrading thought; and, agreeably to the dictates of reafon and truth, deem yourfelves formed for eternity. Cherish the vaft idea; and afpire after a happiness which will never end.

Will you. permit a friend, though unknown, to folicit your attention to a book which was written with the godlike design of raifing you to the perfection of your nature and to happiness, by conducting you to God? The book demands examination, and reprefents it as criminal in men, if they refufe to weigh its evidence and its contents in the balance of impartial reafon, and give it that reception to which it is entitled.

Do not turn away with difdain and fay, "I will not read it.” That is not the language of wisdom. The book claims its origin from God; and its object is to teach you how to ferve him, and how to attain the highest felicity." But I am fure it is not true." Millions have read and acknowledged its truth: among thefe have been the most confcientious of men, and the firft luminaries of science, than whom none were ever better qualified to examine its nature and excellence: and they had no worldly intereft to ferve by profeffing to believe the gospel. When a BACON, a PASCHAL, a BOYLE, a NEWTON, a LOCKE, and a LEIBNITZ, have examined and received

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christianity as true, can you call yourfelves impar tial enquirers after truth and happiness, if you refufe to examine.

It is not required that you should believe because they believed; but that you would examine what they believed to be truth, and the most important truth. I intreat you to read the New Testament. Till then, you cannot poffibly know whether it is to be rejected or received. A curfory reading is not fufficient: it requires a repeated perufal and diligent ftudy, that you may clearly perceive its fcope, its defign, its general principles, and particular truths. Without this, to call yourself either Chriftian or Deißt would be alike unbecoming and unreasonable; for you are not qualified t judge of its merits, and cannot with justice either approve or condemn. Without reading and understanding the New Teftament, either of the names will cover him who wears it, not with honour but with difgrace. A man of reason will examine before he decides.

Let the examination be conducted with impartiality. Chriftianity defires no bias in her favour till examination take place: all the requires is, (and is it not reasonable?) that no prejudice fhould be entertained to her difadvantage. She calls you to banish levity when you begin to read; to proceed with ferioufefs of mind; and to fummon up all the energies of the foul to the work. The inquiry, fhe fays, is of infinite importance; and your happinefs in a future ftate depends upon the iffue. Will it then be unsuitable, before you proceed, to offer up a fupplication to the Father of Lights, from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift; that he would illuminate your understanding to perceive the truth;

and incline your heart to embrace it, wherever it may be found? If fome of the most eminent fages of Greece thought that they flood in need of divine wifdom in matters of importance, you will not wonder, that you are urged to feek it from the fame fource.

TRUE RELIGION is the thing fought for; and it will be allowed that it ought to teach us not only what God is, but how he is to be worshipped and served; in what manner we may be admitted to enjoy his friendship; and how we may do the things which please him. A religion which does not give us information on thefe fubjects, is entirely infufficient. That a revelation from God is neceffary for this purpose, has been a common fentiment among mankind: let him who would deny the neceffity of it, take a view of the condition of the world, and of the history of man. What nati

on in a state of nature, in ancient or modern times, civilized or barbarous, has preferved itself from finking into grofs idolatry? Not an exception can be found, unless it be among those rude tribes, which are fo ftupid that no traces of religion are to be difcovered among them.-Wherever idolatry reigns, it is an evident proof, that men have ftumbled and fallen at the very threshold of the temple; and have not advanced so far as to have a fight of the proper objects of worship. Ignorance of the nature of God has been uniformly attended with ignorance of man's duty and condition, and of a future ftate of being; and as may naturally be expected, with the most dreadful depravity of manners, and the prevalence of every vice.-Let the defcription of the ancient heathen world in the epistle of Paul to the Romans, the ift chapter from the 20th verfe, to the end, be compared with the

moft authentic documents of the ftate of morals among the pagan nations of antiquity, or those of modern times; and it will be found that the portrait drawn by the apoftle is not overcharged in its colours, but is a perfect likeness of the original.

Were this an abstract question, an answer might be more difficult, and lefs fatisfactory: but it is a queftion of fact, and the multitude of idolaters in every heathen land proclaims the neceffity of a divine revelation. To allege that SOCRATES and PLATO by the ftrength of reafon difcovered many noble principles of religious truth, does not folve the objection.* The question is, not what a few perfons of fuperior genius have been able to do; but to find a rule of life for the mass of mankind. That they have not been able to difcover it for themselves; or if any have discovered it, that they have not been able to render it so far of ufe as to banish idolatry from a fingle city, (and they had hundreds and thousands of years to do it in), ancient Greece and Rome, and modern China and Hindoftan afford fufficient prof. If then men are to be made wife, and good, and happy by the knowledge, and worship, and fervice of God, a divine revelation is abfolutely neceflary.

That the poffibility of a revelation was ever called in queftion, may juftly excite furprife. If men.

* Even Socrates and Plato were idolaters; they conformed, and advifed others to conform, to the religion of their country-to grofs idolatry and abfurd fuperftition. One of the last acts of the former, who is accounted the wifeft and test man of jagan antiquity, was to offer a cock to Efulapius. If the wifeft, and the most learned were fo blind, what must the folijb and ignorant be?

can convey their ideas to each other, cannot God convey his to them? If we can fend a meffage by one man to another, or to many; cannot God employ men as meffengers in revealing his will to men?

Arguing from the nature of God, there is likewife a pr bability of a divine revelation: His goodnefs and man's felicity unite in its fupport. If religion be loft on earth, who can affert it to be improbable, that God will reftore it? The frequent pretenfions which have been made to a revelation from God, and the reception they have met with, fhew that it is a fentiment congenial to the human mind.

The business then is to endeavour to find out, whether God has actually given a revelation of his will to man; and (you will perhaps add) among various pretenfions, to diftinguifh truth from imposture. Here is a book which profeffes to contain what we feek for :-but you fay, "Let us attend to the claims of the numerous candidates.' This, however, is no fuch herculean labour as you imagine. The thing fought after is a UNIVERSAL RELIGION, or a fyftem which profeffes to be defigned for the ufe and benefit of the whole human race; and no other will anfwer the purpose, whatever its merits may be. To this honour not one of the pagan systems, either ancient or modern, prefers a claim. They allow that they are only local inftitutions; and fome of them even refuse to admit profelytes: confequently thefe are all out of the queftion, and they cannot be heard. The Jewish religion was intended for the ufe of one people only, and that for a season. Thereligion of Jefus was the firft that ever afferted the claim of

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