The manner in which the difciples narrate the life of Chrift, is likewife uncommon and worthy of peculiar notice. There is fomething here per fectly unique: the whole compass of human litera. eafily Supported his chara&er to the laft; and if his death, however eafy bad not crowned his life, it might have been doubted whether Socrates, with all his wisdom, was any thing more than a vain fophift. He invented, it is faid, the theory of morals. Others, b.wever, had before put them in practice; he had only to fay, therefore, what they had done, and to reduce their examples to precept.- But where cou'd Jefus learn among his competitors, that pure and fublime morality, of which he only bath given us both precept and example? The death of Socrates, peaceably philofophizing with his friends, appears the most agreeable that could be wished for; that of Jefus, expiring in the midst of agonizing fains, abused, infulted, and accufed by a whole nation, is the most hor, ible that could be feared. Socrates, in recieving the cup of poison, blessed the weeping executioner who adminiftered it; but Jefus, in the midst of excruciating tortures, prayed for his merciless tormentors. Yes! if the life and death of Socrates were thofe of a fage, the life and death of Jesus were thofe of a God. Shall we fuppofe the evangelic hiftory a mere fiction? Indeed, my friend, it bears not the marks of fiction; on the contrary, the hiftory of Socrates, which nobody prefumes to doubt, is not fo well attefted as that of Jefus Chrift. Such a fuppofition, in fact, only fhifts the difficulty, without obviating it; it is more inconceivable, that a number of perfons should agree to write fuch a history, than that one only should furnish the fubject of it. The Jewish authors were incapable of the diction, and frangers to the morality contained in G ture furnishes nothing fimilar. That the men who wrote the gofpels loved their master, is too plain to be denied Their renunciation of every wordly advantage and prospect, their entire devotedness to his caufe, their multiplied and bitter fufferings for his fake, all display both the fincerity and fervour of their love. In what raptures will they defcribe his life and death! But on examination we find no fuch thing. The writers of the epiftles fpeak in ecftacy of his excellence and love: The prophets do fo too. Ifaiah, especially, has all the impaffioned expreffions of a deeply affected fpectator of his crucifixion. But the evangelifts are perfect calmnefs: human fervour will call it indifference. There is no attempt to move the paffions of their readers: they mix not their own feelings with what they narrate. There is not a fingle commendation of Chrift, in the form of a panegyric, through the whole of the gofpels. They defcribe his miracles and wondrous works without praife; and in a tranquillity of manner which feems at firft fight unaccountable. There is not the most diftant attempt to magnify them, and excite admiration. Nay, when they defcribe his fufferings and death, and the cruelty of the Jews, they do not give way to paffion and grief: the gospel, the marks of whofe truth are fo ftriking and inimitable, that the inventor would be a more aftonishing character than the hero." What a mind! to conceive ideas fo beautiful and So just! The divinity of the New Teftament is difplayed as with a fun beam! But what a heart! to refift the force of all this evidence, to bind so fine an underslanding, and to be able to fubjoin-"I cannot believe the Gofpel!"-Rouffeau. there is no invective against his enemies; no pity expreffed for the fufferer; no acrimony against Judas, or the chief priests. They relate all as if they had no concern in the matter.-When XENOPHON difcribes the death of SOCRATES, we obferve nature expreffing her feelings in fympathy with the fufferer, in commendation of his virtues, and in crimination of his enemies. Why do we not meet with the fame thing in the biographers of Jefus ? This is the more remarkable, as they were not men who had been taught to disguise their feelings.They must certainly have been under a fuperior guidance. SECTION III. The Delineation of Human Nature. THIS is a fubject concerning which we may in a revelation from God, expect to receive particular information; nor fhall we be difappointed. The heart of man has been the study of the most eminent Philofophers and to explore the fprings of action, and trace its operations, has been deemed one of the most useful employments. But where fhall we find fo juft and fo full a view of human nature as in the New Teftament? The heart is anatomized; and every part, to its inmoft receffes, is prefented before our eyes. The various diforders in the understanding, the will, and the affections, which conftitute human depravity, are accurately delineated. The numerous deceptions to which men are liable, both from the workings of their own hearts, and likewife from the operation of external caufes, are here unmasked. The principles which influence the conduct of men are defcribed both in a didactic, and hiftorical way: and by looking into our own breafts, we perceive the defcription to be juft. The account given of what paffes in the hearts of wicked men is fo accurate, that when their motives of action, their restraints, their fears, their remorse, their defires, and their pursuits, have been delineated from the New Teftament, they were ready to confider themfelves as pointed at by the preacher. Good men are defcribed in it; their difpofitions, their aims, their temptations, their difficulties, their hopes, their diftreffes, their confolations and all with fuch perfect exactnefs, that they are fenfible the book could be written by the fearcher of hearts alone. It enters likewife into every walk of relative life; it fets before us, the rich and the poor, the young and the old, man in profperity and in adverfity, in life and at death; and gives a well-drawn picture of each. ; In addition to thefe, while this wonderful book reprefents the diftreffes, the guilty fears, and the wants of men, it unveils the gospel, as the grand remedy, which divine wifdom and mercy have provided. It defcribes the effect which the gospel has upon the heart, in delivering it from thefe evils, and in producing faith, fanctity, and happineís. A great variety of different tempers and fituations of the heart is exhibited; and the influence of the gospel in them clearly fhewn. The chriftian feels from experience, and remarks from obfervation, that the defcription is perfectly and entirely juft: and he finds here an argument for the divine authority of the book, which he cannot refift. When I fit down, and reafon on the matter, I am filled with admiration and aftonishment. The writers of this book were most of them fisher men of Galilee: and all the earlier part of their days was spent in following their laborious employments, not in the ftudy of human nature. But they all fhew the fame accurate knowledge of man; and their fyftem is the fame.-This remark might very properly be extended to the Old Teft ment. Beides, they were Jews, feparated from the rest of mankind, and but little acquainted with them; but they defcribe men of all nations, and of all ages. The book fuits us just as well as it did those who lived in their own days. For profoundness of remark, for juftnefs of defcription, for extent of view, none of the writings of the ancient Philofophers are to be compared to this volume. But whence comes the fuperiority of these unlettered men? Let the Deift account for it, if he can. SECTION IV. The Dottrine of a Mediator, and Redemption THAT man fhould love God with all his heart, and his neighbour as himself, is not the language of religion only; it is likewife the dictate of reafon. But alas! neither reafon nor religion have had fufficient influence to produce this effect. Man has offended God, and guilt expofes him to punishment; for the holinefs of God muft hate fin, and his jufticelead him to teftify in his conduct the difpleasure which his heart feels. That man is also a depraved creature, and manifefts that depravity in his fentiments and difpofition, the whole history of the human kind furnishes abundant proof. If |