may be a christian, though a bad one, because he may be overpowered by paffions and temptations, and his actions may contradict his principles; but a man, whose ruling principle is honour, however virtuous he may be, cannot be a christian, because he erects a standard of duty, and deliberately adheres to it, diametrically oppofite to the whole tenour of that religion.

"The contrast between a christian, and all other inftitutions religious or moral, previous to its appearance, is fufficiently evident, and furely the fuperiority of the former is as little to be difputed; unless any one fhall undertake to prove, that humility, patience, forgivenefs, and benevolence are less amiable, and lefs beneficial qualities, than pride, turbulence, revenge, and malignity : that the contempt of riches is less noble, than the acquifition by fraud and villainy, or the distribution of them to the poor, lefs commendable than avarice or profufion; or that a real immortality in the kingdom of heaven is an object less exalted, lefs rational, and lefs worthy of purfuit, than an imaginary immortality in the applause of men:

that worthless tribute, which the folly of one part of mankind pays to the wickedness of the other; a tribute, which a wife man ought always to defpife, because a good man can scarce ever obtain."

"IF

CONCLUSION.

F I mistake not, I have now fully 'eftablished the truth of my three propofitions. "First, That there is now extant a book intitled the New Teftament.

"Secondly, That from this book may be extracted a system of religion entirely new ; both in its object, and its doctrines, not only fuperior to, but totally unlike, every thing, which had ever before entered into the mind of man.

Thirdly, That from this book may likewise be collected a fyftem of ethics, in which every moral precept founded on reason is

carried to a higher degree of purity and perfection, than in any other of the wifeft philofophers of preceding ages; every moral precept founded on falfe principles totally omitted, and many new precepts added, peculiarly correfponding with the new object of this religion.

..

"Every one of these propofitions, I am persuaded, is incontrovertibly true; and if true, this fhort but certain conclufion muft inevitably follow; that such a system of religion and morality could not poffibly have been the work of any man, or fet of men, much less of thofe obfcure, ignorant and illiterate persons who actually did difcover, and publish it to the world; and that therefore it must have been effected by the fupernatural interpofition of divine power and wifdom; that is, that it must derive its origin from God.

"This argument feems to me little fhort of demonstration, and is indeed founded on the very fame reasoning, by which the material world is proved to be the work of his invifible hand. We view with admiration the heavens and the earth, and all therein con

tained; we contemplate with amazement the minute bodies of animals too small for perception, and the immense planetary orbs too vaft for imagination: We are certain that these cannot be the works of man; and therefore we conclude with reason, that they muft be the productions of an omnipotent Creator. In the fame manner we see here a scheme of religion and morality unlike and fuperior to all ideas of the human mind, equally impoffible to have been difcovered by the knowledge, as invented by the artifice of man; and therefore by the very fame mode of reasoning, and with the fame juftice, we conclude, that it must derive its origin from the fame omnipotent and omniscient Being.

"Nor was the propagation of this religion lefs extraordinary than the religion itself, or lefs above the reach of all human power, than the discovery of it was above that of all human understanding. It is well known, that in the courfe of a very few years it was spread over all the principal parts of Afia and of Europe, and this by the miniftry only of an inconfiderable number of the most

inconfiderable perfons; that at this time Paganism was in the highest repute, believed univerfally by the vulgar, and patronifed by the great; that the wisest men of the wisest nations affifted at its facrifices, and confulted its oracles on the most important. occafions: Whether thefe were the tricks of the priests or of the devil, is of no confequence, as they were both equally unlikely to be converted, or overcome; the fact is certain, that on the preaching of a few fishermen, their altars were deferted, and their deities were dumb. This miracle they undoubtedly performed, whatever we may think of the rest; and this is furely fufficient to prove the authority of their commiffion; and to convince us, that neither their undertaking nor the execution of it could poffibly be their own.

"How much this divine institution has been corrupted, or how foon these corruptions began, how far it has been discoloured by the falfe notions of illiterate ages, or blended with fictions by pious frauds, or how early these notions and fictions were introduced,

G