brilliancy of the language than in the majesty of the thought. How much Mahomet was indebted to the writings of the prophets and of the evangelists for the greater part of what is sublime or beautiful in his theology, his compositions declare; but with this sacred and hallowed imagery he blended the impure superstitions and gross conceptions of his countrymen. For the wild profusion and incongruous mixture of absurdity and sense which pervade his writings, it is scarcely possible to account on any other supposition than the natural incapacity even of the wisest man to form upon every subject, and to preserve, upon every occasion, just and consistent notions of the divine perfections.

In what glowing colours is the greatness of the Deity displayed almost in the commencement of the Koran; and with what zeal does the imagination go along with descriptions which seem so suited to the supreme dignity of his nature, and the glorious excellence of his works. Yet hardly is this enthusiasm excited before all the ardours of the mind are repressed, when we find this sublime Being descend to the meanest and most contemptible employments; prescribing laws which minister more to the appetites than to the interests of men; and regulating with the same care, at one moment, the order of secret and impure enjoyment, and, in the next, the discipline in which men are to be trained for eternity.

In the composition of the fanatical impostor, credulity is often intermixed with craft. The fervours, which are at first assumed voluntarily and insidiously, return by a kind of mechanical

:

force in process of time the glow of his fancy and the tumult of his passions are no longer artificial but real: and in this last stage of depravity, combined with folly, the enthusiast is inseparably blended with the hypocrite in the whole mass of character; and in the same action we may discover the wiliness of the one and the weakness of the other. Hence the inconsistencies of Mahomet are to be ascribed partly to cunning, in accommodating his doctrines to the prejudices of other men, and partly to fanaticism, which prevented him from controling the impetuous, but uncertain, sallies of his own mind.

Hence the God of Abraham and of Moses, the incomprehensible Being, who, in the language of Isaiah, liveth from eternity to eternity, is associated with the gross and limited attributes of eastern idolatry; and the altar which is erected to the Father of universal nature, is commanded to be approached with the slavish rites of a timorous and abject superstition.

Of that eternity, the representation of which forms so great a part of every religion, the ideas which Mahomet has given are not more pure or more consistent. Of such a system of opinions, so perplexed by inconsistency, and so debased by impurity, the effect upon the mind is obvious. Though all men probably can feel the sublimity of those descriptions which sometimes occur, yet the impression is momentary: but the apprehensions which are entertained of the Deity from his agency, and the conceptions which are formed of futurity from its employments, are permanent. The beauties of the Koran may captivate the

fancy; but its errors at once delude the judgment, degrade the spirit, and pollute the affections. How can the follower of Mahomet, therefore, feel any enlargement given to his understanding from representations of a Deity who, though sometimes eloquently or magnificently described, is yet familiarized to his apprehension in the character of an impure or capricious being? How can he be excited to the exercise or improvement of the higher powers of his nature, by the views which his religion affords him of a futurity in which these powers seem to be unemployed; in which the enjoyments of animal pleasure form a great part of the reward assigned to virtue; and to the relish of which no other preparation seems necessary, than to assimilate the mind to an ambition as limited, and to desires as impure?

Though the existence of a Deity has been adImitted as well in the darkest as the most enlightened ages; and though it is equally supported by the testimony of tradition and the authority of reason, yet the ideas entertained of his attributes have been much diversified by vari. ous causes in the constitution of men's minds, or in the circumstances of their situation. The northern nations, fierce and unpolished in their manners, assailed by the severities of an inclement sky, and habituated to the contemplation of dreary wastes or rugged mountains, have arrayed their deities in every terrible quality. Among the inhabitants of the east, whose tempers seem to be cast in a softer mould, and whose senses are accustomed to more delicate and more beautiful prospects of nature, the characters of their gods

wear a lovelier aspect. The same propensity in the worshipper to assimilate the object of his worship to his own ruling passions, or his own favourite tenets, may be traced through individuals and sects. The God of the benevolent man is, in his contemplation, surrounded with the mild lustre of benevolence; the God of the malignant is seen only with frowns of displeasure, and armed with the thunderbolt of vengeance. In the deity of Zeno, we perceive much of the sullen dignity and harsh inflexibility in which the philosopher himself placed the supreme good; and upon the same principle Epicurus ascribed to his gods that exemption from the solicitude of care, and the bustle of activity, which he represented as essential to happiness, both human and divine. But in the God whom Christians are commanded to adore, none of those imperfections can be discerned which are usually and justly imputed to the peculiar sentiments of individuals, or the general habits of nations. Without the jargon of science, and without the rant of enthusiasm, he is presented to us with all the perfections which were ever assigned to the divinity by the reason of the contemplative philosopher or the fancy of the enraptured poet.

DR. J. WHITE.

THE

Divine Origin of the Christian Religion

INFERRED FROM

THE CONDUCT OF CHRIST AND THE APOSTLES.

HERE then is an effect proceeding from a cause, according to human estimation, inadequate to produce it. Nothing similar, as far as we are informed, ever took place before or since. Can any one believe that an obscure peasant, in an obscure country, with no better assistance than twelve poor fishermen, could have brought about so great and extraordinary a change by any possible mode of human exertion? or is it credible that, without cooperation and support, they would have taken the steps they did to accomplish their object? If they had no surer method of advancing their cause, than that with which their own efforts could have supplied them, they would have had recourse to those things which are commonly successful on similar occasions; they would have attempted to impose on the understandings of mankind by conciliation and flattery: they would have dazzled their imaginations by visionary prospects of future advantage; and would have moved every engine, which is usually directed by the artful and designing, against human weakness. But these things, so often practised by others, could not be turned to advantage by them. They possessed neither influence, wealth, nor power; they had (with few exceptions) neither abilities, learning, address, nor eloquence; so