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human race in its contemplation;-and that, while it leaves to society all the improvement of which it is capable, it prescribes only those general laws of social welfare upon which the prosperity of the world must finally rest. You will see, in the second place, that this accommodation of the religion of the Gospel to the welfare of mankind has actually taken place;-that it is it which has given to modern Europe the foundation of all its greatness;-that it is it which has given to all Christian countries the relation of brethren, and to all Christian people the belief of equal rights and equal duties;—that it is it which has thus (either directly or indirectly) broken the chains of the captive,-softened the sufferings of the prisoner,-poured even into the systems of legislation the elevation of its own spirit; and given at last, to the poor and the lowly of mankind, to whom it was first preached, the dignity of men and the rights of nature. You will see,

in the last place, that the world is yet far below the perfection which the Gospel contemplates. In the eighteen hundred years that have passed since its promulgation among mankind, the human race have doubtless made in every respect the greatest advances; and whether we regard the progress of knowledge, of laws, or of manners, we shall find in its influence the most powerful cause of this progress. Yet, who is there that looks at the internal government of nations, or the maxims by which they are yet governed, with regard to the nations around them, who does not sigh to think of the deep and selfish prejudices which still hang upon the minds of men? Who is there who does not see that, if the

principles of the Gospel were really felt and fully acted upon, the prosperity of all nations would be consulted; that the human race would terminate in the simple conception of a family,-in family relations, in family duties, and family affection; and that the universe of mankind would find at last that they had only one Father in heaven, one relation to his various children, and one duty to their brethren upon earth?

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There is yet, however, a greater view of the subject; and I am to state, in the third place, that the religion of the Gospel is the only one which has ever appeared among mankind which is commensurate to the future hopes or expectations of the human soul. Upon this subject I have little necessity to dilate. When you look at the opinions of the unbaptized world, either in ancient or in modern times, you see in their views of futurity the traces only of a gross and a barbarous invention, a state little elevated above the ignorance or the darkness of mortality,—in which the same passions, the same prejudices, and the same appetites prevail,—which promises only the continuation of the frail and feverish existence we have experienced, and which holds forth no promise of some sublimer state of being, where nobler acquisitions may be made, and higher joys be tasted.-When you look at the religion of the Gospel, on the contrary (simply as it speaks upon this awful subject, and fearfully as it withdraws the veil which hides the sanctuary of God), you see a new heaven and a new earth." You see humanity exalted from the grossness of a lower world. You see all that is great, all that

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is good, all that is pure in your nature bursting from the chains within which it has been confined, and purified by the merits and mediation of a diviner Being from the corruptions which it has acquired.-You see an immeasurable space extended, in which the ascending mind may pass to higher states" of knowledge, of wisdom, and of joy."-You see (what is yet more) that, to this exaltation, the precepts of the same religion naturally conduct its followers; that the discipline which it prescribes in time is that which leads to the glories of eternity; and that, in the lowest situation of human nature, the mind of the Christian may be ripened, under the influence of the Spirit of God, to become at last the companion of the angel and the archangel, and of "the spirits of the just," then "made perfect." Of such doctrines I am not now to say that they are the only ones which meet all the instinctive wishes and expectations of our mysterious nature. I am only to remind you of their difference from every thing that human wisdom has taught, either in former or in succeeding ages; and to ask you, whether He who, eighteen hundred years ago, taught these doctrines, and proposed these views, was only a human being? Whether the difference of these doctrines, from all that nature and philosophy had arrived at, is not a proof of the difference of the origin from whence they proceeded ?—and whether any other cause can be assigned for this astonishing exception from all the uniform appearances of human nature, than the immediate presence and providence of the God of salvation?

ALISON.

THE HUMANITY OF MODERN TIMES DERIVED FROM CHRISTIANITY.

It is incumbent on the philosophers of the present day to show from whence they derive that humanity to which they now lay claim, and which it seems has produced such beneficial consequences. If they say from the cultivation of their minds, the improvement of their understanding, and the extent of their knowledge and erudition, it is then obvious to ask, how it comes to pass that, before the appearance of the Gospel, philosophy and humanity were perfect strangers to each other, though they are now it seems such close and intimate friends? If we should only say that the philosophers of Greece and Italy were at least equal, both in natural sagacity and acquired learning to the philosophers of modern Europe, we should not be thought to do the latter any great injustice. Yet not one of those great, and wise, and enlightened men of antiquity seems to have had any apprehension that there was the least cruelty in a husband repudiating an irreproachable and affectionate wife from a mere humour or caprice; in a father destroying his new-born infant, or putting his adult son to death; in a master torturing or murdering his servant for a trivial offence, or for none at all; in wretches being trained up to kill each other for the amusement of the spectators; in a victorious prince oppressing and enslaving a whole country from mere avarice or ambition; in putting a great part of his prisoners to the sword, and enslaving all the

rest; nor, lastly, when the magnitude of the occasion seemed to require it, in offering up human sacrifices to the gods. So far from expressing (as far as I am able to recollect) a just detestation of these horrid practices, there were several of the most eminent philosophers that expressly approved and recommended some of the worst of them. Aristotle particularly, and Plato, both give a decided opinion in favour of destroying deformed or sickly, infants. We have already seen that this execrable practice was even enjoined by Lycurgus, yet the humane Plutarch sees nothing unjust in any of his laws, and considers him as a completely perfect character. Thucydides relates the massacre of two thousand Helots, by the Lacedæmonians, in cold blood, and a multitude of other shocking barbarities, committed during the Peloponnesian war, without one word of censure or disapprobation; and Livy describes innumerable scenes of a similar nature, with the most perfect indifference and unconcern. Homer goes still further. He ex

pressly approves and applauds the deliberate murder of all captives without distinction, even infants at the breast, and pronounces it to be perfectly right and just. And even Virgil, the tender, the elegant, the pathetic Virgil, he who, on other occasions, shows such exquisite feeling and sensibility, represents his hero as offering human sacrifices, without the smallest mark of horror or disgust; and has not only selected the shocking punishment of the Alban Dictator as a proper and graceful ornament of the shield of Eneas, but has dwelt on the dreadful circum

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