contradiction, we may be well assured can be no genuine doctrine of revealed religion, but a blundering invention of weak or designing men. It is one thing for a point of revealed religion to be, as to its modus, above our reach, and quite another matter, for a doctrine to be clearly contradictory to human understanding. That the direct connexion in the nature of things betwixt the death of Christ, and the salvation of mankind, should be utterly inexplicable by human reason, is no more than what might have been expected, and, if unquestionably a doctrine of revealed religion, is to be received, without hesitation, upon the credit of the other parts which we understand more perfectly. But, that on a priest's muttering a few words over a wafer, it should immediately become a whole Christ, while at the same time it is certain, that if a little arsenic had been put into the composition of it, it would have effectually poisoned the soundest believer; and while we know that there can be but one whole Christ, though the papists pretend to make a thousand Christs in a day; this is not to be considered as a difficult or mysterious point, but as a clear express contradiction both to sense and

reason.

It is also proper here to mention, that whatever doctrine of religion (supposing it to be really genuine) is beyond the reach of human understanding, cannot be imagined necessary to be received, any farther than understood. For belief cannot be carried the least degree beyond conception. And it is to be remembered, that a doctrine may be contained in Scripture, and yet not a necessary point of faith. For example: It is said in scripture, that the angels desired to look into the scheme of the redemption of mankind. But nobody has ever thought, of making an article of faith necessary to salvation, that we are to believe that the angels are interested in the scheme of our redemption. Unless scripture itself expressly declares a doctrine necessary to be received, we cannot, without rashness, pretend to pronounce it absolutely necessary to be believed, in any precise or determinate sense whatever.

It has been objected against the scheme of revelation which is received among us, That, great part of the precepts contained in it are such as appear at first view agree

able to sound reason; whereas it might have been expected (say those objectors, or rather cavillers,) that every article in it should be quite new and unheard of. At the same time the same gentlemen think proper likewise to object, that many of the Scripture expressions are very different from those used by other ancient authors. So that it is, it seems, an objection against Scripture, That it is what it might have been expected to be; and that it is not what it might have been expected to be.

To the former of these cavils it may be briefly answered, that the general agreement between reason and revelation, shows both to be of Divine original; while revelation's, being an improvement and addition to reason,* shows its usefulness and expediency. The latter difficulty will vanish on considering that many of the Scripture expressions are visibly accommodated to human apprehension, while others, on the same subjects, are raised to a sublimity suitable to the nature of the thing; by which means the narrowest mind receives an information suitable to its reach, whilst the most elevated conception is enlarged by views of the noblest and most sublime nature. Thus, to mention only one instance at present, the meanest reader of Scripture is struck with fear of One, whose eye is quick and piercing, to search the hearts and try the reins of the children of men, and whose hand is powerful, and his outstretched arm mighty to seize and punish offenders. At the same time the profound philosopher is in the same writings informed that God is a spirit filling heaven and earth, and not contained within the limits of the heaven of heavens, but inhabiting immensity and eternity, in whom all live, and move, and have their beings; necessarily invisible, and altogether unlike to any of his creatures; having neither eyes, nor hands, nor passions like those of men; but whose ways are infinitely above our ways, and his thoughts above our thoughts. Thus the Scripture language is such as that of a revelation intended for the improvement of men of all different degrees of capacity, ought to be; it is, in short, fit for the use of a whole species.

That the Old Testament particularly, which is the only book extant in that language, should be so well preserved * See page 142.

and understood as it is, so long after the Hebrew has ceased to be a living language: that we should at this time be able to make out a regular history, and a set of consistent thoughts and views, from writings of such antiquity, is much more to be wondered, than that there should be found in them difficulties, seeming contradictions, and thoughts or expressions different from those found in productions of a later date but above all things, that the thoughts and expressions in Scripture should so far exceed in sublimity all other compositions, seems unaccountable upon every other scheme but their being of Divine original. Of the truth of this assertion, let the following instance, among innumerable others, serve as a proof.

The loftiest passage, in the most sublime of all human productions, is the beginning of the eighth book of Homer's Iliad. There the greatest of all human imaginations labours to describe, not a hero, but a God; not an inferior, but the Supreme God; not to show his superiority to mortals, but to the heavenly powers; and not to one, but to them all united. The following is a verbal translation of it:

"The saffron coloured morning was spread over the whole earth; and Jupiter, rejoicing in his thunder, held an assembly of the gods upon the highest top of the manyheaded Olympus. He himself made a speech to them, and all the gods together listened.

"Hear me, all ye gods, and all ye goddesses, that I may say what my soul in my breast commands. Let not therefore any female deity, or any male, endeavour to break through my world; but all consent together, that I may most quickly perform these works. Whomsoever, therefore, of the gods I shall understand to have gone by him- | self, and of his own accord, to give assistance either to the Trojans or the Greeks, he shall return to Olympus shamefully wounded; or I will throw him, seized by me,

dark hell, very far off, whether the most deep abyss is under the earth; whether there are iron gates, and a brazen threshold, as far within hell as heaven is distant from the earth. He will then know, by how much I am the most powerful of all the gods.

"But come, try, O ye gods, that ye may all see. Hang down the golden chain from heaven, hang upon it all ye

gods, and all ye goddesses; but ye shall not be able to draw from heaven to the ground Jupiter, the great coun sellor, though ye strive ever so much. But when I afterwards shall be willing to draw, I shall lift both the earth itself, and the sea itself. Then I shall bind the chain round the top of Olympus, and they shall all hang aloft: for so much am I above gods and above men."

With this most masterly passage of the greatest master of the sublime, of all antiquity; the writer who probably had the greatest natural and acquired advantages of any mortal for perfecting a genius; let the following verbal translation of a passage from writings penned by one brought up a shepherd, and in a country where learning was not thought of, be compared, that the difference may appear. In this comparison, I know of no unfair advantage given the inspired writer: for both fragments are literally translated; and if the critics are right, the Hebrew original is verse, as well as the Greek.

"O Lord, my God, thou art very great! Thou art clothed with honour and majesty! Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a canopy. Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariots: who walketh upon the wings of the wind. Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flame of fire. Who laid the foundation of the earth, that it should not be moved forever, Thou coveredst it with the deep, as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. They go up by the mountains; they go down by the vallies unto the place thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound, that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.

"O Lord, how manifold are thy works? In wisdom hast thou made them all. The earth is full of thy riches. So is the great and wide sea, wherein are creatures, innumerable, both small and great. There go the ships. There is that leviathan, which thou hast made to play therein. These all wait upon thee, that thou mayest give them their food in due season. That thou givest them they gather. Thou openest thy hand: they are filled with good. Thou

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hidest thy face: they are troubled. They die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit; they are created; and thou renewest the face of the earth. The glory of the Lord shall endure forever. The Lord shall rejoice in his works. He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth. He toucheth the hills; and they smoke. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise unto my God while I have my being."

I appeal to every reader, whether the former of these two fragments is not, when compared with the latter, a school-boy's theme, a capucinade, or a Grub-street ballad, rather than a production fit to be named with any part of the inspired writings. Nor is it only in one instance that the superiority of the Scripture style to all human compositions appear. But taking the whole body of sacred poesy, and the whole of profane, and considering the character of the Jehovah of the former, and the Jupiter of the latter, every one must see the difference to be out of all reach of comparison. And, what is wonderfully remarkable, Scripture poesy, though penned by a number of different hands, as Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the rest, in very distant ages, gives a distinct and uniformn idea of the Supreme Being, no where deviating into any thing mean, or unworthy of him; and still, even where he is spoke of in a manner suited to the general apprehension of mankind, his dignity and majesty duly kept up. Whereas, there is not one of the ancient Heathen poets, who gives a consistent idea of the Supreme God, or keeps up his character throughout. Homer, in the same poem, describes his Jupiter with a great deal of majesty, and in another, represents him as deceived by his wife Juno, and overcome with lust and sleep, while the inferior deities are playing what tricks they please, contrary to his intention. In short, the Supreme God is, by Homer, described as a bully; by Virgil, as a tyrant; by Ovid, as a beastly voluptuary; and by Lucretius, as a lazy drone. So that, if the cavils of the opposers of Revelation, with respect to the style of Scripture, were of so much more consequence than they are; it would still be the easiest, and indeed the only rational way of accounting for the amazing superiority of those writings, to the greatest human productions, in