This circumstance was calculated to perplex the minds of simple people, and leave them undetermined which was the true. The meannesss of our Saviour's parentage; his dwelling in Galilee; his rejecting all worldly honour; the simplicity of his life and doctrine; the ignominy of his death; the sublime language of the prophets concerning his kingdom, but, above all, the general wickedness of the generation in which he appeared; these seem to be sufficient causes for the rejection of the Messiah, without considering him in the light of an impostor.

Besides; by the infidelity of the Jews, we gain a large number of unsuspected witnesses to the truth of the Old Testament; and by their dispersion into all countries, they are God's witnesses, and as a seed sown for the future conversion of the nations: by their infidelity too are fulfilled abundance of prophecies: it is, moreover, a great advantage to the gospel, to have been first preached in a nation of unbelievers: it is a means of making the prophecies more attended to, and more studied; it serves to shew that God did not choose the Jews from among the nations for their own, sakes it is a warning to us to beware of the same infidelity we are taught by it, that it is not being of any particular nation or church which saveth a man: and it is well calculated to correcta vain opinion which every one is apt to entertain, that had we lived in the times of our Saviour, and conversed personally with him, we should have been better Christians, and obeyed without doubt and without reserve.

"Say what you please, you shall never persuade me to believe abundance of things contained in the book called the Bible."

Take your own way. I wish not to force your conviction, contrary to evidence. Only weigh the matter seriously and conscientiously, and may the Author of your being direct your determination!But, suppose you feel yourself incapable of receiving

the New Testament as a religious system, founded in truth, cannot you receive it as a system of morals, founded in policy? This will not make you a religious man indeed, but it may make you a good subject, and a respectable member of civil society. It is well known, that the importance of religion, to the wellbeing of every civil community, is a point on which the greatest politicians, no less than the most respected moralists, have been generally agreed; and it is an undisputed fact, established in the page of history, that, in proportion as the influence of religion has declined in any country, in that same proportion the state itself has tended to its dissolution. Is not this an unanswerable argument, founded in universal experience, if not for the truth, yet for the utility of religion?

"But, suppose I should be convinced of the fallacy of my own opinions, and the truth of christianity, what must I do? How shall I know, among all the uncharitable and contending denominations of Christians, who is right, and who is wrong, and to whom I should unite myself in Christian fellowship?"

Take the New Testament in your hand; read it diligently, call upon the Lord for direction faithfully, and follow withersoever it leads the way. Take nothing upon trust; pin your faith upon no man's sleeve; to the law and the testimony.(30) Believe in Christ,

(30) Few of the sectarists of the present day have departed farther from the scriptural view of things than the New Church. The form of baptism in their Liturgy is this:-"I baptise thee in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is at once Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." Their confession is this: " Dost thou believe that God is One both in essence and in person, in whom is a divine trinity consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and that the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is He? I do."-The Holy supper is thus administered: The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the divine good of his divine love, nourish and preserve you unto eternal life. Take and eat this, in remembrance that the Lord glorified his human, and thereby became the God of heaven and earth."

as the word teaches; put your whole trust and confidence in him; obey his precepts; worship God publicly and privately with sincerity and zeal; do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your Maker; and look for his mercy through Christ Jesus unto eternal life; and be assured all shall be well.

"Be all these things as they may, the religion of Jesus is a thing of which you do not approve. He might be a very good sort of man, but his doctrines are not to your taste. If you could only get clear of the Bible, and of priests(1) of every denomination,

One is grieved and surprised, that any set of people, should take such liberties in altering the Sacred Writings. To our own master, however, we must each of us stand or fall.

Some time since, there was a letter written, and addressed to the clergy in behalf of Swedenborg's Theological Works. The letter is written in an excellent spirit. But surely a man of his sense must see the fallaciousness of his own reasoning, where he gives his reasons why the writings he wishes to recommend should be received. The whole force of his recommendation rests upon the reasons there given in favour of Swedenborg's divine commission, and yet those reasons are altogether without any sound and legitimate foundation. What will not ingenious men say, and how far will they not go, to establish a favourite hypothesis?

(1) It is greatly to be lamented, that the clergy, in most ages of the Christian church, have been very generally unfriendly to toleration, and that they should have been the instruments of calling for, or stirring up, the civil power to persecution. Every good and liberal minded man must confess and bewail this misfortune. This spirit, however, has not been confined to ministers of the establishment. Jews, Heathens, and Mohammedans, Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, have all, in their turns, when the power has come into their hands, been guilty of the same intolerant conduct. It is human nature, and a part of its disease. But the gospel itself, all pure, and perfective of reasonable beings, is free from the bloody charge. Jesus, the author of it, was the most generous, humane, and amiable of characters. But, alas! we have sadly forgotten, or perverted his institutions. Persecution and bloody deeds are the infallible marks of antichrist. That the Protestant churches should have imitated the beast in this worst part of his conduct, can never be sufficiently bewailed. Every reign almost from the reformation to the revolution, was stain

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you then flatter yourselves we should see happier days!"

The Bible, and the persons appointed by that book to minister in holy things, are unquestionably great

ed with the blood of souls.-Henry VIII. who contrived to remove the Pope from being head of the English church, and put himself in his place, was a vile, tyrannical, libidinous, and bloody wretch. A considerable number of persons were put to death in his reign for conscience sake. Nay, even Edward VI. was a persecutor in some cases unto death, being over-persuaded by those about him, particularly the good, but mistaken Cranmer. Mary and Elizabeth shed much blood on account of religion. James and Charles were not innocent. They stained their hands in blood on the same account. Cromwell, and the prevailing parties during the rebellion, made dreadful havoc. After the restoration, it is computed, that not less than 8000 persons perished in prison, and the sum of two millions of money was wrested from the sufferers. Sixty thousand persons are said to have suffered, in one way or other, from the restoration to the revolution, which was only a period of about thirty years.

All national religions, whether Pagan, Jewish, Turkish or Christian, are national tyrannies. The last began with Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, and continues to this day. And what pliable stuff we parsons are made of, has been tried upon various occasions in this country-When Henry the Eighth discarded the Pope of Rome, and made himself Pope in his place, the great body of bishops and clergy followed the example; very few, comparatively, suffered death for refusal.-When Edward the Sixth rejected most of the remaining rubbish of popery, and became Protestant, almost all the bishops and clergy followed his example. When Mary afterwards undid all that Edward had done, and introduced popery again, near 3000 were turned out of their livings, but not more than four or five hundred, both of the clergy and laity, suffered for refusal to join her. When Elizabeth rejected popery, the clergy very generally imitated her conduct. Not more than 200 gave up their preferments. All these changes took place in the course of forty years. But, whoever prevailed, Papist or Protestant, they were steady to their purpose of persecuting those who refused to comply with their tyrannical injunctions. Nay, even Calvin persecuted Servetus unto death; and the gentle Melancthon approved of what Calvin had done. Cranmer was concerned in putting five or six persons to death for their religious opinions, and he himself was at last put to death by queen Mary, for the same cause. A just retaliation!—And, what is worse, the laws of England, in the close of the eighteenth

restrains upon the passions of men; and blameable as our order has been, and, bad as the world is, there is no little reason to suppose, it would be much worse without that order. It is probable you have not well considered what the consequence would be of removing those grievances out of the way: And had we not "better bear those ills we have, than fly to others that we know not of?" Reformation of the decayed, impolitical, and unevangelical parts of the British constitution-not surely the destruction of the wholeshould be the ardent wish of every true friend to his country, and to human nature. Perfect liberty, civil and religious, is the birth-right of man. Whatever

of this nature is still wanting in this land, might be easily obtained from our government.-No man, therefore, could desire to see his country involved in political ruin, for the sake of obtaining what he may conceive to be some considerable advantages. Enlighten the public mind, and it will not be long before all remaining abuses shall be rectified.

Let us only see Bibles and gospel preachers removed out of the way, an event as some affect to think devoutly to be wished, and the country must undergo every possible calamity. We should be involved in all the miseries that human nature, in a civilized state, is capable of undergoing. And from being one of the first and most powerful nations upon the earth, we should become one of the lowest, weakest, and most wretched kingdoms in Europe. And could any man, for the sake of ridding the country of these bugbears, the Bible and priests, (2) wish to see all this

century, contain bloody statutes in full force. Bloody laws, on account of religion, though of no force, through the liberality of the times, ought to be repealed: but there is a higher reason which should influence the professors of an unpersecuting Master. (2) It is a melancholy reflection, that among all the clergy in this country, there was not quite 200 who sacrificed their interest to principle, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In Charles the