Indeed it is not in the course of cause and effect, that intellectual revolutions, changes in the mental and moral character of nations and the world, should be produced by sudden efforts or violent impulses. The dispensation of the Messiah was indeed to be miraculous, but miraculous only in the application of the means, which were to produce the moral change; there was nothing promised in the means themselves, which should operate with supernatural rapidity. These means were the instruction, example, and the encouragement of powerful motives, which the Messiah was to afford. The Mosaick dispensation was miraculous, and furnished with an apparatus of means, usually much more effectual in their operation upon common minds, than those which were assigned to Christianity; but the truth of the unity and supremacy of God, the great truth which this dispensation was intended to impress on the minds of the Jews, does not appear to have gained a general and genuine credence, till after the Babylonian captivity, a period of one thousand years from the time of Moses.* How unauthorized the expectation therefore that, on the advent of the Messiah, an era of peace, happiness, and virtue, would immediately commence on earth; how inconsistent with the known constitution of our minds, and the established laws of improvement! Christianity, as might be expected of a moral system, offers

* Lessing's sämmtliche Schriften. Th. v. p. 77, 78. .

no constraint to the understanding or the will of men. It addresses them as intelligent, rational beings, free to choose, and able to refuse. It operates on their conduct not by mechanical force, nor yet by mysterious impulse. But it teaches, exhorts, and warns them. And must not the effect of all this discipline be gradual, in the individual, and still more so in the world? While passion exists, will it not operate, while our nature is imperfect, will it not fall into errour? To remedy this imperfection and correct this errour, must be a long and gradual work. Christianity has begun it, in introducing and cultivating the domestick character, one almost unknown in antiquity, and in revealing the all-powerful sanctions of the future state. The effects are known. It has turned some of the old virtues into vices, and some of the old glories into shame. This may be seen on the publick theatre of the world, where the degradation of the female character, the cruel contests of gladiators, and the miseries of domestick slavery,* with other spots on the ancient character yet more offensive, have passed away. But it is too true that the mighty passions which agitate the publick intercourse of the world, are almost beyond the direct reach of moral means. The trophies of the gospel are in a humbler sphere, the path of social private duty, the season of trial, suffering, and sor

It must be lamented that some sad exceptions prevent the uni versal application of this remark to nations professedly Christian.

row, and the hour of death. Its power and its spirit shine on these, its hopes and comforts gather here, and while the world without is tossed with the ceaseless storm of passion and vice, a patient, submissive, and faithful character has been formed and cherished within the church, which gives the last grace to human nature, and seals the assurance of heaven. And thus it will still continue to operate; the character of man will be improved hereafter, as it has been heretofore, by slow accessions of piety and virtue; which after being long and often displayed by individuals, will be gradually attached to the publick standard of character, and copied into the lives of the mass of men.

CHAPTER III.

MR. ENGLISH having attempted in general to show, that our Lord could not be the Messiah, (with what success we have already seen,) proceeds to say, "But since one would esteem it almost incredible, that the apostles could persuade men to believe Jesus to be their Messiah, unless they had at least some proof to offer to their conviction, let us next consider and examine the proofs adduced by the apostles and their followers from the Old Testament, for that purpose." I pass over the unfairness of thus representing the writings of the apostles, as a professed statement of the prophetical or any other arguments in favour of Christianity, as I shall find an opportunity to speak upon this subject hereafter.

The reader might expect from this show of candour which Mr. English makes, that he was going to present him with a fair discussion of the relative merit of the Jewish and Christian interpretation of the prophecies. Far otherwise. Mr. English transcribes for us a portion of the eighth and ninth chapter of Collins' Grounds and Reasons, and espouses the unworthy artifice to which that writer resorted.

It is well known that the sacred writers, in conformity to the style of their country and age, made an application of passages of the Old Testament to subsequent events, to which they had no original reference. This they did, not to intimate that these events were the primary objects of the predictions, but to gratify the minds of those who venerated the prophetick writings, by showing the correspondence which could be traced between them and passing events. It was on passages thus quoted by the evangelists from the Old Testament, that Collins disingenuously seized, and Mr. English has followed him. They set before us the texts of Isaiah and Hosea; show us that one had an immediate fulfilment, and the other was merely historical, and neither of course was accomplished in our Lord. On this summary process they charge* the sacred historians who quote these texts, with ignorance and fraud, and the cause they defend with imposture. I have but alluded to this at present, as a reason for net seriously attempting to show that passages so quoted were really fulfilled as prophecies in the person of Jesus Christ. I shall endeavor in the sequel to give the subject a fair examination, and pass now to the consideration of those prophecies, which are really to be regarded as proofs of the religion. In these

I say," they charge," for though Collins reasons in the person of a Christian, and speaks respectfully of the religion; yet the argument implies the falsehood of the pretensions of Christianity.