It is the prospect of life and immortality beyond the grave, which gives importance to every feature and circumstance of human existence. If the present life be the whole of his career, man is indeed an insignificant creature. If, to open his eyes on the glories of God's creation, and to pass the morning of life's day in the frivolities of childhood, and to feel his youth agitated with contending passions, and mocked by delusive hopes; if to find the season of manhood thickly beset with the toils and anxieties of an ever-varying condition and the period of his age entailing upon him the weaknesses and the evils to which flesh is heir:'-if these do constitute the sum of his existence, man is but the mere child of the the sports and accidents of nature. From dust he sprang and to dust he returns. He struts his little hour upon the busy stage, priding himself upon his brief enjoyments and his borrowed honours. He longs for immortality, and he seems to act as if he were immortal, until the grave yawns beneath his feet. Then it is that he perceives he has walked in a vain show,-and has disquieted himself in vain, and, in vain, has he heaped up riches; for he knoweth not who shall gather them." Like the sere leaf of autumn, his freshness and his beauty are gone; and he falls into the bosom of the earth, and perishes from the place of his glory. Yes, without the hope which revelation gives him of the future, man is, indeed, an insignificant creature. But, on the other hand, if there be a life beyond the grave; if the present be the infancy of an existence which shall stretch

into the eras of infinity; if it be a state of discipline for faculties, which shall awaken, renovated and refined, after the death-sleep of the tomb; and if man shall be found worthy of admission hereafter into a happier world, and into a communion with beings of a more exalted nature; then, indeed, glory attends his course, and greatness rests upon his destiny.

Before adducing any direct proof of the divine origin of Christianity, we shall endeavour to show, that it was antecedently probable that such a revelation would be given to mankind, And, in pursuance of this object, we will take a hasty glance at the state of the world previous to the coming of Christ; first, in theology and morals; and, secondly, with respect to the knowledge of a future

state.

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At the time of Christ's appearance, the Jews seem to have been the only nation free from idolatry, Whatsoever had been the backslidings and ingratitude of this people in the earlier part of their history; or whatsoever were their errors in faith and practice at the time when the Sun of Righteousness arose with healing in his wings,' it is nevertheless certain, that, from the period of their return from the Babylonish captivity, they had continued steady worshipers of the One living and true God. Idolatry had brought upon their nation so many, and such piercing, sorrows, that they no longer yielded to its temptations. From Judea, as from a centre, the light of revelation sent forth its rays. Even the national misfortunes of the Jews conduced to the spreading of more

correct notions, than the heathens had previously entertained, of the true object of worship. In those regions whereunto the Jews were carried captive, they doubtless were instrumental in calling the attention of the reflecting and virtuous part of mankind to the vanity, and to the degrading influence, of idolatry: from the precept and example of the captive, some few, at least, would attain to better notions of the attributes and character of the Eternal, and of the kind of worship most acceptable unto him. Nevertheless, owing to its peculiar rites and ceremonies, the Jewish religion was an exclusive system. Notwithstanding that the sublime representations of the perfections and character of God, the pious sentiments, and the pure morality, therein contained, might have secured the attention and respect of the wise and good, yet Judaism was not calculated to become an universal religion.

But besides that Judaism was not calculated to make much progress amongst mankind, there was another obstacle to the spread of reformation from this source. There was, amongst the Jews, a very great falling off in practical piety: form and ceremony were too generally substituted for the religion of the heart, and for the proper discharge of the indispensable duties and charities of life; and it seemed as if the licentious example of the Gentile nations was gradually deteriorating their moral character; which, indeed, was rendered much less difficult of accomplishment, seeing that a great and lamentable uncertainty prevailed respecting a future state, and that infidelity on

this subject, the certain forerunner of individual and national abandonment, had seized upon a great and influential sect of their nation.

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But, having hastily glanced at what may be called the brighter side of the picture, let us attempt a brief sketch of the theology of the surrounding Gentile nations.

Perhaps the unity and supremacy of the Creator were never entirely lost sight of in any civilized nation. Whatsoever were the opinions of the multitude, there were doubtless a few men scattered hither and thither throughout the mass, who acknowledged these essential attributes of the Eternal. Yet, it was a too general practice, even with such men, to think with the wise and to speak and act with the vulgar. Either courting the applause, or dreading the resentment, of the supporters of the prevailing systems, they were disinclined openly to combat popular errors, or to defend unwelcome truths. Some of the wisest men among the Gentiles, moreover, appear to have believed in the existence of inferior deities, and to have considered these as the agents of the Creator in the government of the world. In fact, according to the popular theology, the One Supreme God committed the care of his works to subordinate deities of various sex and character. Having abandoned the footstool of the throne of God, men quickly descended to a deification of heroes, and legislators, and princes: having neglected the testimony of the works of God, and

* See Wilkins's Principles Nat. Rel

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turned aside from the evidence which they afford respecting his eternal power and providence, men continued to sink in the scale of the intellectual life, until 'God gave them over to a reprobate mind,' and abandoned them to the consequences of their folly.

In Egypt, the infatuation of idol-worship had produced some of its most degrading effects. This country, the birth-place of science, has been called the house of gods; for thither may be traced the theology and the deities of the ancient world. Thence came Osiris, and Isis, and Orus, 'disguised in brutish forms rather than human.' In Egypt it was that the disgusting crocodile was worshiped; that noxious reptiles, and things obscene were deified; that shrubs, and plants, and lifeless things, were raised to the rank of gods. Who could suppose that such abominations should have ever been tolerated, even by the basest of mankind, much less that they should have found admirers and imitators beyond the country that gave them birth? Yet so it was: surrounding nations, being too sensual in their pursuits to cultivate rational ideas of God, and too heedless to attend to the voice of his works, adopted with eagerness the deities of Egypt. Thence sprung Titan, and Saturn, and Cybele, and Jove, and the thousand deities of Greece and Rome. Not satisfied with 'changing the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things,' they deified the passions, and affections, and states of the mind, and evil, and disease, and death. It