As the most opposite opinions may have been of equal antiquity, and equally popular in different countries, it must be evident to every judicious and candid person, that we never can safely infer the correctness of an opinion, or the propriety of a custom, either from its antiquity or its popularity. If either antiquity or popularity is to be the eriterion of truth and propriety, Protestants must yield to Papists, and Christians to Pagans.

Christ and his apostles were regarded as innovators by unbelievers both among the Jews and the Gentiles. Luther and Calvin, were regarded in the same light by Roman Catholicks; and such has been the fate of reformers in every age.

From these facts it is clear, that people ought to be careful in respect to raising the cry of danger, when the propriety of an ancient opinion or custom is called in question, or a novel opinion is advanced. For by this cry, this imprudent conduct, the truth has often been rejected, and the best of men have been treated as the worst. People of the present age should be ready to admit the possibility that some opinions and customs are still popular, which are as injurious as those which have already been exploded by the progress of light; and every man should view himself as liable to err, and to be unduly influenced by education and custom.

In examining ancient opinions and customs, we should take into view the age in which they probably originated, and the means by which they have been supported. For some opinions which are now popular, originated in ages of barbarity, compared with the present; and some have been supported by means which give just reason to suspect, that they will not "bear the shock of rational discussion," and that they would long ago. have been discarded, had they not been protected by terrour.Truth and propriety stand in no need of the Inquisition, nor the tongue or pen of the reviler for their support.

General Associations are among the innovations of the present age in New-England.→ But they are not to be censured on that ground; for some innovations are very useful, while others are very pernicious.

Consociations are "establishment" in Connecticut-the attempt to establish them in Massachusetts is an innovation. But if no other objection can be urged against them, we ought to be silent. This innovation, however, appears to have been proposed to suppress or prevent other innovations. It then be comes a question, whether it be not of a hostile character, and more dangerous to Christian liberty, peace and unity, than every other innovation against which it is to be armed. But at first view it seems not a little remarkable, that men who are so for ward to raise the cry of danger on account of innovations, should

themselves adopt an innovation in principle, in discipline, and practice, as an antidote for innovations in opinion.*

As all established opinions and customs were once innovations, so all improvements in the arts and sciences, in the modes of education, and in the means of meliorating the condition of mankind, have resulted from innovations. Had there been no innovations within four centuries, we should all have been Papists; and had there been none since the days of the Messiah, we should all have been Pagans and Savages.

The innumerable institutions of the present age, religious, charitable, humane, moral and pacifick, are but so many important innovations; and on that ground they have generally met with more or less opposition.Even Bible Societies have been opposed, censured and reproached; but much less in this country than in Great Britain.

Such is the veneration which many people have for whatever was esteemed by their ancestors, and such their alarm at almost every remarkable innovation,

which is not of their own making, that they are generally prepared t apply the observation introduced by our Saviour respecting wine, and to say, "the old is better." With some, 66 an

old errour is better than a new truth;" an old law, however savage and cruel, is better than a new one, which is more humane; an old custom, which has murdered its hundreds of millions, is better than a new institution which is designed to preserve peace, and to save the lives of men.

It is not perhaps half a century since there was not in this country one American Dictionary, Geography, Gazetteer, Arithmetick, Grammar, or even Spelling book; nor any periodical work, except Newspapers and Almanacks. But one innovator after another has been rising up, and now the land is filled with American innovations. Each innovator in his turn has had to encounter some share of reproach and censure, from those who were disposed to say "The old is better." In some instances perhaps the censures have been just, in others, unfounded or extravagant.

These desultory remarks will now be closed with a "celebrated aphorism" which was quoted in the speech from which the motto was taken: "A fro

ward retention of custom is more baneful than innovation; and they who reverence too much old times, are not of the most service to the new."

HAVING given a detail of the fulfilment of the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, some reflections may be proper on the prophecy itself, and on the principal event.

1. This prophecy was not a loose and general prediction, such as a man of extraordinary foresight might have made upon observing the character of the Jews, and the situation of Judea. It is too explicit and circumstantial to allow us to suppose that it was no more than a fortunate conjecture. Who but God himself, or one endowed by him, would dare to pronounce upon the fate of a nation in such unqualified and irrevocable terms? And not only so, but to declare that the generation then living should not have passed away till all these things should be accomplished! Even if no circumstances of the calamity had been pointed out, the mere intimation of the total overthrow of the Mosaick economy, with all its splendour, antiquity and veneration, could not have been imagined by an ordinary Jew; much

less that their temple, towards which they worshipped from all quarters of the globe-that temple where God himself was supposed to reside, should be laid level with the ground. This was a conception which a Jew dared not entertain, an event which he would not have dared to predict.

But our Saviour predicted events of this improbable character; and he impressed the expectation of them so forcibly on the minds of his disciples, that they were prepared to expect the catastrophe. Hence we find, in the epistles of the New-Testament, expressions unquestionably referring to this extraordinary expectation.

Second. If we consider the importance of this event to the cause of Christianity, we shall cease to wonder that it was made the subject of so solemn a prediction." The first Christians were Jews; and in every place where converts were made, some of them were of Jewish origin, Notwithstanding their reception of Jesus as the Messiah, they

retained a strong attachment to the Mosaick rituals, and to the seat of their forefathers' worship. Hence it is natural to suppose our Saviour's prediction and its accomplishment must have deeply interested the feelings of the Christian Jews at an early period. But the event was of great importance to the establishment of Christianity. It was the Jewish power that persecuted Christianity from its cradle, and nothing but the supernatural guardianship of Heaven prevented its being strangled at its birth. During the existence of the Jews as a nation, or while their ecclesiastical power was in exercise, they were in every place the inveterate enemies of the gospel. But when Jerusalem was overthrown, Christianity may be said to have erected its head in the world.

Third. The prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem was of great importance in establishing our Saviour's claims as the Messiah. The event was often mentioned by him as the coming or appearance of the Son of man, and the fulfilment was an event by which it was to be known that he was indeed the Christ of God. The great cause why the Jews rejected him was, that he did not appear in pomp as a temporal prince, according to the expectations they had formed of the Messiah that God had promised. Instead of appearing as a mighty warriour, he was meek and lowly. All his encomiums were bestowed on qualities of mind the reverse of those

which the Jews expected to see

exemplified in their Deliverer. They could not understand him when he intimated the sufferings which awaited himself, or them. When he went so far as to predict the utter demolition of their ecclesiastical polity and the ruin of their temple, nothing more was wanting to satisfy them, that he was either a madman or a blasphemer. On the truth of his predictions, therefore, the justice of his claims seem, in a great measure, to have rested. If the events took place according to his word, his claims as the Messiah were established. This then was the triumph of Christianity. It was an appeal to fact which was not to be resisted. The prediction has been fulfilled; God has vindicated the cause and the claims of his Son.

Fourth. The destruction of Jerusalem, and the present situation of the Jews, are circumstances of unspeakable importance in establishing the general truth of the Christian religion. If the Messiah, who was predicted in the Old Testament, has not appeared, how is it possible that one should ever arise to answer the description of the prophets? From the time of their dispersion, their scattered families were mingled, and their genealogies lost. The race of David, from which the Messiah was to spring, is as undistinguishable as any other race. Even their tribes are confounded, and the glory of Judah has perished with the rest. The expected Prince was suddenly to appear in his temple; but the temple is now

no more.

If then the Messiah is yet to come, how is he to be known?

The present circumstances of the Jews all over the world, which have continued 1800 years--circumstances so peculiar and unparalleled, seem to indicate some great transgression, the effects if not the guilt of which are not wiped away. Compare their situation with that of any other people, and you find no parallel. They seem to be reserved to confirm the very gospel which they rejected, to testify to facts to which they would not listen, to keep uncorrupted those very prophecies which foretold their present fate, and to bear eternal witness to their authenticity.

What then was the great crime of this unhappy people? The sufferings of that generation among whom our Saviour appeared, would seem a fable in history, were they not so circumstantially related. Every thing in the history of the Jews points to a singular providence; a desolation has come upon

them

BLOOD BE ON US AND ON OUR CHILDREN!" and thus the mistery is resolved, the judgments of Jehovah are vindicated.

From the fearful fate of a nation once so mighty, let us learn to bow down before that Providence which directs the destiny of empires. What has often been, may again be, and there is not a man on earth who is uninterested in the fate of the nation to which he belongs. If the Jews were punished for their treatment of a Saviour in whom they did not believe, what have those to expect who profess to believe in him, and still live in disobedience to his commands?

B.

GREAT exertions have been made in Great Britain to reform the penal code, or to abolish many of the sanguinary laws which have long existed in that country.

For this humane purpose a variety of facts and arguments are exhibited in the Philanthropist, to shew the evil tendency

of the existing laws, and to prove that publick executions tend rather to multiply than to diminish capital offences.

By one writer it is stated, that the sanguinary laws of Great Britain "award death for no less than one hundred and sixty different offences." The same