and it may feem on fuch occafions as if wicked

men were afhamed of their animofities, and were all on a fudden become friendly to the followers of Chrift. Thus at the Revolution in 1688, thofe who for more than twenty years had treated the nonconformifts with unrelenting feverity, when they found themfelves in danger of being deprived of their places by a popifh prince, courted their friendship, and promised not to perfecute them any more. And thus at the commencement of the French Revolution, deifts, catholics, and protestants, who were engaged in one political caufe, feemed to have forgotten their refentments, all amicably uniting together in the opening of a place for proteftant worship. But let not the fervants of Chrift imagine that any temporary conjunction of interefts will extinguifh the ancient enmity. It may seem to be fo for a time; and all things being under the controul of providence, fuch a time may be defigned as a feafon of refpite for the faithful: but when felf-interest hath gained its end, if other worldly confiderations do not interpofe, things will return to their former channel. The enmity is not dead, but sleepeth.

Finally, the wars which from the earliest period of history have defolated the earth, grievous as they are to a feeling mind, contain in them nothing furprifing. The Scriptures with fingular propriety describe the world as a great Sea, which is ever cafting up its mire and dirt; and great conquerors as fo many wild beasts, which in fucceffion rife from its troubled waters and devour the inhabitants of the earth.* Nor is this all:

* Dan. vii.

they defcribe not only the fact, but the caufe of it. Wars among men, as hath been already stated,* have their immediate caufes in the lufts which war in their members: but befides this, the Scripture leads us to a caufe more remote, and of still greater importance. They denominate the fword of war, the fword of the Lord, and conftantly intimate that it is one of thofe means by which he pleadeth with all flefb. A part of the curfe entailed on men for their departure from the living God confifts in this, that, till they return to him, they fhall not be able for any length of time to maintain amity among themselves. It appears to be one of those laws by which God governs the world, that PEOPLE ENGAGED IN AN EVIL CAUSE, HOWEVER HARMONIOUS THEY MAY BE IN THE OUTSET, SHALL PRESENTLY BE AT VARIANCE. Thus it was between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, as Jotham had forewarned them in his parable. Though at firft they appeared to rejoice in each other; yet in a little time fire came out from Abimelech and devoured the men of Shechem, and fire came out from the men of Shechem and devoured Abimelech. Such is commonly the iffue of all unprincipled confederacies, traitorous confpiracies, illegal combinations, and illicit amours. Union, in order to be lafting, requires to be cemented with honour. Where this is wanting, however appearances may for a while be flattering, all will prove tranfitory: mutual jealoufies will produce mutual enmities, which are certain to iffue in confufion and every evil work. These remarks are no lefs applicable to the whole human race, than to par† Judges ix.

*Part I. Chap. VIL.

ticular parts of it. Men have revolted from God; and yet think to live in harmony amongst themfelves. God in just judgment appears to have determined the contrary; and that till they return to him, they fhall be given up to an evil fpirit towards each other, and to the ravages of a fucceffion of ambitious leaders, who fhall deftroy them in great numbers from the face of the earth. It is morally impoffible indeed that it fhould be otherwife for the fame principle which induces them to renounce the divine government, diffolves the bands of human fociety. Supreme felf-love is the origin of both; and is fufficient to account for all the diforder in the universe.

:

Candid Reader, review the fubject of this Chapter. In the last we traced the agreement of the Holy Scriptures with hiftoric fact; in this we have feen their correfpondence with living truth, or with things as they actually exift in the mind, and in the world. Similar arguments might alfo have been drawn from the characters of believers and unbelievers. Not many wife, not many mighty, not many noble were called in the early ages of Chriftianity; and it has been the fame in every age. To the Jews the gospel was from the first a ftumbling-block, and to philofophers foolishness; and fuch it continues to this day. The existence of the Jews as a diftinct people-their difperfiontheir attachment to the Old Teftament, and rejection of the New-their expectation of a Meffiahtheir acknowledgment of the truth of the hiftorical facts concerning our Lord-the malignity of their spirit—in a word, their exact refemblance, even at this remote period, to the picture drawn of them in the New Teftament, are facts which cannot be

troverted.

Judge impartially: Is there any ing in all this that bears the marks of impofture? A connoiffeur will diftinguifh between paintings taken from life, and fuch as are the mere work of imagination. An accurate judge of moral painting will do the fame. If the Scriptures gave

false descriptions of men and things; if they flattered the vices of mankind, or exhibited the moral ftate of the world contrary to well-known fact, you would conclude them to be a work of falfehood. On the other hand, If they fpeak of things as they are; if conscience echo to their charges, and fact comport with their representations, they must have been taken from life; and you muft conclude them to be, what they profefs to be, a work of truth. And fince the objects defcribed are many of them beyond the ken of human obfervation, you must conclude that they are not only a work of truth, but, what they also profefs to be, the true fayings of God.

С НА Р. III.

The harmony of Scripture with its own profeffions, argued from the Spirit and ftyle in which it is

written.

If the Scriptures be what they profefs to be,

the word of God, it may be prefumed that the fpirit which they breathe, and even the ftyle in which they are compofed, will be different from what are found in any other productions. It is true, that, having been communicated through bu

man mediums, we may expect them in a measure to be humanized; the peculiar turn and talents of each writer will be vifible, and this will give them the character of variety; but amidst all this variety, a mind capable of difcerning the divine excellence, will plainly perceive in them the finger of God.

With respect to ftyle, though it is not on the natural, but the moral, or rather the holy beauties of Scripture that I would lay the principal ftress; yet fomething may be observed of the other. Se far as the beauty of language confifts in its freedom from affectation, and in its conformity to the nature of the subject, it may be expected that a book written by holy men, infpired of God, willbe poffeffed of this excellence. A divinely infpired production will not only be free from fuch blemishes as arife from vanity, and other evil difpofitions of the mind, but will abound in those beauties which never fail to attend the genuine exercifes of modefty, fenfibility, and godly fimplicity. It will reject the meretricious ornaments of art : but it will poffefs the more fubftantial beauties of nature. That this is true of the Scriptures has been proved by feveral able writers.*

Mr. Paine, however, can fee nothing great, majestic, or worthy of God, in any part of the Bible. Among the numerous terms of reproach with which he honours it, he is pleafed to cenfure the writings of Ifaiah as "bombaft, beneath the genius of a schoolboy ;" and to compare the command of great Creator, in the first chapter of Genefis,

the

*See Blackwall's Sacred Claffics: Melmoth's Sublime and Beautiful of Scripture: to which is added Dwight's Differtation on the Poetry, Hif tary, and Eloquence of the Bible.