animate the courage of his troops, by infusing into their minds the rage of religious enthusiasm; and the dispensations of providence were vainly attempted to be discovered by unneceffary, and, oftentimes, cruel facrifices.

WHILE the various nations of the earth were thus immersed in ignorance and barbarism, as far as related to divine worship; and " were," as St. Paul observes, "with

out God in the world;" it was of the highest importance, and well worthy of the office of our blessed Redeemer, to publish to the world a more perfect knowledge of that Supreme Being, whose wisdom and whose power pervade all nature, and whom mankind had hitherto but " ignorantly "worshipped." Before " the day-spring " from on high visited us," there must have been always something wanting to interest the heart and fatisfy the mind. Far from engaging with an earnest, but charitable zeal, in the propagation of their fa

vorite polytheism, the Gentiles seem to have regarded

regarded religion only as an engine of policy, calculated to actuate or awe the common people; and from a total INDIFFERENCE, not a spirit of TOLERATION, affected to believe, or, at least, admitted, that the various and contending systems of furrounding nations were also of divine authority and facred obligation.

To enlighten the human mind, therefore, on this grand subject, to create an interest in the HEART for the duties of piety, and, at the same time, to lay the foundation of a rational faith, were fome of the many important objects of our Lord's miffion.

THE will of the Deity with regard to his intelligent creatures, the foul's immortality and a future judgment, the dispensation of providence, as far as it related to the happiness or misery of spirits in a separate state, the means by which human infirmity was to be assisted, and the Almighty approached, with humble confidence, after repeated

tranfgreffions, were doctrines, some of which VOL. I.

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the poets, indeed, had embellished with pleasing fictions, but which no being, merely human, could ever teach with fufficient authority. All rested on the uncertain ground of speculation only. One sect was every ready, from motives of philosophical vanity, to controvert the opinions of another; but the most virtuous, as well as the wisest of their sages, seems to have confefsed, that divine assistance was necessary to teach men divine truth. From the revelation, therefore, of these and other doctrines, so agreeable to the general sense of mankind, fo adapted to their wants, and at the same time so highly worthy of the Supreme Being, the word of our Lord, every other confideration apart, must necessarily " have been with power."

Ir derived a further degree of power from the fincere and difinterested manner in which the holy gospel was taught. Mankind now faw, for the first time, a system of divine worship inculcated that was wholly unconnected with the policy

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of the world, and in no wise calculated to promote the grandeur, or foster the ambition of princes. The precepts also which our bleffed Redeemer delivered for the instruction of his disciples were, of themfelves, sufficient to claim the wonder and admiration of all mankind. Before he condefcended " to take up his abode and dwell

among us," the world was ignorant of the most amiable virtues that adorn the human character. The principle of universal charity and benevolence, which the gofpel so strongly inculcates, was, perhaps, as a duty, utterly unknown, or, at least, left unpractised. Instead of meekness and forbearance, long-suffering and humility, we might discover in the theory and practice of heathen nations, a fierce and intolerant spirit of pride, that blended itself with every principle, and ruled, more or less, in almost every action.

Ir it true, we may collect a few scattered rays of that glorious light, which shines with fo much luftre throughout the gofpel,

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gospel, from the writings of some of the ancients. Here and there, we might difcover a something like the gentleness of christian morality; but these were a few speculative ideas originally borrowed from revelation, perhaps, and which served only to amuse the imagination of the philofopher, without having any influence in the general concerns of life.

FARTHER, the system of holiness, which our Lord and Saviour taught, did not consist of maxims that were formed in folitude by study and contemplation. The blessed truths which He delivered, were the unpremeditated effusions of that divine wisdom, which was, at all times, sufficient to correct the ignorance, and affist the frailty of human beings. At the request of his difciples, he taught them, instantly, to address their heavenly Father in a form of prayer, so beautiful in its composition, so truly sublime in its expressions, and so comprehenfive in all its petitions, that the human mind cannot conceive any thing more