Superior Comfort and Excellence of the Christian Religion.

Of those who worship the living and true God, is not the condition preferable to that of him who trembles before the shrine of devils and idols, of stocks, stones, and vegetables, of brutes, monsters, and vermin? In this `respect, is not the superiority of the Christian over the Pagan almost, if not altogether, as great as that of a man over a beast? And let it never be forgotten, that if it had not been for Jesus Christ and Moses, and the divine goodness manifested in them, the whole world would at this day have been barbarous, or pagan, or both, and likely to continue so long as there were men upon the earth.

In this argument it is not necessary to advert to the condition of savages, cannibals, and the worst sort of barbarians. He who can look upon such misery without compassion and horror, or without a due sense of the blessings derived from Christianity and civilized manners, must be equally destitute of humanity and of reason. But may not the wisdom and virtue of the ancient Greeks and Romans, in their most civilized state, bear a comparison with the manners and literature of the Christian world?

In some respects they may, in others they cannot. For example, it will not be pretended, that, in any Christian country, a father may either adopt his new-born infant, (if I may use the expression,) or abandon it to famine and beasts of prey; that the massacre of slaves is part of a funeral solemnity in honour of great men deceased;that horrid obscenities form any part of religious worship;--that the most unnatural crimes are not only practised without shame, but celebrated by poets, and coolly mentioned as customary things, even by the greatest writers;-that, to gratify an ambitious profligate, inoffensive nations are invaded, enslaved, or exterminated;-that, for the amusement of a few young soldiers, two or three thousand poor unarmed and innocent men may be murdered in one night, with the connivance, nay, and by the authority, of the law;-that the most worthless tyrants are flattered with divine honours when alive, and worshipped as Gods when dead;-that prisoners of war are enslaved, or impaled, or crucified, for having fought in defence of their country, and in obedience to their lawful rulers; that captive kings and nations are publicly insulted by their conquerors, in those

barbarous solemnities which of old were called triumphs-that men are trained up for the purpose of cutting one another to pieces, by thousands and ten thousands in a month,* for the diversion of the public;-that, as the father of gods and men, a king of Crete is worshipped, whom even his worshippers believe to have been guilty of innumerable crimes of the most infamous nature; while, among the other objects of divine worship are to be reckoned thieves, drunkards, harlots, ruffians; to say nothing of those underling idols, whose functions and attributes it is not decent even to name. They, who are ever so little acquainted with ancient Greece and Rome, know that I allude, not to the depravities of individuals only, but to the avowed opinions and fashionable practice of those celebrated nations. Surely, modern manners, censurable as we confess them to be in so many respects, are regulated, in the Christian world, by principles very different. And were they in all respects regulated, as they ought to be, by the purc

* Lipsius affirms (Stat. b. i. c. 12,) that the gladiatorial shows sometimes cost Europe twenty or thirty thousand lives in a month; and that not only the men, but even the women of all ranks, were passionately fond of these shows. Bishop Porteus, Sermon xiii.

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principles of the gospel, we need not hesitate to affirm, that the virtue of Christians would as far transcend that of the Greeks and Romans, as the arts and literature of England surpass those of New Zealand or the land of Hottentots.

This affirmation is warranted by what we see of the influence of the gospel among those who believe and obey it; whose numbers, though far short of what they ought to be, are by no means inconsiderable. And it is still further warranted by what we know of the first Christians; to whom the gospel was preached in its primitive simplicity; who believed it with full assurance of faith; and whose manners were accordingly pure and perfect to a degree, which, as an elegant author observes, it is almost as difficult for us to conceive as to imitate:

Insignificance of Man, no Objection to Christianity.

BY some well-meaning but weak minds, and by some of a different character, who were vain of their philosophy, the apparent insignificance of the human race may have been

thought to lessen the credibility of the Christian religion. Compared to the extent of our solar system, this earth is but a point; and the solar system itself, compared to the universe, may be little more. How then, say they, is it possible, to imagine that such creatures as we are, can be of so great importance, as that the Deity should send his Son, accompanied with so many displays of divine power, into this little world, to instruct us by his doctrine and example, and die on a cross to accomplish our salvation?

This is indeed an astonishing proof of the goodness of the great Creator, and of the con- ̄ descension of that glorious Person, who, for our sake, willingly submitted to such debasement. But the infinite goodness and power of God, though surpassing all comprehension, cannot exceed the belief of those who know, that he, in order to communicate felicity, created this boundless universe, with all the varieties of beings it contains; whom he continually supports and governs, and with every individual of whom he is continually present. The object may be too vast for any intelligence that is short of infinite: but to Him who sees all things, and can do all things, who had no