hope we shall never again have occasion to take, such a text, from which to branch out our observations, as is exhibited in the following extract from a letter to a youth, in regard to a course of study. Mr. J. says, "I enclose you a sketch of the sciences to which I would wish you to apply, in such order as Mr. Wythe shall advise: I mention also the books in them worth readyour ing, which submit to his correction." After mentioning the Italian and Spanish languages, he writes

"3. Moral Philosophy. I think it lost time to attend lectures on this branch. He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler, if he had made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. For one man of science, there are thousands who are not. What would have become of them? Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of right and wrong, merely relative to this. This sense is as much a part of nature, as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling; it is the true foundation of morality, and not the TO KAAON, truth, &c. as fanciful writers have imagined. The moral sense, or conscience, is as much a part of man, as his leg or arm. It is given to all human beings in a stronger or weaker degree, as force of members is given them in a greater or less degree. It may be strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb of the body This sense is submitted, indeed, in some degree, to the guidance of reason; but it is a small stock which is required for this: even a less one than what we call common sense. State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor. The former will decide it as well, and often better than the latter, be cause he has not been led astray by artificial rules. In this branch, therefore, read good books, because they will encourage, as well as direct your feelings. The writings of Sterne, particularly, form the best course of morality that ever was written. Besides these, read the books mentioned in the inclosed paper: and above all things, lose no occasion of exercising your dispositions to be grateful, to be generous, to be charitable, to be humane, to be true, just, firm, orderly, courageous, &c. Consider every act of this kind, as an exercise which will strengthen your moral faculties, and increase your worth.

"4. Religion. Your reason is now mature

enough to examine this object. In the first place, divest yourself of all bias in favour of novelty and singularity of opi rather than that of religion. It is too imnion. Indulge them in any other subject portant, and the consequences of error may be too serious. On the other hand, shake off all the fears and servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve the fear. You will naturally examine, first, homage of reason, than that of blindfolded the religion of your own country. Read the Bible then, as you would read Livy or Tacitus. The facts which are within the ordinary course of nature, you will believe on the authority of the writer, as you do those of the same kind in Livy and Tacitus. The testimony of the writer weighs in their favour, in one scale, and their not being against the laws of nature, does not weigh against them. But those facts in the Bible which contradict the laws of nature, must be examined with more care, and under a variety of faces. Here you must recur to the pretensions of the writer to inspiration from God. Examine upon what evidence his pretensions are founded, and whether that evidence is so strong, as that its falsehood would be more improbable, than a change of the laws of nature, in the case he relates. For example, in the book of Joshua we are told, the sun stood still several hours. Were we to read that fact in Livy or Tacitus, we should class it with their showers of blood, speaking of statues, beasts, &c. But it is said, that the writer of that book was inspired. Examine, therefore, candidly, what evidence there is of his having been inspired. The pretension is entitled to your inquiry, because millions believe it. On the other hand, you are astronomer enough to know, how contrary it is to the law of nature, that a body revolving on its axis, as the earth does, should have stopped; should not, by that sudden stoppage, have prostrated animals, trees, buildings, and should after a certain time have resumed its revolution, and that without a second general prostration. Is this arrest of the earth's motion, or the evidence which affirms it, most within the law of probabilities? You will next read the New Testament. It is the history of a personage called Jesus. Keep in your eye the opposite pretensions, 1. of those who say he was begotten by God, born of a virgin, suspended and reversed the laws of nature at will, and ascended bodily into heaven: and 2. of those who say be was

a man, of illegitimate birth, of a benevolent heart, enthusiastick mind, who set out without pretensions to divinity, ended in believing them, and was punished capitally for sedition, by being gibbeted, according to the Roman law, which punished the first commission of that offence by whipping, and the second by exile or death in furea. See this law in the Di. gest, Lib. 48. tit. 19. § 28. 3. and Lipsius, Lib. 2. de cruce, cap. 2. These questions

are examined in the books I have men

tioned, under the head of Religion, and several others. They will assist you in your inquiries; but keep your reason firmly on the watch in reading them all. Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences. If it ends in a belief that there is no God, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you. If you find reason to believe there is a God, a consciousness that you are acting under his eye, and that he approves you, will be a vast additional incitement: if that there be a future state,

the hope of a happy existence in that, increases the appetite to deserve it: if that Jesus was also a God, you will be comforted by a belief of his aid and love. In fine, I repeat, you must lay aside all prejudice on both sides, and neither believe nor reject any thing, because any other person, or description of persons, have rejected or believed it. Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are answerable not for the rightness, but uprightness of the decision. I forgot to observe, when speaking of the New Testament, that you should read all the histories of Christ, as well of those whom a council of ecclesiasticks have decided for us, to be Pseudo-evangelists, as those they named Evangelists. Because these Pseudoevangelists pretended to inspiration, as much as the others, and you are to judge their pretensions by your own reason, and not by the reason of those ecclesiasticks.

Most of these are lost. There are some, however, still extant, collected by Fabricius, which I will endeavour to get and send you."-Vol. II. pp. 216–218.

Here surely are some very singular directions, in relation to a system of reading, study, and thinking, for a youth who was probably yet in his minority. He is not to study Moral Philosophy, because he will understand it as well, or perhaps better, without study, than with it; and "the writings of Sterne"-full of a sickly sentimentality, and with a VOL. VIII.-Ch. Adv.

mixture of not a little both of profaneness and obscenity-are declared to "form the best course of morality that ever was written."* We are naturally led to suppose that Mr. J.'s morality was of a piece with that which he recommended to his young friend; and we know of no evidence to falsify such a supposition. We are not however disposed to deny that the moral sense, or conscience, is always a part of the human constitution. But we have been accustomed to think, that, like every other part, it needs a very careful direction and cultivation. It consists in a perception of right and wrong in human action, and in selfapprobation if the right is pursued, and of self-condemnation if the wrong is not avoided. But conscience always depends on the understanding, for ascertaining what is right and what is wrong; and for want of a just guidance it is found, in instances innumerable, to take the one for the other. Those bloody persecutions and private assassinations, which have so often taken place under the influence of a false religion, and which Mr. J. justly execrates, were mostly perpetrated by those who thought that in these very acts they were "doing God service." Their consciences, so far from condemning, justified and applauded them. conscience or moral sense, as Mr. J. would readily enough admit in the instances to which we have just referred, is one of the most fearful instruments of mischief that can be

An erroneous

* We readily admit that the sermons of Sterne contain many just sentiments handsomely expressed. But his sermons compose but a small part of his "writings," which Mr. J. commends in mass. That mass Sentimental Journey, and Letters; and is chiefly made up of his Tristram Shandy, whatever wit and humour these may contain, they disgraced him as a clergyman, and the course of his life confirmed the disgrace. No priest who had written and Mr. J.'s opinion, have been the author of the best system of morality that was ever composed.

lived as became his character, would, in

S

imagined, both to its possessor and to the community in which he has influence. And is this a faculty that requires but "a small stock of reason" to guide it? It is a perverted conscience that leads men to "call evil good and good evil, to put darkness for light and light for darkness, to put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." A conscience either misled, or "seared with a hot iron," in the bosom of the atheistical philosophers of France, sent host after host of innocent victims to the axe of the guillotine; and when their own turn came to suffer, it carried a number of them there, in some instances with the most stupid apathy, and in others with the most revolting levity. This faculty, after being perverted or dormant, sometimes indeed awakes and recovers its rectitude and its force, when the infidel comes to look death in the face; and then it lacerates him, as in the case of Voltaire, with scorpion strokes and stings. But in other instances, the infidel and blasphemer is so given over "to strong delusions to believe a lie," that he looks forward to his leaving the world without apparent dismay, professes to be waiting and wishing for his dissolution, talks of heaven and happiness beyond the grave, and at last has "no bands in his death." No, verily Conscience is not, what it is often called, "God's Vicegerent," till it is enlightened and guided by reason and revelation, pacified by the sprinkling of atoning blood, and influenced by the Spirit of graceThen, and then only, is "the voice of conscience the voice of God." We are well aware with what contemptuous sneers these remarks will be regarded, by all the disciples of the infidel school. But we write not for them, but for those who have not yet renounced the God of their fathers; and especially to guard our youthful readers, against the detestable sophistry and pernicious delusions of those "who lie in wait to deceive,"

But if Mr. J.'s directions in reference to morality are bad, those which relate to religion are, if possible, still worse-they are absolutely appalling. He sets out-and this is his usual manner-with some excellent remarks on one side of the important question; but it is only that he may gain an advantage, to. bear with all his force on the other side,-the side of error and infidelity. His first four sentences, after he introduces the subject of religion, are worthy of all approbation. But who would suspect, without the fact before him, that this was only to prepare the way, to say to an unestablished youth--"Question with boldness even the existence of a God." This shocking dictum of Mr. J. is, in our judgment, not justified, nor even softened, by the reason which, in artful language, he assigns for delivering it" because, if there be one [a God] he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." Is there then no alternative, we desire to know, but either to "question with boldness even the existence of God," or to offer him "the homage of blindfolded fear?" Are not the evidences of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness, which every where surround us, so abundant, clear, and impressive, and so strongly indicative of a great, benevolent, and intelligent First Cause, that a youth, and especially a studious and reflecting youth, who has reached to the verge of manhood, has no need " boldly to question even the existence of a God ?"-nay, can he do this without the most daring presumption and impiety? We certainly think not. Yet we trust we would be as far as Mr. J. from teaching that the worship of our Maker should be "the homage of blindfolded fear," or not, in any respect whatsoever, "a reasonable service." We would teach studious youth, and so have we taught them often, to examine well the objections of the Atheist, and to consider, carefully and reverently, the proofs of the being and perfec

tions of God. But we have always maintained, that an investigation, so conducted, could not fail to result in a rational, satisfactory, and unwavering conviction, that there is a God, most worthy, not of a blindfolded, but an enlightened and filial fear, and a cheerful and delightful worship. We assuredly have never put the supposition, as Mr. J. has done, that the candid inquiries of our pupils might "end in a belief that there is no God," and if so, tell them notwithstanding, "you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you." What kind of virtue that is which an established atheist may possess, or what may be the comfort or pleasantness of his feelings, or what the love of others it will procure, we suppose that Mr. J.'s friend and correspondent Volney, could better tell than we-We belong to the proscribed class of "ecclesiastics;" and we admit that we are, and hope we ever shall be, ignorant and unbelieving in all these particulars.

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There is the semblance of much impartiality in Mr. J.'s directions, relative to the study of religion and the pretensions of the Bible. Yet it is palpably plain that he thinks the whole ought to be rejected; indeed he says explicitly, in the winding up of his advice, "your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven," and adds the favourite infidel dogma, "you are answerable not for the rightness, but uprightness of the decision." "* Into the Deistical controversy we, of course, cannot now enter at large: we shall, however,

We are not to be here understood as saying, that the leaning of Mr. J. is toward the denial of the being of a God, and the existence of a future state. His leaning, in regard to these points, seems to be in their favour-What kind of a God, and what sort of a future state, he professed to be

lieve in, will be seen before we finish our review-What he says of the birth and character of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall

also receive due notice.

presently show that the objections against revelation, brought forward by Mr. J. in this extract, are utterly groundless. But we cannot pass unnoticed his most unjustifiable insinuation, that the writers of the spurious gospels, or in his phrase, those whom a council of ecclesiasticks have decided for us to be Pseudo-evangelists," have as fair pretensions to inspiration as the apostles of our Lord and their companions, who wrote the accounts of his birth, life, doctrines, miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension. No man acquainted with the subject and possessed of a grain of candour, would insinuate this; and if not acquainted with the subject, his doing it is the more inexcusable. Jones and Lardner have shown, to the conviction of infidels themselves, who have read their works, that the spurious gospels are either forgeries altogether, or narratives of those who had received some true information, which they mixed up with much error; and that they are and ever have been considered by Christians generally, as destitute of all authority. If some of them gained a partial and temporary reception, they were speedily rejected by the whole church, except by a few gross hereticks, whom the church regarded with as little approbation as the spurious books to which they adhered.

In relation to "reading the Bible as you would read Livy or Tacitus," and "to what we are told in the Book of Joshua, that the sun stood still for several hours,” we shall avail ourselves of the aid of Bishop Watson-a man who, in point of general erudition, was, to say the least, in no respect inferior to Mr. J., and in acquaintance with the subjects here discussed, immeasurably his superior. Our extracts will be taken from Watson's " Apology for the Bible," in reply to Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason, part the second ;" and we think our readers will be surprised, as we cer