self equally involved in a mystery. How are all the parts, of which it is composed, held together so as to form a solid, extended body? This is a mystery. If it consists of an infinite number of extended parts, why is it not infinitely extended? This is a mystery. If it contain an indefinite number beyond any calculation, how can so many extended parts be crowded and compressed into the small dimensions of a grain of sand? This is a mystery.

He who admits the existence of God, admits a mystery; for the nature and attributes of God are incomprehensible to the human intellect. But he who admits the existence of a grain of sand, and denies the existence of God, adopts an absurdity, to avoid the second mystery. For to admit an effect without a cause, a contingent being without a necessary being, is to admit a gross absurdity. Such is the absurdity of him, who denies the existence of God, the eternal and primary cause of all things, without whom nothing could have ever had existence in the universe. If any Atheist speak what he thinks, and not merely what he impiously wishes, we may ascribe his error to a morbid state of mind, perhaps, caused by the corruption of his heart, which blinds him and makes him insensible to the truth. The corporeal eye may be so affected by disease, as not to be able to see surrounding objects, which are visible to others. But the surrounding objects exist, notwithstanding the blindness of the diseased eye; and the great Creator of the universe exists in all his majesty and perfections, notwithstanding the darkness or perversity of the Atheist's mind. The heavens display the glory of God,

and the starry firmament declares, that it is the work of his hands. The earth, and all things, animate and inanimate which it contains, proclaim, by the condition of their contingent nature, "it is He that made us, and not we ourselves."

A Deistical Sophist, the citizen of Geneva, professes to deny the truth of revealed mysteries, and even the existence of Revelation itself. Whilst he labours to destroy or weaken the certitude of the Christian Reli gion, he establishes no certain system in opposition to it. His deceitful artifice consists in raising difficulties, to perplex weak minds; in spreading obscurities over what is clear; in casting doubts on doctrines and facts, which are most certain; and in contriving to entangle in his sophistical intricacies those, who out of a dangerous curiosity, incautiously read his unprincipled works.

Assuming the character of a man of penetration, and impartiality, he will say, he is not convinced; he does not conceive the mystery; therefore he will affirm nothing, but cannot reasonably believe it. But without having a clear and distinct idea of the intrinsic nature of the revealed mystery, we may be most certain of its existence, from the testimony of God, who perfectly comprehends it. comprehends it. A man born blind, may be certain that colours and painted figures exist, from the testimony of other men, on whom he knows he can depend; though he cannot, by any effort of his imagination, conceive what colour is, or form any idea of it. It is unreasonable to expect that revealed doctrines should present a clear and distinct idea of the intrinsic nature of the mystery; because,

on account of the sublimity and magnitude of the object, and of the narrowness of the human intellect, it cannot be comprehended by man; and, therefore, must leave some obscurity in the mind. But obscurity is not opposed to certitude.

The Sophist says that natural religion is sufficient, and that, Revelation is useless. Natural religion is not sufficient for man in his present state. It is not suffi cient to remove, by the glimmering light of reason, that ignorance and incertitude, in which the minds of those, who are entirely deprived of the light of reve lation are placed, concerning the nature and providence of God, the atonement to be made for the violation of the moral law, the end for which man was created, and the means of attaining to it. We have good proof of the insufficiency of natural religion, in the experience of whole nations, before they received the blessing of Revelation. And if the Deist, who lives among Christians, knows, what he calls, the truths of natural religion, better than the Heathen, he owes his superior knowledge to the light of Revelation, with which he is surrounded in a Christian country, but which he so ungratefully abuses.

Revelation is not useless, it has brought immense advantages and blessings to mankind. Rising like the sun on a darkened world, it shed a cheering light over the face of the earth. It diffused, and still diffuses, over all nations a sublime knowledge of the glorious perfections of the divine nature, and of the admirable designs and works of God, in the reden. tion of the human race, It has shewn to T

paths of true wisdom and justice, and opened to him a bright prospect of a blissful immortality. While it elevates the views and exalts the nature of man, it offers to all the means of salvation and of eternal happiness. Deism deprives mankind of the knowledge and enjoyment of these inestimable blessings.

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The most satisfactory proof of the divine mission of those, who at all times teach and enforce the doctrines and precepts of Revelation, is found in the public uninterrupted succession, and in the public and sanctioned exercise of the spiritual authority of that sacred ministry, which was established in the beginning by divine sanction, for the purpose of promulgating the revealed law, and which has uniformly taught and enforced the same, in all nations and through all ages, to the present time. The spiritual authority of this ministry is as well established, as the civil authority of any temporal government. No endless speculative discussions are necessary to verify the mission of the legitimate and authorised teachers of the revelation of God. It is verified by public facts...

No learned examination of the revealed doctrines is required to verify them. The strongest proof, which the mind of man can require of the truth of revealed doctrines, is the testimony of God, which is given in the act of the Revelation of them for God can say nothing but what is true. And this act of Revelation is a fact, supported by the most powerful evi. dences of other public facts, which cannot be denied without subverting the principle of all human and historical testimony. Hence all the intricate and so

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phistical difficulties which the Deist raises, in order to obscure and perplex the mind on this subject, are solved. For God has attached the communication and knowledge of his revealed doctrines and precepts, to public and universal testimony, to public facts, and to public observances, which are equally intelligible to all, learned and unlearned, old and young.

The Deist says, that he sees different sects of Christians, and different modes of worship, and asks, which is in the right? He observes that truth must be every where the same. That the worship of God should be uniform. That ever since men have taken it into their heads to make the Deity speak, every people make him speak, in their own way. Had they only listened to what the Deity hath said to their hearts, and followed the religion of nature, he concludes, there would have been but one religion on earth.

It is indeed most certain, that truth must be every where the same: that the worship of God should be uniform, as to its rule and substance. It is certain, that there are different sects of Christians, professing contradictory doctrines, and following irreconcilable modes of worship. This is unhappily no where more strikingly verified than in Protestant England. Does not this fact favour and confirm the prejudices of the Deist against the divine revelation of the Christian religion? But which of these different sects is in the right? They cannot all collectively be in the right. If any particular sect can shew that it is in the right, let it produce its evidences. But truth must be the same every where, and the worship of God should be uniform. So it is in the Roman Catholic Church,