must be a moral governor. As long as conscience exists in the breasts of men, atheism cannot prevail long. In the tumult of the passions, in the glare of false reasonings, God may for a while be forgotten and his very being denied; but, ere long, these moral feelings will bring men back to the acknowledgement of their Creator. There is good reason to think that the preservation of some religion among all nations is more owing to their moral constitution than to any reasoning on the subject. We need not fear, therefore, that atheism will ever prevail very generally, or continue long.

CHAPTER II.

PERSONALITY AND PERFECTION OF GOD.

It is admitted by all who believe that God exists, that he possesses all conceivable perfection; and right reason would lead us to the opinion, that as he is infinite he must possess attributes of which, at present, we can form no conception.

Our ideas of excellence cannot exceed the manifestations of perfection in the creation; but it would be absurd to suppose that any excellence could be in the creatures, which did not exist in a higher degree in the Creator.

As all men who acknowledge a God agree, that all possible perfection belongs to his character, it is unnecessary to adduce any arguments for its proof. Indeed, it seems to be an intuitive truth, that all per

fection must reside in the first cause. The very idea of God is that of a being infinitely perfect. Whatever doctrine, therefore, derogates from the perfection of the Supreme Being must be false. It is, therefore, the dictate of reason, that we should remove from our idea of God, every thing which argues any weakness or imperfection. And as our ideas of natural and moral excellence are derived from contemplating the creatures, we must rise to just conceptions of the Deity by ascribing these excellencies to him, in an infinite degree.

Upon this principle, we ascribe to God unity, spirituality, power, knowledge, immensity, eternity, immutability, sovereignty, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. Upon this principle, God must be independent, and perfectly free to act according to his own pleas

ure.

God is a person, distinct from the universe. Every being who possesses intellect and will, is a person. The execution of any work of design, in which there is an adaptation of means to ends, and a harmonious operation of parts to produce a desirable effect, necessarily involves the exercise both of intellect and will. The idea that the universe is God, or that God is the soul of the world, but not a person distinct from it, is nothing more than a disguised system of atheism. God is distinct from, and independent of all creatures.

CHAPTER III.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

THE Bible is made up of many books written through a period of more than fifteen hundred years, by men who professed to have received their doctrines from God, and to have committed them to writing by his direction. These Scriptures, then, must contain a revelation from God, or be a vile imposture. On the latter supposition it is marvellous, that the same purpose of deception should be maintained for so long a period, by a succession of impostors, all agreeing in the same sentiments; and that the cheat should never have been discovered.

Again, when we examine the moral character and tendency of these books, it is unaccountable that, throughout, they should inculcate a sublimer theology and purer morality than any other books in the world; that they should condemn every species of vice, and especially, that they should severely reprobate all falsehood, deceit, and fraud; thus, in almost every page, pronouncing their own condemnation. As it cannot be explained what could have made wicked impostors wish to inculcate such doctrines, so it is contrary to all experience, that men of habitually corrupt minds should be able to conceive or write discourses of so much moral purity and surpassing excellence. Read the sermons of Christ. Peruse the epistles of the apostles, and try to believe that these discourses proceeded from men steeped in fraud and corrupt principles. We are ready at

once to say-impossible! When we see light, we know that it must have proceeded from a luminous body. When we see wisdom in creation, we know that there exists a being of incomparable wisdom; and when we read a book of extraordinary power of argument, or replete with sublime imagery, we are sure that such works are the product of gifted minds. What shall we think then, when we behold in the Scriptures moral excellence shining forth in the purest and most comprehensive precepts, and embodied in bright examples of consistent piety and virtue? The character of Jesus Christ, as portrayed by the evangelists, is itself a moral phenomenon, which cannot be accounted for on any other supposition than that the writers were inspired. It is easy in words to ascribe exalted virtues to a hero, and to exaggerate his excellences by heaping up pompous epithets; but to describe a character of perfect virtue by merely relating what he said and did, and to place him often in circumstances where it is not only difficult to do right, but where an extraordinary wisdom is requisite to determine what is right, is not easy. But in this way has the character of Jesus Christ been delineated by the evangelists, without one word of eulogy. And let it be remarked, that they were unlearned men, who had enjoyed none of the advantages of a liberal education. Let any

number of common, uneducated men undertake to write a history of some eminent person, and what would be the result, even if their intentions were honest? No honest inquirer can read the Pentateuch, and fail to rise from the perusal, astonished at the wisdom, the majesty, the purity, and the simplicity of the composition. Is it possible then that the five books of Moses are a base forgery? Could an

impostor have persuaded a whole nation to adopt a burdensome and expensive code of laws, if he had not been able to give undoubted evidence of his divine mission? And could he have so deluded a whole nation as to induce them to believe that they saw the miraculous judgments of God poured out on the Egyptians, that they saw the sea divided at the word of Moses, that they actually marched through an arm of the sea as on dry land, and that they had been fed with manna rained from the clouds for forty years, and had seen the water gushing from the dry rock upon the touch of the wonder-working rod, if no such events had ever occurred? The history of these miracles is so interwoven with the common events, and with the religious institutions of the Jews, that they cannot be separated.

Let the sceptic tell us what motive could have induced any wicked impostor to write the book of Psalms. Here we have, not merely sublime poetic imagery, but a spirit of fervent elevated devotion, to which there is no parallel in all the heathen writings. He must have been a strange impostor, that could compose such songs, or could have felt any pleasure in such elevated, spiritual exercises. Can the deist now produce any compositions which will bear a comparison with these?

Again, read the book of Proverbs. Do you see any marks of imposture here? Do we not find concentrated more useful maxims of prudence and political economy, and more excellent moral precepts than can be gathered from all the sages of the pagan world?

But, it may be alleged, that men differ in their tastes respecting the internal excellence of literary compositions; and that in a matter of so great im