therefore, when practised with scrupulous rigor, were calculated to form a temper sullen and unsocial; and its promises, when interpreted by supercilious vanity, eventually contributed to foster a spirit of practical intolerance. Different however were the views, and more important was the commission, of the Prophets of the Lord of Hosts. Commanded to proclaim "the glad tidings of salvation" to all the nations of the earth, they were guided by none of those motives which commonly, and sometimes laudably, regulate human conduct. Those venerable characters, "who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," exhibit a disposition equally distant from unfeeling bigotry, interested concealment, or servile adulation. Through all their predictions. concerning the future condition of the chosen people of God, in which enthusiasm or imposture might have successfully administered to the gratification of any selfish or sinister passion, there is nothing to inflame the restless cupidity of national ambition, and little to soothe even the honest prejudices of national attachment. With equal boldness they chastise the rebellious spirit of their countrymen, and the vices and corruptions of the idolatrous kingdoms around them: with no less freedom, they predict the desolation of Jerusalem, and the subjugation of its inhabi

tants to a foreign yoke, than they threaten de-. struction to the power of Babylon, or dissipation to the wealth of Tyre. Far from describing the perpetuity of the Jewish law, they announce its future abolition: far from excluding any portion of mankind from a participation in the divine favor, they anticipate with rapture, the period when that favor shall be impartially and universally displayed; when the operations of grace shall be commensurate with the economy of nature; and when even the apparent inequality in the distribution of natural blessings, shall be corrected by a uniform dispensation of religious knowledge, of the terms of acceptance, and of the hopes of reward,

The accomplishment of predictions like these presents a state, alike suited to the wants of man, and congenial with the attributes of a wise and benevolent Creator; and we cannot sometimes forbear to wonder at the infatuation of that people, who could wrest them into pledges of temporal aggrandisement. Nor can we repress our surprize, that while they literally applied to themselves those magnificent promises, which describe the future dominion of Zion, they should have forgotten, that all her spiritual subjects were to be admitted to an enjoyment of the same privileges;

and that while they thus exulted in the prospect of universal empire, they should have obstructed the diffusion of religious truth.

When therefore the professors of the Christian faith refer those passages of the Jewish prophets to the mission of Him, who declared that his "kingdom is not of this world," whatever opinion may be formed concerning the propriety of such a reference, their adversaries must admit that the application is urged with consistency. They must acknowledge that the distinguishing mark of the dispensation contained in the Gospel, is 'not to withhold, but to communicate instruction; and that the benefits which it proposes to confer, are extended to the whole human race.

The Religion of Christ thus universal in its design and efficacy, fairly and openly asserts this pre-eminence, and its exclusive right to the title of a divine revelation: and though avowedly tolerant of error, never confounds the distinctions between error and truth. Contrary to the spirit of other religious systems, which insist on mutual candour, only because they are deformed by mutual imperfections; Christianity can generously grant that indulgence, which she needs not to ask; but, while she yields, and cheerfully yields,

to ignorance and infirmity, her forbearance is disgraced by no evasive compromise, no pusillanimous concession. If Paganism, assuming what is falsely called liberality of sentiment, but what is, in reality, nothing more than laxity of principle, can boast of inculcating the dangerously popular maxim, that every mode of faith is equally indifferent and acceptable to the Deity; that "the Supreme Being is sometimes employed "with the attendant on the mosque in counting "the sacred beads, and sometimes at the temple. "in the adoration of idols, the intimate of the "Mussulman, and the friend of the Indian, the "companion of the Christian, and the confidant "of the Jew;" evangelical morality dictates the less accommodating, but more philosophical aphorism, that " God is a spirit, and they who

worship him, must worship him in spirit and "in truth." Although Prophecy contemplating, from the Christian Pisgah that delightful harmony, which shall hereafter prevail throughout universal nature, by a sublime figure represents it as extending even to the animal world, and causing the wolf to lie down with the lamb; this cannot be understood to prefigure a forced association of physical antipathies, a monstrous

*Preliminary Discourse of the Brahmans to the Code of Gentoo Laws, P. 4, 4to. edition, 1776,

alliance between timid innocence and savage ferocity. A previous change must be effected in those passions, which now engender hatred, discord, and contention, before that general tranquillity can take place, which these dispositions must necessarily prevent, Every valley must be exalted, and every mountain and hill must be made low, the aberrations of the understanding, and the obliquities of the will, must be rectified, before" truth shall flourish in the earth, and righteousness descend from heaven."

Against this claim of universal extension however, on which the Gospel so peremptorily and steadily insists, objections are frequently opposed, that it is both doubtful as a question of expediency, and false as a matter of fact.

While some have strenuously denied this aptitude in Christianity to assimilate every age and country to itself, and its efficacy in counteracting the effects of natural temperament, of climate, and of education; others have adduced its present very limited and partial establishment, as a proof, that this pretension must be founded on a strained. interpretation of allegorical passages, rather than on any solid conclusions, drawn from reason and experience. Although such a persuasion may,