To thee our fpirits we refign; Make them and own them ftill as thine; Thy children, eager to be gone, NUMBER LXXII. Aggredere, o magnos,aderit jam tempus-bonores, Cara Deum foboles, magnum Jovis incrementum. To the VISITOR. VIRGIL. SIR, THE HE general expectation of the Meffiah amongst the Jews; of fome extraornary perfonage, amongst other nations, at that time to appear the establifhment of the univerfal monarchy of the Romans, and the general peace which then prevailed, we observed, in a former paper, ferve to fhew the fitness of the time, when our Saviour came upon earth. The state of the moral world too was fuch, that it rendered the appearance of a divine legiflator ne cefiary. And, if ever the religious state of the world needed a reformer, certainly it was when Christianity was established.The Jews, with whom remained what little truth and divine knowledge there was yet amongst men, had fo confounded the criterions of virtue, that it was difficult to say, wherein true piety confifted. The hypocrify of the Pharifees, the infidelity of the Sadducees, the enthufiafm of the Effenes, entirely deftroyed the power and knowledge of fincere religion. And to fuch an height of impiety did they foon after arrive, that their hiftorian Jofephus declares, he verily believes the earth would have opened and swallowed them up, (such monsters were they in iniquity),if God had not destroyed them by the hand of the Romans. For the Gentiles, it is well known, that their 'deities were folly, and their ceremonies and fervices weak, fuperftitious, and, in many cafes, moft abominable. They were totally ignorant of the true God, and in confequence totally ignorant of that true religion and only rational fervice, which a fpiritual Being can approve" the religion of the heart."-The deities whom they worshipped were of such a fort, that they could never dream of recommending themselves to them by the practice of virtue and goodness: and hence vice was beheld with indifference, and crimes, which we fhudder to mention, were even celebrated by by their best poets. The most execrable facri-fices and fervices were paid fo their gods; and, literally speaking, they fat in darkness and the shadow of death. Their philofophers too had reasoned fo long, that the wifeft and the best amongst them were content to profess themselves Sceptics, univerfal doubters, though anxious to fatisfy their minds,. and unwearied in their inveftigations of truth. It cannot therefore seem strange, that a revelation from God fhould be gladly accepted, and that fo many thousands fhould embrace the faith of Christ, at the time, when their profeffion of this faith and martyrdom were immediately connected. Let us obferve, (for it tends to fhew, how weak human reason is, unaffifted and unenlightened, even in its best state) that knowledge and fcience af every other fort, were at that time in a state more flourishing than perhaps they have been at almost any other period. Christianity did not. make its way in an ignorant and barbarous age,. amongst ignorant and barbarous people: But at a time when human wisdom was in its meridian of fplendor, and amongst those people, who were moft celebrated for this wisdom, amongst the learned at Rome, at Corinth, at Athens, at Ephefus, &c. "The teachers of the gospel had ad-verfaries, who wanted neither inclination nor abilities to oppofe it. To make its way at fuch L. 5 a time, a time, and to bring over not only the lower fort of people, but also fome of the most learned, who turned its own weapons against Paganifm, is at once an honour to the Christian religion, and a proof of its divine original and truth.” No man, upon this view, can help remarking the ridiculous abfurdity of our deifts and modern rejectors of Chriftianity, who pretend to oppofe mere natural religion and human reafon to it: The efficacy of these had been sufficiently tried before the coming of Chrift: And they were found wholly wanting, unable to fatisfy the anxious enquirer, unable to calm the doubting mind, or to fecure the interefts of virtue. Why then should we hear more of them now, than as humble handmaids, and willing fervants to the moft glorious dispensation of Jefus Chrift? To this fhort view of the political, moral, and religious world, fuffer me to add one or two particulars respecting the domestic world, which called for reformation, and which, as it feems, nothing less than a divine revelation could have regulated. The firft concerns the matter of polygamy and divorce; the fecond, the condition of fervants and flaves; it is well known to what a height of corruption domeftic connections were carried by thofe means; and how much the felicity of life was poisoned in this its sweetest fountain. Our Saviour reduced marriage to its original original inftitution, and rendered the union at once the most friendly and endearing, if begun and cemented by mutual affection.-The cafe of flaves was deplorable; they were under the most grievous bondage: Chrift introduced a more happy equality: and we treat our inferior fellow creatures no longer, as animals or favages, but as brethren.I am forry, that those who object to our religion, have it in their power to retort this argument: But let them be told, that tho', in fome of our colonies, flavery is practifed, yet our religion teftifies against it; it must be char-ged upon the degeneracy and corruption of the human heart, not upon Christianity, which totally disclaims and remonftrates against the practice. I fhould have been glad to have enlargedupon these two topics; fince a review of them ferves greatly to fhew the neceffity of our Saviour's appearance, as well as the great advantages derived to mankind from it. But I must hold my pen. These scattered hints may ferve to fhew, that our bleffed Redeemer came into the world, at a feafon moft proper, and when his coming was on all accounts neceffary. We reap the bleffings of his coming in a thousand temporal as well as fpiritual mercies. For his religion hathserved, above all things, to humanize mankind.. Indeed fuch is the temper of it, that wherever it is truly embraced, it must humanize and make L 6 happy. |