have escaped notice, how flexible a talent at hypothesis, Mr. Paine possesses. In the last Paragraph he attempted to show, that the Christian Religion was accommodated to the notions of the Heathen mythology, in order that it might gain acceptance with "the people called Gentiles.” He now makes it the destroyer of that mythology root and branch; for he annihilates whole hosts of divinities at a breath, and abolishes without ceremony the flattering hopes of apotheosis; or, what is worse, transfers it from the ambitious Hero, to the unambitious Saint. But we have before met, and shall meet again, with discrepancies of this sort. When Mr. Paine was tracing with his analogical pantagraph, the trinity of persons in one God, which he fancied to be "a reduction of the former plurality of twenty or thirty thousand," how much would it have disturbed the beauty of his picture, if he had been told, that Christianity was first designed for the Jews, and was first preached to them, and that they had already no more than one God, and, therefore, needed no "reduction of the former Heathen plurality of twenty or thirty thousand.” He would have started with surprise, and instantly have discovered, that whether the Christian Religion was addressed to the Jews or Gentiles, it was still quite irrecon ciliable with his hypothesis.-If to the Jews, because then there was nothing of Heathen mythology connected with it; if to the Gentiles, it was not conformable, but in direct opposition to their established belief in that mythology. Thus falls Mr. Paine's imaginary structure. The truth is, that Christianity was first addressed to the Jews, with whose religion it not only harmonized, but sprung from; and the Gentiles of those times, were converts to it in the same manner as the Idolaters of modern days.

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Whether the statue of Mary succeeded the statue of Diana of Ephesus" or not, has nothing to do with Chris tianity. If any of Mr. Paine's disciples will examine the Christian record, they will find no mention of the statue of Mary, but many, very many, injunctions against such. things.

"The deification of Heroes," and "the canonization of Saints," are human ceremonies, arising out of human principles; and neither of them connected with religion: The Hero who saved his Country, and the Saint who bled in attestation of that truth which was destined to save. mankind, were both entitled to gratitude. The former of his own people, and the latter of the whole world; and that gratitude, by an easy transit, passed into Idolatry.

"The Mythologists had gods for every thing; the Christian Mythologists had Saints for every thing." It is the glibness of Mr. Paine's asseverations upon which the Reader's mind slides into error. The nicely balanced correspondence of the two parts of an antithetical expression, dispossesses, by a sort of coup de grace, the exercise of judgment, and bewilders us into a conclusion, which a moment's reflection tells us to be false, It is true, "the Mythologists had their gods for every thing;" for war, for peace, for love &c. &c. but in what sense can Mr. Paine say, that "the Christians have Saints for every thing?" This is false; the Christians have Saints but for one thing, and that is, for the conviction which they attested, in the truth of their religion.

Mr. Paine proceeds to observe, that "the Christian theory, is little else than the Idolatry of the ancient Mythologists, accommodated to the purposes of power and revenue.' This charge was directed against the Catholic Clergy of France; whether it applied to them or not, has nothing to do with my vindication of Christianity. For, whatever "purposes of power and revenue" may have been raised upon the Christian doctrine, they most assuredly formed no part of the views, or designs, of the great Founder of it. And to suppose, that the Founder of a Religion, and his immediate followers, should set examples of poverty, selfdenial, and indefatigable zeal, which were to operate as encouragements to worldly-mindedness, to unrestrained indulgence, and listless apathy, is so much at variance with common practice, and common experience, that the mind rejects it at once,

One word more upon this Paragraph, and I have done with it. In what manner did Mr. Paine expect "reason and philosophy" to prove Christianity an "amphibious fraud," since it is founded upon that "reason" upon which philosophy itself rests? It passed through the ordeal of Jewish reason and philosophy without a scar, and strangled in its infancy, the serpent of Jewish prejudice. It has for eighteen hundred years been daily gathering strength from opposition, and flourishing the more, as it becomes the companion of reason and philosophy; received where they prevail, and carrying the torch of both where they are unknown; enlightening ignorance, and civilizing humanity. It still walks on in the majesty of truth, and, like the great deluge, is rapidly spreading its doctrines over the whole world; every where destroying the abominations of Idolatry, and declaring to all people "the glad tidings of salvation."

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"Nothing that is here said, can apply, even with the most distant disrespect, the real character of Jesus Christ. He was a virtuous and an amiable man. The morality he preached and practised was of the most benevolent kind; and though similar systems had been preached by Confucius, and by some of the Greek Philosophers many years before; by the Quakers since; and by many good men in all ages; it has not been exceeded by any,'

It was a concession whose consequences Mr. Paine could not contemplate, when he admitted that Jesus Christ had a real character, and that the morality he preached and practised, was of the most benevolent kind." For it is a fair dilemna, that Christ was either a voluntary impostor, or he was not. If he were an impostor, how will this acknowledgment of Mr. Paine apply to him? How will he reconcile the opposite qualities of virtue and benevolence, with hypocrisy and fraud? Such are the inevitable consequences of Mr. Paine's concession, when opposed to the general aim of his publication. For he denies that Christ was what he pretended to be, and yet

allows that he was a virtuous and benevolent man. If he hopes to shelter himself under the assertion, that the History of Christ "is the work of other people," he will find in that hope no refuge, for the same people who_bear testimony to the virtue and benevolence which Mr. Paine admits, are the same who bear witness to the divinity of his character which he denies; and there is no other. evidence beside theirs. Hence, then, without further proof which might, and, hereafter, shall be abundantly offered in support of the truth of Christianity, since one side of the dilemna is false, the other must be true; that is, Christ was not an impostor, or in other words, he was what he pretended to be-the Son of God.

Mr. Paine could know but little of the systems of morality taught by Confucius and the Greek Philosophers, when he declared them to be "similar" to the system inculcated by our Saviour. Where are to be found the precepts, "Love your enemies. Do good to them which hate you. Bless them that curse you. And pray for them which despitefully use you. Lend, hoping for nothing again." And that brief, but complete summary of morality. "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise?" Let us hear what was the morality of the Grecians, as it is recorded by a classical Writer. "In the times of Plato and his disciples, not only moral purity, but even moral integrity, was not better understood, and still less better observed, than in the days of Homer;" and a profound Historian adds, what is confirmatory of these remarks, (viz.) “that it is evident from the writings of Xenophon and Plato, that in their age the boundaries of right and wrong, justice and injustice, honesty and dishonesty, were little determined by any generally received principle.” And another Writer, truly observes, that "the History of the world had demonstrated (and it is the best lesson which a review of its most interesting portions can teach) the necessity of some surer, and more authoritative guide to man, than what the wisdom of the world had been able to afford him, either as a member of society, or a being

formed for immortality.”

"The moral duties of life" im

posed by Confucius, were, as an excellent Historian declares, "comprised chiefly in these two, (viz.) filial piety towards parents, and unreserved obedience to the will of the Emperor." What better than these could be expected from a philosophy which knew not of a God as the moral Governor of the world? which speculated without a guide, and reasoned without an authority?

That the morality of the Quakers is as pure as that of Christianity cannot be denied; for it is the same.

The many good men of all ages," to whom Mr. Paine indiscriminately alludes, are too intangible for my grasp; and I must, therefore, leave the Reader to feel them out for himself. Mr. Paine admits, however, that the morality of our Saviour, has "not been exceeded by any." I humbly think, that I have shewn, that it has not been equalled, nor even approached by any. Of it may be said, what can, with truth, be said of no other system. That if the New Testament were to be picked up in the the remotest Island of the globe, by a man who knew not of the existence of any other Country but is own, he would acknowledge, if he understoood it, that it was the work of consummate wisdom, unbounded benevolence, and charity more than human.

That an obscure Mechanic and a few Fishermen, unlettered, unskilled in the learning of Greece, and, certainly, unacquainted with the doctrines of Confucius, should embody a system of morality transcending all the efforts of all the nations of the world, for all ages before, is in itself a miracle, a standing, irresistible miracle.

"Jesus Christ wrote no account of himself, of his birth, parentage, or any thing else. Not a line of what is called the New Testament, is of his own writing. The History of him is altogether the work of other people; and as to the account given of his resurrection and ascension, it was the necessary counterpart of his birth. His Historians having brought him into the world in a super-natural manner, were obliged to take him out of it in the same manner, or the first part of the story must have fallen to the