would be altogether different. The one would sink, as it were, to his natural level, following the principles, propensities, and passions which he previously indulged; and, although he were admitted into the society of pure and enlightened spirits, he would remain as a cheerless, insulated wretch, without intellectual activity, and destitute of enjoyment. Finding no pleasures suited to his benighted mind and his grovelling affections, he would be fain to flee to other regions and to more congenial associates, as the owl flies from the vocal grove and the society of the feathered choir, and prefers the shades of night to the beams of day. Like this gloomy bird, which delights in obscure retreats and rugged ruins, and has no relish for blooming gardens and flowery meads-the unenlightened and unsanctified soul would feel itself unhappy and imprisoned, as it were, even amid triumphant spirits and the splendours of immortal day. Whereas the other, having ardently longed for such a state, and having previously undergone the requisite preparation for its enjoyments, feels himself in a region suited to his taste, mingles with associates congenial to his disposition, engages in exercises to which he was formerly accustomed, and in which he delighted, beholds a prospect, boundless as the universe, rising before him, on which his faculties may be exercised with everlasting improvement and everlasting delight, and, consequently, experiences a "fulness of joy" which can never be interrupted, but will be always increasing "world without end."

Such are the views we must necessarily adopt respecting the state and enjoyments of these two characters in the life to come; and there is no resisting of the conclusion we have deduced respecting the ignorant and vicious individual, without supposing that something equivalent to a miracle will be performed in his behalf, immediately after his entrance into the invisible world, to fit him for the employments of a state of happiness. But for such an opinion we have no evidence either from Scripture or from reason. would be contrary to every thing we know of the moral government of God; it would strike at the foundation of all religion and morality; it would give encouragement to ignorance and vice; it would render nugatory all the efforts of a virtuous character to increase in knowledge and holiness during the present life, and it would give the ignorant and the licentious an equal reason for expecting eternal

It

happiness in the world to come, as the most profound Christian philosophers, or the most enlightened and pious divines. Besides, we are assured by the "Faithful and True Witness," that, as in the future world, "he who is righteous shall remain righteous still," so "he who is unjust shall remain unjust still, and he who is filthy shall remain filthy still;" which expressions seem evidently to imply, that no more opportunities will be granted for reforming what had been amiss, and recovering the polluted and unrighteous soul to purity and rectitude.*

If, then, it appears, that we shall carry the knowledge and moral habits we acquire in this life along with us into the other world, and if a certain portion of rational and religious information and moral principle is essentially requisite to prepare us for the employments and felicities of that state-by refusing to patronise every scheme by which a general diffusion of knowledge may be promoted, we not only allow our fellow-men to wander amid the mists of superstition, and to run heedlessly into numerous dangers, both physical and moral, we not only deprive them of exquisite intellectual enjoyments, and prevent the improvement of the arts and sciences, but we deprive them, in a certain degree, of the chance of obtaining happiness in a state of immortality. For as ignorance is the parent of vice, and as vicious propensities and indulgences necessarily lead to misery both here and hereafter, the man whose mind is left to grope amid intellectual darkness can enjoy no wellfounded hope of felicity in the life to come, since he is unqualified for the associations, the contemplations, and the

*Whatever opinion we may form as to the doctrine of universal restoration,-it will be admitted, even by the abetters of that doctrine, that an unholy and unenlightened soul is unfit for celestial happiness on its first entrance into the future world, and thousands or millions of years, or a period equivalent to what is included in the phrase "ages of ages," may elapse before it is fit for being restored to the dignity of its nature and the joys of heaven. Even on this supposition (although it were warranted by Scripture), the preparation of human beings in the present life for a state of future happiness must be a matter of the highest importance, since it prevents the sufferings denoted by "devouring fire, weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth," during the indefinite and long-continued period of "

ages of

employments of that future existence. As in the material creation light was the first substance created before the chaos was reduced to beauty and order, so, in the intellectual world, knowledge, or light in the understanding, is the first thing which restores the moral system to harmony and order. It is the commencement of every process that leads to improvement, comfort, and moral order in this life, and that prepares us for the enjoyments of the life to come. But ignorance is both the emblem and the prelude of "the blackness of darkness for ever.' This is one of the most powerful considerations which should induce every philanthropist to exert every nerve, and to further every scheme which has for its object to diffuse liberty, knowledge, and moral principle among all the inhabitants of the earth.

SECTION IX.

On the Utility of General Knowledge in relation to the
Study of Divine Revelation.

Or all the departments of knowledge to which the human mind can be directed, there is none of greater importance than that which exhibits the real character and condition of man as a moral agent-his relation to the Deity-his eternal destiny-the way in which he may be delivered from the effects of moral evil-and the worship and service he owes to his Almighty Creator. On these and kindred topics the Christian revelation affords the most clear and satisfactory information, and the details which it furnishes on these subjects are of the highest moment, and deeply interesting to every inhabitant of the globe. But ignorance, leagued with depravity and folly, has been the cause that the sacred oracles have so frequently been treated with indifference and contempt; and that those who have professed to recognise them as the intimations of the will of the Deity have been prevented from studying them with intelligence, and contemplating the facts they exhibit in all their conse quences and relations.

In order to a profitable study of the doctrines, facts, and prophecies contained in the Bible, it is requisite, in the first place, that a deep and thorough conviction be produced in the mind, that they are indeed the revelations of Heaven, addressed to man on earth to direct his views and conduct as an accountable agent, and a candidate for immortality. From ignorance of the evidences on which the truth of Christianity rests, multitudes of thoughtless mortals have been induced to reject its authority, and have glided down the stream of licentious pleasure, "sporting themselves with their own deceivings," till they landed in wretchedness and ruin. The religion of the Bible requires only to be examined with care, and studied with humility and reverence, in order to produce a full conviction of its celestial origin; and wherever such dispositions are brought into contact with a calm and intelligent investigation of the evidences of revelation, and of the facts and doctrines it discloses, the mind will not only discern its superiority to every other system of religion, but will perceive the beauty and excellence of its discoveries, and the absolute necessity of their being studied and promulgated in order to raise the human race from that degradation into which they have been so long immersed, and to promote the renovation of the moral world. And those objections and difficulties which previously perplexed and harassed the inquirer will gradually evanish, as the mists of the morning before the orb of day.

The evidences of Christianity have been generally distributed into the external and the internal. The external may again be divided into direct and collateral. The direct evidences are such as arise from the nature, consistency, and probability of the facts; and from the simplicity, uniformity, competency, and fidelity of the testimonies by which they are supported. The collateral evidences are those which arise from the concurrent testimonies of heathen writers, or others, which corroborate the history of Christianity, and establish its leading facts. The internal evidences arise, either from the conformity of the announcements of revelation to the known character of God, from their aptitude to the frame and circumstances of man, or from those convictions impressed upon the mind by the agency of the Divine Spirit.

In regard to the external evidences, the following propositions can be supported both from the testimonies of profane writers, the Scriptures of the New Testament, and other ancient Christian writings: viz. 1. "That there is satisfactory evidence that many professing to be original witnesses of the Christian miracles passed their lives in labours, dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily undergone in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief of those accounts; and that they also submitted, from the same motives, to new rules of conduct." And, 2. "That there is not satisfactory evidence, that persons pretending to be original witnesses of any other miracles have acted in the same manner, in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and solely in conse quence of their belief of the truth of these accounts." These propositions can be substantiated to the conviction of every serious and unbiased inquirer; they form the basis of the external evidence of the Christian religion; and when their truth is clearly discerned, the mind is irresist ibly led to the conclusion, that the doctrines and facts promulgated by the first propagators of Christianity are true.

The following propositions can also be satisfactorily proved: viz. That the Jewish religion is of great antiquity, and that Moses was its founder,-that the books of the Old Testament were extant long before the Christian era; a Greek translation of them having been laid up in the Alexandrian library in the days of Ptolemy Philadelphus,—that these books are in the main genuine, and the histories they contain worthy of credit,-that many material facts which are recorded in the Old Testament are also mentioned by very ancient heathen writers,-that Christianity is not a modern religion, but was professed by great multitudes nearly 1800 years ago, that Jesus Christ, the founder of this religion, was crucified at Jerusalem during the reign of Tiberius Cæsar,-that the first publishers of this religion wrote books containing an account of the life and doctrines of their Master, several of which bore the names of those books which now make up the New Testament,—that these books were frequently quoted and referred to by numerous writers, from the days of the apostles to the fourth cen tury and downwards,-that they are genuine, or written