consequently, they have been deprived of the greater portion of the happiness designed for them by their bountiful Creator. IX. "It is, therefore, obvious, that the gracious purposes of God has not been fulfilled in them; and that, as they have not lost their happiness through their own fault, both the beneficence and justice of God are bound to make them a reparation. X. "Hence it is reasonable to conclude, that, as, from the present constitution of things, they cannot have the happiness designed for them in this state, they must have it in another.-(Commentary on Rom. viii.) PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION IN MR. EDITOR. SIR,―The time is come,' says an elegant and judicious author, 'when the Scriptures must be restored to the people. It will be in vain for the Catholic Church to contend against the spirit of the age, the spirit of knowledge and of free inquiry.' And if this church cannot be maintained but by abrogating the undoubted rights of mankind-should we hesitate to say that it ought to be left to perish?' The Bible, that deadly enemy to Popery, has, notwithstanding the denunciations of the priests, been read, and the result is most encouraging. Some of those who heretofore submitted to a crafty and designing priesthood, have broken through the fetters with which they were bound, and have emancipated themselves by declaring their right to be free in thought, and to worship God with an unconstrained volition. The following interesting paper has just been published, stating the number of converts in the different cities and counties: Number of 'persons who conformed in the Parish Church of Cavan, from October 8, 1826, to 30th September, 1827, inclusive, In the other Parish Churches, and in the county of Cavan Total in the county of Cavan 619 230 .849 Number of Converts in the other Counties The above is the number of the authentic returns for the respective parishes, and is altogether exclusive of the many hundreds throughout the kingdom who are known in their neighbourhoods to have conformed to the Protestant religion, without a public recantation of the errors of Popery. Since the above statement was communicated, we have received further information, mentioning the actual number of converts from Popery to be as follows:-From October 8, 1826, to Jan. 28, 1827, 1015; February, 304; March, 347; May (to the 20th,) 90; from May 20 to September 30th, 228; Total 2357. This number consists solely of adults: the children of conformists are not included. Observe, that wherever public recantations have taken place, the various parishes are named. To the foregoing is annexed, An Appeal to the Roman Catholics of Ireland, exhorting them to obey Him who has said, "Search the Scriptures," which are able to make them wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ. It has been asked, Why not leave the religious instruction of the people to their priests? For this plain reason, The Roman Catholic clergy invariably oppose the instruction of the people, if connected with the reading of the Scriptures. Is proof required to establish this position? The following is adduced, and is from an authority the most unquestionable :- We have seen the crowded and shrieking children turned forcibly out of the schools which charity had erected for their instruction; we have seen the little frighted victims rushing from the quiet and happy asylum which had been provided for them, and wandering in despondency upon the roads, where they were demned by their "Christian pastors" to resume their old habits of vice and idle ness. con 'If the parents inquire the reason of this strange procedure, they are told, that the Scripture is a book they must not look into; it would make them Protestants! A higher compliment than this was never made to from the 1st January to the 30th September, the Protestant faith. If they happen not to 1827, inclusive : Armagh Carlow 9 Limerick city. 16 be sufficiently terrified by this bugbear of 114 Protestantism, and are still inclined to send their children to school, they are told, 36 that punishment will assuredly follow; absolution will be refused the offender; the sacrament will be withheld in time of need, and he will be suffered to die without Christian rites; and the terrified victim of poverty and superstition is subdued.' 27 3 55 121 26 23 17 50 43 Grand Total 1786 Such is Popery in Ireland in the nineteenth century! Worcester. WM. RENNICK, JUN. 23 Correspondence of a Learned Divine. Aberdeen, 2nd July, 1827. "Feb. 7, 1812.-Dr. Marsh can give you the best information on every point of German literature. No man is wise at all times. He is a proof in point; he has now entered into a most foolish controversy about the British and Foreign Bible Society, on the simple ground, that there is in it a sad mixture of Churchmen and Dissenters; and that they do not give the Liturgy of the Church of England along with the Bible. Never did a wise man more foolishly waste his oil, than he has done in the fourscore octavo pages already published; and he threatens an Appendix! He has a very bad and unpopular subject, and powerful opponents; but, as it is an ill wind that blows nobody good, if he write himself (as some think he will) into a bishopric, it will be all clear gain." "I know very little of the great world-I think I have not read six newspapers these ten years-and I really know very little of the religious world. I go on in my own way, striving to get good to my soul, and to be, as far as the merciful God shall help me, an instrument to do some good to others." "Sep. 4, 1812.-There is very little of importance going forward in the republic of letters. At Cambridge they are a demimorts: at Oxford little better. A new edition of Dugdale's "Monast. Anglic." is projected here by the Rev. Mr. Bsublibrarian of the Bodleian; and he thinks he shall be able to complete it in about ten years. They are also going on s-l-o-w-l-y with Holmes's Septuagint : when this will be finished, one can scarcely hazard a guess. Indeed, torpor or paralysis seems to have entirely prostrated the whole literary republic; and when it will regain its energy, it is not for me to divine." May 3, 1816.-The public is a capricious animal. Your Life of M- might take, even without why or wherefore and with both why and wherefore, it might miscarry. When I see such sublime trash as Byron's Poems go through many editions, while works of sterling merit are turned into waste paper because there are no buyers, the fate of all literary works appears to me problematical and uncertain: but the adage, Nothing venture, nothing win,' must continue to rule the roast." "Here, far from the world of stone, and brick, and noise, I have found an animal quiet, to which I have been long a stranger;--and free scope also for every dis 24 cursus of my mind. I no longer look incessantly on brick walls and pavingstones, hearing nothing but the torturing discords of waggons, carts, coaches; draymen, sweeps, oyster-women, newsmen ; dust-bells, church-bells, &c. &c. with all the endless variety of bambalia, clanga, stridos, taratantara, murmur. In place of all these, I see the works of GOD, and hear the voice of his creatures." "Dec. 26, 1826.-Many of my friends think I am making a fortune by this work, and you shall judge. I get out of every copy that is sold; not one penny more and if I buy a copy myself, I pay booksellers' price; so you may judge how many it would take to provide a man with coals, candles, house-rent, TAXES, food, raiment, &c. &c. with wife and children. Were I a Walter Scott, having got the name of rising early, I might lie in bed till breakfast-time; and my name would get me thousands. But we are not all elected to such privileges." "Translate and write what you please, but publish nothing in these times. Should you publish on your own risk, you will lose; should you sell your Ms. to the Booksellers, you will gain nothing." "Since I came to this country I have heard very little of the republic of letters: and indeed I have no desire to hear any thing of it. I wish all my own works were ended, not all the art of man, nor all the gold in the universe, could induce me to set pen to paper again." "By the way, I have found the epistle of James to be a most singular composition. I believe him to be the oldest of the apostolic writers; and certainly one of the most learned :-but he meddles very little with the doctrines of Christianity. He is, in my apprehension, a sort of cons necting link between the prophets and the apostles; partaking much of the style and manner of the former." He "I bought, in order to consult, that most ponderous writer, Dr. Owen, on the Hebrews. Never were the words of God so swamped in the sayings of man. was undoubtedly a very good man, a very learned man, thoroughly orthodox, and deeply Calvinistic. His work on the Hebrews is a comment on the Law, the Prophets, the Hagiographa, the Evangelists, the Apostles, and the Institutes of Mr. John Calvin.-On the subject of this great man's writings, Mr. Hall of Leicester spoke thus: Dr. Owen is an immense ocean of mud; many of our young ministers are got into this ocean up to the chin, and then cry out, O the depth!" THE miracles which were wrought in attestation of the Gospel, constitute an unanswerable argument for its truth. This the opponents of Christianity have sensibly felt; and hence the most distinguished among them have concentrated all the energies of their minds, in order to counteract the favourable impression which these miracles are calculated to produce. A miracle has been justly defined to be a deviation from, or suspension of, the laws of nature. Now, of such phenomena we are furnished with a variety of instances in the New Testament. The deaf are represented as having been made to hear the blind to see-the lame to walk-the dead to live with many other works of an equally miraculous nature;-all of which are said to have been wrought by Christ and his apostles. Now, the ostensible purpose for which these miracles were performed was, to attest the truth of the mission with which Jesus was entrusted. The question, therefore, which solicits discussion is, whether or not we ought to credit the reality or actual performance of these miracles. It will be readily admitted by every consistent deist, that the Supreme Being is invested with sufficient power for the accomplishment of those miracles which are represented as having occurred in the primitive days of Christianity. Now, it would certainly constitute an unprecedented intellectual anomaly, to admit that the Supreme Being is possessed of this almighty power, and that he has called nature into existence, and has appointed the laws by which she shall be regulated and governed, and yet deny his adequacy to effect a temporary suspension of, or a deviation from, those laws, when requisite to answer any of his purposes. But admitting that the Divine Being is possessed of the necessary power for inter 109.-VOL. X. cepting the usual course of nature, the question naturally arises,-how far is it probable that such interruption should take place? In answer to this, it may be sufficient to remark, that as the Divine Being is infinite in wisdom, he must have a sufficient reason for all his measures; and, whenever a sufficiently important end is to be gained by his deviating from his usual course of procedure, in the administra tion of the laws of nature, we have every ground to expect that such deviation should take place. Now, if, as has been shewn in a former article, mankind stood in the utmost need of a divine revelation, and if such a revelation were to be vouchsafed to them, it would consequently follow, that it was an object of the hightest importance that this revelation should be duly credited by those to whom it was communicated. And in proportion to the importance of assenting to the truth and divine origin of this revelation, we might reasonably expect would be the force and conclusiveness of that testimony by which it was to be attested. Now, we know of no species of evidence so convincing to the human mind as the open performance of miracles; and as the revelation in question was necessarily of such a nature as to require the strongest testimony, in order to warrant mankind in giving their assent to it; it therefore follows, that there existed the highest degree of probability, that the Divine being would invest those with whom he entrusted the delivery of the Christian message with the power of working miracles. We are not, however, left to rest in the possibility, or even probability, of miracles having been performed in attestation of the important truths of Christianity: we affirm it is as certain as moral evidence can make it, that those miracles recorded in the New Testament, and attributed to Christ and his apostles, were actually wrought by them. In order to our belief in the occurrence of events, it is necessary that the witnesses, on whose testimony we are called to exercise our faith in these events, be men of sound judgment—that they have had a sufficient opportunity of knowing, whether or not those events actually took place—that their character for honesty be undeniableand that they had no temptation to bear false witness. Let us for a moment apply these criterions to the miracles recorded in the New Testament. The evangelists and apostles were men of sound judgment. Of the truth of this, we have all the evidence which a reason C 27 Solitary Hours; Evidences of Christianity. able mind could desire. If their enemies of modern times have accused them of a defective judgment, they have never been able to adduce evidence which could have even the appearance of substantiating this charge. The uniform history of the writers of the New Testament, furnishes us with indisputable proof that they were men of penetration and solid judgment. Notwithstanding the numerous, diversified, and often-times intricate questions, which came under their consideration, we know of no conclusion at which they arrived, that was not agreeable to the dictates of right reason. 28 alternative but to admit that they were chargeable with the fearfully aggravated crime of asserting that to be true, which they knew to be false. The Apostles and Evangelists were men of unimpeachable integrity; and therefore, their testimony regarding the reality of the miracles of the New Testament, may be depended on. There is something in the simple and artless manner in which the miracles are narrated, which carries along with it, in the estimation of every unprejudiced mind, an unanswerable proof that the New Testament writers were only narrating what they themselves believed to be truth, and nothing but the truth. Had they been affirming the reality of miracles, when, in fact, they knew that no such miracles had ever been performed, we should have readily extremely cautious in all they advanced, in order, if possible, to prevent the reader from detecting the falsehood of their averments. 66 So far from being under the habitual, or even temporary guidance of a disordered intellect, the invariable tenor of their conduct evinces that they were men of peculiarly quick discernment and strong judg-perceived an evidently laboured attempt to be ment. Inveterate as was the animosity with which they were regarded by the generality of their countrymen, and many as were the accusations which were preferred against them, we hardly, if ever, hear an insinuation thrown out intending to imply their want of a sound intellect. On the contrary, we are presented, in the course of their history, with several instances of their decided opponents conceding to them the possession, in an eminent degree, of a discerning mind and sober judgment. There can be no doubt, therefore, that they were duly qualified, so far as their judgment was concerned, to decide whether those works which were attributed to Jesus, and those they represented as having been wrought by themselves, were, or were not, actually performed. But, perhaps, it may be said that the New Testament writers might have been possessed of a sufficiently sound judgment, and yet, for want of the necessary knowledge of circumstances connected with the subject, their testimony may be erroneous. To this we reply, that, the Apostles and Evangelists had sufficient opportunity of knowing whether those miraculous events, recorded in the New Testament, did actually take place or not. They do not affirm their occurrence on the testimony of others; but were themselves eye-witnesses of all they narrated; and, in some cases, were the instruments by whom the events in question were produced. And there was no possibility, from the nature of these events, of their being deceived with respect to their reality. The miracles referred to, came under the cognizance of their several senses; so that if, in affirming that these miracles were actually performed, they were asserting a falsehood, there is no other It may be urged by our opponents, that even on the supposition that the New Testament historians were previously men of integrity, yet, in consequence of the force of temptation, they may, in the particular instance before us, have forfeited their former character for sterling honesty."We readily admit that men, whose previous characters for integrity were totally beyond the reach of suspicion, have been frequently led, by the power of temptation, to deviate from their usual rectitude of conduct. In the present case, however, there is not the slightest ground to suppose that there was any forfeiture of that character for honesty, previously possessed by the Evangelists and Apostles. Instead of having the least temptation to assert falsehood, they had every consideration, in the instance before us, to deter them from the commission of such a crime. They had no prospect either of gain or glory by the assertion of the miracles referred to. On the contrary, they incurred by their conduct in the whole matter, the contempt and derision of the overwhelming majority of their countrymen; and procured for themselves the greatest privations and sufferings, and, in many cases, the pains of martyrdom. This, however, we wish it to be observed, was not in consequence of their countrymen regarding their assertions, in reference to the actual performance of those miracles, as false; for they themselves. readily admitted the actual occurrence of the miracles in question; but because they looked upon the religion of Jesus as the work of Satan, and Christ and his apostles as the instruments whom he had employed C for the purpose of propagating it in the world. If, then, the New Testament historians, so far from having any temptation to assert the reality of the miracles, and the purpose for which they were performed, had every earthly inducement to deter them from making these assertions, it consequently follows, that their testimony is entitled to the highest degree of credit. But, in adverting to the satisfactory evidence with which we are furnished regarding the reality of the New Testament miracles, we deem it of the utmost importance to our argument, that we take particularly into the account the certain fact, that we are not called on to rest our faith on the reality of these miracles on the mere testimony of the Evangelists and Apostles; but have virtually to the same effect the testimony of thousands of the enemies of Christianity, who lived at the period at which those miracles were performed. It is an indisputable fact, that the Evangelists and Apostles began their ministrations among their own countrymen, and in the identical place which was the scene of the miraculous events referred to, and immediately on their occurrence. Now, many of those miracles were performed in the presence of thousands, and were of such a nature as to preclude the possibility of any optical illusion being practised in the matter;-so that, independently of the strong additional testimony regarding the reality of the performance of these miracles, derived from the circumstance of immense numbers of the Jews being brought, by their means, to renounce Judaism and embrace Christianity, -we have equally conclusive testimony in the circumstance of those Jews who rejected the Messiah and his religion, never venturing to contradict or dispute the actual occurrence of those miracles. Now, it is utterly irreconcilable with the inveterate prejudices of these people towards Jesus Christ and his religion, to suppose that they would have remained silent, while the Evangelists and Apostles were every day asserting the reality of these miracles, had they not been fully convinced that they had been actually performed. The mere circumstance of the Jews attributing the performance of the New Testament miracles to the power of magic, or the agency of Satan, is as decisive evidence as any rational mind could desire, regarding their firm belief in their actual occurrence. Hume indeed, the leading modern champion of infidelity, has advanced the singular position, that "as miracles are contrary to experience, it follows that no testimony whatever is sufficient to establish their actual occurrence." Let us examine how far this position is defensible. Were the principle of experience to be regarded as the only legitimate test of truth, then the quantity of knowledge individually possessed by mankind, would be extremely scanty indeed. The range of individual human experience is so very limited, that, in this case, we should all be in a state of ignorance considerably greater than that of the most barbarous savages now in existence; for a great proportion of the little information they possess, is derived from their faith in the testimony of those around them. According to the principle laid down by Mr. Hume, we have no sufficient reason to believe in any event whatever recorded in history. We have been told by others, and Mr. Hume has affirmed it as an undoubted truth, that a nobleman denominated the duke of Marlborough existed about the commencement of the eighteenth century, and that distinguished success attended his martial enterprises. Now, of the truth of these circumstances, though universally acknowledged, I cannot, in consequence of my not being in existence at the period referred to, have any experience. My belief in the matter rests entirely on the testimony of others; and yet that belief is as strong as it is in the fact of my holding a pen in my hand at the present moment. Were Mr. Hume's principles, however, founded in truth, neither I, nor any other individual of the present day, could have any legitimate data on which to ground our belief in the facts referred to; and on the same principle we maintain, that no credit whatever ought to be attached to the statements contained in this author's celebrated history of England. It may, perhaps, be urged in opposition to this reasoning, that "the greater proportion of the circumstances contained in Hume's history, which he avers to be facts, are only what may be said to be the common occurrences of life, and consequently do not require such force of evidence, in order to our regarding them as truth, as those events or circumstances require, which are deviations from the common course of nature." This admitted; but we do not conceive that it materially affects the case; for while we concede' that there is a greater degree of presumption, a priori, for the truth of those circumstances which are in the usual course of human affairs,-than for the truth of any event which is a deviation from the usual course of nature,-yet, |