have been enabled to illuminate their reveries with some beautiful truths: These truths were not discovered to them either by the light of nature or the light of reason: they took them first from that religion in which they had been brought up; and then, finding them recommend themselves by their own evidence, and to be agreeable to the light of reason and nature; they have ascribed them to that source; and thus they set up the offspring of Revelation to destroy the authority of the parent.

Never yet was a nation known to have emerged from barbarism to civilization, without instruction communicated, either immediately or traditionally, from Revelation. According to the testimony both of the Scriptures, and of other ancient authorities, all religion, which was all originally founded in Revelation, began in the east, and has thence been diffused in the west; and it is well known, that the same has been the tract in which civilization has flowed over the world. The first created men had, as the Scriptures assure us, the knowledge of God and of their duty communicated to them by immediate Revelation. After the flood, Revelation was continued in the family of Noah, by whose posterity all the powerful and highly polished nations of antiquity were founded. Even the Grecian and other ancient mythologies were corruptions of the originally true religion communicated by Revelation to Noah and his descendants. This takes away the plea of those, who would appeal to the philosophers of Greece as examples of the efficacy of the light of nature. This plea has indeed been well answered by Leland and others, who have shewn, that, under the name of philosophy, the most ridiculous fancies in theory, and the most corrupt abominations in morals, were often foisted on mankind, and that a man would wander in darkness indeed, who should draw all his light from such fountains alone. But admitting, for argument's sake, that it would be safe to take the best of the philosophers as guides in

religion and morals: it is a well known fact, that both Plato and Pythagoras derived a part of their systems from the priests of Egypt, whom they went expressly to consult; and though the pure light of Revelation was in Egypt greatly obscured, yet it is certain that all the true knowledge of a religious nature which the Egyptians possessed, was what remained from their original descent from the son of Noah. As natives of Greece then, where the religion derived from the revelation to Noah existed under one form of corruption, and as students in Egypt, where the same original religion existed under another form of corruption, Pythagoras and Plato possessed themselves of all the remains of knowledge which tradition had preserved from that Revelation. I would by no means affirm, as some learned men have done, that Plato borrowed any of his ideas from the Jews, or that the writings of Moses afforded any of the materials for the Grecian mythology but there was a revelation existing in the world before that given by the instrumentality of Moses, and which was similar to his in substance, though different in form; and this, turned into symbolic representations, was the foundation of the popular religion, whilst the ideas veiled in those symbols were the basis of philosophic speculation, among all the distinguished nations of antiquity.

The sceptic may laugh at the assertion, but I am satisfied that they who can view things in their causes will see its truth; that, whatever they who would separate science from religion may pretend to the contrary, Revelation is, in an indirect manner, the fountain-head of all science; for it is in consequence of the elevation of the faculties. that is occasioned by the reception of the truths which are the objects of revelation, and the consequent illumination of the mind with heavenly light, (allow this phrase, ye advocates of the light of nature !—for if there be such a thing as Revelation, the perceptions which are its offspring

must be the progeny of heavenly light,) that it becomes receptive of higher degrees of natural light, and is capable of making greater discoveries in the truths which are the objects of science. It is true that these may be separated, and that men may excel in natural science, who ridicule. every thing spiritual: yet it is only in consequence of their receiving the outward part of the sphere of illumination, which continually flows from God into the human mind, through the medium of those who receive the internal part of it, by admitting the truths of Revelation, that progress is made in natural science. All real intelligence, on whatever subject, must unquestionably be the product of a sphere of illumination flowing continually from God. The highest objects of this illumination must be the truths that relate to man's welfare as an immortal being,-the lowest, those which conduce only to his well-being in this world. Intelligence in the former respect then, must be considered as the operation of an interior sphere of divine illumination; and intelligence in the latter, as the operation of an exterior sphere of the same. Now the former must be to the latter, just what the soul is to the body: and the latter can no more be entirely separated from the former without extinction, than the body can be separated from the soul without death. Again: Illumination in spiritual things is to illumination in natural, what the heart is to the members. If the femoral artery be divided and secured, the limb will still receive nourishment through the anastomosing vessels this answers to the case of the existence of scientific attainments, with those who deny religion; who yet receive the exterior sphere of illumination from God, in consequence of living in connexion with those who receive the interior sphere also but separate the limb entirely from communication with the heart, by dividing all the vessels, and the limb will speedily waste away and this exhibits the fate of science, were it altogether separated from Revelation.

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Transplant then a colony of atheistic philosophers (Deists, as retaining from Revelation the belief of a God, would not be proper subjects for the experiment :-but transplant a colony of atheistic men of learning,) to a remote corner of the globe, and allow them no communication whatever with the disciples of Revelation; and the certain effect would be, that they would degenerate by degrees into absolute barbarism. To what cause can be attributed the wonderful superiority in literature and the arts, which the inhabitants of Christendom have so long maintained over all the other nations on the globe, but to their minds being more receptive of light of all kinds, in consequence of their admitting the light of Revelation? How extraordinary too is the power which they derive from this source ! See how they have covered the whole western world with their colonies, and how the aboriginal inhabitants have faded from before them! Behold what an empire they have established in the east, almost without colonization, by the pure force of moral superiority! It is not meant to be asserted that they have always made the best use of their superiority, but only that it unquestionably exists. Superiority in arms is, undoubtedly, the offspring of superiority in arts and science; and these are the products of natural light, which is the offspring of spiritual; and thus Christians are the arbiters of the destinies of the world, because they are the depositaries of the Word of God. As the tropical climates so immensely excel all others in the luxuriance of their vegetable productions, because they receive most directly the recreating energies of the orb of day; and as all other countries are productive or otherwise according to the proportion which they obtain of the vivifying beams, till, at the poles, perpetual sterility reigns: so are the powers of the human mind invigorated or otherwise in proportion to their reception of the beams of Revelation, and when excluded from these, they languish in the torpor of dulness and ignorance.

Paradoxical then as the assertion may sound in the ears of some, it is a certain fact, that could those who cultivate science without regard to religion, and who reject the Holy Word, the parent of all science, accomplish the object which some of them have aimed at, of destroying the Holy Word by the aid of her rebel progeny; they would accomplish much more than they intended in digging a grave for Religion, they would open one, in which, not long afterwards, Science also would be entombed,

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In one word, Until an instance can be adduced of a nation that has flourished in arts, morals, and civilization, without any assistance from Revelation, we have full reason for concluding, that Revelation is necessary. For the attainment even of these natural benefits,-in order to man's enjoyment of the true excellences and attaining the perfections of his nature, in this life, the light of Revela lation is indispensable: of the existence and attributes of God, of his own immortality, of the existence and nature of a life hereafter, and of the means by which he may there attain the true end of his being, without the light of Revelation, he would know nothing at all. Here then it becomes indispensable indeed; and therefore, in all ages of the world, it has been afforded.

Since then we have such ample reason for concluding, that a revelation from God, under some form or other, is absolutely necessary to the well-being of man :--on the supposition that God, to make the advantages of revelation constant and permanent, should cause it to be communicated in a written composition; what is the character which, we may justly conclude, such a written revelation would assume? Our ideas on this question will be regulated by the ideas we have conceived of the nature of God Himself: certainly, if these are such as are worthy of the Father of Creation, we shall be led to expect something of a most exalted nature in a written revelation of his will. Who then is this wonderful Being, whom we assume to