the book of Acts, and it was to them that most of the Epistles are addressed. Notwithstanding they called all descriptions of people without distinction to the profession of ChristianityPagans as well as Jews, and baptized all who would become Christians.

The doctrines which these apostles and the ministers who succeeded them announced, were, That there is but one God, who created heaven and earth; that this true God of whom the world was so ignorant, now revealed himself by his son Jesus Christ; that this Jesus who had been crucified by the Jews, had risen from the dead, and that he was the Saviour of the world, the judge of all men; and that those who believed in him would be eternally happy. This doctrine was preached with such success that in a few years the Christian religion was established through the principal part of the world.

As for the Jews they were driven from their country and destroyed as a nation, 40 years after the death of Christ. The city of Jerusalem was taken by the Romans and ruined, with the Temple, as Jesus Christ had formerly predicted. The judgments of God fell upon the Jews, who were dispersed throughout the earth and from that time have never again recovered a national establishment.

SECT. 9.-A Summary of the Christian Reli gion.

In preaching the gospel, the apostles required

C

of those to whom it was offered, faith and repentance. The faith they required was in God and Jesus Christ. The Pagans were to renounce their religion and the worship of false Gods, to serve only the true God, the creator of the world; the Jews to acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Messiah, foretold by the Prophets And both Jews and Pagans to believe that Jesus Christ was come into the world to save men, to expiate their sins, to deliver them from condemnation and death, and to purchase for all those who believe on him, a title to eternal life-that they should receive his doctrine as true, and that they should persevere in the profession of it.

The apostles required all those who had been guilty of the sins of impiety, impurity, intemperance, cruelty, avarice, injustice, pride, malice and the like, to renounce and turn from them on receiving baptism, and engage to live in the practice of virtue and holiness, to obey the commands of Christ, whicre comprised in .. piety to God, charity to men, and temperance in regard to ourselves. To those who gave such evidence of their faith, the apostles declared that the sins which they had committed in their ignorance would be pardoned, and that they would be admitted into God's covenant, which would secure to them salvation and eternal life.

Such were the conditions offered with baptism-but those who rejected these, or who have acknowledged themselves Christians and did not live accordingly-the apostles declared

that they would be excluded from salvation and subjected to condemnation and eternal death.

Such is the sum of the Christian Religion as the apostles preached it. It renders it our duty to attach ourselves firmly and steadily to it, to love it, to perform what it prescribes-living a holy life, and looking for our salvation from the mercy of God-so that when Jesus Christ shall come at the last day to render to each according to their works, we may escape the pains which this religion denounces against the wicked and have part in the glory and eternal blessedness promised to true Christians.

OF RELIGION IN GENERAL.
ARTICLE II.

CHAP. I.

SECT. 1.-Of the necessity of Religion and its foundations.

Q. What is the most necessary knowledge? A. The knowledge of religion.

Q. Why is this the most necessary knowledge?

Ă. Because it is religion alone that can render us perfectly happy, and without it our nature cannot reach the perfection of which it is capable.

Q. How is this proved?

A. We are all subject to various evils of mind and of body, during the course of this life, and at death, against which we can only find a remedy and consolation in religion.

Q. What are the advantages procured by religion?

A. It consoles in sickness and in afflictionit communicates joy and contentment to the mind, but above all, it delivers us from sin and the fear of death, and it gives us the hope of happiness hereafter, perfect in its nature, and eternal in its duration.

Q. How is it that religion procures us these advantages?

A. By securing to us the favour of God, and sanctifying our nature.

Q. What then should be our principal business in this world?

A. To acquire a knowledge of the principles of religion and to perform its duties.

Q. But is the knowledge of religion sufficient to make us happy?

A. To have a knowledge only of religion is not sufficient-our conduct must be regulated by its laws and precepts, and the fear of God must be implanted in our hearts.

Q. In what does religion consist, and what does it teach?

A. In the knowledge of God and our duty to him, our neighbour and ourselves. Q. What is God?

A. He is an infinite, incomprehensible, and perfect being.

Q. Whence do we know that there is a God?

A. We cannot see God, because he is a spirit, but he has revealed himself to us so clearly in his works that we cannot doubt the existence of an infinite and omnipotent being, the first cause of all things.

Q. Where do we find those effects and proofs which reveal to us the existence of a God?

A. We find them in ourselves, in the world, and in the holy scriptures.

Q. What do we find in ourselves, which induces the belief of this truth?

A. The light of reason, and our own conscience, oblige us to acknowledge a divinity, on whom we depend.

Q. How is this confirmed?

A. The belief of the existence of God is general, and common to all people. It is as old as the world. It is a truth that has been recognized by all men not brutalized by ignorance and vice, though all have not known the true God.

Q. How do we learn the existence of God from the world?

A. We cannot consider with attention the creatures it contains, or the admirable order that reigns throughout, without acknowledging that the world is the work of infinite wisdom and power." For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made." Rom. i. 20.

Q. Can we not imagine that the world as we behold it, might exist independently of the creating and supporting power of a God?

A. This is as impossible as that a house should build itself, or that it should be formed by chance, without the aid of hands, or that a clock should point out the time, independently of an artificer.