native soundness, and have room and freedom to spread its roots and extend its branches, it will continue to bear such fruit, more and more abundantly and perfectly, to the end of time. This tree of life was planted to live through all ages, and spread its shadow over all nations. The trials it stood in its infancy; the fierce assaults of every species of enmity, which in every age of its subsequent growth have endeavoured in vain to destroy it, are evidences that, as no human power could have thus protected it, so no human opposition can hereafter prevent its increase; that it must grow, and spread, and blossom, till time shall be no more.

I am well aware, and I desire not to conceal, that it is very common with infidels to ascribe wars, intrigues, bloodshed, and persecutions, to the influence of christianity, and to assert that the world has been covered with slaughter by the hand of the gospel. The truth is, that whenever any evils, such as wars or persecutions, arise, though infidels by profession, or mere nominal christians, are at the bottom of them; though originated and carried on out of direct enmity to the gospel; yet, because the christian name is involved in the contest, infidels set down the whole to the account of a religion, which, nevertheless, their chief men confess, has a direct tendency to make every body do his duty,* and “to promote the peace and happiness of mankind." But on the other hand, whenever any good is done in society, such as the banishment of the crimes and vices of heathenism; the promotion of virtue, peace, good laws, good institutions, benevolence, domestic and public happiness; then infidels have great difficulty in seeing how these blessings are connected with christianity, even though, by their own acknow

missionary stations are scattered, as drops upon a desert; and because, in visiting a few prominent places, you heard or saw nothing of their influence upon the millions of heathen, you would persuade us that what we have read is all untrue. How much more should we believe that the national school system is a fable!" The traveller was silenced; the people were satisfied. + Bolingbroke.

* Rousseau.

ledgment, the life of Jesus "showed at once what excellent creatures men would be, when under the influence and power of that gospel which he preached."

It is freely granted that in countries called christian, great evils remain to be cured; their history abounds with wars, some of which have been on account of the christian religion, and have been accompanied with great slaughter and lasting enmities. But before these deplorable facts can justly be attributed to the influence of the peaceful and gentle religion of Jesus, a number of important questions, which we shall presently name, must be decided. By the confession of one of the most noted infidels: "We have in Christ an example of one who was just, honest, upright, and sincere, and above all, of a most gracious and benevolent temper and behaviour. One who did no wrong, no injury to any man; in whose mouth was no guile; who went about doing good, not only by his ministry, but also in curing all manner of diseases among the people. His life showed what excellent creatures men would be when under the influence and power of that gospel which he preached unto them." But hear on this head the eloquence of the profligate Rousseau, venturing for once to speak the truth: "I will confess that the majesty of the scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the gospel has its influence on my heart. Peruse the works of our philosophers with all their pomp of diction; how contemptible are they compared with the scriptures! Is it possible that a book at once so simple and sublime should be merely the work of man? Is it possible that the sacred personage whose name it records, should be himself a mere man? What sweetness, what purity in his manner! What sublimity in his maxims! What profound wisdom in his discourses! Where is the man, where the philosopher, who could so live and so die without weakness and without ostentation? If the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage, the life

* Chubb's True Gospel, § viii. 55, 6. + Chubb's True Gospel, § viii. 56, 57.

and death of Jesus were those of a God." Such are the confessions of a man whose vice and vanity constrained him to say: "I cannot believe the gospel." No wonder, when at the same time he was saying in his heart, I will not renounce my debaucheries.

But such confessions abound in the writings of infidels, so that "the whole christian argument might be maintained on the admissions of one or other of the leading infidel writers; and no contest remain, unless, if it could then be called one, with the miserable, ignorant ferocity of Paine and his associates."*

On the ground of such acknowledgments, and of the acquaintance which any who ever read the New Testament must have with its principles and tendency, let the following questions be answered: Is there any tendency in the principles of the gospel to the enkindling of strife, hatred, war, or bloodshed? Was the character of its founder; were the characters of the apostles and primitive Christians among whom the native influence of christianity was most unequivocally exhibited, in any manner indicative of such a tendency in its principles? Is not the whole history of the purest ages of the gospel, as well as every page in the New Testament, directly in proof of the very opposite effect? Did not all the evils of war and national dissension prevail much more universally before the establishment of christianity, than they have done since? Is not the influence of this religion plainly visible in mitigating those horrors of war which she has not exterminated? And as to those which have continued to subsist, are they in direct consequence, or in spite of her influence; the fruit of the tree, or the poisonous weeds at its root, which oppose its growth? Are the men who have been concerned in promoting these evils, and who are called Christians, believed to have been real Christians? Do not infidels discriminate sufficiently between genuine and nominal religion, to understand that, in thus acting, they were departing

*Wilson's Lectures.

from the principles of the gospel, and proving that they were Christians but in name? "Have not the courts of princes, notwithstanding christianity may have been the professed religion of the land, been generálly attended by a far greater proportion of deists, than of serious Christians; and have not public measures been directed by the counsels of the former, much more than by those of the latter? It is well known that great numbers among the nobility and gentry of every nation consider religion as suited only to vulgar minds; and therefore either wholly absent themselves from public worship, or attend but seldom, and then only to save appearances towards a national establishment. In other words, they are unbelievers. This is the description of men by which public affairs are commonly managed, and to which the good or the evil pertaining to them, so far as human agency is concerned, is to be attributed."*

It is a favourite manœuvre with infidels to charge christianity with all the persecutions on account of religion, and, at the same time, to speak in high terms of "the mild tolerance of the ancient heathens;" of "the universal toleration of polytheism," of "the Roman princes beholding without concern a thousand forms of religion subsisting in peace under their gentle sway."+ Better information on this subject is greatly needed in the community. Heathen toleration was any thing but virtuous, and much less universal than its modern eulogists would represent. It allowed all nations to establish whatever description of religion they pleased, provided each would acknowledge that all, in their several spheres, were equally good. But pagan nations required of every citizen conformity to the national idolatries. This yielded, he might believe and be, whatever he pleased. This denied, immediately toleration ceased. Take a few examples. Stilpo was banished Athens, for affirming that the statue of Minerva, in the citadel, was no divinity, but only the work of the chisel of Phidias. Protagoras received a similar punishment for * Fuller's Gospel its own Witness.

† Gibbon.

this single sentence: "Whether there be gods or not, I have nothing to offer." Prodicus and his pupil, Socrates, suffered death for opinions at variance with the established idolatry of Athens. Alcibiades and Eschylus narrowly escaped a

Plato dissembled his opinions;

like end for a similar cause. and Aristotle fled his country, under the lash of the mild and universal toleration of the Grecian mythology. Cicero lays it down as a principle of legislation entirely conformable to the rights of the Roman state, that "no man shall have separate gods for himself; and no man shall worship by himself new or foreign gods, unless they have been publicly acknowledged by the laws of the state."* The speech, in Dion Cassius, which Mæcenas is said to have made to Augustus, may be considered a fair index of the prevailing sentiment of that polished age. "Honour the gods," says Mæcenas, "by all means, according to the customs of your country, and force others so to honour them. But those who are for ever introducing something foreign in these matters, hate and punish, not only for the sake of the gods, but also because they who introduce new divinities mislead many others into receiving foreign laws also. Suffer no man either to deny the gods, or to practise sorcery." Julius Paulus, the Roman civilian, gives the following as a leading feature of Roman law: "Those who introduced new religions, or such as were unknown in their tendency and nature, by which the minds of men might be agitated, were degraded if they belonged to the higher ranks, and if they were in a lower state, were punished with death." Under this legislation, many of the governors endeavoured to compromise with Christians, by allowing them to believe and honour what they pleased in their hearts, provided they would observe outwardly the religious ceremonies ordained by the state.†

Examples to the same effect, might be greatly multiplied. I have furnished enough to show in what sense the heathen princes “beheld, without concern, a thousand forms of reli

* De Legibus, ii. 8.

+ See Neander's Church History.