hrough want of reflection, timidity, passion, or obstinacy; time, experience, and an impartial examination of our ideas, will undeceive us; "that is, make us Atheists." "The Eternal Being," says another, "is no other than nature uncreated and uncreatable. Man, when free, wants no other divinity than himself." From the author of "The Vestiges of Creation," we learn that it is a system of mechanical and chemical operations of matter, which, by a happy and mysterious energy at some lucky moment, gave birth to thought and volition, which, by a concurrence of circumstances equally lucky, have since continued themselves. Deism is inconsistent with itself. It is an admission of the being of a God, but the denial of his attributes; it is an admission of his Being, but a denial of his providence; it is an acknowledgment of the world, or of fire, or of all the elements of an unknown anima mundi, or soul of the universe. Hobbes, (so lately taken into favour, and splendidly presented to the world, in a new edition of his works by a British Legislator,) asserts that, that "which is not matter, is nothing." Mr. Hume maintains that it is unreasonable to believe God to be infinitely wise and good; and Lord Bolingbroke, that he is possessed of no moral attributes-that he did not determine the existence of particular men, and, of course, that he determined nothing. What a different spirit illumines the pages of revelation! There at least there is grandeur and consistency, perfection and harmony. There God is displayed as a Being of eternal Majesty, self-existent, spiritual, independent, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent-a Being of infinite purity, justice, wisdom, truth, and love. The whole book is radiant with God. Here continually the Deity breaks forth in his native and original glory; and we can no more doubt his presence than that of the sun, when, in cloudless splendour, he issues from his tabernacle, and awakes the whole creation to beauty and rapture.

But the moral character of God, of which

it is indispensable that we should form ideas corresponding with its nature, is chiefly displayed in his moral government, and this is purely a subject of revelation, for we shall soon perceive that philosophy knows as little of the Divine government as of the Divine character.

The moral government of God relative to this world, means his conduct towards the children of men; and regards the providence which he exercises, the worship he requires, the laws he enjoins, the mercy he displays, and the destiny he reveals; and these all operating as motives to check vice, and promote virtue; or, in other words, to lessen misery, and to increase the sum of happiness.

1. The first great truth which nature yearns after, and only revelation can supply, is that of providence. The fundamental axiom of infidelity utterly repudiates this. Laws without government, effects without a cause, an unconscious world that creates and sustains itself;— this is its whole amount. Not one of all the infidel tribe, not even among those who have lit their torch at the altar of revelation, in order to set fire to the temple, as far as I can learn, not one has explicitly taught that the Almighty Father sustains the world he has created by perpetual watchfulness and operations that he is incessantly at work, only concealed under the uniformity of the laws by which he acts; and that in this, his incessant vigilance and exertion, he wills and continues as a final cause, the happiness of his creatures. The God of such writers as the author of the "Vestiges" is the mere Creator of the universe; with this first act, according to them, he retires into his own ineffable and unapproachable majesty, withdrawing his omnipotence, his omniscience, his omnipresence, altogether from the scene of his creating energy. By a very few, a general, or rather an occasional providence is admitted, restricted to great occasions and great events. What a relief to turn from such a cheerless waste of barren specula

tion, and heartless blasphemy to the paradise of revelation, and its glowing anthems of devout adoration and praise! Here we learn to exclaim, with the psalmist, "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I 'ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me; yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."

With what profound awe and delight do we traverse these bright regions, where the meanest individual and the minutest fact, and the most trivial circumstance are brought together with the mightiest potentates, the most stupendous revolutions, and the most marvellous events, as all and equally under the care and superintendence of the infinite mind, without whom not a sparrow falls to the ground; nothing being so small and inconsiderable as to escape his infinite knowledge; nothing so great and ponderous, as to encumber his almighty power. How delightful to receive the unequivocal assurance, "The Lord reigneth;"—that "his eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good; "—that "he supplieth the wants of every living thing;"that "his" sun shines, and his rain descends in obedience to his command, and under his immediate guidance; —that "in him we live, and move, and have our being;"-that he ordereth our goings; that he "guides us by his council," upholds us by his power, renews our lives, and restores our souls; that he is "our refuge and strength; and a very present help in every time of trouble;"-that, “ as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him."

2. The second consideration which illustrates the moral character of God,

and commends it as a Divine communication to our reason and conscience, is the worship which he requires.

On the admission that there is a God, and that he rules the world in wisdom and in goodness, we found the reasonableness of worshipping him. If there be a God, there must be some religion; or, in other words, some homage must be due from an intelligent and dependent creature to his Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor; and as on the nature of this worship depends the honour of the Deity to whom it is offered, and the dignity, virtue, and happiness of the worshipper, it is of the highest importance that it should be understood; it must be known before it can be performed.

Deism is not a religion: it builds no temples, it convenes no worshippers; and when it does not absolutely interdict the duties of piety, it coldly leaves the heart either to perform or neglect them, according to the dictates of feeling or convenience. But its spirit is essentially indevout. The attributes of its deity neither inspire reverence nor conciliate regard. Where there is no Providence, supplication must be vain. And if the Almighty dwells in eternity, wrapped up in the abstractions of his own Infinite Nature, totally regardless of the universe which he made only to abandon, every incentive to devotion is taken away. Here we find Deistical writers perfectly consistent with themselves. However diversified their views on other subjects, here, with few exceptions, they are agreed: even those that admit the reasonableness of prayer and praise, do not inculcate them from adequate motives; while for the most part they neutralize the admission by representations of the Deity, of the soul, and of accountableness, which totally indispose the heart either to the one or the other.

One sentence uttered by Jesus Christ, our great Teacher, on things pertaining to God, outweighs all the volumes of philosophy that were ever written; and stands unrivalled and alone an undoubted proof of the infinite superiority of the

Scriptures to all other writings since the beginning of time: "God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." In the Scriptures we are furnished not only with all the intellectual and moral elements of personal and social worship, and with the simple institution through which it is to be presented, and the medium which renders it acceptable; but it is prescribed and enforced, and exceeding great and precious promises are added to inflame our devotion, and to encourage our hope. Here we are taught to approach the throne of the heavenly grace, not with victims but with virtues; not with forms but with fervour; not with pomp but with piety, with adoration, with love, with reverence, and with praise. The worship and the God are worthy of each other; and it may be justly said of Christians that they alone honour God as he wishes to be honoured.

3. The next great character of the moral system which the Scriptures reveal, and which alone is worthy of the Supreme Ruler who governs the world, is the law which he enjoins, or the morality which he prescribes. And it is here we find the principal reasons which have irritated the pride and inflamed the enmity of infidels against our holy religion, and which fact is in my view a powerful collateral argument in its favour. It has been profoundly observed by a celebrated French preacher, "that if men never had vices, or if religion had countenanced them, unbelief would never have appeared on the earth." That men of depraved and ungovernable passions should labour with the exasperated malignity of fiends to destroy all moral 'distinctions, and especially to break down the mounds and barriers which would confine their pollutions within their own corrupt bosoms is perfectly natural; and we are therefore not at all surprised to find the sophistries which would obliterate all impression of the being and government of God, associated with all those detestable and pestilential opiates designed for the conscience, which may

lull it to repose under the commission of the foulest offences against God and society.

In this view infidelity bears one unvarying character. "The new moral world" of the modern Socialist is but an attempt to realise and to bring into practical operation the philosophy of Shaftesbury and Collins, of Bolingbroke and Hume, whose visionary prospects are to be consummated when individuals renounce their property, subjects their allegiance, when husbands repudiate their wives, and parents their children, and every man does without commendation or reproach what is neither right nor wrong in his own eyes. By these men, and all of their class, I am sent to the brutes to ascertain my social relations, to Atheism that I may forget my God; and to my uncontrolled instincts, acted upon by external circumstances, that I may revel in sensuality or wallow in blood. Wearied by these monstrous aberrations of such evil hearts of unbelief, we turn again to this blessed volume. Methinks I can at this moment better understand the devout exclamation of the holy psalmist than at any former moment of my life: "Thy statutes have been my song in the house of my pilgrimage;" "How I love thy law;" "The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver." It is the code of heaven, and cordially obeyed by the children of men it would create heaven upon earth. So thought Augustine when addressing the heathen of his time.

4. The next consideration of moment which illustrates the moral character and government of God, and which establishes the authority of the Bible as a Divine revelation, regards the mercy which he displays; or the provision which he has made for the pardon of sin and the recovery of man from the moral degradation and the fearful horrors of his apostacy. Mercy differs from all the other attributes of the Supreme Ruler. The display of these in creation, providence, and moral government is essential to the glory of the Divine character.