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this circumftance is almoft if not altogether decifive. By what arguments or analogies can we prove any states of existence which, no one ever faw, and which no way resembles any that ever was feen? Who will repofe fuch truft in any pretended philofophy as to admit upon its tef timony the reality of fo marvellous a fcene? Some new fpecies of logic is requifite for that purpose, and fome new faculties of the mind, that may enable us to comprehend that logic.

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Nothing could fet in a fuller light the infinite obligations which mankind have to divine revelation, fince we find that no other medium could ascertain this great and important truth.

ANTI-SUICIDE.

(1) THIS elaborate eulogium on philofophy points obliquely at religion, which we chriftians confider as the only fovereign antidote to every disease incident to the mind of man. It is indeed hard to say what reafon might do were it freed from all reftraints, especially if a fucceffion of philofophers were inceffantly improving on one another as they went on, avoiding and correcting the mistakes of those who preceded them in the fame purfuit, till at last one complete and rational fyftem was effected. Great things might probably be accomplished in this manner. But no fuch plan in fact ever was or is likely to be finished. Neither prieftcraft, nor magifterial powers, however, cramped the progrefs of improving reafon, or baffled the genius of inquiring man. The principles of religion and virtue were freely canvaffed by the boldest spirits of antiquity. In truth, the fuperior advantage and neceffity of the chriftian religion feems manifeft from this particular circumftance, that it has taken away every poflible reftraint from natural religion, allowing it to exert itself to the utmost in finding out the fundamental truths of virtue, and in acquiefcing in them, in openly avowing and acknowledging them when revea led, in extending the views and expectations of men, giving them more juft and liberal fentiments, and in publicly and uniformly difclaiming any intention of establifhing a kingdom for its votaries or believers in this world.

The doctrines of the gofpel are not intended to infruct us in the knowledge of every thing which may be really useful in the prefent life, far lefs of every thing, which, from curiofity alone, we may have a mighty defire to know. Revelation confiders mankind in their highest capacity, as the rational and accountable fubjects of God, and as capable both of present and future happiness or mifery, according to their behaviour. Its chief if not its fole defign, is to give us thofe views and impreffions of our nature, of our ftate, of the perfec tions, the counfels, the laws, and the government of God, which, under the influence of providence, are the immediate and infallible means of the purity, of the comfort, and of the moral order, rectitude, and excel. lence of our immortal fouls. As corrupted and difordered, we are incapable of true happiness, till purified and restored to order. As guilty and mortal 'creatures, we can have no true confolation without the hopes of pardon in a future and separate state of exiftence. As furrounded with dangers, and obnoxious to every difmal apprehenfion, we can poffefs no folid or permanent content, but in the fincere and well grounded convictions of that gracious and righteous adminiftration fo minutely and explicitly delineated in the fcriptures. It is evident there. fore that the principal excellence and utility of revealed truths muft lie or confift in the influence they have upon the fanctification and confolation of our hearts. They tally exactly with the prefent circumftances of mankind, and are admirably adapted to cure every difeafe, every disorder of the human mind, to beget, to cherish, and confirm every pure, every virtuous, every pious difpofition.

Mankind are certainly at prefent in a ftate of the deepest corruption and depravity, and at the fame time. apt to continue ftrangely infenfible of the mifery and danger to which, under the government of infinite Wisdom,

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it neceffarily renders them. Nothing can be conceived more fit to roufe them from their lethargy, and to awaken them to a just sense of their condition, than a meffenger from Heaven, clothed with divine authority, fetting before them the intrinfic bafenefs, malignity, and wretchedness of vice, together with the certain, the dreadful, the eternal confequences of continuing in it.

Could we enter upon a particular view of all those maladies, and disorders which infeft and destroy the fouls of men, it were eafy to fhow, that a stedfast belief of religion, is in truth, the moft natural and the best antidote or remedy for each of them. It is obvious, at least, that the clear and full manifeftation, which the gospel has given of the character of God, and the laws of his moral government, and of the terms of falvation through faith in the religion of his fon, are all finely calculated to root out the principles of fuperftition, and all falfe notions, deftructive to the virtue and happiness of mankind, and to plant in their room whatever has a natural and direct tendency to promote our virtue, our perfec tion, our felicity.

M.

(2) CLEOMENES, king of Sparta, when fuffering under misfortune, was advifed to kill himself by Tharyceon. "Thinkeft thou, wicked man, (faid he) to fhow thy fortitude by rufhing upon death, an expedient always at hand, the daftardly refource of the bafeft minds? Better than we, by the fortune of arms, or overpowered by numbers, have left the field of battle to their enemies; but he who, to avoid pain or calamity, or from a lavish regard to the praife or cenfures of men, gives up the conteft, is overcome by his own cowardice. If we are to feek death, that death ought to be in action. It is bafe to live or die only for ourselves. All we gain by

fuicide is to get rid of prefent difficulty, without increafing our own reputation, or doing the leaft fervice to our country. In hopes, then, we may yet be of fome ufe to others, both methinks are bound to preserve life as long as we can. Whenever thefe hopes fhall have altogether abandoned us, death, if fought for, will readily be found.

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(3) Of all the refined cobwebs, to which fophiftry has given birth, this feems at once the most elaborate and the most flimfy. It feeniş one of the first and most indifputable maxims in all found reasoning, that no ideas whatever fhould have a place in the premises, which do not communicate a fenfible energy to the conclufion. But where is the connexion between the beginning and end of this wire - drawn argument. What have the va rious beautiful facts, thus elegantly ftated, to do with a man's taking away his own life? Though the greatest philofopher be of no more confequence to the general fyftem of things than an oyster, and though the life of the one were, in every respect, as perfectly infignificant as that of the other, ftill the meaneft of mankind is not without importance in his own eyes. And where is he who is guided uniformly in all his actions, more by a sense of his relation to the universe at large, than by the value he retains for himself, or the deference he has to his own opinion.

No deduction, however plaufible, can produce conviction in any rational mind, which originates in a fuppofition grofsly abfurd. Is it poffible to conceive the author of nature capable of authenticating a deed, which ultimately terminates in the total annihilation of the fyftem? By which of the creatures beneath us is the first law of their being thus daringly violated? And if fuicide be eligible to man, under any poffible misfortune or distress, why not to them? Are not they alfo fubject to the various

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