ceeded. He afterwards quitted this favoured, this happy region, the seat of liberty, arts, and sciences, and the society of its refined and polished circles, to encounter the severities of a barbarous climate, and the prejudices of a barbarous people; because he imagined he might prove the happy means of extirpating the desolating ravages which a pestilential and contagious distemper annually inflicted. He himself lost his life in this disinterested, benevolent, and magnanimous attempt, and fell a victim to the very disease he was in hopes of eradicating; dying indeed in the bed of honour, of eternal honour*! Many missionaries likewise, influ

* In the most authentic publication of the metropolis, an account was lately given of a most gallant action, in which, after mentioning the particulars of the capture, Captain Manby indisputably proves, that British compassion as well as British valour can triumph over the fear of death, when it has so noble an object in view as the saving the lives of others, though they may be those even of an enemy. In his letter to the Admiral, Captain Manby writes in the following very interesting manner: "A melancholy and painful task is now imposed on me, to re"late the sad catastrophe attending this capture; which, after being more than an hour in our possession, was found to be rapidly sinking. Every exertion was made to preserve her; "but, alas! at eight she foundered close beside us. I had some "time previous to this event ordered every body to quit her; "but British humanity, in striving to extricate the wounded

enced by an ardent and high sense of their duty, in endeavouring to promote the temporal and eternal welfare of man, and animated by the glorious and never-fading reward which is promised to those who turn many to righteousness, have voluntarily risked their lives to accomplish so great and noble a purpose. Why then should it be thought incredible that infinite goodness should have reluctance to evince that compassion for the eternal salvation of men, which finite goodness is capable of shewing even for their temporal welfare? especially as the idea, that it is inconsistent with the majesty of the Godhead that a divine Being should appear on earth for the benefit of mankind, is an idea neither supported by heathen mythology nor Scripture, nor by the judgment or reason of man, whether learned or unlearned. Both in the Old and New Testament instances are recorded of angels being sent from heaven to earth; and the same idea

"Frenchmen from destruction, weighed so forcibly with Mr. "Archibald Montgomery and twenty brave followers, that they

persevered in this meritorious service until the vessel sank "under them. The floating wreck, I rejoice to say, buoyed up "many from destruction; but with sorrow I mention, Mr. Fre"deric Spence and Mr. Auckland, two promising young gentlemen, with five of my gallant crew, unfortunately perished."

prevailed and was admitted by the Heathens. Thus when Paul and Barnabas were at Lystra, and the former cured the lame man at that place, the people said, "The gods are come down to us in the shape of "men; and they called Barnabas Jupiter, "and Paul Mercurius: and the priest of Ju

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piter brought oxen and garlands, and "would have sacrificed to them." The philosopher in the Phædon of Plato supposes a heavenly revelation of divine truth not only as very desirable, but as very possible. Confucius did the same. And even the Sceptic Bayle, in his Life of Aristotle, records, that this philosopher particularly approved of that passage in Homer's Odyssey, which af firms, that it does not misbecome the gods to assume the nature of man, to the end that they may enlighten mankind. Upon the whole, the weight of argument in favour of the incarnation of our blessed Saviour, and of his descent on earth, is so internally strong and powerful, and the external evidence of it so great, so various, and attended, in the judgment of every candid person, with circumstances and proofs of so public, so ostensible, and irresistible a nature, that unfortunate indeed must be the frame of that

mind which can cherish and adopt a contrary opinion.

OBJECTION II. It is asserted by Sceptics, as a justification of their denial of the divinity and divine mission of our blessed Saviour, that his object on earth was an occult design to make himself a temporal king of the Jewish people.

Sceptics have attacked revealed religion by various objections; and though there has been no truth in them, yet there has in general appeared a certain degree of plausibility in their arguments: but in their objection to it on the principle that our blessed Saviour intended to make himself a temporal king of the Jews, so far is there from being any truth, that there is not in it even the smallest plausibility or probability; and a greater absurdity never disgraced the human intellect than such a supposition. It is very readily admitted, that there are many instances in history where persons have arrived from private stations in life to be kings and emperors; but then they have been either chosen by the rulers of the nation, for the high opinion those rulers entertained of their singular merit, as Numa; or by the

army, for the union of great personal qualities and military talents, as Vespasian; or else they have accomplished their ambitious design by taking advantage of the circumstances of the times and the raging of party, and from the possession of great warlike abilities, as in the case of Julius Caesar: but to suppose that our Saviour should intend a revolution in the state, whose doctrines breathed nothing but peace, whose actions were all of a pacific nature, and neither the one nor the other interfered in any respect in worldly or political concerns, is a supposition too puerile and absurd to be admitted for a single moment. The Jews certainly entertained an idea, that, when their Messiah came on earth, he would appear with great grandeur and power; and they expected he would emancipate their nation from the dominion of the Romans, and restore again the kingdom to Israel: and as our Saviour knew this to be their opinion, if he had meditated to become a temporal king, is it to be conceived he would have chosen, to achieve his purpose, a set of timid, ignorant fishermen? This is not to be supposed: or if he had had such design, is it any more to be supposed that he would have affronted as he did the