When the great author of our holy religion addres ses himself to God the Father, he says, "I thank thee O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes and sucklings, for so it seemed good in thy sight:" and the substance of many of his instructions were, "that no man can serve two masters-ye cannot serve God and mammon."

And

"The law and the prophets were until John; since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. God is a spirit and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." And his disciples after his resurrection, who established all the primitive churches, and taught them both their theory and practice, set out by declaring, "that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of their Fathers had glorified his Son Jesus Christ." when the people of Lystra, who were both heathen and idolaters, but much more excusable than the author of the Age of Reason, had mistaken the apostles for their gods in the likeness of men; and would have offered sacrifice to them; instead of justifying the conclusion or assertions of our pretender to reason, "they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, saying why do ye these things? we preach unto you, that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are therein." &c.

When the Gentile converts, in the beginning of their church, were trammelled with the false reason

ings of some weaker brethren, who would have obliged them to be circumcised, according to the law of Moses; they made application to the church under the apostles at Jerusalem, for their instructions on this head. In their answer, the apostles appear to aim at summing up their duty according to the Christian theory in as few words as possible. These were, "that they should abstain from pollutions of idols, from fornication and from blood."

When Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, was preaching at Athens, he assures his hearers, "that, as they worshipped the unknown God; therefore, whom they ignorantly worshipped, Him he declared unto them; that is, God who made the world, and all things that are therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, and dwelleth not in temples made `with hands.”

man.

The doctrine of the gospel, which Jesus Christ and his apostles taught throughout the world was the worship of one only true God, in spirit and in truth, through Jesus Christ his beloved Son, and all their instructions, relative to practical religion, do indeed breathe a spirit of the purest morality ever taught to In addition to the incomparable sermon on the mount, and the whole strain of our Lord's teachings, hear the apostle Paul in his address to the Romans. "I beseech you brethren, by the mercy of God, that ye give up your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. -Let your love be without dissimulation; abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good; be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honour preferring one another; not slothful in bu

siness; fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer; distributing to the necessity of saints, given to hospitality; bless them who persecute you; bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them who rejoice, and weep with them who weep. Be of the same mind one towards another; mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate; be not wise in your own conceit; recompence no man evil for evil; provide things honest in the sight of all men; if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men; avenge not yourselves, but give place unto wrath. If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." And again, the same apostle, when addressing the Thessalonians-"For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication; that no man should defraud his brother in any thing, but encourage and promote brotherly love; that they should study to be quiet, and do their own business, and work with their own hands, walking honestly to them that are without, that they should have lack of nothing; that they should be sober, and at peace among themselves." He exhorts them "to warn the unruly; comfort the feeble minded; support the weak; be patient to all men; rejoice for evermore; pray without ceasing; in every thing give thanks; prove all things; hold fast that which is good, and abstain from all appearance of evil." And when he speaks of the fruits and effects of these doctrines, as he does to the Galatians, "They are, love, joy,

peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."

This was the sum of the essential doctrines of the church for the first three hundred years of the Christian æra, connected with an unremitted attention to them in all their theory and practice. The assertion, therefore, "That the Christian theory is little else than the idolatry of the ancient mythologists," may, without the just charge of uncharitableness, be termed a perversion of the truth, when made by a man, who had the means of knowledge in his power, but who has neglected to make use of them.

What could the Age of Reason mean by theory? Surely that of the Christian church is only to be found in the New-Testament. It would be even too absurd for our author, who seems, however, capable of almost any attempt, to charge the Gospel, or the Christian church, with the errors and abominable practices, of many of its mistaken, or disingenuous professors, when manifestly opposed by every precept and instruction of its system. As well might he say, that the theory of the Christian church, was that of the Gnostics, Manicheans, or Nicolaitans, because they once professed to belong to that church.

The Gospel is the only test of all the theory and allowed practices of the Christian church; and whenever that is swerved from in either, its emphatical language is," Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do thy first works, or else I will come quickly, and remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent."

The writer of the Age of Reason, may think it harsh to be charged with falsehood in every page of his work; but it would ill become an advocate for the Gospel, not to declare it boldly, and would be doing great injustice to the cause of truth, when the everlasting interests of his fellow men are at stake; and the guilty person has no one but himself to blame for this severity, having presumed to enter on a subject with which he had not taken pains to make himself acquainted; no, not with its alphabet.

Had he thought proper to have used reasoning and argument, founded on proof, to enforce his observations, he might have expected a suitable reply; but when he contents himself with advancing the most palpable falsehoods and misrepresentations as facts, from which to draw the most important conclusions, and these so enveloped in sophistry, and tainted with ludicrous insinuations, as seem only calculated to impose on the young and unwary mind in matters of infinite importance, he has no right to expect any thing farther, than a positive denial of the gross misrepresentation of facts he has imposed on the public.

The language of Justin Martyr, in the first ages of the church, to Crescens the philosopher, who had ungenerously, as wickedly, traduced the then Christians as atheistical and irreligious, is very applicable to our author. He says, "That Crescens talked about things which he did not understand-feigning things of his own head, only to comply with the humour of his seduced disciples and followers-that, in reproaching the doctrines of Christ, when he did not understand them, he discovered a most wicked and malignant temper, and showed himself far worse than

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