" that

could our apostle hope for success, in a natural way, when he preached such a doctrine to a people who had read in one of their inspired books, that God had threatened that foul should be cut off which neglected this rite ? how, without the assistance of God, could he who taught such a doctrine, ever think of making converts of Jews, whose religion was so much corrupted at our Saviour's coming inco the world, that they held, circumcision was of sufficient virtue to render them accepted of God, and to preserve them from eternal ruin : that no circumcised person goes to hell, God having promised to deliver them from it, for the merit of circumcifion ; and having told Abraham that when his children fell into transgression and did wicked works, he would remember the odour of their foreskins, and would be fatisfied with their piety.” “ They were prejudiced against several other doctrines he taught, which they imagined derogated from the perfection and honour of their law. Such was the doctrine of making the church Catholic, by receiving the Gentiles into the privileges of the true church, without fubmitting to the ritual law, and not being justified by the works of the law, but by faith in the Melfiah. They were prejudiced in favour of their law, as unchangeable and eternal; or as necessary means of justifying a finner before God." Without the interpofition

of God, the apostle could never hope to persuade them, who had been informed in their facred books, that the Mefliah was to have an everlasting kingdom, a throne for ever and ever; that he should be great unto the ends of the earth, and was to abide for ever,

to raise

up

the tribes of Jacob, and restore the preserved of Ifrael; to have a portion divided him with the great, and to divide the Spoil with the strong; to have dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages thould serve him ; that his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which Dall not pass away, and his kingdom

that which shall not be destroyed : Without the divine aid, I say, the apostle could never hope to persuade the Jews, who expected such a triumphant Meffian, to believe that Je. sus was the Christ, who had suffered that death, which by the law was counted execrable. The crucifixion of Christ, as the apostle himself has informed us, was unto the Jews a stumbling block.

And in Juftin Martyr, Tripho the Jew fays, your Jesus having by this fallen under the extremelt curse of the law of God, we cannot but fufficiently admire, that you thould expect any good from God, who place your hopes in a man that was crucified; for our law ftiles every one, is crucified, accursed. Theophilact informs us, that the Jews objected; How can he be God who did eat and drink with publicans and harlots, and was at last crucified with thieves? hence by way of ignominy they still call our Saviour Talui, one hanged upon the tree.

And, by way of reproach, they call Chriftians the servants of him who was hanged.

To all that has been said I may still farther add, that the danger which attended the profession of Chris. tianity would deter both Jew and Gentile from embracing it. A man no sooner became a Christian, than he exposed himself to all the miseries that human nature is capable of fuffering

Had our apostle therefore made use of all the eloquence he was master of, yer had not God been with him, he could not have persuaded the Corinthians to become Christians. According to Jerome, St. Paul was no orator : and that he spoke truly when he said he was rude in speech, though not in knowledge. St. Jerome does not speak this to the disparagement of St. Paul. But from hence he argues, that God was with him. The inference, which this learned writer draws from these premises, is certainly valid.

But suppose (which we believe to be true) that his premises are not juft. Be it so. Suppose our apoftle.

was

SCRIPTURE GEOGRAPHY.

AN

HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT OF PLACES MENTIONED IN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT, IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER.

was a very great orator, yet he made no use of his eloquence in converting the Corinthians. He preached the gospel to them in the most pipin and fimple manner : when I came to you, says he, I came not with the excellence of speech, or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God; for 1 determined not to know any

among you, save Jesus ,

him crucified—and and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom.-For Christ fent me to preach the gospel, not with the wisdom of words. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. For the Jews require a fign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the

power of God, and the wisdom of God; because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men : for you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise men after the flesh, nor many mighty, nor many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen; yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no Hesh should glory in his presence.

In this plain and simple manner did St. Paul deliver, to as wicked and de. bauched a people as any in the world, the most pure and heavenly do&trine, the stricter and feverest precepts that had ever been taught mankind, and yet he confounded the mighty and the noble, and gained a victory over their orators and philosophers. We conclude, therefore, that this success must be attributed, not to a natural, but divine cause, and consequently that the Gospel is the word of truth.

[Continued from page 45. ALVARY Mount, is a small

eminency or hill greater Mount Moriah. It was anciently apo propriated to the execution of malefactors, and therefore shut out of the walls of the city, as an execrable and polluted place. But since it was made the altar on which was offered up

the precious and all-sufficient sacrifice for the fins of the whole world, it has recovered itself from that infamy, and has been always reverenced and resorted to, with such devotion by all Christians, that it has attracted the city round about it, and stands now in the midft of Jerusalem; a great part of the hill of Sion, being shut out of the walls, to make room for the ad. mission of Cavalry!—This mount is likewise honoured with a stately church, erected by Helena, mother to Conftantine the Great, called the church of the fepulchre, has been built over the place where our Saviour's sepulchre was.

This church is enriched with abundance of magnificent ornaments; and Mount Calvary is more honoured by Christians, than old Jerufalem ever was by the children of the fynagogue.

Cana of Galilee, a little town, where Jesus performed his first miracle, John ii. 1.

Nathanael was of Cana in Galilee, where our Lord was invited three days after he had received Nathanael as a disciple. This is called Cana of Galilee, to distinguish it from Cana or Shana, mentioned in Joh. xix. 28. belonging to the tribe of Ashur, and lying not far from Sidon, and so Gcuated much farther norch than Cana of Galilee, which lay in the tribe of Zebulun, and not far from Nazareth. (To be cortinued.]

W.