He pronounces that the chriftian fyftem of faithand practice, was revealed by God himself, and that it is abfurd and impious to affert, that the divine LOGOS revealed it incompletely or imperfectly. And that its fimplicity and plainness fhewed, it was defigned to be the religion of all mankind, and manifefted likewife the divinity of its original."*

I confefs, fays the fceptical Rouffeau, that the majefty of the fcriptures ftrikes me with admiration, and that the purity of the Gospel hath its influence on my heart!

Perufe the works of our philofophers, with all their pomp of diction; how mean, how contemptible are they, compared with the fcriptures!

Is it poffible that a book, at once fo fimple and fublime, fhould be merely the work of man? Is it poffible that the facred perfonage, whofe history it contains, fhould be himself a mere man ? Do we find that he affumed the tone of an enthusiast or ambitious fectary?

What sweetnefs, what purity in his manners! What an affecting gracefulnefs in his delivery! What fublimity in his maxims! What profound wifdom in his difcourfes! What prefence of mind; what fubtlety, what truth in his replies! How great the command over his paffions! Where is the man, where the philofopher, who could fo live and fo die, without weaknefs, and without oftentation?.

When Plato defcribed his imaginary good man with all the fhame of guilt, yet meriting the

* Ib. p. 349.

bigheft rewards of virtue, he gave a defcription of the character of Jefus Chrift; the refemblance was fo ftriking, that all the chriftian Fathers per

ceived it.

What prepoffeffion, what blindness muft it be, to compare Socrates, the fon of Sophrenicus, to Jefus, the fon of Mary! What an infinite difproportion is there between them!

Socrates, dying without pains or ignominy, eafily fupported his character to the laft; but if his death, however eafy, had not crowned his life, it might have been doubted whether Socrates, with all his wifdom, was any thing more than a vain fophift,

He invented, it is faid, the theory of morals. Others, however, had before put them in practice ;; he had only to fay, therefore, what they had done,, and to reduce their examples to precepts. But where could Jefus learn, among his competitors, that pure and fublime morality, of which he only hath given us both precept and example ?

The death of Socrates, peaceably philofophifing with his friends, appears the most agreeable that could be withed for; but that of Jefus, expiring in the midst of agonizing pains, abufed, infulted, and accused by a whole nation, is the most horrible that could be feared!!

Socrates, in receiving the cup of poifon, bleffed the weeping executioner who administered it; but Jefus, in the midft of excruciating tortures, prayed for his mercilefs tormentors! Yes! if the life and death of Socrates were thofe of a Sage; the life and death of Jefus were thofe of a GOD!

Shall we fuppofe the evangelical history a mere fiction? Indeed it bears not the marks of fiction; on the contrary, the hiftory of Socrates, which no one prefumes to doubt, is not fo well attefted as that of Jefus Christ.

It is more inconceivable that a number of perfons fhould agree to write fuch an hiftory, than that one only thould furnish the fubject of it. The Jewish authors were incapable of the diction, and ftrangers to the morality contained in the Gospel, the marks of the truth of which are fo ftriking and inimitable, that the inventor would be a more aftonishing character than the Hero."

The prevalence of the Chriftian Religion, fays Mr. Gibbon, was Owing to the convincing evidence of the doctrines itself, and the ruling providence of its great author :"* And "Every privilege," fays this celebrated writer," that could raife the profelite from earth to Heaven; that could exalt his devotion; fecure his happinefs, or even gratify that fecret pride, which, under the femblance of devotion, infinuates itfelf into the human heart, was ftill referved for the members of the chriftian Church."+

Mr.Paine himself, admits the poffibility of a divine

The author is indebted for this quotation from Rouffeau, to a fenfible painphlet, published in London and re-publifhed here, entitled, "The Age of Infidelity:" in anfwer to Thomas Paine's Age of Reafon, by a Layman.

* Hiftory of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. I. p. 536.

+ Ib. p. 542

revelation; he allows, that in the Pfalmis and the book of Job, there is a great deal of elevatedfentiment, reverentially expreffed, of the power and benignity of the Almighty; and that the proverbs, faid to be Solomon's, are an inftructive rable of ethics. He believes that Jefus Chrift exified; that he was crucified; that he preached moft excellent morality, and the equality of man, and fays that the great trait in his character was philanthrophy.t

† p. 13.

§ p. 39. # p. 22. tp. 50. It may not be improper to mention here, that even Mahomet, bears teftimony in favor of fome books of the holy fcriptures and of Chrift.

"The Pentateuch, the Pfalms and the Gospel, faid he, were fucceffively delivered by God to Mofes, to David, and to Jefus." Sale's Prelim. Difcourfe to the Koran. p. 97.

Mahomet taught the doctrine of a general refurrection at the last day, and that then rewards or punishments, would be dispensed to mankind according to their actions in this life. Ib. p. 103; and he allowed that Chrift was an apostle sent by God.

In the Vth Chap. of the Koran, entitled the Chapter of the Table, we have the following expreffions.

"We fent, after many prophets, Jefus the Son of Mary, who confirmed the ancient fcriptures. To him we gave the gofpel full of light, to conduct the people in the right way, with a confir mation of the Old Teftament, a guide and in ftructor to the righteous."

Thefe and many other expreffions of Deifts, in favor of chriftianity, extorted by the force of truth, or uttered from motives of policy, clearly evince, that fuch writers reflect not on the conclufions fo favorable to the chriftian religion, which follow their conceffions, and, therefore that moft irrational and abfurd is their continuance in unbelief.

The fame authority, for example, that convinces Mr. Paine, that Jefus Chrift was crucified; that he taught moft excellent morality, and the equality of man, and that he was highly dif

Divers other expreffions there are in the Koran of a fimilar nature; and Mahomet frequently borrowed his ideas and expreffions from the holy fcriptures.

Thus, for inftance, fpeaking of charity, he fays, "It will cover many fins ;" (Chap. II. of the Cow. p. 21) which are the words of Saint Peter, 1 Epiftle. IV. 8.

Mahomet (Chap. VII of prifons, p. 157) makes ufe of our Lord's metaphor, Matth. xix, 24*Of a camel's paffing through the eye of a needle."

And when Mahomet treats of a future ftate, and of the Aaraf, or feparation between the righteous and the wicked, he alludes to thefe words of Abraham to Dives, Luke xvi. 26, "Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed:"

* EQUALITY. Genuine patriotism should certainly poffefs every human breaft; as it is the will of God that mankind fhould be bleft with the enjoyment of FREEDOM, in its greatest perfection, both civil and religious.