admits not of a doubt; or to attempt to establish that, which he regards as already built upon the rock of ages. If all were so impressed with a conviction of "the truth as it is in Jesus," there would, indeed, be no necessity for repeating arguments which have never been refuted-or for restating facts which have never been denied.

But, alas! there is too large a class of persons, some of rank and influence in society, who would gladly overlook the proofs that Christianity is of divine authority, because the obligations it enforces are at variance with their desires; and would willingly believe it a fiction of schoolmen, the issue of syllogistic subtleties, rather than admit that the sanctions it announces ought to controul their passions, and humble their pride of intellect. When, therefore, the religion of the country is shewn, by representations that are easily intelligible, as well as by complex reasoning and erudite deductions, to be something more than a piece of state policy, or a mere code of morals ;—when, moreover, this is done by a temperate and experienced writer, it can hardly happen, but that some good effects shall be produced, even among professing Christians:-such, we are persuaded, will be the case, if the work which we now proceed to analyze, be fairly read and duly appreciated.

"The idea which" Mr. Sumner's "pages are designed to illustrate, is briefly this: that a Religion like the Christian could never have existed unless it had been introduced by Divine authority. It could not have been invented: it would not have been received." The persons for whose benefit the investigation is principally intended, are those who, with a sincere respect for Christianity in the abstract, are yet kept in an unprofitable state of hesitation, by "vague notions of uncertainty in its evidence, and of difficulties in its doctrines." The argument is, therefore, put in such a shape as that every Christian may know why he believes, and that those who refuse or delay their assent may know why they do not believe.

After a few preliminary observations on presumptive evidence, Mr. S. lays down in his first chapter, "on the Origin of Christianity," two positions on which he proposes to ground his argument: 1st. That the Christian Religion was established at the time asserted in the New Testament; as proved by the testimony of contemporary Heathen writers, and by authenticated letters addressed to different Christian Churches within a short period after the reputed death of Christ. 2ndly. That the existence of Christ was a real fact: the difficulties of maintaining the contrary being so insuperable that infidels themselves have admitted it. This, then, is the foundation on which Mr. Sum

ner proceeds to work. He treats the life, ministry, and public execution of Jesus, as historical facts: and argues, that if the divine origin of his revelation be denied, it is necessary to suppose, that upon the disappointment occasioned to his followers by his death, they conspired to introduce a new religion, and ascribed to him, as its author and head, such adventures, endowments and doctrines, as best suited their purpose. The improbabilities and impossibilities which the fabrication of such a religion as Christianity would involve, are considered in the following chapters.

Chapter II. points out the " Opposition of Christianity to the Opinions prevailing amongst the Jews," not only to those which distinguish particular sects, such as the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, among whom were included the possessors of all the wealth, learning, power, and influence of the country,-but to the more popular opinions disseminated and embraced through the nation at large. It is shewn that this opposition consisted in disclaiming the temporal power of the Messiah,-in abrogating the Mosaic ritual,-in raising the Gentiles to an equality with the Jews,-in foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple: and, after noticing the impolicy of such opposition to received opinions in the propagation of a new religion, this branch of the subject is concluded in these words: "From the moment when we admit the authors of the Christian religion to be what they pretend to be, the instruments of God, all that has hitherto been pointed out as so improbable, is reasonably accounted for, and exactly accords with our natural expectations."

From the " Originality of the Christian Doctrines," it is proved, in Chapter III., that Christianity could not have grown out of Judaism, nor have been framed out of any existing system of belief among the Gentiles. The basis of the Christian revelation, the alienation of mankind from God by guilt, was wholly new to the world. The redemption effected by Jesus Christ was a doctrine at variance with the opinions and prejudices equally of Jew and Gentile ;-neither was sensible of any need of redemption. The Gentiles regarded sacrifice as a purchase, but had no idea of vicarious sufferings: the Jews, though taught to offer sacrifice as an expiation for sin, rested in the type as sufficient, and, through misinterpretation of Scripture, disregarded the antitype. The death of Jesus, by crucifixion, was a stumbling-block to the Jews, as it was to the Greeks foolishness-to the one, in the manner; to the other, in the fact.

"The main doctrines of Christianity—the condemnation of man as corrupt in the sight of God, and the atonement made upon the cross by Jesus as a Mediator between the offenders and their Judge,―are doc-. trines which we cannot, on any rational or probable grounds attribute to imposture. Taking them as maintained by the Apostles, with all their attending circumstances of the resurrection of the dead, the future judgment, the final punishment of the wicked, and the eternal happiness of the redeemed; we cannot trace their origin to any known or accessible source in the belief of those times and countries. Neither can we account for their reception. There was nothing in the doctrines themselves to allure or conciliate: and the minds, both of Jews and Gentiles, were utterly unprepared to embrace a religion which had nothing in common with their former opinions, and directly opposed some of their strongest prejudices." P. 102.

Chapter IV. In this chapter are considered "the Connection of Christianity with the Jewish History and Scriptures," and the possibility of the Apostles having adopted facts and doctrines found in these writings; such as the offering up of Isaac, the institution of the Passover, the notion of vicarious sacrifices, and others which bear allusion to the death of Christ; to the purpose of explaining an event so apparently destructive of their hopes as his crucifixion; and of supporting the idea of atonement suggested by them with the same view. The difficulty and improbability of such conduct are pointed out, and such minutiae of agreement between the asserted types and things typified are detailed, as it was utterly out of the power of the actors in the scene to anticipate or controul. In like manner the prophecies acknowledged to relate to Messiah are shewn to have been so precisely fulfilled, yet by means so wholly beyond the reach of the Apostles-as, for instance, the census which brought the mother of Jesus to Bethlehem, the preparatory ministry of the Baptist, and many minute circumstances attending the death of Christ-that to ascribe to chance coincidences such as these, would imply more credulity than the reception of the Gospel itself. Moreover, had the coincidences been the effect of artifice the Apostles would not have left it for after ages to draw out the completion of prophecy in the events of the Gospel. The providence of God who bringeth good out of evil, must surely permit the blindness of infidelity, as he did the incredulity of St. Thomas, for the brighter display of the truth; or it would seem impossible for any one informed as to facts, to resist the force of this branch of evidence; the more powerful, the more closely it is examined.

From the peculiarities in "the Phraseology of the Christian Scriptures," is deduced, in Chapter V. an argument for the

divine original of doctrines, which gave a new turn to language by appropriating to particular expressions a meaning which they had not before, and which they still retain; such as "good tidings," to express the doctrine of Jesus; "grace," as distinguished from the law of Moses; "Saviour," a deliverer from divine wrath; "righteousness," acceptance with God through trust in Christ; "flesh," our corrupt nature.

In Chapter VI. we are led to observe when considering the "Agreement of Christian Scriptures with subsequent experience," the remarkable foreknowledge of future events connected with the reception of the Gospel, which was displayed in the predictions recorded to the Apostles, and was altogether unaccountable in men so obscure and unlearned as they. In the first place, the Disciples of Jesus were taught to expect that persecution should be encountered by Christians for righteousness' sake; that peculiar piety and strictness of life should be their reproach; that calumny and false accusation should be the weapons used against them. But so it has ever been.

"Even," says Mr. S. " to the present hour, the crime of too much religion is held in a degree of dread and dislike which is not easily accounted for. Many persons whose own moral character is irreproachable, seem to fear it more, and think it a greater misfortune in one for whom they are interested, than the extreme of vanity and extravagance." And again,

"Of all the chimerical evils which the imagination of man ever alarmed itself with, the danger of a too scrupulous fear of displeasing God, or a too earnest desire to serve him, is the least really formidable. Yet we have daily occasion to observe, that many far greater evils are much less dreaded, and many worse errors more easily pardoned." P. 157.

Mr. S. has, no doubt, some ground for these assertions, but is it quite true, that it is the crime of having too much religion, which is so commonly held to be a greater misfortune than the extreme of vanity and extravagance: may we not hope that it is rather a supposed ill-judged expression of religion which excites displeasure? Is it the scrupulous fear of offending God which alarms" many irreproachable moral characters," or does not their apprehension arise rather from a suspicion founded upon ignorance of the true nature of Christianity, that the earnest desire to serve God disqualifies for the social duties and innocent enjoyments of life, and that zeal in religion leads to unwarrantable breaches of charity. From whatever cause however the opposition may spring, it behoves every one who calls himself a Christian to examine if his conduct be consistent with the spirit of his profession, last he be found to put a stumbling block in another's way.

The second point deserving of attention in this chapter, is the prediction of dissensions and divisions consequent upon the propagation of the Gospel-" a man's foes shall be they of his own household." This consequence, though accurately fulfilled in the early ages, was not the result of any spring of action then in motion, but arose from a sensibility, and religious earnestness, which, as the authors of Christianity foresaw, was about to be excited. The variance between the practices foretold and the precepts enforced, could not appear probable to mere human judgment. Here we may remark, by the way, that these predictions afford no justification to such as think to promote the cause of true religion by sowing discord in families. Our Lord knew that his holy Gospel, like all other good gifts, would be abused by the corruption of human nature, and produce these evil fruits: but he sanctioned them not any more than he did persecution and murder when he forewarned his disciples that "the time would come when whosoever killed them would think he did God service." The third and last particular to which our attention is directed, is the predictive mode in which the Gospel should make its way through the whole world,-as displayed in several parables. That it should be an universal religion, of which there had been no previous instance; that it should spread, not by force, but gradually and imperceptibly. Its reception among different classes of men is described, especially in the parable of the sower, with a nice discrimination, to be equalled only by the strict accordance of the prophecy with the experience of eighteen centuries. Mr. Sumner thus comments upon the application of the parable.

"Wherever the Gospel is taught as a divine revelation, many hear it and understand it not.' Its declarations lie on the surface of the mind, but no pains are taken to examine the evidence of its authority, nor to bring the heart into subjection to its precepts. In truth, the heart is never affected: the man remains within the hearing but without the feeling of religion. Such is the case with seed which falls by the way side,' on ground unprepared and unfit to receive it, where it is trodden under foot by every passenger, or carried off by the fowls of the air, destroyed by the scorner, or scattered by the tempter.

"Others, instead of neglecting the Gospel altogether, are struck with some sense of its beauty; with the high views of mankind and their future destiny which it unfolds; or the ennobling relation to God which it offers; or the suitableness of its doctrines to the condition of the human race. So when they hear the word, they receive it with joy,' listen to it gladly; and if there were no trials to come, no self-denial to be exercised, no duties to be performed, they would be something more than almost Christians. So corn might flourish on a rock, if there were no sun to parch it, or no storm to wash it away: it springs up for a