Christianity as a scheme of doctrine declares, among other great and attractive principles, That God has made of one blood all the nations; that they are alike related to him the great Parent in his family of mankind: That he dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with gifts or facrifices, as though he needed any thing; but is ferved by piety and humanity, and worshipped in spirit and in truth: That his providence is particular and univerfal: That his cares and influence extend to the fpirits of men, as well as to their outward condition: That he has looked with compaffion on his offspring, diftreffed and toiling amidst ignorance, forrow, fin, and death: That Jefus Chrift is come from God, fent according to the riches of divine grace, to enlighten, to fave, and to bless mankind: That God, according to his infinite wisdom, in restoring his fons, perfected the Leader of their deliverance by fufferings, and has now exalted him as a Prince and a Saviour, to give them repentance and the remiffion of fins: That this life is a ftate of probation: That after death is the judgement, in which will be peculiarly refpected, our benignity and mercy, our probity and holiness in the conduct of life, and our progress in religious

i

religious attainments, correfponding to the advantages which we have enjoyed.

Christianity, as a declaration of facts, fhews the incarnation of the Saviour in humility; his life perfect in fanctity and eminent in goodnefs; his affection to his friends, his compaffion to his enemies, his rejection of all earthly honours, his avoiding both alliance and hoftility. with political fyftems, his difclaiming on the part of his followers any power civil or fpiritual, as attached either to the profeffion of Chriftianity or to the office of teachers of his religion; his requiring from his followers a ftrictness of principle, which should never be overcome of evil; his own unalterable fidelity amidst reproach, perfecution, and the pains of death; his refurrection in power; his afcenfion in glory. These are the historical characters of the grand interpofition they are interesting, and they are also credible; for to the eye of reafon and reflection they appear to be most eminently calculated to introduce with advantage a difpenfation of piety and virtue, and to unite mankind in an holy and catholic church.

Christianity

Christianity as an inftitute of the Divine Law speaks home to the natural confcience; it fets at nought the whole artifice of fuperftition, the folly or the fraud by which the world has been held in bondage; the contrivances to enfure the foul without the facrifices of its vices; the pageantry, the formalities, or the bribery by which men have fought to please God without the practice of virtue, and to escape from punishment, without the trouble of repentance unto newness of life. Chriftianity declares that virtue is the law of God; that this is his will, even our fanctification; that as God is holy, we ought to be holy; and that as he is good, we ought to conform to his image in kindness, forbearance, mercy, even in that charity which is the genuine tranfcript of the Father's goodness, and which is enthroned in the Chriftian difpenfation above faith and hope. These views of religious obligation claim the affent of the confcience. Men feel the power of the truth in this cafe from the first moment, and before they have courage to own their convictions, or have got any compleat victory over their prejudices. And this whole scheme of doctrines, facts, and laws, even Chriftianity as it was spoken by the Lord and confirmed to us by them that heard

him,

him, is calculated for univerfal reception as the religion of the human race. It has nothing local, nothing exclufive, no holy places, no ftated fafts or feftivals, no laborious ritual, no facerdotal domination, no altar, no bloodshed but that of its Founder and his witneffes, no fpecial ac. commodation to particular forms of government or modes of life. In all its parts it alike applies to the families of the fimple hunters in the wilderness, of the shepherds on their mountains, of the polifhed citizen, of the freeman and the flave.

We have here to meet a prejudice which has been often entertained on this fubject, that fome confiderable progrefs in civilization is previously neceffary to prepare a people for the reception of Chriftianity. You must first make them men, fay the patrons of this opinion, before you think of making them Chriftians. You muft teach them to live in fixed habitations, to affociate in villages, to cultivate the foil, and then you may hope that they will hear and understand when you unfold the fublime principles of the gofpel. This opinion has been fupported by the abilities of a prelate, who whether defending the legation of Mofes or dif

cuffing

cuffing the Chriftian doctrine, fcorned to avail himself of the advantage of ground, but generally made the forlorn hope his option.

The opinion itself fuppofes a wider difference between the understanding of the man of the woods and the man of the city than what does in fact take place; and it fuppofes the gospel to be fomething more intricate than any of the words of Chrift seem to imply. It opposes the claim of Chriftianity to be an univerfal religion, confidering it as adapted to mankind in fome fituations, but not in all; and it would place a final bar in the way of our hopes of any fuccefs to our religion on the fide of Tartary and America, where the reluctance of the people to a ftationary life is a part of the national character. That in the cafe of the Americans, a change of life to fixed habitations, to agriculture, to civilization and the arts, would be a matter of immenfe benefit to the people themselves, is undoubted: it is indeed the only expedient which can fave the whole old nations of the Continent from that extermination with which they are threatened by the European colonists. But the aid of Christianity feems to be neceffary to facilitate this change of fituation to civil life, in

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