ing a vifion, it appears we have Mr. F.'s own authority to judge, that Chrift, during his fuppofed vifion, though paffive in receiving the impreffions, was, in all other reSpects, at liberty; that he must have felt the fame difpofitions and fentiments, refpecting the images impreffed, as he would have done if the real objects, which they reprefented, had been present to him; and that he was equally capable of a right determination and choice as at any other time.

Mr. F. himself, therefore, has authorized us to conclude that, though Christ could not, if he would, conceive of his fituation, otherwise than as a wilderness, and though he could not, if he would, avoid confidering himself in company with the devil, he was, nevertheless, at liberty to express his abborrence of fuch fociety, and to determine whether or no he would hold conference with that evil fpirit. A familiar conference, however, took place; from which it

appears, that Chrift knew with whom he was converfing, as he called him by his name: and, notwithstanding the whole tranfaction be fuppofed a vision only, the character of Chrift muit, inevitably, be affected just as if it had been all a reality. Moreover, when he imagined himself.conveyed through the air to the battlements of the temple, and likewife to the top of the mountain, he must have been conscious, I think, of giving his voluntary confent*. How much foever, therefore, Mr. F.'s religious feelings were shocked by the common interpretation, he would derive no juft relief from his new hypothefis; which leaves the objection, refpecting the difhonour of Chrift, in full force.

Neither is the objection concerning ab

* Even if it were admitted that, in conceiving of these transportations, he was fubject to the overruling miraculous influence, it is utterly impoffi ble that the familiar converfation fhould have been other than voluntary.

furdities

furdities and impoffibilities hereby removed: though, indeed, they are no longer ascribed to the devil. But abfurdity or impoffibility is no more the object of divine than of diabolical power.

After all, I believe, we must be content to take the evangelical narratives of the temptation in their plain literal meaning, as I doubt not the writers of them intended we fhould. The ufe, however, which I fhall make of them is, to infer from them the propriety of confidering well how much credit is due to accounts of miracles given by writers who were capable of prefenting us with fuch a story.

APPENDIX,
No. II.

In the year 1792, a pamphlet was publifhed, entitled, Remarks on Mr. Gilbert Wakefield's Inquiry into the Expediency and Propriety of Public and Social Worship. It was published without a name; but I believe it was univerfally afcribed to a lady, whofe literary merit has obtained for her a large portion of celebrity; and that it was juftly afcribed to her, there seems to be good internal evidence. Near the conclufion of this pamphlet the reader will find what I fhall here tranfcribe. After conceding to Mr. W. that a reform in the public worship was to be wifhed for, and after fuggefting fome articles which she fpeaks of as hints offered with diffidence and refpect, the eloquent writer proceeds.

as

as follows: "defirable to separate from religion that "idea of gloom, which, in this country, "has but too generally accompanied it. "The fact cannot be denied; the cause "must be fought partly in our natural "character, which, I am afraid, is not ei"ther very cheerful or very focial, and " which we shall do well to meliorate by every poffible attention to our habits of "life; and partly to the colour of our "religious fyftems. No one who embraces "the common idea of future torments, to"gether with the doctrine of election and "reprobation, the infufficiency of virtue to

"Above all, it would be

efcape the wrath of God, and the strange

abfurdity which, it should seem through fimilarity of found alone, has been ad"mitted as an axiom, that fins committed

against an Infinite Being do, therefore, "deserve infinite punishment-no one, "I will venture to affert, can believe fuch сс tenets, and have them often in his