of my nature, I receive this religion as the greatest blessing Heaven in its goodness could confer upon mankind; and I should still receive it with gratitude were I to consider it only as the very best and most perfect system of practical philosophy.

"BONNET."

That man, hurried away by the impetuosity of his passions, is capable of strange and monstrous irregularities I am not to learn; even vanity and the mean ambition of being eccentric may draw out very wild expressions from him in his unguarded hours; but that any creature should be deliberately blasphemous, and reason himself (if I may so express it) into irrationality, surpasses my conception, and is a species of desperation for which I have no

name.

If the voice of universal nature, the experience of all ages, the light of reason and the immediate evidence of my senses cannot awaken me to a dependence upon my God, a reverence for his religion, and a humble opinion of myself, what a lost creature am I!

Where can we meet a more touching description of God's omnipresence and providence than in the 139th Psalm? And how can I better conclude this paper than by the following humble attempt at a translation of that most beautiful address to the Creator of mankind.

PSALM CXXXIX.

1 O Lord, who by thy mighty power
Hast search'd me out in every part,
Thou know'st each thought at every hour,
Or ere it rises to my heart.

2 In whatsoever path I stray,
Where'er I make my bed at night,
No maze can so conceal my way,
But I stand open to thy sight.

3 Nor can my tongue pronounce a word,
How secretly soe'er 'twere said,
But in thine ear it shall be heard,
And by thy judgment shall be weigh'd.
4 In every particle I see

The fashion of thy plastic hand:
5 Knowledge too excellent for me,
Me, wretched man, to understand.

6 Whither, ah! whither then can I From thine all present spirit go?

7 To Heaven? 'tis there thou'rt throned on high: To Hell? 'tis there thou rulest below.

8 Lend me, O Morning, lend me wings!
On the first beam of opening day
To the last wave that ocean flings
On the world's shore I'll flit away.

9 Ah, fool! if there I meant to hide,
For thou my God shalt reach me there,
E'en there thy hand shall be my guide,
Thy right hand hold me in its care.

10 Again, if calling out for night,

I bid it shroud me from thine eyes,
Thy presence makes a burst of light,
And darkness to the centre hies.

11 Nay, darkness cannot intervene
Betwixt the universe and Thee:
Light or no light, there's nought I ween
God self-illumined cannot see.

12 Thine is each atom of my frame,
Thy fingers strung my inmost reins
E'en in the womb, or ere I came
To life and caused a mother's pains.
13 Oh! what a fearful work is man!
A wonder of creative art!
My God, how marvellous thy plan!
"Tis character'd upon my heart.

14 My very bones, though deep conceal'd
And buried in this living clay,
Are to thy searching sight reveal'd
As clear as in the face of day.

15 That eye, which through creation darts,
My substance, yet imperfect, scann'd,
And in thy books my embryo parts
Were written and their uses plann'd.

16 Ere time to shape and fashion drew
These ductile members one by one,
Into man's image ere they grew
Thy great prospective work was done.

17 O God! how gracious, how divine,
How dear thy counsels to my soul !
Myriads to myriads could I join,
They'd fail to number up the whole.

18 I might as well go tell the sand
And count it over grain by grain:
No; in thy presence let me stand,
And waking, with my God remain.

19 Wilt thou not, Lord, avenge the good?
Shall not blasphemers be destroy'd?
Depart from me ye men of blood,
Hence, murderer, and my sight avoid!

20 Loud are their hostile voices heard To take thy sacred name in vain :

21 Am I not grieved? Doth not each word Wring my afflicted heart with pain ?

Doth not my zealous soul return
Hatred for hatred to thy foes?

22 Yea, Lord! I feel my bosom burn,
As though against my peace they rose.

23 Try me, dread power! and search my heart; Lay all its movements in thy view!

Explore it to its inmost part,
Nor spare it if 'tis found untrue.

24 If devious from thy paths I stray
And wickedness be found with me,
Oh! lead me back the better way
To everlasting life and Thee.

No. LXI.

THE deistical writers, who would fain persuade us that the world was in possession of as pure a system of morality before the introduction of Christianity as since, affect to make a great display of the virtues of many eminent heathens, particularly of the philosophers Socrates, Plato, and some others.

When they set up these characters as examples of perfection, which human nature, with the aids of revelation, either has not attained to, or not exceeded, they put us upon an invidious task which no man would voluntarily engage in, and challenge us to discuss a question, which if thoroughly agitated, cannot fail to strip the illustrious dead of more than half the honours which the voice of ages has agreed to give them.

It is therefore to be wished that they had held the argument to its general terms, and shown us where that system of ethics is to be found which they are prepared to bring into comparison with the moral doctrines of Christ. This I take to be the fair ground whereon the controversy should have been decided, and here it would infallibly have been brought to issue; but they knew their weapons better than to trust them in so close a conflict.

The maxims of some heathen philosophers, and the moral writings of Plato, Cicero, and Seneca, contain many noble truths worthy to be held in veneration by posterity; and if the deist can from these produce a system of morality as pure and perfect as that which claims its origin from divine revelation, he will prove that God gave to man a faculty of distinguishing between right and wrong with such correctness that his own immediate reve

lation added no lights to those which the powers of reason had already discovered. Let us grant therefore for a moment that Christ's religion revealed to the world no new truths in morality, nor removed any old errors, and what triumph accrues to the deist by the admission? The most he gains is to bring reason to a level with revelation as to its moral doctrines: in so doing he dignifies man's nature, and shows how excellent a faculty God, gave his creatures in their original formation to guide their judgments and control their actions; but will this diminish the importance of revealed religion? Certainly not, unless he can prove one or both of the following positions; viz.

First, That the moral tenets of Christianity either fall short of, or run counter to, the moral tenets of natural religion; or,

Secondly, That Christ's mission was nugatory and superfluous, because the world was already in possession of as good a system of morality as he imparted to mankind.

As to the first, I believe it has never been attempted by any heathen or deistical advocate to convict the Gospel system of false morality, or to allege that it is short and defective in any one particular duty when compared with that system which the world was possessed of without its aid. No man I believe has controverted its truths, though many have disputed its discoveries. No man has been hardy enough to say of any of its doctrinesThis we ought not to practise! though many have been vain enough to cry out—All this we knew before. Let us leave this position therefore for the present, and pass to the next, viz. Whether Christ's mission was nugatory and superfluous, because the world already knew as much morality as he taught them.