not evince the fuperiority of Chrift's miffion above that of Mofes, if Chrift, to whom angels ministered, when the devil in defpair departed from him, Chrift, who was transfigured before his disciples, and his face did shine as the fun, and his raiment was white as the light, and behold! there appeared unto them Mofes and Elias talking with him; Chrift, at whofe death the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of faints, which flept, arofe, and came out of the graves after his refurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many; in conclufion, if Chrift, whofe refurrection was declared by angels, feen and acknowledged by many witneffes, and whose ascension into heaven crowned and completed the irrefragable evidences of his divine miffion; if Chrift, whose prophecies of his own death and refurrection, of the deftruction of Jerufalem and of the subsequent difperfion of the Jews, have been and now are so fully verified, cannot, as our caviller afferts, meet the comparison with Mofes, then is the Redeemer of loft mankind a lefs fublime and important chaFacter than the legiflator of the Jews.

I have now attempted in the first place to discover

difcover how far the world was illuminated by right reafon before the revelation of Christ took place; for had men's belief been fuch, and their practice alfo fuch as Christianity teaches, the world had not stood in need of a Redeemer.

The refult of this enquiry was, that certain perfons have expreffed themselves well and justly upon the fubject of God and religion in times antecedent to the Chriftian æra, and in countries where idolatry was the established worship:

That the nation of the Jews was a peculiar nation, and preferved the worship of the true and only God, revealed in very early time to their fathers, but that this worship from various circumstances and events, in which they themfelves were highly criminal, had not been propagated beyond the limits of a small tract, and that the temple of Jerufalem was the only church in the world, where God was worshipped, when Christ came upon earth:

That from the almoft univerfal diffufion of idolatry, from the unworthy ideas men had of God and religion, and the few faint notions entertained amongst them of a future ftate of rewards and punishments, the world was in fuch deplorable error, and in fuch univerfal need of

an

an inftructor and redeemer, that the coming of Chrift was most seasonable and neceflary to falvation:

That there were a number of concurrent prophecies of an authentic character in actual existence, which promised this falvation to the world, and depicted the person of the Meffias, who was to perform this mediatorial office in fo ftriking a manner, that it cannot be doubted but that all thofe characteristics meet and are fulfilled in the person of Christ:

That his birth, doctrines, miracles, prophe cies, death and paffion with other evidences are fo fatisfactory for the confirmation of our belief in his divine miffion, that our faith as Christians is grounded upon irrefragable proofs:

Laftly, That the vague opinions of our own diffenting brethren, and the futile cavils of a recent publication by a distinguished writer of the Jewish nation, are fuch weak and impotent affaults upon our religion, as only serve to confirm us in it the more.

If I have effected this to the fatisfaction of the ferious reader I fhall be most happy, and as for those, who seek nothing better than amusement in these volumes, I will apply myself without delay to the easier task of furnishing them with matter more suited to their taste, and if the fol

lowing pages fhall introduce another Jew to their acquaintance, I can promise them he shall be one, of whom no honeft man need be alhamed.

N° CXVIII.

Απραγμόνως ζῆν, ἡδὺ.

APOLLODORUS ADELPHIS

"A life from cares and business free,
"Is of all lives the life for me."

ED DROWSY came into poffeffion of

NED

a good estate at a time of life, when the humours and habits contracted by education, or more properly by the want of it, become too much a part of the conftitution to be conquered but by fome extraordinary effort or event. Ned's father had too tender a concern for his health and morals to admit him of a public school, and the fame objections held against an univerfity: Not that Ned was without his pretenfions to scholarship, for it is well known that

he

he has been fometimes found afleep upon his couch with a book open in his hand, which warrants a prefumption that he could read, though I have not met any body yet, who has detected him in the act itself. The literature of the nursery he held in general contempt, and had no more paffion for the feats of Jack the Giant-killer, when he was a child, than he had for the labours of Hercules in his more adult years: I can witness to the deteftation, in which he held the popular allegory of the Pilgrim's Progress, and when he has been told of the many editions that book has run through, he has never failed to, reply, that there is no accounting for the bad taste of the vulgar: At the fame time, I fpeak it to his honour, I have frequently known him exprefs a tender fellowfeeling for the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, and betray more partiality, than he was apt to be guilty of, to the edifying ftory of the Seven Dreamers, whom I verily believe he held in more refpect than the Seven Wonders of the World.

Rural sports were too boisterous for Ned's fpirits; neither hares nor partridges could lay their deaths at his door, fo that all his country neighbours gave him their good word, and poached his manors without mercy: There was

a canal