our first parents, and to the supposed effects of that sin, in causing the fall of the whole human race, there must be something of truth in the generally received opinions; they have therefore only receded so far as to get rid of what appeared to them too bad to be at all defended; retaining much, of which a fuller investigation would have shewn them the absurdity; thus, although rejecting the idea of spiritual death, they say we are subjected, for Adam's offence, to mortality in this state of things; and in this they argue that there is no injustice; but to such an argument it may be suggested, in reply, that the absence of a greater injustice does not mitigate or alter the nature of a lesser injustice: if we, his posterity, should have lived for ever free from sin, and pain, and death, but for Adam's transgression, surely to lose this is no small punishment; and at the same time great injustice towards. us, his innocent descendants, who are thus not only deprived of happiness, but exposed to actual suffering on his account, and in consequence of his transgression.*

Sentence being passed, Adam is immediately represented as calling his wife by the name of Eve, because she was (to be) the mother of all that should live ;-it is probable that till the sentence of travail and pain in child bearing had been passed, this latter discovery was not made; as, from the history, it would seem that he had not previously consummated his marriage; it being said, in the next chapter, that after he had been turned from the garden, "Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare "Cain." The sentence passed, and all the previous circumstances having conspired to prepare their minds for their new and uncultivated abode, the wide world, they are further taught how to provide coverings to protect them from the weather, and other injuries to which they would now be exposed. Unto Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord "God make" (or probably taught Adam to make)" coats of

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* There are a few passages in the New Testament from which the above and similar inferences have, by some commentators, been drawn ;-passages which, in a future Essay, we think we shall be enabled to shew do not establish the principle in question-nay which, in some cases, bear no reference whatever to the subject; repeating, however, at this time what has been before remarked, that 'as the writers of the New Testament never pretended to have any other authority than the account in Genesis, and therefore on this subject do not speak by revelation-so we must explain their meaning by a reference to the original record, from which they draw their facts or deduce their arguments, and not the general record by their supposed inferences.

skin, and clothed them; and the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil." As though it had been said, unlike other animals, who know no difference between what is good and what is evil, they have learned, by the discipline they have gone through, this important lesson; they are now therefore fit to be left to themselves, and to the government of reason; they can distinguish what is good for food from that which is pernicious; they have also learned what is morally good or evil; they are become intelligent beings; and therefore, as compared with all other animals, have become like one of us, in our likeness and our image. The plural form is here still preserved, to keep up the idea of superior dignity in man, as though his creation, and every thing concerning him, were the result of deliberation and consultation. From the following verse," And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and live for ever," &c. it would seem evident that our first parents had, from the name given to this tree, as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, mistakenly supposed that it possessed some physical quality or power, which produced those effects; and as it was also called the tree of life, they might have supposed it had likewise the quality of preserving life, and thus be led to return, from the unfounded expectation that by eating of it they might, contrary to what God had declared their nature to be, preserve life for ever. Therefore" (it is added) "the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden," (in conformity with his sentence)" to till the ground from "whence he was taken :" and, to prevent his returning and acting upon the mistaken views before referred to, it is said, "he placed at the east" (probably the only place of entrance)" of the garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life." What was the exact nature of the guard thus placed, we are not informed; but of this we may be assured, that it was sufficiently understood by Adam, and wisely fitted to answer the purpose intended.

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THE ADVANTAGES OF REVEALED RELIGION

OVER NATURAL RELIGION.

[From a Correspondent.]

ONE of the arguments of Deism against revealed religion is, its asserted inutility. It is said that Christianity does not make known to mankind any truth that may not be discovered by the light of nature. But men are, I think, very apt to deceive themselves on this subject. Deists of the present day, many of them at least, profess to believe many truths in common with Christians; and they maintain that they have arrived at those truths by the simple operation of reason, and consequently that revelation is totally useless : but I do conceive that in arguing thus in favour of reason over revelation, they are committing an egregious error; and that the truths which they attribute to the simple exertion of the reasoning powers, are the result of the general prevalence of the doctrines of Christianity. For we should never forget this striking fact, that where the light of revealed religion has never extended, the truths to which I allude have never been discovered. The reason of man is the same in all ages. It was cultivated, in the highest degree, by the sages of ancient Greece and Rome, who were yet incapable of discovering the principles of revelation respecting the unity and perfections of the Deity. The utmost their reason could lead them to was perfect atheism. Some thought one thing, and some another. The more they reasoned, the more they were involved in perplexity and confusion. Some thought there were Gods, but they did not know how few or how many; and whether they interested themselves in the affairs of this world or not, was equally uncertain;-others thought they were revengeful, capricious, and excessively libidinous. In short, the character of their gods was more shocking and depraved than the character of the most abandoned of human beings. Reason could do but little or nothing for the ancient philosophers on these important and sublime subjects;-how is it, then, that modern Deists so greatly surpass the ancient sages in their views and notions of religion? This effect cannot be the result of reason. The ancients had reason,

as well as the moderns :-they exercised it, they cultivated it, they refined it; and it will not be said that the polished Greeks and Romans were men of debilitated intellects-of naturally weak capacities-of degenerated understandings. Whence, then, the superiority of modern unbelievers over the ancients? It is owing to that very revelation which some affect so deeply to despise. Wherever religion prevails, it carries the conversion of the idolator along with it. It changes the opinions of men imperceptibly, whether they will or not. It gradually and insensibly leavens the whole lump; and the very persons who profess to hate and to despise it, are indebted to it for all those correct ideas, which they erroneously attribute to unassisted reason-but which reason, in the absence of revelation, has never been able to discover.

But I shall now proceed one step further, and produce the particular truths to which I allude; and I shall then contend that these truths not only were not, in point of fact, discovered by the exercise of our natural reason, but that they could not be discovered by reason; and that therefore revelation has not only been greatly beneficial, but was indispensably necessary to the human race.

The first great truth which modern Deists profess to entertain, independently of revelation, is-that there is one only God. It is an almost universal opinion, even among Christians, that the belief of one God is the result of natural religion; without reflecting that men in a state of nature, however polished and refined in other respects, never did attain to it; and I maintain that they never could attain to it. There is nothing in nature that can lead us, with certainty, to the knowledge of one God alone. As there are many men in the world, performing many various works, if we acknowledge any superior Being at all, should we not be led rather to infer that there were a great many ruling Gods; one to live in, and to regulate the motions and light of the sun; another to guide his consort, the moon; one to preside over the sea; another to govern the earth; and so on, till we have a god or goddess for every movement in the works of nature? And further than this, we see a mixture of (apparent at least) evil and good in this world in one part of the earth, at one time, peace, tranquillity, and happiness; at another time, or in another place, war, pestilence, famine, or earthquakes, with all the horror and confusion attendant upon these evils. In private families, in villages, in towns, what frightful discords reign! what alarm! what dismay!

:

How many feel, this very moment, death,
And all the sad variety of pain;
How many sink in the devouring flood,
Or more devouring flame; how many bleed
By shameful variance betwixt man and man;
How many pine in want, and dungeon gloom,
Shut from the common air, and common use
Of their own limbs; how many drink the cup
Of baleful grief, or eat the bitter bread
Of misery. Sore pierc'd by wintry winds,
How many shrink into the sordid hut
Of cheerless poverty; how many shake
With all the fiercer tortures of the mind-
Unbounded passion, madness, guilt, remorse;

Whence, tumbling headlong from the height of life,
They furnish matter for the tragic muse.

Amidst all this mixture of good and evil-these contradic-
tions, and embarrassments and perplexities, will it be said
that the feeble reason of man could conclude that there is but
one great Mind presiding over all things? How-reason
would rather object-how can good and evil both emanate
from one Being? at the least there must be two Gods, the
God of good and the God of evil-the God of happiness, and
the God of misery. Men, in a state of nature, see a variety
of effects continually occurring, the causes of which are
invisible; hence they conclude that there are some invisible
agents at work, some of which are evil, and some good;
hence they have, and must have," Lords many and Gods
many." And I maintain, that in the absence of revelation
it must be so; and that the utmost the human reason can
attain to, from the works of nature, is a multiplicity of Gods.
"It appears to me," says Mr. Hume,
says Mr. Hume," that polytheism or
idolatry was, and necessarily must have been, the first and
"most ancient religion of mankind. It is a matter of fact,
incontestible, that with the exception of one or two nations,
“all mankind were polytheists. The further we mount up
into antiquity, the more do we find mankind plunged into
polytheism. No marks, no symptoms of any more perfect
religion. The most ancient records of human race still
" present us with that system, as the popular and established
"creed. The north, the south, the east, the west, give
"their unanimous testimony to the same fact. And as to
"our present experience, the savage tribes of America,

Africa, and Asia, are all idolators;-not a single excep"tion to this rule." So far Mr. Hume: and I will observe, that without going among the savage tribe, we find a wonderful propensity among the poor of the civilized parts of