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would steal away the body, and spread a report of his resurrection. They carefully secured the tomb, sealing the stone and setting a watch. Thus did these his bitterest enemies furnish to the believers of the true faith the most undoubted proof of his rising to life, by putting it out of their power to impose a falsehood on the world. The account of that glorious event is described with great solemnity by St. Matthew. Christ, after being risen, gave the most satisfactory evidence that he was indeed restored to life. He did not appear to his Disciples as a spirit; he made them handle him to assure themselves he was flesh and blood as before; he ate and drank in their presence, and continued with them no less than forty days, during which period he was seen by five hundred of them at one time, by those who had been witnesses of his death and burial.

Our time will not admit of our proceeding further in this examination at present, but in our next Lecture we shall bring it to a conclusion.

EDITOR-L

ON MODERN INFIDELITY.

(By Robert Hall, M. A.)

[The author of the celebrated Discourses, from which we have made the following extract, is a Baptist Minister, of Leicester, highly distinguished for the zeal and discretion with which, for many years, he has watched over the spiritual welfare of a numerous and respectable congregation. His merits were so highly esteemed by the late excellent Bishop Porteus, that when a considerable piece of preferment fell vacant in his diocese, his Lordship earnestly invited Mr. Hall to embrace the Service of the Established Church, which the latter gratefully declined, from an unwillingness to leave a flock to whom he was affectionately attached.-L.]}

THERE is much, it must be confessed, in the apostacy of multitudes, and the rapid progress of infidelity, to awaken our fears for the virtue of the rising generation; but nothing to shake our faith; nothing which Scripture itself does not give us room to expect. The features which compose the character of apostates, their profaneness, presumption, lewdness, impatience of subordination, restless appetite for change, vain pretensions to freedom and to emancipate the world, while themselves are the slaves of lust, the weapons with which they attack Christianity, and the snares they spread for the unwary, are depicted in the clearest colours by the pencil of prophecy. 66 Knowing this first," says Peter, 66 that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts." (2 Peter iii. 3.) In the same epistle he more fully describes the persons he alludes to "as chiefly them which walk after the flesh, in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government; presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities; sporting themselves in their own deceivings, having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls for when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness,

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those that were clean escaped from them who live in error; while they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption." (2 Peter ii.) Of the same characters Jude admonishes us to res member that they were foretold as mockers, who should be in the time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they," he adds, "who separate themselves," by apostacy, "sensual, not having the Spirit." Infidelity is an evil of short duration. Its enormities will hasten its overthrow. It is impossible that a system which, by vilifying every virtue, and embracing the patronage of almost every vice and crime, wages war with all the order and civilization of the world; which, equal to the establishment of nothing, is armed only with the energies of destruction, can long retain an ascendancy. It is in no shape formed for perpetuity. Sudden in its rise, and impetuous in its progress, it resembles a mountain torrent, which is loud, filthy, and desolating; but, being fed by no perennial spring, is soon drained off, and disappears. By permitting to a certain extent the prevalence of infidelity, providence is preparing new triumphs for religion. In asserting its authority, the preachers of the gospel have hitherto found it necessary to weigh the prospects of immortality against the interests of time; to strip the world of its charms, to insist on the deceitfulness of pleasure, and the unsatisfying nature of riches, the emptiness of grandeur, and the nothingness of a mere worldly life. Topics of this nature will always have their use; but it is not by such representations alone that the importance of religion is evinced. The prevalence of impiety has armed us with new weapons in its defence. 4 to Religion being primarily intended to make "wise unto salvation," the support it ministers to social order, the stability it confers on government and laws, is a subordinate species of advantage which we should have continued to enjoy without reflecting on its cause, but for the development of deistical principles, and the experiment which has been made of their effects in a neighbouring country. It had been the constant boast of infidels, that their system, more libe liberal and generous than Christianity, needed but to be tried to produce an im mense accession to human happiness; and Christian nations, careless and supine, retaining little of religion but the profession, and disgusted with its restraints, lent a favourable ear to these pretensions. God permitted the trial to be made. In one country, and that the centre of Christendom, revelation underwent a total eclipse, while atheism, performing on a darkened theatre its strange and fearful tragedy, confounded the first elements of society, blended every age, rank, and sex, in indiscriminate proscription and massacre, and convulsed all Europe to its centre; that the imperishable memorial of these events might teach the last generations of mankind to consider religion as the pillar of society, the safeguard of nations, the parent of social order, which alone has power to curb the fury of the passions, and secure to every one his rights; to the laborious the reward of their industry, to the rich the enjoyment of their wealth, to nobles the preservation of their honours, and to princes the stability of their thrones, iad : We might ask the patrons of infidelity, what fury impels them, to

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attempt the subversion of Christianity? Is it that they have "discovered" a better system? To what virtues are their principles favourable? Or is there one which Christians have not carried to a higher perfection than any of which their party can boast? Have they discovered a more excellent rule of life, or a better hope in death than that which the Scriptures suggest? Above all, what are the pretensions on which they rest their claims to be guides of mankind, or which embolden them to expect we should trample upon the experience of ages, and abandon a religion which has been attested by a train of miracles and prophecies, in which millions of our forefathers have found a refuge in every trouble, and consolation in the hour of death; a religion which has been adorned with the highest sanctity of character and splendor of talents, which enrols amongst its disciples the names of Bacon, Newton, and Locke, the glory of their species, and to which these illustrious men were proud to dedicate the last and best fruits of their immortal genius?

Having been led, by the nature of the subject, to consider chiefly the manner in which sceptical impiety affects the welfare of States, it is the more requisite to warn you against that most fatal mistake of regarding religion as an engine of policy; and to recal to your recollection, that the concern we have in it is much more as individuals than as collective bodies, and far less temporal than eternal. The happiness which it confers in the present life are blessings which it scatters by the way in its march to immortality. That future condition of being which it ascertains, and for which its promises and truths are meant to prepare us, is the ultimate end of human societies, the final scope and object of present existence; in comparison of which, all the revolutions of nations, and all the vicissitudes of time, are light and transitory. "Godliness has," it is true, " the promise of the life that now is;" but chiefly "of that which is to come." Other acquisitions may be requisite to make men great; but be assured the religion of Jesus is alone sufficient to make them good and happy. Powerful sources of consolation in sorrow, unshaken fortitude amidst the changes and perturbations of the world, humility remote from meanness, and dignity unstrained by pride, contentment in every station, passions pure and calm with habitual serenity, the full enjoyment of life undisturbed by the dread of dissolution or the fear of an hereafter, are its invaluable gifts. To these enjoyments, however, you will necessarily continue strangers, unless you resign yourselves wholly to its power; for the consolations of religion are reserved to reward, to sweeten, and to stimulate obedience. Many, without renouncing the profession of Christianity, without formally rejecting its distinguishing doctrines, live in such an habitual violation of its laws, and contradiction to its spirit, that, conscious they have more to fear than to hope from its truth, they are never able to contemplate it without terror. It haunts their imagination, instead of tranquillizing their hearts, and hangs with depressing weight on all their enjoyments and pursuits. Their religion, instead of comforting them under their troubles, is itself their greatest trouble, from which

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they seek refuge in the dissipation and vanity of the world, until the othrobs and tumults of conscience force them back upon religion. Thus suspended between opposite powers, the sport of contradictory influences, they are disqualified for the happiness of both worlds; and neither enjoy the pleasures of sin, nor the peace of piety. Is it surprising to find a mind thus bewildered in uncertainty, and dissatisfied with itself, court deception, and embrace with eagerness every pretext to mutilate the claims and enervate the authority of Christianity; forgetting that it is of the very essence of the religious principle to preside and control, and that it is impossible to serve God and Mammon ?" It is this class of professors who are chiefly in danger of being entangled in the snares of infidelity.

In a view of the final issue of the contest, we should find little cause to lament the astonishing prevalence of infidelity, but for a solicitude for the rising generation, to whom its principles are recommended by two motives, with young minds the most persuasive; the love of independence, and the love of pleasure. With respect to the first, we would earnestly entreat the young to remember, that by the unanimous consent of all ages, modesty, docility, and reverence to superior years, and to parents above all, have been considered as their appropriate virtues, a guard assigned by the immutable laws of God and nature on the inexperience of youth: and, with respect to the second, that Christianity prohibits no pleasures that are innocent, lays no restraints that are capricious; but that the sobriety and purity which it enjoins, by strengthening the intellectual powers, and preserving the faculties of mind and body in undiminished vigour, lay the surest foundation of present peace and future eminence. such a season as this it becomes an urgent duty on parents, guardians, and tutors, to watch, not only over the morals, but the principles of those committed to care; to make it appear that a concern for no eternal welfare is chief concern; and to imbue t bue them earl with that knowledge of the evidences of Christianity, and that profound reverence fson they m found reverence for the Scriptures, that, with the blessing of God, (which with submission they may then expect,) "may keep them from this hour of temptation that has come upon all the world to try them that dwell on the earth."

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To an attentive observer of the signs of the times, it will appear one of the most extraordinary phenomena of this eventful crisis, that, amidst the ravages of atheism and infidelity, real religion is evidently on the increase." The kingdom of God," we know, "cometh not with observation; but still there are not wanting manifest tokens of its approach. The personal appearance of the Son of God, was announced by the shaking of nations; his spiritual kingdom, in all probability, will be established in the midst of similar convulsions and disorders. The blasphemous impiety of the enemies of God, as well Was the zealous efforts of his sincere worshippers, will doubtless be overruled to accomplish the purposes of his unerring providence : while, in inflicting the chastisements of offended Deity on corrupt Communities and nations, infidelity marks its progress by devastation

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and ruin, by the prostration of thrones and concussion of kingdoms; thus appalling the inhabitants of the world, and compelling them to take refuge in the church of God, the true sanctuary; the stream of divine knowledge, unobserved, is flowing in new channels, winding its course among humble valleys, refreshing thirsty deserts, and enriching with far other and higher blessings than those of commerce, the most distant climes and nations, until, agreeably to the prediction of prophecy, the "knowledge of the Lord shall fill and cover the whole earth."

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To the Editor of the Plain Englishman's Library, a ni SIR, It has been the custom lately to represent certain persons, who have suffered the sentence of the law for the heaviest crimes, as remarkable instances of divine mercy. I am by no means inclined to limit the mercy of God, nor to question the power of the "sacrifice once offered for the sins of men ;" nor would I impeach the notion of those, who have held up Brandreth, who was executed two or three years ago at Derby, or the recent case of M'Ghennes, who suffered at Chester for sedition terminating in murder, as examples of "wonderful conversion." But the natural and scriptural order of things is this; first repentance, then pardon. And what I complain of is, that these persons have been pointed out to the public as undoubted objects of mercy, without apparent penitence. At least in neither of the cases referred to have any clear signs of that godly sorrow which worketh repentance been communicated to the world.

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As nothing can be more terrible than the idea of error on ful subject, I have frequently meditated addressing you upon it; when Faccidentally met with an excellent letter, written a hundred years ago by Bishop Fleetwood, in the name of a murderer of that day. The whole appears so reasonable and scriptural, that I have taken the liberty of transcribing it for your use.

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And remain, Sir, **
Your very humble Servant,
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A LETTER FROM MR. J. BURDE

BURDETT,

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Who was executed on Feb. 1, 1717, for the Murder of Captain Falkner, to *C, some Attorney Clerks of his acquaintance. Written six days before his ben Execution. IS

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As wicked as I have all my life been, and as hardened as I now am, yet can I not endure to think that one in hell should show more y to his brethren, (in desiring that Lazarus from the dead should be sent to warn them, lest they also came to that place of torment,) than

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