feelings, and capable of discerning the true, the good, the beautiful, the pathetic, the fublime, read over again and again the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th chapters of the gofpel of the beloved difciple of Chrift; and, in the midst of his tender emotions, let him propofe this queftion to himself;-Whether these admirable difcourfes could have proceeded from a mere mortal? I do not add an impoftor; for the reader I have in view would be too much affected, too much moved and agitated, to admit, for one fingle inftant, the odious fufpicion of impofture! How fincerely do I regret that my plan does not allow me to attempt an analysis of this last discourse of the best and most respected of masters; of that mafter who was going to give up his life for his friends, and who employed his last moments in comforting and inftructing them! But my admiration carries me too far, when it fuggefts the idea of fuch a task. I feel myself unequal to it. Such difcourses could be analysed by thofe only to whom the master said, he no longer gave them the name of fervants, &c. How fincerely do I pity that man who is fo void of feeling or understanding, or so much enflaved by his prejudices, as to remain infenfible to fuch difcourfes, wherein the Benefactor of mankind painted himself with a truth and fimplicity fo affecting and so majestic!

*

t

HA

voice of divine WISDOM; if I now liften to thofe extraordinary men whom the infpired, I fhall ftill believe I hear her voice, for it is ftill divine WISDOM that speaks. I fhall not therefore inquire whence these plain, artless fishermen have been able to dictate to mankind a fyftem of morals fo far fuperior to what reafon had till then conceived; a fyftem in which all the duties of man are comprised; which refers them all to their true fource; which forms into one family all the different focieties difperfed over the earth; which binds closely toge

ther

ther all the members of that family; which connects it with the great family of celeftial intelligences; and which proclaims HIM the father of those families, whose goodness extends from the fparrow to the cherubim. I shall readily acknowledge, that so sublime a philosophy did not take its rife in the turbid waters of the Jordan; and that fo bright a light did not break out from the thick darkness of the fynagogue.

I fhall be confirmed ftill more in this opinion, if I have fufficient patience or courage to perufe the writings of the most famous teachers (1) of that lofty and fanatical

(1) The Rabbins and Thalmudifts, the ancient doctors of the nation. Thalmud fignifies doctrine; The Thalmud is the collection of all the traditions on the doctrine, the laws, and ceremonies of that people. Two of these collections have the title of Thalmud; one of them is that of Jerufalem, the most ancient; the other, that of Babylon, a compilation, fuppofed to have been made in the fifth century of our æra.

Amongst the modern teachers of that nation, the most learned are far from adopting the dreams of the ancient Thalmudifts. They attempt to purify the doctrine more and more, by feparating from it the base alloy introduced

tical fociety; and if I compare their writtings with thofe of the men whom they perfecuted with fuch fury, because their virtues irritated and offended them.

What

a monftrous farrago of dreams and visions! what abfurdities heaped upon abfurdities! what licence of interpretation ! what a total forgetfulness of reafon! what infults to common fenfe!

into it by the barbarity and ignorance of the ages of darkness. Several traits of the doctrine of the ancient Thalmudifts may be feen in fome apologists of Chrif tianity, and chiefly in Houtteville, vol. i. p. 188. edit. 1765.

I fhall, however, obferve, that the efforts of the learned of that nation, to purify and perfect their doctrine, will be vain; they will never completely fucceed, if they do not add to it that fupplement, fo neceffary, and fo natural, which Christianity, furnishes, and which their own law fo evidently fuppofes. I cannot flatter myfelf, that this feeble effay of mine on Christianity, will engage any of the learned of that nation to examine with close attention, and with the utmost impartiality, a doctrine which holds out to them the promises of the prefent life, and the most exprefs promises of that which is to come: but, my heart is full of hopes for them, which I fhall ever entertain, and of the most ardent defire that those hopes may be fulfilled by the Father of light, and author of every perfect gift.

I afterwards

I afterwards direct my views towards the fages of Baganism. I open the immortal works of Plato, Xenophon, and Cicero, and I obferve with joy these first glimmerings of the light of reafon. But how weak, unsteady, and confufed they appear! what clouds overshadow them! Night is fcarce past. Day has not yet begun. The dayftar from on high has not yet appeared. But these fages hope for and expect its rifing (m).

I cannot withhold my admiration from

(m) See the fecond Alcibiades of Plato, where he makes Socrates fpeak thus :-We must wait for the coming of fome perfonage, who will teach us our duty towards God and mankind.-When will that time be, replies Alcibiades, and who will he be that will inftruct me ?—It will be he who taketh care of you, answers Socrates.

And in Phedon.-To come to the knowledge of these things in this life is impossible, or at least extremely difficult, unless we can arrive at this knowledge by more certain means, fuch as a divine revelation.-And again, in another part of the Epinomides, the wife pagan, in speaking of the worship of the Deity, thus expreffeth himfelf:-Who is he that will be able to inftruct us in it, if God is not his guide?

thefe