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being, unquestionably gifted so largely, unquestionably the masterpiece of the visible creation, he turned loose into the world, wholly ignorant and uninstructed in all matters which respect both his Maker and his own future destiny. A careful father is anxious to give every information to his child, which may qualify him to play a useful and respectable part in society: and, should any parent systematically withhold knowledge from his son, we should deem his plan an extraordinary mark of extreme folly. But the deist, on his own principles, is obliged to believe, that, what we reasonably deem the very perfection of folly in man, is precisely the line of conduct adopted by a God of confessedly surpassing wisdom in regard to the whole inteliigent human species. This wonderfully wise Being created man; and placed him, as a sovereign, in our nether world. But he left him in a state of profound ignorance, both as to the unity or plurality of his Creator, both as to the moral attributes of the Deity and his own consequent moral obligation. Not the slightest lesson did he give him: not the least care did he take, that he should well answer any supposable end of his creation. On the contrary, he industriously withheld from him all knowledge of his most important concerns and interests. Nor did he merely refrain from giving him the requisite information. Some knowledge may not be imparted, because the acquisition of it is in our own power: and to communicate knowledge, which may be acquired by industry, is only to foster idleness. But this was not the case with the knowledge systematically denied to man, though knowledge of the last importance for him to possess. The knowledge was, at once, syste matically denied to him; and the means of acquiring that knowledge, by any possible exertion of industry, were studiously withheld. Man was never taught, that there is one

only God: and he is utterly unable to attain to any certainty respecting the unity of the Godhead. Man was

never taught, that God is just and good and merciful: and he is utterly unable to demonstrate, that the moral attributes of God are justice and goodness and mercy. Man was never taught, what actions are pleasing to God: and he is utterly unable to prove, that virtue is more pleasing to him than vice. Much of this knowledge need not to have been revealed, had man been placed in a world differently constituted from the present: because, if virtue were uniformly followed by reward and vice by punishment, if pain and misery and sickness were unknown except as the evident and unfailing penalty of injustice, if no instance of suffering or trouble in the case of a good man were ever known to occur, and if a removal from the present state of existence were never attended with horror and agony save in the case of a bad man; the character and will of God might then be as unerringly ascertained, as if he had formally declared them. But the truth is, that the world, in which man is actually placed, is a complete enigma, a tissue of jarring contradictions. Perplexed and distracted, he can arrive at no certainty: labour as he may, he is of necessity still tossed in endless doubtings. Yet, in such a world, the deist supposes man to be placed: not by babbling folly, careless whether an end be attained or not; but by consummate wisdom, which in every other instance carefully and effectually adapts the mean to the end.

To take up, with a full conviction of its truth, this extraordinary and paradoxical supposition, is not one of the least difficulties which attend upon deistical Infidelity: and many perhaps will think it a greater mark of credulity, to believe that an all-wise God has placed in the world his rational creature man without giving him the slightest instruction as

to those points in which his welfare is immediately concerned, than to believe that an all-wise God has authoritatively communicated to his rational creature man that knowledge and information which may best and most certainly fit him to answer the moral ends of his creation.

SECTION III.

THE DIFFICULTIES ATTENDANT UPON DEISTICAL INFIDELITY IN REGARD TO HISTORICAL MATTER OF FACT.

Ir has been so ordered by a wise and over-ruling Providence, that, in the case of various historical matters of fact, the deist is inevitably reduced to the alternative, either of denying the fact itself, or of admitting that a revelation from God to man must have taken place.

If, on the one hand, he boldly denies the fact; then he unsettles the whole rationale of historical evidence, and brings himself (would he preserve the character of consistency) into a state of universal skepticism as to all past occurrences: if, on the other hand, he admits the fact; then he will find himself compelled to admit along with it the necessary concomitant fact of a divine revelation.

So that, under this aspect of the question, the point will be, whether a man evinces a higher degree of credulity, by persuading himself that a recorded fact is absolutely false, notwithstanding it rests upon the very strongest historical evidence; or by believing the fact, and thence admitting its necessary consequence a revelation from heaven.

Many matters of this description might easily be adduced and commented upon: I shall however, for the sake of brevity, confine myself to a single remarkable case, as affording an apt specimen of the present mode of reasoning.

The case, which I shall produce. is the naked historical

fact of The general deluge: and my position is; that The deist must either deny this fact altogether, or admit the actual occurrence of a revelation from God to man.

It might seem, as if the school of unbelievers had anticipated the possibility of some such use being made of the fact in question: whence, perhaps, we may account for the zeal, with which, from time to time, they have wished wholly to set aside the fact. For, doubtless, if it could be satisfactorily shown that the deluge never occurred, no argument of any description could be drawn from it. The proofs, however, of its actual occurrence, are so strong and so multiplied and so decisive, that if this fact be denied, we must forthwith close the volume both of history and of physiology in history, we must learn to believe nothing, whether near or remote; in physiology, we must learn to disbelieve the very evidence of our senses.

Some of these proofs shall be briefly exhibited: and, when the absolute necessity of the fact has been thus established, we may then be allowed fairly and reasonably to draw from it the proposed inference.

I. The proofs are partly historical, partly physiological, and partly moral.

1. With respect to historical proof, I so designate the universal attestation of mankind to the alleged fact: that A general deluge once took place: and that All animated nature perished, save a single family, with those birds and beasts and reptiles which they were instrumental in preserving.

This universal attestation I call a proof: because, if it be deemed incapable of establishing a fact, there is an end of all historical evidence.

The circumstance of a general deluge is asserted by Moses. Now, when we consider the tremendous magni