in authority, it diffuses its salutary influence on all around; like a river, which as it flows through an extensive country, spreads fertility over all its borders, filling the hearts of thousands with joy and gladness. If it possess the bosom of a citizen, it makes him a quiet and peaceable, an affectionate and useful member of society; producing in every mind, where it finds reception, so far as it prevails, without a single exception, reverence to the constituted authorities and obedience to the laws of the country, in which the favored partaker of it lives. How different from all this is the genius of infidelity in the effects, which it produces both on the heart of the individual, the comfort of domestic life, and also on the peace and well being of society! The last hours of the unhappy Voltaire afford a lively comment on the wretched condition, in which infidelity leaves its deluded advocates, as to the state of their own souls. Though he had for a long course of years employed both genius and learning in the impious efforts of erecting a fortress on the foundation of Atheism, which should be tenable against the artillery of a guilty conscience, and the fears of death and judgement; the walls of the whole fabric mouldered into nothing at the blasting of the breath of God's displeasure, and left the miserable builder

a defenceless prey to anguish and despair.* Similar to this was the experience of another of the sceptic tribe, the apostate Julian; who after a life of philosophical unbelief, and active enmity against Christ and His church, having received a mortal wound from a lance in the Persian war, and being conscious of his approaching end, filled his hand with his own blood, and, casting it into the air, cried, Vicisti, O Galilæe, O Galilæan, thou hast conquered.' If those, who are placed

*The above account is fully justified by the Abbé Barruel, in bis memoirs illustrating the history of Jacobinism. From which curious and interesting work it appears that Voltaire and his associates of the French academy had carried their antipathy to Christianity so far, that the horrible expression, crush the wretch, (by whom they meant our most adorable Lord and Saviour) was the watch-word of the party, which they used continually in their private correspondence. It is not therefore to be wondered at, that these impious men should be made distinguished objects of Divine displeasure. The Abbé Barruel, from the most incontestable authority, gives such a description of their end, as strikes the mind with the deepest horror. Voltaire, during his last illness, which continued for three months, recanted his infidel opinions, confessed to a priest, and declared that he died in the holy catholic church. The whole time of his sickness was employed in alternate supplication and blasphemy. The remembrance of his conspiracy against Him, whom he now invoked in vain, was continually present to his mind. His physicians, particularly Mr. Tronchin, and the Mareshall de Richelieu fled from his bedside, declaring the sight too terrible to be sustained, and that the furies of Orestes could give but a faint idea of those of Voltaire.

The Author in the sequel of this valuable work, asserts that several of the other conspirators, died in the same horrors of soul with their wretched chief. The reader, if he be a friend to revelation, will be highly gratified by a perusal of the whole account.

in authority,

neither fear God nor regard man; they are under no restraint from acts of injustice and cruelty, except those which arise from motives of self-interest and fear of personal suffering. It is unnecessary, to add how insufficient these considerations are to check the furious current of the human will, when freed from all apprehension of the Divine vengeance. The effects of infidelity on the conduct of the governed are depicted to the life in the present age, and are too glaring to make it necessary that they should be pointed out.* A man without God is ready to every evil word and work. If death be an eternal sleep, farewell at once to all the comforts of social life. Its ties are instantly broken, and its cords burst asunder. So soon as

this becomes the prevailing creed, we shall

*Voltaire was the father of the Sophisters of impiety, and before his death he becomes the chief of the Sophisters of rebellion. He had said to his first adepts, Let us crush the altar, and let not a single altar, nor a single worshipper be left to the God of Christians; and his school soon resounded with the cry of, Let us crush the Sceptre, and let not a single throne, nor a single subject be left to the kings of the earth!' The above paragraph extracted from the two last pages of Barruel's first volume display the connection that subsists between infidelity and rebellion. The second volume more strongly points out the pernicious tendency of infidel principles to subvert the obedience of subjects, and to shake the basis of every earthly government, whether monarchical, aristocratical, or democratical.

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thenceforward live on the same terms with each other, as bears and tygers. Every man will become a prey to his neighbour, so often as superior power promises success to an assault, and unbridled appetite demands his property or life.

The true genius of the religion of Jesus appears in a most amiable light in the prayers of our church, which respect civil government: especially those for our Rulers. That it is the duty of every christian citizen to pray for the supreme magistrate, and all that are put in authority under him, will be controverted by no persons who really receive the scriptures as a revelation from God. A charge of disaffection to the

cause of sedition.

powers that be,' has often been laid against persons professing godliness. But whatever reason may have been justly given for such an indictment by some, who have avowed themselves members of the Christian community; most certain it is, that christianity has never been the Our Lord himself was charged with being an enemy to Cæsar: but the reader needs not to be informed, how totally unfounded was the accusation, since on every occasion our adorable Saviour shewed Himself an obedient subject, both of paternal and civil government, and hath set us an example that we should follow His steps. Charity, which hopeth all things, wishes to find that the charge, too

often brought against His disciples, may prove equally unsupported. But, however that be, the character of His religion is to be estimated, not from the misrepresentations of its enemies, nor the misconduct of its pretended friends; but from the plain and decisive precepts of the new Testament.

It may be safely here assumed as an axiom in Divinity, that he only is a Christian, who labors to demean himself according to the spirit of the Gospel, and the rules which are laid down as a directory of our conduct in the holy Scriptures. No one has even a pretence for ranking himself among the disciples of Christ, who is not solicitous to know, in order that he may practice the will of God. So soon as a person is in any measure renewed in the spirit of his mind, so as to have his will and affections turned to God, he begins to study his Bible, if he has the ability of reading it; and if not, he will necessarily embrace every opportunity of conversation with his more enlightened brethren, and of a diligent and conscientious attendance on all the means of grace, in order that he may furnish himself with a knowledge of its contents: and in this pursuit he keeps in view, not only the necessity of a more enlarged acquaintance with the way of salvation through faith in Jesus; but also of a more comprehensive and distinct perception of the path of duty, in which he is to walk. When Saul of Tar