To an ardent mind, of strong natural powers, which is eagerly panting after the acquisition of truth, and is beginning to feel a confidence in its ability to pursue investigations for itself; that invitation must indeed be flattering, which calls upon it to rise to an elevation above all vulgar prejudice, to enlarge the field of its speculation and enquiry, to divest religious belief of all mystery, and to embrace no article of faith, beyond what it completely understands.

But it cannot be too earnestly recommended to all, to pause, and consider, whether these pretensions rest on that solid foundation, which can entitle them to operate, with any effect, upon reasonable minds: let us see what is meant by the title, Rational Christians. Does it mean that in matters of religion we should only believe, where reason tells us, we ought to believe?

If that be the only meaning, I-agree to the position-all christians refer themselves to the scriptures, for the foundation of their opinions, they believe only, because their rea

son assures them, that these scriptures come

from God, and that the truths which they embrace, are in these scriptures, really contained. Or do they, who assume the name of Rational Christians, mean it to be understood, that they can only consent to extend their faith, to matters which they fully comprehend. If such be their meaning, it becomes them to reflect, whether, in the great truths of nature, in many of the most ordinary events of life, they do not believe, where their ignorance is most complete, and most insuperable. In physics we cannot comprehend the primary cause of any thing, neither of the light by which we see, nor of the elasticity of the air by which we hear, nor of the fire by which we are warmed.-In Physiology we cannot tell what first gave motion to the heart, nor what continues it, nor why we are able to move our arm to the right or left by a simple volition, nor comprehend the principle, by which our body was first formed, nor by which it is sustained, nor by which it will be reduced to dust. The fall and redemption of the human kind, are not more incomprehensible than the creation and preservation of the universe; and it is somewhat remarkable,

that the deepest inquirers into nature, have ever thought with most reverence, and spoken with most diffidence, concerning those things, which in revealed religion, may seem hard to be understood. They have always avoided that self-sufficiency of knowledge, which springs from ignorance, produces indifference, and ends in infidelity. The religion of Jesus Christ, any more than the ways of providence, was never intended to be free from mysteries. It was rather designed to be the touchstone of ingenuous and curable dispositions, and it would be a miracle, greater than any we are instructed to believe, if a being with but five scanty inlets of knowledge, separated but yesterday from his mother earth, and to-morrow sinking again into her bosom, could fathom the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord God Almighty.

It will be readily acknowledged, by all persons who admit the priesthood of Christ, that his office was the most important ever assumed in the present world. He who expiated the sins of mankind, and opened the way for their reconciliation to God, their restoration to

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holiness, and their introduction to heaven, undoubtedly sustained the most important character, and performed the most important acts, which were ever witnessed by the human race. That a person of whom these things can be truly said, must be rationally supposed to be separated from mankind, by many marks, both of personal and official distinction, is an assertion which needs no proof. All men are, by the very nature of the case, prepared to allow, that he who was destined to so extraordinary an office, (and to whom, in the inspired pages, such high titles and appellations are given, as sober reason in her calmest researches cannot interpret, concerning any creature in heaven or earth,) must also possess a character suitable to that office.

The end for which Christ is set forth, as a propitiation for sin, is, that God, consistently with the honor and equity of his moral government, may pardon the offender, who repents and believes in Jesus. The peculiar and essential nature of the faith of such as believe in him, is styled in scripture, faith in his blood. In the exercise of this faith,

the soul surrenders itself absolutely into the hands of Christ. But this surrender cannot be made, unless to a being of such consequence, as to make the act rational, and warrantable, in the view of the understanding. It is incredible, that an intelligent being, should confide himself, his everlasting interests, his all, to any hands but those of infinite perfection. Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, could not, I think, as he was leaving the world, have said to any creature, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. No man in the possession of a sound mind, would say this, even to Gabriel himself.

To me, therefore, it appears absolutely necessary to believe the proper Deity of Jesus, in order to be convinced, that the sacrifice which has been offered, is a sufficient sacrifice. Nothing less than a sacrifice of infinite merit, can atone for the offences of the whole world, and purchase for mankind a title to eternal glory. Christ was man, that he might suffer and die for the offences of man, for justice and reason both required, that the nature, which sinned, should suffer for the sin.