firmed beyond the possibility of doubt, the truth of the discovery of which we have been speaking, at least in as far as it relates to the enchorial character of the country.

In 1820, or 1821, a person by the name of Casati arrived in Paris from Egypt, bringing with him a parcel of manuscripts, one of which proved, upon examination, to be AN ORIGINAL EGYPTIAN DEED, in the enchorial character of the country, of some land lying in Diospolis. About the same time, George F. Gray, Esq., of Oxford College, returned from the east, with a collection of papyrus manuscripts, one of which contained a Greek translation of the deed, procured by Casati. But the proof of identity did not stop here. Nearly at the same time, M. Peron published a translation of an Egyptian manuscript, in the library of Turin, which contained the record of a lawsuit, in regard to some land in Diospolis; in which reference was made to three title deeds, one of which was the identical deed of Casati, of which Mr. Gray had obtained the Greek translation, and which seems to have been made with an especial reference to that very suit. Proof more unexpected, more convincing, and more conclusive, is impossible.

By the perseverance of the devotees of Egyptian antiquities, we are now in possession of a complete phonetic alphabet, for reading all the names in the hieroglyphical inscriptions; we possess also materials to form an alphabet of the demotic language of the country; have made great advances towards one of the hieratic, or conventional language of the priests, and extensive progress in reading and interpreting the hieroglyphics. In the strong, but just language of the Foreign Quarterly Review, we may say, that "We have thus been enabled to correct the visionary opinions entertained by many learned men respecting the inordinately remote date at which Egyptian society was previously supposed to have begun. We have been enabled, with more or less incompleteness of detail, but with tolerable certainty in the main, to obtain a more correct view than hitherto of the entire succession of the Pharaohs and kings of Egypt, from the remotest ages of the monarchy down to the christian era. We have been enabled to throw light on interesting periods of that long interval, hitherto apparently involved in impenetrable darkness. We have been enabled to corroborate the testimonies of less doubtful history, and to clear up and explain many questions of learned discussion, affecting events of the greatest importance in the history of the human race. In one respect, the spirit of modern discovery in Egypt has effected a still greater conquest VOL. IX.

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over historical difficulties previously supposed to be insurmountable. It may be said with regard to one long and important interval in the history of the human race, that it has redeemed or created a new historic page. It in fact renders us as familiar with one of the most splendid and most interesting eras of early Egyptian history, embracing a period of about three hundred years,-[a part of which time the children of Israel were in bondage in that country;] as we are with the history of any other people whatever, not excepting that of modern and contemporary nations."*

The importance of such a discovery to history, sacred and profane, can hardly be over-estimated; and we trust the time is not far distant, when the important works of Champollion, Wilkinson, Rosellini, and others, which contain materials enough for a complete history of Egypt, shall be found upon the shelves of our college libraries.

We perceive by the last number of the Foreign Quarterly Review, that the subject of Mexican Antiquities is beginning to attract attention in Europe; and it would seem, that they bid fair to equal the Egyptian in interest, if not in the importance of the facts they tend to establish.

ART. IV.-ON SELF-DECEPTION IN RELIGION.

THE most important of all knowledge to mankind, is the knowledge of the true God, and of the true method of obtaining his favor. The nature of true religion therefore, and those marks by which it may be distinguished from all its counterfeits, it is of the highest consequence for mankind to understand. Other branches of knowledge may be useful and worthy of being assiduously and carefully cultivated, but this is a species of knowledge which is indispensable to men's highest happiness. No one can be ignorant on this subject but at the risk of losing his soul. Any attempts, therefore, however feeble, directed to the benevolent design of leading men to think on their exposedness to self-deception in religion, and to guard themselves against it, should not be regarded as wholly unimportant, and will at least be entitled to a careful conside

Vol. iii. p. 159, Am. Ed.

ration, and a candid construction from such as wish well to the highest interests of their fellow men. It is now almost a century since President Edwards wrote his treatise on the "Religious Affections," and Dr. Bellamy his "True Religion Delineated;" in both of which works, the design of their authors was, to lead men at that day to discriminate between what is true and saving in religion, and what is false and delusive; and thus to put all on their guard against being themselves deceived or led astray by false appearances in others. The times, it was thought, demanded these efforts; and the cause of vital religion was, doubtless, very greatly promoted by them. The powerful revivals of that day had created a sort of necessity for something of this kind being done, to arrest any tendencies which then existed towards a promiscuous classing of every thing which appeared under the name of religion, as among the genuine "fruits of the Spirit," and to break up that fatal reliance upon false hopes, which, in every age, has been so mischievous to the souls of men. Ours, too, has been a day of the right-hand of the Most High. Extensive and powerful revivals of religion have pervaded the land; and great multitudes, we doubt not, have, within a few years past, set out for a happier world. Still there have been, doubtless, cases of false hope; and in all our churches, it is to be feared, that some are to be found who are deceived, and who, in their present character, ought not to be there; for they only hang like a dead weight upon the rest of the body, weakening the hands and discouraging the hearts of the true and faithful members. Now, whatever can be done to undeceive these self-deluded persons, and to prevent others from embracing similar delusions, ought to be done. With our present feelings, we cannot answer it to our own conscience, if we remain altogether silent upon this subject. To the candid, and those who are willing dispassionately and carefully to think upon the danger of self-deception, we submit the following inquiries and remarks:

What is intended by deceiving one's self in religion? Not simply the receiving for truth some things which are not true, or the rejecting of some things that are true. Doubtless some things may be mistaken for truth, which are not true, and vice versa, when these things are not so essential as to make the holding of them, or not holding of them, incompatible with one's being a christian. Many, probably most christians, and perhaps all christians in this world, embrace some things in their religious belief, which are not true, or at least which

do not hold so important a place in the system of truth, as they suppose them to hold. It is by no means certain, that the most enlightened christian on earth receives the whole of revealed truth, just as it is revealed, giving to each and every part of it its proper place and importance in the system. And yet every real christian believes in all the essential doctrines and duties of the bible. The things which he does not believe, are mere unessentials-they are those lesser points of faith and practice, about which good men may differ, and be good men still. How much error in a man's creed is compatible with true piety at heart, it is perhaps impossible to say; but that some is, we do certainly know; and this is the ground upon which christians of different denominations can meet, and extend to each other the right-hand of fellowship, and co-operate in joint efforts for the furtherance of christianity, as a common cause among them. The principle of such a union, and that only which makes such a union among them practicable and proper, is this-that they are all agreed in certain things which are the essentials of religion, however they may disagree in reference to certain other things which are not essential. It is the fact, that a thing is not essential to the existence of true religion, which renders the belief or disbelief of it not essential, and therefore reconcilable with christian character. Now, the deceiving of one's self, in regard to some things in religion, holding some things that are false, and neglecting some things that are true, provided these things are not essentials, is not the self-deception which is the subject of these remarks. This relates to those things which are vital to the existence of true piety, or rather it relates to the question of true piety itself. When, therefore, we see those who are reputed to be good men, differing from each other in respect to some, or even many things; this is no certain proof that they are not really good men, still less, that there is no reality in religion, (as some would infer;) for the things about which they differ may be only unessential things, and they may be agreed in all that it is vitally important or indispensible to the existence of true piety.

Further the kind of self-deception which we are now considering, is not that which consists in attaching undue importance to some things in religion, and placing some other things below their proper value. That this is often done by those who are real christians, there can be no doubt. One man, for example, makes more of the mode of baptism, and perhaps of the ordinance itself, than it is fairly worth. He

elevates it to a place on the scale of importance, in the great system of revealed truth, which the scriptures do not assign to it, and which is altogether too exalted for its relative value. Another man attaches to an established liturgy, and to a supposed third order of officers in the church, and to the fact that the body of professed christians among whom he worships, is constituted after this model, a degree of importance, in regard to which, others differ from him, and cannot find his views sanctioned in the word of God. Another man is strongly tenacious of camp-meetings, and opposed to God's decrees, and God's sovereignty in the testament of his mercy. Another man is a strong supralapsarian on the subject of God's permission of sin, thinking that sin was permitted because (in the hands of God) the system would be better with it than without it, when either was equally at the option of the Creator. And so in a great many other cases, an importance may be attached to certain things, which, whether these things are true or false, certainly does not belong to them. And thus many may, in this respect, be deceived, and yet they may all be good men ; they may all have repented of their sins; they may all have embraced the Savior; they may all be the true and accepted servants of God. This is not saying, that truth is unimportant in any case, or that it is of little consequence in any case, how men regard it. But it is saying, that all truth is not alike important, and that men may differ as to the importance, and as to the reality of many things in religion, and still agree in all that is essential, and be truly the friends and servants of God, and at last sit down together in his blissful and holy kingdom. The self-deception which is the subject of these remarks, is that, and that only, which is fatal. It is the supposing of one's self to be a child of God, and to be proceeding towards the christian's final home and inheritance in heaven, when, in fact, neither of these things is so, but the reverse of them is true: he is a child of wrath, proceeding towards the world of despair.

Persons may thus fatally deceive themselves, and, there is reason to fear, that many do thus fall into self-deception. This is not an uncharitable opinion, or one formed in haste, and thrown out at random. It is rather, as we think, a simple statement of facts, and can be verified by the most substantial evidence. That this fatal self-deception may exist, the bible abundantly teaches, and pointedly warns men against it: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for what a man soweth, that shall he also reap." What else are we to