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INFIDELITY.

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and I will know more shortly. Both of us will see and feel for ourselves, where we cannot be mistaken in the course of a very few months,

CHAPTER LXI.

Means of Rescue.-Disposition remarked.

Whilst prosecuting the inquiry "Is the infidel, or the Christian in the right," my surprise was somewhat excited when I looked at disposition attentively. My companions around the card-table, or the festive board, spoke bitterly of the ancient Jews, or early Christians, They were like the man who resolved to believe that the Israelites were eaters of human flesh, because the prophet called to the fowls of the air to feast on the slain at a certain battle. The slightest sentence, or part of a sentence in the Bible seemed sufficient, (as soon as they put upon it their own construction,) to cause them to believe any thing concerning the Jews, or Christians, no matter how abominable, or how dreadful. This has been true, according to my experience, for the last thirty years, that unbelievers think so lightly of believers, that on very faint evidence they will receive against them, and credit it, an accusation the most detestable, and to any variety. My companions in unbelief, and all who wrote for them, seemed to feel very differently toward the heathen. The pagans of every age enjoyed their ad. miration, and their most charitable conjectures. They praised their poetry, extolled their oratory, stood in ecstasy at their paintings, wondered at their bravery, saw

mines of wisdom in all their customs, and passed their defects in silence, or spoke of them in tones of excuse, or mitigation. I could not but notice the difference when I opened a volume of some unbeliever, or listened to the conversation of others, whilst speaking of the descendants of Abraham. They avowed that they believed these Israelites the most contemptible, and abominable people on the earth. I observed, for I could not avoid it, this disposition to hear of that ancient people, things the most hateful, and to believe readily, and with a kind of pleasure; but I did not let this weigh with me, or influence me until I had noticed the grounds of their belief, and the reasons we all have to think well or ill of either Jew or Pagan. My companions offered the writings of these ancient people, of course, as the evidence from which their views originated. We all judge of those who lived long since, from the books of antiquity. I cannot place before the reader clearly, the light in which I viewed this disposition promptly and ardently to admire the heathen, whilst the worshippers of Jehovah were as readily and as heartily detested, unless I notice the books on either side from which we draw our estimations.

Let us for a short space observe justly and fairly, the reasons they have to think well of Pagan morality, and then the reasons for thinking poorly of the principles belonging to that people amongst whom the Old Testament was first promulgated.

Reasons for thinking well of the heathen.—At the age of fourteen, an old man, a gray-headed preacher, put into my hands to read some of the latin poets.*

*Centuries will hardly surpass the character of this old man for excellence. He had learned at Princeton to read and to admire the classics. The Church in that day, honoured the heathen songs more

These writers (Virgil and Horace,) lived near at the time when Matthew lived, and wrote not far from the time when Luke and John wrote. Their poetic talents were enough to make even a boy feel them. I was, however, inexpressebly astonished to find that it was sodomy which one of them was extolling! Those far famed love songs, so much read, were sung to boys, by the leading authors, in the age so much celebrated for its polish, the reading age. Sins too abominable for the most polluted mind to think of, even an instant, were, I discovered, dressed up with all the taste of the ablest and most musical verse. If I inquired within myself whether or not the most fashionable, and the most accomplished people read the writings of their own most accomplished authors at that time, I was brought, as seemed to me, to something like an understanding of what another writer states, who lived near the same time. He said, "It is a shame even to speak of those things, which are done of them in secret." After reading the history of many of their principal men, (see Plutarch's Lives,) I discovered that things too detestably disgusting to name, were not considered amongst them as the least out of the way or improper. After this I read of their human sacrifices, their cruel amusements, long continued tortures, &c., until I could but

than the infidels. They could read them with more ability, and were more capable of appreciating their beauties. (I am not certain that there has been, or is like to be any material alteration.) I believe that no pious president of a college, ever advised a student to practise as Horace spoke of doing, or as Virgil describes They never extol uncleanness in the hearing of the student. Indeed, if they were so inelined, it would be unnecessary labour; for the talents of the poets named could present any vice in captivating verse far beyond their ability.

confess that it would not be stange if some should begin to hate the ancient Pagans, on account of their hardheartedness and their filth. Their disgusting customs, and their bloody rites were not a matter of conjecture, or ambiguous supposition. It was known of them, that their doings were too nauseous to write particularly about, but my infidel associates appeared not to know this, or at least not to notice it. They spoke but seldom, and only in extenuation. I then turned to the Jewish writings, (to Old or New Testament authors,) determined to look at what my infidel friends declared proof enough to consider the children of Jacob the most abominable people upon earth. If I read Luke and compared it with one Latin poet, who lived then, or St. John, and placed it beside another, the result need not be named. Any one will see how such a comparison must terminate. But this would not be entirely fair, because it was mainly from the Old Testament page that the declaimers supposed they could prove the Jews the most detestable people on earth.

Reasons for thinking ill of the Jews.-When I went to Moses and the prophets, to see why the world at large so readily believed in the cruelty, the ignorance, the pollutions, and the injustice of the circumcised nation; the first things I read in their laws and domestic regulations, were fair and just enough. I read further and was ready to confess, that thus far I had met with that which seemed to me wise, and proper, and impartial. After reading on, my admiration was excited, and I was ready to search, and to meditate, and to weigh the spirit and the principle, contained in these statutes. I then read

many things such as follow. I wish the reader would observe closely the spirit of all the verses I am about to quote. I wish the reader in some amiable disposition of

soul, in some quiet hour, in some evening of sunshine, and in a sensitive condition of the affections, would peruse such passages as follow, and make the simply truthful inferences. Let us judge, if we have reason to suppose the families controlled by such precepts, the most cruel and the most hateful of our sinful race.

Principles that are not cruel.

They are not revengeful.

They are not filthy.

"If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man's field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution.

"Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

"Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry.

"And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.

"If thou at all take thy neighbour's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down. For that is his covering only; it is his raiment for his skin; wherein shall he sleep? And it shall come to pass that when he crieth unto me that I will hear, for I am gracious.

"Thou shalt not revile the magistrates, nor curse the ruler of thy people.

"Ye shall be holy men unto me; neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field Ye shall cast it to the dogs.

"Thou shalt not raise a false report. Put not thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.