viz. the holiness of God, and the wickedness of man. Neither can we see any cause for the impeachment of divine justice, but must rather admire the astonishing for bearance and mercy visible in both instances. With respect to the New Testament, many of the arguments before adduced will still apply. The transactions recorded therein, are such as we might have reasonably expected, if we had placed any confidence in the Hebrew Scriptures. The Jewish prophets continually foretold a Messiah, the time and place of his birth, the manner of his death, and other attendant circumstances; and the character of God, as described therein, completely agrees with the information received beforehand. We need scarcely argue for the antiquity of the writings of the New Testament, since manuscripts are now in the possession of many learned bodies and individuals, as a sufficient testimony; and of some of these the language has for a long time ceased to be spoken. The Alexandrian manuscript, in the British Museum, was written probably in the fourth or fifth century. Pliny, Tacitus, and others, occasionally mention circumstances concerning Jesus Christ and his religion, which indicate that it is of no modern invention. Ignatius and Polycarp, who lived in the days of the apostles, with others who immediately succeeded them, have preserved many passages of the New Testament, which shew their great antiquity. Dr. Lardner asserts, "That in the remaining works of Ireneus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian, who all lived in the first two centuries, there are more and larger quotations of the small volume of the New Testament than of all the works of Cicero, by writers of all characters, for several ages." And in addition to these we might add, that Celsus, who lived in the second, and Porphyry, who lived in the third century, celebrated as opponents to Christianity, both cited passages from the New Testament. This is gathered from the writings of those who refuted them, as their own are not now extant. Now, if the Gospels are histories written by men of unblemished reputation, who were eye-witnesses of the facts therein stated, or received them from those who were; and if we find nothing contradicted in any independent history, but rather confirmed, we have some reason for crediting the Evangelists. Let us likewise reflect, that the gospels were written at a time when most of the Jewish nation were living witnesses of facts they did not attempt to contradict; and that the sacred writers had embraced a cause which was most strikingly open to persecution and death, with not the least prospect of worldly advantage. Their credit as historians then cannot be justly impeached. Several arguments in favour of the inspiration of the New Testament might be adduced. We may mention, the necessity of a correct knowledge of facts the most important, and of the discourses, actions, and even thoughts, of our Saviour. These could not be known, or at least but doubtfully asserted, without a knowledge obtained by inspiration. Likewise, the profound veneration paid to them by the most pious and learned Christians from the primitive times, in supporting doctrines and ceremonies, which would have been trifling, if the writers were only considered as illiterate men, instead of inspired apostles. The preservation of the New Testament during the most violent and exterminating persecutions, while all spurious Christian writings were utterly lost, is wonderful. With respect also to its repeated transcription, we may mention Dr. Bentley's observation: "there never was any writing, in the preservation and purity of which the world was so interested or careful." In these arguments we see no mean evidence of the protecting hand of Providence stretched over the revelation made to man. Finally, we have the authority of St. Paul himself, in saying, "all scripture is given by inspiration of God," whether our assent is yielded to the Old or New Testament. If the New Testament is inspired, the Jewish scriptures must necessarily be so, for we find them continually quoted as prophecy afterwards fulfilled, and as evidence in favour of the religion of Christ. Should we believe in the inspiration of the Old Testament, we must be prepared, by the prophecies written therein, to believe in the inspiration of the New. St. Paul was an extraordinary man, converted from the blindest obstinacy to the Christian religion, and sent forth as its most ardent teacher. His attainments in holiness have never been contradicted, and his life of piety adds an irresisitble force to what he wrote. We are constrained to confess, that his conversion was attended with the most astonishing circumstances-circumstances, whose credibility has never been impeached by valid contradictions. We are constrained to believe, that he voluntarily gave himself up to poverty, persecution, and death, in order to support the cause of Christianity. In perusing his epistles, we cannot but acknowledge that his piety was extraor ELOHIM having created the materials, and brooded over them, maturing the whole mass in the operation of creation, proceeds to the formation of spheres, atmospheres, ethers, &c. &c. and to the erection of this universe. It was the second day, "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day," Gen. i. 6, 7, 8. Or, as it may be rendered: Elohim pronounced, Amidst the terraqueous fluids, let there be an expansion, and let it divide fluids from fluids! And Elohim formed the expansion, dividing the fluids below in the expansion, from the fluids above in the expansion: and it was done. And Elohim denominated the expanse heaven. And Elohim surveyed the expanse, and, behold, it was beautifully perfect. The evening was, and the morning was, the second day. In Number III. of these essays, (p. 163.) we left the created materials of the universe in one huge mass, occupying the centre of the system, in the state of individual atoms or fluidity, while the broodings of the Spirit of God were in action, inducing a genial disposition therein, to receive and nourish the seeds destined to vegetate and adorn the spheres. Light, also, being created, was thereby diffused throughout the uni verse. All the materials already created are on this day brought into use, and every portion thereof has its post assigned, in due order. That powerful agent, light, called into exercise, in the hands of the Creator performs wonders; while affinity, attraction, repulsion, gravitation, with all the progeny of light, co-operate, and, under the wisdom and power of the great Operator, produce an expansion of the atoms, and form a fir2D. SERIES, NO. 6.-VOL. I. mament as indurable as time itself. The huge mass of atoms becomes many masses, each assorted and disposed, by infinite wisdom, into a sphere, and placed each in an orbit, at such distances from the central orb, and from each other, as would form due balances, each to each, and a perfect equipoise to the whole system. A word is a work with God: He pronounces, “Let there be an expansion!" It is formed-the vast fabric is erected-this universe is furnished with orbs. He surveys the whole, and pronounces it beautifully perfect! We must stop for a moment, in order to consider the firmament or expansion thus brought into existence. Prior to the creation of the solar system, that portion or space assigned for its reception, was void or empty space. It afforded room for the reception of this universe, but it did not furnish any suitable substance for the accommodation thereof: all things, therefore, genial thereto, must be provided by the Omnipotent; and these he produced, each in its order, during the progress of creation. Using the materials, already created, with light, a fine and pure ether is distributed throughout this space, in which the orbs, now called into existence by the Creator, and imbued with attraction, float securely and unimpeded, surrounded each by its own atmosphere, along its orbit, in serenity. This expanse, or ethereal, is a perfect firmament. Adamant itself, piled up to heaven, could not sustain the ponderous orbs which roll therein, around their central sun, with greater security than these ethers, fine and subtile as they are, have sustained nearly six thousand years, and continue to sustain them to the present hour. If, "In the thin air, without a prop, Hang fruitful showers around," in these yet thinner ethers, needing no foreign aid, the stupendous orbs hang and move, each in its orbit, with exactness, amidst sublime serenity, far from the wreck of storms. All the created atoms were, up to this moment, individual, and in a state resembling fluidity, which afforded every facility to these immense operations. Had solidity taken place previous to this great work, what an increase of labour must have ensued, in order first to separate, as well as afterwards to compound, these materials, in proportions meet to construct the spheres. Distinct atoms or fluids are compounded with the greatest ease, in chemical and other operations of art, but, in order to compound solid bodies, they must either be reduced to powder, or dissolved in liquids, with great labour; 2 K 150.-VOL. III. and, after all, must be rendered solid again, at a great expense of time and pains. The economy of the Creator, whether He creates, or operates upon created matter, is equally obvious. If the materials for each orb in the solar system had been separately and distinctly created, in the very orbit in which it was destined to move, then must there have been as many creations as there are primary and secondary planets in this universe, besides one upon a larger scale for the central sun. If these spheres had been formed from solid masses, then it would have required great labour to fashion them into the precise form intended; and the power required, in the first instance, to, render the atoms into a solid, would have been wasted. In the sacred volume we read, "If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct," Eccles. x. 10. To whet the edge, is an act of wisdom, in this quotation, because thereby labour is economised; and thus it is, that wisdom becomes power. Surely, He who inspired this advice into the bosom of the sacred penman, could avail Himself of the advice which He gives. That He did avail Himself thereof, and that the wisdom of the Creator is throughout His work as obvious as His power, is so clear to my mind, that I must bear my unequivocal testimony to that solemn truth. The greatest care imaginable is taken to remind the reader, that the materials on which the Creator was then operating, were fluid; for the word occurs no less than five times in the sixth and seventh verses, There are errors also on the opposite side. Fluids are so frequently named, and, in the authorized English version of the Bible, rendered waters, that the outcry is, "Nothing but waters were created in the first instance." Then, in order to account for the solids which now appear, vegetation and animation of fish and amphibious animals, upon a large scale, and of enormous size, are resorted to; and out of the solids of these, soils and strata are formed, in the imaginations of geologists, of all dimensions. Wonderful indeed! But the Bible does not need the help of such men: it is clear enough, without such scientific romances as these. Water is not an element, as it was long supposed to be; it is a compound substance, and itself needed the forming hand of Elohim, after the atoms of the creation were matured, to call it into existence, in the use of His active agent, light, upon the elementary substances, hydrogen and oxygen; and this day it was called into existence, amidst those combi nations which resulted from the operations of light. The created atoms were destined to become the bases of all the solids in the universe; yea, even the atoms of the gases, as well as the rest. Every gas with which we have become acquainted, may be found in a solid state. Hydrogen is solid in coal, ice, &c. &c. Oxygen in ice, and the countless oxides which every where abound around us. Carbon is solid in coal, limestone, diamond, timber, &c. &c., and so on of all the rest. All the other atoms become solid by crystallization, cohesion, combination, &c. &c., although, in the state of individual atoms, they are fluid. The atoms, therefore, are the bases of all solids. Light is itself a fluid, incapable of concretion, and all the atoms owe to its operations the modifications which we behold in them, in a nearer or more remote degree: it may, therefore, be denominated the base of the fluids. The aggregate of this day's operations, by rarefaction and consequent expansion, completely filled the space allotted to the universe; for the firmament is said to be in the midst of the fluids, viz., in the midst of the orbs and atmospheres, (which were on this day in a fluid state,) filling up every where all the spaces. But if all the spaces were filled up, then must the spheres revolve in ether. When we take into the account the revolutions of that immense central orb, the sun, and, around this centre, the revolutions of all the planets, primary as well as secondary, with their diurnal and menstrual, as well as annual motions, and contemplate the wide and lofty orbits assigned to these, vast as is the expanse, the whole universe, from the unceasing rush of these fleet and stupendous spheres and atmospheres, must be the seat of universal and incessant motion. What a scene do we behold-a scene enough to dazzle the most steadfast eye, could it discern the minute of this vast action! Space is infinite'in extent; no lack, therefore, exists of room wherein to place the most extensive system of this the Creator availed Himself, and took ample room for this universe. Had the orbs therein been crowded into a smaller space, the attractions of each with each, and the rush of others from passing spheres, must have induced disorder; while the rapidity of their motions, too near the human eye, would have disturbed, and perhaps distracted, human kind, as well as the remainder of animation, and even vegetation. It is no disparagement to the great Creator, after having created light, to use this, His creature, in His future operations. If, on surveying creation, we behold attraction, repulsion, gravitation, and the tenfold entities, perhaps children of this common parent, light, although their generation has not yet become obvious to us, which actively operate on created matter, and note the almost universal use which the Creator made of these in the modifications of the matter of the universe, in order to adapt that matter to the several purposes for which He originally created it, can we wonder at this? Surely not. But there are who, beholding these, pronounce that they alone formed the universe! A greater absurdity would not exist than this, if certain men, beholding the marks of tools on a splendid edifice, were to assert that the tools themselves had finished the fabric, instead of the workmen. All the efformations of the Infinite bear the stamp of the Creator; they are at once perfect and inimitable. Who can create and form an universe? Yea, who can create and form a single sphere? Nay, who can create an atom? No man, no number of men : no spirit, save Jehovahno, not all the other spirits in existence. Jehovah is Lord alone: He only can create, and alone He can destroy. hea Elohim denominated the expanse, ven. The beauty and loveliness of this azure canopy, decked with astral luminaries, each wandering far and wide, yet ever and anon returning, in its place, with a resplendent sun; lord seeming he to lesser lights around, serenity and order all, yet variety a changing scene, well portrays the Creator-Lord of all, while seen by manmeet image of His loveliness, Himself unseen, save in these His works. If this, the gazer's soul exclaims, be heaven, what is that heaven of heavens where He delights to dwell, who all created, and who over all sways, Lord-Himself the glory of the glorious scene, imparting to his sons, and in each spirit living, the life, the joy of all? Well may the soul of man devoutly cry, O glorious Lord, to me disclose thy heaven -the heaven of heavens-thy seat, where thou delightest to dwell! There may my spirit live, and in thy presence taste those joys, for ever thine; nor thine to hoard from man, but, beneficent, to give; felicity creating where they flow, and glory inexpressible, eternal as thy throne! WILLIAM COLDWELL. A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE DANIEL Waterland, a very eminent divine, and the ablest master of the Trinitarian controversy that ever lived in England, was born at Wasely, in Lincolnshire, in the year 1683. His father was the Rev. Henry Waterland, A.M. rector of that place. He received his school education in Lincoln; and his academical, at Magdalen College, Cambridge, under the tuition of the Rev. Samuel Barker, of that place. He was first scholar, then fellow, and, commencing tutor, he became a great ornament and advantage to the college. In this latter capacity, he drew up a tract, under the title of "Advice to a Young Student, with a Method of Study for the first four Years," which has gone through several editions. In the year 1713, he became master of the college, and obtained the Rectory of Ellingham, in Norfolk, and was soon after appointed chaplain in ordinary to George I. In the year 1720, he preached the first course of lectures, founded by Lady Morgan, for the defence of our Lord's divinity. He was presented in the following year, by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, to the rectory of St. Austin and St. Faith, in London, and soon after, was promoted to the chancellorship of the church of York, by Sir William Dawes, archbishop of that province. In the year 1827, he was collated by his diocesan to the archdeaconry of Middlesex, and His Majesty conferred on him a canonry in the church of Windsor; and that chapter presented him to the vicarage of Twickenham. He now resigned the rectory of St. Austin, not being willing to hold two benefices at once, with the cure of souls. He died in the year 1740, at the age of fifty-seven years, and was buried in the collegiate church of Windsor, leaving behind him a name that will ever be an ornament to the Church of England. A collection of his sermons was published after his death. As a controversialist, he was firm and unyielding, but he was accounted fair and candid, free from bitterness, and actuated by no persecuting spirit. February 14th, 1830. S. BURGESS. continent, in its majestic and boundless forests. Yet, from these insulated isles, we select the following tale, for the readers of the Imperial Magazine : Many of the houses in the Bermudas have a little garden, the avenues to which are fringed with jessamine and roses. The pride of China is often planted near the front, and, with its green and umbrageous branches, forms both an ornament and a cooling shade. The buildings, which have no taste or symmetry, are perfectly white, and, when seen at a distance, rising in the midst of green, have an agreeable and pleasing appearance. Within the enclosure round the mansion are fig-trees, bananas, pomegranates, and, in some cases, orange, shaddock, and limes: but human art has done little; it is the beauty of the climate, that chiefly makes December as pleasant as May. Beneath skies for ever blue, the fig-tree puts forth its lovely blossoms, and the orange and the pomegranate spread their swelling fruit. The balmy air is scented by groves of cedar, and in the fields and woods the aloe plant attains the full measure of its growth. The tamarind tree, and mulberry, expand their dark foliage over the sunny scene; and the tall and slender palmeto shoots up in the valley, with its broad diverging leaf. But what is far nobler than all the tiny beauties of nature on these lovely islets, the fair light of truth hath shined with a serene ray; many a negro's cottage has been made glad with the tale of the Cross, and the sweet little. landscapes have been rendered still more lovely by the beauties of holiness. At what time the gospel was first introduced into these green dots on the ocean, I cannot say. Mr. Whitfield visited them in 1744, to recover his health, and at that period preached with his flaming eloquence the doctrines of salvation by faith; and that some blessed fruit budded from the seed then sown, the following little incident will testify. The writer of this narrative was one day riding through the cedar groves, on the road that leads from Hamilton to St. George, with Mr. W., a merchant belonging to the former place, when his friend invited him to visit a lowly and mean cottage in the bosom of the grove, to pray and converse with one of the oldest female inhabitants of the islands, a widow, and a Christian of the New Testament school. They entered the habitation, where all things within bore the impress of extreme poverty; an old woman, nearly seventy, was waiting upon her mother, a remnant of mortality, who was laid upon the only poor bed the cottage contained. The mother was between ninety and one hundred years of age, and stone blind; I approached her bed, and, taking hold of her withered hand, addressed her, and inquired what were her hopes of that solemn futurity, on the brink of which she seemed to totter. Though dark and bed-ridden, the sound of such a theme seemed quite familiar. "Christ," said the old woman," is my only hope; I trust, through his dear merits, to depart in peace, and I am not afraid to die. He hath died for me, and I can trust my soul into his blessed hands." "When," I asked, "did you find the knowledge of this Saviour, of whom you speak with such confidence ?" Sixty odd years ago," said the aged believer, "did that venerable servant of God, Mr. Whitfield, visit these islands; and, as he often stood in the open air, I, among others, went to hear him. He preached on that text. Wilt thou go with this man? and she said, I will go,' Gen. xxiv. 58. All were silent, till a negro called out," Will none answer massa?' My desires were drawn with a cord of love; his earnest address, enforced by many tears, melted my poor stony heart, and from that time I became a follower of the Lamb. Sixty years have rolled over my head since that period, but he hath been my comfort by day, and my song in the night season. I have long been a widow, but his promises have been my support, and I know he will not forsake me in my old age, and now my strength faileth." After kneeling by the bed-side of the old saint, and leaving a blessing with the daughter, we resumed our ride. In musing upon the subject of this visit, Here, thought I to myself, is one of God's hidden ones; the seal of a faithful ministry. In the great day of final audit, how many will be found who have received the word in the love of the truth, but of whose conversion to God, the faithful labourer of the cross will never know in time. They shall, however, meet again, and shine as stars in the crown of those holy men, by whom. they were gathered into the Christian fold. Here was one, who, having had no communion with the visible church, was nevertheless united to its Head; living by faith in the secret source of light, life, love, grace, and comfort, without the sanctuary, streams to water and fructify the good seed, not planted in the Lord's house, and yet bearing fruit in old age. Here was a jewel unknown to the church, "the world forgetting, by the world forgot." "While pampered lux |