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    enough to believe that she would have robbed the man of Nazareth of a single disciple . ; But let us now suppose the truth of the New-Testament history , and we immediately have a clear and

    satisfactory solution of a phenomenon which otherwise must for ever remain inexplicable . The world , before the Christian sera was overspread with the dreary shade of idolatry and superstition ; the glimmering light of reason was far too feeble to dissipate

    the gloom $ when it pleased the great Disposer of all events to interfere fojt the merciful purpose of redeeming his benighted offspring from a darkness which hid the Creator from their view , and left them , to wander without God and without hope in the labyrinths of ignorance and vice . Here was a . dignus

    vindice nodus * and the hand of God may be traced in the grand result . A worship which its votaries believed would stand for ever has fallen , to rise no more , and only exists in the page of history to shew to what a state of mental degradation the creatures of reason have been reduced . The belief of one God , and the confident *

    ex-? If man is not designed to live again , to expect a divine rievelatidn Would be absurd . The light of Nature may serve well enough to conduct a mortal being to the grave . But if maais destined for immortality , it might safely be presumed , that one great object of revelation would be to acquaint him with this destination , and that wherever revelation should be

    received , an assurance of human immortality would be felt . And such has been the / act . An Unbeliever might perhaps object , that the great majority of mankind , being altogether incompetent to judge of the evidences of revelation , must

    admit a future life upon authority alone . I allow it , and let the most be made of the concession . It is not the . evidence of a doctrine , but the belief of it which is practically useful . And if the objector would be kind enough to consider how many opinions he is liiuiself obliged to take upon trust , he would find the force of his objection not a little diminished . It is the appointment of nature , and an

    appointment which revelation could not be expected to set aside , that every man should in many cases trust to the knowledge of other men , aad use It as his own . And it would be lamentable ^ in-

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    pectation of a life to come , accompanied with the admission of a morality from which nothing ought to be taken , and to which nothing can be added

    have prevailed for centuries in regions where ^ but for Christianity , Idolatry might still have maintained her temples , and caUed for her immoral rites and senseless oblations . And

    whatever may have beep the corruptions with which Christianity lias been disgraced , arid its practical influence impeded , the impartial study of its records must ultimately restore it to its primitive purity , and present it to the world , as it proceeded from the hands of its Founder , " worthy of all acceptation /'

    E . COGAN . P . S . I think myself bound to thank Dr . Jones for the civility with which he has replied to my little observation respecting Musgrave's conjecture on

    the Orestes of Euripides ( XVIII . 69 $ ) . But , perhaps , I ought in justice to myself to state , that the Doctor has altogether overlooked the ground of my observation . Whether the conjecture be true or false must be

    determined by metrical considerations $ and by these considerations it is decisively refuted . This , I conceive , will be questioned by no one who has studied what has been written in Germany on the Greek Metres since the time of Mr .

    Porson . With respect to the expression atOef apvirdXk £ oi ) e , it may be compared with the mfi&vTa . icefoot of Sophocles , the quorum < equora curwo of Virgil , and many other passages , in none of which do I consider a

    preposition as understood , having long since become a convert to the doctrine of Herman , laid down in his ingenious treatise on Ellipsis and Pleonasm . That icoCKK ^ iv is used for TraXKeo-fiai , in

    the Electra of Euripides , I should have felt confident , even without the authority o > f Porson , Seidler , and others , and I agree with Brunk , that both itaXhuv and octAnocKhew ace

    emdeed , if the majority of the species , to whom the means of mental cultivation are in a great measure denied , might not be permitted to enjoy the benefit of truths , the evidence of which fckey are imable to appreciate . «

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    Mr . Goffaf *} enthe Necessity and Evidence of Revelation * J 3

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1824, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2520/page/13/