than by the meek and holy Jefus, upon those who oppofed his pretenfions."

SURELY this is a most lamentable instance of the lengths, to which prejudice will carry a man, who profeffes to love truth fo ardently as Mr. Godwin does. He may perhaps be furprised to hear himself accused of prejudice: but if Voltaire has been pronounced "an intolerant bigot*" in confepuence of his zeal against Ecclefiaftical establishments; and if Gibbon has been accused of "hating Chriftianity fo cordially that he might seem to revenge fome personal injury," this more modern objector must allow me to clafs him with thefe zealots of infidelity, and to charge him with evident marks of prejudice in his mode of attacking our religion. The animated rhetorical flourish, the pointed and acrimonious fneer, and above all, the gross, I do not say, the intended, violation of truth in this fentence, fully juftify me in this affertion.-In one word, I affert, that there is not a fingle text in Scripture which will bear out any accufer in the declaration, that, upon any occasion, or in any circumftance, Jefus Chrift ever uttered

* And this too by Gibbon! See Vol. VI. p. 442. not. Ed. 4to.

↑ See Porfon's Preface to Letters to Archdeacon Travis.

uttered a curse *. I confefs that I fhould have fearched my Teftament again and again, without fixing upon any paffage, from which I could imagine that fuch a conclufion as Mr. Godwin's could be drawn. -This trouble however is spared me, as he has referred to a paffage, which I conclude he thought the best adapted to his purpose. It stands thus in our English Version. "Ye ferpents, ye generation of vipers! how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" This verfe, when properly understood, certainly contains a most severe and merited denunciation, but not a vindictive imprecation

It

The only paffage, which feems at all to countenance fuch an opinion, is Mark xi. 13-21. concerning which I must beg leave to quote Newcome's judicious remarks. "When our Lord blafted the barren fig-tree, he pronounced the words, "Let no man eat fruit of thee for ever," with his ufual majefty and fedatenefs. His action was not the refult of difappointment, because he hungred; but it arofe from his fixt attention to convey important truths in the most lively manner. And when Peter obferved on the morrow, that the fig-tree, which Jefus had curfed, was withered away, he pro bably used a Hebrew-Syriac phrafe, fignifying that the tree had been defroyed by Jefus's powerful word." p. 392. ánd before p. 311.

If Mr. Godwin choofe to call this judicial and prophetic devotion of the barren fig-tree by the name of curfing, I have no objection; but I muft, in that cafe, beg that he will allow the reality of the miracle; or at leaft attend to the qualified meaning of the word. See Biel and Schleufner in voce καταράσμαι.

18."

"Had become, See Heb. vi. 8. Deut. xxviii.

It announces that evil would befall those who were thus addressed, and it implies that they deserved punishment on account both of their craft and their cruelty, but certainly it is not expreffive of a wish that such evil fhould befall them *.

LET us however inquire, what is the ground of the denunciation, which we read in this text? Is it the mere rejection of the Gofpel? Certainly not. And, be it observed, that in no other paffage, where the mere act of disbelieving is mentioned, without any reference to the motives of unbelief, or to the moral character of the unbelievers, do we find any vestige of an irrevocable sentence of condemnation in the

language of our Lord. Is it even the ge

neral wickedness of the Scribes and Pharifees in their moral agency, as diftinct from their conduct in religious matters? No. And yet furely fuch wickedness might have reached

Schleufner thus explains, yevlara ixido: O progenies viperina! h. e. metaphoricè, O homines infignis perverfitatis, in quos parentum vitiofitas propagata fuit. in v. yinua. Rofenmüller thus gives the fenfe of the whole verfe, but certainly too loofely: Homines peffimi, majorum peffimorum pofteri, minimè effugietis poenam graviffimam. Grotius, more correctly: Tales cùm fitis, qui fieri poteft, ut graviffimum, non hujus tantùm, fed et alterius, fæculi fupplicium evitetis?

RR

reached a degree of guilt, which would have juftified any religious teacher in pronouncing them the objects of future condemnation. What then is the crime, which called forth fuch marked and unusual severity from the mouth of Chrift? It was the highest degree of moral depravity, upon a subject connected with religion. It was the accumulation of practical intolerance, upon fpeculative bigotry. It was hypocrify, combined with cruelty.

IN fome foregoing verfes, our Saviour had represented the Scribes and Pharifees, as cleansing the outside of the cup and platter, but as being full of extortion and excess within. Upon this circumftance he mingles exhortation with reproof-"cleanse that which is within the cup and platter." Afterwards he proceeds, from cenfuring their fcrupulous obfervance of ceremonies, to reproach their fondness for the praise of men. He likens them unto whited fepulchres, beautiful outwardly, but within full of dead men's bones: and adds, "even fo ye outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrify and iniquity." Thus far the language of Chrift evidently does point to the general misconduct of the Scribes and Pharifees. But, accord

according to the gradations of their guilt, we find gradations of severity in the words of Chrift. For in the last instance, which Mr. Godwin has attacked without regard to the context, and which I mean to vindicate by comparing it with the context, our Lord arraigns the bigotry and the intolerance of the Pharifees themselves, breaking out into overt acts of murderous violence against himself and his followers, and standing in direct oppofition to those moral principles, the validity of which they had themselves admitted in the cafe of persecuted Prophets. Their behaviour therefore involved inconsistency, hypocrify, and barbarity. They built the tombs of the Prophets, they garnished the fepulchres of the righteous, they said "if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets." But Christ foreknew, what their fubfequent conduct indifputably proved, that they would be partakers in the blood of himself and his difciples: and therefore he faid, "Ye are witnesses to yourfelves, that ye are the children of them, which

Videri vultis Prophetas colere, et damnare Patres veftros, Prophetarum occifores, at interim parem in me et meos cru delitatem exercendo, vofmet non folùm naturâ, fed et mori