should teach you how defective is your system in its very first principles. And whatever morals such a religion may contain, this one defect of attributing creation to chance, and robbing the Deity of the glory of its formation, taints all the branches of your system; and like a flowing stream, which is poisoned at its source, it carries the deadly quality wherever its waters extend. With this difference, still more worthy of attention and observation, that poisoned water affects only the body, which sooner or later is due to mortality, but a poisoned religion affects the immortal soul, paralyses all its noble efforts, and defeats every blissful purpose of existence. Our religion," I continued, "is not attended by such evils and objections. If it were, I would this moment shut up my bible, and become a man of the world, and never more speak a word in its behalf. When I look at my own body, I consider that I carry about with me, not only an evidence of the existence of God, to command my reverence; but I am in myself, in my bodily organization, a standing sermon on his power, wisdom, and goodness, which, if I am properly affected thereby, produces lively affectionate remem brances, and constant pious devotions. Thus, if I am asked, why I am formed so and so, and possessed of such and such faculties of mind and body, our holy Scriptures teach me to reply, I am the workmanship of that God who made heaven and earth. He has made the vast human family, that they might glorify him in their own happiness; and hence we are endowed with suitable faculties of mind and body, with a view to that end; and not one faculty is superfluous, or by the minutest research can be ascertained to be deficient, for any of the purposes of human comfort."

He acknowledged the propriety of this appeal, and was again brought to profess his faith in the supreme Creator! Some difficulties, however, seemed to occur to his mind, relative to the prevalence of natural evil, and he observed, he could still hardly reconcile himself to our system, when he reflected on the number of sicknesses and miseries which are in the world: and which he could not conceive could exist, had all things been the production, and still continued under the government of a powerful and merciful supreme Creator.

However, he very patiently and candidly listened to us, while pointing out to him the manner in which pain and death were introduced into the world. And when we had directed his attention to the exercise which the ills of humanity gave to the sympathies of our nature; and the salutary and blessed consequences resulting from sanctified afflictions, even in cases in which prosperity had long proved insufficient to reform the vicious, he seemed fully satisfied. And indeed, when one considers the corrective tendency of what is called natural evil, so far from

favouring the sentiments of the atheists, it weighs powerfully on the other side of the question; and if properly viewed in this light, is as strong an argument in favour of a Divine Creator and Providence, as the existence of an instrument of correction in a family, is an evidence that there is some one at the head of the household, who justly sustains that character, and exercises his discipline over it. Whatever other objections, therefore, those who wish to cavil may affect to raise upon this fact, yet so far from its disproving a creative and providential energy, it is a strong presumptive evidence in its favour.

By this time Rajagooroo had thrown off every thing of the opponent, when conversing with us relative to Christianity; and our various interviews with him began to assume a calmer and more pleasing aspect. He was now busily employed in collecting information from every quarter, and was officially spoken of from the pulpit, as one whose belief of Christianity was beyond a doubt.

But still he wore his Budhist robes, and hence the worshippers of Budhu did not give any credit to the reports which were in circulation relative to the change in his religious views. We, therefore, resolved to propose to him the propriety of his making a public renunciation of idolatry, promising him, if he did, that we would receive him into our house, allot him an apartment to himself, and supply all his wants. He received our offer with much apparent thankfulness, but urged that he had some affairs to settle at his temple, before he could publicly avow his convictions in favour of Christianity. For this purpose, he said, he would immediately repair to Dadalla, and, on his return to Colombo, he would, without hesitation, attach himself to the true religion, and make a public renunciation of his former faith, by submitting to the sacred ordinance of Christian baptism.

(To be Continued.)

Scripture Illustrated.

THOUGHTS ON THE FORE-KNOWLEDge of god, WITH REFERENCE TO THOSE PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE WHERE IT OCCURS.

Ir is not a little remarkable, to say the least, that various passages of the holy scripture should have been so frequently urged to prove the necessity of human volitions and actions, arising from the prescience of the Deity. Even the most deadly malevolence which ever actuated the depraved heart of man,

and the blackest crimes which ever darkened the pages of the history of our race, have, alike, fled for refuge, and claimed protection under the efficient energy of the fore-knowledge of God. Hence, if we remonstrate against sin, and expostulate with men relative to their guilt and danger, and endeavour to dissuade them from a course of vice, nothing is more common than this, "How can I hinder it? did not God fore-know all things? did he not fore-know every sin that I should commit ? and is it possible that any thing should take place contrary to his fore-knowledge?" These questions are supposed to be unanswerable, and an air of indifference, or contempt closes the

scene.

It is lamentable, indeed, that men should tax any of the di vine perfections with their crimes, or their guilt; but, could they support the charge, crimes would change their nature, and guilt would be but a name. The popular pretext that actions may be necessary, and yet criminal, because the mind is as free in the action as if it were not necessary, is better suited to divert the minds of children, than to satisfy the sober and rational enquirer after truth. It requires no extraordinary degree of penetration to perceive that the liberty or freedom which men exercise in performing necessary actions, is itself as necessary as the actions, and that too by virtue of the same cause, the fore-knowledge of God. This superficial evasion seems to have originated from the struggle between common sense, and the sup position that criminality can be attached to a necessary, or unavoidable action. We find ourselves almost compelled by our own consciousness to connect innocence with such actions. In order, therefore, to form a ground for guilt, we must, in some way, enlist volition. But we are lame; for on the ground above noticed, the first motion of the mind, and the action in its utmost extent, with every auxiliary volition, and connected circumstance, are equally necessary and unavoidable; and the whole from the same cause. Now if criminality cannot result from a necessary action, from what rules of fitness and reason can it be shown to result from an equally necessary volition?

The attributes of God are all infinite, and lie so far beyond the sphere of our limited intelligence, that all conclusions, relative to their influence on the actions of moral agents, should be drawn with the utmost caution. How extremely weak, not to say absurd, is it to suppose the Deity, at some imaginary period, in past ages, deliberating upon the wisest and best measures for the government of his creatures in future time, and then fixing the plan, with a determination to proceed accordingly? This is, indeed, to measure the omniscient and omnipresent Jehovah by ourselves. Were it possible for the human mind to fix periods in the immeasurable duration of eternity, at which

of these periods, though millions and millions of ages remote from each other, could it be said the infinite mind knew less? at which that it knew more? The most that can be said is, that "all things are naked, and opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do." The conclusion is, that, properly speaking, there is no such thing as fore or after knowledge with God; but strictly knowledge, present knowledge. But should it be asked how entire freedom of action agrees with this knowledge? I answer, I cannot tell. And who will answer if it be required how this knowledge renders actions necessary and unavoidable? The plain truth is, that the subject is too far removed from the province of our faculties, and the sphere of human science, to afford us any safe or satisfactory conclusions. We must therefore satisfy ourselves on this subject from what we perceive in ourselves, from what we observe of others, and from what it has pleased God to reveal to us. We are conscious of acting freely; from analogy and observation we are convinced that our fellow-creatures do the same; and nothing is more obvious than that the divine law, embracing precepts, rewards and punishments, recognizes man as a voluntary, not a necessary agent; and consequently at liberty to obey or disobey. On such evidence we must rest till it shall please God to devel ope what has hitherto been locked up in the treasury of eternal wisdom.

But before we lose sight of this subject, it may not be im proper to propose, and investigate one question, with a design, as far as possible, to bring this subject within the compass of our methods of reasoning. We are compelled to have recourse to the established laws of cause and effect, both in the physical and moral kingdoms. From these laws we draw our conclusions, as we conceive, with safety.

To depart from them would be to abandon the principles of order and fitness, and prostrate the empire of reason to the desolating ravages of Atheism.

In conformity to these laws the following question is proposed -Is the Fore-knowledge of God the cause of human volitions and actions? This question, simple as it may be, is the only proper ground of reasoning with reference to the relation be tween fore-knowledge and the actions of finite creatures, and the dependence of the latter on the former. If it can be made to appear that fore-knowledge is the efficient cause of all volition and action, it will be equally evident that volition and action are necessary and unavoidable, by virtue of fore-knowledge. But it is impossible for us to free ourselves from the conclusion. which must result from such premises. The nature and properties of effects must be determined by the causes which produce them, and the same may be said of causes when we rea

son from effects.

What then must be the moral character of volitions and actions which are the effect of a holy and perfect attribute af God? To suppose that sin, or any quality repugnant to the divine nature, could be attached to such volitions and actions, is to suppose that an effect may be, in its nature, diametrically opposed to its cause, and when this theory is adopted, what rules shall guide our ratiocination? Where shall we search for data on which to establish our conclusions? Till we can perceive some method of avoiding these consequences, we must renounce the premises from which they result. (To be Continued.)

The Attributes of God Displayed.

FROM THE english METHODIST MAGAZINE.

Account of the Halcydrus Pontoppidani; or, enormous Sea Serpent. By Mr. GEORGE DERMOTT.

"THE works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein," saith the prophet of the Most High; and as the most insignificant particle of organized matter displays the glorious wisdom and power of its Author, far beyond the brightest orb of universal light, the more perfectly we consider the animated creation, the more we shall adore the Great First Cause of all being and vitality; for matter only exists for the sake of intelligent beings, and we should "search it out" in the spirit of the Psalmist.

Useful information in the great volume of nature is still wanting, after all our scientific researches; and every fresh acquisition to our stock of facts in natural history, and other branches of useful science, is to be valued.

The current accounts of a monstrous sea-snake, repeatedly seen by many sea-faring persons on the North American coast, has disposed me to present you with a variety of memorandums on the same curious subject. These were collected some years ago, from the only documents, I believe, that the world has yet been favoured with.

This animal has hitherto been supposed to be peculiar to the Norwegian and Greenland seas; but as it is now proved that it may be met with in other latitudes also, we may hope, that in this age of improvements, we shall not long be without a specimen of the animal itself, by some providential or enterprising atchievement, to enrich the department of Natural History.

At a meeting of the Wernerian Natural History Society, in the year 1808, Mr. P. Neill read an account of a great Sea