(2) Necessity of Religious Change. In the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, the necessity of a great religious change, preparatory to a great moral change—a change of faith and worship, preparatory to a change in principles and conduct—is fully and plainly made out. The Apostle to the Gentiles was about to build upon the Jewish Scriptures, but for the edification of the whole world, a purer faith and a more rea sonable service than Jew or Gentile had yet known. The moral ruin of the Jewish temple had already taken place.-13ehold,thouart called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God; and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law ; and art confident that thou thy self art a guide to the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the fool ish, a teacher of babes; which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. Thou, therefore, which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself ? Thou that preachest, A man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest, A man should not commit adultery, dost thou com mit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols,dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God'? (Rom. ii :20. On the other hand, the ruins of Gentile temples, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman, still witness the truth of St. Paul's words to the same effect—'When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, but became vain in their imaginations. and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the in corruptible God into an image made like to cor ruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness.' In the Epistle to the Romans, it is the object of St. Paul to prove, both to Jew and Gentile, that the moral world, though it had the law of Moses and the philosophy of Greece, was so sunk in superstition, sin, and crime, that the whole body of society was corrupt, and that therc was not a hope of cure till the sources of corruption, whether in the pharisaical observances of the Jew, or in the profligate superstitions of the Gentile, were superseded by a purer faith and a sounder worship. St. Paul contends that neither the law of Moses, nor the philosophy of Greece, was able to raise Jew or Gentile from the bondage of sin and death ; and he challenges the religious and the moral, and, we may add, the political facts of those times, to prove the truth of his as sertion. His object was not to depreciate either the Mosaic law or the Greek philosophy, the au thority of the one, or the morality of the other, but to show that so long as the pharisaical ob servances of the Jew, and the profligate super stitions of the Gentile, remained in force, nei.ther
religion nor philosophy could prevent the world from sinking deeper and deeper into pollution. The Apostle of the Gentiles allows that 'they knew God,' but he contends that 'they glorified Him not as God ;' and, therefore, he asserts, 'God gave them up to lasciviousness; he allows, that some amongst them though they had not the law, did by nature the things contained in the law ;' but he contends that the principles and conduct of such men were but an oasis in the midst of a howling wilderness, for that the mass of men were given up 'to vile affections.' (3) Speculative Knowledge of God. It is im possible to deny that in the Greek philosophy we find the rise and progress of a speculative knowl edge of God of no common character or measure; but it is just as impossible to deny that though the nations, amongst which a few such burning and shining lights had arisen, might be said 'to know God,' it was notorious that 'they glorified Him not as God.' It is by following out St. Paul's argument, and by examining the truth of his statements, that we feel all the necessity of an abolition of heathen superstitions, and the estab lishing of a better faith, before sound principles and right conduct could be understood and prac ticed by the mass of mankind, though they had been conceived by a few philosophers.
(4) Necessity of Change in Faith and Wor ship. If to this evidence of the necessity of a change of faith and worship for the salvation of the ancient world, proving that without such change the religious, and moral, and political ref ormations which were required, were quite unat tainable.—if, to this evidence, we add proofs of the religious, moral, and political reformatiori which Christianity actually introduced,—and if, to this two-fold evidence respecting the necessity of a change of faith, and the efficacy of the change to Christianity, we add the evidence of the actual effects of Christianity in our own times, freedom to the slave, knowledge to the ignorant, and civil ization to the heathen (for though these benefits have been wrought by politicians, it has been in compliance with a motive and a zeal which as suredly were not supplied by worldly wisdom or worldly justice),—and if, to this three-fold evidence. we add present indications, that still higher religious, and moral, and political effects will be wrought out by Christianity—we have in this four-fold evidence a body of proof respecting the usefulness of Christianity exactly fitted for the wants of the time. J. P. P.