creeds required councils, councils published | beings inferior to the Deity, but superior to men, canons; and all these created and required and that they governed the world; consequently, priests to illustrate, to approbate and to fulmi- that they should be worshipped because of their nate their decisions. The consolidation of agency in human affairs. Some of them he systems of measures for establishing and per- viewed as mediators, "carrying men's prayers to petuating a flourishing spiritual commonwealth, God and his answers to men." In his Timæus required a thousand ingredients that escape he declares, that "it is neither easy to find the public notice, because not submitted to public parent of the universe, nor safe to discover him inspection. to the vulgar when found." He therefore taught that, in matters of worship, his disciples ought to govern themselves by the laws of their country (nomo poleos.) This was the maxim of Socrates, and to it Plato agreed. In his book viii. De Rep. he orders "worship and rites to be performed to the gods, and to demons, and to Esculapius, lest he should too much shock the prejudices of the vulgar."

Our plan requires us to notice the ancient philosophers and the sects which they established, as many of their opinions were early imbibed by most of the christian teachers, and were soon an element of their creeds. We shall begin with Pythagoras.

This philosopher flourished about five hundred and fifty years before Christ. He travelled extensively, and spent twenty-five years in Egypt in quest of knowledge. He opened a school at Croton in Italy, which was much frequented by Grecian and Italian youths. He was the first man that called himself a philosopher, and gave currency to the name. He inculcated on his pupils the austerities of the Egyptian priests. He obliged them all to put their property into a common stock, and thus to have all things in common. He used the three sorts of style adopted by the Egyptians in teaching their mysteries: the simple, the hieroglyphical, and the symbolical. He preferred the last. He first called the world kosmos, from its order and beauty; and became famous for his skill in geometry, astronomy and arithmetic. But his theological principles are those which we have in view. He taught that,

All mankind lived in some pre-existent state, and that for the sins committed by them in that state, some of their souls were sent into human bodies, and others into brutes,to be punished for, and to be purged from, their former sins. Viewing the whole brutal creation to be animated by human souls, he held it unlawful to kill any animal, and to eat animal food. In order to purge themselves from sins committed in a pre-existent state, he taught his disciples to practise long fastings, and other severities, to subdue their bodily appetites, and to subordinate all desires to the soul. These were the grand peculiarities of his system."

Socrates flourished four hundred years before Christ. He is said to have taught (for he left nothing in writing behind him) that,

"The soul of man is immortal, because immaterial; that there is but one supreme God; that there are demons that superintend the affairs of this world; that men ought not to pursue riches or worldly honors, but to cultivate their minds and to practise virtue. It is believed that he borrowed some of his ideas from the Jewish scriptures."

Plato, the scholar of Socrates, flourished three hundred and forty-eight years before Christ. It is chiefly from his writings that we learn the sentiments of Socrates. He improved upon the principles of Socrates, and his fame transcended that of all other philosophers, in the department of religion and morality. He taught that,

"The universe was governed by a being of glorious power and wisdom, possessed of perfect liberty, and independence. That there were

a certain invincible malignity and corruption in matter, insuperable by the power of God. That the human soul is an emanation from God, so, necessarily immortal; that evil must necessarily exist from the union of matter and mind in the human person; that demons were an order of

Aristotle, the disciple. of Plato, flourished three hundred and thirty-two years before Christ. He taught that,

"Matter was eternal; that the world, by powers natural to matter, has continued from all eternity the same as we see it, and that there exists nothing in the universe distinct from matter; that the present course of things, consisting of the motions of the heavens, and of the successive generations and corruptions of animals and vegetables, can neither be interrupted nor destroyed by any thing extraneous, but must continue forever. As for the Deity, if there were any, he taught that it is a nature happy in the contemplation of itself, and entirely regardless of human affairs."

Epicurus, founder of the Epicurean system of philosophy in Greece, flourished two hundred and seventy years before Christ. The Epicureans maintained that,

"The world arose from chance; that the gods whose existence they did not dare to deny, neither did nor could extend their providential care to human affairs; that the soul was mortal; that pleasure was to be regarded as the ultimate end of man, and that virtue was neither worthy of esteem nor choice but with a view to the attainment of pleasure."*

Zeno, the first teacher of the Stoic system, flourished in Greece two hundred and sixty four years before Christ.

ne

"The god of the Stoics is described as a corporeal being, united to matter by a cessary connexion, and subject to the determination of an immutable fate. This fate is, however, explained by the Stoics to be the wise counsels of their sovereign, to which he is obliged to conform, and from which he can never depart. When the Stoics say Jupiter is subject to fate, they mean he is subject to the wisdom of his own counsels, and must act in conformity with his supreme perfections. They said that the existence of the soul was confined to a certain period of time. They looked with indignant contempt upon effeminate vices. Simplicity and moderation were carried to the extreme of austerity, and external good and evil were viewed with haughty contempt."

The Cynic philosophy, taught first by Antisthenes, was so similar in its moral discipline to that of the Stoics, that we shall subjoin the sum of moral doctrine of Antisthenes and the Cynic sect:

"Virtue alone is a sufficient foundation for a

* Pleasure is supposed by some to mean, in this system, not only sensual, but to comprehend moral and intellectual pleasures. "If so," says a learned writer," in what does the scheme of Epicurus, as respects virtue, differ from that self-love is the only spring of all human affections and the opinion of those christian philosophers, who maintain actions."

happy life. Virtue consists, not in a vain osten- | from the will of the supreme God, but from tation of learning, or an idle display of words, the creating power of some inferior intellibut in a steady course of right conduct. Wis- gence, to whom the world and its inhabidom and virtue are the same. A wise man will tants owed their existence. Some imagined always be contented with his condition, and two eternal principles from whence all things will live rather according to the precepts of proceeded, the one presiding over light and the virtue, than according to the laws or customs of other over matter; and by their perpetual conflict, his country. Wisdom is a secure and impreg- explained the mixture of good and evil that apnable fortress-virtue, armor which cannot be pears in the universe. Others maintained that taken away. Whatever is honorable is good- the being that presided over matter was not an whatever is disgraceful is evil. Virtue is the eternal principle, but a subordinate intelligence, only bond of friendship. It is better to associate one of those whom the supreme God produced with a few good men against a vicious multi- from himself. They supposed that this being tude, than to join the vicious, however numerous, was moved by a sudden impulse to reduce to against the good. The love of pleasure is a order the rude mass of matter, and to create temporary madness." The following maxims the human race. A third sort fell upon another and apothegms are also ascribed to Antisthenes: system, and said that there was a triple divine "As rust consumes iron, so does envy consume principle, or a triumvirate of beings, in which the heart of man. That state is hastening to the Supreme Deity was distinguished from the ruin, in which no difference is made between material, and from the creator of this world. good and bad men. The harmony of brethren The Supreme Being they supposed to be as a is a stronger defence than a wall of brass. A radiant light, most pure, diffused through the wise man converses with the wicked, as a phy- immensity of space, called the pleroma. The sician with the sick, not to catch the disease, eternal nature, having dwelt long in solitude, but to cure it. A philosopher gains at least one produced from itself two minds of a different thing from his manner of life-a power of con- sex, which resembled the Supreme Parent in versing with himself. The most necessary part the most perfect manner. In process of time, of learning is, to unlearn our errors. The man from these two proceeded a celestial family. who is afraid of another, whatever he may think These were called ons. How many of these of himself, is a slave. Antisthenes, being told there were was not decided. The Creator of that a bad man had been praising him, said, this world they called Demiurge. What foolish thing have I been doing?"

The Academics, who, with the Epicureans, were the most numerous of the Grecian sects at the christian era, despaired of finding truth in such a variety of opinions, and therefore taught that,

"It was uncertain whether the gods existed or not; whether the soul was mortal or immortal; whether virtue was preferable to vice, or vice to virtue."

"Man, they considered a compound of terrestrial and celestial nature-of the evil principle of matter, and of the divinity. Those who subdue the evil principle that propels them to sin against the Supreme ascend directly to the Pleroma. Those yielding to the evil principle shall be sent after death into other bodies until they awake from their sinful lethargy. In the end the Supreme God shall come forth victorious, and, having delivered from their servitude the greatest part of those enslaved souls, shall dissolve the frame of this visible world and involve it in ruin. After this, primitive tranquility will be restored in the universe, and God shall reign with happy spirits in undisturbed felicity through endless ages."

The Eclectics supposed that many things were unreasonable and absurd in all the systems of philosophy, and therefore set about forming a new system, comprising, what they supposed, the most reasonable tenets and doctrines of all the sects. This eclectic philosophy was taught with great success in Alexandria in Such were the prominent features of the orienEgypt, when the Messiah was born. And Philo tal philosophy. Among the Jews, prior to the the Jew, who was a member of this sect, repre- birth of the Messiah, there was also a variety of sents it as very flourishing at that time. The opinions and sects. They imbibed many of the Eclectics held Plato in the highest esteem, yet opinions popular among the sects of philosophers, they made no scruple to join with his doctrines and even some of the superstitious notions of whatever they thought conformable to reason the Egyptians, Syrians and Arabians who lived in the tenets and opinions of other philosophers. in their neighborhood. In Palestine, the Jewish Hitherto we have mentioned only the systems and Samaritan religions flourished at the chrisof philosophy that obtained first among the tian era. The Samaritans originated in the Greeks, and afterwards among the Romans. time of king Rehoboam. Shalmanesser, king We shall just, in the same brief manner, notice of Assyria, having besieged Samaria, the capithe oriental philosophy, denominated by oriental of the kingdom of Israel, contradistinguished talists, not philosophy, but science. The votaries of the oriental science were numerous in Persia, Syria, Chaldea, and Egypt. Of this science there were many sects. It is worthy of remark, that, while "the Grecian and Roman sects of philosophy were much divided about the first principles of science, all the sects of the oriental science deduced their tenets from one fundamental principle." This science supposed that,

"The origin of evils, with which the universe abounds, was to be found not in God, whom they viewed as essentially good and benevolent; but as there was nothing beyond or without the Deity but matter, therefore matter is the centre and source of all evil, of all vice. That matter

from the capital of the kingdom of Judah, carried the people captive and filled their place with Babylonians, Cutheans, and other idolators. These having obtained an Israelitish priest, to instruct them in the ancient religion of the land, embraced the Jews' religion, with which they mixed a great part of their own idolatry. After the return of the Jews from their captivity, they entirely quitted the worship of idols. They, though united in religion with the Jews, quarrelled with them about the rebuilding of the temple; and when they could not prevail, they erected a temple on Mount Gerizim, in opposition to that at Jerusalem. The Jews and Samaritans, like many sects in our time, who approximate very nigh to each other, but go not

against each other; so much so, as to have no dealings with one another. The Jews were divided into three principal sects, besides many subordinate ones, at the christian epoch-the Essenes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. The Essenes dwelt generally in solitude, and main-"The barbarian foes, the ruthless band, the tained that,

"Religion consisted, wholly in contemplation and silence. They practised a most religious abstinence. Many of them lived in celibacy, and observed a variety of penitential exercises and mortifications, borrowed from Egypt where many of them dwelt. The Essenes of Syria thought it possible to appease God by sacrifices, though in a manner quite different from the Jewish. Others maintained that a serene and composed mind, addicted to the contemplation of divine things, was the only sacrifice acceptable to God. They viewed the law of Moses as an allegorical system of spiritual and mysterious truths, and renounced all regard to its letter in the explication of it. They held absolute predestination, and that only the soul would be punished in a future state."

The Sadducees maintained that, "Only the written law was of divine authority; that neither the oral law nor the prophets were to be regarded as of divine authority; that the written law was to be interpreted literally; that there was no resurrection, nor future state, angel, nor human spirit; that there was no predestination; that man was an absolute master of all his actions."

The Pharisees taught that, "The law of Moses, the prophets, and the oral law, or the traditions of the elders, were of equal authority; that there was a resurrection of the dead, a future state, angels and spirits; that the children of Abraham alone should be raised from the dead and enter into future happiness; that there should be eating and drinking in a future state; and that every man would be reunited to his former wife. They held absolute predestination, and at the same time, with the Sadducees, they held free will. They separated from all they deemed sinners, and would not so much as eat or drink with them. They held that the words of the Old Testament had a double sense-the one literal, the other mysterious. They were strict observers of all the traditions of the elders, and cultivated a very sanctified appearance in the presence of the people."

of them having literally forsaken all that they
had; husbands had left their wives, parents
their children, and children their parents. I
asked every one who would stop to hear me,
what was the matter. I always heard in reply,
merciless Scythians are approaching our city."
Have they yet entered it? replied I. "No," said
they. Are they yet in sight? I rejoined. I was
again answered in the negative. Why then do
you hasten? was the last question their trepida-
tion would afford me time to ask.
The answer
which I received was pronounced with uncom-
mon vehemence. Every feature in their face,
and every tone corresponded with the import
of their reply. It was this: "Twelve heralds
of undoubted veracity gave the intelligence
that they were just at hand, arrayed in all the
vengeance of savage ferocity, stimulated to fu-
rious excess, from the ills they had received
from our nation." I joined the fugitives, and,
after retiring to a cave, fell into the following
reflections:-

What an advantage to mankind that they have received from their Creator the capacity or faculty of being so certain of what they have not seen, of that for which they have not the evidence of sense, as to be moved, excited, and impelled to every kind of exertion, suited to the nature of the case, from what they have believed, as though they had seen it. The uncultivated citizen, as well as the sage philosopher, is equally certain, and equally moved by the belief of testimony. It is a blessing, thought I, an inexpressible favor, that we have this capacity of being assured of what we have not seen, of what we have not felt, upon the testimony of others; and that this is as common to all mankind as instinct is to brutes, and so perfect at first that it is not capable of improvement; for a child believes as firmly, what it can apprehend, as a hoary-headed sage. This people, thought I, have been saved by faith-saved from the jaws of destruction, by believing what the twelve heralds reported. I could not but reflect with surprise at the stupidity of those rabbinical doctors who have made so many nonsensical distinctions about the way and manner of believing, and the different kinds of faith. I found those people saved their lives by faith, without ever stopping to inquire of what kind their faith was; the only inquiry was about the evidence-about the number, character, ability, and faithfulness of the witnesses. Being satisfied upon these points, they never thought of consulting their own feelings upon the occasion, But the fact which they believed operated upon all that was within them, just according to its own nature. It produced all its natural results; for every fact believed has its natural or necessary results, and from the nature of all things it must necessarily be so. It was not their belief or their faith, abstract from the fact, that saved them; but the fact believed, that produced such a change upon them and upon their conduct. In one word, these people were saved by the belief The use we intend to make of the preceding of one fact, and that fact was of so great imdocuments in the course of this work, demand-portance as to change their views and practice. ed this brief notice of them. We hope our readers will ultimately agree with us in the necessity of giving this abstract.-EDITOR.

Such were the leading moral and religious philosophical sects that were flourishing when the Messiah was born. Besides these there was an endless variety of subdivisions. Nearly three hundred different opinions were entertained amongst the Romans concerning the summum bonum, or chief good. Thus the Messiah found the world with respect to opinion; and as respected the worship of idols in all its variety, volumes could do no more than give their names. Their gods, their temples, their priests, their sacrifices, and their festivals, would require an age to unfold.

Extracts from my Sentimental Journal.
No. I.

The Nature and Power of Faith illustrated.
IN approaching the city we met multitudes of
men and women flying in every direction, some

Leaving the cave, and making my retreat into the interior of the country, I met, after a few days, an old acquaintance, Timothy Stedfast, who used to be rather of a melancholy temperament, when employed as a menial servant in the service of Lord A. His countenance, attire, and gait, astonished me. Instead of that downcast aspect, and evil-boding, melancholic appearance, a peculiar cheerfulness overspread his counte

by the victorious barbarians in the late invasion;
that her father did not hear the tidings in time
to effect an escape. I told her not to faint in
the day of adversity; besides, said I, it may
not be so bad as you expect; perhaps your in-
formants were not assured of the fact.
"Oh!""
exclaimed she, "I could wish I could not be-
lieve their testimony; but I know their charac-
ter and their competency to give certain infor-
mation; and I am certain, yes, undoubtingly
certain, that such is the fact." I dismounted
and retired to an inn, where I spent the evening
in meditating upon the simplicity, the power,
and excellency of faith. The following con-
clusions were the necessary results of the scenes
through which I had recently passed :-

:

nance, and an eye beaming with joy, indicated | her younger brothers, and sisters, had perished that some marvellous change had taken place in the views and circumstances of Timothy.His raiment, too, was not of that rough and homespun texture as that in which he formerly performed his services in the fields and gardens of his former master. He was sumptuously appareled, and even his style of address and demeanor participated in the general elevation and improvement in his aspect. What! said I, so far from home, friend Timothy! "Yes," said he, “and I must be farther yet; I am just going to the sea coast to embark for Jamaica."What! to Jamaica? "O yes, and I would go much farther on the same errand." Pray can you inform me of the nature of your errand? "Yes, with pleasure, and no doubt it will give you joy to know it." Say on. "You know I had an old uncle, of whom I once told you, living in Jamaica, who was very rich; his children being all dead, he has left me his vast estate, and now I am going to possess it. It is said to be worth half a million, and the old gentleman having lately departed this life, has bequeathed the whole of it to your humble servant." Indeed! said I. But how do you know that such is the fact? He replied, that three persons whom he once knew, men of undoubted veracity, had written to him informing him of the fact; "besides," said he, "a copy of his last will and testament has been forwarded to me, to which the seal of the chief magistrate is appended.— I am certain, I am certain," exclaimed he. "It is a fact." O then, said I, I wish you all possible happiness; but be mindful that you were once poor. We parted.

1. In the first place the singular power of faith is manifested in all places and amongst all people. It demonstrates itself to be one of the common, the most common, and intelligible principles of action; and produces the greatest changes in human character, in the views and pursuits of mankind. It overcomes the greatest difficulties, and impels men to the highest achievements known in the world.

2. It always operates according to the fact believed. Joy and sorrow, love and hatred, fear and hope, are the effects of the fact believed, and not of the manner of believing, so much talked of.

3. Evidence alone produces faith, or testimony is all that is necessary to faith. This is demonstrably evident in every case; and therefore the certainty felt is always proportioned to the character of the testimony produced. Faith is capable of being greatly increased in many instances; but only in one way, and that is, either by affording additional evidence, or by brightening the evidences already produced.To exhort men to believe, or to try to scare them into faith by loud vociferations, or to cry them into faith by effusions of natural or mechanical tears, without submitting evidence, is as absurd as to try to build a house or plant a tree in a cloud.

I began to muse again on the excellency and power of faith. Truly thought it was the confidence of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen." And what first struck me with irresistible force, was, that the fact believed always operates according to its own nature. What a change in the views, feelings, appearance, and pursuits of Timothy! Once a rough, unpolished, downcast, desponding servant; now he possesses a smooth and polished exterior, a cheerful countenance, and a joyful 4. Faith, abstract from facts, produces no heart; rich in faith, though not yet in actual substantial, no real effect. Faith and opinions possession of the inheritance. How powerful have nothing to do with each other-there is no the principle! What an impulse to activity, in- consanguinity between them. A man might as dustry, and perseverance! He forsakes the land reasonably expect to support animal life by the of his nativity, his father's house, his kindred, simple act of chewing, as to be saved by the and the companions of his youth; he encounters mere act of believing. It is not a man's eating the toils of a long journey, perils by land and that keeps him alive, but what he does eat; so dangers by sea, from the influence of faith.-it is not a man's believing that saves his soul, This is the cause, the sole cause, of this extra- but what he does believe. ordinary change. He cultivates the manners, the style, the demeanor, suitable to his anticipated circumstances; and though yet not in possession of the inheritance, rejoices in hope of realizing all his expectations. And what still astonishes me, the belief of one fact thus converts the man-not the way and manner of believing, but the fact believed is the whole mystery.

I was roused from my meditations upon this striking instance of the nature and power of faith, by meeting a friend whom I had met a few days ago, in all the cheerfulness and joy of good health, of good circumstances, of the finest animal spirits, light, gay, buoyant; but now clothed in mourning, and of a sad and dejected appearance. A heavy sigh and a cheek washed with tears indicated the bitterness of her grief. With querulous accents she told me that two friends, of great respectability of char

5. All controversies about the nature of faith, about the different kinds of modern faith, are either learned or unlearned nonsense, calculated to deceive and bewilder the superstitious multitudes that hang upon the lips of spiritual guides. The only, the grand question with every man is, What is fact, or truth? This ascertained, let there be no inquiries about how a man believes, or whether his faith be of the right kind. If a man really believes any fact, his faith soon becomes apparent by the influence of the fact upon him.

6. No person can help believing when the evidence of truth arrests his attention. And without evidence it is as impossible to believe, as to bring something out of nothing..

7. The term faith is used in the Bible in the commonly received sense of mankind, and the faith which we have in the testimony of God differs from that we have in the testimony of

be deceived, and may deceive others, so the confidence we repose in their testimony, in some instances, may be very limited; but as God cannot be deceived himself, neither can deceive others, so the confidence we have in his testimony is superior to that we repose in the testimony of men; and as the word comes to us in demonstration of the Holy Spirit, or attested to us by the supernatural gifts which accompanied the testimony of the original witnesses; so it affords the highest possible evidence, and therefore produces the greatest confidence. If we receive the testimony of men, says John, and act upon it in the most important concerns, the testimony of God is greater, and is capable of producing greater certainty, and infinitely worthy of being acted upon in the all-important concerns of the world to come. EDITOR.