540 
You used a word exclusively confined to bed- 
chambers.” 
The uncle’s illustration was farther iflus- 
trated on a visit to the ship—when one of 
the young ladies getting too near some 
paint—another exclaimed, “a! Jemima, 
what have you done to the western side of 
your gown? It is all over green.” Of 
course the “‘ west”’ became a standing joke. 
The Divine Origin of Christianity, by 
John Sheppard, Author of “ Thoughts on 
Private Devotion,” &c., 2 vols. ; 1829.— 
It is the assertion of a certain zealous class 
of Christians, that books on the evidences 
of religion are worse than useless, for in- 
stead of making believers, they unmake 
them. If this be true to any extent, it can 
be applicable only to the hot-headed, or the 
soft-headed—to impatience or imbecility. 
The faith, which suffers by any thing de- 
Serving the name of sound evidence, must 
have been built without evidence, and the 
structure is of course liable to be overthrown 
by any wind that blows. The writer, like 
a man of sense, as he truly is, has disre- 
garded this idle or fanatic opinion, and 
yielding to his own convictions has produced 
a book, which must class, and that with 
honour, with Paley, and the best stock- 
books upon the subject—condensing and 
filling up what was before scattered or im- 
perfect. It is an attempt to do effectively, 
what has been often done partially—but 
never with so much distinctness—never with 
an effort so concentrated, and in a manner 
so entirely exhaustive—the establishing, we 
mean, of the probability, or rather the cer- 
tainty of the divine origin of Christianity, 
on evidence totally independent of the scrip- 
tures, or of any authorities, which might, by 
malignity or possibility, be styled suspicious 
or interested. The author is, we believe, a 
layman, and a dissenter, but perfectly free 
from the common accompaniments of sec- 
tarianism, of all acrimony especially, except 
perhaps a little towards Gibbon, in exposing 
whose misrepresentations, it must be difficult 
for the mildest, and the author is one of 
them, not to be provoked into severity. Of 
himself, he remarks—and this to remove 
prejudice or suspicion—he has no stake in- 
volved, either of rank or profit; nor can 
even, consistently, take a clirect interest in 
those political benefits, which many ascribe 
to the alliance of religion with the state. 
We can, with our limits, dono more than 
indicate the course and method of the writer, 
by which the reader will leam what he has 
to expect, and we add our assurance, if that 
is worth any thing, that the plan has been 
prosecuted with diligence, research, and 
fairness, and executed with conspicuous 
success. 
While some, in exhibiting the evidences, 
have searched for the internal-—the self-evi- 
dence of the scriptures, and others have 
laboured to establish their genuineness, and 
their consequent historical truth, Mr. Shep- 
Monthly Review of Literature, — - 
[M AY, 
pard’s specific aim has been to shew, “ that 
even if the New Testament had been un- 
happily destroyed, or its genuineness were 
not ascertainable—yet, provided the primi- 
tive spirit of the religion could be learnt 
from the writings of early believers, and 
those indirect proofs collected of its rise and 
progress, and their causes, which now exist, 
we ought not to reject it, but to judge that 
it came from God.’? This design and its 
limitations he undertakes to execute by 
establishing two propositions—first, ‘* There 
may be enough known of Christianity (with- 
out investigating either its miraculous cr 
prophetic proof, and without studying the 
written accounts of its progress, whether as 
given by friends or enemies) from a view of 
its distinctive character—of its actual effects 
—of its continued and prospective spirit and 
tendency—and of its acknowledged origin— 
to yield complex presumption that it is not 
ofmen, but of God ;”’ and secondly, ‘“* There 
are statements concerning Christianity (and 
other coeval religions)’ in extant Jewish 
and Heathen writers—in citations from the 
lost works of its adversaries—in notices of 
current oral objections to it—in public ap- 
peals as to public facts by early Christian 
apologists—in details by Christian writers of 
events, the general truth of which is amply 
confirmed by their opponents—together 
with implications in the silence of some 
Jews and Heathens, and in the conduct of 
others; which concur to furnish very strong 
grounds for believing its supernatural ori« 
in.” 
5 The first he accomplishes, by pointing 
out how far it differs from all religions 
that men have fabricated, and from any that 
we can suppose they would fabricate; and 
again, how far it differs from all other re- 
ligions in its ascertained effects, and in its 
continued and prospective spirit and ten- 
dency. The second, by collecting the ad- 
missions, tacit and verbal, of persons not 
professing Christianity, as to the moral cha-~ 
racter of Jesus, and that of the early Chris- 
tians—by discussing the oppositions Chris- 
tianity was likely to encounter, first from 
the Jews and next from the Heathens, de- 
duced from the diversified and long-con- 
tinued influence of belief and habit—the lax 
and optional morality of polytheism, and the 
peculiar disadvantages of the first Christian 
teachers—and next by exhibiting proofs and 
instances of actwal oppositions, which Chris- 
tianity endured from both quarters. In 
connexion with the same subject, the second 
volume discusses the evidence for Christ’s 
resurrection, especially the firm belief and 
testimony of the fact—the absence of con- 
trary evidence— and the indispensableness of 
the fact, for the subsistence of the religion. 
This is followed by the tracing up of int 
direct evidence for the miracles of Chris- 
and his immediate disciples. 
The arrangements are calculated for two 
classes of readers—the general sentiments 
and conclusions of the writer are given in 
