nd orders benevolent actions to be performed even to enemies!
and the purity and simplicity of the infant is held up by Christ as the
model of imitation for His followers. Then, in the rewards and
punishments of the future state of the Mahometans, how gross are all the
ideas, how unlike the promises of a divine and spiritual being; their
paradise is a mere earthly garden of sensual pleasure, and their Houris
represent the ladies of their own harems rather than glorified angelic
natures. How different is the Christian heaven, how sublime in its idea,
indefinite, yet well suited to a being of intellectual and progressive
faculties; "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into
the heart of man to conceive the joys that He hath prepared for those who
love Him."

_Onu_.--I confess your answer to my last argument is a triumphant one;
but I cannot allow a question of such extent and of such a variety of
bearings to be decided by so slight an advantage as that which you have
gained by this answer. I will now offer another difficulty to you. The
law of the Jews, you will allow, was established by God Himself and
delivered to Moses from the seat of His glory amongst storms, thunder,
and lightnings, on Mount Sinai; why should this law, if pure and divine,
have been overturned by the same Being who established it? And all the
ceremonies of the Hebrews have been abolished by the first Christians.

_Amb_.--I deny that the divine law of Moses was abolished by Christ, who
Himself says, "I came to confirm the law, not to destroy it." And the
Ten Commandments form the vital parts of the foundation of the creed of
the true Christian. It appears that the religion of Christ was the same
pure theism with that of the patriarchs; and the rites and ceremonies
established by Moses seem to have been only adjuncts to the spiritual
religion intended to suit a particular climate and a particular state of
the Jewish nation, rather a dress or clothing of the religion than
forming a constituent part of it, a system of discipline of life and
manners rather than an essential part of doctrine. The rites of
circumcision and ablution were necessary to the health and perhaps even
to the existence of a people living on the hottest part of the shores of
the Mediterranean. And in the sacrifices made of the first fruits and of
the chosen of the flock, we may see a design not merely connected with
the religious faith of the people but even