ligion, it is traditional infidelity. For as a revelation was made to man of the covenant of works before the fall, and the covenant of grace after it; and as we are certain that all mankind came from one common stock, it is a plain and evident matter of fact that, from Adam to this day, there never was, or could be, a man left to himself to make a religion of nature. It is, I know, a received notion, that man, by a due and proper use of his rational faculties, may do great things; and so by a due and proper use of the organs of vision, man may arrive at a knowledge of the objects around him. But still the pinching question returns-Is it not light that enables him to make a due and proper use of the one, and instruction of the other? Show us the eye that sees without light, and the understanding that reasons upon religion without instruction; and we will allow they both do it by the light of nature. Till then, let us hear no more of natural religion, but give the glory where it is due, by owning ingenuously and gratefully, as we ought to do, that, as all light comes from the sun, though we receive it often by communication from other bodies; so, that all instruction has come from the beginning, at sundry times and in divers manners, from the Sun of righteousness; and has been only reflected, more or less, pure or tinged, from one man to another. And let us entreat him whose "countenance is as the sun shineth in his strength, to anoint our eyes with eye-salve, that we may see;" which, otherwise, we shall not do even when we have the light; because by sin not only the light was darkened, but the organ disordered. And the physician of souls is the Sun of righteousness.

Upon the subjects of these two last articles, let me recommend to the reader's careful and attentive perusal, two books. The first shall be, the inimitable Mr. Leslie's Short and easy Method with the Deists; where the debate between the Christians and them, upon the evidence of revelation, is brought to one single point, and their cause overthrown for ever. This most excellent piece, with the other tracts of the same admirable author usually bound with it, have, I thank God, entirely removed every doubt from my mind; and, in my poor opinion, they render the metaphysical performances upon the subject entirely useless: since, if the Scriptures are once proved to be the word of God (as

I think they are infallibly in that book), we have nothing farther to do but to lay them together, and explain them, according to the measure of knowledge given unto every one. The second book I would recommend is-Dr. Ellis's Knowledge of Divine Things from Revelation, not from Reason or Nature. In this book, natural religion is fairly demolished; and her greatest admirers and advocates, after all the panegyrics made, and compliments passed upon her, are seen confessing, that she has borrowed every thing from the corrupted tradition of an original revelation; nay, they even despise her (which is rather too cruel) when she has decked herself out with these borrowed ornaments to the best advantage, they themselves assisting at her toilette. Indeed, by the accounts of Wilkins, Tillotson, Clarke, Wollaston, and all the rest of the writers in that way, the point in dispute between modern divines and the deists seems to have been, whether twilight was preferable to sunshine. And I know not how it happened, or what could be the reason, that they neglected to urge it home with full force upon the deists (as they might have done, since, at times, they all owned it), that the sun himself was the cause of the twilight; which had put an end to the dispute at once.

VI. We are charged with "a great contempt of learning." That depends upon the nature and kind of the learning. Because sometimes a man is called a learned man, who, after a course of several years' hard study, can tell you, within a trifle, how many degrees of the nonentity of nothing must be annihilated before it comes to be something.-See King's Origin of Evil, ch. iii. p. 129, with the note. That such kind of learning as that book is filled with, and the present age is much given to admire, has done no service to the cause of truth, but, on the contrary, that it has done infinite disservice to it, and almost reduced us from the unity of the Christian faith to the wrangling of philosophic scepticism, is the opinion of many besides ourselves, and too surely founded on fatal experience. I shall set down the sentiments of one person only, whose reason for speaking slightly of metaphysics certainly was not a want of skill in them. I mean the good and great Bishop Berkeley-" From the time," says this excellent prelate," that divinity was considered as a

science, and human reason enthroned in the sanctuary of God, the hearts of its professors seem to have been less under the influence of grace:" Miscel. p. 232. In another place he assigns a reason for this:-"The metaphysical knowledge of God, considered in his absolute nature, or essence, is one thing; and to know him as he stands related to us, as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, is another;" p. 216. Here this acute and judicious writer has reached the jugulum causa. For first, the knowledge of God as he stands related to us, as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, is the only knowledge of him that can be of any service to us: because the knowledge of him considered in his absolute nature, or essence (supposing we could attain to it without the revelation of Jesus Christ), must only fill our souls full of tribulation and anguish, horror and despair, and make the world a dungeon of condemnation, where nothing is heard but weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth; since God out of Christ appears armed with all the terrors of omnipotence, a revenger to execute wrath, to the uttermost, upon every soul that doeth evil; that is, upon every soul of man, inasmuch as there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not. Our God is a consuming fire.-But secondly, all disquisitions into the absolute nature and essence of God, without the Scripture ;-all endeavours to speculate upon his eternal power and Godhead, otherwise than as they are clearly seen by the eye of faith, being understood, or made intelligible, by analogy, through the medium of the things that are made;-all such learned inquiries have always ended in materialism, and fallen short of the knowledge of the eternal Jehovah, who made the heavens, which the nations, and all their philosophers, worshipped as the gods that govern the world. And it is a truth, that calls for the most serious consideration of all those who draw up systems of religion exclusively of Christianity, that neither Heathens, Jews (in their present state of unbelief), Mahometans, Deists, Arians, or Socinians, worship the true God. For all that is manifested of the true God in his word, is manifested of him as existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Son and the Holy Ghost they have not, for they deny them; and—it is written" Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath

not the Father:" 1 John ii. 23. And if he has neither Father, Son, nor Holy Ghost, he has not the true God; and if he has not the true God, he has no God, because there is but one God. And so he is, in the apostle's customary phrase, without God; in the Greek AOEOΣ; in English, an Atheist. And since no metaphysical system of natural religion has the Trinity in it, of what use can this learning be that we object to, and which the Scriptures were written to make foolish and bring to nought? May they be so preached as effectually to do it, till the light of Christian knowledge triumphs over the darkness of human ignorance, and Christ only is set forth" as the wisdom and power of God, for salvation, to the ends of the earth; that all the kindreds of the nations may remember themselves, and be turned to him who is the Lord their God, and all the world may worship him, sing of him, and praise his name!" As to those who are engaged in the study of useful arts and sciences, languages, history, antiquity, physics, &c. &c. with a view to make them handmaids to divine knowledge, we honour their employment, we desire to emulate their industry, and most sincerely "wish them good luck in the name of the Lord."

VII. We are said to be ignorant of the learning we pretend to despise. This charge is supported chiefly by some curious proofs that I am an invincible blockhead, who can neither write sense nor English: for I have written Revelations, instead of Revelation, no less than twice in the same sermon; and make Lisbon say sometimes thou, and sometimes you, because the pronouns were varied in the different texts of Scripture which I had occasion to quote and apply. See Word to the H. p. 21. 30.-But pray, Sir, let me bear my own burden; heavy as it is, I submit to it all, and take shame to myself. Do not lay my ignorance at other people's doors, who certainly have nothing to do with it. We have books written by those whom you will call Hutchinsonians, that do not altogether shew the driveller. There is the Reverend Dr. Hodges's Elihu; there is the Reverend Mr. Holloway's Primavity of the Hebrew Tongue: there is another book, too, which I am sure would incline you to have a little mercy upon us, if were to read it; and that is-An Answer to Mr. Kennicott, by my friend Mr. Comings.

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VIII. The last and heaviest charge against us is-want of charity. Now the word charity is the English translation of the Greek word ayan, love. Love is shewn, by consulting the interest of the person beloved. And, as an eternal interest is preferable to a temporal, the interest of the soul must be consulted before that of the body, if they happen to clash; otherwise, a false love of the body may prove a real hatred of the soul. Therefore it is writtenLevit. xix. 17. "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him."-or-" that thou bear not sin for him." Agreeably to this rule, the author has chosen a text for his motto, which ends with the words " admonishing one another." And his rule in admonishing he gives us, p. 20,-" In order effectually to expose ignorance, and guard against imposition from it, (of which, to be sure, there is great danger!) it should plainly be called ignorance and the more effectually to banish vice, and prevent its contagion, (there's a charitable touch for our morality again!) it should plainly be called vice." So say I; and in order to expose and guard against infidelity, it should plainly be called infidelity; and in order the more effectually to prevent the contagion of a damnable heresy, it should plainly be called a damnable heresy: otherwise souls may be sent into torments, to curse to all eternity the cruelty of those who, through fear of man, forgot the Lord Jesus their Maker, and did not speak out, and warn them plainly of the wrath to come upon all who deny the Lord that bought them. It is a dreadful thing for a man to dissemble, when he knows from the physician that the plague is in a house, and sees his friends going into it. We know from the great Physician, that heresy is the plague of the soul; and, without repentance, is as inevitably the death of it as the pestilence is of the body. For heresy is damnable, and the heresy that has that epithet in Scripture, is that of denying the Lord, i. e. denying the Divinity of him who is the Lord Jehovah, King of kings, and Lord of lords. In all such cases, the greater the danger is, the stronger ought the terms to be that express it, to keep men from running into it. The language, it is true, must often sound harsh to the parties concerned; for physic is seldom palatable. But, whether they hear or