tians, who faw themselves hated and perfecuted by their fellow-citizens, and in general abused by the whole world. Yet, however reasonable refentment might appear at first fight, the apoftle The peculiar circumftances of the perfon fpeaking alfo ferves to account for many things, that fall under the immediate notice of theologifts, and at first appear very unaccountable. We will exemplify a few. 1. Nothing is more common than to hear men of equal abilites affirm directly contrary to one another on the fame fubject. Tillotson and Holcroft had been chamberfellows at Clare-hall. Til lotfon declared in his old age, "I I do in my confcience believe the [epifcopal] church of England to be the beft conftituted church in the world." Serm. on 1 Cor. iii. 15. Holcroft thought, the epifcopal church of England was an image of the beaft, as favage and more filly than the beaft itfelf. How are we to account for this variety? Confider the condition of each Speaker. The image of the beat made Tillotson Archbishop of Canterbury; and the best conftituted church in the world was very near hanging Holcroft for non-conformity. 2. Nothing is more frequently feen than the fame divine differing from himself. Stillingfleet did fo. In his would Irenicum, he declared that prefbyterian government was more conformable to fcripture and reason than Epifcopacy-that Bishops ought not to impofe any ceremonies, which have no foundation in fcripture-that fchifm was on their fide, who impofed ceremonies, and not on theirs, who refufed fubmiffion to them. But in his Answer to feveral late treatifes, he calls thofe fchifmaticks, who deny fubmiffion to the government of the epifcopal church of England, and adds, "The conftitution of our church ftands upon this single point, all things are lawful, which are NOT FORBIDDEN." Whence this difference? The peculiar condition of the fpeaker is to be confidered. The Irenicum was published when the author was minifter of one fingle Sutton in Bedfordshire. The Answer came out about 18 years after, when - - . what? God forbid we should fay, men fhould not live and learn but it happens very unluckily, when illumination and preferment come together! Bifhop Stillingfleet's opponents faid, the point on which his church flood, " would would not have them obey fuch paffions as the light of reafon, the inftinct of nature, and the defire of their own prefervation might feem to excite. He "would make a pure fricaffee of religion, it would juftify the addition of oil, cream, fpittle, and falt in baptifm, and it would as much authorize a minister to preach the gospel with a helmet on his head, and a fword and buckler in his hand, as figns of our fpiritual warfare, as it would the crofs in baptifm. It is not enough in religion, that things are not forbidden, they must be commanded. Jer. vii. 31." Lewis Du Moulin ubi fupra. 3. Divines have feen a whole church change its doctrine, and yet retain its creeds, and tefts of orthodoxy; and, what is more extraordinary, declare the fame tefts the guardians of two fyftems of divinity as oppofite as particular election and general redemption, and both of them gofpel for the time. What! Has the gofpel of 1555 been explained by any new reve lation fince, or is the old gofpel an uncertain found? Neither: but the particular conditions of leading churchmen have altered with the times, and with the tempers of civil governors. 4. Divines have feen a church change its temper of governing, and yet not alter its form of government. Stratagem and collufion, duplicity and foft words took place with Tillotson, and Tenifon, of Parkerian fire, and Laudean pride. The latter in days of yore excommunicated and perfecuted non-conformists to death: but the former in later times tell us they pity and pray for us, and esteem us their dear brethren in Chrift. Have they made an abatement of one word in terms of confor mity from the day that Ifrael came up out of Egypt to this day? Confider Mr. Claude's eleventh common place, take advice, Speak your minds, and firft of all give thanks for kings, and for all that are in authority, that you lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honefty! 5. We fometimes amuse ourselves with contrafting the great doers with the great fufferers in religion in the days of our ancestors. We weigh the merits of Fox and Coverdale against those of Cranmer and Cox-We fet Cartwright against Whitgift Baxter and Bates against Laud and Cofins-Watts against Atterbury-Bunyan againft Bugg-and fo on; and we enquire R 2 No2 we He exhorted them to leave vengeance to God, and advised them only to follow the dictates of love, The greatest perfecutors of the primitive Chriftians were the Jews, on whom the Roman Christians could easily have avenged themselves under various pretexts; for the Jews were generally hated and defpifed by all other nations, and nothing could be eafier than to avail themfelves of that publick hatred, to which the religion of the Jews exposed them. Nevertheless, S. Paul not only fays in general Render not evil for evil: but in particular Recompenfe to no man evil for evil. As if he we will not enquire. Claudite jam rivos, pueri, fat prata biberunt. Finally, this place is ufeful in many fingle theological queftions. For example, Why did not the apoftles fpeak against putting infant-bap tifm in the room of circumcifion? The particular ftate of the primitive church did not require. it. Infant-baptifm had not been thought of then. Why did not the apoftles make creeds and canons? They would have defeated their own particular view, which was to put individuals into a capacity of making creeds and canons for themfelves, &c. &c. Confider the particular ftate of the perfons addreffed. The ufe of the moral law is thus placed in a very proper fight, Ufus legis moralis varius eft fecundum varios fatus hominis. Primevo bominis ftatui erat ut homo per had illam vivificaretur. Ufus fub ftatu peccati eft, ut hominem de tranfgreffione et reatu arguat - - ut illum fic convictum ad gratiam defiderandam compellat - - - Servit præterea lex in hoc ftatu tum Deo, ut hominem cohibeat, tum peccato, ut peccatum augeat. Tertius ufus legis moralis erga hominem jam Spiritu Dei et Chrifti renatum conveniens ftatui gratiæ eft, ut fit perpetua regula vitæ. Ex hifce ufibus facile colligere eft, quoufque lex moralis inter fideles, et fub gratia Chrifti conftitutos obtineat, et quoufque abrogata fit. Arminii op. Theol. Difputat. Pub. xii. To give an example, Rom. xi. 33. O the depth, &c. in order to enter into the apoftle's meaning, it is neceffary to confider the subjet, to which he applies his text, and never to lofe fight of the defign of this whole epistle. had faid, Do not injure thofe, on whom you could most easily avenge yourselves; hurt not the moft violent epiftle. The apoftle principally means to oppose a scandalous fchifm, which rent the church of Rome; that church was composed of two forts of Chriftians, fome of them came from paganism, others from Judaifm; the latter defpifed the former, fo they had always treated foreigners; they infifted on it, that for their own parts they had a natural right to the bleffings, which the Meffiah came to bestow upon his church; because, being born Jews, they were the lawful heirs of Abraham, to whom the promise was made, whereas the Gentiles partook of thefe bleffings only by mere grace. St. Paul opposes this prejudice, proves that Jews and Gentiles were alike under fin, that they had an equal need of the covenant of grace, that they both owed their vocation to the mercy of God, that no one was rejected as a Gentile, or admitted as a Jew, and that fuch only had a part in this falvation as had been chofen in the eternal decrees of God. The Jews could not relish fuch humbling ideas, nor adjuft all this doctrine with their high notions of the prerogatives of their nation, much lefs could they enter into S. Paul's fyftem of predeftination. S. Paul applies this chapter, out of which our text is taken, and the two preceding ones, to anfwer their difficulties. He turns the fubject (if I may fo fpeak) on every fide to make it clear. He reafons, proves, argues: but after he had heaped proofs upon proofs, reafons upon reafons, folutions upon folutions, he acknowledges in the words of my text, that it was his glory to reft beneath his subject: he claffes himself in a manner with the most ignorant of thofe, to whom he writes, he acknowledges that he has not received a fufficient measure of the spirit of God to fathom fuch abyffes, and he exclaims upon the brink of this ocean, O the depth, &c. able, &c. divine, tom. xi. how unfearchSur les profondeurs Monfieur Saurin's defign in this fermon is to promote Christian love among people, who think differently concerning the decrees. In order to this he observes, that all the ways, in which it pleases God to discover himfelf to men, though fhining with light are yet shaded with adorable darkness, they are labyinths, in which feeble reason is loft. Our ideas of the deity are ideas of a vaft profound-the works of nature are a great deep-the ways violent enemies of the name of Jefus Chrift, and 66 ways of providence-and the doctrines of revelation are alfo diftinguished by the fame characters. He examines the doctrine of decrees, and among many fyftems chcofes that, which appears to him the true one; but, adds he, fhould you ask me after all, whether my own fyftem be liable to no objections I would lay my hand upon my mouth, I would acknowledge my ignorance, and freely own, that I chofe this fubject lefs to clear than to prefs its difficulties, and hereby to make you perceive that toleration, which Chriftians mutually owe each other on this article. We ourfelves alfo exclaim on the borders of this abyss, O the depth, &c." Mr. S. reminds me of Bucholtzer, one of the greatest of the German reformers. "Timiditas quædam Bucholçero a quibufdam objecta eft, quod cum eximiis a deo dotibus effet decoratus, in certa. men tamen cum rabiofis illius feculi Theologis noluit defcendere ipfe juvenis fæpe ad amicos aiebat, Defii difputare capi fupputare, quoniam illud diffipationem, hoc collectionem fignificat - vidit de religionis Chriftiana negotiis controverfius ecclefiis orthodoxis moveri ab iis quos nulla unquam amoris Dei feintilla calefacerat. Vidit ex the diuturnis theologorum rixis utilitatis nihil detrimenti plurimum in ecclefias redundaffe. Quapropter omnis ejus cura in hoc erat, ut auditores fidei fuæ commiffos doceret bene vivre, et beate mori et annotatum in adverfariis amici ejus repererunt, permultos in extremo agone conflitutos gratias ipfi boc nomine egiffe, quod ipfius ductu fervatorem fuum Jefum agnoviffent, cujus in cognitione pulchrum vivere mori vero longe pulcherrimum ducerent. Atque haud fcio annon hoc ipfum longe Bucholcero coram deo gloriofius fit futurum, quam fi al:quot contentioforum libellorum myriadas pofteritatis memoriæ confecraffet. Melch. Adam. vitæ Germ. Theolog, in vita Bucholceri. See alfo Baxter's Saint's Reft, p. iv. c. 3. (6) Hurt not thofe, who frive to destroy the gospel. Mr. Claude does not mean here to inculcate the fenfelefs notions of paffive obedience, and non-refiftanc, as too many of our divines have done from fuch paffages of fcripture. In a letter to Monfieur Michaeli, fpeaking of the difputes in England, he fays, "If one party, being in power, would constrain the other against their confcience and judgment, the fchifm is certainly on the fide of the impofers." The |