be also an easy method of imparting it, it will fol low, fuperiority is due to revelation. Nature is a fpeechless beauty, filently waiting till depraved man fhall find leifure and inclination to be inftructed by dumb figns, by figns, which even cultivated capacities find hard to understand, are not fure at any time they have understood at all, and never know when they have comprehended in the whole. Revelation is really and literally a voice, clear and expreffive, fpeaking at fundry times, and in divers manners. Shall I call it the mouth of nature? The wifeft fay, it is the voice of God! It was first delivered in audible founds by the Creator himself to our firft parents, it has been fince uttered in his name by prophets, then by his Son, and after him by infpired apoftles, and it has been repeated, explained, and enforced by a fucceffion of publick preachers. By it, in all ages and countries, the ignorant have been informed, the indolent aroused, the profane placed before a tribunal of juftice, and brought to genuine repentance, the penitent led to a throne of mercy, where pardon was proclaimed, the doubtful directed, the wa vering confirmed, the timid emboldened, the dif treffed comforted. What fchool of philofophy has wrought effects fo beneficial to mankind as these? As, therefore, we prefer revelation on every other account, fo chiefly on this, its mode of tuition is all-fufficient, and at the fame time the fimpleft and eafieft in the world. The things, that you have heard among many witnesses, the fame commit to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others alfo.

The argument for revelation, that arifes from publick preaching, is defenfible in every point of view, and as it regards the bulk of mankind it has peculiar

peculiar energy. Were we to allow, that natural religion was a science of God as perfect as that which revelation poffeffes, yet all the benefits of understanding it would be attainable by only fuch as should have capacity and leisure, accuracy of obfervation, and juftness of reflection. The poor and illiterate, the bufy, the diffipated, and the dejected, the fick and the aged, thoughtless till fickness and age overtake them, the vigorous youth, in his career of fancied pleasure, the wretched malefactor, whom a dungeon brings to feel the want of religion; all these, that is to fay, the bulk of mankind, are deeply interested in a fimple fort of fyftem, which may be understood in a fhort time, and which, while it provides for the payment of all due honours to natural religion, makes provifion alfo for plucking a criminal from the horrid jaws of yawning deftruction. Such a system revelation is. In natural religion, it is the creator giving laws, the judge trying caufes, and condemning criminals, and how cold is the confolation, that arifes from these conjectures, It is poffible he may pardon the guilty, and it is poffible I may be the man! In revelation, it is the good fhepherd, traverfing the wilderness in anxious pursuit of a loft sheep, that hears and knows the fhepherd's voice. It is the tender father, all melting with compaffion, and flowing with tears, calling to the prodigal beggar, his fon, to return from penury to felicity, from the company of brutes to the bofom of God. Best of beings! what delight to hear thy voice, even wrapped in the gloom of the darkest thicket, and wilfully buried in the blackness of impenetrable fhade!

It will be objected, publick preaching has been perverted but it will be answered, as long as we have a standard it may be reformed to its original purity. The ark of Jehovah fell of old into the hands of heathens, who, having no dimensions or directions from the first artist, decorated it according to their own fuperftitious fancies, and in their great wifdom returned it to its owners, as if it had been a trunk of Dagon, accompanied with the glorious images of mice and morbid ulcers. (1)

Thus it has happened to all the ordinances of heaven. Prayer and preaching, baptifm and the Lord's fupper, have all fallen into the hands of bad men, and they have difguifed and difgraced them : but what is reformation, and what is proteftantifim? do they not include recovery and original purity? In regard to the pulpit, let us at least try to feparate indelicate human baubles from original workmanfhip, and to place the ecclefiaftical roftrum in that neat fimplicity of finished tafte, in which the divine artift firft commanded it to be made. Plainnefs in religion is elegance, and popular perfpicuity true magnificence.

The hiftory of the pulpit is curious and entertaining. It has spoken all languages, and in all forts of ftyle. It has partaken of all the customs of the schools, the theatres, and the courts of all the countries, where it has been erected. It has been a feat of wisdom and a fink of nonfense. has been filled by the best and the worft of men. It has proved in fome hands a trumpet of fedition,

(1) The Philistines took the ark of God. Smote them with emerods.

God

It

and

But the Lord

And they fent back the ark of with five golden mice, and five golden emerods in a coffer. 1 Sam. iv. 5, 6.

and in others a fource of peace and confolation: but on a fair balance, collected from authentick hiftory, there would appear no proportion between the benefits and the mifchiefs, which mankind have derived from it, fo much do the advantages of it preponderate! In a word, evangelical preaching has been, and yet continues to be reputed foolishnefs but real wildom, a wifdom and a power, by which it pleafeth God to fave the fouls of men (2)

With views of this kind I fpeak in the fear of God, who fearcheth the heart.) and not to give offence to any, I collected and published the notes in the following effay. Alas! does a modern epifcopalian undertake the defence of every abfurdity exhibited to the world by every thing called in palt times a bishop! Or fhall a modern non-conformift adopt all the weakneffes of every one, who was perfecuted out of established communities! All other orders of men examine and reform themfelves; do men in black alone intend to render impropriety immutable and everlafting! I have exemplified the abfurdities, complained of by Mr. Claude, by the works of our ancestors, who are dead and gone, on purpose to avoid offending. Indeed, this was necessary, for who alive has one pulpit impropriety to quote !

I defigned at firft to have added to thefe two a third volume of the fame fize, entitled, AN ESSAY TOWARD A HISTORY OF PUBLICK PREACHING. The matter was intended to be diftributed into

twenty

(2) The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishnejs. But it pleafed God by the foolishness of preaching to fave them that believe : because the foolishness of God is wifer than men. I Cor. i.

twenty differtations, containing one with another twenty pages each, and entitled as follows:

I. The neceffity of fome divine revelation as a ground of divine worship.-II. The revelation given to Adam, compared with other pretended revelations.-III. The patriarchal ftate of preaching from Adam to Mofes.-IV. The state of preaching from Mofes to the captivity.-V. The ftate of preaching during the captivity.-VI. The ftate of publick tuition, from Ezra's time to the coming of Chrift, both in Judea and other provinces. VII. The ftate in which Chrift placed preaching.-VIII. The pulpit-state during the lives of the apoftles.-IX. The ftate of preaching during the first three centuries.-X. The ftate of preaching in the Greek church till the reformation. -XI. A view of the pulpit in the Latin church till the fame period.-XII. The state of preaching in Britain, from the most remote antiquity, and in Europe at the time of the reformation.XIII. The condition of publick instruction in England, from the reformation till the death of Charles I.-XIV. The English pulpit during the civil war and the protectorate.-XV. A view of the pulpit from the acceffion of Charles II. to the revolution.-XVI. The pulpit in foreign churches, and in England, from the revolution to the end of the reign of George II.-XVII. The state of preaching among English, Danish, Popish, and other miffionaries abroad, particularly in the East and Weft Indies.-XVIII. The prefent ftate of preaching in England among Roman catholicks, epifcopalians, moravians, methodists, prefbyterians, independents, baptifts, quakers, &c. XIX. Juftification of thofe in all parties, who

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