portant nature, must always be confidered as grave by all the partakers of mortality, who think juftly and feel acutely *.

SECTION XX.

The Opinion of Bishop Horsley on the prevalent Neglect of teaching the peculiar DOCTRINES of Chrift ianity, under the Idea that Moral Duties conflitute the Whole or the better Part of it. Among the peculiar Doctrines is evidently included that of Grace, which the Methodists inculcate, (as the Bishop intimates,) not erroneously.

ISHOP Horsley has proved himself a mathema

tician and philofopher of the first rank, as well as a divine. All his works difplay fingular vigour of intellect. He cannot be fufpected of weak fuperftition or wild fanaticifm. To the honour of Christianity, the editor of Newton, as well as Newton himself, is a firm fupporter of its moft myfterious doctrines. I defire the reader to weigh well the words of this able divine, as they were delivered in a charge to his clergy.

* Many, find, continue to be fceptical on the fubject of Mr. Jenyns's fincerity. It is impoffible to penetrate the heart; but I ask what proof, or shadow of proof, appears in his pleasing little book on the Evidences of Christianity, that the author was infincere? I take the liberty of mentioning that the prefent Bishop of London, who was intimately acquainted with Mr. Jenyns, told me that he thought him an unfeigned believer.

But whether fincere or not, it appears clearly from this quotation, that he understood the gofpel on the fubject of the Holy Spirit's agency, in the fame manner as I have done. His teftimony, as that of a man of great fagacity, is valuable.

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"A maxim

"A maxim has been introduced," fays he, "that the laity, the more illiterate especially, have "little concern with the mysteries of revealed re"ligion, provided they be attentive to its duties; "whence it hath feemed a fafe and certain con"clufion, that it is more the office of a Chriftian "teacher to prefs the practice of religion upon "the confciences of his hearers, than to inculcate "and affert its doctrines.

"Again, a dread of the pernicious tendency of "fome extravagant opinions, which perfons, more "to be esteemed for the warmth of their piety than the foundnefs of their judgment, have "grafted in modern times, upon the doctrine of "juftification by faith, as it is ftated in the 11th,

12th, and 13th of the Articles of our Church, "(which, however, is no private tenet of the "church of England, but the common doctrine

of all the first reformers, not to fay that it is the "very corner-fone of the whole fyftem of redemption,) dread of the pernicious tendency of those ex"travagant opinions, which feem to emancipate "the believer from the authority of all moral "law, hath given general credit to another maxim; "which I never hear without extreme concern "from the lips of a divine, either from the pulpit "or in familiar converfation; namely, that prac"tical religion and morality are one and the fame

thing that moral duties conftitute the whole, " or by far the better part, of practical Christi❝anity.

"Both these maxims are erroneous. Both, fo "far as they are received, have a pernicious in"fluence over the miniftry of the word. The

first moft abfurdly feparates practice from the "motives of practice. The fecond, adopting that "feparation, reduces practical Christianity to

"heathen

"heathen virtue; and the two, taken together, "have much contributed to divest our fermons of "the genuine fpirit and favour of Chriftianity, and "to reduce them to mere moral effays: in which "moral duties are enforced, not, as indeed they "might be to good purpose, by fcriptural motives, .. "but by fuch arguments as no where appear to fo "much advantage as in the writings of the hea"then moralifts, and are quite out of their place "in a pulpit. The rules delivered may be ob"ferved to vary according to the temperament of "the teacher. But the fyftem chiefly in request, "with those who seem the most in earnest in this "ftrain of preaching, is the ftrict but impracti"cable, unfocial, fullen moral of the Stoics. Thus, "under the influence of these two pernicious "maxims, it too often happens that we lofe fight "of that which is our proper office, to publish "the word of reconciliation, to propound the "terms of peace and pardon to the penitent, and "we make no other ufe of the high commiffion "that we bear, than to come abroad one day in "the feven, dreffed in folemn looks, and in the "external garb of holinefs, to be the apes of "Epictetus.

"The first of the two, which excludes the laity "from all concern with the doctrinal part of re"ligion, and directs the preacher to let the doc"trine take its chance, and to turn the whole at"tention of his hearers to practice, muft tacitly affume for its foundation (for it can stand upon "no other foundation) this complex propofition: "Not only that the practice of religious duties is far more excellent thing in the life of man, "far more ornamental of the Christian profeffion, "than any knowledge of the doctrine without the practice; but, moreover, that men may be

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F 6

"brought

"brought to the practice of religion without pre"vious inftruction in its doctrines; or in other "words, that faith and practice are, in their na"ture, feparable things. Now the former branch "of this double affumption, that virtue is a more "excellent thing in human life than knowledge, "is unquestionably true, and a truth of great im66 portance, which cannot be too frequently or too "earneftly inculcated. But the fecond branch of "the affumption, that faith and practice are se"parable things, is a grofs mistake, or rather a « manifeft contradiction. Practical holiness is

the end; faith is the means: and to fuppofe ❝ faith and practice feparable, is to suppose the "end attainable without the use of means. The "direct contrary is the truth. The practice of "religion will always thrive, in proportion as its "doctrines are generally understood and firmly

received; and the practice will degenerate and "decay, in proportion as the doctrine is mifun"derstood or neglected. It is true, therefore, "that it is the great duty of a preacher of the "gofpel to prefs the practice of its precepts upon

the confciences of men; but then it is equally "true, that it is his duty to enforce this practice "in a particular way; namely, by inculcating its "doctrines. The motives which the revealed « doctrines furnish, are the only motives he has "to do with, and the only motives by which re"ligious duty can be effectually enforced.

"I am aware, that it has been very much the "fashion, to fuppofe a great want of capacity in "the common people, to be carried any great "length in religious knowledge, more than in the "abftrufe fciences. That the world and all things "in it had a maker; that the Maker of the world "made man, and gave him the life which he now ❝ enjoys;

"enjoys; that he who first gave life, can at any "time restore it; that he can punish, in a future "life, crimes which he suffers to be committed " with impunity in this; some of these first prin"ciples of religion the vulgar, it is fuppofed, "may be brought to comprehend. But the pe"culiar doctrines of revelation, the trinity of per"fons in the undivided Godhead; the incarna"tion of the second perfon; the expiation of fin "by the Redeemer's fufferings and death; the ef"ficacy of his interceffion; THE MYSTERIOUS 86 COMMERCE OF THE BELIEVER'S SOUL WITH THE

DIVINE SPIRIT; these things are fuppofed to be "far above their reach. If this were really the "cafe, the condition of man would indeed be "miferable, and the proffer of mercy, in the "gofpel, little better than a mockery of their "woe; for the confequence would be, that the common people could never be carried beyond "the first principles of what is called natural re"ligion. Of the efficacy of natural religion, as

a rule of action, the world has had the long experience of 1600 years. For fo much was the "interval between the inftitution of the Mofaic "church, and the publication of the gospel. "During that interval, certainly, if not from an "earlier period, natural religion was left to try "its powers on the heathen world. The refult "of the experiment is, that its powers are of no "avail. Among the vulgar, natural religion never "produced any effect at all; among the learned, "much of it is to be found in their writings, little

in their lives. But if this natural religion, a "thing of no practical efficacy, as experiment "has demonftrated, be the utmost of religion "which the common people can receive, then is "our preaching vain, Chrift died in vain, and