life has been thrown away! This analogy, which he will not suffer bishop Horne to suppose, without being fanciful and presumptu. ous, has been admitted and insisted upon, as plain and certain, by the best divines of the Christian Church; who used it, and admi. red it, because they found it in the word of God: and it holds par ticularly in the two great objects of nature, air and light, where this modern divine, (for such I suppose him,) cannot see it himself, and will not permit us to see it without him. Was not the presence of the Divine Spirit, on the day of Pentecost, announced to the senses of men by the sound of a rushing, mighty wind? Did not our Saviour, in his discourse with Nicodemus, illustrate the agency of the Divine Spirit by that of the natural? The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Why did he communicate the Holy Ghost under the outward sign of breathing upon them, if no comparison is to be made between the sign and the thing signified? The word inspiration, which is the act of the Holy Ghost, denotes a blowing or breathing as of the air; and the name Spirit is common to the natural air and to the Holy Ghost. What is the meaning of all this? Does the word of God make comparisons, and put one thing for another; and shall we say, there is no analogy or likeness; that is, no sense nor propriety in the substitution? That would indeed be presumptuous, if not blasphemous: and the author would not have entangled himself in this manner, if he had not been frightened out of his wits at Hutchinsonianism! But, after all, to those who search for it, the analogy must instantly discover itself; and it hath been pointed out to us without reserve by a divine of the old school, bishop Andrews; who was in no fear of being called to an account for it by the learned of that age. In his first discourse on the descent of the Holy Ghost, he has these words: "The wind which is here the type of the Holy Ghost, doth of all creatures best express it: for, of all bodily things, it is the least bodily, and even invisible, as a Spirit is. It is mighty or violent; seemingly of little force, and yet of the greatest: but never so vehement as the Spirit is in its proceedings. As the wind serveth for breath so doth the Spirit give life, and is called the Spirit of Life. As i serveth for speech, so doth the Spirit give utterance: and, as the one serveth for sound, so by the other the sound of the Apostles went out into all lands." This, and more to the same purpose saith bishop Andrews; and I call this true Divinity: he was in n fear about types and analogies: he finds the analogy as strict, a if the air had been created for this use. And what Christian, who reads his Bible, will find fault with bishop Horne, if he thought and preached, as bishop Andrews did before him? The one was the delight of his times; and the other may continue to be the de light of our times; notwithstanding the censures which have bee thrown out against him, with so little experience, that I am asha med for the author of them.

The other great object of nature, where the analogy is not per

mitted to us, is that of the light: but it holds in this case as strictly as in the other: for our Saviour calls himself the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world: and a Prophet calls him the Sun of righteousness. All the men of this world, who have light, have it from the same Sun; and all, that have the light of life, have it from the same Saviour. And the operations and attributes of the true light in the kingdom of grace are the same as those of the light in the natural world. We took the authority of bishop Andrews in the former example; we may now take that of archbishop Leighton;* who sees the analogy between the natural and divine light:-first, in their purity; both are incapable of pollution: secondly, in their universality; both are imparted to all, without being diminished: thirdly, in their vivifying power; the one raises plants and vegetables from the earth, the other raises men from the dead: fourthly, in their dispelling darkness; all shadows fly before the Sun; all the types and shadows of the law, all the mists of darkness and idolatry, at the appearance of the other, who is the light of the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel; even that glory, which had been so often foreshowed to them: for, as the glory was in their tabernacle and filled it, so the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in Christ: unvaσev'ev nμw, he dwelt in a tabernacle amongst us. Is not this a just and beautiful analogy? And can there be any man of taste, who will not see and admire it? Is the Scripture fanciful in teaching it? And is this good bishop presumptuous in following it? It is a grief to me to be urging so many questions in so plain a case: but wise men lay us under a cruel necessity, when they are in such a hurry to run away from doctrines, which they call Hutchinsonian, without knowing, that they have been common to the Christian world; and that every master in Israel, (supposing this gentleman to be of that character,) is expected to have acquired, from a proper study of the Scripture, that experience which makes all these things plain, and enables us to see the spiritual in the natural world; the glass in which (a, by means of which†) God hath been pleased to show us that and Himself, till we shall see him face to face; and not, as we do now, by reflection from the objects of nature. All, who do not know the use of this grand speculum, are under the poverty of ignorance; they lose a great help to their faith, together with a great instrument for the improving of their understanding; at least in spiritual things. What would Divinity be, and what can a teacher of it be, without the use of analogies, and the power we acquire, when we argue from them? They are so universal in the Scripture, that a man may as well read English without the alphabet, as read the Bible without understanding its analogies. They are, therefore, never to be given up, but to be insisted upon, and

• See Sermon fifth of archbishop Leighton's eighteen.

† di Tontou ev alviyar-Though the preposition dia is here used, we do not suppose with our English version that the allusion is to dioptricks, bat catoptricks: 80 gov is a speculum, wherein things are seen by reflection.

recommended to others, as the very life and soul of Christian wisdom.

I would willingly have avoided a party name, being conscious that I am not a party man; but disposed to exercise an independent judgment, and take what is good and useful from every quarter where I can find it; either for my own benefit, or that of the publick. If I can do good, I am willing to do it under any character which an honest man may wear. But my adversaries, (who are not a few,) have found such an advantage, for many years past, in giving me the name of an Hutchinsonian, that they will never part with it. So, as I am stamped with that name, I may speak freely, without losing any ground. Too many of the learned have shown an unusual propensity, for many years, to censure and reject every principle reported to be Hutchinsonian, without first knowing what it is, and what is to be said for it. The biographer, against whom I have defended bishop Horne, attacks him as an Hutchinsonian, without knowing, that he was making his attack on that quarter where the Hutchinsonians are strongest: and this, not with weak arguments, but with no arguments at all; unless we can find one in the words-it will surely be thought-which is not an argument, but an appeal to the judgment of others, who are under the same prejudice with himself. To prevent which for the time to come, and to satisfy those, who, having heard some things to perplex them, would be glad of better information; I shall tell them, as well as I can, what the principles really are, by which an Hutchinsonian is distinguished from other men. But when I consider, that this inquiry will lead us into some great, deep and difficult subjects of which no man can speak worthily-and of which so many have spoken rashly-I tremble at my undertaking; and intreat every wise and good man to make allowances for me, at a stage of life, when forces fail, and memory is weak; and to give me a fair and charitable hearing.

1. In the first place, the followers of Mr. Hutchinson give to God the pre-eminence in every thing. His authority with them is above all authority: His wisdom above all wisdom: His truth above all truth. They judge every thing to be good or bad, wise or foolish, as it promotes or hinders the belief of Christianity. On which account, their first enemies are to be found among skepticks, infidels, and atheists. Their next enemies are those who are afraid of believing too much: such as our Socinians and their confederates, who admit Christianity as a fact, but deny it as a doctrine.

2. They hold, that only one way of salvation has been revealed to man from the beginning of the world; viz. the way of faith in God, redemption by Jesus Christ, and a detachment from the world: and that this way is revealed in both Testaments.

3. That in both Testaments divine things are explained and confirmed to the understandings of men, by allusions to the natural creation. I say confirmed; because the Scripture is so constant and uniform in the use it makes of natural objects, that such an analogy appears between the sensible and spiritual world, as car

ries with it sensible evidence to the truth of revelation; and they think, that, where this evidence is once apprehended by the mind, no other will be wanted. They are therefore persuaded, it may have great effect towards making men Christians, in this last age of the world; now the original evidence of miracles is remote and almost forgotten,

4. They are confirmed Trinitarians. They became such at their baptism in common with other Christians: and they are kept such, by their principles; especially by what is called the Hutchinsonian philosophy of fire, light, and air. Nature shows us these three agents in the world, on which all natural life and motion depend: and these three are used in the Scripture to signify to us the three supreme powers of the Godhead, in the administration of the spiritual world; notwithstanding the judgment which our new biographer hath passed against them. Let any philosopher show us one single effect, of which it may be proved, that neither fire, light nor air contribute to it in any of their various forms.*

5. On the authority of the Scriptures, they entertain so low an opinion of human nature, under the consequences of the fall, that they derive every thing in religion from revelation or tradition. A system may be fabricated, and called natural; but a religion it cannot be; for there never was a religion, among Jews or Gentiles,

To show how differently the same things will appear to different men, and how men of learning, through habits of thinking, may be unprepared to judge of common things, I will mention the example of my own Tutor of University College in Oxford; who, having been persuaded to read a little piece of Duncan Forbes on the system of Hutchinson, (which by the way I would recommend to the reader,) was heard to say, "there were some good things and some curious things in it; but the man raves when he talks of his fire, light, and spirit." Now herein is to me a marvellous thing; that Learning, seated in the chair of Alfred, should take this doctrine of fire, light, and air to be raving: when Ignorance, with a tallow candle in its hand, need only light it, to see them all at work together. Air enters at the bottom, where the flame looks blue: fire and smoke from the snuff are at the top, and the brightest light is about the middle. No man can draw a line between them, or say where one ends and another begins. But here they are certainly; for, without air, the candle goes out: without fire, it will not burn us: and, without light, we shall not see by it. And all this is no theory, but a plain, undeniable matter of fact. How wonderful, that a philosopher cannot see this; when a child or a ploughman may be made to understand it! Two strange events of the same kind are more credible than one. The people among the Jews, who knew most, were those who could see least.

When the good lord president Forbes wrote his letter from Scotland, there were rocks and mountains in his way; and he had the mortification to see that he prevailed but little. These are now not near so formidable as they were then: great and unexpected events have intervened. Infidelity, the grand adversary, hath now overshot its mark; and is found to have in it so much more of the felon, than the philosopher, that gentlemen begin to be ashamed of its company. Its opponents are inspired with new zeal, and act with new vigour; as may be seen in two periodical publications of modern date. Attraction is going down; and the demonstration of a vacuum is not to be supported; as I shall show in another place. Electricity hath risen up, and given us the knowledge of a new power in nature, which is an object of sense, and may be extended to the whole system of the world. Lord Forbes's letter to a bishop was written with the best intention in the world; but, when a scheme is new, and admitted in all its parts, more weight is laid upon some things, than they will bear. He tells his reader many curious things, for which I have not room; neither would I choose to introduce them, because they depend on Hebrew

evidence.

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Greeks, Romans, or Barbarians, since the beginning of the world, without sacrifice and priesthood: of which natural religion, having neither, is consequently no religion. The imagination of man, by supposing a religion without these, has done infinite disservice to the only religion by which man can be saved. It has produced the deistical substitution of naked morality, or Turkish honesty, for the doctrines of intercession, redemption and divine grace. It has no gift from God, but that nature, which came poor, and blind, and naked out of Paradise; subject only to further misery, from its own lusts, and the temptations of the Devil. A religion, more flattering to the pride of man, pleases his fancy better than this; but it will never do him any good.

Hutchinson himself had so strong a sense of this, that he looked upon natural religion as Deism in disguise; an engine of the Devil, in these latter days, for the overthrow of the Gospel; and therefore boldly called it the religion of Satan or Antichrist. Let the wellinformed Christian look about him and consider, whether his words, extravagant as they might seem at first, have not been fully verified. I myself, for one, am so thoroughly persuaded of this, that I determine never to give quarter to natural religion, when it falls in my way to speak of the all-sufficiency of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We know very well how the Scripture is brought in, to give its countenance to the notion of a natural religion: but we know also that dark texts are drawn to such a sense, as to render all the rest of the Scripture of no effect; as hath happened in the doctrines of predestination and natural religion; by the former of which we lose the Church, by the latter its Faith. Facts bring a dispute to a short issue. If Voltaire were alive, I would be judged by him, whether Christianity hath not been going down ever since natural religion came up. And we know, by what his disciples, the French, have done, that natural religion comes up, when Christianity is put down. These facts teach us, that they will not stand long together. Whether they possibly might or not is not worth an inquiry; because he, that has got Christianity, may leave natural religion to shift for itself.

6. Few writers for natural religion have shown any regard to the types and figures of the Scripture, or known much about them. But the Hutchinsonians, with the old Christian Fathers, and the Divines of the Reformation, are very attentive to them, and take great delight in them. They differ in their nature from all the learning of the world; and so much of the wisdom of revelation is contained in them, that no Christian should neglect the knowledge of them. All infidels abominate them. Lord Bolingbroke calls St. Paul a Cabbalist for arguing from them; but the Hutchinsonians are ambitious of being such Cabbalists as St. Paul was.

7. In natural philosophy, they have great regard to the name of Newton, as the most wonderful genius of his kind. But they are sure, his method of proving a vacuum is not agreeable to nature. A vacuum cannot be deduced from the theory of resistances: for, if motion be from impulsion, as Newton himself, and some of the