tian religion*: till it can be fhewn therefore that the Scripture neither does nor can shine by a light and authority of its own, the evidence we are to reft in, must be drawn from thence; and as we all have the fame Scripture, without doubt we ought all to have the fame opinion of God.

But here it is commonly objected, that men will be of different opinions; that they have a right to judge for themselves; and that when the best evidence the nature of the cafe will admit of is collected and laid before them, they must determine upon it as it appears to them, and according to the light of their own consciences : fo that if they adhere as clofely to their errors after they have confulted the proper evidence as they did before, we are neither to wonder nor be troubled at it.

This very moderate and benevolent way of thinking, has been ftudiously recommended by those, who found it necessary to the well-being of their own opinions, that not a fpark of zeal should be left amongst us. And furely it is no new thing that the advocates of any particular error, next to themselves and their own fashion, fhould naturally incline to thofe who are foftest, and ftand leaft in the way. Hence it is, that however magifterial and. infolent they may carry themselves in their own caufe; they always take care to season their writings with the praises of this frozen indifference: calling that Chriftian charity, which is nothing but the absence of Chriftianity: and any the least the least appearance of earnestness for fome great and valuable truth, which we are unwilling to part with, because we hope to be faved by it, is brow-beaten, condemned, and caft out of their moral system, under the name of heat, want of temper, fire, fury, &c. They add moreover, that articles of faith are things merely speculative ; and that it is of little fignification what a man believes, if he is but hearty and fincere in it: that is, in other words, it is a mere trifle whether we feed upon bread + or poison‡; the one will prove to be as good nourishment as the other, provided it be eaten with an appetite. Yet fome well-meaning people are so puzzled and deceived by this fophiftry, that they look upon concord among Chriftians as a thing impracticable and desperate;

You may have a proof of this from the Effay on Spirit, by comparing the book with its title, which runs thus-The Doctrine of the Trinity confidered in the Light of Reason and Nature, &c.

+ See and compare Deut. viii. 3. Amos viii. 11. Acts xx. 28.

James iii. 8. 1 Tim. iv. 1.

concluding a point to be disputable because it is difputed; and so they fall into a loose indifferent humour of palliating and thinking charitably, as it is called, of every error in faith and practice; as if the church of Chrift might very innocently be turned into a Babel of confufion.

Now that men do maintain opinions ftrangely different from one another, efpecially on fubjects wherein it most concerns them to be agreed, is readily confeffed: we are all witneffes of it: and, allowing them to be equally informed, there are but three poffible fources from whence this difference can arife. It must be either from God, or from the Scripture, or from themselves. From God it cannot be, for it is a great evil; it is the triumph of Deifts and reprobates, and the best handle the enemies of Chriftianity ever found against it; and God is not the author of evil. Nor can it be from the Scripture: to draw it thence, is but another way of imputing it to God. The Scripture is his word; and he is anfwerable for the effect of his words when written or reported, as when they are fuggested at first hand by the voice of his Holy Spirit. It remains, therefore, that the only fource of this evil must be the heart of man and that it really is fo, will be evident from the Scripture, and the plaineft matters of fact. The account we have of this affair is, in fhort, as follows-Ever fince the fall, the nature of man has been blind and corrupt; his "understanding "darkened," and his affections polluted: upon the face of the whole earth there is no man, Jew or Gentile, that "understandeth "and feeketh after God?;" the natural man, or man remaining in that state wherein the fall left him, is fo far from being able to difcover or know any religious truth, that he hates and flies from it when it is propofed to him; he "receiveth not the things of "the Spirit of God"." Man is natural and earthly; the things of God are fpiritual and heavenly; and thefe are contrary one to the other: therefore, as the "wifdom of this world is foolish

nefs with God," fo the wifdom of God is foolithnefs with the world. In a word, the fenfe man is now poffeffed of, where God does not reftrain it, is ufed for evil and not for good: his "wisdom is earthly, fenfual*, devilish 5;" it is the fagacity of a brute, animated by the malignity of an evil spirit.

This being the present state of man, the Scripture does therefore declare it neceffary, that he should be "transformed by the "renewing of his mind '," and reftored to that" found mind"," and "light of the understanding "," that " fpiritual difcern"ment," with which the human nature was endued when it came from the hands of God, but to which it has been dead from the day that evil was brought into the world. And where the grace of God that should open the eyes, and prepare the heart to receive inftruction, has been obftinately withstood and refifted; this blindnefs, which at first was only natural, becomes judicial; from being a defect, it is confirmed into a judgment; and men are not only unable to difcern the truth, but are settled and rivetted in error: which is the cafe with all thofe to whom "God fends ftrong delufion that they fhould believe a lie, and "have pleasure in unrighteousness "." It is then they sit down in the "feat of the fcornful," as "fools" that "make a mock "at fin "," and "defpifers of those that are good;" hating and railing at their fellow creatures, only because they are endued with the fear of God! This is the laft ftage of blindness; and it is referred to in those words of the Apoftle-" If our Gospel be "hid, it is hid to them that are loft :" as alfo in that lamentation of our bleffed Lord over the city of Ferusalem—“ If thou "hadft known, even thou, at leaft in this thy day, the things "that belong to thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes'."

The abfolute neceffity of God's grace to lighten our darkness, has often been largely and faithfully infifted upon by the writers and preachers of the church of England: but fince a fpirit of Deifm has crept in among us, it has been openly flighted and contemned by fome, and too much neglected by others; which has given an opportunity to feveral forts of enthufiafts to make a wrong use of it: fuch as our Quakers, Methodifts, and particularly the Reverend Mr. William Law, who, after writing fo excellently upon the vanity of the world, and the follies of human life, (on which fubjects he has no fuperior) has left us nothing to depend upon but imagination, and reduced the whole evidence of Christianity to fancied impulfes and inspiration; fo as to render the Scriptures ufelefs, and the appointed means of grace contemptible. I have

obferved the like to have happened in many other inftances; that where any effential point of doctrine has been dropt by the writers of the church, or at least not brought out to view fo often as it should have been, it has been taken up by others, (as all tares are fown while the hufbandmen are afleep) and employed, under fome falfe state of it, to the no fmall difadvantage of the church and the Chriftian religion.

To illuftrate this fubject a little farther, I fhall make it appear by a few plain examples, that where mankind have been divided in their opinions with regard to any divine truth, it has not been owing to the ambiguity of its terms, or the. defect of its evidence, but wholly and folely to the state and temper of the hearers. And thus Chrift himself has inftructed us in his parable of the fower; that where the good feed of the word perishes, it is to be imputed to the ground and not to the feed. How else can we account for it, that when St. Paul laid the evidence of the Gospel before a large affembly of Jews at Rome," fome believed the "things which were fpoken, and fome believed not," though the fame things were fpoken to all? Such in general was the fuccefs of the apoftolical preaching; fome few "receiving the "word with gladness," while others oppofed themselves and blafphemed. And though it be fuppofed, that words are more eafily misunderstood than facts, and may admit of a greater latitude; yet here we shall find, that the same spirit which has divided mankind in what are called the more fpeculative points of faith, will alfo divide them in the plaineft and most striking matters of fact. The refurrection of Lazarus was a matter of fact, seen and attefted by a competent number of witneffes: but how different was the effect of it upon different perfons! for while it had its free courfe with many of the Jews, and moved them to believe on Jesus, it only moved the chief Priests to hate him the more; and they confulted how "they might put Lazarus also to "death"." When Jefus cured the blind, and caft out devils, fome rightly concluded-" Rabbi, thou art a teacher come from God; "for no man can do these miracles that thou doft, except God be "with him':" yet there were not a few, and they of the most learned and knowing too, who concluded far otherwife, that he "cat out devils by Beelzebub the prince of the devils "." So likewife, when the Holy Ghoft defcended on the Apostles, and 4 Matt. xii. 24. 1

Aas xxviii, 24.. 2 John xii. 10, 11. 3 John iii. 2.

inspired them with the gift of tongues, fome devout men were amazed and confounded at the miracle; plainly feeing the hand of God in it, and afking what it meant, what was the end and design of it? and being informed by St. Peter's discourse, that it was to confirm the miffion of "Jefus of Nazareth, received his "word gladly, and were baptized 1;" while others, to avoid the conclufion, "mocking, faid, thefe men are full of new wine"." Here is a great multitude affembled together; all of them witneffes to the fame fact: yet, in their opinions of it, they are as far afunder as drunkenness is from inspiration. But in this cafe no Chriftian will raife a doubt about the real infpiration of the Apostles, or deny the power of God to have been fufficiently manifefted, because some were so profane and fenfeless as to ridicule it, under the name of drunkenness.

This felf-deceit always operates by the affiftance of some false principle contrary to the Scripture; which gets poffeffion of the heart by ministering to the paffions. And till that be difpoffeffed, no truth will be fuffered to enter which can in the least affect or destroy it. A man in fuch circumstances may see the truth staring him in the face; and the clearer he sees it, the more he will be enraged at it. He may be convicted, and left without a word to fay, but what will expose the hardness and perplexity of his heart; but till it be emptied of its evil treafure, and he becomes as a little child that has nothing of its own to oppose to the revelation of God, he cannot be converted; but will either fhut his eyes, and deny the evidence that is offered to him, or pretend it is a nice point, very difficult to be understood; and fo give a perverse turn to it, though it be ever fo plain and intelligible.

Till the difciples of Chrift refigned themselves up to be led into all truth by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, they were in the ftate of mind I am now defcribing; dull of hearing, and doubtful, and flow of heart. They were often warned of it, particuJarly in the following words :-" I have yet many things to fay "unto you, but ye cannot bear them now 3." And as the divine wisdom made choice of fuch men for the good of those who fhould come after, fo these things are written of them for our admonition. They had laid it down as a first principle, that their mafter's kingdom was to be of this world: and formed all their reasonings and expectations accordingly. One was to fit at his

2 Acts v. 13.

■ Aas ii. 41.

3 John xvi. 12.