traitor, or give him up as an inftrument unfit for all the purpofes of feduction. Satan himself, when engaged in the sublimest of his undertakings, never works in the odious character of an enemy to God and man; but begins with "transforming himself into an angel of light:" and his affiftants, instead of avowing their wickedness, are generally more pompous and plaufible in their profeffions than other men.-Confcience, reafon, charity, piety, purity, and a love of truth, are all their own, and others are no better than counterfeits. Therefore when a falfe teacher makes an attempt upon your faith, you may expect him to accoft you in words to this effect :-" My Chriftian brethren, I am a fincere lover of the Gospel, and having the deepest concern for its honour, I would guard you against thofe who decry human reason, and forbid you to make use of it, that they may obtrude fuch doctrines as are agreeable neither to reason nor the word of God. Religion is the most valuable inheritance of the human race; and if, by God's bleffing, I can bring you to entertain the fame views of it with myself, we shall rejoice together. Though Popery is reformed, yet many errors ftill remain, which, by the ufe of reafon, may be driven out. Reafon is the gift of God, and so is the Scripture, and they cannot be contrary to one another. There is a fpirit of cenforioufnefs, which many profeffing Christians indulge with too little reftraint; but the true Chriftian beareth all things. My brethren, be not moved with the rafh cenfures and reproaches of men: if you will live godly in Christ Jesus, you muft fuffer perfecution." Thefe expreffions are taken from a fmall canting Socinian tract, fold for ONE PENNY, and difperfed in great numbers, to poifon the minds of the common people. You would take the author for a fincere believer of the holy Scripture, perfect in his charity, and fortified with the spirit of a martyr. But be not deceived: all is not gold that glitters. Let me, therefore, beg your attention, while I make fome remarks on thefe extracts, to fhew you that his attempts are quite contrary to his declarations, and his doctrines fubverfive of the whole plan of Christianity; and then you will see what a vast difference there is between the found of words and the fense of them.

In the first place then, all fenfible people reckon it a very sufpicious circumftance, when a man opens a caufe with a panegyric upon himself. If a ftranger, when you enter his shop, were to falute you with the praises of his own honefty, his strict regard to the honour of trade, and his love to all his cuftomers, paft, pre

fent, and to come, you would look upon all this as a bait, and be certain he intended to cheat you. So our Socinian pamphleteer, in his title, calls himself a "Lover of the Gofpel:" he dare not leave you to find this out by his book; but hopes you will be blinded towards the mischief of it, by a good opinion of his character, before you enter upon it. He profeffes the deepest concern for the honour of the Gospel; but, as he denies all its faving doctrines, who can take his word, even though he fhould confirm it with an hundred oaths?

Then he exhorts you to make ufe of your own reafon, that is, to fee things with your own eyes, and not be impofed upon by what you are taught; which is very excellent advice; but he has not followed it himself, neither does he intend that you shall follow it. His notions are borrowed from Socinus, and his Deiftical followers, particularly from Chubb, whofe writings contain all the fecrets of the prefent reforming divinity. So that he cannot justly pretend to the merit of having used his own reafon. And as to you, he writes his pamphlet with the hopes of bringing you to entertain the fame views of Chriftianity with himself; therefore his compliments to your reafon are nothing but the flattery of one, who is all the while fupplanting your reason, that he may draw you away into his own point of view in which you will fee no more of Chriftianity than he does: and this he tells you will be a great bleffing. For this he helps you to fome interpretations of texts of Scripture, fo very much out of the way, that your own reason would never have hit upon them: neither would his, if he had not been told of them.

The imperfection of the reformation is a topic much declaimed upon of late years; and this author is of opinion, that though popery is gone, many errors are still remaining. In answer to which, we have this to fay for our divines at the reformation, that we are fure they believed the Scripture; and their writings fhew that they understood it: but as to the Reformers of this prefent time, we are not sure they do either the one, or the other. The lovers of the Gofpel, in Luther's days, took off the fuperftitious drefs of Christianity, but left the body of it fecure. If we go to work now, we must reform it to the bone; and even then fome nice judges may be offended with the skeleton, and never rest, till they have fet up the idol of heathenifm, as fome attempted to do about fifty years ago; and their officiating minifter was Mr. John Toland, who compofed a form of divine fervice to the infinite

and eternal univerfe; the to wav; from the worship of which they have called themfelves Pantheists.

The author proceeds to affure us, that as reafon and the Scripture are each of them "the gift of God, they cannot be contrary to one another." Right reafon (when we have found out what that is) cannot poffibly be contrary to the Scripture, because the Scripture contains the reafon of God: but the reafon of any particular man may be very contrary to it. Dean Swift obferved, very justly, that "reason in itself is a very different thing from reason in particular men." So that we want a diftinction here; for when we speak of reafon in itself, every man makes himfelf the compliment to think that his reafon is the thing intended. But it is one thing to have the gift of reason, as a human crea"ture, and another thing to have the right ufe of it. The firft we have by nature; the fecond is the work of grace: and if a writer put one of these for the other, or imagine them to be the fame thing, he will foon talk very abfurdly. Voltaire had the gift of reafon, but he had not the gift of ung it; for on every fubject that relates to Chriftianity, he reasoned like an ideot yet with a mifchievous vein of wit, which cafily catches people of corrupt minds. The philofophifing Greeks, to whom "Chrift crucified" was "foolishness," had their reafon like other men; but education had perverted it, and rendered it contradictory to the reafon of God; fo that it was of no ufe to them in divine subjects, but rather an hindrance. A fimilar train of education will have juft the fame effect now: and you must not expect that any perfon, who abufes his reafon, will confefs that he does fo. He will go on to boast of reafon in general, and make no exceptions to the difadvantage of his own reafon in particular. When human reafon fees things as the wifdom of God fees them, then it performs its proper office; but when it fees them otherwife, then it takes the name of philofophy, and becomes foolishness, like the boafted reason of the Greeks, who, "profeffing themfelves to be wife, became fools." The world has always been full enough of this fort of reason. How common is it for people to talk about confcience; and yet how few are they who confider what it is! For confcience is an agreement or coincidence of the judgment of man with the judgment of God.-When confcience condemns what God approves, or approves what God condemns, it is no longer confcience, but conceit and delufion. The confcience of the Socinian fcruples the worship of the church of England as

idolatry; but there is no more reafon in it, than in that conscience of the Muffelmen, which fends them two thoufand miles on a pilgrimage to the tomb of their falfe prophet. Our author has been very free in delivering his opinion about reason, but what reason is, and what is the proper ufe of it; how it may be improved and ftrengthened, and how it may be fo weakened as to judge falsely of every thing, like the jaundiced eye, are queftions for which he seems very much unprepared. The mind undoubtedly hath its diftempers, like the body. The pride of philofophy was the diftemper of the Greeks; the love of this world was the distemper of the Jews; and neither of thefe could make fense of the Gospel of Jefus Chrift.

It will be worth our while to enquire, why he guards his readers fo particularly against cenforioufnefs. He finds, by experience, that his own doctrines and writings are odious to all fincere believers, whether Churchmen or Diffenters; and therefore wishes, as any other perfon would in his circumftances, to escape untouched, because his principles of religion are too unfound to bear any fevere examination. But he who has ufed the word of God fo freely, and has not fcrupled to accufe the church of error, abfurdity, and the utmost impiety, because it does not agree with his fancy, muft not expect to be commended, till we have renounced our faith, or loft our understanding. I grant we ought to be charitable and merciful to thofe who offend, either through ignorance, or infirmity; but neither of thefe will be pleaded by one, who tells us he is guided by reason, in every step he has taken.

Every Christian, who has not been imposed upon by self-interefted counsellors, muft know that zeal towards God is a duty as neceffary and laudable as charity towards men. The church of Ephesus is praised in the Scripture, for "not bearing them that are evil, and for trying them which say they are Apostles,, "and are not, and finding them liars." Rev. ii. 2. Without doubt thefe lying Apoftles, in the church of Ephefus, whose cause would not endure the probe, had many things to fay against the cenforiousness of those who detected them. But we are taught by this, and many other examples, that the cenforioufnefs of faith is more acceptable to God, than the affected moderation of infidelity: and therefore every good man will wish to be called cenforious by thofe, whom it is the duty of every true Christian to cenfure.

The author, however, has fortified himself, and endeavours to fortify his readers, against every thing that may happen in this way. "Be not moved," fays he, "with the rafh cenfures of men:" that is, go on boldly in your errors, contradicting the Gospel with an apoftolical freedom of fpeech; and, if you are confronted with the Scriptures, and convicted of blafphemy, perfevere unto the end. Such is the advice which Pride (the most mifchievous of all counfellors) whifpers into the ear: "If thou haft erred, perlift, and justify it; for it is poffible thou mayeft get the victory by this means; and victory is oftentimes of more moment than truth. Perhaps thou art a leading man, and the efteem of thy wifdom will influence the conduct of others; and if fo, one bafe retraction may pull down all thou haft built. Be fure, then, that it is honourable, it is edifying, it is for the glory of God, that thou fhouldeft be obftinate." Pride communicates this advice in a whifper, but the author fpeaks it out; and, what is very wonderful, it feems never once to have entered into his head that he may be mistaken. If any man should be enticed to follow him, he, too, is thenceforward to commence infallible; never to be turned, never to be moved, never to hear any thing that is advanced in oppofition to his impiety.-How great and noble would this conftancy be in a better caufe! But here it is lamentable to fee the delufion to which the human heart is expofed. Conceit, obftinacy, and contradiction, when fitting in judgment upon themselves, claim all the honours due to perfecuted truth, candour, and wifdom.

CHA P. III.

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE SOCINIAN ERRORS,

NOW

OW we have confidered the nature of spiritual wickedness, and the difguifes under which falfe teachers recommend themselves, we are prepared to take a view of the doctrines they are labouring to introduce. Thefe are to be found in a fmall publication above-mentioned, which calls itself "An Appeal to the serious and candid Profeffors of Christianity." I call them dactrines, for want of a better word; but they are in reality no