modes, or ceremonials of worship, howfoever differing in manner and form, from each other.

4. The fundamental points of religion above alluded to, we chufe to distinguish by the title of PRIMITIVE TRUTHS, truths! which forceably ftruck, and impreffed the human heart at the period of man's creation, and although from an original unhappy taint, he in fucceeding times, strangely deviated from them, yet he never has, nor ever will be able, wholly to obliterate and efface them, however he may fometimes for a greater, or leffer fpace, utterly lofe fight of them. We will enumerate the principal of these primitive truths.

ft, The being of a GOD, eternal, creator, and confervator of all things, animate and inanimate ;—2dly, The existence of three prime created celestial beings, either confounded with the Deity, or exclufive of, and fubordinate to him; -3diy, The creation of angelic beings ; -4thly, A defection, or rebellion of a portion of those beings;- 5thly, Their expulfion from the heavenly regions;- -6thly, The immortality of the human foul ;- -7thly, A future state of rewards and punishments of the human foul;—8thly, That man is here in a state of punishment and probation, for

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a tranfgreffion committed in a prior state of existence against his Creator; -9thly, That there exifts a Being, who inftigated the revolt of the angelic fpirits, and ftill continues the enemy and deceiver of mankind;-10thly, The neceffity of a mediator, or mediators, between God and man, over and above repentance and good works, for the expiation of fin, and obtaining a restoration to a state, from which he now ftands expelled;———— 11thly, That there is an intermediate ftate of punishment and purification between death and the perfect restoration of the human foul ; -12thly, The existence of a golden age; 13thly, That there existed a period when mankind was fuftained by, and fubfifted only on the fruits of the earth;-and laftly, The doctrine of the miniftration of angels, in human affairs. These were the primitive truths revealed by a gracious GOD to man, in the early days of his creation, at a time when it may be reasonably prefumed he retained a lively fenfe of his foul's former tranfgreffion; as well as of the grace then offered to him. That these are the only primitive truths neceffary to man's falvation, and restoration, appears from hence, that they have, from the earliest records of time to this day, remained more or less the stock upon which the blindness, or wickedness B 3

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of man has engrafted very extravagant, unprofitable, as well as unintelligible doctrines, to delude their fellow-creatures, and feduce them from a strict adherence to, and reliance on, those primitive truths only.

5. This being the cafe, how much is it to be lamented, that our learned divines, fome of whom are the greatest ornaments of our church and profeffion, have not taken the advantage of the concurring teftimony of all mankind, touching these fundamental principles, to enforce their relative duties, in their preaching and writings? in place of which, moved by a vain oftentation, and fhew of deep learning, the rubbish of antiquity is raked up, and fifted, to prove that nations, and individuals amongst the ancients, and fome of the wifeft and beft of mankind, were infidels with respect to any fincere faith in religion at all; and that the fable of religion was invented by lawgivers, purely to keep the populace in awe and we are told by these profound researchers, that the great Socrates was the only one amongst the ancient philofophers, who believed what he taught, the unity of the Godhead, the immortality of the foul, and a future ftate of rewards and punishments:a ftrange mode this, of enlightening modern times! to record and

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circulate fuch fentiments in the mother tongue of a Chriftian people, although on fuppofition only, that fuch principles ever existed in any country or age whatsoever.

6. We are aware that the motives and plea urged in defence of the publication of the infidel opinions of the ancient philofophers are, the reputation of modern atheists, deifts, and free-thinkers: vain pretence, and no less vain the attempt, where the flightest review of the bent and genius of man would have convinced them, that when once a writer, can so far get the better of shame and decorum, as to dare publish opinions, not only contrary to, but fubverfive of all religious faith, that man is incorrigible, and beyond the reach of conviction. To reason with writers of that ftamp, carries as much propriety with it, as if our divines would go and difplay their oratory upon the miferable inhabitants of Bedlam; and their endeavors would be as falutary. The fame be said of fanatics in every religion; as the one believes nothing at all, these believe too much, and both have always thrived, and acquired ftrength from difputation and perfecution.

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7. Religious controverfy never yet did, nor ever will do good to the cause of true

religion, for this plain and cogent reafon; conviction on either fide cannot follow, because the nature of the fubject matter in difpute cannot, like a propofition in Euclid, admit of demonftration ;-befides another mischievous confequence refults from the canvaffing and laying open the opinions of the ancient philofophers touching facred matters, for it puts weapons into the hands of the modern enemies of religion, which probably they would otherwife never have been in poffeffion of; and it must be the height of glory to infidels and free-thinkers, to find themselves claffed with the Platos, Plutarchs, Ciceros, &c. of antiquity.

A fimilar mode of reputation poffeffed the primitive fathers of the church, which, added to an inflamed mistaken zeal and doctrines never dictated by their divine mafter, laid the foundation of those schisms, and heretical evils, which have ever fince diftracted and divided the Christian states, fo that they may with more propriety be filed the destroyers, than the fathers of it.

8. For how long a space man after his creation retained a lively fenfe of the fpecial grace offered to him by his Creator, or benefited himself by a ftrict adherence to, and obfervance of the divine primitive truths, then revealed to him, are circumftances not determinable;

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