cafe in the primitive church. Every decifion, as foon as fettled, became the fource of a new divifion between perfons, who yet ftill agreed to the foregoing decifion in words; till at laft the whole efficacy and fpirit of Chriftianity was loft in mere verbal difputes. But the beft anfwer is, that preachers ought entirely to confine themfelves to practical fubjects, the defcriptions of the virtues and vices, with the motives for and against each, the directions to attain the virtues, and avoid the vices; and this in all the various real circumftances of human life. Learned inquiries have their ufe undoubtedly; but they are much better communicated to the learned world by the prefs, than to a mixed affembly by the pulpit. It is a kind of facrilege to rob God's flock of the nourishment due to them from public preachings, and, in its ftead, to run out upon queftions, that minifter no profit to the hearers, at least far the greatest part.

As to the prefs, fince all other men have the liberty of conveying their thoughts to the public that way, it is furely unfitting that the minifters of the gofpel fhould be deprived of it. And, indeed, to lay any restraints, looks like diftrufting the cause. There is undoubtedly a very bad ufe made of the prefs, and woe to thofe by whom offences come to the little ones that believe in CHRIST! But it is to be hoped and prefumed, that the power of the wicked to do harm is not equal to the power of the good to do good, in this or any other fuch neutral method of communicating infection good and bad to the public. This would be to prefer barbarity and ignorance to the inftruction and civilization of mankind. Learning, arts, and improvements of all kinds, are fubfervient both to good and bad purpofes; and yet fill the balance is probably on the fide of good upon the whole, fince GoD is all power

ful, all wife, and all good. These attributes muft ever turn the scale to their own fide, finitely in every finite portion of time, infinitely in infinite time. We need not fear therefore, but that true knowledge will at last be increafed and prevail, that the wife and good will understand, the wicked be filenced and converted, and the church of CHRIST fill the whole earth. It is a great infult offered to the truths of religion, to fuppofe that they want the fame kind of affiftance as impoftures, human projects, or worldly defigns. Let every man be allowed to think, fpeak, and write, freely; and then the errors will combat one another, and leave truth unhurt.

Sixthly, Though creeds, articles, &c. feem to have no ufe now, but even to be prejudicial to the caufe of truth in themselves; yet it may be necef. fary to fubmit to fome forms of this kind in certain cases: at least, it no ways becomes a Chriftian to declaim against them in violent terms, or oppose them with bitterness, but merely, in a plain difpaffionate way, to reprefent the truth of the cafe, fo as by degrees to draw men's zeal from these leffer matters, and transfer it upon greater. Let not him that eateth, defpife him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not, judge him that eateth. There may be good relative reasons in both cafes. And it may be, and probably is the truth, that in the early ages of the church, whilft Chriftians were Judaizers, entangled in externals, grofs in their conceptions, &c. thefe forms were neceffary, cæteris manentibus. But now they grow old, and feem ready to die away, and to give place to the worship of GOD in fpirit, and in truth; in which there is no Papift, Proteftant, Lutheran, Calvinist, Trinitarian, Unitarian, Myftic, Methodist, &c. but all thete diftinctions are carried away like the chaff of the fummer threshing-floors. We are all Chriftians, we

received this denomination in apoftolic times, and ought to seek no other. Only let us take care to depart from iniquity, to have the true feal of GOD in our foreheads, not the mark of the beaft. The real converfion of the heart from the idolatrous worship of pleasure, honour, and profit, of fenfation, imagination, ambition, and felf-intereft, to ferve the living God, is the only thing of importance; circumcifion and uncircumcifion are equally nothing. Let every man abide in the fame calling wherein he was called. Only, where a plain act of infincerity is required, this approaches to the cafe of eating in the idol's temple, and gives great offence to others.

Seventhly, If we examine the doctrines which are chiefly contefted among Christians by the oppofite parties, it will appear, that the difputes are, in great measure, verbal, and proceed from men's not knowing the true nature and ufe of words. Thus, if we confider the doctrine of infallibility, the nature of words fhews at once, that this could be of no use, fince the decifions of the infallible judge must be expreffed in words, and confequently be liable to be misunderstood by fome or other of the readers, for the fame reasons as the fcriptures are.-To fay that CHRIST's body and blood are in the bread and wine, fo as that the fenfible qualities of one become the fenfible qualities of the other, would be to appeal to the fenfes for affent, where they inftantly reject the propofition. To fay that CHRIST's mystical or glorified body is prefent in fome way or other, is what no one can deny, because nothing is really affirmed. The words feem to coalefce into a verbal truth; but when we attempt to realize the propofition, it vanishes. The fcripture expreffions concerning the mystical body of CHRIST, and his union with the church, contain within them fome most important and wonderful truths undoubtedly, but

they are yet fealed up from us.-In the difputes concerning the trinity and incarnation of CHRIST, if the words perfons, fubftance, nature, &c. be used as in other cafes, or any way defined, the most express contradictions follow: yet the language of the fcriptures is moft difficult, fublime, and myfterious, in respect of the perfon of CHRIST; fo that one cannot fall short of paying all that honour to CHRIST, which the most orthodox believe to be required.As to the doctrine of the fatisfaction of CHRIST, it appears that he has done all for us that one being can do for another; and that it would be a most unjustifiable and narrow way of expreffing ourselves, to confine the benefits received from CHRIST to that of mere example. But the first and most literal fenfe of the words facrifice, redemption, &c. when realized, is evidently impoffible; and we do not seem to be able to give any better general fenfe to these words, than by faying, that they fignify that the fufferings of one being are, by the order of GOD, made the means of happiness to another. To adopt the ideas of debt, wrath of GoD, &c. in a ftrict fenfe, is anthropomorphitifm.-The introduction of new, unfcriptural, technical terms feems fcarce juftifiable, unlefs as far as one Christian brother may thereby endeavour to make the harmony and analogy of the fcripture language to itself, and to the course of nature, more evident to another. But this is all private interpretation. And it often happens in thefe cafes, that an hypothefis is taken up haftily, in order to reconcile the fcripture to itfelf, like those philofophical ones, which are not drawn from a number of concurring facts, but merely ac commodated to a few particular appearances.

CHAP. IV.

Of the EXPECTATIONS of MANKIND, here and hereafter, in CONSEQUENCE of their OBSERVANCE or VIOLATION of the RULE of LIFE.

SECT. I.

OF THE EXPECTATIONS OF INDIVIDUALS IN THE PRESENT LIFE.

PROP. LXVII.

It is probable, that most or all Men receive more Happiness than Mifery in their Paffage through the prefent Life.

SOME

OME evidences for this propofition have been given above, where it was alleged as one of the proofs of the goodness of GOD. Here we may confider it, both as deducible from those evidences, and from the goodness of GOD, previously established upon independent principles.

For if we fuppofe GOD to be both infinitely benevolent, and the fole caufe of all things; if, farther, the relative appellations of governor, friend, and father, may with propriety be made the foundation of our inquiries into his difpofitions in general (all