tions against any man (though sentenced by your church "without doubt to perish everlastingly ") rather than with those who scruple no misrepresentation or abuse to promote their cause, though in itself it should be ever so good. Fearing God, and respecting his truth, I hope I shall never fear what man may say of me, or do to me; least of all in another world, where, happily, your power does not extend.

If any writings can be said to authenticate themselves, by internal marks of their being written by the persons whose name they bear, and at the time to which their contents refer, they are the books of the Scripture. It is not possible for any person of tolerable judgment in such things, to read them with due attention, and not acknowledge this, whatever may be his opinion of them in other respects. There are, however, in all these books such genuine marks of integrity and piety, as must satisfy any reasonable person that no imposition or deception of any kind (if in their circumstances it had been possible, which it evidently was not) was intended by the writers. They relate nothing but what they knew or believed to be true, and, situated as they were, they could not have been deceived themselves; so that without external evidence (which however is abundant) all persons who feel as they felt with respect to God and man, cannot help receiv ing their testimony to the most wonderful of the facts they relate without hesitation. Writing from the heart, they wrote to the hearts of all persons whose characters are like their own.

The doctrine of modern unbelievers, with respect to morals, is far from being a confirmation of what was so confidently advanced by their predecessors, concerning the clear

and sufficiency of the light of nature on that important

subject; for they are discordant in the extreme, and many of them such as would have shocked Lord Herbert and Lord Shaftesbury, almost as much as they do Christians; for, to say nothing of the little account the generality of unbelievers make of the vice of sensual indulgence of any kind, even the most unnatural, the latest writers of this class exclude gratitude from the rank of virtues, and deny the obligation of promises, oaths, and even of the bonds of matrimony, pleading for a community of women; principles which, if acted upon, would soon throw the world into the greatest confusion, and reduce men to the condition of brute beasts, and in the end to universal hostility, though they are inconsistently advocates for universal peace.

The moral uses of the very few positive institutions in the Christian religion, are sufficiently obvious; but admitting that they were not so, it ought to suffice us that they are enjoined by a competent authority; and the man who can knowingly transgress any one acknowledged command, though, to his apprehension, ever so unmeaning, is certainly destitute of respect to the authority by which it is enjoined, and of a principle of obedience in general; which with respect to God, is in the highest degree criminal and dangerous. You do not yourselves always give to a servant, or a child, the reasons of your commands, and yet you justly expect implicit obedience; and you would consider their peremptory disobedience as deserving of the severest punishment, though the thing itself should be ever so trifling.

Better had it been for you to have believed in three, or three hundred gods, and those of wood and stone, than to believe in the one only living and true God, and, at the san

time, live as without him in the world, entirely thoughtless of his being, character, and government, as if you were not accountable to him for your conduct. Infinitely better were it for you to believe whatever the most stupid of mankind have believed concerning God, than disregard his laws, profane his name, or neglect his worship.

Better were it for you to have believed in a revengeful, implacable object of worship, than to believe in a God truly merciful and gracious, who freely, and for his goodness' sake only, forgives all the sincerely penitent, and has sent his Son to live and die in order to bring men to repentance, and, at the same time, not to be solicitous to become the proper objects of mercy, or not to imitate such an amiable pattern and be merciful as your Father who is in heaven is merciful; freely, and without any satisfaction, forgiving, as you yourselves hope to be forgiven. In short, better were it for you to believe all the absurdities of the Church of Rome than not to add purity of heart and life to purity of doctrine and worship.

Think not, however, my brethren, that the most fervent zeal for what are apprehended to be the genuine doctrines of the gospel, is at all inconsistent with true Christian charity; which always judges of particular persons according to the advantages they have enjoyed, and of the final state of men by their sincerity only. And, for my own part, I have no doubt but that, though the Church of Rome be the proper Antichrist of the apostles, not only innumerable zealous papists but even some popes themselves, and since the time of the Reformation, will sit down with Luther, with Calvin and with Socinus, in the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Known unto God alone are the hearts of men; and the man who honestly pursues truth, and who acts according to the est lights that God gives him an opportunity of acquiring,

will be he whom the God of truth and uprightness will approve; and none will suffer a greater or more just condemnation, than those who hold the truth in unrighteousness.

Much rather would I be in the case of many worthy persons in the Church of England, or the Church of Rome, who, at the same time that they are fully sensible of the corruptions and errors of the system in which they are entangled, are not able to break their chains, than, from a spirit, the reverse of that of the gospel, make an improper use of my own liberty by insulting them. Many, very many, it cannot be doubted, would have the courage to die at a stake, in times of serious persecution, who in such times as ours, have not the mental fortitude to act the part of a Robinson, a Jebb, an Evanson, or especially a Lindsey. No person educated a Dissenter can pretend to such merit as this, because none of us have been in their circumstances; and I hope there may be great merit in human characters far short of theirs.

I hope I shall always consider speculation as subservient to practice. The most exact knowledge of truth, and the greatest zeal for it, will avail nothing without the practice of those virtues which the most uninstructed of mankind perfectly understand. Nay, the more knowledge we have of the Christian religion, of the general plan and object of it, the more inexcusable shall we be, if we do not, in the first place, take care to impress our hearts with that love of God, and that unreserved devotedness to his will, which our Saviour calls the first and greatest of all commandments, and also with that disinterested good-will to our fellow-creatures, which he calls the second great commandment, and like unto it.

He was himself equally exemplary with respect to them both; and it is in vain for us to pretend to be Christians if we do not study to resemble him (whom alone we

are to

acknowledge in the character of Lord and Master) in the disposition of our minds, and in the conduct of our lives.

A principle of religion will ever put a man upon a variety of active and vigorous pursuits. No truly pious and good man can be an idle man. He will fully employ all his power of doing good; he will not keep his talent hid in a napkin; and, far from complaining that time hangs heavy on his hands, he will rather complain that he has not time enough for the execution of half his benevolent purposes.

In this Christian country, the Christianity of the greater number is only a secondary consideration with them. The great objects with the bulk of mankind are pleasure, profit, or honor. Religion, by which I mean a regard to God and a future life, is so little thought of or attended to by them, that it is no sensible check to their pursuits, and enforces no moderation in their gratifications. Consequently, a man who thinks, who feels, and who acts as really becomes a Christian, who sets God always before him, whose views are primarily directed to a future life, and who habitually considers himself as a pilgrim and stranger here below, is a character of which they have no conception. Such views, and a conduct governed by them, they cannot enter into. To them, therefore, it must appear either folly or hypocrisy, and of course will be treated by them with contempt or hatred. Their being nominally Christians themselves will not make them look with more respect upon those who are truly and practically so.