nefs and humility of the gospel fpirit, when we allow ourselves to think and to speak hardly of others, because they do not fee every thing just in the fame light with us; or have not freedom to exprefs themselves in our phrases, which are, perhaps, not only unfcriptural, but were unknown in the Chriftian church for many centuries, and can claim no better nor higher original, than the dregs of the scholaftic philofophy.

Sermons.

WILLIAM ROBERTSON, D. D.

PRINCIPAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.

WHEN the Chriftian revelation declared one Supreme Being to be the fole object of religious veneration, prefcribed the form of worfhip moft acceptable to him; whoever admitted the truth of it, held of confequence, every other mode of religion to be abfurd and impious. Hence the zeal of the first converts to the Chriftian faith, in propagating its doctrines, and the ardour with which they laboured to overturn every other form of worship. They employed, however, for this purpose, no methods but fuch as fuited the nature of religion. By the force of powerful arguments they convinced the understandings of men; by the charms of fuperior virtue they allured and captivated their hearts. At length the civil power declared in favour of Chrif

tianity; and though numbers, imitating the example of their fuperiors, crowded into the church, many ftill adhered to their ancient fuperftitions. Enraged at their obftinacy, the minifters of religion, whofe zeal was ftill unabated, though their fanctity and virtue were much diminished, forgot fo far the nature of their own miffion, and of the arguments which they ought to have employed, that they armed the imperial power against these unhappy men; and as they could not perfuade, they tried to compel them to believe. At the fame time controverfies concerning articles of faith multiplied, from various caufes, among Christians themselves; and the fame unhallowed weapons which had first been used against the enemies of their religion, were turned against each other. Every zealous difputant endeavoured to interest the civil magiftrate in his caufe, and each in his turn employed the fecular arm to crush or to exterminate his opponents. Not long after, the Bishops of Rome put in their claim to infallability in explaining articles of faith, and deciding points in controversy; and bold as the pretenfion was, they by their artifices and perfeverance impofed on the credulity of mankind, and brought them to recognize it. To doubt, or to deny any doctrine to which thefe unerring inftructors had given the fanction of their approbation, was held to be not only a refifting of truth, but an act of rebellion against their facred authority; and fe

cular power, of which, by various arts, they had acquired the abfolute direction, was inftantly employed to avenge both.

Thus Europe had been accuftomed, during many centuries, to fee fpeculative opinions propagated or defended by force; the charity and mutual forbearance which Chriftianity recommends with fo much warmth were forgotten; the facred rights of confcience and of private judgment were unheard of; and not only the idea of toleration, but even the word itself, in the fenfe now affixed to it, was unknown. A right to extirpate error by force was univerfally allowed to be the prerogative of such as poffeffed the knowledge of truth; and as each party of Christians believed that they had got poffeffion of this invaluable attainment, they all claimed and exercifed, as far as they were able, the rights which it was fuppofed to convey. The Roman Catholics,

as their fyftem refted on the decifions of an infallible, judge, never doubted that truth was on their fide, and openly called on the civil power to repel the impious and heretical innovators who had rifen up against it. The Proteftants, no lefs confident that their doctrine was well founded, required, with equal ardour, the princes of their party to check fuch as prefumed to impugn or to oppofe it. Luther, Calvin, Cranmer, and Knox, the founders of the reformed church in their re

spective countries, inflicted, as far as they had

power and opportunity, the fame punishments which were denounced against their own difciples by the church of Rome, upon fuch as called in queftion any article in their creeds. To their followers, and perhaps to their opponents, it would have appeared a symptom of diffidence in the goodness of their caufe, or an acknowledgment that it was not well-founded, if they had not employed in its defence all thofe means which it was fuppofed truth had a right to employ.

It was towards the close of the feventeenth century before toleration, under its prefent form, was admitted first into the republic of the United Provinces, and from thence introduced into England. Long experience of the calamities flowing from mutual perfecution, the influence of free government, the light and humanity acquired by the progrefs of fcience, together with the prudence and authority of the civil magiftrate, were all requifite, in order to establish a regulation fo repugnant to the ideas which all the different fects had adopted, from miftaken conceptions concerning the nature of religion and the rights of truth, or which all of them had derived from the erroneous maxims established by the church of Rome.

Hiftory of Charles the Fifth.

WILLIAM MACGILL, D. D.

AIRE.

F all that call themfelves Chriflians would

IF

agree to live according to the rules of their religion, which are not lefs clear than excellent; if they would bend their chief attention to the things in which they all agree, and which they themselves muft allow to be of the greatest importance, rather than to thofe in which they happen to differ; if, instead of affecting to diftinguish themselves by infolent pretenfions to orthodoxy of opinion (which is only paying a compliment to themfelves, at the expence of their brethren) they would rather ftudy to be known by the principal and leading mark which Jefus Christ hath affigned for his difciples, their love. to one another; finally, if each party of Chriftians, instead of endeavouring to swallow up and destroy the rest by means of the power and policy of this world, would agree to lay afide the little, or if you will the great, peculiarities by which they ftand apart from each other, and to unite upon the broad and firm bafis of THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL contained in the books of the New Teftament, the only records of it which they allow to be of divine authority; hearkening with one confent to the voice of their common Mafter, learning of him who was meek and lowly in heart, fpeaking the truth to one another in love, endeavouring kindly to fet each