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WHEN I think of you, an idea occurs afresh, which, though very simple, I have often thought might be of great use for every student in theology, viz. that of applying chiefly to the very heart of it. I mean to include all which relates to that conviction of sin, which is preparatory to real religion; the mistakes and the dangers, to which the awakened are exposed; the directions suitable for them; the source from which their encouragements should be derived; the views and the submissions, they must be brought to after these the nature of true conversion; the difference between common and effectual operations of the Divine Spirit on the minds of men; the specific nature of saving faith, repentance unto life, true love to God, and love to man in its distinct branches; the distinguishing nature of Christian hope, joy, humility, self-denial, every grace; and evangelical obedience at large.

In these the life and substance of theology seem emphatically to consist. And yet it often happens, that preachers of con

siderable talents appear not to have bestowed a due proportion of their time upon them :-The outlines perhaps have had some justice done to them, but the interior has been too much postponed.

Upon this last branch of inquiry, I think you will find as much in President Edwards, on Religious Affections, as in any author I have seen; and as able and thorough an examination of the Scriptures. I am, &c. (To be continued.)

THE DECALOGUE. No. 10.
TENTH COMMANDMENT.

"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's."

No nation can produce a system of moral and religious precepts so perfect as that which was given to Israel from Mount Sinai. It will bear the strictest examination, and when reduced to practice it preserves us in the way of holiness. The apostate Emperor knew this, but anxious to find defects, where none exist, he could only say, that the law contains things too simple and too trite for so high an origin. What he says in detraction, is a high eulogium. It admits, without designing it, that the law is accommodated to the meanest understanding, and thus answers the great purpose of instructing and reforming mankind. Our duty to God and to man is here brought into one point of view. The system is pure and com, plete. Formed on this model, a religious and useful race would

arise venerating Jehovah's name, and seeking the welfare of fellow creatures.

The tenth commandment " is placed as the fence of all the rest. The apostle's reference to it, (Rom. vii. 7, 8.) shows that it comprises the utmost spirituality of the law; and it is a perpetual confutation of all those systems, by which the outward, gross crime is considered as the only violation of each command. We are here expressly, and in the most forcible language, prohibited so much as to desire what is withheld from us by the command or providence of God; and so far from levelling property, or seizing violently on our neighbour's possessions, we may not so much as at all hanker after them. The most secret wish for another man's wife violates this precept: but to desire an union with an unmarried woman, only becomes sinful when it is excessive, and when it is not submitted to the will of God, if he render it impracticable. We may desire that part of a man's property, which he is inclined to dispose of, if we mean to obtain it only on equitable terms: but what he chooses to keep, we may not covet. The poor man may desire moderate relief from the rich but he must not covet his affluence, nor repine even if he do not relieve him. Men, exposed to equal hazards, may agree to a proportionable contribution to him who suffers loss; for it accords with the law of love to help the distressed. This exculpates insurance, when fairly conducted. But every species of gaming originates from an undue desire and hope of increasing our property, by proportion

ably impoverishing other men ; and is therefore a direct violation of this law. Public gaming, by lotteries, so far from being less criminal than other species of that vice, is the worst of them all: for it abets and sanctions, as far as example and concurrence can do it, a practice which opens the door to every species of fraud and villany; which is pregnant with the most extensive evils to the community and to individuals; which seldom fails annually to bring several to an untimely end by suicide or the sentence of the law; which unsettles an immense multitude from the honest employments of their station, to run in quest of imaginary wealth; and which exposes them to manifold temptations, unfits them for returning to their usual mode of life, and often materially injures their circumstances, breaks their spirits, sours their tempers, and excites the worst passions of which they are susceptible. Indeed, the evils, political, moral, and religious, of lotteries are too glaring to be denied even by those who plead necessity for continuing them; and too numerous to be recapitulated in this place. Can it therefore consist with the law of God, "Thou shalt not covet," or with the character of a Christian, to concur in such an iniquitous and injurious system, from a vain desire of irregular gain? Whatever argument proves it unlawful for two or three men to cast lots for a sum of money, or to game in any other way, much more strongly concludes against a million of persons gaming publicly by a lottery for a month or six weeks together, to the stagna

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tion in great measure of every other business whilst the gain made by government and by individuals, from the stakes deposited with them, renders it as imprudent, as it is sinful in the adventurers; for every individual stakes three to two on an even chance, if a covetous appeal to Providence may be called chance. (Prov. xvi. 33.) Even. Tontines seem not wholly excusable, as they constitute a kind of complicated wager about longevity, to be decided by Providence in favour of the survivors; and must therefore partake of the nature of other games of chance. Coveting other men's property contrary to the law of love, and enriching the survivors, commonly at the expense of the relatives of the deceased, are intimately connected with them: whilst they lead men into strong temp tations secretly to wish the death of others, for the sake of advantages, which they inordinately desire and irregularly pursue. In fine, discontent, distrust, love of wealth, pleasure, and grandeur, desire of change, the habit of wishing, and every inordinate

affection, are the evils here prohibited; and we know them to be the sources of all other crimes, and of man's misery. And the command requires moderation in respect of all worldly things, submission to God, ac quiescence in his will, love to his commands, and a reliance on him for the daily supply of all our wants, as he sees good. This is right and reasonable, fit for God to command, and profitable for man to obey, the very temper and felicity of heaven itself: but it is so contrary to the disposi tion of our heart by nature, and so superior to the actual attainment of the best Christians on earth, that it is very difficult to persuade men in general, that God requires such perfection; still more difficult to satisfy them, that it is indispensable to the happiness of rational creatures; and most difficult of all to convince them that every thing inconsist ent with, or short of, this is sin ; that it deserves the wrath of God, and cannot be taken away, except by the mercy of God, thro' the atonement of Christ."* PHILOLOGOS.

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self, I so abhor divisions, and so love concord, that I fear, if an occasion presented itself I should sooner give up a part of truth, than disturb the public peace.

"But the mischief is, that a man cannot thus give up truth, without running into falsehood, and assenting to things, which he doth not believe. For a man cannot judge that to be right, which his own reason pronounces to be false, only because overbearing persons attack the truth with more vehemence, than he chooseth to employ in defence of it, and are the majority and the stronger party. Besides, when such enemies to reason and to religion perceive that a man will not have the courage to defend his opinions at all extremities, which Erasmus confessed to be his own disposition, they never fail to take advantage of him, to oppress him, and to run him down, well knowing that nothing is necessary to accomplish their purposes besides stubbornness, clamour, impudence, and violence. And so spiritual tyranny, being once erected, would endure forever, and gain strength and stability. Concord and peace are unquestionably valuable blessings; but yet not to be purchased at the expense of truth and liberty, which are infinitely more estimable than a sordid tranquillity beneath the yoke of falsehood and arbitrary dominion. Beneath this yoke the Christian republic becomes a mere faction of poltroons, solicitous about enjoying the present, and neglecting every thing that is laudable under the pretext of preserving the peace. Such would have been the present state of Chris

tianity, if the pacific 'scheme of Erasmus had been received and pursued. Divisions, it must be owned, do much harm; yet they have at least produced this good, that the truth of the gos pel, and a Christian liberty, which acquiesceth only in the decisions of Jesus Christ, are not entirely banished from the face of the earth, as they would have been without those struggles of cur ancestors. They have produced no small service to the memory of Erasmus himself, who, having his works condemned by theological cabals, and mangled by inquisitions, which struck out the most valuable part of his writings, would have been stigmatized and proscribed through all ages, if a party had not risen up in Europe and also amongst his own countrymen, which willingly forgives him his weaknesses and irresolution, for the sake of his useful labours, philological and theological; and hath restored to him a second life and recommended him to the Christian world, by an elegant and faithful edition of all his works.

"But let us hear some more of his advice. This preacher, says he, who certainly is a thy man, will do more service to the gospel, the honour of which we all have at heart, if he takes care to join the prudence of the evangelical serpent to the simplicity of the evangelical dove. Let him essay it; and then let him condemn my counsel, if he finds it not to be salutary.'

"Alas! experience hath taught the Christian world, that this same serpentine prudence served to make falsehood triumphant. It was even easy to fore

see it, since this wisdom consisted only in submitting to that faction, which was the most powerful and the most obstinate. "Erasmus entertained some

hopes, that his old friend and school fellow Adrian VI. would do some good as he testifies in this letter but, says he, if I should be mistaken in this, I will not be factious. As to the preacher's last question, are we to abandon and give up the whole gospel? I reply; they may be said to abandon the gospel, who defend it in an improper manner. Besides; with what reserve and slow caution did our Lord himself discover his doctrine?'

"All this in some sense may be right; but then our Saviour never said any thing contrary to the truth; and when the time was come for it, he laid down his life in confirmation of it; which is more than Erasmus is inclined to do, as he himself frankly confesseth. It cannot be called defending the gospel to refer it to the arbitration of a set of Ecclesiastics, whom all the world knew to be either ill instructed, or ill disposed, or both."

We may add in a future No. a letter from Luther to Eras mus in the year 1524, which sets in a striking light, the different characters of those two great men.

The following is taken from a discourse entitled, A most faithful sermon preached before King Edward VI. and his most honourable Counsell, in his Court at Westminster, by the Reverend father M. Hugh Latimer. An. 1550. It pointedly exposes the folly of those, who attributed the

civil discord of the preceding sum mer to the preaching of Protestants. The orthography of the age is retained.

"BUT here is now an argument to prove the matter against the preachers. Here was preaching against covetousnes all the last yeare in Lent, and the next sommer followed rebellion: Ergo, preaching against covetousnes was the cause of the rebellion. A goodly argument. Here now I remember an argument of maister Moore's, which he bringeth in a booke, that he made against Bilney, and here by the way I will tell you a mery toy. Maister Moore was once sent in commission into Kent, to help to try out, if it might be, what was the cause of Goodwin sandes, and the shelfe, that stopped up Sandwich haven. Thether cometh maister Moore, and calleth the countrye afore him, such as were thought to be men of experience, and men that could in likelihode best certify him of that matter, concerning the stopping of Sandwich haven. Among others came in before him an olde man with a white head, and one that was thought to be little less than an hundereth years olde. When maister Moore saw this aged man, he thought it expedient to heare him say his minde in this matter (for being so olde a man it was likely that he knew most of any man in that presence & company.) So maister Moore called this olde aged man unto him, and sayd father (sayd he) tell me if ye can what is the cause of this great arising of the sandes and shelves here about this haven,

* Bilney was a Protestant writer, by the perusal of whose writings, Latimer was converted from popery.

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