with Mifs

and immediately proceeded in the following

manner.

A difcourfe 73. My father, Madam, is a man of great Hrcourt learning, virtue, and knowledge, but orthoin relation dox to the laft degree, and fent me to the

to my re

ligion.

university on purpose to make me a theologer, that I might be an able defender of the Creed of St. Athanafius, and convince the poor people of the country he lived in, and in good time (he fondly hoped) the inhabitants of many other countries; that notwithstanding the fymbol I have mentioned is what no human apprehenfion can comprehend, and the judgment hath nothing to act on in the confideration of it;—that there is nothing to be understood in that fymbol, nor can a man form any determination of the matter therein contained; yet they must believe this great and awful mystery: that three perfons and Gods are only one person and God; and, on peril of eternal mifery, they muft confefs that, Father, Son, and Holy Gheft, tho' three Beings, as diftinct as any three things in the universe, yet are only one Being. This mystery I was to preach up in his church, (a church in a field, near his house, to which he had the right of prefenting,) and enflame the people against reafon, that traitor to God and religion, which our adverfaries the Chriftian deifts, would make Lord and King in oppofition to faith. I

was to tell my beloved, that reason is a carnal fenfual devil, and that instead of hearkening to this tempter, they must affent to thofe heavenly propofitions, which give wifdom without ideas, and certainty without knowledge. You must believe, my beloved, that none is before or after the other.

None is greater or less than another. The infidels call this an unintelligible piece of nonfenfe: but it is, my beloved, a very tranfcendent mystery. It does, we must own, Stagger and aftonifh us, being a thing beyond our reach to comprehend; but it must be believed, on peril of eternal mifery, as I before obferved: and it is eafy to be believed, for this plain reafon, (given by a very learned. and pious bishop of our church,) to wit, that it is too high to be by us comprehended. This was the opinion of that great prelate, Dr. Beveridge, in his Private Thoughts, p. 52. to which book I refer you, my beloved, for more of his admirable reafoning on this capital article, and farther obferve to you, that not only this moft pious bishop, and many other moft excellent prelates were of this way of thinking; but all the moft admirable divines have declared in their fermons, and other matchlefs writings, that the more incredible the Athanafian creed is, and the fuller of contradictions, the more honour we do to our God in believing it. It is the glory of orthodox Chriftians, that their faith is not

only

only contrary to the carnal mind, but even to the most exalted reafon. In matters of faith, we must renounce our reason, even tho' it be the only thing that diftinguishes us from the beafts, and makes us capable of any religion at all. No human arguments are to interfere in this victorious principle: the catholic faith is the reverse of rational religion, and except a man believe it faithfully, he must go into everlasting fire and brimstone. (35)

In this manner, Madam, like a a mad bigot, a flaming zealot, and a fublime believer, was I to preach to the people of Ireland, and be

(35) Little did I think when I talked in fuch a manner to Mils Harcourt against the famous fymbol, that I fhould ever find in the book of a moft learned man and excellent divine, the fame kind of arguments feriously produced in favor of the Creed of St. Athanafius: yet this ftrange thing has time brought on, and thereby convinced the world, that the greatest learning and the most exalted piety, employed in the cause of mystery, can become fo extravagant and erring as to maintain that a thing incomprehenfible to human reafon, can be revealed, and that the more incomprehenfible it is to human reafon, and the more fenfelefs it appears to human understanding, the more glorious is the object of faith, and the more worthy to be believed by a chriftian. This deplorable argument for the truth of chriftianity, I met with in a book lately publifhed by an admirable man, Dr. Jofeph Smith, provolt of Queen's College, Oxon. In his third fection of a clear and comprehenfive view of the being, nature, and attributes of God, from p. 61, to p. 78. the Reader may fee this plea for darkness, confufion, and implicit faith. He will find an anfwer to it in the Appendix to this journal. No. 2.

an

an apostle for that faith which is an obedience to unreafonable commands: but unfortunately, for my father's defign; and fortunately, for my foul, I was, on entring the university, put into the hands of a gentleman, who abhorred modern orthodoxy, and made the effential conftitutive happiness and perfection of every intelligent being confift in the conformity of our mind to the moral rectitude of the Divine Nature. This excellent man convinced my understanding, that even faith in Chrift is of an inferior nature to this: it is only the means to obtain it. Such a conformity and obedience of the heart and confcience to the will of God ought to be my religion, as it was the religion of our Saviour himself.

Thus, Madam, was I inftructed by a maf ter of arts, my private tutor, and when to his leffons I added my own careful examinations of the vulgar faith, and the mind of our Lord as I found it in the books, I was thoroughly fatisfied that an act of faith is an act of reafon, and an act of reafon an act of faith, in religious matters; that our

Lord was not the great God; nor a part of that compound, called the Triune-God; the miferable invention of divines; but, a more extraordinary meffenger than the prophets under the law, chofen by the divine wisdom, to publish the will of God to mankind, and fent under the character of his fon, and Spir

ritual heir of his inheritance the church, to new form the ages, and fix fuch good principles in the minds of men, as would be productive of all righteoufnefs in the converfation: that he was fent to destroy fin and the kingdom of Satan; and to bring the human race to a perfect obedience to the will of the Supreme Being.

All this, Madam, was as plain to me as the fun in fummer's bright day; and therefore, instead of laying afide my understanding, and believing things without any rational ground or evidence at all ;

inftead of going into orders, to draw revealed conclufions from revealed propofitions, and by a deep logic, make fcripture confequences, that have no meaning in the words, for the faith of the people; I was fo free and ingenuous as to let my father know, that of all things in the world I never would be a parfon, fince the character obliged me to fwear and fubfcribe to articles I could not find in my bible; nor would I, as a layman, ever read, or join in the fervice of reading the tritheiftic liturgy and offices he used in his family. I was determined, tho' I loft his favor and large, fortune by the refolution; to live and die a Chriftian deift; confefling before men the perfonal unity and perfections of the true God, and the perfonal mediatorial office of Jefus Chrift. As St. Paul maintained the perfonal unity and abjolute fupremacy of

the