a good conceit of themfelves:-no reason to be fcared by the fcornful fneer of thofe, or the more folemn frown of thefe. Let this Truth be my companion, and I will not be ashamed in the prefence of all the fons of SOCRATES, though joined with thofe of GAMALIel.

In company with this Truth, I dare act the part proper to man. I dare give free scope to my confcience before God, and look into his perfect law, knowing, that, however heavy the charge turn out against me, the refurrection of Jefus affords the anfwer of a good confcience tovard God, as it fhews a righteousness already finished, by which God can appear just in justifying me, even in the very worst view I can have of myself; or, which is more, even in the very worst I can appear in before Him, who knows all things. By being thus encouraged to look into the divine law, I fee the extent of it to be vaftly wider than I was hitherto willing to notice. And, by feeing what a righteoufnels was requifite to honor it, and what expense was needful to expiate every the leaft tranfgreffion of it, I am led to hold every precept of it more facred than ever I did before. I know that I cannot difregard any precept of it, without, at the fame time, difregarding the revealed righteoufnefs. I confider the perfect law, the law that requires godliness and humanity in perfection, as the facred and invariable rule of correfpondence with God. And though on this fide of the grave I cannot come before God at any time, and fay, I have no fin, yet the TRUTH both binds and encourages me to aim at no less than perfection.

While I keep the perfect law in my view, which like a faithful mirror difcovers all my deformity, I can find no reason to glory over the most infamous of mankind. The nearer I

come

come to the light, which makes manifeft all things that are reproved, I have the more reafon to fay, Behold, I am vile. I can have no room for glorying then but in the bare TRUTH: and I have good reafon confidently to oppose the righteoufnefs revealed there to all that is admired, in its ftead, among men.

I Now fee plainly, that all my former reafonings against Jefus and his character, were at the fame time pointed against the divine law, and against the natural dictates of my own confcience. I chose to confine the exercife of my confcience to what might diftinguish me from others. I took pleasure in reflecting what I was not, in comparison with others; but was averse to notice what I was before God. When any uneafy question, in this last respect, arofe in my heart, I was careful to turn it afide by more agreeable reasonings. If I might, for once, call that which properly diftinguishes man, namely his confcience, by the name of REASON, I would vary the style of the received maxim, and fay, Reafon purfued is despair, and Faith, or the knowledge of the truth, is the cure of defpair. Before I knew the cure, I found nothing but pain. and misery, in listening to the fimple dictates of my confcience. And fure I am, neither confcience nor argument directed me to the cure. But it came to me, unexpectly, from heaven, by fupernatural revelation; that is, when I heard God, by the mouths of the Witneffes, laying open the meaning of a fupernatural fact; a fact that had not only awakened fresh disturbance in my confcience, but alfo demolished all my argu

ments.

I was convinced then, that the revealed Truth, which not only awakened my confcience, and made me fenfible of my malady, but also

brought

brought fuch relief as was fufficient to fatisfy it when most awakened, must have come from the fame God who formed it, and whofe law is naturally impreffed there. I found I had hitherto neglected and refifted the natural notices of the true God there, and framed to myself another God by reafonings;-that I had been all along as one half afleep or intoxicated; and who chufes to be fo, as not finding his circumstances in fo good order as to give him pleasure and fatisfaction in his foberest and coolest moments.

And, indeed, who would incline to give place to fuch apprehenfions of God and of himself, as can yield no pleasure or fatisfaction; but on the contrary, the greatest of all pains; yea muft, without the cure, ferve to fill his mind with the moft repining hatred of God?

I HAVE great reason then, to value the gospel, as it enables me to reflect, without pain, that I am a human creature ;- -as it prefents me with fuch an amiable view of the inflexibly just God, as that I may think of him, when fully awake; and need not court the momentary quiet, or rather infenfibility, which is procured by refifting the natural notices of God in the conscience, or the more explicit declaration of his will in his written law. The gospel, while it enforces the law of God, and makes the confcience more fenfible to the conviction of fin, conveys likewise the most refreshing remedy; so answers to the majesty of the living and true God, who fays, See now that I, even I am he, and there is no God with me. I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and fay, I live for ever.

Nor do I think I have any apology to make to men, for renouncing my former ways and

thoughts,

thoughts, however righteous they appeared to myself and others, upon my being found guilty, beyond reply, by the one Lawgiver, who is able to fave and to deftroy; and demonftrated to be wicked and unrighteous in refpect of both, by his irrefiftible work and teftimony. I do not think it beneath the dignity of the wifest human creature, to be convinced of his mistake, by Him, whom it well becomes to fay, My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, fo are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

I used to admire it as a fine imagination, that were Truth and Virtue to be prefented before our eyes in all their native charms, the beauteous fplendor would be too transporting, too dazzling to be beheld by us, but through fome vail. The experiment has been tried, and that in a manner far furpaffing the reach of fancy. The unfullied perfection of both has appeared in the world, in all their native charms indeed, yet fo as not to hurt the weakest eye.-But what was the refult? We faw no form nor comeliness in him; no beauty that we should defire him. We turned afide our faces from him, as from a difagreeable object. The moft wife and virtuous among us were the foremost to set him at nought. Yet however ftrange it may feem, true it is, that fome of the moft bafe and ftupid among us were, upon this occafion, ftruck with fuch an apprehenfion of divine beauty, as far exceeds all the raptures of imagination. The WORD was made flesh, faid they, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

I HAVE faid, the refurrection of Jefus ferves me, as a new principle of knowledge or reafoning. I do not fet out from conjectures, to inquire after truth; but I fet out with the light of undoubted truth; to obferve what path it opens for me to walk in. I do not fet out from human maxims or prefumptions, to inquire how I fhall form a God to myfelf; but I fet out from heavenly truth, stamped with the divine character, to inquire how I fhall form my heart and life fuitably to it. I do not fet out upon the inquiry, What I fhall do to placate the divine Majefty; or, as the phrafe is, How I fhall make my peace with God; but I fet out, from the perfuafion that God is just in justifying the ungodly, to inquire, what fervice he has for me,-to prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

All my religious principles and practices are fo many inferences from the aforementioned fact; yet I have no ground to value myself, as a reafoner, even on this new footing. For I could find no fatisfactory meaning at all in that fact, till I was first taught it by the illiterate Galileans. And, what is more, I can deduce no inference from thence, till I be firft taught it by one or other of the inspired Witneffes. But when I hear them difplaying the manifold wifdom of God from that fource, I perceive a wonderful propriety and force in the whole of their reafoning. Thus God fees meet to abase my pride of understanding, by the very means he ufes for conveying to me the moft ufeful and comfortable of all knowledge. And herein I am perfuaded, he confults my real benefit. real benefit. For were I left to indulge my natural itch for reasoning, even on this new footing, I am fenfible I fhould foon act

the