remark, in aid of my argument, that all neceffary articles of faith and rules of practice are clearly revealed, fo far as relates to the instruction of the poor (or illiterate) who were to "have the gospel preached unto "them." That gofpel, to which may be applied the direction given to Habakkuk in respect to a vifion, "make it plain upon "tables, that he may run that readeth.”+ The measure then of necessary information and intelligence could not be leffened by the removal of certain modern confeffions, or fymbols of certain churches.

That fanatics may appeal to the scriptures in proof of their opinions, is very poffible; fome writers have gone further, and faid, that every religious opinion has its martyr; but it is certain that there is as much difagreement among ourselves with respect to the explications of our established formularies, as could poffibly have been in the interpretations of thofe fcriptures from whence certain advocates maintain them to have been taken. Nor is this disagreement in opinion confined to two oppofite parties, but multiplied

* Luke iv. 18. vii. 22.

+ Hab. ii. 2.

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tiplied into as many as there are distinct propofitions contained in thofe formularies. Such, indeed, are the temper and constitution of the human mind, that this diverfity of opinion is unavoidable, infomuch, that it would be no lefs wild a project to attempt to regulate the ftature of all mankind by one ftandard, or to reduce their countenances to one mould or fashion, and at the fame time preserve the human form and figure entire, than to make them of one mind; and, in fome inftances, it would be the less injury of the two to disfigure or maim the body of a man to bring it to a certain ftandard of bulk or ftature,

«These fame articles are called only thirty-nine, ་་ yet no man must from hence imagine, that he has only "thirty-nine propofitions to deal with; he will find four << or five times that number, though bound up indeed into "fo many bundles. The fecond article alone contains "thirteen very substantial propofitions; the seventeenth "twelve; the twenty-fifth as many. How many are in"cluded in the thirty-fifth, it is impoffible to fay, as it "implies our affent to two whole books, one of which is

now scarcely extant, and the other appears to want con"fiderable elucidations, before it can be rightly under"flanded of the people." See the learned bishop Law's Confiderations on the propriety of requiring a fubfcription to articles of faith, 2d edit. 1774. p. 6.

ftature, than to torture and wreft his mental faculties to a conformity with certain prefcribed theories in matters of a speculative

Such differences of opinion, though fometimes, alas! uncandidly maintained and uncharitably conducted, promote inquiry, and all inquiry is favorable to the investigation of truth and the rejection of error, and goes a great way towards giving ample fatisfaction

*"We ought no more to expect to be all of one "opinion, as to the worship of the deity, than to be all "of one colour or ftature. To ftretch or to narrow any "man's confcience to the standard of our own, is no less "a piece of cruelty, than that of Procruftes, the tyrant of "Attica, who used to fit his guefts to the length of his

own iron bedstead, either by cutting them fhorter, or "racking them longer. What just reason can I have to "be angry with, to endeavour to curb the natural liberty, or to retrench the civil advantages of an honeft man "(who follows the golden rule of doing to others as he "would have others do to him,' and is willing and able "to ferve the public) only because he thinks his way to "heaven furer or fhorter than mine? Nobody can tell "which of us is mistaken, 'till the day of judgment, or "whether any of us be fo, for there may be different ways "to the fame end, and I am not for circumfcribing God << Almighty's mercy." Lord Molefworth's preface to his tranflation of Hotoman's Franco-Gallia.

faction to a thinking chriftian, who would

gladly be able to " give an answer to every

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man that asketh him a reason of the hope

"that is in him," and to give an account. of the faith that he is required to profefs.+

The intemperate zeal, which we may not unfrequently obferve in polemic writers, owes not its fpirit to that gospel which, with much good meaning, it aims to defend, but to the genius of that system, which directs the force and scope of the writer's arguments to the terms of fome human compofition, and by that means often ends. in creating an irreconcilable variance between the fame perfon and himself, in the twofold character of fubfcriber and writer. This has been done in more than an hundred

* 1 Pet. iii. 15.

+ If this question fhould yet be judged controvertible, the reader may promise himself very confiderable fatisfaction from the perufal of an excellent " prefatory "discourse, containing fome thoughts on the use and "importance of theological controverfy," prefixed to the fecond edition of an Hiftorical view of the controverfy concerning an intermediate state, printed for Wheble, 1772, 8vo.

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dred inftances among our most able, as well as dignified, expofitors of the prefent age. And this is a difficulty, which will more frequently embarrass future defenders of our common christianity, in proportion as our knowledge is increased. But, furely, we may hope that the dogmata of dark and ignorant ages will not for ever hide from us the light of the gofpel, or the pure milk of the word be much longer withheld from those whofe first duty it is to give it to others. Every branch of philosophy has undergone a variety of changes, and received confiderable affiftance within that compass of time to which I refer; nor has the knowledge of the fcriptures received lefs acquifition. As a fcience, it has had confiderable affiftance from the united and fucceffive labours of feveral learned philologifts and critics; and much additional collateral knowledge has been gathered from the teftimony of certain learned and inquifitive travellers into the castern world, who, by accurate dif

quifitions

*See an excellent work intitled Obfervations on divers paflages of fcripture, collected from books of voyages and travels into the eaft. By Mr. Harmer, 4 vols.