not a lord in lawn, wants at the same time to be told, that if a child want bread his parent should not give him a stone, if he wish for fish, he should not be mortified with a scorpion.

The high esteem, in which christians held the apostles, excited the envy of bad inen, and they presently poured themselves into christian churches to share the benefits. These acted over again the part of the old false prophets, and they were treated by the apostles as the true prophets had treated the former impostors. They foresaw, however, and foretold, that men of this sort, after their de cease, would prostitute religion to worldly purposes, and associate the spirit of the devil with the profession of christianity. They knew the weakness of some pious men, and the desperate projects of the wicked. They remembered the state of the Mosaical œconomy, and they recollected the prophecies of their divine master. They, therefore, apprized succeeding christians of their danger, by describing the men, by directing the servants of Christ to adhere to the written word, and whenever apostates should arrive at power enough to set up ANOTHER STANDARD OF FAITH AND MANNERS, to withdraw from them.* They assured them, they would be persecuted; but they charged them to stand firmly in christian liberty, and to hold fast

* These things teach... If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ . . from such WITHDRAW thyself. i Tim. vi. 3. 6. 2 Thess. iii. 6.

both the FAITH and the PROFESSION of it, and they promised them the presence, the blessing, and the support of God. They never so much as hinted that the church might let itself to the state, that any had a right to give laws to conscience, to appoint ceremonies of divine worship, and to enforce both by penal sanctions; but considering Christ as having finished his religious plan, charged their successors to keep what they had committed to their trust unspotted and unrebukeable until the second appearing of Jesus Christ. The longest liver of these inspired men described in bold allegorical style, like that of the old prophets, the nature and duration of the apostacy, and closed the holy canon by threatening all, who should increase or diminish the divine word.

Here we are arrived at that part of the history of publick preaching, at which a consistent christian, especially an uniform protestant, ought to pause, in order to form a just notion of the perfection of the pulpit. Here we have the whole of the revealed will of God, the whole body of christian science; consequently a perfect preacher, whatever opinions and doctrines he may hereafter meet with in the future history of preaching, will think himself thoroughly furnished unto every good work, although he disbelieve them all. Future preachers may be counsel on different sides of questions, which may arise; but not a soul of them may give law. No mortal may hereafter ascend an eminence, and say, you have heard the gospel say so and so; but I say the direct contrary.

Here we have all the genuine motives and supports of the sacred system; truth supported by reason and argument, christian institutes maintained by motives pure and christian like themselves; consequently, a perfect preacher, how zealous soever he may be to propagate christianity, will not think himself authorized either to exchange these motives for others of a secular kind, or to incorporate these, which have been tried and found to be mighty through God to bring every thought into obedience to Christ, with such as support civil states and trading companies. Should future history shew him a set of men rising up in the church, and procuring from kings charters to empower them to trade in divinity, and assigning them a set of opinions as a company's stock to traffick with, he would not think himself obliged to pawn his soul to raise a sum, that might enable him to buy in and traffick too.

Here, in the doctrine of CHRIST, is all the message, and in the example of CHRIST the only right manner of delivering it. Passion may think the system wants heat-pride may imagine it wants ornaments-blind zeal may suppose it wants power -the voluptuous may say it is not pleasureblack robes may declare it is not learned-long robes may vow it is not law-there may be found coxcombs or lunaticks, who may deny it even common sense-yea knaves or idiots may take heart and call it a cheat-but what says the cool consistent christian? What have thousands of such men said? Why they have surveyed the christian

religion, neat as it came out of the hands of its divine creator, Christ the Lord of this new world, and proclaimed, Behold! it is very good! Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge! Give glory to God! Revealed religion resembles the natural world; each came from the same wisdom, and each is analogous to the other, perfect and entire, and lacking nothing.

The apostles being dead, every thing came to pass exactly as they had foretold. The whole christian system underwent a miserable change, preaching shared the fate of other institutions, and this glory of the primitive church was turned into a lie. The degeneracy, however, was not immediate, it was slow and gradual, and brought on by degrees, just as a modest youth becomes a profligate man.

Before any man takes up the writings of those uninspired authors, whom we call FATHERS, it would be well to read St. Luke's introduction to his gospel. Many have taken in hand to set forth ..a declaration of those things, which are most surely believed among us... but it seemed good to me.. having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee, in order, most excellent Theophilus. It seems, the love of writing, and of becoming authors early possessed some good christians, who had NOT a perfect understanding of the subjects, of which they wrote. "We certainly believe the principal articles, which they declare; but not as they declare them. I write that thou mayest know the

certainty of those things; for they describe them so as to render them doubtful." We take no notice of the force of the original terms; it is plain, this is the general meaning of the Evangelist.

Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenæus, and other fathers nearest the times of the apostles were writers of this kind. Clement of Alexandria was a very good man, he preached to the church, and taught school, and his miscellanies may fairly stand for a pattern of the whole; christianity is there:* but how sadly mixed and mismatched with pagan philosophy and Jewish allegory, the thunders of an apostle with the squibs of an enthusiast! The partiality of a scholar for his tutor, the love of a proselyte for his casuist, and a thousand other incidents may have preserved old letters and påpers, which charity would have buried in oblivion, into which, in all probability, the manly works of some primitive bishops have sunk.

Some wished to convert pagan philosophers, they, therefore, philosophized too, and proved Moses and Christ, by Sophocles and Plato. Others longed for Jewish proselytes; the Jews loved allegory; christianity then was allegorized. Some endeavoured to convert the pagan populace; the populace loved finery; the ceremonies of christianity, then, were adorned. Others hoped to recommend religion to gentry; the pulpit, then, was set by the laws of the theatre, went by the rhetorick of Aristotle, and was known to be good by

* Στρώματα.