The following shects, therefore, it may be hoped, will be excused, if they draw out all the artillery of Heaven against the former, and exert their utmost powers to promote the latter. Such an effort will be not less an act of Benevolence, than of Picty; since Pride is sure to bar our entrance to the Mansions of Bliss, and Humility alone can qualify us for the fruition of their peculiar Felicity.

No just ideas were ever formed of the human nature, in its relation to the divine Being, and to the grand scheme of

"Hence, in all states, self annihilation, which is the only true humility, is the sole preservative of Angels unfallen, and the sole restorative of souls degenerated: without this virtue, the beatific Vision would become a source of self-love, and self-attribution." Pride was the origin of all Evil. Can you think then, that the Scripture saith in vain, and more than once, "God resisteth,” avritasσetai, setteth himself in battle array, "against the Proud?" Superbi enim sunt veluti Gloriæ divinæ invasores-dum se rapiunt quod est Dei: invasoribus autem & raptoribus, vis armata opponi consuevit. Sic Deus, & verbis, & factis, superborum conatibus adversatur. Jam. iv. 6. 1 Pet. v. 5.

Redemption by The Messiah, but what tended to cover it with the vesture of Self-abasement. Job. xlii. 5, 6.*

9.

A FALSE GUIDE, like an Ignis fatuus, may prove in the issue a most fatal light; while a true one is a lamp of life.

TION.

Πολλοί μεν το ορθον, γαυσον ποιεσι' ολιγοι, δέναν

Τυφλος τυφλον αγων εις βόθρον εαυτον μετ ̓

αυτε ριπτει. Οδηγος εν οδω, δελετρον†.

* What an Example is here! And how totally different from all that arrogance, conceit, and self-sufficiency, which unenlightened human Reason and Science have dared to assume in the presence of the God of Revelation! Would it not be much wiser, and safer, seriously to regard what is written in Is. lvii. 15. lxvi. 1, 2. Matth. xviii. 1-3? Ταυτα μελετα.

+ Every age has its Impostors, Seducers, and Deceivers. Ought we not then to be guarded against them? «Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch" are questions of greater importance than the generality of mankind seem to think. They consult not what is Truth, in this case-but, what is pleasing. But, is it not a dismal presage in the affair of Salvation, when we run after those, whose Doctrine is most gratifying to our Pride, Prejudice, and Passions, and turn away from such as are the most penetrating, and alarming? 1 John. iv. 1. 2 Pet. ii. 1-3.

There is no Metamorphosis so much to be dreaded, by those, who mean to adhere to the dictates of the Christian Revelation, as "Satan transformed into an Angel of light:" of which, there can hardly be a more decided symptom, than when a public Teacher of our Religion can speak lightly of the Doctrines of Truth; which, to say the least of them, are among the most peculiar characteristicks of that Revelation.

"True Religion," we have been told by an amiable and virtuous Philosopher, but no Preacher, "tends to make man great, and good, and happy; and, if so, its Doctrines can never be too firmly believed, nor held in too high veneration. Why then should we ever represent them as merely speculative notions, about which we may safely differ? or, why should we so conceal or disguise them, as if they were Doctrines we were ashamed to own? Is this honesty? is this integrity? is this

the practice of Piety? What! to insult the wisdom of Heaven, by blushing, openly to avow, what he hath judged fit openly to reveal! Conviction, and steadiness of Principles, is that which gives dignity, consistency, and spirit, to human Conduct. It constitutes, as it were, the vital stamina of a great and manly Character; whereas, duplicity and disguise, betray a weak and sickly understanding, from which nothing can be expected, but cowardice and mutability."

Is it not something worse than shocking, to hear these Doctrines degraded by the very persons, who derive secular Emoluments from their presumed divinity?

It may be supposed, I think, without the smallest trait of illiberality, that all the Cautions, and Notices, which are interspersed in the Oracles of Heaven, on this topic, are not more the language of infinite Benevolence, than of Expediency; and, that they arise out of the necessity of

the case. Were there no false Guides, and were it not dangerous to listen to them, such Caveats would be superfluous, and nugatory. Matt. vii. 15.

Be it observed, that no Characters were resented, or exposed, with such poignant reproof, by "The chief Shepherd," during his public Ministry, as these. Matt. xxiii. merits great attention, in this view. Προσέχετε δε απο των ψευδοπροφητων.

These then are the nine great Arches, upon which we purpose to erect, and elevate, this Temple of Truth: and, should the candid Reader survey them with the care and accuracy, which we have used, we have no doubt of their being admitted as Maxima, and first Principles, in this kind of moral Architecture. So far from fearing, we even court the nicest examination.

Acts xvii. 11, 12.