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the earth appear but as the minifters of his will. In short, thefe Divine Books unfold the ways of Providence. God, who conceals himself in the other events recorded in our hiftorics, feems to reveal himfelf in thefe and it is in this book alone that we ought to learn to read the other hiftories which men have left us.

The Holy Books which have preferved religion to our times, contain the firft monuments of the origin of things. They are more ancient than all the fabulous productions of the human mind, which have ince, in fo melancholy a manner, amufed the credulity of the following ages. And as error always fprings from truth, and is a corrupt imitation of it, it is in the principal actions of this Divine Hiftory, that the fables of Paganifim find their foundation; fo that one may fay, there is no error which pays not thereby homage to the antiquity and authority of our Sacred Writings.

The fincerity of Mofes appears in the fimplicity of his hiftory. He ufed no precautions to gain credit, because he fuppofes thofe for whom he wrote were not deftitute of faith, and because he relates none but facts which were publicly known, to preferve the memory of them rather among their defcendants, than to inftruct that generation in the nature of them.

He concealeth not in a myfterious manner the holy books from the people, left they should discover the falsehood of them, like as the vain oracles of the Sybils were laid up with care in the Capitol, which was built to keep up the pride of the Romans, expofed to the eyes of the priests alone, and produced from time to time by fragments to justify to the minds of the people, either a dangerous enterprize, or an unjust war. Here the prophetic books were daily read by a whole people; the young and old, the women and children, the priests and the common people, the kings and fubjects, were bound without ceafing to have them in their hands; every one had right to ftudy their duty, and to difcover their hopes there. Far from flattering their pride, they declared fully the i gratitude of their fathers; they announced in every page their misfortunes to be the juft chalilement of their crimes; they reproached kings with their lewdnefs; priefts with their injustice; the great with their profufion; the people with their inconftancy and infidelity, and this notwithstanding thefe holy books were dear

to them; and by the oracles which they faw there to be accomplished every day, they waited with confidence the fulfilment of thofe of which all the world at this day are the witneffes.

There is a nobleness, and an elevation in the maxims of the Gospel, to which mean and grovelling minds cannot attain. The religion which forms great fouls, appears to be made only for them; and in order to be great, or to become fo, there is a neceffity of being a Chriftian.

Philofophy difcovered the fhame of the paffions; but she did not teach how to conquer them: her pompous precepts were rather the eulogiuin of virtue, than the remedy of vice. It was even neceffary for the glory and triumph of religion, that the greateft geniuffes, and all the power of human reafon fhould have exhaufted themfelves, in order to render men virtuous. If the Socratefes and the Platos, had not been teachers of the world before Jefas Chrift, and had not in vain attempted to regulate manners, and correct men by the fole force of reason, man might have been able to do honour by his virtue to the fo periority of reafon, or the beauty of virtue itfelf: but thefe preachers of wisdom did not 'make wife men; and it was neceffary that the vain efforts of philofophy fhould prepare new triumphs for grace.

In fhort, it was religion, which exhibited to the world the true wife man, fo long fince announced to us, by all the pomp and parade of human reafon. She has not limited all her glory, like philofophy, to the effay of hardly forming one fage in a century amongst men: the hath peopled with them cities, empires, defarts; and the whole univerfe has been to her another Lycæum, where in the midst of public places the hath preached wifdom to all mankind. It is not only amongst the most polite nations that the hath chofen her wife men: the Greek and Barbarian, the Roman and Scythian, hath been equally cal led to her divine philofophy: it is not only for the learned that the hath referved the fublime knowledge of her mysteries; the fimple have prophefied as well as the fage: and the ignorant themselves have become her doctors and apoftles. It was neceffary that the true wifdom fhould become the wisdom of all men.

But further fill: her doctrine was foolish

nefs in appearance; and yet, the philofophers fubmitted their proud reafon to this holy folly: the announced nothing but

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croffes and fufferings; and yet the Cæfars became her difciples. She alone came to teach mankind that chastity, humility, temperance might be feated on the throne, and that the feat of the paffions and of pleafures, might become the feat of virtue and innocence. What a glory was this for religion. Maillon, Bishop of Clerment. $205. The Light of Reafon imperfect. If the glorious light of the Gofpel be fometimes overcaft with clouds of doubt, fo is the light of our reafon too. But fhall we deprive ourselves of the advantage of either, because thofe clouds cannot perhaps be entirely removed while we remain in this mortal life? Shall we obftinately and frowardly fhut our eyes against that dayfpring from on high that has vifited us, because we are not as yet able to bear the full blaze of his beams? Indeed, not even in heaven itself, not in the higheft ftate of perfection to which a finite being can ever attain, will all the counfels of Providence, all the height and the depth of the infinite wildom of God, be ever difelofed or underBond. Faith, even then, will be neceflary; and there will be myfteries which cannot be penetrated by the most exalted archangel, and truths which cannot be known by him otherwife than from revelation, or believed upon any other ground of affent

than a fubmiffive confidence in the divine widom. What, then, shall man prefume that his weak and narrow understanding is fufficient to guide him into all truth, without any need of revelation or faith? Shall be complain that the ways of God are not like his ways, and paft his finding out? True philofophy, as well as true Chriflianity, would teach us a wifer (and modefter part. It would teach us to be content within thole bounds which God has affigned to rs, "calling down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself againit the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Chrift."

Lord Littleton.

lighting up a flame of oratory, even in the dulleft and coldest breafts. They speak of an angel defcending from heaven to foretel the miraculous conception of Jefus; of another proclaiming his birth, attended by a multitude of the heavenly hoft praising God," and faying, Glory to God in the higheft, and on earth peace, good-will towards men;" of his ftar appearing in the Eaft; of angels miniftring to him in the wilderness; of his glory in the mount; of a voice twice heard from heaven, faying, "This is my beloved Son;" of innumerable miracles performed by him, and by his difciples in his name; of his knowing the thoughts of men; of his foretelling future events; of prodigies accompanying his crucifixion and death; of an angel defcending in terrors, opening his fepulchre, and frightening away the foldiers who were fet to guard it; of his rifing from the dead, afcending into heaven, and pouring down, according to his promife, the various and miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit upon his apostles and difciples. All thefe amazing incidents do thefe infpired hiftorians relate nakedly and plainly, without any of the colourings and heightenings of rhetoric, or so much as a fingle note of admiration; without making any comment or remark upon them, or drawing from them any conclufion

206. The fimplicity of the Sacred Writers. I cannot forbear taking notice of one cther mark of integrity which appears in all the compofitions of the facred writers, and particularly the Evangelifts; and that is, the fimple, unaffected, unornamental, and unoftentatious manner, in which they deliver truths fo important and fubme, and facts fo magnificent and wonderjal, as are capable, one would think, of

in honour either of their mafter or themfelves, or to the advantage of the religion they preached in his name; but contenting themfelves with relating the naked truth, whether it feems to make for them or against them; without either magnifying on the one hand, or palliating on the other, they leave their caufe to the unbiaffed judgment of mankind, feeking, like genuine apoitles of the Lord of truth, to convince rather than to perfuade; and therefore coming, as St. Paul speaks of his preaching, "not with excellency of fpeech,-not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but with demonftration of the Spirit, and of power, that," adds he, "your faith fhould not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." And let it be remembered that he, who speaks this, wanted not learning, art or eloquence, as is evident from his fpeeches recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, and from the teftimony of that great critic Longinus, who, in reckoning up the Grecian orators, places among them Paul of Tarfus; and furely, had they been left folely to the fuggestions and guidance of human

wifdom,

wifdom, they would not have failed to lay hold on fuch topics, as the wonders of their mafter's life, and the tranfcendent purity and perfection of the noble, generous, benevolent morality contained in his precepts, furnished them with. These topicks, I fay, greater than ever Fully, or Demofthenes, or Plato, were poffeffed of, mere human wisdom would doubtles have prompted them to make use of, in order to recommend, in the ftrongeft manner, the religion of Jefus Chrift to mankind, by eurning their attention to the divine part of his character, and hiding, as it were, in a blaze of heavenly light and glory, his infirmities, his fufferings, and his death, And had they upon fuch topics as thefe, and in fuch a caufe, called into their affiftance all the arts of compofition, rhetoric, and logic, who would have blamed them for it? Not thofe perfons, I prefume, who, dazzled and captivated with the glittering ornaments of human wifdom, make a mock at the fimplicity of the Gospel, and think it wit to ridicule the flyle and language of the Holy Scriptures. But the all-wife Spirit of God, by whom thefe facred writers were guided into all truth, thought fit to direct or permit them to proceed in a different method; a method, however, very analagous to that, in which he hath been pleased to reveal himself to us in the great book of nature, the Rupendous frame of the univerfe; all whofe wonders he hath judged it fufficient to lay before us in lence, and expects from our obfervations the proper comments and dedu&ions, which, having endued us with reafon, he bath enabled us to make. And though a careless and fuperficial fpectator may fancy he perceives even in this fair volume many inconfiftences, defects, and fuperfluities; yet to a diligent, unprejudiced, and rational enquirer, who will take pains to examine the laws, confider and compare the feveral parts, and regard their ufe and rendency, with reference to the whole defign of this amazing structure, as far as his thort abilities can carry him, there will appear, in those inftances which he is capable of knowing, fuch evident characters of wifdom, goodnefs, and power, as will leave him no room to doubt of their author, or to fufpect that in thofe particulars which he hath not examined, or to a thorough knowledge of which he cannot perhaps attain, there is nothing but folly, weaknefs, and malignity. The fame thing might be faid of the written book, the fecond vo

lume, if I may fo fpeak, of the revelation of God, the Holy Scriptures. For as ia the first, fo alfo in this are there many paffages, that to a curfory, anobferving reader appear idle, unconnected, unaccountable, and inconfiftent with thofe marks of truth, wisdom, juftice, mercy, and benevolence, which in others are fo vifible, that the most carelefs and inattestive cannot but difcern them. And even thefe, many of them, at leift, will often be found, upon a clofer and ftricter examination, to accord and coincide with the other more plain and more intelligible paffages, and to be no heterogeneous parts of che and the fame wife and harmonious compofition. In both indeed, in the natural as well as the moral book of God, there are, and ever will be, many difficulties, which the wit of man may never be able to refolve; but will a wife philofopher, because he cannot comprehend every thing he fees, reject for that reafon all the truths that within his reach, and let a few inexplicab difficulties over-balance the many p and infallible evidences of the finger God, which appear in all parts, both e his created and written works? Or will he prefume fo far upon his own wifdem, as to fay, God ought to have expreffed himself more clearly? The point and exact degree of clearness, which wil equally fuit the different capacities of men in different ages and countries, will, I believe, be found more difficult to fix than is imagined; fince what is clear to one man in a certain fituation of mind, time, and place, wili inevitably be obfcure to another, who views it in other pofitions, and under other circumftances. How various and even contradictory are the readings and comments, which feveral men, in the feveral ages and climates of the world, have made upon nature! And yet her characters are equally legible, and her laws equally intelligible, in all times and in all places: "There is no fpeech nor language where her voice is not heard: her found is gone out through all the earth, and her words to the end of the world." All these All thefe mifreprefentations therefore, and mifconftructions, of het works, are chargeable only upon mankind, who have fet themselves to ftudy them with various degrees of capacity, application, and impartiality. The quel tion then fhould be, Why hath God givea men fuch various talents? And not, Way hath not God expreffed himself more

clearly?

dearly? And the anfier to this queftion, as far as it concerns man to know, is, that God will require of him according to what he bath, and not according to what he hath pot. If what is neceffary for all to know, is knowable' by all; thofe men, upon whom God hath been pleafed to below capacities and faculties fuperior to the vulgar, have certainly no jut reafon to complain of his having left them materials for the exercife of thofe talents, which, if all things were equally plain to all men, would be of no great advantage to the poffeffors. If, therefore, there are in the facred writings, as well as in the works of nature, many paffages hard to be understood, it were to be withed, that the wife and learned, inftead of being offended at them, and teaching others to be fo 100, would be perfuaded, that both God and man expect that they would fet themAlves to confider and examine them carefully and impartially, and with a fincere defire of difcovering and embracing the truth, not with an arrogant unphilofophi cal conceit of their being already fufficidy wile and knowing. And then I doubt r. but most of thefe objections to revelation, which are now urged with the greatelt confidence, would be cleared up and removed, like thofe formerly made to Creation, and the Being and Providence of Gud, by thofe moft ignorant, moft abford, and yet moit felf-fufficient pretenders to reafon and philofophy, the Atheists and Sceptics.

Weft.

§ 207. The fuperiority of Chriftian philo

Jephy over the Stoical.

Epictetus often lays it down as a maxim, that it is impoffible for one perfon to be in fault, and another to be the fufferer. This, on the fuppofition of a future ftate, will certainly be made true at laft; but in the ftoical fenfe, and fyftem, is an abfolute extravagance. Take any perfon of plain understanding, with all the feelings of humanity about him, and fee whether the fubtleft Stoic will ever be able to convince him, that while he is infulted, oppreffed, and tortured, he doth not fufer. See what comfort it will afford him, to be told, that, if he fupports his afflictions and illtreatment with fortitude and patience, death will fet him free, and then he and his perfecutor will be equally rewarded; will equally lofe all perfonal existence, and return to the elements. How different

are the confolations propofed by Chrif tianity, which not only affures its difciples. that they fhall reft from their labours in death, but that their works fhall follow them: and by allowing them to rejoice in hope, teaches them the moft effectual way of becoming patient in tribulation.

The Stoical doctrine, that human fouls are literally parts of the Deity, was equally fhocking, and hurtful; as it fuppofed portions of his being to be wicked and miferable; and by debafing men's ideas of the divine dignity, and teaching them to think themfelves effentially as good as he, nourished in their minds an irreligious and fatal prefumption. Far differently the Chriftian fyftem reprefents mankind, not as a part of the effence, but a work of the hand of God: as created in a state of improveable virtue and happineis; fallen by an abufe of free will, into fin, mifery, and weaknefs; but redeemed from them by an Almighty Saviour; furnished with additional knowledge and ftrength; commanded to ufe their belt endeavours; made fenfible, at the fame time, how wretchedly defective they are; yet affured of endless felicity on a due exertion of them. The Stoic philofophy infults human nature and difcourages all our attempts, by enjoining and promifing a perfection in this life, of which we feel ourselves incapable. The Chriftian religion fhows compaflion to our weakness, by prefcribing to us only the practicable task of aiming continually at further improvements, and animates our aid, equal to every trial. endeavours, by the promife of a divine

Specifying thus the errors and defects of fo celebrated a fyftem, is an unpleafing employment: but in an age, fond of preterring the guelles of human fagacity before the unerring declarations of God, it feemed on this occafion neceffary to obferve, that the Chriftian morality is agreeable to reafon and nature; that of the Stoics, for the most part, founded on notions, intelligible to few; and which none could admit, without contradiction to their own hearts. They reafoned, many times, admirably well, but from falfe principles; and the nobleft of their practical precepts, being built on a fandy bafis, lay at the mercy of every ftrong temptation.

Stoicifm is indeed in many points inferior to the doctrine of Socrates, which did not teach, that all externals were indifferent, which did teach a future state of 4 recompence;

recompence; and agreeably to that, forbad fuicide. It doth not belong to the prefent fubject to fhow, how much even this beft fystem is excelled by Chriflianity. It is fufficient just to obferve, that the author of it died in a profeflion, which he had always made of his belief in the popular deities, whofe fuperflitions, and impure worship was the great fource of corruption in the Heathen world; and the last words he uttered, were a direction to his friend, for the performance of an idolatrous ceremony. This melancholy inftance of ignorance and error, in the molt illuftrious character for wisdom and virtue in all heathen antiquity, is not mentioned as a reflection on his memory, but as a proof of human weakness in general. Whether reafon could have difcovered the great truths, which in thefe days are afcribed to it, becaufe now feen fo clearly by the light of the Gospel, may be a queftion; but that it never did, is an undeniable fact; and that is enough to teach us thankfulness for the bleffing of a better in formation. Socrates, who had, of all mankind, the fairest pretenfions to fet up for an infractor, and reformer of the world, confefied that he knew nothing, referred to tradition, and acknowledged the want of a fuperior guide: and there is a remarkable paffage in Epictetus, in which he repreTents it, as the office of his fupreme God, or of one deputed by him, to appear among mankind, as a teacher and example.

Upon the whole, the feveral fects of Heathen philofophy ferve, as fo many friking infances of the imperfection of human wifdom; and of the extreme need of a divine affiitance, to rectify the mistakes of depraved reafon, and to replace natural religion on its true foundation. The Stoics every where teftify the noblest zeal for virtue, and the honour of God; but they attempted to establish them on principles inconlitert with the nature of man, and contradictory to truth and experience. By a direct confequence of thefe principles they were liable to be feduced, and in fact, often were feduced into pride, hard-hearteduefs, and the laft dreadful extremity of human guilt, felf-inurder.

But however indefenfible the philofophy of the Stoics in feveral inflances may be, it appears to have been of very important ufe, in the heathen world; and they are, on many accounts, to be confidered in a very refpectable light. Their doctrine of

evidence and fixed principles, was an excellent prefervative from the mischiefs, that might have arifen from the fcepticism of the Academics and Pyrrhonifts, if an oppofed; and their zealous defence of a particular providence, a valuable antidote to the atheistical fcheme of Epicurus. To this may be added, that their ftri&t notions of virtue in moft points, (for they fadly filed in fome) and the lives of ieveral among them, must contribute a good deal to preferve luxurious flates from an abfolutely univerfal diffolutenefs; and the fubjects of arbitrary government, from a wretched and contemptible pufillanimity.

Even now, their compofitions may be read with great advantage, as containing excellent rules of felf-government, and of focial behaviour; of a noble reliance on the aid and protection of heaven, and of a perfect refignation and fubmiffion to the divine will; points, which are treated with great clearness, and with admirable (piri, in the leffons of the Stoics; and though their directions are feldom practicable on their principles, in trying cafes, may be rendered highly useful in fubordination to Chriftian reflections.

If, among thofe, who are fo unhappy as to remain unconvinced of the truth of Chriftianity, any are prejudiced against it by the influence of unwarrantable inclinations; fuch perfons will find very little advantage in rejecting the doctrines of the New Teftament for thofe of the Portico; unless they think it an advantage to be laid under moral reftraints, almoft equal to thofe of the gospel, while they are depriv ed of its encouragements and fupports. Deviations from the rules of fobriety, jaf tice, and piety, meet with small indulgence in the ftoic writings; and they, who profefs to admire Epictetus, unless they pursue that feverely virtuous conduct which he every where prefcribes, will find themfelves treated by him with the utmost degree of fcorn and contempt. An immoral character is indeed, more or lefs, the out-cart of all fects of philofophy; and Sencca quotes even Epicurus, to prove the uni verfal obligation of a virtuous life. Of this great truth, God never left himfelf without witnefs. Perfons of diftinguished talents and opportunities feem to have been raifed, from time to time, by Providence, to check the torrent of corruption, and to preferve the fenfe of moral obligations on, the minds of the multitude, to

whom

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