world, let him become a fool that he may be wise, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Where is the wise, where the scholar, where the disputer of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For, when the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe"-that believe so as to be born of God, John v, i; that believe so as to be "filled with peace, hope, joy, and love, through the power of the Holy Ghost," Rom. xv, 13. Let us then often meditate, sir, upon such scriptures; they will, by the blessing of God, bring our hearts low, and make them willing, in spite of our reasonings, to submit to that faith which is the gift of God to a soul distressed for sin, and to reap and enjoy its fruits, a solid peace, a living hope, a burning love, and an unwearied obedience. For till we are stripped of our fig leaves, till we have done boasting of our own powers, and the glorious remains of God's image, and trusting to self and reason, to Pharisaical righteousness and forms of godliness, we cannot truly seek the power of it; and we must stumble at a thousand scriptures, as well as that famous saying of Luther, “Sicut sola fide in Christum veram justitiam ad salutem consequimur; ita nihil difficilius, quam hoc, hominibus persuadetur; nihil Satan (præsertim candidus ille Satan) æque oppugnat." Thus have I, sir, laid down with all plainness the observations I made upon your elegant discourse, as I understood it; I submit them to your candid judgment, and to your second thoughts, as well as to the word of God and the articles of our Church. Should I have mistaken your meaning, sir, in any part of these sheets, (which may easily have been the case,) I shall be exceeding glad to acknowledge it, and ask your pardon. Should you have been mistaken, yourself, sir, in some parts of your discourse, I beg you would not take amiss the liberty I have taken to lay before you the grounds of my fears on that account. I have not done it (God knows) out of desire to set myself up as a judge of any one of my brethren and fathers in the Church; but I found myself in some measure forced to it by the following observations of some of my parishioners that were at Wenlock to hear you, sir, beside the officers : "If that gentleman is right," they concluded, "our minister must be quite wrong: he is always telling us of the darkness and blindness of our understandings in Divine things, the hardness of our hearts which we cannot force to repent and love, the unruliness of our will, which we cannot turn to true obedience: he concludes there is an absolute necessity for us to be born again, renewed in those faculties by the Spirit of God given unto us. But this gentleman talks of precious remains of God's image in our souls, and seems to be against this new birth. The one tells us, we are fallen, that God has concluded all under sin, that there is none good, no not one, that without Christ we can do nothing right, that there is no health in us; yea, he goes so far as to declare that of ourselves and by ourselves we have no goodness, help, or salvation; but contrariwise sin, damnation, and death everlasting.' (Homily of the Misery of Man, 2d part.) The other affirms that we are fallen, yet we can help and raise ourselves: we have a free will, and we may use it to do good works; and if, after all, we fall short in some things, the Spirit of Christ is to help our infirmity. Yea, we are not so blind and dark as some suppose, for we have the candle of the Lord shining in our breast, and that is, (not Christ, the light of the world,' or the word of God, that shines as a lamp in a dark place,) but reason. "The one tells us, that all the world being wrapped up in sin, by breaking the law, no man, by his own acts, words, and deeds, seem they never so good, can be justified before God, and saved. (Hom. of Salvation.) He says that all our moral righteousness and our forms of godliness are but fig leaves, with which we cover the desperate pride and wickedness of our hearts, if, trusting to them for justification, in whole or in part, we do not flee as naked, poor, miserable, and blind sinners, to Jesus alone, put off, by repentance, the filthy rags of our own righteousness, and put on, by faith, the robe of our Saviour's merits. "But the other recommends, in general, virtue, benevolence, relative duties, &c, and gives us to understand, that this is by far the plainest and most rational way of salvation. "The one tells us, that if we never felt godly sorrow for sin, we never truly repented; that if we never enjoyed, and consequently were sensible of, or felt, the peace and love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, we have great reason to examine whether we be really in the faith-whether Christ be in us of a truth, Rom. v, 1–5; 2 Cor. xiii, 5. "But the other discountenances such doctrines as leading to despair and enthusiasm; he represents feelings without distinction, as the consequences of people's constitutions, as owing to the weakness of their nerves, the lowness or height of their animal spirits; and he is so far from wishing to have us be uneasy, if we feel neither the burden of our sins nor the refreshment which Christ offers to those that are heavy laden, neither peace nor joy in the Holy Ghost; that he thinks our good nature, benevolence, diligence in business, &c, exclusive of those feelings, are the most rational way to happiness and heaven.” I find myself, then, under a necessity, sir, as I value the souls of my parishioners, and regard the success of my ministry among them, to lay before those, who asked me what I had to say to your discourse, the reflections contained in these sheets; but would not do it before I had laid them at your feet, in hopes that if I have mistaken your meaning, you will be so kind as to acquaint me with it; or that, if I am in the wrong myself, by preaching such doctrines, you will condescend to convince me of my errors, and by that means stop the mischief I might do in propagating them. With an entire readiness to lie at your feet for instructions or reproofs, agreeable to the word of God, and the doctrine of our Church, I am, reverend sir, yours, &c, J. FLETCHER. NATURAL AVERSION OF THE HUMAN MIND TO THAT WHICH IS GOOD. "SHOULD naked virtue give herself to view, Th' admiring world would pay the homage due," Such was Pythagoras, a sage far famed; On Heaven reposed; while Greeks, a sinning race, It is well known that ARISTIDES was banished from Athens for his excellent virtues; and in particular for his justice and beneficence, which gave umbrage to his fellow citizens. In the like manner that illustrious philosopher, who preached equity in Athens, lost his life through his support of truth which leads to piety. Many people, however, may not know that PYTHAGORAS was himself a martyr in the cause of virtue. For the sake of these, the following remarks, concerning the life and death of this great philosopher, are inserted from the account given by M. Dacier. "Nothing could equal the respect shown to Pythagoras. He was regarded as the most perfect image of God among men; his dwelling was named the temple of Ceres, and when he went to the villages, it was said that he came not merely to instruct, but to bless mankind. "Who could have thought but a man so respected, who never did any thing but good to society, would have enjoyed a tranquil old age, and a happy conclusion? But this is not always the lot of heroes and sages. The corruption and injustice of men promise, to such characters as these, more vexation than tranquillity. The last years of Pythagoras were clouded with persecution, and he met a tragical death. Observe the origin of his misfortunes. 1 "There was at Crotona a young man named Cylon, who was so elated with his birth, riches, and the great influence of his family, that he imagined it would be conferring honour on Pythagoras to become his disciple. The philosopher, not forming his judgment of men by external circumstances, perceiving this youth to be greatly depraved, dismissed him from his school. "Cylon, being enraged at this injury, sought revenge. He every where defamed the philosopher, and endeavoured to render him suspected among the people, by representing his meetings as clubs of disaffected and seditious persons, whose aim was to overturn the state. These calumnies easily gained ground; (for the public were always unjust and suspicious, and ever ready to proceed to extremities against the sages, whom they considered as pedagogues who controlled and chastised them;) so that Pythagoras, their benefactor, was soon regarded as a public enemy at Crotona. "One day when all his disciples were assembled with him in the house of Milo, Cylon went there with a crowd of ruffians, and a great number of his friends that were devoted to his resentment. They surrounded and set fire to the house. None escaped from the ruins save Pythagoras, Lysis, and Archippus; the latter fled to Tarentum, his own country, and Lysis to Thebes, where he became preceptor to Epaminondas. "With respect to Pythagoras, he took the way to Locris; but the people being advertised of his intended visit to them, and dreading the wrath of Cylon, and the fate of Crotona, sent their principal magistrates to entreat him to depart from them. He went to Tarentum, from whence a new persecution shortly drove him. He went to Metapontum, but the sedition of Crotona served as a signal for a general insurrection against the Pythagoreans. The flame extended to all the cities of Greece. The schools of Pythagoras were demolished, and he himself, at the age of fourscore, murdered in a tumult at Metapontum; or, according to others, he died of hunger in the temple of the muses, where he had taken shelter. These are the most circumstantial and authentic materials I have been able to collect concerning the death of Pythagoras. "Strange event," concludes M. Dacier, "that the man who had ap. peased so many wars, calmed so many seditions, and extinguished the flame of discord in so many families, should perish in a tumult raised against himself. He was pursued from city to city, and the greatest part of his disciples were involved in the same ruin. It is very remarkable that the cities which had persecuted Pythagoras the most, were the first who honoured his memory, and followed his laws with the greatest exactness." Those who neither embrace the Gospel, nor sound philosophy, will doubtless say, that the most active virtue has nothing to fear in these days. Does human nature differ at Paris and Toulouse from what it was at Crotona and Tarentum? Let us hear the decision of the two Rousseaus. "Socrates among us," says Rousseau the philosopher, who had such exalted ideas of man, "must not only drink the cup of poison, but he must also drink a bitter cup of insulting raillery and contempt, a thousand times worse than death itself." Rousseau the poet is of the same mind, in his Epistle to Count De Luc. Si sur la terre aucun ne vous croit digne M. de Voltaire, who had no relish for the severe truths of the Gospel, could not forbear publishing similar thoughts in his Epistle on Calumny. Que le mensonge un instant vous outrage, &c. Should slander cast a hellish flood on you, Horace had nearly the same views, if we consult the following lines. (Epis. i. lib. 2.) Post ingentia fata Deorum in templa recepti, Dum terras hominumque colunt genus, aspera bella Rome's founder, Leda's twins, the god of wine, The language of these poets illustrates the words of Jesus Christ: "Wo to you when all men speak well of you. Ye shall be hated of all nations for my sake." Those who think Jesus Christ was deceived when he thus expressed himself, will doubtless conclude this canto of no advantage; but those who rise above mediocrity in virtue, and lukewarmness in piety, will perhaps be of another mind. We need only view the persecutions which Pythagoras suffered, to be convinced how much philosophers deceive themselves in saying Christianity is a false religion, owing to its being the innocent cause of persecutions. It is granted that pure Christianity, like sound philosophy, has always been persecuted by wicked Pagans, sophistical reasoners, and carnal Christians; but instead of concluding that this religion is bad, we ought to infer that it is the most perfect and holy in the world, seeing it leads men to the most sublime virtue. And though it be hated and persecuted by all worldly-minded persons, not even excepting those who have been dedicated to Jesus Christ in baptism, and consequently ought to tolerate the Gospel; yet it meets the cordial approbation of all honest men. True Christianity is so excellent, that no wicked person can love it, and the more depraved men are, the more they persecute it. And from this source spring those numerous and bloody persecutions with which nominal Christians are reproached. If it be demanded why wicked Christians are not only persecutors, but the fiercest persecutors, we answer, They persecute because they are wicked, and they are the most |