stance of the figments which these unhappy men, wise in their own conceit, vented under the name of the Christian religion.

The doctrine of Jesus Christ, and of him crucified, which St. Paul preached, and in which he gloried, is the pillar and ground of truth, the rock upon which the church is built, and against which the gates of hell shall never prevail. Mistakes in this point are fundamental, dangerous, and, if persisted in, destructive; for, as such a knowledge of God as is connected with his favour and communion is eternal life, so none can come to the Father but by the Son,' nor can any know him but those to whom the Son will reveal him. On this account Satan's great endeavour (and on his success herein the strength of his kingdom depends), is to darken and pervert the minds of men, lest they should acknowledge and understand what the Scripture declares of his person, characters, and offices, as well knowing, that if these are set aside, whatever else is left of religion will be utterly unavailing. Jesus Christ is revealed in the Scripture, and was preached by his first disciples, as God manifest in the flesh, a divine person in the human nature; who, by submitting to ignominy, pain, and death, made a full and proper atonement for sin, and wrought out an everlasting righteousness in favour of all who should believe in his name; and he is set forth in that nature, in which he suffered, as the object of our supreme love, trust, and adoration. Other important doctrines, largely insisted on in the word of God, such as the demerit of sin, the obnoxiousness of sinners to punishment, and the

- 1 Cor. ii. 2.; Gal. vi. 14.; 1 Tim. iii. 15.; Matt. xvi. 18. Y John, xvii. 3.; xiv, 6. s Matt. xi. 27.

misery and incapacity of man in his fallen state, are closely connected with this, and cannot be satisfactorily explained without it. The necessary method of our recovery exhibits the most striking view of the ruin in which sin has involved us, and is the only adequate standard whereby to estimate the unspeakable love of God manifested in our redemption.

On the

other hand, a knowledge of the true state of mankind, in consequence of the fall, is necessary to obviate the prejudices of our minds against a procedure which, though in itself the triumph of divine wisdom, is, in many respects, contradictory to our natural (and therefore false) notions of the fitness of things. St. Paul declares, "that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he discern them;" and in another place," "that no man can say," that is sincerely and upon solid conviction," that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." To worship him who had been hanged upon a cross, and to expect eternal happiness from his death, was to the Jews a stumbling-block; it offended their notions of the unity of the Godhead, and opposed their high esteem of their own righteousness; and to the Greeks or Heathens it appeared the greatest folly and absurdity imaginable. For these reasons the Gospel was rejected by multitudes as soon as proposed, and those who preached it were accounted babblers and madmen; not because they were at a loss for propriety of expression, or discovered any thing ridiculous in their conduct, but because they enforced tenets which were adjudged inconsistent with the common sense of mankind.

1 Cor. ii. 14.

u 1 Cor. xii. 3.

But, notwithstanding these prejudices, the energy of their preaching, and the miraculous powers with which it was accompanied, made an impression upon many persons, so far as to induce them to profess the name of Jesus, though they were not spiritually enlightened into the mysteries of his religion, nor their hearts thoroughly subdued to the obedience of the faith. There are other points, within the compass of the Gospel ministry, more adapted to affect the minds of men in their natural state. Few are so hardened but they have a conscience of sin, some fears with respect to its consequences, and a pre-intimation of immortality. Such are capable of being greatly affected and moved, by a pathetic declaration of the terrors of the Lord, the solemnities of a future judgment, the joys of heaven, or the torments of hell. We cannot doubt that these topics, when insisted on with that strength of argument and warmth of spirit of which the apostles were capable, would engage the attention of many who were not partakers of that divine light by which alone the whole scheme of truth, in its harmony and beauty, can be perceived. The seed sown upon the rock sprang up immediately; the quickness of its growth, and the suddenness of its decay, proceeding from the same cause, a want of depth in the soil. Not a few of these hasty believers presently renounced the faith altogether; and others, who went not so far as to disown the name, endeavoured to accommodate the doctrine to their prepossessions, and to explain or reject what they could not understand in such a manner as to form a system upon the whole agreeable to their own wills. Men of corrupt and prejudiced minds thus tampered with the truth, and their inventions, when made known, were adopted by others of the

same cast of thought. As they were differently inclined, they directed their inquiries to different points, and each found partisans and adherents in their respective ways. Thus errors, and, in consequence, sects and divisions, were multiplied; for when men depart from the unerring guidance of God's word, there is no end of their imaginations; one singularity produces another, and every new leader is stimulated to carry his discoveries farther than those who have gone before him. Farther, as human nature is universally the same, we may judge, from what we have seen that there always have been persons inclined to join in a religious profession, from the unworthy motives of worldly interest, and a desire to stand fair with their fellow-creatures. Temptations to this were not so strong indeed at first, nor so general as they have often been since; yet the force of friendship, relation (and when Christianity had been of some years' standing), education, custom, and human authority, is very considerable. Nor is even persecution a sufficient bar against hypocrites and intruders. They who suffer for the Gospel, though despised by the world, are highly esteemed and considered by their own side: it procures them an attention which they would not have otherwise obtained: it may give them an importance in their own eyes, furnish them with something to talk of, and make them talked of by others. There are people who, for the sake of these advantages, will, for a season, venture upon many hardships; though, when the trial comes very close, they will not endure to the end. In a word, there is no reason to doubt but that amongst the numbers who professed the Gospel at first, there would be found the same variety of tempers, circumstances, views, and motives, as have ordinarily appeared amongst a

great number of people, suddenly formed in any other period of time; and the apostles' writings prove that it was really so. From these general principles we may easily account for the early introduction and increase of errors and heresies, and that they should be in a manner the same as have sprung up with, or followed, succeeding revivals of the truth. Nor is it just cause of surprise, if sincere Christians have been, in some instances, entangled in the prevailing errors of the times. Designing no harm themselves, they suspect none; and are therefore liable to be imposed on by those who lie in wait to deceive. "

When Christianity first appeared, the Heathen wisdom, known by the name of philosophy, was in the highest repute. It had two principal branches, the Grecian and the Eastern. The former admitted (at least did not condemn) a multiplicity and subordination of deities; amongst whom, as agents and mediators, between their supreme Jupiter and mortals, the care and concerns of mankind were subdivided; to each of which homage and sacrifices were due. Their mythology, or the pretended history of their divinities, was puerile and absurd; and many of their religious rites inconsistent with the practice of public decorum and good morals. Some of the philosophers endeavoured to guard against the worst abuses, and to form a system of religion and morality, in which they seem to have proceeded as far as could be expected from men who were totally ignorant of the true God, and of their own state. Some truths they were acquainted with; truths in theory, but utterly impracticable upon any principles but those of revelation. Amongst a vast number of opinions concerning the chief good of man, a few held, that Ephes. iv. 14.

W