and he confines himself principally to the ministry of St, Paul.

The fhort memoirs of these transactions fet many impoftors to work, in early times, to forge gofpels, and epiftles, and nar ratives of the hiftory of Chrift from his infancy to his death, and of the preaching and travels of the apoftles. But as the designs of these men for the most part were bad, fo their abilities were no better, and their works never could obtain credit in the Chriftian world.

"We should be very much pleased to have larger and fuller accounts of our Lord, and of his apoftles, and of the first eftablishment of christianity A defire of knowledge, which exerts itself ftrongly in all studious perfons,-and a zeal for our religion, and for every thing that relates to it, plead our excufe for fuffering fuch a wish to rife in our minds. But we must not indulge it too far, and lament our ignorance of thefe tings, left we alfo fall under the just rebuke which our Saviour, in the text, gave to his apoftle, What is that to thee? Follow thou me.

If we had lived in those times, we should, perhaps, have been defirous to put many queftions to our Lord and his apoftles of the learned and religious kind, which feem to us doubtful and difficult. And fuppofing we had done this, it is more than probable that our Lord would not have antwered them; for we find him conftantly refusing to refolve questions of no immediate concern to the inquirers. And as to the apoftles, it is probable that they could not have answered them; and that their knowledge went no farther than it was neceflary for the execution of their office and the work of their miniftry. Sufficient it is for us, fufficient for all moral and religious purpofes, that the holy fcriptures, by the divine providence, are preferved and tranfmitted down to us, and that they contain all that is abfolutely needful for us, both as to faith and as to practice. For as St. John tells us, Many other figns truly did Jefus in the prefence of his difciples, which are not written in this book. But thefe are written, that ye might believe that Jefus is the Chrift, the Son of God, and that believing, ye might have life through his name.

The practical inference which the fubject and the text fuggeft to us is, that every one fhould principally attend to his own proper bufinefs, to his own plain duty, and not concern himself about things which do not concern him.

Every one is capable of difcerning and feeling that he ought to live foberly, righteously, and pioufly, and prepare himself for the day in which God will judge mankind. It requires no ftrong parts, no lively imagination, no deep ftudy to know this.

But

But we would fain know more than this. Man is curious and inquifitive, and defirous of novelty: the eye is never fatisfied with feeing, fays Solomon, nor the ear with hearing, nor the mind with feeking and discovering. This defire, innocent enough in itself, and even commendable, yet must be directed by reason, and confined to its proper bounds, elfe it infenfibly becomes a bad habit. Curiofity, ill-applied, is at least a waste of time, which might be fo much better employed. When it is exercised in obferving the conduct, and enquiring into the character of others, it often grows pragmatical. impertinent, and cenforious, full of fpite and malevolence towards them.

As there is a needlefs and impertinent curiofity relating to perfons, so there is with refpect to doctrines of no importance to religion and morality. Whatsoever opinions concern the perfections and the government of God, and the worship due to him, and the focial virtues, and have an influence and a tendency either to mend or to fpoil the tempers of men, either to promote or to obftruct the practice of piety, these are objects of fober and ferious enquiry, that we may reject every pernicious principle, and hold faft every found doctrine. But as to mere fpeculations and fubtle refinements, which amufe the imagination without improving the heart, the fewer of them enter into our religious fyftem, fo much the better. Yet these have perpetually been matter of eager contention and uncha. ritable animofity; and ecclefiaftical hiftory too fully confirms this melancholy obfervation. A fondness of overbearing others, and of forcing opinions upon them which yet can never be forced, a zeal for things not certain, or not useful, or even not intelligible, a falfe fhame of departing from falfe notions once obftinately maintained, together with pride, ambition, and felf-intereft lurking at the bottom; thefe have produced those fects and parties by which the chriftian world hath been divided, and the chriftian religion dishonoured.'

We fhall add a fhort quotation from a difcourfe on the parable of the fower, for the fake of a note which attends it! In this parable, fays Dr. Jortin, there is a beautiful gradation from the bad to the good. The feed which fell on the high way comes not up at all; the feed upon ftony ground comes up, but foon withereth away; the feed fown amongst thorns fprings up and grows, but bears no fruit; the feed fown in good ground brings forth fruit in its feafon, but yet in various degrees, and much more plentifully in fome foils than in others.'

The note is as follows: An old commentator (Theophy Jact) expounding this parable, fays, See how fmall a number there is of good men, and how few are faved; fince only a fourth part of the feed was preferved. His remark is not just;

but

but is foreign from the purpose, as may eafily, be fhewed. In this parable of the fower, there are three claffes of bad men, and one of good; in the parable of the talents, there are two good fervants and one bad; and in the parable of the virgins, half are wife and half foolish. So, if we follow fuch methods of expounding, we muft conclude, from the first of these parables, there are three times more bad than good men; from the fecond, that there are twice more good than bad; and from the third, that the good and the bad are equal in number. I mention this chiefly for the fake of obferving to you, that in the interpretation of parables, care fhould be taken not to overftrain them; but to diftinguish thofe parts which are merely ornamental, from those which are moral and inftructive.'

In a fermon upon charity, we observe this note upon those words in the epiftle to the Corinthians, We fee through a glafs darkly. The fenfe may be, we feed ironle, per fpecular, vel Speculare, through a glafs, or pellucid ftone, which alfo perhaps was not fo clear and transparent as our glass. See Lambert Bofs, Exert. Phil. p. 147. We fee di eronles, and we fee εν αινίγματι. Perhaps it hould be εν ανεώγματι, or εν ανοίγ al, through, or at a door, a wicket, or a chink. "Avoya is ufed in the LXX. iii. Reg. xiv. 6. Others have made this conjecture allo.'

This fermon is clofed in the following manner, I fhall at prefent only just remind you of fome faults contrary to this virtue of charity. And they are covetoufness and selfishness, which make us hard-hearted and infenfible to the diftrefs of our neighbour; injuftice of all forts;-an infolent pride and dif dain.-Thefe vices are not confiftent with the lowest degree of chriftian benevolence: and to thefe we may add two other faults, which are as oppofite to each other as they are to charity. The first is a cold indifference about religion and virtue. He, in whom this carelefs indolence prevails, hath no regard and affection for truth, no concern whether it profper or not, and whether men be good or bad.-The other is a zeal for things not effential to religion, which exerts itself in an eager fiercenefs about doubtful and difputable points, in judging unmercifully of thofe, who being fober and religious people, have a different way of thinking from ourfelves. Such a litigious chriftian, if he be right in his opinions, which is much to be doubted, is wrong in his way of defending them: he keeps a doctrine, and breaks a commandment.-True religion confifts more in doing than in prating, more in practice than in fpeculation. A man who hath got an orthodox faith, and never learned to lead an orthodox life, proclaims his own folly and madness. He lays a strong foundation, and then raises a rotten. building on it.We cannot endure a ftate of doubt and fuf

pense;

penfe; we love to get at certainty. For this we are not to be blamed. But we love to be pofitive and dogmatical, and are feldom fenfible how little at prefent it is given us to know. Paganism was thick darknefs: Chriftianity, in fome respects, is only a twilight. For now we talk like children, now we know in part, now we fee through a glafs darkly; unless we be wifer than St. Paul, who fays this of himfelf, as well as of other Chriftians.'

One difcourfe, entitled, Keep thy foot, from Ecclef. v. I. has these remarks upon the text, What Solomon calls, the houfe of God, is a place appointed for the worship and fervice of God. To erect and fet apart fuch places for the exercise of religious rites is derived from the dictates of human nature, and approved of God from the remoteft antiquity. It began not with the tabernacle which Mofes by divine appointment caufed to be made, but was much more ancient. Noah built an altar when he came out of the ark. Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, wherefoever they pitched their tents, had places for divine worship, that is, altars with their inclofures, though they had no exprefs command from God, that we know of, concerning it. Mofes, before the ark was made, and that tabernacle which God appointed, erected a tabernacle for the fame purpose without the camp, where every one who fought the Lord was to go. And all this feems to have been done as a thing of cuftom, and as men by tradition had learned to appropriate fome particular place for the more folemn worship of God.-Our Saviour, who brought into the world a brighter light and a fublimer religion, taught, that it mattered not where God was worshipped, if he were worshipped in fpirit and in truth: that of all temples a pure heart was that which he most approved, and that where two or three of his difciples fhould meet together to ferve God, there would he fpiritually be in the midst of them; doctrines agreeable to reafon, and fuitable to the enfuing times, when chriftians fhould be fo far from enjoying fplendid temples to repair to, that they often would hardly have a place where to hide their heads. As foon, indeed, as perfecution declined, and a calm fucceeded, chriftians built themselves churches, and ever fince have fet apart fuch edifices for public worship; which is very right, fo long as we remember that it is only for conveniency and decency.'

Whether the altars, mentioned in this paffage, were inclosed, and were intended or ufed for public worship, or whether they were chiefly defigned as memorials of fome particular inftance of divine good nefs, we will not difpute. The obfervations here made are candid and rational, and difcover nothing of the bigot or high churchman. The remainder of the fermon pre

fents

fents the reader with feveral very useful and important refections.

The fecond fermon, in the laft volume, treats of Humility, from which we shall give a fhort quotation. The word humility is used by Latin writers in a bad fenfe for meanness of fpirit; but the pagans were not ignorant of this virtue, and have recommended it; only they gave it another name. Chriftianity, indeed, hath taught us jufter notions of humility than they commonly entertained; for they ufually confidered humility, which they called modefly or moderation, as a focial virtue, as it influenced our behaviour towards ourfelves and towards men: but humility towards God, few of them seem fufficiently to have apprehended. It is, indeed, a virtue fo remote from meannefs of fpirit, that it is no bad fign of a great and exalted mind. An humble perfon is one who is neither puffed up with approbation and applaufe, nor greatly provoked or disturbed by cenfure and ill ufage; who envies none placed above him, and defpifes none below him; who dares examine his own conduct, and condemn whatsoever is faulty in it; who is gentle to others, and fevere to himself; who defires to obtain no more than he deferves; who can quit even that alfo, if his duty requires it; who is contented to act the part which providence allots to him; who is free from irregular felf-love, that is, from one of the most infinuating and prevailing weakneffes of mankind, which may not improperly be called the inner garment of the foul, the firft which it puts on, and the last which it puts off. If this be not, it is hard to fay what is, greatness of mind. On the contrary, if we would know what meannefs of fpirit is, and how it acts, let us look for it among the proud and infolent, and we fhall not lofe our labour. proud man is one who is glad to receive homage and flattery, though it be offered to him by the moft ignorant or worthlefs, and cannot bear contempt even from them; who therefore is the fervant or flave of all, not in a good fenfe, but because his happinefs depends upon their opinion and behaviour; who has no heart to own his obligations to God and man; whofe life and conduct is one continual lie; who affumes good qualities which he has not, and is blind to his own faults; who defires to poffefs what he should not, and what he often cannot obtain; and who is much diffatisfied when he is difappointed. Thefe are the perfons who despise humility, and by defpifing recommend it.'

A

The candid reader, we doubt not, will fuffer us just to obferve, that we could not help frequently reflecting, during the perufal of these discourses, how irksome it must have been, and grievous, to a man who entertained the fentiments ex

preffed