[2] Exempla duo, quÆ pravitatis humanÆ vim animo meo luculenter exhibent, non proferre non possum. Alterum decens ille Virgilius, alterum Cicero, probus idem verique studiosus, suppeditat. Virgilius, innocuam certe pastorum vitam depicturus, ita incipit.

Cicero in libro de Officiis primo, ubi de actionibus prout inter se apte & convenientes sint, loci, temporis, & agentis ratione habita, disserit, argumentum sic illustrat: “Turpe est enim, valdeque vitiosum, in re severa, convivio dignum, aut delicatum aliquem inferre sermonem. Bene Pericles, quum haberet collegam in prÆtura Sophoclem poetam, hique de communi officio convenissent, & casu formosus puer prÆteriret, dixissetque Sophocles, O pueram pulchrum Pericle! At enim, inquit Pericles, prÆtorem Sophoclem decet non solum manus, sed etiam oculus abstinentes habere. Atqui hoc idem Sophocles, si in athletarum probatione dixisset, justa reprehensione caruisset, tanta vis est, & loci & temporis.”

Quomodo sese res habuisse necesse est, cum vir antiquorum prestantissimis adscribendus, philosophiam, immo mores & officia tractans, talia doceret! Qualem sibi ipse virtutis normam proposuerat, satis liquet. Vide inter alia, justa reprehensione, &c. &c; & tanta vis est, &c. &c.

[3] Robertson, Vol. II. p. 130.

[4] Robertson, Book IV. Sect. 2. Head, Condition of Women, vol. ii. 8vo. 90, 91.

[5] Job xv. 14.

[6] Job xv. 16.

[7] Psalm xiv. 2, 3.

[8] Prov. xx. 9.

[9] Psalm cxxxix. 3.

[10] I Chron. xxviii. 9.

[11] Prov. i. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29.

[12] Vide Butler’s Analogy.

[13] Heb. x. 27.

[14] Philippians, ii. 12.

[15] John, v. 29.

[16] James, i. 13.

[17] 2 Peter, iii. 9.

[18] Ezek. xviii. 23.

[19] Ezek. xviii. 32.

[20] Psalm cxlvii. 5.

[21] Rom. xi. 33.

[22] Psalm xcvii. 2.

[23] Deut. xxix. 29.

[24] Matt. xi. 28

[25] This was the motto on their banner.

[26] Title of Attila king of the Huns, whose desolating ravages are well known.

[27] Vide the testimony of West India merchants to the Moravians, in the Report of the Privy Council on the Slave Trade.

[28] Rom. xii. 1.

[29] Dr. Horne.

[30] 2 Cor. viii. 12.

[31] Isaiah, liii. 2.

[32] Philip. ii. 6, 7, 8.

[33] Luke, ii. 10, 11.

[34] Col. i. 12, 13.

[35] Ephes. i. 18.

[36] Col. i. 27.

[37] Heb. xiii. 8.

[38] 1 John, iv. 20.

[39] Dr. Adam Smith. Vide Theory of Moral Sentiments.

[40] 1 Pet. i. 8.

[41] Heb. iv. 15.

[42] Isaiah, xl. 11.

[43] Isaiah, xlix. 10.

[44] The word Comfortless is rendered in the margin Orphans.

[45] John, xiv. 18.

[46] 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

[47] Eph. ii. 1. 5.

[48] Col. i. 13.

[49] Ephes. ii. 10.

[50] 2 Cor. vi. 16.

[51] Col. iii. 9, 10.

[52] Ephes. ii. 22.

[53] Vide Dr. Doddridge’s eight Sermons on Regeneration, a most valuable compilation; and McLaurin’s Essay on Divine Grace.

[54] Rom. iv. 5.

[55] Ibid. v. 6-8.

[56] The Writer trusts he cannot be misunderstood to mean that any, continuing sinners and ungodly, can, by believing, be accepted or finally saved. The following chapter, particularly the latter part of it, (Section vi.) would abundantly vindicate him from any such misconstruction. Meanwhile, he will only remark, that true faith (in which repentance is considered as involved) is in Scripture regarded as the radical principle of holiness. If the root exist, the proper fruits will be brought forth. An attention to this consideration would have easily explained and reconciled those passages of St. Paul’s and St. James’s Epistles, which have furnished so much matter of argument and criticism. St. James, it may be observed, all along speaks of a man, not who has faith, but who says that he has faith. Vide James ii. 14. &c. &c.

[57] Vide Note Ch. iv. Sect. vi.

[58] Gal. vi. 14.

[59] I Cor. i. 30.

[60] Rev. i. 5.

[61] John, vi. 29.

[62] 1 John, iii. 23.

[63] Nec Deus intersit, &c.

[64] Vide Heb. ii. 1, &c.

[65] Any one who wishes to investigate this subject will do well to study attentively McLaurin’s Essay on Prejudices against the Gospel.—It may not be amiss here to direct the reader’s attention to a few leading arguments, many of them those of the work just recommended. Let him maturely estimate the force of those terms, whereby the Apostle in the following passages designates and characterizes the whole of the Christian system. “We preach Christ crucified“—“We determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” The value of this argument will be acknowledged by all who consider, that a system is never designated by an immaterial or an inferior part of it, but by that which constitutes its prime consideration and essential distinction. The conclusion suggested by this remark is confirmed by the Lord’s Supper being the rite by which our Saviour himself commanded his Disciples to keep him in remembrance; and indeed a similar lesson is taught by the Sacrament of Baptism, which shadows out our souls being washed and purified by the blood of Christ. Observe next the frequency with which our Saviour’s death and sufferings are introduced, and how often they are urged as practical motives.

“The minds of the Apostles seem full of this subject. Every thing put them in mind of it; they did not allow themselves to have it long out of their view, nor did any other branch of spiritual instruction make them lose sight of it.” Consider next that part of the Epistle to the Romans, wherein St. Paul speaks of some who went about to establish their own righteousness, and had not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. May not this charge be in some degree urged, and even more strongly than in the case of the Jews, against those who satisfy themselves with vague, general, occasional thoughts of our Saviour’s mediation; and the source of whose habitual complacency, as we explained above, is rather their being tolerably well satisfied with their own characters and conduct? Yet St. Paul declares concerning those of whom he speaks, as concerning persons whose sad situation could not be too much lamented, that he had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart, adding still more emphatical expressions of deep and bitter regret.

Let the Epistle to the Galatians be also carefully examined and considered; and let it be fairly asked, what was the particular in which the Judaizing Christians were defective, and the want of which is spoken of in such strong terms as these; that it frustrates the grace of God, and must debar from all the benefits of the death of Jesus? The Judaizing converts were not immoral. They seem to have admitted the chief tenets concerning our Saviour. But they appear to have been disposed to trust (not wholly, be it observed also, but only in part) for their acceptance with God, to the Mosaic institutions, instead of reposing wholly on the merits of Christ. Here let it be remembered, that when a compliance with these institutions was not regarded as conveying this inference, the Apostle shewed by his own conduct, that he did not deem it criminal; whence, no less than from the words of the Epistle, it is clear that the offence of the Judaizing Christians whom he condemned, was what we have stated; not their obstinately continuing to adhere to a dispensation the ceremonial of which Christianity had abrogated, or their trusting to the sacrifices of the Levitical Law, which were in their own nature inefficacious for the blotting out of sin.—Vide Heb. vii. viii. ix. x.

[66] Rev. v. 12.

[67] ib. 13.

[68] 2 Cor. xiii. 14.

[69] 1 John, iii. 17.—Rom. xvi. 18.—Compared with Philippians, iii. 19.

[70] 2 Tim. iii. 4.

[71] Matt. x. 37.

[72] Jerem. ix. 23.

[73] It will be remembered by the reader, that it is not the object of this work to animadvert on the vices, defects, and erroneous opinions of the times, except so far as they are received into the prevailing religious system, or are tolerated by it, and are not thought sufficient to prevent a man from being esteemed on the whole a very tolerable Christian.

[74] Vide Tale of a Tub.

[75] Vide Tale of a Tub.

[76] Isaiah, ii. 11.

[77] Vide Hey’s Tract, Rousseau’s Eloisa, and many periodical Essays and Sermons.

[78] Vide “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her, &c.” Matt. v. 28.

[79] The writer cannot omit this opportunity of declaring, that he should long ago have brought this subject before the notice of Parliament, but for a perfect conviction that he should probably thereby only give encouragement to a system he wishes to see at an end. The practice has been at different periods nearly stopped by positive laws, in various nations on the Continent; and there can be little doubt of the efficacy of what has been more than once suggested—a Court of Honour; to take cognizance of such offences as would naturally fall within its province. The effects of this establishment would doubtless require to be enforced by legislative provisions, directly punishing the practice; and by discouraging at court, and in the military and naval situations, all who should directly or indirectly be guilty of it.

[80] Vide, in particular a paper in the Guardian, by Addison, on Honour, Vol. ii.

[81] Vide Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments.

[82] The writer hopes that the work to which he is referring is so well known, that he needs scarcely name Mrs. H. More.

[83] See Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments.

[84] While all are worthy of blame, who, to qualities like these, have assigned a more exalted place than to religious and moral principle; there is one writer who, eminently culpable in this respect, deserves, on another account, still severer reprehension. Really possessed of powers to explore and touch the finest strings of the human heart, and bound by his sacred profession to devote those powers to the service of religion and virtue, he every where discovers a studious solicitude to excite indecent ideas. We turn away our eyes with disgust from open immodesty: but even this is less mischievous than that more measured style, which excites impure images, without shocking us by the grossnesses of the language. Never was delicate sensibility proved to be more distinct from plain practical benevolence, than in the writings of the author to whom I allude. Instead of employing his talents for the benefit of his fellow-creatures, they were applied to the pernicious purposes of corrupting the national taste, and of lowering the standard of manners and morals. The tendency of his writings is to vitiate that purity of mind, intended by Providence as the companion and preservative of youthful virtue; and to produce, if the expression may be permitted, a morbid sensibility in the perception of indecency. An imagination exercised in this discipline is never clean, but seeks for and discovers something indelicate in the most common phrases and actions of ordinary life. If the general style of writing and conversation were to be formed on that model, to which Sterne used his utmost endeavours to conciliate the minds of men, there is no estimating the effects which would soon be produced on the manners and morals of the age.

[85] Vide Smith on the Wealth of Nations, Vol. iii.

[86] Vide the Grammarians and Dialecticians on the Diminutives of the Italian and other languages.

[87] Many more might be added, such as a good fellow, a good companion, a libertine, a little free, a little loose in talk, wild, gay, jovial, being no man’s enemy but his own, &c. &c. &c. &c; above all, having a good heart.

[88] Gal. v. 19-21. Col. iii. 5-9.

[89] Job, xxviii. 28. Psalm, cxi. 10. Prov. i. 7.—ix. 10.

[90] 2 Peter, iii. 10, 11.

[91] Col. i. 13.

[92] It is almost unnecessary to remark, that the word is to be understood in a large sense, as including the Opera, &c.

[93] Geneva—It is worthy of remark, that the play houses have multiplied extremely in Paris since the revolution; and that last winter there were twenty open every night, and all crowded. It should not be left unobserved, and it is seriously submitted to the consideration of those who regard the stage as a school of morals, that the pieces which were best composed, best acted, and most warmly and generally applauded, were such as abounded in touches of delicate sensibility. The people of Paris have never been imagined to be more susceptible, than the generality of mankind, of these emotions, and this is not the particular period when the Parisians have been commonly conceived most under their influence. Vide Journal d’un Voyageur Neutre. The author of the work expresses himself as astonished by the phÆnomenon, and as unable to account for it.

[94] The author is almost afraid of using the terms, lest they should convey an impression of party feelings, of which he wishes this book to exhibit no traces; but he here means by Democrats and Jacobins, not persons on whom party violence fastens the epithet, but persons who are really and avowedly such.

[95] Lord Bacon.

[96] If any one would read a description of this process, enlivened and enforced by the powers of the most exquisite poetry, let him peruse the middle and latter part of the fifth Book of Cowper’s Task. My warm attachment to the exquisitely natural compositions of this truly Christian poet may perhaps bias my judgment; but the part of the work to which I refer appears to me scarcely surpassed by any thing in our language. The honourable epithet of Christian may justly be assigned to a poet, whose writings, while they fascinate the reader by their manifestly coming from the heart, breathe throughout the spirit of that character of Christianity, with which she was announced to the world; “Glory to God, peace on earth, good will towards men.”

[97] Here again let it be remarked, that faith, where genuine, always supposes repentance, abhorrence of sin, &c.

[98] Heb. xii. 1, 2.

[99] It has been well remarked that the word used, where it is said, that God “was pleased to bruise” and put to grief his only Son for us, is the same word as that wherein it was declared by a voice from Heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

[100] Vide Chap. iii. Where these were shewn to be the elementary principles of the passion of love.

[101] Rom. v. 9. 10.

[102] John xiii. 13-17. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet, &c.

[103] Vide Pascal’s Thoughts on Religion—A book abounding in the deepest views of practical Christianity.

[104] Pope.

[105] The Hell, so called, be it observed, not by way of reproach, but familiarity, by those who frequent it.

[106] Eph. ii.

[107] The Rev. Matthew Babington of Temple Rothley, in Leicestershire, who died lately at Lisbon.

[108] The author must acknowledge himself indebted to Dr. Owen for this illustration.

[109] The author here alludes to what happened within his own knowledge; and he has been assured by others, on whose testimony he can rely, of several similar instances. But to prevent misconstruction as to the incident which mainly gives rise to the remark, he thinks it necessary to declare, that the account, which appeared in some of the news-papers, of an entertainment having been given by Mr. Pitt on the Fast Day, is untrue; and he is glad of the opportunity, which the mention of this subject affords him, of contradicting a statement which he can positively affirm to have been false. This is one of the many instances which should enforce on the readers of news-papers, the duty of not hastily giving credit to reports to the disadvantage of any man, of any party. A person in a public station must often acquiesce under the grossest calumnies; unless he will undertake the vain and endless task of contradicting all the falsehoods which prejudice may conceive, and malignity propagate against him.—The writer may perhaps express himself with the more feeling on this subject; because he has often been, and, indeed, at this very moment is, in the circumstances which he has stated.

[110] I must beg leave to class among the brightest ornaments of the Church of England, this great man, who with his brethren was so shamefully ejected from the church in 1666, in violation of the royal word, as well as of the clear principles of justice. With his controversial pieces I am little acquainted: but his practical writings, in four massy folios, are a treasury of Christian wisdom; and it would be a most valuable service to mankind to revise them, and perhaps to abridge them, so as to render them more suited to the taste of modern readers. This has been already done in the case of his Dying Thoughts, a beautiful little piece, and of his Saints’ Rest. His Life also, written by himself, and in a separate volume, contains much useful matter, and many valuable particulars of the history of the times of Charles I. Cromwell, &c. &c.

[111] Let me by no means be understood to censure all the sectaries without discrimination. Many of them, and some who by the unhappy circumstances of the times became objects of notice in a political view, were men of great erudition, deep views of Religion, and unquestionable piety: and though the writings of the puritans are prolix; and according to the fashion of their age, rendered rather perplexed than clear by multiplied divisions and subdivisions; yet they are a mine of wealth, in which any one who will submit to some degree of labour will find himself well rewarded for his pains. In particular the writings of Dr. Owen, Mr. Howe, and Mr. Flavell, well deserve this character: of the first mentioned author, there are two pieces which I would especially recommend to the reader’s perusal, one, on Heavenly Mindedness, abridged by Dr. Mayo; the other, on the Mortification of Sin in Believers. While I have been speaking in terms of such high, and, I trust, such just eulogium of many of the teachers of the Church of England; this may not be an improper place to express the high obligations which we owe to the Dissenters, for many excellent publications. Of this number are Dr. Evans’s Sermons on the Christian Temper; and that most useful book, the Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, by Dr. Doddridge; also, his Life, by Orton, and Letters; and two volumes of Sermons, one on Regeneration, the other on the Power and Grace of Christ: May the writer be permitted to embrace this opportunity of recommending two volumes, published separately, of Sermons, by the late Dr. Witherspoon, President of the College of New Jersey.

[112] Vide Section vi. of the ivth Chapter, where we have expressly and fully treated of this most important truth.

[113] No exceptions have fallen within my own reading, but the writings of Richardson.

[114] It is with pain that the author finds himself compelled to place so great a writer as Dr. Robertson in this class. But, to say nothing of his phlegmatic account of the reformation; a subject which we should have thought likely to excite in any one, who united the character of a Christian Divine with that of an Historian, some warmth of pious gratitude for the good providence of God; to pass over also the ambiguity, in which he leaves his readers as to his opinion of the authenticity of the Mosaic chronology, in his disquisitions on the trade of India; his letters to Mr. Gibbon, lately published, cannot but excite emotions of regret and shame in every sincere Christian. The author hopes, that he has so far explained his sentiments as to render it almost unnecessary to remark, what, however, to prevent misconstruction, he must here declare, that so far from approving, he must be understood decidedly to condemn, a hot, a contentious, much more an abusive manner of opposing or of speaking of the assailants of Christianity. The Apostle’s direction in this respect cannot be too much attended to. “The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” (2 Timothy, ii. 24, 25.)

[115] Mr. Hume.

[116] Vide Dr. A. Smith’s Letter to W. Strahan, Esq.

[117] What is here stated must be acknowledged by all, be their political opinions concerning French events what they may; and it makes no difference in the writer’s view of the subject, whether the state of morals was or was not, quite, or nearly, as bad, before the French revolution.

[118] Soame Jenyns.

[119] Paley’s Evidence.

[120] See especially that great historian, Ferguson, who, in his Essay on Civil Society, endeavours to vindicate the cause of heroism from the censure conveyed by the poet:

[121] Such seems to be the just rendering of the word which our Testament translates, “did not like to retain God in their knowledge.”