"man muft ftill perish. Bleffed be God! the "cafe is far otherwife. As we have, on the one "fide, experimental proof of the infignificance "of what is called natural religion; fo, on the "other, in the fuccefs of the first preachers of

Christianity we have an experimental proof of "the fufficiency of revealed religion to those very "ends in which natural religion failed. In their "fuccefs we have experimental proof that there "is nothing in the great mystery of godliness, "which the vulgar, more than the learned, want "capacity to apprehend, fince, upon the first "preaching of the gospel, the illiterate, the scorn "of pharifaical pride, who knew not the law, and "were therefore deemed accurfed, were the first "to understand, and to embrace the Chriftian "doctrine.****

"An OVER-ABUNDANT zeal to check the phrenzy "of the METHODISTS, first introduced that un"fcriptural language which confounds religion and "morality.****The great crime and folly of the "Methodists confifts not fo much in heterodoxy, as "in fanaticism; not in PERVERSE DOCTRINE, but "rather in a diforderly zeal for the propagation "of the TRUTH. ****Reason, till fhe has been "taught by the lively oracles of God, knows no"thing of the Spiritual life, and the food brought "down from heaven for its fuftenance. By mere "ARGUMENT addressed to their REASON, no convic"tion could be wrought in the minds of the common people, of the very first principles of religion."

The learned bishop here afferts, that "our fer66 mons are often divested of the genuine spirit and "favour of Chriftianity." If fo, it is no wonder that our churches are forfaken and our religion defpised. It is a truth, to which I have frequently been an eye-witnefs, that spacious churches in

London,

London, capable of containing thousands, are almoft empty, notwithstanding the preachers everywhere inculcate excellent morality *. Wherever indeed there appears, what the common people call, an EVANGELICAL preacher, the churches are fo crowded, that it is difficult to gain admittance. The multitude hunger and thirst for the fpiritual food; yet evangelical preaching is difcouraged by many in high places, because it is faid to favour of enthusiasm and to delude the vulgar +. But it is

this

* " One may more juftly complain of fome fermons in our days, "than the father of old did of Tully's works, that there is not a "word of Chriftianity in them. Tully's Offices and Seneca's Epif"tles ferve many instead of the Bible.

"It is a rare thing to find paffages of fcripture in fome fermons ; "as if the preachers were afhamed of it."

"There are fome that preach out of PUFFENDORF more than "the fcriptures." Dr. Scot fays, "Moral goodness is the main of "Christianity, and thereby we do what God bimfelf would do if be were in our place." See EDWARDS's Preacher, page 79. alfo ScoT's Chriftian Life, part ii. vol. i. chap. 1.

See

ERASMUS was a confummate judge of preaching and preachers. Let us hear him:

Cur enim indocti

Doctos puto quotquot crediderunt EVANGELIO. debeant appellari, qui, ( ut nihil aliud,) e symbolo apoftolorum didicerunt illam ULTRAMUNDANAM PHILOSOPHIAM, quam non Pythagoras aut Plato, fed ipfe DEI FILIUS tradidit bominibus; qui a CHRISTO docti funt, quâ viâ ad quem felicitatis fcopum tendere. Ubicunque eft VERA SANCTITAS, ibi eft MAGNA PHILOSOPHIA minimeque vulgaris eruditio. Sed tamen inter bos egregiè doctes excellunt, quibus peculiari SPIRITUs munificentiâ datum eft, ut ad juftitiam erudiant multos; quibus DOMINUS dedit labia, non in quibus illa gentium es flexanima, fed in quibus ex UNCTIONE SPIRITUS diffufa eft GRATIA COLESTIS. LEARNED I deem all thofe who have believed the Gospel. For why should they be called unlearned who (fuppofing they have learned nothing elfe) have learned from the Apoftles' creed that ultramundane Philofophy, which neither a Pythagoras nor a Plato, but the Son of God himself, delivered to mankind; who have learned from Chrift the end they should purfue and the way to pursue it? Wherever true Holiness exifts, there also exifts great Philofophy, and no common kind and degree of erudition. But yet among perfons thus excellently learned, thofe are pre-eminent, to whom it is given by the Spirit's bountiful mercy, to inftruct many in the ways of righteousness; on whom God has bestowed lips, not adorned with

the

this preaching alone which will preserve Christianity among us, and cause it to be confidered as any thing better than a state-engine for the depreffion of the people.

SECTION XXI.

The Church of England teaches the true Doctrine of Grace.

IN recommending to MORE GENERAL NOTICE the doctrine of grace, I make no pretensions to a new discovery. It is obviously the doctrine of the Gofpel; it is obviously the doctrine of the Church; it is fully acknowledged by all who fincerely use that form of prayer, which is eftablished by the authority not only of those who composed it, but of those who ever fince its compofition, even to the prefent day, are voluntarily guided by it, in the performance of divine fervice.

Bishop Gibfon, who was certainly a zealous friend to the Church of England, has collected a number of paffages from the liturgy, to shew that

the meretricious arts of heathen eloquence, but richly furnished, by the unction of the Spirit, with heavenly Grace. ERASM. Ecclef. Those eminent divines Parker, Tillotson, Goodman, Whichcot, Scot, Claget preached down the fublime doctrines of true Christianity, by preaching up what they called natural religion and reafon, in compliance with a coURT, and certain politicians and men of fashion who wished to decry the Prefbyterians and other fectaries, whose political principles feemed adverfe to their intereft and ambition. I forbear fpecifying recent writers who appear to have trod in their steps, from motives not very religious, though, in a worldly fenfe, very wife.

the

the public offices of the Church are duly regardful of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit.

"In the daily fervice, we pray to God to grant us true repentance and his Holy Spirit-to re"plenish the King with the grace of his Holy "Spirit-to endue the Royal Family with his "Holy Spirit-to fend down upon our Bishops "and Curates, and all Congregations committed "to their charge, the healthful Spirit of his grace"that the Catholic Church may be guided and "governed by his good Spirit, and that the fellowfhip of the Holy Ghost may be ever with us.

"In the Litany we pray that God will illumi"nate* all Bishops, Priefts, and Deacons with the

"TRUE KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF HIS

"WORD will endue us with the grace of his Holy Spirit, and that we may all bring forth "the fruits of the Spirit.

"In the Collects we pray that God will grant "us the true circumcifion of the Spirit, that our "hearts and all our members being mortified from "all worldly and carnal lufts, we may in all "things obey his bleffed will-that God will send "his Holy Ghost, and pour into our hearts the "most excellent gift of charity-that we may "ever obey the godly motions of the Spirit in right"eousness and true holinefs--that by his holy in"fpiration we may think thofe things that be "good, and by his merciful guiding may perform "the fame-that God will not leave us comfort"lefs, but fend to us his Holy Ghoft to comfort "us-that by his Spirit we may have a right

* Yet a high dignitary who, when in an inferior station, had read this paffage, in the parish churches, a thousand times, fpeaks doubtingly of the ILLUMINATING power of the Holy Spirit. He feemed to be a difciple of EDMUND LAW, who led the way to liberal thinking at Cambridge.

❝ judgment

"judgment in all things, and evermore rejoice "in his holy comfort-that his Holy Spirit may "in all things direct and rule our hearts-that he "will cleanfe the thoughts of our hearts by the "infpiration of his Holy Spirit.

"In the office for Confirmation, we pray for "the perfons to be confirmed, that God will "ftrengthen them with the Holy Ghoft the Com"forter, and daily increase in them his manifold "gifts of grace, the fpirit of wifdom and under"standing, the fpirit of counsel and ghoftly

ftrength, the fpirit of knowledge and true god"liness-that he will fill them with the spirit of his holy fear-and that they may daily increase " in his Holy Spirit more and more."

The articles of original fin, free-will, and juftification evince that the Church of England maintains the doctrine of light, fanctity, and life, derivable from the operation of the Holy Ghost. And there is a curious paffage in a book, written by Archbishop Cranmer and the Committee of Divines, intitled Neceffary Erudition for a Chriftian Man, which fully declares, that," befides many "other evils that came by the fall of man, the "high power of man's reason and freedom of will 66 were wounded and corrupted; and all men "thereby brought into fuch blindness and infirm"ity, that they cannot efchew fin, except they be ❝ illuminated and made free by an especial grace, "that is to fay, by a fupernatural help and working "of the Holy Ghost*"

There can be no doubt, in the mind of an impartial inquirer, that the church teaches the doctrine of fupernatural influence in plain and ftrong

*This book was published by order of Henry VIII. 1543, approved by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Lower House of Parliament, ani dedicated by the King to all his faithful subjects.

terms;