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the rise and progress of arts and sciences, and the small multiplication of the human species, render it almost to a demonstration probable, that man has not existed longer upon the surface of this earth, than according to the Mosaic account; yet, that the earth was then created out of nothing, when man was placed upon it, is not, according to the sentiments of some philosophers, to be proved from the original text of sacred scripture: we might, I say, reply, with these philosophers, to this formidable objection of the Canon, by granting it in its fullest extent; we are under no necessity, however, of adopting their opinion, in order to shew the weakness of the Canon's reasoning. For in the first place, the Canon has not satisfactorily established his main fact, that the lava in question is the identical lava, which Diodorus Siculus mentions to have flowed from Etna, in the second Carthaginian war and in the second place, it may be observed, that the time necessary for converting the lavas into fertile fields, must be very different, according to the different consistencies of the lavas, and their different situations, with respect to elevation or depression; to their being exposed to winds, rains, and to other circumstances; just as the time, in which the heaps of iron slag (which resembles lava) are covered with verdure, is different at different furnaces, according to the nature of the slag, and situation of the furnace; and something of this kind is deducible from the account of the Canon himself; since the crevices of this famous stratum are really full of rich, good soil, and have pretty large trees growing in them.

But if all this should be thought not sufficient to remove the objection, I will produce the Canon an analogy, in opposition to his analogy, and which is grounded on more certain facts. Etna and Vesu vius resembled each other, in the causes which produce their eruptions, and in the nature of their lavas, and in the time necessary to mellow them into soil fit for vegetation or if there be any slight difference in this respect, it is probably not greater than what subsists between different lavas of the same mountain. This being admitted, which no philosopher will deny, the Canon's analogy will prove just nothing at all, if we can produce an instance of seven different lavas (with interjacent strata of vegetable earth) which have flowed from mount Vesuvius, within

:

the space, not of fourteen thousand, but
of somewhat less than seventeen hundred
years; for then, according to our analogy,
a stratum of lava may be covered with
vegetable soil, in about two hundred and
fifty years, instead of requiring two thou
sand for the purpose. The eruption of
Vesuvius, which destroyed Herculaneum
and Pompeii, is rendered still more famous
by the death of Pliny, recorded by his
nephew, in his letter to Tacitus: this event
happened in the year 79; it is not yet
then quite seventeen hundred years since
Herculaneum was swallowed up: but we
are informed by unquestionable authority,
that the matter which covers the ancient
town of Herculaneum, is not the produce
of one eruption only; for there are evi-
dent marks, that the matter of six erup
tions has taken its course over that which
lies immediately above the town, and was
the cause of its destruction. These strata
are either of lava or burnt matter, with
veins of good soil betwixt them.'--I will
not add another word upon this subject;
except that the bishop of the diocese was
not much out in his advice to Canonico
Recupero-to take care, not to make his
mountain older than Moses; though it
would have been full as well, to have shut
his mouth with a reason, as to have stop
ped it with the dread of an ecclesiastical
censure.

You perceive, with what ease a little attention will remove a great difficulty; but had we been able to say nothing, in expla nation of this phænomenon, we should not have acted a very rational part, in making our ignorance the foundation of our infi delity, or suffering a minute philosopher to rob us of our religion.

Your objections to revelation, may be numerous: you may find fault with the ac count, which Moses has given of the crea tion and the fall: you may not be able to get water enough for an universal deluge: nor room enough in the ark of Noah, for all the different kinds of aerial and terres. trial animals; you may be dissatisfied with the command for sacrificing of Isaac, for plundering the Egyptians, and for extir. pating the Canaanites: you may find fault with the Jewish economy, for its ceremo nies, its sacrifices, and its multiplicity of priests; you may object to the impreca tions in the Psalms, and think the immoralities of David, a fit subject for dramatic ridicule: you may look upon the partial promulgation of Christianity, as an insu

perable

perable objection to its truth; and waywardly reject the goodness of God toward yourselves, because you do not comprehend, how you have deserved it more than others; you may know nothing of the entrance of sin and death into the world, by one man's transgression; nor be able to comprehend the doctrine of the cross and of redemption by Jesus Christ; in short, if your mind is so disposed, you may find food for your scepticism in every page of the Bible, as well as in every appearance of nature; and it is not in the power of ny person, but yourselves, to clear up your doubts; you must read, and you must think for yourselves; and you must do both with temper, with candour, and with care. Infidelity is a rank weed; it is nurtured by our vices, and cannot be plucked up as easily as it may be planted; your difficulties, with respect to revelation, may have first arisen, from your own reflection on the religious indifference of those, whom, from your earliest infancy, you have been accustomed to revere and imitate; domestic irreligion may have made you willing hearers of libertine conversation; and the uniform prejudices of the world, may have finished the business t a very early age; and left you to wander through life without a principle to direct your conduct, and to die without hope. We are far from wishing you to trust the word of the clergy for the truth of your religion; we beg of you to examine it to the bottom, to try it, to prove it, and not to hold it fast unless you find it good. Till you are disposed to undertake this task, it becomes you to consider with great seriousness and attention, whether it can be for your interest to esteem a few witty sarcasms, or metaphysical subtleties, or ignorant misrepresentations, or unwarranted assertions, as unanswerable arguments against revelation; and a very slight reflection will convince you, that it will certainly be for your reputation, to employ the flippancy of your rhetoric, and the poignancy of your ridicule, upon any subject, rather than upon the subject of religion.

I take my leave with recommending to your notice, the advice which Mr. Locke gave to a young man, who was desirous of becoming acquainted with the doctrines of the Christian religion. Study the holy scripture, especially the New Testament: Therein are contained the words of etermal life. It has God for its author; Sal

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§ 174. A Prayer or Psalm. Most gracious Lord God, my merciful Father; from my youth up, my Creator, my Redeemer, my Comforter. Thou, O Lord, soundest and searchest the depths and secrets of all hearts; thou acknowledgest the upright of heart; thou judgest the hypocrite; thou ponderest men's thoughts and doings as in a balance; thou measurest their intentions as with a line: vanity and crooked ways cannot be hid from thee.

Remember, O Lord, how thy servant hath walked before thee; remember what I have first sought, and what hath been principal in my intentions. I have loved thy assemblies, I have mourned for the divisions of thy church, I have delighted in the brightness of thy sanctuary. This vine, which thy right-hand hath planted in this nation, I have ever prayed unto thee, that it might have the first and the latter rain, and that it might stretch her branches to the seas and to the floods. The state and bread of the poor and oppressed have been precious in mine eyes; I have hated all cruelty and hardness of heart; I have (though in a despised weed) procured the good of all men. If any have been my enemies, I thought not of them, neither hath the sun almost set upon my displeasures, but I have been as a dove, free from superfluity of maliciousness. Thy crea tures have been my books, but thy Scriptures much more. I have sought thee in the courts, fields, and gardens; but I have found thee in thy temples.

Thousands have been my sins, and ten thousands my transgressions, but thy sanctifications have remained with me, and my heart (through thy grace) hath been an unquenched coal upon thine altar.

O Lord, my strength! I have since my youth met with thee in all my ways, by thy fatherly compassions, by thy comfortable chastisements, and by thy most visible providence. As thy favours have encreased upon me; so have thy corrections; so as thou hast been always near me, O Lord! And ever as my worldly blessings were exalted, so secret darts from thee have pierced me; and when I have ascended before men, I have descended in humiliation before thee. And now when I thought most of peace and honour, thy hand is

heavy upon me, and hath humbled me, according to thy former loving-kindness keeping me still in thy fatherly school, not as a bastard, but as a child. Just are thy judgments upon me for my sins, which are more in number than the sands of the sea, but have no proportion to thy mercies, for what are the sands of the sea? Earth, heavens, and all these, are nothing to thy mercies. Besides my innumerable sins, I confess before thee, that I am a debtor to thee for the gracious talent of thy gifts and graces, which I have neither put into a napkin, nor put it, as I ought, to exchanges, where it might have made best profit, but misspent it in things for which was least fit; so I may truly say, my soul hath been a stranger in the course of my pilgrimage. Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for my Saviour's sake, and receive me into thy bosom, or guide me into thy ways. Lord Bacon.

§ 175. The doctrine of Christ a doctrine of truth and simplicity.

The Gospel of Christ, as taught by himself and his apostles, in its original plainness and purity, is a doctrine of truth and simplicity, a doctrine so easy to be understood, so reasonable to be practised, so agreeable to the natural notions and reason of mankind, so beneficial in its effects, if men were really governed by it; teaching them nothing but the worship of the true God, through theme 'iation of Christ; and towards each other, justice, righteousness, meckness, charity, and universal good. will; in expectation of a future judgment, and of a lasting state of happiness in a bet ter world, for them who love God and keep his commandments; this doctrine of Christ, I say, in its native simplicity and purity, is so reasonable, so excellent, and of such irresistible evidence, that had it never been corrupted by superstitions from within, it never could have been opposed by power from without; but it must of necessity have captivated mankind to the obedience of faith; till the knowledge of the Lord had filled the earth, as the waters cover the sea.

Whatever difficulties there may be in some of the historical, or prophetical, or controversial parts of the books of Scripture, yet as to the practical part, the duties required of a Christian in order to salvation, there is no man that ever read the sermons of Christ and his apostles, or ever

heard them read, but understood perfectly well what our Saviour meant by commanding us to worship the one true God of nature, the Author and Lord of the universe, and to do to all men as we would they should do to us; and that, " denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world;" in expectation of being righteously and impartially adjudged, according to our works, to a state of happiness or misery in the world to come; by our Saviour himself, our merciful and compassionate judge. There never was any man in the christian world, but felt the reasonableness and importance of this doctrine; and, whenever these things have been repeated to him, was immediately conscious to himself, either of having fol lowed or transgressed these precepts.

Dr. Clark.

§ 176. The Light of Reason imperfect.

If the glorious light of the Gospel be sometimes overcast with clouds of doubt, so is the light of our reason too. But shall we deprive ourselves of the advantage of either, because those clouds cannot perhaps be entirely removed while we remain in this mortal life? Shall we obstinately and frowardly shut our eyes against that day. spring from on high that has visited us, because we are not as yet able to bear the full blaze of his beams? indeed, not even in heaven itself, not in the highest state of perfection to which a finite being can ever attain, will all the counsels of Providence, all the height and the depth of the infinite wisdom of God, be ever disclosed or understood. Faith, even then, will be necessary; and there will be mysteries which cannot be penetrated by the most exalted archangel, and truths which cannot be known by him otherwise than from revelation, or believed upon any other ground of assent than a submissive confidence in the divine wisdom. What, then, shall man presume that his weak and narrow understanding is sufficient to guide him into all truth, without any need of revelation or faith? Shall he complain that the ways of God are not like his ways, and past his finding out? True philosophy, as well as true Christianity, would teach us a wiser and modester part. It would teach us to be content within those bounds which God has assigned to us, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into

captivity

captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ."
Lord Lyttleton.

§ 177. The simplicity of the Sacred Writers.
I cannot forbear taking notice of one
other mark of integrity which appears in
all the compositions of the sacred writers,
and particularly the evangelists; and
that is, the simple, unaffected, unornamen-
tal, and unostentatious manner, in which
they deliver truths so important and sub-
lime, and facts so magnificent and wonder-
ful, as are capable, one would think, of
lighting up a flame of oratory, even in the
dullest and coldest breasts. They speak of
an angel descending from heaven to foretel
the miraculous conception of Jesus; of
another proclaiming his birth, attended by
a multitude of the heavenly host praising
God, "and saying, glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good-will
towards men;" of his star appearing in
the East; of angels ministering to him in
the wilderness; of his glory in the mount;
of a voice twice heard from heaven, say-
ing, "This is my beloved son;" of in-
umerable miracles performed by him,
and by his disciples in his name; of his
knowing the thoughts of men; of his
foretelling future events; of prodigies
accompanying his crucifixion and death;
of an angel descending in terrors, opening
his sepulchre, and frightening away the
soldiers who were set to guard it; of his
rising from the dead, ascending into
beaven, and pouring down, according to
his promise, the various and miraculous
gifts of the Holy Spirit upon his apostles
and disciples. All these amazing incidents
do these inspired historians relate nakedly
and plainly, without any of the colourings
and heightenings of rhetoric, or so much
as a single note of admiration; without
making any comment or remark upon
them, or drawing from them any conclusion
in honour either of their master or them-
selves, or to the advantage of the religion
they preached in his name; but content-
ing themselves with relating the naked
truth, whether it seems to make for them
or against them: without either magnifying
on the one hand, or palliating on the other,
they leave their cause to the unbiassed
judgment of mankind, seeking like genuine
apostles of the Lord of truth, to convince
rather than to persuade: and therefore
coming, as St. Paul speaks of his preach-
ing, "not with excellency of speech,-

not with enticing words of man's wisdom,

but with de nonstration of the Spirit, and of power, that," adds he, "your faith should not stand in the wisdom of

men, but in the power of God." And let it be remembered that he, who speaks this, wanted not learning, art or eloquence, as is evident from his speeches recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, and from the testimony of that great critic Longinus, who, in reckoning up the Grecian orators, places among them Paul of Tarsus; and surely, had they been left solely to the suggestions and guidance of human wisdom, they would not have failed to lay hold on such topics, as the wonders of their master's life, and the transcendent purity and perfection of the noble, gene rous, benevolent morality contained in his precepts, furnished them with. These topics, I say, greater than ever Tully, or Demosthenes, or Plato, were possessed of, mere human wisdom would doubtless have prompted them to make use of, in order to recommend in the strongest manner the religion of Jesus Christ to mankind, by turning their attention to the divine part of his character, and hiding, as it were, in a blaze of heavenly light and glory, his infirmities, his sufferings, and his death. And had they upon such topics as these, and in such a cause, called in to their assistance all the arts of composition, rhetoric, and logic, who would have blamed them for it? Not those persons, I presume, who, dazzled and captivated with the glittering ornaments of human wisdom, make a mock at the simplicity of the Gospel, and think it wit to ridicule the style and language of the Holy Scriptures. But the all-wise Spirit of God, by whom these sacred writers were guided into all truth, thought fit to direct or permit them to proceed in a different method; a method, however, very analogous to that, in which he hath been pleased to reveal himself to us in the great book of nature, the stupendous frame of the universe; all whose wonders he hath judged it sufficient to lay before us in silence, and expects from our observations the proper comments and deductions, which, having endued us with reason, he hath enabled us to make. And though a careless and superficial spectator may fancy he perceives even in this fair volume many inconsistencies, defects, and superfluities; yet to a diligent, unprejudiced, and rational enquirer who will take pains to examine the laws, consider and compare the several parts, and regard their use and

tendency,

tendency, with reference to the whole design of this amazing structure, as far as his short abilities can carry him, there will appear, in those instances which he is capable of knowing, such evident characters of wisdom, goodness, and power, as will leave him no room to doubt of their author, or to suspect that in those particulars which he hath not examined, or to a thorough knowledge of which he cannot perhaps attain, there is nothing but folly, weakness, and malignity. The same thing might be said of the written book, the second volume, if I may so speak, of the revelation of God, the Holy Scriptures. For as in the first, so also in this are there many passages, that to a cursory, unobserving reader appear idle, unconnected, unaccountable, and inconsistent with those marks of truth, wisdom, justice, mercy, and benevolence, which in others are so visible, that the most careless and inattentive cannot but discern them. And even these, many of them, at least, will often be found, upon a closer and stricter examination, to accord and coincide with the other more plain and more intelligible passages, and to be no heterogeneous parts of one and the same wise and harmonious composition. In both indeed, in the natural as well as the moral book of God, there are, and ever will be, many difficulties, which the wit of man will never be able to resolve; but will a wise philosopher, because he cannot comprehend every thing he sees, reject for that reason all the truths that lie within his reach, and let a few inexplicable difficulties over-balance the many plain and infallible evidences of the finger of God, which appear in all parts, both of his created and written works? Or will he presume so far upon his own wisdom, as to say, God ought to have expressed himself more clearly? The point and exact degree of clearness, which will equally suit the different capacities of men in different ages and countries, will, I believe, be found more difficult to fix than is imagined; since what is clear to one man in a certain situation of mind, time, and place, will inevitably be obscure to another, who views it in other positions, and under other circumstances. How various and even contradictory are the read ings and comments, which several men in the several ages and climates of the world, have made upon nature! And yet her characters are equally legible, and her laws equally intelligible, in all times and

in all places. "There is no speech nor language where her voice is not heard: her sound is gone out through all the earth, and her words to the end of the world.” All these misrepresentations therefore, and misconstructions, of her works, are chargeable only upon mankind, who have set themselves to study them with various degrees of capacity, application, and impartiality. The ques tion then should be, Why hath God given men such various talents? And not, Why hath not God expressed himself more clearly? And the answer to this question, as far as it concerns man to know, is, that God will require of him according to what he hath, and not according to what he hath

not.

If what is necessary for all to know, is knowable by all; those men, upon whom God hath been pleased to bestow capacities and faculties superior to the vulgar, have certainly no just reason to complain of his having left them mate. rials for the exercise of those talents, which, if all things were equally plain to all men, would be of no great advantage to the possessors. If, therefore, there are in the sacred writings, as well as in the works of nature, many passages hard to be understood, it were to be wished, that the wise and learned, instead of being offend. ed at them, and teaching others to be so too, would be persuaded, that both God and man expect that they would set them selves to consider and examine them care

fully and impartially, and with a sincere desire of discovering and embracing the truth, not with an arrogant unphilosophi cal conceit of their being already suffici ently wise and knowing. And then I doubt not but most of these objections to revelation, which are now urged with the great est confidence, would be cleared up and removed, like those formerly made to Creation, and the Being and Providence of God, by those most ignorant, most absurd, and yet most self-sufficient pretenders Sceptics. to reason and philosophy, the Atheists and West.

$178. The superiority of Christian phi

losophy over the Stoical.

Epictetus often lays it down as a maxim, that it is impossible for one person to be in fault, and another to be the sufferer. This on the supposition of a future state, will certainly be made true at last; but in the stoical sense, and system, is an absolute ex travagance. Take any person of plain understanding,

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