could understand? Who would not emulate the benevolence of that Man, who, with every possible advantage to acquire literary Fame, had he been governed by so mean a passion, could say, "I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than you all: yet, in the Church, I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may by my voice teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown Tongue?" And a Style may be so elaborately refined, metaphorical, or sublime, as to be as unintelligible to the majority, as a foreign language *. * A remark of Locke's on this subject deserves attention. "In all discourses, that pretend to inform or instruct, figurative speeches, and allusion in language, should be wholly avoided; and, when Truth and Knowledge are concerned, cannot but be thought a great fault, either of the language, or of the person, who makes use of them. It is evident indeed, how much men love to deceive, and be deceived, since Rhetoric, that powerful instrument of error, and deceit, has its established professors, is publicly taught, and has always been had in great reputation: and, I doubt not, but it will be thought great boldness, if not brutality in me, to have said so much against it: and it is in vain to find fault with those arts of deceiving, wherein men find pleasure to be deceived." Let us renounce then these comparative puerilities, and return to those better days, when, impressed with the Dignity, and Importance, of the eternal Verity, they did not disdain to instruct the mere Vulgar, as they have been reproachfully called; and, when all the Graces, Harmony, and Copiousness of Style, with every various species of Composition, were sacrificed to general Utility. For, diminutive as the subject may be deemed, by the unreflecting, it enters much more deeply, than might be imagined, into the grand scale of right Reason, sound Philosophy, true Virtue, and Christian Moral. For, ought we not to know, that REVELATION is an Address, not to Cities, Cottages, Courts, or Camps only, but to the vast bulk of mankind? and that, it proposes itself to us, as constituting the most essential branch of the welfare and perfection of the human species? And this it is, which renders all practical inattention to it without excuse. Many, I know, will urge, as some plea for such inattention, the difficulty of un derstanding the Word of Inspiration: and this idea has been too much encouraged, by those, who ought to have resisted it, as public Teachers, totis viribus. For their sakes, however, I have reduced all the Fundamentals of Christianity to a few simple Propositions. Those propositions, I consider as Principles. And those principles, 1 apprehend, may be laid down as so many Canons, or Axioms, by which to direct us safely through all the apparent obscurities of this marvellous Book. Supposing then, THE ASSERTIONS, I have arranged in dialectic order, to be indeed sanctioned by infallible Testimony, the Faculty of perceiving their truth, and excellency, and of making such inferences as are agreeble to them, is, what I should denominate right Reason. I cannot express the pleasure, I feel, in taking the following extract from one of our public Reviews. Such Sentiments do the parties great honour, and, from their extensive circulation, may be of essential service to thousands. "The Writers, whose labours most interest society, are those, who have employed themselves on subjects of Religion. Religion is of equal and unquestionable moment to all. On Religion, and on religious opinions, depend in no common degree the tranquillity—the prosperity-and the happiness, of a State." They then add "The holy Scriptures are the Guides of life; the Cloud by day, and the Pillar of fire by night. Those therefore, who undertake to illustrate them, enter upon a task, in the execution of which we are all concerned. Their competence and their motives are questions of universal consideration. Such has been the zeal of Infidelity-so various have been the forms, which it has of late assumed, that we have had an explanation of the Bible from the pen of one, whose greatest satisfaction seems to have been, to obscure its Truth, to corrupt its Purity, and to destroy its Influence! To the Commen tator of the sacred writings we may say, "be thy intents wicked," thou mayest rob us of our best hopes, of our richest comforts: "be they charitable," thou mayest increase our Knowledge-animate our Virtue and smooth the road to eternal Life."-O! si sic omnia! To preclude, if possible, the idea of my obtruding these Sentiments on the public notice, either as a mere Disputant, or as an idle Controversialist, I here profess, that, however mistaken I may be, in the Plan I have formed, or in the Method, I have pursued, to gain an object so ardently to be desired, I submit them, with the sole design to promote the best Happiness of Man-in relation to the Sum of his Existence; not, as limited by the narrow horizon of this life-but, as extending to the boundless ocean of Eternity. - Happiness" says the Epicurean, and the Voluptuary" is that of the Senses. We were born for their utmost gratifica |