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The fecond volume is introduced with three excellent fermons on the progrefs of vice, from Jerem. ix. 3. They proceed from evil to evil. In order to put his readers on their guard against the deceitful infinuations and fucceffive encroachments of vice; the Doctor traces out the ordinary fteps of the finner's progrefs from evil to evil. He lays open the train of inward indulgencies, by which irregular inclinations are gradually brought forward into overt acts of wilful fin; fhews how vicious habits, in confequence of wilful fin, are contracted, ftrengthened, and multiplied; and defcribes that hardness of heart, that contempt and hatred of religion, which neceffarily refult from confirmed and multiplied habits of wickedness, and complete the corruption of the finner.-Thefe Sermons fhew great knowledge of the human heart, and the frequent and ferious perufal of them ought to be warmly recommended to young perfons by all those who wish to promote their highest and most important interefts.

In the fourth Sermon, the Doctor proves that long life is, in many refpects, undefirable, and the immoderate defire of it per

nicious.

The fifth Sermon cannot fail of giving our Readers a very high opinion of the Doctor's judgment, candour, and abilities. We fhall lay before them a particular account of it.-The words from which he difcourfes are thefe-But fpeak thou the things that become found doctrine, Titus ii. 1.-He fets out with oblerving, that found doctrine is an expreffion fo commonly used by Chriftans, that few are apt to fufpect any ambiguity in its meaning-that every one of thofe fects into which the Chriftian world is unhappily divided, applies the expreffion to fignify the whole of its own fyftem of doctrine, but especially thofe fpeculative and difputable tenets which diftinguish it from other fects, and even those technical terms which it has coined or adopted on purpofe to define them with precifion-that, though all fects, with equal confidence, appropriate the epithet to their own peculiar iyitems, the diftinguishing tenets of different fects are contradictory. It is certain, therefore, he fays, that the epithat is milapplied by fome of them. Each affirms, that it is itapplied by all except its own adherents: and as the theological yitem of every fect contains fomething of human, and Consequently tallible, explication, impartiality can scarce avoid pecting that the epithet is, ia tome meafure, mifapplied by all

He now proceeds to acertain and illuftrate its genuine import; and, with this view, he fit examines its precife meaning in Scriptate, and thea explains the feveral particulars which, from facă sa examariton, spear to be implied in it.

V༥,v、-Rཝཱ, xma ar nelle ime zwo is, jasad fpech, found in the PN are all expeders tend a Ser pture, and evidently intended,

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the Doctor obferves, to convey the fame idea. The original words which exprefs the epithet in all these phrafes, refer primarily to bodily health, as oppofed to disease: but they are, by claffical writers, ufed with great latitude, for fignifying metaphorically whatever is right or approveable. They are all words of the fame etymology. One of them + primarily fignifies healthful, but is also used by Greek authors, to fignify healing, wholesome, or conducive to health. Another of them fignifies, molt literally, healing, but is ufed likewife, in feveral places of the New Testament, to fignify healthful. We may conclude, therefore, that they are defigned to be synonymous when they are applied to doctrine, and to denote fuch as is healthful, or fuch as is healing, or fuch as unites both thefe characters. What they precisely denote, we fhall be best able to determine, by comparing the paffages in which they occur, and examining the fcope and connection of each. All thefe paffages lie in Paul's Fpitles to Timothy and to Titus: and, from the flighteit attention to them, it will, I think, be evident, that the Apostle calls doctrine found, in a fenfe very remote from that in which the term is ufed by the difcordant fects of Chriftians; that he conftantly means it to exprefs both the ideas which it naturally fignifies; that he intends the genuine doctrine of Christ, but with a particular reference, both to its being healthful, pure, and unfophifticated, and to its being wholefome or healing, as having a practical tendency. So far is he from defigning it to denote the peculiarities of any human fyftem, that, on the contrary, he is at pains to intimate, that he defigns it to exprefs the plainnefs and fimplicity of the doctrine of the Gospel, as delivered by Chrift and his Apoftles, in direct oppofition to the precarious opinions, the fubtile explications and definitions, the ingenious fpeculations and refinements of uninfpired men: and fo far is he from applying the term to any curious or intricate theory, that he no less clearly and conftantly intimates that, by calling doctrine found, he means to exprefs its being fit to cure the difeafes, and promote the health, of the foul; and that, in oppofition not only to tenets directly immoral, but particularly alfo to the inutility and pernicious tendency of ail fubtile questions and abftract difquifitions. These two ideas, by which the Apostle characterizes found doctrine, it will be neceffary to trace out jointly; for, in every paffage of his writings, they are jointly kept in view with the greatest care.'

The Doctor now proceeds to a full, diftinct, and impartial examination of all the texts in which found doctrine is mentioned, and afcertains the meaning of it with the fulleft and moft convincing evidence. The evidence is indeed fo ftrong, he fays, that when we attend to it, fo large an inveftigation may feem to be unneceffary; but men are fo inured to an oppofite conception of the fubject, that the largeft inveftigation, he is afraid, will be infufficient for ftriking conviction into the rigid adherents to fects and parties.

In one text, the adjective dying; in another, the verb yawa; in all the reft, the participle dyaœv. Η υγιαίνων, § Luke v. 31. vii. 10. xv. 27. He

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He goes on to explain the several particulars implied in found doctrine. It is in general, he fays, the pure genuine doctrine of the Gofpel, the very doctrine taught by Chrift and his Apoftles: entire, without the omiffion of any part of it: unperverted, without being ftrained or wrested: fincere, unmixed with any thing else, either in the matter or in the manner of expreffion: propofed chiefly in the found words in which Chrift and his Apoftles delivered it.-Sound doctrine means the pure doctrine of the Gospel, particularly as distinguished from all human definitions, limitations, refinements, and fuper-additions. The Apoftle explicitly and anxiously fets it in oppofition to all these. His expreffions are levelled directly against the corruptions of doctrine which prevailed at that time, they are so chofen as to be likewife, in ftrict propriety, applicable to all pofterior corruptions of it; he forefaw thefe, and foretold them, and has an eye to them in feveral paffages of his writings. All the curious or forced explications of Chriftian doctrine, all the groundlefs or precarious deductions from it, all the fubtile controverfies about it, which have infefted the church, demonftrate themselves to be fuch adulterations as he condemns; they are marked by the very features which he has delineated; they have produced the very effects which he has described.

They had already begun, fays our Author, and they quickly fpread wider and wider. Forgetful that the Gospel was not given to exercife ingenuity, or gratify curiofity; and defirous of recommending it to unbelievers, particularly the philofophers; partly too, it must be owned, fwayed by their own preconceived notions, and expecting to display the accuracy of their own apprehenfion, fome Christians began very early to conceive the articles of their faith, according to the theories of the Greek philofophy, chiefly the Platonic; to define them with fcientifical precifion, and in the phraseology of the fchools; and to adopt fimilitudes for illuftrating them, and hypothefes for accounting for them, not only arbitrary, but generally improper. They were accufed of error. Their accufers were not wife enough to fatisfy themselves with proving, that the Scripture did not imply or admit the fenfe to which they determined it; but, infected with the fpirit of the fame philofophy, run into oppofite definitions, comparifons, hypothefes, and terms of fcience, often equally improper, and equally involving error. Thefe were jufly retorted upon them by their adverfaries. Controverfies were agitated concerning thefe contradictory definitions; multitades ranged themselves on each fide; they broke out into contention, animofities, unjuft fufpicions and infinuations, mutual reproaches and invectives. Falfehood was eagerly fought for, and for the most part easily found, in the abstract, fubtile definitions of each party. In the progrefs of difputation, new terms, new diftinctions, new comparisons were invented on each fide, for marking with precision the peculiarity of its own opinion; and new hypothefes were contrived for reconciling it to Scripture or to itself, and for evading the objections urged against it, Every fuch attempt produced new questions; and every new queftion became more frivolous, more notional, more abftrufe than the former.

In difcuffing it, new refinements of distinction, and new intricacies of argumentation, were introduced. Every difputant added something according to his own manner of apprehenfion.

The church was diftracted, bewildered, and enflamed. Councils were assembled to determine the points in queftion, and to extinguish the heats which they had raifed. But, inftead of bolding faft the form of found words, inftead of recalling all parties to the fimple doctrine of the Gofpel, and rejecting the unfcriptural, precarious explications by which both fides went beyond it; they entered into all the minutiae of the controverfy, they debated them with prejudice and paffion, they indulged cavil and chicane, they broke forth into clamour and outrage, into mutual accufations and threatenings, and fometimes they proceeded to tumult and violence. The stronger party overpowered the weaker by their fuperior vehemence, by the terror of their menaces, by mere force, or by a plurality, it may be, a very small plurality, of voices. They approved all the fubtleties, refinements, and inventions of one party; adopted whatever hard words and technical terms they thought fitteft for difcriminating them from those of the other party; and by a decree of ufurped, but formidable authority, they determined all these to be articles of faith, and their chofen terms of art to be the teft of the truth. All who refufed fubmiffion to their impofitions, they condemned as adherents to the contrary party, and ftigmatized as heretics; and they reviled, anathematized, excommunicated, and, whenever they could get the civil power to enter into their refentments, perfecuted, banished, or put them to death. Other councils were affembled, and often gave oppofite decifions, eftablished the contrary tenets, and fenced them by contrary terms of art; but till decided in the fame spirit of party contention, and violence. None of their decrees ever ended a fingle controverfy. On the contrary, they perpetuated the controverfies then fubfifting, increased the bitterness of contention, and diffused it wider. They never failed likewife to produce new controverfies. The perfons who oppofed them, contrived new terms, distinctions, and cavils, in contradiction to the fubtleties implied in their decrees: they differed about thefe, and fplit into leffer parties. Thofe who adhered to the decrees, difagreed about their meaning, broke out into fierce contention, charged each other with error or with blafphemy, and disdained communion with one another. By the rage of controverfy, and the fpirit of faction in all, the Chriftian church was di vided and fubdivided, and again and again subdivided into fects innumerable, hating and execrating one another; but diftinguished only by verbal differences, or by notions, of none of which the Scrip ture affirms any thing, or of which the human faculties can form no clear conception, and of which any conception or thought at all is both unneceffary and unprofitable.

Different fyftems of philofophy were fucceffively in vogue. With each of these in its turn, the doctrine of the Gospel was unnaturally incorporated. By this means it affumed a variety of forms, but all of them very unlike to its original fimplicity. When the philofophy of Aristotle obtained unrivalled poffeffion of the schools (a philofophy from the beginning fubtile, difputatious, and contentious, and rendered more fo by the perverfion of the fcholaftics), the Chriftian doctrine, by being adapted to it, ranged according to its forced mode of

diftribution,

diftribution, conceived according to its rules of definition and dif tinction, expreffed in its hard words, and reafoned about in the arti ficial manner of its analytics, was totally diftorted from its genuine form. A falfe ingenuity was laboriously employed in devifing questions concerning every article of Chriftian doctrine, in pushing them to the utmost length of fubtlety, and wrangling about them with all the nicety of affected precision. Quellions Sprung from quellions in an endless feries; all of them unneceffary, moft of them of no importance, many of them mere plays of words, many of them ridiculous, many of them interminable, and even unintelligible, nay fome of them impious and blafphemous. They were almost all dogmatically determined: the determinations of many of them were erected into articles of faith; and the technical words, employed in the determinations, were the only allowed criterion of men's holding thefe articles.

By fuch oppofitions and contentions of science falfely so called, continued and increafing through many ages of intellectual darkness, the doctrine of the papal church became a huge body of tenets, unfcripturally conceived and expressed, and many of them, not only deftitute of all foundation in the Gofpel, but directly repugnant to it. The Reformers, railed up in a bieffed hour for that very purpose, unveiled this mass of corruption, expofed the perverfions of the Gofpel which compofed it, and the fables which it had fuperadded to the Gospel. They pronounced the Scripture to be the only rule of faith, and difclaimed all human definitions of its fimple principles. Happy had it been if they had perfifted fteddily in this. But their adverfaries demanded, what it was precifely that they believed; they declared an appeal to Scripture infufficient for fixing this, because the authority of its words was pled by all fides; they cried out that the doctrine of Proteftants was altogether indefinite and uncertain; they mifrepres fented it grofsly; they called upon them to publish it in determinate Janguage. Overcome by thefe importunities, clamours, and accufations, and not perfectly cured of the fubtilizing spirit from which they fprung. Proteftants were led unwarily, though at first reluctantly, to accept the challenge. The earliest explications of their doctrine were tolerably fimple; the fcholaftic mode of arrangement, argument, and expreffion, was in general rather avoided than affected: but the fpirit of abftraction gradually acquired itrength and violence; the explications of doctrine given by fome difpleafed others; oppofite explications were propofed; quellions about them were agitated; they were pushed to greater and greater degrees of fubtlety; all the hardeft words of the schools were borrowed for exprefling the differences of opinion; and all the most frivolous or unintelligible diftin&tions of the schools were employed in debating them. Proteftants were crumbled down into numberlefs feats, distinguished by peculiarities of belief upon points unneceffary or impoflible to be determined. Creeds were oppofed to creeds; fyftems were multiplied against fyftems; fome on all fides, not fo much fytems of Chriftian theology, as metaphyfical fyitems of verbal, fpeculative, abitrufe, unimportant controverfies, for which a handle was taken from that theology. Each party was tenacious of its own mode of conceiving, and even of expreffing the truth; and, by this means, they have all continued die vided and at variance,'

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