ployment in the church of God is highly honourable and useful, though fubordinate. Let learning then be cultivated, and continue to flourish and abound, but let it be confined to its proper province. Religion indeed is the fun to the foul; the fource of light and the cherisher of life. But because there is a fun, must there be no inferior lights? God has made the moon and the stars also, and pronounced that they are good.

The enemies to Chriftianity muft not be fuffered to triumph over it, by afserting that it is adverse to learning, and tends to introduce the ignorance of barbarifm. Sound learning, under due regulations, contributes to foften the mind, and prepare it for the divine agency. A learned,

virtuous, and religious man, whofe religion is VITAL and truly Chriftian, is a fuperior being, even in this mortal state, and may be imagined, by us his fellow-creatures, to be little lower than the angels.

Nobody can hold learning, and the noble inventions of human ingenuity, in higher esteem than myself; I look up to them with affection and admiration. But after all, and however perfect and beautiful they may be, they are but HUMAN, the product of poor, fhort-lived, fallible mortals. Whatever comes from the FATHER OF lights, from him who made that MIND which is capable of learning and science, must deserve more attention and honour than can poffibly be due to the most beautiful and ftupendous works of human ingenuity. These are not to be flighted, but beloved, purfued, rewarded. But I am a MORTAL. Every moment is bringing me nearer to that period when the curtain fhall fall, and all these things -be hidden from my eyes. My first attention and warmest affection therefore ought, as I value my

own happiness, to be fixed on things spiritual and eternal.

All arts, all sciences, must be secondary and inftrumental to the attainment of DIVINE ILLUMINATION. I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, says Jefus Chrift. Can any reasonable man reft fatisfied without coming to the light after fuch a declaration? Will he be contented with the radiance of dim lights and falfe lights, when he is invited to approach the brilliant and the true?

Learning is neceffary for the purposes of this life; it is an ornament and a defence. It is highly ufeful in religious investigation. It furnishes arguments to enforce morality, to perfuade to all that is good and great, and to deter from folly and vice. But let it ever keep to its own office, which is certainly, in religious matters, minifterial. It can amufe; it can inform; but it cannot fupply the fummum bonum; it cannot raise fallen man to his original ftate. GRACE only can reftore man to God's image. If learning could have done it, why were the heathens unreftored? are not the infidels often learned? and would not the advent of our Lord and Saviour have been fuperfluous, if learning could have repaired the ruins of the fall?

Few (as I have already faid) in the mafs of mankind are learned. They are perhaps as one to a million. What is to become of the millions then, if the gospel of Jefus Christ, by which alone they can live in the fweet tranquillity of a state of grace, and die with religious hope and confidence, cannot be received, with fufficient evidence, without deep learning, logical and metaphyfical difputation? What is to prove it to them, who have neither books, leifure, or ability to ftudy, if God himself do not teach them by his SPIRIT? Blessed be his name, he has taught them, and continues

to

to teach them. It is among the learned chiefly that INFIDELITY prevails. She inhabits libraries, and walks abroad in academic groves, but is rarely seen in the cottage, in the field, or in the manufactory. The poor and the unlearned do in general believe in the gospel moft firmly. What is the evidence which convinces them? It is the witness of the Spirit; and thanks be to him who faid my grace is fufficient for thee. "He that be"lieveth on the Son of God hath this witnefs " in himself."

The opinion of a man, which I fhall now produce, like Dr. Ifaac Watts, on the true nature of Christianity, is almoft of itself decifive. He was not only a devout and zealous Chriftian, but a profound fcholar, a natural philofopher, a logician, and a metaphyfician. His life and converfation exhibited a pattern of every Christian virtue. Let us hear him.

"Every true Chriftian," fays he, " has a fuf"ficient argument and EVIDENCE to fupport his "faith, without being able to prove the authority "of any of the canonical writings. He may hold "faft his religion, and be affured that it is divine, "though he cannot bring any learned proof that "the book that contains it is divine too; nay, "though the book itself should even happen to be "loft or destroyed: and this will appear, with open "and eafy conviction, by afking a few fuch "questions as these :

* Whereas there are perfons among the great and learned of whom It may be justly faid, they are HOMINES MULTE RELIGIONIS, NULLIUS PENE PIETATIS; men of much religion, (strictness in morals and ceremonials,) yet of scarcely any piety or affectionate devotion.

"Was not this fame gospel preached with glo"rious fuccefs before the New Teftament was "written?

"Were not the fame doctrines of falvation by "Jesus Christ published to the world by the miniftry of the apostles, and made effectual to "convert thousands, before they set themselves "to commit these doctrines to writing?

"And had not every fincere believer, every true "convert, this bleffed witnefs in himself, that "Christianity was from God?

"Eight or ten years had paffed away, after the "afcenfion of Chrift, before any part of the New "Teftament was written; and what multitudes "of Chriftian converts were born again by the "preaching of the word, and raised to a divine " and heavenly life, long ere this book was half "finished or known, and that among the heathens "" as well as Jews. Great numbers of the Gentile "world became holy believers, each of them having the epistle of Chrift written in the heart, "and bearing about within them a noble and con"vincing proof that this religion was divine; and "that without a written gospel, without epiftles, and "without a BIBLE.

"In the first ages of Chriftianity, for several "hundred years together, how few among the

common people were able to read? How few "could get the poffeffion or the use of a Bible, "when all facred as well as profane books were "of neceffity copied by writing? How few of the

populace, in any large town or city, could ob"tain or could ufe any fmall part of fcripture, "before the art of printing made the word of God "so common? And yet millions of these were

"rege

"regenerated, fanctified, and faved by the mi"niftration of the gospel.

"Be convinced then that Chriftianity has a "more noble inward witness belonging to it than " is derived from ink and paper, from precife let"ters and fyllables. And though God, in his "great wisdom and goodness, faw it neceffary "that the New Teftament fhould be written, "to preserve thefe holy doctrines uncorrupted "through all ages, and though he has been "pleased to be the invariable and authentic rule "of our faith and practice, and made it a glorious "inftrument of inftructing minifters and leading "men to falvation in all these latter times; yet "Christianity has a fecret witness in the hearts of "believers, that does not depend on their knowledge "and proof of the authority of the fcriptures, nor of 86 any of the controverfies that in latter ages have "attended the feveral manuscript copies and dif"ferent readings and translations of the Bible.

"Now this is of admirable ufe and importance "in the Chriftian life, upon feveral accounts. "First, if we confider, how few poor unlearned "Chriftians there are, who are capable of taking "in the arguments, which are neceffary to prove "the divine authority of the facred writings; and "how few, even among the learned, can well ad

just and determine many of the different read"ings or different tranflations of particular paf"fages in fcripture. Now a wife Chriftian does "not build his faith or hope merely upon any one "or two fingle texts, but upon the GENERAL "SCOPE, fum, and substance of the gofpel. By "this he FEELS a fpiritual life of peace and piety "begun in him. And here lies his EVIDENCE that "CHRISTIANITY IS DIVINE, and that these doc"trines are from heaven, though a text or two 66 may

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