the gospel of Chrift, who built on no fuch foundation, and confequently are of illegitimate defcent; and when carried to their utmost pitch of authority often make against their very patrons.

So far as the gospel of Chrift is favorable to the reasonable liberty of every man; fo far as it inculcates, and is calculated to promote, the profeffion of faith in Chrift, and the hopes of a life to come, in all fincerityand truth, and a life here in all godliness and honesty; so far as it teaches obedience to all the lawful commands of government; just so far is that gospel pure and unadulterated, favorable to the intereft of the whole and of every member of civil fociety. But, no fooner do the civil powers impose their additions, or inforce the obligations of christians by human penalties, than the humble spirit of the gospel and the willing obedience of the christian are at an end. The motives of duty are no longer affection and gratitude to God, but abject fear of punishment, or fordid hope of reward in the present life, which never fail to disappoint the civil magiftrate

magistrate of that support and fecurity which he would otherwife derive from religion. If it were poffible to suppose a society to exist which had interefts oppofite to the prefent happiness, and future hopes of its members, fuch fociety would indeed receive no benefit from the gospel of Chrift, and might, therefore, confiftently enough with its own views and interests, deface or even deftroy it. And if any thing like this is the effect of exclufive establishments of religion as they are now constituted, can the offenfive parts of them be removed too foon *?

* Dr. Campbell, in his fermon preached before the Synod of Aberdeen, 177, obferves, in answer to the queftion, What is the church of Chrift? If we recur," fays he, (p. 59.) "to the new Teftament for an expla"nation, it is no other than the community of his faith"ful difciples, actuated by his fpirit; for if any man "have not the fpirit of Chrift, he is none of his. "(Rom. viii. 9.) I fhall add one queftion more, What is "the intereft of this church? In the view which our

religion gives of it, it is not their wealth, or rank, or "fame, or even the fecurity of their lives and fortunes; "but it is their advancement in faith and purity. Can "I, then, by corrupting one of the members, and "hazarding the infection of the reft, advance the purity "of the whole? Indeed, if you mean by the church,

❝ according

Let us now return to the consideration of the duty of the individual, in contradiftinction to the duty of the fociety to which he belongs, as we may collect it from the precept of our inspired apostle Paul, "Let every man be fully perfuaded in his own mind."

And that conviction

No man can justly be faid to "be fully perfuaded in his own mind," until he has exercised his intellectual faculties in a fair and full inquiry which follows inquiry, will ever be the right faith to that individual, however different from the profeflion of those among whom he may live, or the principles of those under whom

ટ according to the acceptation of the word with many, а certain order of men only; and, if you mean by their intereft, their lucrative offices, dignity, and & power, and the credit of thofe dogmas on which the "whole is founded; I fhall admit, that the cause of the "church, in your fenfe of the word, and the cause of "virtue, which is the cause of God, may be as oppofite ર as truth and falfehood, heaven and hell."

* "Scepticism and credulity are equally unfavorable "to the acquifition of knowledge. The latter anti"cipates, and the former precludes all inquiry. One "leaves the mind fatisfied with error, the other with "ignorance." Dr. Percival's "Father's Inftructions to his children." 12mo. 2d edit. part i. p. 90.

whom he may have been educated †. Orthodoxy is a word of very vague and indeterminate fignification: it meaneth one thing to-day, and another to-morrow; one thing with the proteftant, another with the papist, and fomething very wide from the meaning of either, when used by the jew or mahomedan. Inquiry

C 3

+ "A man may be an heretic in the truth; and if he believe things only becaufe his paftor fays fo, or the "affembly fo determines, without knowing other rea

fon, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he "holds, becomes his herefy."-Milton's Areopagitica. (p. 318.)-edit. affixed to Remarks on Johnson's Life of Milton. 12mo. 1780.-And, in a following page (328) of the fame invaluable plea for unlicenfed printing, the fame great John Milton of the commonwealth" writes, " 'Tis not denied, but gladly confeft, we are to fend "our thanks and vows to heaven, louder than most of "nations, for that great measure of truth which we en

66

joy, especially in those main points between us and "the pope, with his appurtenances the prelates: but he "who thinks we are to pitch our tent here, and have at"tained the utmost profpect of reformation, that the "mortal glafs wherein we contemplate, can fhew us,

'till we come to beatific vifion, that man by this very "opinion declares, that he is yet far fhort of truth." And again (p. 352.) "Let truth and falfehood grap"ple; who ever knew truth put to the worse, in a free "and open encounter? Her confuting is the best and fureft fuppreffing."

Inquiry, therefore, is the duty of every man from the nature of things. Under the gofpel-difpenfation, and as members of a proteftant church, we are under the obligation to make and pursue our inquiries, otherwife we take up our chriftianity and protestantism with a secret refolution to disobey the commands of our lord and master, when they interfere with the injunctions of a different authority, and, consequently, to act inconfistently with our character and principles, when contrafted with thofe of the papist, against whofe impofitions we pretend to protest.

The apostle John exhorts the followers of Chrift to try the fpirits, whether they are "of God *". Luke highly commends the greatness of mind in the Bereans, declaring them, as we read it, " more noble," or of a better difpofition, "than those of Theffalo"nica, in that they received the word with "all readiness of mind, and searched the "fcriptures daily, whether these things were "fo." Paul calls upon the Theffalonians prove all things," and having so done, to "hold fast that which is good ‡." He bids

to "

** 1 John iv. 1.

the

+ Acts xvii. 11. and fee bifhop Pearce's Commentary

on the place.

ti Theff. v. 21,