fuitable to those writings, applied it to the Jewish fcripturés. Fas eft et ab hofte doceri.-The fanciful mode of Origen in interpreting fcripture is here juftly condemned by Porphyry. The Ammonian fcheme is allowed here by him to be unfuitable to those writings. Origen was wrong in making fuch attempts. Let the word of God ftand fimple and alone, and let philofophers be left to their own inventions. The enmity of Porphyry is not abated by the complaifance of philofophizing chriftians, and their conceffions make no converts to evangelical truth. His objections to the book of Daniel, though they fhew him a ftrong, but ineffectual, adverfary to chriftianity, fall not within our defign. The fame may be faid of various cavils which he uttered against many paffages in the gofpels, a fufficient fpecimen of which fpirit we have seen in Celfus. * The fame ingenuity and malevolence failed him not in forming plaufible objections, wherever he seemed to have an opportunity. The cenfure which St. Paul, in the Epiftle to the Galatians, has left upon St. Peter, engaged his attention, and induced him, from an occafional difference between the Apoftles, to form an argument against the whole of their religion. I have had an opportunity above to give my thoughts on the fubject: I may add here that the very clear teftimony which St. Peter gives to the infpired character of St. Paul, toward the conclufion of his fecond epistle, at the fame time that it demonftrates the harmony of the Apoftles, remains one of the fairest monuments of St. Peter's humility and candour. These things appear as fo many teftimonies to the character of chriftians from * Lardner's Collections, chap. xxxvii. enemies. enemies. Surely truth, and wisdom, and goodness may well be prefumed to be with thofe, whom their adverfaries affault with fuch frivolous objections. On account of an epidemical diforder raging in a certain city, Porphyry obferves, " Men wonder now that diftempers have feized the city fo many years, Æfculapius and the other gods no longer dwelling among them; for fince Jelus was honoured, no one has received any public benefit from the gods." * What a teltimony is this to the great progrefs of christianity in his day! Malevolence confeffes, while the complains. "Matrons and women," fays Porphyry, "compofe their fenate; they rule in the churches, and the priestly order is difpofed of according to their good pleasure. The falfity of this is notorious; but the testimony here given, by the mouth of an enemy, to the piety of women, is perfectly agreeable to the accounts of the New Teftament, and the hiftory of all revivals of godlinefs in every age, in none of which women had the government, in all by their piety a great perfonal concern. "There is neither male nor female, but ye are all one in Chrift Fefus." If Chrift be the way of falvation, the truth, and the life, and they only who believe in him fhall be faved, what became of the men who lived before his coming +?" The reader has often heard fimilar objections made in our days. The chriftians preached then the fame doctrine of falvation, only by Chrift, which is now ftigmatized as uncharitable. The fame fame may be faid of the everlasting punishment of unbelievers. One paffage more fhall clofe the fubject of Porphyry. "A perfon asked Apollo how to make his wife relinquish chriftianity? It is easier perhaps, replied the oracle, to write on water, or to fly into the air, than to reclaim her. Leave her, in her folly, to hymn in a faint mournful voice the dead God, who publicly fuffered death from judges of fingular wifdom." This is a story told by Porphyry, a memorable teftimony of the conftancy of chriftians. It appears also that they were accustomed to worship Jefus as God, and that they were not afhamed of this, notwithstanding the ignominy of his crofs. The teftimony given here, to the wifdom of Caiaphas and Pontius Pilate, will not fo readily be admitted. The enemies of vital godlinefs, in our days, may fee from these teftimonies, laid together, that their ancient brethren in infidelity have been beforehand with them in all their most material objections. What was the doctrine, fpirit, and conduct of real chriftians, appears from their teftimony. And the work of the Spirit of God on the hearts of men, in attaching them to Jefus, and in divorcing them from all that the world delights in, is as evident as the malignity of our apoftate nature in hating and opposing it. CHAP. #Bullet's Hiftory. CONNECTION BETWEEN THE DOCTRINE AND PRAĆTICE OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. I AM fenfible that many parts of the foregoing history will appear very reprehenfible to fome in point of candour. "Why fuch folicitude to prove men Trinitarians in opinion? Why fo ftrict an eye kept up all along or the doctrines commonly called Evangelical by certain perfons? What fignify opinions, if men's practice be right? Why is not all the ftrefs of commendation laid on holinefs of life, integrity, and charity?" The language is fpecious, but is chargeable. with this notion, that it fuppofes that there is no real connection between doctrine and practice. It must not be admitted by a chriftian, however fashionable the fentiment be, that one fort of opinions is as good as another, with respect to influence on the practice. The fcripture connects fanctification with belief of the truth *. Our Lord himself prays that his difciples may be fanctified through the truth. The blood of Chrift purges the confcience from dead works to ferve the living Godt. And a right faith in Jefus overcomes the world. St. John challenges men to prove that they can overcome the world by any other way §, and in the chapter now alluded to he is very particular in defcribing what that faith is. In fine, Chrift gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himfelf a peculiar people zealous of good works . If this zeal for good works be the effect of his redemption, † 2 Theff. ii. 13. + Heb. ix. 14. Titus ii, 14. John 17, 18. redemption, it should not be conceived, that perfons, who difbelieve the doctrines effentially con cerned in his redemption, can poffibly have any zeal for good works, unless it be supposed that men fhould be able to attain a certain end, without the ufe of, and even with an averfion to, the means which God has appointed for that purpose. The peculiar doctrines of the gospel are, original fin, juftification by the grace of Jefus Chrift, his Godhead and atonement, the Divinity and efficacious influences of the Holy Ghoft. We appeal to the fcriptures for the proof of this affertion. If it cannot be proved from thence, let it be confidered as not proved at all. The tradition of the church, were it more uniform than it is, can never fufficiently demonftrate it. But it furely fhould move the minds of thofe who in our times oppofe thefe doctrines with all their might, to obferve that thefe doctrines have been held from the primitive times by men allowed to be the wifeit and most upright. They may well be incited to allow fome doubts whether their own fentiments be right, and to grant that a zeal for thefe doctrines may deferve a better name than mere fpeculative religion, when the fcripture itfelf declares its connection with practice, and the history of chriftian antiquity exemplifies that connection. It is fubmitted to the confideration of the reader, whether thefe reflections do not fufficiently anfwer the objection with refpect to candour. Two things have been fhewn to have uniformly obtained during the three first centuries, first, that there were all along a number of perfons bearing the christian name, whofe lives proved them to be the excellent of the earth. And fecondly, that, as far as appears, the character of genuine virtue belonged exclufively to men who efpoufed the peculiar |