Are many antichrifts; they went out from us, but They were not of us, 1 John ii. 18. 19. Now, is t likely, that the apostles who taught these things, or that thofe good fouls who learned them from the apoftles, would ever dare to alter the faith, or admit into their communion thofe who did fo? Let reafon here judge and determine. Again, another means ufed by the Divine Wisdom to preserve the purity of the faith, was, by forewarning the faithful of falfe teachers, describing their manners and foretelling their reprobation and damnation. Thus St Paul affures Timothy, That, in the latter times, fome hall depart from the faith, giving heed to fe ducing fpirits, and the doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrify, having their confciences feared with a hot iron, 1 Tim. iv. 1. 2. What an impreffion must this description of falfe teachers have made upon the minds of the Chriftians! What a horror must it have raised in them against all innovators! Again, This know, fays the fame great apoftle, that in the last days perilous times fhall come. men fhall be lovers of their own felves, covetous, boafters, proud, &c.-Men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith, &c. See the whole paffage, 2 Tim. iii. St Peter alfo is very earnest upon this head, when he fays, Even as there shall be falfe teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable herefies and many fhall follow their pernicious ways-whofe judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation lumbereth not, 2 Pet. ii. 1. 2. 3. See alfo the whole epistle of St Jude, which is particularly written on this very fubject. Now, let only common fense judge what effect these things must have had in the minds of the faithful; and what an averfion

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must have been thereby excited in their hearts against all new doctrines contrary to what they had been taught by their pastors; and, will any man fay, that, after all this, they would admit to their communion those who should reject the revealed truths of God, to make room for the dreams of vifionaries? But, this is not all, we find, in the third place, the warmest exhortations used to avoid and fly all communication with fuch as should broach or teach new doctrines contrary to what had been first delivered to the faints. Thus St Paul fpeaks to the Romans, Now, I befeech you, brethren, mark them which caufe divifions and offences, contrary to the doctrine which ye have received, and avoid them, Rom. xvi. 17. Again, defcribing these novelifts, as above, to Timothy, he commands him, From fuch turn away, 2 Tim. iii. 5. And writing to Titus, he fays, A man that is a heretic, after the first and fecond admonition, reject; knowing that he that is fuch is fubverted, and finneth, being condemned of himself, Tit. iii. IO. II. St John alfo is fo ftrict upon this head, that he forbids even the common falutations to fuch people: Whofoever tranfgreffeth, fays he, and abideth not in the doctrine of Chrift, hath not GodIf there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your houfe; neither bid him God fpeed; for he that biddeth him God Speed, is partaker of his evil deeds, 2 John 9. 10. II. And, laftly, as the apoftles fo warmly exhorted the faithful to avoid all novelties, and fly from all those that broached them; fo they no lefs warmly commanded them to stick close to the doctrine they had delivered to them, and to teach the fame to those after them; O Timothy! fays St

Paul, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppofition of fcience falfely fo called; which fome profeffing have erred concerning the faith, 1 Tim. vi. 20. Again, Hold fast the form of found words, which thou haft heard of me, in faith and love, which is in Chrift Fefus. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghoft, which dwelleth in us, 2 Tim. i. 13. 14. Alfo, The things which thou haft heard of me, among many witnesses, the fame commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others alfo, 2 Tim. ii, 2. And again, writing to the Theffalonians, and foretelling them all the delufions of antichrift in the latter days, he gives them, as a defence against all these delufions, this command, Wherefore, brethren, ftand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epiftle, 2 Theff. ii. 15.

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Now, let any one confider thefe four means ufed by Almighty God himself to preferve the unity and purity of the faith, and the conftant belief of all revealed truths, and then fay, whether our author has not bafely mifreprefented the real ftate of the cafe, and endeavoured to impose the fictions of his own fancy upon his credulous and unwary readers! The truth is, that from the very beginning of Chriftianity the gates of hell have not ceafed, by open force and fecret fraud, to undermine the gofpel, and deftroy the belief of revealed truths, if poffible, from the face of the earth; for this purpose they have at all times stirred up men of corrupt minds, proud, haughty, felf-conceited people, as St Paul defcribes them, who, preferring the reveries of their own proud judgments, before the Lacred truths which had been delivered to the

faints, have ftarted new tenets, and publifhed their own fancies to the world as the truths of God; and this from the very times of the apostles themselves; but whoever did fo, and continued obstinate in their errors, were immediately condemned by the orthodox Chriftians, who adhered to the old doctrine, and were cut off from their communion, according to the rules which we have seen were laid down by the Holy Ghost for this purpose, and which was also practifed by the apostles themselves with fuch innovators as arose in their days. Hence, it is most unjust and ungenerous in our author, to reprefent the primitive church as a medley of jarring opinions, fince it cannot be called in queftion, by any one who is verfed in church-history, that, at least, for the three first centuries, the orthodox Chriftians, by adhering to the above rules laid down by the Holy Ghost, preferved the faith in its primitive purity; and all those innovators defcribed by our author were cut off from the church as corrupters of the faith, and hereticks, and had no more communion with the orthodox Christians than the Jews or Heathens. We may judge then of the author's difpofitions towards Christianity, by the unjust picture he has given of it, by which he has expofed it to the most pointed darts of infidels, and given double force to all the arguments the Deist uses against it. But this will ftill more fully appear in my fecond observation upon the above citation from his fermon; wherein we fhall fee that he gives up the cause entirely, and fairly acknowledges, that the Chriftian religion has neither ground nor *foundation.

Speaking of the errors which crept in among Christians from that rage of dogmatizing, which, he fays, fo early fhewed itself in a variety of shapes; he represents them, as we have feen above, to be of three forts; viz. The explaining away revealed truths, to make room for the dreams of vifionaries; the adopting as Divine truths, tenets which were not fo, but, on the contrary, were inconfiftent with the doctrine of Chrift; and the mistaking shadows for realities. Now, let me afk you, Gentlemen, were not errors of this kind of the ut most consequence? Could any thing be more pernicious to mankind? Do they not strike at the very vitals of Christianity? This furely cannot be doubted; for to deftroy revealed truths, to adopt errors in their stead, and to adhere to fhadows instead of realities is, without all manner of doubt, to destroy the Christian religion entirely. Such then were the errors which our author acknowledges were introduced into Christianity in its very earliest ages: Neither were thefe pernicious opinions merely propofed as matters of dispute, but they were adopted as real dogmas of religion; for, whilft man prefumptuously inquired into the manner in which every promife is fulfilled, every effect produced, and every operation conducted, which was the fource from whence these errors rofe; on all thefe points, they dared to pronounce moft dogmatically. Other dogmatifts have arifen, no lefs confident in their own abilities, who have entered into the question, and given a contrary decision: Then was kindled the Theologic war; the people was divided, p. 47. What was to be done in this cafe to remedy fo great an evil and preserve unity? Why! according to the rule acknowledged, and received by all Proteftants, the only remedy was

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