of this world. They are a sort of transparent Beings. The wisdom of God has therefore honoured them with the very exalted title of, "The Children of Light." Ειλικρινεις" Sinceri ; quasi κρίνειν εν είλη; those, who will bear to be examined by the beams of the Sun "The Sun of Righteousness."

One of the sacred penmen has called this Sincerity, Exgiveia ex. 2 Cor. i. 12. For, there is a Sincerity of a very different stamp, and which is often commended to a very dangerous degree. Can there be any thing more ignorant, or more subversive of all true Religion, and Virtue, than that too common maxim, which has obtained among us, which makes Sincerity the Standard of Goodness, Excellence, and moral Character? May not one man be as sincerely in the wrong, as another is in the right? was not Saul, the unconverted Persecutor, and Blasphemer, as sincere, as Paul the Christian, and the Apostle? But, will you be so irrational, so inconsiderate, I

will add, so impious, as to place them on a level in your estimation? Who can be so undiscerning, as not to know, that this person may preach, or believe, a falsehood, with as much sincerity, as that person does the truth: but, is there not an essential difference between them?

The maxim, here protested, will afford a sanction for all the errors, heresies, and abominations, that the human intellect can broach; and, in its immediate tendency, is calculated to render the Christian Revelation futile and useless. Our public Teachers would, I humbly apprehend, do well and wisely, to consider this matter; as it belongs more especially to their province,

8.

THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY is a Spirit of Humility, and an essential Qualification for eternal Bliss.*

* I call that essential, without which any thing cannot be: as when I say, that the faculty of Reason is essential

Ιλησι τοις ταπεινοις ο Σωτηρ, και ολυμπε αυτοίς θυραν ανοίγει . . . Ου καθαρει αμαρτήματα, ο αρνέμενος. Οια η οίζυς προς οικτον κελευθος Ευχαι αγερωχων ψωα εμπροσθεν τε Θε8. All these Maxims of pith, and wisdom, are confirmed by the voice of Revelation, in passages so numerous, that it is hardly possible to place your eye on a single page of the sacred Volume, in which we are not taught the odiousness of Pride, and the excellence of Humility.*

to a rational Being, and that divine Grace is essential to the formation of the christian Character: so here, I mean to affirm, that Glory, Honour, and Immortality in a future state, are provided only for those, who are cloathed with Humility, in the present life.

"The least self-attribution, self-appropriation, or self-complacency, in the divine gifts, graces, and communications, is an usurpation on the rights of God. On the contrary, self-preterition, self-evacuation, and selfannihilation, of the infinitely little, before the infinitely great, is the eternal sacrifice, which created beings owe to the absolute Infinite." Such are the celestial ideas exhibited for our learning and imitation, in Is. vi. 1-30 Rev. iv.

The following sheets, therefore, it may be hoped, will be excused, if they draw out all the artillery of Heaven against the former, and exert their utmost powers to promote the latter. Such an effort will be not less an act of Benevolence, than of Piety; since Pride is sure to bar our entrance to the Mansions of Bliss, and Humility alone can qualify us for the fruition of their peculiar Felicity.

No just ideas were ever formed of the human nature, in its relation to the divine Being, and to the grand scheme of

"Hence, in all states, self annihilation, which is the only true humility, is the sole preservative of Angels unfallen, and the sole restorative of souls degenerated without this virtue, the beatific Vision would become a source of self-love, and self-attribution." Pride was the origin of all Evil. Can you think then, that the Scripture saith in vain, and more than once, « God resisteth," αντιτάσσεται, setteth himself in battle array, " against the Proud?" Superbi enim sunt veluti Gloriæ divinæ invasores-dum se rapiunt quod est Dei: invasoribus autem & raptoribus, vis armata opponi consuevit. Sic Deus, & verbis, & factis, superborum conatibus adversatur. Jam. iv. 6. 1 Pet. v. 5.

Redemption by The Messiah, but what tended to cover it with the vesture of Self-abasement. Job. xlii. 5, 6.*

9.

A FALSE GUIDE, like an Ignis fatuus, may prove in the issue a most fatal light; while a true one is a lamp of life.

Πολλοι μεν το ορθον, γαυσον ποιεσι' ολίγοις

TIOV.

δεναν

Τυφλος τυφλον αγων εις βόθρον εαυτον μετ ̓ αυτε ριπτεί. Οδηγος εν οδώ, δελετρον ΐ.

* What an Example is here! And how totally different from all that arrogance, conceit, and self-sufficiency, which unenlightened human Reason and Science have dared to assume in the presence of the God of Revelation! Would it not be much wiser, and safer, seriously to regard what is written in Is. lvii. 15. lxvi. 1, 2. Matth. xviii. 1-3? Ταυτα μελετα.

+ Every age has its Impostors, Seducers, and Deceivers. Ought we not then to be guarded against them? "Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch?" are questions of greater importance than the generality of mankind seem to think. They consult not what is Truth, in this case-but, what is pleasing. But, is it not a dismal presage in the affair of Salvation, when we run after those, whose Doctrine is most gratifying to our Pride, Prejudice, and Passions, and turn away from such as are the most penetrating, and alarming? I John. iv. 1. 2 Pet. ii. 1-3.