arrive, there will be a necessity of "contending for "the faith delivered" to us.

II. There is something very unpleasing in the sound of the word CONTENTION, and volumes have been written on the offence occasioned by the thing itself. But, alas! it is one of those offences, which, I fear, "must needs come." Till the sons of Adam cease to be the sons of Adam, it cannot be prevented. So long, on one plea or another, the city will be attacked; and if attacked, it must be defended: the sentinel at his post cannot be blamed for giving the alarm, nor the garrison for appearing under arms. All that can be done in this contest, as well as others, is to provide, that it be conducted in an honourable way, according to the laws of war. "If it be pos

sible," says an apostle,

as far as lieth in you, "live peaceably with all men." Cases, it is therefore supposed, may bappen, in which it will not be possible. It is not in our power to "live peaceably "with all men," if some men will not live peaceably with us. We must not be the aggressors: we must not engage knowingly in a bad cause; nor persevere, if, in the process, we shall discover our cause to be a bad one.

Wonder has been often expressed, that religion should ever have become the subject of contention. But the wonder would cease, if it were only consi

is that we shall never become so. once, says the Italian proverb, it is

MINE.

f Rom. xii. 18.

When a man deceives me
Is fault; when twice, it is

dered that things become the subjects of contention in proportion to their importance; and religion being the most important thing in the world, they who are serious in their religion will never suffer it to be taken from them without contention. The fault is not in religion, but in the different understandings, tempers, interests, passions, and prejudices of mankind. He who can rectify and adjust all these, will put an end to contention. Till this shall be effected, there will be heresies. The apostle uses a stronger term, "there MUST be heresies:" and, therefore, such as are able must combat them, and maintain the doctrines to which they oppose themselves. The truths of God are not to be tamely given up. The injunction is," Contend." The apostles contended against the Jews, Pagans, and the heresiarchs of their days. The fathers of the church contended against the same enemies, and others who arose in succession after them. The heroes of the reformation contended against the Romish corruptors of the faith; the bishops, clergy, and others of our own church, have contended against adversaries of various denominations; and if we expect that church to subsist, we must contend too.

It has been hinted to us, in some late publications, that if the trinitarian doctrines should continue to be obstinately maintained, the churches which maintain them, and the kingdoms in which such churches are supported, will ere long, be destroyed, to make way for the pure unitarian gospel. This is a very serious

1 Cor. xi. 19.

and alarming intimation indeed. For a zealous antitrinitarian may fancy, that those idolatrous churches and kingdoms require to be quickened in their progress towards destruction; he may conceive himself in duty bound to become an instrument in executing the vengeance of Heaven upon them, for refusing to admit an Arian or Socinian reformation, tendered in a milder way. When "the faith," by us esteemed that "delivered to the saints," is represented "as the "abomination which maketh desolate," surely it must be high time either to give it up at once, if it be such, or to contend for it, if it be not.

Our opponents are shrewd, active, busy, bustling, and indefatigable. They regard the toleration not as leave only to exercise their own religion unmolested, but as a door opened to unlimited free inquiry; or, in other words, a full permission to attack the church in every possible way. They dare us to put in execution the laws which are still subsisting against the impugners of certain received articles of faith, enacted by those who were indubitably friends to toleration in general. They represent any human establishment, as such, to be a part of the grand apostasy; and wish to strip religion, that is, OUR religion, of the support and protection derived from its connexion with the state. They inform us, that the nation abounds with Socinians, at present concealed, but ready, on a proper occasion, to declare that a mine is laid under the old building of error and superstition, which a single spark may, and probably soon will, inflame, so as to produce an instantaneous explosion; in consequence of which, that edifice, the

erection of which has been the work of ages, may be overturned in a moment, and so effectually, as that the same foundation can never be built upon again. Without any visible marks of decay, and before its bigotted friends suspect any danger, it may vanish, we are told, like a castle in romance".

If this information be just, we are under no small obligation to the person by whom it has been communicated. It is fair, it is manly, it is noble, it is kind! and we must blame ourselves alone, if the caverns be not forthwith searched, and the combustibles removed. But what a man wishes, he easily believes ; and great, as we all know, is the power of a lively imagination. We will therefore indulge a hope, that the above state of facts may not be quite exact; however, in process of time it may possibly be realized, unless proper measures shall be taken on our side; unless we " contend."

The necessity of contending for the faith being thus evident, we are to consider,

III. The manner in which that contention should be carried on.

h See Dr. Priestley's Importance of Free Inquiry, p. 39, 40. It is somewhat remarkable, that in a sermon written and preached about four years ago, a friend of mine, aware of that " gunpow "der," which Dr. Priestley and his friends (as he tells us) have been for some time employed in "laying, grain by grain, under "the old building," spoke then of "a mine, waiting, perhaps, "only till some unforeseen occurrence should kindle it, to destroy, at one tremendous explosion, the constitution in church " and state."-These were his very words; as if he had been the bearer of the lanthorn, while the Doctor was at work.

When I say CONTEND, I do not mean by pains and penalties. Such we may inflict upon our adversaries; and, if they get into power (which, as they seem to think, will pretty soon be the case), they may inflict upon us. But by proceedings of this kind nothing is proved. The faith is apostolical; the contention should be so likewise. The weapons of our warfare must be Scripture and history, reason and argument. By these the cause must be defended. By these it has hitherto been defended, and the invaders have left many strong forts behind them untaken. We have seen nothing, as yet, which should induce us to depart from the doctrines of our Lord's pre-existence, divinity, and satisfaction, and to adopt the interpretations of Scripture devised by the Socinians; which, of all the interpretations at any time offered to the world, seem to be the farthest from RATIONAL-a distinction to which persons of that persuasion have of late claimed a kind of exclusive right.

But though pains and penalties are out of the question, we are not to be remiss and lukewarm in the contest; we must "contend EARNESTLY." The word used by St. Jude, Taywna, refers us to the severe struggles of the champions in the Grecian

"Cannot one know (says an excellent writer, thoroughly conversant in these subjects) that the Socinian interpretation "of Johu i. 1. and Heb. i. 10. or of the texts relating to Christ's pre-existence, is not the mind of Scripture? Yea, one máy "know it as certainly, as that a counter is not the king's coin, or "that a monster is not a man."

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