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And now, my FRIENDS and COUNTRYMEN, with fenti ments of the mosft benevolent and affectionate regard, both for You, and every human being, whether Jew, Turk, infidel, Heretic, or Chriftian, I submit these reflections, concerning Religion and the Sacred Writings, to your most serious con

"Inflame with love, and fet thee all on fire
"With burning zeal, through every part entire,
That in no earthly thing thou shalt delight,
"But in his sweet and amiable fight.-
"Then fhall thy ravisht foul infpired be
"With heavenly thoughts, far above human skill,
"And thy bright radiant eyes fhall plainly fee
"Th' idea of his pure glory present ftill
"Before thy face, that all thy fpirits shall fill
"With sweet enragement of celestial love,

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Kindled through fight of thofe fair things above."

SPENCER's religion, we fee from the above extracts, is, like that of the Ruskers," a religion of feeling." This too is ur queftionably the religion of the Bible. Whom having not feen ye love; in whem, though now ye fee him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. See this lubject confidered at fome length in Mr. WILBERFORCE'S Practical View, ch, 3. fect. 2d and 30.

This fame devout and heavenly spirit breathes ftrongly in all the old afcetic authors. AUGUSTINE is famous for it; fo were feveral others of the ancient Fathers of the Church. THOMAS A KEMPIS is excelled by none in this way. St. BERNARD is very pious. His hymn on the name JESUS is in a high ftrain of this kind.

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is in the fame ftrain; and has been imitated in that favourite old hym recorded in the Pilgrim's Guide.

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Jerufalem, my happy home,

"O that I were in thee.

"O would my woes were at an end,

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Thy joys that I might fee! &c. &c."

Almost every thing of this kind, however, which has been left us by. our forefathers is written in a ftile highly depraved, and is ufually equally devcut and fuperftitious. The pious reader, therefore, will be upon his guard in the perufal of fuch authors, and take the good, and caft the bad. away. The Bible alone is free from human weaknefles.

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fideration. What impreffion they may make upon your minds, is known only to the GOD of the fpirits of all flefh*.

If the reader fhould find himself diffatisfied with the Plea for Religion and the Sacred Writings, which is here put into his hand, let him by no means give up the cause as desperate, but rather let him lay it afide, and have recourfe to thofe more able and explicit Treatifes, which I have occafionly recommended in the Notes. Or, if he thinks himself capable of rendering a more effectual fervice to the caufe of evangelical truth, let him take up his own pen, and confound the enemies of religion. Learned Laymen, especially, fhould come forward in vindication of the Gofpel; fince every thing, which proceeds from the Clergy on religion, is fuppofed to spring from a self-interefted fource. Mr. WILBERFORCE has done himself much honour. He is a bold and able advocate for a much injured caufe. Nor lefs fo is the excellent Mifs HANNAH MORE. She is a credit to her fex, and a bleffing to her country. It is scarcely poffible, however, for authors on this fubject to be too numerous. We are not wanting in clerical writers; but those who have treated on subjects purely religious, among the other ranks of fociety, are, comparatively, few; and especially among the Princes and Nobles of the land. Mr. HORACE WALPOLE has given us a catalogue of the Royal and Noble authors of England, Scotland, and Ireland, fince the Conqueft; and, I think, he produces only, during all thofe ages, 10 English Princes, 92 Peers, and 14 Peereffes. To thefe he adds 24 Scotch Royal and Noble authors, with 11 Irish Peers: In all about 150; a small number, when it is confidered they are ufually the best educated men in the country.

In Germany have been published in the course of fix years, from 1785 to 1790, no lefs a number than 27,372 books, on the following fubjects, and in these proportions:

1 General Literature

2 Philology

3 Divinity

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Gent. Mag. Feb. 1796, p. 147.

From the Monthly Mag. for June 1798, it appears, that the average number of books published in Germany from 1785 to the close of the year 1797, is 5,360 annually.

My

My earnest request to you, is, that you will give them a fair and difpaffionate hearing, and feek truth, at least, with as much warmth and affiduity, as we ufually employ in our fecular purfuits. No man ever fucceeded greatly in life, who did not embark zealously in its concerns. No man ever became a good fcholar, without much time and application. And no man ever made any confiderable proficiency in things divine, till all the leading powers of his foul were engaged therein. Permit me then to exhort you to be in earnest in your religious enquiries. Apply your minds with zeal and impartiality to the investigation of facred wifdom. This is the concern, the duty, the privilege, the glory of every human being. The moft ancient and fublime author in the world hath exhausted all the treafures of nature to exprefs its intrinsic value: Where fball WISDOM be found? and where is the place of UNDERSTANDING? Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth faith, It is not in me: and the fea faith, It is not with me. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither fhall filver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the fapphire. The gold and the chrystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it fhall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention fhall be made of coral, or of pearls; for the price of WISDOM is above rubies. The topas of Ethiopia fhall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold. Whence then cometh WISDOM? and where is the place of UNDERSTANDING-Behold, the FEAR of the LORD, that is WISDOM; and to depart from evil is UNDERSTANDING.

If fuch is the value of WISDOM, the fearch will undoubtedly repay the labour. But, have we any affurance that the ineftimable treasure may be found? The Wifeft of men will anfwer to our fatisfaction: My Son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; fo that thou incline thy ear unto WISDOM, and apply thine heart to UNDERSTANDING: yea, if thou crieft after KNOWLEDGE, and lifteft up thy voice for UNDERSTANDING: if thou feekeft her as filver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then fhalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of GOD-thou shalt understand righteouf

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righteoufnefs, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. All this implies the greateft poffible attention to our religious concerns.

With these fine fentiments I take my leave, commending you to GOD, and to the Word of his grace, which is able to build you up, if you will fubmit to its authority, and to give you an inheritance among all them that are fanctified. If you are right, in your prefent ftate of mind, may you continue in the right way to the end of your days, and increase and abound therein more and more. I think, however, you fhould be extremely cautious how you contradict and blafpheme what so many wife and good men efteem the truth of GOD, left that come upon you, which is fpoken of in the Prophets-Behold, ye defpifers, and wonder, and perish! -Speaking modeftly, your fituation is not altogether without danger. It is impoffible you should be perfectly fatisfied all is as you could wish*.

"Since then we die but once, and after death

"Our flate no alteration knows,

"But when we have refign'd our breath

Th' immortal spirit goes

"To endless joys, or everlafting woes;

"Wife is the man, who labours to fecure

"That mighty and important ftake,

"And by all methods ftrives to make

"His paffage fafe, and his reception sure.”

As to myself, I am thoroughly fatisfied with that GOD, that REDEEMER, and that SANCTIFIER which the Chriftian Scriptures hold out to the view and acceptance of mankind, I am perfectly pleased with those Scripturest, and with

all

* He was no inconfiderable man who faid, " To doubt of the Gospel is folly to reject it is madness."

JORTIN's Sermons, vol. 4. p. III. Let the fceptical reader confult Dr. ROBERTSON, the Hiftorian's very fenfible Difcourfe on the Situation of the World at the Time of CHRIST'S Appearance, and its Connection with the Succefs of his Religion. A conscientious reader cannot fail of being edified by fuch a discourse.

† When I have spoken above in fuch ftrong terms of the volume of Revelation, it is by no means intended to caft any flight upon the volume of Nature. While we daily ftudy the former, we fhall do well to pay all due attention to the latter, according to our opportunities of inveftiga

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all the divine difpenfations therein recorded. hath done, is doing, and will do all things well.

Our GoD It is altogether

tion. To an enlightened obferver, they both carry indubitable marks of their great original. The heavens declare the glory of GoD, and the earth es full of his riches. The moft perfect catalogue of stars, before the prefent ingenious and indefatigable Dr. HERSCHEL appeared, did not contain quite 5,000; but, by the vaft fuperiority of his glaffes, he hath discovered 44.000 ftars in a few degrees of the heavens*; and by the fame propor tion, it is fuppofed, that 75,000,000 are expofed in the expanfe to human inveftigation+. All these ftars are of a fiery nature, and conjectured to be fo many funs with their fyftems of planets moving round them. We know the fun to be the centre of our fyftem. It is accompanied with 19 planets, befides about 450 comets. What an amazing idea does this give us of the works of GOD! And if fuch is the Work, what must the WORKMAN be!

Every part of nature, moreover, with which we are acquainted, is full of living creatures, with stores of every kind to fupply their neceffi ties. This little globe of ours is known to contain within its bowels a great variety of valuable minerals, and to be covered with about 20,000 different fpecies of vegetables, 3,000 fpecies of worms, 12,000 fpecies of infects, zoo fpecies of amphibious animals, 550 fpecies of birds, 2,500 fpecies of fifh, and zoo fpecies of quadrupeds. How immenfe then must be the number of individuals! One fly is found to bring forth 2000 at a time, and a fingle cod-fifh to produce confiderably more than three millions and a half of young. Nay, Leewenhoek tells us, that there are more animals in the milt of a fingle cod fish, than there are men upon the whole earth. Over all these creatures prefide upwards of 730 millions of human beings. Such is the family of the GREAT FATHER here upon earth! And when it is confidered, that the earth itself, with all its furniture, is no more, when compared with the whole fyftem of things, than a fingle grain of fand, when compared with a huge mountain, we are lost in the immenfity of GoD's works, and conftrained to cry out, LORD, what is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the fon of man that thou vifiteft him! And if to this immenfity of the works of creation, we add the admirable structure of the whole, and the exquifitive perfection of every part, we fhall not fail of being exceedingly affected with the ineffable wisdom of the DIVINE ARCHITECT. Τα bring this confideration more within the grasp of human comprehenfion, let us take, as it were, to pieces, and examine the feveral parts of any one creature which God hath made; and we fhall find a perfection among i feveral powers, and an adaption to its fituation in the grand scale of

its

* See the Differtation of Dr. HERSCHEL, relative to this brilliant portion of the heavens, in the Philofophical Tranfactions.

+ JEROME DE LALANDE, Director of the French Obfervatory, fuppofes that ☛ glafs of HERSCHEL's powers may difcover 90 millions of ftars in the whole furface of the heavens, and that even, this number is but small, in comparison of what

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