themselves a pre-eminent and even exclusive claim to the appellation of EVANGELICAL TEACHERS. We admit the premises, that whatsoever is evangelical must carry with it truth and authority; we deny the conclu-sion, that such truth and authority belong to their tenets solely. The fallacy of their logic is not more glaring than the inconsistency that subsists between their objections. and their boasts. After confounding the old and general, with the new and occasional use of the word; after sometimes piteously, sometimes indignantly complaining, that a term which deserves the respect of all believers has been perverted into a title of reproach to themselves, they virtually prove the justness of that reproach by maintaining that the knowledge of evangelical truth, and the spirit of evangelical instruction are confined to their own sect alone.

names.

Wisdom and virtue, say we, are venerable But what must be the indignation of a civilized and enlightened world, if a class of men were to start up, who contended

that

that they only were wise and virtuous, and that by them only the principles of wisdom and virtue were understood distinctly, or taught faithfully? ARISTIDES did not arrogate to himself the appellation of JUST; and the Athenians, we remember, bestowed it upon him, not in consequence of any real or pretended superiority in his speculative opinions, or of any constitutional or artificial singularity in his social habits, but of those direct and unequivocal proofs which the general tenor of his actions supplied, for the soundness of his principles and the sincerity of his rare and modest professions.

Not content with asserting the infalli bility of their spiritual head, the advocates of the Church of Rome endeavoured to vindicate their creed by pointing out its conformity to the decisions of early councils, and the tenets of the oldest and most orthodox fathers. But surely this appeal of the Romanists to antiquity, in which, reserving the right of abiding ultimately by the clear.. testimony of Scripture itself, their enlightened opponents

opponents joined issue with them, was more consistent with the general rules of reasoning, than the pretensions of those modern teachers, who avowedly employ the novelty and singularity of their opinions as favourable to their cause, in facilitating and justifying the conversion of a mistaken believer to what they call evangelical truth.

The operations of nature in all their various modifications contain inexhaustible materials for exercising the industry and ingenuity of man.. And in those abstract

sciences where the relations of our ideas are the subject of investigation, knowledge may be indefinitely accumulated, and mistakes in the scientific processes of argumentation or in the assumptions of our predecessors may be rectified. But in Ethics or Theology, as connected with the real and indispensable duties of moral agents, it were vain now to look for any momentous discoveries. The meaning of particular phrases may be illustrated by comparison of various readings from manuscripts, by felicity perhaps in conjectural

conjectural emendation, by deductions from parallel passages, by recourse to the Oriental languages, by the views which judicious travellers give us of local scenery and local customs, and by all the other various and valuable aids which sound criticism may afford to the learned and diligent enquirer. But can it be said that by these means any great fundamental principle of religion has been brought out of utter darkness into clear and full light? Does it furnish any strong presumption for the usefulness or even the credibility of revelation, that for the space of nearly 1600 years, the Christian world was doomed to total ignorance or the grossest errors, upon subjects of which a right conception is quite essential to Salvation? After the explicit consent of nearly all national Churches on the doctrine of Atonement, and the solemn declaration of our own, that by himself once offered, Christ had made A FULL, PERFECT, AND SUFFICIENT SACRIFICE, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins OF THE WHOLE WORLD; are we to be insulted with invidious and dogmatical

dogmatical declarations, that the example of St. PAUL, when he preached Christ crucified, had never been followed, nor the meaning of his language ever comprehended, till the providence of God in the 18th century raised up a race of new and highly favoured expositors, to whom this saving truth was communicated, by an extraordinary, and sometimes it should seem, by a supernatural kind of illumination?

When the Stoics, after enumerating the intellectual and moral qualities which they arbitrarily assign to their Wise Man, pronounce the rest of mankind to be Fools, we content ourselves with observing, that the person whom they describe has never been seen upon the face of the earth, and that even upon the supposition of his existence, we should not implicitly allow his claims to perfect wisdom, in refusing to act from opinion under any circumstances, in professing to be exempt from error in every decision, and in disdaining to listen to the suggestions of mercy and compassion. But

the