tenets, is glad to lift under the ftand ard of any leader, who can teach him to be a chriftian, without believing any one principle of that inftitution.

Whoever will look back into the theological annals of this country will find, that during the last century, the fashionable philofophers were for the moft part Atheists, who afcribed every thing to chance, fate or neceffity; exclufive of all intelligence or defign. These mighty giants who fought againft Heaven, being at length overthrown by the abfurdity of their own principles, and the fuperior abilities of their adverfaries, retreated, about the beginning of the prefent, to the more tenable fort of defm, but here again, being frequently worfted, they at laft took fhelter under the covert way of rational Chriftianity, where they now make their stand, and attack revelation with lefs odium, and more fuccefs, than from the open plains of profeffed deifm, because many are ready to reject the whole fubftance of the chriftian inftitution, who would be shocked at the thought of relinquishing the name.

If chriftianity is to be learned out of the new teftament, and words have any meaning affixed to them, the fundamental principles of it are thefe

That mankind came into this world in a depraved and fallen condition; that they are placed here for a while, to give them an opportunity to work out their falvation, that is, by a virtuous and pious life to purge off this guilt and depravity, and recover their loft ftate of happiness and innocence, in a future life; that this they are unable to perform, without the grace and affiftance of God; and that after their beft endeavours, they cannot hope for pardon from their own merits, but only from the merits of Chrift, and the atonement made for their tranfgreffions by his fufferings and death. This is clearly the fum and fubftance of the chriftian difpenfation; and fo adverfe is it to all the principles of human reafon, that, if brought before her tribunal, it must inevitably be condemned. If we give no credit to its divine authority, any attempt to reconcile them is useless; and, if we believe it, prefumptuous in the highest degree. To prove the

reasonableneis of a revelation, is in fact to deftroy it; because a revelation impl es information of fomething which reafon cannot discover, and therefore must be different from its deductions,or it would be no revelation. If God had told us, that we come into this world in a ftate of perfect innocence, void of all propenfities to evil; that our depravity proceeds intirely from the abufe of that free will, with which he has been pleafed to endue us; that if in this life we pursue a virtuous conduct, we have a right to be rewarded, and if a vicious, we may expect to be punished in another, except we prevent it by repentance and reformation, and that thefe are always in our power: If God had informed us of nothing more, this would have been no reve lation, because it is juft what our rea fon, properly employed, might have taught us; but if he has thought pro per, by fupernatural means, to affur us that our fituation, our relations our depravity, our merits, and ou powers, are all of a kind extremely different from what we imagine; an that his dispensations towards us ar founded on principles which canno be explained to us, because, in ou prefent ftate, we are unable to com prehend them; this is a revelatio which we may believe, or not, a cording to our opinions of its autho rity; but let us not reafon it into n revelation at all.

The writers of the new-teftamer frequently declare, that the religio which they teach, is a mystery, the is, a revelation of the difpenfations God to mankind, which without fi pernatural information we could n ver have discovered; thus St. Pa fays, "Having made known to the mystery of his will." What the is this mystery? not the moral pr cepts of the gofpel; for they are more a myftery than the Ethics Ariftotle, or the offices of Cicero ; t myftery confifts alone in thefe ver doctrines, which the rationalift e plodes, because they difagree with th conclufions of his reafon; that i because they are myfteries, as the are avowed to be by those who taug! them.

But thefe bold advocates for re fon, underftand not its extent,

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power, or the proper applications of them. The utmost perfection of human reafon, is the knowledge of its own defects, and the limits of its own confined powers, which are extremely narrow. It is a lamp which ferves as very well for the common occupations of life, which are near at hand, but can fhew us no profpect at a diftance: On all fpeculative fubjects, it is exceedingly fallacious, but in none fo freqnently misleads us, as in our religious and political enquiries; because, in the former, we draw conclufions without premifes; and in the latter, upon falfe ones. Thus, for inftance, reafon tells us that a Creator, infinitely powerful and good, could never permit any evil natural or moral, to have a place in his works; becaufe his goodness muft induce him and his power enable hm, to exclude them: This argument is unanfwerable by any thing, but experience, which every hour confutes it. Thus again, reafon affures us, that fufferings, though they may be juft punishments for paft crimes, and a means to prevent them for the future, can never be compenfations for them; much less can the fufferings of one being atone for the guilt of another: Against this no objection can be urged, except the behef of mankind in all ages aud natiens, and the exprefs declarations of revelation; which unanimoufly contradict it,and afford fufficient grounds for our concurrence. In thefe two inftances we are deceived by mifapplying our reafon to fubjects in which we have no premises to reafon upon; for, being totally gnorant on what plan the univerfal fyftem is formed and fupported, we can be no judges of what is good or evil with regard to the whole; and, as we know not for what ends either guilt or fufferings were ever admitted, we must be unable to comprehend what connections between them may poffibly be derived from thofe ends. In our political difcuffions, reafon equally mifleads us; in thefe, the prefents us with fchemes of government,in which, by the moft admirable contrivances, jufice is fo impartially adminiftered, property fo well guarded, and liberty lo effectually fecured, that in theory

it feems impoffible, that any people under fuch wife regulations can poffibly fail of being happy, virtuous and free; but experiment foon convinces us that they are inadequate to these falutary purposes, and that, in prac tice, they are produ&ive only of anarchy and confufion. Here our errors arife from reafoning on false premises, that is, from fuppofing that mankind will act on principles incompatible with the vices, the follies, and the paffions of human nature. If reafon, therefore, is fo fallible a judge in the little and low concerns of human policy, with which he is daily converfant, how abfurd is the rationalift, who conftitutes her fole arbiter in the difcuffions of the moft fublime objets, of which she has not the leaft comprehenfion, the attributes and difpenfations of the Almighty, our relations to him, and our connections with paft and future ftates of exiftence !

Of all men, ho are called chriftians, the rationaliff feems to have the leaft pretence to that denomination: The church of England acknowledges the belief of all the doctrines of this inftitution in her articles, though in them they are ill explained and worfe expreffed; the church of Rome affents to them all, but adds many without fufficient authority; the Calvinift denies them not, but difgraees them by harsh, obfcure and abfurd comments; the Quaker admits them, but is bewildered by enthufiaftic notions of partial infpirations; and the Methodist fubfcr bes to them all with the utmoft veneration, but (inconfistently) depreciates the merit of moral duties, at the fame time that he infifts on the practice of the most rigid; but the rationalist reprobates the whole, as impious, ridiculous, and contradictory to the juftice of God, and the reason of man. Nor is he lefs adverfe to the fpirit, than to the letter of this religion: The true chriftian is humble, teachable, and diffident; the rationalift is affuming, obftinate, and felf-fufficient ; chriftian hopeth all things, feareth all things, believeth all things; the rationalift hopeth for nothing, but from his own merits, feareth nothing from his own depravity, and believ

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eth

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eth nothing, the grounds of which he cannot perfectly understand. Why then muft he be a Chriftian? no man is now compelled to come in, nor more obliged to be a Chriftian,than a Free-mafon; the belief of it is not neceffary to his advancement in life, nor his progrefs in any profeffion; we know, that he may be a lawyer; a phyfician, or even a DIVINE with out it. If, on an impartial enquiry, he is a religious and moral deift, why not own it? Such were Socrates, Plato and Cicero ; and it is fill a character by no means difgraceful to a virtuous man. I blame no one for want of faith, but for want of fincerity; nor for being no chriftian, but for pretending to be one, without believing. The profeffed Deift gives Chriftianity fair play; if the cannot defend herself, let her fall; but the rational Chriftian affaffinates her in the dark; the firft attacks Chrift, as did the multitude, with fwords and ftaves; the latter, like Judas, betrays him with a kits.

Clamorem immenfum tollit, quo

pontus et omnes Intremuere undæ, penitufque exterrita tellus Italiæ, curvifque immugiit Etna cavernis.

T

Virg. Æneid.

the most beautiful Aructures, in or der to build themselves a reputation out of the ruins. A fuperior genius, though he seems to kindle a wide horizon of light all about him, and is admired by the understanding part of mankind, yet he must expect to be abfurdithe occafion of a great many ties, with which the unknowing and envious will strive to fatyrize him : As the fun fcatters day through a whole frame of worlds, but yet may, in fome particular spots, raise a fog, or hatch a neft of vermin. To conclude, the science of correct writing having been a fubject exhaufted by fo many able hands, and feeing all the rabble of fcriblers are fuch indif putable proficients in it; not to mention my own incapacity for fuch an undertaking; I thall not be fo vain as to offer my thoughts upon it: But I fhall apply my labours at this time, to an ornament of a contrary nature, which is a theme entirely new, namely, The art of writing incorrectly.

This, I take it, is a Work that I am excellently well qualified for,and I doubt not but to convince the world that I am a perfect master of my subject. In the profecution of this useful defign, I fhall fhow the excellency of incorrect writing in general; I fall lay open the feveral artifices, by which a man of compe tent abilities, may, with proper application, attain to a tolerable degree of perfection in it; I fhall produce pertinent examples from writers, of undoubted eminence in that improving Science: And in the laft place, I may poffibly addrefs the world with a very pathetick exhortation, to follow the Inftructions which I fhall give them, in order to accomplish themselves in the art of incorrect writing. In fhort, I intend to entertain the publick, with a regular criticifm upon Nonfenfe. (To be continued.)

Efay on the SPLEEN. Tereticis, in defiance of reaTHE fpleen is atyrannical diftemwh

foo, rules us by fancy; for it is evideat, that though the painful folly of this pertubation of mind be obvious to common fenfe, yet the greateft feafe cannot cure it. It makes us fick without disease, and angry with out provocation; we feel tortures where there is no pain, and fee terrors where there is no danger. To pretend to remove it by argument and confideration, is, by the remedy, to increase the difeafe; it is fed by refection, and ferious thoughts are fuel to it. It is therefore to reafon, what the gout is to physicians, the bane and difgrace of it.

When one is under the strong influence of this malady, I know not whether a rigorous application to religion be advisable; fince it is the nature of it to fill the head with fanaticifm, or the mind with despair; for, as I believe, the spleen will, upon fair trial, be found anfwerable for moft of the felf-murders that have been committed, fo I doubt not, but all devotional ravings, wild vifions, and idle prophecies, may be honestly laid to the fame parent. How many tomes of divinity have been begotten by the vapours? Such fyftems are the gloomy dreams of melancholy minds, who cloath religion with the blacknefs, giddinefs, and anguish of their own folitary fpirits.

In confututions where this humorous diffemper prevails, it is furprizing bow trifling a matter will enflame it. I have known a gentleman of the finest underflanding more difturbed by killing of a spider, than he would have been at the death of a coachhoríe. There was a melancholy old fellow, who being a great fmoaker, had fet his heart fo much upon tobacco-pipes, that to have broken one in his prefence would certainly have cont you a broken head. He is faid to have confulted a civilian, whether he could not be divorced from his wife, because flie had been the deftruation of half a dozen of these his beloved tubes by fitting down upon them. And I could likewife mention a professor of mathematics, in a

certain univerfity, who, by the long ftudy of founds, came to fancy himall brals pots and kettles, ftruck three felf a bell; and claiming kindred to

of his maid's teeth down her throat, for laming a little fwarthy coufin of his called a Saucepan. I fhall never forget an ingenious doctor of phyfic, who was fo ealous of the honor of his whiskers, which he was pleafed to chriften, "The emblems of his virility," that he resolutely made the fun thine through every unhappy cat that ill fate threw in his way. He magnanimously profeffed, That his fpirit could not brook it, that any cat in Chriftendom, noble or ignoble,should rival the reputation of his upper lip. In every other refpect our phyfician was a well bred perfon, and, which is as wonderful, underflood Latin. But we fee the deepeft learning is no charm against the spleen.

As the ladies rival the men in moft things, and out shine them in all, they have run away with an elder brother's part, even of the (pleen. It seems to have taken a liking to their conftitutions, and even kills them with its company and kindness; for this harpy has a nice ftomach, and loves to prey upon female flesh. It is therefore no wonder that so many of them look wan and withered, when they are forced to give fuck and nourishment to a glutton, that is ever feeding, but never full.

But they bear this diftemper, not only with contentment but triumph; for it is the mode; and a queen's handkerchief, a monkey, and a pretty fellow, are not more fashionable. There's the fwimming Mrs. Armful, who has cheeks like a pair of globes, and eats two pounds of pudding at a meal, befides roat beef and custard, and yet is fo bewitched with an unnatural love of the spleen, that neither her bulk nor her ftomach can fhame her out of it. It is not much otherwife with Mifs Biddy, her daughter, who romps, and laughs, and leaps over flools, and then cries, Oh, the vapours! I freely grant there are many fashionable females, who need not be at the leaft pains to convince us, that they are troubled with fpleen and peevishnefs; or, if they pleafe, with the vapours. That mo

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