On the Subject before the Reader, there is not the most distant necessity for forced Interpretations of the Bible; he will find, with satisfaction, that the many Scriptural texts, cited or referred to (and upon which we must depend), are by no means strained, as is too common, to support a favourite Hypothesis; but naturally and directly applied, fully in point, and, taken collectively, it is hoped, they will have their due effect on every unprejudiced Mind. For surely it will be thought altogether incredible, that so great a cloud of witnesses should be found in our holy records, evidently and repeatedly enforcing an express Article of Faith, important to the World in the highest degree, which after all (if we are to believe the generality of our present Teachers) falls short of the Truth!

The Author is fully as desirous of receiv

ing light, as of trying to communicate it: if, therefore, any material Errors should be discovered in this Tract, he sincerely wishes, for his own safety, and the satisfaction of others, that they may be detected and exposed without ceremony* (excepting, however, against all Cavil and Subterfuget). If, on the contrary, it should appear, in general, to contain Truth, he hopes, for the Prosperity of our sacred Religion, and the Peace of Mankind, it

* Num fingo? num mentior? cupio refelli. Quid enim laboro, nisi ut Veritas in omni quæstione illustretur.-Cic. Quæst. 3, 20.

+ The opposing arbitrarily one or two (perhaps obscure) passages against the universal tenour of the Scriptures is an invidious method of preventing them from being reconciled either to themselves or to reason. In those voluminous writings, doubtless there may be some things hard to be understood; but their general meaning is, surely, the Standard that should be principally attended to; and the figurative and ornamental mode of expression, common to the Oriental languages, should be always remembered.

will be favoured with that serious attention which the Subject certainly requires.

The Writer is but slightly acquainted with Controversial Divinity. He has had but little time for such studies, a considerable part of his Life having been spent in the Service. Neither can he make any pretensions to deep Learning. The Candid will, however, give allowances, and readily pass over disadvantages which they know cannot weaken the plain reasonings of any man. The deductions here offered are chiefly made, as will be seen, from the truly venerable Authority of the BIBLE, and are such as the most unlettered Christian may soon be master of.

Whatever defects may be found in the endeavour, the end sincerely aimed at is, to fix, from the sacred Volumes (the only allowed substantial grounds of faith and

worship), our Religious regards on that First Object in whom all our hopes of present and future happiness must ultimately centre:-to incline, if possible, our Ecclesiastic Rulers to unite in such a further Amendment of our public Forms, as, in their Wisdom, they may think will reduce them to a more sensible conformity with the Scriptures; and prevent, by that happy means, a numerous and growing body of conscientious Christians from being driven, at length, from the Church :-a melancholy alternative!

The following just observation of a late distinguished Theologist* may not be improperly introduced here: "That the

many errors and corruptions which crept "into the Church, even in the very early

* Dr. Middleton, Introduction to his Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers of the Church, &c., p. 113.

b

❝tion to all the later Ages, that there is "no way of preserving a purity of Faith "and Worship in any Church, but by "reviewing them from time to time, and "reducing them to the original test and "standard of the holy Scriptures.”

This opinion is by no means peculiar. The excellent Dr. Jortin, whose unaffected modesty, natural to his great Abilities, inclined him to touch, with the tenderest hand, the defects which he saw and lamented, in the Preface to his learned Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, observes, "that the Defenders of Revelation "have often found themselves under a

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Necessity of reducing things to the ve"nerable Christianity of the New Testa"ment, and of adventuring no further;" a method of defence which, from its singular success, at once exposes the folly and the presumption of relying on those adventitious Refinements "which the Un