"How inconsistent then must it be with the will of God, in giving us this gracious dispensation, to block up the free course of HIS WORD and HIS TRUTH, by confining religious doctrines to the terms of an artificial composition, and under the pretence of substituting authentic interpretations of Scripture as standards of orthodox faith for persons of all degrees and capacities, to impose upon Christians the notions of men of mere scholastic erudition, expressed in that abstruse, intricate, and technical language, to which a large majority of mankind must ever be strangers; and what is even worse, to prevent, by various discouragements, in times when all other sorts of knowledge are increased, that freedom of examination which might deliver men from à bondage imposed upon them when the task-masters wanted either the sense and the spirit to examine into the true meaning of the Scriptures themselves, or the liberality of mind to permit such examination to others who were better disposed, as well as better qualified.

"The first Reformers were very sensible how necessary it was that the word of God should have its free course, in order to dispel the thick darkness of Popery; and they found the amazing effects of that expedient of promoting knowledge in the number of those who were converted from that wretched compound of tyranny and superstition! The PROTESTANT RELIGION in those days was called the Gospel, in contrast with the paganish fables, idolatries, and traditions, which made so considerable and

essential a part of the Popish system. And happy would it have been for the Protestant cause, had the conductors of it never been known by any name but that of Evangelics or Gospellers, by which they were at first distinguished. This would at least have reminded them of the impropriety of being divided into sects, from which they adopted so many different denominations, few of whose peculiarities had any countenance in the Sacred Writings, whence it hap+ pened in the end, that what was asserted to glorify the word of God in one society, was understood in another to debase and corrupt it.

"The truth is, the study of THE SCRIPTURES was in those days a new employment. Men wanted the proper helps and encouragements in that sudden emersion from the darkness and ignorance of the foregoing times, with which a farther progress in good learning furnished their successors.. ERASMUS, LUTHER, MELANCTHON, CALVIN, Beza, MARTYR, and BUCER abroad-CRANMER, RIDLEY, LATIMER, and HOOPER in our country, and many more, both at home and abroad, were eminent and valuable men, and pious servants of God, and ever to be honoured for their great services in opening the way for the free course of the word of God, which they found miserably oppressed and obstructed by human traditions. It is nevertheless certain, that there have been in aftertimes men far below some of them in what are called natural talents, who have made it appear that their interpretations, in many instances, went upon mistaken grounds, and that the

genuine sense of the SACRED WRITERS does by no means countenance some of the particular hypotheses which they then espoused."

This is the account of ROGER WILLIAMS, the founder of the State of Rhode Island. It has been entitled "Some Account," that the reader might not be disappointed. For the promulgation of the noble sentiment of complete religious Liberty, he was cruelly banished Massachusetts, and driven with his wife and family into a wilderness, in the very depth of a most inclement winter. Here, amidst the barbarous and uncivilized Indians, they might have perished! But the goodness of God preserved and befriended them. He founded a city, and from a principle of gratitude to the Supreme Being, called it PROVIDENCE, which, is at present one of the most flourishing ports in the United States of America. He twice crossed the Atlantic, and finally procured a charter from the reigning monarch upon the principle of complete religious Liberty, in spite of the decided opposition of the Lords spiritual and temporal of the land. This signal service rendered to Rhode Island, was repaid by his bigotted persecutors with the inexorable continuance of banishment to his dying day; but his character and principles are immortal!

THE TRUE CHRISTIAN, of whatever denomination, Catholic, Churchman, or Protestant Dissenter, cannot altogether forget either the new commandment of THE BLESSED SAVIOUR, that ye love one another; or the impressive delineation by the apostle Paul, of

love or charity! From his bosom, even through the mists of prejudice and passion, a spirit of kindness will beam forth towards an erring brother of the great family of mankind. Like the pure and vestal fire, Charity is never altogether extinguished.

"Surely, (says Dr. Philip Doddridge) after having attentively surveyed the beautiful description which the apostle gives us of this divine grace, Love, it cannot be necessary that its cause should be further pleaded. It speaks for itself-speaks to our very hearts. But, O! who that enters into the description, must not mourn that its angelic form is so much a stranger to multitudes who bear the Christian name! In many instances, it can hardly pass uncensured, while those extremes which most evidently violate it, are often consecrated under honourable names; and men build much of their hopes of Heaven on breathing indeed what is the temper of HELL! How many that style themselves Christians can endure no provocation-can cover no faults of their brethren-can keep themselves within no bounds -can believe nothing to their advantage, against whom, on party principles, they have entertained prejudices! They vaunt themselves—they are puffed up with the conceit of their own wisdom-they behave unseemly-they seek only their own reputation and profit-they believe the worst they can hear of others, and suspect more than they hear they envy those, whose endowments and stations are superior to their own, and instead of labouring themselves to excel, they affect, by calumny and slander, to bring

down their brethren to their own level, or rather, as far as possible, below it. Alas! that the dictates of OUR DIVINE MASTER, and the genius of OUR RELIGION are so little understood, are no more regarded, and that we so entirely forget the precepts of CHRISTIANITY, as not to remember even those of common humanity! Yet, surely, if these precepts are wholly forgotten, it is in vain that we remember or contend for any of its doctrines and principles. As all languages and gifts, so all knowledge and faith are in vain, if it be separate from LovE, by which true faith always operates.

"Let us cultivate LovE more and more, and so much the rather as it is a plant of the celestial Paradise which will there for ever flourish, when tongues shall cease, and that knowledge on which men value themselves highly, shall utterly vanish. The ripeness of adult age, and the knowledge of the most improved sciences, human or divine, is but as the trifling of an infant, when compared with that manly and perfect state, after which we are aspiring! The dim mirror of faith shall then be laid aside, and the truth of the objects now so imperfectly discerned, shall in full lustre be presented to our eye, purged from every film, and strengthened with a brightness which would now overwhelm it! In the mean time, attending humbly to the narrow limits and necessary objects of our present knowledge, let us not be puffed up in ourselves-let us not despise others but by a modest estimate and a faithful im provement of such degrees of light as God shall be