"derstanding can hardly lay hold of," and which have been injudiciously and unnecessarily superadded to pure Christianity, as conducive to its Dignity and Security. Some of those Refinements and Additions have, indeed, in many instances on record, "helped to fill the Church with "Nominal Catholics, and to keep up an "unity of exoteric faith in the bond of ignorance, fear, and hypocrisy*."

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* It has been imagined (surely without due reflection) that any further Reformation in our mode of Worship, though ever so just in Principle, would weaken the foundations of our sacred Religion †, be productive, perhaps, of a general Scepticism, and, as inferior considerations, degrade the Authority, and invidiously injure the rights and immunities of our established Clergy.-But such sus-. picions, it is humbly conceived, have no solid grounds; for it is certain, that the nearer Their Doctrines approach to the pure precepts of the Gospel, the freer they are from unintelligible mysteries, and the burden of contra

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The gates of hell shall not prevail against it! The Religion of Truth can no more be shaken than Truth itself.

dictory opinions, the more likely they will be to take root, to spread, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance.

As to the danger of the Clergy themselves, it will of course, on a little consideration, appear visionary. Their consequence and value (which we readily acknowledge), it is presumed, depend, and should depend, on their strict adherence to the Scriptures, and not on their attachment to the vain Systems and formularies of Men. And beyond all doubt, the necessity of their Establishment will be, at least, as Great when our received doctrines are purged from their remaining corruptions, as it is at this moment, or was at the Reformation. Relieved from the usual subjects of controversy, they would happily be enabled to pursue their duty with much less embarrassment; and would assuredly be placed on a firmer Basis than ever, -by becoming the guardians and promulgators of a form of Worship highly endeared to the World by its Clearness and Purity; strongly enforced by its entire consonancy to Truth and Reason; and unshaken from having its Sole foundation in the Scriptures." Remove from our Pub"lic Forms" (says the Learned Mr. Hales long since), "whatsoever has not the Express and Undoubted war"rant of Scripture, and the EVENT will be, that all "Schisms shall utterly vanish, and the Service and Honour of God in no ways suffer."

INTRODUCTION.

THIS Endeavour to preserve the first Great Principle of Revealed Religion, in its original simplicity, and to distinguish the Inventions of Men from the Word of God, has met with a favourable reception from many truly pious and liberal minded persons, who are well apprized of the real motives and general use of such endeavours, although they may be misunderstood, rejected, and opposed by numbers for a time. This Opposition, which was never solid in its materials, is, however, visibly decreasing in all quarters; and it is with no small satisfaction, that the friends of Truth and the Gospel perceive the gradual and permanent effects of their

labours, in vindication of the Incomplex Unity, and Unrivalled Supremacy of the only true GOD. The additions now made to this Work (the outlines only of which were originally presented) have naturally arisen from an unremitted attention to the Subject; and also from a proper regard to the objections which have appeared since its first publication. Such objections, as seemed of any weight, are answered occasionally in the course of this Edition; generally without any mention of the writers themselves,

The author conceives that the apposite selection of those sacred testimonies, throughout this Tract, which so directly. confirm the important point he means to enforce, has principally given rise to the encouragement he has experienced. The Reader is therefore requested not to think it too much trouble to apply those texts to the arguments proposed, as he may see occasion :-such a task, it is rather judged,

will be pleasing, as doubtless it cannot be supposed, without offence, that any rational Being is really indifferent whether his Religious Principles are founded in Truth

or not.

Our Superior Faculties were assuredly not given to remain Idle; since it is by them only that we arrive at the knowledge of a God, and are enabled to contemplate His glorious Productions: it is by Them only, that we discover the intrinsic Beauty, feel the awful Precepts, and comprehend the unequalled Advantages of our Divine Religion:-a fair exertion of those Faculties is therefore certainly expected; and we must be answerable for either the wilful misuse, or the neglect of them.

Nevertheless, it has been, and still is, the practice of Authors of no mean account, from Tertullian down to our most modern Professors, to declaim, on certain emergencies, against any appeal to the Understanding, or reliance upon it, in