with which his body was wounded, his being nailed to the cursed cross, and last of all his death itself. On these points I have spoke my mind freely and candidly, as becomes a defender of sound doctrine, and an opposer of novel opinions; with which honorable character the sixth œcumenical council, which met at Constantinople, honored the Emperor Constantine IV. and which ought not to be foreign to men of our order.

I have also now and then made remarks on some things of less moment, which yet did not seem either to have a solid scriptural interpretation, or are less accurately conceived of. Nor has this enquiry been without profit. Amphilochius is commended by Basil on this account, because he thought, that no word which is any way used concerning God, should be passed over without a careful inquiry into its meaning. But I have done this without rancour or malice; not to reprove the authors, but that the studious readers might be benefited, by having their errors pointed out; as I remember Polybius somewhere expresses himself. And I hope it will not be taken ill by the learned and ingenious, to whom I willingly grant the same liberty I take, if (to use nearly the same words in which Augustine declared his dissent from Cyprian) while I cannot reach their reputation, acknowledge my writings to be inferior to many of theirs, love their genius, am delighted with their sayings, and admire their virtues ; yet I cannot receive that in which they are otherwise minded, with that liberty to which the Lord hath called us. Especially when they see that I have willingly adopted, and with no small praise recommended to the reader, what things have been ingeniously invented by them, what they have happily found out by searching into the original languages, have learnedly recovered from the relics of hitherto unknown antiquity, have judiciously confirmed, or clearly explained.

They will also find, that wherever I thought they spoke truth, though unjustly defamed by others, I have sometimes cordially defended them, and have

wiped off the stamp of absurdity and novelty fixed upon them; and this so frequently and solicitously, that without doubt some will think I have gone to excess in these matters. Yet I cannot bring my mind to repent of this ingenuous dealing. For how could any one have done otherwise, who not being attached to any faction, not enslaved to human authority, not pleasing his own or others passions, is a votary to truth alone, and regards not what any person says, but what is said? He who loves the peace of Jerusalem, had rather see controversies determined than multiplied; and will with pleasure learn, that several things are harmless, or even useful, which by others are invidiously dragged into the subject of litigation.

All judicious men are justly displeased with that petulance of wit which prevails at this day, rashly. aiming to overturn wise and agreeable inventions by dogmatical attacks, anon insolently breaking out into a bold, and often ludicrous interpretation of secret prophecies, ridiculously haling into the roll of prophecies, what contains nothing but the precepts of our common faith and holiness: by which means the respectable public and our sacred functions are not a little discredited. Nor is it indeed matter of wonder, if the warmer zeal of some has painted this wantonness as it deserves, or perhaps in too strong colours But yet a medium is to be observed in all things: and I do not approve the endeavours of some, who, whilst they treat of our differences, enumerate not only some decades, but even centuries of controversies, sometimes with cruel eloquence expressing their rage at some innocent points. Whether this method of disputing greatly conduces to the promoting of saving knowledge, and the edification of souls, I will not now say but this I know, that by this means a pleasure is done to the enemies of the church, who will secretly rejoice in their bosom, that there are not fewer, and, if they may be judged of by the heat of the comba ants not less unimportant disputes among us, than among

them. And this not very secretly neither; for they do not, nor will ever cease to cast this reproach upon us; which, O grief! may be much easier said than refuted.

O how much better and dutiful would it be to use all our pains and concern to lessen, make up, and, if possible, put an end to all controversies! To this, Reverend and learned Gentlemen, apply all your counsels and studies. This all the godly who mourn for the breaches in Joseph; this the churches which are committed to your care; this JESUS, himself, the King of truth and peace, require and expect from you; this they beg, they obtest, they beseech you for. If therefore there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, fulfil ye the joy of all saints, fulfil ye the joy of our Lord Jesus himself, that ye may be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. There have been enough of quarrels, slanders, and suspicions; enough of contentions among brethren, which, I engage for it, will afford no just cause of triumph; enough of intestine divisions, by which we destroy one another ; and more than enough of passion. Let party-zeal, a thirst after pre-eminence, and schismatical distinctions, be for ever henceforth banished from among us. Let all litigious, satirical, and virulent writings be blotted out; whose design is only to revive the fires of consuming questions. If we write any thing relating to those questions, let us lay aside all passions, as hindrances to us in our inquiries, and restraints on the judges. Let us fight with arguments, not with railings, bearing in mind this saying of Aristophanes, It dves not become men to rail at poets as bread-sellers. How much less does it become divines? Let not the pure stream of divinity, to be fetched from the sole fountain of sacred learning, be defiled with any of the impure waters of either the ancient or modern philos. ophy. Let us abstain from harsh and unusual expres

sions, from crude and rash assertions; from whence arise envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings. Let the instruments of both covenants be indeed diligently handled by all, but with a degree of sacred fear and trembling. Let none please himself with new glosses and commentaries, because he supposes them to be modern and unknown to his predecessors. Let him who thinks he has found out something preferable to and more solid than received opinions, offer it to the public with modesty, without vilifying his brethren; without asserting or determining rashly, submitting his thoughts to the censure of the learned, and the judgment of the church; not immediately forcing them on the common people to the distraction of their minds, nor hastily offering them to uncautious youth, who are improper judges of such weighty matters. And let none reject, on account of its novelty solely, what is agreeable to the meaning of the words, to scripture-phrases, to the analogy of faith, or to the relation the text bears to others. Cajetan, who is commended by our Chamier, has not badly expressed himself on this head. If at any time a new sense agreeable to the text offers itself, though different from the current of divines, let the reader shew himself an impartial judge. And in another place he says, Let none. abhor a new sense of sacred writ, because it differs from that of the ancient doctors; for God hath not confined the expounding of the sacred scriptures to the glosses of the ancient teachers. Let the depths of prophecy be. also diligently searched into ; but reverently, without wresting the words of God, without violating that inclosure by which God has debarred poor mortals from the sight of his secrets, which are seldom explained any otherwise than by the event; lest he who searches into the majesty, should be overwhelmed by the glory.

Let no one, by the authority of any man's name, bind the free consciences of the faithful; but, as Clemens Romanus once said, Let the meaning of

truth be taken from the scriptures themselves: by these alone let it stand or fall in religious matters: by these let all controversies be settled: Let the sacred and undefiled gospel of Christ our God be laid as the foundation, as was wont to be done in the godly councils of the ancients. Nevertheless, let not any one stubbornly on this pretence withhold his assent to such forms, which are taken from the word of God, are agreeable to the scriptures, are the bonds of church union, the tests of orthodoxy, bars against heresies, and the limits of wanton wits; as if they were the relics of the Babylonish tower, by which, through a human device, not to be approved of, men were obliged to think and speak alike in religion.

Let no man appoint a guide for himself out of the modern divines, all whose dictates he is to receive and defend as heavenly oracles; in whom is risen up a teacher and light of the world, as the ancients celebrated Basil, and in comparison of whose stature all others appear as little children and dwarfs, as if they were nothing but pigmies void of understanding; when he himself perhaps protests, that he would not be reckoned the author of any thing new in divinity, and so the head of a sect. On the other hand, let no one despise such a man, as if nothing true or good, and useful to the understanding of the scriptures, could proceed from him: for God gives to no person a pious disposition, to meditate on the scriptures day and night, without opening to him the treasures of his pure wisdom.

Let us extol the blessings of our heavenly Father in whomsoever we find them; congratulate the church for them; and convert them each of us to our own advantage. Let no one who expounds the orthodox sentiments of his mind generally in eloquent language, be reckoned criminal on account of an improper word, or harsh expression, which might fall from one handling another subject: for poison does not lie hid in syllables; nor does truth consist in sound, but in the