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which Machiavel has published since, quoting him for an example of it. This maxim is, that prophets who are not supported by the secular arm, nor by any other weapons besides their own tongue and the prepossession of the people, "sola majestate armatiarmed with majesty," are exposed to terrible changes of fortune.-Art. SAVONAROLA.

SCEPTICISM.

THE only dispute that Christians can enter upon with philosophers is on this matter of fact:--whether the Scripture was written by inspired authors? If the arguments the Christians allege on this subject do not convince the philosophers, they ought to break off the dispute; for it would be to no purpose to enter into the particular discussion of the Trinity, &c. with people who disown the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, the sole and only way to judge who is in the right or wrong in such controversies. Revealed authority ought to be the common principle of disputants hereupon, and therefore there is no disputing when this principle is denied, and the other admits of it: " Adversus negantem principia non est disputandum."

If they who deny it persist to clamour and dispute, they ought to be coldly answered, you depart from the question, "Non feritis thesim, non probatis negatum," and if they laugh at this answer, their laughing ought to be despised and pitied.

But of all the philosophers who ought not to be allowed to dispute concerning the mysteries of Christianity, before they have admitted revelation for a rule, there are none so unworthy of being heard as the followers of Pyrrho, for they make profession of admitting no certain marks of distinction between truth and falsehood; so that if truth, by chance, appeared to them, they could never be sure that it was

truth. They not only attack the testimony of the senses, the maxims of morality, the rules of logic, the axioms of metaphysics, but endeavour to overthrow the demonstrations of geometry, and the most evident principles of the mathematicians. If they went no farther than the ten reasons for suspending our assent, and only used them against natural philosophy, we might still treat with them, but they will go much farther; they have a sort of arms they call the diallel, which they lay hold of on the first occasion, and afterwards there is no withstanding them in any subject whatever. It is a labyrinth, from which no clue of Ariadne can wind us out. They lose themselves in their own subtilties, and are wonderfully pleased with it, since this serves to shew more clearly the universality of their hypothesis, that every thing is uncertain, from which they except not even the arguments against uncertainty. They proceed so far in their method, that they who have well considered the consequences of it are forced to say, that they know not whether any thing exists.

Divines ought not to be ashamed to confess, that they cannot enter the lists with such disputants, and that they will not expose the gospel-truths to such an encounter. The vessel of Jesus Christ is not made to float upon that tempestuous sea, but to ride secure from this tempest in the haven of faith. It has pleased the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, must Christians say, to lead us by the way of faith, and not of science or disputation. They are our instructors and directors; we cannot err, having such guides, and reason itself commands us to prefer them before its own direction.

Some say that I have very improperly related the conversation of an abbot, who owns that Scepticism finds several arguments in the doctrines of Christia nity, which render it more formidable than it was. I answer, "that this can offend none but such as have

not examined the character of Christianity. It would be a false notion to imagine, that Jesus Christ had any design to countenance, either directly or indirectly, some of the sects of philosophers in the disputes they had against the rest. His design was rather to confound all philosophy, and to shew the vanity of it. He was willing that his Gospel should clash not only with the religion of the Heathens, but with the aphorisms of their wisdom, and that notwithstanding this opposition betwixt his principles and those of the world, his doctrine should triumph over the Gentiles, by the ministry of a few illiterate men, who had neither eloquence nor logic, nor any of the instruments necessary to all other revolutions. He would have his disciples, and the wise men of this world, to be so diametrically opposite, that they should mutually call one another fools: he designed, that as his gospel appeared folly to the philosophers, their science should in its turn appear folly to the Christians. Consider

well these words of St Paul :

:

"For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because

the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen; yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things. that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption; that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech, and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. Which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Clory. But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man

knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

Do you think that if the Apostles had been told that their doctrine exposed the dogmatizing philosophers to new attacks from the Sceptics, they would have been concerned at it? They would have said, "Let us not trouble ourselves with their disputes : Let the dead bury the dead; the more they contend and disable one another, the more they will discover the vanity of their pretended science. Neither the Dogmatists nor the Sceptics will ever be able to enter into the kingdom of God, unless they become little children, unless they change their maxims, renounce their wisdom, and make a burnt-offering of their vain systems at the foot of the cross to the pretended folly of our preaching. This is the old man they must chiefly put off, before they can be qualified to receive the heavenly gift, and to enter into the way of faith appointed by God for eternal salvation. If the Sceptics make an ill use of our mysteries to root themselves deeper in uncertainty, and if they object against us. arguments ad hominem, so much the worse for them, unless God make use of their errors to make them see the necessity of submitting to his word." This is what St Paul and his fellow Apostles would have answered to such objections. We ought to be fully persuaded, that if there had been occasion to give their decision upon the nature of the Heathen philo

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