difcern part of the glory of the Lord; and by this I was over-awed, and brought ftill to regard them as the Word of God. A light was still reflected on the whole Scripture; and I was ordinarily enabled to perceive, how worthy of him, and like himself, every thing was which I read there. And by this abiding light I was capable of difcerning therein discoveries of the actings of fin and grace, with a penetration and exactnefs beyond the reach of any, fave the omnifcient and only wife God.

CHAPTER V.

Of fome other Temptations, and his Deliverance from them.

1. I before fhewed that when I was in doubt about the Holy Scriptures, the devil often fuggefted to me, "How can you expect fatisfaction in these things "when men of fo much greater abilities have fought "it in vain ?" And this fuggeftion was often fo violently urged, that I had no fpirit left in me.

2. But when God discovered himself to me in his own light, the force of this temptation was utterly broken; though I had not a particular fight of the weakness of it, till I read (fome time after) the three first chapters of the first epistle to the Corinthians : the fubftance of what God had fhewed me was,

1. That his great defign in the method of falvation he had chofen, was to ftain the pride of all human glory, "that no flesh might glory in his fight, but he that glorieth might glory in the Lord." 2. That a vain ambition to be wife above what God allowed, was the spring and chief part of our apoftacy from God; and still vain man would be wife; "the Jews ask a fign, and the Greeks feek after wifdom." 3. That in order to the attainment of the foregoing defign, and to the recovery of man from his apoftacy, it was plainly neceffary, that this ambition, being a flat oppofition to God's defign, and a principal part of man's corruption, fhould be removed. It was requifite, that God should

"destroy the wifdom of the wife, and bring to nought the understanding of the prudent." 4. God, to vindicate his own wifdom, reproached by this vain ambition of man, to fix an eternal blot on human wisdom, and to discover his holy feverity in punishing this ambition, with the other wickedneffes of vain man, fuffered for many ages, all nations to walk in their own ways, and to try whether they were better than God's ways; whether they could fupply the defects which they fondly imagined God had made them with, or relieve themselves from the mifery of their apoftacy. And the event answered the design of his wisdom and juftice, and the defert of thofe who made the attempt. For, after the fruitless endeavours of four thoufand years, "The world by wisdom knew not God." They quite miffed the mark; "their foolish hearts were darkened; feeking to be wife, they became fools;" inftead of getting their eyes opened to fee more than God allowed, they could fee nothing but their own nakednefs; and fo imperfect were their discoveries even of that, that they imagined fig leaves would cover it.

After they had spent the time allotted for fhewing the vanity of their own wifdom, God, in the depth of his compaffion, stepped in to their relief; and in order thereto, was pleafed to pitch upon a way quite oppofite to all the wifdom of foolish man. He chofe not the enticing words of man's wifdom or eloquence; it was not suitable to the truth of God, to use that mean art whereby the judgments of men are led blindfold in fubjection to their paffions. He made no choice of artificial reasonings, the other eye of human wisdom. It did not become the majefty of God, to difpute men into a compliance with his will. And although he wrought figns to awaken the attention of a drowsy world to gain refpect to his ambaffadors, to ftrengthen the faith of weak believers, and to cut off every plea from unbelief: yet he chose not them chiefly to convert and recover the world, being unwilling fo to derogate from his word, as if the word of God were not, upon its own evidence, worthy the acceptation of all

rational creatures. 6. God having rejected all thefe, made ufe of the foolishness of preaching ;" that is, a plain declaration of his will in his name, " in the demonstration of the spirit and power," by men com miffioned by him for that purpose. Now this was a means every way worthy of God. Man had believed the devil rather than God; the devil feemed to have gained a great advantage, by perfuading man in his integrity to credit him, and difcredit God. God now caft back the shame on him, by engaging fallen man to renounce the devil, and upon his bare word give up Satan and all that adhered to him. And further to manifeft his design, as he made ufe of the foolishness of preaching, fo he chofe for his ambaffadors, not the learned difputers of the world, but foolish, weak, illiterate men, that by things which in appearance are not, he might bring to nought those that are. Laftly, to lay man lower yet, that the Lord alone might be exalted, he chofe not for his people fuch as the world would have thought ftood faireft for mercy; but he chofe, for the general, the most miferable and contemptible of mankind: "Not many wife, not many noble, not many mighty are called; but God hath chofen the foolish things of this world to confound the wife.”

3. Hence God fhewed me, that it was to be expected, and was indeed inevitable, that a great oppofition should be every where made to his gofpel; that this oppofition would principally be by pretenders to wifdom, and learned men; that their objections must be against all the concernments of the gospel, the matter, manner, means of it; all being oppofite to their expec tations, and that therefore it was no wonder to fee fome stumble at the crofs, fome at the preaching, fome at the Preachers; that it was to be expected their objections would be fpecious, as being fuited to the wif dom of men, the natural apprehenfion of all who were not brought to a compliance with the grand defign of God. Laftly, that it was impoffible for any man, who was not brought to be a fool in his own eyes, to be

wife in the things of God, or to difcern and approve of the conduct of God in this whole matter.

4. Upon this discovery I was fully fatisfied, that the oppofition of learned men, and their unfuccefsfulhefs in their inquiries, was fo far from being a just prejudice to, that it was a strong confirmation of the truths of religion; and, on the other hand, that though they were in the wisdom of God, hid from the wife and prudent, yet babes might have a clear discovery thereof because it had pleafed the Father to reveal these things to them.

5. Another common objection, which had made, at fome times, a confiderable impreffion upon my mind, was, that the Scriptures are contrary to reason. I fhall juft point at the fprings of my relief.

1. I was long before fixed in a deep, rational conviction of the fhortnefs of human knowledge, and that there was no truth which we receive, whether upon the evidence of metaphyfical, mathematical, or moral principles, or even on the evidence of our fenfes, against which there lay not infoluble objections. Yet no man queftioned those truths; nor though we endeavoured it ever fo much, could we doubt of many of them. And as this was one of the most confiderable fruits of my ftudies in philofophy, fo it was of ufe to me many ways; it made me fee through the vanity of that pretence against the truths revealed by God, that there lie unanswerable objections against them. This I plainly faw ought not to shake my affent, if I found fufficient evidence for them; efpecially as I was convinced it was reasonable to expect more inextricable difficulties about truth fupernaturally revealed than others, fince they lie farther out of our reach. Therefore, when any fuch occurred, I was led rather to fufpect my own ignorance than the truths of God.

2. God had before fixed in me the faith of his incomprehenfibility, and fully convinced me, that I could not know him to perfection; he let me fee, that "his ways are not our ways;" so that I durft not any

more attempt to measure him or his ways, by my fhort line, but in all things I refted in the refolution of his word. To the law and to the teftimony I brought all, and where that clearly interpofed, my foul was now taught fully to acquiefce in, and stand to its determi

nation.

3. When the enemy ftrongly attacked any particular truth, and I could not inftantly folve his objections, I was much relieved by a view of the multiplied teftimonies of the word, all running the fame way. And when by confulting interpreters, efpecially critics, I was darkened rather than cleared, I had recourfe to the fcope of the words, and the plain meaning that firft occurred, with an humble dependance on God for his light.

4. If for a time by the fubtle perverfion of fome fcriptures, I could not find the true meaning of them, the analogy of faith stayed my mind till I could recover those particular paffages out of the enemy's hand. When God manifefted himself to me, he gave me a view of his whole defign in the revelation he had made of himself, and of the harmonious confent and concurrence of all the doctrines of the gospel, in promoting that defign. He fhewed me likewife, how the end and the means were so closely linked together, that one of these truths could not be overturned, but all the reft would follow. Whenever therefore any of them was controverted, its connexion with the other truths, uniformly and plainly attested by the current of Scripture, prefented itself; and my mind was fatisfied this could not fall without they all fell together. This I take to be the analogy of faith, and herein I often took fanctuary.

I before mentioned what a continual bondage I was long in, through fear of death; I fhall now give fome account of my relief from this also.

1. The Lord's mercy manifested in Chrift, freed me from this fpirit of bondage, and gave me a taste of the liberty of the SONS OF GOD. He in a great measure removed the grounds whereon I most feared it, viza.