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what he believed of a certain point, answered, • Id credo quod credit Ecclesia.' But, 'Quid credit Ecclesia?' said Satan. Id quod ego credo,' replied the other and Nestorius, if he would have slept in his own bed, should have said, 'Id credo quod credit Sanctissimus Cyrillus.' Nestorius perhaps suffered no more than he deserved, because he had been a persecutor himself; but such violent proceedings about such points, in different times and places, have inclined many persons to suspect that in those assemblies, some were talkative, quarrelsome, disingenuous, and overbearing, whilst others were passive dolts, and 'pedarii senatores.' Every age has continued to produce wranglers of this kind, who now have the rest which they would not give other people; and whose works follow them, and are at rest also.

Theodosius the first made severe laws against heretics, about A. D. 380, and required of all his subjects that they should follow the faith of Pope Damasus, and of Peter of Alexandria;' for which and such like holy and wholesome ordinances, to be found in the Theodosian Code, he is extolled by Tillemont and many others, as a man of God. The best thing that can be said for him is, that he was not, on these occasions, as bad as his word, but threatened more than he performed. As to Damasus, whatsoever his faith were, it had been better for him to have lived and died a presbyter, and one cannot say of him that he fought a good fight,' when he fought for his bishopric. His braves slew many of the opposite party, and great was the fury of the religious ruffians on both sides, in this holy war. times, and much to be honoured or envied! What is to be done then with one who is, or

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who is accounted or whispered to be erroneous? Why, Distinguendum est:' you must not shed his blood, nor enrich yourself with his spoils; but you may contrive other ways to bring him to a right mind, or to beggary: ways, which resemble the method of Italian assassins, to beat a man with satchels of sand: no blood is shed, and no bones are broken, but the patient dies by the operation.

A gentleman and a scholar, as Valesius was, should have nothing to do with such distinctions:' he ought rather to distinguish' himself

from the vulgar by a larger mind, by detesting persecution in every shape, were it only for this reason, that it is the bane of letters; by accounting all the learned and ingenious, wheresoever dispersed, or howsoever distressed, as brethren, and by loving and serving them, unless they be rude and insolent, vitious and immoral.' Would Valesius have had such countrymen of his as Joseph Scaliger, Isaac Casaubon, Salmasius, Bochart, Blondel, Daillé, sent to inhabit the Bastille, or the Galleys? would he have had them directed, corrected, and insulted by a king's confessor, and by persons who knew nothing besides their breviary, if peradventure they knew that? This is not said to insinuate that the Gallican church had not in his time, and in all times, many excellent men: nothing can be further from the author's thoughts: but the fomenters of oppression and persecution. have been usually either void of letters, or learned dunces at the best; and have accounted it an insufferable impudence in any man to be wiser and more knowing than themselves. How could Valesius even name Augustin, who, ingenious as he certainly was, and respectable as he may be on other accounts, yet by the weak things which zeal,

not ill-nature, urged him to say on this subject, tarnished in some degree his own reputation, and espoused a cause full of absurdities which all the wit of man cannot defend, and of spots which all the water of the ocean cannot wash off?

In this world, in this great infirmary, among other distempers with which poor mortals are afflicted, is an intemperate zeal, or a spirit of party, which, when it arises to a certain pitch, is not to be restrained by the gentle bands of reason: they are broken asunder, as a thread touched with fire. The imagination then plays her part, and raises an ugly phantom, and the man spends his rage upon it, and sometimes by mistake strikes at his friend,

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et fit pugil, et medicum urget.'

Whilst the inconveniencies are no greater than this, we should patiently bear with the defects and disorders of such men, as with the frowardness of those who are in pain, and, as Seneca says, more optimorum parentum, qui maledictis suorum infantium arrident;' like tender parents, who smile at the little perversities of their children; for there are old as well as young children, and perhaps more indulgence is due to the former than to the latter, since they cannot be spoiled by it, being past cure.

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And here the civil magistrate is of excellent use, to keep the peace among his fractious subjects, or at least to keep them from doing one another a bodily mischief. Forbear to draw your sword upon your adversary, says Minerva to Achilles; abuse him as much and as long as you will:

̓Αλλ' άγε λήγ ̓ ἔριδος, μηδὲ ξίφος ἕλκεο χειρί
̓Αλλ ̓
ἤτοι ἔπεσιν μὲν ὀνείδισον, ὡς ἔσεται περ.

But worse than fanatical fervour is the sedate spirit of religious tyranny, arising from the lust of dominion, from sordid self-interest, and from atheistical politics, taking its measures, and pursuing its ends deliberately, void of all regard to truth, and of every tender sentiment of pity and humanity.

Thus Christianity degenerated, and things went on from bad to worse, from folly to corruption, from weakness to wickedness; and then the Reformation made considerable amendments.

THE Christian world is now divided into the reformed and unreformed, or rather into those who are not, and those who are, members of the church of Rome. The latter, as they deal least in reason, are the most disposed to use the illuminating arguments above mentioned, which serve as a succedaneum' in the place of reason. They would willingly force upon us a mode of Christianity which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear. Our religious establishment is far better and highly valuable, and we should be ungrateful if we did not esteem it; but the more simple and unexceptionable a religion is, the dearer will it be to those who understand it, and know what it is to enjoy it. In such a religion Charity would be a gainer, and Faith would be no loser, and it would be an easier task to satisfy doubters, to bring over infidels, and to re-unite beLievers. Before the Jews shall be converted, and the Gentiles flow into the church, it is reasonable to suppose, that in the Christian world there will be more harmony, more mutual compliance and forbearance, than at present is to be found.

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As the opposers of the Gospel have frequently had recourse to arguments ad hominem,' and

have taken advantage from modern systems, and from the writings of divines of this or that persuasion; so the defenders of Revelation have often found themselves under a necessity of reducing things to the venerable Christianity of the New Testament, and of adventuring no further; and of declining the rest as not essential to the cause, and to the controversy.

The removal even of small defects, and improvement from good to better, should always be the object of every man's warm wishes, and modest and peaceable endeavours. Modest and peaceable they ought certainly to be; for there is a reverence due to the public, to civil society, to rulers and magistrates, and to the majority; and decency and prudence are neither marks of the beast, nor that worldly wisdom which stands condemned in the Gospel. In all such endeavours great care and discretion are requisite. Difficulties of various sorts present themselves, and difficulties not to be slighted, some of which shall be passed over in silence, because they might possibly rather tend to irritate than to appease, and give an offence which should be industriously avoided. There is a fear of consequences, arising in cautious and diffident minds, a fear of losing what is valuable by seeking what is desirable; there is a wide-spread indifference towards every thing of a serious kind, and it is sadly increased by that thoughtless dissipation and those expensive follies which are so prevalent; there is also a settled dislike of the Gospel among too many, who are so ignorant and so prejudiced, as to account Christianity itself to be of no use and importance.

These considerations may incline melancholy persons to imagine, that it is vain to expect

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