iniquity. Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment. For he will not lay upon man more than right; that he should enter into judgment with God. He shall break in pieces mighty men without number, and set others in their stead. Therefore he knoweth their works, and he overturneth them in the night, so that they are destroyed. He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others: because they turned back from him, and would not consider any of his ways. So that they cause the cry of the poor to come unto him, and he heareth the cry of the afflicted." Job xxxiv. 10, 12, 23,-28.

I would also ask, who taught Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Melchizedek, and many more I could mention, the true knowledge of God; who had no written word, nor pompous parsons to teach them? I answer, they were taught by the immediate inspiration of the holy Spirit. They depended only upon the holy Spirit for direction, but we Christians in this en

lightened age, too often depend upon our churches and parsons, and seldom, if ever, enquire of the spirit within us, what we shall do, or leave undone. Hence there are so many ignorant, bigoted, superstitious, servile, priest-ridden people in Christendom. Most Christians think no place so good to worship God in as a church or meeting-house. I do allow it is our bounden duty, not to neglect the assembling of ourselves together, for the purpose of worshipping God collectively, but I contend that a more excellent place, is the temple of our own hearts. I often hear the duty of attending public worship, inculcated from the pulpit, but very seldom the more important duty of attending the motions of the holy Spirit in our hearts. Indeed, many of our pedantic ministers of religion, do not believe in the holy Spirit; although they sometimes, for form sake, mention it to the people in their sermons.

Be. cause they well know, if the people were enlightened by its light, they would not suffer themselves to be swindled out of

their money, by a parcel of lazy, interested, self-stiled doctors* of divinity, and masters of arts, who live in pomp and grandeur upon the fleece; and the devil may take the flock, for what they

care.

But in order the more fully to prove that the spirit of Christ has appeared to every man, in every country, and that they all have an equal chance for heaven by obeying its dictates; I would mention some of the sentiments of St. Paul, who (although some of his writings are hard to be understood, especially where he hints something like predestination) is very plain on this subject. He proves to a demonstration, that the light of the spirit, without the history of Christ, is sufficient for man's salvation. Let those who uncharitably and blasphemously believe, that the

*I would again observe, that the reader may remember, all my animadversions are applied only to political and clerical tyrants and impostors. Excuse the tautology If any man asserts that I abuse his priest, he indirectly declares that his priest is an impostor; because, none but clerical impostors have any connection with my animadversions.

heathens will all be damned, without any reservation, read the following verses of St. Paul, and continue thus to believe if they can.

"For as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law : and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing, or else excusing one another." Rom. ii. 12-15.

Can any now doubt, that a virtuous pagan, who loves God and his neighbour, will be saved? If they do, they would not be convinced of the truth, though one arose from the dead, and vindicated the impartiality of the great Jehovah! The fact is, many of the hea

then philosophers* were sincere admirers of the Sovereign beauty. Socrates

* I would beg leave, in order to elucidate the above assertion, to transcribe a few sentiments of three heathen philosophers, relative to the Supreme Being; the first of whom is Cicero.

"The great law imprinted in the hearts of all men, is to love the public good, and the members of the common society as themselves. This love of order is supreme justice, and this justice is amiable for its own sake. To love it only for the advantages it produces us, may be politic, but there is little of goodness in it. 'Tis the highest injustice, to love justice only for the sake of recompense. In a word, the universal, immutable and eternal law of all intelligent beings is to promote the happiness of one another, like children of the same Father." He next represents God to us a sovereign wisdom, from whose authority it is still more impracticable for intelligent natures to withdraw themselves, than it is for corporeal ones. According to the opinion of the wisest and greatest men, (says this philosopher) the law is not an invention of human understanding, or the arbitrary constitution of men, but flows from the eternal reason that governs the universe. The rape which Tarquin committed upon Lucretia, (continues he) was not less criminal in its nature, because there was not at that time any written law at Rome against such sort of violences. The ty rant was guilty of a breach of the eternal law, the obligation whereof did not commence from the time it was written, but from the moment it was made. Now its origin is as ancient as the divine intellect: for the true, the primitive, and the supreme law is nothing else, but the sovereign reason of the great Jove. This law (says he, in another place) is universal, eternal, immutable. It does not vary according to times and