1 MISCELLAHEOUS-THOUGHTS. 391 of the enquirer. I am persuaded this is his frequent method with humble and tractable spirits, who have not capacity nor advantages for a long train of reasonings, and years of sus - pence and enquiry. In the mean time I would pursue knowledge with honesty and diligence iu the ordinary methods which are suited to attain it. When I am in doubt about any point, and set my thoughts at work in a search after truth, I think I ought to retire more than hitherto I have done, from the noisy and furious contests which the several factions and parties of christians are engaged in. I am very unwilling to contend in a dispute, or to flourish in a declamation upon the subject into which I am enquiring. Sophistry and oratory throw so much paint upon the question in dispute, or raise so much dust about it, as to conceal the truth from the eye of the mind, and hide the merits of the cause from reason. In matters of the christian faith, I would make the scrip- ture my guide, and enter into a calm conference with myself in a survey of the oracles of God, in order to a decision of the sense and meaning of them ; not neglecting the assistance of pious and learned authors, but conversing very little with the angry and supercilious. I would with daily and hourly impor- tunity address the Father of lights, to shine upon his own ward, and to discover his intent therein. I would humbly implore the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to take the things of Christ, and spew them to my understanding in a most convincing, light, and to lead me as it were by the hand into all needful truths. My reason should be used as a necessary instrument to compare the several parts of revelation together, to discover their mutual ex- plication, as well as to judge whether they run counter to any dictates of natural light. But if an inquisitive mind overleap the bounds of faith, and give the reins to all our reasonings upon divine themes in so wide and open a field as that of possibles and probables, it is no easy matter to guess where they will stop their career. I have made experiment of this in my own medi- tations ; when I have given my thoughts a loose, and let them rove without confinement, sometimes I seem to have carried reason with me even to the camp of Socinus; but then St. John gives my soul a twitch, and St. Paul bears me back again (if I mistake not his meaning) almost to the tents of John Calvin. Nor even then do I leave my reason behind me. So difficult a thing is it to determine by mere reasoning those points which can be learnt by scripture only. But you would urge me further perhaps to inform you, why am I so cold and backward to enter into a debate on the subject you propose, and upon which you flourish with such a force of similes, and in language so bright and pathetic? I am too sensible, ,dear Pocyon, and that by 'reading
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=