tinguifh in laboured difcourfes between points fundamental and not fundamental; which, though impertinent to the true decifion of the queftion of Toleration, yet accidentally let in much light into the true nature of Christianity.

2. The injustice of the fecond kind, the oppreffive treatment of Diffenters or Sectaries, gave occafion for the queftion of Toleration to be more fully and compleatly handled by Mr. Locke in his celebrated Letters on that fubject; and by Mr. Bayle in his no lefs celebrated Comment, on the words, compel them to enter in. These four Works fhould be very carefully ftudied. They give a compleat view of the Subject. Such, who have wrote fince in support of the Divine Principle of Toleration, may be faid, only, actum agere.

The enemies of pure Religion have defiled Revelation, each on his own peculiar principles but friends and enemies have concurred in difhonouring it, by one common principle, held occafionally by all in their turns the Antichriftian Doctrine of Perfecution

Perfecution and intolerance. Now, the Books here recommended expofe it in all its iniquity and folly.

SECT. VII.

FROM the interior Spirit of our holy Religion, which is conftant and unchangeable, we come to the outward face of it, whofe features have, both by time and climate, been ever on the change; nor has time, from the infancy to the old age of the Church, brought on greater disparities. in its looks than the intemperature of Climates, which have been the fcenes of Ecclefiaftical occurrences. The ill-forted Pictures with which Church-history is adorned, ferve at once for the opprobrium and the glory of Religion.

Order requires that the Student should first take a view of the general Hiftory of the Church; and convenience points to us, that he should begin with fome well-chofen abridgment. There is only one that

deferves

deferves our commendation; but that one is indeed incomparable: It is written by the very learned Mofheim, in elegant Latin. Amongst the various excellencies of his method, I fhall only mention this, his referring, on every fubject, to the beft writers who have treated it at large: fo that whenever information excites the Student to look into the Authors referred to by Mofheim, he is fure to find the solution of his doubts, or fatisfaction to his curiosity.

From the Hiftory of the Church in general, the nature of the course directs our Student to the general History of the Church of England.

But our repeated complaints of the defective state of this part of Literature amongst us, extends to the ecclefiaftical as well as to the civil Hiftory of Great Britain. There are only two writers of the general Hiftory of our Church who deferve the name of Hiftorians, Collier the Nonjuror, and Fuller the Jefter.

The firft hath written with fufficient dignity, elegance, and fpirit; but hath dishonoured and debafed his whole work

with the abfurd and flavish Tenets of the High Churchmen.

The other is compofed with better temper, and on better principles; and with fufficient care and attention; but worked on a flight fantastic ground, and in a style of buffoon pleafantry altogether unsuitable to fo grave and important a fubject. Yet much may be learnt from both; much, indeed, to avoid, as well as to approve.

After this general view of Church Hiftory, the Reformation of Religion from the corruptions of Popery, the most important period of Church History, will deserve our particular attention.

The rife and progress of it may be beft learnt from Sleidan, in his De Statu Religionis & Reipublicæ Carolo V. Cæfare Com→ mentarii; more valuable for its veracity than for the charms of its composition.

To have a proper knowledge of that of our own Church, Burnet's much-applauded History of the Reformation of the Church of England, with his third volume of Explanations and Corrections, must be carefully read. Were we to estimate its

4

value

value by the reception it met with from the two Houfes of Parliament, when a whole People were frightened out of their wits by the imminent danger of Popery, we should rate it much too high. It is a fenfible wellattefted narrative of Facts, collected with Care, and digested with Candour.

SECT. VIII.

AND now we are arrived at the concluding labours of our young Divine, the imparting of that knowledge to others which with fo much care and study he hath procured for himtelf. Amongst the many marks which diftinguish the Chriftian Phi lofopher from the Pagan, this is one of the moft ftriking-the Pagan fought knowledge in a selfish way, to fecrete it for his own ufe: the Chriftian feeks it with the generous purpose (first in view, though last in execution) to impart it to others. The Pagan Philofopher, therefore, having cultivated the art of thinking, proceeds to that