CONTENTS. 54 172 OBSERVATIONS, &c. &c. CHAPTER I. ON THE GROUNDS OF RELIGIOUS UNION WHICH SUBSIST AMONG MANKIND IN GENERAL, AND MORE ESPECIALLY AMONG TRUE CHRISTIANS. TO a series of observations on the particular tenets and peculiar religious advantages (as I deem them) of a comparatively small body of persons, I know of no more salutary introduction than a survey of those grounds of union in matters of religion which subsist, first, among mankind in general, and secondly, among the true members of the visible church of Christ. Such a survey will, I trust, produce the effect of animating our hearts with the love of our neighbour, and will prepare us for a calm and charitable discussion of those particulars which appertain more or less exclusively to our own religious situation in the world and in the church. I. Let us, then, in the first place, endeavour to form some estimate of the breadth of that foundation in religion, on which we are standing in common with mankind in general. God is the Creator and merciful Christ died for us all. A measure Father of us all. B of the influence of the Holy Spirit enlightens, and, if obeyed, would save, us all. Upon these successive positions I will venture to offer a few remarks, and will adduce a selection of scriptural declarations, by which they appear to me to be severally established. 1. That God, to whom alone can be attributed the existence of the universe, and of every thing which it contains," from whom, and through whom, and unto whom, are all things,"-is the Creator of all men, is a point which none but atheists deny, and which I shall therefore take for granted. Now, it is expressly asserted in Scripture, of this omnipotent Author of our being, that he is "Love," I John iv, 8; and again, the character in which he proclaimed himself to his servant Moses was that of "the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth;" Exod. xxxiv, 6. Hence we can scarcely fail to conclude, that, as the Father of the whole family of man, he extends over them all the wing of his paternal care, and graciously offers to them all his help, his protection, and his mercy. It was on this principle, or on a principle still more comprehensive, that the royal psalmist, after describing Jehovah as "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy," calls upon "all his works in all places of his dominion to bless his holy name;" Ps. ciii, 22. And again, on another occasion, he expressly declares that "the Lord is good to all, and that his tender mercies are over all his works;" Ps. cxlv, 9. The attributes of God, as the Creator and Father of all mankind, were admirably unfolded by the apostle Paul, in his address to the philosophical Athenians: "God," said he, "that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring;" Acts xvii, 24-28. Let it not be imagined that God is the merciful Father of all mankind, only inasmuch as he makes his rain to fall, and his sun to shine for them all, and bestows upon them all a variety of outward and temporal benefits. The Scriptures plainly declare that he wills for them a happiness of a far more exalted and enduring nature. Fallen and corrupt as they are, and separated by their iniquities from the Holy One of Israel," he willeth not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance;" II Pet. iii, 9. And to all mankind he proclaims the same invitation : "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon;" Isa. lv, 7. The apostle Paul expressly assures us, that "the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,” Tit. ii, 11; that God our Saviour would "have all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth;" I Tim. ii, 4. And again, he exclaims, "We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men;" I Tim. iv, 10. "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth;" said Jehovah himself, "for I am God, and there is none else;" Isa. xlv, 22. Nor are these expressions to be understood as being of a merely general and undefined character. He who of |