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CRISPUS

RISPUS. Good morning, my dear Gaius: I am glad to see you. The world is busy in grasping wealth, in discussing politics, and in struggling for dominion; all trifles of a moment: let us retire from the tumultuous scene, and discourse on subjects of greater importance.

Gaius. I am glad, my dear Crispus, to find your mind exercised on such subjects. The present agitated state of the world is doubtless a great temptation to many to let go their hold of heavenly things, and to bend their chief attention to subjects which originate and terminate in the present life.

Crisp. My mind of late has been much engaged on divine subjects. I find in them a source of solid satisFaction. Yet I must confess I feel as well a variety of difficulties which I should be happy to have remov

B

ed. I have often found your conversation profitable, and should wish to avail myself of this and every other opportunity for improving by it.

Gai. Suitable conversation on divine subjects is commonly of mutual advantage; and I must say there is something, I know not what, in the countenance of an inquisitive serious friend, which, as iron sharpeneth iron, whets our powers, and draws forth observations where, otherwise, they had never existed. I think I have been as much indebted to you for asking pertinent questions, as you have been to me for answering them.

Crisp. I have been lately employed in reading the works of some of our first Reformers: and on comparing their times with the present, I have observed that a considerable difference has taken place in the state of the public mind. At the dawn of the Reformation, the bulk of mankind were the devotees of superstition, and stood ready to extirpate all those who dared to avow any religious principles different from theirs. Even the Reformers themselves, though they inveighed against the persecuting spirit of the Papists, yet seem to have been very severe upon one another, and to have exercised too little christian for bearance, and too much of a spirit that savoured of unchristian bitterness towards those whose ideas of reformation did not exactly coincide with their own. A great deal of their language, and some parts of their conduct, would in the present day be thought very censurable. How do you account for this

change?

Gai. Were I to answer that the rights of conscience have of late years been more clearly understood, and that the sacred duty of benevolence, irrespective of the principles which men imbibe, has been more fre

quently enforced, I should so far speak the truth. And so far we have reason to congratulate the present age upon its improvement.

Crisp. Do you suppose there are other causes to which such a change may be attributed ?

Gai. I do. Scepticism, and a general indifference to religion appear to me to have succeeded the blind zeal and superstition of former ages. It has been observed, I think by Dr. Goodwin, on that remarkable phrase of the apostle Paul, Ye walked according to the course of this world, First, that there is a course which is general, and common to all ages and places, and which includes the gratifying of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, the laying up treasures on earth instead of heaven, &c. Secondly, that there is a course which is more particular, and which is incessantly varying according to times, places, and circumstances. Like the tide, it is ever rolling, but in different directions. In one age or country it is this, in another that, and in a third different from them both. The course of this world in the early ages was a course of idolatry. In this direction it ran until the days of Constantine, at which period the prince of darkness found it impracticable in the civilized parts of the earth, any longer to support the pagan throne. The leaders in the Roman empire resolved to become Christians, and great numbers from various motives followed their example. The tide had then changed its direction: the profession of Christianity was fashionable, was honourable, was the high road to preferment. Satan himself, if I may so speak, could now have no objection to turn Christian. The external profession of religion became splendid and pompous; but religion itself was gradually lost, and a system of ignorance, superstition, and persecu

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