of some of those doctrines, to the apparent depreciation of others.

Yet it will not be an unedifying exercise, to select here a few of the more eminent examples, and to examine them, simply with a reference to their liability to the charge in question.

You will observe, however, that I limit my defence of these divines, to the position, that they have not deserted, either virtually or expressly, the fundamental doctrines of salvation by grace, justification by faith, and remission of sins through the merits of Christ alone; and that these great principles of Scripture and of Protestantism, if they are not always dogmatically urged, are at least assumed as the ground of their moral and preceptive discourses, and are stated explicitly and strongly, in those which are doctrinal and controversial.

Adieu.

171

LETTER XXIV.

TILLOTSON.

BURNET'S CHARACTER OF ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON'S PREACHING.- SERMONS ON ATHEISM. CHARACTER AND PLAN OF THESE SERMONS. SERMONS ON THE ATTRIBUTES.THEIR PLAN, AND APPARENT OBJECT.

GENTLE TEMPER

OF TILLOTSON.-MISCONSTRUCTIONS TO WHICH IT EXPOSED HIM.'- SERMONS AGAINST SOCINIANISM.

SELECTION OF

DOCTRINAL SERMONS PROPOSED FOR EXAMINATION.
PROMISES OF THE GOSPEL.

REGENERATION. TILLOT

REMARKS SUGGESTED BY THE PRE

SENT CONTROVERSY UPON THIS DOCTRINE.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

I DARE not encounter, with a critical pen, the gigantic volumes of Tillotson and Barrow; yet it may not be amiss to select from each a few specimens, to illustrate the foregoing observations.

Of Archbishop Tillotson, Burnet says, that he was not only the best preacher of "the age, but seemed to have brought that his preaching to perfection :"

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"sermons were so well heard and liked, " and so much read, that all the nation proposed him as a pattern, and studied to copy after him."

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It is not, however, with a reference to the qualities of style and manner, which rendered the sermons of Tillotson so popular, that we are now to consider them; and, indeed, I am rather inclined to think the style contributes more than is generally supposed, to diminish their popularity at present; as, notwithstanding all its literary excellencies, it is too calm and diffuse upon practical subjects, and too abstract and argumentative upon questions of doctrine, to engage the affections and the conscience with that deep and animating interest, which a simple and authoritative reference to Scripture inspires.

Yet we should not forget, that Tillotson was often called to preach before those who ridiculed all Scripture authority; and that many of his sermons are directed against the Hobbists, and other infidels of his day,

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to whom it was necessary first to prove the abstract truth of revelation; and who would have turned with contempt from a demonstration, built upon the simple assumption of doctrines which they derided, or upon the authority of a record which they denied.

The chief subjects of Tillotson's polemical warfare, were Atheism, Socinianism, Antinomianism, and Popery; and it is in his opposition to these respectively, that we are to look for the statement of his doc. trinal views, and the grounds upon which he supports them.

His friend Bishop Burnet gives a short account of the prevalence of libertine and infidel opinions, which led him first to lay his foundations in the principles of natural religion, and from thence to advance to the proof of Christianity, and of the authenticity of Scripture. "He saw," (says the Bishop,)" with a deep regret, the fatal cor

ruption of this age; while the hypocrisies " and extravagancies of former times, and "the liberties and looseness of the present,

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disposed many to impiety and Atheism ; "so he set the whole strength of his "thoughts and studies, to withstand the progress that this was making. In order "to that, he laboured particularly to bring every thing out of the clearest principles, " and to make all men feel the reasonable"ness of the truths, as well as of the pre❝cepts, of the Christian religion."

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Upon this plan it appears that he framed many of his discourses, and particularly two sets of consecutive sermons, which occur at a considerable distance, in his works; and to which only, I shall advert, in connection with this part of our subject.

In the collection of sermons published during his life, (which forms the first volume of the folio edition of his works,) we find the first eight directed to the confutation of Atheism, and to the inculcation of religion chiefly upon principles of reason, as likely to be most persuasive with those whom he' addressed. In these sermons, he seems to have the opinions of Hobbes particularly in