ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, INTENDED TO HAVE BEEN DELIVERED IN Philadelphia. TO WHICH ARE ADDED, SOME OTHERS, SELECTED FROM THE SAME AUTHOR. BY JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, L. L. D. F. R. S. Dorthumberland: PRINTED BY JOHN BINNS. ........ Exhort one another daily while it is called to day, lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 品茶 HEB. III. 13. THIS advice of the author of this epistle is not L less seasonable at the present day than when it was given. It is even more deserving of attention now than it was then. At that time the christian church was in a state of persecution At least the open profession of christianity was attended with more danger than it is at present. It was not then patronized by the great, the learned, or the fashionable; but was a sect every where spoken against, and the teachers of it were generally considered as men who turned the world upside down, the enemies of peace, and the authors of innovation and revolution."" mers. Such, indeed, will ever be the character of refor It was so in every period of the reformation from popery. In this light were Wickliffe, Huss, Luther, Calvin, and Socinus considered in their day; and such is the light in which every person who in the present times, having by any means ac quired more light than others, is desirous of communicating it, and to improve upon any established system, must expect to stand.. The bulk of mankind wish to be at their ease, and not to have their opinions, any more than their property, or their government, disturbed. Being satisfied with their present situation, they naturally dislike any change, lest it should be for the worse. The situation of a reformer must, therefore, require great fortitude, the courage of the lion, as well as the wisdom of the serpent, and the innocence of the dove. These virtues are equally necessary in our times, as far as they bear the same character; but they are only peculiarly requisite for reformers, and their immediate followers. With respect to christianity in general, the profession of it is not, at least in this country, at all disreputable. On the contrary, it is rather disreputable not to be a christi. an; and I rejoice that it is so, and that infidelity has 1 |