abideth for ever. What say our craftsmen to this? Either they know it not, or believe it not. Paul, whenever he mentions dangers or perils, in his epistles, means perils to his own person: nor did he by his own person, ever in all his life, mean the church. But Paul had the Spirit of God; he was no craftsman.

Christians trust to the veracity of God, that he will for ever defend the holy revelation that he has given to us. Let us on our part, treat it as becomes its dignity, and omnipotent author. Let us not turn our religion into a play, nor dishonor it with baubles, as the manner of the popish craftsmen is, who convert their churches into puppet-shows and music-meetings; and then, when they are laughed at, cry they are in danger. Pretty fellows! to raise our mirth, whether we will or no, and then make us choke ourselves to keep it in. Their craft is in danger to be set at nought. They know its value, and quake lest other people should know it too. Oh the impudence of craftsmen! how boldly they mock God, and in his name pick pockets!

The Christian religion, which prevailed against all the powers of the world, cannot be in danger from all the powers of the world: and every church may be in danger but a Christian church. Let us praise the Lord that our church is safe.

"When they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians."

The violent effects of a hot sermon, however absurd and villanous. Here is Dr. Demetrius, whose craft was all his religion, lugs heaven into a dispute about his trade, and tacks the salvation of his hearers to the gain which he made of his shrines; yet this awakened no indignation in the seduced and ill-judging auditory; but straight they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, "great is Diana of the Ephesians: the church! the church !"

Ignorance is the mother of zeal." They were full of wrath." For what? for Diana of Ephesus.-A god cre

ated by a stone-cutter; an insensible piece of a rock, guarded by a band of priests; who picked a fine livelihood out of it. But Paul had opened some men's eyes, and the loaves began to come in but slowly. This enraged the craftsmen, and they enraged the people. The priests lost customers, and the people lost their senses. Such is the power of delusion over dark and slavish minds! Let but the priest point at a windmill, and cry the church is falling, his congregation will venture their brains to stop the sails. What a rare army does zeal raise, when religion and reason do not spoil the muster, or stop their march!

"The whole city was filled with confusion; and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theatre."

Who

"The whole city was filled with confusion." doubts it, when church was the cry, and the priests had begun it? Give them but their way, and allow them but to assert their own claims, they will quickly turn all things, human and divine, topsy-turvey. Here is a whole city thrown into confusion, purely because a branch of the priestly trade, infamous, forged, and irreligious, was like to fall before the word of God preached by Paul.

This shows that there is nothing so lying and so vile, that they will not justify. They knew that their church was a creature of their own composing; that the worship performed in it was burlesque-worship, contrived by themselves and paid to a senseless image; and they knew that the whole was an impudent delusion, framed by human invention. Yet they raise heaven and earth in defence of their forgeries and superstitions. Not a tittle will they part with, not a shrine, not a ceremony. No, rather than this, they publish lies, they deceive the people, they decry sober piety, they raise a sedition, and confound all things. By this craft we have our wealth."

The different behaviour of truth and falsehood! or, of Paul and the craftsmen ! When men contend for truth,

they do it calmly, because they are sure that it will support itself. But error, conscious of its weak foundation, flies instantly for support to rage and oppression. Paul reasons peaceably and powerfully; Demetrius deceives, scolds, and raises a mob. I defy the craftsmen to show me one mob of Paul's raising in all the New Testament.

The apostle wanted no mob; he neither blended politics nor gain with his doctrine; he had no factious designs; he meddled not with human affairs; he taught peace, and he practised it; he had no grimace to support; no mock-reverence to acquire or defend; he abhorred pious fraud, and exposed it: he showed the people the manifest truths of the gospel, and of reason, and that presently opened their eyes to see the impious delusions and bold impositions of the reigning priests; and hence began the rage of Dr. Demetrius and his mob.

One man, with truth on his side, is enough to frighten a whole army, yea, a whole hierarchy of craftsmen, and to defeat them, if he has but a fair hearing. You see also the graceless methods that red-hot high-priests take, to confute such a man. They dress him up as an atheist and an enemy to the church, and then set the mob upon him; for the law was not against Paul, as we shall see presently, and yet they meant to destroy Paul against law. An implacable tribe! No power can satisfy them, that has either mercy in it, or bounds to it: craft is their calling, and lies and violence the tools of their trade.

Oh, what wolves are men, yea, what wolves are priests, when they have hardened themselves against the grace of God! Without meekness and peace there can be no such thing as the fear of the Lord; witness Dr. Demetrius, and those that are like him. Let us pray for their amendment, that it would please the Lord to take away their reprobate mind!

"And having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theatre."

Gaius and Aristarchus, dissenters, and non-conformist

preachers! Men of Macedonia; foreigners, too, ever the aversion of high-church! Paul's companions in travel. How! bare companions? Methinks, that is something familiar, unless they were lords archbishops of some country where they did not reside. But Paul had no spiritual pride, nor received his fellow Christians upon the knee, as some who pretend to be his successors at Rome and elsewhere, do in our days.

"They rushed with one accord into the theatre." They had got their prey, a brace of non-cons, and carried them into the play-house to bait them. What hooping and hallooing about the two godly Christians! How many fanatics they were called, and disturbers of the peace of Diana's high-church? Doubtless they were charged with writing books and papers against Diana's clergy, and the established gew-gaws; and perhaps, Paul was suspected for having a hand in them, and some of his epistles were produced to make good the charge. Well! here they are, the priests their accusers, the mob their judges, and truth their crime! Men and wickedness are still the same; we have seen the like in our times.

“And when Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not." There is, on one hand, the boldness of a man, who has God for his guide; and on the other, the prudence of men, who knew the mercy of priests and mobs. "And therefore certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring him that he would not adventure himself into the theatre."

"Some therefore cried one thing, and some another; for the assembly was confused, and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together."

"Some cried one thing and some another." The true genius of a rabble, led by their priests and their passions, against peace and against religion! They are united in their zeal to do mischief, but they differ how they shall go about it. They are for Diana's church, and show it by rage and noise; but they are under no rules, except

the general one taught them by the craftsmen, to be fierce for the church, against the apostle; for the rest, every man is his own master, and every man will be heard first.

A rare picture of our present mobs, headed by one of themselves in a gown; I mean our modern Demetrius, I think the man is no great craftsman; but he has got Diana in his head, and he himself is in the head of the rabble. But as to the point of understanding, we may throw him and his rabble together into one short prayer, and cry with our blessed Lord, when the Jewish priests were putting him to death, for bearing witness against their carnal inventions, their hypocrisy and their cruelty; "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

"The assembly was confused." There was no order, no reason, no moderation among them. The very type of our high-church mob again! "And the more part knew not wherefore they were come together." Though they came determined to do mischief, yet they were at a loss what species of it to go about, till their general, the priest, gave them the word. Let us lament the horrible state of those poor unregenerate souls, whose pastors feed them with poison instead of the food of life, and teach them rage instead of religion. Take warning; beware of Diana and her craftsmen, and cleave to your Bibles as you love your souls!

"And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews, the believing Jews, putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with his hand, and would have made his defence unto the people. But when they knew that he was a Jew, that is a believing Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours, cried out, great is Diana of the Ephesians!"

Was there ever such a couple of twin cases as theirs and ours! Verily, our high-church bigots are the undoubted descendants of Diana's varlets at Ephesus seventeen hundred years ago. Nor is the breed one whit mended; they are still the tools of the craftsmen, blind, outrageous, and loud.