Like good Alexander, we would make our defence unto the people; but they will not hear us. Mark the different manner of our disputing from theirs, and the contrary arguments we use! we appeal to the Bible; they cry, the church! and answer the word of the Lord with a brickbat!

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"Great is Diana of the Ephesians !" high-church forever! That was the cry for the space of two hours. Poor souls! it was all that they could say, and all that their priests had taught them to say, great is Diana of the Ephesians!" Was ever church more pithily defended! Certainly the craftsmen of our days have learned their logic from their Ephesian predecessors. "Great is Diana of the Ephesians !" I have heard a sermon a full hour long upon the same subject, and yet not more said, nor better.

You have already heard two speeches, one from the craftsmen, and the other from the mob. Dr. Demetrius being in the chair, tells his brethren of the trade, that by this craft they had their wealth! That is the first part of his sermon. He puts the best leg foremost, and uses his strongest argument first. He fairly puts the stress of his faith upon the ready rhino, and in the very dawn of his discourse, shows himself to be orthodox. The whole convocation was convinced. He has, however, a rare gudgeon behind for the mob ;-a charge of heresy against Paul! The apostle had the assurance to publish, that they be no gods which are made with hands: terrible atheism against the established divinity! and you see what a bitter spirit it raised.

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Now hear

That was the priest's speech or sermon. the mob's speech once more, for it is a rarity. They cried out till their throats were jaded, great is Diana of the Ephesians!" and lugged a couple of dissenting ministers into the bear garden, at the mercy of high-church

men.

Now you shall hear a third speech, which by its honesty, moderation, and good sense, will refresh you after all the

knavery and impudence in the craftsmen, and all the sottishness and fury in the people.

"And when the town clerk had appeased the people, he said, ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image. which fell down from Jupiter? Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet, and do nothing rashly: For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess. Wherefore, if Demetrius and the craftsmen which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies; let them implead one another."

This is the speech of a layman! Think ye not that he was a low-churchman?

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Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against." Right, Mr. Town Clerk! their dowdy image was established by law; and if it had been a broomstick, it would have had the priests on its side, and must have been worshipped: where the carcass is, there will the ravens be gathered together.

"Ye ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly." So they would, if the priests had let them alone. But the craftsmen had goaded their sides with the cry of the church, till the poor reprobates were mad.

"What man is there that knoweth not.' Every body knew that Madam Diana's palace at Ephesus had more superstition and Peter-pence paid to it, and consequently, had a greater swarm of chaplains, than all the divinity shops in Asia besides. She had men and money on her side. Could not all this secure her? No; her bully boys were afraid of Jesus Christ, and two or three dissenting teachers, his servants.

"And the image which fell down from Jupiter." Fell down from Jupiter! what great liars some priests are! They will needs fetch all their fables and filthy ware out of heaven itself; and yet who has less interest there?

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Their very ballads and raree-shows are fathered upon divine right. Oh, the brazen front of some men! The town clerk here conforms himself to their manner of speaking but the man knew better.

"The image which fell down from Jupiter." All the priests' lumber, they say, comes from God; and yet they are scared out of their wits, lest man should take it from them as if God could not defend his own gifts and institutions. This preposterous conduct bewrays them. Either they believe not in God, or know that they belie him :both cases are very common. Whosoever feareth the Lord, need not fear what man can do unto him.

"For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess." Well urged. "If the men are innocent, why do ye abuse them? If they preach false doctrine, why do ye not confute them? If they come not to your established church, why do ye not convince them that they ought to come? Or, because ye cannot answer them, do ye therefore mob them? It is plain, that the honest men have neither stolen any of your madam's consecrated trinkets, nor called her a prostitute impostor."

"Wherefore, if Demetrius and the craftsmen which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies, let them implead one another."

Better still! This is reasoning now; a practice which the craftsmen do not care for; the arm of flesh is their best argument, and at that too they are generally laid in the dirt. "Gentlemen," says the town clerk, "it is evident that ye distrust your cause, by not trusting the merits of it to the law. All external advantages are for you; ye are in your own town; ye have most friends and most money; and ye have most assurance, else I should never have found you here bawling for your church and breaking the law, and, to your eternal scandal, besetting with your numbers a few harmless men, whose only arms lie in the innocence of their lives, and in the force of what they say. If you are vanquished at these weapons, have

the honesty to own it, or for shame be silent. If these men speak against the law, why punish ye them not by the law? But if ye have no law against them, neither have they any transgression.'

What answer did the craftsmen, or their calves, the multitude, make to this? Such an answer, I guess, as they are wont to make to us every day : I suppose they cursed him for a heretic, and so got drunk, and went home.

Oh, the deplorable condition of men that are out of Christ! And such are they who take their religion from the craftsmen. The worshippers of Diana would have been as outrageous for one of her beagles, had the craftsmen told them that the beagle came down from Jupiter. Let us cleave to our Bibles!

III. The great inference I shall make is this,—that craftsmen or high-churchmen are at odds with conscience and truth, and afraid of them. To do them justice, though in relation to God and religion, there is no believing what they say; yet whenever they reason from their own interests, they reason well. By this craft we have our wealth. As to their flourish about Diana and her highchurch, it has not, in point of argument, common sense in it. All they assert is, that all Asia worshipped her; as if, because Diana was then uppermost, therefore Jesus Christ ought to have been kept undermost. They could not stand Paul's logic: he appealed to facts, he appealed to reason, he appealed to conscience.

They, therefore, that is, Diana's high-priests, or the overseers of her fopperies, and fingerers of her gain, form a design to oppress a man whom they could not answer. There was no bearing it, that men should be conducted in their religion by inward conviction and the grace of God, and not by them, who had no advantage from either, for the support of their impositions.

Beside, if all external trumpery and grimace in religion, were certainly ridiculous and vain, as the Christian religion certainly teaches: if postures, cringes, shrines, music, and

the like bodily devotion, were so far from signifying any thing, that they were a certain and pernicious contradiction to the simple institution of Jesus, whose will was fulfilled by believing in him, and living well; then were the craftsmen like to be but little reverenced, and to have but little custom for their shrines and their small wares. A priest dressed up in an antic coat, and making mouths before a dead image, would make a merry figure before the people, instead of an awful one, as formerly; and in the midst of all their holy hubbub and solemnity, a Christian need but ask them one short question, who required these things at your hand? and they were confounded.

What do they do, therefore, in this case? Do they defend their church gear by reason, or by reason confute Paul? No. Paul asserted, that they be no gods which are made with hands; the most self-evident truth that ever was asserted by any man. They cannot answer it; nor yet will they own themselves in the wrong; but they will punish the apostle for being in the right. In order to do this, do they go to law with him? Paul and his companions had offended no law they were peaceable men; they were loyal subjects, and good livers; they were contenders for virtue and piety; and they had not uttered a syllable against Diana's idol, but what resulted from the eternal truths which they delivered.

What course then do the craftsmen take with them? A very extraordinary one in itself, but very common with them; even the course of unprecedented power and oppression. They were chargeable with no legal crime; all their offence was, that they enraged the craftsmen, by opening the gospel daylight upon the dark minds of the misled multitude. They therefore show their rage, and have the innocent men seized and deprived of their liberty, without the shadow of any legal process against them. Nay, it does not appear that they had yet found a name for the crime that they alleged, but the men were confined at random, and probably put to great charges.

This shows their spirit; and that priestly rage will be