to this I would answer, that if a man is ignorant of or misunderstands a religious doctrine that has been fairly proposed to him, a doctrine that he has had a sufficient capacity and helps to discover, he cannot follow his erroneous persuasion without sin. For notwithstanding all the authority of conscience, it can never excuse a man if in obedience to it he do an ill thing. This appears to be evident beyond all dispute. We are assured that there are many errors in faith and doctrine which Christ hates (Rev. ii. 15), though the persons who believe and teach them may be fully persuaded it is their duty so to do. When our Lord says in the Gospels, the time shall come that they who kill His disciples shall think they do God service, He speaks plainly of an action performed according to the dictates of an erroneous conscience, but at the same time He speaks of it as a most unjust and wicked action, and such as deserved to be punished with the utmost severity. The Jews in crucifying our Saviour committed the most execrable of all crimes, and yet it is certain they committed it by following the motions of their conscience. If our conscience, through our own fault, lose its way, and lead us to do that which God has forbidden, or to omit what He has commanded, it will be no sufficient excuse to say that we did but act according to our judgment. And the reason is, because our judgment is not the standard of what we are bound to believe or practise; nor is our obligation to assent to the doctrines or to perform the precepts of the Gospel grounded upon our conceptions and apprehensions concerning them, but upon the authority of God and the fulness and sufficiency of the means and assistances afforded us for discovering them. An instance or two will make this matter still plainer. A Deist discerns not the truth of the Christian religion, and believes it to be imposture; does it therefore follow that he may and ought to obey his erroneous conscience and persuasion concerning the Gospel? No; because Christianity comes with such convincing evidences of truth and divinity, that no man can be ignorant of them and not deserve blame.-Liberty, &c., pp. 33-35.

CHAPTER LIII.

JAMES DUCHAL, D.D. (1730-1761),

MINISTER AT ANTRIM AND DUBLIN (WOOD STREET).

1. The Practice of Religion recommended as excellent and reasonable. In three sermons. pp. 114. London, 1728. A. C. B. 2. A Letter from a Gentleman to his Friend, a Subscribing Minister in the North of Ireland. [Anon., but Duchal supposed to be the Author.] pp. 16. Dublin, 1731. A. C. B. 3. Remarks upon a Late Paper entitled "Plain Reasons," &c., by a Friend of Liberty and Truth. [Acknowledged by Duchal.] pp. 35. Belfast, 1732. M. C. D. 4. A Sermon occasioned by the death of Mrs. Francis Bristow, the late wife of Roger Bristow, Esq. Preached at Antrim, December 21st, 1735. [1 Tim. ii. 10.] pp. 27. Belfast, 1736. 5. A Sermon occasioned by the death of the Rev. Mr. Hugh Scott, Preached at Newton, April 4, 1736. [1 John iii. 2.] pp. 28. Belfast, 1736. A. C. B

6. A Sermon on occasion of the much lamented death of the late Reverend Mr. John Abernethy. Preached in Antrim, December 7, 1740. With an Appendix containing brief Memoirs of the Lives and Characters of the late Reverend Messieurs Thomas Shaw, William Taylor, Michael Bruce, and Samuel Haliday, Protestant Dissenting Ministers in the Counties of Down and Antrim. Published at the desire of the Ministers of the Presbytery of Antrim, by James Kirkpatrick, D.D. pp. 62. Belfast, 1741. [Sermon by Duchal; the Appendix by Kirkpatrick.] [Gen. 1. 24.] A. C. B. 7. A Sermon from Ecc. vii. 4, on the death of Dr. Arbuckle, a physician, and member of Wood Street Congregation. Preached January 4, 1747. pp. 42. Dublin, 1747.

8. Presumptive Arguments for the Truth and Divine Authority of the Christian Religion. In ten Sermons, to which is added a Sermon on God's Moral Government. 8vo, pp. 447. London, 1753. C. P. L.

9. Two Essays in the second volume of the Theological Repository -1. On the Obligation of Truth; 2. On the Doctrine of the Atonement.

10. Posthumous Sermons. In 3 vols. 8vo. Containing 52 Sermons. Dublin, 1764 and 1767.

JAMES DUCHAL was born at Antrim in 1697, and in boyhood had the advantage, or, as some may think, the misfortune, of being educated by the Rev. John Ábernethy (see ch. xxv.). He studied at the University of Glasgow, and after taking licence was settled over a small Dissenting congregation at Cambridge in England. He spent about ten years there, during which time he prosecuted his private studies with ardour, more particularly in ethics and divinity. The only literary product of his English ministry was three rather dry and stiff discourses on the Practice of Religion, which he published in 1728.

In August 1730, he was settled in the old congregation of Antrim, then vacant in consequence of the removal of Mr. Abernethy to Dublin. Soon after his settlement he got into controversy with his orthodox neighbour the Rev. William Holmes, pastor of those people who, disaffected in consequence of the principles of Abernethy, had withdrawn from his ministry, and had formed a new congregation in connection with the Synod of Ulster.* Mr. Duchal commenced the controversy by publishing anonymously, as was then the practice even of some respectable ministers, A Letter from a Gentleman to his Friend, in which he opened up afresh the old Non-subscription Controversy, of which by this time the public had grown heartily tired, and sought to vindicate the position of the Presbytery of Antrim, with which he had become lately connected. From the standpoint of a layman, who professes to be an impartial spectator of the two ecclesiastical parties, he deals with the question whether any test of orthodoxy, in addition to the Holy Scriptures, ought to be imposed as a term of communion, and whether a profession of faith in the Scriptures as the Word of God,

*Now the First Congregation of Antrim in connection with the General Assembly.

and in the Christian faith as therein revealed, is enough to entitle a man to communion, provided no objection lie against him in other respects. The latter question he answers in the affirmative, and supports his answer by the common arguments employed by the Nonsubscribers. Thus, under the guise of an impartial spectator, a very decided partisan attempts to gain a hearing for his opinions. The appearance of this work led to his neighbour, Mr. Holmes (see ch. liv.), issuing his Plain Reasons. Mr. Duchal rejoined in his Remarks, and Mr. Holmes followed up with his Impartial Reflections.

The ten years which Duchal spent at Antrim produced nothing in addition to what has been stated, except three Funeral Sermons, the last of which, being preached at Wood Street in honour of the late Mr. Abernethy, led to his removal to Dublin as the successor of his friend, and may be said to mark the termination of his ministry at Antrim. This sermon is specially valuable for having added thereto, by way of Appendix, a sketch of the lives and characters of four leading ministers of the Presbytery of Antrim from the pen of Dr. James Kirkpatrick (see ch. xviii.).

Mr. Duchal became pastor of Wood Street in 1741, and henceforth the sphere of his labours was limited to the capital. His biographers delight to mention it as an extraordinary instance of his industry, that during the twenty years over which his Dublin ministry extended, he composed no less than seven hundred sermons. Of course, the greatness of this feat must depend altogether on the manner in which they were composed, as well as on their value in other respects. But these were not the only intellectual products of that time. In 1753 he published a work of more pretensions than any on which he had yet ventured, entitled Presumptive Arguments for the Truth and Divine Authority of the Christian Religion, abounding, we are told," in judicious and pointed reasoning, sound philosophy, and liberality of sentiment." In the character of Christ, and in that of the two Apostles Paul

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and John, he finds strong presumptive proof of the truth of Christianity, and the object of the work is to present the argument in detail. Soon after the publication of this treatise, the University of Glasgow marked its sense of the service which he had done to Christianity, by bestowing upon him the degree of D.D.

Dr. Duchal was an ardent student as well as pastor on to the end. In his last days he gave much attention to the study of the Hebrew language, but it does not appear that he succeeded in turning his Aramaic studies to much practical account. He died at Dublin in 1761. After his death a selection was made from his sermons, and published in three volumes. Six small manuscript volumes, containing sermons which appear to have been preached by him at Cambridge and at Antrim, are preserved in the library of Magee College, Derry.

A writer in Aikin's General Biography remarks of Dr. Duchal, that "his character appears to have been truly estimable for piety, morality, modesty, candour, and benevolence. In his religious sentiments he was very liberal, and he was a warm friend to freedom of inquiry, rightly judging that whatever has truth and importance to recommend it will bear the light and challenge the closest discussion. As a preacher, Dr. Duchal sustained considerable reputation in the rank of rational divines in Ireland, from the strong sense, frequent originality of sentiment, genuine devotional spirit, and easy unaffected style which distinguished his discourses." Dr. Armstrong says that "he was a strenuous supporter of the rational and practical doctrines of the Gospel, as opposed to mystical and fanatical notions." He means by this simply that he was a cold moralist, destitute of all evangelical sentiment, and tinctured with Unitarianism. Let us fondly hope that an able divine and Christian minister was entitled to much higher praise.*

*Reid's MS. Catalogue and History: Armstrong's Sketches: Duchal's Works: Aikin's General Biography.