against christianity; from its youth up have they fought against it; but it is the counsel of the Lord, and therefore has hitherto stood, and will maintain its ground.

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All the doctrines of our Saviour have a natural tendency and a direct and powerful influence to reform men's lives, and correct their manners. None of them were calculated for the gratification of men's idle curiosities, the busying and amusing them with airy and useless speculation; much less were they intended for an exercise of our credulity or a trial how far we could bring our reason to submit to our faith: but as, on the one hand, they were plain and simple, and such as, by their agreeableness to the rational faculties of mankind, did highly recommend themselves to our belief; so, on the other hand, they had an immediate relation to practice, and where the proper ground and foundation which all human and divine virtues were naturally to be built. The present wickedness of christians cannot be owing to any defect in the doctrine of Christ, nor be urged as a proof of the real inefficacy of it toward rendering men holy because there was a time, when it had all the success of this kind that could be expected; the time, I mean, of its earliest appearance in the world; when the practice of the generality of christians was a just comment on the precepts of Christ; when they could appeal from their doctrines to their lives, and challenge their worst enemies to show any remarkable difference between them: when they were so far from injustice and wrong, and the several wicked arts of deceiving, that in the vast multitude of converts no man said that aught was his own; for they had all things common, and were not only of one faith, and of one worship, but of one heart and of one soul. Now, if the efficacy and power of the christian doctrine must be tried by its fruits, the gospel is the same now as it was then, equally the power of God unto salvation, equally mighty in pulling down of strong holds; and therefore, that it doth not still produce the same effects must be owing, not to any defect in the means, but to other causes. For the gospel, though it be the great instrument of holiness, yet can make those alone holy, who consider and weigh it, and fasten its holy rules upon their

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hearts and consciences by meditation and study. It is hard therefore to make our faith answerable for the ill manners of those who do not in good earnest receive it; but much harder still, that those very men should press the objection most eagerly, without whose loose and immoral lives there would not be near so much ground and colour for it. Consequently by scripture, and by reason, religious opinions are to be examined; and not by the lives and practice of those who espouse them. Disputes, it is true, there will always be about revelation, as there have been about every thing else. And is it any wonder men should dispute about religion, which is almost the only thing, about which it is worth while to dispute at all? If religion were set aside, would all disputes immediately cease? No, there would be many more, which a serious sense of it upon our minds prevents, about things of less importance, about every thing on which men had misplaced their esteem. It is a mistake to imagine, that the obscurity of scripture has given birth to different opinions in material points; men's preconceived opinions have made them endeavour to obscure and darken the scripture, though ever so plain. And notwithstanding the many differences and disputes about particular doctrines among christians (excepting such as have intolerably corrupted the very fundamental doctrines, and even the main design itself of the whole christian dispensation) they have not been like those among philosophers, concerning the whole scheme and system of things, but only concerning particular explications of particular doctrines; which kind of disputes do not at all affect the certainty of the whole religion itself, nor ought in reason to be any manner of hindrance to the effect, which the plain and weightier, and confessedly more important fundamental doctrines ought to have upon the hearts and lives of those who profess thei belief in God, and acknowledge it their duty to obey his commands. The principles of christianity may be out of fashion: but what they want in fashion they make weight, solidity, and intrinsic worth.

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To those unhappy advocates of infidelity, who would gravely pretend to persuade the world, that religion, at first

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arose from fear, education, and state policy; and that it is only a politic device, to keep the ignorant people in awe; to these deluded men, I say, it must be sufficient to reply, that even their own objection admits that religion conduces very much to the support of government and order in the world, and consequently is very beneficial to mankind in general; and so, to every man in particular, where its duties and obligations are duly observed, it gives such a peace and tranquillity of mind, and such a firmness and resolution of heart, as is utterly inconsistent with that groundless and unreasonable fear, which is here supposed to be the parent of it. We own that education and the prevalence of custom are great; but then they must be such as strike in with our corrupt passions and affections, and not such as endeavour to restrain and control them. What goes against the grain can never last long; and therefore we may reasonably suppose that religion, which gives such a check to our depraved appetites, had long since been exterminated the world, had it not laid such fast hold upon our natures, that there is no shaking it off.

Every age, we know, is apt to condemn the wisdom of those that preceded it; and, whether we stand upon our forefathers shoulders or not, we certainly think that we see further. It is wonderful, therefore, that, in so many ages as have passed, no person has been able to make such a discovery of the artifice of religion, as to free mankind from its pretended slavery. It cannot be said, that there were none to attempt it; because efforts of this kind have been frequent, though always unsuccessful, and redounding to the greater confirmation of religion. It cannot be said, that there were none ready to join in such a design; for all bad men wish there was no kind of religion, and what they wish for they are willing to effect, if they could. How comes it then, after all, that religion still prevailed, and the terrors of a Deity could not be shaken off, no not by the greatest politicians themselves, who thought they understood all the arts of vernment, as well as any that went before them? If the principles of religion had been first introduced merely by a state policy, the politicians and governors of the world, one would think, should be likely to have known something of it; at

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least, so much, as to be less subject to the anxieties of conscience, which the despising of such principles, and living in opposition to them, generally creates: whereas we find, on the contrary, that, in all ages, the greatest of men, who have had nothing to fear from human power, have been as much affrighted by the secret terrors of religion, and have undergone as great agonies of mind, as the meanest mortals. And, as the reason of the thing is sufficient to convince us, that religion at first was no state juggle; so, if we look into the records of antiquity, we shall easily perceive, that, the further we go backward, the stronger is our evidence against this suggestion. The most ancient writings, that are in the world, without all controversy, are those of the holy scriptures; and, among these, the book of Job is deservedly accounted one of the earliest; and yet we may observe therein not only the sense of the duties of religion, wherewith the people were possessed in those days, but even how customary it was to appeal to the tradition of former times concerning these matters: Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age (says one of Job's friends) and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers: for we are but of yesterday, and know nothing. But what is it for, that he thus appeals to the observation of former ages? Even to evince the bad condition of all that are not sincere in their religion; for as the rush, says he, without mire, and the flag without water, wither before other herbs; so are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite's hope shall perish. Hence it is apparent, that in the earliest times we can read of, men had the same sense of religion, and the same notions of God's indignation against impiety, which we now have: and therefore, considering that no time or place can be assigned to give any reasonable ground for supposing, that the first principles of religion were any human contrivance, we may without further arguments conclude that they were from the beginning.

In fine, if religion had been a trick and contrivance of so long a date, as these deluded men pretend, it must necessarily have been found out at one time or other, and banished out of the world long before now: but the credit of it is not yet extinct; which can be owing to nothing

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but the invincible reasons whereon it stands. age, there has not been wanting the wit and malice of pro fane persons, to undermine and blow it up; but the foun dations, whereon it is built, are so firm and stable, and have endured the violent shocks and secret attempts of so many ages, that we have no occasion to doubt it will ever fail. Were religion and the being of a God matters of mere speculation indeed, these men might trifle and sport with them, as long as they pleased; but, as they are made fundamental parts of every man's salvation, they seem to run too great a hazard, for the bare gratification of a foolish singularity, who adventure to deny them. For, as these men cannot fancy things into being, so neither can they make them vanish into nothing, by the stubborn confidence of their own imagination. What then can make them thus foolhardy, and tempt them to be thus desperate? If you believe them, it is to set the world free from the prejudices of vulgar errors, and the slavery of that bugbear conscience. Ah wretched freedom! which to deliver us from one imaginary evil, brings upon us a thousand real mischiefs, which degrades the dignity of hunian nature, saps the foundation of all societies, opens a sluice to all kinds of wickedness, and takes away our only comfort in time of distress. For, since man of himself is insufficient for his own happiness; is liable to many evils and miseries, which he can neither prevent nor redress; is full of wants, which he cannot supply; surrounded with infirmities, which he cannot remove, and obnoxious to dangers, which he can no ways escape; where can he turn himself without a God or where repose his anxious thoughts, but in his divine providence? In the day of adversity, especially when all other friends are apt to forsake him, how gloomy must every thing about him look without a God? An unhappy mortal deep sunk in miseries and misfortunes, and struggling with innumerable hardships here upon earth, and at the same time destitute of a protector and patron in heaven, is a condition not to be imagined without horror and trembling amazement.