preached in all the world, Matth. xxiv. 14. This gofpel of the kingdom fhall be preached in all the world, for a witnefs unto all nations; and then shall the end come. But this is not all men were not only brought into the profellion of the gospel, but,

2. This doctrine had likewife a wonderful power and efficacy upon the lives and manners of men. The generality of those that entertained the gofpel, were obedi ent to it in word and deed, as the Apostle tells us, concerning the Gentiles that were converted to Christianity, Rom. xv. 18. Upon the change of their religion, followed alfo the change of their manners, and of their former courfe of life. They that took upon them the profession of Christianity, did thenceforth not walk as other Gentiles did, in the lufts of the flesh, and according to the vitious courfe of the world; but did put off, concerning their former converfation, the old man, which was corrupt according to the deceitful lufts; and were renewed in the spirit of their mind, and did put on the new man, which after God was created in righteoufnefs, and true holiness. So ftrange an effect had the gospel upon the lives of the generality of the profeffors of it, that I remember Tertullian, in his apology to the Roman Emperor and fenate, challengeth them to inftance in any one that bore the title of Chriftian, that was condemned as a thief, or a murderer, or a facrilegious perfon, or that was guilty of any of those grofs enormities, for which fo many Pagans were every day made examples of publick juftice, and punished and executed among them.

And this certainly was a very admirable and happy effect which the gofpel had upon men, to work fo great and sudden a change in the lives of those who entertained this doctrine; to take them quite off from those vitious practices which they had been brought up in, and accuftomed to; to change their fpirits, and the temper of their minds; and of lewd and dishonest, to make them fober and juft, and holy in all manner of converfation; of proud and fierce, contentious and paffionate, malicious and revengeful, to make them humble and meek, kind and tender-hearted, peaceable and charitable:

And that the primitive Chriftians were generally good men, and of virtuous lives, is credible, because their re

ligion did teach and oblige them to be fuch: which, though it be not effectual now, to make all the profeffors of it fuch as it requires they fhould be; yet it was a very forcible arguiment then, in the circumstances in which the primitive Chriftians were: for Chriflianity was a hated and perfecuted profeffion: no man could then have any inducement to embrace it, unless he were refolved to practife it, and live according to the rules of it; for it offered men no rewards and advantages in this world; but, on the contrary, threatened men with the greatest temporal inconveniences and fufferings; and it promised no happiness to men in the other world upon any other terms, than of denying ungodliness and worldly lufts, and of living foberly, righteously, and godly in this prefent world.

And befides this confideration, we have the best testimony in the world of their unblameable lives, viz. the teftimony of their profeffed enemies, who did not perfecute them for any perfonal crimes, which they charged particular perfons withal, but only for their religion; acknowledging them otherwife to be very innocent and good people. Particularly Pliny, in his letter to Trajan the Emperor, (who had given him in charge, to make particular inquiry concerning the Chriftians), gives this honourable report of them, that "there was no "fault to be found in them, befides their obftinate re"fufal to facrifice to the gods; that, at their religious 66 meetings, it was an effential part of their worship, to "oblige themfelves, by a folemn facrament, against "murder, and theft, and adultery, and all manner of "wickedness and vice." No Chriftian hiftorian could have given a better character of them than this Heathen writer does. But,

3. The fuccefs of the gofpel will appear yet more ftrange, if we confider the weakness and meanness of the inftruments that were employed in this great work. A company of plain and illiterate men, moft of them deftitute of the advantages of education, went forth upon this great defign, weak and unarmed, unaffifted by any worldly intereft; having no fecular force and power on their fide, to give countenance and authority to them : and this not only at their first setting out, but they re

mained under thefe difadvantages for three ages together.

The first publishers of the Chriftian religion offered violence to no man; did not go about to compel any by force, to entertain the doctrine which they preached, and to lift themselves of their number. They were not attended with legions of armed men, to difpofe men for the reception of their doctrine, by plunder and free-quarter, by violence and tortures. This modern method of converfion was not then thought of. Nor did they go about to attempt and allure men to their way, by the promises of temporal rewards, and by the hopes of riches and honours. Nor did they use any artificial infinuations of wit and eloquence, to gain upon the minds of men, and steal their doctrines into them; but delivered themfelves with the greatest plainnefs and fimplicity; and, without any studied ornaments of speech, or fine arts of perfuafion, declared plainly to them the doctrine and miracles, the life, and death, and refurrection of Jefus Chrift; promifing life and immortality to them that did believe and obey his doctrine, and threatening eternal wo and mifery in another world to the defpifers of it.

And yet these contemptible inftruments, notwithstanding all these disadvantages, did their work effectually, and, by the power of God going along with them, gained numbers every day to their religion, and in a short fpace drew the world after them.

Nor did they only win over the common people, but alfo feveral perfons confiderable for their dignity, and eminent for their learning, who afterwards became zealous afferters of Chriftianity, and were not ashamed to be inftructed in the faving knowledge of the gofpel by fuch mean and unlearned perfons as the Apostles were ; for they faw fomething in them more divine, and which carried with it a greater power and perfuafion, than human learning and eloquence.

4. We will confider the mighty oppofition that was raifed against the gospel. At its first appearance it could not be otherwife, but that it must meet with a great deal of difficulty and oppofition, from the lufts and vices of men, which it did fo plainly and fo feverely declare againft; and likewife from the prejudices of men that had

been

been brought up in a contrary religion; no prejudice being fo Arong as that which is founded in education, and, of all the prejudices of education, none fo obstinate, and so hard to be removed, as thofe about religion, yea, though they be never so abfurd and unreasonable: Hath a nation changed their gods, which yet are no gods? Men are very hardly brought off from the religion which they have been brought up in, how little ground and reafon foever there be for it: the being trained up in it, and having a reverence for it implanted in them in their tender years, fupplies all other defects.

Had men been free and indifferent in religion, when Christianity first appeared in the world; and had they not had their minds prepoffeffed with other apprehenfions of God and religion, and been inured to rites and fuperftitions of a quite different nature from the Chriftian religion; or had they at that time been weary of the fuperftitions of their idolatrous worship, and been inquiring after a better way of religion; then indeed the Chriftian religion had appeared with great advantage, and would in all probability have been entertained with a readiness of mind proportionable to the reasonableness of it. But this was not the cafe. When the doctrine of the gofpel was first published in the world, the whole world, both Jews and Gentiles, were violently prejudiced against it, and fixed in their several religions.

The Jews indeed in former times had been very prone to relinquish the worship of the true God, and to fall into the Heathen idolatry. But after God had punished them severely for that fin, by a long captivity, they continued ever after very strict and firm to the worfhip of the true God; and never were they more tenacious of their religion and law, than at that very time when our Saviour appeared in the world: and though he was foretold in their law, and most particularly defcribed in the authentick books of their religion, the prophets of the Old Teftament; yet, by reafon of certain groundless traditions, which they had received from the interpreters of their law, that their Meffias was to be a great temporal prince, they conceived an invincible prejudice against our Saviour, upon account of the mean circumstances in which he appeared: and upon this prejudice they re

jected

jected him, and put him to death, and perfecuted his followers. And though their religion was much nearer to the Chriftian than any of the Heathen indolatries yet, upon this account of our Saviour's mean appearance, they were much more averfe to the entertainment of it, than the groffeft idolaters among the nations.

;

Not but that their prejudice alfo was very great; the common people being strongly addicted to the idolatry and fuperftitions of their feveral countries; and the wifer, and more learned, whom they called philofophers, were fo puffed up with a conceit of their own knowledge and eloquence, that they defpifed the rudeness and fimplicity of the Apostles, and looked upon their doctrine of a crucified Saviour as ridiculous, and the ftory of his refurrection from the dead as abfurd and impoffible. So St. Paul tells us, that the cross of Chrift was to the Jews a ftumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness.

But, befides the oppofition which the gospel met withal from the lufts and prejudices of men, the powers of the world did likewife ftrongly combine against it. Among the Jews, the chief priests and rulers did, with all their force and malice, endeavour to ftifle it in the birth, and to fupprefs it in its first rise; and several of the Roman Emperors, who were then the great governors of the world, engaged all their authority and their whole ftrength for the extirpation of it; and raised fuch a ftorm of perfecution against it, as swept away greater numbers of mankind, than any famine, or plague, or war, that ever was in the Roman empire: and yet this religion bore up against all this oppofition, and made its way through all the refiftance that the lufts and prejudices of men, armed with the power and authority of the whole world, could make against it. And this brings me to the

5. Fifth and last confideration I mentioned, the great difcouragement that was given to the entrance of this religion.

There was nothing left to invite and engage men to it, but the confideration of another world; for all the evils of this world threatened every one that took the profeffion of Christianity upon him. Whoever was known to be a Chriftian, was liable to reproach and