SER M. in a condition of yielding to the fincere belief
XVIII. of its doctrines, and hearty practice of its pre-

cepts: And accordingly it is directed to them
in particular; and all others are, as it were,
given over as men of whom there is little
hopes. 1 Cor. i. 26. You fee your calling, bre-
thren, (fays St. Paul) bow that not many wife
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many
noble are called. It is true they are not pe-
remptorily excluded; but however, the Gof-
pel fpeaks of them with a great deal of diffi-
dence, and very little affurance of
little affurance of any fuccefs
upon them. And therefore in James ii. 5.
it is faid, Hath not God chosen the poor of this
world to be heirs of the kingdom? And as it
follows, the rich men blafpheme that worthy
name by which ye are called.

Now this is fo remarkably fact, with refpect to the chriftian religion, that it is become one great argument of its truth and divinity; for among many other things which were foretold of the ftate of the Gofpel, feveral hundred years before it appeared in the world, this was one; and particularly Ifai. xxix. 19. fpeaking of the times of the Gofpel, fays that, the meek fall increase their joy in the Lord, and it is the poor among men fhall rejoice in the boly one of Ifrael. This, as well as all the other circumftances foretold, had a most exact completion; and therefore, when the difciples of John came to ask our Saviour whether he were the Meffias; inftead of a direct anfwer he obferves to them, how the blind receive their

fight, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the deadSER M. are raised up, and the poor have the Gofpel XVIII. preached to them. And accordingly the men our Saviour chofe for his difciples were of mean employs, uneducated, and people of his own humble rank in the world. When he began to preach we find, (Luke vii. 29.) that the multitudes and the publicans heard him; but the Scribes, (i. e.) Lawyers, and the Pharifees rejected the counfel of God towards them; defpifing the doctrine of our Saviour, as they had before done the baptifm of John; infomuch that they themselves used this as a powerful argument against him; have any of the Rulers and the Pharifees believed on him? They were the Scribes (i. e.) Lawyers who came tempting him, and endeavouring to entrap him with infidious queftions: He was condemned by the High-Prieft and council of the Jews; and was at laft crucified by the power of the magistracy.

After he was gone, and the management of affairs was left to his Difciples, the fuccefs was the very fame; great multitudes were converted, but ftill of the meaner fort: And among the Philofophers or Statesmen, the rich

and

great, and wife men of the world, it was only an odd perfon here and there that embraced the Gofpel. The Chriftians were of fo little note that they could not obtain interest enough in the civil power to ftop a perfecution, undertaken upon any frivolous pretence; infomuch that they underwent ten of them fucceffively.

E 2

SER M. fucceffively. And though the number of
XVIII. christians was very great in the world, yet it

was three hundred years before the Gospel
was received at court; and it was no fooner
there but it found the poifon too ftrong for
the cure: It was remarkably corrupted by what
it was defigned to reform; and then began the
Arian herefy, with all its various brood of er-
rors, to infect and rend the church in pieces.
Till then herefy never paft into a law, nor
was fupported by the civil power.
It was
improper to fay the church was corrupted, be-
caufe though there were many hereticks, yet
they were always a fect by themselves; and
the church never failed to ufe that power the
then had of declaring against vice and error;
and purging herself of all infection; and cut-
ting off all unorthodox members, either in
doctrine or practice, from the myftical body
of Chrift.

The governors of the church had not yet

given up that power, derived immediately

from Chrift, into the hands of the civil magiftrate; and betrayed that jurifdiction, in matters purely ecclefiaftical, which they had no power to difpofe of; nor others to receive, or exercise it for them.

Nor doth this faying of our Saviour's refpect only the first times of the Gofpel, but is univerfally true of all ages of the church. It is among the middle and lower rank of people that there is general the truest and most ferious fenfe of religion; and very little of the

true

true zeal and spirit of the Gospel is vifible in SER M. the courts of princes, Wherever there is moft XVIII. of worldly business and grandeur, there religion finds the coolest entertainment: Not but that there are and have been many particular instances of the contrary; but my meaning is the fame with our Saviour's in my text, that this is generally true. And accordingly, the experience of our own age can let us fee plainly, how it is the statesmen, and philofophers, and politicians of the world that flight and difregard the Gofpel; it is the pretended wits of the age who make sport with it; and the refined modifh freethinkers, fubtle reafoners that watch to fpy out fallacies, and would feriously argue it out of the world.

II. I am to enquire into the reason of this, and where the true cause of it lies. And before I come to speak more particularly to this, it will be neceflary to fhew, that it is not any want of evidence, or reasonableness in chriftianity, that occafions this difefteem of it in the opinion of the rich, and great, and cunning men of this world; and which makes it more acceptable to the plainer fort of people. If there could have been a religion more agreeable to the highest reafon of man, we had not had this. The mysteries of our religion are revealed to us by the fame God who gave us our faculties of knowledge; and for him to give us a religion which we cannot entertain without acting in contradiction to these, would be to leave us under a neceflity of disobeying him,

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SER M.him. But if the truths which God hath reXVIII. vealed to us in Chrift be agreeable to the

pureft, and most uncorrupt reafon of men; fo that if they confider them without prejudice, it is impoffible but they must affent to them then they are left without excufe; and the name of God will be juftified in their condemnation, as it will be glorified in the falvation of all those who believe and entertain them heartily.

Now to make it appear that chriftianity is agreeable to the ftricteft and most refined reafon of men, let us fuppofe ourselves in a meer state of nature; the very condition that the enemies of revelation are bringing us to as fast as they can; and then confider what things mankind would wish to be resolved in, and what are the points of greateft concernment to us, about which we fhould be most inquifitive, and which would certainly take up our most anxious thoughts; and we shall find them to be these following.

1. How we came into being; what fort of beings we really are? And what ends we were made for.

2. How mankind came to be corrupted, and in this miferable condition of infirmity. 3. What cure can be found for this corrup→ tion of our natures; to reftore us to health both of body and mind.

4. Whether there be another life after this, 5. What shall be the reward of virtue and the punishment of vice.

6. What