cially from Such as they had no esteem of, no value for. Or their Minds were tainted with an ill-natur'd, and unreafonable Sufpicion, which, from finding out Some Cheats in Religion, led them to pronounce All Religion a Cheat. They had a Talent, perhaps, at Ridiculing ho neft Rules and Maxims, and making Sport with things Sacred and Serious and, therefore, to have own'd any fix'd Scheme of Religious Principles, would have been a mighty Damp to their Imaginations, and have taken away from them the Subject of above half their Wit and Pleafantnefs. Or, Laftly, They were Men of Senfual and Impure Lives, who were refolv'd to make their Opinions and their Pleasures as confiftent as they could; and who therefore were oblig'd, in point of intereft, to disbelieve every thing that made against them.

This is the Short and True Account of the Matter; and will appear to be fo, if we caft our Eyes backward on the Story of the World, and confider, Who they have been, that have rejected the True Religion, all along from the Creation down to this Time.

In the Old World, Noah, Who was the only man that preferv'd the Worship of M 3

the

the True God in his Family, feems to have been an honeft plain-hearted man; Gen. vi. 9. juft and perfect in his Generation, (as he is defcrib'd in Scripture) and walking with God. The Reft of the World are faid to have Eaten and Drunken, to have Married and been given in Marriage, i. e. They were men, who liv'd in all the Enjoyments of Senfe, who revell'd, and took their fill of all the Good things of this World; and, to be fure, were very Merry, and very Bitter upon those who did not. How did they deride that Grave Preacher of Righteousness, and his Precife Family, when He and his Sons talk'd to them of Righteoufnefs, Temperance and Judgment! efpecially, when he told them that there was Such a Flood coming, and that he was building That Ark to preferve himself and his Houfhold, what a Jeft was he to the Men of Parts and Pleasure! How many Scornful and Gay things were faid upon this Occafion,while the Work went forward, by Thofe, who thought themfelves very Wife, and Him very Foolish! But the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up, and the Windows of Heaven open'd; and Then they began to change their Opinions, when (alas!) it was too late to learn.

In the next great Period after the Flood, the true Religion was confin'd to the fingle Nation of the Jews and one may think it ftrange, at firft fight, that, if it were the True Religion, it fhould be fo confin'd; that the wife and knowing part of Mankind fhould not difcern the ftrength of the Evidence that was brought for the Divine Original of the Law of Mofes, nor receive the God of Ifrael for Their God. But, if We confider a little farther, we shall be satisfied, that the true reason of Mens Infidelity, throughout this long Period of time, was, a Mean and Contemptuous Notion they had entertain❜d of the Jewish People, and of their Rites and Ceremonies. The Wife Men of the Eaft, in the Earliest Ages, and the Philofophers of the Weft, in Later Times, had too high an Opinion of themselves, and too low an one of that Little, Narrow-foul'd, Superftitious Nation, to fubmit themselves to be taught by them. The Jews were a Proverb and a By-word to the rest of the World, the perpetual Subject of their Scorn and Reproach: And who can think (may we fuppofe one of those Wife Heathens to have faid) that Truth fhould lie hid among fuch an Odd fort of People, in fuch a little Spot of the World?

M 4

And

And thus, again, when Chriftianity firft appear'd, it made no great Progress among the Difputers of this World, among the Men of Wit and Subtlety, for this very Reason; because they were Scorners. The Gospel was to the Jews (to the most Learned and Proud Sect among 1 Cor. 1. the Jews, the Pharifees) a Stumbling-block; and to thofe of higheft Repute among the Greeks, foolishness. The Great pretenders to knowledge every where unanimously contemn'd and derided it, as a poor and low Syfteme of Principles; and could never once think of humbling their minds, to entertain the Simplicity of the Gofpel.

23.

How fhould the Great Lords of the Earth, who fwarm in all the Delights of Senfe, and thought themfelves born to enjoy them, fubmit to be talk'd out of their Pleafures and their Privileges by a few Ignorant Fishermen, and Tentmakers? The Story of the Propagation of the Gofpel in Jewry, might perhaps make a part of the Converfation in the Court of Tiberius; it was, probably, fuch a Subject of Difcourfe to Them, as the Quietifts in Italy were to Us, at their firft appearing. The Novelty of the thing might occafion fome Reflections, and

En

Enquiries but it was not to be expected, that Men of Pleasure and Parts fhould give themselves the Trouble of Examining nicely into the Pretenfions with which this New Religion fet up, or of confidering, in good Earneft, whether they ought to become Profelytes to it.

We are not to wonder, therefore, if, in fome Ages after Chriftianity, we find not much faid to the advantage of it, in the Writings of thofe Eminent Greeks and Romans, who are allow'd to have been the best Masters of Polite Thought and Expreffion. Alas! Porphyry must have been contented to confefs the Vanity of Philofophy, and Lucian muft in great measure have foregone his Skill in Satyr; The Witty Libertines of thofe Times must have parted with much of the Efteem they had, and with most of their Pleasures, if they had once admitted the Truth of Chriftianity: and, therefore, they agreed in running down the Reputation of That, left they fhould lose their Qwn.

And, as it was immediately after our Saviour's coming, fo hath it been ever fince, to this very day. The Doctrines of the Crofs have never in any Age met, nor will they ever in any future Age

meet