communications of his grace and Spirit which he afforded to the first ages of Christianity. I have infifted the longer upon this, that men may fee what effects Christianity hath had upon the lives of men, by which we may fee the proper nature and efficacy of it; and withal may not wonder fo much that it hath not the fame effects now: Though it be matter of great fhame to us, that they are fo vaftly difproportionable to what they were at first. 2. Though the difproportion be very great between the effects of Christianity at first, and what it hath now upon the lives of men; yet we ought not to deny, but it hath ftill fome good effects upon mankind; and it is our great fhame and fault that it hath no better. If we will fpeak juftly of things, as to the general civility of life and manners, freedom from tyranny, and barbaroufnefs, and cruelty, and fome other enormous vices; yea and as to the exemplary piety and virtue of great numbers of particular perfons of feveral nations, there is no comparison between the general ftate of Christendom, and the Pagan and Mahometan parts of the world. Next to Christianity, and the law of Mofes, (which was confined to one nation) philofophy was the moft likely inftrument to reform mankind that hath been in the world; and it had very confiderable effects upon fome particular perfons; both as to the rectifying of their opinions, and the reforming of their lives: but upon the generality of mankind it did very little in either of thefe refpects, efpecially as to the rectifying of the abfurd and impious opinions of the people concerning God, and their fuperftitious worship of the Deity. Whereas the Chriftian religion did univerfally, wherever it came, fet men free from those grofs impieties and fuperftitions, and taught men to worfhip the only true God in a right manner. Though we must confefs, to the eternal reproach of the Chriftian religion, that the western church hath degenerated fo far, that it feems to be in a great meafure relapfed into the ignorance and fuperftition of Paganifm; out of which degeneracy, that God hath refcued us, as we have infinite caufe to adore his goodness, fo we have all the reafon in the world to dread and deteft a return into this fpiritual Egypt, this house of darknefs and bondage, and the bringing of our necks again under that yoke, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear. ge So that you fee that there are ftill very confiderable effects of the Chriftian religion in the world, yea and I doubt not but in thofe places where it is moft corrupted and degenerated; because they ftill retain the effential doctrines of Chriftianity, which have not quite loft their force, notwithstanding the many errors and corruptions that are mixed with them. And as God knows, and every man fees it, that the nerality of Chriftians are very bad, notwithstanding all the influence of that excellent religion which they profefs; yet I think it is very evident, men would be much worfe without it. For though very many who have entertained the principles of Chriftianity are very wicked in their lives; yet many are otherwife: and thofe that are bad have this advantage by their religion, that it is in its nature apt to reduce and recover men from a wicked courfe, and fometimes does whereas the cafe of thofe perfons would have been defperate, were it not for thofe principles of religion which were implanted in them by Chriftian education; and though they were long fupprefs'd, yet did at laft awaken them to a confideration of their condition, and proved the happy means of their recovery. 3. I will not deny but there are fome perfons as bad, nay perhaps worfe, that have been bred up in the Chriftian religion, than are commonly to be found in the darkness of Paganifm; for the corruption of the best things is the worst, and thofe who have refifted fo great a light as that of the gospel is, are like to prove the most defperately wicked of all others. There is nothing that men make worfe ufe of, than of light and liberty, two of the best and most plea fant things in the world. Knowledge is many times abused to the worft purpofe, and liberty into licen tioufnefs and fedition; and yet no man for all that thinks ignorance defirable, or would wish a perpe tual tual night and darkness to the world; and conclude from the inconveniencies of abufed liberty, that the beft ftate of things would be, that the generality of mankind fhould be all flaves to a few, and be perpetually chained to the oar, or condemned to the mines. There are many times as bad confequences of good things, as of bad: but yet there is a great difference between good and bad for all that. As knowledge and liberty, fo likewife the Chriftian religion is a great happiness to the world in general, though fome are fo unhappy as to be the worfe for it; not because religion is bad, but because they are fo. 4. If religion be a matter of mens free choice, it is not to be expected that it fhould neceffarily and conftantly have its effects upon men; for it works upon us not by way of force or natural neceffity, but of moral perfuafion. If religion, and the grace of God which goes along with it, did force men to be good and virtuous, and no man could be fo unless he were thus violently forced, then it would be no virtue in any man to be good, nor any crime and fault to be otherwife. For then the reason why fome men were good, would be because they could not help it; and others bad, because the grace of God did not make them good whether they would or not. But religion does not thus work upon men. It directs men to their duty by the fhortest and plainest precepts of a good life; it perfuades men to the obedience of thefe precepts, by the promises of eternal happinefs, and the threatenings of eternal mifery in cafe of obftinate disobedience; it offers us the assistance of God's Holy Spirit, to help our weakness, and enable us to that, for which we are not fufficient of ourfelves But there is nothing of violence or neceffity in all this. After all, men may disobey thefe precepts, and not be perfuaded by thefe arguments, may not make use of this grace which God offers, may quench and refift the Holy Ghost, and reject the counJel of God against themselves. And the cafe being thus, it is no wonder, if the temptations of this prefent world prevail upon the vicious inclinations of men : against against their duty, and their true intereft; and confequently, if the motives and arguments of the Chrifti an religion have not a conftant and certain effect on a great part of mankind. Not but that Chriftianity is apt to bring men to goodness; but fome are fo obftinately bad, as not to be wrought upon by the most powerful confiderations it can offer to them. up 5. It cannot be denied, but that Chriftianity is as well framed to make men good, as any religion can be imagined to be; and therefore wherever the fault be, it cannot be in the Chriftian religion, that we are not good. So that the bad lives of Chriftians are no fufficient objection either against the truth or goodnefs of the Christian doctrine. Befides the confirma tion that was given to it by miracles, the excellency of the doctrine, and its proper tendency to make men holy and virtuous, are a plain evidence of its divine and heavenly original. And furely the goodness of any religion confifts in the fufficiency of its precepts: to direct men to their duty; in the force of its arguments to perfuade men to it; and the fuitableness of its aids and helps to enable us to the difcharge and performance of it. And all thofe advantages the Chriftian religion hath above any religion or inftitution that ever was in the world. The reasonable and plain rules of a good life are no where fo perfectly collected, as in the difcourfes of our bleffed Saviour and his Apoftles. No religion ever gave men fo full affurance of the mighty rewards and punishments of another world; nor fuch gracious promifes of divine affiftance, and fuch evidence of it, efpecially in the piety, and virtue, and patience, and felfdenial of the primitive Chriftians, as the doctrine of God our Saviour hath done, which teacheth men to deny ungodliness and worldly lufts, and to live foberly, and righteously, and godly in this prefent world, in contemplation of the bleffed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God, and our Saviour Jefus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. 6. And lastly, after all that hath or can be faid, it must be acknowledged, and ought fadly to be lamented by us, that the wicked lives of Chriftians are a marvellous fcandal and reproach to our holy religion,. and a great obftacle to the spreading of it in the world, and a real objection against it to prejudiced perfons, with whom it doth juftly bring into doubt the goodnefs and efficacy of the inftitution itself, to fee how little effect it hath upon the hearts and lives of men. It is hard for a man to maintain the reputation of an excellent mafter in any kind, when all the world fees that most of his fcholars prove dunces. Whatever commendation may be given to any art or fcience, men will question the truth and reality of it, when they fee the greatest part of those who profefs it, not able to do any thing answerable to it. The Chriftian religion pretends to be an art of ferving God more decently and devoutly, and of living better than other men; but if it be fo, why do not the profeffors of this excellent-religion fhew the force and virtue of it in their lives? And though I have fufficiently fhewn, that this is not enough to overthrow the truth, and difparage the excellency of the Chriftian doctrine; yet it will certainly go a great way with prejudiced perfons, and it cannot be expected otherwife.. So that we have infinite reason to be ashamed, that there is fo plain a contrariety between the laws of Christianity, and the lives of the greatest part of Chriftians; fo notorious and palpable a difference between. the religion that is in the Bible, and that which is to be feen and read in the converfations of men. Who that looks upon the manners of the prefent age, could believe, (if he did not know it) that the holy and pure doctrine of the Chriftian religion had ever been fo much as heard, much lefs pretended to be entertained and believed among us? Nay among those who seem to make a more ferious profeffion of religion, when we confider how ftrangely they allow themselves in malice and envy, in paffion, and anger, and uncharitable cenfures, and evil speaking, in fierce contentions and animofities; who would believe that the great inftrument of these mens |