LXXIV. SERM. 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 argument then, in the circumftances in which the primitive Chriftians were: for christianity was a hated and perfecuted profeffion : no man could then have any inducement to embrace it, unless he were refolved to practise it, and live according to the rules of it; for it offered men no rewards and advantages in this world; but on the contrary threatned men with the greatest temporal inconveniencies and fufferings, and it promifed no happinefs to men in the other world upon any other terms, than of "denying ungodlinefs and wordly lufts," and of "living foberly, righteously, and godly in "this prefent world." And befides this confideration, we have the best teftimony in the world of their unblameable lives; viz. the testimony 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 enquiry concerning the Chriftians) gives this honourable report of them, That there was no fault to be found in them, befides their obftinate refufal to facrifice to the gods; that at their religious meetings it was an effential part of their worship to oblige themselves by a folemn facrament, against murder, and theft, and adultery, and all manner of wickednefs 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 weaknefs and meannefs of LXXIV. of the inftruments that were employed in this great SER M. work. A company of plain and illiterate men, most of them destitute of the advantages of education, went forth upon this great design, weak and unarmed, unaffisted 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 fetting out, but they remained 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 themfelves of their number; they were not attended with legions of armed men, to dispose 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 tempt and allure men to their way, by the promises of temporal rewards, and by the hopes of riches and honours; nor did they ufe any artificial infinuations of wit and eloquence, to gain upon the minds of men, and steal their doctrines into them; but delivered themselves 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 JESUS CHRIST, promifing life and immortality- to them that did believe and obey his doctrine, and threatning eternal woe 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, SERM. them, gained numbers every day to their religion, and in a short space "drew the world after them." LXXIV. Nor did they only win over the common people, but also several perfons confiderable for their dignity, and eminent for their learning, who afterwards became zealous affertors of christianity, and were not ashamed to be instructed in the faving knowledge of the gospel, 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 raised against the gofpel. At its firft appearance it could not be otherwise, 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 brought up in a contrary religion; no prejudice being so strong, as that which is founded in education; and of all the prejudices of education, none is fo obftinate and fo 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 reason 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 LXXIV. from the chriftian religion; or had they at that time SER M. been weary weary of the fuperftitions of their idolatrous worship, and been enquiring after a better way of religion; then indeed the christian religion had appeared with great advantage, and would in all probability have been entertained with a readiness of mind proportionable to the reasonablenefs 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 feveral 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 feverely for that fin, by a long captivity; they continued ever after, very strict and firm to the worship 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 described, in the authentic books of their religion, the prophets of the old teftament; yet by reason 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 circumftances in which he appeared; and upon this prejudice they rejected 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 idolatries ; 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. VOL. V. S Not SERM. us, Not but that their prejudice alfo was very great; the common people being ftrongly addicted to the idolatry and fuperftitions of their feveral countries; and the wifer, and more learned (whom they called philofophers) were fo puft up, with a conceit of their own knowledge and eloquence, that they despised the rudeness and fimplicity of the apostles, and looked upon their doctrine of a crucified SAVIOUR, as ridiculous, and the story of his refurrection from the dead as abfurd and impoffible. So St. Paul tells "that the cross of CHRIST was to the Jews a ftumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishnefs." But befides the oppofition which the gospel met withal, from the lufts and prejudices of men, the powers of the world did likewife ftrongly combinet against it. Among the Jews, the chief priests and rulers did, with all their force and malice, endeavour to stifle it in the birth, and to fuppress it in its first rife; 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 such a storm 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. And laft confideration I mentioned, the great discouragement 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 الله |