Common

of Bravery, and countenanced by the Philofopers. Vid. Sen. de Ira. Lib. 3. Cap. 15. Plin. Nat. Hift. Lib. 2. Cap. 63.

Common Swearing is forbidden by our Religion, and Swearing. difcountenanced by all good Men of our Faith, and the moftWicked are not fo impudent as to use it in their serious Difcourfe or their Writings; but among the Hea thens it was used by the most fober Men, for vai Ad, and Mehercule, to fwear by Jupiter and Hercules, is the ufual Phrafe of Socrates, Plato, and Cicero ; to fpeak nothing of Epicurus, whofe Books are noted to be filled with unhallowed Oaths.

Expofing
Children.

Unjust Wars.

Luxurious
Living.

In all Places where Chriftianity has Footing, Men have a Tenderness for their Children, and take Care to educate them as well as they can, tho' to their own Detriment; but among the ancient Heathens it was a common Thing to throw their Children, when born, into the next Ditch they met with, and leave who chanced to find them to take Care of them.

Tho' the Arms of Chriftian Princes cannot always be excufed, yet none of them have ever had the Confidence, as the old Heathens had, bare-facedly to proclaim War for Honour and Glory's Sake. No Prince among us ever went to butcher fo many Countries as Alexander did, only to wear Garlands; or as the Romans did, to have the Glory of a Triumph; who, as one obferves, if they fhould have reftored again what they had unjustly got, must have been reduced to their Roulean Cottages. And I am fure none of our Divines ever ftated the Cafe as Tully did, That Wais for Glory's Sake were not abfolutely unlawful, but only mitius gerenda funt, they are not to be carried on with fuch Cruelty as others.

The most prodigal among us are foberly parfimonious, if compared with thofe mad Exceffes in the Way of Living among the ancient Romans; if we confider what prodigious Quantities of Money were expended in making Shews for the People, in Largitions, in building Baths, Amphitheatres, and the like; if we recollect, how fome of them have made Suppers that coft the Revenue of Pro

vinces, that pounded ineftimable Jewels to drink their Miftreffes and Lovers Healths; that Heliogabalus exhibited a naval Fight in the Amphitheatre, and made all the Ships fail and contend in Wine, and that he made a Dish of the Brains only of fix hundred Oftriches; that fo confiderable a Fellow as fop the Tragedian, who had got an Estate by Stage-playing, made a Dish of a hundred of the rareft Singing-Birds which imitated Man's Voice, which coft fix thoufand Sefterces a Piece; fo that the whole Dish ftood him in of our English Money four thousand feven hundred and forty eight Pound.

We live indeed in a very vitious Age, in which Sen- Enormo:t fuality does highly abound among Chriftians: But if you Lufts. confider the Lives of the ancient Heathen, or even Mahometans and Idolaters now-a-days, our Vices are no Ways comparable to their fcandalous Turpitudes. The Greeks and Germans used mafculine Venery, as one of the laudable Customs of their Country*; and in Egypt the more common a Whore was, the more honourable, and for this Reason was allowed to wear a welspúgiov, or a Garland of Honour upon her Head. In fhort, the Chriftian World: has indifputably gained fo much of Virtue by the Means of the Gospel, that many of thofe abominable Lufts which were generally practifed by the Heathens, as appears by their Authors, have never been heard of by the Generality of the most lewd and debauched Chriftians.

And lastly, I obferve that before Christianity there was No devout hardly any fuch Thing as a confcientious and devout Wor- Worfit. fhip of God, or even of their own Deities. They never prayed to God for Virtues and Graces, but only for Riches, Honours, or Children, or the like. Their Prayers were generally fuch as the Woman's in Juvenal;

Formam optat modico pueris, majore puellis

Murmure, cum Veneris fanum videt anxia Mater,
Ufque ad delicias votorum-

-Juv. Sat. 10.

Cor. Nepot. Vit. Alcib. Sext. Emp. Hyp. Lib. 3. Cap. 24.

The

The anxious Dame to Venus Temple hies,
And for fine Boys fhe moderately cries:
But for fair Girls her Voice is higher rais'd;

Eager, and with her bare Petitions please. Sam. Zaton.

And all their Sacrifices, which we have an Account of were only defign'd to bribe the Gods, to procure them a Victory, or fome fuch temporal Advantage, or elfe to return them Thanks for the fame.

Orandum eft, ut fit mens fana in corpore fano, was rather a philofophical Thought, than the Practice either of the Multitude, or the Philofophers themselves; and it was never known that ever Men met together in Affemblies, or ufually prayed to God in private, for any Bleffings of this Nature, but under a revealed Institution.

So that upon the whole, Sir, you fee, that natural Re ligion, as it is the Refult of Reafon only, is a Rule of Morals miferably defective. For how strangely at a Lofs muft the poor common People be, to get a Knowledge of a great Part of their Duty, which the most fagacious and learned Philofophers blundered at? Or how fhall we think that natural Religion is fufficient to regulate the Lives of ignorant and barbarous People, which the World is for the most Part made up of; when two fuch knowing Nations, as the Greeks and Romans, were fo fcandaloufly mistaken in it? Make the beft of natural Religion you can, it will be at leaft but a Candle to the Sun, in Refpec of the Knowledge which our Chriftian Revelation affords for under the Gofpel our very Women and Children, and the ordinarieft of our Catechumens, are more knowing in moral Duties, and more right in their Notions of the Na ture and Attributes of God, than the Sages of old were, after a Life fpent in the Porch or the Garden: And tell me any Philofopher that has bravely defied Death; and we will with infinite Advantage on our Side, confront him with whole Armies of Chriftian Martyrs.

Phil. This is brave, pofitive, tearing Stuff, for a Parfon to talk to a bigoted Auditory, where there is no Fear of being contradicted; but I can never believe, that God fhould give fuch an imperfect Law, which you would "ake of the natural one, to the Generality of Mankind, and put no Body of all the vaft Swarms in the Gentile World in Hopes of Salvation, but only fome few Chriftians for their believing in Jefus Chrift. God Almighty, I am fure, is a kind and merciful Father, and contrives the greatest Good for all his Creatures, which they are capable of; and therefore whereas all the Gentile Nations have immortal Souls, and are capable of everlasting Felicity, it can never be fuppofed, but that in this World they are in the Way to Salvation; and that the Law that is given them, which can be none but the natural one, is fufficient to attain it by: So that if this be fufficient to carry them to Heaven, you may banter what you please about the Imperfection of it. For my Part, I am for going thi ther the nearest Way, and that is by natural Religion: I am not for Coasting about to take in Ceremonies and long Articles of Faith, to no Purpofe. Either God Almighty has damned all the Heathen World, that practifed natural Religion, which none but a Popish or a Calvinistical Cruelty can affert; or I, who am for the fame natural Religion, am in as comfortable a Way of Salvation, as e'er a Gospeller of you all.

modern

thens.

Cred. I think, Sir, you conclude a little too faft, when God more you fay, that you modern Theifts are in as good Hopes fevere to of everlafting Happiness, as the old Heathen; for I take Theifts, your Cafes to be very different. They, poor People, ne- than anci ver were in a Capacity of receiving the glad Tidings of ent Hea the Gofpel, or they were poffeffed with fuch invincible Prejudices of Education under a fuperftitious Worship, that they could not receive the bleffed Seed to Improvement; which, without all Doubt, God will make great Allowances for. But the Perfons of your Way, after having received the Seed of God's Word, have trampled upon it; you have feen the Light of the Gofpel, and fhut your Eyes upon it; you have turned Renegadoes to

your

Heathens

Heaven.

your bleffed Redeemer, and perfidiously deferted his Inftitution, which in your Baptifm you fwore to live and die under. So that you are strangely mistaken, to think that your Condition hereafter will be as good as the old Pagans. Your Cafes are as wide, as thofe of Foreigners and Domestick Rebels, in a Civil War; their Obedience was not expected by Chrift, but you have traiteroufly deferted him, and fought against him, contrary to your fworn Allegiance. So that whatever Mercy they may find at God's Hand, you can expect nothing but the utmoft Severity.

And then as for the Cafe of the Heathens, which you do not go to would willingly skreen your felves under; tho' I cannot be fo uncharitable as to think, that all they are concluded under eternal Damnation, for not being of a Religion they never heard of; yet I can fee no Grounds to believe they fhall ever be Heirs of our Chriftian Salvation, or that State of Glory which Chrift has promised to his Followers. To be faved, or to partake of whatsoever Glories are comprehended under that Name, is the peculiar Privilege of us Chriftians; for the Scripture fays plainly, there is no other Name given under Heaven, by which we may expect Salvation, but only the Name of our Lord Jefus Chrift; that no Man cometh to the Father but by him; that God added to the Church fuch as should be faved, and the like. So that a Heathen has no more Title or Probability to be faved, than I have to be a Nobleman of Venice. Becaufe Salvation, as I obferved, is the peculiar Chriftian State of Glory, that Place which our Saviour fays he is gone to prepare for us, John xiv. 3. So that, tho' the Heathen may probably have other Places, or States of Glory, ours does not belong to them. Nay, it is hardly reconcileable with the diftributive Juftice of God, to advance unregenerate Heathens to the fome State of Happiness, as thofe that are redeemed by the Eicod of his Son, baptifed into his Crofs, have partaken of his Sufferings, and have denied and mortified the deareft of their Affections in Obedience to his Commands.

But