be believed or done are delivered with fufficient clearness, as a religion which confifts principally in purity of heart, in morality, in goodness, in righteousness, in the love/ of God and of mankind, as a religion in which charity takes the upper hand of faith and hope and knowledge, and is the most excellent of all accomplishments.

Laftly, a life conformable to the religion which we profess, which would do more towards recommending our Christian faith to the bulk of mankind, than all that we can fay in behalf of it. The want of this hath been an impediment to the progress of Christianity, a fcandal and a tumblingblock in the way of unbelievers.

They object to us, that fince we say and do not, either our religion is impracticable, or we believe nothing of it, and by our behaviour acknowledge it to be false..

Ne curiofus quære cauffas omnium,
Quæcunque libris vis Prophetarum indidit
Afflata cœlo, plena veraci Deo
Nec operta facri fupparo filentij
Irrumpere aude, fed prudenter præteri.
Nefcire velle, quæ Magifter optimus
Docere non vult, erudita infcitia eft.

See Whitby on Acts viii. 21. Tit. i, 2,

Jof. Scaliger.

To which we might make more than one reply;

We might say that the heart and the understanding of man are frequently at variance, that he often acts contrary to his judgment and confcience; and therefore it muft not be haftily concluded that he rejects the doctrines which he does not practise.

We might fay that every age which has paffed fince our Saviour's time, efpecially the earliest ages of the Church, afforded eminent examples of Chriftian piety.

We might say that religion is what it is in itself; must stand, if it ftands, by its own intrinsic merit, and by the evidence which accompanies it; that its truth and value is no more leffened by the ill use which men make of it, than the fun ceases to shine when we shut our eyes to his beams.

We might say that Chriftianity, though it produceth not all the happy effects which were to be wifhed, yet prevents and restrains many evils, and is the cause of much good in the world, as we have already fhewed in feveral inftances.

But

But the best anfwer of all would be to forfake our fins and amend our ways; and then our good actions would fpeak for us, and wipe off this imputation caft upon our faith and our religion.

It was a fingular honour and advantage to the cause of Christianity, that its ancient Writers, in their apologies for it, could addrefs themselves to the Romans in fuch words as thefe; We are grown fo many in number, that if we were only to withdraw our felves from your dominions, we should ruin you, you could not fubfift without us. Yet is our innocence as remarkable as our increase. Your jayls fwarm with criminals of your own religion: but you fhall not find there one Chriftian, unless he be there because he is a Chriftian, and purely on account of his faith.

Every one who believes the Gospel, should confider himself as a fubject of Christ's kingdom, and remember that he is not admitted into it to provide only for his own future welfare, and to neglect the interest of the society to which he belongs.

h Tertullian, Minucius Felix, &c.

He

He should account it his duty, his honour, and his happiness, to increase the number of his fellow-fubjects; and to this purpose he should be ready to employ his reputation, his learning, his abilities, his authority, and his fortunes. To turn men from fin to righteoufness, and to enlarge the kingdom of God upon earth, is an office of fuch dignity and importance, that our Lord defcended from heaven to execute it; and bleffed is that fervant, whom, when he cometh, he fhall find to be, or to have been fo occupied.

IV. The

IV.

The fitness of the time when Chrift came into the world.

HERE are many prophecies in the Old Testament relating to the Meffias, fome of which point out a certain time when he should appear.

It was foretold by Haggai and by Malachi that he should come whilst the temple

It may be objected that Chrift came not whilft the fecond temple ftood, but after the third temple had been built by Herod, and that confequently the prophecy of Haggai was not accomplished in him. But the Jews always accounted Herod's temple as the fecond temple, and always called it fo; and what Herod did, might well be deemed rather a repairing and improving of the fecond temple, than the building of a third, because the daily facrifice and the fervice of the temple never ceased during the work, not was it taken down all at once. See the Commentators on Jofephus Ant. XV. 11. Sect. 2. 3. and Grotius on Matt. xxiv. 1. and on Malach. iii, 1. and Le Clerc Hift. Eccl. p. 197.

stood,