tunity,) He taught them Prayer and Watchfulness, as the beft Antidotes against the Prevalency of Temptation; for that the Spirit in- Mat. 16, deed was willing, but the Flesh was weak. When 41, he faw Self-Conceit, or an over-weening Opinion of his own mighty Courage had fired Peter; He taught him to think more meanly and foberly of himself, telling him that in Spite of all his Forwardnefs, he would deny him (his Mafter) thrice before the Cock fhould crow twice: And when he faw the fame Difciple, in a wild Fit of irregular Paffion, draw his Sword, and fmite off Malchus's Ear; He feverely reprov'd the rafh Action, both by his Words, and by the miraculous Healing of the Wound, and taught him Submiffion to all the Determinations of Divine Providence, by commanding him to put up his Sword into its Sheath, and fhewing him the Folly and Ex-John 18. travagance of his Attempt, tho' on Pretence to lo, II. fave his Mafter.

As he thus watch'd the firft Inclinations in his Difciples to Sin; fo they after his Example, were as careful, to inculcate the fame Rules of Innocence and Piety into thofe,among whom they preach'd; and oppos'd, efpecially, thofe particular Sins, to which the Genius of any People feem'd to biafs them, as might be eafily evidenced from feveral Paffages in the Apoftolical Epiftles. The Lives and Examples of the Apofiles themselves,and of all Chriftians generally in the firft Ages of the Church, were wonderfully edifying to one another, and to all thofe, who began to turn their Faces toward the Heavenly Jerufalem; and they were furprizingly miraculous to the Neighbouring

Hea

Ifa. 45. 19.

Heathens, who had never feen, (however they might talk of them) any fuch prodigious Examples of a fublime Virtue among all their moft eminent Philofophers or moft Romantick Heroes, as they faw every Day in the meaneft, and outwardly moft defpicable Profeffors of Chriftianity. Now, after all this Care taken, by our Lord and his Apoftles, to correct the Exorbitances of corrupted Nature, what can be imagined more affrontive to the great God of Heaven and Earth, than a direct and impious Oppofition to thofe very Commands,which were offer'd to reclaim them, and in Obedience to which only, they could poffibly be made Partakers of eternal Happiness? What can be more provoking, than to dafh continually repeated and aggravated Sins in the very Eyes of that Being, whofe infinite Purity cannot endure to behold Sin or Iniquity? By what Means can we more effectually deny his Divine Nature, or Veracity, than by following a finful Courfe of Life, and in a Manner challenging him to punish us, if he can ?

God has promis'd Happinefs to all fuch, as follow Virtue and univerfal Goodnefs diligently and fincerely: Is not Happiness, Happiness both present and future, very defirable? Or is he, who has promis'd it, unable to perform his Word? The Prophets then of old, were ftrangely mistaken, when in his Name, they challenged all the cavilling World to fhew any one, to whom he had ever said, Seek ye my Face in vain! He has threatned Vengeance Temporal, Spiritual and Eternal, to obftinate Sinners: Is he too weak to punish his Enemies? Is not Vengeance in his Hand, that he may repay it?

Or

Or are his Menaces only Shams and idle Sto ries, invented to aw Fools with? To deny his Power, to blefs or damn, is to deny his God head or his Exiftence: To deny his Intention to perform either what he threatens or what he promises, is to make that God, whofe very Effence is Truth, a Liar. Now let us reprefent Antichrift under never fo horrid a Figure to our felves; none live more Antichriftian Lives, than those who defy the Laws of Chrift, and to the utmost of their Powers invalidate that great End of his Incarnation, which was to reform Mens Lives, and to put them into proper Methods of obtaining real and folid Happiness. And of thefe kinds of Antichrifts, what prodigious Numbers have we now in the World Nay, what amazing Multitudes have we in these Nations? And fince we became the Habitations of Ziim and Fjim, of Owls and Ifa. 13.21. Satyrs, and every unclean Bird and Beaft, how do 34.14. they every Day, increase upon us? Men tell us of the Antichriftianifm of Rome, the Barbarifm prevailing among the Followers of Muhammed, and the Abfurdities of Paganifm, and how oppofite all these are to the Religion of Chrift Jefus O that Men would but once look impartially at home, try and examine their own Practices by the Standard of the Gofpel, and fee how many of the Brats of Antichrift they are encompass'd with on every Side, and what an Antichriftian Spirit has poffefs'd their own Bofoms! O that they would but feriously try, to rid themselves of those inborn Monsters, and then they might with fome greater Appearance of Reason cry out against others, who are fuppos'd to lie under

the

the fame Disease! It is a common Trick of thofe, who have just committed a Murder themfelves, to cry out firft, and put their Neighbours into a Hurry, to find out the Murderer, that by the Apparency of their Zeal, they may avert all Sufpicion from their own Heads. It is a Trick as commonly experimented by others too, to fly out against Antichrift, against the Man of Sin, meaning all along the Roman Pope, to terrify us with the Apprehenfions of his extraordinary Politics and Induftry to recover his Intereft among us: Not that they really fear or regard any fuch Thing, unless it be to help him forward; but only that their cwn monftrous Vices and Antichriftian Defigns may pafs the more unfufpected, as well as undifcover'd, in the Interim: Let but our own Crimes be detected, abdicated, abjur'd, and the Kingdom of Antichrift and his Hopes will foon be intirely ruined.

2. Thofe, who deny the Incarnation of the Son of God, in Terms, or that our Lord Jefus is the Chrift, thofe are certainly Deceivers and Antichrifts in the moft Literal Sense of the Word; they are the Perfons, with whom our Apoftle principally contends in this Epiftle, and elfewhere: For in the Days of the Apoftles themselves, there were a Generation of Men, who in Spite of all antient Prophefies, in fpite of all the concurrent inftant Expectation of the longing World, and in Spite of all the most notorious Evidences to the contrary, would take upon them to perfuade the World, that the Meffias fo long promis'd, was not yet come; and in this Error, many, both Jews and Gentiles frequently fell: For, tho' the Pagan World

World were very fenfible of the prefent Neceffities of Mankind, and did believe they required the Affiftance of fome extraordinary Mediator between God and Man; yet they were very much fcandalized at the Meannefs of the outward Appearance of the Son of God: They thought it more reasonable to believe, that thofe Roman Emperors, the Extent of whose Command and Power made them fo very confiderable in the World, fhould be the Deliverers of the languifhing Univerfe, than the Son of a Carpenter; a Jew; one horn among a People, defpis'd by all the reft of the World: And yet, all the Splendor of a Roman Emperor no not that of Auguftus himself, could ever dazzle them enough to make them take him for the Meffias: Therefore they required: and look'd for fomething greater yet, and fome Perfon poffeffed of a more abfolute and univerfal Sovereignty. By this grofs Opinion they deceived themselves and others, and counter-charged one another with fuch extreme Prejudices as were almoft invincible.

"

Again, tho' the Jews, who were more immediately concern'd, had fo many and fo plain Prophecies, to lead them by the Hand to the finding out of the Meffias, yet they alfo were poffefs'd with Heathen Prejudices, and their Meffias too must be fome great and powerful Temporal Prince, or nothing. Worldly Greatnefs is very apt to dazzle carnal Eyes: And in fuch a Cafe, fome may look upon a Herod, who governs a Nation with all the unrelenting Rigours of inhuman Tyranny, as one likely to prove their Saviour and Redeemer. Yet the Jews, tho' diligent enough in perufing the Law and the Prophets, had never found any fuch

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