of his ftation, can deliver his brother, or himself from death, or make agreement unto God for him: for it coft more to redeem their fouls, fo that he must let that alone for ever.. Therefore he who can heal all fickneffes and difeafes by fpeaking a word, who can reftore the dead to life, who can confer the fame power upon others, who can deliver himself from the grave, is as much fuperior to the rich, the rulers, and the heroes of the world, as the heavens are above the earth.

If he had appeared in power and fplendor, if he had fubdued vice by force of arms, and established his kingdom upon earth, and ruled over the willing nations, giving them just and holy laws, and taking innocence and virtue under his protection, fuch an enterprize, fo accomplished, had indeed been great and glorious; but as in this cafe the means would have been proportionate to the end, it would have been nothing when compared with the deliverance which he wrought, and the victories which he gained, not by human means, nor by worldly wisdom, but by a most wonderful and unparallelled method,

by

by fubmitting to poverty and contempt, by avoiding honours, by fuffering indignities, by dying upon the crofs, by fending out at few ignorant and obscure men, who with no other arms than patience and meekness, and with no other art than speaking the truth, though oppofed by the learned and the mighty, introduced a religion which spread itself through the world.

The national religion of the Heathen, and their idolatrous worship, as established by their laws and customs, and received by the vulgar, was so strange, abfurd and inconfiftent, befides its variety in different countries, that it is not eafy to give an account of it. But briefly, and in general, it seems to have been founded on these fuppofitions:

That there were many Gods, one of whom was fuperior to the rest;

That they were all concerned in the government of the world, and could do good or hurt to men, as they were difpofed;

That they were far fuperior to men in power and knowledge, as alfo that they were immortal, but that elfe

• The inferior deities.

о

they had

like

like paffions with men, were capricious, revengeful, and easily provoked;

That they only expected to have magnificent temples built for them, adorned with rich gifts, ftatues erected and facrifices of fered to them, hymns fung in their praise, perfons dedicated to their fervice, feasts and folemnities kept in honour of them, that whofoever paid them this outward respect was religious, fo that religion and virtue were two things. Add to this that fome

P Pulchre obfervat Sam. Pufendorfius Introd. ad Hiftor. Part. I. c. 12. § 2. apud Ethnicos veteres nullas fuiffe facras conciones five publicos cœtus, in quibus populus de religione fua inftitueretur, et de virtute ac pietate colenda admoneretur: fed maximam partem cultus Deorum conftitiffe facrificiis cerimoniifque et dierum feftorum folennitate, quæ tamen ludis potius et luxu quam divinarum rerum contemplatione et pietatis exercitatione, obibatur. Ita ut ex ejufmodi religione Ethnica neque per vitam erudiri homo in cognitione Numinis, neque inflammari ad pietatem, neque in morte folatium ac fpem de meliore vita concipere poffet. Quo magis agnofcenda eft nostra Chriftianorum felicitas, &c. Fabricius, Bibliogr. Antiq. p. 379. The Emperor Julian was fenfible of this defect in Paganism, and intended to redress it, as I observe in another place.

a Justin xxi. 3. Eufebius de Vit. Conft. III. 55, 58. Orat. de Laud. Conft. 9. 13. Socrates Hift. Eccl. III. z. Clemens Alex. Cohort. iii. p. 36. Le Clerc on Exod. xxxiv. 15. Whitby on Ephef. v. 4.

folemn rites confifted in cruel, impure, or indecent actions.

The Gentiles, though they had for the most part mean and falfe notions of religion, were more wicked than ignorant. We need not appeal to the testimony of the first Christians and to the Epiftles of St. Paul for the truth of this: The Heathen writers, their poets, philofophers, and hiftorians have left fad descriptions or fcandalous proofs of the extreme corruption of the age in which they lived. Such a degeneracy amongst the Gentiles would probably produce in them a diflike of a pure and holy religion, of the difagreeable truths which opposed their favourite inclinations, and of those troublefome reformers who undertook to fhew them the neceffity of breaking off their bad courfes.

Seneca de Benef. I. 9. Velleius Paterculus, speaking of the Profcription under the Triumvirate, fays, Notandum eft fuiffe in profcriptos uxorum fidem fummam, libertorum mediam, fervorum aliquam, filiorum nullam: a remarkable proof, if it be true, of the bad education and horrible debauchery of the Roman youth. Seneca de Clem. I. 23. obferves that in the reign of Claudius, in the fpace of five years, more parricides were condemned and punished than had ever been known in all past ages.

The

The philofophers and other learned Pagans fcorned, no less than the Jewish teachers, to be inftructed by poor and obfcure and illiterate men; and as the Jews objected that none of their rulers believed in Chrift, fo the Gentiles observed with great contempt, that the firft profelytes to Christianity were chiefly of the lower fort.

The philofophers and the more learned amongst the Gentiles might be ranked under three forts;

Such as worshipped one fupreme God, and many inferior who under him governed the world;

Such as thought there was no knowledge and certainty;

Such as believed no God, or no providence.

Their pride and high opinion of themfelves would not fuffer them to condefcend to be taught by men of no reading and learning, and their firm adherence to their feveral fects, for which they were remark-· able, made them obftinate in resisting the best arguments. There were in particular two or three notions much prevailing amongst them, which increased their prejudices against the Gospel : E 2

First,