that there should be some, to shew that it is no foolish and
unreasonable doctrine, that it is not a religion unworthy of kings, nor
unbecoming the wisest and the greatest of characters. But if there have
been but a few great and wise have embraced it, it is evident that its
success and glory is not owing to the wisdom and power of men, but to
the divinity of its doctrines, and the power of God.
Besides, I might tell you, _secondly_, that riches, and grandeur, and
elevated degrees of wit and learning, become a sore temptation to pride
of mind and self-sufficiency. Now the faith of the gospel is founded in
humility, and self-diffidence, and poverty of spirit; and this is one
plain reason why it was received by so few of the rich, and the learned,
and the mighty among men, though it was contrived and invented by God
himself.
I answer, in the _third_ place, that it is one of the designed
characters of the true gospel of Christ, and it is foretold by the
ancient prophets, that when it should come to be preached upon the
earth, the poor should receive it. Its reception by the poor and weak
among men, is one evidence that it comes from God; Mat. xi. 5. When John
the baptist sent his disciples to our Saviour to know whether he was the
Messiah, or must they expect another? _Go, tell John, the blind receive
sight, the deaf hear, and the lame walk, and to the poor the gospel is
preached; blessed is he that is not offended in me, &c._ Go, and give
John this very account I now relate to you, and tell him these are my
credentials, these are the testimonials I bring. John will infer that I
am the Messiah, and this is the true gospel that I preach; for the great
and rich, and the pretenders to wisdom among the Jews, account it _a
stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence_, and only a few of the poor
receive it; as it was foretold by the prophets.
Each of us may say therefore, if only the wise, or the great, or the
rich, believed it, it must have been such a gospel as I could never have
believed; for it wanted one character which is necessarily adjoined to
it, that is, that the poor receive the gospel: _Father, I thank thee_,
says our Lord, _that thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, but thou hast revealed them unto babes_; Mat xi. 25. “It
pleased God, when the world by wisdom knew not God,” to darken all their
wisdom, and turn it into folly, and to call those that were esteemed
fools, and make them wise in believing the gospel, of Christ. It has
pleased God to chuse the mean, and _weak, and contemptible things of
this world to confound the wise and mighty_. It has pleased him to chuse
the _things that are not, to bring to nought the things that are, that
no flesh might glory in his presence_; 1 Cor. i. 27, &c.
II. It is another occasion of stumbling or shame in the gospel of
Christ, that some of the professors of it are vicious in their lives.
“Will you believe such a gospel, says an infidel, that does not restrain
the professors of it from the worst of sins?”
This, I confess, gives it great dishonour among the men of the world,
and is sometimes ready to shake the faith of younger christians; they
know not how to go on farther in christianity, for such and such that
made great profession, you see how they are fallen. This is a common
temptation of the devil; it is a frequent snare, and there hath been
many a pious soul that hath been in danger of being caught thereby. The
vices of some professors were great even in St. Paul’s days: There were
some among the Philippians; Phil. iii. 18. “Of whom I have told you
often, and now even weeping, that they walk as enemies to the cross of
Christ, and cast scandal and shame upon it. It makes my eyes flow with
tears, and my soul bleed within me to hear of it: The gospel of Christ
is so much dishonoured by these means.”
But if we take a nearer view, we shall see that no doctrine ought to
fare the worse, because some wicked men are professors of it. It was not
counted a discredit to philosophy, that some of the professors of it,
who hated the gospel, were vicious in their lives. I would ask the deist
now, is there any ground to disbelieve natural religion, because there
are some that make profession of it are fallen into great sins? The
gospel itself _teaches us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts_,
and does not indulge one of them. And they are said to be enemies to the
cross of Christ, when their conversation is all earthly, when their God
is their belly, and their glory is their shame. This is no fault of the
gospel, for they felt not the power of it. Nor is there any religion or
profession in the world that would have had any followers at all by this
time, if men must have entirely cashiered that religion, because there
have been some persons vicious that have been professors of it. There is
no sect, no religion in the world, though the institution and the rules
of it have been ever so pious, but what has produced some persons that
have been vicious in their lives.
But this cavil is still carried on, and urged with much vehemence. “If
the gospel of Christ were a religion so heavenly, and so divine in its
original, as you pretend, surely the nations that profess it would
eminently exceed all other nations in piety, in justice and goodness:
whereas the nations that now a-days embrace christianity, are not at all
superior to the Mahometans, nor to some of the heathens, either in duty
that relates to God or man: And if we may give credit to ancient
history, the virtues of the old Romans, long before the days of Julius
Cæsar, shone much brighter than any of the virtues of the baptized
nations: There was more truth and honesty, more devotion to the heavenly
powers, more of a public spirit and zeal for their country’s good, than
we can find in any christian kingdoms or states now-a-days.” To this I
would give these three answers:
1. The account which we have of the shining virtues of these best ages
of heathenism, is given us only by their own posterity, who lived in
succeeding ages. Now it is the well-known temper and custom of mankind
to magnify the virtue of their ancestors, and to say, that the former
times are better than these; But you have scarce any heathen writers,
who do not describe their own ages as vicious enough, if they have
occasion to talk upon that subject. And therefore there is just reason
to suspect the strict truth of these encomiums of their fore-fathers.
2. Although some social virtues in a heathen country might really
flourish more for an age or two, springing from the principles of
ambition, and honour, and love to their own country; yet there were such
vices also practised among many of the gentile nations, which are seldom
heard or known among christians: The apostle describes them in Rom. i.
26. and that in such a manner, as leads us to believe, that they were
practised by those who professed wisdom among them.
It must be acknowledged also, that these nations were gross idolaters,
and worshipped many gods, and that even in the times when their social
virtues were most conspicuous. Now this is most highly criminal in the
sight of the great and sovereign God, the Creator of all things: And the
warmer and the more zealous were their devotions which they paid to
these idols, with the neglect or contempt of the true God, the greater
was their guilt and abomination.
But, 3. The chief answer I give is this, that when whole kingdoms are
made christians merely by birth, education, and custom, it is not to be
supposed that a twentieth part of them believe the gospel upon any just
and reasonable principles of knowledge and choice. When whole cities and
nations are worshippers of Christ, no otherwise than the Ephesians were
worshippers of Diana, or the Turks of Mahomet, it is not reasonable to
expect that there should be much difference in the virtues of such a
national sort of Christians, Mahometans, or Heathens; for the principle
from which all their religion springs is the same, namely, their
education, custom, and fashion of their country; and therefore their
vices are much the same as they would be according to the present
reigning humour, disposition, or political temper of the nation,
whatsoever were their form of religion and their established worship.
The true way therefore to put these things to the test, is to consider
those christians only who believe and profess the gospel from knowledge,
and choice, and inward conviction, and who make their religion a matter
of solemnity and importance and not of mere form and custom. Now if you
separate these from the rest of mankind, I am well assured, that as bad
as the christian world is, you will find all the human and divine
virtues more gloriously practised among such christians as these, than
among an equal number of the professors of any other religion under the
sun: For inward christianity, and the faith of the gospel, when it is
built upon just foundations, will necessarily draw along with it such a
train of virtues and graces, as shall _adorn the doctrine of God our
Saviour_; and by such a comparison as this, men would be constrained to
confess that _God is among us of a truth_.
III. The various and divided opinions, the sects and parties that are
found in the christian world, have been another occasion of scandal and
offence to the infidels. “How can we ever come, say they, to any
certainty what your religion is, since you do not agree about it among
yourselves?”
“All Europe pretends to be christian, and to believe the gospel; yet
France, and Spain, and Italy, and Poland, and a good part of Germany,
tell us, that true christianity is found only amongst them. But in the
countries of Denmark, Sweden, and the northern parts of Germany, and in
the British islands, there is another religion professed, of a very
different kind, and they call theirs the pure gospel, and reformed
christianity. The protestant and the papist divide these western parts
of the world, and they are ready to tear one another to pieces upon the
account of their different opinions and practices. Now if the books that
contain the religion of Christ be of so very uncertain sense and
signification, truly we are ashamed of such a doubtful religion; it is
even as well for us to content ourselves with the religion that the
light of nature teaches us, and the dictates of our common reason, which
we think has more certainty in it.”
To this I answer, that it is a great mistake to imagine that the light
of nature and reason, if left entirely to itself in this corrupt and
fallen state, has more certainty in its determinations than scripture
hath. How many wild opinions hath the corrupt mind of man produced among
the inhabitants of the heathen world, and this same light of nature has
not corrected them? What infinite diversity of vain and monstrous
fancies hath past for religion and devotion among them? And the light of
nature has been supposed to dictate some of them, for they did not
always pretend revelation for them. There have been wide and
irreconcileable differences among the philosophers, as well as among the
priests and the people of different nations. The light of nature and
reason is a poor dark bewildered thing, if it hath no commerce, nor
communication with persons who have been favoured with divine
revelation. It is only the scripture that has established and
ascertained the doctrines of natural religion: And it is to the
scripture that the deists of our age are obliged for their greater
acquaintance with natural religion than ever their forefathers, the
heathen philosophers, arrived at, though they are too proud to
acknowledge it. If they agree better, and are more uniform in their
principles now than the old epicureans, the stoics, and the platonists
were, it is all owing to a more intimate acquaintance with the writings
of Moses and the prophets, the evangelists, and the apostles; so that it
is with a very ill grace that our present infidels can object to
christians their difference of opinions, and pretend that this is a
ground of shame to the gospel of Christ, and a reason why they do not
believe or profess it.
But I come now to give some account of the true reasons of such
divisions of sect and party among christians. There are two great causes
of these divisions, and the charge is not to be laid upon the gospel of
Christ, nor upon the books that contain it.
1. The first cause is, that the papist does not pretend to derive his
religion merely from the bible; but he brings in the Jewish apocryphal
writers of ancient ages, and lays them also for a foundation of his
faith; and he makes the traditions of the christian church, which he
pretends to have been delivered down from age to age, of almost the same
authority as the scripture itself: And some of their authors have raised
these traditions to equal dignity with the scripture, as being built
upon the same foundation, _viz._ the authority of the church. As they
have many things in their religion which they cannot find in the word of
God; so they think it is sufficient if they can support them by these
pretended traditions of the church. Whereas the protestant takes nothing
for the ground of his faith but the books of the Old and New Testament;
and what he cannot find written there, nor derived thence by most
obvious and evident consequences, he does not profess it as any
necessary part of his christianity. The religion of the protestant
therefore is abundantly more conformable to the gospel of Christ, both
in the doctrines and the worship of it, because it derives the whole
from the word of God: But it is no wonder at all that there should be
such a difference between them and the papists, when they lay such
different foundations for their faith and practice.
2. Another reason why the protestant and papist differ so much is,
because the papist pretends that there is an infallible judge among them
to determine all controversies; and that their popes, and their
councils, which they call the church, have authority to appoint what
shall be esteemed the true articles of faith, and to bring in rites and
ceremonies into their worship according to their own invention and
pleasure. And that all the people are bound to believe as the church
bids them believe, and to practise in matters of worship whatsoever the
church bids them practise: And upon this account they forbid the
scripture to be read by the common people, that they may not learn the
truth of the gospel, but may take all for gospel which they teach them,
and be content with it. Whereas the protestant has nothing else but his
bible to have recourse to for the conclusion of all controversies; and
he encourages every man to use his bible, and to judge for himself
concerning the sense and meaning of it, using the best helps that he can
obtain for this end: The protestant ministers teach him not only what
they know of the gospel, but they put the bible into his hand, and bid
him search and see whether things are so or no, that thence he may learn
what are those doctrines and those duties which Christ has required him
to believe and practise. Thence it comes to pass, that there are almost
a thousand things in popery, which the protestants utterly disown,
because they disown the power of the pope, or church, to stamp new
articles of faith, or invent new forms of worship.
Objection. But it may be said still, there are so many different sects
and parties among the protestants themselves, as encourages the deist to
maintain his charge and accusation.—“Why do you, saith he, who profess
to derive all your religion from the scripture, differ so much among
yourselves, both in doctrine, in worship, and in the order of your
churches, if the _gospel of Christ_ be so excellent a religion, and if
the books that contain it can give you so plain and certain a knowledge
of it!”
I answer, That almost all those things wherein protestants differ, are
but of smaller importance in religion, in comparison of those many and
great things wherein they agree. The chief and most important points of
christianity are written with so much plainness and evidence in the word
of God, as would lead all humble, honest, sincere and diligent enquirers
into a belief of them, and consent in them. Now it is not necessary that
the lesser matters of christianity should be written down so expressly
in scripture: For the all-wise God thought it proper to leave many of
these articles of less importance more dubious and obscure, both to
awaken the diligence of men to study his word, and to leave amongst them
some occasions for the exercise of their mutual charity and forbearance.
Our blessed Lord has thought it proper to put the universal love which
he requires amongst his followers, to this test or trial, to see whether
they will cultivate peace and charity to one another amidst their
various and divided opinions in things of less concernment.
I confess there are some differences among protestants in the great
doctrines of the Trinity, and the satisfaction of Christ, which must be
acknowledged to be articles of very high moment and importance in
christianity. But if we compare those few who profess dangerous opinions
in these points with the millions that agree in the same general
profession of faith, it will be found that their number is but very
small. If we consider the great ignorance of God, which is found in all
men by nature, and take a survey of the unhappy influences that
education, fancy, passion, pride, friendship, aversion, precipitance and
laziness, have upon mankind in forming their judgments and opinions, we
shall not wonder to find some persons here and there falling into
strange sentiments, contrary to the plain and sufficient evidence of
scripture. We believe in general, that whoever puts off all prejudices,
and is piously sincere in his search of the word of God, shall certainly
find, through divine assistance, all needful truth. If therefore a
disbeliever come with a serious, humble, and pious mind, and apply
himself with diligence and fervent prayer to read the scripture; I am
well assured he will become a christian, and find out so much of the
doctrines and duties of the gospel, as are necessary to his eternal
happiness.
But there will be heresies arising sometimes in the church. Tares will
grow up sometimes in the field that is ever so well cultivated, and sown
with corn: And what unknown reasons there may be in the counsels and
providence of God in permitting heresies to arise for the farther trial
of his own people, is too high and hard a point for us to determine. The
apostle saith; 1 Cor. xi. 19. _There must be also heresies among you,
that they which are approved may be made manifest_: If such a thing as
this is, shall be abused by men of corrupt minds, to turn them quite
away from the gospel of Christ, and to support their own infidelity,
they must answer for it at the great day to Christ their Judge.
Thus I have done with the third charge or accusation brought against the
gospel, and removed the scandal and shame that some men have thrown upon
it, because there are such sects, and parties, and divided opinions
among the professors of it.
IV. Another occasion of scandal which infidels charge upon the gospel of
Christ, is this, “That some who have long professed it have forsaken it;
and one should be ashamed to embrace such a faith as this is, for it has
been tried, and found to be vain and groundless, even by those who have
known it long, and searched it through and through, and therefore at
last they have abandoned and cast it off.”
But in answer to this, give me leave to say, first, that the chief and
most common reason why persons who have professed christianity cast it
off, is not because they found any just reason of blame either in its
principles or rules; but because they think it too strict for them, and
it curbs their vicious appetites more than they like.
I will allow, that perhaps there may be some persons who have abandoned
the christian religion from a wantonness of fancy, from a licentiousness
of thought, from a pride of reasoning, and who make it their glory to
have thrown off the bonds of their education, and to have obtained the
honour of free-thinkers, or from a presuming conceit that they must
comprehend every thing in their religion, and will believe nothing that
hath mysteries in it. Such vain principles as these may have influenced
some minds, and given them up to apostacy: But, I fear, far the greatest
part of those who forsake the gospel, have been tempted to it by the
power of their lusts, which the gospel would restrain: and some of these
persons upon their death-beds have confessed it too.
This is also sufficiently visible in the world, that when men have long
professed this gospel and forsaken it, they seldom grow more pious, more
sober, more honest or good than before; but, on the contrary, they
generally have indulged vicious excesses, and neglected all piety, and
this is rather a ground of glory to the gospel than a just reason of
shame.
If these persons had generally grown more holy, if they had feared God
more afterwards than ever they did before, if they had more aimed at the
glory of God, and loved him better, when they forsook Christ and his
gospel, then we might have some reason to suspect this gospel was false,
and a mere mistake or imposture. But when these persons grow more unjust
than before, love their neighbour less, are become more sensual, more
selfish, disregard God more than they did before; I repeat it again,
this is rather a ground of glory to the gospel of Christ, than of shame.
Demas _hath forsaken us_, saith Paul, because he _loved this present
world_; 2 Tim. iv. 10. A covetous Demas is no good argument why St. Paul
should forsake Christ, or be ashamed of the gospel. And the apostle has
shewn that those who have _made shipwreck of their faith_, have parted
with _a good conscience_ too, and lost their virtue; 1 Tim. i. 19, 20.
But there is another answer which the apostle John gives to this
objection in his first epistle, chap. ii. ver. 19. _They went out from
us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no
doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made
manifest that they were not all of us._ They might make a profession of
the gospel, and perhaps give a real assent to the truths and doctrines
of it by the convincing influence of miracles and human reason, or
perhaps they became christians merely by the force of education, because
they were taught this religion from their childhood, and professed it
without thought; but they never had such a powerful belief of this
gospel of Christ, as to change their hearts, to renew their natures, to
form their souls after the image of Christ into real holiness; and
therefore like the hearers that are compared to stony ground, the seed
did not sink deep into their hearts, though they might _receive the word
at first with joy, but having not root in themselves; they endure but
for a while, and when any temptation arises, they are offended_, and
depart from the faith which they once professed; Mat. xiii. 20, 21. Thus
it appears, that the gospel of Christ is never the worse in itself, nor
does it deserve the less esteem in the world, notwithstanding such
apostates as these, no more than seed-corn should be pronounced nought,
because it does not bring forth a harvest in every soil.
I have now finished the third general head of discourse which I
proposed, and have shewn, whatsoever occasions of shame might be
supposed to arise either from the doctrines of the gospel, or the
professors of it, are unjustly charged as blemishes on the gospel; and I
have given particular answers to both sorts of cavils, and defeated the
accusations.
One word of advice to christians shall conclude the present discourse;
and that is this:—