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Kated Micaiah, its prophefying no good concerning them.

The Scriptures are a mirror in which we fee not only individual characters, our own and others, but the ftate of things as they move on in the great world. They fhew us the fpring-head whence all the malignant ftreams of idolatry, atheism, corruption, perfecution, war, and every other evil origi nate; and by fhewing us the origin of thefe destructive maladies, clearly inftruct us wherein muft confift their cure.

It has already been obferved that Chriftian morality is fummed up in the love of God and our neighbour, and that these principles, carried to their full extent, would render the world a paradife. But the Scriptures teach us that man is a rebel against his Maker; that his carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not fubject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; that instead of loving God, or even man in the order which is required, men are become lovers of their own felves, and neither God nor man are regarded but as they are found neceffary to fubferve their wishes.

This fingle principle of human apoftacy, fuppofing it to be true, will fully account for all the moral diforders in the world; and the actual exiftence of those disorders, unless they can be better accounted for, must go to prove the truth of this principle, and, by confequence, of the Chriftian fyftem which refts upon it.

We are affected in confidering the idolatry of fo great a part of the human race; but we are not furprised at it. If men be deftitute of the love of

* Part I. Chap. III.

God, it is natural to fuppofe they will endeavour to banish him from their thoughts, and, provided the state of fociety will admit of it, from their worship; fubftituting gods more congenial with their inclinations, and in the worship of which they can indulge themselves without fear or controul.

Neither are we furprised at the practical atheifm which abounds among unbelievers, and even among nominal Chriftians, in European nations. If the ftate of things be such that grofs idolatry is inadmiffible, ftill, if averfion to God predominate, it will fhew itself in a neglect of all worship, and of all ferious converfation, or devout exercises; in a wish to think there is no God, and no hereafter; and in endeavours to banish every thing of a religious nature from fociety. Or, if this cannot be, and any thing relating to fuch fubjects become matter of difcuffion, they will be so explained away as that nothing fhall be left which can approve itself to an upright heart. The holiness of the divine character will be kept out of fight, his precepts difregarded, and morality itself made to con-fift in fomething deftitute of all true virtue.

We are not surprised at the corruptions which Christianity has undergone. Chriftianity itself, as we have already feen, foretold it, and the doctrine of human depravity fully accounts for it. When the Christian religion was adopted by the state, it is natural to fuppofe there would be great numbers of unprincipled men who would profefs it; and where its leading characters in any age are of this defcription, it will certainly be corrupted. The pure doctrine of Chrift is given up in favour of fome flesh-pleafing fyftem, the holy precepts of

Chriftian morality are lowered to the ftandard of ordinary practice, and the worship and ordinances of Chrift mingled with fuperftition, and modelled to a worldly temper. It was thus that Judaifm was corrupted by the old pharifees, and Chriftianity by the papal hierarchy.

The fuccefs which evil men and feducers meet with in propagating falfe doctrine, is no more than may be expected from the prefent state of things, So long as a large proportion of the profeffors of Christianity receive not the love of the truth, error will be certain to meet with a welcome reception. The groffeft impoftor has only to advance a fyftem fuited to corrupt nature, to affert it with effrontery, and to flatter his adherents with being the favourites of heaven, and he will be followed.*

The perfecutions which have been carried on against religion are grievous to humanity, and equally repugnant to juftice and to good policy: but they are not in the least surprising. There was not a truth more prominent in our Saviour's addreffes to his followers than this, that having re

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* Men are much more easily deceived in these matters than in the ordinary concerns of life. If a London merchant were to open a warehouse in different parts of the city, and make it his business to traduce the characters and commodities of all other merchants; his oppofition were directed especially against men of probity and eminence, whofe fituations were contiguous to his own; in fine, if the only traders in the kingdom who could obtain his good word were certain agents whom he had stationed in different parts of the country for the purpose of retailing his wares, Would not his designs be evident? He might puff, and pretend to have the good of the public much at heart; but the public would defpife him as a man whose object was a fortune, and whofe practices evinced that he would hesitate at no means to accomplish his end. Yet fuch deceptions may be practifed in religion with fuccefs.

ceived his word, the world would hate them! because they were not of the world, as he was not of the world. When he fent them forth to preach the gofpel, it was as beep among wolves; and they were treated accordingly. When he took leave of them previous to his death, he left them his peace as knowing that in the world they fhould have tribulation. All this was no more than might be expected: for if it be the character of true religion that it fets itself against every vicious propensity of the human heart, it is natural to fuppofe that every one who is under the dominion of fuch propensity will feel averfe to true religion, and to those who adhere to it. The manner in which mankind have ftood affected towards godly men has been nearly uniform from the beginning. Cain flew his brother. And wherefore flew he him? because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Sarah faw the fon of Hagar the Egyptian mocking: As then he that was born after the flesh perfecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even fo it is now. Why was Jerufalem a burdensome stone to the nations? Why were they continually forming leagues to root out its remembrance from the earth? The fame fpirit that was difcovered by Edom, Moab, and the children of Ammon towards Ifrael, was apparent in Sanballat, Tobiah, Gefhem, and their companions, towards Judah; and the part acted by the Horonite, the Ammonite, and the Arabian, was afterwards re-acted with additional zeal by Herod and Pontius Pilate, and the governors and people of Ifrael. Thofe who could agree in nothing elfe could agree in this. The perfecutions of pagan and papal Rome, and of all who have fymbolized with her, have been only a continuation O

of the fame fyftem: and the descriptions which deiftical hiftorians give of these works of darkness, notwithstanding their pretended regard to religious liberty, bear witness that they allow the deeds of their fathers, and inherit their difpofitions. The fame malignant spirit which was discovered by the heathens towards the ancient Ifraelites, is discoverable in all the writings of unbelievers towards that people to this day. It is true they are more reconciled to the modern Jews; and for a very plain reason they feel them to be near a-kin to themfelves. Herod and Pilate were made friends by the crucifixion of Chrift. Since that time the old enmity has been transferred to believing gentiles, who, being grafted into the Jewish olive, and par`taking of its advantages, partake also of its persecutions and by how much the Chriftian church at any period has exceeded the Jewish in purity and fpirituality, by fo much more fierce has the wrath of a wicked world burned against it.

After all the pains which unbelievers take to fhift the charge of perfecution, and to lay it at the door of Chriftianity, it is manifest to an observant eye that there is a deep-rooted enmity in all wicked men, whether they be pagans, papists, protestants or deifts, towards all godly men, of every nation, name and denomination. This enmity, it is true, is not fuffered to operate according to its native tendency. He who holdeth the winds in his hand, restrains it. Men are withheld by laws, by policy, by interefts, by education, by refpect, by regard founded on other than religious qualities, and by various other things. There are certain conjunctions of interefts, especially, which occafionally require a temporary ceffation of hoftilities;

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