he Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is 1. Act. 4. 8 9. come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Ierusalem and in all Iudea and in Samâ—…a and unto the uttermost parts of the Earth And accordingly we find that during the time of the Apostles the Supreme Authority of the Church was in their hands which they committed to their successors and has ever since been exercised by Christian Bishops and Presbyters with regard to their different Order and Power But what is this Power which Christ hath given to his Ministers They have no Rods nor Axes as secular Princes have to compel men to the Faith of Christ and to force their obedience No this is contrary to the Genius and Spirit of Christianity If men will be Infidels if they will be wicked we cannot help it For though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh For 2 Cor. 10. 3 4 5. the weapons of our warfare are not carnal such as earthly Princes use but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Our Saviour in my Text acquaints us what this Power and Authority is he makes them Rulers over his Houshold to give them meat in due season This is the Authority Christ hath given to his Ministers to instruct to exhort to advise to admonish to reprove and that with sharpness too when there is occasion for it according to the power 2 Cor. 13. 10. which the Lord hath given to edification and not to destruction as St. Paul speaks But what Authority is this May not every Christian do the same Is it not the duty of us all as we are able to instruct exhort reprove one another Yes it is and I would to God it were more generally practised but yet every private Christian cannot do this with the Authority of a Bishop or a Gospel-Minister The Instructions and Exhortations of private Christians are acts of Friendship and Charity and the obligation to it is that mutual concernment and sympathy which the Members of the same Body ought to have for each other in Gospel-Ministers it is an act of Authority like the Censures of a Father a Magistrate or a Judge We do not pretend indeed as St. Paul speaks to have dominion over 2 Cor. 1. 24. your Faith to exercise a kind of Soveraign Authority to oblige you to belive any thing meerly because we say it but yet our Authority is such that if in the exercise of our Office we explain the Articles of Faith and Rules of Life to you it lays an indispesanble Obligation upon you carefully to examine what we say and not to reject it without plain and manifest evidence that what we teach you is not agreeable to the Will of God revealed in the Scriptures For when we come in the Name and Authority of Christ that man who rejects our Message without being sure that we exceed our Commission rejects the Authority by which we act and he that despiseth despiseth not man but God It is our Work and our Commission to instruct you and it is your Duty to be instructed and whoever shall wantonly reject any Doctrines which do not suit with his humour and interest or oppose some popular mistakes and prejudices against the Instructions of his Guide or turn away his ear from instruction and heap to himself Teachers having itching ears such a man must give a severe account of this neglect and contempt to the great Bishop and Shepherd of Souls While we are careful to discharge our Office in pursuance of that Trust our Great Master hath committed to us what our Saviour tells his Apostles is true of the 10. Luke 16. meanest of us all He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me The like may be said of the Exhortations and Counsels and Directions and Reproofs of our Spiritual Guides they carry great Authority with them they are not like the private Admonitions of our Friends who exhort and reprove out of kindness and their particular concernment for us To reject such Counsels as these does mightily aggravate our sin and our condemnation as every thing does which makes our sin more wilful and obstinate but to reject the Counsels and Reproofs of our Guide is a new act of disobedience to that Authority which Christ has set in his Church Whether you will hear or whether you will obey we must exhort reprove advise and wo be to us if we do not and wo be to those who will not hear who will not obey Our great Master looks upon this as a contempt of his own Authority and this is all the Authority we have We cannot force you to obey our Counsels or Reproofs but ours and your Master will severely punish you if you do not In a word the Instructions Reproofs and Censures of Christ's Ministers carry such Authority with them that they can receive into or shut out of the Communion of the Church which is the only visible state of Salvation Remission of sins and eternal Life is ordinarily to be had only in the visible Communion of the Church and therefore the Power of Receiving into the Church by Baptism and of Casting out of the Church by Excommunication which is the only Authority Christ hath given to these Rulers of his Houshold to receive in and cast out of his Family is called a Power of Remitting or Retaining sins because the forgiveness of Sins is to be had only in the Communion of the Church and no man belongs to the invisible Church who does not live in Communion with the visible Church when it may be had The Authority of Christ's Ministers is to feed those who are of his Houshold to give them their meat in due season and to judge who shall belong to this Houshold who shall be received in or cast out of Christ's Family This is the highest Act of church-Church-Authority on Earth and the only Sanction of all our instructions counsels and reproofs and therefore this Authority is not intrusted with every Gospel-Minister but is committed to the chief Governours of the Church the Bishops who succeed into the ordinary Apostolical Power II. Let us now consider the due Qualifications which are required in Gospel-Ministers and they are two Faithfulness and Prudence Who is that Faithful and Wise servant First Faithfulness Now Faithfulness in a Servant consists in being true to his Trust and when this is applied to Preaching the Gospel it signifies that he is extremely careful to publish the whole Mind and Will of God which as it concerns us in this Age includes these following Rules 1. To be careful to acquaint our selves with the Will of God that we may be Scribes which are
I shall observe this following method I. Consider the Duty of Gospel-Bishops and Pastors which is to Feed and to Govern the Houshold of Christ. II. The Qualifications of Gospel-Ministers which are Faithfulness and Prudence a Faithful and Wise servant III. The great rewards of such men Blessed is that servant I. The Duty of Gospel Ministers whether Bishops or others and that consists of two parts 1. To Feed 2. To Govern the Houshold or Church of Christ. They are appointed Rulers of his Houshold to give them meat in due season 1. To Feed the Flock of Christ. This command Christ gave to Peter 20. Acâ—…s 28. and repeated it three times Simon son of Ionas lovest thou me more than 21. John 15 16 17. these then feed my lambs feed my sheep Now to Feed signifies to instruct men in the Knowledge of Christ for Knowledge is the proper food and nourishment of the Soul by which it grows in Spiritual Wisdom and all Vertue and Goodness and is as necessary to 1 Pet 2. 2. our Spiritual Life as natural food is to the Life of our Bodies This is life 17. John 3. eternal saith our Saviour to know Thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent For this reason our Saviour appointed Stewards and Dispensers of the Mysteries of his Kingdom whose whole business it should be to study the Divine Will themselves and to instruct others For this is a knowledge which must be taught Nature may instruct us in the Being of a God and the differences between good and evil and the plain Rules of Morality but the Mysteries of the Kingdom the whole oeconomy of mans Salvation by Jesus Christ is to be known only by Revelation Christ came down from Heaven to reveal this to us and he instructed his Apostles and his Apostles by their Preaching and Writings instructed the Church and have left us a standing Rule of Faith and Manners but yet it is necessary that there should be some Men peculiarly devoted to the Service of Religion the study of the Scriptures and the Work of the Ministry to instruct and teach those who have neither leisure not opportunities for enquiry nor capacity to learn without a Guide which is the case of the generality of Christians especially since Religion has been clogged with such infinite Disputes and there has been so much art used to make the plainest truths difficult obscure and uncertain to corrupt the Christian Faith and to make it comply with mens sensual Lusts or secular Interests A Guide and Instructor is absolutely necessary when there are so many Turnings and Labyrinths wherein men may lose themselves and their way to Heaven But though there were no Disputes in Religion no difficulty in understanding it though all men were agreed about the way to Heaven though the meanest Christian understood the Mysteries of Christianity as well as the greatest Divine yet there would be constant need of a Spiritual Guide while men are apt to be unmindful of their Duty and careless in the Practice of it The work of an Evangelical Pastor is not meerly to instruct the Ignorant but to exhort to reprove to admonish to watch over the Lives and Manners of Christians to make seasonable Applications to their Consciences to administer Comfort to afflicted Spirits to excite and quicken the slothful and to encourage the fearful and timerous and to assist and direct men in their Spiritual Warfare how to obtain a glorious victory over the World and the Flesh. This is to feed the Flock of Christ and to give them Meat in due season to instruct them in those things of which they are ignorant and to put them in mind of those things which they already know that their Faith may be turned into a principle of life and action and this heavenly Food may be digested into Blood and Spirits to the edifying of the Body of Christ in all Christian Graces and Vertues 2. Another part of the Ministerial Office consists in Acts of Discipline and Government Christ has made these Ministers and Servants Rulers over his houshold No Society can be preserved 5. Eph. 23. 10. John 14. without Order and Government which is as absolutely necessary in the Church as in the State Christ is the Head of the Church the Husband the Shepherd the Lord which are all names of Authority and Power and the Church is his Body his Spouse his Flock his Houshold and Family which are names of Subjection and denote a regular and orderly Society but Christ has now left this World and does not visibly appear among us to direct and govern the Affairs of his Church he is ascended into Heaven where he sits at the right hand of God and exerciseth an invisible Power and Providence for the defence and preservation of his Church on Earth He governs us by his Laws and by his Spirit and by his Ministers for when he 4. Eph. 8 11 12 13. ascended on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers For the Perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Till we all come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. When our Saviour was risen from the dead he tells his Disciples All power is given unto me both in Heaven and in 28. Mat. 18 19 20. Earth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World This is their Commission to pâ—…ach the Gospel and to govern his Church which was not meerly a personal Commission to the Apostles but extends to all their Successors as appears from Christ's promise to be with them in the discharge of this Ministerial Authority to the end of the World Thus St. Iohn acquaints us that Christ after his Resurrection appeared to his Apostles when they were met together and said unto them Peace be unto you as my Father hath sent 20. John 21 22 23. me so send I you And as he had said this he breathed on them and said unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained This invested them with Authority but then the actual communication of Power which especially at that time was necessary to the discharge of their Office was reserved for the descent of the Holy Ghost and therefore our Saviour commanded them Not to depart from Ierusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father that is the gift of the Holy Ghost For says
prevail and like an irresistible Torrent bear all before him as some kind Friends to the Liberties of Europe and the Protestant Name and Interest wish and pray he may it requires not a Spirit of Prophecy to foretel what will become of Protestants But our Hope and Trust is in God that the true Christian Faith shall never be rooted out and I am as certainly perswaded that the Protestant Faith and Worship as to the Essentials of it and â—…s opposed to Popery is the true Christian Faith and Worship as I am â—…f the truth and certainty of Christiaâ—…ity it self and when I remember â—…y what little beginnings and weak â—…nd contemptible means GOD spread â—…he true light of the Gospel over great part of the European World when it was covered with the Aegyptian Darkness and oppressed by the Unsupportable Tyranny of Popery notwithstanding all the Follies Divisions and Miscarriages of Protestants I cannot fear that God will cause our Sun to set again and that he will finally remove his Gospel from us and that gives great reason to hope that he will â—…heck the Pride and Ambition and â—…t a stop to the Successes of a Prince who glories in the Extirpation of his â—…rotestant Subjects and at once enâ—…aves both the Bodies and the Souls of Men who challenges as absolute a Dominion over the Faith as over the Estates of his Vassals to fill his Exchequer and Purgatory together This I am sure we ought heartily to â—…eg of God in our most solemn Prayers and Fasts and those who scruple this if they understand themselves must never say the Lord's Prayer more wherein our Saviour has taught us to pray Thy Kingdom come which those who wish success to Persecuting and Antichristian Powers do not and cannot pray II. I observe farther That as God's Covenant with Abraham and his Posterity was sure and stedfast that no provocations could ever tempt him utterly to destroy them so he never inflictted any publick Judgments and Calamities on them but when he was greatly provoked by their Sins This was God's express Covenant with them 26. Levit. That if they walked in his statutes and kept his commandments then he would bestow all Temporal Blessings on them Rain in its season and the encrease of their Land in Corn and Wine and Oyl Peace at home and Victory abroad and his special Presence and Favour I will set my tabernacle amongst you and my soul shall not abhor you and I will walk among you and will be your God and you shall be my people But if they would not hearken unto him and would not do all his Commandments â—…hen he threatens all sorts of Evils â—…hould befal them sickness of Body â—…o fly before their Enemies the unâ—…ruitfulness and barrenness of their Land that they shall be a prey to wild Beasts that the Sword shall devour them and they shall be enslaved to their Enemies and buy their own Bread of them that they should suffer Famine to such extremity as to eat their own Sons and Daughters that he would lay waste their Cities and make their Country desolate and carry them away captive into foreign Countries as you may see at large in that Chapâ—…er This was his Covenant with them and this he punctually observed whenever they did obey him they were a happy and prosperous People their Enemies crouched before them they enjoyed Plenty and Peace â—…nlarged their Borders and made their Neighbours Subjects and Tributariâ—…s â—…o them and though God did not always punish them according to their â—…leserts yet he never did inflict any publick or National Judgments on them but when they were grown very corrupt and wicked in their manners as it were easie to shew from the History of those Times and all the remarkable Judgments God inflicted on them Now I must confess when we apply th is to the Christian Church the case is very different for God has not so expresly covenanted with the Christian Church for external Peace and Prosperity as he did with the Iews they were the carnal Seed and Posterity of Abraham Heirs of an earthly Canaan and external Prosperity but the spiritual Seed of Abraham are Heirs of spiritual and eternal Blessings which were typified by the carnal Promises made to the Iewish Church the Christian Church was founded in the Sufferings of our Lord the Christian Faith was at first propagated by the courage patience and sufferings of the Apostles and the Primitive Martyrs and Confessors The Terms ouâ—… Saviour proposes to us are If any mâ—… will come after me let him deny himsel and take up his Cross and follow me Hâ—… that loveth his life shall lose it but 〈◊〉 that loseth his life for my sake shall find it And therefore the most sincere Believers and most exemplary Christians may suffer very severely in this Worlâ—… and their support and comfort is that â—…hey shall be proportionably rewarded â—…n the next this was the great Objeâ—…ction the Iews made against Christians being the Sons and peculiar People of God that they were hated and persecuted for the Faith of Christ and God suffered them to be so whereas he had promised all Temporal Prosperity to the observance of his Laws and Staâ—…utes and if believing in Christ had been the Will and Commandment of God he would certainly have made good all the Promises of their Law to the Disciples of Jesus An Objection which very much troubled many believing Iews themselves who did not thoroughly understand the difference between the Iewish and Christian Dispensation between the Law of Moses and the Gospel of Christ and therefore is particularly answered by St. Paul 8. Rom. and in the 7. Heb. But this shews that the Faith and Worship of Christ is not always rewarded with external Prosperity and we must not expect it should be and consequently that very severe Sufferings and Persecutions may befal Christians not always for the correction and punishment of their Sins but for the trial of their Faith and Patience to make them conformed to their Suffering Head to prepare them for richer and brighter Crowns to convince and convert their Persecutors and to propagate the Christian Faith in the World Though it is observed by some of the Ancient Fathers and particularly by St. Cyprian That God never sent a general Persecution upon the Christian Church but when their Sins the general declension of Piety and Discipline their Worldly-Mindedness the formality and coldness of their Devotions called for a Scourge Thus it was with the Church while it sojourned as I may so speak in the world as in a strange land had no place of its own no earthly Power and Authority to support it but lived under Pagan Powers was intermixt with them and oppressed by them when they pleased but the case of a Christian Nation where the Power and Authority is Christian seems very different and to come nearer the state of the Iewish Church for God does not use to inflict Publick Judgments and
conceive no Substance but Matter and Body and therefore reject the Notion of a Spirit as Nonsense and Contradiction They will allow nothing to be wisely made which they understand not the reason and uses of and therefore they fancy a great many botches and blunders in Nature which cannot be the designs and contrivance of Wisdom but the effects of Chance and then the consequence is plain That the World was made by Chance not by a Wise Author Now I confess if this way of Reasoning be allowed it will be impossible to defend either Sense or Reason or Revelation against the Cavils of Atheists and Infidels for there are unconceivable and incomprehensible Secrets and Mysteries in them all and if to conceive and comprehend the Natures of things must be made the measure and standard of true and false we must deny our Senses and Reason as well as our Faith and if we do and must believe our Sense and Reason beyond our Comprehension why must we believe nothing that is Revealed any farther than we can conceive and comprehend the Nature and Reasons of it The Sum is this Humane Knowledge whatever the means of knowing be whether Sense or Reason or Revelation does not reach to the Philosophical Causes and Natures of things but only to their Being and Natural Vertues and Powers and as a Wise man who knows the Measure of his understanding expects no more from Sense and Reason than to know what things there are in the World and what they are as far as they fall under the notice of Sense and Natural Reason so we must expect no more from Revelation than the knowledge of such things as Sense and Natural Reason cannot discover But we must no more expect the Philosophy of Supernatural Truths from Revelation than we do the Mysteries of Nature from Sense and Reason Now since Humane Knowledge is not a knowledge of the Mysterious Natures of things but only to know what things there are and what they are there can be no contradiction between Sense and Reason and Revelation unless one denies what the other affirms not that one teaches more than the other teaches or that one cannot comprehend what the other teaches Reason teaches more than Sense teaches or can comprehend and Revelation teaches more than either Sense or Natural Reason teaches or can comprehend but this is no contradiction but only a subordination between these different kinds and degrees of Knowledge but as for Unconceivableness and Incomprehensibility that is no argument against any thing for Sense and Natural Reason can no more comprehend their own Objects than they do what is revealed And it is manifest perverseness to make that an objection against Revelation which we will not allow to be an objection against Sense and Reason This is sufficient as to the reason of the thing but as far as it is possible to remove mens Prejudices also against believing Mysteries I shall briefly answer two very popular Objections 1. It is thought very unnatural that when God has made us reasonable Creatures and therefore made Natural Reason to us the measure of Truth and Falshood he should require us to believe without Reason as we must do if he reveals such things to us as we know not and cannot possibly know the reasons of If we must believe with our Understanding how can we believe things which we cannot understand This were a reasonable Objection were it true for we cannot believe what we have no knowledge nor understanding of for Faith is Knowledge though not Natural Knowledge But do we not understand what it is we believe Do we not know what we mean when we say we believe in Father Son and Holy Ghost Nay do not our Adversaries understand what we mean by it How then come they to charge us with believing Contradictions and Impossibilities For if they know not what we believe they cannot know whether we believe Contradictions or not And if we do understand what it is we believe then we do not believe without understanding which is absolutely impossible if we know what it is we believe And we know also why we believe Our Faith is founded in Sense and Reason and resolved into the Authority of God which is the highest and most infallible Reason The Miracles which Christ and his Apostles wrought were evident to Sense and owned by Reason to be the effects of a Divine Power and the Answer the Blind man gave to the Pharisees when Christ had opened his eyes speaks the true Sense of Nature Herein is a marvellous thing that ye know not from whence he is and yet he hath opened mine Eyes Now we know that God heareth not Sinners but if any man be a Worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth Since the World began was it not heard that any man opened the Eyes of one that was born blind If this man were not of God he could do nothing 9 John 30 31 32 33. And all Mankind own that the most absolute Faith is due to God and to those who speake from God and this as I take it is to believe with Reason But still we believe such things whose Natures we do not understand and cannot account for by Natural Reason and this is to believe without Reason We believe that God the Father hath an Eternal Son and an Eternal Spirit and that Father Son and Holy Ghost are but one Eternal God but this is what Natural Reason cannot comprehend nor give us any notion or conception of how God can have an Eternal Son and an Eternal Spirit really distinct from himself and yet with himself One Eternal and Infinite God Reason can give no account of the Eternal Generation of the Son nor of the Eternal Procession of the Holy Spirit and is not this to believe without Reason which a reasonable Creature ought not to do and which we ought not to think that God who made us reasonable Creatures expects from us And this I grant would be a material Objection were Reason the Judge of the Nature and Philosophy of things and did Reason require us to believe nothing but what we understand and comprehend But then we must no more believe Sense and Reason than Revelation for we do not comprehend the Nature of any one thing in the World how evident soever it is to Sense and Reason that there are such things Nature is as great a Mystery as Revelation and it is no greater affront to our Understandings no more against Reason for God to reveal such things to us as our Reason cannot comprehend than 〈◊〉 is to make a whole World which â—…eason cannot comprehend When we make it an Objection against â—…ny thing that it is without Reason or â—…s we apprehend against Reason and contrary to Reason we must first conâ—…ider whether it be the proper object of Reason otherwise it is no Objection as it is no Objection against Sounds that we cannot see them nor against Colours
is as easie and natural as of an Eternal Being and that natural Notion we have of the Relation and Dependance between Causes and Effects necessarily leads us to the Belief of a First Cause for if all things were Eternal without a Cause it is hard to conceive how there should ever after be any natural Relation between them of Causes and Effects and yet destroy the Doctrine of Causes and Effects and there is an end of all Reason and Discourse But then as we have no natural Notion of the Eternity of all things so all the Appearances of Nature contradict it and will not suffer it to lie easie in our Minds We see every day that all Individuals are made Men are born every day and die and one Generation succeeds another and thus it is with Beasts and Birds and all other Animals with Trees and Fruit and Corn and Herbs and is it possible for any Man to believe that any of these things were Eternal when we see that the Individuals of all these several kinds of Beings are daily made for the World consists of Individuals and if they are all made the World was made Necessary Existence is Essential to the Notion of an Eternal Being which has no Beginning nor any Cause and therefore must be always what it is without the least Change that to ascribe Eternity to a World which is subject to perpetual Changes is as great an Absurdity as to assert an Eternal Succession without a Beginning Thus it is very natural to think that the Effect can have nothing but what the Cause can give it and therefore we may learn what the invisible Cause is from visible Effects that if we see any thing wisely made we may conclude it had a wise Cause and therefore nothing can more contradict the natural Sense of our Minds than to ascribe such a World as we now live in which discovers such wonderful Art in its Contrivance to blind and undesigning Chance I do not dispute these Matters now but only consider how unnatural it is to think so and therefore how very difficult it is for any Man in good earnest to espouse these Atheistick Principles Thus as for the Principles of Infidelity how hard is it for any Man to perswade himself that God never revealed himself and his Will to the World any otherwise than by the Works of Creation when all Mankind have believed otherwise and are naturally inclined to believe so and there are great Reasons to think that God will do so and none to think that he will not especially when we have such evident Proof of this in Prophecy and Miracles which so strongly perswade the rest of Mankind For to deny Prophecy and Miracles when the Matter of Fact is plain that there have been true Prophecies or Miracles and no Man besides themselves who believes a God doubts whether he can foretel things to come or exercise a Sovereign Authority over Nature when he pleases can be called by no softer Names than Stupidity or Impudence and whatever they say it is not so easie for them to believe what they say for Prophecy and Miracles carry such a Conviction with them of a Divine Power and give such Authority to the Prophet as is not easily resisted as is evident from hence that some of the wisest of these Men dare not deny the Authority of Prophecy and Miracles could they be assured o the Truth of them but they hear no Prophecies nor see any Miracles now and may be imposed on by fabulous Relations should they be over credulous of such Matters This would have been a good Answer had they only some idle and uncertain Reports of such things but it can never satisfie themselves when they have such an Authentick History as the Bible the Old and New Testament for the Foundation of Faith Can any Man perswade himself to reject the Credit and Authority of all Histories If he can't whatever he may pretend he will find it a very hard matter after all his Criticisms to disbelieve the Gospel which is the best attested and most credible History in the World These are the Difficulties of being an Atheist or Infidel without which Men can never reject or confound the Differences of Good and Evil that all these Principles contradict the natural Ideas of our Minds and destroy all the natural Rules and Measures of Reason that we can no more distinguish between Truth and Falshood than between Good and Evil and if it be possible ever thus to efface the natural Notions of our Minds yet it must be a very uneasie and difficult Task 3dly And yet it is at least as difficult to put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Men may bribe their Understandings but our natural Passions are not so easily stifled When the Frame and Constitution of our Natures has annexed Shame and Fear and Remorse to bad Actions which makes them very bitter and grievous in the Review whatever they were in the Act it is not laughing at these Fears as superstitious and owing to Education which will cure them no more than the Stoicks Brags that Pain was no Evil could prevent their feeling Pain What is painful will make us feel it and Atheists and Infidels themselves when they think they have reasoned and laught away all their Fears find that besides their frequent Misgivings and Jealousies when any great or surprizing Occasion sets them free these Passions return on them with such a Fury as all their Philosophy cannot resist Now this endangers all again for natural Shame and Fear and Remorse will make them own an Essential Difference between Good and Evil when they feel it 4thly But let us suppose all these Difficulties conquered they are sensible that there is one still remaining viz. That all the rest of Mankind are against them The Heathen World owned a God and as learned Men have proved one Supream God though they corrupted both the Notion and Worship of God by Polytheism and Idolatry but Atheism was so infamous among them that some Atheistick Philosophers such as Epicurus himself was forced to dissemble it They owned a moral Difference between Good and Evil they owned Revelation and instituted Religions and had them though not from God yet from those evil Spirits whom they worshipped for Gods The whole Iewish Nation own the Writings of Moses and the Prophets and the whole Christian World whom they are most at present concerned with own both the Old and New Testament These are great Authorities against them which one would think should make Men modest and put them a little out of countenance and incline them to suspect that they may be mistaken but they are sensible that Modesty would undo them that to suspect whether they are in the right is as fatal to them as to know that they are in the wrong and therefore they have no way left but to out-face all the World to laugh at all the rest of Mankind as superstitious