manifest to us in the Bible; which, as it is the most ancient record we have of any kind, of what was said or done in the world from the beginning thereof, so it informs us sufficiently of all that we are obliged to think, or to do; and whatsoever is too hard for us there to understand, is in no degree necessary for us to know; and yet we may lawfully endeavour to inform ourselves of what is difficult there, though we may be deceived in our enquiry, because there is no penalty upon being deceived. The custom is so universal, amongst those who wrestle to support the strength of every opinion in religion, to appeal to the judgment and the practice of the primitive times, that standers-by are apt to believe that every one of the litigants know very well where to find the judge to whom he appeals; and yet there was never any difficulty reconciled and determined by that judicatory; nor in truth do the appellants well understand what themselves mean by the appeal they make; nor would have reason to acquiesce in the judgment, if they could receive it by agreeing upon it. I would be glad to know what men mean who speak of the opinion of the primitive times; do they mean the concurrent testimony and consent of those times, or the opinion and practice of some pious and learned men. who lived in those times? If they mean the time of the apostles, alas! we may warrantably and pi

ously say, that it was a very wicked and a sinful time; nor had Christianity itself the testimony and consent of that time, though it was received by many by their doctrine, miracles, and example.

A man might reasonably believe that the integrity of Christian religion was most manifest in the time of our blessed Saviour himself; especially in those who were converted by himself; were auditors of his own sermons upon the Mount, which comprehend the whole faith and the whole duty of Christianity; heard all his explanations and expositions upon the prophets, in whom they all believed; and who, he had made appear to them, had clearly foretold his coming, and what he was to do and suffer: they who observed and were well acquainted with the simplicity and purity of his life, with his wisdom and knowledge, evidently more than human, who saw his miracles of all kinds wrought in their sight, by his word, by his eye, by his hand, by others touching him, and the like; and were by all this informed, converted, received, and baptised into his faith, professed to believe all the things which he said, and that he was the very person whom he declared himself to be, and whom they had so long expected; who would believe but that the full and whole lustre of Christianity would shine in these converts? yet it quickly appeared that all this conviction of their reason, all this manifest

ation to their sense, met with strong contradiction in their hearts, from the difficulty of the matter. The apostles themselves were startled, and knew not what to think or do; and after that St Peter had confessed that Jesus was Christ, the son of the everliving God; which he had reason to do, when he had seen him (together with James and John) disfigured upon the mountain, and had heard the voice from the clouds, "This is my beloved Son;" yet neither of them could understand "what the rising from the dead should mean," (Mark ix. 10;) and St Luke tells us that when our Saviour inform ed the whole twelve, at his going up to Jerusalem, of all things that were written by the prophets con cerning him, and which were then to be accom. plished, "That he should be delivered to the Gentiles, and should be mocked and spitefully entreated and spitten on, and that they should scourge him and put him to death, and the third day he should rise again, they (the whole twelve) understood none of these things; and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken," (Luke xviii. 34.) Christ himself thought it not fit to explain that most important point to them, well knowing that in that part of the resurrection they must have another assistance to their faith than his own words could give them; and therefore we see how long it was before that article could

gain belief, even after his actual resurrection; and how then he condescended to convince their senses in all circumstances, before he could obtain their belief in that point, which concerned them more than all the rest; nor could less than the descent of the Holy Ghost finish that part of the creed, and propagate that doctrine. And when our Saviour enlarged himself upon the sacrament, and told them of" eating his flesh and drinking his blood," this seemed so very obscure a discourse to them that many of his disciples said, "This is a hard saying, and who can bear it?" and St John tells us, "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him," (John vi. 66,) so unstable and irresolute were these primitive Christians, converted and informed by himself, and so unfit to teach others their duty. And it is the less wonder if the same difficult arguments are still litigated by men of different fancies and understandings, and that the multiplying words and disputations with new terms and different expressions, do still add to those difficulties.

Let us in the next place enquire what light we may receive from the age in which the apostles themselves lived; which must be the next primitive time to that of our Saviour; and from whom we received indeed all that we know of our Saviour, and ample directions what we are to believe,

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and what we are to do, in order to our salvation: but of that time we have not any information of any of the actions or dictates of our Saviour or the apostles, which we are in any degree obliged to give credit to, but what is left to us by themselves in the sacred scriptures; and whatsoever hath been written since to inform us of either, hath been written by none, but such who lived not till many hundred years after the death of those apostles, whose history they have given life to and if we seriously consider how little credit we ourselves give to any history that was written two hundred years since, by any persons who did not live in those times of which they wrote, the great absence of ingenuity in those, who write what themselves might have seen, and the extreme passion, ignorance, and partiality in those relations, may reasonably be excused for want of reverence to those authors, who so many years after the death of the apostles relate, how confidently soever, the actions and words of those apostles; some whereof are very different from, if not contradictory to, the very relation they have left to us of themselves. Whosoever hath taken the pains to peruse and examine the histories which have been written, and the relations which have been made, of the transactions the last hundred years within the compass of Europe, by men who have set their names to what