are all our Hopes, all our Friends, and all our Preferments. One thing indeed this Heavenly Stranger warmly pleads for in Arrest of Judgment, and 'tis only this, that you wou'd vouchfafe to understand her well before you condemn her. And what can the Laws fuffer in their Authority, by admitting her to a full hearing? Will not their Power rife in Glory for the Justice of a hearing? But if you condemn her unheard, befides the Odium of flaming Injuftice, you will defervedly incur the Sufpicion of being confcious of fomething that makes you fo unwilling to hear; what, when heard, you cannot condemn.

First therefore, we lay before you Ignorance, as the chief Root of your unjustifyable Bitterness to the Chriftian Name; and this very Ignorance, which you may flatter your felves with as a Title to Excufe, is the very thing that loads your Charge, and binds the heavier Guilt upon you. For, fhew me a groffer piece of Iniquity, than for Men to hate what they understand not, fuppofing the thing in it self deferves to be hated; for then only can a thing deferve from us to be hated, when we are appriz'd of its Deserts; if not acquainted with the Merits of the Caufe, what can we poffibly urge in the Defence of Hatred? which is not to be justify'd by the Event, or because the Paffion may happen to be right, but by the Principle of Confcience upon which it is founded.

When therefore Men will be thus hating in the dark, why mayn't the blind Paffion fall foul upon Virtue, as well as Vice? So that we argue

argue against our Adverfaries upon two Articles, For hating us ignorantly; and confequently, for hating us unjustly. And that you hate us ignorantly, (which still I fay does but aggravate your Crime) I prove from hence, Because all who hated us heretofore, did it upon the fame Ground, being no longer able to continue our Enemies, than they continu'd ignorant of our Religion; their Hatred and their Ignorance fell together.

Such are the Men, you now fee Christians, manifeftly overcome by the Piety of our Profeffion, and who now reflect upon their Lives past with Abhorrence, and profess it to the World; and the numbers of fuch Profeffors are not less than they are given in; for the common Cry is, The City is invested, Town and Country over-run with Chriftians. And this univerfal Revolt in all Ages, Sexes, and Qualities, is lamented as a publick Lofs; and yet this prodigious Progrefs of Chriftianity, is not enough to furprize Men into a Sufpicion, that there must needs be fome fecret Good, fome charming Advantage at the bottom, thus to drain the World, and attract from ev'ry Quarter: But nothing will difpofe fome Men to juster Thoughts, or to make a more intimate Experiment of our Religion. In this alone, humane Curiofity feems to ftagnate, and with as much Complacency to ftand ftill in Ignorance, as it ufually runs on in the Discoveries of Science.

Alas!

e

Alas! how wou'd poor Anacharfis have been struck at such Proceedings, to see the very Judges of Religion entirely ignorant of the Religion they condemn, who look'd upon it fo abfurd, for the Rewards of a Fidler to be adjudg'd by any but the Masters of the Science. But fuch are our Enemies, that they choose to indulge their Ignorance, merely for the growth of their Hatred; foreboding within themselves, that what they hate without Knowledge, may chance to be a thing of so lovely a Nature, that fhou'd they come to know it, they would be in Danger of lofing their Hatred; whereas Hatred is not to be kept a Moment longer than it has Justice on its fide: If fo, fpare not, not only give a prefent loose to your Refentments, but also perfevere in a Paffion, thus feconded and strengthen'd by the Authority of Justice.

But 'tis objected, that the number of Chriftians, is no Argument of the Goodness of their Caufe. For how many change from better to worfe? how many Deferters to the wrong fide? And who denies this? But yet, are any of those Men, who are prefs'd away to Sin by the Violence of Appetites, are they hardy enough to appear in the Defence of Wickedness, or appeal to publick Justice for the Patronage of notorious Evil? For everyEvil is by Nature dy'd in Grain with Shame and Fear. The Guilty hunt for Refuge in Darknefs, and when apprehended, tremble; when

• Anacharfis.] See his Life in Diog. Laertius.

accus'd,

accus'd, deny; and are hardly to be torment ed into a Confeffion; when condemn'd, they fink down in Sadness, and turn over their Number of Sins in Confufions of Confcience and charge the Guilt upon the f Stars or Deftiny; unwilling to acknowledge that, as their own A&, which they acknowledge to be criminal.

But do you fee any thing like this, in the Deportment of Chriftians? not one Christian blushes or repents, unless it be for not having been a Christian fooner. If a Christian goes to Tryal, he goes like a Victor, with the Air of a Triumph; if he is impeach'd, he glories in it, if indicted, he makes no Defence at

+ John Edwards D. D. his Sermon upon the Union May 1. 1707 in tituled, One Nati on, and One King.

Fato vel Aftris imputant.] Guilt is an ugly, frightful, and uneafie thing; and this it was that put Men at firft upon contriving an Expedient how to fatisfie their Confcience, in Spite of their Sin; and the Expedient was this, To lay the Blame upon Fate, or the Stars, or any thing but themselves. Predeftination in the rigid Senfe is not one jor better than Fate in the Senfe of the Stoicks. And tho' it occafion'd at one time fo much Feud and Bitterness all about us, and the Controverfie order'd by Authority to dye, yet is it now again † reviv'd, as the Ramparts and Bulwarks of Chriftianity, and the rareft Contrivance in the World, to make us not only almost but altogether One Kirk; for which, no doubt, the Doctor expects the Thanks of the united Nations. The Generality of the Clergy he ftigmatizes Apoftates, for being Affertors of Free Will; and if fo, what will become of the Fathers of the first four Centuries, I cannot tell: Sure I am, poor Juftin Martyr is an Apoftate with a Witnefs. Ap. 1. Sect. 54. But if the Doctor would but follow his own Advice, That is, in one Word, let us be moderate, and give his Brethren hard Reafons inftead of hard Names, it would make much more for Union, Idare fay, than his Doctrine of Predeftination; which fhould it take effect, we fhould not have one Criminal that goes to be hang'd, but, as Tertullian fays, would be curfing his Stars, and laying all the Fault upon Destiny, that is, God.

Bar,

1

Bar, when interrogated he frankly confeffes, and when condemn'd returns Thanks to his Judges.

What a Monster of Wickedness is this that has not one Shape or Feature of Wicked

* Quid hoc mali est, quod naturalia mali non habet? Naturalia is the fame here as Natura, for he fays, Quod hoc malum est in quo natura mali ceffat? ad Nat. p. 461. But that which is more remarkable, is, that here we have an admirable Description, and a most fenfible Proof, both of the Truth and the Power of the Chriftian Religion; for did ever any Impoftor fet up a Religion fo ill calculated to the Paffions and Relifh of Mankind? Did he ever propofe a Doctrine to the World, without one worldly Motive to recommend it, without one external Comfort to hope for, or one Arm to defend it? Did Judas difcover the Secret, when he betray'd his Mafter? or had it been a Cheat, would the Traytor have hang'd himself for his Treafon? Was there ever fuch a Noble Army of Martyrs, who dy'd fo calmly and deliberately, and exprefs'd fo much Innocence, fo much Joy and Affurance in their Sufferings, as they did? So that either we muft fuppofe Chrift to have been the fhalloweft of Impoftors (which the Wisdom of his Precepts will not admit) to fet up a Religion so ungrateful to Flesh and Blood, without any vifible Force or Reward to maintain it; and withal, that good part of the World, of all forts and fizes, happen'd luckily to be ftark ftaring mad for Suffering, and to continue fo for above 300 Years together, or elfe we muft fuppofe, that Chrift came down from Heaven, and that the Sufferers had all the Reafon imaginable to believe it, and therefore by help of divine Grace, and the Power of Conviction, they defpis'd every thing here below for the Foy that was fet before them. This Argument is likewife profecuted by Arnobius, adv. Gent. lib. 2. p. 21. as a mighty Inftance of the Divinity of the Chriftian Faith, that in fo fhort a time it thou'd be too hard for the Wisdom and Pleasures of the World, and work fo with Men of the greateft Parts and Learning, and of the greateft Fortunes, as to make 'em part with their Notions and Estates, and fubmit to any Torments rather than part with the Chriftian Faith; and that the Gentiles did not think it adviseable to venture their Skin for their Doctrine. That Plato, in his Academy, introduced a dark and ambiguous way of delivering his Opinions, for fear of going the Way of Socrates. And Origen tells Celfus, Cont. Celf. lib. p. 51. that Ariftotle quitted Athens, and left his Philofophy to fhift for it felf, as foon as he understood that the Athenians intended to call him to Account: So little could Phi lofophy prevail against Self-preservation.

nefs