loved, when I gave all Diligence to write unto you concerning the common Salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you, that ye fhould earnestly contend for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints. Here he represents the Faith once delivered to the Saints in great Danger almost as soon as delivered, and that too from Men who crept in unawares amongst them. St. Paul fays to Timothy, This thou knoweft, that all they which are in Afia are turned away from me; not probably from the outward Profeffion of Christianity, but from the true and lively Faith of it. In pursuance of which, we find afterwards in St. John's Account of the Seven Churches in Afia that there were amongst them, thofe, who called themselves Jews, but were not, but the Synagogue of Satan; that had a Name that they liv'd, but were dead. Characters of the laft Days

In the

of the

Gospel

Gospel Difpenfation, we find that Men should run into all kinds and degrees of Immorality, and that whilft they deny'd the Power, they should still preserve a Form of Godliness. And tho' our Lord questions whether at his Second Coming he should find Faith on the Earth; yet we have not the least Intimation given us, that the outward Profeffion of Chriftianity should be laid aside or diminish'd. If we look into the State of Religion during the Reign of Conftantine, and fo on thro' the Times of Popery, we fee at once the fpreading and infectious Quality of this Leaven. And tho' at the time of the Reformation it met with a fore Check, yet there is still room for it to work and ferment amongst us; I would only ask whether every religious Community does not prefer it felf to others chiefly upon account of the Externals of Religion; and whether those Men in each, who are

most

most zealous and noify upon thefe Particulars, have not more of the Honours, and Preferments, and Countenance of the World? I cannot but observe of a wayward Party of Men amongst us, who profefs an Abhorrence of all kind of Ceremony, that in forfaking divine and decent Forms, they have fallen into those that are ridiculous, and perhaps do rest in and rely upon them more, than any other fort of Men do upon any other whatfoever.

History then gives us a fufficient Testimony of the spreading and infectious Quality of this Leaven.

If we confider the Nature of the Thing, we need not at all wonder at it.

We cannot, if we would, cancel out of our Minds the Existence of a God; and Religion, or the Worship of him, is so closely annexed to his Existence, that we know not how to feparate

them.

them. There are but few Perfons who duly confider the Purity of his Nature and Worship. All however must be religious. Even those Men whofe Religion engages them to hear the Scriptures, and the like, and fo cannot but have fome just Sense of God and Religion; even they, thro' the Depravity of their Nature, are too apt to rest in a Worship which does not only not oblige them to deny themselves and mortify their Lufts; which is not only reconcileable with their Vices, but also very promotive of their Honour, and Intereft, and Pleasure in this World. That a Set of professed Christians fhould be the Synagogue of Satan is fo far from being a thing to be wondered at, that it is rather ftrange that every Wolf does not appear in Sheeps Cloathing, and that the greatest Rake in reality is not the most apparently religious.

As

As to the other Quality of Leaven, its puffing up and elating the Mafs in which it works, which St. Paul alludes to in that other Paffage wherein he uses the Proverbial Saying before taken notice of; ye are puffed up, your glorying is not good, fays he, Know ye not that a little Leaven leaveneth the whole Lump? The Inftances of it in the Pharifees are so many and notorious, that I need not fet them particularly before you. I shall mention only this one. When our Lord fpake a Parable unto certain which trufted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others, he chufes the Character of a Pharifee to represent them by before all others. And there is no Man but must have obferved, that the great Zealots for External Religion, are always heady and high-minded, and that their Mouth fpeaketh great fwelling Words, that they boast themselves that they are righteous, and defpife others.

It