II. felected to receive the firft declaration of SERM. his will. To them a law was prescribed, abounding in outward obfervances, which were either typical of fomething to come, or neceffary to catch the attention of the multitude, who, if their forms of devotion had been more fimple, would foon have been entirely carried away by the gaudy and pompous idolatry of the nations that furrounded them. In the Old Teftament we find many of the attributes and perfections of the JEHOVAH, defcribed with the energy and fublimity of divine inspiration; and exhortations to virtue, and diffuafions from vice, urged with all the force of truth, and clothed in the most beautiful fimplicity of language: But the variety of ordinances, though adapted with infinite wisdom to the difpofition of the people at the time of their establishment, were not defigned to be permanent: The Ifraelites, corrupt in their lives, perverted the true meaning of their ablutions and ceremonies, I II. SERM. ceremonies, and placed their whole de pendance upon external acts, notwithstanding they were fo frequently told by their prophets, that God required mercy rather than facrifice. The Mofaic inftitution, therefore, was but the introduction to a more perfect revelation; and when learning began to fhine upon almost all the kingdoms of the earth, and the mind of man was fufficiently prepared by science and philofophy, to entertain fo pure and unadorned a difpenfation, the GOSPEL ftepped forth, in all the beauty of holiness, to captivate, convince, and reform the world. Yet, notwithstanding the peculiar excellence of its laws, and the convincing evidence of its authority, Christianity met with powerful and steady oppofition. The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers took counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed *. * Psalm ii. 2. The priests and governors governors of the Jewish nation perfecuted SERM. the difciples of Jefus from city to city; II. and the lords and princes of the Gentiles delivered up the preachers of righteousness to imprisonment and death. Blind guides appeared to mislead, false prophets arose to deceive, and many departed from the faith, giving beed to feducing fpirits and doctrines of devils *, The impoftor Mahomet, as the best means of attaining that eminence which his unbounded ambition incited him to acquire, pretended to a divine commiffion. As many paffages in his Koran are borrowed from the Old and New Teftament, we must not wonder if his defcriptions are fometimes fublime, and his precepts juft; but to these he hath joined many abfurdities, the fruitful offspring of his own. fancy. To his opponents he threatened inevitable deftruction, to his followers Ι Tim, iv. I. he II. SERM. he promised uninterrupted enjoyment, and artfully adapted his accounts of Paradise, to the fenfual appetites of the Arabians. A fyftem of faith, thus calculated to allure the herd of mankind, had the additional power of the fword to enforce it; and those who could not be won by the hopes of plunder, nor attracted by the expectation of his imaginary heaven, were proceeded against with all the rigour of war, and were compelled, after the flaughter of their friends and the devastation of their country, to acknowledge his authority, and receive his doctrine. But fome who were esteemed the most ftrenuous advocates for the Gospel impeded its progrefs by their diffenfions and animofities. In the earliest ages of Christianity, the gentle precepts of the Saviour were forgotten or despised by many of those who called themfelves his followers; and the genuine worship of GoD, in fimplicity II. and truth, in meeknefs and charity, was SERM. interrupted by furious discord and fanguinary perfecution. At length the Church of Rome arrogated to herself a dominion over the confciences of men, affumed a power civil as well as ecclefiaftical, controlled the councils of princes, and kept nations in awe by her daring anathemas.-Who would have imagined, that a religion so pure, fo mild, and fo humble as the Chriftian, could have been perverted to fo grofs, so arbitrary, and so haughty a superstition ? But without entering at present into a minute investigation of her opinions, or a needless refutation of her tenets, I shall only mention a few inftances, which will fufficiently fhew, that this Church does not worship GoD in fpirit and in truth. She hath burthened her votaries with a thousand frivolous and useless injunctions, which, like the traditions of the Pharifees, divert the mind from the more important |