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mon Sentiments of Mankind, but only among the Beaux the Deifts.

XVIII. Therefore, if the Deifts would avoid the Mortification (which will be very uneafy to them) to yield, and fubmit to be fubdued and bewed down before the Priefts, whom of all Mankind they hate and deSpife; if they would avoid this, let them confefs, as the Truth is, that Religion is no Invention of Priefts, but of Divine Original; that Priefts were inftituted by the fame Author of Religion; and that their Order is a perpetual and living Monument of the Matters of Fact of their Religion, inftituted from the Time that fuch Matters of Fact were faid to be done; as the Levites from Mofes; the Apofiles, and fucceeding Clergy, from Chrift, to this Day; that no Heathen Priests can fay the fame : They were not appointed by the Gods whom they ferved, but by others in After-Ages: They cannot ftand the Teft of the four Rules before-mentioned, which the Chriftian Priefts can do, and they only. Now the Chriftian Priesthood, as inftituted by Chrift himself, and continued by Succeffion to this Day, being as impregnable and flagrant a Teftimony to the Truth of the Matters of Fact of Chrift, as the Sacraments, or any other publick Infiitutions; befides that, if the Priesthood were taken away, the Sacraments, and other publick Inftitutions, which are adminiftered by their Hands, must fall with them; therefore the Devil has been moft busy, and bent his greatest Force, in all Ages, against the Priesthood, knowing that if that go down, all goes with it.

XIX. With the Deifts, in this Caufe, are join'd the Quakers, and other of our Dissenters, who throw off the Succeffion of our Priesthood (by which only it can be demonftrated), together with the Sacraments and publick Feftivals. And if the Devil could have prevailed to have thefe dropt, the Chriftian Religion would lofe the moft undeniable and demonftrative Proof for the Truth of the Matters of Fact of our Saviour, upon which the Truth of his Doctrine does depend. Therefore we may fee the Artifice and Malice of the Devil in all these Attempts:

tempts: And let thofe wretched Inftruments, whom he ignorantly (and fome by a misguided Zeal) has deluded, thus to undermine Chriftianity, now at laft look back, and fee the Snare in which they have been taken! For if they had prevailed, or ever fhould, Chriftianity dies with them; at least, it will be rendered precarious, as a Thing of which no certain Proof can be given. Therefore let thofe of them, who have any Zeal for the Truth, bless God that they have not prevailed; and quickly leave them; and let all others be aware of them.

And let us confider and honour the Prifthood, Sacraments, and other publick Inftitutions of Chrift, not only as Means of Grace, and Helps to Devotion, but as the great Evidences of the Chriftian Religion.

Such Evidences as no pretended Revelation ever had, or can have: Such as do plainly distinguish it from all foolish Legends and Impoftures whatsoever.

XX. And now, laft of all, if one Word of Advice would not be loft upon Men who think so unmeasurably of themselves as the Deifts, you may reprefent to them, what a Condition they are in, who spend that Life and Senfe which God hath given them, in ridiculeing the greatest of his Bleffings, his Revelations of Chrift, and by Chrift, to redeem thofe from eternal Mifery, who fhall believe in him, and obey his Laws: And that God, in his wonderful Mercy and Wisdom, has fo guarded his Revelations, as that it is paft the Power of Men or Devils to counterfeit; and that there is no denying of them, unless we will be fo abfurd as to deny not only the Reafon, but the Certainty of the outward Senfes, not only of one, or two, or three, but of Mankind in general: That this Cafe is fo very plain, that nothing but want of Thought can hinder any to dif cover it: That they must yield it to be so plain, unless they can fhew fome Forgery which has all the four Marks before fet down. But if they cannot do this, they must quit their Caufe, and yield a happy Victory over themselves: Or elfe fit down under all that Ignominy with which they have loaded the Priefts, of being

not

not only the moft pernicious, but (what will gall them more) the most inconfiderate, and inconfiderable, of Mankind.

Therefore let them not think it an undervaluing of their Worthiness, that their whole Caufe is comprised within fo narrow a Compafs, and no more Time be. ftowed upon it than it is worth. But let them rather reflect, how far they have been all this time from Christianity, whofe Rudiments they are yet to learn; how far from the Way of Salvation; how far the Race of their Lives is run, before they have fet one Step in the Road to Heaven. And therefore, how much Diligence they ought to use to redeem all that Time they have loft, left they lofe themselves for ever; and be convinced, by a dreadful Experience, when it is too late, that the Gospel is a Truth, and of the laft Confequence.

THE

THE

TRUTH of Christianity

DEMONSTRATED,

IN A

DIALOGUE

BETWIXT A

CHRISTIAN and a DEIST.

Wherein the Cafe of the Jews is likewife

(1) CHRISTIAN.

confidered.

I

Tis ftrange you should stand it out fo against your own Happinefs, and employ your whole Wit and Skill to work in yourfelf a Disbelief of any future Rewards or Punishments, only that you may live eafy (as you think) in this World, and enjoy your Pleafures. Which yet you cannot enjoy free and undisturbed from the Fear of thofe Things that are to come; the Event of which you pretend not to be fure of; and therefore are fure of a Life that admits not of any Confolation, and of a miferable and wretched Death, according to the utmost that you yourself propose!

DEIST. How can you fay that? When I propofe to live without any Fear of thofe Things. I fear not Hell ; and I have difcarded the Expectation of Heaven, because I believe neither.

it.

CHR. Are you fure there are no fuch Things?

DE. That is a Negative, and I pretend not to prove

CHR. Then you must remain in a Doubt of it. And what a Condition is it to die in this Doubt, when the Iffue is eternal Mifery! And this is the utmoft, by your own Confeffion, that you can propofe to yourself. Therefore I called yours a Disbelief, rather than a Belief of any-thing. It is we Chriftians who believe; you Deifts only difbelieve.

And if the Event fhould prove as you would have it, and that we should all be annihilated at our Death, we fhould be in as good a Condition as you. But, on the other Side, if the Event fhould prove as we expect it, then you are eternally miferable, and we eternally happy. Therefore one would think it the wifeft Part to take our Side of the Question.

Efpecially confidering, that thofe poor Pleasures, for the fake of which you determine yourselves against us, are but mere Amusements, and no real Enjoyments. Nay, we had better be without them than have them, even as to this Life itself. Is not Temperance, and a healthful Conftitution, more pleafunt than those Pains and Aches, fick Head and Stomach, that are the infeparable Companions of Debauchery and Excefs; befides the clouding our Reason, and turning fottish in our UnderStanding?

DE. We take Pleasure in them for the Time; and mind not the Confequences. But however, a Man cannot believe as he pleafes: And therefore, notwithftanding all the glorious and all the terrible Things you fpeak of, it makes nothing to me, unless you can evi. dently prove them to be fo. And you must still leave me to judge for myself, after you have done all

can.

you

CHR.

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