- Let it here only be premifed,-that the wickedness either of the present or past times, whatever fcandal and reproach it brings upon chriftians,-ought not in reafon to reflect difhonour upon christianity, which is fo apparently well framed to make us good;-that there is not a greater paradox in nature,than that fo good a religion fhould be no better recommended by its profeffors. -Though this may feem a paradox,— 'tis ftill, I fay, no objection, though it has often been made ufe of against christianity;-fince, if the morals of men are not reformed, it is not owing to a defect in the revelation, but 'tis owing to the fame caufes which defeated all the use and intent of reafon,—before revelation was given.-For fetting afide the obligations which a divine law lays upon us-whoever confiders the ftate and condition of human nature, and upon this view, how much stronger the natural motives are to virtue than to vice, would expect to find the world much better than it is, or ever has

been. For who would fuppofe the generality of mankind to betray fo much folly, as to act against the common intereft of their own kind, as every man does who yields to the temptation of what is wrong.-But on the other fide,

if men firft look into the practice of the world, and there observe the strange prevalency of vice, and how willing men are to defend as well as to commit it,-one would think they believed that all difcourfes of virtue and honesty were mere matter of fpeculation for men to entertain fome idle hours with;-and fay truly, that men feemed universally to be agreed in nothing but in fpeaking well and doing ill. But this casts no more dishonour upon reason than it does upon revelation;-the truth of the cafe being this, that no motives have been great enough to reftrain those from fin who have fecretly loved it, and only fought pretences for the practice of it. -So that if the light of the gospel has not left a fufficient provifion against the wickedness of the world,-the true an

Iwer is, that there can be none.-'Tis fufficient that the excellency of chriftianity in doctrine and precepts, and its proper tendency to make us virtuous as well as happy, is a frong evidence of its divine original,-and thefe advantages it has above any inftitution that ever was in the world:-it gives the beft directions, the best examples,-the greatest encouragements, the best helps, and the greatest obligation to gratitude. But as religion was not to work upon men by way of force and natural neceffity, but by moral perfuafion,—which fets good and evil before them;-fo that, if men have power to do evil, or chufe the good, and will abuse it, this cannot be avoided;-not only religion but even reason itself, muft neceffarily imply a freedom of choice; and all the beings in the world, which have it were created free to ftand or free to fall-and therefore men that will not be wrought upon by this way of address, must expect, and be contented, to feel the stroke of that rod which is prepared

for the back of fools, oft-times in this world, but undoubtedly in the next, from the hands of a righteous governor, who will finally render to every man according to his works.

Because this fentence is not always executed speedily, is the wife man's account of the general licentioufnefs which prevailed through the race of mankind, so early as his days; and we may allow it a place, amongst the many other fatal caufes of depravation in our own;-a few of which, I fhall beg leave to add to this explication of the wife man's; fubjoining a few practical cautions in relation to each, as I go along..

To begin with Solomon's account in the text, that because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the fons of men are fully fet in them to do evil.—

It feems fomewhat hard to underftand the confequence, why men should grow more defperately wicked,-because GoD is merciful and gives them

fpace to repent ;-this is no natural effect, nor does the wife man intend to infinuate, that the goodness and long fuffering of GOD is the cause of the wickedness of man, by a direct efficacy to harden finners in their course.-But the scope of his difcourfe is this, Because a vicious man escapes at prefent, he is apt to draw falfe conclufions from it, and, from the delay of GoD's punishment in this life, either to conceive them at fo remote a distance, or perhaps fo uncertain, that, though he has fome doubtful misgivings of the future, yet he hopes, in the main, that his fears are greater than his danger ;-and, from observing fome of the worst of men both live and die without any outward teftimony of GoD's wrath,-draws from thence fome flatterin ground of encouragement for himself, and, with the wicked in the pfalm, fays in his heart, Tufh, I fhall never be caft down, there fhall no harm happen unto me:-as if it was neceffary, if GOD is to punish at all, that he must do it prefently;-which, by