and laugh at us for accepting. For what is all this, but the height of Mockery, as well as Misery, the very Sting of Death, and like being murdered (as the best of Kings was) by a Disguised Executioner ? For such an one the Tempter ever was, and will be; never accosting us with a Smile, but he designs us a Stab; nor on the other hand ever frighting those, whom he would destroy. Such a Course, he well knows, will not do his Work; but that if he would attempt and ruin a Man effectually, Silence and Suddenness are his surest Ways; and he must take heed of giving an Alarm, where he intends a Surprize. No; we may be sure that he understands the Arts of Tempting too well, not to know, that the less he appears, the more he is like to do, and that the Tempter himself is no Temptation. He is, indeed, an old thorough-paced, experienced Sophister, and has ways to make the very Natures and Properties of Things equivocate. He can, if need be, shrowd a Glutton in a Fast, and a Mifer in a Feast; and though the very Nature of Swine hurries them into the foulest Dirt and Mire, yet to serve a Turn, we read, he can make them run as violently into the Water.

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Still his way is to amuse the World with Shews and Shadows, Surface and Outside; and thereby to make good that old Maxim in Phi

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lofophy, losophy, that in all that occurrs to the Eye, it is not Substance, but only Colour, and Figure, which we, see. This has been his Pratice from the beginning, from the very Infancy and Nonage of the World to this Day; but whatsoever it was then in those early Times, shall we, whose Lot has caft us upon these latter Ages, and thereby set us upon their Shoulders, giving us all the Advantages of Warning, and Observations made to our hands, all the Benefits of Example, and the Affsurances of a long and various Experience; shall we, I say, after all this, fuffer ourselves to be fooled with the wretched, thin, tranfparent Artifices of modern Diffimulation? With Eyes turned up in Prayer to God, but swelling with Spite and Envy towards Men? With a Purity above Mortal Pitch, professed (or rather proclaimed) in Words, without fo much as common Honesty seen in Actions? With Reformation so loudly, and specioufly pretended, but nothing but Sacrilege and Rapine practised?

This was the just and true Character of the blessed Times of Forty One; and one would think it a great pity, that the same Cheat should pass upon the same Nation twice. For nothing but the utter Subversion of Church and State was driven at, by Satan and his Instruments, in that was then done; and Lyes, Oaths, and

Armies (raised in the Strength of both) were the Means, by which they effected it. In short, the Nation was to be blindfolded, in order to its being buffeted; and Sampson to have his Eyes put out, before he could be made Fool enough to kill himself for Company. All grant, that the Acts of the Understanding should in order of Nature lead, and go before the Acts of the Will; and accordingly Satan is always so much a Philosopher, as to know, that there is no debauching the one, but by first deluding the other.

It is indeed no small degree of Impudence (as common as it is) for Men to dare, to own Pretences, contrary to what they actually and visibly practise; and yet to shew, how much the World is made for the Bold (as the Saying is) this has been the constant Course of it, with an unfailing Success attending it. For as long as Knaves will pretend, and Fools believe, (as it is feldom but they keep pace with one another) the Devil's Interest is sure to be served by both. And therefore, if after all this long Scene of Fallacy and Imposture (fo infinitely dishonourable to our very Nature) we would effectually obviate the same for the future; let us in God's Name, and in the first place, resolve once with ourselves, to act as Rational Creatures; that is to say, let us carry an open, steady, and impartial Eye upon upon what Men do, in spite of any thing which they shall or can say. And, in the next place, let us, as Christians, encounter our Grand Enemy the Tempter, with these two best of Weapons put into our Hands by the great Captain of our Salvation, Watchfulness and Prayer; and if by these blessed Means, God shall discover and lay open to us his Delufions, we may thank ourselves, if we fall by his Temptations.

To which God, the great Fountain, and Father of Light, who alone can scatter all those Mists, and defeat those Stratagems, which the Prince of Darkness has hitherto blinded, and abused the World by; be rendred, and ascribed, as is most due, all Praise, Might, Majesty, and Dominion, both now and for evermore. Amen.

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A DISCOURSE concerning our Saviour's RESURRECTION.

John XX. 29. Jesus faith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: BlefJed are they, who have not feen, and yet have believed.

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HRIST, the great Sun of Righteousness, and Saviour of the World, having by a glorious Rifing, after

a Red, and a Bloody Setting, proclaim'd his Deity to Men, and Angels; and by a complete Triumph over the two grand Enemies of Mankind, Sin and Death, fet up the Everlasting Gospel in the room of all false Religions, has now (as it were) changed the Persian Superstition into the Christian DevoVOL. V. tion;

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