458 The Fill Sermon on this Text. SERMON LXIV. The Prefndices againft Chriftianity confider'd. MATT H. I. 6. .find bled, is he whofoever /hall not be offended in me. IHave from thefe Words propounded to confider twoThings. I. ThofePrejudices and Obje&ions which the World had againft our Sa- viour and his Religion at their firlt Appearance; as alto to enquire into thole which Men at this day do more efpecially infift upon, againft the Chriftian Re- ligion; and to (how the Unreafonablenefs of them. II. How happy a thing it is to efcape and overcome thg common Prejudices whichMen have againft Religion. I have entred upon thefrrft of thefe, the Prejudices which the World had againft our Saviour and his Religion. When this great Teacher of Mankind came from God, though he gave all imaginable Teftimony and Evidence that he was tent from Heaven; yet the greateft part of the World, both Jews and Gentiles, were mightily offended at him, and deeply prejudiced againft him and his Do&ring but not both upon the fame Account. I have already given you an Account of the chief Exceptions which the Jews made againft ourSaviour and his Do&rive, and have fhewn the unreafonablenefs of them. I proceed now to confider the principal of thole Exceptions, which the Gen- tiles and Heathen Philofophers took at our Saviour and his Do&rine. I (hall mention thefe four. Firfi, That Chriftianity was a great Innovation, and contrary to the received Inftitutionsof the World. Secondly, They obje&ed againft the Plainnefs andSimplicity of theDo&nine. Thirdly, That it wanted Demonttration. Fourthly, That the low and fufferingCondition of our Saviour was unfuitable to one that pretended to be the Son of God, and to beappointed byhim for a Teach- er and Reformer of the World. Thefe are the chief Exceptions which the Hea- then, and efpecially their Philofophers, took at our Saviour and his Do&rine. Firft, That the Chriftian Religion was a great Innovation, and contrary to the received Inftitutions of the World; and confequently that it did condemn the Religion which had been fo univerfally received and eftablifhed in the World by fo long a Continuance of Time. And no wonder if this made a great im- preffionupon them, and railed a mighty Prejudice in the Minds of Men againft the Chriflian Religion ; no Prejudices being fo ftrong as thofe that are fix'd in the Minds of Men by Education: And of all the Prejudices of Education, none fo violent and hard to be removed, as thofe about Religion, yea though they be never fo groundlefs and unreafonable. Hath a Nation changed their Gods, which yet are no Gods? Intimating to us, that Men are very hardly brought off from that Religion which they have been brought up in, how abfurd foever it be. When Chriftianity was firft propounded to the Heathen World, had Men been free and indifferent, and not prepotfefs'd with other Apprehenlions of God and Religion ; it might then have been expeaed from them, that they fhould have entertain'd it with a readinefs of Mind proportionable to the Reafo-
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