Long Livers:

tion in the Time of Augustus Ccesar , when there was a profound Peace all over the World , which was never more polite , and perhaps never more vicious . The Sceptre having now departed from Judah , the Messiah , the Prince of Peace ,

came into the World , and came ( as he himself says ) not to destroy , but to fulfil : But how , my dearest Brethren , must that be understood ? it is certain he came to destroy the Shadows , Types , Hieroglyphics , the bloody Sacrifices , and the whole

Ceremonial Law , or else his Disciples and Followers have led us in the dark . He came not then to destroy , but to fulfil , what was couched under all these , and all what was delivered by the prophets , in relation to his Kingdom ; to be the Restorer of corrupted

Nature , and to bring back Man again to his primaeval State of Integrity , which the Mosaic Law could never do ; to deliver us from bondage and make us Free , to bring us from Darkness into Light , and to be our Lord , Master , Saviour , and Redeemer from utter Perdition and Ruin for ever . He

came to beat down the Empire of Sin , and the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World : his Divine Sermons and Discourses were levelled against these , and the Pride , Hypocrisy , Avarice , Luxury and Cruelty of the Scribes and Pharisees , Priests and Levites , who of the House of Prayer had

made a Den of Thieves , and an Exchange for Usurers and Extortioners . To these Orthodox Teachers of the Law , he prefers in the Parable of the good Samaritan , a tender-hearted charitable Heretic , who bound up the wounds of a distressed

traveller , that had fallen amongst thieves , conveyed him safely to a lodging , and furnished him with money , without making known his name or place of abode ; while the Priest and Levite , inured to shedding bloodunconcerned at his piercing groans

, , march serenel y by , and who when they vouchsafed to bestow an Alms , sound a trumpet , and do it in public places . This is what these devourers of widows houses , these whited sepulchres , generation of vipers and murderers ( upon whom he

charges all the guilt of shedding innocent blood , from that of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias , the son of Barachias , whom they slew between the Temple and the Altar ) could by no means bear , their eyes were dazzled and confounded with the

splendour of his divine doctrines , whicii were so strong , nervous , and irrefragable , that some amongst them even owned he taught with authority , and that no one ever spoke like him . These turbulent Spirits therefore acting like what they were , never rested till they had put him to death for a

Malefactor , an utter enemy to Ccesar ( whom they themselves believed to be an usurper ) and a sower of sedition , who was meekness and peace itself , and whose life was nothing but one continued series of doing good . How nature was startled at this diabolical

piece of ingratitude the world was then too sensible ; such strange phenomena startled the wise men of the earth , Athens was astonish'd , and her philosophy was now no more . This made the amazed Areopagite cry out , either the God of Nature suffers , or the Frame of the whole World is

dissolved . Thus suffered our Great , our immortal master , who came into the world to do the will of his Father which is in Heaven , and whose brethren we are ( as he says himself ) if we do so too . If you ask me what this Will of his Father isI answerit is Christ's

, , Will , who is of one and the same Will and Substance with his Father ; and this I need not to repeat to you , it is as plain as the Noon-day Sun , to be found in what he himself says , and whom alone if we hear , it is sufficient ; his Precepts are clear and

expressive , obvious to the meanest Capacity . And it would have been better for the Christian World , had they kept up to this Divine Rule , and not obscured his sacred Relig ion with so many senseless impertinent SpeculationsAristotelian and

Hea-, thenish Distinctions , and the unintelligible Jargon of the Schools , by which they have almost distinguished all Religion out of the World ; so that too often we see many a Venerable Professor pass many Years to acquire the Faculty of rattling out a

company of barbarous Terms , that have no manner of Meaning in them , and by which , after so long a Study , they are not one jot the honester , and omit the easy and amiable Practice of the common Duties of Love and Charitv .

You see now what is our Profession ; it is the Law of Nature , which being almost lost , was endeavoured to be retrieved , or , at least somehow kept up by the Shadows of Moses , but entirely restored by the Law