• Bcrewood's Enquiries, chap. liii. p. US, Wk
368 DIVINE CO!n'D0CT ; 6R, •
us what their fate must be, 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12, And for this " cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they shall be- <* lieve a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the " truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.'"*
Nay, you might have fallen into the same land in which your habitation now is, and vet have had no advantage by it as to salva- tion, if he that chose the bounds of your habitations, had not also graciously determined the times for you. Acts xvii. 26. For,
(4.) Suppose your lot had fallen where it is during the Pagan state of England, who for many hundred years Avere gross and vile idolaters : Thick darkness over-spread the people of this island^ and as in other countries, the devil was worshipped, and his lying oracles zealously attended upon.
The shaking of the top of Jupiter's oak in Dodona, the caldron smitten with tlie rod in the hand of Jupiter s image, the laurel and fountain in Daphne * : these were the ordinances on which the poor deluded wretches waited. So, in this nation they worships ped idols also : the sun and moon were adored for gods, mth many other abominable idols which our ancestors worshipped, and whose memorials are not to this day quite obliterated among us.
(5.) Or Suppose our lot had fallen in those latter miserable days, in which queen Mary sent so many hundreds to heaven in a fierj chariot, and the poor Protestants skulked up and down in holes and woods to preserve them from Popish inquisitors^ who, like blood-hounds, hunted up and down through all the cities, towns^ and villages of the nation, to seek out the poor sheep of Christ for a prey.
But such hath the special care of providence towards us been, that our turn to be brought upon the stage of this v/orld was gra- ciously reserved for better days : So that if we had had our own option, we could not have chosen for ourselves as providence hath. We are not only furnished with the best room in this great house ; but before we are put into it, it was swept with the besom of na- tional reformation from idolatry^ yea, and washed by the blood of martyrs from Popish fllthiness ; and adorned with gospel-lights shining in as great lustre in our days as ever they did since the apostWs days. You might have been born in England for many ages and not have found a Chinstian in it ; yea, and since Christi- anity was here owned, and not have met a protcstant in it. O what an obligation hath providence laid you under by such a mer* ciful performance as this for you !
* Vide Verstegan's British Antiquities*
THE MYSTERY OP PIlOVIDENCE. 369
Object. If you say, All this indeed is true ; hut rcJiat is this to eternal salvation : do not multiiudes that enjoy these privileges eter^ nally perish^ notwithstanding them f Yea, and perish with an ag-^ gravatioii of sin and misery beyond other sinners ?
Sol. True, they do so ; and it is of very sad consideration that it should be so ; but yet we cannot deny this to be a very choice and 45ingular mercy to be born in such a land, and at such a time : for let us consider what helps for salvation men here enjov, beyond what they could enjoy, had their lot fallen according to the fore- mentioned suppositions.
(1.) Here we enjoy the ordinary means of salvation, which else- where men are denied and cut off from. So that if any among the Heathens be saved and brought to Christ, it must be in some mira- culous or extraordinary way : for, " How shall they believe in him " of whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without *' a preacher.?'' Rom. x, 14. Alas ! were there a desire awakened in any of their hearts after a gospel-discovery of salvation (which ordinarily is not, nor can be rationally supposed) ; yet, poor crea- tures ! they might travel from sea to sea to hear the word, and not find it ? Whereas you can hardly miss the opportunities of hearing the gospel : sermons meet you frequently, so that you can scarcely shun or avoid the ordinances and instruments of your salvation. And is this nothing ? Christ even forces himself upon us.
(S.) Here, in this age of the world, the common prejudices against Christianity are removed by the advantage it hath of a pubHc pro* fession among the people, and protection by the laws of the coun- try. Whereas, were your habitation among Jews, Mahometans, or Heathen Idolaters, you would find Christ and Christianity the common odium of the country ; every one defying and deriding both name and thing : and such yourselves likely had been if your birth and education had been among them. For you may observe, that whatever is Turoorapadorov, traditionally delivered down from father to son, every one is fond of, and zealous in its defence. The Jews, Heathens, and Mahometans are, at this day, so tena- cious of their errors, that with spitting, hissing, and clapping of hands, and all other signs of indignation and abhorrence, they chace away all others from among them.
Is it not then a special mercy to you to be cast into such a coun- try and age, where (as a learned divine * observes) the true religion hath the same advantages over every false one, as in other coun- tries they have over it ? Here you have the presence of precious means, and the absence of soul-destroying prej udices, two singular mercies.
ti70 DIVINE CONDUCT 5 OH,
(3.) Here, in this age of the world, Christianity bespeaks you as soon as you are capable of any sense or impressions of religion upon you : And so, by an happy anticipation^ blocks up the pas- sages by which a fale religion would certainly enter. Here you suck in the first notions and principles of Christianity, even with the mother's milk : And certainly such a prepossession is a choice ad- vantage. Quo semcl est imbuta, recens servabit ordorem testa diu. " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he " will not depart from it,'"" Prov. xxii. 6
(4.) Here you have, or may have, the help and assistance of Christians to direct your way, resolve your doubts, support your burdens, and help you through those difficulties that attend the new birth. Alas ! If a poor soul had any beginnings or faint workings and stirrings after Christ and true religion in many other countries, the hand of every man would presently be against him, and none would be found to relieve, assist, or encourage ; as you may see in that example of Galeacius ; the nearest relations would, in that case, prove the greatest enemies ; the country would quickly hoot at him as a monster, and cry, Away with the heretic to the prison or stake.