The peril of the times displayed. Or the danger of mens taking up with…

2. Men that are born and brought up under Gospel light, have some common resentments of the excellency of the Christian Religion It is true, the natural man hath no spiritual discerning of the glorious things of God, revealed in the Gospel, 1 Cor. 2. 14. However, there is so much of Conviction, in the rational discoveries of the truths of the true Religion, accompanied with a common work of the Spirit on the Consciences ⟨p. 37⟩of men, as worketh with some force upon their Affections, so as to raise in them an esteem for these truths, as we find in the stony ground hearers, Mat. 13. 20. he heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it. Besides, the force of a good and pious Education, together with the common Credit and Commendation which the Christian Religion hath obtained among men that have taken up a profession of it, makes men to stickle for it, upon carnal principles; and hereupon it cometh to pass, that though they do not love the life of it, yet they are pleased with a form of it, and drawn to engage in the taking of it up, and making a show of it. They covet to be accounted Christians by those that they live among, though they do not care to be Christians indeed.

2. Men that are born and brought up under Gospel light, have some common resentments of the excellency of the Christian Religion It is true, the natural man hath no spiritual discerning of the glorious things of God, revealed in the Gospel, 1 Cor. 2. 14. However, there is so much of Conviction, in the rational discoveries of the truths of the true Religion, accompanied with a common work of the Spirit on the Consciences ⟨p. 37⟩of men, as worketh with some force upon their Affections, so as to raise in them an esteem for these truths, as we find in the stony ground hearers, Mat. 13. 20. he heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it. Besides, the force of a good and pious Education, together with the common Credit and Commendation which the Christian Religion hath obtained among men that have taken up a profession of it, makes men to stickle for it, upon carnal principles; and hereupon it cometh to pass, that though they do not love the life of it, yet they are pleased with a form of it, and drawn to engage in the taking of it up, and making a shew of it. They covet to be accounted Christians by those that they live among, though they do not care to be Christians indeed.