to obey the gospel, or to drive them to an unwilling submission to
Christ. If an exhibition of gospel truth and beauty, and the
consequences of receiving or rejecting its overtures, are discarded;
if men refuse, by these means to be persuaded, they are left, and the
consequences follow. To People of sober sense, this method appears
rational. It is not probable that those who are not thus prevailed
with to embrace the gospel, would in any other way be made Christians
indeed. People who are frightened into religion seldom persevere.
Neither do those whose passions are so inflamed that they appear, for
a time, in ecstasies. When their passions subside, they grow cool, and
their religion dies. If the great truths of religion, laid before men,
as was done by Christ and his apostles, do not avail to render them
rationally and sincerely religious, little value is to be put on those
heats of imagination, which produce temporary raptures, and set some
on fire in religion. Such ardent love doth not abide; it soon cools,
and commonly leaves those who had been the subjects of it no better
than it found them, and but too often much worse.

But while some object to the simplicity of the gospel, and to the
plain language and address of the primitive ministry, others are
offended at the mysteries in the Christian system. Who can understand
some things contained in what is called a revelation? And what
valuable ends can be answered by a revelation which is unintelligible?
say these objectors.

But, those points in the Christian scheme which are too deep for human
comprehension, do not relate to practice. All required, in relation to
them, is an assent to their truth, on the credit of God's word. This
is neither difficult nor unreasonable.