if not impossible, to introduce among men (who in all civilized
countries are bred up in the belief of some revealed religion) a
revealed religion wholly new, or such as has no reference to a
preceding one; for that would be to combat all men on too many
respects, and not to proceed on a sufficient number of principles
necessary to be assented to by those on whom the first impressions of a
new religion are proposed to be made." You see now the reason of the
necessity of this foundation: it is, that the new teacher may have the
advantage of old popular opinions, and fix himself upon the prejudices
of the people. Had Christ any such advantages? or did he seek any
such? The people expected a victorious prince; he told them they were
mistaken: they held as sacred the traditions of the elders; he told
them those traditions made the law of God of none effect: they valued
themselves for being the peculiar people of God; he told them, that
people from all quarters of the world should be the people of God, and
sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom: they thought
God could be worshipped only at Jerusalem; he told them God might and
should be worshipped everywhere: they were superstitious in the
observance of the sabbath; he, according to their reckoning, broke it
frequently: in a word, their washings of hands and pots, their
superstitious distinctions of meats, their prayers in publick, their
villanies in secret, were all reproved, exposed, and condemned by him;
and the cry ran strongly against him, that he came to destroy the Law
and the Prophets. And now, Sir, what advantage did Christ have of your
common and necessary foundation? What sufficient number of principles
owned by the people did he build on? If he adhered to the old
revelation in the true sense, or (which is sufficient to the present
argument) in a sense not received by the people, it was in truth the
greatest difficulty he had to struggle with: and therefore what could
tempt him, but purely a regard for truth, to take upon himself so many