Sec. 11. Indeed, if it were in _Religion_, as in _Arts and Sciences_, it might with a great deal more Reason have been expected; that considering the vast Distance of Time since the first planting of the Christian Religion to this present Age, we might have been improved to a Degree of Prophecy. For _Arts_ and _Sciences_ receive their Beginnings from very small Hints at first, and are afterwards improved proportionally to the Industry and Capacity of those who cultivate them; and therefore we may reasonably expect, that the longer they continue, the more they will be advanc'd. But the case is vastly different in Religion, which is always best and purest at its first setting out. And there is a very good Reason to be given, why it should be so; for after the first Covenant made by God with Mankind in the Person of _Adam_: every other Dispensation has found Men under a State of Corruption, and in the actual Possession of Errors, diametrically opposite to those Truths which it came to instruct them in; and therefore it was requisite that the means to remove these at first, should bear Proportion with the Difficulties they were to encounter. Upon which account, at the Beginning of any new Dispensation, those Persons whom God was pleas'd to employ to publish it to Mankind, have been endu'd with more Zeal and greater Abilities, than the Professors of the same Religion in after Ages. And as no Person can doubt, but that the Jewish Religion was much more perfect in the Days of _Moses_, and those which immediately succeeded him, than in after Times, when it was obscur'd and mudded by Pharisaical Inventions and Traditions: So must it also be confess'd, that the Christian Religion was much more perfect in the Days of the Apostles, and the Ages immediately succeeding them, than since it has been obscur'd by the Interest of the Designing on the one hand, and the Prejudice and Ignorance of the Unlearned on the other. And this is what is plainly confess'd by the Practice of most contending Parties amongst the Professors of Christianity; who constantly make their Appeals to the earliest Writers of the Primitive Christian Church, and use all means to bring them over to their own Side; which is an evident Concession that they value their Authority, and look upon them as the most competent Judges of their Controversies. Now, if I shall make it appear, that there was no such thing as is contended for by our Enthusiasts, in those early Times, when the Holy Spirit must be confess'd on all hands to be more plentifully pour'd out than in the succeeding Ages; I hope it will appear evidently to any unprejudic'd Person, that it is not at all to be expected under the Christian Dispensation.