And yet even _this religion_, which can do you no good, may do you much harm. Nay, it is plain, it does: it daily increases your _pride_, as you measure your goodness by the _number_ and _length_ of your performances. It gives you a deep _contempt_ of those, who do not come up to the full _tale_ of your virtues. It inspires men with a _zeal_, which is the very fire of hell, furious, bitter, implacable, unmerciful; often to a degree that extinguishes all compassion, all good nature and humanity. Insomuch, that the execrable _fierceness_ of spirit, which is the natural fruit of such a religion, hath many times, in spite of all ties, divine and human, broke out into open violence, into rapine, murder, sedition, rebellion, civil war, to the desolation of whole cities and countries. _Tantum_ hæc _Religio potuit suadere malorum_! 3. Now if there be a God, and one that is not a mere idle spectator of the things that are done upon earth, but a rewarder of men and nations according to their works, what can the event of these things be? It was reasonable to believe, that he would have risen long ago and maintained his own cause, either by sending the famine or pestilence among us, or by pouring out his fury in blood. And many wise and holy men have frequently declared, that they daily expected this; that they daily looked for the patience of God to give place, and judgment to rejoice over mercy. 4. Just at this time, when we wanted little of _filling up the measure of our iniquities_, two or three clergymen of the CHURCH of ENGLAND began vehemently to _call sinners to repentance_. In two or three years they had sounded the alarm, to the utmost borders of the land. Many thousands gathered together to hear them; and in every place where they came, many began to shew such a _concern_ for religion, as they never had done before. A stronger _impression_ was made on their minds, of the importance of things eternal, and they had more earnest _desires_ of serving God, than they had ever had from their earliest childhood. Thus did God begin to draw them toward himself, with the cords of love, with the bands of a man. Many of these were in a short time deeply _convinced_ of the _number_ and _heinousness_ of their _sins_. They were also made throughly sensible of those _tempers_, which are justly hateful to God and man, and of their utter _ignorance_ of God, and entire _inability_, either to know, love, or serve him. At the same time, they saw in the strongest light, the _insignificancy_ of their _outside religion_: nay, and often confessed it before God, as the most abominable _hypocrisy_. Thus did they sink deeper and deeper into that _repentance_, which must ever precede _faith_ in the Son of God.