THE REASONABLENESS AND CERTAINTY OF THE Christian Religion. BY ROBERT JENKIN, Chaplain to the Right Honourable the EARI Printed for Peter Buck, at the Sign of the Temple, near the Inner-Temple-Gate, in Fleet-Street, M DC XCVIII. ६ May it Please Your LORDSHIP, H E general Decay and Contempt of the Christian Religion amongst us, has made me think, that I could not better employ the Leisure, which, by Your Lordsbip's favour, I enjoy, than in using my best Endeavours to sbew the Excellency and the Certainty of it. And what I have done, is here humbly presented to your Lordship, as of Right, and upon many Accounts, it ought to be. 1 The Honour and the Satisfaction which I have often had to hear Your Lordship Speak in the behalf of Religion and Vertue, encourage me to hope, that a Performance, though but such as this, upon that Subject, may obtain your Acceptance. And the Name only of a Person of your LordShip's Honour, and Learning, and Knowledge of the World, may perhaps be of more advantage to the Cause I undertake, than any thing I have been able to write. / Religion may seem, by Descent, and as it were, by Inheritance, to belong to Your Lordship's Care: The Wisdom and Piety of Your Great Ancestor appear to diftant Ages in the Reformation, which, through the Bleffing of God, was in fo the great a measure, by His means, establishd in this Kingdom. And I have with joy often thought, that I could obferve the Spirit and Genius of my Lord Treafurer BURGHLE Y now exerting it felf more than ever in your Noble Family. From whence, methinks, we may prefage Happiness L piness to the Nation, and may yet expect to fee a true sense of Religion revive, and may hope, that even in our days, Chriftianity, amongst English-men, shall be more than a Name, which is every where spoken against.dom An eminent Vertue is a Publick Good There is a powerful and commanding powerful an Force in Great Examples, to countenance. Vertue, and discourage Vice and Profaneness; to make Irreligion appear, as it is, base and contemptible in the World; to degrade it, and thrust it down among the lower and untaught part of Mankind. Much is not to be expected from the Schools and from the Gown, under fuch Contempt and Discouragement. But the Great and the Honourable have it in their power to do great things; things worthy of Themselves, and for the advancement of God's Glory. Persons of High Birth, and both by Nature and Education fitted for the Highest Undertakings, whose Vertues shall flourish with their Years, and add New Luftre to their Hereditary Ho nours, |