Hereticks viz. the Marcionists and Valentinians and perhaps the Disciples of Lucanus or Lucianus for in this he could not be positive tho this Lucanus was a follower of Marcion IX There are still extant Copies of great Antiquity The Cambridge Copy in Greek and Latin containing the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles and that which is supposed to be the second part of it containing St Paul's Epistles in the French Kings Library and another the like Copy which is in the Library of th Benedictines of St Germains * F. Simon Crâ—t Hist of the N. Test Part 1. c. 31. Mabil de Re Diplom lib. 5. Tabell 1. are concluded to be a thousand years old at least Morinus thought them to be ancienter than St Jerom's time The Alexandrian Copy is believed to have been written by Thecla above one thousand three hundred years ago Morinus †Epist 54. inter Antiquâ— Eccl. Orient acknowledgeth it to be of above twelve hundred years date Bishop * Prolegom ix 34. Walton supposes the Alexandrian MS. to be at least as old as that in the Vatican which is allowed to be twelve hundred years old There is †F. Sim. Crit. Hist of the N. T. part 2. c. 4. one Syriack MS. of the Gospels in the Library of the Duke of Florence of above a thousand years Antiquity and another not much less ancient A * Gruter Inscript p. 146. Gothick Translation of the Four Evangelists in the Abbey of Werdin is likewise of above a thousand years Antiquity And what ancient Books are there of which the Originals are still extant or of which there are so ancient Copies as of the Scriptures X. Sufficient reasons may be given to shew how it came to pass that the Authority of some Books was at first doubted of 1. The Epistle to the Hebrews had no name prefixt either because the Jews were prejudiced against St Paul or because the Gentiles were his more peculiar care or for some other reason unknown and in this it differs from the rest of St Paul's Epistles and the †Hieroâ— Catal. i Petr. Paul style is different which occasioned the first doubts about it as it happend likewise to St Peter's second Epistle upon the account of its style and then the Novatians alledging some Texts in the Epistle to the Hebrews in favour of their opinion this made the Orthodox the less inclined to receive a Book which before had been disputed and therefore tho it was received in the East it was questioned at Rome where Novatian begun his Schisms The second Epistle of St Peter might be scrupled on the same account and both that and the Revelation of St John being alledged for the Millennium by such as undestood it in a gross sense this caused the Authority of those Books to be called in question which is said * Euseb Hist lib. vi c. 25. expresly of the Revelation 2. Some Epistles were written to particular persons or directed to such as lived at a great distance and by reason of Persecutions arising the Authentick Epistles might not readily be produced 3. Some Books were not usually read in the Churches as the rest were All the Books of Scripture except the Revelation of St John are inserted in the Catalogue of the Council of Laodicea and this was omitted because by reason of the abstruse Mysteries contained in it it was not publickly read in Churches for that Catalogue was designed to shew what Books ought to be read in the publick Assemblies But the Revelation was long before acknowledged to be genuine by †Justin Mart. Dialog Tertull. de Resur c. 27 38. Adv. Marcion lib. ii c. 5. iii. c. 14. Euseb Hist lib. iv c. 18. v. c. 8. Hierom. Catal. in Johannum Justin Martyr by Irenaeus and by Tertullian and others both Justin Martyr and Irenaeas wrote a comment upon the Revelation of St John The Epistle to the Hebrews the Epistle of St James and the the second Epistle of St Peter are cited by Clemens Romanus in his first Epistle which was itself wont to be read in Churches 4. The Hereticks would use all their endeavours and subtilty to hinder the reception of those Books by which their Heresies were disproved and they might so far have effect as to make some doubt for a while of their Authority For instance Diotrephes an ambitious aspiring man who prated against St John with malicious words and had so much power as to cast the Brethren out of the Church would forbid the receiving of St John's Epistles as well as the receiving the Brethren of that Apostles Communion and that he did this St John himself intimates when he says I wrote unto the Church but Diotrephes who loveth to have the Pre-eminence among them receiveth us not Joh. Epist iii. 9. that is he received not St John's Epistle for that would have been to receive him as an Apostle or to acknowledge his Authority XI Tho the Authority of some Books hath been questioned by private men yet those Books were never rejected by any Council of the Church tho frequent Councils were called in the first Ages of Christianity and had this very thing under consideration * Tertull. de Pudicit c. 10. Tertullian after he had turned Montanist rejecting the authority of Hermas's Pastor as not being received into the Canon of Scripture says that it was reckoned amongst the Apocryphal Books by all the Councils of his Adversaries the Orthodox From whence it is evident that in Tertullian's time divers Councils had past their Censure upon the Apocryphal Books and that the Canon of Scripture had been fixt long before So that the time in which some of these Councils were held must probably be whilst St Polycarp a Disciple of St John was yet living whose Martyrdom by the earliest computation was not till A. D. cxlvii at least they must be held in Irenaeus life time who conversed with St Polycarp and lived at the same time with Tertullian Thus was the Canon of Scripture vouched by those who had received it from St John and Councils upon occasion were called which †Tertull. de Jejun c. 13. Tertullian elsewhere mentions as very numerous and frequent in Greece to give testimony to the Genuine Canon and censure Apocryphal Books It is manifest that the Canon of Scripture was settled before the Council of Laodicea which in the lixth Canon appoints that no Books * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. Laod can lix which are extra Canonem but only Canonical Books should be read in the Christian Assemblies and then subjoyns the Titles of the Canonical Books which Title they had as Zonaras and Balsamon observe because they were inserted into the Apostles Canons and all others were styl'd uncanonical And it is concluded after the strictest examination by the best Criticks that those which go under the Name of the Apostles Canons are the Canons of Councils assembled before the Council
Ceremonies and which where purposely designed in many things to be contrary to the Customs of all the Nations round about them and to the Customs which they had been themselves acquainted with in Aegypt in so many Instances could be at first introduced but by Miracles but if they could have been once introduced without Miracles there is no reason to think but that when the People were used and accustom'd to them there would have been no need of any pretence of Miracles to keep them in obedience to them and as little reason there is to imagine that they would have been over awed by a Report of Miracles which must be supposed never to have been heard of till the People gave occasion for the Invention of them by their Disobedience The Books of Moses were read as I have shewn in the Synagogues or Religious Assemblies in the several Tribes at least every Sabbath-day and were appointed to be solemnly read in the audience of all the People at the Feast of Tabernacles every Seven Years and if they had had no knowledge of the Laws of Moses but from the Rehearsal of it at the Feast of Tabernacles yet can we conceive that the Body of the Jewish Nation should be so stupid and forgetful as not to remember when these Miracles must be supposed to be first read to them that they had never heard them before But how impossible is it that they should be thus imposed upon when they heard the Books of Moses read every Week to them and had them besides in their own keeping to read them at their leisure The Miracles now make up great part of the Books of Moses they are every where interspersed and intermix'd throughout the History and they are of such a nature as is most apt to make impression upon the Memories of Men And can we imagine that Miracles so often repeated and every were inculcated could be inserted by any contrivance and imposed upon a People who were all wont to hear the Law publickly read in a solemn Assembly once every Seven Years and heard it read in their Synagogues besides every Seventh Day Would they not be infinitely surprised the first time they heard the Relation of the Plagues inflicted on the Aegyptians of the Judgment upon Korah and his Company and of the miraculous Punishments which befell the Idolatrous and Disobedient in the Wilderness Would they not soon have found out so obvious a Deceit as this must have been if it had been one If we can think that such Insertions could pass without discovery why may we not as well believe too that as many more might be made now and not be discovered Would not the whole Body of the People have been able to testifie that all this was counterfeited and inserted into the Law for no such thing was read to them in their Synagogues upon the Sabbaths nor had been read at the end of the last Seven Years but it was all now added to terrifie them and keep them from following the Customs of other Nations Would not this have been the worst contrivance that could have been thought of to keep a People in awe to tell them of such things as every Man of them could disprove that was of Age and had but Understanding and Memory enough to know what he had heard so often read before and to distinguish it from such things as are so remarkable that they could hardly escape any one's Memory who had ever heard of them They had Books of the Law for their private reading and besides the reading of it in their Weekly Assemblies they had a solemn Publication and Proclamation of their Law once every Seven Years as it were purposely to prevent any Design of falsifying it And to have read any thing so remarkable as the Miracles of Moses are in all their circumstances so often repeated and insisted upon if the People had not found them in their own Books and had not been used to hear them read to them from the time of the giving the Law by Moses had been only for the Projectors to proclaim themselves Impostors but could never have deceived any Man And besides the care that was taken for the Preservation of the Books of the Law there were publick Memorials of the principal Miracles enjoined such was the Feast of the Passover in remembrance of the Angel's passing over the Israelites when he slew the first-born born of the Aegyptians and the Feast of Tarbernacles in remembrance of their dwelling in Tents in the Wilderness and such were the Brazen Serpent the Ark and the Tabernacle These were things seen and observed or known by all and they could not be introduced after Moses's time because there could be no pretence for it since they who introduced them must suppose them to have been before at the very time when they designed first to introduce them The Vrim and Thummim was both a constant Miracle and a constant Attestation to the Law by which it was ordained And it appears that the Priests who were to examine and judge of Leprosie either in Persons or Things were secured from the Infection of it though it were infectious to all others And their constant Service could not be performed without a (t) Vid. Lightfoot's Prospect of the Temple c. 34. p. 2030. miraculous Dispensation Thus it is evident That there is all the Proof which it is possible to bring in any case of this nature that the Books of Moses could not be falsified by any Man or Party of Men whatsoever since the Nature and Institution of the Law it self did effectually provide against all Impostures and the Jews had all the assurance that it is possible for any People to have that the Books of Moses are the same which he wrote and left behind him And this inspired them with such a zeal for their Law as to sacrifice their Lives in vindication of it whereas there was no Book whatsoever as Josephus observes amongst the Heathens which any Man amongst them would not rather a thousand times see destroyed though it were in never so much esteem with them than he would suffer for it Which shews that the Jews were fully convinced of the Divine Authority of their Law from all the Evidence above-mentioned and were persuaded that it is the same which Moses delivered and left behind him 3. The Pentateuch could not be invented nor falsified by the joint Consent of the whole Nation either in Moses's time or after it For how is it possible that such a thing should have been concealed from all other Nations and that a whole Nation should know of the Imposture and no Man ever discover it nor no Apostate ever divulge it but they and their Posterity should always profess that they believed the Law to be revealed to Moses by God himself just as we now have it in the Peutateuch that under all Afflictions and Adversities they should impute their Sufferings to the violation of
of fact which are past an Author may easily be disproved if he relates what is false of his own times or of times whereof there are memorials still extant But the Credit of Prophecies concerning things to come a long time after to pass must depend upon the Mission and Authority of the Prophet only and therefore it was necessary that the Names of the Prophets should be annext that their Predictions might be depended upon when they were known to be delivered by men who by other Predictions already fulfilled had proved themselves to be true Prophets IV. The very preservation of Books of so great Antiquity thro so many changes and revolutions against all the injuries of Time and Ignorance against the violence of War and the malice of Adversaries and so many other Accidents which have destroyed most other Books of any considerable Antiquity is a certain indication of a wonderful Providence concerned for them and of that evidence whereby they were at first attested The Laws of the wisest Law-givers of the most flourishing and powerful Nations have been so little regarded by the people to whom they were given that they soon forsook the practice of them and readily delivered up themselves to be governed by other Laws upon any Revolution and all the pretences to Revelation which most of the Ancient Law-givers assumed to themselves could make them no longer adhered to nor so much valued as to outlive the fate of the particular Kingdoms and States for which they were contrived but most of them were changed or laid aside before and the rest given up and abandoned as out of date and of little use or esteem afterwards and all of them were so little able to withstand the destruction of time that we know not much more of them than that the best and most ancient were in great measure taken out of the Laws of Moses But the Books of Moses and the Prophets have continued entire and unchanged under all accidents and revolutions of affairs bearing this character as well as others of him who is immutable they have been still asserted against all the malice and opposition of Enemies by a captived and dispersed people who by the signal providence of God tho they reject their Messias yet still acknowledge those prophesies which foretold his coming and after their dispersion for so many hundred years are so far from renouncing them that they assert and maintain them and are zealous even to superstition for those Books which command that worship and appoint those Solemnities which they have so long been out of all possibility to observe as if those Laws which were once so uneasy to their Fore-fathers were now become natural to their Posterity or rather because they were revealed by him whose word shall never pass away till all be fulfilled V. The New Testament gives evidence and confirmation to the Books of the Old which are so often cited in it VI. The Christians were religiously cautious and circumspect in admitting Books into the Canon of the New Testament The * Hieron Catalog Eccl. Script Epistle to the Hebrews and the second Epistle of St Peter were at first scrupled only or chiefly upon the account of the style the style of the former being thought different from that of St Paul and the Style of the latter from that of St Peter The Epistle of St Jude was likewise doubted of for this reason because the Apocryphal Book of Enoch is cited in it Writings which went under the names of several of the Apostles were rejected and by general consent laid aside The genuine Epistle of St Barnabas who is stiled an Apostle Acts xiii 2. xiv 14. was never received but as Apocryphal and the First Epistle of St Clement of whom St Paul gives as high a character Phil. iv 3. as he doth of St Luke or as St Peter ever gave of St Mark was never admitted among the Canonical Books tho it was wont to be read in Churches But the Gospel according to St Mark and the Gospel and Acts of the Apostles written by St Luke have ever been received for canonical For which no reason can be given but that St Mark and St Luke were known to have written by inspiration since upon all personal and humane Accounts an Epistle of St Barnabas or St Clement must have carried as much Authority with it as any thing under the name of St Mark or St Luke †Unam ad aedisicationem Ecclesiae pertinentem Epistolam composuit quae inter Apochryphas scripturâ—s legitur Id. ib. St Jerom says that St Barnabas was the Author of one Epistle written for the edification of the Church which is read among the Apocryphal Books so that Books were styled Apocryphal not because it was uncertain who were the Authors of them but because it was doubtful whether they were written by inspiration or no. So careful was the Primitive Church to receive none into the Canon but Books certainly inspired It is well observed * Crit Hist of the N. T. Part. 1. c. 1. by F. Simon to this purpose that if we compare the Gospels and the other Books of the New Testament with the Liturgies that we have under the names of several Apostles to whom the most part of the Eastern Christians do attribute them we shall be convinced that the Gospels are truly the Apostles For all the Churches have preserved them in their Ancient Purity whereas every particular Nation hath added to their Liturgies and hath taken the liberty often to revise them The respect that hath been always had to the Writings of the New Testament without in serting any considerable additions therein is an evident proof that all people have looked upon them as Divine Books which it is not lawful for any to alter On the contrary they have been perswaded that the Liturgies tho they bear the Names of the Apostles or of some Disciples of Jesus Christ were not originally written by them to whom they were attributed And therefore it hath been left free to the Churches to add to them or to diminish from them according as occasion requires VII As the Primitive Christians were very jealous and cautious in admitting Books into the Canon so they had sufficient means and opportunities to examine and distinguish the genuine and inspired Writings from the Apocryphal or spurious The way of Writing and the hands of the Apostles were well known to those to whom they wrote as St Paul intimates of his own hand and manner of Salutation for when he used an Amanuensis yet he wrote the Salutation with his own Hand as his token in every Epistle 2 Thess iii. 17. They generally wrote to whole Churches but particular men are frequently named in their Epistles which was a great means to ascertain the Authority of them * Ago jam qui voles curiofitatem melius exercere in negotio salutis tuae percurre Ecclesias Apostolicas apud quas ipsae adhue Cathedrae
of Nice inasmuch as they are referred to by that Council and that they are styl'd Apostolical because they were made by Apostolical Men or such as lived next to the Apostles times and delivered in these Canons what they had received from the Apostles Dr Beverege thinks they * Bever Annot. ad Pandect Can. Cod. Can. Eccl. Primit vind Cave Histor Liter in clem Roman were collected into one Body by Clemens Alexandrinus and Dr Cave seemed inclined to be of the same judgment As to the Authority of the particular Apostolical Canon which contains the Canon of Scripture of the Council of Laodicea gives a sufficient Testimony to it so far as it concerns the Books of the New Testament and shews wherein it has been corrupted since All which very well agrees with that which I observed from Tertullian that frequent Councils were called in the first Ages and that they had the Canon of Scripture among other things under consideration which we find set down in the last of the Apostles Canons and from thence in the Canons of the Council of Laodicea no Book being omitted but the Revelation of St John which yet had been acknowledged and received as Authentick from the beginning of those who had most reason to know of what Authority it was but none were inserted into the Canon but such Books as were appointed to be constantly read in the Assemblies of Christians It appears then that the Canon of Scripture was finished by St John and that such Books as were not of Divine Authority were rejected by Councils held when there were living Witnesses to certify St John's Approbation of the Canon or at least those who had received it from such Witnesses the Gospels of the other Evangelists were translated into divers Languages in St John's Life time and we must in reason suppose the same of the other Books of Scripture this is certain that they were all very early translated into many Tongues and dispersed into so many Hands in so many Countries that it was impossible they should be either lost or falsifyed espeble cially since the several sects of Christians were never more jealous and watchful over each other in any thing than in this particular the several Interests and Pretensions of all parties being chiefly concerned in it and no Catalogue of Books could have been received exclusively to all others but upon the clearest evidence XII When it once appeared that the Books which had been doubted of belonged to the Canon of Scripture they were afterwards generally acknowledged and constantly received in all Churches every Sect has since used all Arts and Endeavours to reconcile the Scriptures to their own Doctrines few or none presuming to reject the Authority of any of these Books which they would never scruple to do if they suppos'd they could make out any plausible pretence for it Protestants have refused to admit of the Apocryphal Books as inspired but whoever have gone about to reject any part of the Canonical Scriptures have been universally declared against for it whereof no other reason can be given but the Evidence that is for the Authority of the Canonical Books of Scripture which is wanting for the Authority of the Apocryphal Books Papists own the Authority of the first Epistle to the Corinthians and of the fourteenth Chapter of that Epistle which is directly against praying in an unknown Tongue and they acknowledge the Epistle to the Galatians to be genuine tho the second Chapter be so clearly against the pretensions of the Church of Rome These Espistles indeed were never controverted but the Epistle to the Hebrews likewise is not rejected by the Socinians the Divine Nature of Christ and the Merit and Satisfaction of his sufferings are so plainly asserted in it and they dare not deny the Authority of the Gospel and Epistles of St John tho they are so hard put to it to expound them to their own sense that Socinus was forc'd to pretend to I know not what Revelation to help out one of his explications which he would not have done if he could have found out any colour for not admitting the Authority of a Text so directly contrary to his own Tenents that he could not expect that any thing less than a Revelation should procure any credit to his Interpretation And generally the case is the same with other Sects those that differ never so much one from another in the Interpretation of particular Texts yet agree in the acknowledgment of the Authority of the Canon of Scripture itself or can find out no sufficient pretence to disown it CHAP. V. Of the various Readings in the Old and New Testament IT is to be observ'd that an extrardinary Providence has in a great measure secur'd the Holy Scriptures from those Casualties which are incident to humane Writings For the great Antiquity of many Books of the Scriptures beyond that of any other Books in the World the multitude of Copies which have been taken in all Ages and Nations the difficulty to avoid mistakes in transcribing Books in a Language which has so many of its Letters and of its Words themselves so like one another the defect of the Hebrew Vowels and the late invention as it is generally now acknowledged of the Points the change of the Samaritan or ancient Hebrew for the present Hebrew Character the captivity of the whole Nation of the Jews for seventy years and the mixtures and changes which were during that time brought into their Language in short all the accidents which have ever happened to occasion errors or mistakes in any Book have concurred to cause them in the Old Testament and yet the different Readings are much fewer and make much less alteration in the sense than those of any other Book of the same bigness and of any Note and Antiquity if all the Copies should be carefully examined and every little variation as punctually set down as those of the Scriptures have been But tho from hence it may appear that a peculiar providence has been concerned in the preservation of the Books of the Scriptures yet from humane considerations and arguments we may likewise be assured that nothing prejudicial to the Authority of the Scriptures has happened by any of these means 1. The defect in the Hebrew Vowels and the late Invention of the Points is no prejuduce to the Authority of the Bible as we now have it Tho the Points which crititically determine the exact Reading of the Hebrew Tongue be of a later invention yet that Tongue was never without its Vowels For Aleph Vau and Jod and which some add He and Gnajm before the invention of the Points were used as Vowels as it is evidently proved from Josephus Vid. Walton Prolegom iii. s 49. Origen and St Jerom by the best Criticks in that Language It must indeed be confest that these Vowels could not be so effectual to ascertain the true Reading as the Points have since been but
Caeterum non tanti momenti sunt ejusmodi errores ut in iis quae ad sidem bonos more 's pertinent Scripturae Sacrae integritas desideretur Plerumque enim tota discrepantia variarum Lectionum in Dictionibus quibusdam posita est quae sensum aut parum aut nihil mutant Bellarmin De Verbo Dei lib. ii c. 2. Bellarmin himself and the best Criticks amongst the Papists have acknowledged that all things relating to Articles of Faith and Rules of Life are delivered intire and uncorrupted in the Scriptures notwithstanding the various Lections And tho some of the Roman Communion have endeavoured to prove the necessity of an infallible Church by Arguments drawn from hence yet says * Considerator considered ch 12. s 4. Bishop Walton I do not remember that in any particular controversy between them and us they urge any one place of Scripture for their cause upon the uncertainty of the Reading without Points which plainly shews that there is no such uncertainty in the Text unpointed as is pretended F. †Hist Crit. V. T. lib. 3. c. 23. Simon complains that the Catalogues of various Lections are much larger than they ought to be and that for the most part they are of no moment and he charges Cappellus more than once with multiplying 'em without Reason Morinus indeed made it his endeavour to lessen the authority of the Hebrew Text in favour of the Septuagint and the Vulgar Latin but his Authority is very inconsiderable when compared with those of the same Communion who have declared themselves against his opinion In * Joh. Morin Vita the life of Morinus written by F. Simon there is this Character of Cappellus and Morinus that if they be compared as to what they have both written concerning the Bible Morinus shews more learning in his Books but it is very often not to the purpose whereas Cappellus has more sagacity and judgment and never wanders from his subject but proves what he is upon by the strongest Arguments And as severe as this Censure may seem to be yet it is justified in effect by the confession of Morinus himself For he †Epist 70. inter Antiqu. Eccl. Orient acknowledgeth to Buxtorf that he never throughly applied himself to the study of the Hebrey Tongue that he had read nothing in Hebrew for 7 years together and that therefore he did not question but he had made many mistakes especially in his Samaritan Exercitations great part of which were written in hast and he was forc'd to use such a variety of Authors that he believes it impossible but that he must have been often mistaken The Authority of Morinus then signifies nothing in prejudice to the Hebrew Text And * Hoc certo affirmare possum me nullam animadvertisse menâ—â—m nec Lectionum varietatem circa moralia documenta quae ipâ—â— obscura aut dubia reddere possunt Tractat. Theolog. Polit. c. 9. Spinoza himself has owned that he could for certain affirm that he had observed no fault nor various reading which concerned the Moral Precepts that cou'd render them obscure or doubtful Bishop Walton has with great learning and judgment summed up the Arguments on alâ— sides and as †Crit. Hist V. T. lib. 3. c. 21. F. Simon acknowledgeth haâ— examined this matter with more exactness than all that had gone before him His Polyglot Bibles give an ocular demonstration to the truth of what he maintains that there is nothing of consequence either as to Faith or Practice concerned in the difference of the several Copies of the Hebrew Text or of the several Versions And as many Sects and Divisions as there are amongst Christians and as many different Translations as they make use of they all acknowledge the Authority of the originals and their Translations in the main are the same however they disagree in rendring some particular passages which concern the different opinions of the several parties and upon that account maintain their own Translation to be more correct than others If we allow of Mr * Table-Talk Selden's Judgment who was very able to make a true one and far enough from being prejudiced in the case he says the English Translation of the Bible is the best Translation in the world and renders the sense of the Original best taking in for the English Translation the Bishop's Bible as well as King James ' s. However by different Translations and by comparing divers Copies and Versions to make out the true Reading many Texts become better understood and more fully explained than if there had been but one Reading and no difference in the Translations VI. And no less may be said in behalf of the New Testament than of the Old for the Books of it were kept from the beginning as a Sacred Treasure with great care and reverence and were constantly read in the Christian Assemblies and soon translated into all Languages The Primitive Christians chose to undergo any Torments rather than they would deliver up the Books of Scripture to their Persecutors to be destroyed and they were no less careful to preserve them uncorrupted by Hereticks Besides when Hereticks attempted to corrupt any Text of Scripture to serve their particular Heresies they were declared against not only by the Orthodox but by other Hereticks who were not concerned for those opinions in behalf whereof the corruption was intended So that it was impossible for any corruptions to be imposed upon the Church or to pass undiscovered even by some of the Hereticks themselves They must be designed for some end and to authorize some particular Doctrines and then all who were not for those Doctrines and more especially those who were against them would certainly oppose such corruptions The agreement likewise of the Greek Text of the New Testament with the several ancient Versions and with the quotations found in the Writings of the Fathers who cited and alledged them from the times of the Apostles proves that there have been no alterations of any such consequence as to make the Scriptures insufficient for the ends of a Divine Revelation If any man be of another opinion let him instance in any one Article of Faith or Rule of Life which cannot be proved from the Scriptures It is not enough for him to shew that some one or more Texts which have been brought in proof of it are disputed but he must shew that it can be proved by no Text which is clear and undisputed The various Lections of the Holy Scriptures are so far from being an Argument against their Authority that they rather help to prove it since they are comparatively so few in a Book of so great Antiquity For no care and regard inferiour to that which we must suppose men to have of a Book which they are convinced is of Divine Authority could have produced a less variety of Readings in a Book of much less Antiquity They are all of no consequence to the
Moses's time or after it p. 206. Of what Consequence the Proof of the Divine Authority of the Pentateuch is towards the proving the rest of the Scriptures to be of the same Authority p. 214. CHAP. VII of Joshua and the Judges and of the Miracles and Prophecies under their Government Joshua the Author of the Book under his Name p. 215. The Book of Judges written by Samuel p. 216. The Waters of Jordan divided p. 217. The Males circumcis'd at the first coming into Canaan and thereby disabl'd for War contrary to all Humane Policy p. 219. The Walls of Jericho thrown down and the Prophecy concerning them ib. The Integrity of Joshua p. 220. of Eli p. 221. of Samuel p. 222. CHAP. VIII Of the People of Israel under their Kings From the Revolt of the Ten Tribes an Argument for the Truth of the Law of Moses Prophets in the Kingdoms both of Israel and Judah p. 223 CHAP. IX Of the Prophets and their Writings The kinds of Prophecy among the Jews p. 224. The Freedom and Courage of the Prophets and the Reverence paid to them even by bad Princes p. 226. They laid down their Lives in Confirmation of their Prophecies p. 227. Many of their Prophecies fulfill'd during their own Lives p. 228. Their Prophecies committed to writing ibid. They as well as the Law were carefully preserv'd during the Captivity in Babylon p. 229. The Books of the former and of the latter Prophets the Books of Samuel by whom written p. 231. The Books of Chronicles and of Kings by whom written ibid. Of the Psalms Moses and the Prophets comprehend the whole Old Testament p. 233. The Hebrew Tongue sufficiently understood by the Jews when they return'd from Babylon ibid. The Scriptures could not be corrupted afterwards p. 235. CHAP. X. Of the Prohecies and Miracles of the Prophets Josiah Prophesy'd of by Name long before his Birth the Circumstances of that Prophecy p. 236. The fâ—â—filling of Elijah's Prophecies p. 238. The Confession of Julian the Apostate p. 240. Divers other Prophecies and Miracles ibid. Cyrus prophesy'd of by Name long before his Birth p. 241. Jeremiah's Prophecies of the Destruction of Jerusalem p. 243. The Contradiction which was then thought to be betwixt the Prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel a manifest Proof of the Truth of the Prophecies of them both p. 245. Other plain Prophecies fulfill'd p. 247. These Prophecies and Miracles manifestly true p. 249 CHAP. XI Of the Dependance of the several Parts of the Scriptures upon each other and that the Old Testament proves the New and the New again proves the Old as the Cause and the Essect p. 252. CHAP. XII Of the Person of our Blessed Saviour Our Blessed Saviour's undeniable Innocence and Holiness of Life p. 257. Judas himself gave Testimony to it p. 259. The Prophecies concerning the Birth of the Messias fulfilled in him p. 265. The Prophecies concerning his Life fulfilled p. 277. The Prophecies concerning his Death fulfilled p. 280. And those concerning his Resurrection and Ascension p. 286 CHAP. XIII Of the Prophecies and Miracles of our Blessed Saviour Our Saviour foretold the Treachery of Judas and the manner of his own Death p. 287. The Destruction of Jerusalem with the circumstances of it and the Prodigies attending it ibid. His Miracles verified the Prophecies which had been concerning the Messias p. 290 CHAP. XIV Of the Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour The Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour prophesied of and typified p. 293. The Apostles who were Witnesses of our Saviour's Resurrection could not be deceiv'd themselves in it p. 295. They would not deceive others p. 306. They alledged such Circumstances as made it impossible for them to deceive p. 307 CHAP. XV. Of the Apostles and Evangelists The Apostles were Men of sufficient Vnderstanding to know what they testified p. 312. They had sufficient Means and Opportunities to know it p. 313. They were Men of Integrity and truly declared what they knew for they had no worldy Interest to serve by their Testimony but suffered by it and had a certain prospect of suffering p. 315. There are peculiar marks of Sincerity in all their Writings p. 319 CHAP. XVI Of the prophecies and Miracles of the Apostles c. Of their Prophecies p. 328. Of their Miracles p. 330. The Miracles wrought by the Apostles themselves p. 331. A Power of working Miracles communicated by them to others p. 336. Their supernatural Courage and Resolution p. 342. This likewise was communicated to their Followers p. 351 CHAP. XVII Of the Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists The History of our Saviour's Life and Death contains so notorious and publick circumstances that it was an Appeal to that Age whether the things related were true or not p. 354. The other Books of the New Testament are explicatory and consequential to the Gospel or History of Christ and besides these likewise contain many memorable and publick Matters of Fact p. 361. The Gospel and other Books of the New Testament cited by Authors contemporary with the Apostles and owned for genuine both by the Jews and Heathens p. 363. Many of the Eye-witnesses to the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles lived to a great Age p. 364. The chief Points of the Christian Religion were testified in Apologies written from time to time to the Heathen Emperors ibid. CHAP. XVIII Of the Doctrines contained in the Holy Scriptures The Christian Religion teacheth an universal Righteousness both towards God and Man p. 368. The Scriptures propound to us the only true Principle of Holiness p. 370. The Christian Religion proposeth the most effectual Motives to Obedience and Holiness of Life p. 372. It afferdeth the greatest Helps and Assistances to an Holy Life p. 374. It expresseth the greatest Compassion and Condescension to our Infirmities p. 374. The Propagation of the Gospel has ever had great effects towards the Reformation and Happiness of Mankind p. 376. The highest Mysteries of the Christian Religion are not meerly speculative but have a necessary relation to Practice for the advancement of Piety and Vertue amongst Men p. 382 PART III. THat there is no other Divine Revelation but that contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament p. 385. CHAP. I. The Novelty of the Heathen Religions The Pretences of the Aegyptians to Antiquity examined p. 387. Of the Chaldaeans ibid. Of the Chinese p. 389. CHAP. II. Of the Defect in the Promulgation of the Heathen Religions The Heathen Religions never extant in Books to be publickly read p. 392. Every Country had its peculiar Deities They prevailed only by the Temporal Power Though the Heathens more in Number yet the Religion of Christians more promulged p. 392 CHAP. III. Of the Defect of the Prophecies and Miracles of the Heathen Religions Of the Oracles of the Heathens p. 394. That they were uncertain and ambiguous p. 396. But they could not be all counterfeit p. 398. The cessation of Oracles gradual p. 399. Their Miracles never
between Virgil's Fourth Eclogue and the Translation of it into Greek in Constantine's Oration is rather an Argument for the Authority of the Sibylline Oracles than against it For Constantine was wont to compose his Orations and Epistles in Latin and they were Translated into Greek by some whom be employ'd in that Service And the Author of the Translation Translated only what was properly Virgil's but when he came to what was by Virgil borrow'd from the Sibyl he wrote down the Original Greek not translating the Variations which Virgil had made from it to apply the Prophecy to his own Subject It is well known that the Ancients took as great a Liberty as this in their Translations and it was the more allowable when there could be no Design or Likelihood of Deceit in the Translation of so Famous a Poem as that Eclogue of Virgil. This was but to point out the Alterations which Virgil had made and to shew how easily these Parts of his Poem might be supply'd from the Original Greek And perhaps this was a known Translation of that Eclogue which had been made with this Design It were no difficult Matter to answer all the other Objections which are wont to be brought against the Sybilline Oracles so far as the Notion here propos'd is concern'd in them For though the Books which we have now contain manifest Falsifications and Forgeries yet there must have been something real to give a Pretence and Countenance to so many elaborate Forgeries of this Nature and that was the Sibylline Oracles mention'd in Tully Sallust Virgil c. We may therefore conclude That the True Religion receiv'd a considerable Promulgation from these Oracles which serv'd to awaken in the Gentiles an Expectation of a King to be born in Judaea As soon as the Gospel appear'd in the World like the Rising Sun it diffus'd its Divine Light and Influence into all Parts of the Earth its Propagation was it self a Miracle and answerable to that Miraculous Power of Languages and other Means by which it was accomplish'd Tertullian acquaints us (h) Tertull. adv Judoees c. 7. that it was soon propagated beyond the Bounds of the Roman Empire he speaks of the Northern Parts of Britain and we know it received as early a Propagation in other Places more remote being preached by St. Bartholomew (i) Euseb Hist l. 3. c. 1. l. 5. c. 10. to the Indians by St. Thomas to the Parthians and to the Scythians by St. Andrew In St. Augustine's time (k) St. Aug. de Vtilit Credendi c. 7. the Christians were more numerous in all the known Parts of the World than the Jews and Heathens together And we have reason to believe that the Zeal of the Apostles and their immediate Disciples and Followers had carried the glad Tidings of the Gospel farther than either Ambition or Avarice it self till of late years had made any Discovery which Tertullian likewise sufficiently intimates The Cross was found to be in use among the Chineses by those who first went from Europe (l) Trigaut de Christ Expedit apud Sinus l. 1. c. 11. Alvar. Semedo Hist of China part 1. c. 31. into China and a Bell was seen there which had Greek Characters engraven on it And those who honour'd the Cross were in so great numbers in the Northern Provinces that they gave Jealousie to the Infidels The Christians there were call'd Isai from the Name Jesus And from the Chaldee Books which were found upon the Coasts of Malabar it appears that St. Thomas preach'd the Gospel in China and founded many Churches there The Passages which prove this may be seen in Trigautius and Semedo translated out of those Books Nicolas de Conti (m) Purch part 1. l. 4. c. 16. saith of the Chinese that when they rise in the Morning they turn their Faces to the East and with their Hands joined say God in Trinity keep us in this Law The Gospel was preach'd in China (n) Le Compte's Memoirs p. 348. Semedo ib. by some who came from Judaea and seem to have been Monks A. D. DCXXXVI as it appears by a Marble Table erected A. D. DCCLXXXII and found A. D. MDCXXV This Monument contains the principal Articles of the Christian Faith the substance of the Inscription may be seen in Le Compte's Memoirs and the whole is translated by Semedo Hornius (o) Horn. de Orig. American l. 4 c. 15. indeed rejects this Inscription which was likewise produced by Kircher as counterfeit but without any cause that I can perceive For if it were a Fraud there is no reason to think that we should not find all the Points of Popery inserted in it Osorius writes (p) Hierom. Oâ—r de Rebus Eman Lusitan Regis l. 2. that the Brachmans believed a Trinity in the Divine Nature and a God Incarnate to procure the Salvation of Mankind and that the Church of St. Thomas was esteemed most Holy among the Saracens and other Nations for the report of Miracles wrought there The Gentiles of Indostan (q) Continuat of the History of M. Bernier Tom. 4. retain some Notion of the Trinity and of the Incarnation of the Second Person though corrupted with fabulous Stories The People of Ceylon (r) Capt. Knox his Hist of Ceylon part 3. c. 5. do firmly believe the Resurrection of the Body The Indians in America (s) Jos Acost Hist l. 5. c. 28. worshipped a God who they said was One in Three and Three in One. They Baptized (t) Pet. Mart. Decad 4. c. 8. Decad. 8. c. 9. their Children and used the Cross in Baptism having a great veneration for the Cross and thinking it a preservative against Evil Spirits they believed the (u) Lerii Navigat in Bras c. 16. Resurrection of the Body they had Monasteries Nunneries Confessors and Sacraments And the Mexicans (x) Acost l. 5. c. 14 23 24 25. in their ancient Tongue called their High-Priests Papae's or Sovereign Bishops as it appears by their Histories It is a remarkable Relation which Lerius gives (y) Lerius Navigat ibid. of the People of Brasil That when he had discoursed to them concerning Religion and endeavoured to persuade them to become Christians one of their ancient Men answer'd That he had declared excellent and wonderful things to them which put him in mind of what they had often heard from their Fore-fathers That a long while ago many Ages before their time there came a Stranger into their Countrey in such an Habit and with a Beard as they saw the French wear for these Americans wear none who preached to them in the same manner and to the same effect as they had now heard him do but that the People would not hearken to him Upon which Lerius observes that Nicephorus writes That St. Matthew preached the Gospel to Cannibals and he thinks it not improbable that some of the Apostles might pass into America that the Sound of
were kept of every Family made them have a more separate and distinct Interest in every Tribe and a more exact Account of Times and perfect Knowledge of things in every Family and therefore they were not so capable of being imposed upon in things of this nature as the People of other Nations might be where Marriages and Inheritances are promiscuous and no occasion is given for the like emulation and watchfulness over one another and where no such Remembrances and Notices of the Transactions of Affairs are to be consulted by any one of every private Family In the wilderness of Sinai on the first day of the second month in the second year after they were come out of the land of Aegypt Moses and Aaron assembled all the congregations together and they declared their pedigrees after their families by the house of their fathers according to the number of their names from twenty years old and upward by their poll Num. i. 1 18. and this was done again in the Plains of Moab at the end of Forty Years chap. xxvi And these Genealogies we preserved not only during the Captivity Ezra vii and down to the Reign of Herod but even to the time of Josephus who in his First Book against Apion says That they had the Genealogies of their Priests then still extant for two thousand Years By which means it came to pass that every Tribe had a kind of separate Interest which was the occasion of Korah's Sedition against Moses And every Man amongst their Tribes might certainly hereby know how many Generations he was removed from those who first took possession of the Land of Promise and might find the Names of his Ancestors registred who were in the Wilderness with Moses or came with Joshua over Jordan And this must make the memory of their Ancestors more dear and familiar to them and it must make them have a greater regard for any thing they had left behind them especially for a Book upon which their Rights of Inheritance and the Title they had to all they enjoyed depended This was the Deed by which they held their Estates and the Last Will and Testament as it were of their Ancestors amongst whom the Land was divided But it is certain Men are more careful of nothing than of the Writings by which they enjoy their Estates and there is no great dauger when a will is once come to the hands of the right Heir that it will be lost or salsified to his prejudice but if the Books of Moses were altered it must be upon the account of some advantage to such as must be supposed to make the Alterations and consequently to the disadvantage of others who therefore would have found themselves concerned to oppose such Alterations But as the Books of Moses were in the nature of a Deed of Settlement to every Tribe and Family so they were a Law too which all were obliged to know and observe under the severest Penalties And being so generally known and universally practised it could no more be falsified at any time since its first Promulgation than it could be now at this day For 2. Another thing which made the People of Israel less capable of being imposed upon in this matter was That they were by their Laws themselves obliged to the constant study of them they were to teach them their Children and to be continually discoursing and meditating on them to bind them for a sign upon their hand that they might be as frontlets between their eyes to teach them their children speaking of them when they sate in their houses and when they walked by the way when they lay down and when they rose up to write them upon the door-posts of their houses and upon their gates Deut. xi 18 19 20. Nothing was to be more notorious and familiar to them and accordingly they were perfectly acquainted with them and as Josephus says knew them as well as they did their own Names they had them constantly in their mouths and thousands have died in defence of them and could by no Menaces or Torments be brought to forsake or renounce them And to this end One Day in Seven was by Moses's his Law set apart for the learning and understanding of it The Jews have a Tradition That Moses appointed the Law to be read therice every Year in their publick Assemblies And Grotius (q) Grot. ad Matth. xv 2. is of this opinion However the Scripture informs us that Moses of old time had in every city them that preached him being read in the synagogues every sabbath-day Act. xv 21. It is indeed the common opinion That there were no Synagogues before the Captivity But then by Synagogues must be understood Places of Judicature rather than of Divine Worship for there is no reason to question but the Jews had their Proseuchas or Places of Prayer from the Beginning since it is incredible that those who lived at a great distance and could not come to Jerusalem on the Sabbath-days and other time of Divine Worship besides the three great Festivals when all their Males were bound to be at Jerusalem should not assemble for the Worship of God in the places where they dwelt nay they were by an express Law obliged to it on the Sabbaths The seventh day is the sabbath of rest an holy convocation ye shall do no work therein it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings Lev. xxiii 3. They must therefore have places in all their Dwellings to resort to where they held their Convocations or Assemblies and these they went to on the New Moons as well as on the sabbaths 2 King iv 23. which made the Psalmist lament that the Enemy had burnt up all the synagogues of God in the land Psal lxxiv. 8. And being met together there is as little doubt to be made but that they read the Law which was to be read by them in their Families and much more in their Publick Assemblies on their solemn Days of Divine Worship The Books of Moses therefore were â—ead in their Synagogues in every City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from ancient Generations or from the first settlement of the Children of Israel in the Land of Canaan And then at the end of every Seven Years the Law was read in the most publick and solemn manner in the Solemnity of the Year of Release in the Feast of Tabernacles Moses wrote a Book of the Law and commanded it to be put in the side of the Ark Deut. xxxi 29. as the Two Tables of Stone were put into the Ark it self chap. x. 5. and this he delivered to the Priests and to all the Elders of Israel and commanded them saying At the end of every seven years in the solemnity of the year of release in the feast of tabernacles when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their
hearing Gather the people together Men and woman and children and thy stranger that is within thy gates that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and observe to do all the words of this law And that their children which have not known any thing may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it Deut. xxxi 10 11 12 13. How is it possible that any more effectual care could have been taken to secure a Law from being depraved and altered by Impostures Every seventh Day at least was set apart for the reading and learning it in their seveval Tribes throughout all the Land and then once in seven years it was read at a publick and solemn Feast when they were all obliged to go up to Jerusalem And for this purpose Moses wrot a Book of the Law which was put in the side of the Ark that it might be there for a Testimony against them if they should trangress it much more if they should make any Alterations in it And out of this Book the King was to write him a Copy of the Law Deut. xvii 1â— and this Book of the Law was found by Hilâ—iah the High-Priest in the House of the Lord 2 Cron. xxxiv 14.2 King xxii 8. For after all that the wicked and idolatrous Kings could do to suppress the Law of Moses and draw aside the People to Idolatry the Authentick Book of the Law writen by Moses himself was still preserved in Josiah's time besides the several Copies which must be dispersed throughout the Land for the use of their Synagogues and those which must be remaining in the hands of the Prophets and other pious Men. And there is little reason to doubt but that this very Book written by Moses was preserved during the Captivity and was that Book which Ezra read to the People It is by no means credible that the Prophets would suffer that Book to be lost much less that they would suffer all the Copies generally to be lost or corrupted which indeed considering the number was hardly possible Is it probable that Jeremiah would use that favour which he had with Nebuchadnezzar to any other purpose rather than for the preservation of the Book of the Law The Jews say the Ark was secured in the burning of the Temple at the time of their Captivity but it is much more probable that the Book of their Law was secured it being both more easily conveyed away and not so tempting a Prey to the Enemy We find the Law cited in the time of the Captivity by Daniel Den. ix 11. by Nehemiah Nehem. i. 8 9. and in Tobit who belong'd â—o the Ten Tribes Tob. vi 12. vii 13. And it is not to be doubted but that these and other pious Men had Copies of it by them and were very careful to preserve them Maimonides (r) Huet 〈◊〉 Prop. 41. says that Mises himself wrote out Twelve Books of the Law one for each Tripe besides that which was laid up in the side of the Ark and the Rabbins teach that every one is obliged to have a Copy of the Pentateuch by him And Ezra and Nehemiah (s) Dros dâ—â—â—â—th Sect. l. 3. c. 11. are said to have brought Three hundred Books of the Law into the Congregation assembled at their return from Captivity It is certain there were Scribes of the Law before the Captivity and in the time of it Jer. viii 8. Ezra is stiled a ready Scribe in the law of Moses and the Scribe even a Scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord and of his statutes to Israel And by Artaxerxes in his Letter he is called a Scribe of the law of the God of heaven Ezra vii 6 11 12. By which it appears that there were Scribes of the Law during the Captivity who were known by this solemn Stile and Character and whose care and employment it was to study and write over the Law of whom Ezra was the principal at the time of their Return It is most probable then that the Book of the Law was preserved in Moses's own Hand till the coming of the Jews from Babylon besides the Copies that were preserved in the hands of Daniel Nehemiah Ezra Zechariah and the other Prophets who were not only of unquestionable Integrity but wrote themselves by Divine Inspiration 3. Nothing is more expressly forbidden in the Books of Moses than all Fraud and Deceit and it cannot reasonably be suspected that any Man would be guilty of a Fraud of the highest nature imaginable to introduce or establish a Law that forbids it Moses had forewarned them against all such practices both in his Laws in general and by an express Prohibition Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it Deut. iv 2. And all who had any regard to the Observation of his Laws would observe this as well as other parts of it for this preserved the Authority of all the rest inviolable And if they had had no regard to the Law but had altered it as they pleased they would certainly have made such Alterations as would have gratified the People and would have taken great care to leave nothing which might give offence but the Laws of Moses are such as that without a Divine Authority to enforce them they would never have been complied with but would have been grievous to a less suspicious and impatient People than the Jews were If it be said That the Prohibition against Alterations might be added amongst other things there is no ground of probability for it but so much odds against it that a Man might as well suspect that the whole Five Books had been forged as to pitch upon that particular Verse and say that it is not genuine Besides why should Impostors insert such a Clause as would hinder them from changing any thing in the Law ever after why should they not rather reserve to themselves a liberty of changing and adding as often as they thought fit 2. As the Laws themselves could not be invented nor altered after Moses's time so neither could the Account of the Miracles wrought by him be inserted after his death by any particular Man nor by any Confederacy or Combination of Men whatsoever For if the Miracles by which the Law is supposed to be confirmed were afterwards inserted they must be intended as a Sanction to give Authority to it and keep the People in awe when they were become uneasie and disobedient under the Government of those Laws But it must needs be much more difficult to introduce Laws at first than to govern a People by them after they have been once introduced and are setled and received amongst them Indeed it is incredible how Laws so little favourable to the ease or advantage of a People which were so expensive and burthensome in there
to lose so many Talents and to want their help in the War and to venture the ravage that such an Army who looked upon themselves as affronted made in his Country upon the Prophets assuring him that God would give him the Victory if he would dismiss them but not otherwise and telling him The Lord is able to give thee much more than this and the Event proved the Truth of the Prediction 2 Chron. xxv The Children of Israel likewise at the word of Oded the Prophet sent back Two hundred thousand Persons of the Kingdom of Judah with great spoil which they had taken 2 Chron. xxviii So ready and so general a Compliance in such cases could arise from nothing but a certain Belief and Experience of the Truth of what the Prophets delivered but at other times they were despised and persecuted And the Truth of their Prophecies was not only attested by Miracles and justified by the Event and confessed by the Deference and Respect both of the Kings and People but it was asserted by their Sufferings and sealed by the Blood of the Prophets and was at last acknowledged by the Posterity of those who had slain them they being most forward and zealous to adorn the Tombs of the Prophets whom their Fore-fathers had killed and to die in vindication of those Prophecies for which they had been slain There was a constant succession of Prophets from the time of Moses till the return of the Jews from their Captivity in Babylon some prophesied for many Years Jeremiah for above One and forty Years Ezekâ—el about Twenty Years the least time assigned to Hosea's Prophesying is Forty three Years Amos prophesied about Six and twenty Years Micah about Fifty Isaiah Jonah and Daniel a much longer time so that they lived to see divers of their own Prophecies fulfilled and to have suffered as False Prophets if they had not come to pass And though many Prophecies were not to be fulfilled till long after the death of the Prophets who deliver'd them yet they wrought Miracles or they foretold some things which came to pass soon after according to their Predictions to give evidence to their Authority and confirm their Divine Miâ—â—ion The Prophets committed their Prophecies to writing and left them to Posterity Isa xxx 8. Per. xxx 2. xxxvi 32. Hab. ii 1 2. And the writing of the Histories of the Jews belong'd to the Prophets 1 Chron. xxix 29. 2 Chron. xii 15. xiii 22. xx 34. xxvi 22. xxxii 32. And both in their Prophetical and Historical Books they deal with the greatest plainness and sincerity they record the Idolatries of the Nation and foretell the Judgments of God which were to befall it upon that account and they leave to Posterity a Relation of the Miscarriages and Crimes of their best Princes David Solomon and others who were Types of the Messias and from whose Race they expected Him and looked upon the Glories of their several Reigns to be presages of His are yet described not only without flattery but without any reserve or extenuation They write as Men who had no regard to any thing but Truth and the Glory of God in telling it The Prophets were sometimes commanded to seal and shut up their Prophecies that the Originals might be preserved till the fulfilling of them and then compared with the Event Isai viii 16. Jer. xxxii 14. Dan. viii 26. xii 4. For when the Prophecies were not to be fulfill'd till many Years and in some cases not till several Ages afterwards it was requisite that the Original Writings should be kept with all care but when the time was so near at hand that the Prophecies must be in every one's memory or that the Originals could not be suspected or supposed to be lost there was not the same care required Rev. xxii 10. It seems to have been customary (y) 〈◊〉 Anâ—â—quit l. 11. c. 1. 〈◊〉 l. 6. c. 5 for the Prophers to put their Writings into the Tabernacle or lay them up before the Lord 1 Sam. x. 25. And there is a Tradition (z) Epiphan de Ponderib Measâ—â— c. 4. That all the Canonical Books as well as the Law were put into the side of the Ark. It is certain that the Books of the Law and the Writings of the ancient Prophets were carefully preserved during the Captivity and are frequently referr'd to and cited by the latter Prophets The Pentateuch has been already spoken of and this is as evident of the Books of the Prophets The Prophecy of Micah is quoted Jer. xxvi 18. a little before the Captivity and under it the Prophecy of Jeremiah is cited Dan. ix 2. and all the Prophets v. 6. and so the Prophets in general are mention'd Neh. ix 26 30. And Zechariah not only cites the former Prophets Zech. i. 4. but supposes their Writings well known to the People Should you not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity chap. vii 7. The Prophet Amos is likewise cited Tob. ii 6. and Jonas and the Prophets in general chap. xiv 4 5 8. There can then be no reason to question but that Ezra Nehemiah Daniel Zechariah and the other Prophets in the time of the Captivity were very careful to keep the Books of the former Prophets for they frequently cite them and appeal to them and expected Deliverance out of their Captivity by the accomplishment of them And perhaps from the Originals themselves or however from Copies taken by Ezra the Scribe or by some of the latter Prophets or at least acknowledged for genuine and approved of by them the ancient Prophecies and other Inspired Writings were preserved and those of the latter Prophets were added to them and all together make up the Book of the Prophets mention'd Act. vii 42. which was read as well as the Law every Sabbath-day Act. xiii 27. The Books of Joshua Judges Samuel and Kings have the Title of the former Prophets in the Hebrew Bibles to distinguish them from the Books which they set out under the Title of the latter Prophets Isaiah Jeremiah c. The Books of Joshua and Judges have been already spoken of The Books of Samuel were written by Samuel Nathan and Gad 1 Chron. xxix 29. from whence we may conclude that the first Book of Samuel to the 25th Chapter was written by Samuel himself and the rest of that and the whole Second Book by Nathan and Gad but Samuel being a Person so much concerned in the former part of the History and having written so much of it out of respect to him the whole Two Books go under his Name though indeed the Jews anciently reckon'd both the Books of Samuel as one Book and Aquila as Theodorit has observed made no distinction between the First and Second Books of Samuel following the Hebrew Copies of his time and in our Hebrew Bibles though they are distinguished yet they are
Areopagite Sergius Paulus Simon Magus Felix King Agrippa Tertullus Gallio and others were Names of too great Note and Fame to be used in a false story in which they are so much concerned And all their Proceedings in the Courts of Judicature were kept upon record and therefore could not be pretended without being discovered by those who always had so many Adversaries The Miraculous power bestowed upon the Apostles was chiefly employed in curing Diseases and for the health and preservation of Mankind but they had a power of inflicting Diseases likewise and death it self upon just occasions as in the case of Ananias and Saphira Act. v. of Elymas the Sorcerer Acts xiii and the incestuous Corinthian 1 Cor. v. And when this was done by private men and divulged to the world with the names of the persons who inflicted diseases and death it self and of those on whom they were inflicted this is an evidence both of the truth of the matter of Fact and of the power by which it was done for no Author could think to serve his Friend or his Cause by relating things of this nature unless they had been evidently done in a miraculous manner and by a Divine Commission and Authority The Conversion of St. Paul was a thing so memorable both for the manner of it and for the business he was going about and the persons that employed him and for his known zeal at other times in persecuting the Church that St. Paul appeals to King Agrippa as one who could not be ignorant of a thing so notorious Acts xxvi 26. and it was the great providence and wisdom of God that a man so well known and esteemed by the Pharisees and Chief Priests before his conversion should be the greatest instrument both by his Preaching and writings for the propagation of the Gospel and both his Epistles and the other Books of Holy Scripture have the same proof from the observations already mentioned concerning the names and characters of persons and other circumstances And they were always read in the Assemblies of Christians and were appointed to be read in them Coloss iv 16.1 Thess v. 27. And the writings both of him and of the Evangelists and the other Apostles are cited by Authors contemporary with the Apostles by Barnabas an Apostle himself and by Clemens Romanus Ignatius Polycarp c. and they have been acknowledged to be the genuine works of those whose names they bear both by Jews and Heathens and particularly by Tryphon the Jew in his Dialogue with Justin Martyr and by Julian (e) Apud Cyril lib. x. the Apostate It is enough in this place to observe that excepting some very few Books of which an account shall elsewhere be given the Books of the Scriptures of the New Testament have been received as genuine from their first appearance in the world during the Lives of their several Authors and have been delivered down for such through the several Ages of the Church In the main they have been so unanimously received and so fully attested by Christians that the Jews and Heathens themselves never denied them to be genuine nor ever pretended the principal matters of Fact to be false or doubtful Euseb lib. iii. c. 29. Many of the Eye-witnesses to the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles lived to a great Age St. John himself above an hundred years and he Preached the Gospel above seventy years Simeon the Son of Cleopas lived to an hundred and twenty years and Polycarp the Disciple of St. John to fourscore and six of whom (f) Id. lib. v. c. 20. Iraenaeus in his Epistle to Florinus a Marcionite declared that he remembred exactly what he had heard Polycarp discourse concerning the account of the Miracles and Doctrine of our Saviour which he had received from St. John and others who had conversed with Christ and that it differed in nothing from the Scriptures And besides the inspired Writings the chief points of the Christian Religion were testified in Apologies written from time to time to the Heathen Emperors themselves (g) Euseb Hist lib. iv c. 3. vid. Irenae lib. ii c. 56 57. Qudaratus Bishop of Athens in his Apology to Adrian declared that persons who had been healed by our Saviour and others that had been raised from the dead by him were still living in his time Aristides presented an Apology to the same Emperor Justin Martyr wrote two Apologies the first dedicated to Antoninus Pius and his two Sons and the Roman Senate the latter to M. Antoninus and the Senate (h) Euseb lib. iv c. 26. Melito Bishop of Sardis and Apollinaris Bishop of Hierapolis likewise wrote a Vindication of the Christian Religion to M. Antoninus Athenagoras offered his Apology to M. Aurelius and Commodus (i) Euseb lib. v. c. 17. Meltiades to Commodus or to the Deputies of the Provinces (k) Hier. Catai Euseb lib. v. c. 21. Apollonius a Roman Senator made a publick defence of the Christian Religion in the Senate of Rome and Tertullian presented his Apology to the Senate or to the Governors of the Provinces And the Apologists did not dwell only upon generals but descended to such particulars as to appeal to the publick Records for the truth of what they delivered concerning the place of our Saviour's Birth and the manner of his Death and his Resurrection so that the principles and foundations of the Christian Religion were from the beginning asserted in publick Writings dedicated and presented to the Heathen themselves who were most concerned and most capable of disproving it if it had been false (l) Euseb lib. ix c. 5. 10. And though the Acts which were forged under the Emperor Maximin and pretended to be Pilate's were by his command sent into all the Provinces of his Empire and published in all places and ordered to be taught Children and to be learnt by heart by them yet all this malicious care and contrivance was ineffectual to the suppressing the Truth of the History of our Saviour which waâ— so well attested and so fully published amongst all sorts of men that it was impossible to extirpate the belief of it And this Emperor himself as I before shewed was by miraculous Diseases inflicted on him forced to retract by a publick Edict his practices against Christianity and to acknowledge that his sins and blasphemies against Christ were the just cause of his Punishment CHAP. XVIII Of the Doctrines contained in the Holy Scriptures THE Scriptures must be acknowledged by all considerate men to contain excellent Rules and Precepts for the Government of our Lives and it cannot be denied that it is to these we owe the Peace and Happiness we enjoy even in this world It is therefore the interest of every good and prudent man to wish the Christian Religion true though it were not so and there can be no cause to wish it false but our own sin and folly And this of it self is a good argument that
that their most ancient Books were in Hieroglyphicks which are not expounded by any who lived nearer than MDCC years to the first Author of them that the numbers in computation are sometimes mistaken or that Months are put for Years But of what Antiquity or Authority soever their first Writers were there is little or no credit to be given to the books now remaining since that general destruction of all ancient Books by the Emperor Xi Hoam ti who lived but about two hundred years before Christ he commanded upon pain of death all the Monuments of Antiquity to be destroyed relating either to History or Philosophy especially the Books of Confucius and killed many of their Learned men so that from his time they have only some fragments of old Authors left The Chinese are a people vain enough and love to magnify themselves to the Europeans which makes them endeavour to have it believed that their Antiquities are sufficiently entire notwithstanding this destruction of their Books and for the same reason they described the Emperor's Observatory as the most compleat and the best fitted for the uses of Astronomy that could be imagined but upon the view it appeared very inconsiderable and the Instruments were found useless and new ones were placed in their room made by the direction of Father Verbiest This people after all their boasts of skill in Astronomy were not able to make an exact Calendar and their Table of Eclipses were so uncorrect that they could scarce foretel about what time that of the Sun should happen And in a Petition which the Emperor of China in favour it seems to the Missionaries had privately drawn up to be presented by them to himself in publick it is said that Father Adam Schaal made it known to all the Court that the Rules of the Coelestial Motions established by the ancient Astronomers of China were all false And not only the common people of China but the chief Mandarines are so ignorant and superstitious that when they see the Sun or Moon under an Eclipse with Sacrifices and other Rites and with great noise and clamor they apply themselves to rescue them from the Dog or Dragon which they imagine is like to devour them So little credit is to be given to the pretences which the several Nations among the Heathens have made to Antiquity without any ground from History but upon wandring discourses of observations in Astronomy which they had little or no skill in And it has been made evident by divers learned men that the most ancient and the very best of the Heathen Gods were but Men whom the Scriptures mention as worshippers of the True God such as Noâ—h Joseph Moses c. CHAP. II. Of the Defect in the Promulgation of the Heathen Religions THe Propagation of the several Religions profest among the Heathens has been very inconsiderable For they were never extant in Books to be publickly read and examined but their Mysteries were kept secret and concealed from the world and all the knowledge the people had of them was from the Priests Every Country had its peculiar Deities and ways of Worship which were seldom received or known but in those places where they were first set up The (a) Valer-Max de Peregrina Relig. rejecta lib. 1. c. 3. Romans rejected many foreign Religions as abominable and none of their Religions ever prevailed but where they had the temporal Power to uphold them And they lost ground daily by the propagation of the Gospel whilst the greatest part of the Empire made it their business to oppress it and to maintain the Heathen Religions against it It is to be observed that the Christian Religion is at this day Preached in all parts of the Heathen world and has been ever since its first propagation as the Jewish Religion was before but where Christianity has prevailed Heathenism has been never able to maintain its ground and there are hardly any but Christians excepting some few Jews to be found in Christian Countries which makes a great abatement in the disproportion that Heathenism in general may seem to have in its numbers above Christianity But if we examine the particular Religions of the Heathens there is no comparison and the only thing here to be enquired into is whether any particular Religion of the Heathens exceed or equal the Christian Religion in point of Promulgation for who ever can imagine that all or any great number of the Heathen Religions are of Divine Revelation must suppose God to reveal contradictions The Question before us is not whether Heathens are more numerous than Christians but whether any of their Religions has been as fully promulged as the Christian One Herald is enough to promulge a Law to many thousands the City of Nineve was converted by one Prophet and there is perhaps no Nation in the world but has more Christians in it than the first Preachers of the Gospel were CHAP. III. The Defect of the Prophecies and Miracles of the Heathen Religions IT cannot be denied by any man who is not resolved to reject the Authority of all History but that many wonders have been done by Magicians and that many things have been foreshown and foretold among Heathens by Dreams and Prodigies and Oracles which did actually come to pass but then all that can be gathered from hence is that there are invisible Powers and that Devils and wicked Spirits are able to do more than men can do and to know more than men can know for which reason in former Ages there was no more doubt made whether there be Spirits than whether there be men in the world for they were continually sensible of the Operations and Effects of invisible Beings which made them exceedingly prone to Idolatry but not enclined to Atheism And the case is the same now in Heathen Countries where Apparitions and Delusions of evil Spirits are affirmed by all Writers to be very frequent But if at any time evil Spirits by their subtilty and experience and knowledge of affairs in the World did foretel things which accordingly came to pass they were things that happened not long after and commonly such as themselves did excite and prompt Men to Thus when the conspiracy against Caesar was come just to be put in Execution and the Devil had his Agents concerned in it he could foretel the time and place of his Death But it had been foretold to Pompey Crassus and Caesar himself before as (a) Tull. de Divin lib. ii Tully informs us from his own knowledge that they should all die in their Beds and in an honourable old Age. Some Oracles might possibly take their Answers from the Scriptures as that of Jupiter Hammon concerning Alexander's Victories if it were not meerly a piece of flattery which proved true by chance Evil Spirits might likewise be able to inform Men at a great distance of Victories the same day they were won as it is related (b) Ib. of several and in
and it being foretold half a year before the Birth of Augustus that a King of the Romans would be born that year the Senate made a Decree (i) Sueton. August c. 94. Nequis illo anno genitus educareter (k) Plutarch in Lycurg Plutarch himself says that he could find nothing unjust or dishonest in the Laws of Lycurgus tho Theft community of Wives and the murthering of such Infants as they saw weak and sickly and therefore thought they would prove unfit to serve the common-wealth were a part of those Laws Revenge was esteemed not only lawful but honourable and a desire of popular Fame and Vain Glory were reckoned among the Virtues of the Heathens and were the greatest motive and encitement they had to any other Vertue (l) Plut. in Aristide Plutarch tells us of Aristides so famed for Justice that tho he were strictly just in private affairs yet in things of publick concernment he made no scruple to act according as the present condition of the Common-wealth seemed to require For it was his Maxim that in such cases Justice must give way to expediency and he gives an instance how Aristides advised the Athenians to act contrary to their most solemn contract and oath imprecating upon himself the punishment of the perjury to avert it from the Common-wealth Tully in the Third Book of his Offices where he treats of the strictest Rules of Justice and proposes so many admirable Examples of it yet resolves the notion of Justice only into a principle of Honour upon which he concludes that no man should do a dishonest Action though he could conceal it both from God and Men and determines that an Oath is but an Appeal to a man 's own Mind or Conscience Cum vero jurato dicenda sententia sit meminerit Deum se adhibere testem id est ut arbitror mentem suam qua nihil homini dedit ipse Deus divinius The Indians themselves whatever may be thought to the contrary have naturally as good Sense and Parts as other people which (m) Jos Acost Hist lib. iv c. 1. Acosta sets himself to prove in divers instances but they had less communication with those who retained revealed Religion and by their own vices and the subtilty of the Devil the Notions which they had received from it were lost or perverted The Egyptians who were so famous for their Learning are a great instance how poor a thing humane Reason is without the Assistance of Divine Revelation for all their profound Learning did but lead them to the grossest Idolatry whilst they conceived God to be only an Anima Mandi and therefore to be worshipped in the several parts and species of the Universe The Stoicks in effect held the same Error and taught (n) Tull. Acad. Qu. lib. i. that there is nothing incorporeal But when the excellency of the Christian Morals began to be so generally observed and taken notice of the last Refuge of Philosophy was in the Moral Doctrines of the Stoicks For almost all the latter Philosophers were of this Sect which they refined and improved as well as they were able that they might have something to oppose to the Morality taught and practised too by the Christians (o) Theophil ad Autolych lib. iii. But the Ancient Stoicks had been the Patrons and Advocates of the worst vices and had filled the Libraries with their obscene Books II. The Stoicks first sprang from the Cynicks that impudent and beastly Sect of Philosophers and they refined themselves but by degrees Zeno who had as great Honour done him by the Athenians as ever any Philosopher had under the Notion of his Vertue taught that men ought to have their Wives in common and would have been put to death by the Laws of most Nations for sins against Nature (p) Diog. Laert. in Zenon Chrysipp Chrysippus taught the worst of Incest as that of Fathers with their Daughters and of Sons with their Mothers and besides his opinion for eating humane Flesh and the like his Books were filled with such obscene Discourses as no modest man could read Athenodorus a Stoick being Library-keeper at Pergamus cut all such ill Passages out of the Books of the Stoicks but he was discovered and those Passages were inserted again But these Philosophers might do as they pleased for they pretended to be exempt from sin and the stoical Philosophy in the Original fundamental Doctrines of it is nothing as Tully observed but a vain pomp and boast of words which at first raise admiration but when throughly considered are ridiculous as that men must live without love or hatred or anger or any other passion that all sins are equal and that it is the same Crime whether a man murther his Father or kill a Cock (*) Tulâ— pro Muraena as Tully says if there be no occasion for it And it is no wonder that Plutarch and others wrote purposely to expose the stoical Philosophy upon its old and genuine principles but the latter Stoicks being very sensible of the many defective and indesensible parts of their philosophy endeavoured to mollify what seemed too harsh and absurd that they might bring their own as near the Christian Doctrine as they could Quinctilian will not allow that Seneca was any great Philosopher but says that his main talent lay in declaiming against vice (q) Quint. lâ—st lib. x. c. 18. in Philosophia parum diligens egregius tamen vitiorum insectator suit It was rather the Art and Design of Seneca who knew wherein the strength and defects of his Philosophy lay to endeavour to give it all the advantage he could and to recommend it to the world by exposing the Follies and Vices of men rather than by instructing them in the Notions of his own Sect. But (r) Seu de Tranqu Animi c. 15. this notwithstanding was one of his Rules nonnunquam usque ad ebrietatem veniendum and when he had expos'd the cruelties the filthiness and the absurdities of the Religions in use amongst the Heathens in a Book written upon that subject yet says he (Å¿) Aug. Civit. Dei lib. vi c. x. quae omnia sapiens servabit tanquam legibus jussa non tanquam Diis grata And Tully likewise in divers places when he has reasoned against the absurdities of their Religion resolves the obligation to observe it into the Duty which men are bound to pay the Laws of the Government under which they live their Philosophy it seems taught them that we must obey Men rather than God But they held no more than (t) Xenophen Memorab lib. 1. Socrates had taught and practised before them Epictetus himself who has set off the Heathen Morality to the best advantage cannot be excused from as great errors and defects He teaches also that men should follow the Religion of their Country whatever it be Enchirid. cap. xxxviii He allows too great indulgence to lust cap. xlvii And
others it seems probable that the highest degree of Excommunication among the Jews being styled Shammatha which is the same with Maran Atha Sham signifying Lord as †Vid. Grot. Ham. ad 1 Cor. xvi 22. Maran also doth in the Syriac and other Languages and Atha signifying cometh Atha might either Ignorantly or Maliciously be mistaken for Athon which signifies an Ass And it is likely that this Calumny might be first raised by some Body who had been Excommunicated and turned Apostate It would be a very wrong inference from what has been said to conclude that there is no certainty in the Greek and Latin and other Heathen Historians For the Circumstances of the Relation and the Consent of divers Authors may put most parts of History past doubt But it ought to be considered that those which have been mentioned are exceptions to which the Sacred Historians are by no means liable they do not charge one another with Falshood nothing can be discovered of Partiality in their Writings but they tell the most disgraceful Truths of their Ancestors and of themselves and the History it self has so many publick Circumstances that they clear it beyond all suspicion of Deceit If the Names of some Men be omitted upon particular occasions in the Scriptures we find them mentioned there upon others And there is evident Reason that the Names of infamous Men should in some Cases be omitted and should not be inserted in Genealogies and enrolled in the Registers of Honour But when the Memory of Persons and Actions is totally supprest this must extreamly abate the Credit of any History The Jews are the only People in the World that have had their Antiquities by an uninterrupted Tradition delivered down and preserved in an Authentick Book unanimously asserted by the whole Nation in all Ages which they have never changed nor altered but have in great numbers sacrificed their Lives in Testimony of it If the Heathens in divers things contradict the History of the Jews they contradict one another as much in the Accounts of their own Antiquities and what they relate of the Jews is upon uncertain and contrary Reports If they conceal what concerns the Jews it was their Custom to stifle that which did not please them The Histories as well as the Religion of most other Nations were kept secret and not communicated to the People no Book of History among them was ever put into the hands of a whole Nation with a strict Charge to every one to read and study it as the Books of Moses were when the Principal and most Memorable things related were within the knowledge and Memory of all that read them The Jews were under a necessity of preserving their Genealogies with all imaginable Care and Exactness if they would make good the Claim and Title to their Inheritances so that the meanest among them could with the greatest certainty derive his Line from Adam whereas the Persian Kings as we learn from (r) Herod lib. vii c. 11. Herodotus could boast but of a short Descent and the Kings and Emperours of the Romans and of other Nations to advance their Pedigrees were forced to have recourse to fabulous Reports And the Heathen Accounts of the Original not only of particular Families but of the several Nations of the World are acknowledged to be Fabulous or at the best but very uncertain by the most accurate Historians The Account of the Prophecies and Miracles contained in the Scriptures was impossible to be mistaken at first and it has been transmitted with all the certainty that any History is capable of to Posterity And the Writers of the Old and New Testament all agree in the Account of the Creation of the Deluge of Abraham and the other Patriarchs of the Bondage of the Israelites in Aegypt their Miraculous Deliverance from thence and their Journying into the Land of Canaan they all frequently assert suppose or imply the Truth of these things there is a continued Series and Line of Truth observable throughout the whole Scriptures But among Heathen Writers it is otherwise they contradict one another in Matters of any considerable Antiquity if they agree in some material Passages it is commonly with much variation in the Circumstances and with great Uncertainty and Doubtfulness and the things in which they most agree are such as have been taken from the Scriptures which compose a Book that if it were but for the Antiquity and Learning of it is the most valuable of any Book in the World and nothing but Vice and Ignorance and that which is the worst sort of Ignorance a Pretence to Learning could make it so much despised II. If the Histories of Heathen Nations be so little to be relied upon their Philosophy will appear to be worthy of no more Regard which for any thing of Truth and Usefulness there is to be found in it depends so much upon Historical Traditions That Poetry is the most antient way of Writing is not only asserted by Heathen Authors but may with great probability be made out from the Scripture it self Poets were the Chief upholders of the Religion and the Philosophy in use among the Heathens both these were at the first taught in short Maxims which that they might be the better received and the more easily retain'd in Memory were put into Verse without any farther Ornament than just what was necessary to give a clear and full Expression to their Notions and Precepts (s) Xenoph. Conviv Memorab lib. 1. Socrates and the Philosophers of his time had a value for the Verses of Theognis and those which go under the Name of Pythagoras are at least as antient as (t) Apuâ— A Gell. lib. vi c. 2. Chrysippus who alleg'd their Authority Solon himself wrote Elegies whereof some Remains are still preserv'd This gave the Poets a mighty Reputation and we find not only Solon but others of them quoted and appeal'd to by Demosthenes and Aeschines in the Courts of Judicature as well as by Philosophers in their Discourses But the Poets for the more delightful Entertainment of the People not only indulged themselves in that antient and useful way of Instruction by Fables for he (u) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. Plâ—et was hardly esteem'd a Poet who had been the Authors of none but they became the Promoters of all manner of Superstitions and Idolatrous Worship the Oracles were delivered in Verse every Poet wrote something in Honour of the false Gods and (w) Plat. â—b Socrates himself during his Imprisonment made a Hymn in praise of Apollo By which means the Original Notions of Religion and Vertue were so obscured and corrupted that it was impossible in any Humane way to provide a sufficient Remedy Plato complain'd of the Fictions of Poets but when he set himself to recover Men to a true Sense and Notion of things by the help of some antient Traditions which he had met withal he fell into very absurd and sinful
upon any Subject and then they trample with wonderful Scorn and Triumph upon that which they conceive is so miserably overcome but alass the Victory is over themselves nothing is either the more or the less true for their believing or disbelieving it and Religion is always the same how profanely soever it may be spoken of We have no design to impose upon any Man's Faith but if there be Reason in what we say it may well be expected from Reasonable Men that they should hearken to Reason Religion is Reason and Philosophy as the Fathers often speak the best and truest Philosophy And I am persuaded how much soever I may have failed in the performance that the Christian Religion is capable of being proved with such clear and full Evidence even to ordinary Understandings as to make all Pretences of Arguing against it appear to be as ridiculous as they are impious THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. Of Humane Reason THE Divine Authority of the Scriptures being proved in the First Book such Points are cleared in the Second as are thought most liable to exception in the Christian Religion But before Men venture upon Objections against the Scripture it is fit for them to consider the strength and compass of their own Faculties and the manifold Defects of Humane Reason p. 1. In some things each side of a Contradiction seems to be demonstrable p. 4. Every Man believes and has the Experience of several things which in the Theory and Speculative Notion of them would seem as incredible as any thing in the Scriptures can be supposed to be p. 12. Those who disbelieve and reject the Misteries of Religion must believe things much more incredible p. 24. CHAP. II. Of Inspiration ALL motion of Material things is derived from God and it is at least as conceiveable by us that God doth Act upon the Immaterial as that He Acts upon the Material part of the World and that He may act more powerfully upon the Wills and Understandings of some Men than of others p. 28. Wherein the inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did consist and how far it extended p. 31. Such Inferences from thence as may afford a sufficient Answer to the Objections alleged upon this Subject p. 41. The Inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did not exclude Humane Means as information in Matters of Fact c. p. 42. It did not exclude the use of their own Words and Style ibid. Tho' somethings are set down in the Scripture indefinitely and without any positive Assertion or Determination this is no proof against their being Written by Divine Inspiration p. 43. In things which might fall under Humane Prudence and Observation the Spirit of God seems to have used only a directive Power and Influence p. 46. This infallible Assistance was not permanent and Habitual P. 49. It did not prevent Personal failings p. 50. No Passage or Circumstance in the Scripture Erroneous p. 51. CHAP. III. Of the 〈◊〉 of the Holy Scriptures THE Grammatical Construction and Propriety of Speech p. 53. Those whch are look'd upon as Defects in the Scripture-Style were usual in the most approved Heathen Authors p. ib. Metaphors and Rhetorical Schemes and Figures p. 57. The Style different of different Nations p. 58. The Titles of Kings p. 59. What Arts were used by Orators to raise the Passions p. 60. That they sometimes Read their Speeches p. 62. The Figurative Expressions of the Prophets and their Types and Parables were Suitable to the Customs of the Places and Times wherein they Liv'd ibid. Several things related as Matter of Fact are only Parabolical Descriptions or Representations p. 64. The Prophetick Schemes of Speech usual with the Eastern Nations p. 66. The want of Distinguishing the Persons speaking has been a great cause of misunderstanding the Scriptures p. 68. The Antiquity and various ways of Poetry p. 69. The Metaphorical and Figurative use of Words in Speaking of the Works and attributes of God p. 71. The Decorum or Suitableness of the matter in the Style of Scripture p. 79. The Method p. 86. Some Books of Scripture admirable for their Style p. 89. Why the Style not alike excellent in all the Books of Scripture p. 93. CHAP. IV. Of the Canon of the Holy Scriptures ANy Controversy concerning the Authority of some Books of Holy Scripture no prejudice to the rest p. 96. The uncontroverted Books contain all things necessary to Salvation p. 97. The Dispute concerning the Apochrypha falls not here under consideration p. 99 No Suppression or Alteration of the Books of the Old Testament by Idolatrous Kings c. p. 100. The Book of the Law in the Hand-Writing of Moses found in the Reign of Josiah p. 102. No Books but those which were Written by Inspiration received by the Jews into their Canon p. 103. What opinion the Ten Tribes had of the Books of the Prophets c. p. 105. Neither the Samaritans nor the Sadduces rejected any of the Books of the Old Testament p. 106. Of the Books whereof mention is made in the O. T. p. 106. Why the Books of the Prophets have the Names of the Authors exprest and that there was not the same Reason that the Names of the Authors of the Historical Books should be exprest p. 108. A wonderful Providence manifest in the Preservation of the Books of the O. T. for so many Ages p. 109. The New Testament confirms the Old p. 111. The Caution of the Christian Church in admitting Books into the Canon ib. The Primitive Christians had sufficient means to examine and distinguish the Genuine and inspired Writings from the Apochryphal or Spurious p. 113. The Gospel of St. Matt. in Hebrew how long preserved p. 115. The Greek Version of it p. 116. The Canon of Scripture finished by St. John and the Books of the other Evangelists c. reviewed by him p. 117. The Testimony of the Adversaries of our Religion ib. Copies of great Antiquity still extant p. 118. How it came to pass that the Authority of some Books was at first doubted of p. 119. The Canon had been fix'd and confirmed in Councils in Tertullian's time p. 121. The Canon of Scripture generally received by Christians of all Sects and Parties p. 124. CHAP. V. Of the various Readings in the Old and New Testament AN extraordinary Providence manifest in the preservation of the Scriptures from such Casualties as have befaln other Books p. 126. The Defect in the Hebrew Vowels and the late invention of the Points no prejudice to the Authority of the Bible p. 127. The change of the old Hebrew Characters into that now in use is no prejudice to the Authority of the Hebrew Text p. 130. The Keri and the Ketib no prejudice to it ib. The Difference between the Hebrew Text and the Septuagint and other Versions or between the Versions themselves no way prejudicial to the Authority of the Scriptures p. 132. It is confessed by the greatest Criticks both Protestants and
question were not only dubious but certainly spurious the remaining Books which were never doubted of are sufficient for all the necessary ends and purposes of a Revelation and therefore this ought to be no objection against the Authority of the Scriptures that the Authority of some Books has been formerly matter of controversy I shall enter upon no discourse concerning the Apocryphal Books the authority whereof has been so often and so effectually disâ—roved by Protestants that the most learned Papists have now little to say for them but â—re forced only to fly to the authority of their Church which is in effect to beg the thing in question or to beg something as hard to be granted viz. the infallibility of the Church of Rome But I shall here engage in no controversy of that nature Both Protestants and Papists are generally speaking agreed that the Books of Moses and the Prophets in the Old Testament and the Writings of the Evangelists and the Apostles in the New are of Divine Authority and if this be so the Christian Religion must be true whether there be or be not others of the same nature and of equal authority These Books in the main have already been proved to be genuine and without any material corruption or alteration I shall now only propose such general considerations as may be sufficient to obviate objections The agreement between the Jews and Samaritans in the Pentateuch is a clear evidence for its Authority And tho there were many and great Idolatries committed in the Kingdom of Judah yet by the good providence of God there never was such a total Apostacy in the people nor so long a succession of Idolatrous Kings as that the Books either of the Law or the Prophets can be supposed to have been supprest or altered For three years under Rehoboam they walked in the way of David and Solomon 2 Chron. 11.17.12.1 and tho afterwards he forsook the Law of the Lord and all Israel with him his Reign was in all but seventeen years Abijam was a wicked King but he reigned no longer than three years 1 Kings xv 2. Asa the third from Solomon and Jehoshaphat his Son were great Reformers and Asa reigned one and forty years and Jehoshaphat five and twenty years 2 Chron. xvi 13. xx 31. The two next Kings in succession did evil in the sight of the Lord but their Reigns were short Jehoram reigned eight years and Ahaziah but one 2 Chron. xxi 20. xxii 2. During the interval of six years under the usurpation of Athaliah the people could not be greatly corrupted for she was hateful to them as Jehoram her husband had been before her and they readily joyned with Jehoiada in slaying her and in restoring the worship of God 2 Chron. xxii Joash the son of Ahaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada 2 Chron. xxiv 2. We are sure that he reigned well three and twenty years 2 Kings xii 6. and probably much longer for Jehoiada lived to a very great age 2 Chron. xxiv 15. Amaziah his son has the same character and with the same abatement that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect heart 2 Chron. xxv 2. or yet not like David his Father he did according to all things as Joash his Father did 2 Kings xiv 3. Vzziah son to Amaziah reigned well and sought God in the days of Zachariah 2 Chron. xxvi 5. and after he was seized with the Leprosie for invading the Priests office the administration of affairs was in the hands of his Son Jotham vers 21. who imitated the good part of his fathers Reign Chap. xxvii 2. Ahaz was wicked and an Idolater but he reigned only sixteen years Chap. xxviii 1. and his son Hezekiah wrought a great Reformation who reigned twenty nine years Chap. xxix 1. Manasses was much given to Idolatry in the former part of his Reign but after his captivity in Babylon he was very zealous against it Chap. xxxiii 15 16. Amon imitated the ill part of his Father's Reign but his own continued no longer than two years Chap. xxxiii 21. The next was Josiah in whose time the Book of the Law was found in the Temple which must be the Book of Moses's own hand-writing for it is evident that a Book of the Law could be no such rare thing at that time in Jerusalem as to be taken so much notice of unless it had been that Book which was laid up in the side of the Ark and was to be transcribed by every King It seems that Book of the Law had been purposely hid to preserve it from the attempts of Idolaters who it was feared might have a design to destroy it for if it had only lain by neglected the finding of it could have been no such surprizing thing because the place in the Temple was well known where it was wont to be kept in the side of the Ark and where they might have sought for it but it was probably at that time supposed to have been utterly lost and its being found in the Ruines of the Temple which was built for the observation of it and where it ought to have been kept with the greatest care as a most inestimable treasure the veneration which Josiah had for so sacred a Writing and the happy and unexpected recovery of it when it had been disregarded and almost lost through the iniquity of his Predecessors these considerations could not but exceedingly move a mind so tender and affectionately pious as that Kings when he received the Law under Moses's own hand sent him as he believed by God himself and delivered to him as it were anew from Heaven Not long after his time was the Captivity in Babylon till which there were always Prophets frequent Reformations and never any succession of Idolatrous Kings which continued for a long time together very few Kings were Idolatrous throughout their whole Reigns and those that were reigned but a short time * Book 1. Part 2. c. 6. 9. It has been proved that the Pentateuch and the Books of the Prophets written before the Captivity were preserved amongst the Jews till their return and it is acknowledg'd by those who are of another opinion that Ezra who composed the Canon did it by a Prophetick spirit or had the assistance of Prophets in the doing it * Joseph Câ—nt Apion lib. 1. Josephus says that their Books after the time of Artaxerxes are not of equal authority with those before his time for want of a certain succession of Prophets And since the Jews admitted no writings as inspired into the Canon after Malachi's Prophecy this shews their sincerity and exactness in examining the truth and authority of such Writings as they admitted into their Canon of Scripture The Pharisees made the commandment of God of no effect by their Traditions but never durst presume to impose them under the notion and
character of a Book of the Scriptures The modern Jews in like manner never dared to pretend to new Books of Revelation but have constantly adhered to the old And what inducement could the Jews have to receive these Books into their Canon of which it consists rather than the Apocryphal Books but the evidence of their Divine Authority which is a thing more especially remarkable in some Books Why should they receive certain Books under the Names of Solomon Esther Daniel and Ezra but not admit into the Canon others going under the same names but because of the difference in their Authority Why should they receive the Books of those whom their fore-fathers had slain and those very Books for which they slew them but upon the clearest evidence It is certain they could be possest with no prejudice in their favour but with very many against the Books of such Authors To give another instance The Book of Ruth contains the affairs and transactions of a particular Family of no great consequence as one might imagine at first view and yet it has been preserved with as much â—are and as constantly received as the rest There is little reason upon human considerations why a relation concerning that Family should be inserted into the Canon of Scripture rather than one concerning any other But the lineage of the Messias is set forth in it and that was a sufficient reason why it should be inserted and therefore by the Divine Wisdom and Providence neither the emulation and envy of other Families nor any other cause or accident hindred its reception and preservation amongst the other inspired Books And in that History there is an account not very honourable for David's Family in deriving his descent from Phares of Thamar and shewing that his Great Grandmother was a Moabitess the Moabites being a people who had an indelible mark of intamy sixt upon them by the Law of Moses Dentr xxiii 3. II. As the Pentateuch was ever acknowledged by the People of Israel after their separation from the Tribe Judah so if they rejected the writings of the Prophets it must have been because all or most of them were written by Prophets who were of the two Tribes and all the Prophets of Israel owning the Temple of Jerasalem to be the true place of Worship the Isâ—aelites and Samaritans must have great prejudices against them upon that account and it cannot be expected that they should receive the Books of any of the Prophets in the same manner as they did those of Moses The Books of Samuel David and Solomon had less regard paid to them upon Reasons of State by the Tribes who followed the Revolt of Jeroboam yet when * Antiqu. Orient Eccl. pist 1. Joseph Scaliger sent to the Samaritans for the Canticles of the Book of Psalms in their Language as well as for the Book of the Law and of Joshua they promised to send him them And it is proved sufficiently by Dr †Hebr. Talmud exercit on Joh. iv 25. Lightfoot that neither the Samaritans nor the Sadducees rejected the Books of the Old Testament tho they did not admit the rest into the same veneration and authority with the Books of Moses nor read them in their Synagogues This is also proved by F. Simon * Crit. Hist V. T. lib. 1. c. 16. 29. Disquisit Crit c. 12. both of the Sadducees and the Karaei and †Epist 70. inter Antiqu Eccl. Orient Morinus likewise proves it of the Karaei who are generally taken for Sadducees F. Simon maintains the contrary and that they have wrong done them in being charged with the opinions of the Sadducces However this is not material to our present purpose since he shews that both the Sadducees and the Karaei or Caraites and all the Jews besides received the entire Volume of the Scriptures without any contradiction * Praefat. de Lipmanno Hackspan likewise has shewed that the Sadducees denied not the Authority of the Books of the Prophets III Concerning the Books whereof we we find mention made in the Old Testament either 1. They are not different from those which are now in the Canon but the same Books under divers Names Or 2. They were not written by Inspiration tho written by Prophets For we are not to suppose that the Prophets were inspired in every thing that they wrote any more than in all they spoke And this shews the care and integrity of the Jews in compiling their Canon that they would not take into it all the Writings even of the Prophets themselves but only such as they knew to be written by them as Prophets that is by Inspiration the Prophets themselves no doubt making a distinction as we find St Paul did between what they had written by the Spirit of God and that in which they had not his immediate and extraordinary direction and infallible assistance Or 3. They might not be written by Prophets For the office of Recorder or Remembrancer or Writer of Chronicles as it is explained in the Margin is mentioned as â—n office of great Honour and Trust and was distinct from that of the Prophets 2 Sam. viii â—6 2 Kings xviii 18. 2 Chron. xxxiv 8. Isaiah xxxvi 3 22. Besides the Hebrews called every small Writing a Book Thus Deut. xxiv 1. â—hat which we render a Bill of Divorcement â—s in the Original a Book of Divorcement the word being the same which Josh x. 13. and 〈◊〉 Sam. i. 18. is translated the Book of Jasher â—o Matt. xix 7. and Mark x. 4. it is in the Greek a Book of Divorcement the word is the same which the Septuagint had used it indeed may signifie a little Book but it often signifies a Book without that distinction and so it is rendered 2 Tim. iv 13. David's Letter to Joab is a Book in the Hebrew and in the Greek 2 Sam. xi 14 15. and Lettets are stiled Books by * Herod lib. 1. c. 124. lib. 6. c. 4. Herodotus Or 4. Tho it should be granted that some Books which were written by Inspiration are now lost it is no absurdity to suppose that God should suffer Writings to be lost thro the fault and negligence of men which were dictated by his Spirit Several things might by the Prophets be delivered by Revelation to the persons whom they concerned which were never committed to writing and others which were written but which were not necessary to the ends of Revelation in general but rather concerned particular times and places and the substance whereof as far as the world in general is concerned is to be found in the other Scriptures might by the carelesness of men never come to the sight and knowledge of Posterity And here I shall observe that the Books of Prophecy have always the Names of the Authors exprest and commonly they are often repeated in the Books themselves but in the Historical Books there was not the same reason for it because in matters
Apostolorum suis locis presidentur apud quas ipsae Authenticae Literae eorum recitantur Tertull de Praescript c. 36. Tertullian appeals to Authentick Books or the very Hand-writings of the Apostles themselves For tho it be acknowledged that the word Authenticus doth not always denote the Original Writing under the Authors own Hand but sometimes only the Original Language yet the words of Tertullian are express that the Original Epistles were in his times still extant for which Reason he refers the Hereticks to the Apostolical Churches where they were read viz. to the Church of Corinth of Phillippi Thessalonica Ephesus and Rome but the Epistles of the Apostles were read in Greek without doubt in other Churches besides these and the Reason why he refers them to the Apostolical Churches rather than to any other must be because the Originals under St Paul's own Hands were there still to be seen and he mentions that the Thrones or Seats of the Apostles were then also preserved as †Euseb Hist lib. vii c 19. Eusebius says that of St James was preserved to his time Justin * Apol. 2. Martyr ascribes the Gospels to the Apostles he transcribes the Christian Doctrine at large out of them and declares that they were read in the Christian Assemblies every Sunday †Irenae lib. 3 c. 2. St Ireneus a Disciple of St Polycarp who was made by Bishop St John gives a particular account of the Writings of the Four Evangelists and says there were Four Gospels and no more and that these were written by St Matthew and St Mark and St Luke and St John * Tertull. adv Marcion lib. iv c. 2 5. Tertullian undertook the Defence of the Four Gospels against Marcion And these Fathers frequently quote these and the other Writings of the Apostles so do likewise Clemens Romanus and Ignatius who lived and conversed with the Apostles themselves But in our Disputes with Infidels particular regard is to be had to the History of the Gospel for our Proof against them depends upon matter of Fact Both * Grot. Mat. F. Sim. Crit. Hist on the N. T. c. 7 8. Grotius and F. Simon have proved that the Gospel written in Hebrew by St Matthew was preserved to the time of St Jerom and Epiphanius and that tho the Nazarens had made some additions to it yet they had made no Alterations in the Original Text. F. Simon moreover says that the Gospel of St Matthew had been translated undoubtedly out of Hebrew into Greek before the Nazarens had inserted their Additions these being to be found in no Greek Copy The Ebionites had corrupted the Hebrew Copy which they used and had left out what they pleased but the Copy of the Nazarens Epiphanius †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphan Haeres 29. Num. 9. says was more entire only he is not certain whether they retained the Genealogy of Christ but it is most probable in F. Simon 's judgment that they did retain it tho the Ebionites omitted it So that tho there were some Additions made by the Nazarens yet as far as the proof of our Religion against Infidels is concerned the Hebrew Gospel in its Original Hebrew as it was written by St Matthew remained exactly perfect for divers ages Till the Sect of the Nazarens ceasing and the Hebrew Tongue growing out of use the Greek Translation only was preserved This Translation of St Matthew's Gospel is ascribed to one of the Apostles or Evangelists tho it be not certain to whom of them it belongs * Euseb Hist lib. iii. c. 39. Papias speaks of the times before there was any Authentick Version when he says that every one translated it as he could for his own use It appears from him however that there were Greek Versions of the Gospel of St Matthew made immediately upon its first publication and from hence we may be assured that St John revised and approved the present Version which is by some attributed to him by whomsoever it was made at first For this Gospel in the Greek Tongue being most in use and thereby preserved when the Original Hebrew has been so long ago lost it is not to be supposed that St John should have no regard to it in that Review which he took of the other Gospels that were written originally in Greek We read in †Phot. cod ccliv Photius that he revised the Gospels which were brought to him written in divers Languages the Versions as well as the Originals and therefore this of St Matthew's Gospel cannot be supposed to have been omitted One of the Miraculous Gifts was that of Discerning of Spirits whereby persons endued with it were enabled to distinguish true Revelations from Impostures 1 Cor. xii 10. And St John wrote his Gospel and his Epistles to confute those Hereticks who were the chief Forgers of counterfeit Books of Scripture or the most notorious corrupters of the true Books and his Life was by the Providence of God prolonged that he might be able both to vindicate and perfect the Canon of Scripture We find that †Hier Catal. in St. Luc. he discovered an Imposture which was framed concerning St Paul and * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist lib. iii c. 24. quod quum legisset Matthaei Marci Lucae volumina probaverit quidem Textum Historiae vera eos dixisse firmaverit Hieron Catal. in St. Joan. that he read and approved the Gospels which had been written before his own and there is no reason to doubt but he had seen all the other Writings of the New Testament and so finished the Canon of Scripture himself And the Scriptures of the New Testament were read in the Churches and Assemblies of Christians from the beginning as those of the Old Testament had been in the Synagogues of the Jews by which means they became so divulged and published that they could be neither lost nor falsified VI. The Books of the New Testament were acknowledged to be genuine by the Adversaries of the Christian Religion To say nothing of St Paul's Epistles which he frequently quotes the Gospels were allowed by Julian * Cyrill Alex. contr Jul. lib. x. the Apostate to belong to the Authors whose names they bear †Just Mart. Dial Trypho owns he had read the Gospels and makes no question or scruples about the Authors Celsus quotes the Scriptures frequently and Hierocles as * Lactant. Institut lib. v. c. 2 3. Lactantius who had heard him discourse says was as conversant in them as if he had once been a Christian yet neither of them moved any dispute concerning the Authors of the Books of the Scriptures but in referring to them upon all occasions shewed that they had nothing to object on that Head And when †Orig. cont Cels lib. 2. Celsus says that some of the Christians made alterations in the Gospels this is a confession that some only did it and Origen shews that they were
whatever defect there might be in the Vowels it was supplied by constant use and practice and by some general Rules which they observed in the Reading The Bible being a Book which by Divine Commandment was so often and carefully read both in publick and private the Hebrew Text might be exactly read and the true sense certainly retain'd and known and it is no wonder that by constant use and continual practice and custom from their infancy the Jews could read it with ease and readiness without Points which is no more than is ordinarily done now by men who are skilful in that Language and divers have attain'd to it by their own observation and industry If there were the more difficulty in the Hebrew Tongue before the invention of Points there was the more care and study used about it the Jews having times purposely set apart for the reading of the Law studied it with that diligence and exactness that they knew it as well as they did their own Names or better * Joseph contr Ap. lib. ii Josephus expresses it if that were possible and they used so great accuracy both in their Pronouncing and Writing that there could be no danger that any considerable mistake should be occasioned by any defect in the Vowels before the Points were found out This was a great part of the Jewish Learning as †Considerat considere c. x. S. 8. Bishop Walton observes the true Reading of the Text and they who were most accurate and exact therein were honoured most amongst 'em and had their Schools and their Scholars and Disciples whom they instructed from time to time till at length in regard of their many dispersions and banishments that the true reading might not be lost with the Language they began to affix Points to the Text as well to facilitate the reading as to preserve it the better from any alteration or change But this is an objection which never could have been made but in the Western parts of the world for in the East they commonly write yet without points as the Jews likewise write the Western Languages where they live without points in the Hebrew Character * Walt. Prolegom iii. s 40. Morin-Epist 15. 70. inter Antiquit Eccl. Orient The Samaritans still have no points And †Joseph Scalig. Epist 243. the Children of the Turks Arabians and Persians and generally of all the Mahometans learn to read without them * Voss de Sibyll Orac. Isaac Vossius says the Asiaticks laugh at the Europeans because they cannot read as they do without Vowels †Walt. Prolegom iii. s 50. Schickard confest that he had known Children of seven years of age read the Pentateuch meerly by use * Lud. Capel de Punct Hebr. Antiqu lib. ii c. 27. s 4 5 6. Clenard and Erpenius himself who was so famous for the Arabick and other Eastern Languages both of them declared that they learned the Arabick only by their own study and diligence from Books without points and Arpenius had attained to such accuracy in that Language before he had read any Book with the points that Isaac Casaubon so far approved of the Translation which he had then made of the Arabick Nubian Geography into Latin that he was very earnest with him to publish it Ludovicus Capellus besides gives an instance from his own knowledge of one who when he had scarce been taught the Arabick Alphabet made a great progress in that Tongue in four months only by his own industry and without the help of points All these things considered it would be a strange Paradox to pretend that there is no certainty in the Ancient Eastern way of writing and that no body can certainly know what their Authors meant nay that they did not know one anothers meaning as well as we do now in our manner of writing before some certain time when the points are supposed to be first found out II. The change of the Old Hebrew Character into that now in use is no prejudice to the Authority of the Hebrew Text. Because this was but the writing over that which was before in one Alphabet into another the Language being still the same and this if it were done with sufficient care as we have all the reason in the world to believe it was could make no material mistakes and we find it hath not by the agreement between the Hebrew and the Samaritan Pentateuch still extant III. The Keri and the Kelib or the difference in some places between the Text and the Marginal Reading is no prejudice to the Authority of the Scripture For as the various Lections of the Bible are much fewer considering the Antiquity of it and the vast numbers of Copies which have been transcribed in all Ages and Countreys than those of any other Book so many of them may be easily reconciled and the occasion of them as easily discovered Some of them were occasioned by the likeness of several of the Hebrew Letters which were not easily to be distinguisht in Books written in such small Characters * Hieron Proaem in Ezech. Comment lib. 8. as St Jerome complains were used in writing the Hebrew Bibles of his time Others happen'd from Abbreviations and some might proceed from Marginal Glosses It must likewise be observ'd that all the words we meet with in the Margin of the Hebrew Bibles are not to be look'd upon as various Lections for divers of them were placed there by the Jews out of superstition because they scrupled to pronounce certain words and therefore appointed others to be read in their stead But when the Jews were dispersed into divers Countreys their Dialect or manner of Pronunciation must needs be different and as the same words were pronounced differently so they would in time be differently written which gave one chief occasion to the various Lections in the old Testament for from the emulation between the Schools of the Jews at Babylon and those at Jerusalem there arose a set of various Lections under the Title of of the Eastern and the Western Readings but it is acknowledged that they †Vid. Walt. Proleg 8. S. 28. are of no moment and that as to the sense it is much at one which reading is admitted for they concern matters of Orthography rather then of Orthodoxy as Buxtorf speaks and the Jews of Palestine and of Europe who follow the Western Readings yet do not altogether reject the Eastern but in some editions have printed them both * Id. Proleg iv s 9. The different readings of Ben Ascher and Ben Naphtali had the same original the Eastern Jews following the one and the Western observing the other but these concern the Points and Accents only and not either the Words or Letters There is no Antient Book in the World of which we can be certain that we rightly understand it if it be necessary to the right understanding of a Book that it be without various Lections
Prophesies of him than in his Person Again Obscurity was necessary because some events could never have been brought to pass if they had been expressly and in plain terms foretold unless God would have forced men to the Accomplishment of his Predictions which must have taken away the Liberty of Human Actions For men would scarce have ventured upon such Actions as they knew before-hand must end in Affliction and great Calamity and perhaps in the ruin of themselves or of their Families or Nation and yet it may be necessary that these things should come to pass for the wise ends of Providence and for the Good and Salvation of Mankind Few would have shewn that Courage and Resolution which St Peter and St Paul did in preaching the Gospel if they had been told so long before as St Peter was that it must end in Martyrdom or if the Holy Ghost had witnessed in every City concerning them as he did of St Paul saying in express terms that bonds and afflictions did abide him most other men would have been moved tho he was not by any of these things Acts xx 23. For we find that the Disciples upon this account were earnest with him not to go up to Jerusalem So difficult is it for the best men in the best cause to resolve to meet certain and apparent Dangers The nature therefore of some things requires that they should not be more particularly described in the Prophesies concerning them For either they must have been obscurely spoken of or else they could not have been prophesied of at all because if they had been clearly foretold they could never have come to pass which implies a contradiction for it is impossible that what God declares by his Prophets should not be fulfilled If all that was to befal the Church of Christ had been set down with the circumstances of time and place and persons by St John in the Revelation so as to prevent the objections of those who except against the obscurity of that Book this certainly would have proved a great discouragement to many Christians in the performance of their Duty and must have hindred the bringing to pass the events unless God should have over-ruled the minds of men and forced them upon acting which had been to deprive them of their Freedom of Will 4. If Prophecies had punctually foretold the things to be fulfilled in all their Circumstances men would have purposely contrived to frame their actions in such a manner as to appear to fulfill many of them and whenever they had been fulfilled it might have been supposed to have been by design and contrivance Which would have been only to act a part or live by a rule and pattern described and set before them but when the obscurity is such that they become fulfilled without any Intention or Knowledge of the Person employed in fulfilling them this manifests the wisdom and providence of God If Prophecies had been less obscure men would have been the more prone to venture upon the commission of sin in order to fulfil them We find by experience how apt all Enthusiasts and such as perswade themselves that they have a clear and perfect knowledge of the obscurest Prophecies are to think any thing lawful to be done which may bring about those events that they fancy to be the Accomplishment of them And if the events of all Prophesies had been concealed under no obscurity of words and circumstances but had been obvious and visible to every Reader the number of such undertakers would have been much greater for it is a hard matter to make men distinguish between the accomplishment of Prophecies and the sin which is often committed in the accomplishment of them but when they can serve their Interest by it they are willing to believe the worst actions lawful which may fulfil a Prophecy and the clearer Prophesies had been the more occasion and pretence had been given to such dilusions to which none are now subject but such as think them clear and perswade themselves or would perswade others that they throughly understand them 5. Another reason is that sometimes a Prophecy may be delivered obscurely in mercy to the Instruments who are to bring about the event foretold by it For God foreseeing that some men notwithstanding the clearest Revelations would persist in their wickedness and become instrumental in accomplishing the prediction may in mercy to them forbear to discover the particulars of the event lest thiâ— should add to their guilt and prove a greaâ— aggrâ—vation both of their â—rime and punishmenâ— Our Saviour tho he knew from the beginning who it was that should betray him yet concealed it till his last Supper and then discovered it to Judas in the mildest manner to move him to Repentance if he had not hardned himself against it not to make him desperate upon the discovery of so wicked a design Again other Prophesies may be hid in obscurity for a judgment upon those who are obstinate and will not make a due use of the means afforded them of Salvation but harden their hearts and resolve to continue impenitent against all the methods which God has been pleased to use to reclaim them For of such our Saviour gives this reason why he spoke to them in Parables that seeing they might see and not perceive and hearing they might hear and not understand lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them Markiv 12. For when God has both by Miracles and other Prophesies unquestionably clear and plain admonish'd and forewarn'd 'em of the folly and danger of their ways and they will take no notice of it but reject his Revelations and just affront his mercy it is very for him to deny them that further Declaration and Manifestation of his Will and Power which might effectually produce a true Faith in 'em and bring 'em to Repentance especially when the obscurity of Prophesies may be conducing to the methods of his Providence and to his gracious designs of mercy towards other men who have not stood out in so bold a defiance of his other Declarations of himself God endureth with much long-suffering thevessels of wrath fitted for destruction he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth and therefore the obscurity of Prophesies may be in mercy to some to prevent the aggravation of their sins and for a judgment upon others to harden them 6. It is the Glory of God to conceal a thing but the honour of Kings is to search out a matter Prov. xxv 2. The obscurity of Prophecies may be designed to abate the confidence and confound the pride of some and to provoke the diligence and industry of others For as some men care to be at no pains to attain the most useful and necessary knowledge so others despise all that is obvious and have no satisfaction in the knowledge of such things as are easily known by others as
sign we are resolved to find fault and never to be satisfied with what we have unless we be humoured in every thing But we should do well first to consider how we can expect this at God's Hands or how well we have deserved it of Him The Secret of the Lord is with them that Fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Psal xxv 14. For the froward is an Abomination to the Lord but his Secret is with the Righteous Prov. iii. 32. There are Secrets and Mysteries in Religion which cannot be supposed to be known to any but those who are thro'ly acquainted with the plainer Doctrines both in the Study and the Practice of them and therefore if no such Reasons as have been now offered could be given for the obscurity of the Scriptures in some places it would be unreasonable however for such Men as make this an Objection to urge it they have no Right to object whatever others may have because they have never used the Means to know whether the Scriptures are so obscure as they pretend or or not But they will never be able to prove that if things necessary both in Faith and Practice be clearly set down there may not be other things deliverd which are hard to be understood and which those may wrest to their own Destruction who are unlearned and unstable that is who have neither Learning and Skill enough to judge of such Matters nor yet Constancy and Stedfastness enough in the Faith to adhere to what they do understand and not to perplex themselves and suffer themselves to be perverted by judging rashly of things above their Capacity The unlearned and unstable only are said to wrest the Scriptures to their own Destruction And tho' it is not in the Power and Capacity of every Man to be Wise and Learned yet it is in every ones Power not to be unstable but constant and stedfast to what he understands and never to depart from it for any By-ends or Respects Let us learn what is easy to be known and Practice what we know before we complain that the Scriptures are obscure Let us study and practise the Scriptures more and this Objection will not appear so formidable But the Truth is those that most use it neither study nor practise them And yet after all their Pretences of Obscurity they have a greater quarrel against the plain parts of Scripture than against the obscure ones they know many places of Scripture which are plainly against them and this makes them set themselves against all the rest What has been here said in general I hope may be in some Measure useful to those who desire to read the Scriptures for their Instruction and Edification and in particular Difficulties Books must be consulted or such Men as may be supposed to understand them But as for all that are fond of Objections and read the Scriptures only in search of thâ—m it cannot be expected that Discourses of this Nature should signify much with 〈◊〉 Teach us O Lord the way of thy Statutes and we shall keep it unto the End Give us understanding and we shall keep thy Law Yea we shall keep it with our whole Heart Great is the Peace that they have who love thy Law and they are not offended at it Psal Cxix 33 34 165. CHAP. VIII Of Places of Scripture which seems to contradict each other I. THough the sacred Writers no where contradict themselves or one another yet they were not solicitous to prevent the being suspected to do so by injudicious and rash Men as they would have been very cautious of giving any pretence for such a Suspicion if they had written any thing but Truth It could not be agreeable to the Sovereign Wisdom and Majesty of God to comply with the Humours and Fancies of Men but rather when he had by an infallible Guidance and Direction prevented the Pen-Men of the Holy Scriptures from writing any thing but Truth to suffer them to write so as that they might be liable to the Exceptions of the wilful and perverse Because it is more (x) Multum enim refert ut est in Epistola Adriani quam recitatcallistratus L. Testâ—uâ— D. De Teâ—tibus qui. simpliciter visi sunt dicere utrâ—m unum eundâ—â—â—qâ—â— meâ—tiatum sermo em attulerint an ad ea quae interrogati sunt ex tempore veriâ—milia respoâ—deriâ—t Grot. in Adject ad Dan. c. xiii 51. suitable to the simplicity of Truth not to be over-nice and solicitous about every Punctilio and smaller Circumstance but to speak fully and intelligibly and then to leave it to Men whether they will believe or not especially in what is told them for their own Advantage the Relators having no end or design to serve by it but only to do them the greatest Good they can and bringing all the evidence for their Conviction that Miracles and Prophecies can afford which are the only Means of God's revealing Himself to Mankind and then suffering in Testimony of what they have delivered Thus our Saviour when notwithstanding all his Mighty works many would not believe in Him but questioned His Authority and reviled His Person and blasphemed the Holy Spirit by which they were wrought was not concerned to work more Miracles merely for the Satisfaction or rather at the captious Demands of these Men when they required him to do it For if they would be convinced by any reasonable Means he had given it them if they would not it would be to their own Prejudice he was not solicitous what they thought of him And thus it is likewise in the Government of the World God has given Men sufficient Evidence of His Being and Providence but if Men will disâ— believe His Providence and deny His Being he doth not vouchsafe by any immediate 〈◊〉 particular Act of His Power to conâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 Pretences And if because of some places that are difficult in the Scriptures Men will reject the whole rather than be at the pains to search out the true Meaning of these places or than be so modest and humble as to suppose that there may be ways of Reconciling those which appear to them contradictions tho' they have not yet found them out they must fall under the same Condemnation with those who will deny the Being of God if they cannot satisfy themselves how he made and governs the world or with those that would believe none of our Saviour's Miracles unless he would work them when and where and just in what manner they pleased But the wisdom of God sees that nothing would satisfy these Men and that they only tempt God and design no real Satisfaction to themselves and therefore he cannot be obliged to new model the World and alter the Scriptures for their sakes since there is enough in them for the Satisfaction of all that are sincere in their Enquiries after Truth II. The only way to judge rightly of the particular places of any Book is to consider
time as not only to endure but often to humour their Insolence and Vanity and from them he had his Notions of Philosophy which agree with the Christian Doctrine and not from the Scriptures For he owns in his Book from whom he had received his Precepts but if he had Read and considered the Scriptures he could never have looked upon the Zeal and Fortitude of the Christian Martyrs as Lib. 1◠§ 3. Obstinacy But the Sophists who made it their business to oppose the Gospel knew they could not better recommend themselves to him than by Teaching its Moral Doctrines and preventing that esteem which he must needs have had of the Christian Religion if he had â—nown that to this those Doctrines which he so much admired owed either their Original or Improvement Whatever opinion he had of the Christians he was wont to attribute too much to his own Vulcat in Cassio Virtue and Piety to ascribe his deliverance wholly to their Prayers And after all the Praises which have been justly given to M. Antonius it must be acknowledged that he valued himself extreamly upon Two Things which were very great hinderances to his Reception of the Gospel viz. The Capitolin Study of Philosophy and the Love and esteem of his People For it is no Wonder that an Emperour who made the Philosophy of those times his Study the Sophists his chief Favourites and Popularity his Aim should not be Converted to a Religion so unpopular and so opposite in some of its Principal Articles to that which the World called Wisdom It is unconceiveable upon what Principles of Religion or Philosophy this Emperour could Deify id Lucius Verus and Faustina but it was impossible that he could do this and be at the same time a Christian that the same Man who Deisied Notorious Wickedness because it had been Cloathed in Purple and shined in Emperial Robes should believe in the Son of God Crucified is utterly inconsistent 〈◊〉 p. 527. l. 3. after at all add 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man of very great Learning and who upon that account had his Statue erâ—â—ted in the Forum at Rome often acknowledged himself convinced of the Truth of Christianity before he could be persuaded openly to profess it for fear of displeasing his Friends that were Gentiles He pretended he might be a Christian as well in Secret and this no doubt might be the case of many others who never made open Profession of it IB p. 530. l. 7. after with them add The Doctrines of the Epicureans and the Stoicks he speaks of such as were peculiar to either Sect were little regarded in St. Austin's time and none durst maintain them but under the Denomination of some Heresy or other these Two Sects then were in so little esteem that they had not Authority enough to give those errors any countenance which they before had so long with great subtilty and success defended against the Platonists but they who would gain any Reception to their errors were at last forced to assume the Name of Christians and betake themselves to some Heresy Of Plotinus's School some became Christians and others applyed themselves to Magick as Plotinus himself must have done if we believe all that Porphyry Writes of him The Relation of the Serpent which was seen under the Bed and then was observed creeping into a hole of the Wall as he gave up the Ghost is an odd Story FINIS BOOKS Printed for and Sold by Peter Buck. THE Reasonableness and Certainty of the Christian Religion Book I. By Robert Jenkin c. Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning By William Wotton B. D. Chaplain to the Right Honorable the Earl of Nottingham The Second Edition with large Additions The Characters or Manners of the Age. Written Originally in French by Monsieur de la Bruyere to which is added a Key in the Margent made English by several Hands with the Characters of Theophrastus Translated from the Greek The Second Edition Corrected throughout and inlarg'd A Dictionary of the Greek and Roman Antiquities explaining the Religion Mythology History Antient Chronology Geography Sacred and Profane Rites and Customs Laws Policy Art and Engines of War Opinions of their Philosophers Lives of Inventers of Arts and Sciences and others famous for them or Arms containing whatsoever is necessary for Elucidating the abstruse passage which Occur in the Clastical Authors and Historians Compiled Originally in French by the Command of the King of France for the Use of the Dauphin D. of Bourgundy Anjou and Berry by Mr. Danet and now made English with the Addition of Useful Maps ERRATA IN the Preface p. 6. Marg. r. Populo p. 7. Marg. r. Cic. Brut. p. 9. l. 7. r. those p. 11. l. 13. r. 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