they foretold things that came not to pass they were no way to credit them So we find it in the eighteenth of Deuteronomy When a Prophet speaketh in the Name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not be afraid of him The certain predicting of future events was an unquestionable evidence of a Divine Commission And this way many of the Prophets were justifyed in those Ages wherein they lived As particularly the Prophet Hosea who with the Prophet Amos was sent to the Ten Tribes at the same time that Isaiah and Micah were to Judah And in the sixth year of Hezekiah to which time it appears Hosea himself survived his Prophesie long before against the Ten Tribes was actually fulfilled and the destruction he prophesied of came actually and visibly upon the Ten Tribes at that time by the Hand of the King of Assyâ—â—a And others of them had the like Justification though sometimes it fell out to be later and the events of their Prophesies could not be known till after-ages Nor did any one Pen-Man of the Scriptures or any Prophet of God ever mistake in a tittle in this kind For although sometimes the judgements they prophetically threatned were not actually inflicted at those times they were threatned so to be yet that could not be the least derogation from the truth of their Prophesies because God still reserved a supream and sovereign power of Pardon and Forgiveness to himself in such cases And all such prophetical Threatnings were still denounced with a reserve in case of repentance And God himself to justifie his own Prophets did publickly declare thus much At what Instant I shall speak concerning a Nation or concerning a Kingdom to plâ—ck up and to pull down and destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from the evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them c. But the total and final decision of all Questions that could arise among the Jews touching the several parts of the Old Testament God was pleased to make in the times of Ezra and that famous Synagogue That after so long and sad a captivity assembled to reform what was amiss and to revive the glory of that decayed Church and State which God had promised to restore and continue amongst those two Tribes of Judah and Benjamin until the Messiah should come several of the last Prophets being personally present They by a divine direction collected all the Parts of the Old Testament together some of which as the Prophesies of Jeremiah and Amos and other Prophesies sent from God and which came by Divine Inspiration were wholly rejected by the corrupt ruling part of the Judaical Church in those times wherein they were first uttered made a perfect separation not only between the Works of True Prophets and False and such Writings as came by Divine Inspiration and such as were only of Humane Extraction but between such as were to be of a perpetual continuance and a standing Rule to the Church and such as related onely to particular Cases and were not so They by God's direction punctually setled the Canon of the Old Testament put a perfect period to all Doubts in those times about this whole business and in that settlement of the Scripture then made the Jewish Church fully acquiesced and to it firmly adhered till the times of Christ and the Apostles From whose Divine Authority we have aâ— re-establishment of all that was then done For the New Testament as God was pleased to establish the first Foundation of all Written Revelation in Moses his time upon evidence from Heaven beyond all compass of Question so the compleating and finishing what God intended that way the laying the Top-stone of that Fabrick which was done in the writing of the New Testament was accompanyed with such manifest Effects of a Divine and Almighty Power that no man that lived in those times could make any reasonable doubt about it There were in this case the greatest Miracles to confirm the most excellent Doctrine and 't is not possible to be upon surer grounds in point of Revelation The Miracles were then apparent and visible And the excellency of the Doctrine appeared these two wayes First That in it self simply considered it introduced a Religion wherein all the great and desireable ends both of God and Man in the judgment of all unprejudiced Reason were to the utmost attained and wherein all that the World had in that kind at any time before arrived at was far out-done and exceeded And secondly In a relative way in that it evidently appeared and that in a very singular and extraordinary manner to be the great accomplishment of all that God had before promised and foretold The natural Off-spring of the Old Testament and that which the Scriptures before written throughout travelled withal Indeed the Genuine Issue of all former Revelation and so was incireled with all that Divine Justification that any former Revelation had been at any time accompanied with And in the distinct publication of all the particular Parts of the New Testament men had these two grounds of satisfaction in those times First If we admit that Epistle to the Hebrews to come either from St. Paul or some other Apostolical Hand of the latter of which the Epistle it self sufficiently assures us And for the former there seems to be good evidence from some passages in St. Peter And no man can be so reasonably supposed to write a Determination of that grand Question then on foot about the abolition of the whole Judaical Policy as the great Apostle of the Gentiles I say If we admit this Epistle to come from an Apostolical Hand Every Part of it was then written by Apostles and Evangelists men not onely perfectly knowing in all the Transactions of our Saviour but every one of them then known to be men of extraordinary Endowments in Office under Him and with the highest Delegation of his own Power entrusted by Him And as the Writing of the Old Testament ended with the Prophets so the writing of the New had its period in the Apostles Secondly All the several Parts at several times and by several hands written appear so to promote one and the same Design are so much the same in Doctrine do so harmonize in the same Tendency and End and have such a relation each to other that whatever Reasons there were in the general to satisfie men in those times about the Truth of our Saviour and the Religion by him established and there was all that could be expected from Heaven in that case the same would go very far to resolve all such Doubts as could be made about any particular Parts of the New Testament then written Secondly How can we now come certainly to know the true Compass and Extent of Holy Writ How can we know
of those who have themselves Universally proclaimed the Bible in all Ages to be the great and infallible Rule of the Christian Religion So that if Christian-tradition be credited the Authority of the Bible is thereby established And if it be dis-believed in thaâ— there can be then no good reason to receivâ— any other matter touching the Christian Religion upon the credit of that conveyance To retain therefore the name of a Christian and yet disown the Bible is to become a perfect Problem No such man can produce anâ— Laws or Rules of his Religion nor give anâ— account wherein they are contained or bâ— whom or by what Church with an exclusion of the Bible they have been at any timâ— Received Nor can any man rationally make a Partiaâ— rejection of the Bible and retain a Christian Profession from thence in a Limited sensâ— of his own For a man to say he receive the Bible as he receives other credible writings as a book generally True and written by men that meant honestly and well but believes it not written with an Infallible Spirit nor to carry a Divine Authority along with it nor submits to it as such is to say a thing extreamly incongruous to all good sense and to indulge himself in a perfect Absurdity For the Bible comes to us with a claim oâ— God's Authority attending it speaks to us in his Name is a Book that disowns all humane contrivement proposeth it self as written by Divine Inspiration and Immediate Direction from God admits of no Composition for its Reception In such a case there can be no Middle-way but either we must receive this Book and submit to it as such or else reject it with the justest contempt imaginable It is in nothing to be credited if it be not in Truth what it pretends to be For there cannot be a more vile and pernitious falshood imposed upon the world then to counterfeit a Divine Law and to pretend that to come from Heaven and to be sent us from God which is nothing but the product of Men. Whoever will admit these premisses that the Scriptures were not written in every part of them by the infallible direction of the Holy Ghost when they themselves tell us that they were so must needs descend to this conclusion that they then contain the most impudent falshood and were composed by the worst designers against mankind The Christian Religion and the Scriptures being so related and standing in so near a conjunction as they do The being of the one having so necessary a dependance upon the Truth and Authority of the other 'T will be easily granted to be the great concern of the Christian Church in all ages to assert their Divine Authority and to justify that Book to be written by men that were indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinely inspired and to be sent us from God as that supreme Law by which he would inform Rule and Judge the World He that undertakes this Province and designs to himself such a service is obliged First To consider with whom he is like to encounter And to proportion his defence to those various assaults the Scripture are usually exposed to This being admitted which it ought to be that no man can with any good Reason close with the Christian Religion and at the same time Renounce the Bible That Maxime of St. Austin being undeniable that Contra Scripturas nemo Christianus There are but three sorts of men by whom the Scriptures can at any time be generally Attact and from whose principles their sacred Authority can receive an Universal Invasion First Such who wholly deny the being of God and consequently of all Religion for God and Religion are Relatives such who wallow in the mire of an Atheistical profession Secondly Such who admit the Being of God and a supreme and first cause but deny his providence and believe he is no way concer'd about the World nor troubles himself to exercise any Rule or Dominion at all over it Thirdly Such who admit the Being of God and the existence of Religion and providence but reject the Christian Religion as not True and embrace some other in opposition to it Of those first-born Monsters of Mankind that Anomalous off-spring who deny the Being of God whose principles contain in them the utmost dreggs of all humane Apostacy and are of all others the most wild and absurd for as Cicero sayes Deos esse ita perspicuum est ut is qui negat vix eum sanae mentis existimem The Being of the Gods is so evident that no man can be thought well in his wits that denies it A previous consideration is necessary to whatever is said upon this or any other Divine subject and therefore I have already contested with such and dispatcht all my concernes with them in order to this matter and the last converse I mean to have with that evil generation of whom it may most truely be said They are not only the avowed opposers of all Religion but indeed they are Hostes Humani generis The common enemies of all mankind Who by denying a Supreme Being above demolish the great support of all well-being here below Of this belief they were heretofore at Athens in those primitive times of Atheism and first dawnings of â—speculative Irreligion upon the World and therefore Cotta tells us in Cicero that when Protagoras began his Books with this Introduction to Atheism De Diis neque ut sint neque ut non sint habeo dicere Atheniensum jussu Urbe atque Agro est exterminatus Librique ejus in concione combusti And he adds Ex quo equidem existimo tardiores ad hanc sententiam profitendam multos esse factos quippe cum poenam ne dubitatio quidem effugere potuisset For those secundary Enemies to the Bible and together with that of all Religion such who admit the Being of God but deny all Providence and Divine Rule over the World such who out of shame disown the grand principle of Atheism but yet by this Method secure all the effects of it to themselves Of those a preliminary consideration on ought to be had A previous confutation of such principles being of absolute necessity to make way for the discourse in hand For it must needs be a vain and impracticable project to indeavour to prove any Book to be Divine and a Law given forth from God if there be no such Law any where in Being which we are sure there never can be if God no way concernes himself with what men do nor exercises any Dominion at all over them 'T is plain such principles do uno ictu dispatch all Religion out of the World put a perfect period to all Divinity and render it a thing very absurd to submit either in our belief or practice to any thing as Divine To this purpose Cicero concludes in his first Book De nat Deor. Sin autem Dii says he neque possunt nos juvare nec volunt
according to the Law of Moses which we cannot conceive after seventy years they could so exactly have done or would ever have attempted to have done it had not they had the Law with them while Esdras himself was yâ—tâ—n Babylon and when Esdras did come to Jerusalem we find in the 8th of Nehemiah the people were so far from wanting the Law or staying for any such Restoration or Re-penning of it by him as is pretended that they desired him only to read the Law openly to them which he immediately did as a thing they were then possessed of and which was notorious amongst them Fifthly 'T is no way probable that Esdras should so Re-pen the Bible because we find his own writings full of Caldee words as also the Prophecie of Daniel but all that part of the Bible written before the Captivity is in pure Hebrew and 't is no way conceiveable but that if he had Re-penn'd the whole he would have written it in the same way he wrote his own Books and according to the Idiome that was then in use amongst the Jews either wholly in Caldee or else with some mixture of Caldee and Hebrew together The whole of this Story does evidently appear to be a Romantick fable taken out of a Book sâ—ust with many vain and ridiculous follies and is contradicted by another Apecryphal Book of much better credit 〈◊〉 wee 'l depend upon such Evidence for in the second Book of the Maccabees we are there told that the Tabernacle and the Ark in the sides of which the Law we know was placed were sâ—cured by the Prophet Jeremie and hid in a Cave at Mount Nebo when Jerusalem and the Temple were burnt And if any such thing were though the Law be not particularly mentioned yet being always kept in the Ark â—â—s not to be doubted but Jeremie preserved it with the Ark and had an especial reference to the securing of it in what he then did This we affirm as a truth to which both Jews and Christians have assented that at the return of the people out of Babylon the care of Esdras about the Bible and that great Synagogue that was then according to Moses his first institution assembled in which were present Haggai Zacharie Malachy Nehemias and Zerubbabel was very eminent and great and to this day we derive singular advantages from it For first with great diligence they made an exact seperation between such Writings as were of Divine Inspiration dictated by the Holy Ghost and were to be a standing Rule to the Church in all Ages and all other Writings whatsoever whether written by true Prophets or false for even true Prophets and such as were most eminent might and without doubt many of them did write diverse things without any immediate assistance or direction from God and consequently which were nor of Divine Authority they collected all the sacred parts of the Old Testament together which during the Captivity lay dispersed in private hands no publick use being made of them Incorporated the whole into one intire Volumn an admirable work in the order we now have it which before was not possible to be for several Psalms several of the Prophecies and some other Books were written after the coming of the people into Babylon and it does no where appear that those parts written before were conjoyned in one intire Volumn more of them then the five Books of Moses the Original Copy whereof Moses himself delivered in a publick assembly to the Levites to be layed up in the sides of the Ark the peculiar Archive God had by his special command appointed for it the whole of the Old Testament so united they ranked under three Classes and divided into three parts which division was continued amongst the Jews till the times of our Saviour who in the 24th of St. Luke refers to it when he sayes All things ought to be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms Secondly Their care in securing the Original Text of the Scripture was eminently great and most highly is it to be applauded in adding points to the Hebrew Letters to preserve the Knowledge of the Tongue and facilitate the reading and Learning of it dividing the sacred Writings into Verses with many other things of that kind most probably first begun by them of which the Jewish Writers give us a large account The whole of their indeavours this way and of those amongst the Jews that succeeded them therein was called the Massora which God wonderfully blessed to preserve the purity of the Hebrew Text and to deliver the Old Testament safely and intirely over to us What a useful and most laborious enterprize this Massora was we may know by the description Buxtorffe gives of it in the second Chapter of his most excellent Commentarius Massorethicus Massora sayes he est Doctrina critica a priscis Hebraeorum sapientibus circa Textum Hebraeum Sacrae Scripturae ingeniosâ— inventa quâ— Versas Voces Literae ejus nâ—meratae omnisque ipsarum variet as notata suis locis cum singulorum versuum recitatione indicata est ut sic constans genuina ejus lectio conservetur ab omni mutatione aut corruptio e aeternum preservetur valide premuniatur The Massora is a critical Learning about the Hebrew Text of the Sacred Scripture ingeniosly invented by the Ancient wise men amongst the Jews in which the Verses words and Letters are all numbred and all their variations particularly noted and set down in their proper places with a recital of the particular Verses that so the constant and genuine reading of the Scripture may be preserved and for ever secured against all change or corruption And that Ezra and this great Synagogue were most probably the first Authors and Contrivers of the Massâ—ra however augmented by others in after Ages and not some learned Jews at Tiberias that long lived after ouâ— Saviour as some have supposed Buxtorffe in the Eleventh Chap. of the samebook hath largely and learnedly proved from the best and most Ancient Writers amongst the Jews and thus concludes upon the whole Haec communis est Hebraeorum sententia Massoram a viris Synagogae magnae prosectam esse This is the common opinion amongst the Jews that the Massora came from the men of the great Synagogue Thirdly That Ezra and that great Synagogue to render the sacred Text more intelligible and make the truth of some Historical Relations more evident did make some small additions and some verbal alterations in some places is greatly probable and it might easily be done but no Re-penning the Bible nor the least violation offered to the sacred Record nor to the credit of its Authority nor can the least Objection though many have indeavoured it be raised from hence to that purpose when so many Persons of an infallible Spirit were present in that Assembly and who were without doubt Divinely directed about what they did in that matter In
the Jews in the time of our Saviour and the Apostles nor before and 't is certain if there had been any Books then extant in truth written by him they would have been in great esteem and veneration in the Jewish Church though they had not been within their Canon which we are sure they were not and Philo or Josephus most diligent searchers of their Antiquities would have made some eminent mention of them in whose Works we find altum silentium about any such Books and therefore 't is not to be supposed they believed there were any such real Books then extant But 't is most probable that after the Apostle Jude had in his Epistle quoted a Prophecie of Enoch which Prophecie without doubt he came to the knowledge of either purely by Revelation which I rather believe or else by a Tradition the truth of which was ascertained to him by Revelation by which means came others also of the Sacred Writers in after-times to be ascertained of what they writ about divers things that relate to the History of Moses that were not to be found in his Books for in the Psalms we find mention of some things done in Moses his time that are not recorded in his Books St. Paul in the 9 to the Hebrews sayes that when Moses had spoken every precept according to the Law he took the blood of Calves and Goats with Water and Scarlet Wool and Hyssop and sprinkled bâ—th the Book and all the People saying this is the Blood of the Testament c. In which the Apostle has added several things that are not inserted by Moses in the selation of this passage in the 24 of Exodus So Stephens Speech set down in the 7 of the Acts tells us that Moses in killing the Egyptian supposed that his brethren would have understood how that God by his Hand would deliver them but they understood not By which we have a Reason given for Moses killing the Egyptian that he himself has no where set down and by which we come to understand that before Moses went into the Land of Midian God revealed to him that he was to be the deliverer of that people which Moses himself has not any where told us I say 't is probable that some Hereticks in the Church most likely the Gnosticks who much cryed up those Spurious Writings to promote their own corrupt Opinions and Interests took occasion from thence to frame certain counterfeit Books just as some others did under the names of Jaâ—nes and Jambres after St. Pauls mention of them as written by Enoch before the Flood which Books have sufficiently betrayed themselves for those that were published under his name were stuft as St. Austin sayes with such absurd and fabulous Stories of Angels and such ridiculous relations of Gyants whose Fathers were Angels and no men that they are to be justly rejected as pâ—lpably counterfeit and fictitious Of the same mind is Jerom Chrysostom and Epiphanius and when Celsus alledged some absurd Stories out of those writings in reproch to the Christians Origen in his fifth Book answers him by shewing what a mean esteem the Jews as well as the Christians then had of them For the second those Pillars of the Sons of Seth 't is beyond all compass of credit that any such Pillars should be set up with an intention to outlast the Deluge or that they should so do or that any Engravings upon them should be visible some thousands of years after especially upon one of Brick for Josephus tells us there were two at first erected one of Brick and another of Stone and that of Stone they made on purpose to last if the other should decay how he came to such an exact account of their minds the Reader may guess and yet he sayes 't was that of Brick that then remained upon which he does not absolutely say there was any thing written in Letters but that the Sons of Seth Engraved upon them such things as they had invented which might be by many other representations and other ways then by Letters for I doubt not but that a Symbolical representation of mens thoughts one to another was extream early in the World though they wanted Alphabetical Letters Nor does Josephus say that He saw it it himself or give any punctual account what it was that was engraven upon it or any certain Place where the Pillar was to be seen but only in general that it was then in the Countrey of Syria where he left men of leisure to enquire after it The truth is there are so very many improbable and unlikely if not impossible Circumstances do attend this vain Story that 't is plain Josephus though in the general a Historian of deserved credit took it upon bare report from others some late Authors think and perhâ—ps not amiss from the fabulous relation of Manetho who sayes he took his History from some Pillars set up before the Flood and was marvailously abused in that Countenance he seems to give to it nor ought it to seem strange that he should be so for we sind many of the best Historians have taken up things upon trust and fallen thereby into very great mistakes Suetonius and Tacitus are both eminent Historians amongst the Romans yet both guilty of strange mistakes Tacitus tells us in his History That the Jews worshipped an Asses Head with the highest veneration then which nothing could be more untruly and upon less ground affirmed and Suetonius so mistook that he thought Christ lived in the time of Claudius for he sayes In the time of Claudius Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes civitate expulit That Claudius expelled the Jews out of Rome who were continually making uproars being stirred up thereunto by Christ Then which there could not be an absurder mistake nor a greater falshood well uttered For the third The mention that Moses makes in the 21 of Numbers and the 14 of the book of the wars of the Lord as a Book then extant his words are wherefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord what he didin the red Sea and in the brooks of Arnon First divers probable senses are given of the place that render it no Objection in this case The Geneva Translation not much differing from some others renders it thus Wherefore it shall be spoken in the book of the Battles of the Lord c. If so then 't is Prophetical and may relate to Joshuah who is said to sight the Battles of the Lord and to the Relations in the books of Joshuah or Judges that were to be after Junius reads the words thus Idcirco dici solet in recensione bellorum Jehovae c. Wherefore it is wont to be said in the rehearsal of the Wars of the Lord c. And so understands it not of any particular book but that amongst the Wars that God disposed for the good of the Israelites there was in those times a famous mention in the
has and in its own Antiquity answering that antiquity we may justly expect to accompany Gods First Revelations the Bible I say upon this account has a singular evidence given in to its Credibility and its antiquity does strongly affirm its Divine Authority Secondly The Antiquity of the Bible does point us to its Divinity because 't is not reasonable to believe that the First Writen account the world had of Religion should be a Cheat that the First eminent Record of Religion should be a Lye and not only a Lye but the Worst of Lies and the most Pernicious and Destructive falshood for so it must needs be to impose a Law upon the world in Gods name without his Authority that ever was published amongst mankind 'T is not in the judgment of right Reason consisting with the Wisdom and Goodness of God to suffer the world to be Originally Cheated in point of Religion to suffer a publick open Counterfeit of his Name and Authority to the highest degree First to possess the world and take the Precedence of all truth to permit the Devil to publish a Systeme of Lies and erect a Monument of Falshood Before there was any written Record of Truth We must needs suppose Gods care of Men and the concern's of his own honour to engage him to the contrary and that God should First establish his own Truth to which mankind might still have a recourse and by which as a Standard all Delusions and False Pretensions might be Tried 'T were as one says well very absurd to think God should permit the Devil to set up a Chappel before he had built a Church If the Bible were originally composed by Impostors and be not a Divine Book 't will then undeniably follow that the most Primitive and Ancient account we have of Religion is connterfeit And that in the Earliest notices we have of God of the worlds Original Mans fall and the way of his Recovery for we have none so early as what the Bible gives us of any of these and of some of them no other the world is Deceived and Abused and that God suffer'd the Devil in the first place and before any thing was publiquely extant from him to contradict it in his name and with pretence of his Authority to abuse and deceive Mankind with a false and delusive account of all those things they are most concern'd to know and upon the right Knowledge of which their present and future happyness does unavoidably depend This very one consideration will prevail much upon every impartial judgment Who can believe the first Religion should be the worst when True Religion must needs be as old as the World And the Earliest notions of God the falsest when we must needs think it reasonable that God should reveal himself to the World from the beginning Or that the first book we sind writ should contain the Highest imposture in point of Religion and more dishonour God and abuse the World then any or all the Books written since 'T is a thing beyond all compass of credit That God should suffer false informations to be given in his own Name of himself and his own Revelations from the first beginning of the World for about 4043 years for about so long a time it was from that first intercourse between God and Man the Scripture gives us Historically an account of till the last Revelation of St. John And that this account should begin with the first book that the world had and be gradually carried on into such a complete Systeme as now we see it is in a Written way by several hands in several Ages for a thousand and six hundred years together for about so long a time it was from Moses his first Writing to St. Johns Closing the Bible Nor is it supposable that the vilest falshood for such is the Bible if it be not from God a Religion whereby if it be false God would be more dishonoured and men more deluded then by any that ever was yet extant should have this to say in its justisication That 't is of all others the most Ancient and has been longest lasting amongst Mankind The consideration therefore of this Book in the Time of its conveyance the Antiquity of it in respect of the matter it contains and the Antiquity of it self as a Book written long before all others and of so early a Date in the World does with great Evidence point us to its Divine Original and very strongly tends to perswade us that God himself was the Author of it Secondly The way and manner of this Books conveyance to us The Method of Gods thus Recording his pleasure has been such that we shall find we have all those reasonable inducements and in some respects more to credit it upon which we receive any Humane Authors and acquiesce in them as true And all such farther Evidence as we can well expect to insure us of the truth of a Book that pretends to come from God and be Divint And this will appear to be so if we consider first the Instruments God imploied in the writing of it and such humane Circumstances as attended their doing it And Secondly The Divine witness God himself has in the most eminent way given to this Book in its conveyance to ascertain us of the truth of it and of the sincerity of those that wrote it First If we consider the Pen-men of this Book those Amanuenses God made use of for the writing of it and such Circumstances as attended their doing it How unlikely a thing is it that they either did or could abuse the world in this matter if we reflect upon these several things First the unblemished Credit and Reputation of these Writers Secondly the several Qualifications and Qualities of them Thirdly their Interests as moral and reasonable men Fourthly their Number and that great distance of Time in which many of them wrote one from another For the first Nothing we know does more credit Ancient Authors then the good Report of those Ages wherein they lived transferred to posterity Not one of those Holy Pen-men God imploied in writing the Bible was that ever we find upon any good grounds tainted in Reputation or convicted of any sort of Impostor in their own or future ages but were men of acknowledged Integrity and Sanctity in those times wherein they lived and very many of them gave the highest Testimony to their integrity in becoming Martyrs in justification of what themselves writ For the Second the various Qualities and Conditions of these Writers seems much to secure us against so vile a design as this book must needs be composed with if it be not from God Some of them were Kings and men of the greatest quality before they writ and not very likely to be guilty of so much baseness and meanness to carry on such a work and also men of deepest Learning and Knowledge Others of them many of the Prophets and most of the
of And if so these two things will follow upon it First That he that rejects the Bible obliges himself to believe no other books without apparent disingenuity Secondly He that does credit the Authors of this book with the same credit wherewith he credits other Authors and supposes they were men of common honesty that would not knowingly write an untruth cannot then refuse to receive it as a book Divine and Infallible upon as good termes of credibility as he believes any the best humane Author in its Kind to be True because they themselves tell us that it is so which were it otherwise without most impudent falshood they could not do that God himself inspired them to write it That 't was no product of their own but that every part of it is the genuine Dictate of the Holy Ghost But in the second place in the manner of this books conveyance we shall find a further and more unquestionable ground of satisfaction and a Divine witness given by God himself to the Truth of these Writings to assure us beyond all reasonable doubt they were written by men that did not deceive us but such as were Intrusted by himself for that purpose And that is the miracles that were wrought and which visibly accompanied their first publication In the discoursing of which after a due sort these three things will naturally fall under consideration First the Nature of a Miracle in general what propâ—rly it is Secondly What evidence we have for the Fact of those Miracles we say the Scriptures are justified by Thirdly Whether Miracles simply in themselves are always an unquestionable proof of that Doctrine they are wrought to confirm and an infallible justification of the integrity of the persons that work them The two first are of an eaâ—y dispatch the difficulty rests in the Latter For the first A Miracle is pâ—operly that which can have no second cause for its Author such a thing as no created Power in the judgment of reason can effect Raising men Dead curing â—iseases by speaking a Word being able in a moment to speak all Languages are things that exceed the bounds of all Natural Ability and such things as can be only related to God as effects of his supâ—eme and unlimited Power And suâ—h is a Miracle Secondly For the Fact of those Miracles we claim in defence of the Bible we are much eased of the labour of proof from a General Concession And 't is of great remark That the Warmest Adversaries the Scriptures have met with have never denied the Fact of those Miracles pleaded in their behalf but indeavoured to invalidate their testimony some other way Neither the Miracles of Moses which we find often mentioned in Heathen Story nor of Christ are denied by any in point of Fact but both fathered upon Egyptian Magick Those of Moses by the Heathens heretofore as we find in Pliny and Apuleius Pliny says There is a very great Magick depends upon Moses and the Cabala Though he might have remembred that never any Law so positively forbad Magick as did that which Moses delivered and those of our Saviour by the Jews and the Heathens since The Jewâ— affirmed that all that our Saviour did was done by a Magical skill he first learnt in Egypt and brought with him from thence And Julian the Heathen says that Peter and Paul were the most expeâ—t men in Magick that ever lived and that â—hrist himself wrote a Boâ—k of that Profession and Dedicated it to them two Our Saviours Miracles in point of Fact are not only acknowledged by the Jews but expresly both by Celsus and Julian two of the most Learned Malicious and Industrious Adversaries that ever opposed the Christian-profession And this we may see in Origin's second book against Celsus of whose wâ—â—kâ— there is nothing left but what is there â—â—peated and Cyâ—ill's sixth book against Juâ—ian And â—n truth the Miracles of Christ and the Apostles and those that succeeded them in the christian-Christian-church were in Fact so many so eminent so visible lasted so long for in the Church for three hundred years in some measure they lasted and the Relation of them has descended down to us by such a Constant Uninterrupted Written and Unwâ—itten Tradition that no man has yet assumed Impudence enough publickly to Gainsay them For the Third Whether miraclâ—s simply in themselves are always an unquestâ—onable proof of that Doctrine they are bâ—â—ugâ—t to Confirme and an infallible justâ—ficâ—tion of the Persons that work them I answer In the general they are not If the Doctrâ—ne be no way Destructive to those Natural noâ—â—ons of God we are born with If it be not evidently to our Reason Dishonoraâ—le to H m tendâ—ng to seduce us from him and oppâ—siâ—e to that Natural Duty we owe him They are But if otherwise if they come in direct Competition with the Law of Nature They are not No Miracles whatever can or ought to oblige me to what my Judgment Dissents from as sinful And that upon these two grounds First The Law of Nature as 't is Previous to all Laws so 't is an unrepealeable Law because t is so perfectly the Result of my Reasonable self that should God contradict it he would cease to deal with me as a Rational Being which is not upon any account to be thought Secondly 'T is not against Reason to suppose a possibility that God may in some cases exert a supernatuâ—â—l power by ill instruments for Trial as well as Eâ—tablishment God has no where told us that he will not so do nor do our own faculties Recoile against it and adjudge it unreasonable that God should exercise the world with such a Trial if he afford means sufficient to Oppose and Resist it Such who deny this Latter and say that a Supernatural power in a way miraculous was never exerted but to confirm and establish a Divine Truth that 't is an Impeachment of Divine Justice and most unreasonable to think the contrary That although many things may be bâ—ought to pass by the Dâ—vil and Ill men that are in their own nature Wondrous miranda and miraâ—itia and utterly beyond the compaâ—s of our Reason to conceive How by any natural power they should be effected yet they are not Miracula they are still eitheâ— natural effects proceeding from â—atuâ—al causes though secret and occult or else delusions some way or other upon us From the opinion of such I dissent and that upon these four Grounds First That which they say does no way answer that end for which they themselves intend it Secondly 'T is against plain Texts of Scripture Thirdly 't is against great evidence of History And fouthly Because the admission of the contrary is no way Destructive to those natural nâ—tions we have of Gods aâ—trâ—butes and his providential Rule over the world Fi st What they say does not answer that end for which they themselves intend it For if God suffer the Devil to exert a natural power in
as his Minister to execute so many dreadful Judgments upon the Jews and therefore would establish him by those extraordinary Actings in the possession of the Roman Empire which with great difficulty and against much probability to the contrary he obtained and as Suetonâ—us sayes of him after he had obtained it wanted Personal Authority and Majesty to manage such a Dominion A clear instance concerning this whole matter God gave us at first in the Magicians opposition to Moses wherein he gave us to know that although Divine Truth might by Miracles be opposed yet the superiour Luster of his own Miracles should be so visible to all as perfectly to silence and vanquish the rest and both in Number Continuance and Quality as then it was the difference should be to every Eye obvious and apparent Thirdly The matter for the establishment of which Divine Miracles are ever wrought affords us ground sufficient to distinguish in this case 'T is always a doctrine leading us to that God of whom we have a notion imprinted in our own Nature revealing him further to us and instructing us in all those Holy Virtues and excellent ways of living that most correspond to our Natural light are most suitable to that natural Divinity we are born with and evidently tends to make us most happy here and conduct us to the highest reward hereafter Whatever miracles we shall at any time see wrought to justify a Contrary doctrine my own Reason will reject as a Temptation and assure me that in the one case a miracle is sent from God to Ascertaâ—n me and in the other the Devil is only inabled in the highest manner to Tempt and to Try me And these three ways in the case of miracles are we sufficiently secured against all the attempts that can be at any time made to seduce us that way And may hereby rest abundantly satisfied in the testimony of Divine Miracles given to Divine Truth by whatever ways the Devil shall be able to countenance and promote a Contrary Interest Now That the Scriptures have been attended with Miracles in their conveyance is not as before is proved by any denied And that those miracles have the advantage of all the foregoing circumstances is likewise very evident The Doctrine of Moses is the First bâ—rn of all others being the Religion that was from the Beginning God in the first place setled and consecrated That by a miraculous Power before any other Systeme of Religion was extant and gave it therein the Precedency of all false Prophets and Impostors and whatsoever Doctrines they should by that means oppose it withall And so the New Testament being the natural product of the old is by the miracles of Moses at the first and those of our Saviour and the Apostles after upon the validity of both which 't is established secured against all opposition that can that way be made against it to the end of the world Secondly The way and manner of Gods working those miracles by which the Scriptures are justified to us to be his Words has eminently distinguished them from all other operations of that kind So 't was in the times of Moses when the Devil by the Magicians went further that way then ever he did after How far did the miracles of Moses exceed His More miracles Greater miracles More Continued miracles Undeniable and Uncontrolable evidences of Gods Infinite and Almighty Power in a way far superiour to what they could bring about Under the Gospel the miracles have been such in the manner of their working as leaves no room to doubt of Gods intention to secure us from Heaven â—â—ereby of the Truth of our Saviour and his â—â—â—â—rine If we consider First the grand â—â—â—â—sion of them To fullfil the Old Testament and establish the New And this by Private men respecting the world without the least clothing of Humane Power or Authority Who can imagine less then that a Commission to Christ and the Apostles should be sealed from 〈◊〉 Heaven in extroardinary way to assure the World of their Authority to do this Secondly The admirable Nature of those miracles Raising dead persons curing all sorts of diseases commanding Winds and Seas Vanishing in a moment out of the sight of multitudes Thirdly Their Number being exceedingly Many done in all places and upon all occasions where they came Fourthly Their Visibility openly seen and acknowledged by all present by multitudes Fiftly Without the use of any Secondaâ—y means or the least shew of Diabolical enchantments And as one of the Ancients says Sine â—lla vi Carminum sine Herbarum aut Graminum sâ—ccis sine ulla aliqua observatione sollicita Sacrorum Libaminum Temporum c. All most frequent in Heathenish Sorceries and Enchantments Sixthly The Long and lasting continuance of them Not only during the times of Christ and the Apostles and one of them the Apostle John lived till Trajan's time which was above a hundred years from Christs birth but also for very many years after in the Christian Church What miraracles does the world pretend to that can compare themselves with these miracles upon all or any of these accounts No men noâ— Devils ever did such works nor in such a manner as these were What lamentable and pitifull things are those of Apollonius Tyanaeus Esculapius or any others compared with These And what a shameful and indeed Ridiculous Partiality does appear in Hierocles and Porphiry who designing thereby to incense the Empeâ—ours against the Christians who much justified themselves upon the power oâ— miracles and to bring them under persecution have indeavoured to draw a Paralel between the miracles of Christ and Apollonius We find by Eusebius that Hierocles in a Book that is since lost compared Apollonius and Christ the Evangelists who wrote our Saviours Story and Philostratus the writer of Apollonius his Life upon that account together and preferred Apollonius and Philostâ—atus before the other But with what an unreasonable Partiality is eaâ—y to be seen by any that wilâ— consult Eusebius his Answer to him One chieâ— miracle Philostratus tells us off was that Appollonius sitting at meat was served after wonderful manner with Men of Brass And another is That an Elme tree speak to him and Saluted him with many other such things which to every common understanding appear at first sight very capable of Deceit and Delusion The Sun is not in Lustre more Superior to the Dimmest Star then Christs miracles are to all Pretensions of that kind Nor were there ever any operations either of men or of Angels visible in this world that with any colour of Justice and Truth can all circumstances considered be put in ballance with those eminently miraculous actings of Christ and his Apostles Thirdly The Doctrine contained in the Scriptures which the miracles were wrought to confirme and to assure us of the sincerity of those that delivered them to us is most evidently from God most corresponding to our Natural obligations to him and
in Palestine nor understood by any but the dispersed Hellenists And so were no way likely to be sent from the Holy Ghost to that Church who never owned any Scripture for Canonical but what was in Hebrew a Language peculiar to them And the Bibles they constantly used till our Saviours time in their Synagogues were all in Hebrew Thirdly There is in most of these Books some eminent discovery of their own Humane Extraction As in the second of Macc. 2.24 The Author of that Book whoever he were tells us that he had borrowed what he wrote out of Jason of Cyrene and contracted five Books of his into one Volumn And so what he there wrote he is so far from fathering it on the Holy Ghost or any Dictates of his that he plainly confesseth 't was none of his own but the bare Epitomy of another mans Writings and desires to be excused if he had not done it well And 't is most notoriously evident to every common Reader that many of these Books contain such ridiculous Stories and gross Absurdities that without high impiety and great contradiction to all those Natural Notions we have of God they cannot be imputed to the Holy Ghost as their Author Fourthly These Books were never received by the Church of the Jews into their Canon nor are to this day And so during the times of the Old Testament were never received by any Church for there was then no other which is most absurd to conceive of any parts of God's Written and Supream Laws As also that the Jews to whom in a most peculiar way the Oracles of God were committed and who had the custody of all God's Sacred Records and were as St. Austin calls them God's the Churches great Library-Keepers should so notoriously err as to reject for not to receive into their Canon is to reject so great a part of the Bible 'T is somewhat strange that those of the Roman Church with whom chiefly we contest in this Matter and who annex to the Church an infallible Judgement should imagine the Church of the Jews to fall into so great and gross a mistake in so fundamental a matter That the Jewish Church never heretofore received these Apocryphal Books into their Canon nor do to this day is a thing that with the least colour of Reason cannot be denyed That they do not to this day is known all the World over wheresoever the Jews are And their Bibles are to be seen That the Ancient Church of the Jews before the times of our Saviour had no other Books within their Canon than those we now have is evident from the testimony of Josephus in his first Book against Appion who there tâ—lls us what Books the Jews reckoned Canonical and sayes They are onely twenty two in number according to the number of Letters in their Alphabet and reckons those very Books we now receive as onely Canonical Other Books he sayes there were written after the Captivity but they were never numbred with the Sacred Records Origen St. Jerome and many other of the Christian Writers have largely proved the same Those of the Roman Church who have turn'd every Stone to ease themselves from the dint of this Argument have found no other countenance that ever these Books received from the Jews to make us suppose they received them into their Canon but that in some places some few of the Hellenist Jews that lived remote from Palestine had annexed some of these Books to their Septuagint Bibles But such Hellenists themselves had any esteem of them as Canonical Writings Nor can it any more be proved from thence that they had than it can That we in England receive them into our Canon because they are bound up with some of our Bibles And never were any of these Books annexed to the Hobrew-Bibles used at Jerusalem and in Palestine nor were any of them ever read or admitted into their Synagogues there In truth This matter in point of Fact is so notorious and evident that Bellarmine himself makes an ingenuous confession of it and sayes plainly Hos omnes Libros speaking of these Apocryphal Books ad unum rejici ab Hebraeis That every one of these Books were rected by the Church of the Jews Contr. 1. lib. 1. ch 10. And confirms the same out of St. Jerome And if so we have then not only the judgment of the Judaical Church in this case which is singly sufficient For 't were a ridiculous contradiction to make any Books part of the Old Testament now which were not so received then But we have also a more infallible determination For our Saviour and the Apostles fully and constantly approved the Old Testament as the Jews were then possessed of it 'T were absurd to suppose that our Saviour should with so much exactness reduce all to the Rule of the Scripture and yet tacitly approve and silently pass over so great a mistake about the Rule it self Our Saviour directs the Jews to search the Scriptures as they then had them as being perfect and compleat Appeals to their own Bibles upon all occasions in his own defence Expounded Moses the Psalms and the Prophets as those to whom he spake were acquainted with them and as they were then extant Nay he himself read and preached in their Synagogues out of the Scriptures as he there found them and as they were there publickly used And no man can soberly imagine that our Saviour would go about to instruct the People out of any false and imperfect Rule The Apostles likewise upon all occasions made use of the Old Testament as they found the Jews possessed of it Nor have we the least intimation that the Jews were either mistaken in the number of those Books they received or that the least alteration had been made in those Books since the times wherein they were first written And 't is as evident that the Old Tement as the Jews then had it and as our Saviour and the Apostles approved it descended down to the Christian Church and was constantly so received The Primitive Writers agree universally in it Cyprian Epiphanius Athanasius Nazianzen all bear witness to it Cyril Bishop of Jerusalem after he has reckoned up to his Catechumini the 22 Books of the Old Testament we now receive adds Hos lege viginti duos Cum Apocryphis nil habe negotii Catechis 4. Read these two and twenty Books But meddle not with the Apocrypha Origen quoted for it at large by Eusebius in his History reckons up the very same twenty two Books for the Canonical parts of the Old Testament And so does St. Jerome and expresly reckons the other Apocryphal The same we find in Russinus who sayes The Apocryphal Books they never antiently called Libros Canonicos but Ecclesiasticos And the first Council we read of that entred into a consideration of this Matter which was that of Laodicea about the year 364. in their 59 Canon declare the Canonical Books of the
same terms must I believe all things Divine and Supernatural unless God give me new faculties or some way extraordinarily assist me and make me somewhat more then I was Nor did any man that was not himself Divine and Infallible as the Apostles were and inspired infallibly to know that he was so ever receive any Revelation upon any higher terms then that we call Moral assurance and Humane credibility For first If I receive a Revelation upon Motives External and Foreign to it self such Motives are all granted to be in themselves of a Humane and fallible Nature If I receive it upon any Motives Internal any Testimony resulting from such Revelation it self to justifie its own Divinity to me yet I must of necessity without extraordinary inspiration judge of such Internal Testimony by Moral considerations and from Humane and Rational Argumentation with my self come at last to make a judgement about it Those that lived in the first times that saw the Miracles and heard the Doctrine delivered from the mouths of the Apostles themselves were yet without inspiration but upon Humane and fallible terms of judging and believing because those Mediums by which they did judge and believe were in their own Nature so for 't is not a thing in it self infallibly certain but that any man may be mistaken in the judgement he makes of a Miracle or in that faith whereby he embraces any Doctrine as Divine First This Objection as 't is urged by those of the Roman Church does not disturb us at all Indeed returns directly upon themselves nor does the remedy they provide any way cure that inconveniency which they suppose will otherwise accrue to Religion by it They tell us God has placed an unerring Judgement a faculty of making an infallible determination in the Church and from thence this Objection is Answered by that means we are perfectly at an end of all doubts about this matter for if the Church that is in it self Infallible tells us that this is the word of God and as it was at first delivered we come upon that account to a Divine and Infallible faith as built upon a Divine and Infallible Testimony and are infallibly assured about it But this kind of reasoning brings us but just where we were and is indeed in it self but a very mean sort of trifling for 't is to erect another infallibility to be assured of which there is ten times greater difficulty then in the former case The Scriptures we say are in themselves Divine and Infallible as coming from God The Question is about out way of coming to know this that they are so 'T is confessed by us it must be without inspiration by means in themselves Humane and Fallible and from thence results the strength of this Objection That supposing the Scriptures to be in themselves Divine yet we coming in a Humane way to the Knowledge that they are so and to solve all Objections against them our belief of them is still resolved into no more then that we call a Humane and Rational credibility And do we not come to the very same point in the other case The Church say they is Divinely inspired but how came I to know it To say by the Scriptures is in this case ridiculous If upon Providential and Probable Motives as themselves do acknowledge we are thereby pitched upon a fallible bottom still are we not upon the same Humane and Fallible means of judging 'T is not enough in this case to make the Pope or any else Infallible but before we can that way perfectly enervate this Objection we must make every man infallibly to know that they are so infallible Can any man more infallibly judge of the Churches infallibility then of the Bibles Are there not as many nay more questions that must necessarily be determined by Fallibly and Humanely judging in the one Case then in the other as first whether there actually be any such thing as an infallible Church extant or no Secondly if there be what Church it is that is so and Thirdly whether that Church be universally infallible or only in some things and under what sort of constitution it must be when it so infallibly acts so that admit the Churches infallibility in it self yet 't is utterly impossible that a man should believe any thing upon its infallible determination with any other then a Humane and Fallible Faith because 't is upon Humane and Fallible Motives upon which men primarily and previously come to an assurance of such infallibility And therefore whatsoever faith in the Roman Church is grounded upon the Churches infallible Judgement it must unavoidably be ultimately resolved into such Grounds as are in themselves of a Humane and fallible Nature So that the Roman infallibility as 't is in it self an absurd and fictitious pretension so were it admitted 't is to no purpose at all for that end for which 't is intended so far as 't is urged in this matter Secondly a rational Belief of the Bible and a rational Satisfaction about it founded in a Moral assurance is all we can have and all that in this case we ought to expect I demand of all such Objectors by what means they come to any Assurance in any Point of Religion To one of these three things they will be unavoidably forced Either to deny that there is any certainty at all in Religion and thereby to subvert all Religion To pretend to extraordinary Inspiration or else to acknowledge they come to it in a Moral way And indeed the founding our belief of Revelation upon Moral and Rational Assurance is so far from subverting the certainty of our Religion that the grand Fundamentals of all Religion must of necessity be originally established upon that Bottom and can be upon no other for we come to an Assurance of the Being of God and the future state of mens Souls upon no other Grounds then Moral and Rational conclusions from whence there can possibly result no more then a Moral Assurance Whoever attemps a Rational proof of the Being of God is obliged to disclaim all pretence to Infallibility in the way of his Proof because Infalibility is wholly relative to God himself The notion of it cannot exist without the admission of such a Being and therefore to talk of an Infalible way of proving his Being would be grosly absurd for 't were openly to beg the Question and take that for granted which we oblige our selves to prove So that whoever upon rational terms and the grounds of Moral Assurance believe the Bible to be sent us from God believes it upon the same Grounds upon which he must necessarily believe the first Principles of all Religion and believe it upon the highest terms God either requires or enables him without Inspiration to believe it upon such as ought sufficiently to fix him in his belief and upon such as if duely pursued will certainly produce all those excellent ends God intends by this Book This
should be terminated singly in them but be of a much farther Extension and of a perpetual Duration 'T is not to be doubted but that the Apographa's Copies truely taken from the Originals of any part of the Bible were of equal Authority with the Originals themselves 'T was not the Paper nor the Ink nor the Hand wherein they were writ nor any thing Circumstantial of that kind but the Matter it self as dictated by the Holy Ghost that gave Authority to them And wheresoever that Matter is truely contained there is also the same Authority present The great Question in these dayes will be Whether those Copies we have of the Scriptures in those Original Languages in which they were first Writ be True and whether they have not been since Defaced or Corrupted The Satisfaction that ought to be given to this Inquiry must arise these two wayes First by considering the Scriptures themselves in their present posture And Secondly by considering such Circumstances as attended their first Transcription and the various Copies that were then and have been since taken of them I begin with the Latter First the Old Testament we know was delivered over as it first became written to the Church of the Jews and committed by God himself to their Custody And 't was they alone that had the Care incumbent upon them punctually to Transcribe and safely to secure it That they performed this Trust with great Care and exactness and delivered the Old Testament over intire to the Christian Church we have good cause to believe and that both upon general and some more particular ground First upon General ground 'T is notorious that the Jews had the highest value imaginable of their Law and prized it above all else they possessed Both Josephus and Philo tell us that the Jews would rather have suffered a thousand Deaths then that the least thing should be once altered in the Divine Laws and Statutes of their Nation The miraculous power upon which the first Foundation of it was Established had imprinted in that People an indelible veneration of it Secondly it was the Municipal Law of their Countrey and that by which all matters of right were daily Adjudged and by which each mans Property amongst them was maintained and secured Thirdly their Law was not onely the Glory of their Nation and the Foundation of their Political and Ecclesiastical being but it was also the great Title they had to their Countrey The Scriptures contained in themselves the Deeds by which God himself conveyed to them the Land of Canaan and gave them the highest Right to possess it 'T is not hard from hence to conceive that the Jews would be careful of such a Book wherein their Bodies their Souls their Estates their Honour and indeed their All was so much concerned Secondly it appears more particularly and in fact that they were so For after that by Gods Providential disposal Ezra and that Famous Synagogue with him had exactly settled their Canon and delivered over the Scriptures pure and intire to the People at their return out of Babylon the indefatigable Care of the succeeding Mastoriâ—es from those very Times downward to preserve every Letter and Syllable of the sacred Text intire is notoriously known to all that converse with the Jewish Writers even to so great an exactness had they arrived that they knew how often every Letter was used in the Bible And indeed they took such a course to preserve the Original Text intire that it was morally Impossible that the least considerable Alteration or Change could at any time be made in it Eusebius speaks with great Wonder of the Industry and Care of the Jews in this matter Mirabile mihi videtur says he duobus annorum millibus inâ—o majore tempore jam ferè transacto non enim exquisitissimè annorum possum dicere numerum Nec verbum unum in Lege illius esse immutatum sed Centiès unusquisque Judaeorum moritur quam Lege Mosaicae derogavit It seems wonderful to me that for the space of two thousand years and upward for I cannot exactly reckon the number of years not so much as one word should be Changed in their Law but that every Jew would rather dye a hundred times over then derogate in the least from it And that this care of the Judaical Church was by Gods blessing effectual and successful for the securing of the Old Testament from all maime or Imperfection and the least considerable alteration from what it was when it was first Delivered There needs no other Evidence then that our Saviour and the Apostles fully approved it as the Jews were then in possession of it and never charged them with the least Guilt either of Corruption or Neglect in that kind And to suppose the Jews have Corrupted it since considering that it was near three hundred years before our Saviours time translated into Greek and that any after-corruption must needs have been manifestly Discovered from thence and confidering how much of it is quoted in the New is very absurd so thought st Jerome in his time siquis dixerit post adventum Christi predicationem Apostolorum Libros Hebraeos fuisse Falsatos risam tenere non potero ut salvator Apostoli ita Testimonia protuleriâ— sicut à Judaeis falsandâ—erant If any man think the Old Testament says he falsifyed after our saviours coming I can scarce forbear smiling to think that our saviour and the Apostles should quote the Old Testament so as the Jews should falsify it after their times And with the same Contempt speaks Origen and s Austin of such a vain and absurd supposition That we have also good reason to believe that the New Testament is safely and intirely and without any Considerable variation from what it was when it was first written descended down to us will likewise appear first from the Circumstances attending its first Transcription and the Manner and Circumstances of its Conveyance And secondly from its Present condition and posture For the first When the several Parts of the New Testament were first written so very many had imbraced the Doctrine thereof from the Preaching of Christ and the Apostles that it is not to be doubted but that multitudes of Copies were immediately taken and dispersed into all parts of Europe into Asia and Egypt and wheresoever the Christian Religion was by any received Nor can we suppose that men that suffered daily for a Religion the loss of their lives and estates would not be careful Exactly to know the Doctrine of it and to be safely possessed of that great Rule by which they were to be in all things Directed when ' t was so easily to be had Nay ' t is probable that the Apostles themselves might disperse several Transcripts of their own Writings amongst the Christians so innumerable Copies might be taken from many Originals But however Certain it is that the Autographa's of the Apostles the very Originals of the New Testament
themselves were very long Preserved as most pretious Jewels in the Church Tertullian sayes some of them were extant in his time and we are told by some Authors of Credit that s Johns Gospel Written with his own Hand was preserved by the Church of Ephesus till the time of Honorius the Emperour Now let any reasonable man judge what a vast number of Copies were likely to be taken before the Originals perished and how highly improbable if not morally Impossible it was to impose a publick and general abuse upon the world by a false Transcription of such Writings while the Originals themselves lasted it could not be done Nor can we conceive the Christian Church so intollerable sottish and so universally Negligent as to take up with false Transcripts while the Originals were to be had to compare them withal and correct them by And before the Originals themselves perished such a vast multitude of True Copies generally known from the Originals so to be must needs be extant and we are historically assured actually were so that the scriptures were for ever thereby secured against any attempts that could possibly be made that way secondly If we consider how much this Book upon its first publication filled the world with Discourse what various Disputes there arose relating to all Parts of it wherein an Appeal on all sides was still made to the Letter of the Text and the Book it self how throughly all Passages in it were Discussed and Examined both by Jews Christians and Heathens urged and made use of in the warmest controversies in the pursuit of which by men of different Perswasions the mis-reciting or corrupting a Text would soon have been openly published If we consider by how many Authors in those times it was quoted and that it was then the continual and general study of the Christian-parts of the world and the constant and daily Work and Imployment of many amongst them to Preach and instruct the People out of it all this Considered it is most absurd to imagine that the least considerable Alteration could ever be made in such a Book without some notorious and universal discovery Nor could it ever possibly happen unless we 'l suppose that all men in some One Age of all Opinions that were possessed of the Bible should at once agree together to deface their Grand Charter their Magna Charta by which they held all to corrupt that sacred Depositum on which they wholly relyed for their present and eternal welfare to no other end but their own utmost ruine and to abuse all succeeding Generations secondly If we consider the New Testament it self as we now find it First ' t is in the Bulk of it so composed as does much secure us especially in all material things against all danger this way Either it must have been Generally attempted or in some Particulars To imagine any General attempt should that way be made is riâ—iculous nor do we hear one word that there was ever a Thought to endeavour any such thing And to effect an Altetation about any One Particular point is a thing could not easily be done because no little alteration would do it No considerable Truths could be Inverted without many alterations made because they are all generally grounded upon very many Texts witnessed unto from several places and indeed all the Eminent Truths of the New Testament are so interwoven together and have such a Dependency each upon other that it would be found a very hard Task to Deface the beauty of any One without giving a considerable Wound to the Wholes Nor in truth do we find any one Part of the New Testament that looks like a Patch set upon the rest nor any one Doctrine that savours in the least of any such sophistication This Book does not appear to be partly from God and partly from Men but there is One Divine spirit breathed visibly through the Whole ' T is all of a Piece Nor could any wicked design to Corrupt any one Part of it have taken effect but in all probability the rest would some way or other have made an opon Discovery of it Thirdly The various Readings we meet with in several copies of the New Testament are in themselves if duely considered a great evidence that the Originals have not been corrupted for such various readings of any place cannot be reasonably thought to arise from any design to vitiate and falsify the Text because such various Readings do rather accidentally tend to discover anything of that nature and secure against any Total and General Alteration and amongst them all to contain and preserve the Integrity and native sense of the Text and enable a diligent Reader by a through search and Examination of them to find it out Nor do we ever suppose that any Book that has passed through many hands and been often Transcribed to be totally Cortrupted or Changed because in some places of it we find various Lections but are thereby much secured that such Books have not been Designedly Altered And with good reason do judge that such various Lections are barely the effects of casual mistakes and that the Original sense of the Authour is still preserved and may by a careful and diligent inspection be found out amongst them And indeed those we find of some Texts in the New Testament are of such a nature that they all evidently appear the effects of humane frailty and onely such variations as might considering how vast a number of Copies were at first taken escape the best scribes and the greatest diligence Nor is there the least appearance of any Design or Contrivance to Vitiate the Original Text or any thing to be found that in the least degree looks that way in all those Various Readings that we find amongst such Copies as have been most anciently most generally and most publickly used in the Church by which we are to take out Measure in this matter 'T is in this case of great Consideration That no Particular designs of any bad men have been gratified nor any corrupt Ends attained nor indeed any Distinct Ends at all of any sort by any such diversity of readings which sufficiently shews they came not originally from Contrivement nor were Intended as the Foundation of any particular Notions but are the bare and single effects of Accident That the New Testament therefore has been in any Part of it wholly changed and corrupted there appeareth neither Certain not Probable ground to believe Nor indeed is there any good ground to believe that these Sacred Records have suffered the least violation in this kind First no man can prove that the Scriptures were ever Corrupted nor tell us by whom or When or the manner How which yet ought to be done if men will Reasonably Object in this case For no such Presumption as this that renders God in his Providence so Regardless of his Word and his Church and so Reproches the Christian Profession that has been