Athenians could not endure it †Quintil. Instit lib. 12. c. 10. Cic. Brut. There were three kinds of style among the Greeks the Attick the Asiatick and the Rhodian and Tully besides makes the Asiatick twofold The Attick was close and comprehensive the Asiatick was quite contrary to this and was very lofty figurative and copious which some assigned to other causes but Quintilian more truly thinks it proceeded from the different nature and temper of the Athenians and Asiaticks The third kind of style was the Rhodian which was of a middle nature betwixt the other two neither so concise as the Attic nor so redundant as the Asiatick but was a mixture of both the Genius of that people inclining rather to the Asiatick but Aeschines in his Banishment at Rhodes reformed their style and fashioned it after the Attick manner as far as the Rhodian Genius would admit of it It would be endless to make observations upon particular Authors Xenophon and Plato have not escaped the Censure of Longinus and Demosthenes and Cicero besides what hath â—een objected to them in particular fall under â—he general censure which * Nullum sine venia placuit ingenium Da mihi quem cunque vis magni nominis virum dicam quid illi aetas sua ignoverit quid in illo Sciens dissimulaverit Sen. Epist cxiv Seneca passeth upon all Authors of the greatest Fame and Merit but he adds that there is no certain â—ule for Style which is continually altered by â—he use and custom of the place Both the Language and Actions of the Eastern Nations especially in the earlier ages of the world had something more vehement and passionate in them than those of these Western Countreys The Stiles and Titles of of their Kings are a remarkable instance of this witness that of Sapores * Ammian Marcellino lib. 14. c. 5. Rex Regnum Sapor particeps siderum frater Solis Lunae Constanti Caesari fratri meo Salutem plurimam dico And they retain the like Titles to this day †Ricant ' s Hist lib. 1. c. 2. the Grand Signior's is in some things the same in others more extravagant he is stiled God on Earth the Shadow of God Brother to the Sun and Moon the Giver of all Earthly Crowns The King of * Letter of David K. of Aethiop in Geddes Church Hist of Aethiop Aethiopia calls himself the King at whose Name the Lyons tremble The Romans themselves who used greater modesty of style and more gravity in their actions than many other Nations practis'd divers things in their Orations and Pleadings which amongst us would be very strange and absurd Thus †Lic de Orat. lib. 3. Quintil institut lib. 1. c. 10. C. Gracchus a great and popular Orator at Rome was wonâ— to have one stand behind him with a Flute to give him the true Key to which he was to raise his voice which would go near to make the best Orator amongst us ridiculous It was customary likewise with the Romans to use all arts to raise the passions by Actions and Representations as well as by Words * Cic. pro P. Sextio Sometimes they would hang up a Picture representing the Fact about which they were to speak and the Accusers were wont to produce in open Court a Bloody Sword or the Garments of the Wounded and the Bones if any had been taken out of their Wounds or to unbind the wounds or shew the Scars †Quintil. ib. lib. 6. c. 1. Quarum rerum ingens plerumque vis est velut in rem presentem animos hominum ducentium These and other things more strange to us were practised by the most famous Orators of their times amongst the Romans by which they spoke to the eyes as it were of their Hearers and therefore these may well be reckoned amongst the Figures and Modes of Rhetorick whereby they gained upon the affections of the people * Cic. Orator Tully tells us of himself that he took up a Child sometimes and held it in his arms to move compassion and that †Nulla perturbatio animi nulla corporis frons non percussa non femur pedis quod minimum est nulla suppiosio Câ—â— Brut. when M. Callidius had accused Q. Gallius of an attempt to poison him and had made it out by clear proof he urged this as a sufficient objection against all that Callidius had said that he had not exprest any passion in his pleading he had not smote his Forehead ' nor his Thigh nor which was the least thing he could have done if his accusation had been true he had not so much as stampt with his Foot Callidius had all the accomplishments of an Orator but this of moving the passions by such means and the want of this was looked upon as a very great defect in him Upon the death of the two Scipio's in Spain when the signal of Battle was given by the new General * Liv. lib. 25. c. 38. Livy describes the Roman Army weeping and knocking their heads and throwing themselves upon the Ground And what could a Speech at any time have availed with such men that had been delivered in a cold and unaffecting manner †Suet. Jul. Caes c. 33. Caesar himself wept and rent his Garment in a Speech which he made to his Souldiers as soon as he had past the Rubicon Whoever observes their Orations would think that the ancient Greeks and Romans had tears more at command than men now have for the Orators wept as freely upon every occasion as if that were true of them all which Aeschines * Aeschin contr Etesiph said of Demosthenes that it was easier for them to weep than for others to laugh And sometimes not only the Orators themselves †Cic. pro â—lancio Pro Milon Pro Rabirio but the Judges of the whole Auditory were all in tears The great art of Oratory consisted in Action by which is to be understood both the voice and gesture as Demosthenes that best knew declared and therefore though nothing weâ—â— more common than for Historians and Poets and Philosophers to read their works to the people yet the Orators seldom read their Orations however * Recitetur oratio quae propter ejus magnitudinem dicta de Scripto est Cic. Pro Plancio Ac ne periculum memorioe adiret aut in ediscendo tempus absumeret instituit recitare omnia Suet. in August c. 84 vid. ib. c. 89. Quanquam Orationes nostri quidam Graeci lectitaverunt Plin. lib. 7. Epist 17. Tully sometimes did it And from the time that Augustus read his Speeches which he had occasion to use in the Senate or to the People or Souldiers it grew into a custom by his example and encouragement and so continu'd The common †Qua translatione frequentissime Sermo omnis utiter non modo urbanus sed etiam Rusticorum Siquidem est eorum gemmare
demure Pretenders to Humane Reason and Moral Vertue and the Enemies of Revealed Religion We are fallen into an Age in which there are a sort of Men who have shewn so great a forwardness to be no longer Christians that they have catch'd at all the little Cavils and Pretences against Religion and indeed if it were not more out of charity to their own Souls than for any credit Religion can have of them it were great pity but they should have their Wish for they both think and live so ill that it is an argument for the goodness of any Cause that they are against it It was urged as a confirmation of the Christian Riligion by Tertullian that it was haved and persecuted by Nero the worst of Men And I am confident it would be but small Reputation to it in any Age if such Men should be found of it They speak evil of the things they understand not and are wont to talk with as much confidence against any point of Religion as if they had all the Learning in the World in their keeping when commonly they know little or nothing of what has been said for that against which they dispute They seem to imagine that there is nothing in the World besides Religion that has any difficulty in it but this shews how little they have considered the Nature of Things in which multitudes of Objections and Difficulties meet an observing Man in every Thought And after all Religion has but one fault as they account it which they have been able to discover in it and that is that it is too good and vertuous for them for when they have said all they can this is their great quarrel against it and as it has been truly observed no charity less than that of the Religion which they despise would have much care or consideration for them Thus have some Men dishonoured Religion by their Lives some by an affectation of Novelty some by invalidating the Authority of Books relating true Miracles and Prophecies and others by forging false ones some again by their too eager and imprudent Disputes and Contentions about Religion whilst from hence others have taken the liberty to ridicule it and to dispute against it but so as to expose themselves whilst they would expose Religion And thus has the clearest and most necessary Truth been obscured and despised whilst it has been betrayed by the vanity and quarrels of its Friends to the scorn and weakness of its Enemies However in all their opposition and contradiction to Revealed Religion I find it asserted by these Men that Atheism is so absurd a thing that they question whether there ever were or can be an Atheist in the World I have therefore here proved from the Attributes of God and the Grounds of Natural Religion that the Christian Religion must be of Divine Revelation and that this Religion is as certainly true as it is that God Himself exists which is the plainest Truth and the most universally acknowledged of any thing whatsoever And because there is nothing so true or certain but something may be alledged against it I shall besides discourse upon such Heads as have been most excepted against In which I shall endeavour to prove the Truth in such a manner as to vindicate it against all Cavils though I shall not take notice of particular Objections which is both a needless and indeed an endless labour for there is no end of Cavils but if the Truth be well and fully explained any Objection may receive a sufficient Answer from the consideration of the Doctrine against which it is urged by applying it to particular Difficulties as one Right Line is enough to demonstrate all the variations from it to be Crooked It is very easie to cavil and find fault with any thing and to start Objections and ask Questions is even to a Proverb esteemed the worst sign that can be of a great Wit or a sound Judgment Men are unwilling to believe any thing to be true which contradicts their Vices and the weakest Arguments with strong Inclinations to a Cause will prove or disprove whatever they have a mind it should But let Men first practise the Vertues the Moral Vertues which our Religion enjoins and then let them disprove it if they can nay let them disprove it now if they can for it stands in no need of their favour but for their own sakes let them have a care of mistaking Vices for Arguments and every profane Jest for a Demonstration I wish they would consider whether the Concern they have to set up Natural against Revealed Religion proceed not from hence that by Natural Religion they mean no more than just what they please themselves or what they judge convenient in every case or occasion whereas Revealed Religion is a fix'd and determined thing and prescribes certain Rules and Laws for the Government of our Lives The plain truth of the matter is that they are for a Religion of their own contrivance which they may alter as they see sit but not for one of Divine Revelation which will admit of no change but must always continue the same whatever they can do Vnless that were the case there would be little occasion to trouble them with Books of this kind for the Arguments brought against the Christian Religion are indeed so weak and insignificant that they rather make for it and it might well be said as M. Paschal relates by one of this sort of Men to his Companions If you continue to dispute at this rate you will certainly make me a Christian I shall venture at least to say of this Treatise in the like manner as he doth of his That if these Men would be pleased to spend but a little of that time which is so often worse employed in the perusal of what is here offered I hope that something they may meet withal which may satisfie their Doubts and convince them of their Errors But though they should despise whatever can be said to them yet there are others besides the profess'd Adversaries of Revealed Religion to whom a Treatise of this nature may be serviceable The truth is notwistanding the great Plainness of the Christian Religion I cannot but think that Ignorance is one chief cause why it is so little valued and esteemed and its Doctrines so little obeyed A great part of Christians content themselves with a very slight and imperfect Knowledge of the Religion they profess and are able to give but very little Reason for that which is the most Reasonable thing in the World but they profess it rather as the Religion of their Country than of their own choice and because they find it contradicts their sensual Desires they are willing to believe as little of it as may be and when they hear others cavil and trifle with it partly out of Ignorance and partly from Inclination they take every idle Objection if it be but bold enough for an unanswerable
from them In Africa besides the Christians living in Aegypt and in the Kingdom of Congo and Angola the Islands upon the Western Coasts are inhabited by Christians and the vast Kingdom of Habassia or Abassinia supposed to be as big as Germany France Spain and Italy taken together according to Mr. Brerewood's computation is possess'd by Christians And till less than Two hundred Years ago Nubia a Countrey of a great extent lying between the Aequator and the Northern Tropick continued as it 's believed from the Apostles times in the Christian Religion In Asia he says most part of the Empire of Russia the Countries of Circassia and Mengrelia Georgia and Mount Libanus are inhabited only by Christians besides the dispersion of them into other Parts under the denomination of Nestorians Jacobites Maronites and Armenians the last of which are a People exceedingly addicted to Traffick (m) Brerewood's Enquir c. 24. and have great Privileges granted them by the Turks and other Mahometans they are found in multitudes in most Cities of great Trade and are more dispersed than any other Nation but the Jews and the Jacobites are reported to be dispersed into Forty Kingdoms In the Promontory extending it self into the Indian Sea are the Christians of Saint Thomas so called because first converted by him who is believed to lie buried at Maliapour and they have continued in the Christian Religion from his time It must be confess'd that in Mengrelia and other Countries the Doctrines of Religion are much corrupted and their Practice very different from the Profession of Christians but however they retain the Gospel among them and it is every Man 's own fault if he make not a good use of those Means of Salvation which God in his Providence has afforded him Of late the New Testament in the Malayan Tongue and Grotius his excellent Book of the Truth of the Christian Religion in Arabick have been translated and printed at the Charge of the Honourable Mr. Boyle and the first disperst over all the East-Indies where the Malayan Language is used and the latter into all the Countries where Arabick is spoken He also contributed to the Impression of the New Testament which was made by the Turkish Company in the Language of the Turks In America it is notorious that the Christians are sufficiently numerous and have sufficient opportunities to instruct the Natives if they were but as careful to improve them to so good an end rather than in pursuit of their own Gain The summ of all is this Before the Flood Revelations were so frequent and the Lives of Men so long that no Man could be ignorant of the Creation and of the Providence of God in the Government of the World and the Duties required towards him And in the first Ages after the Flood God's Will reveal'd to Noah and the Precept given to him at his coming out of the Ark must be well known to all the surviving World and as soon as the Remembrance of them began to decay and Men to fall into Idolatry Abraham and the other Patriarchs were sent into divers Countries to proclaim God's Commandments and to testifie against the Impiety of Idolaters where-ever they came For to publish the Reveal'd Will of God and make it generally known in the World God was pleas'd to chuse to himself a peculiar People and to send them first out of Mesopotamia into Canaan and upon occasion back again into Mesopotamia and then several times into Aegypt and from thence after they had dwelt there some Hundreds of Years into Canaan again at what time he appointed them Laws admirably fitted and contriv'd for the receiving of Strangers and Proselytes After many signal Victories and after other Captivities they were carry'd away captive to Babylon and were still deliver'd and restor'd by a Wonderful and Miraculous Providence and had vast numbers of Proselytes in all Parts of the known World and many Footsteps and Remainders of the True Religion are found in the remotest Parts of the Earth And when by the just Judgment of God upon the Jews for their Sin in rejecting the Messias they were rejected by him from being his People they were dispers'd throughout the World for a Testimony to all Nations that Moses and the Prophets deliver'd no other thing than what God had reveal'd to them since they continue to maintain and assert those very Books which plainly foretell all that Ruine and Destruction that has befallen them for their Infidelity and Disobedience They are a standing Evidence in all Parts of the World of the Truth of the Christian Religion bearing that Curse which their Fore-fathers so many Ages ago imprecated upon themselves and their Posterity when they caus'd Christ to be crucify'd And the Gospel has by its own Power and Evidence manifested it self to all People dispers'd over the Face of the whole Earth To which might be added That the Mahometans owning so much of the Religion reveal'd both in the Old and New Testament afford some kind of Testimony to the Truth of it in those vast Dominions of which they are possess'd All the most remarkable Dispensations of Providence in the several Changes in the World have had a particular Influence in the Propagation of the True Religion Cyrus Alexander the Great divers of the Roman Emperors and of latter Times Tamerlain and several other Princes were great Favourers of it and the worst of Men and the most unlikely Accidents have contributed towards the Promotion of it If it be Objected That notwithstanding all which has been said great Part of the World are Vnbelievers Let it be consider'd 1. That there is no Nation but has great Opportunities of being converted and it is evident from what has been produc'd concerning the Chinese and the Americans themselves that the Christian Religion had been preach'd among them tho' the Knowledge of it was lost through their own Fault before the late Discoveries of those Parts of the World And as Christ came into the World in the fulness of time so in the fulness of time that is at the most fitting season he reveal'd himself to the several Nations of it God who is infinitely gracious to all and knows the Hearts and Dispositions of all Men might defer the restoring his Gospel to the Chinese for Instance till that very time when he saw them best prepar'd for it And it is remarkable That the Discovery of the Indies happen'd about the time of the Reformation that those poor People might have the Purity as well as the Truth of Religion if Christians had been as little wanting to them in their Charity as God has been in the Disposals of his Providence He stays till they have filled up the measure of their iniquities before he punishes a People and for the same Reasons of Mercy and Goodness he waits for the most proper seasons to impart his Revealed Will to them and to have it preach'd to them before would be only to encrease their
they had been never so vicious and profligate before The Christians are represented as an innocent devout and charitable sort of men by Pliny Lucian and Julian the Apostate himself Plin. Epist ad Trajan lib. 10. Epist 97. Lucian de Morte Peregrini Julian Epist 44. by those who had most narrowly enquired into their Doctrines and Practices and were worst affected to them And by these means the Christians became as so many Lights in the world to guide and direct others in the ways of Vertue for by their example and doctrine they soon reformed even the Heathen world to a great degree Morality was taught by the Philosophers in much greater perfection than ever it had been before and they became so much ashamed of the grossness of their Idolatrous worship that they sought out all arts to refine and excuse it And those vices which made up so great a part of their Idolatrous Mysteries appeared too abominable to pass any longer for Religion The Oracles soon ceased and the seducing Spirits confessed that they were hindred from giving out their Answers by the Power of Christ and all that Julian the Apostate could do was ineffectual to bring the Heathen Oracles into reputation again These are things before insisted upon and so notorious in History that they cannot be denied to be solely owing to the Power and Influence of the Christian Religion I shall mention but one instance more and that is the barbarous cruelty of the Heathen Religions which the Gospel has delivered the world from For they were wont to offer up innocent Men and Children in sacrifice to their false Gods and that frequently and in some places daily and in times of great danger and upon extraordinary occasions they sacrificed so great numbers of men at once that it would be incredible if we had not the Authority of the best Historians for the truth of it And this custom of sacrificing men to their Gods prevailed not only here in Britain and in other Countrys which were accounted barbarous but all over Greece and in Rome it self It may well seem strange to us now that such a practice should so generally prevail in the world yet nothing is more certain from all History than that it did prevail and that men were with difficulty brought off from it For when Mankind was thus cruelly tyrannized over by bloody Daemons nothing but the omnipotent mercy of God could rescue them And for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 John iii. 8. which he soon did Beasts and Idols were no longer worshipped and men were no longer made Sacrifices when once Christianity began to appear in its full power and efficacy in the world The plain and humble Doctrine of him that was laid in a Manger and died upon a Cross was in a short time more effectual to reform Mankind than all the Precepts of Philosophers and the Wisdom and Power of Lawgivers had ever been Those Enemies to their own Souls who are so fond of little cavils against the Gospel as if they were resolved not to be saved by it yet owe the happiness of this present Life in great measure to its influence they would not have been so safe in their Bodies and Estates nay perhaps they might have been sacrificed to some cruel Daemon long before this if that Religion which they resolve to despise but will not be at the pains to understand had not been believed by wiser and better men Of so great advantage has the Gospel been to those who will not be reclaimed and converted by it it has destroyed the works of the Devil and has dispossest him of that Tyranny which he held over mankind it has made the unconverted world less vicious and has banished all the profess'd Patrons and Deities of wickedness from amongst men it has made Idolatry less practised and reduced it to narrower bounds confining it to the remoter parts of the Earth and every where upon the first approach of the Gospel the evil Spirits are disarmed of their power and flee away before it as we learn from the History of Lapland and other Countries So general a Blessing is the Gospel of Christ that even unbelievers are the better for it in this world tho they exclude themselves from the benefit of it in the next And the Christian is the only Religion against which the common objection concerning the prejudices of Education in favour of it cannot be urged for as it first prevailed in the world by conquering all the prejudices of Education so it still maintains it self against all the opposition that corrupt nature and a vicious Education can make to it Indeed it may seem a needless thing to have been thus large in the proof the excelleney of the practical Doctrine contained in the Scriptures when God knows this is the greatest exception that most men have against them and if the precepts were not so strict and holy but they might be allowed to live in their sins half the evidence we have for the Authority of the Scriptures would satisfy them VII The highest Mysteries of the Christian Religion are not merely speculative but have a necessary relation to practice for the advancement of Piety and Vertue amongst men As there is nothing in the practical Duties taught and enjoyned by the Scriptures but what is most excellent and worthy of God and which has raised and improved the Nature of man beyond what could have been attained to without it so the speculative Doctrines have as evident Characters of the Wisdom and Goodness of God They all tend to the advancement of our Nature to make us better more wise and more happy and are not designed to gratify a vain and useless curiosity but to excite in us the Love of God and a care and concernment for our own happiness They set before us the Original and Creation of all things the innocence in which man was first created and God's love and compassion to him after his Fall how the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are concerned in our Redemption that the Father sent his Son that the Son was born that he lived a despised and persecuted Life and at last underwent for us a most shameful and grievous death that he rose again and ascended into Heaven and there continually interceeds for us and that he sent the Holy Ghost the Comforter who supports and assists us under all temptations and dangers in our way thither and will if we be not wanting to our selves safely conduct us to Heaven there to reign with Christ in Eternal Bliss and Glory both of Body and Soul but if we will be disobedient and obstinate to our own ruine we must be eternally tormented with the Devil and his Angels The Apostles who without Learning or Philosophy taught the most sublime and useful Truths more plainly than the wisest Philosophers ever had done must derive their knowledge from
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
upon the preaching of the Gospel to the World the Philosophers thought it concern'd them to review all that had been formerly written to unite their Forces and select those Notions out of every Sect which were most plausible omitting such as they saw would then give Offence and it appears that they were greatly beholden to the Religion which they opposed and pretended to despise it is evident that they had read the Scriptures and do sometimes make use of Terms which they had taken from thence unknown to former Philosophers But Philosophy after all their Endeavours still retaining many Errors and wanting that Evidence and Authority which is the foundation of all true Religion could never maintain its ground against that Religion which was preach'd by those whom they contemned as ignorant Men but which in a short time wrought such a Reformation in the World as the Philosophy of all Ages had been never able to effect It is not to be denied that there were many great and eminent Examples among the Heathen but then there were always as great Enormities allow'd in the most civiliz'd Nations Philosophy was (x) Tertul Apol. c. 47 prohibited by three of the Principal States of Greece by the Thebans the Spartans and the Argives And the Romans who have set so many Famous Examples to the World were little oblig'd to Philosophy for all their Worth and Greatness was raised upon the Stock only of common Notions the Traditions that they had receiv'd with the rest of Mankind and the Laws brought from Athens which were enacted by Solon who had been in Aegypt at a time when the Jews were there in sufficient Numbers But it was a long while before Philosophers were suffered at Rome they had been (k) A. Gell. lib. xv c. 11. expell'd by the Senate Tully was the first that brought Philosophy into any Credit there and by the Apologies which he often makes for his giving himself to the Study of it we may perceive under what Prejudices it then lay among the Romans and that there was need of all his Wit and Eloquence to gain it Admission A strict Discipline both in Peace and War great Application and Industry by which they improved their common Notions and arriv'd to wonderful Experience and Dexterity in the Management of Affairs a zealous Love of their Country and an unparallell'd Constancy manifest in all their Actions and especially in the Observation of their Laws raised the Romans to that mighty Height and Extent of Empire But that which they retain'd of Truth in relation to Matters of Religion had been so abused and disguised with Fabulous Corruptions that at length it had generally lost all Belief amongst them (l) Pro Cluemio Tully made no Scruple at a publick Tryal in a Court of Judicature to deny the Punishments of the Wicked in a future State as a ridiculous Fiction which shews a strange Corruption of Principles in that Age when he could propose to himself to gain his Cause by speaking in that manner In another Oration he says (m) Pro M. Caeiiâ— Non semper superet vâ—ra illa directa Ratio vincat aliquando cupiditas voluptasque rationem That this should be spoken in a publick Pleading by one of the Gravest and most Learned of all the Romans shews how little either the Philosophy which he had studied or the Roman Laws themselves could do towards the Establishment of Vertue and that the Modesty of Youth and the Vertue and Honour of Families must be secur'd upon some better Principles Afterwards he adds Verùm siquis est qui etiam meretriciis Amoribus interdictum juventuti putet est ille quidem valde severus Negare non possum sed abhorret non modo ab hujus seculi licentia verùm etiam a Majorum consuetudine atque concessis I believe there is scarce any man so far lost to all Shame among Christians that he would be willing to hear himself so defended in a Publick Court or any Judge that would admit of such a Defence which is a manifest Argument of the Excellency of the Christian Religion that it lays such a powerful Restraint upon Men. But this loosness of Manners was the fatal Fore-runner of that horrid and monstrous Lewdness which afterwards like a Leprosy overspread the Roman Empire The Conspiracies of that Time which so much endanger'd the State were contriv'd by Libertines and no greater Cruelties have ever been committed than by this Sort of Men when once they have got into Power as may be seen in Tiberius Caligula Nero c. And Tully himself perhaps might feel the Effects of these Encouragements to Vice being kill'd by a Villain whose Life he had formerly saved by that Eloquence which was sometimes employ'd as if he had been retain'd against Vertue It must be owned that Tully has in many places of his Works laid down admirable Rules of Vertue but then it is with little or no Regard to such Principles as are the only sure Foundations of a Vertuous Life viz. the Fear of God and the Expectation of Rewards or Punishments after Death aed such was the defect of his Philosophy that he could be positive and certain in nothing Seneca as he professeth has taken many of his best Precepts from Epicurus which without a due Consideration had of a God and a Providence are no better than Prudent Cautions against Temporal Evils either of Body or Mind Seneca many times diverts rather than Instructs what he says is always fine but not always Solid he dances upon the surface according to Quintilian's Censure of him but seldom descends to the depth of things and it were well if that Character which he has given of Seneca's style might not be applyed to his Sense abundat dulcibus Vitiis a luscious Poison sometimes diffuseth it self in his Writings Seneca (x) Sen. Epist 82. de Benefic lib. 1. c. 3 4. derides the subtilty and trifling both of Zeno and Chrysippus but he did it seems think himself more concern'd to exposâ—â— them for being Teachers of ill Doctrins tho upon this account they were so very scandalous that Sextus (xx) Sext. Empir Pyrrh Hypot lib. 3. c. 24 25. Empericus endeavours to prove from their Words that there is no real and certain Difference betwixt Vertue and Vice The bare knowledge of the Christian Doctrin even without a sincere belief of its Authority has taught Men to abhorr those Crimes which were approved of by the Philosophers and Prâ—ctised in the Wisest Heathen Nations and when things notoriously Evil were received and taughâ— by those who did and said so many things well it is Evident that what was good was not owing so much to the strength of their own Reason as to some higher Principle I will here give but one Instance and it shall be concerning the Lawfulness of killing Infants or exposing them to be starved or destroyed This was the express Doctrine of (n) Plâ—â—t de Repub. lib.
times bigger than the whole Globe of the Earth and yet they appear less thro the Telescopes than they do to the naked Eye and look no bigger than meer Specks or Physical Points of Light and the Sun which is some millions of miles nearer to us than the Fixt Stars is by Mathematicians generally believed to be above an hundred and threescore times bigger than the Earth and by the exactest calculations is estimated to be eight or ten thousand times as big as the whole Earth and as Mr Boyle thinks may perhaps be found to be yet much vaster by further observations The Earth is * Huygen 's Conject concerning the Planetary Worlds lib. 2. computed to be above seventeen millions of German miles distant from the Sun And a Bullet carried with the same swiftness that it has when it is shot out of a great Gun supposing it moved from the Earth to the Sun would spend twenty five years in its passage to move from Jupiter to the Sun it would require one hundred and twenty five years and from Saturn thither two hundred and fifty years and such a Bullet by Mr Huygens's computation would spend almost seven hundred thousand years in its passage between us and the nearest of the Fixt Stars he speaks concerning the nearness of em and then stands amaz'd to think what a prodigious number besides there must be of those which are placed so deep in the vast spaces of Heaven as to be as remote from these as these are from the Sun For if with our bare eye we can observe above a thousand and with a Telescope can discover ten or twenty times as many what bounds of number says he must we set to those which are out of the reach even of these Assistances especially if we consider the infinite Power of God Really when I have been reflecting thus with myself methought all our Arithmetick was nothing and we are versed but in the very Rudiments of Numbers in comparison of this great summ For this requires an immense Thedsury not of twenty or thirty Figures only in our Decuple Progression but of as many as there are grains of Sand upon the shore And yet who can say that even this number exceeds that of the Fixt Stars The Quantity of Motion in the world is no less wonderful For if the Earth move upon its own * Mr Boyle ibid. Axis a place situate under the Aequator must be carried with as swift a motion as a Bullet shot out of a Cannon and if the Earth stand still and the Stars move round about it a Fixt Star in the Aequator must move fifty two thousand five hundred fifty five miles in a minute of an hour which if not more is at least three thousand times faster than the motion of a Cannon Bullet and the motion of the Fluid Matter intersperst between the Earth and the Stars must be answerably rapid And yet all these prodigious motions are so exactly proportioned and moderated that as that Great Philosopher observes no Watch for a few hours has ever gone so regularly as the whole World has been moved for so many Ages And in the consideration of innumerable Instances of the stupendous Works of Nature the ingenuous says he confess their Ignorance and the confident betray theirs But if any man shall think these Calculations extravagant as discoveries in Philosophy are commonly thought by such as are little conversant in it let him remember that they are set down according to the best observations that the wit of man after the experience of so many Ages has been able to make So that whether these accounts be true or false they shew the insufficiency of humane Understanding to examine the works of God and do by consequence shew how much more â—uncapable the wisest of men are to comprehend the Infinite essence of the Creator himself The famous Mr * Conject concerning the Pâ—â—xetar Worlds Lib. 1. Huygens lately mentioned speaking of the passage and communication of Light every way and in every point of Space through such vast Regions which must be much more to be admired if there be suppos'd to be a Vacuum in which there can be nothing to direct or determine its Motion and regulate its Course has these words all these things are so wisely so wonderfully contrived that it is above the power of humane Wit not to invent or frame somewhat like them but even to imagin or comprehend them To say nothing of the strange Discoveries concerning the Formation and Contexture of the Bodies both of Plants and Animals the innumerable little Animals which are discovered by Microscopes in but one drop of water and many other observations of the like nature are so wonderful that we might well suspect the truth of the experiments if men of the greatest skill and integrity as well in our own as in other Countreys did not agree in them The vast quantities of water which are continually flowing out of so many thousand Rivers into the Sea keep their constant course and are some way so disposed of as that the Sea and Land retain always a due proportion to each other But the Original of the Fountains from whence those Rivers proceed and how this Circulation of Waters is made is still matter of dispute The concussions of Earthquakes reaching sometimes to so vast an extent and the prodigious eruptions of Fire from divers burning Mountains in several parts of the Earth throwing out abundance of matter in Rivers of Fire of great breadth for many miles together seem incredible to those who have not read and considered these things The Verticity of the Loadstone the Flux and Reflux of the Sea Life and Motion every thing in Natural Philosophy when seriously examined has so many inexplicable Difficulties as would make a considerate man very modest in his Censures concerning things supernatural For if we had been placed in another World a Natural History of this might have seemed as strange to us as any thing Revealed can do now And it must be great presumption in us who know so little of the World we live in to talk pragmatically of another which we have only been told of and to believe no more than our Sences can inform us of when every Sence may inform us how narrow and imperfect our Knowledge is and that we take upon Trust or swallow in the Gross what we are commonly least distrustful about And not only Nature but even Art exceeds the Apprehensions of most men The Mechanical Powers and Motions are wont to be mistaken for Magick by such as have not skill and experience in those matters the performances of Archimedes were so wonderful beyond all expectation or belief that the King of Syracuse is said to have made a Decree to forbid any man to question whatever Archimedes should assert The Force of Gun-powder might be thought incredible if it were not so common amongst us Not to mention that the Indians took
* In Vit. Homer Plutarch as excellencies in Homer and he says they were usual in Prose as well as in Verse amongst the Antients Whatsoever Soloccisms or Improprieties of Speech are to be found in any part of the Scriptures the like have been observed †Vid. Dan. Heins Proleg ad exercit Sacr. in Homer Aeschylus Sophocles Pindar and Apollonius Rhodius by their several Scholiasts and in Thucydides by Dionysius Halicarnasseus and in Tully by * Dialog Cicuron Erasmus and others Xenophon is observed by †Apud Phot. cod cclxxix Helladius not to be always exact in point of Grammar which he ascribes to his Military Life and his conversation with strangers Many Soloecisms are found in the ancient Inscriptions and in Hyginus an Author as it is generally supposed of Augustus's age which are to be imputed rather to the custom of speech amongst the Vulgar than to the mistake of these Authors For in Languages so difficult as the Greek and Latin are it was impossible but that the common people must often make great mistakes which by degrees became customary and were the character of the * Vid. Schefferi Praefat. Munkeri Dissertat in Hyginum Low and Plebeian Style and in the Greek tongue they ascribed their Soloeâ—isms to the particular Dialect of the people among whom they were most in use The Stoicks who were the most numerous and flourishing Sect of Philosophers in the Primitive times of Christianity had little regard to the Rules of Grammar for they were cautioned by their Master Chrysippus not to be careful about such niceties and they are highly commended by a †Mer. Casaub in M. Antoâ—in lib. â— n. 14. great Critick for expressing their thoughts tho commonly with words very proper and significant yet in a style so free from all Affectation or Curiosity as cometh next to the Simplicity of the Holy Scriptures The design of Revelation is not to teach Words but Things and to express them in such words as may serve for that purpose and if an improper word or a soloecism may be more serviceable to that end it is beyond all exactness and propriety of Language The truth is it is a sign of a little Genius to be over-curious about words as Demosthenes intimated in his Reply to Aeschines telling him that the Fortunes of Greece did not depend upon a Criticism which Tully mentioning says it is * Facile est enim verbum aliquod ardens ut ita dicam notare idque restinctis jam animorum incendiis irridere Cic. Orator an easie matter to pitch upon a word spoken in the heat of discourse and in cool blood to make sport with it But this is at large treated of by Longinus and Seneca speaks excellently to this purpose †Cujuscunque orationem videris sollicitam politam scito animum quoque non minus esse pusillis occupatum Magnus ille remissius loquitur securius quaecunque dicit plus habent siduciae quam curae Senec. Epist cxv If you observe says he that a mans speech is too nice and critical be sure that he has a mind taken up with little things A man of a great mind speaks with the less caution and exactness whatsoever he says he is better assured of the matter of his discourse than to trouble himself much about words This is the reason that so many great Authors have afforded so much work for the Criticks to blame or to excuse them and very often to commend them for departing from the common forms The Old Testament has nothing of this nature but what for ought that can now be known was most proper in the Hebrew tongue whatever it may be in others And as to the New Testament it is penned in such words and in such construction of Grammar as might render it most useful not according to the Attick or any other dialect which was known to so few in comparison that it was confined as it were to one Country or known only to the Learned in others but in such Greek as was generally understood in the remote and numerous Nations where that Language was spoken For which reason so many expressions are taken from the Translation of the Septuagint which was so much in use amongst the Proselytes in all parts of the world In the Preface to the Book of Ecclesiasticus it is observed that the same things uttered in Hebrew and translated into another Tongue have not the same force in them and * Hieron ad Amos. v. 8. in Epist ad Galat. 3. 〈◊〉 St Jerom shews that there was a necessity of making use of such words as were first taken from the Heathen Fables in translating the Scriptures which had no affinity to them but when men speak or write they must do it so as to be understood unless they will do it to no purpose and therefore must take such words as are to be had and are intelligible to those for whose benefit they write and they must be contented too with such Grammatical construction as well as with such words as shall be found expedient to the end for which they write * Hieron in Galat. 1 2. Sometimes again it was necessary to frame new words to express the Propriety of the Hebrew Language as Tully has done in his Books of Philosophy to explain in Latin the terms of it in the Greek tongue And in all respects men must accommodate themselves to their subject and to the capacities of those for whom they undertake to discourse upon it II. Metaphors and Rhetorical Schemes or Figures of Speech Men differ as much in their forms and schemes of speaking as they do in their manners or customs or in their complexions and dispositions Every man has something peculiar in his way of expressing himself which is so easily distinguished by good Criticks from that of others that they seldom fail in it tho there can be no absolute certainty in things of this nature And †Phot. cod cclxv Photius observing that some Orations which pass under the name of Demosthenes were by reason of the difference of style ascribed by certain Criticks to other Authors makes this remark that he had often taken notice of a great resemblance in the style of Orations made by different Authors and of as great an unlikeness in the style of those made by the same man But the different character and manner of style in the several Countries and Nations of the world is much more easily discerned than it can be in particular men of the same Country Thr people of Caria Phrygia and Mysia were not at all polite and neat * Adsciverunt aptum suis auribus opimum quoddam tanquam adipatae dictionis genus Cic. Orator says Tully and therefore they loved a gross and slovenly kind of discourse which the Rhodians not far distant from them never approved of and the other Greeks liked it much less but the
the Greeks as the Scriptures mention the children of Israel and other Greek Authors say the children of the Physicians as the Scriptures say the children of the Bride-chamber and the children of Light * Grot. ad 4. Reg. 19.2 ad Ezech. initio Grotius compares Isaiah to Demosthenes a sublime but a most natural and judicious writer the same Author compares Ezekiel to Homer for the beauty and nobleness of his style †Pref. to Pindarick Odes and Notes upon Pind. Ode â—n Isai 34. Mr Cowley compares the Prophets especially Isaiah to Pindar but of Pindar he says that if a man should undertake to translate him word for word it would be thought that one mad man had translated another For which he gives this reason that we must consider in Pindar the great difference of time betwixt his Age and ours which changes us in Pictures at least the colours of Poetry the no less difference betwixt the Religions and Customs of our Countries and a thousand particularities of Places Persons and Manners which do but confusedly appear to our eyes at so great a distance and lastly we must consider that our ears are strangers to the Musick of his numbers which sometimes especially in Songs and Odes almost without any thing else makes an excellent Poet. And of David he observes that the best Translators have been so far from doing Honour or at least Justice to that Divine Poet that methinks says he they revile him worse than Shimei And Buchanan himself comes in his opinion no less short of David than his Country does of Judea Yet Isaiah and the râ—â—â— of the Prophets and the Psalms are translated into our Language word for word as far as it is possible for one Language to be thus render'd into another and notwithstanding all the differences of Time and Place and Customs and Persons no sensible man reads them in the English Tongue but he must acknowledge that their style with all these disadvantages is truly great and excellent Whereas * Quod sicui non videtur Linguae gratiam interpretatione mutari Homerum ad verbum exprimat in Latinum Plus aliquid dicam eundem in fuâ linguâ prosae verbis interpretetur videbit ordinem ridiculum Poetam eloquentissimum vix loquentem Hieron Praef. in Chron. Euseb there are none of the Heathen Authors that are so much esteemed which if they were literally translated as the Scriptures are would bear the reading but they would appear ridiculous and impossible to be understood For the Spirit and Genius and peculiar Idioms of most Tongues being so very different one from another and depending upon the Customs and Humours of the people of several Countries it was the evident care and providence of God to cause great part of the Scriptures tho written by so many different men and at such distant times and some Books of them in the earlier Ages of the World to be penned in such a language and style as is most natural and which without any want of Art exceeds the most artificial and studied Eloquence in sublime and noble thoughts and expressions and in all the beauties and ornaments of Speech and yet which in all the necessary points of Salvation is easie to be understood under all the disadvantages of a Verbal Translation by men of ordinary capacities who live so many Ages after The Prophesies of Isaiah cannot be read or heard or thought of without being moved by them with what Life then with what Zeal and Flame must they have been delivered And what a mighty Blessing was such a Prophet to his own Age and to all succeeding Generations Of Royal Blood and of a Style and Behaviour suitable to his Birth of Divine Virtues and of Divine Eloquence He declares things which were not to be fulfilled till many Ages afterwards as plainly as if he had seen them before his eyes and would make all others to see them he speaks of Christ as clearly as if with Simeon he had had his Saviour in his arms or with the Wise men had been kneeling down before him and presenting him with more precious Gifts than any they had to offer and describes his Passion as fully as if he had followed him through every part of it and having been Crucified with him had been just entring with him into Paradice If this be thought a Digression from my subject I hope it may easily be excused for who can speak of Isaiah without a Digression when men choose the food of Swine and trample upon Pearls as things of no value as if he and the other Prophets had always the hard fate to preach to the Rulers of Sodom and the People of Gomorrha But if the style of the Scriptures be not in all places alike excellent and exact let it be considered that 1. The same stile is not suitable to all subjects and the stile and dialect is different according to the difference of the matter or of the persons for whose use it was immediately designed What concerns the Assyrian Monarchy in the Prophet Daniel is in the Chaldee Tongue and what relates directly to the Jews is in the Hebrew Part of Ezra is in Chaldee being a relation of Matter of Fact contained in the Chaldee Chronicles and Jer. 10.11 is in the same Tongue that the Jews might reject the Idolatry of the Chaldeans in their Language and openly profess their own abhorrence of it And as upon these occasions the Language of Scripture is changed with respect to the subject and the persons concerned so the style must be sometimes altered upon the same account 2. Artificial strains of Rhetorick whereby the passions are moved to the utmost heighth were very necessary to gain a present point and carrry a Cause by a violent and sudden transport before Reason could interpose But Religion being to be propounded upon reasonable motives there could be no need of Rhetorick when the evidence of those Miracles by which it was established afforded so many other more certain and powerful means of perswasion The Scriptures are not written in the enticing words of mans wisdom but in truth and simplicity and therefore might well have been without any advantages of Eloquence as needing no such helps to recommend them to serious and impartial Minds And tho God has been pleased to condescend so far to the infirmities of men as to convey very much of his Revealed Will to us in such a style as for its own sake is highly to be esteemed and admired Yet it was fit that other parts of the Scriptures should have the bare force and evidence of truth only to convince men that it might appear that our Religion was propagated not by any Arts of humane Eloquence but by its own Worth and Excellency For Eloquence was not used where it would have been most necessary if any humane means could be so in asserting and propagating the Divine Truth In the propagation of the Gospel all the
prejudice of the end and design of a Revelation and therefore they come under the number of such Accidents as God cannot be obliged in his providence to prevent But the Bible could not without the signal providence of God have been preserved for so many ages under so many changes and revolutions which the Wisdom of God for reasons elsewhere observed saw fit to permit much less could it have escaped with so inconsiderable variations unless it has been secured by a particular providence from those corruptions and alterations which are so frequent in Humane Writings CHAP. VI. Of the difficulties in Chronology in the Holy Scriptures CHronology is the part of Learning which is most nice and difficult to be exactly adjusted because it depends upon so many several Circumstances and comprehends so great a variety of affairs in all Ages and Nations and how punctually soever the accountâ— of time be set down at first yet the least alterations in one word or letter may cause a great difference in Copies and the difference of Epoches in the computations of differenâ— Countreys especially at great distances oâ— time as well as place is such that theâ— exactest Chronology may easily be mistaken and may be further entangled and perplext by those who endeavour to rectify what they think amiss for that which was exact at firâ—â— is often made faulty by him who thought it so before But I suppose that no material exception will lye against the Scripture upon the acconâ—â— of any difficulties in Chronology if those twâ— things be made out I. That differences in Chronology do not infer uncertainty in the matters of fact themselves II. That differences in Chronology do not imply that there was any Chronological mistake made by the Penmen of the Holy Scriptures but that they have been occasioned by the mistakes of Transcribers or of Expositors I. Differences in Chronology do not infer uncertainty in the matters of fact themselves Because the point of time is but one circumstance and that easily mistaken by a thousand accidents and there may be many other circumstances so particular and so well attested as to give sufficient evidence to the truth of things related notwithstanding any uncertainty in the circumstance of Time For which reason * Plut. i Solon Plutarch did not reject the Relation of a discourse that past between Solon and Craesus tho he could not answer the objections brought from Chronology to prove it feign'd because he found it delivered by good Authors and saw nothing improbable in it but every thing very likely and suitable to Solon's temper and he thought it unreasonable to reject a matter of fact which had no other objection against it but some difficulties in Chronology when says he innumerable persons have endeavoured to rectify the Chronological Canons but could never be able to this day to reconcile the differing opinions The uncertainty of Chronology is a general complaint made by the best Historians and therefore if this objection have any weight it must invalidate the Authority of all History A very learned and accurate Author has shewn the uncertainty in Chronology †Mr Milner 's Defence of A. Bishop Usher during the first Monarchy both in respect of Kingdoms viz. the Kingdom of Assyria itself and the Kingdoms contemporary with it and of Persons and Occurrences But doth this prove that there never were any such Kingdoms nor any such Persons and Occurrences It is uncertain when the City of Rome was first built for * Salust Bell. Catalin Salust and others contrary to the common opinion that it was founded by Romulus have ascribed the foundation of it to the Trojans And †Plutarch in Romulo those who make Romulus the Founder yet are at a strange disagreement concerning the Parents of Romulus and the time of his Birth Some have called his Mothers name Ilia some Rhea some Silvia others as Livy Rhea Silvia yet still there is a further difference about the time of the foundation of the City which has occasioned great disputes among Chronologers What then must follow from hence Why if the uncertainty of the time when any Fact was done imply the uncertainty of the Fact itself we must fairly conclude that it is uncertain whether Rome was ever built at all or at least we must with * Temporar Chron. Demonst lib. iii. Temporarius believe that there never was any such man as Romulus The Copies of Diogines Laertius place the Time of Epicurus's Death 9 years before he was born as * Menag observ in Diog. Laert Menagius has observed but the enemies of Religion have too great a value for Epicurus to give him up for that Reason and to conclude that there never was such a man But it is yet more strange that the time of so late and so remarkable a thing as the taking of Constantinople by the Turks should be placed by some a year sooner than by others This was an Action known and discoursed of throughout all Europe and is a pregnant Instance how little Reason there is to dispute the certainty of a Thing from any uncertainty of Time if other Circumstances concur to assure us of the Truth of it The Chronologers are not a little ashamed says Mr Gregory that they should not be able to satisfy us Jo. Greg. de Aeris Epochis c. 3. concerning so late and famous a calamity as the Siege of Constantinople by Mahumed the Second II. The differences in Chronology do not imply that there was any Chronological mistake made by the Pen-men of the Holy Scriptures but they arise from the mistakes of Transcribers or Expositors To be convinced of this we need only reflect a little upon some of those things which are apt to cause mistakes in the Computations of Chronology and it will soon appear how unreasonable it is to imagin that no Book can be of Divine Inspiration which is not sitted to secure men from the errors which it is natural for them to commit in things of that intricacy I. Many difficulties in Chronology are occasioned by not observing that that which had been said before in the general is afterwards resumed and delivered in the particulars contained under it For the total summ of any term of years being set down first before the particulars have been insisted upon and explained has led some into mistakes by supposing that the particulars afterwards mentioned were not to be comprehended in it but to be reckoned apart as if they had happened afterwards in order of Time because they are last related in the course of the History Thus Gen. xi 26. it is said that Terah lived seventy years and begat Abram and vers 32. that the days of Terah were two hundred and five years and Terah died in Haran But Gen. xii 4. it is written that Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran which is inconsistent if we suppose that Abram lived in Haran till the
Vers 13. The Sun stood still or was silent and the Moon staid where the Word applied to the Moon signifies properly to stay or stand still but the Word used concerning the Sun is Metaphorical as if it had been purposely so ordered because the Moon moves but the Sun only seems to do so which is further confirmed by the following part of the same Verse where in the Citation from the Book of Jasher the same Word is used of the Sun which was before used of the Moon signifying that the Sun properly stood still For the Book of Jasher is cited in its own words but when Joshâ—a who wrote by Inspiration set down the words of the Holy Spirit he exprest the thing so that it cannot be from thence inferr'd that the Sun must be supposed to move but rather the contrary tho' immediately after in a Citation from another Book he inserts the Expression of an Author who had followed the vulgar Opinion III. Gen. i. 6. And God said let there be a Firmament in the midst of the Waters The Word translated Firmament is in the Margin rendred Expansion by which seems to be meant this Orb in which the Earth is placed and by the Waters above the Firmament or Expansion may be meant the Waters beyond the Circumference of our Orb and belonging to the Planets and by the Waters under the Firmament may be understood the Waters belonging to the Earth and contain'd within its Expansion For at first all was one confused Heap of Waters without any Distinction of Orbs the Mass of Waters being extended throughout before the several Orbs were appointed but then the Waters belonging to each Orb were caused to subside towards their several Centers till they being gathered together in their proper Channels and Receptacles the dry Land appeared I confess I once thought this had been only an Explication of my own but I have since found that it is of equal Date with the Modern Philosophy and that it has likewise been lately used by others Indeed it seems to be so easy an Exposition that I believe it would come into most Mens Minds who would consider how this Text may be explain'd according to the new Philosophy Others suppose the Firmament to signify the Region of the Air and by the Waters above the Firmament they understand the Vapours contained in the Clouds When he uttereth his Voice there is a Multitude of Waters in the Heavens and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the Earth Jer. x. 13. IV. The Sun and Moon are called Two great Lights Gen. i. 16. But this doth not imply that either of them is greater than the fixt Stars which are not spoken of till the latter end of the Verse But the Sun is the great Light that rules the day and the Moon the great Light that rules the Night the Moon being in respect of the Light which she gives us bigger than any fixt Star for She gives us more Light than they do in some sense however and with respect to us the Moon is the greater Light tho' the Stars are the greater Luminous Bodies Consider this Luminary as it concerns us and it is in that conception greater than the biggest Star Yet the Sun and the Moon are not said to be greater Lights than the fixt Stars nor as great as they are But are only called great Lights which they certainly are tho' every Star should be bigger than either of them The Stars are plainly spoken of by themselves and apart from the Sun and Moon without any comparison or relation to them And God made two great Lights the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser Light to rule the Night He made the Stars also That is besides the two great Lights which are the Sun and Moon He made the Stars which are distinguished from these and not reckoned with them but are spoken of by way of Parenthesis The Stars being of another Division of Celestial Bodies and belonging to other Orbs are mentioned here distinctly and not with any comparison to the Sun and Moon But will any Man deny that the Sun and Moon are great Lights because the Stars are great Lights too and as big perhaps as the Sun and bigger than the Moon There are in Europe many great Cities and there are great Cities likewise in other parts of the World Doth therefore he that says there are great Cities in Europe to Rule the Neighbouring Countries and Cities in other parts of the World also say That the Cities of Europe are greater than any Cities in the rest of the World Or if any one should say God made four great Rivers to Water Paradise and Rivers in other places also would he thereby affirm that the Rivers of Paradise were larger than all the Rivers in the World besides V. 1 Sam. ii 8. We read of the Pillars of the Earth but this is spoken Metaphorically and by Pillars of the Earth may be meant the Power of the Princes of the World mentioned but just before In the like sense it is said Psal lxxv 3. The Earth and all the Inhabitants thereof are dissolved I bear up the Pillars of it We find mention made of the Pillars of the Earth Job ix 6. which is to be understood of the Earth's unmoveable stability (x) Colamnas hoc loco pro stabilitate terrae intelligamus quam Deuâ—super semeâ— ipsamiâ—â—anbilissimâ— mole â—daviâ— St. Hierâ—â— ad Job ix 6â— as St. Jerom observes and so the other Texts may likewise be understood by the Pillars of the Heavens Job xxvi 11. we are to understand that Power which supports and upholds them VI. Job xxxvii 18. The Sky is said to be strong and as a Molten Looking-glass that is to be durable and resembling a Molten Looking-glass But however they be taken these are the Words of Elihu And Job's Friends sinned in what they charged him withal and therefore he may be supposed to make so innocent a mistake as to think the Heavens solid or at least he as well as the rest might speak the Language of those that did think so VII Job speaks strictly according to Philosophy when he saith that God hangeth the Earth upon Nothing Job xxvi 7. And we read Psal xxiv 2. That the Lord hath founded the Earth upon the Seas and established it upon the Floods and Psal Civ 5. that he hath laid the Foundations of the Earth that it should not be removed for ever All which is as exactly as any Philosopher can speak For the Foundation of a pendulous Globe can be nothing but its Center upon which all the parts lean and are supported thereby And the Waters continually flowing thro' the Bowels and Concavities of the Earth from the depths of the Sea by a constant Course and Circulation constitute an Abyss of Waters in the lowermost parts of the Earth So that with great Propriety of Speech the Terraqueous Globe is said to hang upon nothing and the
in so few Generations of Men supposing it had ever been known to Adam's Posterity If it were never known but the Relation of it were always conveyed down in Metaphor and Allegory then this Allegory must pass for Historical Truth in those Ages and the Reason why it was delivered to them in Allegory must be because that manner of delivering it was most suitable to that Age and most credible and every way most proper and if it were most fitting that it should be thought to have happened so this is a good Argument that it did really happen so since there is nothing hinders but it might so have happened and it was most probable at least to the first Ages of the World that it did so come to pass or else it would not have been requisite to relate it in this manner 3. The Fall of our First Parents brought a Curse upon their Posterity And here it must be acknowledg'd that God may bestow his infinite Grace and Mercies upon what Terms he pleaseth and therefore he might ordain that the Happiness or Unhappiness of their Posterity should depend upon the Obedience or Disobedience of our First Parents 1. God might ordain that the Condition of their Posterity in this World should depend upon it so that they should have been immortal upon their Obedience and should become mortal upon their Disobedience that they should be made subject to Cares and Labours to Diseases and Dangers by reason of the Fall of our First Parents from which otherwise they should have been exempt This is esteem'd just in all Governments amongst Men that Children should be reduced to Poverty and Disgrace by the Fault of their Parents from whom Riches and Honour were to have descended upon them And this way of Proceeding is just both in Humane Laws and in the Dispensations of Providence because God and our Country have an antecedent Right and Interest in us superior to any Man 's private Title or Welfare and this they may justly make use of to restrain Men from those Crimes out of Love and Concern for their Posterity from which no consideration of themselves could have with held them The Experience of the World has found this to be the most effectual Remedy with many Men and therefore the wisest and justest Governments have made use of it and the most wise and just God might think fit to deal in this manner with our First Parents by representing to them that the Happiness or Misery of their Posterity depended upon their Good or ill Behaviour in this one Instance of their Duty We daily see that Children commonly inherit the Diseases of their Parents and an extravagant and vicious Father leaves his Son Heir to nothing but the Name and Shadow perhaps of a Great Family with an infirm and sickly Constitution and little or nothing to support and relieve it Now if these Miseries and Calamities had been entail'd upon all the Race of Mankind from Adam the thing would have been the same in the Nature and Justice of it for Numbers cannot alter the Nature of Things as it is now when they descend upon some only from their immediate Parents And therefore it must be much rather just that the Fall of our First Parents should make their whole Race only liable to such Calamities but not involve All necessarily in them 2. The Communications of God's Grace and the Favours and Blessings of his more immediate Presence might depend upon the Behaviour of the First Parents of Mankind He might send them out of Paradise and might withdraw his free and usual Communications of himself from them and their Posterity upon this Forfeiture by their Disobedience 3. The Proneness which we cannot but observe in our selves to Sin might proceed from hence We daily see and feel the corruption of our Nature by whatsoever means we became subject to it So that it is in vain to object that it would be unjust that all Mankind should be involv'd in Adam's Sin For the Condition which we are in is matter of Fact of which no man doth or can doubt The Question is only how we come into this Condition and since we are born in it and it is our Natural and Hereditary evil the Justice and Goodness of God is cleared and vindicated by assigning a Cause for it from the Imputations of such as must acknowledge the same corruption of Nature but will allow no Cause or Reason for it except the arbitrary Will and Pleasure of the Creator The Children of vicious Parents are generally most enclin'd to Vice and if Men may partake of the evil Dispositions and Inclinations of their more immediate Parents why might not the Corruption of the Humane Nature in our First Parents descend upon all their Posterity 4. The Happiness of Men in the next Life might depend upon the Obedience of our First Parents For when God proposed to bestow upon Men Rewards of Glory and Happiness which far surpass any Pretences of Desert or Claim of Right that they in a State of Righteousness and Innocency could have been able to make since the Promises were so great and the Happiness so far exceeding any thing to which Men could pretend a Right we must be very unreasonable unless we will confess that God might bestow his own Gifts upon his own Terms He might therefore debar Men from Heaven upon the Transgression oâ— our First Parents because the Promise of Heaven was â—n act of his free Bounty For no Man can pretend that an Innocent Creature which preserves its Integrity must for that Reason be advanced to the unspeakable Joys of Heaven No Creature can be profitable to his Maker and an unprofitable Servant can merit no such Reward And what God was not obliged to bestow tho' Men continued in the State of Innocency he might with all the Justice and Reason in the World refuse when Men became divested of their Innocency and thereby forfeited all pretences to that Happiness which was promised upon condition that our First Parents had continued in their Primitive and Original State of Righteousness 5. God might ordain that all Men should become liable to Eternal Misery by the Fall of our First Parents and that those who would not accept of Means appointed of Salvation by Faith in Christ to rescue them from it should perish eternally We no sooner read of the Fall of Man but Christ is forthwith promised even before the Curse was denounced upon Adam and Eve for their Offence the Seed of the Woman is immediately promised to bruise the Sepents Head and afterwards the Judgment is denounced first upon Eve and then upon Adam for their Transgression and the Seed of the Womans bruising the Serpent's Head is to be understood of Victory over our Spiritual Enemies and that Conquest which should be obtained over Death and Hell by Christ For the Temporal Punishment which was to befall Adam and Eve and their Posterity is afterwards added and therefore this Promise
quoque latent nos Historiae annales temporum illorum Quod si autem illa omniaque particularia quae in illis temporibus acciderunt nobis essent cognita multarum quoque in lege divinâ rerum particularium rationes scire possemus Maimon More Nevoch Part 3. c. â—â— People of Israel and of the Nations round about them and the several sorts of Idolatry practised amongst the Aegyptians and Canaanites must needs render the particular occasions and grounds of those Laws which were made to restrain them from Idolatry difficult to be understood by all who are unacquainted with the Rites and Idolatrous Worship of those Nations But of those Laws it is enough for ordinary Readers to know that they had respect to the Idolatries then practised amongst the bordering Nations and this the Scripture often tells us Lev. xviii 3. xx 23 24 25. Deut. xii 30 31. xiv 1 2. xviii 9. (x) Orig. contra Cels lib. iv Origen has observed that those Beasts were by the Law of Moses declared to be unclean by which the Aegyptians and other Heathen Nations were wont to make their Divinations and that most besides were allow'd of as clean And other Particulars have been made out by Learned Men from the best Remains of Antiquity And as the Jews were taught to look upon the Idolatrous Nations as polluted and had Laws given them purposely to hinder them from too dangerous a freedom and familiarity with Idolaters so these Laws might be easily practised when they lived within themselves separated from other People but are now become unpracticable since they are dispersed amongst all Nations and the Laws which were adapted to the State and Circumstances of the Jewish Nation and Government must be out of Date since the Dissolution of their Government and the Dispersion of the whole People into other Countries These Laws may well seem strange now to us when they pretend to practise them but this ought to be attributed not to the Laws themselves but to their Adherence to them when the Obligation to observe them is so long since expired and when the People of the Jews are in a condition in which many of their Laws cannot and others were never designed to be observed Some (x) Gros. ad Act. x. 15. of their Rabbins have held that things forbidden by the Law might be eaten by them out of the Land of Judea and the Reason why Daniel refused to Eat of the King's Meat and Drink of his Wine was because it was the Custom of (e) Grâ—t ad Dan. i. 8. Casaub ad Athenâ— lib. 1. c. 11. Antient Times and particularly in those Countries to conscerate all which they did either Eat or Drink to their Gods by putting part of it on the Altar or casting it into the Fire so that to Eat of such Meats or to Drink of such Wine had been to partake of things offered to Idols And in the Babylonish Captivity they were not under so great Difficulties in the Observation of the Laws concerning Clean and Unclean Meats as they have lain under since their total and final Dispersion for the Favour which God gave them with the Heathens amongst whom they lived and the Multitudes which were carried away and lived together afforded them the conveniency of following their own Rites and Customs in eating such Meats only as were not forbidden or defiled And then they were restrained from Idolatry by these Abstinencies and they became the more remarkable in the Eyes of the Heathens and their wonderful Zeal for their Religion even in the smallest matters was apt to make those among whom they were Captives the more earnest to enquire into the greater and more substantial and excellent Things of their Law And these were Reasons which were worth their submitting to great Inconveniencies by adhering to their legal Observances in other Countries But now these and all other Reasons are ceased and the Case is altered since they are a despised People dispersed in small Parties over the face of the whole Earth and therefore the Abstinencies of the Jews are apt to be look'd upon as absurd by those with whom they converse that will not be at the pains to consider the Grounds upon which they were at first instituted and that they are no longer Practicable nor designed to be practised by their Original Institution 2. Circumcision Purifications Abstinencies Sacrifices and other Rites enjoyned by the Law of Moses were not required for their own sake or for any real Vertue and Efficacy supposed to be in the things themselves to recommend Men to God's Favour but were Instituted to signify the inward Purity and Integrity of the Heart and by outward observances and sensible Things to lead a Carnal and sensual People to the Knowledge and Practice of things Spiritual The Children of Israel are sometimes said to be Sanctified that is to be separated and set apart for God's Honour and Service by these Rites and Ceremonies both because they were hereby distinguished from other Nations and because this Ritual Worship was appointed as a Means to lead them to internal Sanctity and Holiness of Mind and to procure in them an Awe and Reverence of that Majesty by whose Commandment it was to be observed Circumcision was appointed as a Federal Rite and as a Token and Pledge of the Covenant between God and Abraham and his seed after him of which the Messias was to be born And as it was a Sacrament of the Covenant between God and the People of Israel so it had Respect to the Nations whom they were to root out these Nations were notorious for the Sins of the Flesh Lev. xviii 24. and there is a peculiar significancy in the Rite of Circumcision of the Restraint and Excision of Carnal Lusts It was declared by Moses himself to signify the Circumcision of the Heart Lev. xxvi 41. Deutr. x. 16. xxx 6. and likewise by the Prophets Jer. iv 4. vi 10. Ezek. xliv 7. They expound Circumcision in a Mystical and Spiritual Sense and according to this notion of Circumcision St. Paul maintains that the true Circumcision is among the Christians whereof the Jewish Circumcision of the Flesh was but a Figure Rom. ii 28. Phil. iii. 3. The Pardon of Sin upon Repentance is exprest in Scripture by cleansing and purifying Psal xix 12. li. 2. Isai i. 16. Jer. iv 14. Ezek. xxxvi 25 26. by which is denoted to us that outward cleansing of the Flesh design'd to put Men in mind of the inward Purification and Cleansing from Sin and from Unrighteousness because this defiles the Soul and makes it loathsome in God's Sight 2 Cor. vii i. Jam. iv 8. Abstinency from things in a Legal Account Common and Vnclean was appointed to restrain Men by Symbolical Instructions from Sin which pollutes the Mind and the Moral (c) Quid eâ—go est In Animalibus mores depinguuntur humani Actus Voluntates in Animalibus per legem quasi quoddam
that Tribe was not always in Chief Power and even under Herod who was an Idumean it had its Title from Judah as the Roman Empire retain'd its old Denomination when divers of the Emperours were not Romans by Birth But when the Messiah was come the Sceptre was to depart from Judah and there were no more to be any Law in force amongst that People who had been so long known under that Denomination which they receiv'd from him And this Prophecy of Jacob in which he foretels the Condition of the several Tribes has a plain Reference to the Promised Land and is to be understood of the Jewish Government in the Land of Canaan for he there describes the Borders of it From the time that they were in Possession of that Land the People of the Jews never had lost all their Right and Title to it before the coming of Christ but still retain'd their Right during their Abode in Babylon and were assur'd that they should again be put in Possession after a Captivity of seventy Years and in Token of this Jeremiah purchased a Field of Hanameel his Uncle's Son and subscribed and sealed the Wriings and took Witnesses and paid down the Money publickly before all the Jews that sat in the Court of the Prison and the Evidences were to be kept in an Earthen Vessel For thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Houses and Fields and Vineyards shall be possest again in this Land Jer. xxxii 14. But when the time of Jacob's Prophecy was expir'd and Shiloh was come they were driven out never to be restor'd again The Romans the most Generous of any People dealt so hardly with no other Nation as with the Jews who yet had to do with one of the most merciful Princes that stands upon Record in History If Tiberius or Caligula or Nero had destroyed them it might have been ascrib'd to the Cruelty of their Temper but when Titus who endeavour'd to save them was by their own Obstinacy forc'd upon their Destruction after they had by their Dissentions made themselves a Prey to him there was the visible Hand of God in it as Josephus often confesses and as Titus himself declar'd when he beheld the Towers and Fortifications after the City was taken If they could have agreed either in their own Defence or in any Terms of Submission to him they would have been far from suffering in that Extremity When Pompey and Crassus entred Jerusalem the time of its Destruction was not yet come but it was reserv'd to Titus whose peculiar Character it was that he oblig'd all Men and who was stil'd the Love and Delight of Mankind unwillingly to do that which neither Pompey nor Crassus would do It is well urg'd by a (k) Secundum scriptum Judaei apud Limbroch Learned Jew tho' he makes a wrong Inference from it Did the same thing says he befall any other People Did the Romans drive the Germans the Britains the Gauls the Spaniards the Greeks or the Asiatick Nations into Captivity and disperse them thro'-out all Parts of the World They rather endeavour'd to preserve them that their several Countries might not want Inhabitants And tho' the Jews have been generally observ'd to have great Riches in the Nations where they live they have never been able by any power or interest to get themselves Re-establish'd in their Country and Government but have been disappointed as often as they have attempted it tho' with never so much probability of success So evident it is by the experience of so many Ages that however it fares with particular persons of that Nation yet they never are to be united again as a Community or Body of People to live under their ancient Laws according to the Mosaical Constitution They have no City no Government nor ever are to have any and therefore those Laws can now no longer be in force which suppose the continuance of their Government Their Genealogies are lost upon which the distinction of their Tribes and Families and the Succession of their Priesthood did depend So that they are without an Altar without a Priest without a Sacrifice and without any possibility of knowing the Descent and Lineage of their Messiah whom they expect to come and by consequence cannot know him if he should come having no way to distinguish that Tribe and Family of which the Prophecies declare the Messiah was to be In the Babylonian Captivity there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who kept up Order and Government amongst them and that besides was at the most but a suspension of their Power it was no utter extirpation of all Rule and Authority their Genealogies were preserved and the distinction of their Tribes and Families known their deliverance out of that Captivity with the time and manner of it and the very Name of their Deliverer was foretold Isa xliv 28. Jer. xxv 12. Dan. ix 2. And in that Captivity they had Prophets to direct and support them under their affliction and give them assurance of a Restoration but now they do not so much as pretend to have any The Deliverance of the Israelites out of the Aegyptian Bondage was likewise foretold with the punctual time of it Gen. xv 13 14. And in general God declares that when at any time for their Sins they were led into Captivity and dispersed among the Heathens tho' they were driven unto the utmost part of Heaven yet upon their Repentance he would turn their Captivity and have compassion upon them and would return and gather them from all the Nations whither he had scattered them Deut. xxx 2 3. Neh. i. 8 9. And this Promise must have been in force as long as their Law and Constitution lasted and could have no limitation but the final and determined period of it The time for the duration of the Jewish Law and Government being expired all promises made to them as a distinct People and Nation must be expired with it whereas if their Law were still in force the promise of their being restored to their Land and Government would undoubtedly before this time have been fulfilled to them For besides that their Sins at their return from their Captivity in Babylon were very great it cannot be supposed that for so many Ages their Sins should hinder that a Remnant at least should not be restored if the Jewish Oeconomy had not received its final period in the destruction of their City and Nation (l) Tertul. adv Judaeos c. 13. Redde statum Judaeae quem Christus inve niat alium contende venire This which was a good Argument in Tertullian's time is improved still in every Age since For if the State of the Jewish Nation was not such then as their Messiah was to find at his coming there is the less cause for them after so long time to hope that they shall ever be restored to such a Condition as to have any reason to expect him III. After the coming of the
into the World to manifest himself by working them And that this was the Reason why our Saviour did sometimes require Faith as a Qualification in them who came to be healed and at other times refused to work his Miracles before Unbelievers will be evident if we consider that 1. Christ had given undeniable proof of his Miraculous Power in many Instances before he required Faith as a Condition in such as came to him to see his Miracles and to receive the benefit of them When the Jews demanded a Sign of our Saviour Joh. ii 18. he had wrought before them the greatest of all his Miracles in St. (r) Comment in Matt. xxi 15. Jerom's Judgment by casting the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple But they were so unreasonable as upon this very account to ask for another Miracle what Sign shewest thou unto us seeing that thou doest these things Whereupon our Saviour signifies to them that he would rise again from the Dead and this was no refusal but only a short delay of his working other Miracles for at that very Passover when he was in Jerusalem in the Feast-day many believed in his Name when they saw the Miracles which he did And then the first time we find Faith required as a Disposition or Preparation in Men to have Miracles wrought for their Cure or their Conviction is Matt. xiii 58. Mark vi 5. besides the rejecting of the Scribes and Pharisees Matt. xii 38. And before the time to which these Texts have Relation Christ had Cured all manner of Diseases and cast out many Devils and his Fame was spread abroad throughout all the Region round about Galilee and even throughout all Syria Matt. iv 23 24. Mark i. 28. He had Cured the Centurion's Servant at a distance and had restored to Life the Daughter of Jairus a Ruler of the Synagogue Where it may be observed that he commended the Faith of the Centurion tho' the Cure was wrought upon his Servant that he Exhorted the Father not to be afraid but to believe when his Fear or Faith could have no influence upon his dead Daughter He had cast out a Legion of Devils at once and permitted them to enter into the Herd of Swine to convince even the Sadducees if any thing could convince them that they were Evil Spirits which he had cast out Mat. viii 13. Mark v. 9 22. And when our Saviour's Miraculous Power had thus manifested it self upon all sorts of Persons upon the Absent upon the Dead and upon others who could neither hope for nor desire relief of him and this in the sight of many who were still Unbelievers and of some who charged him with casting out Devils by Beelzebub Matt. xii 24. Luke xi 15. it was highly reasonable that he should afterwards require a Belief of what he had already done and was again able to do before he would extend his Healing Power towards Men and that he should work no new Miracles for the Conviction of such as disregarded and disbelieved all that he had done before It doth not appear that Christ ever required Faith of any before his working of a Miracle who had not already seen him work Miracles unless it were of his own Country-men and of some who came to be healed His Country-Men by their Astonishment at his Doctrin and his mighty Works seem to shew that they had no Experience of them before but that they were unknown at least to the generality of them any otherwise than by Report but there was a peculiar Case as I shall presently prove Those who came to him with no cavilling design but with a desire and expectation of help from him cannot be supposed to doubt of his Power to do that for them which they had seen him do for others but many applied themselves to him upon the common Report and Fame of his miraculous Works and it was requisite that these should believe what they had heard so well attested if they would receive that Benefit which they besought of him But as to others it cannot be proved that Christ did ever in order to his working a Miracle require Faith of them who had never seen him work any Miracle before though if he had done it there might have been sufficient Reason for it But all besides in whom the want of Faith is at any time alleged as the Cause why they had no Miracle wrought upon their Account in order to their Conviction had in all probability seen Miracles wrought by him before which they would not believe and that was Reason enough why no more should be wrought for them to be despised as the former had been Or however our Saviour's Miracles were so publickly and frequently wrought that they might have seen them either before or afterwards though they were not done purposely for them when they required it Those of whom Christ at any time required Faith before he would work Miracles were either such as had some malicious and captious Prejudice against him or such as came to be cured of their Diseases and Infirmities 1. As for the Captious and Malicious there was great Reason why they should be rejected and no Miracles should be wrought for them We read that he did not many mighty works in his own Country because of their Unbelief Matth. xiii 58. But though he did not many mighty Works there yet he did some which indeed were not many in comparison of what he did in other Places And there was a particular Reason why he did no more there because it was his own Country and they upbraided him with his mean Birth and Education whereupon Jesus seeing them offended in him said unto them A Prophet is not without Honour save in his own Country and in his own House and so as it immediately follows he did not many mighty Works there because of their Unbelief He had done many wonderful Works in the adjacent Countries and his Fame was spread throughout all Galilee but he who knew the Hearts of all Men (x) Non quod etiam illis incredulis facere non potuerit virtutes multas sed ne multas faciens virtutes eives incredulos condemnaret Hiet. ad loc saw how unsuccessful all his Works would be upon his own unhappy Country-Men who had been so little moved with what they had heard of him and with what many of them probably had seen him do in other Places that they only derided and vilified him And he who had so tender a Compassion for all Mankind and with great Affection wept over Jerusalem could not but have such a Concern for his own Country as to refrain the working of those Miracles which he had otherwise designed foreseeing that they would only serve to aggravate their Guilt and encrease their Damnation till by his Resurrection he should give an undeniable Evidence of his Divine Power and then should send his Disciples among them after his Ascension to whom they would have greater
unbelief the evil Spirit was cast out of his Son Mark ix 23.24 The End and Design of Christ's Miracles required that those who were Cured by him should believe in him For they were wrought with a design to convince Men that he was the Son of God and that he was come not so much to Cure their Bodies as to save their Souls and he forgave their Sins at the same time that he healed them of their Diseases Mark ii 5. And since Faith is so necessary a Doctrine of the Gospel it was as requisite that Christ should teach this as any other Doctrine But how could he do it more properly and more effectually than by requiring Faith in those who came to be healed If they would partake of his Mercy they must qualifie themselves for it by believing that he was the great Prophet and Messias who was then so much expected and of whom it was foretold that he should make the Blind to see and the Lame to walk and the Deaf to hear c. Luke vii 22. Isa xxxv 5. And unless their Bodily Cure did conduce to the Cure of their Souls by Faith and Repentance it would be but ill bestowed upon them and therefore with great Reason might be denied them And upon this Account we find our Blessed Saviour both requiring Faith in some and rewarding it in others to whom his miraculous Power was extended Luke viii 48. xviii 42. And St. Paul perceiving that the Cripple at Lystra had Faith to be healed immediately healed him without being ask'd to do it Acts xiv 9. 2. Faith in the Miracles of Christ is required of Men in all Ages of the World though Miracles are ceased and if this be Reasonable now it could not but be fitting then that those who came to Christ should believe in him for the sake of the Miracles which they had been certified that he had done upon others For Miracles when they are fully attested are as sufficient a Ground of Faith as if we had seen them done and to manifest that they are so our Saviour might require Belief in his former Miracles of those who expected any Advantage from such as they desired him to do If they would give no Credit to the Miracles which were so notorious and so abundantly testified by Multitudes who saw them done how should others believe in Times to come when no more Miracles should be wrought for the Conviction of Unbelievers Might no Man be required to believe unless he saw the Miracles himself Then how should the the Church subsist in future Ages when Miracles would be no longer wrought but were for great Reasons to be with-held We must now believe upon the Account of the Miracles which were then done and why therefore should they not be required to believe upon the Account of them who lived at the very Time and in the same Country where they were wrought though they had never seen them Our Saviour in these Instances might introduce that Method and establish the Evidence and Certainty of those Means and Motives whereby Faith was to be produced in Men of all succeeding Ages and might hereby signifie and declare that he requires the same Faith of us from the Testimony of others that he would do if we had seen and experienced his miraculous Power our selves CHAP. XXIX Of the Ceasing of Prophecies and Miracles PRophecies are generally of more Concernment and afford greater Evidence and Conviction in future Ages than when they were first delivered For it is not the Delivery but the Accomplishment of Prophecies which gives Evidence to the Truth of any Doctrin The Events of Things in the Accomplishment of Prophecies are a standing Argument to all Ages and the length of Time adds to its Force and Efficacy and therefore when all that God saw requisite to be foretold is deliver'd to us in the Scriptures there can no longer be any need of New Prophecies which would be of less Authority than the ancient ones inasmuch as their Antiquity is the thing chiefly to be regarded in Prophecies For if to foretel Things to come be an Argument of a Divine Prescience the longer Things are foretold before they come to pass the better must the Argument needs be He therefore that requires New Prophecies to confirm the Old little considers the Nature of Prophecies and wherein the Evidence and Use of them lies but in great Wisdom and Caution will give no Credit to the best Evidence unless there were something less evident to prove it by The chief Enquiry then seems to be concerning the Cessation of Miracles but from what has been elsewhere said the Reason may appear why the miraculous Power which the Apostles received by the descent of the Holy Ghost was not to be of perpetual continuance in the Church but was to cease in future Ages For the Cause and End of the Gift of Miracles bestowed upon the Apostles was to make them capable of being Witnesses to Christ and when the Gospel of Christ was sufficiently testified there could be no longer need of such a Power which was given to enable Men to bear Testimony to it For what is once effectually proved by sufficient Witnesses is for ever proved and needs no after Evidence if this Proof be preserved and transmitted down to Posterity The Power of Miracles continued till the Gospel had been Preached not only in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria but unto the utmost Parts of the Earth which was the declared Intention of our Saviour in bestowing it Acts i. 8. And when the Gospel had stood at the Tryals and conquered all the Opposition that could be made against it by Jews and Heathens and Apostates themselves when Miracles had been wrought for several Ages before all sorts of Men upon all Occasions and had extorted a Confession from the Devils themselves of the Divine Power by which they were wrought when the Books of the Apostles and Evangelists in which these Miracles are Recorded had been dispersed in all Nations and Languages so that it was impossible that the Memory of them should be lost whence once the Gospel was thus divulged and attested to the World it could not be necessary that this miraculous Power should be any longer continued Because this is the only Reason and Design why Miracles should be wrought to awaken Mens Attention and prepare them for the Reception of the Doctrin which is revealed and convince them of the Truth of it If then it be enquired Why the miraculous Gifts which were at first bestow'd upon the Church were not continued to it in all succeeding Ages The plain Answer is Because this Power was bestowed for the Establishment of the Christian Religion in the World by convincing Men of its Truth and Authority and therefore when a sufficient Evidence had been given in all Parts of the World of the Divine Authority of that Religion upon the Account whereof these Gifts were bestowed the Reason for the bestowing
and Aids of Grace to avoid the Punishments and are as earnestly invited and as sufficiently enabled to obtain the Rewards God hath no pleasure in the Death of the Wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live as he solemnly and with an Oath declares by his Prophet Ezekiel xxxiii 11. It is His principal Intention and Desire that all Men should be saved He has proclaimed Himself to be the Lord The Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping Mercy for Thousands forgiving Iniquity and Transgression and Sin but then it is added that he will by no means clear the guilty that is the obstinate and impenitent Sinner Exod. xxxiv 6 7. He exhorts he invites he promises he threatens he promises eternal Happiness and threatens eternal Misery to give all the Discouragement to Vice and all the Enducement to Religion and Vertue which is possible Last of all he has sent his Son to instruct us in our Duty and to confirm all this to us and to purchase our Redemption with his own Blood God deals with Men in the plainest and most condescending manner He lays their Duty before them with the Rewards and Punishments annex'd and both eternal the better to secure them in their Obedience and force them to be happy and then he takes Men at no Advantage but makes all reasonable Allowances in consideration of the frailty of Humane Nature and in condescension to their Infirmities He exacts not absolute Perfection nor any impossible Obedience but requires that tho' we cannot live without Sin yet we should not sin wilfully and obstinately that we should not allow and indulge our selves in Sin and should repent if we have done so He requires a faithful and sincere Diligence in all the Parts of our Duty which is no more than what every Father and Master expects from his Children and Servants When Men have sinned God admits of their Repentance and if after Repentance they sin again yet still they shall be accepted upon a renew'd Repentance nay after a long course of Sin a sincere Repentance may reconcile them to God and no Repentance can be too late that is sincere It is extreamly dangerous indeed to defer our Repentance for one Moment because our Lives are so uncertain and we may provoke God to that degree that he will no longer afford us an Opportunity to repent nor bestow that Grace upon us which is necessary to Repentance But this is after repeated Provocations and an obstinate rejecting of the Goodness of God which leads Men to repentance And these are the Terms of the Gospel that when the wicked Man turneth away from his Wickedness that he hath committed and doth that which is lawful and right he shall save his Soul alive There is Great Joy in Heaven over one Sinner that repenteth and the returning Prodigal is received with the greatest Favour and Tenderness If we will be obedient we have the Assistance of God's Grace and if we have done amiss yet His grace is offered us to bring us to Repentance and we may be pardoned upon sincere Resolutions of Obedience for the future But if Men either disbelieve or disregard all these things if they neither care for God's Promises nor fear his Threatnings if they trample under foot the Blood of his Son and grieve his blessed Spirit if all the Methods of his Mercy and Goodness be lost upon them there remains no other Remedy but Justice must have its course If when they are told so long beforehand what danger they are in Men will continue obstinate in their Disobedience after so many Invitations and Encouragements to Repentance and after so great Importunity and Forbearance they can have no reason to complain of the Severity of that Sentence which they have been so often threatned with and have as often despised Since the Rewards are eternal on the one hand and the Punishments on the other the Rewards being proportionable to the Punishments the Terms are on both sides equal and since it is in our Power by the Help of the Divine Grace to avoid the Punishments and obtain the Rewards the Condition is such as that any wise Man would be thankful for it and would be glad that such a Prizee is put into his hands so far would he be from complaining that the Terrors of Punishments are join'd to the Encouragement of Rewards that all Motives concur to make him happy and that God has used all means both inward by his Grace and outward by his Promises and Threatnings to bring us to Salvation I repeat it again for God himself often repeats it in the Holy Scriptures God hath no Pleasure in the Death of the Wicked but hath used all means to prevent it he hath provided Heaven for us and threatned Hell if we will not be perswaded to go to Heaven If Men will neglect the Means of their Salvation and will not repent and turn to him notwithstanding all his most loving and compassionate Exhortations and the Death of his own Son for them if neither Heaven can invite nor Hell frighten them from their Sins they must thank themselves only for that Destruction which they bring upon themselves The Appeal which God so long ago made to the House of Israel may at the last Day be alledg'd to Sinners Ye have said that the way of the Lord is not equal Hear now O ye Sinners Is not my way equal have not your ways been unequal And the ways of God shall then appear so equal and the ways of wicked Men so unreasonable and perverse that their own Consciences shall bear Witness against them and He that died to save them will pronounce the Sentence of eternal Damnation upon them CHAP. XV. Of the Jewish Law THere is nothing which vulgar Minds are more surprised and offended at nor at which Men of Understanding and Experience are less enclin'd to wonder or take Offence than the several Laws and Customs of divers Nations in the different Ages and Climates of the World The Habit the Language the Letters and manner of Writing the Food the Complexion the Features of the Body and Disposition of the Mind are various in different Countries and Ages And theresore it is no wonder that the Political and Ceremonial Part of the Jewish Law which was given so many Ages ago and in a Country which is at this Day very different in its Customs from ours should be as different from the Customs in use amongst us as the Age and Climate For when God doth appoint Laws for Men he must be supposed to appoint such as are suitable to the Necessities and Occasions of those for whom they are made And some who have travelled into the Eastern Countries which are not so variable in their Fashions and Way of Living as the Western Nations are have found great advantages both from the Nature of the Inhabitants and of the Climates and from the Customs and Manners of
those Parts of the World for the explication of divers places of Scripture which depend upon the knowledge of those Countries Now the whole Jewish Law may be divided into the Moral the Political or Judicial and the Ceremonial Law The Moral Part of Moses's Law which is contain'd in the Ten Commandments and enjoyns our Duty towards God and towards our Neighbour is just and holy beyond all Controversy or Exception And the Political or Judicial Part with the Ceremonial was adapted to the Circumstances and Necessities of those Ages and that Nation And if the Moral Part be absolutely most Divine and Holy and the Positive Institutions both Political and Ritual were the most fit and proper for that Time and Government that is if they were the best that could be for those Ages and that People then the whole Body of the Mosaick Law is without all just Exception And that this is so it will be evident if we observe the Reasons upon which the Positive Laws amongst the Jews were instituted 1. The Judicial Laws relating to the Administration of Justice in the Jewish Government are so reasonable that they have been transcrib'd into the Laws of the wisest Heathen Nations as hath been particularly shewn by Learned Men. There are but few of the Judicial Laws which have been objected against and these have been often and effectually vindicated The Law which seems most harsh and rigorous is that of Retaliation which yet was the most antient way of Punishment in most Nations and was not unjust for the Laws to inflict tho' it was sinful in the Persons injured to require it out of a Desire of Revenge and with a Delight to gratify themselves in their Enemies Sufferings For if it be just to punish the taking away of a little Money with Death how can it be unjust to inflict the same Punishment for the depriving a Man of his Eye And if it be not unjust to make Death the Punishment of striking out an Eye and what Nation doth not punish much less Injuries with Death How can it be unjust to punish the Offender with the Loss of his own Eye One of the severest Laws that ever was known amongst a civilised People was that of the Twelve Tables which gave leave to (a) Sunt enimquaedam non â—audabilia Natura sed jure concessa ut in xii Tabulis Debitoris Corpus inter Creditores dividi licuit quam legem mos ' Publicus repudiavit Quintil. Institut lib. iii. cap. 6. the Creditors among the Romans to divide the Debtor's Body between them if he were insolvent This was one of those things which are not commendable in their own Nature but yet are allow'd and permitted as Quintilian has observ'd upon particular Reasons but this Law was laid aside by a general Disuse and (b) Lighf Hor. Hebraic ad Mat. v. 38. that of Retaliation among the Jews was interpreted by them according to an Antient Tradition to be meant not of strict Retaliation but of a Compensation to be made in Money to the Person maimed 2. Many of those Rites which may seem strange to us were so far from being esteem'd absurd that they became common in those Countries as Circumcision was antiently and is to this day practised in many Parts of the World (c) Grot. ad Lev. xi Act. x. 15. the Aegyptiaus and many other Nations abstain'd from Swines Flesh and the Aethiopians from most of the Meats which were forbidden the Jews such Abstinencies being necessary for Health in those Countries Frequent Washings likewise are requisite in hot Countries for Health and Refreshment Religion prescrib'd only the Time and Manner and particular Occasion of it the Thing it self is Natural And when we see such a Body of Laws of so great Antiquity well contriv'd and wisely instituted for the Substance of them if there be in some of them any thing peculiar and singular tho' they were but the Laws of a Man yet common Modesty and Candor might make us conclude that so wise a Lawgiver must have some good Reason for those particular Laws which at this distance of Time and Place cannot be so obvious to us but it would be Rashness to suspect that he had no sufficient Reason for those who appears to have enacted the rest with so great Wisdom Thus it would be natural for a Man of tolerable Modesty to conclude even concerning a System of Humane Laws tho' no probable Account could be given of many of them But when God is the Lawgiver this ought to silence all Disputes that they are his Laws and therefore must be wise and good for that People at that Time and in their Condition and Circumstances The Will and Authority of God without any other Reason is sufficient of it self in any Case to be alledg'd and it may be fit in some Cases that we should have no other Reason to produce It is a rash and dangerous thing to conclude that God did not command this or that because we do not see why it should be commanded this is to say that we will not believe God to be the Author of any thing which we do not like or would not have to be His. Are we wont to argue thus about Humane Laws Would it be any Excuse for a disobedient Subject to say that in his Opinion such Laws were not fit to be made and that therefore he would not believe his Prince had made such Laws when he had all due notice and full evidence that he had appointed them but was resolved to reject the whole Body of Laws upon the account of some which he did not fancy which yet were obsolete and out of Date Do we not allow that Reasons of State and of Government may require many things to be done and many Laws to be made which it doth not belong to private Men to be curious about and which the greatest Part of the Subjects are not able to comprehend And are not God's Thoughts infinitely above the Thoughts of the wisest Men and infinitely farther out of our Reach than the Counsels of the most Prudent and Politick Prince can be above the Understanding of his meanest and most ignorant Subjects How shall we dare then to reject any Divine Revelation because it is not agreeable in every particular to our Thoughts and Notions of things But I shall enquire however into the Reasons and Grounds which appear to us at this distance of Time for the Ceremonial Laws and I doubt not but these will be sufficient to justify them to all impartial Men. 1. The Ceremonial Laws were given the Jews to prevent them from falling into Idolatry For they were design'd to distinguish the Jews in many things from the Neighbouring Nations and to hinder them from following their Idolatrous Customs And the Customs of the (d) Summa vero rei haec eft quemadmodum in praecedentibus tibi dixi dogmata ritus Zabiorum hodie nobis esse incognitos ita