quod dicturi sumus Christum enim Dii piissimum pronunciaverunt immortalem factum cum bona praedicatione ejus meminerunt Et post haec de Christo interrogantibus si est Deus ait Hecate Viri pietate praestantissimi est illa anima Aug. l. 19. c. 23. lib. 22. c. 25. Ille est Deus quem nec commemor are me piget confitente Porphyrio atque id Oraculis Deorum suorum probare cupiente ipsa Numina perhorrescunt Porphyry the greatest Adversary of the Christian Faith who owns our Saviour for a God and tells us That one of their oracles did yield an ample Testimony unto his Worth and Merit But secondly We have no reason to conceive that his Disciples should continue to gull the World in this particular For such was their simplicity they could not such their sincerity they would not go about to do so § 2. Lucian Peregr p. 338. Mimet p. 4. Celsus apud orig p. 146 147. Hieroc apud Euseb contra Hieroc p. 5 14. Tertul. Apol. c. 49. Arnob. l. 1. p. 34 35. 1. SUCH was their * Nam cum videret futuros vos esse gestarum abs se rerum divinique operis abrogatores ne qua subesset suspicio magicis se artibus muner a illa beneficiaque largitum ex immensa illa populi multitudine quae suam Gratiam sectabatur admirans piscatores opifices Rusticanos atque id genus delegit imperitorum qui per varias Gentes missi cunct a illa miracula sine ullis fucis atque adminiculis perpetrarent Arnib l. 1. p. 30. simplicity they could not Plots and Designs to overturn the World and introduce a Doctrine which carryed such a signal Opposition to the Faith and Tenets the Wisdom and Philosophy the Interests and Vices of the World must call for better Heads and deeper Judgements nor was it ever heard that twelve simple Mechanicks for such the Apostles and primitive Professors of Christianity were still reputed by their Adversaries should be so much concern'd for any way of Worship or durst adventure with the hazard of their Lives to Preach it to the World though after such a Grand delusion of mankind by men so rude and infamous as the Apostles were esteemed nothing could have seemed too foolish absurd to be imposed upon the world †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost or 2. in Bab. p. 446. Should any man have sayd when Christ was nailed to the Cross that many thousands of his bloudy murtherers which then reviled him as a malefactor should in few days become his converts and venture all their present and Eternal interests upon the truth of his pretended Resurrection should they have said that through all the world he should be shortly worshipped as that King to whom all power both in heaven and earth was Given and as that Jesus who alone could give Salvation should they have told us that all this should be done in spight of all the powers of wit and policy of eloquence and of the sword the Interests and lusts the superstitions and corrupt opinions and the reputed wisdome of mankind by a few mean unskilful men the hatred and derision of the place they lived in I say should so extravagant a thought have then been vented it must have surely passed for an Idle brain-sick dream as little to be heeded as that twelve cripples should beseige storm plunder and destroy the strongest and best peopled city or that a naked man should vanquish all the powers of the Roman Empire Besides such is the excellency of the Christian faith so much above the reach of humane wisdome to conceive so seemingly repugnant to it when revealed that it was most unfit to be the matter of a design to gull the world so sublime and spiritual are its precepts so far exceeding all that the learning and wisdome of the Greeks could snew that t is impossible to believe they should derive from witless and mechanick persons § 3. NAY such was their sincerity that if they could yet they would not thus abuse the world Whosoever views their writings so full of wisdome and of purity so admirably pathetical in their expressions a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. in Celsum p. 70. free in the confession of their own infirmities Mat. 26.36 Mar. 14.71 Gal. 1.13 1 T-m 1.15 so full and pregnant in those doctrines which speak the greatest self denyal so plain in the delivery of Christian duties so void of all the arts of wit and policy all the advantages of Eloquence and humane wisdome and then considers that their lives were sutable to what their doctrines did deliver that they became examples as well as Preachers both of the Christian faith and patience 2 Thes 3.9 and did appeal to the Churches newly converted by them and attempted by others to disown them how holily and b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thes 2.10 Rom. 16.17 1 Tim. 1.20 Titus 3.10 how unblamably they had liv'd He that considereth their quickness to condemne and censure to avoide and punish those who did not walk according to their rules of piety as enemies unto the Gross of Christ and yet how irksome and distastful those things are to wicked men how prone and strongly byassed their affections are the other way I say he that shall well consider these particulars will quickly see sufficient reason to believe them upright and sincere § 4. BESIDES no man is wicked to no end which must be their case if they had been deceivers For what could they expect to get by lying Was it to grow big with honour They confessed and every days experience made it good 1 Cor. 4.9 2 Cor. 4.9 Luk. 6.20 their doctrine and their Persons were the scorn and derision of their Adversaries Was it to abound in wealth Poverty was their beatitude their Charity and faith were sure to keep them low enough the Pearl of price was to be bought with the loss of all they had if they had any thing to lose Was it to swim in pleasure The witness of the spirit and their own knowledge could informe them that bonds and Prisons would abide them in every place Acts 20.23 2 Cor. 23.27 and their whole life was a continued Scene of troubles perils and afflictions They could not seek Great things but they must contradict that doctrine of self-denyal humility and an heavenly mind which they so oft inculcated nor enjoy them without a contradiction to the †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Celsus apud Orig. lib. 7 pag. 343. predictions of Jesus which they had left on record For He foretold them that in the world they should have tribulation and that their names should be cast out as evil doers that persecutions scourgins death and Universal hatred should be their portion among men They knew by reason and experience that if their hopes depended only on the enjoyments of this present life they must of all men
of a Deity and the concernments of Religion That they received Opinions which destroyed Morality This proved from their Mistakes and Errors 1. Touching the duties and concerns of Love and Charity to their Neighbor And 2ly Touching the Laws of Chastity Justice and of Truth Heathen Philosophy proved ineffectual not only to reform the World but the Professors of it The wickedness of their Lives The accounts and reasons of it The result of all in confirmation of the Christian Faith p. 296. CHAP. XI Of the Resurrection Prolegomena in order to the demonstration of the Resurrection of our Lord. 1. That the Apostles did presently attest the thing 2. That this attestation could not be a bare-faced and notorious lye Arg. 1. From the Testimony Arg. 2. From these three Considerations 1. That our Saviours Body did not continue in the Sepulchre when they proclaimed him risen 2. That his Disciples did not conveigh his Body thence Nor 3. was that done by any other Persons who had no relation to Christ and no affection for him Arg. 3. From the Consideration of the Persons testifying p. 387. The Conclusion Shewing That if what hath been deliver'd should be only probable yet the Christian Faith must in all reason be embraced as being 1. the safest way and 2ly the greatest Instrument of present Happiness A recapitulation of the whole with a Practical Reflection upon what hath been discoursed p. 306. CHAP. I. The Contents WHAT Endeavours have been made to stop the Growth of Atheisme and Irreligion by asserting an all wise presiding Power visible in the production of the World What seemeth further necessary to be alledged against the Atheist An essay towards the eviction of a Providence 1 From the existence of evil spirits 2 From many signall demonstrations of Gods power 3 of his Judgments upon Rebellious sinners and 4 of his power and Mercy in preservation of his servants and his miraculous Answers to their prayers 5 From revelations and predictions of things contingent in their various circumstances 6 From apparitions of good and evil Angels 7 From dreams and visions supernatural 8 From things performed by pretenders to miracles Magicians Witches Oracles philosophers which could not be effected naturally c. The confirmation of the Christian faith by what hath been delivered 1 by evincing that Providence hath been engaged for the establishment of some particular Religion in the world 2 that that particular Religion is no other then the Christian faith § 1. VVHAT Artifices have been used of late to baffle all Religion to undermine the pillars and foundations of it how bold and impudent the instruments of Satan are how free to vent how industrious to infuse their poyson into every soul how unhappily disposed the greater part of Mankind is by reason of the vile Affections and brutish Lusts which reign in them to suck in this hellish Vomit t is needless to informe the Reader He must have shut his Eyes who doth not see and stopt his Ears who doth not hear the sad but just complaints of the encrease of Atheism and Irreligion in the Christian world § 2. TO stop the Growth of this pernicious Evil some have endeavour'd to assert the Being of a God not from the Metaphysical foundations which the Scholes have laid but from the Phaenomena of Nature which carry with them a greater Evidence of some presiding Wisdome over-ruling Power which being undeniably concluded from what they have discoursed on this Subject it remains only to evince that this presiding Wisdome in the Creation of the World had a peculiar eye unto the Welfare of Mankind and doth at present watch over that noble part of his Creation gives indications of his Will Pleasure as far as is conducing to our Welfare and Motives to obey that Will since he that cometh unto God must believe that he is Heb. 11.6 and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him For if we suppose that from the beginning of the world there were established such Laws of Action as doe necessitate the operations and productions which shew the Wisdome of their Great Contriver though we should also doubt whether he ever did or doth at present interest himself in the concernments of Men and the free motions of their Wills and should conceave with modern Theists wee are too inconsiderable to be the matter of his care and Providence we should sufficiently comply with the intent and vigor of those Arguments I shall not venture to supply what 's lacking to those late attempts by any large discourse on the mysterious Theme of Providence which others have improved beyond what I am able to perform but only hint such things which in conjunction seem to make it highly rational to own the thing and which I do not find so fully nor I think so convincingly proposed in other Writers on this Subject § 3. AND 1. If there be any evil Spirits which maligne the Welfare of Mankind then there must be a Providence For were there no superior Power that did curb and over awe them and by so doing shew his care of Man they would according to their inclinations either inflict upon Mankind at present the sorest and most dreadful Evils which could be incident to humane Nature this being the design and drift of hatred to plague and to confound its object or if Mens souls be subject unto future Miseries more Great and lasting then any they can suffer in this present life it would be the endeavour of these Spirits to reduce the world to such compliance with their humors and full submission to their wills as would assuredly subject them to those future Miseries or ruine those who should refuse obedience to them Now the Existence of these evil Spirits may be concluded from their Operations For if the Heathen Oracles did e're foretell what it was not in the power of man to see of which their Authors give us very many instances If any seeming miracles were ever wrought for the establishment of Heathenism or any other way of Worship not allowed by God which even Christians do confess vid. Chap. 9. sect 1. and Scripture doth acknowledg If any persons ever were possessed by the devil If they have ever spoken languages they understood not told things of which he only could informe them or have receav'd assistance or temptations from him to destroy themselves if ever he appear'd to any of his Proselytes in the dark corners of the World or the assemblies of those persons that are devoted to his service we must then own his Being in the World and his design to ruine us at present or to enslave us to his worship in order to our future Ruine Now only to transcribe the Histories and Records of these things would be the work of many volumes they being attested by many Myriads of all Ages and of all Countries of the World confessed by those who have engaged in the Worship of the Devil
the rod and over-awed by terrors into base complyance as having not sufficient reason to defend their tenets or to oppose against the sense of present misery they being also Men of religious Education lives unblamable which bore the greatest 9 Kindness did the best Offices Occidunt eos quos ipsi fatentur imitatores esse justorum Lact. l. 5. c. 9. and shew'd the strongest bowels of compassion to their Persecutors and greatest freedome from revenge yea men which gave the best examples taught the best precepts which the world e're knew and all whose hopes designs interest depended only on a Future Life 5ly If we consider the 10 number of those Christian Sufferers so many that Sulpitius tells us l. 2. c. 46. the World was more exhausted by one Persecution then by the most bloudy Wars And 6ly the effect of those so bloudy Persecutions viz The 11 encrease of Proselytes the more effectuall Propagation of the Christian Faith the shame and the 12 Conviction of their Adversaries Conviction so great that on this very score they oft desisted from their intended executions And to conclude the manner of their Sufferings doth give us full assurance that the assistance of the Holy Ghost which Christ and his Apostles promised to true believers was accordingly vouchsafed to those Martyrs They having born the Greatest sufferings not only with undaunted Courage but with 13 Joy and Exultation and being as desirous to suffer for the name of Jesus as their Persecutors were to Torment them and finding oftentimes 14 a perfect freedome from all Sense of Paine under the most afflicting pressures Miraculous 15 Experience of Consolations under Sufferings of 16 deliverance from them and of an over-ruling 17 controuling and sometimes 18 vindictive power upon the instruments of their Sufferings Now 1 It seems impossible they could thus suffer without Divine assistance For 1 what could create a freedome from the sense of Pain under the Greatest Torments and most intolerable burthens unto flesh and blood What could inject so great a Terror into the fiercest of wild beasts as to muzzle their mouthes and stop their craving appetites and what could cause insensate creatures which by the Laws of Nature act to the utmost of their strength to loose their wonted Efficacies What should create such Joys and Exultations suggest such comforts and supports under the sharpest and most fiery Tryalls and continuall pressures the very thoughts of which afflictions have slain their hundreds and made them out of dread of others Fury become their own Tormentors What could embolden those who tremble at the Rod and are so scared by the threats and frowns of angry Parents Those who cry out and Skreek and Swoon at the approach of lesser Evills yea dread those Terrours which their own Phansies did create to despise the worst of Torments when they were placed before their eyes to bear up with more then humane Courage against inhumane Cruelties to endure them without a Sigh or Groan and by their patience to baffle and Torment their Persecutors That which doth cool the courage of the stoutest hearts how should so many Feeble Souls encounter And that at which the best of men do shrink and tremble which they do pray and strive against how could they who were held to be the filth and the ofscouring of the world despise and laugh at § 3. BUT 2ly T is more improbable they would undergo those fiery Trials without a full assurance of the Greatest blessings and rewards hereafter We see how few will quit their Pleasures and Enjoyments here though conscience speaks so loud and their duty is so oft inculcated to purchase all the Glories of another world Life is so sweet that most men do desire to preserve it though upon most dishonorable and unworthy terms And would then such a world of men in so many Nations and throughout so many Centuries of yeares without all hopes of future blessings but what deluded phansie could suggest doe what 's so highly inconsistent with the first principle of humane Nature the reason experience of all past ages and of all that were then to come In a word if they were Good men to be sure they would not ruine and destroy themselves if bad men it must be their concern to live and to enjoy the pleasures of this present world the future being either the matter of their dread or at least no matter of their hopes Nor can it reasonably be conceaved that Providence which hath so Great and tender a regard to the sincere and honest heart should let so many thousands of well meaning Souls perish by the delusions of ungrounded hopes and vain imaginations and not dart in one ray of light to guide them to the truth § 4. Object SHOULD any here object the 19 Spartan boyes who would not shrink at the severest whippings the 21 Roman Legions who went with Joy unto those places whence they expected never to return a 20 Polemo or a 22 Possidonius an 23 Anaxarchus Regulus or a Zeno the Quakers Anabaptists or such like hardy sects It may be sufficient Answer to remind them of the rareness of their sufferings or the condition of the Persons suffering in all which circumstances they are not to be compared with Christian Martyrs At least not any of them will be found to have shewn such Charity towards them that were the causes of their Sufferings experimented such Joys and consolations under sufferings such perfect freedome from all sense of pain such signal instances of an all ruling and sometimes Vindictive Power upon the instruments thereof as was vouchsafed to those Martyrs Adde to this that Philosophers stood bound in honour the thing they mostly thirsted after thus to doe and suffer Their Philosophy was but the doctrine of contempt of Death It was their dayly buisiness to commend it to their Scholars and hence so many of them did either a Menippus Laert. lib. 6. Ed. St. p. 162. Empedocles ib. p. 614. Ed. Steph. Hang or b Metrocles Laert. l. 6. p. 161. Ed. St. Zeno ib. p. 171. Choke or c Pythagoras Laert. l. 8. Ed. Steph. p. 592. Starve themselves when life became a burthen or a trouble to them and when necessity was lay'd upon them they suffer'd which the Greatest Valour Whereas the meaner sort of Christians could have but little sense of Honor their profession did forbid them to desire or to receive it and would be sure to expose them to the greatest infamy Agen the Spartan boy was taught by custome and Instructions Experience and Practice to endure his Stripes and frequent Meditation made the wise man valiant the Christian void of all those helps became a constant and undaunted sufferer and oftentimes the Christian and the Martyr did begin together As for the Anabaptist and the Quaker besides the lightness of their sufferings they bottom upon expectation of an exceeding weight of Glory whereas the Christian must suffer all those Miseries
State and their denial of all future punishments and from their false conceptions of the rise and fatality of Sin That these opinions are destructive to the service of a Deity and the concernments of Religion That they received opinions which destroyed morality This proved from their mistakes and errors 1. Touching the duties and concerns of love charity to their neighbour And secondly touching the laws of Chastity Justice and of truth Heathen Philosophy proved ineffectual not only to reforme the world but the Professors of it The wickedness of their lives The accounts and reasons of it Theresult of all in confirmation of the Christian Faith § 1. BUT that which is the Crown of all and indeed potissima demonstratio a most convincing evidence of the Assistance of the holy Spirit towards the propagation of the Gospel is the excellency of the Christian precepts and the subservience they bear not only to our future but to our present welfare § 2. IT were endless to insist upon the incredible Power of Christianity when cordially embraced to sheath the Sword beat it into plow-shares to still contentions and bind the hand to its good behaviour to prevent all waies of being cruel to our neighbours life or prejudicial to his estate and Fortunes or injurious to his name or honour by taking up or venting a reproach against him or by discovering those Errors and infirmities which Charity doth bind us to conceal It were infinite to recount those liberal provisions it hath made for Love and Charity pity and compassion and whatsoever may indear my Brother to me and draw forth all my powers to assist him It gives the truly generous and publick Spirit it commands every man to seek his Brothers weal and shew him all that kindness which he could expect or beg when under like necessity It bids us burn when others are afflicted and weep with those that weep That is it bids us be as forward to relieve them under all their pressures and afflictions as if their afflictions were our own Now what can further be required to our present happiness than the security of what a present we enjoy from any hand of violence and the assurance of our Brothers help towards the enjoyment of the thing we want Nor is it less conducive to the publick good Christianity gives such a relish of sublimer Bliss as disintangleth the more noble Soul from all the trivial concernes of earth It tells us that the freindship of this world is enmity to God that he who beares affection to these earthly things is but pretender to the love of heaven It inspires into us that contentmēt which allayes the hell torment of an inordinate still gaping appetite It transformes the man into humility and meekness and so prevents the tumult disturbance of the haughty Spirit It enforceth peace upon us by the strongest motives and threatneth an eternal flame to the Incendiary It moulds the Soul into a simple honest and sincere deportment and interdicts those flattering Addresses which belye the thoughts and Conscience of the Speaker and more then this it cannot do in order to our publick welfare since that can never suffer but from unjust and treacherous factious and turbulent proud worldly or rapacious Spirits § 3. CHRISTIANITY is a Religion highly perfective of humane nature and such as best comports with the concernments of our Souls and most advanceth its most noble faculties It gives the best discoveries of the Divine existence and of Providence and of that obedience and homage which we owe unto a Deity and of those attributes which are the only grounds and most prevailing motives to it viz. The Truth and Freedome the Justice Power Goodness the Wisdome Unity and Omnipresence of a Deity all which must be entirely owned as the foundations of reall Piety It presents us with such admirable discoveries of Wisdome Justice Goodness Mercy and Compassion in the contrivance and procurement of Pardon and Salvation to us by the death of Christ as Judaisme could never boast It holds forth the clearest light to guide our darke and purblind Reason into the paths of vertue and to secure us from the splitting rocks of Vice It gives the best and largest Comment upon those duties of the moral Law which are so imperfectly and so obscurely hinted by the light of nature and so much questioned and disputed by the Gentile World as wee shall see hereafter It discovers to us those impediments which would retard and clog us in the performance of our duty that so we may avoid them It makes the evil thought as guilty as the evil action and calls as much for purity of heart and freedome from every vile affection as from those actions that doe issue from them It setleth the floating soul on the firm Basis of divine veracity and for the Heathens faint surmises and the Jews darker shaddowes of good things to come it gives the Christians lively hopes and full assurances of Faith It tenders the holy Spirit as an earnest of our future bliss and assures us if we doe the will of heaven we shall know what is so In fine the knowledge of a future endless bliss and misery is the result of Gospel revelation which upon all these grounds doth best provide for the information of our understanding in what it is concern'd to know in order to our future happiness to wit the being of a God and our engagement to adore and serve him what will procure his Favour and will provoke his Indignation and what concernes we have sincerely to avoide the one and to pursue the other § 4. NEXT it presents the Will with the most soveraigne motives and engagements unto duty and bindes that on us with most powerful cords of Love and the amazing mercies of our God and Saviour The obligations of repeated vows and Covenants especially of those of Baptisme and the Sacred Eucharist the convictions of our conscience the laws and Sanctions of that Majesty who strikes an awe upon it and the example of our Saviours which doth at once prescribe to our obedience and provoke us to it It pains forth sin to us in its own dress attended with the dangers of present and a dreadful expectation of eternal miseries and those enhanced by all the aggravations which love and mercy conscience and duty the light of reason and religion the experience of our selves and others can afford it It presents Goodness to us in its fairest and most tempting aspects assures us that the ways of God are Good honourable safe and easie and full of comfort and present satisfaction to the Soul It courts the affections with the most admirable delights that heaven can tender it surrounds us with the pleasures of a virtuous life the joys of charity the comforts of an upright conscience the smiles of heaven and its concernment for the good man's welfare here and happiness hereafter such happiness as far exceeds what we are able