it will be often said lo here is Christ or lo he is there before the last day of Judgment As before the destruction of Jerusalem Jesus Christ gathered together in some Christian Churches the Elect from the four Winds of Heaven and that by the preaching of the Apostles his Mystical Angels so likewise at the end of the World he will send his Angels to raise his Elect from the Dust and Obscurity of the Grave For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and the Dead in Christ shall rise 1 Thess 4. 16. As there were seen several Comets and terrible Signs that foretold the Destruction of Jerusalem as the Smoak of the City and Flaming Temple hid the light of the day and darkned the Sun and Stars so without doubt the end of the World will be also attended with Signs and Prodigies much more terrible St. Peter saith the Earth shall be burnt up and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat c. 2. Epistle 3. 10. As the Destruction of the Jews happened after an unexpected manner so also shall the last day come as a thief in the night As Jerusalem and the Temple were utterly destroyed as soon as the Jews had compleated the measure of their sins so this World which we inhabit must perish as soon as the end or Calling of all Nations shall be fulfilled as Jesus Christ himself says in that Prophecy we now have under Consideration Besides one may reasonably imagin the Disciples to be always prepossessed with this Opinion that the End of the World would immediately follow the destruction of Jerusalem For when it was reported among the Disciples that St. John should not die because Christ had said to one of them speaking of him If I will that he tarries till I come what is that to thee They stretch'd that till I come as far as the end of the World but they might have confined it to the Destruction of Jerusalem a time which the Apostles in reality saw and in which Jesus Christ visited the Jews in his justice Further this Tradition being spread abroad that the day of the Lord drew nigh the Thessalonians were so terrifi'd at it that St. Paul to comfort them again sent them the following assurances to the Contrary Now we beseech you Brethren that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as that the day of Chrst is at hand Let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except first c. 2 Thess 2. 2 3. In a word there is no reason to wonder that that Prophecy of Jesus Christ so faithfully related by his Disciples should have left this Impression in their minds For Jesus Christ on the one hand had given such marks and signs of his coming that it seemed as if the last judgment was immediately to follow it saying that he should appear as the lightning that cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West and on the other hand he had declared several times that all those things should happen to that generation that many of those who were present with him should not taste of Death until they had seen all those things Since then Jesus Christ united thus two several Events in one and the same Description but two subordinate Events as like unto one another as the Copy and the Original may be it follows thence that his Prophecy must have had two accomplishments the one very nigh and the other remote This in my opinion is the true way of unravelling all those Difficulties The Disciples confounded together two very remote Events and Jesus Christ suffered them to continue in that Opinion 'T is necessary that the Event should justifie the Prophecies but not that the Prophecies should be contrary to their Event It is necessary therefore they should be obscure before their Completion but clear and easy when once accomplish'd But however probable what I 've laid down may seem to be I should be very sorry any one should think I lay the stress of my argument upon it I make a distinction between bare Conjectures and true and certain Principles and I leave all the Explanations I have just now given to the Readers judgment to use according to his Discretion I am indifferent whether he uses my Notions or those of any other Man to solve certain difficulties which may occur therein I shall only insist upon two certain Truths which in my opinion admit of no Difficulty The first is that this Prophecy is so circumstantially related that it is absurd to imagin it composed after the event or that a man took occasion from the Destruction of Jerusalem at which none but Titus and his Army were seen to make Jesus Christ say when he foretold that Devastation that he would come in the Clouds of heaven that he would send his Angels to gather his Elect from the four winds that they would see him coming with power and great glory as the lightning that cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West that all the Tribes of the Earth should mourn at his coming and that day should come as suddenly as the fire of Sodom and Gomorrah The second Truth which seems to me altogether unquestionable is that notwithstanding that little darkness with which the Wisdom of God thought fit to overshadow this prophecy it was nevertheless in all Respects so very exactly related in all its Circumstances and so clearly fulfilled that supposing it composed before the Event we cannot but acknowledge it to proceed from a Prophetical Spirit For what can we Read in the History of the Jews but what is included in this Prophecy The beginning the continuation and ending of the Misfortunes of the Jews are all to be found in it It does not foretel a particular Captivity of that people but a general dispersion of the whole Nation and they shall be led Captives into all Nations Luk. 21. 24. Jesus Christ wept over Jerusalem on another occasion at his entring into it and uttered these Compassionate Words O that thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace But now they are hid from thine eyes For the days shall come that thine Enemies shall cast a Trench about thee and compass thee round and keep the in on every side and shall â—ay thee even with the ground and thy Children within thee and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another because thou knewest not the time of thy Visitation Luke â—9 42 43 44. And can any one believe that this passage of our Saviours weeping over Jerusalem was also inserted in â—he Gospel Were all those Prophetical Parables inâ—erted too in which Jesus Christ threatned the Jews â—ith their approaching Destruction telling them â—ne while that the Lord would let his Vineyard to other
such defects because it is wholly founded upon Instruction and Knowledge Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal Life John 5. 39. Chap. IV. 7 8 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness St. Paul was drawing nigh toward his latter end and the words of a dying Man are always to be regarded Whence then comes that chearful Joy the Apostle so naturally expresses in this occasion His Hopes had they been of this World must have been soon buried with him in his Grave and his Happiness too at an end Whence then derived he that great Confidence which he seems to have had Was it from the inward sense of a guilty Conscience which reproach'd him for having betray'd the Synagogue blemished his Country Men deceived Mankind testified of a Seducer and forg'd such fictitious Visions by the most signal Imposture that ever was Let any one believe it if he can First Epistle of St. Peter Chap. I. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively Hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead The Mind of those Writers was so full of the Salvation that was revealed to them that they were never weary of returning thanks to God for it Chap. II. 17 18 19 20. Honour all men Love the brotherhood Fear God Honour the King Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward c. For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently But if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God c. It is a strange thing we should be desired to own that a mutual Agreement of Malice and Falshood which really is a wonderful Agreement of Piety Charity Obedience and Righteousness Paul expressed himself like Peter and Peter spoke like Paul They both acted and suffered alike nay they bore the very same Testimony being endowed with the same Patience practising the very same Virtues and discovering one and the same Wisdom in all their words Now what have we any reason to suspect in all this Second Epistle of St. Peter Chap. I. 16 17 18. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were Eye-witnesses of his Majesty For he received from God the Father Honour and Glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And this voice which came from Heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy Mount c. This is a Witness who spoke of what he had seen who suffered Death in defence of the Truth of his Testimony who saw it not alone for several others had seen the same thing who spoke not out of any principle of Interest or concealed what he knew through any fear or apprehension of Death and who for all that did his utmost endeavours to sanctifie Mankind and bestowed all his Time his Labour and his Life in advancing such an extraordinary work which is so little to be suspected And if so what Man is there that can reasonably mistrust him First Epistle of St. John Chap. I. 1 3. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of Life declare we unto you c. If you should doubt whether the Apostles did really go about testifying every where that they had seen with their Eyes both the Miracles and Resurrection of Christ 't is but learning it from their Epistles and their own words too Chap. II. 1. My little Children these things write I unto you that ye sin not But what was it to him whether Men sinned or not Did ever the design of sanctifying Mankind and contributing to their Salvation at the cost of ones Blood ones Liberty ones Life enter before into any Man's Heart but theirs These and the like Reflexions are of themselves sufficient to give the Reader a relish of those Truths and incite him to make some of his own as shall more effectually instruct and convince him For my part I have made several which perhaps satisfy me better than they would any body else And no question but he will also make several of his own that will convince him far better than those of another In the mean while let us pass on to the consideration of the Substance of that Religion which Christ himself did bring into the World For after having considered the outside t is very necessary to look into the inward part of the Building SECTION IV. Wherein we shall prove the Truth of the Christian Religion by the Consideration of it's Nature and Properties Several Portraitures in which it may be considered HItherto we have insisted as it were upon the Shell and Bark of Religion we have examined the proofs taken from matters of fact being the first that offered themselves to our mind It seems therefore now Expedient we should discover as it were the Substance and Spirit of Christianity and so proceed to those other proofs drawn from the Nature of it and that by shewing the truth of it by it's Beauties and proper Excellencies But because this is too copious a Subject for us who study Brevity we shall endeavour to reduce what we have to say into as small a Compass as we can and since we cannot allow our Reflexions their due and proper Extent to give at least some Plan or Draught of the same as shall supply that defect And tho the Christian Religion may be considered under several different Faces because in this respect 't is like unto its Object which has no Bounds to confine it's Extent yet methinks we may give an Idea just and adequate enough to our present design by considering it in eleven different Draughts or Portraitures I. In the Multitude of Testimonies given in favour of it which we shall touch upon cursorily because we have already partly examined them all II. In its essential opposition to all false Religions that ever were III. In it's Effects which can only justly be referred to a Divine and Supernatural Cause IV. In the Purity of its end V. In it's Suitableness to the Heart of Man which it undertakes to reform VI. In the Relation it has to the Glory of God which it should advance VII In it's Morality VIII In it's Mysteries IX In the conformity of it's Mysteries to the light of Reason X. In that exact proportion it bears to the Jewish Religion XI And lastly in that proportion it bears to Natural Religion I hope these Portraitures will like so many
Husbandmen after having destroyed them as so maâ—y unfaithful servants another while that the King â—ho had invited them to the Marriage of his Son would â—nd his Soldiers to destroy them and burn up their City But not to go so far off one of the Marks whereâ—y they ought to have known that the Event which esus Christ had foretold drew nigh was that the â—entiles were to be called to the knowledge of the â—ue God This is expresly delivered in the places â—e have already quoted He therefore that insertâ— this Prophecy in the Gospel must have imaginâ— that in his time the Gentiles had already been â—lled to the knowledge of Jesus Christ But since â—ere were then an infinite number of Christians disersed throughout World since an infinite number â— Persons had the Writings of the Apostles in their â—ssession How was it possible either to alter or â—d thereto several Parables and Chapters nay to â—rrupt three Gospels in three Essential places If ch a thing had been done in Asia how could it afterwards have been received in Europe where there must necessarily have been an infinite number of Copies of that Gospel For of all the Books of the New Testament the Gospels were first composed And now do not the Incredulous as yet perceive that Truth overthrows more scruples than they are able to raise against it That they continually offer Violence to thelr Reason by resisting the Truth which appears so strong and invincible on all hands and that tho' their Reason is sometime perverted and blinded by their Passions so that they cannot see things in their due light yet the Objects the Nature of things and the Truth which is immutable never shift or turn a side to follow the foolish fancies of their Understanding or the perverse Inclinations of their Heart CHAP. IX Wherein we shall examine the matters contained iâ— the Book of Acts. THe matter of this Book may be reduced tâ— these three heads viz. the Ascension of Jesuâ— Christ the coming down of the Holy Gost upon thâ— Apostles and the Establishment of the Christiaâ— Churches by the successful preaching of the Apostles All these things are of such a nature as could noâ— possibly be forg'd The Ascension of Jesus Christ is related with toâ— many Circumstances to leave us any reason to believe that the Disciples themselves were deceiveâ— therein The Author expresly affirms that Jesâ— conversed the space of forty days with his Disciplâ— after his Resurrection that he promised them theâ— should be baptised with the Holy Ghost and commanded them to wait at Jerusalem for the effect of that promise that he carried them to the Mount of Olives that he was taken up in a Cloud which carried him out of their sight and that as they stedfastly looked up towards Heaven as he went up two men stood by them in white apparel and promised them that Jesus Christ would come again in like manner as they had seen him go into Heaven So that â—t is no longer a question whether the Disciples were deceived in this respect but rather whether they had a mind to deceive others by a false Relation of so Chimerical an Event For the perfect understanding of this Matter it is sufficient to observe the time in which the Disciples begun to declare it And when the day of Pentecost was fully come says St. Luke they were all with one accord in one place And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty Wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting And there apâ—eared unto them Cloven tongues like as of fire and it â—at upon each of them And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and begun to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews devout Men out of every Nation under Heaven Now when this was noised abroad the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own Language c. But Peter standing up with the eleven lift â—p his voice and said c. Then they that gladly received his Word were baptised and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand Souls c. And fear came upon every Soul and many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles Acts Chap. 2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 14 41 43. That this matter of fact was not invented appears by the bare Consideration of it because this is a thing as must have been brought to pass at Jerusalem upon a solemn feast day before men of all sorts of Nations and as I may so speak in the sight of all the Universe and which Consequently is such as could not possibly have been forg'd or invented What then can be objected to shake the Certainty of this History Can it be said that this Matter of fact was inserted in the Writings of St Luke long after the Death of that Author But then it must at the same time be confessed that the whole Book was forg'd because that is an essential and fundamental matter of fact on which the other things contained in the Book of Acts altogether depend Thus for instance the preaching of the Apostles and the success of it wholly depend upon it Whatever is contained in their Epistles absolutely relates to it And lastly every thing in the New Testament is forg'd if the coming down of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles be a meer Invention Shall I believe that St. Luke himself invented this matter of fact and that no one ever spoke of it before him If so what was it the Apostles said to those they preach'd the Gospel to What did they ground their preaching upon but only on the Mission of the Holy Ghost What other right but that had they to preach Did the Apostles themselves to deceive Mankind pretend that they had received the Holy Ghost This is the only plausible suspicion the Incredulous can entertain yet for all that it is absurd For when was it they made this Pretension It must necessarily be either after they had founded a Church at Jerusalem or some time before If it was after they had founded a Church therein how was it possible this Church should have been afterwards perswaded that the Apostles had received the Holy Ghost that they had publickly spoken all sorts of Languages and that their preaching attended with several strange prodigies had been the occasion of the forming that Church But if the Apostles pretended they had received the Holy Ghost before there was ever any Christian Church established in Jerusalem nay if it were by a false attestation of this matter of fact and many other such that they founded this Church the Apostles must of necessity have learned all the Languages in the World since the death of their Master and together with that the secret of making the lame walk and healing the sick because these are what they call the gifts of the
just going to shed the blood of Christians He went about afterwards preaching that he had seen Jesus Christ that a great light shone round about him that the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven were revealed unto him He affirmed that God had set him forth unto the World and that he became a Spectacle unto Men and Angels 1 Cor. 4. 9. If men will not credit his report let them try him by torments and see what effect they will have upon him Let them load him with Chains and cast him into Prison let them expose him to Wild beasts at Ephesus let the Elements Men and Devils be all at once set against him let them scourge him drag him along stone him let them bring him from Jerusalem to Cesarea from Cesarea to Rome increase and prolong his Afflictions Saul the Witness of the Synagogue 't is true recanted his opinion but Paul the Witness of Jesus will never recant his Having seen the strange alteration which happened to the Person of the Minister of the Synagogue let us reflect a little on that which happened to the Person of the Apostle of Jesus Christ Judas betrayed his Master and received for his reward thirty pieces of Silver But how comes it to pass he was so much disturbed after he had done it The Jews the Romans the People the Doctors the Magistrates and Judges all favoured his crime and let him go unpunished yet the remorse of his own Conscience tormented him to that degree that he could not rest any where and at length not being able to overcome his Despair he made away with himself and the Wisdom of God so ordered it that the Jews themselves preserv'd the memory of that astonishing event by buying with that mony a field which is since called Aceldama because it was the price of blood What a strange difference we find in these two Persons of Judas and Saul Judas killed himself in the midst of his Prosperity but Saul rejoyced in the midst of his afflictions Judas prevailed upon by the Synagogue could not be comforted by the same but died in despair Paul became the Disciple and Witness of Jesus and to him the Cross of Jesus was matter of the greatest joy God forbid says he Gal. 6. 14 that I should glory save in the Cross of my Saviour Christ by whom the World is crucified unto me and I unto the World Will any one believe that Judas was his own Executioner meerly out of remorse for having betray'd an Impostor to the Jews Or that St. Paul derived from the sense of his infidelity the courage he shewed in all his sufferings Certainly it may be very properly said that they were both the Martyrs of God but only with this difference that Judas was so against his will but Paul voluntarily If the constancy of the one testify'd in behalf of Jesus Christ the despair of the other was no small honour to him And the only difference is this that Paul was properly a Martyr but Judas in spite of himself a witness of the Truth of Religion CHAP. XVII Where we further answer the Objections of the Incredulous OF all the Objects which the Christian Religion offers to our understanding there is no one seems more to shock the Reason of a prejudiced and incredulous person than the Death of the Messias The Cross of Jesus Christ was according to the Expression of an Apostle a scandal to the Jew and a folly to the Greek But in our opinion there is nothing bears more visible characters of Greatness and Divinity than that does The Incredulous tell us that could we but rid our selves of all our prejudices we should be heartily ashamed to entertain such strange Ideas of God And we also tell them that could they once but free themselves of those passions which darken their understanding they would certainly admire with us the wonders of so Divine an object Who then is in the wrong in this thing That will best appear by the answers we shall make to their objections We find in the Person of Jesus Christ one who suffered himself to be seized upon and was afterwards nailed on a Cross not having any one to deliver him from the power of his Enemies This they object was a mark of his Weakness For say they had he been the King of the Jews why did he not come down from the Cross and all the World would have believed on him He died as one condemned by the grand Council of the Jews which God himself had established This was he as was found guilty He was seized with sorrowfulness even unto Death the day before his Passion and cried out bitterly when he gave up the Ghost This shews his wretched condition He was made to suffer a punishment proper only for Slaves It cannot therefore be doubted but that he died a most infamous Death And who can imagin that Weakness Guilt or at least Condemnation Wretchedness and Infamy should be the true Characters of the Son of God Thus the Incredulous argue We answer that Jesus Christ suffer'd by the determinate Council of God since the Scriptures foretold that he was to be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities that he was to make his Soul an offering for sin that he was to be cut off but not for himself And St. John the Baptist seeing him coming to him at a time wherein it was very unlikely he should ever suffer called him the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World John 1. 29. Jesus Christ suffered voluntarily he foretold all his own Sufferings to his Disciples inviting them to take up their Cross and follow him He told them that he had made choice of a Company of miserable and afflicted Wretches in the World who were notwithstanding to overcome the World and by their sufferings establish the Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth He freely owned to them that he was not come to settle peace in the World but the sword that God would smite the Shepherd and that the Sheep should be scattered that they were to drink of the same cup with him and be Baptised with his Baptism that is to taste the bitter cup of his Afflictions and be Baptised with him with a Baptism of Blood He intermixed his suffering with theirs that they might the better bear them in remembrance If we should in the least doubt whether Christ foretold his sufferings we need only consider the design of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the time wherein this Ceremony was instituted For unless we should call in question the real institution of that Sacrament and so affirm that the Disciples out of an unaccountable and fantastical Extravagance pretended only that Jesus Christ had instituted that Ceremony when there was no such thing it will appear that Jesus Christ foresaw his Death that he prepared himself for it and affirmed he suffer'd it voluntarily for the Salvation of Mankind The Sacrament of the Eucharist which he
instituted in cold Blood certifies us of all these things But because an involuntary Death would argue a certain kind of weakness 't is also most certain that nothing can better evince the strength and courage of Jesus Christ than that tho' he foresaw the horrours of an infamous and painful Death yet he exposed himself to it with such a constant will and firm Resolution that by his example he shewed his Disciples how he would have them imitate and commemorate his sufferings Jesus Christ was condemned to Death by a Nation seditiously stirred up against him and by a Sanhedrin envious of his Glory but he was justified by the Conscience of Judas whose remorse for having betray'd him forced him to kill himself and by the solemn declaration of Pilate who washed his hands in the presence of the Jews to shew that he was innocent of the Blood of that just Person He was justified too by the voice of the Centurion who saw the prodigies his Death was attended withall and soon after by the mouths even of those who sought his ruin and who being prick'd to the heart cry'd out to the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do Act. 2. 37. And certainly 't is a very great glory to our Messias that the most guilty Conscience the most unjust judges the most insensible and hardened sort of Soldiers and the most barbarous Murtherers should even bare record of his Innocence Jesus Christ suffered but it was for our sakes he gave himself up to the sorrow and anguish of Death and made his life an offering for Sin And if those wounds are counted honourable which a Subject receives sighting in the presence of his King and if those which a King receives for the safety of his Subjects are esteemed yet far more glorious what Glory then did Christ deserve who suffered in the presence and by the will of his Father for the Salvation of his People and Children and who by his sufferings established such an Empire which no power can dissolve Lastly Jesus Christ suffered a punishment proper only to Slaves but we are also very certain that during the time of his sufferings he shewed himself to have a power over Nature her self since the Graves were opened at his Death the Rocks rent the Sun was darkened and the Vail of the Temple was rent in twain And it is impossible that the Disciples of the Lord should have invented so sensible and signal matters of fact against the fresh and publick knowledge which those men that lived in their days had of it without being guilty of such an Extravagance which is more than humane But here we will ask the Incredulous in our turn whether a voluntary Death an innocence publickly own'd the sorrows and anguish which a man suffered out of Charity to the World the homages which even insensible Creatures paid to him whom men scorned and condemned were not certain Characters worthy of the Messias that had been promised us Indeed if you take away the proofs which evidently shew Jesus Christ to be the Son of God you may then call his Cross a scandal to him and the World but whilst those proofs shall be left entire his Cross will serve the more to illustrate his Majesty and Grandeur and we shall not only then assert that it was a voluntary Death which he underwent and a Death that was foretold us but we shall also shew that it is as it were a looking-glass-like wherein we may see at once all the vertues of man and all the Attributes of God There we may find the patience of a man who suffered every thing from his equals and from those who ought to have been his Servants and Disciples the Charity of a man who pray'd for them that put him to Death the Constancy of a just man who bore the burden of the iniquities of mankind and the constancy of an innocent man who at once as it were wrestled with the fury of men and the Justice of God There we may see the Masterpiece of Divine Wisdom the designs of our Enemies frustrated and the designs of God triumphing over the vain opinions and projects of men the propitiation of sins made for us by the most dreadful parricide that was ever committed or conceived the Synagogue buried in his grave whom they barbarously put to Death in defence of their priviledges the Romans crowning a King with thorns who was to rule over all Nations and putting a Reed instead of a Scepter into his hands flesh and blood shewing us in the Death of Christ the true pattern of mortification Jesus Christ dying attended with almost infinite numbers of Martyrs who were willing to die in imitation of him who was Conquerour of the World only by his shame who crucifyed the flesh by the preaching of his Cross and procured Rest and Peace to the Souls of them that dyed by the Anguish of his Agony We may also see the Justice and Mercy of God clearly manifested in his Death For what other Victim could have better evinced Gods hatred for Sin What present could have been made unto men that could have better discovered Gods love to them The Incredulous therefore reproach us with the meanness of an object wherein the vertues of men and the attributes of God himself are shewn in their greatest height and perfection But let him that any ways doubts it consider the Resurrection of Jesus Christ which is as it were a key that opens all these Events to us To dye and remain under the power of Death is indeed an evident mark of weakness and misery but to dye and yet overcome Death by rising from the Grave is the mark of a supernatural power and a divine glory Thus Jesus Christ descended into the lower parts of the Earth for no other end but to ascend into Heaven as the Eye-witnesses of that great and notable Event did plainly testify But the Incredulous will not believe their report and they further pretend that they can find in history the example of a testimony very like that which was nevertheless without contradiction reputed to be a meer Imposture We read say they that after the Death of Romulus there was a certain senator who having always lived in the repute of a very honest man certified that Romulus was ascended into Heaven where he was inserted among the Gods and that this Monarch had appeared unto him c. Is not this a matter of fact not unlike that which the Disciples testify'd of Jesus Christ throughout the Universe 'T is very like it indeed only it has these following differences there you read of a single person testifying that he had seen Romulus ascended into Heaven but here you have a very great number of people who certifiy'd that they had seen Jesus Christ after his Resurrection There it is pretended that a great and triumphant Monarch during the course of his life was inserted amongst the Gods after his Death which agrees
the Resurrection of Jesus Christ justified the wonderful Passages of his Death so likewise does his Ascension justify those of his Resurrection For tho' one should suspect that the Eyes of the Disciples might by chance have been suddenly dazzled and so they thought they had seen what they in reality never saw yet they had time enough to recover themselves out of this dazzling Amazement for it was forty days after Jesus Christ was risen from the Dead before his Ascension Had it been a Spirit that appeared to them and frightned them yet had they time enough to come to themselves again and know certainly that the Spirit they saw was not really their Master For they saw him and heard him They handled him they eat and drank with him Had it been thro' the obscurity of a darksome Night that they had imagined they had seen some Representation of their Master instead of a true and full sight of him they could not long continue in their Error But it was in full day that they saw the Stone rolled away from the Sepulcher 'T was in full bright day that Christ so often manifested himself to them and discoursed with them and afterwards ascended into heaven before their eyes Had the force of their Desires their Fears or Affections disturbed their Senses we should have less Reason to wonder at it tho even in that case the thing would seem altogether unaccountable it being morally impossible that the Senses of so many People should all at once be so confined to one wonderful Object and so disturbed at the same time But they had time enough to get out of their Confusion and Astonishment and their Minds were very sedate and at ease when Christ made them Eye-Witnesses of his glorious Ascension In a word had it been a private and silent Interview we might have much more Reason to doubt but Christ appeared to his Disciples with a particular Design to discourse with them He gave them several Instructions he forbad them to depart from Jerusalem until they had received the Gifts of the Holy Ghost He made them several Promises and such surprising ones that they are fit only for a God to make and a God to perform for he promised that he would be with them even unto the End of the World He instituted two Sacraments he commanded them to baptise all Nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost as well as to commemorate his Death in the Passover Nor was that all He had many long and coherent Discourses with them He spoke to them and they answered him They were at first incredulous but he convinced them of the Truth of his Resurrection notwithstanding their Scruples and their Infidelity He rebuked them several times for their little Faith at least they tell us so The Evangelists relate what Christ said to Thomas and what Answer Thomas made And both their speeches were too surprising to be so soon forgotten Thomas being struck at the Wonders of his Resurrection was the first that gave Christ a Name which he was not wont to bear in the Stage of his Humiliation calling him My Lord and my God John 20. 28. The Disciples asked him Whether he would at that time restore the Kingdom unto Israel but he answer'd them that it was not for them to know the Times and Seasons which the Father only had in his power Lastly The Evangelists give us no less the History of Jesus Christ risen from the Dead than that of Jesus Christ living and conversing before his Death among the Jews and we affirm we have as much reason to believe one as the other For indeed Why do we believe there was ever any such Person as Jesus Christ We believe it certainly because it is in humane speaking morally impossible that so many Persons should unanimously tell us they had seen him that they discours'd eat and drank with him nay saw him suffer Death at Jerusalem I say they would never have told us all this supposing there were nothing at all in it But then ought not that same Reason to perswade us likewise that Jesus Christ both lived and convers'd forty days with his Disciples since so many Persons saw him discoursed eat and drank with him saw him present in the midst of their Assemblies nay touched and handled him But perhaps some will object were that certainly true Why then was there in those days so many Persons that refused to believe the Ascension of Jesus Christ Why it is no hard matter to find the reason of this 't was because if they had once acknowledged the Truth of the Ascension of Jesus Christ they were obliged to die Martyrs for that Truth and no doubt Men were as worldly-minded in those days as they are now So that methinks it appears hitherto very clearly that the Disciples of Jesus Christ were neither capable of deceiving themselves nor of being deceived by others as to the Truth of the matters of fact they testifyed It is a very difficult matter I had almost said impossible that they should have deceived themselves in the Miracles of Christ which they relate because they so exactly set down the Circumstances the Names Places and the Persons themselves nay they pretend they themselves were sent by their Master into all the Parts of Judea to work there the very same Miracles they attested But tho' they should have deceived themselves in the Miracles of Christ yet they could not possibly deceive themselves in his Resurrection For they knew well enough what a dead Body and a living Man was they could easily distinguish between them and those things are of such a nature as not to be capable of Illusion or deceit Yet tho' we should supose that the disciples had been deceived in the Resurrection of Christ yet they could not have been imposed upon in the last miraculous Event of his Ascension It could never come to pass that after having seen a Spirit they should yet converse with him forty days that that Spirit should suffer himself to be handled that he should give them Instructions make them several Promises and afterwards be caught up into Heaven in their Sight they all the while looking upon him and adoring him as he was ascending into Heaven and understanding distinctly the Discourse of the Angels which promised them that he should so come again in like manner as they had seen him go up into Heaven It would be to no purpose here to alledge with Spinosa That the Evangelists have not exactly described all the Circumstances of the Event they relate and that had they taken special care to do it it would perhaps so happen that the Circumstances which they thought sit to conceal would make us comprehend that those which they have related proceeded from Natural Caâ—ses For I desire to know what can be more expresly declared or more often repeated in the Gospel than the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus
Christ into Heaven And how can any Man reasonably imagin that it was natural and according to the regular Course of second Causes to see a Man that had been crucified and laid in a Sepulcher where a Watch was appointed to guard him rise out of that Sepulcher again appear alive to several Men that touched and handled him and afterwards ascend into Heaven in their sight Certainly that very Ascension of Jesus Christ cannot but convince the most suspicious and scrupulous Person that it was an Event purely divine and supernatural For otherwise our Incredulous Adversaries might imagin since they are everlastingly raising Doubts that the Body of Jesus Christ might have been taken down from the Cross before the Breath was gone out of it that Joseph of Arimathea who was his Disciple tho he durst not own it publickly might have dress'd his Body and recover'd him out of his Swoon by the strength of the Remedies he gave him that he might have laid another counterfeit Dead-body in his place and buried it and that afterwards Jes Christ might have privately shewed himself to his Disciples not daring to appear in publick for fear of falling a second time into the hands of the Jews and suffering a true and real Death instead of that imaginary one he had suffered before But this Fiction is absurd and incredible and that for several Reasons First Because the Evangelists relate that Christ had his Side pierced with the Lance of a Soldier which thing alone was enough to give him his Death Secondly It is very improbable to think that the Jewish Sanhedrin who had condemned him to die nay who had taken such care to set a Watch over his Sepulcher should yet suffer his Body to be taken down from the Cross before the Breath was gone out of it Lastly because it can never be supposed that a Man who hung several Hours together on a Cross should yet escape Death and shew himself not long after safe and sound to his Disciples But that which will immediately remove all these Doubts is that Jesus Christ not only rose from the Dead but also ascended into Heaven in the sight of his Disciples And this is so sensible and evident a matter of fact that they could never have been imposed upon in that respect So that it may very well be affirmed that the Argument for the Truth of the Christian Religion chiefly depends upon that Important Inquiry whether the Disciples designed to impose upon us by relating to us a false Event which they did not believe themselves Now if we can clearly prove the contrary we shall invincibly demonstrate the certain Truth of our Faith Let us therefore in order to it closely stick to the Examination of that matter of fact the most essential and the most important that ever was and endeavour to discover whether it be possible we should have been imposed upon by those Men which could not deceive themselves If we would suppose that the Disciples of Jesus Christ deceived us in their relation of a fictitious Event we must also necessarily suppose these three things 1. That their Illusion or Imposture must be a thing that was possible to be put in Execution 2. That it must be of some Use or other to them 3. That it must be such as Men and only Men make use of Now it is certain that their pretended Illusion here in question could not have any of these three Qualities 1. It could not have been possible because it must have been agreed upon by many Persons who all knew the bare Truth of the matter of fact it self 2. It would have been of no use for what could those Men propose to themselves in inventing such a Fiction 3. It could not be such as Men usually contrive because from the Beginning of the World till now we never heard of any Man that invented Lyes on purpose to have the pleasure of being hanged scourged burnt or executed upon a Scaffold 1. As to the first I 'll grant you if you will that Peter with some other Disciples might have taken away the Body of Jesus Christ out of the Sepulcher either by tricking the Watch or taking the Advantage of their sleeping or lastly by bribing them with Mony I 'll grant you too if you will they might have easily perswaded the whole Company of Disciples who were too credulous and too eager in swallowing of Novelties that Jesus Christ had appeared to them indeed and that he was risen from the Dead I 'll grant you likewise that the other Disciples might have imagined thereupon they had seen some Visions or thought they had seen him in several Places and on several Occasions but then I ask How they could have all agreed together concerning the truth of his Ascension By what Charm or Cunning could Peter and the other Apostles have made them see that which they never saw or heard a Man speak whom they really never heard By what Machine could they have caused the Clouds to descend Or by what sort of Inchantment could they have produced two Men in white Raiments telling them Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go up into Heaven Acts 1. 11. By what secret Power could they have so deeply imprinted in the Minds of the Disciples the Words which Jesus Christ spoke to them after his Resurrection the Reproaches he made them of their Infidelity his Promise of sending the Holy Ghost to them his forbidding them to depart from the City of Jerusalem and the Command he gave them to Baptise all Nations in the Name of the Father the Son and Holy Ghost I say how could they have done all this if all these things were but the witty Conceits of their Imagination and Fancy Certainly tho St. Peter or some other Disciple of Jesus Christ should have formed to himself the Design and Plan of so Signal a Cheat and tho he should have set down in writing all the Articles one by one which he was obliged to make other Men believe against the plain Truth yet he could never have been so bold as to propose any such thing to those Men who were prepossessed with the Opinion that Lying was a great Sin but Truth and Sincerity on the contrary a great Vertue Nay it is even impossible it should ever come into his Head to frame so Signal an Imposture upon so sad and sorrowful an Event as the Death of Jesus Christ Neither does it appear that his Mind or his Thoughts were any ways bent upon any such Design And tho he should have been induced out of a Spirit of Revenge to invent such a Lye to discredit the Scribes and Pharisees yet it can't be supposed he should have been so very silly as to imagin that the rest of the Disciples would consent to that Imposture or be willing to maintain it
at any rate whatever out of meer Complaisance to him Such is the Nature of Mankind such the Frame and Temper of their Hearts that they will admit of no Falsity unless covered with a specious shew of Truth So that when any thing is so evidently false that every Body must necessarily be sensible of it we have no Thoughts of attempting to make others believe it as for instance it will never come into my Head to make other Men believe that I have Wings and that I fly c. We might here repeat what has been said concerning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ either the Disciples looked upon Jesus Christ before his Death as the promised Messias or else they did not look upon him as such If they considered him as the promised Messias they then believed his Words and thought that he would truly rise again and if they did expect that he would truly rise again they consequently believed he would come himself out of his Grave and so it was not at all necessary they should steal his Body away And if they did not consider him as the promised Messias whilst he was alive it must follow from thence that they were Seducers and Impostors even before the Death of Christ Now how can any one conceive that those Seducers should not have been terrified at the Punishment inflicted on their Master or that such a terrible Example of the most rigorous Justice design'd too for them should not put an end to their frontless Impudence Above all How can it be supposed that those wicked and perfidious Disciples durst have proposed to the other Disciples who were really Sincere and True to joyn with them and so testify that they had seen Jesus Christ ascending into Heaven Truly I don't see what any Man can alledge except one of these two things either that they were all sincere and honest Men or that some of them were honest and the rest Cheats If they were all sincere and honest Men as their Manners their Discourse their Conduct and a thousand other Characters of them evidently shew then is it absolutely impossible that any such Cheat could have been carried on amongst them But if they were all a pack of cheating treacherous Impostors then it was the first time that ever a Society of cheating perfidious Rogues was erected who seemed to have had no other Design than to sanctify Mankind But what Man be his Thoughts never so confus'd and irregular be his Reason never so corrupt can yet imagin that so many mean-spirited simple and humble Men as the Disciples were should immediately become the most Lying notorious Cheats out of no other Design then to involve themselves in ruin If some of them were false and others sincere and if the latter were at all imposed upon by the former which is the most our Incredulous Adversaries can imagin yet even then I assert that such a Cheat could not have been carried on by them For supposing Peter never so smooth and Eloquent never so adroit at Dissembling and Insinuation yet how could he possibly perswade so great a number of Persons to believe against their Senses that they had seen that which they really never saw or handled that which they had never handled that Jesus Christ after having given them many Precepts and large Instructions which he left very deeply imprinted in their Minds ascended into Heaven in their sight But should I grant he might have perswaded them of the Truth of his Resurrection yet how is it possible he could perswade them of the Truth of his Ascension Had St. Peter but so much as proposed it to them whom he designed to delude it would have been for that very Reason impossible but that they should have found out his Design to cheat them But he would not sure presume to propose to them the joint Contrivance of such a fabulous Story nor would he have found tho he had been bold enough to have proposed it any that would have assisted him in so sensless a Design much less maintain'd his Extravagance and least of all exposed themselves to a thousand Torments on purpose to maintain it 2. But secondly I observed that such an Imposture would have been of no manner of use to them It is enough to have proved that it was impossible to be put in Execution to satisfie any reasonable Man how needless and useless it would be to advance it 'T is true there have been in all Ages and Countries such Men as would have been very willing for their own Advantage to make others believe improbable Stories and Fictions had the thing been but practicable but because they could not effect it without such a mutual Concert among several Persons to maintain it as is altogether impossible for that very Reason it never came into their Minds upon serious and cooler Thoughts It would no doubt be of very singular Advantage to those Princes who so earnestly desire to procure themselves an extraordinary Respect and Veneration from their Subjects and for that Reason very seldom appear in publick and hardly ever shew themselves to their Poople I say it would be of great Advantage to them if they could but once perswade their People that they were of a Divine Race and came down from Heaven but because they judge such a Design impracticable they reckon it a thing altogether useless and needless ever to undertake it Certainly we may as well affirm that the Design of making other Men believe the Ascension of Jesus Christ against the real truth of the thing and inward sense of their own Consciences would have been altogether as useless and needless because it does not in the least appear that the Disciples could propose to themselves any reasonable Design in maintaining such an incredible Story 3. Nay it was a thing not only wholly useless but as we observ'd in the third place such a one as Men dont usually Design or contrive It could not enter into any one Man's mind much less into that of so many different men at once to fancy that they could perswade other Men to credit such an impudent Lye as that must have been or to dare undertake to make others believe it to think in the least that they could succeed in so strange a Design or that others would have acted in it jointly with them to imagin that they could be able to endure the most rigorous Torments and the severest and most cruel Afflictions or that the Cheat which they unanimously had agreed on would have been both believed and approved of throughout the World nay what is more that Men should repent and become Holy and Righteous out of a Respect and Reverence they boâ—e to an Impostor and that Vertue and Piety should have been established in all the Parts of the World by the means of an extraordinary Cheat. To this we may add that considering this Design of theirs another way it is not cannot be such a one as any
the utmost pitch of Prosperity and Glory this Jesus himself was seized and nailed on a Cross where he suffered a most infamous Death infamous in the esteem of all Nations but more particularly accursed in the Jewish Law What a mighty thunder bolt must this have been to such men who had fed their fancies with such charming hopes They were long since perswaded that the Messias would make his appearance in a very Glorious State that he would overthrow at his coming the Empire of Cesar together with all the Roman Grandeur and thereby make the Jews absolute Masters of the World All these things they impatiently expected from Jesus and yet this Jesus was dishonoured by an infamous punishment he was compelled to endure The Jews themselves not only sacrificed him but they sacrificed him even to Cesar himself and delivered him up to the Romans to put him to Death There was no power able to deliver him out of the hands of his Tormentors so that he died and his Disciples heard of his Death or rather were eye-witnesses of it In truth I cannot conceive how they should after all this have still preserved the least of their pretentions They might reasonably grieve at the loss of such pleasing hopes but nothing could redeem the loss of them They might abhor the furious passion of the chief Priests and Sanhedrin who had utterly deprived them of their dearly beloved Master but they must at length lay aside the opinion they had entertained of him And therefore nothing can be so likely as that which St. Luke makes them utter in the midst of their sorrow and astonishment But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel and besides all this to day is the third day since these things were done Luke 24. 21. But supposing they had no such Hopes or Expectation it is enough that the Disciples look't upon Jesus as the promised Messias Nay 't is all one whether it was in the sense of the Jews or in that of the Christians For if it was in the sense of the Jews they could not but imagin that Jesus would have raised up the glory of the Jews to its utmost height so far were they from conceiving he was liable to be put to Death by them But if it was in the sense of the Christians they ought surely to have believed that in case he should die he would certainly raise up himself and those that believed on him from the grave because the whole System of Christian Religion essentially depends upon this foundation Thus were the Disciples preposessed with the general opinion of the Jews they could not chuse but lose it at the sight of the Death of Jesus and were they prepossessed with the profess'd Doctrine of the Christians they could not likewise but be undeceived of their Errour when they saw that Jesus Christ rose not again from the Dead What then shall we think of certain Fishermen who were a most mean wretched sort of people as the Enemies of Christianity called them who had not the courage to accompany their Master even when they looked upon him as the true Messias but gave him over to his Executioners Sure they are by this time sensible of their mistake What care then does it appear they took to hide themselves to conceal their shame and confusion from men let us see what was the Event and we shall know the Truth We find that few weeks after the Death of Christ his Disciples publickly shewed themselves in Jerusalem and confidently affirmed that they had seen their Master who was risen again from the Dead had spoken with him handled him eat with him conversed with him for forty days and lastly that they had seen him ascend into Heaven 'T is certain this was the Testimony of the Disciples since the Faith of the Primitive Christians was founded on this Testimony Who could have thought of this unexpected turn The Disciples affirmed that Jesus was the Messias but could they still believe it when they saw him give up the Ghost Or if they did not believe it were they now grown bolder to maintain an imposture than before to follow their Master when they thought him the true Messias Could certain Fishermen dejected fearful Fishermen who ought with shame to have owned their Error could they invent such a fable preach it with so much confidence maintain it with so much boldness expose their persons to all sorts of Torments and even to Death it self in defence of such an incredible fiction Could any of them imagin that they could seduce Mankind or had any one of them imagined it could the rest have been so extravagant as to approve of his ridiculous fancy Did they think the World would believe them upon their bare Word And were they then no longer in any dreadful apprehension of the Sanhedrin that had inhumanely put their Master to death Did they believe they might safely reproach the Jews for having put the Messias to death without being themselves severely punished Were they not sensible into how many troubles and afflictions this fable would inevitably cast them And if they were could they still be so couragious as to maintain such an imposture Is it possible that no one of them should recant his opinion not one contradict himself but that all should unanimously depose notwithstanding the most rigorous punishments inflicted on them a matter of Fact which they knew to be altogether Chimerical and false Certainly this is a thing so very strange or rather which appears to me so very absurd and extravagant that I question whether our incredulous Adversaries could perswade themselves of it provided they would but reflect never so little upon it But let us continue still to distrust our selves may we not probably have made some false Supposition in what we just now affirmed we will therefore go over again the same principles we just now established And indeed the more I reflect upon them the less I conceive how we can possibly call any of them in question For can I deny that Jesus ever was in the World that he ever had any Disciples or that those Disciples thought him at first the promised Messias But why should I alone question a matter of fact which the Thalmudists nay Julian Porphirius and all other Enemies of Christianity have always acknowledged This is what I have shewn to be absurd Can I question but that if Jesus died and rose not again from the dead his Disciples were then undeceived of the opinion they probably entertained that Jesus was the Messias the Son of God If so either they understood nothing at all by these two words the Messias the Son of God or else they understood quite another thing than that he was a Meer Man who was to remain for ever under the power of Death after his Crucifixion Can I deny that the Disciples declared the Resurrection of Jesus Christ after his Crucifixion It 's self evident All
then must that person do or rather what must an infinite number of persons do who utterly renounce all things for the sake of the Gospel III. There has been found some who have counterfeited Books of Humane Learning but none ever known that were willing to die in defence of their forgery Now none here can be suspected to have forged the Books of the New Testament but only those who suffered Death in defence of the Christian Religion and consequently to confirm the Truth of these matters of fact on which Chistianity it self is founded IV. A man may very well counterfeit a Book of Humane Learning but not always nor in all circumstances and 't would be very ridiculous in a man to forge Letters that must have been written not long ago to whole Societies or Epistles that must have been deposited in the hands of an infinite number of persons and in very many different places Now this must needs be affirmed of all the Epistles of the Apostles which make up a very considerable part of the New Testament And how could the Church of Rome have possibly been made to believe that St. Paul wrote an Epistle to her or the Church of Corinth that she had received two Epistles from him and so of the rest unless it had been so V. This argument is so much the more considerable since he that grants one point in this matter unavoidably grants the whole and if you should agree with me that perhaps one single Epistle among all those of the New Testament was not forg'd you must grant the same thing of them all or at least it will be to no purpose for the Incredulous to to cavil thereupon For what if I should grant the four Gospels to be forg'd does not the Book of the Acts of the Apostles contain nay does it not necessarily suppose the same essential matters of fact related to us in the Gospels should I grant the same of the Book of Acts are not the Epistles of St. Paul sufficient to inform us that Jesus Christ wrought several miracles rose again from the Dead and ascended into heaven and that the Holy Ghost descended upon the Disciples on the day of Pentecost and that 's as much as I desire In a word should I grant all the Epistles of St. Paul to be the works of another man I need but receive those of St. Peter or those of St. John to prove the same thing There being never an Epistle in all the New Testament but what mentions or implies those essential matters of fact without which there can be no such thing as Christianity in the World Let us now see whether we can perswade our selves that all the Books of the New Testament without excepting one fragment or single Epistle amongst them are forg'd and whether we can entertain such a suspicion which no Heretick no Impious or Incredulous Person ever entertained But how is it possible all the Epistles of the Apostles should be forg'd since they must have been committed to an infinite number of Persons as they were really in the begining of Christianity and since Tertullian tells us that in his time they carefully preserved in several Churches the Originals of those Epistles which the Apostles had wrote to them Again in what time and on what occasion could this Forgery have been made Was it during the lives of the Apostles No For could the World consider those Books as Sacred and Divine which the Apostles themselves forg'd Was it then immediately after the Death of the Apostles Do we owe it to Clemens Polycarp and the other Doctors of that Age By no means for those Disciples of the Apostles separated themselves as soon as those great Lights of the World were extinguished Polycarp went to Rome to decide a controversy with a Bishop of Rome occasioned in the Church about the time wherein they were to celebrate the Feast of the Christian Resurrection or Passover Those two great men differed much in that point but yet they both greed unanimously to receive the Writings of the Apostles and to look upon them as the true standard of their Faith and Manners Moreover what Probability is there that so great a number of Churches could have been induced to receive so many false Epistles so soon after the Death of the Apostles and when there was so many Persons yet living who had conversed with them In truth this is so extravagant a Notion that we hold our selves not at all obliged to refute it But it may be objected that the Primitive Christians question'd the Authority of some Epistles such as the Epistle to the Hebrews whose Author was never certainly known the second Epistle of St. Peter that of St. Jude c. I grant it but then I presume that this consideration makes for us since it cannot be conceived that the Ancient Primitive Christians should dispute so long about some Epistles in particular had the rest altogether been as liable to suspicion But may we not reasonably imagin that during those strange disorders which followed the destruction of Jerusalem some Christians either perfect cheats or but partly perswaded of that Faith might have composed the Books of the New Testament and so after having inserted in them whatever stories they pleased ascribed them to the Apostles to gain the greater veneration and respect for their fictions No certainly because the devastation of Jerusalem hinder'd not but that there might be very numerous Churches at Rome at Antioch at Thessalonica Philippi c. whom it would have been impossible to have perswaded that the Apostles had wrote them some Epistles which must have been already deposited in their hands And besides that it appears plainly that the Books of the New Testament were composed before the destruction of Jerusalem because Jerusalem and the Church established at Jerusalem is often mention'd therein without the least hint that Jerusalem was then utterly destroyed Besides how could it come into any mans mind to forge such Books after the destruction of Jerusalem whose design was only to humble the pride of the Jews to induce them no longer to hate the Heathens as being strangers and to perswade them that tho God as yet suffered the carnal worship of their Law they ought not to expect to be justified by that This I say was the end of the New Testament and especially the Epistles of St. Paul who seems earnestly to desire to unite the minds of the two Nations And Heaven having sufficiently declared it self against the Jews by the destruction of their City the confusion of their Tribes and Families and that general dispersion which made them Tributaries to all other Nations there was no need of any further reasons to prove that the Jews were not the only Nation called to the Knowledge of the true God 'T was enough that this proof was evidently written by the hand of God in the just punishment of that people In the mean while 't is necessary to observe
that by shewing that the New Testament was composed before the destruction of Jerusalem I shew also that it is as ancient as the Apostles themselves which affords us one determination very advantagious to our Cause So that this objection being very favourable to instead of proving any thing against us nothing hinders but that we pass on to the consideration of the second suspicion we were willing to entertain concerning the Books of the New Testament CHAP. II. Proving that the Books of the New Testament were never corrupted 'T Is certain that from the Apostles time to ours the New Testament was ever look'd upon as sacred and not to be corrupted without impiety and Irreligion But whether it were Reason or Prejudice that made it so esteemed by the Christians I shall now examin It is enough that the esteem men have of it seems as ancient as the Book it self It s being considered as the foundation of all our hopes and the original of heavenly Revelation its being read and order'd to be read in Publick and Private from the Age of Clemens Polycarp Justin and Iraeneus to ours I say all this shews that it could not have been corrupted in its Essentials But this Truth very well deserves a more strict consideration I say then how is it possible that all the World should have unanimously conspired to corrupt this Book For tho' one single Doctor of the Church should have attempted it yet the rest would certainly have opposed it Tho' all the Christian Doctors dispersed up and down the World should have agreeed to it yet the people would never have consented to 't Tho' the Doctors and the People together should have been inclinable to it yet sure their Adversaries would not have failed to reproach them with it The Jews and Heathens whose only aim was to cry down their Religion would never have concealed it Julian Porphirius and all other particular Enemies of the Christians would have drawn some advantage from it In a word tho' the silence of their Adversaries had favoured so strange an Enterprise yet the different parties and various Heresies which soon after sprung up among the Christians were an invincible obstacle to it 'T is well known that immediately after the Death of the Apostles the Church was strangely disturbed by several various Controversies For not to speak here of the Gnosticks that abominable Sect which deserves not the honourable name of Christians certainly the Opinion of the Millenarians which Papias seems to have been the Author of founded upon the Apostolical Tradition fifteen years after the death of St. John the Controversy which soon after happened concerning the Christian Passover together with the Disputes of the Orthodox against the Origenists concerning the Resurrection and several other Articles of the Christian Doctrin I say these Disputes might easily have divided the Christians in the first Century of the Church Next to them succeeded the famous Disputes of the Orthodox with the Arrians and with what heat and animosities they were carried on is sufficiently known to all the World But however fatal all those Controversies were to the Church yet they produced that good effect by the direction of Providence which orders every thing to some good end that they preserv'd the Revelation of the New Testament pure and entire and at present strengthen our belief against all suspicions we might probably entertain in this respect For tho the Millenarians the Origenists and the Arians should have attempted to corrupt the Scripture yet how were it possible that the Orthodox which were so exasperated against them should have suffered it to be done or that if the Orthodoxes had had any such design their Adversaries which were so incens'd should have agreed with them in the same Intention Should I further grant this mutual agreement possible doubtless the almost infinite number of Copies of Editions and Translations made at first of the New Testament rendered the execution of that design impossible For tho' a man had corrupted one single Copy among all those Copies or translated those Books false yet how could he corrupt all the other Copies of them which are dispersed in the World or how could he alter so many other Translations which have been made of them in different times and in different places But supposing this were feasible if the Writings of the Apostles were ever corrupted it must have been either in their Essentials or in things of little Importance I mean by their Essentials those miraculous matters of fact related in the New Testament as well as all those others which if true demonstrate the Truth of the Christian Religion Now if those Writings were not corrupted in their Essentials it necessarily follows that they contain several true matters of fact sufficient to prove the Truth of Christianity But if they were altered in their Essentials there must have been added to them the Miracles of Jesus Christ his Resurrection Ascension into Heaven the pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost the power the Apostles had of speaking strange Languages and of imparting miraculous gifts to others Now I affirm that all those matters of fact could not have been added to the New Testament unless the whole Book was forg'd because the subject matter of the New Testament consists of nothing else but of those matters of fact or if you will of such things as evidently relate to them and which would certainly be false if those matters of fact were false But let us joyn Experience to Reason and consider that if the Christians had corrupted the writings of the Apostles the Books of the New Testament would now be quite different from what they were in the former ages and that having been continually altered from that time untill now nothing could be more apparent than such an alteration Yet 't is easy to perceive the contrary and it evidently appears by an almost infinite number of places of the New Testament quoted in the Books of the Fathers that there never was a Book that suffered less alteration by the revolution of years than that did There are but two things in my opinion that may be answered to this Argument the first is that in corrupting the Books of the New Testament those places quoted in the Works of the Fathers might also have been altered But this thought can never enter into any reasonable mans mind for he must then suppose that there was a person in a manner Immortal who might have had time enough to alter so many Books composed from Age to Age and a man too so much Master of other Mens hearts and understandings as to have been able to corrupt a Book the most universally read and most carefully preserved that ever was and to alter also with it all the Books of the ancient Fathers without any body ever perceiving it or making the least opposition against it The second thing that may be answered is that this
related such things as at first shock our thoughts and which Impious men chiefly insist upon such as this complaint of Jesus Christ My God My God c. Besides this the Circumstances with which they relate all the actions of their Master will sufficiently convince us of their sincerity For is it probable the Evangelists should have invented or forg'd the murmurings of the Scribes and Pharisees who reproach'd them saying Why do ye eat and drink with Publicans and Sinners c. And that controversy betwixt the ambitious Disciples on whose account it was that Jesus Christ having taken up a little Child told them they must be like that Child if they would qualifie themselves for the Kingdom of Heaven c. a wonderful discourse indeed both for its shortness and simplicity which sufficiently shews us the very Soul of our blessed Lord 'T is not one single Writer of all these that relate those Actions there are three of them who wrote after such a manner as manifestly evinces they copy'd not one anothers Writings And if you would be further satisfy'd the Apostles themselves prove the Holiness of life of their Divine Master by imitating his Actions The Primitive Christians shew us how well the Apostles lived by following their Example If you should desire we should produce some authentical testimonies of Holiness Vertue sweet and peaceable temper of the Primitive Christians there are abundance to be had in the Writings of their very Enemies We need only an indifferent Knowledge of Antiquity to banish all suspicions in that respect Thus the truth appears on all sides and I sensibly perceive it as soon as I frame any Idea to my self of the life and actions of Jesus Christ Yet I am willing however that the Incredulous should not wholly conform their judgment to mine and if this Argument does not move and convince them as much as it does me they need only pass on to the consideration of others CHAP. VIII Of the Prophecies of Jesus Christ THey will perhaps be much more affected with the Prophecies that occur in the Gospel several of which are very expresly delivered But among the rest we shall make choice of one which we shall particularly examin 't is that concerning the final destruction of Jerusalem We may easily perceive how clearly 't is set down by the Evangelists who bring in Jesus Christ foreâ—elling it and how exactly 't was afterwards fulfilled The words of the Prophecy are these And Jesus answering said unto him seest thou these â—reat buildings There shall not be left one â—tone upon another that shall not be thrown down c. And when ye shall hear of Wars and Rumours of Wars be ye not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet For Nation shall rise against Nation and Kingdom against Kingdom and there shall be Earthquakes in divers places and there shall be famines and troubles for all these are but the beginnings of sorrows c. When ye therefore shall see the Abomination of Desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet standing where it ought not whoso readeth let him understand then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains Let him which is on the house top not come down to take any thing out of his house c. But wo unto them that are with Child and to them that give Suck in those days For in those days shall be affliction such as was not since the beginning of the Creation which God created unto this time neither shall be again And except that the Lord had shortned those days no flesh should be saved but for the Elects sake c. And then if any man shall say unto you lo here is Christ or lo he is there believe it not For there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shew great signs and wonders to seduce if it were possible even the Elect. But take ye heed behold I have foretold you all things It is not requisite that a man should be very well acquainted with the Jewish History to know that this Prophecy was exactly fulfilled Those who doubt it may consult the History Josephus wrote of it There they will hear of Troubles of Wars Rumours of Wars of Famines Earthquakes from place to place which preceeded for some years the final destruction of Judea Therein they will find Jerusalem surrounded with Armies and trodden down by the Gentiles There they will read of a time wherein 't was much better for the Inhabitants of that miserable Country to forsake their abodes in the Cities and to flee to the Mountains There they will see the Temple of Jerusalem burnt down and demolished without having one stone left upon another and surely be convinced that there was never Tribulation like unto the Tribulation of those days They will be no longer ignorant of the Abomination of Desolation set up in the holy place which the Prophet Daniel speaks of when they shall see the Jews rushing into the Temple and there cutting one anothers throats on a solemn feast day But if they would further consult our Ecclesiastical Historians or the Primitive Fathers they would find them all agree in this Relation that the faithful Disciples of Jesus Christ who were at Jerusalem fled to a little City called Pella after having been forewarned of it by the Spirit and there will be no longer reason to think these Words of Jesus Christ obscure But pray ye that your flight be not in the Winter c. There are few people but what perceive the exact Conformity of this prophecy with its Event and we need not at all question the certainty of it But 't is not so very certain that it was not composed after the Event and it will concern us to enquire into it It appears then first that the Gospels wherein 't is related were composed before the destruction of Jerusalem because St. Luke wrote not the Book of Acts till some time after he had composed his Gospel as he testifies himself in these Words The former treatise have I made O Theophilus of all that Jesus begun both to do and to teach c. Acts 1. 1. Besides it seems that St. Luke had written the Book of Acts before the destruction of Jerusalem because he is so far from speaking of that Event that on the contrary he speaks of Jerusalem as of a City that was still in being and wherein there was a flourishing Christian Church But perhaps this is not so much insisted upon It may be further ask'd whether that prophecy might not have been inserted in the Gospel by some Zealous Christians who having seen the destruction of Jerusalem might have took occasion from thence to honour their Master by pretending he had foretold it For the clearing of this doubt we shall observe first that tho' this Prophecy be the same in substance in the three Gospels wherein 't is related yet 't is expressed after a very different
manner which is sufficient to perswade us that it was not inserted by one and the same Author in the Gospel according to St. Matthew in the Gospel according to St. Mark and in the Gospel according to St. Luke For to examin the beginning of it only it appears that St. Matthew relates it thus Chap. 24. And Jesus said unto them see ye not all these things Verily I say unto you there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives the Disciples came unto him privately saying tell us when shall these things be c. Now St. Luke expresses himself thus Chap. 21. And as some spake of the Temple how it was adorned with goodly stones he said as for these things which ye behold the days will come in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another Here he does not say as St. Matthew that the Disciples as he sat upon the Mount of Olives asked him saying Master but when shall these things be c. Lastly after this manner also St. Mark begins this Narration Chap. 13. And as he went out of the Temple one of his Disciples saith unto him Master see what stones and buildings are here And Jesus answering said unto him seest thou these great buildings there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives over against the Temple Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately tell us when shall these things be c. This last Evangelist perfectly explains and reconciles the other two together by delivering all the Circumstances of the matter of fact viz. that Jesus was two several times asked concerning the buildings of the Temple and that the last time was as he sat upon the Mount of Olives from whence one might very well see the Temple and where that prospect gave occasion to his Disciples to desire that he would explain what he said of its Demolishing when he was yet in the Temple it self In the mean while it is to be confessed that the little difference we perceive in this respect between the Evangelists utterly overthrows the suspicion we might entertain that this Prophecy was forged by some body or other who had inserted it in all the three Gospels But II. it 's worth our observation that the Disciples having confounded together two very remote Events in the question they asked their Master viz. the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the World saying tell us when shall these things be And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the End of the World Mat. 24. 3. Jesus Christ answered without undeceiving his Disciples and without distinguishing what they had thus confounded together Now what likely-hood is there that a man who had seen the destruction of Jerusalem but could not imagin it should be attended with the End of the World should make the Disciples utter such a Question without making Jesus Christ answer the least thing for the clearing of it But rather III. how should he have been able to joyn in this Prophecy the destruction of Jerusalem to the coming of the Son of Man in the Clouds with great Power and Glory How could that Man who had been an eye-witness to the destruction of Jerusalem have reasonably said that presently after the tribulation of those days the Sun should be darken'd and the Moon should not give her light that the Stars should fall from Heaven and the powers of Heaven be shaken that mens hearts should fail them for fear and for looking after those things and that the World should mourn c. How were it possible he should have intermixed all those Circumstances with the history of that matter of fact the falshood of which he must needs well know if he composed the Prophecy after the Event But do we not fall here from one difficulty into a greater For if all those signs which were to accompany the destruction of Jerusalem did not really come to pass wherein then lies the truth of this same prophecy To answer this Objection some think it sufficient to say that Jesus Christ expressed himself in this place after the usual manner of the Prophets who say that Nature trembles and Heaven and Earth is moved when God visiteth men after some extraordinary manner either in his Goodness or Justice They further add that the Judgments of Christ executed on the Jews are represented to us as a coming and as a Singular coming by reason of the terrible plagues he inflicted on them But what seems to me more reasonable and natural than this is that Jesus Christ thought it not convenient to undeceive his Disciples who being prepossess'd with a favourable Opinion of their Nation thought that Jerusalem should last as long as the World and that the ruine of the one should be the ruine of the other He therefore seemed to side with their Opinion and represented those two Events to them by the same signs And indeed I conceive there might be several Reasons which obliged Jesus Christ so to act For not to alledg here that Obscurity is the true Character of all Prophecies and that it was necessary this here should be somewhat overshadowed as well as the rest lest any one should foreknow the time of its Accomplishment God having reserved that knowledge to himself as it is delivered to us in this same Prophecy was it not also Necessary that Jesus Christ should follow the ordinary Custom of all the Prophets which is to unite several very remote events together in one single Prophecy to shew that the remotest things are nigh one another in the sight of God Besides the Destruction of Jerusalem being the greatest and most perfect Description of the End of the World what could be more wisely thought of than to represent the one to us by the other according to the Notion of the Disciples who confounded those two Events together There happened Pestilences Wars and Famines immediately before the Destruction of Jerusalem there will also happen the like immediately before the end of the World As the Tribes which dwelt in the holy Land mourn'd to see the effects of the Curse of Heaven falling upon their Nation so shall all the Tribes of the Earth mourn and be astonished when God shall destroy this inferiour World and proceed to the last Judgment As the Destruction of Jerusalem happened not till the Gospel was preached throughout the World that is in all the parts of the known World so in all appearance the end of the World will not happen till all the Nations which lay concealed and unknown have been converted to the Faith of Jesus Christ As there were seen false Christs and false Prophets before the final destruction of the Jews so there will be also false Teachers who shall endeavour to seduce men before the End of the World and
Holy Ghost But perhaps 't is a question whether there was ever any Christian Church founded at Jerusalem If so then must the Ancient Doctors of the Church who lived in different times and in different places have conspired together to deceive us in this respect and the Jews and Heathens and all other profess'd Enemies of our Religion as well Ancient as Modern who never contested the truth of this matter of fact must utterly have lost their Reason In a word supposing the Book of Acts composed long after the destruction of Jerusalem that is when there could be no longer any flourishing Church in that City yet there is no point gained For it is true still that the Apostles set down the matter of fact we speak of and that their Epistles are filled with such things as visibly relate to it I shall not here further add that the Book of Acts mentions nothing of the Death of the Apostles which manifestly shews that it was composed during their lives and consequently in a time wherein the Church of Jerusalem flourish'd nor that it mentions nothing of the last destruction of Jerusalem no not so much as any of the signs or presages of it which induces us to believe that that Book was composed some time before that great Event it being very probable that the Author who composed it meerly for the Glory of the Apostles and of the Christian Religion as the Incredulous undoubtedly imagin would never have failed to have inserted in it the History of all those dreadful Misfortunes which fell upon the Jews and which the Christians look upon as the effect of their rejecting the Messias But since my design is not to leave the Reader the least shadow of a doubt I promise to prove by and by that the Apostles both received and imparted many miraculous gifts In the mean while till the Method I have prescribed to my self gives me leave to enter upon that subject I think it fit to make some few Reflexions concerning the success of the Apostles's preaching which is that essential head to which all other matters contained in the Book of Acts relate CHAP. X. Wherein we shall take into Consideration what success the Preaching of the Apostles had THis matter of fact is related with very remarkable Circumstannces As I. That those men who first preached the Gospel were Fishermen that is gross and ignorant people of no appearance or authority in the world II. That those men went about preaching that they had seen Jesus Christ risen from the Dead and ascending into Heaven and that they had long before been Eye-Witnesses to his Miracles III. That they offended by their preaching all the Powers of the World and exposed their persons to an infinite number of Dangers and Misfortunes IV. That they suffered them with Patience or rather with Joy V. That the success of their preaching was so swift and sudden as is almost inconceivable In all this St. Luke has told us nothing but what our own Reason would tell us We may conclude that they were men of no extraordinary birth or credit in the World that first preached the Gospel since no body has ever said any thing to the contrary 'T is manifest that those men ought to have testified that they had seen Jesus Christ work many miracles seen him risen from the Dead and ascending into Heaven because they would never have converted so many Nations as they did had they only said they knew all those things by hear say and besides that the Epistles of the Apostles inform us that that was the subject of their preaching There is no doubt but all the Powers of the World persecuted these men for as much as Policy is an Enemy to all new Sects and the People themselves are always Jealous of their Religion It cannot be doubted neither but that the Apostles very couragiously suffered the effects of that persecution because had they recanted or drawn back for fear of punishments their design would have miscarried in its very beginning Lastly who can deny but that the success of their preaching was very swift and sudden in as much as in a short time there were several Churches established in all parts of the known World This is a matter of fact which was never contested And therefore Reason as well as St. Luke tells us all these things The Book of Acts informs us of the Truth of them and the Nature of things will not suffer us to doubt but that they were so which utterly destroys the suspicion we might entertain that they were all forg'd or invented In the mean time I cannot consider all these matters of fact nor unite them together and observe the proportion they have one with another without presently believing the Truth of that Religion which they so plainly Prove and Establish CHAP. XI Wherein we shall examin the matters contained in the Epistles of the Apostles THo' the Ancients had not unanimously received the Epistles of St. Paul tho' Clemens Polycarp and Barnabas had made no mention of the second Epistle of St. Peter yet it would be sufficient to observe that they were written to some Churches that is to whole Societies who for a long while preserved the Originals of them to assure us that they were not forg'd 'T is then our concern to see whether we can find therein any Characters of the Divinity of our Religion We cannot Read St. Paul's Epistles without observing therein I. The Piety and Charity of that Apostle II. His Impartiality and Contempt of the advantages of the World III. His Courage in enduring afflictions which instead of disheartning rather overjoy'd him IV. A continual repetition of the Testimony which the Apostles bore of the Truth of the Resurrection of the Lord. V. Such things which manifestly denote that St. Paul had received the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost and that those that then believed very frequently received them The Piety of that Apostle so variously discovers it self in his Writings that we cannot think it dissembled without offering Violence to our Understanding For tho' a man should constrain himself upon some occasions yet is it possible he should after the very same manner during a great part of his life in all his Actions in all his Words in his manner of telling of things which oftener discovers the bottom of the heart than the things he speaks of I know very well Hypocrisy covers it self with the external shew of Vertue but really there is yet something which I can't express a simple and natural air in true vertue which is not to be met with in Hypocrisy or rather Hypocrisy is neither so subtle nor clear sighted but that it discovers it self on one side or other nay often it lets drop a wordwhich unmasques it to the eye of the World However I am willing the Epistles of St. Paul should be strictly examin'd to see whether any thing but what is very natural and sincere can be found
Matthew who was born a Jew And who did he relate them to Why to several thousand Jews that had embraced Christianity and who dwelling at Jerusalem knew full as well what had happened therein both in their days and in those of their Fathers as they know at Paris what was done in that City in the days of Cardinal Richelieu or as they know at London every thing that happened in those of Oliver Cromwell and at Stockolm in those of Gustavus Adolphus And now I pray consider whether it be probable any man could have made the like matters of fact believ'd in any of those great Cities by such a successful forgery or whether he could have gained over to his side several thousands of people by the meer strength of his Fictions But if I grant that the Evangelist had boldness enough expresly to denote the coming of the Wise-men and the impression it made on all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem against their publick knowledge nay against the memory of those things they had then fresh in their minds at least it can't be denied but that the consequences of that coming and the Dependencies of that first event are of such a Nature and Character as not possibly to have been forged or invented by the most bold faced and impudent Writer that ever was There are here two or three Circumstances so naturally and inseparably united one with the other that it is impossible to grant one without granting the other too No man can doubt of the coming of the Wise-men to Jerusalem if he allows that this coming forced Herod to assemble the Grand Council of the Jews to know of them where the Messias should be born neither can he doubt of the answer that was made him by the Sanhedrin if he owns that Herod sent his men into Bethlehem to slay the young Children that were there from two years old and under So that if it can be made out that this last matter of fact was true the other two will not need much proof Now I affirm that the Evangelist durst not assert this last matter of fact had it been utterly false For what Since the reign of Herod surnamed the Great was so well known that the least of his Actions was publickly talk'd of how could any one have presumed to impute falsly to him a Massacre so notable and extraordinary as that must have been The City of Bethlehem had not as yet been destroyed when the Evangelist wrote those things and therefore supposing the things false there were so many Witnesses of the Falsity as there were Inhabitants yet living in that City That City was not so far distant from Jerusalem but that those Christians who dwelt in the latter might have very well known the certain Truth of them Besides there was a very great Commerce between those two Places and the time from the Birth of Jesus Christ to that in which this Gospel was composed was not so long as to have given occasion to so improbable a Fiction Suppose a Man in these latter Days should take upon him to make us believe that one of the present Kings in Europe or if you will of those who reigned forty or fifty Years ago caused two or three thousand Children to be slain in their Cradle that so he might involve in that Massacre the Ruin of a Child whose Destiny he suspected would prove fatal to him Certainly it is not very probable we should credit such a Fable or that any one durst pretend to publish it nay had so much as the least Thoughts of it But then 't is much more improbable that any one should endeavour to perswade those Men to the Belief of it who lived in that Kingdom or in those very Places where such a thing was supposed to have happened But to come a little nearer to the Death of Jesus Christ. The Evangelists represent him to us as having lived thirty Years obscurely in the World Now had it been their Design to put us off with Stories they might have perswaded us that Jesus Christ during his abode here had been often wrap'd up into Heaven or transported into far Countries where he had done many Signs and Wonders nay they might have told us too that for the space of thirty Years he had continually wrought very sensible and wonderful Miracles in the midst of the Jews For it was as easy for them to suppose such a thing as all the rest Yet it appears that the Evangelists include all his Miracles in the three last Years of his Life And what is the Reason of it Because they wrote nothing but Truth But we shall not here insist much upon this Consideration What is most certain is That the Evangelists having delivered in their Writings that Jesus Christ had done a great many Signs and Wonders before a great number of Witnesses and having set down the Time and Place when and where they were done they must necessarily have been void of all Shame as well as Reason to relate such things as these if they were false They tell us That Jesus Christ with a few Loaves and some small Fishes miraculously fed in the Wilderness at one time five thousand and at another three thousand men besides Women and Children Now I am at a stand to imagine how it can be thought natural for one Man to undertake to perswade several thousands that they had been wonderfully fed and not only to relate the bare matter of fact it self but also bring in Christ reproaching the Multitude that they followed him not purely for the sake of his Miracles but the Loaves he fed them with and then the Multitude excusing themselves and saying that Moses had fed their Forefathers and that he must also feed them if he would have them believe in him as also Jesus Christ bidding them on this Occasion to labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life Joh. 6. 27. and to that end promising to give them his Flesh to eat and his Blood to drink All which Expressions are indeed very extraordinary in themselves and such as no Man ever made use of before him But there are matters of fact related in the Gospel more extraordinary and surprising than these There is nothing so remarkable and which strikes us so much with Astonishment as the Description the Evangelists give us of the Prodigies that attended the Death of Christ And behold say they the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom and the earth did quake and the rocks rent and the graves were opened and many bodies of saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many Matth. 27. 51 52 53. We shall not here insist on each particular Circumstance that attended this miraculous matter of fact neither shall we nicely examine the Resurrection of those Saints whose Bodies came out
up to Jerusalem And it is worth taking notice of that St. Peter had but just made a very excellent Confession of what Jesus Christ was in Presence of all the other Disciples telling him Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God and that Jesus Christ had crowned this admirable Confession with that extraordinary Promise of his Blessed art thou Simon Barjona For flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee but my father which is in heaven And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it c. Matth. 16. 17 18. Immediately after Christ foretold what Death he was to suffer from the Chief Priests and Scribes but added withal he should rise again the third Day Whereupon St. Peter rebuked him and said Be it far from thee O Lord this shall not be unto thee But Jesus Christ instead of approving of that seeming Concern and Affection his Disciple had for him severely reproved his Indiscretion in these words Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not c. This History seems to be very natural and sincere and that mixture of Circumstances which in all probability have no manner of relation with one another could not of it self easily enter in any Man's Mind St. Peters Confession was excellent and the Promise Jesus Christ made him was extraordinary Nay the very Expression of it implied somewhat strange and difficult But above all it seems at first view that Jesus Christ too rigorously censures the great Zeal which Peter shewed for his Person and it does not seem very natural that he who told him Blessed art thou Simon Barjona and promised to make him a Pillar of his Church should tell him presently after Get thee behind me Satan 'T is plain a Man must in spite of himself perceive that 't is â—he force of Truth and not the natural Agreement of those Circumstances that obliged the Evangelist to joyn them both together in one and the same Recital And that which necessarily occasions this Reflexion of ours is that Jesus Christ had really foretold his Death and his Resurrection before ever he had suffered the one or the other was brought to pass But what proves this better than any thing else is that Jesus Christ upon cooler Thoughts and the very Day before his Passion did such a thing as had never been done before and which doubtless never will be done again and that is he instituted a Memorial of that Death he was just upon the point of suffering He foretold that he should suffer Death from the Chief Priests the Scribes and the Doctors of the Law Nevertheless he might have easily avoided it if he would by retiring into another place But he chid or rather storm'd at the Indiscretion of Peter who would have diverted him from that Death therefore he considered it as an Event that was to be attended with very happy and saving Consequences with respect to Mankind And what happy Consequences could his Death have been attended withal unless it was to have been immediately followed by his Resurrection He first instituted a Memorial of his Death and then voluntarily suffered it He commanded that it should be commemorated therefore he regarded it as an Event which was to be the Means of our Salvation He foresaw that it would be commemorated he foresaw then what would most infallibly come to pass and that too in a time when there was but little Appearance of its ever happening He did not say that they should commemorate his Death only till he rose again but till his Second Coming He foresaw then that he should speedily rise again and that after his Resurrection he should depart in order to return again at the End of the World Besides no reasonable Man can imagine that the Evangelists had wholly invented the Account of the Institution of the Eucharist For there is a great deal of Difference between a Doctrine and a Practice A Doctrine can hardly be forged especially because it must be concerted by the Consent of several Persons But a sensible Practice a thing in Use and as it were a speaking Doctrine can much less be palm'd upon Mankind And certainly 't would be the greatest piece of Folly imaginable in any one to think that a dozen poor Fishermen astonished and cast down at the Death of their Master and undeceived in the Opinion they had entertained that he was to have restored the Kingdom of Israel Persons who knew not what things might come to pass by their publishing the Doctrine of that crucified Man that that they should go and invent the Institution of the Eucharist with all the Circumstances of it and make Jesus Christ utter these Words This is my body which is broken for you this is the New Testament in my blood Words that implied something new and very surprising which have given occasion to so many Contests and are liable to such different Interpretations Words which S. Paul and the Evangelists unanimously set down but without any mutual Compact as appears by the little Variety there occurs in their Recital of them I say it would be very extravagant to imagine that the Disciples had in the least thought of inventing these Words or that History of the Institution of the Eucharist so that we need not insist longer on any farther Proofs of it We have already touched upon it in another Place and upon another Subject The only Consequence we shall draw from it here is that Jesus Christ foresaw his Death prepared himself for it and suffered it voluntarily Whereupon I argue thus If he foresaw that he should die and if he voluntarily offered himself up to Death he then either foresaw that he should rise again or he did not foresee it If he did not foresee it with what kind of hopes then did he comfort his Disciples What was it he promised them Or what proposed he to himself by his Death Why did he not shun it as he might yet have done when he was at Supper with his Disciples What meant he by instituting a Memorial of his Dead Body if that Dead Body were always to abide under the power of Death and rot away as it were in the Presence of his Disciples And if he thought he should rise again as we may very reasonably imagin he did I say he himself could not have believed it but only upon the Experience he had already made of that Power which had restored Sight to the Blind Health to the Sick and Life to the Dead For he could not think his own Miracles false and yet at the same time believe he should rise again from the Dead If he thought he should rise again he also thought his Miracles to be true And if he believed his Miracles to be true his Miracles must of necessity have been really so because they were of a Nature
incapable of Illusion and Deceit at least with respect to those who wrought them Jesus Christ could never imagine that he had filled five thousand Men at one time three thousand at another that he had raised to Life the Widows Son of Naim the daughter of Jairus and Lazarus of Bethany that he had made St. Peter walk upon the Sea c. if all these things had not really been true No one surely can doubt but that Jesus Christ foretold his Resurrection if he considers that it was upon this Account only that the Jewish Doctors appointed a Watch to guard his Sepulcher and commanded the Stone of it to be sealed Sir we remember said they to Pilate that that Deceiver said while he was yet alive after three days I will rise again Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day lest his Disciples come by night and steal him away and say unto the people he is risen from the Dead so the last errour shall be worse than the first Pilate said unto them ye have a watch go your way make it as sure as you can So they went and made the Sepulchre sure sealing the stone and setting a watch Mat. 27. 63 64 65 66. This is such a matter of fact which the Disciples could not durst not invent against the publick knowledge every body had of it and which besides agrees very well with the other Circumstances of that Event For how came that Report to be spread in Jerusalem that the Watch slept when the Disciples took away the Body of Jesus had they not really set a Watch to guard his Sepulchre And what necessity was there to appoint a Watch to guard it had it not been to hinder the Disciples from reporting abroad that he was risen from the Dead And if Christ really believed that he should rise again he could not have believed it but upon the Truth of his Miracles neither could he have believed his Miracles to be true had they been false Thus it appears that the Connexion of all those Circumstances if narrowly considered forms as it were a kind of a moral Demonstration which cannot but throughly convince any just and reasonable Man But let us not slightly pass over that matter of fact but having seen what Christ thought concerning his Resurrection let us next consider the Opinion of the Scribes and Pharisees concerning it and the Report the Soldiers made that were appointed to guard this Sepulcher For the Consideration of those Circumstances may give us some light in the Discovery of that matter of fact the most important and the most essential that ever was or ever shall be hereafter In the first place the Scribes and Pharisees and generally every Member of the Sanhedrin being instigated by the very same Spirit that had induced them to put Jesus Christ to Death were in a great Apprehension lest his Disciples should take away his Body and afterwards report abroad that he was risen from the Dead We may judge how much they thought it for their Interest to prevent it by the Attempts they had already made to put him to Death And it is very probable that since the Sepulcher of Jesus Christ was to have been guarded but three days they took all care imaginable before hand for fear the Watch thro negligence or otherwise should have suffered that Body to be taken away which it so mightily behoved them to keep in their Custody But let us consider the Event of all this The Soldiers that watch'd the Body could not hinder it from rising out of it's Sepulcher How so Was it because they were afraid or were they bribed not to discover the Business Had they been bribed one might very well imagine it was not in behalf of the Disciples that they would run the hazard of losing their Lives for their Negligence or Treachery What then were they afraid But how could the Watch prove so fearful and the Disciples on a sudden so couragious as to attempt the taking away the dead Body of one from whom they had so lately fled while he was yet alive Besides How could those Soldiers have reported such things as they did without manifestly contradicting themselves For if they were asleep how did they know that the Disciples of Christ had taken away his Body But why did not the Sanhedrin for their own Honour and the Respect they bare to the Truth put all those Soldiers to the Rack And if that Thought came not presently into their Heads is it not natural to think they would have done it when they found awhile after all Jerusalem inclinable to believe in that crucified man and that about six thousand Souls had already believed in him in one day and that too but fifty days after his Death Certainly the Soldiers that watch'd his Body were still at Jerusalem And the Sanhedrin had still the same Power and Authority as before It highly concerned them to punish the Negligence of those Soldiers or make them confess the Secret of their Perfidy and who it was that suborned them I say it highly concerned them to make that strict Examination both to justify their own Procedure and prevent the utter Loss of almost an infinite number of Persons that had already sided with the Disciples of that pretended Impostor But this is not all When on the Day of Pentecost that is fifty days after the Death of Jesus Christ the Apostles shewed themselves in the City of Jerusalem to testify there that they had seen him risen from the Dead and that after he had several times appeared to them and was gone up into Heaven he had poured down upon them the miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost why did not the Sanhedrin then who was so highly concerned in discovering the Authors of the taking away the Body of Jesus Christ I say why did they not seize upon the Apostles and so make them confess how all things had happened Why did they not confront them with the Watch Why did they not cast Joseph of Arimathea and those Men in Prison till they had made them confess what was become of that Body as also every other Circumstance of their Imposture 'T is already very unlikely that if the Disciples of Christ had come by night and had stolen his Body away they durst have shewed themselves and appeared in publick nay immediately confessed that they were his Disciples It is much more credible they would have hid themselves after such an Action and that if they preach'd at all it would have been to People more remote and not in Jerusalem the very Place where those things had happened nor in the Presence of that very Sanhedrin they were so much afraid of and had so much offended Why then did not the Sanhedrin take the ordinary Methods made use of to discover Criminals They were very ready by Threats Torments and Persecutions to oblige the Apostles not to preach up the Name of
Apostles sincerely believed they could speak all sorts of Languages and had received the extraordinary and miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost I affirm that it was absolutely impossible they should have been Deceivers as to the other matters of fact For it is impossible they should believe they had received those miraculous Gifts unless they also believ'd the Miracles Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ to be true and it is impossible they should have believed the Miracles Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ to be true if all those Events had not been true indeed because as we have already plainly made it appear it is not possible that those matters of fact should have been capable of Illusion and Deceit CHAP. VI. Wherein we shall joyn all the miraculous Matters of fact together and form thereby a full and perfect Demonstration of them SHould we consider all those Events in general we might form an invincible Demonstration of them by supposing the three following Principles which in my Opinion will hereafter appear to be very evidently proved The first is that the Apostles and the rest of the Disciples of Christ did really testify his Miracles Resurrection Ascension and the pouring out the Holy Ghost on the Apostles The second that they sincerely believed what they so testified And the third that they having firmly believed that Jesus Christ wrought many wonderful Miracles that he was risen from the Dead ascended into Heaven and had poured out his Spirit upon all his Disciples of all which Events they were Eye-Witnesses it must necessarily follow from thence that all those things were certainly true The first of these Principles is undeniable in it self For it appears that these four Events were the whole subject Matter of the preaching of the Holy Apostles which too is plain because they themselves tell it 〈…〉 thâ—ir Writings or rather because their Writing◠〈…〉 continual History of them because they 〈…〉 oâ— any thing else in all their Epistles but of those four wonderful Events in those Epistles they wrote to whole Societies who so carefully preserved them as Writings of the greatest value because there is no fragment page or scarce a line in all those Writings but what either relates those matters of fact or evidently supposes them because there can be no Christianity established in the World without this Foundation because they have been confirmed to us by Persons who lived since the Blessed Apostles and discoursed familiarly with them because the publication of those things was the cause of the establishing very numerous Churches almost every where in the days of the Apostles themselves because Reason and Common sense sufficiently assure us that the Jews and Gentiles could never have believed in a crucified Man as such without being at the same time also taught that he was risen from the Dead because the Faithful only believe the last Resurrection upon their certain hope and strong perswasion that they are to be made like unto the glorious Body of their Divine Redeemer because it is manifest that the Authors of the New Testament copy'd not one anothers Writings and yet unanimously agree in the relation of those four surprising Events as being the very essentials of their Doctrine because the Primitive Christians would not have sanctified themselves nor utterly renounced the enticing charms of the World but that they trusted wholly in a Man that was risen from the Dead and ascended into Heaven because the most obstinate and most insolent Enemies of Christianity never entertained the least scruple in that respect nor presumed to deny but that Christs Disciples boldly testify'd of him that he was risen from the Dead and ascended into Heaven because the Jews always acknowledged this to be the testimony of the Apostles and lastly because the union of all those and many other Circumstances we have already handled render the thing itself wholly undeniable and evident in the highest degree so that it is almost to no purpose to insist any longer on the proof of the first Principle The second is no less certain than the first For 't is evident that the Apostles sincerely believed that whatever they related was most certainly true because those things they deliver'd to us in their Writings were the Motives and Incitements they had to their Vertue self denial and patience so often tried in the dangers they underwent because they made such simple and natural allusions to them that it is absolutely impossible one should not perceive their being truly perswaded of the truth of them in so much that they were convinced of the future Happiness of their condition mauger all the reasons they might have to think it should be Miserable and Sorrowful because 't was this very perswasion which gave them the Courage they had to expose themselves to the greatest Dangers and undergo the most severe trials because they rejoyced with one another in that they were thought worthy of spending their lives and whatever else was dearest to them for the defence of so good a Cause tho they must needs have very well known the cheat they had forg'd among themselves if what they said was not certainly true and above all because they pretended to shew very sensible and miraculous proofs of the matters of fact which they had delivered In fine the last of these Principles is still if I may so speak more evident than either of the former For it is impossible that the Disciples of our Lord should have been deceived 1. in such evident matters of fact the Truth of which they might so easily have been assured of by sensible Experience 2. in so great a number of matters of fact so different from one another by their Circumstances and 3. in such matters of fact that were so link'd and united one with another that whosoever grants but one must necessarily grant the truth of the rest And now let the Reader but throughly consider all these things within himself and I am fully perswaded he can never doubt of any of these three Principles For he cannot so much as deny one of them without an extraordinary reluctance in his mind which will force back the truth upon him Should he say that the Apostles never preached the Miracles Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ nor the pouring out the Holy Ghost on the Apostles themselves 't would be as great a falsehood as if he should say that there were never any such Men as the Apostles or that they were not the Disciples of Christ nor preached that Men must necessarily believe on him and it is most certain that he will presently reject all these propositions as being absurdly false and extravagant in themselves Again should he say that the Apostles did not sincerely believe the Miracles Resurrection Ascension of Jesus Christ nor the Effusion of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost 't is as much as if he should affirm they did not pretend to work any Miracles speak strange Languages or think
themselves capable of Imparting those gifts to other Men and consequently as much as if he should advance that the Apostles wrote none of all those Epistles that were ascribed to them that they preach'd not publickly at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost nor settled any Church therein or taught Men that they should stedfastly believe in the Gospel Lastly should he say that the Apostles sincerely believed all these things but yet that none of them were true 't is as much as if he asserted that they had neither Eyes Ears nor Memory and that several thousands of People were all deprived of their Senses by the same kind of bewitching folly so that those who embraced the Doctrine which they taught must at the same time precisely and necessarily have lost their Reason and yet 't is evident that folly is the only Principle that makes us lead good lives and sanctifies the corrupt Affections of Men. It is certain that by considering the union of all these Circumstances together there arises from them such a Moral Demonstration as is worth all other Mathematical Demonstrations in the World But to be as brief as possible I say that this Demonstration after all consists in the two following propositions As thus the Disciples of Christ sincerely believed his Miracles Resurrection Ascension and the Effusion of the gifts of the Holy Ghost It follows therefore that these four Events are most certainly true The Consequence of this argument is evident because these are matters of fact that were altogether incapable of Illusion or Deceit and in which it was absolutely impossible they should have been deceived For tho the Disciples might have been decieved in one single Miracles yet how could they be deceived in several Miracles at once Tho it were possible they might have been deceived in the Miracles of Christ yet they could not be deceived in his Resurrection Tho' they might have been decieved in his Resurrection yet they could not be deceived in so many sensible Marks which Christ gave them of his Presence after he was risen from the Dead and above all in his Ascension Tho' they might have been deceived even in his Ascension yet they could not be deceived in the Effusion of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost because they had a continual Experience of that last Miracle They knew whether it was true or not there had appeared to them Cloven Tongues like as of fire but still they knew yet much better whether they had really received the Gift of Tongues which were represented to them by that external Symbol the Holy Ghost having particularly chosen that Gift above all others on purpose to make it the more remarkable because of all sorts of Gifts this is certainly the most unimitable and the least capable of Error and Illusion For pray how is it possible I should perswade my self that I can speak the Persian Chinese and Arabick Tongue or that I understand all those Languages when they are spoken to me had I no such Gift of Tongues And if it be so rare a thing to see one single Man possessed with that foolish kind of Madness as to imagin such a thing it is most certainly impossible that a great number of Persons should fancy that they on a sudden spoke all sorts of Languages in the World when there was no such thing It must then necessarily be granted that tho' the Disciples of Jesus Christ might perhaps have been imposed upon in all the other matters of fact yet they could not be deluded in this For a Man cannot be ignorant whether or no he speaks those Languages which were before wholly unknown to him much less can 2 Men be so much less again 12 and much less still 70 and since every one of these Persons must necessarily know what passes within himself it is impossible they should all believe they had received the Gift of Tongues when there was no such thing The Consequence therefore of our Argument is most certain most evident and undeniable if ever any thing was so and the Principle of it will appear to be so likewise The Disciples of Christ sincerely believed his Miracles Resurrection Ascension and the Effusion of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost If you would be more fully convinced of this 't is but reading the New Testament over from one end to the other There you will find that Sincerity and that full Perswasion in their disinteressed Self-denial which sprung from the Knowledge they had that Christ as their only treasure was ascended into Heaven there you will see their Joyfulness in Afflictions arising purely from the Testimony they bore to the Truth their Charity and Piety wholly inconsistent with the Character of Impostors their Humility Purity Patience burning Zeal and that fervent desire they had to Kindle all those Vertues in the Souls of others these being two undeniable matters first that the Disciples of Christ shewed themselves to have the most natural sentiments of Piety and Vertue imaginable secondly that Piety and Vertue can never proceed from Imposture and Deceit There you will also find the plain Honesty of the Disciples and the Sincerity of their Perswasion in the style of their Discourse For if it be true that Languages express the Genius and Manners of the People it may be very well affirmed that the Language of Christ's Disciples fully expresses the Miracles of the Gospel by a particular Energy which distinguishes the style of those Authors not only from that of all other Men but also from that of the Law You will meet with the same Sincerity even in that great number of obscure and difficult Texts which the Evangelists relate For on one hand it is impossible that they should counterfeit or invent those Precepts or those difficult and obscure Sayings which they make Christ utter to the People and on the other it is most certain that those difficult and obscure Texts almost always include some miraculous matter of fact or at least some Allusion to those supernatural Miracles First then I say that the Evangelists invented not those obscure and difficult Sayings they make Christ utter which are truly very numerous For how should those poor Fishermen have been industrious enough to forge and invent such Things which all the Doctors as have lived these sixteen hundred years down to us were hardly able either to understand themselves or make other Men comprehend Besides it is certain that those obscure and difficult sayings either contain the History of those miraculous matters of fact we are now speaking of or else include such plain and natural Allusions to them that it is easie for any one to perceive that he that relates those Texts both supposes that those matters of fact were certainly true and publickly known to the World Thus for instance why did our Lord say that there was not a greater Prophet than John the Baptist born of a Woman 'T was not surely because of his Miracles for he did none
Neither was it because of his extraordinary Piety For Moses called the meekest of Men was without doubt in that equal to him 'T was then because of the advantage he enjoyed both in Seeing and Hearing the Messias But how comes our Saviour to add that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven was greater than him Must we understand by the Kingdom of Heaven that Kingdom of which John himself said the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Was it not rather because John saw none of all the Wonders of that Kingdom which the least of Christ's Disciples had seen Which indeed was the reason that our Saviour told them Blessed are your Eyes for they see and your Ears for they hear For verily I say unto you that many Prophets and righteous Men have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them Matth. 13. 16 17. Now all this evidently supposes the Miracles of Christ and all the other marvellous Events which serve for a Confirmation of our holy Religion What he also said himself concerning Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is altogether strange and very surprising Nay the very name he gave to that sin implies something in itself Singular and Extraordinary For no body before him ever expressed himself after this manner Men were not ignorant that sinning against God was a very great Crime but they had no Knowledge of the sin against the Holy Ghost much less were they satisfied if there was any harm in Blaspheming against him This unusual Language necessarily proceeded from a new Revelation and from new and different objects not seen or heard of before For the Jews knew not what the Holy Ghost was if we take that word in the Sense of the Evangelists Nay there were some of them who tho converted to the Gopsel of Christ yet still were ignorant of the true meaning of that Expression In the mean while if we will but consult the Writings of the New Testament and therein the Gospels the Acts of the Holy Apostles and the Epistles of those great and extraordinary Men they will presently inform us that by the Holy Ghost must be understood in most of those places the extraordinary and miraculous Gifts of the Holy Spirit imparted to the Men of those days and that to Blaspheme against him is downright Blasphemy against that Divine and Glorious Principle of all things which was the cause of all the Perfections and Miracles of Christ and gave such Power unto Men. So that there is first in that Text such an obscurity as proves that the Evangelists could not have thought of inventing it had not Christ himself really utter'd these very words and secondly it undeniably supposes the miraculous matters of fact the Pharisees were wont to ascribe to the Power of Belzebub wherein indeed Chiefly consisted the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost In like manner this Text Except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit John 3. 5. implies a very puzling Difficulty because it was not usual formerly for Men to express themselves after this manner It is a very difficult matter indeed to understand the true meaning of that Text but it is yet far more difficult to invent it and all the Doctors in the World might put their Heads together and yet never be able to invent the like Text. Above all it was not natural for the Jews to invent any such thing because they had no such objects amongst them as could fill up their Minds with any such Ideas When we suppose the Baptism of the Holy Spirit confer'd upon Christ's Disciples we may then easily comprehend the true meaning of that mysterious but very remarkable Expression We might also add to this Text that other which mentions the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire In like manner it pleased God in his Wisdom that they who related to us the History of Christ's Resurrection should tell us also some things which we cannot at first view easily comprehend tho they have a true and reasonable meaning on purpose to make us understand that as it was impossible those obscure and difficult sayings ascribed to him by them should come of themselves into their thoughts had not he really spoke them so consequently it can never be supposed that those Men should have forg'd the History of Christ's Resurrection or their Discourses with him after he was risen from the Dead as for instance these Words which he spake to Mary touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father John 20. 17. We could make almost an infinite number of such Remarks as these which tho' they cannot come up to an evident Demonstration yet are very proper to make us sensible of the Truth of those matters of fact we are now speaking of The Sincerity of the Disciples will further appear by the great number of Circumstances with which their Narrative is fill'd some whereof are so singular that they can't easily enter into any Man's Mind and others so unbecoming their Master or dâ—â—â—dvantageous to themselves that there is not the least Probability they could have any Desire to forge them others are so inseparably united with those Events which must necessarily have been well known that they durst not so much as think of forging them against the publick Knowledge every body must have had of them as we have already proved at large But lastly 't is not our present Design to insist purely upon probable Reasons tho' never so probable and sufficient of themselves to form a true and perfect Demonstration when joyned together I therefore proceed to that which is in itself wholly Demonstrative Now the whole Demonstration of the Truth of Christian Religion depends upon this Argument namely that the Apostles and Disciples of Christ sincerely believed his Miracles Resurrection Ascension and the Effusion of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost whence it follows that all those matters of fact are most certainly true We have already given an invincible proof of the Consequence of this Argument by shewing that it was impossible the Disciples should have been imposed upon in all these matters of fact that tho' they might have been deceived in the Miracles of Christ yet they could not be imposed upon in his Resurrection that tho' they should have been imposed upon in his Resurrection yet they could not be deceived in his Ascension and that tho' they should have been deceived in his Ascension yet they could not be so too in the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost which are matters of fact that they knew by inward sense and continual Experience I prove also the Principle of this Argument viz. that the Disciples of Christ sincerely believed all those matters of fact by the same Gradation I say then that the Disciples could not impose upon Men as to the Miracles of Christ not only because they asserted them at the Expence of their own
Mankind or at least those Countreys where all those things came to pass I answer first those matters of fact were not in the least stifled or concealed They were so far from it that they converted an infinite number both of Jews and Gentiles and that too in a very short time Secondly there were several external Causes which very much contributed towards the weakning the Impression they would otherwise have made upon Mankind For first the Elders amongst the Jews endeavour'd as much as they could to perswade the People that all those Miracles were nothing but the product of some Magick Power or a kind of compact with the Devil Secondly Those that were in Power were so much exasperated against the Disciples of Christ that whosoever resolved to embrace his Doctrine must immediately prepare himself to be cast into a Dungeon or executed upon a scaffold Nay to undergo if possible any thing more sorrowful and fatal than this And because nothing makes a greater Impression upon Men than to see Punishments inflicted on others all Parents strictly charged their Children not to hold any Conversation with the Christians least they should see them end their days in the midst of Torments Nay they were very cautious and strict themselves in avoiding their Society which was the reason that keeping such an extraordinary distance from the Christians they shut their Eyes and stopped their Ears that they might not hear their Words nor see the Miracles which they perform'd Thirdly The Doctrine of the Apostles was so contrary to the Opinion the Jews had been prepossessed with that they could not but hate and avoid it For the Cross of Christ became a scandal to the Jews and was treated as a folly by the Greeks Lastly The Christian Religion putting an end to the bondage of the Law and the Religion of the Heathens a Jew then could not be converted to Christanity without utterly renouncing what he always esteemed inviolable nor could a Heathen believe in Jesus Christ without looking upon that as profane which he thought before most sacred Hence it is that the holy Scripture speaks to us of the effects of the Gospel attended with the power of the Holy Ghost as of the Creation of new Heavens and of a new Earth If we add to this the extraordinary care the Jewish and Heathenish Priests and the Magistrates of both Nations took to smother the light of the Gospel and the Weaknesses and Passions of Men who were unable to sustain so much as the Idea of the torments that were invented on purpose to hinder the progress of Christanity I say if we consider this we shall have no Reason to be any longer astonish'd at that which at first view so much surprised us But secondly it may be asked why the Historians among the Heathens never mention'd any thing of those mighty Wonders of the Gospel which yet deserved to have the most considerable place amongst the many other Events they have so carefully related We answer That this Consideration proves nothing against the truth of those Matters of fact we have so firmly established First because it is needless and extravagant to draw any further Consequences from a Principle which proves more than enough already 'T is true the Heathen Writers say little or nothing concerning Jesus Christ for they hardly knew his Name Suetonius speaks of him after this manner Judaei tumultuati sunt Cresto impulsore But what then Does it follow that because Suetonius hardly knew the Name of Christ that there was no such Person as Christ or that he was not really called Christus The Heathen Authors you see relate not how several Christian Churches were in a small time settled at Rome at Corinth at Ephesus at Sardis at Smirna at Philippi at Thessalonica c. But must it follow from thence that there was no such thing Certainly if any matters of fact were true this was undoubtedly true I grant indeed that the Miracles Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ were all matters of fact that might be doubted of yet we may at least affirm that the Establishment of those Christian Churches composed of such Men as believed all those things was a thing not to be doubted of This was a matter of fact very important and remarkable Yet it was not in the least mention'd by the Historians of that Age therefore the Objection goes too far it proves too much and so consequently proves nothing Secondly I say that the Historians of those Times have so ignorantly treated of the Jewish Affairs that we need not wonder they appear so little instructed in the Knowledge of what concerned the Christians whom they supposed to have been a Sect belonging to the Jews For if it appears that the History those Authors composed of them agrees not very well with the Gospel of the Apostles 't is but comparing it with that of Josephus and we may clearly see that it agrees no better with one than with the other Lastly the Heathen Authors consider'd the Christian Religion as a kind of Magick and a detestable Superstition which aimed at the total Destruction of Mankind It is certain that some Men earnestly endeavour'd to make it pass for such among those who lived both in the Time of the Apostles and long after them and it was very dangerous to give it any other Name The World was divided between the Friends and Enemies of Christanity Those who were the Friends of it professed it and deliver'd not only by word of Mouth but in Writing what they knew concerning the Wonders of it As for its Enemies they neither had the Boldness Power or Will to write ofit as the former had done They would not do it lest they should wrong their own Cause and dishonour their own Religion And they could not do it because they themselves were not so well acquainted with the Miracles of Christanity having always been afraid to converse with the Christians and esteemed the Belief of those Men a very sorrowful and dangerous Persuasion since by professing their Religion they were sure of getting nothing but Torments and Death it self Lastly they durst not presume to write things as they really were tho' they had been never so well acquainted with them because their own Writings would accuse them of having embraced Christianity a Crime which was so severely punish'd in those days that it would unavoidably have brought upon them certain Death and Ruin or at least after their Death Shame and Infamy upon their Families But thirdly it may be asked why the Apostles who had Power to heal the Sick and raise the Dead did not raise all the Dead to Life again nor heal all the sick that were in Judea because then all the World would have been forced in spite of themselves to believe in Jesus Christ We answer That this Question is much like what the Murtherers of Jesus Christ said to him upon the Cross He saved others let him save himself let him come
cometh after me is mightier than I c. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire Lastly John saw the Holy Ghost Descending upon Jesus under such a form as truly denoted the gentleness and mildness his Life was to be attended with and he heard that voice from Heaven this is my beloved Son c. These three matters of fact have a necessary connexion with the Principles of our Religion if they be true as they will evidently appear to be to all who shall seriously consider and reflect upon them 'T would be to no purpose to suspect the Evangelist of having forged that prediction of the Destruction of Jerusalem which he makes Jesus Christ himself utter because that Gospel was compiled long before that Event It would be as little to the purpose to pretend that that other prediction of the Baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire was falslly inserted into the History of John the Baptist. For what likelyhood is there that the Disciples should have made John the Baptist utter such a prediction had they seen nothing like it And if they were truly baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire why should any body refuse to believe that St. John the Baptist foretold it Chapt. IV. 1. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness c. Had the Evangelists proposed any other Method to themselves in all their Writings but to speak the plain truth they would never have represented Christ to us as being delivered into the power of the Devil to be tempted of him who set him one while upon the Pinacles of the Temple and another while upon an exceeding high Mountain In all this Relation we have certainly a most undeniable mark of their Truth and Sincerity Vers 19. And he saith unto them follow me and I will make you fishers of men Who is this that without Riches Arms and Authority nay without any assistance from Men pretends to convert ordinary Fishers into Fishers of Men How came any such Thoughts into his Mind What a strange Design is this What a rash undertaking Nay what confidence joined to so great a weakness For Jesus Christ to fortel and execute that project he must not only have been absolute Master of his Disciples to convert them so wonderfully but also of their minds to enlighten them of their Hearts to make them less sensible of all wordly objects He must have been an absolute Master of suturity to foretel it of time present to Dispose of it of those Men's Inclinations whom he was thus to change of their resistance and continual struglings and oppositions against him nay he must have been absolute Master of all the Enemies of his Name in a word of all Events and Junctures whatsoever Vers 24. And his fame went throughout all Syria 'T is certain that the Evangelists could never have made the World believe that Jesus Christ was become famous for his Miracles had he really neither wrought nor pretended to work any Miracles Besides herein was Jesus Christ distinguish'd from John the Baptist that the former wrought many notable Wonders and Signs but the latter was famous only for the innocency of his Life and purity of his Manners And if Jesus Christ passed for a person who really did several Miracles it remains only for us to know whether those Miracles be true or false and that solely depends upon the examination of the Witnesses that saw them the nature of the matters of fact themselves and the Enemies that so firmly opposed them c. Chap. V. 1. And seeing the multitude he went up into a mountain c. And he opened his mouth and taught them c. I shall not say any thing concerning that excellent Sermon which Jesus Christ preached on the Mount We need only read it over to be satisfied that it is an abstract of the most Sound Pure and Spiritual the most impartial sublime and surprizing Doctrine that ever was thought of Read it therefore I say and you will as much be surprized at his Doctrine as the Multitudes that heard it Chap. VIII 1. When he was come down from the mountain c. In this Chapter we read of the cleansing of Lepers of healing sick Persons that were absent and far off by the efficacy of his word of his calming the Storms and Tempests of the Sea of his casting Devils out of those that were possessed of the consternation the Gadarenes were in at the loss of their Herd of Swine and their surprize to see those healed that were possessed with Devils all which are such matters of fact as the Evangelists could not have been perswaded of by a meer Illusion nor the Disciples make others believe against their own publick Knowledge Vers 11. And I say unto you many shall come from the East and West c. Who was it that had thus enlightned the Mind of Jesus Christ as to make him so clearly foretell the calling of the Gentiles Vers 22. But Jesus said unto him follow me and let the dead bury their dead This was certainly the expression of a Man that had so deeply reflected upon the vanity of the World and was truly perswaded of the Misery and Corruption of Mankind For did ever any Man but him speak after this manner Vers 34. And behold the whole City came out to meet Jesus and when they saw him they besought him that he would depart out of their Coasts Here were a sufficient number of Witnesses who might have easily convinced the Evangelists had that matter of fact been false Chap. IX 1. And he entred into a Ship c. In this Chapter Jesus Christ calleth Matthew from the receit of custom healeth a Woman that was diseased with an Issue of Blood twelve Years restoreth sight to two blind Men raiseth a young Girl to Life again and healeth one that was possessed with a Devil Now Matthew who compiled the History of all these matters of fact and whom no interest whatsoever could have obliged to follow Jesus Christ to the prejudice of his own repose could not but know certainly what force or secret Power had compelled him to follow Christ And Jairus knew very well whether or no his Daughter had been raised to Liâ—e again his Friends and Relations had been informed of it the Neighbours and Minstrels who were already come to solemnize her funerals could not be ignorant of it In a word the Blind the Lame and the Sick of that Town could not but tell whether they really experienced that healing virtue which proceeded from his very garments But who can suppose that so many Persons should have known the certain Truth of that matter of fact and yet that the Disciples themselves should not have known it And supposing they knew it how is it possible they could have so unanimously agreed to impose upon all the World at the expence of their lives and against their own temporal interest Vers 5. For whether is
it easier to say thy Sins are forgiven thee or to say arise and walk There is no suspecting a Man's proceedings that proves by several sensible and healing Miracles the Authority he assumes and ascribes to himself Vers 13. But go and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice A Spiritual worship is the only worship that God delights in The ceremonies of Moses's Law were only agreeable to him as they were founded upon the Obedience that is due to God This Obedience derives its whole perfection from a willing compliance out of love and Charity For a forced and constrained obedience can never be acceptable to God That which is most excellent in Charity is Mercy which consists in forgiving injuries and doing good to others without expecting any return from them For a man may do good to another through a principle of vain Glory But the works of mercy proceed from another motive and are a product of a noble disinteressed nature Mercy then is the only thing that is acceptable to God in Religion and both Scripture and Reason tell us so But the World was so ignorant of this truth when Jesus Christ first took it for a fundamental maxim of his Religion that nothing could be more surprizing to Men than his expressing himself after this manner Vers 13. For I am not come to call the righteous but Sinners to repentance An expression that thunders out against Hypocrisie roots out of our Hearts that false Pride and vain Confidence we have of our selves humbles mankind glorifies the mercy of God and makes us sensible of the use and necessity of repentance and in a more especial manner evidently shews the self-denial of our Lord. Chap. X. 1. And when he had called unto him his twelve Disciples he gave them Power c. The Evangelist was not afraid of being contradicted by the twelve Disciples of our Lord whose names he sets down when he said that Jesus Christ had given them power to heal all sorts of Diseases among the People Vers 5. These Twelve Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying go not into the Cities of the Gentiles c. but go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel These words remove all suspicions which our incredulous Adversaries may entertain that the Author of this Gospel was willing to favour the Gentiles in prejudice to the Jews Vers 7. And as ye go preach saying the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Was Jesus Christ in a fit condition to make himself known for that Monarch who was to come unless he had first been endowed with an infinite Power Vers 8. Heal the Sick cleanse the Lepers raise the Dead cast out Devils freely ye have received freely give Is it possible that Jesus Christ could have made his Disciples believe they had freely received that which they had not in the least received How bold then must that command have been to work so many Miracles Vers 9. Provide neither Gold nor Silver nor Brass in your purses nor scrip for your journey c. Christ waâ— not content to chuse poor Men for his Disciples he sâ—rther obliged them to become poorer than they were He forbid them to provide themselves any thing designing to nourish them wonderfully by his Providence He resolved so to dispose the Hearts of those that should believe in their words that they should feed and cloath them This indeed was spoke like the Master and God of Nature Vers 22. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name sake Christ flattered not his Disciples but foretold them from the very beginning of their ministry all the evils that were to befall them Now what can be suspected in all this Vers 23. But when they persecute you in this City flee into another for verily I say unto you ye shall not have gone over the Cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come This Text is somewhat difficult because it does not plainly appear that the Prophecy it contains was exactly fulfilled But this very Difficulty serves to confirm our Faith For why should the Evangelist write this he who lived to see the success of that matter He knew well enough that in his time the Gospel had been preached not only in all the Cities of Israel but almost in every Country in the World though Jesus Christ had not yet come in all his Glory Doubtless it was because he intended to relate things as they really were in themselves and ascribed no more to his Divine Master but just the very words he uttered And altho' Holy Writers by the coming of Jesus Christ commonly understand his last coming in his Glory yet that same expression does also sometimes signifie the Judgments which God executed upon the Jews when he sent the Romans to destroy their City which explanation plainly solves the whole Difficulty Vers 34. Think not that I am come to send Peace on earth I came not to send Peace but a Sword A Terrible declaration indeed for those Men who according to the vulgar errour of the Jews imagined that the Messias should have raised them up to the height of Happiness and temporal prosperity But who is he that was bold enough to foretel that his Gospel should disturb the Peace of the Universe How comes it he did not rather foresee that that Gospel would unavoidably be involved in the darkness of Silence and Oblivion having such weak Defenders to maintain and such formidable Adversaries to oppose it Does it seem natural that a Man who dwelt on the Borders of the Lake of Gennesareth should have pretended to make other Men rise up one against another by the bare efficacy of his word without any Arms Riches or Authority being only got at the head of ten or twelve miserable Wretches who knew nothing beyond the mending their nets Vers 28. And he that taketh not his Cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me Did ever Man get himself any followers by such declarations as these Chap. XI 4 5. Jesus answered and said unto them go and shew John those things which ye do hear and see The Blind receive their fight and the Lame walk the Lepers are cleansed and the Deaf hear the Dead are raised up and the poor have the Gospel preached to them Jesus Christ convinced not his Disciples by meer speculations but by evident Objects of Sense Vers 12. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Did ever Man in so mean and miserable a Condition as he was in speak thus Whence had he this Confidence And what sort of Language is this Vers 21. Woe unto the Chorazin c. What probability is there that Christ should thus reproach the Jews who dwelt in all those Countrys unless he had really wrought several Miracles amongst them Vers 28. Come unto me all ye that Labour c. There have been many
be here if thou wilt let us make here three Tabernacles What a strange piece of stupidity was this and how well does it appear how incapable such gross and ignorant Men were of entertaining the least Design of imposing upon others Besides what makes St. Matthew relate this Circumstance What Honour could accrue thereby to Peter and how could it of itself enter into his mind Vers 16. And I brought him to thy Disciples and they could not cure him In this passage appears the Evangelists sincerity For nothing else could have obliged him to relate that Circumstance or make him so freely own the defects and want of Faith in a Society he himself was a Member of Chap. XVIII 3. Verily I say unto you except ye be converted and become as little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven That Children should be so simple no Man ought to wonder because their want of knowledge is a pure effect of their Age but that even Men should be obliged to return from the most refined Notions of worldly policy from that sinful cunning and dexterity so often seen in them to a State of a Holy and Amiable Sincerity That they should at once become simple and prudent righteous and religiously wise is such a thing that Men are wholly unacquainted with and which discovers to us both the greatness and highest perfection of that Person who taught Men a Doctrine so sublime and elevated Vers 4. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little Child the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven How different are these Notions from the common ones of Men How different is the Kingdom of Heaven from all worldly Empire And how well does it appear that such surprising maxims as these could not possibly proceed from the mind of Man Vers 9. And if thy Eye offend thee pluck it out c. By the Eyes here are to be understood our darling Sins or whatever else is dear to us So that Christ hereby teaches us that we ought to sacrifice to the glory of God whatever we dearly prize and value most Did ever any teacher less flatter mens vanity Vers 22. I say not unto thee until seven times but until seventy times seven This is a certain number made use of for an uncertain one which signifies that we must continually forgive that Mercy has no bounds and that Charity cannot be limited Who does not see that such a concern to unite all Hearts together to banish all misunderstanding amongst Men in giving so vast a latitude to Charity and Mercy can proceed from none but him that was Master of all Hearts and the common Father of Mankind Chap. XXI 43. Therefore say I unto you the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the Fruits thereof This is indeed a very express prediction of the Calling of the Gentiles Vers 46. But when they thought to lay hands on him they feared the multitude because they held him for a Prophet What could be so remarkable in Jesus Christ that he should be taken for a Prophet but the efficacy of his Doctrine and the Miracles whereby he confirmed it Chap. XXIII 36 37. Verily I say unto you all these things shall come upon this Generation O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest c. Here the Destruction of Jerusalem is very plainly set down Chap. XXIV 28. For wheresoever the Carcass is there will the Eagles be gathered together The Body of Christ crucified was the Carcass and the Roman Standards where the Eagles which were to fall upon the City of Jerusalem where the Carcass was Vers 34. Verily I say unto you this Generation shall pass till all these things be fulfilled The same Reflexions must be made in this place as we have made above Chap. XXVI 13. Verily I say unto you wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole World there shall also this that this Woman hath done be told for a memorial of her A Prophecy that has been sufficiently fulfiled Vers 28. For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of Sins Did ever any Man act or speak after so unheard of and surprising a manner Can we find a Man who not only foretells his sufferings but also establishes before-hand some memorial of a Death he might easily have avoided And who but Christ ever took upon him to shed his Blood for the Remission of the Sins of Mankind Vers 38 39. Then saith he unto them my Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto Death c. And he went a little further and fell on his Face and prayed saying O my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass away from me T is easie to explain what this exceeding Sorrow and Agony was yet it must be confessed that it presents us at first view with an Object very surprising and that it can't be imagined that those Men whose chief Design was to invent such things as should be most for their Masters Honour should yet give us such a Description of his Sufferings At least we find here the sincerity of the Disciples which sincerity shews us that we ought without scruple to receive the rest of their Relations Chap. XXVII 42. He saved others himself he cannot save if he be the King of Israel let him now come down from the Cross and we will believe him By this Text it appears that Christ passed for a Person that had performed several Miracles Vers 45. Now from the sixth Hour there was darkness over all the Land unto the ninth Hour How is it possible they could have made a whole City believe such a thing were it not true Vers 51 52 53. And behold the vail of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom and the Earth did quake and the Rocks rent and the Graves were opened c. How could St. Matthew have persuaded Men to such things as these against their own knowledge to the contrary Could the Vail of the Temple or the Rocks be rent could the Earth quake and the Graves open and yet the Jews know nothing of it To whom did the Evangelist relate all these things He wrote them before the Destruction of Jerusalem nay in the days of the Apostles themselves and consequently in a time when there were several thousands of People still living that could witness the Truth of them How then could he so much as imagin he could deceive so many Witnesses concerned in the business to whom he preached these things and whom he designed to bring over to his Party nay some of whom had already embraced the Gospel and formed a very numerous and considerable Church at Jerusalem where all these things had happened and where he attempted to perswade others to the belief of them CHAP. VII Wherein we shall further produce out of the other Gospels several Places very proper to make us truly sensible of
the Divinity of the Christian Religion St. MARK CHapt I. 14. Now after that John was put in Prison Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God c. All these Expressions the Gospel or good Tidings the Gospel of the Kingdom of God c. are very strange and extraordinary And because our Ears are somewhat used to them we do not reflect on them so much as we ought Certainly it must be a strange kind of mutual agreement that several Fishermen made together to go preaching about the World and call the Subject of their preaching by the name of Gospel Chap. IV. 19. And the Cares of this World and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things entring in choke the word c. T is not usual for other Men thus to declare open War against their Passions or if they do they fail not presently to discover themselves and lay open their own Hypocrisy to the World Vers 41. And they said one to another what manner of Man is this that even the Winds and Sea obey him c. We too may as well say what manner of Man is this that not only the Sea and Winds but Diseases Graves Death Hell Earth Men and Devils all obey him For it is observable there was nothing within the bounds of Nature but what was sensible of his Miracles Chap. VI. 2 3. From whence has this Man these things And what wisdom is this which is given unto him that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands Is not this the Carpenter the son of Mary c. Whence rather proceeds this astonishment of theirs and what is the reason of this sort of reproach had not Christ wrought several Miracles amongst them Vers 4 5 6. But Jesus said unto them a prophet is not without honour but in his own Country c. And he could not do many mighty works there save that he laid his hand upon a few sick folk and he healed them And he marvelled because of their unbelief Every thing in this passage carries with it an Air of Truth without the least semblance of Falsity For he that would invent a story and desire other Men should believe it would never make choice of such Circumstances as these Vers 56. And whithersoever he entred into villages or Cities or Countries they laid the Sick in the Streets and besought that they might touch if it were but the border of his Garment and as many as touched him were made whole It is impossible for any Man to impose upon other People in such matters of fact as these Chap. VIII 27 28. And by the way he asked his Disciples saying unto them Whom do Men say that I am And they answered some say John the Baptist but some say Elias and others one of the Prophets Here we may observe what a great Impression Christ 's Miracles had already made upon other Mens minds Chap. XIV 33. And He began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy To own that Jesus Christ was reduced to this State nay him whom they would have Men look upon as the Son of God is the effect of a strange and surprizing sincerity Vers 62. And Jesus said I am And ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of Power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven Did ever any Criminal brought before a Tribunal of Justice speak thus Chap. XVI 17 18 20. And these signs shall follow them that believe in my name they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with strange Tongues they shall take up Serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay hands on the Sick and they shall recover c. And they went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the word with Signs c. Either all these matters of fact must have been necessarily true or St. Mark must have been strangely besides himself when he related them Let us consider What is it that he relates Or whom did he design to impose upon nay what time did he choose to effect it How could he possibly perswade the Disciples that they had done such Miracles as they were never able to do And how should they perswade themselves that Christ had given them that power to do Miracles which they never received St. LUKE Chap. I. 64. And his mouth was opened immediately and his Tongue loosed and he spake and praised God And fear came on all that dwelt round about them and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the Hill Country of Judea No man is so mad as to pretend to impose upon Men's belief in matters of fact so publick as these he would rather make choice of passages scarce heard of or at least but obscurely known Chap. II. 16. And found Mary and Joseph and the Babe lying in a Manger Great was the exactness of these Writers in giving us a simple Relation of things as they really were What can seem more contrary and irreconcilable one with another than all these Circumstances A Child sleeping in a Manger but a Child whose Nativity was declared even by Angels and celebrated by all the Host of Heaven a Child that was banished the Society of Men but elevated in dignity even above the blessed Spirits a Child that was inconsiderable and of no esteem on Earth but great in Heaven and adored by Angels that was indeed a while after his Birth worshipped by some Wise-men that brought him Presents but soon â—orced to fly into Egypt for the safety of his Life Certainly there appears nothing like a Fiction in all these Circumstances Chap. V. 19. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude they went upon the House-top and let him down through the tiling with his Couch into the midst before Jesus Do such things as these enter easily of themselves into a Man's mind who writes nothing but of his own invention Chap. VII 38. And she stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with Tears and did wipe them with the Hairs of her Head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the Ointment 'T was easie to know the Redeemer of the World by that saving alteration he was seen to make in those that followed him Chap. IX 45. But they understood not this saying and it was hid from them that they perceived it not Great indeed was the Evangelists sincerity who stuck not to own the ignorance and stupidity of the Disciples Chap. X. 19. 20. Behold I give unto you Power to tread on Serpents and Scorpions and over all the Power of the Enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you Notwithstanding in this rejoyce not that the Spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoyce because your Names are written in Heaven A certain Character of true Religion indeed which sets a greater value upon
uncircumcision but a new Creature Great indeed was his Faith for he would not subscribe to their Maxims who constrained the faithful to be Circumcised tho he might have thereby avoided a sharp Persecution But he shews us that the Circumcision of the Heart only was acceptable to God that none but the New Creature could be for the future agreeable to him A Circumcision indeed infinitely more painful than the first and a New Creature established upon the Ruins of the World the pleasures of which are so dear to us Certainly it is impossible this Doctrine so spiritual so holy and so necessary in it self should have proceeded only from Flesh and Blood Epistle to the Ephesians Chap. III. 17 18 19. That ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth all Knowledge c. Had the Apostles been such Deceivers as the Incredulous would have them to be what mean those transports of admiration as often as they reflect on the mercy of God which every Page of this Book is full of Were they then deceived No surely because they could not be imposed upon in such certain matters of fact Had they then a mind to deceive other people That could not be neither because their Writings seem to be designed only to induce Men to fear God Chap IV. 24 25. And that ye put on the New man which after God is created in Righteousness and true holiness Wherefore putting away lying speak every Man truth with his neighbour c. A strange and surprising Discourse indeed but which would have been much more astonishing should it have been uttered by the mouth of an Impostor Epistle to the Philippians Chap. I. 29. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake The Stoicks who had so much distinguished and raised themselves above all other Men by their sublime Morality had ever imagined that the Wise man might very well preserve a tranquil and sedate Mind in the midst of his Afflictions and they were so much intoxicated with Pride that they were altogether insensible of any Pain or Torment But the Disciples of Christ went yet higher They looked upon the most cruel Sufferings as upon so many Benefits and so many causes of Joy and Peace and Ineffable Consolation and Comfort They cried out I rejoyce in my sufferings c. I delight in Stripes in Afflictions c. Nay more than this they returned Thanks to God for having been thought worthy to suffer for his Name 's sake Their Afflictions gave rise to their Gratitude And all this because they were supported by a Divine hand and were most certain to obtain an everlasting Reward A strange thing indeed that this Certainty only should be absolutely requisite to demonstrate the truth of Religion The Apostles could never have entertained any false hopes of reward because their hopes were grounded on what they had seen and on the miraculous Gifts of God they had both received and often imparted to others We can't then doubt but that they had the hopes of a future Reward in prospect unless we will be wilfully Blind and Ignorant So blind must the Incredulous be who wilfully shut their Eyes and refuse to be convinced of so evident a Truth First Epistle to the Thessalonians Chap. I. 4. For our Gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost c. By these words it appears that the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost continually testified of the Gospel Chap. III. 4. For verily when we were with you we told you before that we should suffer tribulation even as â—t came to pass and ye know The Disciples of Christ had been prepared by him and had prepared themselves nay prepared their Successors also to suffer patiently according to the Words of this Apostle who says in another place 2 Tim. 3. 12. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution T was therefore in cold Blood with their own choice and free deliberation they suffered such Torments Chap. V. 27. I charge you by the Lord that this Epistle be read unto all the holy brethren St. Paul feared not in the least his being contradicted or convinced of any Falsity he had advanced concerning his Afflictions and the Gifts of the Holy Ghost And therefore he commanded that his Epistles should be read to all the holy Brethren First Epistle to Timothy Chap. III. 16. And without controversy great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into glory This mystery can't be invented only by Humane understanding for several Reasons 1. Because it is so great and sublime that Men tho never so learned and quick sighted in other things yet would never have been able to find it out of themselves barely by the Scrutinies of their Reason 2. Because they were only poor Fishermen that preached it 3. Because this so sublime and magnificent Object proceeds if I may so speak from the Death and Sufferings of a Man who was condemned and punished with the most rigorous Punishments that could be thought of For t was only after the Passion of Christ that the Disciples went about preaching every where the wonderful works of God 4. And lastly because the contemplation of it depends upon Experience it self and altho this mystery appears at first view infinitely exalted above the reach of our capacity yet it must have been both seen and touched by the Disciples They certainly saw Christ and beheld his glory as the Glory of the only Son of God full of Grace and Truth They saw with their Eyes that Flesh in which corporeally dwelt an intire fulness of the glorious Godhead They were fully convinced of the extraordinary excellence of his Mysteries and the perfection of his Holiness They themselves received the Gifts of that same Spirit in which God himself was justified They saw Angels ascending and descending to minister unto him They preached it themselves to the Gentiles and so compelled the World to believe in him by their Patience and Preaching which was continually attended with the Demonstration of that Spirit and the Evidence of those Miracles performed by them in the Name of Jesus Lastly he ascended into Heaven in their sight So that these are all sure and certain proofsof the Truth of that great Mystery which can't in the least be suspected Second Epistle to Timothy Chap. III. 15 16. And that from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures c. All Scripture is given by inspiration There is no maintaining false Religions in the World but by the help of Ignorance Negligence and a blind Submission But the Christian Religion can't be suspected of any
degrees of Light wonderfully illuminate the Minds of the incredulous and discover to them the truth and certainty of the Christian Religion by the sublimity and excellencies of it I. Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is considered in the multitude of Testimonies given in favour of it THough Testimonies be somewhat foreign and exterior to the Christian Religion and therefore may seem improper to discover the Perfection of it Yet it will appear they do discover it if we but carefully unite them together and so consider well their joynt union and agreement We can't but have a very great Idea of a Religion which the Wisdom of God has been pleas'd to confirm unto us by Nine several Testimonies each whereof would have been singly sufficient to discover the Truth of it The first is that of the Prophets who all testified of Jesus Christ by a long and continued series of Prophecies some far plainer than the rest for some of the Prophets saw almost as clear in the Night as I may so speak of shadows and figurative Types as we can in the Day of their exact accomplishment as has been already shewn The second is that of John the Baptist so much the more certain because it was foretold in the old Testament and Christ and his Disciples continually refer'd the Jews to that Testimony so much the more considerable because we can't suspect John the Baptist of having been guilty of any base complacency towards the Jews or mean designs for his own Interest The Wisdom of God having been pleas'd to set him above such Suspicions by the Austerity of his Manners and his unusual way of living set down in the Gospel with such a strange and particular Description The third is that of the Apostles those witnesses whose Constancy was tried by the severest Punishments inflicted upon them yet they boldly resisted the Violence offered them by so many Torments they endur'd Torments sufficient to extort even from the greatest Malefactors a confession of their Crimes Yet here is the difference between Them and common Offenders that the latter are compell'd unwillingly to undergo the Torture but the Disciples of our Lord rejoyc'd in being thought worthy to suffer Malefactors indeed know certainly they shall be executed if they confess the Truth but the Disciples of Jesus would have had much more reason to fear Death had they disguised the Truth by any close Deceit The fourth Testimony is that of the three Persons which bare record in Heaven the Father when he declared in Jordan that Jesus Christ was his well beloved Son in whom he was well pleased and in another place I have glorified him and will glorifie him again The Son when he testified of himself by his Miracles And the Holy Ghost when he confirmed the Testimony of the Son by the Effusion of his extraordinary and miraculous Gifts upon the Disciples The fifth is that of the Conscience of Men which acknowledges freely that the Christian Religion can remove our Fears comfort us in our Afflictions humble our Minds in the midst of plenty and strengthen them in poverty in a word sanctifie us by delivering us from our sins and so consequently supply all our wants and necessities The sixth is that ev'n of the Enemies of our Religion who have been forced to speak favourably on our side The Jews and Gentiles have testified in our behalf the Wisdom of Providence and the convincing force of Truth having obliged them tacitly to own that Truth against which they had declared themselves such inveterate and implacable Enemies The ancient Jews believed that the famous prophecy Jacob uttered upon his Death-bed The Scepter shall c. was to be understood of the Messias This their own Writings testify and their Talmud acknowledges that that Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief who was to be bruised for our iniquities and from whom they hid their faces as from a Leper was the true Messias Nay they are forced to have recourse to the extravagant Fiction of a double Messias and ev'n by that they pay a kind of homage to the Truth The Samaritans were of Opinion that the Messias was shortly to appear in the World as is evident by the discourse of Christ with the Woman of Samaria And this the Jews were so strongly perswaded of that some of them chose rather to own Herod the Great for the Messias tho an Idumaean and wicked Prince than renounce an Opinion they were prepossess'd with and which was so deeply rooted in their Minds Others led away by the same Opinion cast their Eyes upon one Agrippa descended from Herod who was engaged in the Roman party Others also instigated by the same hopes followed a certain Robber into the Wilderness And the Jews seeing their City just ready to be laid in Ashes imagined that their Messias was just upon manifesting himself Nay the merciless Ring-leaders of those factious Wretches who tore one another in pieces during the devastation of Judea so obstinately sought after one another's Ruin only because they expected to vanquish the Romans and so become the Conquerours of the World that were to fulfil ancient Prophecies Few Ages after they turned to one Barkokebas a villainous Robber only because they thought him the Messias according to their Computation of the years of his coming Josephus a great Man and well versed in the Scriptures imagined as well as others that the Time prefix'd for his coming was accomplished or if he did not really think so himself he took at least an occasion from that Opinion commonly approved of in the East to ingratiate himself with Vespasian Herod the Great himself terrified and amazed by all these Reports made his fearful apprehension remarkable by a deluge of Blood Then did the Jews acknowledge that in the days of the Messias there would be no Government No Magistrates nor any Commonwealth left in Israel But afterwards the necessity of maintaining their Opinion against us made them have recourse to several different Evasions Not many Ages after the coming of Jesus Christ into the World when they found that their Messias did not appear some of them began to say that he had hid himself others that he was come already in the Person of Hezekiah others that his coming was put off by reason of the crying sins of the People nay they went on to that degree of impiety and irreligion as to pronounce them cursed who should calculate the years of the coming of the Messias From all which we see plainly that by these their Confessions and Shifts they in a manner bear witness tho unwillingly and without design to the Christian Faith As for the Heathens besides the authentick Testimony of Pliny the younger concerning the Innocence of the Christians and besides that of Tiberius concerning Jesus Christ whom he would have inserted among the Gods being himself astonished at the surprising Wonders which he had heard of him we all know that there have
Consequence only Divine Wisdom was also pleased that Jesus Christ should be born in Obscurity and Humiliation that those mean outward Appearances being offensive to the prejudice of carnal and worldly minded Jews they might as it were by chance give occasion to the execution of those things which the Council of God had determined And this is one of the principal causes of his Poverty and Humiliation of the Meanness of his Birth and the Vnworthiness of his first Profession the choice of his Disciples c. The Justice of God acting in concert with his Wisdom obliges him to speak to all prophane Contemners of his Mysteries in an obscure Language and so as it were to conceal those Pearls from them lest like unclean Beasts they should trample them under their Feet And this may very well serve for a Reason of the denial which Christ formerly made to the Unbelievers of those Times of signalizing his Power among them and of the great care he often took to conceal his Miracles from them For this cause therefore spoke he sometimes in Parables to Strangers but he always very clearly exprest himself to his Disciples giving them to understand the meaning of those Parables and telling them that as for them they had the Priviledge of seeing all things openly Neither does his Majesty suffer him to reveal himself as familiarly to the sinful Man as he would to the innocent This we ought not to wonder at since Men themselves are wont so to deal with one another There is nothing more common than for Great Men to banish their Presence those who have incurr'd their Displeasure To think it then strange if God conceals himself from a Sinner would be to entertain a more unworthy Idea of his Majesty than that of an Earthly Monarch This was the Reason why God took such care to conceal himself even when he design'd to manifest his Glory And for this Cause he shewed himself only in Visions and Dreams or when hidden in the Cloud and Ark or covered with some other Veil On this account also he was wont to banish from his Presence all those as were defiled in their Bodies and order the Priests of the Sanctuary to purifie themselves He commanded too the People to wash their Garments when he gave them notice that within three Days he would come down to them nothing but an external and corporeal Purity being sufficient to qualify those that were to approach the Deity manifested under corporeal Symbols But Christ fulfilling in the Spirit every thing hidden in the Letter of the Law teaches us that those only shall see God who shall be found pure in Heart so that we have no reason to wonder if when Man by reason of his Guilt hides himself from God the Almighty withdraws the Influence of his Glorious Majesty from Man Lastly The Goodness and Mercy of God overshadows Revelation with some sort of Darkness to exercise our Faith and keep up our Minds in Vigour which also would grow sluggish if not stirred up by such Difficulties as are proper to Mysteries as also to humble our proud and haughty Reason which is immediately puffed up with its own Knowledge to make us submit our Understandings to him since we ought to believe any Truths tho incredible if he reveals them as also to sway our Hearts and Affections which ought readily to embrace any sorrowful and mortifying Objects that he is pleased to offer them to strip our Pride of all its Pretences and to dispose our Minds that we must necessarily acknowledge every Benefit we enjoy springs from him and that too so much the more because we thereby attain to life Eternal by such means and objects as are above our Capacity to comprehend So necessary is it that it should appear that our Sufficiency is of God and that the Gospel is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth Rom. 1. 16. To this Principle we owe the choice of those persons which God has made use of to preach the Gospel the nature of those seeming Paradoxes he commanded them to publish so contrary to the Light of Nature and Reason the Silence of the Holy Ghost in those things which a few Words from him would have rendred plain and easy to our Understandings But God is not content to exercise our Faith by those Obscurities we find dispersed throughout the Divine Revelations he further permits Heresies Schisms and Errours nay Superstition it self to reign among us that those who are approved may be made manifest Thus we may say he suffers all Egypt to be covered with Darkness the more eminently to discover his wonderful Protection in blessing at the same time the Land of Goshen with the Light of his Truth that is by giving us a Religion accompanied with so bright an Evidence as carnal and worldly minded Men can never comprehend because their Reason is eclipsed by Sensuality and the Corruption of their Hearts produces those thick Clouds that hide the Truth from their sight God 't is true enlightens the Minds of Men but Men wilfully blind themselves He permits it should be so to confound their Ignorance and demonstrate to us that he is the Father of Light But let us now enquire into the Principles of that Obscurity which solely springs from Men. And I. So gross are all the Prejudices of the Senses that there is no body so void of shame as to follow them openly Yet 't is certain they are very prevalent in the Hearts of most Men who stick not to say I never saw the like I could willingly believe it if I should but see it Who ever saw dead Men rise again from their graves And who ever ascended into Heaven or went down into the Pit All which Reasonings are manifestly absurd For can there be any greater Folly in a Man than to refuse to believe that which he does not see when these Objects of his Faith could have no Existence were they not invisible Did any one ever see the Time past long before he liv'd or the future long after his Death Did he ever see his own Soul the Deity c. For 't is nothing else but the Time past and the future the Objects and Interests of the Soul together with the Benefits of God which Faith offers to our Consideration II. We are accustomed by Education not to believe any thing that happens not in the ordinary course of Nature We confine our selves as it were to a Circle of Objects which we willingly admit of because they contain nothing that is repugnant to Experience or Probability So that the Custom we have of refusing to give our Assent to all other things reaching even unto matters of Religion inevitably casts us into Scepticism and Incredulity Yet should we but throughly consider those Objects which fall under common Experience they would certainly appear as surprising and incomprehensible as those of Religion If you think it strange that the Soul should outlive
that was divided into the Porch the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies is answerable the World the Church and the Heavens the eternal Sanctuary of God To the Levites all the Faithful without Exception that are designed to serve God to the White Cloathings of the Ministers of the Tabernacle the Innocence and Holyness of all those who design to approach unto him to the Purity of the Body the Purity both of the Heart and Conscience to the Blood of Goats and of Lambs which was a Confirmation of the Old Covenant the Blood of Jesus Christ which confirms the New Testament to the Entrance of the High Priest into the Holy of Holies wearing the Names of the Twelve Tribes written upon his Breast and presenting to God the Blood that was shed in the Porch corresponds the Ascention of Christ into Heaven where he continually presents us to God his Father and intercedes for us by virtue of that Blood which he shed for the Expiation of our Sins to the purifying Waters which washed away all the Pollutions of the Body the Waters of Grace which sanctify the Spirit To Mount Sinai Mount Zion to the sound of the Trumpet of Rams Horns the Voice of the Gospel to Moses himself the Mediatour of the Law Jesus Christ the Mediatour of the New Covenant The different state and condition of the Church is is also further represented to us by the various condition of the People of Israel Our spiritual Bondage is marked out by their temporal Slavery our Deliverances by their Deliverances our Enemies by their Enemies and so just and reasonable is the Conformity there is betwixt those Images and their Original that the Holy Scripture often makes little distinction betwixt them and intermixes in one and the same Chapter that which concerns the temporal State of the Israelites and that which concerns the Spiritual condition of the Faithful as also the Events that attended the Jewish Oeconomy and the Wonders of the New Covenant These things are worth our Observation and he that does not duly consider them will never be able to understand any thing in the Prophecies contained in the Books of the Old Testament Lastly The Wisdom of God was resolved we should not want a competent number of Types that might sufficiently represent to us the Excellence Offices and Ministry of our Mediatour Thus Isaac conceived in the Womb of a barren Woman the Delight of his Father the Foundation of all the Promises of God offered up for a Sacrifice upon a Mount by the very hand of his Father rising as it were from the Dead by being delivered from the Knife he had already lifted up against him and having afterwards a Seed as numerous as the Stars of Heaven and the Sand of the Sea this Isaac I say was a lively Image of Jesus Christ who was conceived in the Virgins Womb the Darling of his Father in whom he was well-pleased the Foundation of all his Promises the Source of his Blessings dying upon Mount Calvary rising again in a wonderful manner after his Death and seeing his Seed after him when he had made his Soul an Offering for Sin Thus again Joseph sold by his Brethren betrayed out of Envy accused tho' Innocent condemned because he would not submit to the immodest Desires of a lascivious Woman delivered out of Prison appearing before Pharaoh cloathed in Garments suitable to that Honour and then sitting at his Right Hand was a wonderful Representation of Jesus Christ betrayed out of Envy sold by the Jews themselves who were his Brethren condemned for refusing to comply with the Synagogue cast down into the Darkness of Death endued with heavenly Gifts raised again to Heaven and sitting at length at the Right Hand of God Moses defigned to be the Mediatour of the Legal Covenant rescued at his Nativity from a Deluge of Blood exposed to the River-side and as it were given up to a sure and infallible Death but afterwards delivered by a kind of Miracle from the Fury of the Waters and also delivering not long after his own Nation himself by a lucky Turn when he seemed to be cast away was an exact Representation of Jesus Christ who came into the World to be the Mediatour of the New Covenant was delivered at his Birth from the Murder of Herod and saved Men after his having suffered Death Jonas who was cast into the Sea to appease the Tempest and swallowed by a Whale which three Days after cast him again on the Shore sufficiently gives us to understand who it was that calm'd by his Death that Storm our Sins had raised that went down into the Grave and afterwards rose again the third Day Lastly David being raised from the State of a Shepherd to that of a Monarch was an excellent Type of Christ who after his Humiliation inherited a Name that is above every Name And as for those Prophecies which have described to us by such notable Epochaes and signal Characters both the Person Coming and the Time of the Coming of the Messias we have already very largely spoke of them so that what we have said in that respect is more than sufficient to make us admire the exact Proportion there is betwixt the first and second Covenant as well as betwixt the Jewish and Christian Religion Moses Illustrates Christ as we have proved in our first Part of this Treatise and Christ again Illustrates Moses as appears plainly by the Comparison we just now made of them XI Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is considered in the Proportion it bears to natural Religion WE have already described the Christian Religion as it is thus considered in having fully proved in several places of this Work that it takes away the Corruption which had disordered Nature that it subverts Paganism which was the Corruption of natural Religion that 't is the perfect Restauration of the latter that it reestablishes the Principles of Justice and Equity which God had imprinted in our Hearts that it produces the most perfect Union of Society by Love and Charity that Humility Temperance Wisdom and all other kind of Virtues which support natural Religion derive the Force of their Motives from the Christian Religion they alone being equivalent to all sensible Objects and lastly that it makes us answer the End of our Creation 'T is a wonderful Comfort and Satisfaction to our Minds and at the same time exalts our Nature to reflect that the End for which Man was designed is the same with that of Christian Religion and the End of Christian Religion the same with the true End of Man's Creation Every thing that goes to the Constitution of Man's Nature does in a manner seek after God The infinite Curiosity of our Minds incessantly thirsting after the Knowledge of New Objects seeks after that Deity which the Christian Religion discovers to us because that Deity contains all things in the Excellence of its own Nature The greedy and hasty Desires of our