the prince of Peace 2ly It is most apparent that the immediate succeeding Age could not be ignorant of what was thus delivered to the Church whilst the Autographa were extant as Tertullian tells us in his time they were when the Canonical books were evidently proposed as such and if we may believe the suffrage of Antiquity collected and avouched by St John yea whilest those very persons were alive to whom those writings were directed and with whom they were entrusted yea by whom they were transcribed and 3 read in publick and in private 3ly This corruption of the word of God or substitution of any other doctrine for it could not be done by any part or Sect of Christians but they who had imbraced the Faith and used the same Copies of the word of God in other places of the Christian world must have found out the cheat and therefore this corruption if at all effected must be the work of the whole world of Christians But can it be supposed that the immediate succeeding ages should universally conspire to substitute their own inventions for the word of God and yet continue stedfast in and suffer so much for that Faith which denounced the severest judgments against them that should doe such things or that a world of men should with the hazard of their lives and fortunes and all that was dear to them in this present world avouch the Gospel and at the same time make so great a change even in the frame and substance of its doctrine become guilty of so universal an Apostacy from what the Gospel had delivered whilst it yet sounded in their eares employ'd their tongues and was the Matter of the worlds Great Contest and by so doing make it ineffectual Can it be thought that they should venture upon that which were the Gospel true or false must needs expose them to the Greatest evills whilst they continued Abettors of it But had this bin done can we in reason think that of those many thousands who in the Primitive Ages did renounce the Gospel that of those many 3 wavering Spirits those excommunicate Members especially those 4 Hereticks who upon other motives did renounce the Greatest part of Scripture I say can it be thought that none of those should publish and disclose the forgery or answer the Allegations made from Scriptures that they were all supposititious but that such apparent forgeries should find a general reception from all that searched into their Truth and be unquestionably received as genuine both by Jew and Gentile Christian and Pagan ever in those times in which and in those places where they first were uttered and by those Persons who so lately received another doctrine 4ly Suppose those Primitive Professors could have been Guilty of so vile a thing Can we believe that God who sent his Son out of his bosome to declare this Doctrine and by the assistance of the Holy Spirit to indite and Preach it and by the witness of so many and great miracles confirme it to the world should suffer any wicked Persons to corrupt and alter any of those termes on which the happiness and welfare of mankind depended Much more to suppress and smother them as that a counterfeit repugnant Story should obtain in lieu thereof and so the benefit of all that Christ had done and his Apostles delivered to the world should be entirely lost That Christ should do or suffer so great things in order to the welfare of mankind and yet permit those Sons of Belial to frustrate all that he had done and rob the world of all the vertue of his death and sufferings can be conceived rational by none but such as think it not absurd to say that That God who sent his Son to die for our Salvation and that Jesus who became so great a sufferer in order to the same designe should jointly envie and maligne the Good of Man Nay since those very Scriptures which have been received for the word of God and used by the Church as such from the first ages of it pretend to be the termes of our Salvation Joh. 7.16.26 28. Joh. 3.16 Joh. 6.40 and precepts of that Saviour whose message was from heaven and to be scriptures indited by men commissionated from Christ and such as did avouch themselves Apostles by the will and command of God Gal. 1.1.1 Cor. 1.1 Eph. 1.1 Col. 1.2 Tim. 1.1 for the delivery of the faith of Gods Elect and for the knowledge of the truth and the delivery of that which they received by the revelation of the holy Ghost they must be what they are pretended to be or Providence must have permitted yea contributed unto that Error which hath continued fifteen Ages and which if it be a Forgery hath ruined so many Thousand of well-meaning Souls Lastly Those Records being once so 6 generally despers'd through places at the greatest distance so universally acknowledged and consented to by Men of curious Parts and different Perswasions and repugnant Judgements and great Aversions from each other preserved in their Originals unto succeeding Ages and 7 multiplyed into divers Versions esteemed the Christians Magna Charta the Records of his Hopes and Fears and thereupon being so 8 carefully sought after so riveted in their minds for many Fathers had them all 9 memoriter so frequent in their Writings so constantly 10 rehearsed in their Assemblies by Men whose work it was to Read and Preach and to exhort to the performance of those Duties they enjoyned being so often cited in the Confessions Comments Apologies and Epistles of the Christian Worthies as also in the Objections of those Adversaries to whose view they still lay open it must needs be true that they were handed down to the succeeding Generations pure and uncorrupt and therefore they are such upon whose Credit we may venture to pass an Estimate of Christian Doctrine § 2. AND if it be objected That we find by the Citations of the Ancients that there was a difference betwixt their Copies of the Scripture and these now extant among us it is answered from ocular Demonstration whosoever shall compare the ancient Copies or any Texts that were cited by the Primitive Christians with those Scriptures which we now own and use shall find no considerable variation We see that English Bible which we read and use in every Parish and Family though it be often falsely Printed yet receives no variation which is not soon and easily corrected and why should we suspect the same of the Original Scriptures and of those Versions which were transcribed and read thorowout the Christian World If then no Writing whilest the Apostles lived could pass for Christian Faith and yet destroy and undermine it and be receiv'd as their Epistles when it was nothing less If their immediate Successors could not be ignorant of what the Apostles committed to them to be read and Preached as the Records of their Faith and Doctrine nor would they be induced to deliver
not Sow and Plant and trade only in hopes of an encrease and should not then the hopes and probabilities of infinite eternal Happiness provided for the pious Christian engage us to obey Gods Precepts and to resist all those Temptations which flesh and blood suggests against them If thus to seek the false uncertain Mammon be the great Wisdome of the world can it be Folly to pursue with equal diligence and vigour but with better Hopes the true lasting Riches If then it be but probable that all the world throughout all Ages did not embrace the Doctrine of a Providence without some plausible Inducement so to do If all the primitive Martyrs and Confessors did not suffer for the Name of Christ and all succeeding Generations did not embrace or continue in the Profession of the Faith of Christ without all reason motive or even probable inducement If any of those probabilities we have amass'd together in the close of this Discourse deserve to be esteemed such or any of those Arguments which in this Treatise we have urged be probable then must the Folly of the Atheist be exceeding great and clear beyond exception 3. It must be Folly to renounce that Faith which hath been Generally owned by men of strongest Parts and most discerning Judgments in very many Nations and through many Generations and which delivers matters of so great Moment and Concern that our eternal Happiness or Misery depends upon them till we have used the Greatest diligence to search into the Reasons which induced them to believe it true Let then the Atheist say what he hath done to satisfie his judgment in this great Concern whether he ever did peruse the writings and Apologies of Antient Fathers or the most eminent Divines who have discoursed upon this Subject to the Satisfaction of the knowing World Whether he ever did consult with Persons of the best abilities propound his scruples and consider of the Answers given before he ventured to scoff at and renounce his Faith If not this is sufficient to convince him of the greatest Folly in the World If any that pretends to have used all this diligence and all these Endeavours continue still to question and suspect the truth of Christian Faith and of the Doctrine of a Providence let me intreat him to consider 1. Whether those motives which induce him to renounce a Providence or Christian Faith will not compel him to renounce those things of which he hath the evidence of Sense and Reason to convince him if so we have as great assurance of the falshood of those motives as Sence and Reason can afford If then you do reject a Providence because you are not able to conceive Gods Omnipresence or any other Attribute on which this Providence depends if you renounce the Mysteries of Christian Faith because you cannot apprehend them have you not equal reason to reject the Notions of Infinite unbounded space of an Eternal Flux of Time or an Indivisible Eternity which yet your reason must acknowledge Must you not question the Existence of the Souls of Men and Brutes as being not sufficient to conceive that Spirits if confined to points can performe any of those actions which we ascribe to them or that they can diffuse themselves through Bodies receive impressions from them or make impressions on them or that meer matter should perceive reflect and reason or have any sense of pain and pleasure Lastly must not this Principle oblige you to Question the Existence of all material Compounds For who is able to conceive that Indivisibles can be united or that a Grain of Sand can be for ever divisible and have as many parts as the whole World If you do question or dispute the truth of any Miracle Revelation or Prediction because you are not able to perceive the manner how it was or may be done this will oblige you to denie the Ebb and Flowing of the Sea till you are able to acquaint us with the true Causes of it and to distrust that ever you were born because you never can explain the manner of your own production For as thou knowest not the way of the wind nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with Child even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all things Eccl. 11.5 If you are tempted to disown these Revelations because you are not able to conceive Gods Ends and Reasons in them Why he who hath proclaimed Himself the God of Mercy should threaten an eternal punishment to finite transitory Sins why he should leave the World so long in Darkness and the like Might not a Subject on the like account reject the precepts of his Soveraign because not able to perceive the Wisdome of them or the necessity of all the Sanctions he annexeth to them Is it not certain that if there be a God he must be infinite in his perfections and so incomprehensible and then his Wisdome must exceedingly transcend the reach of finite Apprehensions the Secrets of it must be double to that which doth appear to us and there must be such depths both in his Judgments and his Acts of Mercy as we can never fathome So that unless the Notion of an Infinite and all-wise Being includes a contradiction in the Terms we cannot doubt but that he may reveal what we can never apprehend Besides we cannot understand the Beauty or Wisdome of Divine Transactions but we must be acquainted with the Ends and Motives the Tendence and result of all he doth for otherwise what seems absurd to us may admirably comply with the Designes of Providence what seems confused in the Beginning may conclude in Order and the Greatest Beauty Since then we do not know the minde of God since we are not acquainted with the Designes and Purpose nor are we able to look forward to the Results of Providence it is sure we cannot pass a Judgement on the Wisdome of them If you are tempted to disown the Christian Faith because you are not able to reconcile it to your shallow reason and infirm Conceptions This will oblige you to denie the Being Propagation the Swiftness or Continuation of all Motion it being certain we are not able to give an Answer to all the Arguments produced against the different degrees of Swiftness or the Continuation or the very Being of it or to conceive how Motion can be propagated It is acknowledged that an immediate plain indisputable Contradiction cannot be matter of our Faith or of a Revelation from the God of truth But seeing it is also evident that all matters infinitely great as infinite Duration Power Space and infinitely little as the indivisible parts of Space Time do as much bafle and confound our understandings as do the Attributes of God and do abound with difficulties as stubborn and unweildy as any Revelations of the Gospel do afford it must be rashness to reject these Revelations as inconsistent with the Dictates and Apprehensions of
that Reason which is obliged to own such Notions as do abound with equal if not greater Difficulties And certainly if Mathematicks will afford its Demonstrations pro and con if Matters obvious to sense do oft confound the Vnderstanding it is not to be hoped it should wade thorough the Abyss of infinite perfections and not be overwhelmed and lost 2. Consider whether you have not greater reason to believe these Doctrines then to disbelieve them From what is here discoursed in the introduction it is clear we have as many reasons to assert a Providence as we have reasons to believe that any signal Demonstrations of Gods power have been made by any acts of Judgment or of Mercy in any Parts or Ages of the World or that his Wisdome was engaged in any Revelations Oracles Predictions Dreams or Visions supernatural or in the Production of the World and in the exquisite Contrivance of any Portion of it We have as many reasons to believe a Providence as we have to assert that any good or evill Angels do exist or ever did appear or interest themselves in any actions of Mankind And yet our reasons which evince the truth of Christian Faith are far more numerous and cogent Let then the Atheist view and ponder what we have here produced in confirmation of these Truths and then consider whether his motives to renounce Christianity and to reject a Providence be more numerous and more convincing then what this Treatise offers to establish them If not he must have greater Reason to assert then to disown them and so his Infidelitie must be the worst of Follies Lastly Consider whether he that rejects the Christian Faith must not be forced to believe what 's more incredible then any Mystery contained in it For he must believe that Christ and his Disciples and the Christians of the three first Ages did endeavour to confirm the world in the belief of what they knew to be a lie and consequently that all the Primitive Professors who did so court the Flames and were so wearie of this present life were yet the vilest Atheists as not believing there was any God to punish this their pernicious lye Or secondly that they were all beside themselves that they had lost the principles of preservation and Self Love which Nature hath so deeply planted in the very Brutes and that they made it their designe to ruine and destroy their Souls and Bodys their Friends and their Relations to abandon all the Pleasures of this Life and to expose themselves to all the Miseries that can be incident to humane Nature without any motive but the love of Miserie And yet he must believe that they who did so little understand the common Principles of humane Nature were able to enrich the World with the best Notions of a Deity and of a future State and the best precepts of Moralitie that humane Nature ever was acquainted with And that these Fools had wit enough to propagate their Doctrine and to obtain belief throughout the World maugre all opposition that all the powers of men and Devils could make against them Or 2ly he must believe these Atheists chose to quit their Lives and suffer all the miseries they underwent only to beat down Atheisme and to establish that Religion which bears the Greatest Opposition to all the Naturall results of Atheisme He must believe that what is written in the Books of Scripture and the Apologies of all the Christians and that all that they pretended and appealed to in every corner of the World were but prodigious impudent untruths and that the World was universally induced to Worship a condemned Malefactor as God Blessed for evermore and to embrace the Doctrine of the Cross with all its Disadvantages without a seeming Miracle Or 2ly he must believe that they had no assistance in the Propagation of the Faith besides those arts of Magick in which both Jew and Gentile were more expert then they and which Apostates who were very numerous and frequent learned and ingenious were equally acquainted with and yet that never any of them did attempt to imitate or to disclose their Art or that the world when thus convinced of the Delusion would notwithstanding universally embrace and chuse to suffer for what they knew to be confirmed only by those Magical Collusions which they saw daily practised by Jew and Heathen and in which they were instructed by those very Christians who did so signally condemn those Arts as Devilish and threaten everlasting Misery to all that used them He must believe that all the Records of any signal Judgement which ever did befall the Enemies and Blasphemers of the Christian Faith or any portion of it or of any Mercies Preservations Gifts or Assistances vouchsafed to them in any age or places of the Christian World are void of Truth in every particular He must believe an hundred matters of like nature which this Treatise will suggest And therefore Reader I intreat you to peruse it with that care and diligence which matters of this moment do require and then I hope it may be instrumentall to convince you of and confirm you in the Truth of Christian Faith which is the hearty desire of Your Servant in the Defence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ DANIEL WHITBIE The Contents of the Chapters CHAP. I. WHAT Endeavours have been made to stop the growth of Atheism and Irreligion by asserting an All-wise presiding Power visible in the production of the World What seemeth further necessary to be alledged against the Atheist An Essay towards the eviction of a Providence 1. From the existence of evil Spirits 2. From many signal demonstrations of Gods Power 3. Of his Judgements upon rebellious Sinners And 4. of his power and mercy in preservation of his servants and his miraculous answers to their Prayers 5. From Revelations and Predictions of things contingent in their various Circumstances 6. From Apparitions of good and evil Angels 7. From Dreams and Visions supernatural 8. From things performed by pretenders to Miracles Magicians Witches Oracles Philosophers which could not be effected naturally c. The confirmation of the Christian Faith by what hath been delivered 1. by evincing that Providence hath been engaged for the establishment of some particular Religion in the World 2. That that particular Religion is no other then the Christian Faith pag. 1 2. CHAP. II. That common Prudence would not suffer the Apostles to pretend such things in their Historical Relations of the Life of Christ and in their Epistles to the Churches newly converted as must infallibly disgrace their Testimony and make them appear guilty of Delusion 2. That the Miracles recorded in those Historical Narrations and Epistles if true are a convincing evidence that some superior Power did assist the Workers of them 3. That Christ and his Disciples had no assistance from good or evil Angels to impose upon the World p. 55. CHAP. III. Sect. I. Proleg 4. That Christ and his Apostles did
confirmed by the Histories of both the Indies supposed by the Laws of Moses and by the Gospel Story the 1 Jewish 2 Christian and the 3 Heathen Exorcists these Spirits being subject not only to the name of Jesus but to the invocation of the God of Abraham and of Jsaac and of Jacob though used by those who did not 4 own their faith but notwithstanding did attest upon their own experience the virtue of those names as well as 5 Jews and Christians § 4. 2ly IF there have ever been any displays or actings of Gods power if any Miracles vouchsafed in confirmation of the faith of Jew or Christian Turk or Heathen all which have more or less pretended to them Acts 2.5 the Jew with so much evidence as to gain Proselytes from every nation under heaven the Christian with so great conviction as to prevail upon the world against the powers of Interest Custome and Education and all the opposition which the Wit and Power of the world could make to entertain the Faith delivered by them If the red sea was divided which both the sacred and 6 profane writers do attest If our Saviour and his Apostles the first Christian converts Vid. Raymund Pug. fid part 2. c. 8. s 6. did any of those miracles which in their writings are recorded of them of which we give a large account in our Discourse upon that Subject I say if any of these things were done we must acknowledge some superior Power did engage in the assistance of those persons and was concerned to have the world believe what they delivered By which assistance if the superior Power did intend the Happiness and Welfare of Mankind he makes provisions for it and by so doing shews a Providence but if he designe mans Ruine and Destruction he must then be an evil and seducing power which sure could not be were there no higher Power to challenge and reward our Service and to revenge our Disobedience § 5. 3ly IF any signal Judgments were inflicted by the immediate hand of God upon Rebellious sinners of which the Annals of all ages and books made up of such collections yeeld us large accounts If any visible declarations of Gods wrath and of approaching Judgments have been made unto the world by Signes Prodigies by Dreams and Apparitions by Prophesies or by a voice from Heaven of which not only Histories Ecclesiastical and heathen do inform us but suspected 7 Atheists do confess and prove the same If there hath ever been a deluge over the world which since the Caverns of the earth containe the waters of it can never be effected by the course of nature or Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire from heaven both which the 8 Heathen records have at large delivered to us preserving the traditions of the 9 Ark the 10 Dove sent out of it and of the 11 Mountains where it rested and frequently attesting that the fruits and apples of the land of 12 Sodom being toucht do vanish into smoak and ashes If Lots wife looking back became a pillar of salt and that so lasting that 13 Josephus and a In Gen. 19.26 Brochardus testify it was extant in their days and the Jerusalem Targum doth conclude it shall be so unto the Resurrection so notable that 14 Heathens used to conjure by invocation of that God who turned Lots wife into the Pillar If the 15 destruction of Jerusalem was prefaced with prodigious tokens of approaching Vengeance and God hath still appear'd in plagues and Judgments against 16 those who have attempted to rebuild the temple there If any waters of probation have had the virtue to discover and chastise the sinner whilst they cleared the innocent as Heathen writers affirme of 17 Olachas and other rivers which were wont to put off their natures and become fire to the Guilty person of the 18 Crateres Palicorum the 19 Sardinian fountains which did strike the thief or perjured person blind or dead of the 20 Indian Brachmans probatory waters and many others of that kind and as the Jews say with much better ground of those of Jealousy which being used according to the prescription of their law to try the chastity of any woman of whom her husband should be Jealous Numb 5 27.28 did cause the Guilty thigh to rot and had no like effect upon the innocent I say with better Ground for had they failed upon tryal the Jews could not have owned that law for sacred which left them such a standing lye Lastly If king 21 Agrippa suffered by the immediate hand of God Act. 12 23. because he gave not God the Glory of what the people did ascribe unto him as is attested by Josephus agreably to what St. Luke delivers we have from all these instances the clearest evidence of Gods vindictive Justice on the transgressors of his law and of our own concernments to obey it § 6. 4ly IF any acts of mercy or preservation by the power of God have been vouchsafed to any of Gods servants If Daniel was preserved in the Lyons den and Shadrach Meshach and Abednego from the devouring flames which must be a relation of the greatest credit if we consider that it speaks of matters done in so vast a company as were then met together to adore the Image which was erected by the king of Babylon and in the Greatest Court the world then knew and in defiance of the decrees and statutes of so Great a monarch and yet so done as to prevail upon him to own and reverence the God of those poor Captives and to establish a * Dan. 2 47.3.29 decree in honour of him which must be left on record in the Annals of that Empire in which all * Ezra 4.15.19 matters of any moment were digested to witness to the truth of what was seen and done and that it also speaks of matters done by men whose actions and Religion did blast the reputation of their Heathen Deities did baffle and confound their Sorcerers Magicians Astrologers and Men whose Religion did still 22 thrive under oppression and bring in dayly Proselyts Agen if any answer hath been made unto the prayers of Christian Jew or Heathen of which they all do boast so much and give such frequent instances If God according to his promise did still command his blessing on the sixth years crop Levit 25.21 and make it double unto that of other yeares and had it not been so this promise must have been a vain presumptious boast sufficient to discredit the whole law of Moses If fire of course came down from heaven in the days of Moses and extraordinarily at the petition of Elijah to consume the Jewish sacrifices as the 23 Apostate Julian doth acknowledge If 24 Heathen Records do pretend the same whose stories examples of this kind seem too exact and frequent to be deemed cheats If Gods miraculous assistance and answer to the 25 prayers of Theodosius did
quod dicturi sumus Christum enim Dii piissimum pronunciaverunt immortalem factum cum bona praedicatione ejus meminerunt Et post haec de Christo interrogantibus si est Deus ait Hecate Viri pietate praestantissimi est illa anima Aug. l. 19. c. 23. lib. 22. c. 25. Ille est Deus quem nec commemor are me piget confitente Porphyrio atque id Oraculis Deorum suorum probare cupiente ipsa Numina perhorrescunt Porphyry the greatest Adversary of the Christian Faith who owns our Saviour for a God and tells us That one of their oracles did yield an ample Testimony unto his Worth and Merit But secondly We have no reason to conceive that his Disciples should continue to gull the World in this particular For such was their simplicity they could not such their sincerity they would not go about to do so § 2. Lucian Peregr p. 338. Mimet p. 4. Celsus apud orig p. 146 147. Hieroc apud Euseb contra Hieroc p. 5 14. Tertul. Apol. c. 49. Arnob. l. 1. p. 34 35. 1. SUCH was their * Nam cum videret futuros vos esse gestarum abs se rerum divinique operis abrogatores ne qua subesset suspicio magicis se artibus muner a illa beneficiaque largitum ex immensa illa populi multitudine quae suam Gratiam sectabatur admirans piscatores opifices Rusticanos atque id genus delegit imperitorum qui per varias Gentes missi cunct a illa miracula sine ullis fucis atque adminiculis perpetrarent Arnib l. 1. p. 30. simplicity they could not Plots and Designs to overturn the World and introduce a Doctrine which carryed such a signal Opposition to the Faith and Tenets the Wisdom and Philosophy the Interests and Vices of the World must call for better Heads and deeper Judgements nor was it ever heard that twelve simple Mechanicks for such the Apostles and primitive Professors of Christianity were still reputed by their Adversaries should be so much concern'd for any way of Worship or durst adventure with the hazard of their Lives to Preach it to the World though after such a Grand delusion of mankind by men so rude and infamous as the Apostles were esteemed nothing could have seemed too foolish absurd to be imposed upon the world †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost or 2. in Bab. p. 446. Should any man have sayd when Christ was nailed to the Cross that many thousands of his bloudy murtherers which then reviled him as a malefactor should in few days become his converts and venture all their present and Eternal interests upon the truth of his pretended Resurrection should they have said that through all the world he should be shortly worshipped as that King to whom all power both in heaven and earth was Given and as that Jesus who alone could give Salvation should they have told us that all this should be done in spight of all the powers of wit and policy of eloquence and of the sword the Interests and lusts the superstitions and corrupt opinions and the reputed wisdome of mankind by a few mean unskilful men the hatred and derision of the place they lived in I say should so extravagant a thought have then been vented it must have surely passed for an Idle brain-sick dream as little to be heeded as that twelve cripples should beseige storm plunder and destroy the strongest and best peopled city or that a naked man should vanquish all the powers of the Roman Empire Besides such is the excellency of the Christian faith so much above the reach of humane wisdome to conceive so seemingly repugnant to it when revealed that it was most unfit to be the matter of a design to gull the world so sublime and spiritual are its precepts so far exceeding all that the learning and wisdome of the Greeks could snew that t is impossible to believe they should derive from witless and mechanick persons § 3. NAY such was their sincerity that if they could yet they would not thus abuse the world Whosoever views their writings so full of wisdome and of purity so admirably pathetical in their expressions a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. in Celsum p. 70. free in the confession of their own infirmities Mat. 26.36 Mar. 14.71 Gal. 1.13 1 T-m 1.15 so full and pregnant in those doctrines which speak the greatest self denyal so plain in the delivery of Christian duties so void of all the arts of wit and policy all the advantages of Eloquence and humane wisdome and then considers that their lives were sutable to what their doctrines did deliver that they became examples as well as Preachers both of the Christian faith and patience 2 Thes 3.9 and did appeal to the Churches newly converted by them and attempted by others to disown them how holily and b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thes 2.10 Rom. 16.17 1 Tim. 1.20 Titus 3.10 how unblamably they had liv'd He that considereth their quickness to condemne and censure to avoide and punish those who did not walk according to their rules of piety as enemies unto the Gross of Christ and yet how irksome and distastful those things are to wicked men how prone and strongly byassed their affections are the other way I say he that shall well consider these particulars will quickly see sufficient reason to believe them upright and sincere § 4. BESIDES no man is wicked to no end which must be their case if they had been deceivers For what could they expect to get by lying Was it to grow big with honour They confessed and every days experience made it good 1 Cor. 4.9 2 Cor. 4.9 Luk. 6.20 their doctrine and their Persons were the scorn and derision of their Adversaries Was it to abound in wealth Poverty was their beatitude their Charity and faith were sure to keep them low enough the Pearl of price was to be bought with the loss of all they had if they had any thing to lose Was it to swim in pleasure The witness of the spirit and their own knowledge could informe them that bonds and Prisons would abide them in every place Acts 20.23 2 Cor. 23.27 and their whole life was a continued Scene of troubles perils and afflictions They could not seek Great things but they must contradict that doctrine of self-denyal humility and an heavenly mind which they so oft inculcated nor enjoy them without a contradiction to the †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Celsus apud Orig. lib. 7 pag. 343. predictions of Jesus which they had left on record For He foretold them that in the world they should have tribulation and that their names should be cast out as evil doers that persecutions scourgins death and Universal hatred should be their portion among men They knew by reason and experience that if their hopes depended only on the enjoyments of this present life they must of all men
been so full and pregnant that nothing could be more For to resume these heads 1. Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Romans written about the 2d Year of Nero vid. Lightfoot Harm N. T. P. 121.136 Cha. 1. 8 1. Col. 6. 22. tells them their Faith was celebrated throughout all the world In his Epistle to the Colossians about the 6th of Nero he assures them that the Christian Faith was preached to every creature under Heaven and proclaimed to the whole world The truth of which assertions will be sufficiently made Good from Proleg the 6th 2ly Of the multitude of false Christs we have already spoken Of false Prophets we are informed by 2 Eusebius who from Josephus tells us of one Theudas who by his Magicall collusions prevail'd upon a multitude of Jews to follow him to the river Jordan which that pretended Prophet promised to divide before them and of an 3 Aegyptian in the days of Nero who being also a Magician pretended Prophet deceaved 30000 who partly were dispersed and partly slaine by Felix Governour of Judea 4 Josephus speaking of the conflagration of the Temple and of the multitude that perished in it 6000. ascribes their ruine to a lying Prophet who drew them thither with promises of signs and wonders that should there be wrought for their deliverance and then adds that there were many such deceivers who still endeavoured to delude the people with promises of help from heaven Nay the Apostle tells us Tit. 1.10 11 14. that they especially were the vain bablers and deceivers and the perverters of the truth that by their Fables and their zeal for their Traditions and empty Ceremonies they did pervert Men from the Faith and hinder the progress of the Gospel Thirdly Their false and lying Wonders made them deserve the Title of Magicians And indeed the Miracles recorded by their Rabbins Lightf Horae Hebr. in Mat. p. 266 267. the Stories which their * Talmud gives us of their Skill this way their frequent 5 Exorcisms by Invocation of the God of Jacob their Amulets and * Ligatures and confident 6 Assertions Lightf ibid Voisin observ in Raymund p. 557 558. That God gave power to his Law his Name and Attributes when thus applyed by them to heal diseases and work signs and wonders Lastly Those many 7 Instances Iosephus gives us of Men pretending to such Works all these sufficiently evince how much they were addicted unto false and lying Wonders Fourthly the Apostacy of many from the Christian Faith especially of the Jews is manifest from the Epistles of St Paul complaining that they apostatized unto the Law of Moses Gal. 3.4 2 Tlm. 1.15 and that all Asia had shaken off the Gospel and from the descriptions which St Peter and St Iude give of them That they denyed the Lord that bought them They went out from us 1 Joh. 2.19 saith St Iohn Fifthly The sign of the Son of man coming in the Heavens being some visible appearance in the Heavens of his coming to destroy Ierusalem and to revenge his death and all the Persecutions of his Prophets and Apostles on them that 8 Comet which appeared like a flaming sword and for the space of a whole year did point down upon the city may refer unto it But that which best comports with the Expression of our Saviour who tells us his appearance should be in the clouds with power and great glory Matt. 24.29 30. or with an Host and Splendor and also agrees with the Opinion of the Jews That this his coming with the clouds of Heaven was coming with the host of heaven as 9 R. Saadias hath it is that 10 appearance in the clouds of Chariots and of Armed Men incompassing the City and attended with the noise of War And whereas it is said immediately after the tribulation of those days the Sun shall be darkned Matt. 24.29 and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars shall fall from Heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken let it be noted That these Words intend not to declare unto us what should happen after the desolation of Ierusalem as will appear 1. From the Words ensuing Matt. 24.33 When you shall see these things come to pass know that it is nigh even at the door Secondly From the incouragement that follows to the Christian Mark 13.29 When these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh If this Redemption do not import the Christians freedom from this present vengeance and from those fiery Persecutions which were raised against them chiefly by the malice of the Jews it will be hard to know what it can signifie since all the Judgements which befel the Heathen World did not redeem the Christians from their Persecutions but were the causes of them they being still ascribed by them unto the 11 anger of their gods against the Christians And thirdly Because the Prophet Ioel who foretels the very same events Joel 2.31 That God would shew wonders in the heavens and on the earth that the sun should be turned into darkness and the moon into blood assures us this was to happen before the great and terrible day of the Lord that is before the plenary Execution of Gods vengeance on the Jews 1 Thess 2.16 when wrath should come upon them to the uttermost Now hence it follows That these Expressions must concern the Jewish Nation and signifie by a 12 Prophetick Scheme and sutably unto the manner of the 13 Eastern Nations those great and dreadful Judgements God had resolv'd to bring upon the Jewish Nation which would Eclipse their Sun and Moon convert their glorious and shining Days into the days of darkness and create as great a Terror to them as if these Prodigious Things had hapned in the course of Nature The 14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fearful Occurrences or Apparitions mentioned by St Luke Luke 21.11 may haply respect the flying open of the Temple doors the Light that shone about the Temple and the Altar before the multitude the Conflagration the Voices of an unseen multitude crying out Let us depart and quit this place Joseph de bel Jud. l. 7. c. 12. and especially of one Jesus denouncing Wo continually unto the City Temple and the People of Ierusalem and many other Signs which did declare their desolation and by the wiser Jews were thought to signifie it Lastly how dreadfully the 15 Famine raged among them how great and numerous the Earth-quakes were which happened about those Times Iosephus 16 Grotius and other Authors will inform us Sixthly That the Authors of this Desolation were the Roman Armies led on by Vespasian and his Son Titus that the destruction of the City and the Temple hapned within the space of 42 Years after our Lords Predictions and so within the compass of that Generation it will be needless to evince by Testimony these
should subdue by sufferings and make the Scepter stoop and bow to the Cross that it should 33 Conquer the most part of the civilized World in lesser time than others take to travel over it A world of so riveted by Laws and Customes and so enslav'd by mulcts and penalties to its Antient and therefore Venerable Superstitions so enthral'd to the Vassallage of Satan and over-Grown in wickedness and so impatient of disturbance I say that such a Doctrine should convert such a World by such unlikely meanes haveing no heavenly Power engaged to assist it but rather to confound it if our adversaries say true and having no other thing to be alledged by its Assertors but the assistance or the holy Ghost and the performance of their Saviours promise that he would be with them and Give a mouth and wisdome to them which all their Adversaries should not be able to Gainsay this of all matters of this nature must be most incredible and is no less then a very Prodigy of Prodigies § 2. THIS Argument depends on these Principles which are confirmed to us by Reason and Experience 1. That the stronger the prejudice is the stronger must that power be which overcomes it 2ly That a new Doctrine which stands obnoxious to Great and many prejudices both of the Judgment and affections and which contains many things that seem to render it incredible to the one and many more which render it unpleasant to the other and also suffers disadvantage both from the infamy and rudeness of its propagators is most unlikely to prevail upon the World in opposition to all other Doctrines 3ly That men are not easily induced to reject those Principles which they received from their Education but still are backward to admit new Faith and to confess their Errours and condemne themselves and pass hard Sentences upon the state of their beloved Freinds and their Relations and their Ancestours 4ly That men are naturally wedded to their Lusts and bear a passionate affection to the pleasures and enjoyments of the World and therefore that which suddenly prevailes upon them to Renounce them all must be of Greater Power and of more prevailing Efficacy than the Temptations of the World 5ly That as any distemper is more dangerous and more rooted and inveterate so the nature of it is the more Malignant and so much the â—â—onger and more efficacious must that Power be which effects its cure 6ly That it is not easy to prevail upon the World to quit a present and important Interest only in hopes of future Good to or expose themselves to the worst of sufferings in confirmation and pursuance of those Hopes without the most concluding Grounds of hope much less in contradiction to them 7ly That men of the lowest Birth and Education and such as were Great Sufferers both in their Reputation and their Persons and thereforeseem to be deserted by that God they owned were men unlikely to prevail upon the Wise and the inquisitive Philosophers who examine things by Reason upon Princes and Statesmen that consider their Interest upon the Magician and Sorcerer the Merchant and the Tradesman who measure things by their advantage and profit upon the Giddy and inconstant multitude which is led by the sense and custome and opinion of Persons upon the soft and tender Sex the passionate and heady Youth the infirme and feeble Age upon Persons of all sorts and conditions whatsoever to quit their Religion and their habitual Lusts their Worldly Interests and their alluring Pleasures and their espoused Tenets much more their Livers and Dearer Relatives and to expose themselves unto those evils which are most contrary to the desires of humane nature and to the designes of meer natural men Lastly That when the Greatest Potentates and Princes edged with the keenest malice and assisted by the Arts of Wit and Policy Learning and Eloquence and driving on profest designes to ruine and extirpate such inconsiderable men whose faith enjoyn'd them to endure all afflictions without the least disturbance of the Civil Government or opposition to their Cruel and tyrannous Governours I say when Persons of so Great ability and wisdome by all their subtilty and power and all their other arts engaged against them only encreased the number of those men whose utter extirpationthey intendedand pursued 't is rational to conclude as they affirmed that a more powerful hand was on their side and that God had choosen the foolish things of the World to confound the Wise and weak things to confound the mighty § 3ly IN confirmation of this Argument it may deserve to be considered that albeit the wisdome of the Heathe Philosohers had nothing in it that seem'd to thwart the reason or the affections and inclinations of mankind albeit their divinity did not reproach what their Forefathers own'd but was consistent with all those modes of worship which had obtained in every country albeit it met with nothing to oppose and persecute the first Abettors and the Promoters of it but was encouraged by Kings and Princes and had all the advantages of art and Rhetorick to set it off and the engagements of the smooothest pens and subtlest heads to recommend it to the World yet could it not present the world with any thing so well accommodated unto our natural apprehensions or any thing so worthy of a Deity so entirely fitted to the Good and welfare of mankind as are the Christians Faith and Precepts nor yet obtain and spread it self in many hundred years through any places of those Barbarous Nations in which the Gospel flourished in the Apostles days but in its flourishing condition was confined to Greece and Italy where it did either vanish of its own accord or else concluded in Scepticisme or was ecclipsed by the appearance of the Gospel light and whilest it did continue 't is apparent from the compliants confessions and from the declarations of their Greatest Sages as well as Christian Writers how ineffectual it was to work a reformation on the world how few of those who were the Greatest masters of it live according unto what they writ how rare a thing it was to find a Polemo or Phaedon Vid. Orig. in Cels l. 3. pag. 152 or any other person whose reformation it had wrought Since then the Christian Doctrine though stript of all those fair advantages which might commend it to the world and clog'd with all the prejudices forementioned did in the space of forty yeares make such a large diffusion of it self through many places where scarce the name of a Philosopher was known and since it wrought so admirable a change and reformation in the customes lives and manners laws and conceptions of so many millions it may be rationally thought to be derived from that superior Power to which all other ways of Worship do in vain pretend Add to this that none of the Philosophers or of their chief admirers would suffer for the truth of their assertion or seal it with
be highly probable and if it ought to be embraced upon the Probability of any one the Probability of all these Circumstances must give an ample confirmation to it and make it needless to insist farther on this Argument § 3. AND now that this discourse may have that Influence upon the Reader which matters of this moment ought to have let me intreat him to consider how much his interest and Wisdome doth oblige him to improve the certainty of Christian Faith into a Christian conversation that soe his knowledge may not aggravate his future doom and render all his wilful Disobedience against the Christian precepts inexcusable The speculative Atheist may have some colour of a plea that his miscarriages were the Result of ignorance not of contempt and wilful disobedience whereas the man who owns the certainty of Christian Faith but lives a contradiction to his knowledge and by his practise gives the lye to his profession he I say can have no shadow of Excuse He must confess his full acquaintance with his Masters pleasure and that his Reason did commend those precepts to him which Christianity enjoyned as things most excellent and certain and infinitely to be preferr'd before those vile affections which stood in competition with them and those enjoyments he preferr'd before them His conscience must accuse him dayly of most strange ingratitude in acting his rebellions against the Majesty of heaven and his dearest Lord it must convince him of his stupidity and folly not only in neglecting of so great salvation but in running headlong to his owne destruction and being at such cost and pains to purchase to himselfe damnation He must acknowledge at the dreadfull day his life was spent in a contempt and full defyance of the holy Jesus and that he still maintained that contempt in opposition to and in despight of the convictions of his conscience the striving of the Holy Spirit and all the motives of his present and eternal interest and then how miserable must is condition be how dreadful but how just his doom The sorest judgments that ever happened to the Gentile world those derelictions which betray'd them to the most brutish and unnatural lusts were the result of sin committed against conscience and truth detained in unrighteousnes Rom. 1. and if to sin against the dim and gloomy light of Nature became so fatal to the Gentile how dismal will the doom of Christians be who sin against the clear Meridian shine of Gospel Revelation For if Christianity be true the disobedient and unbelieving person will be convinced by sad experience of the assured falshood of his infidelity his flattering hopes and false imaginations and be depriv'd for ever of Gods blisfull presence and those comfortable relations which he beares unto his creatures and all those glories pleasures and perfections which the Saints hereafter shall enjoy His soul shall be exposed to that incensed justice 2 Thess 1.8 which shall come in flaming fire to take vengeance on it and to that God who will then stir up all his wrath 9. Rom. 22 23. and make the Greatness of his power known upon such vessels fitted for destruction and he shall find no rest by day or night Rev. 14. xi as being still tormented by that worm which never dyeth and suffering the vengeance of that fire whose smoak ascends for ever this being the avowed doctrine of the first a Cent. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clemens Rom. Frag. Epist 2. Ed. Patricii Junii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Barnabas Ed. Vossii p. 251. Cent. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iren. lib. 1. c. 2. Et l. 3. c. 4. de norma fidei veteri Apostolorum traditione loquens haec habet venturus est scilicet Christus judex eorum qui judicantur mittens in ignem aeternum transfiguratores veritatis contemptores Patris sui adventus ejus Poena damnatorum apud Justinum Mari. dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 41. 46. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 71. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 57. Cent. 3. Post inexpiabile malum saeviens ignis aeterna scelerum ultione torquebit Cypr. l. de laude Martyrii Servantur cum corporibus suis animae infinitis cruciatibus ad dolorem idem lib. contra Demetr Tormentis nec modus ullus aut terminus Minutius p. 39. Si. quis occisionem carnis atque animae in gehennam ad interitum finem utriusque substantiae arripiet non ad supplicium quasi consumendarum non quasi puniendarum recordetur ignem gehennae aeternum praedicari in poenam aeternam inde aeternitatem occisionis agnoscat tunc aeternas substantias credet quarum aeterna sit occisio in poenam Absurdissimum alioquin si idcirco resuscitata caro occidatur in gehennam uti finiatur quod non resuscitata pateretur Tertull. de resurr Carnis Illud tamen scire oportet quoniam sancti Apostoli fidem Christi praedicantes de quibusdam quaecunque necessaria crediderunt omnibus credentibus etiam his qui pigriores erga inquisitionem divinae scientiae videbantur manifestissimè tradiderunt Origenes in Proaemio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnis turba impiorum pro suis facinoribus in conspectu Angelorum justorum perpetuo igni cremabitur in aeternum haec est doctrina sanctorum Prophetarum quam Christiani sequimur Lact. l. 7. c. 26. Vide Theophilum ad Autolycum l. 2. pag. 79. Ages of the Church and that which did expose them to the worst of sufferings and the b The derision of their heathen adversarys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Mart. Apolog. 1. p. 47. Hoc errore decepti beatam sibi ut bonis perpetem vitam pollicentur caeteris ut injustis poenam sempiternam Caecilius apud Minutium p. 11. Haec est nostra sapientia quam isti qui vel fragilia colunt vel inanem Philosophiam tuentur tanquam stultitiam vanitatemque derident quia non defendere hanc publicè atque adserere nos solemus Lactant. l. 7. c. 26. Vide Origen in Celsum p. 408. 409. vide not 52. in c. 10. p. 357. derision of their adversaries Besides if Christianity be true then all the blessings it hath promised to the pious and obedient Person must be accomplish'd in their season by the advancement of our weak vile mortall bodies into a state of incorruption power Philip. 3.21 and glory and into the likenes of Christ's Glorious body and by the exaltation of the soul to a capacity of seeing God as we are seen of God 1. Joh. 2.2 and being like to him whose happines is infinite for when he doth appear wee shall be like him by the participation of a superlative exceeding and eternal weight of Glory and the enjoyment of those blessings which neither eye hath seen 1. Cor. 2.9 nor ear hath heard of nor hath thought conceived As therefore c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Gorgiâ p. 312. Ed. Ficin Plato doth conclude his disputation on this subject with this resolution viz. Being convinced of a future state of bliss and misery I bid adieu to the caresses of the world and to the vain applauses of the vulgar and have no other care but how I may appear before my Judge with a soul pure and spotless how I may live the best of men and dye secure of happines So let the Christian Reader be perswaded to improve the confirmations and convictions of the truth of his Religion into a fixed Resolution and sincere endeavour of obedience to the Christian precepts that so he may avoid those dreadful torments and everlasting miseries it threatens to the disobedient and may enjoy that more exceeding weight of Glory which is prepared for the upright Christian FINIS ADDENDA AD pag. 23. l. 16. after as we find this was add Prodigiorum sagacissimus erat somniorum primus intelligentiam condidit nihilque Divini Juris humanique ei incognitum videbatur adeo ut etiam sterilitatem agrorum ante multos annos providerit periisset que omnis Aegyptus fame nisi monitu ejus Rex Edicto servari per multos annos fruges jussisset tantaque experimenta ejus fuerunt ut non ab homine sed â Deo responsa dari viderentur Justin Hist l. 36. cap. 2. Ad Not. 6. p. 34.35 add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damascius in vitâ Isidori Philos apud Photium Bibl. p. 1038. Errata in the Chapters P 29. l. 14. 1630. r. 1600. p. 96. l. 8. artificers r. artifices p. 107. l. 11. which r. with p. 115. l. 26. master r. matter p. 272. l. 19. want r. wave p. 274. l. 12. religions r. religion In the Annotations P. 124. l. 4. adde faciem l. 9. mutant r. nutant p. 148. l. 6. puris r. punis p. 157. l. 21 22. dele cemma primum tertium quintum p. 181. l. 24. adde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 256. l. 4. unde r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 261. l. 22. impium r. Imperium p. 262. l. 8. quis r. qui. There are other small saults which the understanding Reader will easily discern and correct and besides it must be confessed that the references to the Annotations are not always exact but yet you will find the note within one or two figures of the direction