upon such appeals and challenges as these that is an evident Demonstration of their undoubted truth and reality And this may suffice for the proof of the truth of Scripture-history supposing the Books of it were written by those Persons whose Names they bear Though beside this it is no inconsiderable proof of their Integrity that Eusebius has observed in their impartial way of writing Thus onely Saint Matthew himself of all the Evangelists takes notice of his own dishonourable Employment before his Conversion and Saint Mark who wrote his Gospel from the information of Saint Peter is observably sparing in those things that might tend to the praise of that Apostle and so could not with decent modesty be reported by himself but more exact than any other of the Evangelists in the description of his shamefull Fall Thus when Saint Peter had so frankly own'd our Saviour for the Messias Saint Matthew relates our Saviour's Answer with a high Commendation of him Blessed art thou Simon Bar Jona for Flesh and Bloud hath 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 And I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven Then charged he his Disciples that they should tell no Man that he was Jesus the Christ. Whereas in Saint Mark all these magnificent Expressions of our Saviour to Saint Peter are modestly omitted and all the Answer that is there made is no more than this And he charged them that they should tell no Man And so again though Saint Mark in all his other Relations is more compendious than any of the other Evangelists yet in the Story of Saint Peter's denial of his Saviour he is most of all circumstantial And whereas Saint Matthew and Saint Luke set off the greatness of his Repentance afterwards by saying that he wept bitterly Saint Mark expresses it more modestly onely that he wept Now when Writers pass by such things as make for their own praise and record their own Faults and Miscarriages that without their own discovery might never have been known to Posterity they are of all Men least to be suspected of falsehood and give the strongest proof in the World of their love to Truth and Sincerity So again granting that they would not stick at any falsehood to advance their Master's Honour and Reputation yet to what purpose should they forge Lyes of his Disgraces and Sufferings especially all those shamefull Circumstances that they have recorded of his Condemnation and Execution Now if we believe them in the black and tragical part of the Story why not in all For if they onely design'd to set off their Master's Greatness why do they so carefully acquaint the World with the History of his Misfortunes Why do they tell us of his great Agony before his Passion of his scourgings and Mockings of his purple Robe and reeden Scepter of the Contumelies and Reproaches that were thrown at him whilst he was hanging on the Gibbet of his being forsaken by all his Followers of his being abjured by the most zealous of them all and that without the application of Racks or Torments These things if not true to what purpose should they invent them nay if true why should they not doe what they were able to stiflle them if the onely design of their Romance had been to gain Honour to their Master So that if they were honest and faithfull in those sad Relations concerning him why not in those that carry Triumph and Reputation in them For if they had design'd to lye for his Glory they must have baulk't every thing that might any way offend the Reader And if they had design'd a Romance instead of that plain Story that they have recorded to Posterity they would have told us that Judas had no sooner given the treacherous Kiss but he was turn'd into a Stone that the Hand that struck him was immediately wither'd that Caiphas and his Accusers were struck blind that the Souldiers who supposed they had apprehended him had onely seised a Phantasm whilst he vanisht away that his Judges were befoold in all their phantastick Process against him whilst he stood invisible among them despising their Mock-solemnity In short was it in all humane Accounts much more becoming the grandeur and dignity of that Person that he pretended to be that he should not have been obnoxious to the common Miseries and Calamities of humane Life but that when by his Divine Power he had establisht his Kingdom in the World he should have return'd back to Heaven without any suffering and with all the Ornaments of Glory and Triumph This certainly had been much more proper matter for a Romance if they had design'd nothing but their Master's Greatness than to have fain'd those mixt Actions that are recorded of him in the Gospels and those that would have believed their other Reports would not have disbelieved these And therefore seeing they would not corrupt or suppress the Truth in the unpleasant part of the Story we have no ground to suspect them of the least falsehood in any other part of it howsoever in it self strange and miraculous when it is so evident that their design was real Truth and not their Master's Greatness § VIII But if we believe the Books of Scripture were not written by those Authours whose Names they bear then we must believe that either they were forged in their days or afterwards If in their days then they either own'd them as true or not If they vouched them they gave them the same Authority as if they had been indited by themselves If they disown'd them as containing Reports that they knew to be false then they themselves were obliged to discover the Imposture which having never done that is an undeniable evidence that if they were written in their time either they themselves writ them or at least approved of them But if they were written afterwards how came they to meet with such an early and universal reception in the Christian Churches We find them always own'd as the undoubted records of the Evangelists and Apostles in the most ancient Writers that lived after them nay some with them Now how is it possible that Books that contain in them matters so strange and wonderfull if they had been counterfeit and spurious and thrust upon the World after the death of those Persons whose names they pretend to bear should command such a catholick and unquestionable reputation If indeed they had pretended to have lain obscure for some time and to have been afterwards retrieved there might have been some ground of suspicion But when they are own'd as the most ancient and undoubted records of the Church
the Jews though it was grounded upon the Divine Authority of Moses's Law was in it self very unreasonable in that as Almighty God had confirm'd the Law of Moses by Signs and Wonders so he vouched all that our Saviour either taught or pretended to beyond that by enduing him with a much greater power of Miracles than was ever given to Moses or the Prophets And yet that they might be guilty of it is obvious enough to any man's apprehension if we consider the strange power of religious prejudices and upon what plausible grounds theirs were bottom'd the natural stubborness of the Jewish Nation but most of all the pride and waywardness of Superstition For that as I shall shew afterwards in the case of the Pharisees was the bottom of all their rage and indignation against our Saviour in that he so freely upbraided their degeneracy from the Law of Moses and convinced them of the folly and the childishness of those Superstitious conceits that they had made out of it upon the Observation whereof they so highly valued themselves This is evident through the whole History of the Gospels but in no one case more than that of the Sabbath which as it was at first commanded by God so they observ'd it with infinite Superstition And for that reason our Saviour set himself to controul them in it and therefore wrought most of his Miracles on that day and yet they were so foolish as to think that a sufficient objection against his Divine Authority And though one would think no man could be so absurd when he had seen a Blind man cured only by commanding him to open his Eyes as to slight nay find fault with the Miracle meerly because it was done on the Sabbath day yet this was the common case of the Jews so invincible above all other things is the power and prejudice of Superstition § XXXV The Second was a very dazling prejudice and that was the magnificent State and Glory in which they expected their Messias should appear For the whole World was at that time fill'd with expectations of a mighty Prince all the Ancient Prophesies concerning the Messias were Glorious and Wonderful and their descriptions of his Kingdom seem'd to exceed that of the Roman Greatness the Glory of Augustus was to be Eclips't by the Appearance of a Greater Monarch the Grandeur of his Court and vastness of his Empire were but ordinary things in comparison to those that were foretold of this Prince's Universal Government The splendour of these great Prophesies flusht and abused the ambition of the great Spirits of the Empire and every hopeful and aspiring Prince of the Family of the Caesars pushed forward for an Universal Monarchy And every prosperous Commander of the Roman Armies flattered himself with hopes that it might be he that was design'd to be indeed and not in Title onely Lord of the whole World And particularly this as I have shewn out of his own Historians was the first rise and occasion of Vespasian's Glory And this was the thick conceit of the Jews as well as the Gentiles as Celsus discourses in the Person of a Jew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Person foretold by the Prophets that was to come should be a mighty King a Leader of great Armies Lord of all the Kingdoms and Nations of the Earth And after the same manner does Trypho the Jew argue against our Saviour's being the Messias from the meanness of his Condition whereas the true Messias was to be a mighty and Renowned Person and to receive from the Ancient of days a perpetual Kingdom They imagin'd their Messias to be such another fighting Man as his Father David that should break the Power of the Romans and by his Victorious Arms redeem the People of God from Heathen Tyranny and Oppression They hoped the time would come when a Circumcised King should keep his Court in Augustus's Palace and when the Sanhedrin should possess the Senate-house and there Issue out Decrees for the Circumcision of all People Nations and Languages And this confidence in the Messias seems to have been the great support of the pride and ill nature of the Jews for when he came they were resolved to take their fill of Revenge upon the Gentile World for all those Insolences wherewith they had affronted Gods own People And this as the Historians of that Age observe was the ground of their frequent Tumults and Rebellions about that time and at last of the utter destruction of their Common-wealth They were grown impatient in the Expectations of their Messias and were no longer able to endure the reproach of being subject to the pride and power of uncircumcifed miscreants And all the Nation of the Jews were so fully and impregnably possest with this Dream of a Temporal Prince that the Apostles themselves seem'd at first to have followed our Saviour for hopes of present preferment nothing less could serve the Sons of Zebedee than to sit the one at his right and the other at his left hand in his Kingdom to be the Grandees and chief Favourites of his Court his Agrippas and Mecoenas'es they were not content with being Heads of Tribes unless they might have the principal place next to the Royal Throne And perhaps St. Peter till he understood better things promised himself for a reward of his zeal no less Dominion than what his pretended Successours claim from him so that when upon his Confession of our Saviour's being the true Messias our Saviour immediately declares the speedy approach of his death Mat. 16. 21. Peter remonstrates to that as inconsistent with the whole design and when our Saviour continues from time to time to warn them of the set time when he was to be betrayed he very faithfully buys him a Sword to fight in his defence And St. John being so great a Favourite could be no less than Principal Secretary of State and Judas no doubt expected no less office than of Lord Treasurer And the Women too counted to have no small share in the Government as appears by Old Zebedee's Wife And as some were to manage affairs at Court so others were to have their Governments and Provinces abroad Herod and Pilate were to be displaced and one was to be President of Judaea and another of Galilee and if there were any one more modest than the rest it is likely he contented his ambition with being Lord Mayor of Capernaum And this conceit was so deeply rivetted in their Fancies that all our Saviour's discourses were not able to dispossess it and though he so often Preached to them the Doctrine of his Death and Passion in the plainest and most Familiar words yet they were so Drunk and Light-headed with it that they understood him no more than they did the Language of Moses and Elias at his Transfiguration For though he taught his Disciples and said unto them the Son of man is deliver'd into the hands of men and they shall kill
him and after that he is kill'd he shall rise the Third day yet they understood not that saying Mark 9. 3. One would think the saying were as plain as words could make it but though they understood the Grammatical sense of them yet they were so possest with this Jewish Prejudice of his being a great Temporal Prince that nothing that seem'd inconsistent with it could enter into their heads so that the meaning of those words they understood not that saying is that they understood not how they could be reconcil'd to those Prophesies that they had of the Kingdom of the Messias And therefore upon occasion of all such Discourses they still minded him of the recovery of his Kingdom and when those hopes were buried in his Grave then all their expectations utterly dyed together with him Saint Peter thinks of returning to his old trade of Fishing And we trusted say the two Disciples that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel Luke 24. 21. And after they were assured of his Resurrection the very first thing they were sure to put him in mind of was the interest of his Crown Lord wilt thou not at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel Acts 1. 6. These were the big and swelling expectations of the whole Nation of the Jews concerning their Messias but whilst they were eagerly gazing upon the outward pomps and glories of the World the Providence of God so orders it that their Prince should slip into it cloathed in all the dresses of meanness and humility that he might have nothing to recommend him to Mankind but meer evidence of truth Every circumstance of his Birth Life and Death was design'd cross to all the Grandeur and Vanity of the World Thus was he born not at Jerusalem the Imperial City but at Bethlehem the least among the Cities of Judah not in the Town but in the Suburbs in a poor Cottage not in the dwelling House but in the Stable among Beasts and Beggars Rags were his onely Imperial Robes and his first Throne a Manger And instead of posting away Curriers to the Courts of Rome or Persia the Message of his Birth is imparted to a few plain and honest Pesants they were Shepherds a simple and innocent sort of People that made the first Address and did the first Homage to this Infant Prince And the whole progress of his Reign was but agreeable to this humble Coronation he was subject to his poor Parents and as some who were no incompetent Witnesses tell us wrought at his Fathers Trade and got his living by making of Ploughs and Yokes And after he enter'd upon his Office and declared who he was he chose for the principal place of his residence Galilee the most ignoble part of all Judaea not onely because it lay most remote from Jerusalem the place of their Court and Temple but because it was inhabited by a mixt sort of People and thence commonly styled Galilee of the Gentiles partly in that lying next to them and having more commerce with them they were not so coy of admitting them into their Kindreds as the other Jews and partly in that it was inhabited by some of those Jews that return'd from the Captivity who settled there among the Gentiles that had during the Captivity placed themselves in it so that the Galileans were lookt upon as a sort of Mungril Jews and a Galilean was little better than a name of reproach whence the Proverb Shall Christ come out of Galilee And as he chose the worst part of his Country for the chief place of his Residence though at times he shewed himself in other places but still under the disadvantage of a Galilean so he chose the meanest of his Country-men for the Ministers of his Kingdom Fishermen a poor and beggarly sort of People and yet they were made so much the poorer by being his Disciples We have left all says Peter to follow thee and this mighty all was nothing but a few tatter'd Nets but yet with them were they able to get a small maintenance for their Families whereas when they left their Trade to follow him they became perfect Beggars for the Foxes have holes c. Nay what was still a greater condescension he conversed not onely with the meanest but as his Office required with the worst of Men Publicans and Sinners the most hated and most scandalous Persons insomuch that his Enemies took advantage from it to reproach himself as a Person that lived a Life of Looseness and Debauchery And thus he past on through perpetual Affronts Reproaches and Calumnies till he purposely went up to Jerusalem to deliver up himself into the hands of his Enemies and with what Scorn Insolence and Cruelty he was there treated and with what Meekness Patience and Humility he there behaved himself I need not here represent They indeed put upon him a royal Robe but it was in Derision they crown'd him but it was with Thorns they bowed the Knee before him bâ—â— it was in Mockery and they writ him King of the Jews but it was upon his Cross where he suffer'd himself to be executed with two Thieves and that in the midst of them as the greatest Villain of the three All which as he suffer'd for other weighty ends so not least of all in order to his Resurrection partly because that being design'd as the ground-work of his Religion the Providence of God took particular care to make it stand upon its own unassisted Evidence and for that purpose not onely laid it so very deep but clear'd away every thing that might seem to give it the least Assistance partly because being the most material Article of our Faith and withall most difficult to be believed God was pleased to confirm its truth by sensible Experience As Arnobius has very well observed Cumque novitas rerum inaudita promissio audientium turbaret mentes credulitatem faceret hoesitare virtutum omnium Dominus atque ipsius mortis extinctor hominem suum permiserit interfici ut ex rebus consequentibus scirent in tuto esse spes suas quas jamdudum acceperant de animarum salute nec periculum mortis aliâ se posse ratione vitare When the strangeness of the Doctrine and the greatness of the promise of immortal Happiness amazed Men's Minds and stumbled their Belief the Lord of all Power and Conquerour of Death permitted his humane Nature to be slain that from his Resurrection and those things that followed after his Death they might be assured of the truth of their Faith as to the future Salvation of their Souls Now this humble Appearance of Jesus being design'd so utterly cross to the proud and revengefull expectations of the Jews who thirsted for the coming of their Messias onely to be avenged of all their Enemies it did not onely raise their prejudice â—ut their indignation against him But especially when he took upon him the great Prerogative of the Messias and