the publick Good to concur with the Advancement of the Private and the private with that of the publick For instance what will follow from the practice of Charity which enjoyns us to love God with all our Heart and with all our Mind and our Neighbour as our Selves The Result of it will be that every Man's Interest shall be the same that there shall reign no Hatred or Animosities no Jealousy or Competition amongst them that every Man will thank God for the Blessings that others have received at his hands that Charity will make every thing our own that we shall be happy in other Men's Advantages as a Son in the Prosperity of his Father and a Father in that of his Son that a publick Society will make but one Family more closely united since Charity can make those things equal that humane Passions had before distinguish'd and much the happier since the Happiness of one single Person shall be enjoy'd by all and the Happiness of all by each single Person 'T is easy to foresee what Objections our Incredulous Adversaries will make They will say that Christian Morality is undoubtedly a very fine Idea of true Perfection but very unprofitable since it is so far raised above our ordinary Strength and Capacity The Answer to this Objection depends upon those Reflections we shall continue to make upon the Characters of this Morality VIII We therefore assert that altho by reason of the continual Warfare betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit we cannot observe this Christian Morality in its full Perfection and consequently cannot be sensible of the advantages which accrue to us from it in their utmost extent it is enough if by observing it according to our present condition it procures us a thousand advantageous Effects which clearly demonstrate that it is not a meer Idea And this is such an undeniable Truth as is daily confirmed by Experience so true it is that the strict observance of this Divine Morality tends to our Profit and Welfare that Parents themselves wish it to their Children Husbands to their Wives and Wives to their Husbands Servants to their Masters and Masters to their Servants Princes to their Subjects and Subjects to their Princes Creditors to their Debtors and Debtors to their Creditors as the Principle of Fidelity Love Vnion Virtue and even of Joy and Satisfaction Self-love indeed looks upon it as a meer Idea especially when it commands it to shake off its evil Inclinations and thinks it self not able to observe it strictly but still it thinks it very just reasonable and perfect when there is occasion to reform other men's Imperfections and Vices and it is well pleased to see if it be not extreamly degenerated into the worst Irregularities that that Bridle sufficiently curbs at least in other Men their Concupiscence and unruly Passions whose End is only to confound ruin and violate all things IX But that which wholly secures Christian Morality from the Reproach it might be charged with in this respect is that it is it self either endowed with such Strength as must necessarily exalt the Souls of Men or contains such Objects which together with the efficacy of that Spirit which continually attends them outweigh the most sensible Objects and that passionate Inclination we all have for the World Philosophers indeed may be very justly charged with this Reproach namely that their Morality is meer Speculation because their excellent Maxims have no Motives powerful enough to support them They tell us 't is true that we must overcome our Selves and renounce our evil Desires but if once they are asked the reason of it they are much perplexed how to solve the Query It cannot be denied but that their Morality is very Excellent but the Motives that induce Men to observe it are weak and a little Renown acquired in practising that Virtue they so strictly recommend as also the Title of Wisemen and that abundance of Vanity always concomitant with it are very weak Inducements to constrain the Heart of Man to deprive it self of its darling beloved Passions But it is not so with the Morality of Christ which is wonderfully supported by the Motives it lays before us Every thing is coherent in it and all the Parts proportionable It requires our Observance of many hard and mortifying Duties It curbs the Affections of the Heart and mortifies the Flesh But since that cannot be done without great Difficulty and more than ordinary Endeavours it promises us a magnificent and glorious Reward The Greatness of the Promise is supported by many terrible Threatnings and both these Objects are confirmed by such Favours as are very proper to gain our Affections The Blessings are a sure Token of the Truth of the Promises and the Truth of these makes us believe that of the Threatnings I grant the Promises of a blessed Life and Immortality which we find in the Gospel are very great and glorious but still not greater than that which Jesus made to Two of his Disciples when he called them unto him saying Come after me and I will make you Fishers of Men. There was less probability that a few poor ignorant Fishermen should have been able to catch in their Nets the Doctrin Authority Wit and Eloquence of Men than that we should see God after Death The Truth of his Promises cannot subsist without that of his Threatnings and 't is evident when he promises that the pure in Heart shall see him he threatens also to exclude those that are not so from the beatific Vision Let not Men therefore slatter themselves let them shake off their Unbelief of the severe Punishments that attend the wicked after this Life Their Reason will tell them that God can do no less than banish those his Presence who have persisted in a wilful design of offending him by their Sins and that such a Banishment is attended with the greatest of all Miseries and that is eternal Death The Stings of Conscience convince us of this and the Promises of God inform us of it His Justice points it out to us His Law teaches it and the Gospel confirms it The very Nature of things will not suffer us to doubt it since God cannot direct Man to the true end of his Creation without revealing himself to him and he cannot reveal himself to him without making his Will known to him according as he pleases nor can he make his Will known to him without giving him a Law nor give him a Law without annexing to it such Motives as must be either Promises or Threatnings deeply engraven'd in the Conscience if they accompany the Law of Nature but deliver'd in writing if they follow the written Law nor can he make such Promises or Threatnings unto Men without being punctual in the accomplishment of them And can we have any greater Certainty than that which is so visibly founded upon the Veracity of God and the Nature of things themselves There is nothing therefore capable to free Man from
Temple which God resolved should be the Center of the ceremonial Worship he having solemnly declared that no Sacrifices or any other material Oblations whatsoever could be acceptable to him but what were offered in them intending to prevent by that means the Israelites wandring from that place which was to be as it were the Center of their Religion and by consequence to establish their Separation from all other Nations upon a surer and stronger Foundation which too was necessary to make one day their Messias known Lastly the fifth Principle of that Distinction was the Worship of the Law it self which was of such a Nature that the observance of its Ordinances indispensably obliged the Jews to abominate and detest all Commerce with other strange Nations or induced all other Nations to look upon the Jews with Horrour and Indignation For it injoyned the Jews to sacrifice the Creatures other Nations worshipped as Deities and the latter scrupled not to feed upon the Flesh of those Animals which the Jews had in Execration c. In a word the external and corporeal Purity the Law so carefully prescribed them prohibited the Jews all manner of Commerce with those prophane and polluted Nations But God thought it not sufficient to set apart unto himself one particular Nation from the rest he was further pleased to seperate also in that Nation one Tribe from all the rest viz. the Tribe of Judah in particularly assigning to it those Promises of the Messias which are contained in that excellent Prophecy uttered by the Mouth of an expiring Patriarch The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the Lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the People be Gen. 49. 10. God was also pleased to chuse one single Family in that Tribe to ascribe principally to it the Promise of the Messias And that was the Family of David to whom he promised that he would make his seed sit upon the Throne as long as the Sun and Moon endureth which Promise would have been manifestly false and absurd were it not exactly fulfilled in the person of the Messias Lastly he chose such a Branch of the Family of David as shot forth as it were out of a dry ground and out of the root of Jesse that is a Branch of it that was fallen in a very mean and wretched Condition All which Distinctions were designed only to make Men discern and know the true Messias and to prevent the loss of that Knowledge so necessary to their Salvation in the Confusion of Nations Tribes Families and Generations But it was not only by meer Events that God disposed the Hearts of the Israelites to receive the Messias he imposed upon them also an infinite number of Ceremonies to inspire a more fervent Desire in them of being freed from the Burthen of those Rites He revealed to them but in part many sublime and important Tenets that they might earnestly desire a clearer and fuller Revelation of them He gave them a Law too which wholly consisted in carnal Motives and Rewards and was attended only with temporal Blessings and Threatnings which Law was to dispose them by its Insufficiency to receive a better Covenant The Law intervened that Sin might abound and God suffered it to abound by way of prevention that Men at length being made sensible of their Guilt might have recourse to his Mercy which was ready to be revealed unto them in Jesus Christ Thus it appears all things as it were prepared the Jews to a new Oeconomy and Dispensation We may also add that there was nothing but what represented it The Lawgiver and People the Covenant it self the Mediatour the Worship and State of the Faithful in a word every thing was shadowed in the Old Testament as in a great and magnificent Picture drawn by the hand of God himself and exposed to the publick view of Men in all Ages to come Therein the Deity is represented under an humane Shape to give us a Type of God manifested in the Flesh He is said to have wrestled with Jacob as an Admonition to us that Prayer is a sort of Wrestling wherewith God is well pleased He charged Moses not to come near the fiery Bush where he manifested himself till he had first put off his Shoes from his Feet the better to make us understand that without Holyness we neither ought or can approach unto God He shewed his Back-parts only to his Servant Moses to inform us that the advantage of seeing him Face to Face that is of perfectly knowing his Will and his Councels particularly belonged to a far greater Prophet than Moses The Two Covenants are likewise represented to us by Abraham's Two Wives The Covenant of the Gospel by Sarah the Mother of the free Children and the Covenant of the Law by Agar the Mother of the Bond-men The faithful People that is the Church or the Congregation of those Men who are chosen for eternal Life are farther represented to us sometimes by the People of Israel sometimes by the Assembly of the first-born and sometimes by the Multitude of the Levites and Priests And the Conformity betwixt the People of Israel and the Christian Church is very remarkable The People of Israel were set apart from all other Nations and so are the faithful from the rest of Mankind God was the Protector of Israel only when at the same time he forsook all other People In like manner none but that Holy Congregation of People we call the Church however dispersed in all Times and in all Places of the World can justly boast of its being immediately protected by the Almighty The People of Israel were abhorred and had in execration by all other Nations and so is the Church hated by all the World The People of Israel cried unto God for help in the midst of their Oppression and their Cry came unto him and just so has the Church had its Martyrs and afflicted Sufferers continually crying out night and day How long Lord c. The People of Israel had no other Guide but God no other Light but his no other Support to defend them but his Providence They were fed for a long time with nothing but that Bread he miraculously gave them from Heaven for their Sustenance c. The Church in like manner has no other Lights but what proceed from God no other means of preservation but his Providence no other Support but his Strength c. God dwelt in Israel and being willing to conform himself as it were to the Israelites would have a Tabernacle erected him when they themselves dwelt in Tabernacles and a House when they also made their Abode in Houses So God is now in the midst of his Church and the Faithful themselves are his Temple and his Sanctuary Further the Divine Worship paid to God in Israel was an excellent Figure and Type of that spiritual Worship that we Christians are bound to give him To the Temple
them Since the Disciples of Jesus Christ were originally Jews they must needs have been possest with these five following prejudices I. They were fully perswaded that the Kingdom of the Messias was to be attended with temporal Prosperity II. They imagined that the Messias would restore the Kingdom of Israel to its former Glory and once more raise up the house of David out of that disgrace and almost oblivion it had lain under to its ancient Power and Majesty III. They believed their Law to be of an eternal duration Now by their Law I do not here understand the Moral Law only but the Ceremonial one too or rather the whole body of it in general containing both the Moral and Ceremonial Law IV. They esteemed their Sacrifices to be the most sacred and most inviolable Duty of their Religion and they were far from imagining that those Sacrifices enjoyned by their Law should on a sudden cease as soon as one Man was put to Death V. And lastly they could not consider the Gentiles but as an unclean and abominable sort of people in comparison to themselves For besides the sin of Idolatry which the Jews accounted so capital a crime as to deserve that God should for ever cast them off who were guilty of it the Heathens were variously polluted and defiled according to the notions the Jews had of their Law since they used none of those Ceremonies that were absolutely necessary to their external Sanctification by avoiding all uncleanness and legal Impurities As to the first prejudice it can never be doubted but that the Jews expected a temporal Prosperity from their Messias For besides that the Prophets seem'd to have disposed them thereto by so many excellent and noble Prophecies utter'd concerning him who knows but that they might look upon Herod the great tho born an Idumean as the true Messias who was to come being surprised at the noise of his Victories the pomp of his Triumphs and that constant Prosperity that continually followed his Reign Nay it seems very probable that Herod himself had a design to be taken for the true Messias and therefore caused the Temple of Jerusalem to be demolished on purpose to re build it after a more glorious and magnificent manner since it was the received opinion of the Jews of those days that the Messias was to have been the glory of that House according to all the Predictions of the Prophets But whether there be or no any grounds for that conjecture 't is true at least that his surprising victories and prosperity had made so great an impression upon the minds of the Jews that a very considerable number of them imagined that Herod was the Messias whom the Prophets had promised and who was to raise their Nation to the height of Happiness and Prosperity For this opinion gave rise to the Sect of the Herodians that is mentioned in the Gospel And we ought not to wonder at it since the corrupt heart of man delights in nothing so much as worldly grandeur and temporal prosperity Therein consist the pleasures of great as well as mean Persons and he that shall but consult the History of Mankind will find that from the beginning of the World those Societies which were distinguished from others by the splendor of honours or enjoyment of temporal prosperity still prevailed over all the rest The Second received opinion of the Jews was that their Messias was to restore the Kingdom of Israel to its former glory For on one hand their Prophets had taught them that the House of David should reign and endure as long as the Sun and Moon And on the other they were sensible that the House of David was partly extinguished and partly fallen into disgrace and humiliation They expected therefore from the Messias that he would restore it again And altho' the people had for a long time been governed by several Kings not descended from the Tribe of Judah yet they still fed themselves up with that imaginary hope But above all the Jews were firmly perswaded of the perpetual Duration of their Law that is that people should continually come up from all parts of the World to worship in Mount Sion and offer up variety of sacrifices in the Holy Land 'T was this Law they had heard so often mention'd in their infancy which their Parents their Elders and their Teachers had so often entertained them with in their common discourse They heard every body speak of Jerusalem with a great deal of respect and 't was reputed a great oath among them to swear by the City of the great King They considered the Levites as so many Sacred Persons and the Priests as the Visible Ministers of an invisible God that was pleased to dwell among them They sent yearly to Jerusalem the tenth of their goods and brought an infinite variety of victims to be there offered up to God They thought they could neither be acceptable in the sight of God nor man unless they practised all the Customs their law prescribed them touching their purity and external sanctification They had seen the greatest severities inflicted upon the infringers of that Law and the four sorts of punishments ordained by the Law against the Violaters of it viz. that they should be strangled or cut off by the Sword or Burnt or stoned to Death according to the enormity of their crime were continually before their eyes and almost daily executed upon those that were guilty in breach of the Law so that they could not but look upon the prescriptions of the Law as sacred and inviolable duties they were obliged to perform Now 't is obvious to every one how great an impression these punishments must necessarily make upon the minds of the meaner sort of people They were filled with the thoughts of their Festivals and Solemnities which were so very proper to fix and stay their minds by that great number both of Ceremonies and Circumstances they were attended with Thrice every year they were enjoyned to go up to Jerusalem during such certain sacred times which they were obliged to observe with a particular devotion and it was forbidden them to discourse any thing else during the Passover but of the sorrowful Captivity which the antient Israelites endur'd in Egypt Exod. 13. 8. Neither were they permitted to eat any thing for seven days together but unleavened Bread in token of that Bread of affliction which their Forefathers had eaten They were commanded to kill as many Lambs as there were Families dwelling in Jerusalem in token of the antient passage of the destroying Angel over the Houses of Israel The Feast of Pentecost was to be commemorated with no less solemnity at which time they were obliged to offer up to God the first fruits of the earth It was a part of their Duty to observe yearly a solemn and general Fast the tenth day of September as also to rest from all manner of Labour the first and last day of the Feast
that perswasion so deeply rooted in their Mind that their Law was to be eternal and yet that a few years should perswade that great multitude of Disciples converted by the preaching of the Apostles that all those Rites and Ceremonies were become invalid by the Death of a Man whom the Sanhedrin had condemned to be executed as a Malefactor without any extraordinary or supernatural accident intervening which should occasion the framing to themselves such Ideas so particular and so contrary to their first Prejudices Certainly we may very well affirm that our Incredulous Adversaries have too great a value for imposture and ignorance when they imagin that an universal delusion and unanimous consent to a Lye could convert Nations Sanctify Mankind and spread the Knowledge of God throughout the World according as it was foretold by the Scriptures or that a few simple and ignorant Fishermen whose knowledge extended no further than their Employment should discover the defects and imperfections of the Ceremonial Law and introduce instead of it a Spiritual worship as really more conformable to the Nature of God who is a Spirit and more worthy of man who is a Spirit and more worthy of man who is a Reasonable Creature that those simple and ignorant men should discover the Sacrifices under the Law to be only Types of the Death of a man who was condemned to be executed as a Malefactor that they should attribute this thought to John the Baptist and make him express it only in these words Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World John 1. 29. Words so full and comprehensive that they contain the whole sum of Christan Religion And Lastly That they should invent Mysteries so very different from mens ordinary Thoughts and Conjectures and so far above the Capacity of the most judicious and learned that it may deservedly be said of them that they are such things which Eye has not seen nor Ear heard neither has it enter'd into the Heart of Man to conceive them 1 Cor. 2. 9. Lastly Experience tells us how difficult it is for persons already advanced in years to renounce the Common practices generally approved of in the World especially when authorised by Religion and Education How hard would it be for us Christians to live as the Jews And yet it would be more difficult for them to live as we do Because we look upon all their Customs as things very indifferent in themselves whereas they always look'd upon our Practices as scandalous and unlawful How then was it that not only one or two Jews but thousands who had embraced Christianity no longer in the least scrupled to converse with the Gentiles nay to to live with Heathens who before were an Abomination in their eyes You will say this was not without many considerable difficulties and was the cause of several great Animosities and Disputes I grant it but yet it appears the Ceremonial Law was utterly abolished presently after the Death of Christ the Apostles having determined that it had been accomplished in his Death and that it was not Lawful to joyn the Carnal Ceremonies of the Law with the Spiritual worship of the Gospel And I say that had not the Apostles both testify'd the Miracles and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and wrought very great wonders themselves it was naturally impossible they should have executed so great a design especially in so small a time For certainly if we consider the Disciples as born Jews they must necessarily have been very much devoted to their own Law If we consider them as poor and mean people they could not but have been passionately fond of that Law which gave such wonderful precepts for the Administration of Justice and the relief and comfort of the Poor If we consider them as simple and ignorant men they could not but have a blind love and obedience for their Law as all ignorant People have for the external objects of Religion Lastly Should we consider them as prepossessed with the usual prejudices of their Nation they must necessarily have expected a Glorious and Triumphant Messias who instead of abolishing the Law of Moses should have established it throughout the World Yet we need only consider the event to clear the truth of this matter We shall not insist upon all the Reflections we might easily make hereupon It 's sufficient to have taken notice of those things by the by because they may serve in some measure to illustrate the particular examination we shall make of the Miracles of the Gospel We have already considered them in general sufficiently to convince all reasonable Persons But it may not be amiss to insist more particularly on them that we may confound the Obstinate and Incredulous and make them at least truly sensible of their Errour tho' perhaps we cannot reclaim them from it To do this better we shall lay down four miraculous matters of fact which shall be as so many centers of the Truth we enquire into because there are several lines and degrees of Evidence and Light which necessarily lead us to the Truth of each of these matters of fact and then we shall joyn them all together the better to form a full and perfect Demonstration of them CHAP. II. The first Center of Truth a particular consideration of the Miracles of Jesus Christ WE dare say that such is the nature of these Miracles that the composers of the Gospel durst not could not would not have forged them had they been really false I say they durst not because they could not but have been publickly known To prove this I shall lay down four Examples of them which are I. The History of Zachariah the Father of John the Baptist II. The History of the Massacre of the young Children of Bethlehem III. The miraculous feeding of several thousands at several times in the Wilderness with a few Loaves and some small Fishes IV. And Lastly the supernatural prodigies which happened at the death of Jesus Christ himself As to the First we may observe that the Subject upon whom this great Miracle was wrought is a Priest a Priest who daily performed the functions of his Ministerial office and was then actually burning Incense in the Temple of Jerusalem at a very remarkable time during which the people who expected him were very intent at their Prayers to God in the outward Part or Porch of the Temple whilst he himself was in the Holy Place Now tho' the Historian had observed only concerning the Birth of John the Baptist that Zachariah and Elizabeth his Wife were far advanced in years and that the latter till then was thought Barren yet that event would have employed something so extraordinary and surprising that one might have been almost positive that the Evangelist durst not have been so bold as to forge it against the publick knowledge which all the Jews must then have had of it How then durst any one have affirmed that Zachariah wholly lost
say that Imposture and Deceit never had such a design or the like success For tho' self-love may have hitherto made use of Deceit and Falshood to effect its own Desires without any regard had to Justice and Charity so indispensably due to our Neighbour it was yet never known nor ever will be that Charity made use of Imposture and Deceit to bring about its Designs for the good of others without the least consideration of its own Interest and Desires And to insist further upon it would be to endeavour to add Light to the Sun and prove a thing that is already as clear as Noon-day V. Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is Considered in it's Suitableness to the Necessities of Mankind WE cannot seriously reflect upon our selves without immediately discovering our own Weakness Misery and Corruption Neither can we look upon the Christian Religion without acknowledging that it was peculiarly designed to free us from those three Imperfections inherent in our Nature As to the Corruption of Man it may be said that it was the only thing in the World that Men most knew and yet at the same time were most ignorant of For the effects of it were palpable and evident to the Senses It was easily believed that Men were very wicked and corrupt when it was so manifestly seen that they committed so many enormous Crimes But Men were still ignorant that there was a general Depravation from Nature in the Heart of every Man that dispos'd him to the strangest Irregularities and it has so happened that Men have made no great Reflexion upon the Nature of that Original Depravation so incident to Mankind that it continually attends them from the Cradle to the Grave They only concern'd themselves about what was external without searching into the bottom of their Hearts and Consciences But the Christian Religion gives us in that respect all necessary light It teaches us that we are corrupt and that that Corruption proceeds from our selves It shews us the extent of it and confirms what the Old Testament taught us That all flesh had corrupted his way Gen. 6. 12. It shews us that that Corruption makes us subject to the Curse of God and that we are by nature the children of wrath Eph. 2. 3. It assures us that that Original Corruption has such power over Man's Heart that it moves all the Faculties of his Soul so that every imagination of the heart of man is only evil continually Gen. 6. 5. Lastly It shews us how impossible it is for Man ever to recover himself of that Malady so inveterate and deeply rooted within him and that by representing him to us as one that is lame that has a Lethargy that is dead in respect of Life Holyness and Justice all which Truths we know too well by Reason and Experience How comes it then that the Christian Religion teacheth us such things as were so generally unknown to Mankind Above all how comes it to shew us so distinctly the true Principle of our own Corruption Who taught the Son of Mary that Self-love is the true Source and Original of all our Irregularities And why does he make Man to become an Enemy to himself Yet the Christian Religion not only teaches us to know Man and thoroughly to search into all his Frailties but also that alone furnishes us with such Remedies as can cure all his Weaknesses and Imperfections For we can't see that any thing else can do it Not Education which is as often evil as good not the Civil Laws whose business is only to regulate outward actions Nor the Law in general which instead of removing rather increases this Original Corruption being in that respect like a Bank which causes the Flood to swell Not the Decorum observed among Men which usually varies according to the diversity of Countries Nor the Respect we commonly have for our selves a thing too thin and metaphysical not to submit to the Sense of Pleasure Not Reason it self which the Passions so easily corrupt Nor the Example of Men who commonly lead a very irregular life Not worldly Honour which regards only external Pomp and Grandeur nor Lastly Philosophy which wants motives sufficient to effect it or if it has any it derives them all from our own Pride Must we then have recourse to the Virtues in fashion in the World we may easily perceive that they are only Pride and Interest differently manag'd according to the various Turns and Affairs since they have no other Motives but what they have from the World The Falshood of Human Virtues is a thing not to be disputed We all know that Self-denial is only a piece of nice delicate Interest Liberality a meer Trade of Pride which values no Gifts provided it have the Glory of being liberal Modesty the Art of concealing our Vanity Civility but an affected Preference of other Men before our selves to conceal how much we really value our selves above all the world Bashfulness but an affected Silence in those things which our Lusts make us think of with pleasure the desire of obliging other Men but a secret desire of obliging our selves by getting them to befriend us another time just as Impatience to acquit our selves of an Obligation is but a Shamefacedness for having been too long beholding to others for some Favour received So that all these Virtues in general are so many Guards Self-love makes use of to prevent our darling and secret Vices from appearing outwardly What Remedy then can be brought for the Irregularities of our corrupt Nature the pernicious Poyson of which secretly insinuates it self ev'n into our Virtuousactions And who can cure such a Distemper when the Remedies applied to it are rather a Disease than a Cure Experience shews us that by effectually resisting one Vice we often confirm and establish another Would you destroy Avarice you must attack it by such Arguments as necessarily flatter Pride And is Pride to be overcome it must be impugn'd by such Motives as encourage Avarice In vain shall you strip Self-love of all it's pleasing Objects and Allurements still it will endeavour to secure it self either by contemning the Goods of Fortune or by shewing it's Moderation in patiently enduring Disgraces Self-love when seated on the Throne makes Tyrants when reduc'd to Want and Poverty it makes Philosophers who despise every thing they can't enjoy It oft indeed changes it's Object but not it's Disposition It 's Pride as I may say out-lives its own Death and not being able to prevent it's perishing it would seem to look pleasantly upon its Downfal and as it were triumph in it's own Ruin Who then can give this Hydra it's Deaths wound when the lopping off one Head serves only to give rise to another It is certain therefore that nothing can remedy this Corruption unless it be more constant than the Principles of Education more infallible than the Rules of Decency and Civility more holy than the Civil Laws which require only an
who is no respecter of Persons and not from Men who give and receive Praise and Honour from one another But Politicians usually argue thus Religion say they is very useful to us to keep Men within the Bounds of their Duty and bring them under Subjection to the Sovereign and the Laws of the State It follows therefore that Religion was designed for no other End But this does not follow And to comprehend that Religion was designed for a sublimer and nobler End they ought chiefly to consider that 't is no less repugnant to the Ambition of Princes than the Rebellion of their People that it relates not to the Welfare of any private State but essentially tends to promote Peace amongst Nations and Kingdoms and perfect that Union and Society which ought to reign amongst Men that it despises all Prohibitions Politick Laws and even the secular Power when it endeavours to constrain it that all the Roman Policy tho' armed with the severest and most cruel Punishments that could be thought of was not powerful enough to stop its wonderful Effects that by teaching Men to despise Death and hope for a better Life after this it puts them above the reach as well of the Promises as Threats of Policy and that by sanctifying both their Hearts and Consciences it produces that Effect in them which Policy never durst so much as attempt IX In like manner Rhetorick has been prejudicial to Religion through the ill use Men have made of it The Objects of the Gospel as they were at first offered to Men without any Ostentation of Wit and Learning struck their Minds with such Surprize and Admiration as moved their Hearts and made them wholly renounce their dearest Pleasures and darling Sins This was the only Eloquence used in the Primitive times But the Church afterwards unfortunately taking in the filly Vanities of the Greeks and Romans the Mysteries of the Gospel became then either Matters of Philosophical Disputes or subjects of Eloquence and because this last derives its Original from Poetry whose grand Commendation solely consists in Fiction things came to be either disguised and varnished or heightned and exaggerated and from thence proceed all your Panegyricks Funeral Orations c. and all those Paradoxes and false Tenets set off with glittering Reasons and pompous Language which in time produced so many monstrous Opinions But this we ought the less to wonder at since Eloquence and all the charming Expressions of humane Invention are no less repugnant to Religion than we have shew'd Philosophy to be For if it becomes not Men to endeavour to comprehend by the help of Philosophy those Mysteries which God himself is pleased should remain incomprehensible it certainly as ill becomes them to attempt to set off with false Ornaments of humane Eloquence those Objects which the Wisdom of God design'd should be adapted to every Mans Capacity by the simple manner after which he was pleased to propose them X. Lastly Even Grammar when differently managed according to the Passions and evil Designs of Men mav serve to darken and perplex Religion This gives occasion to some Mens Complaints that the Jewish Grammar is uncertain that the pointing of it is dubious that there are several various Readings both in the Old and New Testament that we are ignorant who it was that collected the Books of Scripture and composed the Catalogue of those Books which are to be held Canonical that the Apostles when quoting the Prophecies in their Epistles altogether make use of the Greek Translation of the Septuagint and are not very exact in reciting all the Words of those Texts they mention that there are many obscure and imperfect places in them for want of Expressions to fill up the Sense c. But 't is certain that this grammatical Exactness or rather Superstition is not very agreeable to our Faith This a certain Author has very well hinted at when he says Scriptura non amat nimium diligentes And the Reasons that may be alledged for it are 1. Because the Objects of the Gospel are of too great and important concern for the Wisdom of God to suffer them to depend upon the insignificant Niceties of Grammar If Men dont usually enquire whether a King's Laws are set forth in such words as are altogether in use or whether there be any Transpositions and Parentheses in them whether the Rules of Grammar are duly observed or who it was that drew them up if it be enough that we know them to be really the Laws of such a Prince and that they are clear enough to be understood by all I say if those considerations are sufficient to incline us to a due Observance of them I do not see how any one can reasonably raise all these Difficulties against the Books of Scripture which have that peculiar Advantage over the Ordinances of Princes that the very same things are often and often repeated in them and consequently need no Grammatical alteration Besides if the Essentials and Substance of Religigion depended upon any such external Alterations it would follow from thence that no Man could be a Christian without being first a Critick and that he must be a perfect Master of Languages before he could be allowed to study the Means of Salvation and consequently that we could make no further Progress in Religion than we had well employed our Time in the Vniversity which certainly is a thing contrary to the Design of God who is pleased to call all sorts of Men to the Knowledge of himself To this we might also add that if Mens Salvation was affixed purely to the Order and Disposition of Words and Syllables they would pay a Reverence to Words and Syllables instead of Mysteries and thus we should inevitably fall into all the Extravagances of the superstitious Cabbalists Suppose you had lived in the Time of the Apostles and had distinctly heard them one after another preaching the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven tho' each of them expressing himself after his particular way 't is certain you would never have made your Salvation depend upon their different manner of expressing their Thoughts but upon those Objects they would have unanimously laid before you and had you been never so little moved at those excellent things which they preached and repeated several ways it may well be presumed you would not have cavilled about a few equivocal Words as perhaps escaped them or the Method and Order of their Discourse or any other insignificant Trifles of this Kind Now the written Word is of the very same Nature with that which they preached and consequently we cannot chuse but pass the same Judgment upon it For those good and holy Men who spoke as the Spirit gave them utterance that is with all Simplicity as was necessary for the Accomplishment of the Design of God imagined not in the least that those who were to come after them would be so nice in their Judgments or raise any such Scruples