Wonders by the help of Apostate Spirits which if it were so is a very pregnant Testimony that Jesus performed his Miracles by the Divine Power and Approbation for otherwise his Fraud would soon have been detected by that great Council 4. That there are prestigious and Satanical Miracles is an Evidence that there are likewise True and Divine as in Nature the being of Worse argues the existence of Better Sophisms and Falshood the reality of Truth and the operations of Second Causes lead us to the knowledge and being of a First wherefore if it be granted that evil and lapsed Genii can work Miracles it is apparent that the first and best Cause of all things may and does produce Effects of a Divine Power and Virtue and that the Miracles of the blessed Jesus were such appears partly from the Holiness and Purity of his Life and Manners in all parts of them blameless and irreprehensible and partly from the Design and Intention of his Miracles namely to confirm and give credit to that sublime and heavenly Doctrin he brought into the World whose End was to correct and reform the Lives of men and disseminate the blessed Life and Nature of God upon Earth which Considerations are sufficient to beget a firm and undoubted Perswasion that the immaculate Soul of Jesus was extraordinarily assisted and acted by a Divine Power and Efficacy which enabled him to perform those stupendious Operations that are recorded in the Gospels 3. We have reason to believe that there was a timely History of the Life and Transactions of Jesus compiled For we can no ways doubt but that the Disciples of our blessed Lord bearing so tender and dear a Love to their Saviour and being so fully convinced and satisfied in their Minds that he was the promised Messias who should regenerate and renew the World did compose and draw up an Abstract or Compendium of his Life And if we consider likewise how much it would conduce to the carrying on the Design they were setting on foot in the World that all men should believe in the Holy Jesus and imitate his immaculate and faultless Example we cannot readily believe that they were so stupid as to neglect such an effectual Instrument for the promoting their purpose or so uncharitable as to envy Mankind so great a Good 4. That the Histories of the Gospel were compiled by those whose Names they bear in the forefront And for this we have no greater Reason to doubt than we have to question whether the Pentateuch or five first Books of the Bible were written by Moses or whether those Writings which bear the Names of Cicero and Virgil as their Authors were ever composed by them Suppose now we would know who was the Author of some very antient Writing to prove this one Testimony must be taken from those who were contemporary with the Author or at least very little distant from him and from the perpetual Consent of wise and learned men and in this the sacred Volumes have infinitely the advantage above any other Writing whatever Tertullian affirms that the Archetypal Copies written with the Apostles own hands were extant in several Churches in his time Age jam qui voles curiositatem melius exercere in negotio salutis tuae percurre Ecclesias Apostolicas apud quas ipsae adhuc Cathedrae Apostolorum suis locis praesident apud quas ipsae Authenticae Literae corum recitantur And is it any more incredible that the very Autographa of the Apostler should be seen in Tertullian's time than that Cicero's hand should be shown in Quintilian's or Virgil's in Gellius his age But beside that we have the concurrent Testimony of Justin Martyr Irenaeus and Clemens Alexandrinus all of which were the very next to the Apostolical Age we never find any Controversie moved either by Jews or Pagans whether those Writings were theirs whose Names they bear Julian in Cyril acknowledges that the Epistles of Peter and Paul the Gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke are the very Writings of those Persons with whose Names they are adorned Add to this further that amidst the early Differences and Dissensions amongst Christians we never find any sober and grave Person questioning this Truth Indeed we read of the Ebionites a sort of Judaizing Christians who rejected the Epistles of St. Paul but yet they denied not that he was the Author of them but refused them because they thought St. Paul an Undervaluer of and Apostate from the Law of Moses But suppose the Author of any of the Books of the New Testament be to us unknown as it is of the Epistle to the Hebrews yet ought it not to be of any less Credit and Authority with us for either the Doctrin or History contained in it because the Matter and Substance of the Book is more to be regarded than the Name of the Author and therefore because for example we find nothing in the Epistle to the Hebrews which may rationally invalidate our Belief of the things contained in it and over and above have sufficient evidence that it was never repudiated by the Christians who succeeded the Apostles we deservedly receive it as Canonical Scripture 5. That we have all imaginable Reason to ground our Faith upon those Histories of the Gospel delivered to us And this appears 1. Because 't is not likely those who wrote them should be deceived 2. Neither is it probable they would deceive others There is no likelihood they should be deceived because they were either Eye-witnesses of the things they delivered to Posterity or else wrote them from the mouths of those who were Spectators of them and we never find a Miracle recorded which Christ did alone without the Company of two or three of his Disciples When he was transfigured he took with him Peter James and John when he raised the Ruler of the Synagogues Daughter he carried the same three with him Matthew was one of them who perpetually accompanied our blessed Lord and saw the greatest part of those things which he wrote Mark it is thought was an Associate of St. Peter and wrote his Gospel from his mouth And Luke beside that he was one of those who travelled about with St. Paul who had his Commission and Revelation from Heaven he also in his Dedicatory Preface to his Gospel professes himself to have had perfect Understanding of all things from the very first as they were delivered to him from those who were Eye-witnesses of them St. John was the beloved Disciple and always followed the Lord Christ where-ever he went and setting aside the Metaphysical Sermons recorded in his Gospel he relates very few miracles or new things but what are confirmed by the Testimony of some one of the other three As for that notable Miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead after four days burial omitted by all the rest it is capable of this account St. John lived long after all the rest of the Apostles and Evangelists even to the
are a sort of Men in the World whose Minds are so deeply tinctured with Sadducean and Atheistical Principles that being otherwise furnished with a quaint Volubility of Speech and some Smatterings of Philosophy in this knowing Age deem it the highest Improvement of their Wit to laugh and jeer at that profound Wisdom which is found in Christianity now accusing its Dogmata of Impossibilities and Contradictions and then scoffing at the Historical Part as Fabulous and Romantick clearly discovering that their grand Drift is to leaven the Minds of men with that pernicious and venomous Doctrin That there is nothing but Matter in the World To begin therefore with the Birth of the blessed Jesus and the Circumstances attending of it as of the Star which led the Wise Men to him and of their Adoration of him that these things are not indecorous and ridiculous nor impertinently recorded but sutable and agreeable to the Nativity of so great a Person That a Virgin should conceive and bring forth a Child ought to be no such strange thing to the Jew since their Prophets have foretold that it should so come to pass particularly in Isa vii 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call his name Immanuel And if this were not to be understood of a pure and immaculate Virgin where were that Sign which God by his Prophet ushers in with such Solemnity Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God ask it either in the depth or in the height above for nothing is more ordinary in the World than that a young Woman should bring forth a Child Add to this that the Jewish Rabbins teach that the Generation and Nativity of the Messias shall not be after the manner of other Creatures by carnal Copulation but after an extraordinary manner and his Father shall be unknown till he himself reveal him Nor ought it to be thought a thing impossible by the Gentiles since they affirm many of their Heroes to be the Sons of the Gods and Plato is said to be begotten on Perictione by Apollo who forbad Aristo to have any familiarity with his Wife till Plato was born But to them that believe a just and righteous Providence governing all the Affairs of the Universe it is obvious to conceive that all Souls are sent into the World according to their Demerits in a former Life and therefore as a deeply lapsed Soul descends into an inequal and monstrous Body from which Adunation can result no other than a brutish cruel and intemperate Life and a Pronity to all other Vices arising from such an Asymmetral and inhospitable Society so the pure and immaculate Soul of Jesus must assume a terrestrial Body after an unusual manner more pure than the rest that it might be free from Sin and Pollution as well as fitted to converse with Men and that he might in it teach an extraordinary Temperance Justice and Goodness and all other Virtues by his Life as by his Doctrin For neither would the Justice of God precipitate so great a Soul into an unfit and incongruous Habitation nor its eximious Purity admit of an Union with an inquinated and filthy Body Nor is it any whit incongruous that an unusual Star should attend the Rising of the glorious Sun of Righteousness for though it be commonly said of Comets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no one appears to the World but portends some Mischief which Historians plentifully observe and hence is that of Claudian Nunquam futilibus excanduit ignibus Aether Et nunquam coelo spectatum impune Cometen Yet Origen in his first Book against Celsus affirms that Chaeremon the Stoick in his Treatise of Comets proves by several Instances out of Histories that Comets sometimes presage the Approach of good things If then those great and wandring Globes be looked upon as the Presignificators of great Changes and Alterations in the World what wonder is it that the Birth of Jesus who should work so mighty a Mutation upon Earth and introduce a Religion universal and common to all Mankind should be declared by a new and stranger Star And if it be said that it is impossible for a Star in the Heavenly Regions to design punctually so small a place as a particular House upon Earth I answer that the Magi found the House wherein Jesus was not only by the disappearing and vanishing of the Star over it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a diligent Search and Inquisition after the Child perhaps of the Shepherds who were not far distant keeping watch over their Flocks It remains now that we Apologize for the other part of the History viz. The coming of the Wise Men from the East to Jerusalem to which purpose it will be requisite to consider the Quality of these Magi who probably were none of these grosser sort of Sorcerers that make an express Compact with the Devil but such as receiving from others certain forms and mysterious Conjurations use them as they were delivered to them without enquiring further into their Nature And perhaps the black Society may oblige themselves to attend such dark and hidden Mysteries whether the Transactors of them know them to be theirs or not But whether these Magi were such or had a more open and visible Commerce with evil Spirits it matters not since this is certain that the airy Principality can act no further where a more divine and excellent Power intervenes Wherefore through the mighty Virtue of the Divinity residing in the Soul of Jesus and the unexpected descent of a glorious Host of Angels to these terrestrial Regions singing an Anthem of Praise at the Birth of Jesus it came to pass that the Power of the airy Principality was on a sudden restrained and an universal Chilness and Horror ran through the dark Kingdom so that they were unable to attend their own Hellish Mysteries which the Magi perceiving their usual Incantations not succeeding nor the accustomed Effects following their secret Rites and Ceremonies they began to think the Cause of this unexpected Accident to be extraordinary and knowing the Prophecy of Balaam that a star should come out of Jacob and a scepter rise out of Israel conjectured that the Man foretold to come with the Apparition of a Star was now born into the World and believing him to have a transcendent Power over the aereal Agents resolved to come and worship him presenting him with the choicest Gifts of Arabia Gold and Myrrh and Frankincense as to a King a Man and a God And if any man desire a further Mystery he may take the learned Grotius his Observation that by these three are denoted those three Evangelical Sacrifices which through Christ we offer unto God viz. Works of Charity and Mercy Phil. iv 18. Incorrupted Purity of Body Rom. xii 1. and Prayers Psal cxli. 2. We that are Christians are taught in the Gospel that Jesus Christ the Saviour of Mankind is God as well as Man
the World to testifie which his Apotheosis he sends down his holy Spirit upon his Apostles and enables them to speak with Tongues and do Miracles which Scheme of Providence doth so palpably evince the Interposition and Efficiency of a Deity and that all these things hapned by his actual concurrence that he must on purpose blind his eyes who will not see it 2. All the place of doubting which is left to us in the Belief of the Promises of the Gospel is no other than what may be in the highest moral Certainty imaginable It only leaves a Possibility that notwithstanding all the Arguments brought to confirm it it may yet be otherwise Every thing is not capable of a Mathematical Demonstration but the ways of Probation are different according to the Diversity of Subjects And certainly he will be a very imprudent man that will neglect an important Affair to the Undertaking of which he hath highly probable Reasons only because 't is possible it may be otherwise 3. It was a great piece of Divine Wisdom so to order the Gospel that the Promises of Life and Salvation should not be so evident as those things that are known by Sense or Demonstration but only so far as might conciliate Faith in a rational Person that thereby the wicked Tempers and Dispositions of men might the more plainly be discovered If the Gospel had been so demonstratively certain so as to exclude all Doubting i. e. Possibility to the contrary all men would have been forced and necessarily good and all that Praise which is due to the embracing of Virtue would have been lost but now that men believe when notwithstanding there is a Possibility to the contrary the Trial of their Faith will be found unto Praise and Honour and Glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ For what Praise is due unto him that believes not out of Choice but from the necessary and demonstrative Truth of the Thing itself Let not any man therefore flatter himself with hopes that this will patronize and defend his Infidelity that it was possible the Evangelical Promises might be uncertain but let him consider upon what account his Faith induces him to act in the Affairs of the World Will a human Faith be sufficient to perswade the Merchant to commit his Life and Fortunes to the flattering Waves when he knows not but a merciless Pyrat or the next succeeding Storm may bereave him of both Will the Souldier march all day scalded with Heat or pinched with the Northern Cold and expose his Body to a Storm of Bullets and Swords drunk with his Companions Blood and all for the Spoils of an uncertain Conquest Shall this be able to put us upon Action and shall not the Belief of the Gospel which is not half so uncertain or inevident as this We need no such firm ground to build our Faith upon in matters of the World and therefore we are utterly inexcusable if we do not believe in the Son of God who hath brought Life and Immortality to light FINIS Lib. 7. contra Celsum 1 Cor. 2.13 1.27 1 John 2.12 c. Lib. 4 contra Celsum Euseb Praepar lib. 5. De Praesc adv Haereticos Lib. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ why born of a Virgin Of the Star * The same the Colledge of Priests affirmed of the Comet that appeared at the Ludi Veneris Genetâ—icis instituted by Augustus Plin. l. 2 c. 25. And Virg. Ecl 4. Ecce Dionaei processit Caesaris Astrum Of the VVise Men. Christ God and Man