became so much admired and magnified by the people that they brought forth the sick into the Streets and laid them on Beds and Couches that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might over-shadow some of them There came also a multitude out of the Cities round about unto Jerusalem bringing sick Folks and them which were vexed with unclean spirits and they were healed every one Acts v. 15 16. And in this manner the Apostles continued several years in Jerusalem doing Miracles upon all occasions and before all people And the same miraculous power manifested it self at Ephesus where God wrought special Miracles by the hands of Paul so that from his Body were brought unto the Sick handkerchiefs or aprons and the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them Acts xix 11 12. So impossible was it for the Apostles to deceive those before whom their Miracles were so frequently and publickly wrought And yet it must be much more impossible if any thing more impossible can be supposed to deceive those upon whom their Miracles had the effect of restoring to them the use of their feet their sight and their health and even of raising them again from the dead And indeed none of the Adversaries of old of the Christian Religion ever denied but that Miracles were wrought by the Apostles they only disputed the Power by which they were wrought they never questioned the reality of the Miracles themselves The Books of the New Testament which gave an account of these wondrous works were written soon after the things related had been done and these Books were in the hands of Heathens and Jews as well as Christians and neither the Jews nor the Heathens could deny but that such works had been done they only cavilled at the Power and Authority by which they were wrought which how groundless and unreasonable soever it were yet was the only evasion they could have when there were so many Christians if they had denied the matter of fact who did the like Miracles every day to confute them For II. The Apostles not only wrought Miracles themselves but conveyed to others a power of working them Thus when St. Peter was sent for to Cornelius the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word and they spake with Tongues and magnified God Act. x. 44 46. And so at Ephesus the Holy Ghost came on those whom St. Paul had laid his hands upon and they spake with Tongues and Prophesied Acts xix 6. And this miraculous Power was in that evident manner received by the laying on of the hands of the Apostles that Simon Magus offered them Money to purchase it Acts viii 18. Now as the Apostles could neither be deceived themselves in the Miracles which they did nor deceive those before whom they were performed and upon whom they were wrought so certainly they could never deceive such as they conferred this Gift upon When they not only did all sorts of Miracles and spoke all Languages themselves but conveyed a Power likewise upon others of speaking and doing as themselves did this was still a further evidence that all their pretences were real beyond all possibility of Deceit Deceivers would never have done their Miracles so openly and so frequently at such a time and place they would never have pretended to a gift of Tongues at a Festival where men from all parts of the world were met together so that they could attempt to speak in no strange Language but some present would have discovered them if they had not been able to speak it But they would least of all have pretended to enable others in an instant to work the same wonders and speak the same Tongues only by laying their hands upon them Men that would attempt all this though they were unable to perform it must be so far from being capable of discoursing and writing as the Apostles did that they must be void even of common sense and if they could succeed in their designs and make the world believe that they did act and speak in this manner when they did not they must have a Power over the understandings and senses of all with whom they conversed which is as strange even as this Miraculous Power it self They must work Miracles either upon the objects of sence or upon the sences themselves for in this case they could never have been able so much as to deceive without a Miracle and since God would never have empowered them to work Miracles to deceive we are certain that their Miracles were all wrought for that intent and purpose which they made profession of and to confirm that Doctrine which they taught And this Power of Miracles which now descended from Heaven upon the Apostles and was conveyed by them to others continued for some Ages in the Church and approved it self to the worst Enemies of our Religion in such instances as must make them most concerned to examine it (d) Minut. Faelix Lactant. lib. ii c. 15. c. 21. Several of the Primitive Writers witness that nothing was more notorious than that the Devils were wont to cry out for very anguish and torment when they were adjured by the true God (e) Apolog c. 23. and Tertullian made publick challenges to the Heathens that if they would but admit them this Tryal the Christians would undertake to make their most famous Deities acknowledge the Power of Christ and to make their very Gods confess themselves to be wicked and seducing Spirits or else they would be contented to be slain upon the place and this he wrote under persecutions and in Apologies dedicated and presented to their Persecutors themselves And indeed the Oracles in all parts of the World soon began to fail so as they had been never known to do before for their Power began to abate and decay upon the approach of our Saviours Birth into the World till by degrees they quite ceased which the Heathens wondered at and were much perplext about it as we learn from what (f) Cicer. de Divinat Plutarch de Oracul Defecta they have left written upon that subject And though Julian the Apostate used all the ways that he could think of to bring them into credit again he was never able to elect it but the most famous of them confess'd to him when he consulted it that a miraculous and Divine Power residing in the Remains of a Christian Martyr after his Death would suffer no answer to be given And it is so remarkable that I must mention it once more that when the same Apostate Emperor in hatred and despight to the Christian Religion became a great Patron of the Jews and encouraged them to re-build their Temple great balls of fire broke forth under the foundation and destroyed both the work it self and the persons employed in it And this we have related not only by several Christian Writers that lived about that time but by an (g) Ammian
Moses's time or after it p. 206. Of what Consequence the Proof of the Divine Authority of the Pentateuch is towards the proving the rest of the Scriptures to be of the same Authority p. 214. CHAP. VII of Joshua and the Judges and of the Miracles and Prophecies under their Government Joshua the Author of the Book under his Name p. 215. The Book of Judges written by Samuel p. 216. The Waters of Jordan divided p. 217. The Males circumcis'd at the first coming into Canaan and thereby disabl'd for War contrary to all Humane Policy p. 219. The Walls of Jericho thrown down and the Prophecy concerning them ib. The Integrity of Joshua p. 220. of Eli p. 221. of Samuel p. 222. CHAP. VIII Of the People of Israel under their Kings From the Revolt of the Ten Tribes an Argument for the Truth of the Law of Moses Prophets in the Kingdoms both of Israel and Judah p. 223 CHAP. IX Of the Prophets and their Writings The kinds of Prophecy among the Jews p. 224. The Freedom and Courage of the Prophets and the Reverence paid to them even by bad Princes p. 226. They laid down their Lives in Confirmation of their Prophecies p. 227. Many of their Prophecies fulfill'd during their own Lives p. 228. Their Prophecies committed to writing ibid. They as well as the Law were carefully preserv'd during the Captivity in Babylon p. 229. The Books of the former and of the latter Prophets the Books of Samuel by whom written p. 231. The Books of Chronicles and of Kings by whom written ibid. Of the Psalms Moses and the Prophets comprehend the whole Old Testament p. 233. The Hebrew Tongue sufficiently understood by the Jews when they return'd from Babylon ibid. The Scriptures could not be corrupted afterwards p. 235. CHAP. X. Of the Prohecies and Miracles of the Prophets Josiah Prophesy'd of by Name long before his Birth the Circumstances of that Prophecy p. 236. The fâ—â—filling of Elijah's Prophecies p. 238. The Confession of Julian the Apostate p. 240. Divers other Prophecies and Miracles ibid. Cyrus prophesy'd of by Name long before his Birth p. 241. Jeremiah's Prophecies of the Destruction of Jerusalem p. 243. The Contradiction which was then thought to be betwixt the Prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel a manifest Proof of the Truth of the Prophecies of them both p. 245. Other plain Prophecies fulfill'd p. 247. These Prophecies and Miracles manifestly true p. 249 CHAP. XI Of the Dependance of the several Parts of the Scriptures upon each other and that the Old Testament proves the New and the New again proves the Old as the Cause and the Essect p. 252. CHAP. XII Of the Person of our Blessed Saviour Our Blessed Saviour's undeniable Innocence and Holiness of Life p. 257. Judas himself gave Testimony to it p. 259. The Prophecies concerning the Birth of the Messias fulfilled in him p. 265. The Prophecies concerning his Life fulfilled p. 277. The Prophecies concerning his Death fulfilled p. 280. And those concerning his Resurrection and Ascension p. 286 CHAP. XIII Of the Prophecies and Miracles of our Blessed Saviour Our Saviour foretold the Treachery of Judas and the manner of his own Death p. 287. The Destruction of Jerusalem with the circumstances of it and the Prodigies attending it ibid. His Miracles verified the Prophecies which had been concerning the Messias p. 290 CHAP. XIV Of the Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour The Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour prophesied of and typified p. 293. The Apostles who were Witnesses of our Saviour's Resurrection could not be deceiv'd themselves in it p. 295. They would not deceive others p. 306. They alledged such Circumstances as made it impossible for them to deceive p. 307 CHAP. XV. Of the Apostles and Evangelists The Apostles were Men of sufficient Vnderstanding to know what they testified p. 312. They had sufficient Means and Opportunities to know it p. 313. They were Men of Integrity and truly declared what they knew for they had no worldy Interest to serve by their Testimony but suffered by it and had a certain prospect of suffering p. 315. There are peculiar marks of Sincerity in all their Writings p. 319 CHAP. XVI Of the prophecies and Miracles of the Apostles c. Of their Prophecies p. 328. Of their Miracles p. 330. The Miracles wrought by the Apostles themselves p. 331. A Power of working Miracles communicated by them to others p. 336. Their supernatural Courage and Resolution p. 342. This likewise was communicated to their Followers p. 351 CHAP. XVII Of the Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists The History of our Saviour's Life and Death contains so notorious and publick circumstances that it was an Appeal to that Age whether the things related were true or not p. 354. The other Books of the New Testament are explicatory and consequential to the Gospel or History of Christ and besides these likewise contain many memorable and publick Matters of Fact p. 361. The Gospel and other Books of the New Testament cited by Authors contemporary with the Apostles and owned for genuine both by the Jews and Heathens p. 363. Many of the Eye-witnesses to the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles lived to a great Age p. 364. The chief Points of the Christian Religion were testified in Apologies written from time to time to the Heathen Emperors ibid. CHAP. XVIII Of the Doctrines contained in the Holy Scriptures The Christian Religion teacheth an universal Righteousness both towards God and Man p. 368. The Scriptures propound to us the only true Principle of Holiness p. 370. The Christian Religion proposeth the most effectual Motives to Obedience and Holiness of Life p. 372. It afferdeth the greatest Helps and Assistances to an Holy Life p. 374. It expresseth the greatest Compassion and Condescension to our Infirmities p. 374. The Propagation of the Gospel has ever had great effects towards the Reformation and Happiness of Mankind p. 376. The highest Mysteries of the Christian Religion are not meerly speculative but have a necessary relation to Practice for the advancement of Piety and Vertue amongst Men p. 382 PART III. THat there is no other Divine Revelation but that contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament p. 385. CHAP. I. The Novelty of the Heathen Religions The Pretences of the Aegyptians to Antiquity examined p. 387. Of the Chaldaeans ibid. Of the Chinese p. 389. CHAP. II. Of the Defect in the Promulgation of the Heathen Religions The Heathen Religions never extant in Books to be publickly read p. 392. Every Country had its peculiar Deities They prevailed only by the Temporal Power Though the Heathens more in Number yet the Religion of Christians more promulged p. 392 CHAP. III. Of the Defect of the Prophecies and Miracles of the Heathen Religions Of the Oracles of the Heathens p. 394. That they were uncertain and ambiguous p. 396. But they could not be all counterfeit p. 398. The cessation of Oracles gradual p. 399. Their Miracles never
from them In Africa besides the Christians living in Aegypt and in the Kingdom of Congo and Angola the Islands upon the Western Coasts are inhabited by Christians and the vast Kingdom of Habassia or Abassinia supposed to be as big as Germany France Spain and Italy taken together according to Mr. Brerewood's computation is possess'd by Christians And till less than Two hundred Years ago Nubia a Countrey of a great extent lying between the Aequator and the Northern Tropick continued as it 's believed from the Apostles times in the Christian Religion In Asia he says most part of the Empire of Russia the Countries of Circassia and Mengrelia Georgia and Mount Libanus are inhabited only by Christians besides the dispersion of them into other Parts under the denomination of Nestorians Jacobites Maronites and Armenians the last of which are a People exceedingly addicted to Traffick (m) Brerewood's Enquir c. 24. and have great Privileges granted them by the Turks and other Mahometans they are found in multitudes in most Cities of great Trade and are more dispersed than any other Nation but the Jews and the Jacobites are reported to be dispersed into Forty Kingdoms In the Promontory extending it self into the Indian Sea are the Christians of Saint Thomas so called because first converted by him who is believed to lie buried at Maliapour and they have continued in the Christian Religion from his time It must be confess'd that in Mengrelia and other Countries the Doctrines of Religion are much corrupted and their Practice very different from the Profession of Christians but however they retain the Gospel among them and it is every Man 's own fault if he make not a good use of those Means of Salvation which God in his Providence has afforded him Of late the New Testament in the Malayan Tongue and Grotius his excellent Book of the Truth of the Christian Religion in Arabick have been translated and printed at the Charge of the Honourable Mr. Boyle and the first disperst over all the East-Indies where the Malayan Language is used and the latter into all the Countries where Arabick is spoken He also contributed to the Impression of the New Testament which was made by the Turkish Company in the Language of the Turks In America it is notorious that the Christians are sufficiently numerous and have sufficient opportunities to instruct the Natives if they were but as careful to improve them to so good an end rather than in pursuit of their own Gain The summ of all is this Before the Flood Revelations were so frequent and the Lives of Men so long that no Man could be ignorant of the Creation and of the Providence of God in the Government of the World and the Duties required towards him And in the first Ages after the Flood God's Will reveal'd to Noah and the Precept given to him at his coming out of the Ark must be well known to all the surviving World and as soon as the Remembrance of them began to decay and Men to fall into Idolatry Abraham and the other Patriarchs were sent into divers Countries to proclaim God's Commandments and to testifie against the Impiety of Idolaters where-ever they came For to publish the Reveal'd Will of God and make it generally known in the World God was pleas'd to chuse to himself a peculiar People and to send them first out of Mesopotamia into Canaan and upon occasion back again into Mesopotamia and then several times into Aegypt and from thence after they had dwelt there some Hundreds of Years into Canaan again at what time he appointed them Laws admirably fitted and contriv'd for the receiving of Strangers and Proselytes After many signal Victories and after other Captivities they were carry'd away captive to Babylon and were still deliver'd and restor'd by a Wonderful and Miraculous Providence and had vast numbers of Proselytes in all Parts of the known World and many Footsteps and Remainders of the True Religion are found in the remotest Parts of the Earth And when by the just Judgment of God upon the Jews for their Sin in rejecting the Messias they were rejected by him from being his People they were dispers'd throughout the World for a Testimony to all Nations that Moses and the Prophets deliver'd no other thing than what God had reveal'd to them since they continue to maintain and assert those very Books which plainly foretell all that Ruine and Destruction that has befallen them for their Infidelity and Disobedience They are a standing Evidence in all Parts of the World of the Truth of the Christian Religion bearing that Curse which their Fore-fathers so many Ages ago imprecated upon themselves and their Posterity when they caus'd Christ to be crucify'd And the Gospel has by its own Power and Evidence manifested it self to all People dispers'd over the Face of the whole Earth To which might be added That the Mahometans owning so much of the Religion reveal'd both in the Old and New Testament afford some kind of Testimony to the Truth of it in those vast Dominions of which they are possess'd All the most remarkable Dispensations of Providence in the several Changes in the World have had a particular Influence in the Propagation of the True Religion Cyrus Alexander the Great divers of the Roman Emperors and of latter Times Tamerlain and several other Princes were great Favourers of it and the worst of Men and the most unlikely Accidents have contributed towards the Promotion of it If it be Objected That notwithstanding all which has been said great Part of the World are Vnbelievers Let it be consider'd 1. That there is no Nation but has great Opportunities of being converted and it is evident from what has been produc'd concerning the Chinese and the Americans themselves that the Christian Religion had been preach'd among them tho' the Knowledge of it was lost through their own Fault before the late Discoveries of those Parts of the World And as Christ came into the World in the fulness of time so in the fulness of time that is at the most fitting season he reveal'd himself to the several Nations of it God who is infinitely gracious to all and knows the Hearts and Dispositions of all Men might defer the restoring his Gospel to the Chinese for Instance till that very time when he saw them best prepar'd for it And it is remarkable That the Discovery of the Indies happen'd about the time of the Reformation that those poor People might have the Purity as well as the Truth of Religion if Christians had been as little wanting to them in their Charity as God has been in the Disposals of his Providence He stays till they have filled up the measure of their iniquities before he punishes a People and for the same Reasons of Mercy and Goodness he waits for the most proper seasons to impart his Revealed Will to them and to have it preach'd to them before would be only to encrease their
as the Jews them selves ever understood it and what ever Testimony is produced from thence brings with it the Evidence of the whole And a like Evidence is again reflected upon the whole Old Testament by the Accomplishment of any part of it in the New and by the appeal which our Saviour and his Apostles constantly made to it CHAP. XII Of the Person of our Blessed Saviour THat in the reign of Tiberius there lived such a Person as Jesus Christ who suffered (a) Tacit. Annal. lib. 25. under Pontius Pilate is expresly written by Tacitns and that he cured Diseases and wrought other Miracles was never denied by the worst Enemies to the Christian name and Doctrine So that the substance of the History of the Life and Death of our Saviour is acknowledged by our very Adversaries and the Power by which he wrought his Miracles is the thing which was in dispute between them and the Primitive Christians And therefore I shall take the observations which I make concerning our Blessed Saviour from that account which the Evangelists give of him which is in great part confessed by the Jews and Heathens and which deserves at least the same credit that all other Histories do till it can be disproved and in the following Chapters I shall shew that it is infallibly true The Divine Nature of our B. Saviour is of another consideration we are in this place to consider him according to the Appearance he made in the World and this was such as shewed him to be void of all ambitious and aspiring thoughts and to be meek and humble and perfectly vertuous and holy his Miracles were wrought without vanity and ostentation and never out of Revenge or to shew his Power over his Enemies but always with a gracious and merciful design he avoided all opportunities of Popularity he would not intermeddle in private affairs when he was appealed to and made his escape when the people would have taken him by force to make him a King after they had seen the Miracle of the Loaves by which it appeared that he who was able to sustain so many thousands in the Wilderness might have raised and maintained what Army he pleased and might have made himself as great as he would notwithstanding any opposition He dealt freely and generously with his Disciples not deluding them with vain hopes nor promising them great Matters but checking their aspiring Thoughts and telling them truly and plainly that they were to expect nothing but miseries in this World from the Profession of his Doctrine he put it to their own choice whether they would take up their Cross and follow him and when he was betray'd by one of those very Disciples he uses no upbraiding or reproachful Language but bespeaks him with a Divine Patience and Meekness Noman ever suffer'd with so much injustice and cruelty nor ever any man with so great compassion and charity towards all his Enemies He lived a mean and despised Life and never was in such a condition as could tempt any man to flatter him or to conceal any fault if he had been guilty of any and he had always many Enemies who endeavoured to fasten the worst calumnies upon him but their malice tended only to render his Innocence the more manifest and illustrious The person who betray'd him and delivered him into the hands of his Enemies was one of the Twelve one of his own Disciples and Apostles whom he had sent out to gain Proselytes and had committed to him a Power of working Miracles and of doing whatsoever was requisite to gain Reception for his Religion in the World Judas was one of the Twelve who were nearest to him and were admitted to all the secrets of his Kingdom and were entrusted with the most hidden Mysteries and obscure Doctrines of his Religion whatsoever was spoken to others in Parables was explained afterwards to them in private nothing was with-held from them which it was convenient for them to be acquainted withal or which they were capable of knowing Nay Judas seems to have had a particular mark of Favour plac'd upon him in that he was the keeper of the Bag for it was an Office of some Trust and Confidence however it gave him an opportunity of knowing whether his Master had any such ambitious designs as he was accused of For if he had perverted the Nation and forbidden to give Tribute to Caesar and had endeavour'd to set himself up as King of the Jews which was the charge laid against him before Pilate such a Project could not have been carried on without amassing a great Treasure which therefore if any such thing had been in hand Judas had been best able to give an account of But when one who had constantly attended upon him and was so intimately acquainted with all the secrets of his Life and Doctrin had nothing to alledge against him after he had betray'd him what could make more for his Justification or be a clearer Demonstration of his Innocence When men are once prevail'd upon to turn Traytors they seldom do things by halves but if there be the least pretence or colour to be found they will be sure to lay hold of it to justify their villany And it is the most undeniable proof our Saviours's Innocence that Treachery it self could discover nothing to fasten upon him but tho' Judas had been suborned by the chief Priests to betray his Master for thirty pieces of Silver yet neither that nor a greater sum which we may be confident would not have been denied him could prevail with Judas himself to undertake to appear as a witness against him When one of his own Disciples was perswaded or rather had offer'd of his own accord to betray him it could not be imagin'd but that the Chief Priests would urge him to come in as a witness to the Accusations which they had framed against him this had been a much a more acceptable service to them than barely to deliver him up for what could have brought a greater disgrace upon his Person or more discredit upon his Religion than for one of his own Disciples to witness against him that the had committed things worthy of Death Men who were at such a loss for matter to charge Christ with and at last could not make their Witnesses agree together would never we may be sure have omitted such an opportunity as this of loading him with infamy and stifling his Doctrine in his death And he who was so ready and forward to betray his master wou'd never have stuck at accusing him if he had had any thing to say against him and no other reason can be given why he did not do it but that he was over-awed by that Innocence and Holiness which he knew to be in him and was seiz'd with that remorse of Conscience and terrour of Mind as not to be able to bear up under the guilt of what he had already done For Judas who had betrayed him when
would recover he died while the Answers were reading that foretold his Recovery For the sins of Men against natural Conscience and the contempt of the Divine Revelations made to Mankind and so often promulged amongst all Nations God might permit the Devil to delude the World with such Signs and Predictions as either were indeed true or could not be discerned to be false but by the Doctrines and Practices which they were brought to countenance and establish There is no doubt but that evil Spirits may be able to delude and impose upon men and to do many things by their sagacity and cunning which may be above the power of man not only to perform but to understand or find out but their Miracles were never wrought to confirm any sound and useful Doctrine nor had they been plainly foretold by ancient Prophecies as the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles had been And the power by which our Religion was attested and established was so much superiour to any power in the Heathen Gods that when they were adjured by Christians they were forced to confess themselves to be wicked and seducing Spirits as the Primitive Christians declare in their writings and appeal to the Heathens of their own times for the truth of it and undertake upon pain of death to prove it before them This Tertullian undertakes in (n) Tertul Apol. c. 23. his Apology as I have before observed written to the Emperor and Senate of Rome or at least to the proconsul of Afric and the Governours of the several Cities and Provinces And St. Cyprian affirms the like in his Treatise to Demetrianus a Judge of Carthage or as some think the Pro-consul to the same purpose likewise speak Origen Minutius Foelix and others of the Primitive Christians And we cannot imagine that men of common sense would ever have made such publick and repeated Appeals if their pretences had been false to the hazard of their own lives and the utter disgrace and extirpation of their Religion which they endeavoured to plead for by such confident and bold discourses so easie to be disproved if they had not been true Men who have the wealth and power of the world on their side may perhaps sometimes make large boasts and high pretences when they can easily hinder others from bringing them to the Test but men that had all the power and policy of the Empire against them would never have offered any thing of this Nature in defence of their Religion unless they had been able to make it good to the faces of their worst Enemies to whom their Apologies were directed CHAP. IV. The Defect in point of Doctrine in the Heathen Religions IT is undeniable that the Doctrines of all the Heathen Religions have been wicked and contrary to the Unity and Goodness and Purity of God and to the vertue and happiness of Mankind This might be made out at large by particulars as I. The Theology of the Heathens was so confused and absurd that the only Evasion which the Philosophers could find who undertook the defence of Paganism against Christianity was to expound their Theology by Allegories but this Philo (a) Eâ—seâ— praepar lib. i. c. 9 10. Biblius censures as absurd and maintains that it was a mere abuse and innovation in their Divinity in proof of which he alledges the authority of Sanchoniathan and Eusebius besides makes good the charge (b) Magnam molestiam suscepit minime necessariam primus Zeno post â—â—eanthes deinde Chrysippus commentitiarum balarum redâ—ere rationem Ciâ— de Nat. Deor. lib. iii. Zeno first begun this way of Allegorizing in which he was followed by Cleanthes Chrysippus and other Stoicks (c) Tertull. ad Naâ— lib. ii c. â— Aug. Civ De◠〈◊〉 6. c. 5. Varro makes three sorts of Heathen Theology in the Fabulous invented by the Poets The Physical or that of the Philosophers and the Civil or Popular being such as the several Cities and Countries had set up (d) Euseb praepar lib. 4. c. 5. The Greek Theology was thus distinguished 1. God who rules over all 2. The Gods who were supposed to govern above the Moon 3. The Daemons whose jurisdiction was in the Air below it and 4. The Heroes or Souls of dead men who were imagined to preside over Terrestrial affairs which gives some account of the prodigious multitude of their Gods (e) Hesiod oper Dier lib. i. v. 250. whereof Hesiod computes thirty thousand hovering in the Air unless he be to be understood of an indefinite number Orpheus reckoned but 365 (f) Theop ad Autol. lib. iii. and at his death in his Will asserted only one (g) Tertul Apol. c. 14. Gages survey of the W. Indies c. 12. Varro reckoned up three hundred Jupiters and the Gods of Mexico as the Indians reported to the Spaniards were two thousand in number Varro Tully and Seneca and most sober and discreet men were ashamed of the Heathen Gods and believed that there is but one God to which purpose the verses of Valerius Soranus (h) Aug. de Civ Dei lib. iv c. 31. vii 9. are produced and expounded by Varro The worship of their Gods and of their Images or Idols was so gross amongst the ancient Heathen and is to this day in China and in both the Indies that one would almost think it impossible for men to be so far deluded by the Devil they worshiped not only the Ghosts of dead men but Birds and Beasts and creeping things and the Devil himself under Images of such hideous forms and shapes as are frightful to look upon The wiser Heathens were ashamed of these Idolatries (i) Aug. Civ Dei lib. iv c. 31. and Varro particularly commends the Jews for using no Images in their Divine Worship which he fays were not in use at Rome till above one hundred and seventy years after the Foundation of the City (k) Plut. in vit Numae for Numa the contriver of their Religion forbad Images which makes it the more strange that the (l) Cic. de Nat. Deor lib. iii. de legib lib. ii Romans should afterwards erect Temples and Altars to the most unlikely things to a Fever and to ill Fortune as the (l) Cic. de Nat. Deor lib. iii. de legib lib. ii Athenians did to contumely and Impudence but it is still more amazing that they should deify the worst of men the very Monsters and reproaches of Mankind and whilst the Christians suffered for refusing Adoration to their Emperors they had divine Honours paid them by the gravest Heathens such as (m) Quint Inst lib. Prooem Quinctilian not only through fear of death but out of compliment and base flattery 2. All manner of Debauchery and Lewdness made up so great a part of the Heathen Religion that it is too shameful and too notorious to relate (n) Euseb Praepar lib. ii c. ult ex Dionys Halicaâ—â— lib. ii The Romans when they received
Persuasion doth not determine Right and Wrong True and False the remaining difficulty is how to distinguish them and that must be by the proper Evidence and the intrinsick Goodness of the Cause And our Evidence in behalf of our Religion is plain matter of Fact as the Death and Resurrection and Ascension of our Blessed Saviour and the Miracles wrought by him and his Apostles And if our Religion has sufficient Proof of what we assert in matter of Fact and other Religions have not sufficient Proof of that Authority to which they lay claim this must determine the Point though a Mahometan or Pagan should be as zealous for his Religion as a Christian can be It is commonly and truly said that it is not the Suffering but the Cause which makes the Martyr and if Men of False Religions have never so much Confidence of the Truth of them and have no Ground for it this can be no Argument against the Grounds and Proofs upon which the Evidence of the Christian Religion depends Other Religions may have their Zealots who offer themselves to die for them but the Christian Religion properly has the only Martyrs For Martyrs are Witnesses and no other Religion is capable of being attested in such a manner as the Christian Religion no other Religion was ever propagated by Witnesses who had seen and heard and been every way conversant in what they witnessed concerning the Principles of their Religion no Religion besides was ever preached by Men who after an unalterable Constancy under all kinds of Sufferings at last died for asserting it when they must of necessity have known whether it were true or false and therefore certainly knew it to be true or else they would never have suffered and died in that manner for it no other Religion was ever attosted from its first Propagation for several Hundreds of Years together by Men who had either seen the first Preachers themselves or had been acquainted with others who had seen them or had wrought Miracles and seen others work them no other Religion is contained in Books which were written at the first Propagation of it and dispers'd into all Countries in all Languages amongst all sorts of Men and especially amongst those who were most concerned and most able and desirous to disprove it if it had been false no Religion besides has by so weak and unlikely means prevailed over all the Power and Policy of the World none is in its Doctrin so agreeable to Reason and so worthy of God for its Author and none has been delivered down with so clear a continued and uninterrupted Testimony through all Ages and conveyed by a succession of Testimonies to this present Age And therefore no other Religion can have Martyrs who can die in confirmation of such a Testimony as this or who can be Martyrs and Witnesses to it by assuring the World at their Death that they have received the Religion thus testified and confirmed for which they die It is not the bare asserting a thing boldly and then dying for it which makes a Martyr but the Qualifications necessary in a Witness are necessary in him that is that he should have all Opportunities needful to know the Truth as well as no Temptation to speak the contrary Which Qualifications were evident in the Apostles and first Martyrs whose Testimony is that upon which the Proof of our Religion is founded and the Martyrdoms of latter Ages are additional Testimonies which without the former would be insignificant but supposing them are all the Testimony that can be given to any matter of Fact at this distance of Time and are as much beyond the Sufferings in behalf of any other Religion as the Evidence of the Christian Religion is beyond the Evidence for all others It is not merely Zeal though it proceed even to Death and Martyrdom upon which we build our Faith but the Reasons which Christians have for their Zeal Divers Nations have been as earnest Assertors of their Fabulous Antiquities as others can be of theirs which are known to be true but are these ever the less or those ever the more true upon that account We insist upon it that we have Books to shew and clear Evidence to produce for what we maintain and these have been examined by many Men in every Age and compared with what is to be alleged in behalf of contrary Religions and Men of the greatest Learning and Judgment and Prudence have chosen to die rather than to renounce this Religion for any other after the nicest and most impartial Examination they could make Whereas the Zealots and Martyrs for the Religions which are contrary to Christianity must be acknowledged to be Men that understand nothing of Antiquity but are ignorant of the History of their several Religions and take all upon uncertain Report and absurd Traditions without any Proof or Possibility of it and even against manifest Reason and the Evidence of undoubted History So plain is it that the Zeal and Confidence of Men of false Religions and their willingness to die for them can be no prejudice to the Authority and Certainty of the true Religion The Enthusiasms and vain Notions and Conceits of some Zealots can be no more a Prejudice to the Truth and Reality of our Religion than it is an Argument against the Truth and Certainty of Human Reason that there are so many Fools and Madmen in the World CHAP. XXXII That Differences in Matters of Religion are no Prejudice to the Truth and Authority of it THere is nothing which has proved a a greater Snare and Scandal to weak Minds nor which gives the Enemies of Religion greater Advantage as they think against it than the Dissentions amongst Christians and the different Sects and Parties into which they are divided This makes some willing to conclude that there is no certainty on any side when they see equal Zeal and equal Confidence in Men of all Persuasions that contend for their several Opinions But St. Paul writes to the Corinthians that there must be not only Divisions but Heresies also and not only that they must be but that they are not without their use and expediency in the Church They are so far from being any real Prejudice to the Truth and Certainty of Religion that they do indeed conduce to manifest the Excellency of it and the Sincerity of those that profess it For there must be also Heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you 1 Cor. xi 19. From whence I shall shew I. That Differences in matters of Religion must be among Christians unless God should miraculously and irresistibly interpose to prevent them II. That it is not necessary nor expedient that God should thus interpose III. That these Differences how great and how many soever they be even the worst of Schisms and Heresies are no prejudice to the Truth and Authority of Religion I. That Differences in matters of Religion must be among
Man is without doubt a necessary and most valuable Part of Learning But it must be confess'd that there is hardly any thing more impertinent than an impertinent Critick It is a great thing if it be well consider'd to set the Bounds and fix the Territories of Learning to adjudge to every Author his own Works and say that this Book or perhaps some small Part of a Book shall be his and the other he shall have nothing to do withal This is no trivial Matter nor of small Consequence and ought not to be at the pleasure of any one who has a mind to be taken notice of for contradicting the receiv'd Opinion and being more confident than others And the less Occasion there is for these Criticks the more Danger there is from them for if there be no Work for them they will be apt to make themselves Work And what Author will be able to stand before Men whose Business and Ambition it is to find Fault But though the Jurisdiction of Criticks be very large and absolute Yet I have taken care not to come under it but have purposely avoided insisting upon any Authorities which have faln under their Disputes unless it be perhaps in speaking of the Sibyls but there I have the Consent of the best Criticks besides evident Reason on my side so far as I am concern'd for them 4. A Pretence to Miracles and Prophecies without Reason or Ground for it in behalf of some particular Errors has weaken'd the Belief of the True Miracles and Prophecies And whilst laborious Endeavours have been us'd to shew that the Christian Religion cannot be true unless those Doctrines be true which have no Foundation in it the quite contrary has happen'd to what in Charity we must suppose these Authors design'd For instead of owning their Religion to be true Men who are convinc'd of the Weakness of their Pretences have taken them at their Word and have been forward to grant them That there is no Religion True and therefore not theirs 5. I shall shew at large in due time That the many Differences and Disputes in Religion are no prejudice to the Truth and Certainty of it but they are notwithstanding a great scandal and temptation and a great hindrance to the Salvation of Men especially as they are commonly managed whilst by all imaginable Arts and Means Men of different Parties and Opinions strive to run down their Adversaries Those who are concerned would do well I should think to consider what mischief may ensue through the imprudent and unchristian management of Disputes even in a right Cause which has no need of such methods and therefore they are the less excusable who use them in defence of such a Cause If we would convince or persuade Men in any other thing we never are wont to think it a proper expedient to use them ill and give them hard words And is rough Vsage proper only for the propagation of the Doctrines of the Gospel and of a Religion of Peace and Meekness and Charity I know what Examples may be produced to countenance this Practice but those great Authors have Excellencies enough for our imitation we need not imitate their Faults Our Blessed Saviour indeed himself and his Apostles did not always forbear severe language but then they spoke with a Divine Power and Authority and knew how to speak to the Hearts as well as to the Ears of Men and fully perceived when this was the last and only Remedy to be used they could strike dead with their Words and were infallible in the use of such Expressions as were proper for the present occasion either to comfort or to terrifie Sinners and awaken them to Repentance There is no doubt but a seasonable Reproof or Rebuke though it be very severe may be not only consistent with Charity but may also be the Effect of it and if ever we may speak with the Power and Authority as well as in the meekness and gentleness of Christ we must do it when the Truth of the Christian Religion is called in question and that by Christians We live in an Age in which Men think they have done a great thing and enough for them to value themselves upon if they can but start a bold Objection against the Scriptures though it have never so little sence in it We have sufficient warrant to treat these Men as they deserve for the Apostles were commanded according to a Custom in use amongst the Jews to shake off the dust off their feet against such as rejected their Doctrine and the least we can say to them is to let them know that if they will not believe we are sorry for it but cannot help it and that they will have the worst of it Mr. Hobbs himself will allow that an Atheist ought to be banish'd as a Publick Mischief and scarce any Terms can be too severe for those who openly apostatize from the Religion in which they have been baptized and blaspheme that Holy Name by which they are called We must not so debase the Gospel of Christ as to seem to beg their Approbation which I 'm sure we have little need of in the present case I am far from thinking any thing small or inconsiderable in which the Honour of God and the Truth of Religion is concern'd but certainly a great distinction is to be made between them from whom we differ in particular Points though of great moment and consequence and those who rejct the Whole Our chief Zeal and Strength should be employed against the Common Enemies who delight in our Quarrels and sport themselves with the mutual Wounds we so freely give one another 9. We have a sort of Men amongst us who from hence have taken occasion to make it their whole Business both by their Discourses and Writings to laugh all Religion and Morality out of the World which has made our very Wit to degenerate though this be the only thing for which these Men seem to value themselves and our Poems with all their soft Numbers and flowing Style to be far from deserving Commendation for this way of Writing is as much against the Rules of Poetry as against those of Vertue and they can never answer it to their own Art whatever they may do to their Consciences but ought to be censured for being ill Poets as well as ill Men. A fine Saying a soft or bold Expression or a pretty Character is this all we have in exchange for our Reason and Religion which these Men have so laboriously decryed Some of the best Poets of our Age have been so sensible of the Dishonour hereby done to God the Disservice to Mankind and the Disgrace to so Noble an Art that they have employed their Genius a better way But the extravagant Raillery against Religion has been the more licentious and the more frequent not only because it has met with Applause from so many who are none of the wisest part of Mankind but
demure Pretenders to Humane Reason and Moral Vertue and the Enemies of Revealed Religion We are fallen into an Age in which there are a sort of Men who have shewn so great a forwardness to be no longer Christians that they have catch'd at all the little Cavils and Pretences against Religion and indeed if it were not more out of charity to their own Souls than for any credit Religion can have of them it were great pity but they should have their Wish for they both think and live so ill that it is an argument for the goodness of any Cause that they are against it It was urged as a confirmation of the Christian Riligion by Tertullian that it was haved and persecuted by Nero the worst of Men And I am confident it would be but small Reputation to it in any Age if such Men should be found of it They speak evil of the things they understand not and are wont to talk with as much confidence against any point of Religion as if they had all the Learning in the World in their keeping when commonly they know little or nothing of what has been said for that against which they dispute They seem to imagine that there is nothing in the World besides Religion that has any difficulty in it but this shews how little they have considered the Nature of Things in which multitudes of Objections and Difficulties meet an observing Man in every Thought And after all Religion has but one fault as they account it which they have been able to discover in it and that is that it is too good and vertuous for them for when they have said all they can this is their great quarrel against it and as it has been truly observed no charity less than that of the Religion which they despise would have much care or consideration for them Thus have some Men dishonoured Religion by their Lives some by an affectation of Novelty some by invalidating the Authority of Books relating true Miracles and Prophecies and others by forging false ones some again by their too eager and imprudent Disputes and Contentions about Religion whilst from hence others have taken the liberty to ridicule it and to dispute against it but so as to expose themselves whilst they would expose Religion And thus has the clearest and most necessary Truth been obscured and despised whilst it has been betrayed by the vanity and quarrels of its Friends to the scorn and weakness of its Enemies However in all their opposition and contradiction to Revealed Religion I find it asserted by these Men that Atheism is so absurd a thing that they question whether there ever were or can be an Atheist in the World I have therefore here proved from the Attributes of God and the Grounds of Natural Religion that the Christian Religion must be of Divine Revelation and that this Religion is as certainly true as it is that God Himself exists which is the plainest Truth and the most universally acknowledged of any thing whatsoever And because there is nothing so true or certain but something may be alledged against it I shall besides discourse upon such Heads as have been most excepted against In which I shall endeavour to prove the Truth in such a manner as to vindicate it against all Cavils though I shall not take notice of particular Objections which is both a needless and indeed an endless labour for there is no end of Cavils but if the Truth be well and fully explained any Objection may receive a sufficient Answer from the consideration of the Doctrine against which it is urged by applying it to particular Difficulties as one Right Line is enough to demonstrate all the variations from it to be Crooked It is very easie to cavil and find fault with any thing and to start Objections and ask Questions is even to a Proverb esteemed the worst sign that can be of a great Wit or a sound Judgment Men are unwilling to believe any thing to be true which contradicts their Vices and the weakest Arguments with strong Inclinations to a Cause will prove or disprove whatever they have a mind it should But let Men first practise the Vertues the Moral Vertues which our Religion enjoins and then let them disprove it if they can nay let them disprove it now if they can for it stands in no need of their favour but for their own sakes let them have a care of mistaking Vices for Arguments and every profane Jest for a Demonstration I wish they would consider whether the Concern they have to set up Natural against Revealed Religion proceed not from hence that by Natural Religion they mean no more than just what they please themselves or what they judge convenient in every case or occasion whereas Revealed Religion is a fix'd and determined thing and prescribes certain Rules and Laws for the Government of our Lives The plain truth of the matter is that they are for a Religion of their own contrivance which they may alter as they see sit but not for one of Divine Revelation which will admit of no change but must always continue the same whatever they can do Vnless that were the case there would be little occasion to trouble them with Books of this kind for the Arguments brought against the Christian Religion are indeed so weak and insignificant that they rather make for it and it might well be said as M. Paschal relates by one of this sort of Men to his Companions If you continue to dispute at this rate you will certainly make me a Christian I shall venture at least to say of this Treatise in the like manner as he doth of his That if these Men would be pleased to spend but a little of that time which is so often worse employed in the perusal of what is here offered I hope that something they may meet withal which may satisfie their Doubts and convince them of their Errors But though they should despise whatever can be said to them yet there are others besides the profess'd Adversaries of Revealed Religion to whom a Treatise of this nature may be serviceable The truth is notwistanding the great Plainness of the Christian Religion I cannot but think that Ignorance is one chief cause why it is so little valued and esteemed and its Doctrines so little obeyed A great part of Christians content themselves with a very slight and imperfect Knowledge of the Religion they profess and are able to give but very little Reason for that which is the most Reasonable thing in the World but they profess it rather as the Religion of their Country than of their own choice and because they find it contradicts their sensual Desires they are willing to believe as little of it as may be and when they hear others cavil and trifle with it partly out of Ignorance and partly from Inclination they take every idle Objection if it be but bold enough for an unanswerable
worought to confirm any sound and useful Doctrine The Confession of the False Gods when they were adjur'd by Christians p. 401. CHAP. IV. The Defect in point of Doctrine in the Heathen Religions The Theology of the Heathens absurd p. 403. Their Religious Worship wicked and impious p. 405. Humane Sacrifices customary in all Heathen Nations p. 406. No Body of Laws nor Rules of Good Life proposed by their Oracles p. 402. But Idolatry and Wickedness approved and recommended by them ibid. CHAP. V. Of the Philosophy of the Heathens The Heathen Philosophy very defective and erroneous p. 411. Whatever there is of Excellency in the Philosophy of the Heathens is owing to Revelation p. 423. If the Heathen Philosophy had been as certain and as excellent as it can be pretended to be yet there had been great need of a Divine Revelation p. 429 CHAP. VI. The Novelty and Defect in the Promulgation of the Mahometan Religion p. 436. CHAP. VII The want both of Prophecies and Miracles in the Mahometan Religion p. 439 CHAP. VIII The Alcoran is false absurd and immoral p. 441 CHAP. IX Of Mahomet That he was Lustful Proud and Cruel appears from the Alcoran it self p. 443 PART IV. CHAP. I. THat there is as great Certainty of the Truth of the Christian Religion as there is of the Being of God p. 447 CHAP. II. The Resolution of Faith The Scriptures considered 1. As Historically true 2. As to their Doctrine which concerns Eternal Salvation p. 451 452. From both these Considerations it follows that they are infallibly True p. 455. In many cases there is as much cause to believe what we know from others as what we see and experience our selves p. 456. And thus it is in the present case concerning the Resolution of Faith p. 460. The Evidence of Sense and of Humane Testimony in this case compared p. 462. The Certainty of both ultimately resolved into the Divine Veracity c. ibid. An Objection from Joh. xx 29. answered p. 467. The Truth of the Christian Religion evident even to a Demonstration p. 470 Newly Publish'd CHristian Thoughts for every Day in the Month with Reflections upon the most Important Truths of the Gospel To which is added Prayers for every Morning and Evening Price 1 s. A Course of Lectures upon the Church Catechism By Thomas Bray D. D. The Third Edition Price 5 s. Very proper to be read in Families A Minister's Counsel to the Youth of his Parish when Arrived to Years of Discretion Recommended to the Societies in and about London By Francis Bragge Vicar of Hitchin Hertfordshire Price 2 s. THE REASONABLENESS AND CERTAINTY OF THE Christian Religion BOOK I. PART I. IN Discoursing of the Reasonableness and Certainty of the Christian Religion I shall use this Method I. I shall shew That from the Notion of a God it necessarily follows That there must be some Divine Revelation II. I shall enquire into the Way and Manner by which this Revelation may be suppos'd to be deliver'd and preserv'd in the World III. I shall shew That from the Notion of a God and the Nature and Design of a Divine Revelation it follows That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are that Divine Revelation IV. That no other Books or Doctrines whatsoever can be of Divine Revelation V. I shall from hence give a Resolution of our Faith by shewing That we have the same Evidence for the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures that we have for the Being of God himself because it follows from the Notion of a God both that there must of necessity be some Divine Revelation and that the Scriptures are that Divine Revelation VI. Having done this I shall in the last Place endeavour to clear such Points as are commonly thought most liable to Exception in the Christian Religion and shall propose some Considerations which may serve to remove such Objections and obviate such Cavils as are usually rais'd against the Holy Scriptures CHAP. I. That from the Notion of a God it necessarily follows that there must be some Divine Revelation IN the first Place I shall shew how Reasonable and Necessary it is to suppose That God should Reveal himself to Mankind And I shall insist the rather upon this because it is not usually so much consider'd in this Controversie as it ought to be for if it were it certainly would go very far towards the proving the Divine Authority of the Scriptures since if it be once made appear that there must be some Divine Revelation it would be no hard Matter to prove that the Scriptures are that Revelation For if it be prov'd that there must be some Revealed Religion there is no other which can bear any Competition with that contain'd in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament My first Business therefore shall be to shew from the Consideration of the Attributes of God and of the Nature and State of Mankind that in all Reason we cannot but believe that there is some Revealed Religion in the World There is nothing more evident to Natural Reason than that there must be some Beginning some first Principle of Being from whence all other Beings proceed And nothing can be more absurd than to imagine that that wonderful Variety of Beings in the Heavens and Earth and Seas which all the Wisdom of Man is not able in any Measure to understand or throughly to search into should yet be produc'd and continu'd for so many Thousand Years together without any Wisdom or Contrivance that an unaccountable Concourse of Atoms which could never build the least House or Cottage should yet build and sustain the wonderful Fabrick of the whole World that when the very Lines in a Globe or Sphere cannot be made without Art the World it self which that is but an imperfect Imitation of should be made without it and that less Skill should be requir'd to the forming of a Man than is necessary to the making of his Picture that Chance should be the Cause of all the Order and Fortune of all the Constancy and Regularity in the Nature of Things and that the very Faculties of Reason and Understanding in all Mankind should have their Original from that which had no Sense or Knowledge but was meer Ignorance and Stupidity This is so far from being Reason and Philosophy that it is down-right Folly and Contradiction From a Being therefore of infinite Perfection must proceed all things that are besides with all their Perfections and Excellencies and among others the Virtues and Excellencies of Wisdom Justice Mercy and Truth must be deriv'd from him as the Author of all the Perfections of which the Creatures are capable And it is absurd to imagine that the Creator and Governor of the World who is infinitely more Just more Wise and Good and Holy than any Creature can be will not at last reward the Good and punish the Wicked For Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do Right
to the Simplicity of the Gospel and to the universal Design of it For they are equally adapted to awaken the Attention and command the Assent of Men of all Conditions and Capacities they are obvious to the most Ignorant and may satisfie the wisest and confute or silence the Cavils of the most Captious or Contentious And this is what all the World ever expected That God should Reveal himself to Men by working somewhat above the Course of Nature All Mankind have believ'd that this is the way of Intercourse between Heaven and Earth and therefore there never was any of the false Religions but it was pretended to have been confirm'd by something miraculous We may appeal to the Sense of all Nations for the Authority of Miracles to attest the Truth of Religion For whenever any thing happen'd extraordinary they always imagin'd something supernatural in it they expected that Miracles should be wrought for the Proof of any thing that had but the Name of Religion and no false Religion could have gain'd Belief and Credit in any Age or Nation but under the Pretence of them The only Difficulty therefore will be to know how to distinguish True Miracles from False or those which have been wrought for the Confirmation of the True Religion from such as have been done or are pretended to have been done in Behalf of False Religions But here it must be observ'd That it is not necessary in this Controversie that we should be able to determine what the Power of Spirits is or how far it extends and what Works can proceed only from the immediate Power of God It is sufficient that we know that God precides over all that Good Spirits act in constant Subjection and Obedience to him that Evil Spirits act for Evil Ends that Good Spirits will not impose upon Men and that he will not suffer the Evil to do it under any Pretence of his own Authority without affording Means to discover the Delusion And the Question here is not concerning any strange Work whereof God is not alledged to be the Author but concerning such as are wrought with a profess'd Design to establish Religion in his Name Suppose then that there have been many Wonders wrought in the World which exceed all Humane Power and which yet we know not to what other Power to ascribe This makes no Difficulty in the present Case because here not only the Works themselves but the Design and Tendency of them is to be consider'd For Instance Whether the Miracles reported to have been done by Vespasian were true or false by a Divine or a Diabolical Power they are of no Consequence to us he establish'd no new Doctrine and pretended to no Divine Authority but doubted the Possibility of his working them And supposing them true and by a Divine Power the most that can be said of them is that as God mention'd Cyrus by Name to be the Deliverer of the Jews so he might by Miracle signalize this Prince who was to destroy them But the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles were wrought with this declar'd Purpose and Design That they were to give Evidence to the Religion which they were sent from God to introduce as necessary to the Salvation of Mankind Having premis'd this I must resume what was before observ'd concerning the Means by which false Prophecies might be detected It has been already prov'd from the Notion of a God that there must be some Divine Revelation and it has been shewn That Prophecies and Miracles are the most fit and proper way of Revelation and that way which Men have ever expected to receive Revelations by If then there have been False Prophecies and Miracles they must be suppos'd to have been either before or at the same time or after those Prophecies and Miracles by which the True Religion was deliver'd if before or at the same time then the same Divine Wisdom and Goodness which obliges God to reveal his Will to Mankind must oblige him to take care that the Impostures of those false Prophecies and Miracles by some Means might have been discover'd But there is great Reason to believe that true Revelations should be first made to Men before God would suffer them to be tempted with false ones and if the false were after the true Revelations then the true Revelations themselves are that by which we ought to judge of all others But to speak more particularly of Miracles which are the present Subject It is inconsistent with the Infinite Truth and Honour and Goodness and Mercy of God to suffer Man to be deluded by false Miracles wrought under a Pretence of his own Authority without any possibility of discovering the Imposture And therefore if we should suppose there had past any time before the Discovery of his Will to Mankind he could not suffer Men but through their own Fault to be impos'd upon by such Miracles but either by the false and wicked Doctrines which they were brought to promote and establish as Idolatry Uncleanness Murders c. or by some other Token of Imposture they might have been undeceiv'd and both in the Old and New Testament God has given us Warning against false Miracles Deut. xiii 1. Mat. xxiv 24. Gal. i. 8. so that we may be assur'd that we are to give no Credit to any Miracle that can be wrought to confirm any other Doctrine than what we find in the Scriptures and if we can but be certify'd that they were true Miracles which gave Testimony and Evidence to them we need concern our selves about no other And the Miracles by which the Scriptures are confirm'd and authoriz'd must be true because there is no precedent Divine Revelation which they contradict nor any immoral or false Doctrine which they deliver nor any thing else contain'd in them whereby they can be prov'd to be false And in this Case that which all the Wit and Understanding of Men cannot prove to be false must be true or else God would suffer his own Name and Authority to be usurp'd and abus'd and Mankind to be impos'd upon in a thing of infinite Consequence without any Possibility of discovering the Imposture which it is contrary to the Divine Attributes for him to permit but either by the Works themselves or by the End and Design of them or by some Means or other the Honour and Wisdom and Mercy of God is concern'd to detect all such Impostures If Miracles be wrought to introduce the Worship of other Gods besides him whom Reason as well as Scripture assures us to be the only True God if they be done to seduce Men to immoral Doctrines and Practices if they be perform'd to contradict the Religion already confirm'd by Miracles in which nothing of this Nature could possibly be discover'd if never so astonishing Miracles be wrought for such ill Designs as these they are not to be regarded but rejected with that Constancy which becomes a Man who will act according to the
Principles of Natural Reason and Religion But when Miracles were perform'd which both for the End and Design of them as well as for the Manner and Circumstances of their Performance had all the Credibility that any Miracle could have if it were really wrought by God's immediate Power to confirm a Revelation if these Miracles have been foretold by Prophecies as on the other side the Prophecies were fulfill'd by the Miracles if they were done publickly before all sorts of Men and that often and by many Men successively for divers Ages together and all agreed in the same Doctrine and Design if neither the Miracles themselves nor the Doctrines which are attested by them can be discover'd to have any Deceit or Defect in them but be most excellent and divine and most worthy of God in such a Case we have all the Evidence for the Truth of the Miracles and of the Religion which they were wrought to establish that we can have for the Being of God himself For if these Miracles and this Religion be not from God we must suppose either that God cannot or that he will not so reveal himself by Miracle to the World as to distinguish his own Revelation from Impostures Both which Suppositions are contrary to the Divine Attributes contrary to God's Omnipotence because he can do all things and therefore can exceed the Power of all finite Beings and contrary to his Honour and Wisdom and Goodness because these require both that he should reveal himself to the World and that he should do it by Miracles in such a manner as to make it evident which is his Revelation But if he both can and will put such a Distinction between False Miracles and True as that Men shall not except it be by their own Fault be seduc'd by false Miracles then that Religion which is confirm'd by Miracles concerning which nothing can be discover'd to be either impious or false must be the true Religion For we have seen that there must be some Reveal'd Religion and that this Religion must be reveal'd by Miracle and we have the Goodness and Truth and Justice of God engag'd that we should not be impos'd upon by false Miracles without being able to discern the Imposture And therefore that Religion which both by its Miracles and Doctrine and Worship appears to be Divine and could not be prov'd to be false if it were so must certainly be true because the Goodness and Honour of God is concern'd that Mankind in a Matter of this Consequence should not be deceiv'd without their own Fault or Neglect by Impostures vented under his own Name and Authority Upon which account the Sin against the Holy Ghost in ascribing the Miracles wrought by Christ to Belzebub was so heinous above all other Crimes this being to reject the utmost Means that can be us'd for Man's Salvation and in Effect to deny the Attributes and very Being of God The Summ of this Argument is That though Miracles are a most fit and proper Means to prove the Truth of Religion yet they are not only to be consider'd alone but in Conjunction with other Proofs and that they must necessarily be true Miracles or Miracles wrought to establish the true Religion when the Religion upon the account whereof they are wrought cannot be discover'd to be false either by any Defect in the Miracles or by any other Means but has all the Marks and Characters of Truth Because God would not suffer the Evidence of Miracles and all other Proofs to concur to the Confirmation of a false Religion beyond all Possibility of discovering it to be so 3. How Divine Revelations may be suppos'd to be preserv'd in the World It is reasonable to suppose that Divine Revelations should be committed to Writing that they might be preserv'd for the Benefit of Mankind and deliver'd down to Posterity and that a more than ordinary Providence should be concern'd in their Preservation For whatever has been said by some of the Advantage of Oral Tradition for the Conveyance of Doctrines beyond that of Writing is so notoriously fanciful and strain'd that it deserves no serious Answer For till Men shall think it safest to make Wills and bequeath and purchase Estates by Word of Mouth rather than by Instruments in Writing it is in vain to deny that this is the best and securest way of Conveyance that can be taken So the common Sense of Mankind declares and so the Experience of the World finds it to be in things which Men take all possible Care about and it is too manifest and much to be lamented that Men are more sollicitous about things Temporal than about Eternal which affords too evident a Confutation of all the Pretences of the Infallibility of Oral Tradition upon this Ground That the Subject Matter of it are things upon which the Eternal Happiness or Misery of Mankind depends Now go write it before them in a table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever Isa xxx 8. 4. It is requisite that a Divine Revelation should be of great Antiquity Because upon the same Grounds that we cannot think that God would not at all Reveal himself to Mankind we cannot suppose that he would suffer the World to continue long under a State of Corruption and Ignorance without taking some Care to remedy it by putting Men into a Capacity of knowing and practising the Duties of Vertue and Religion 5. Another requisite of a Divine Revelation is that it should be fully promulg'd and publish'd to the World for the general Good and Benefit of Mankind that it may attain the Ends for which a Revelation must be design'd THE Reasonableness and Certainty OF THE Christian Religion PART II. FROM what has been already Discours'd it appears That these Things are requisite in a Divine Revelation I. Antiquity II. Promulgation III. A sufficient Evidence by Prophecies and Miracles in Proof of its Authority IV. The Doctrines deliver'd by Divine Revelation must be Righteous and Holy consistent with the Divine Attributes and suitable to their Condition to whom it is made and every way such as may answer the Design of a Revelation CHAP. I. The Antiquity of the Scriptures AS it is evident from the Divine Attributes that God would not so wholly neglect Mankind as to take no Care to discover and reveal his Will and Commandments to the World so when there was so great a Necessity of Divine Revelation in order to the Happiness of Mankind both in this World and the next it is not to be believed that he would defer it so long before he made known his Will as till the Date of the first Antiquities amongst the Heathen It cannot be deny'd that some Books of the Seripture are much the Ancientest Books of Religion in the World for it were in vain to pretend that the Works in this kind or indeed in any other of any Heathen Author can be compar'd with
of the World had the true Religion brought home to them by the Patriarchs who were sent from place to place to sojourn to be a Pattern and Example to the rest of Mankind And Men who travell'd so far and conversed with so many Nations and were so zealous for God's Honour and had such frequent Revelations and the immediate Direction of God himself in most of the Actions of their Lives and who were so Great and Powerful and so Numerous must needs mightily propagate Religion where-ever they came and leave the Idolaters without excuse and it cannot be doubted but that they had great success in all places for even out of Aegypt where they endured the greatest hardship and were in such contempt and hatred yet a mix'd multitude went up also with them besides the Native Israelites Exod. xii 38. And as Chaldaea and Aegypt were famous for Learning and Commerce and proper Places by their situation from whence the Notions of Religion might be propagated both towards the East and West to other Parts of the World so I must again observe that God's Mercy was particularly manifested towards the Canaanites before their Destruction The Example of Melchizedeck who reigned among them and the sojourning of Abraham and Lot and Isaac and Jacob not to mention Ishmael and Esau with their numerous Famllies afforded them continual Invitations and Admonitions for their Instruction and Amendment especially the Judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah and the miraculous Deliverance of Lot was enough to strike an Awe and Terrour into the most Obdurate But when they would not make any due use of these Mercies when they persisted still in their Impieties and proceeded in them till they had filled up the measure of their Iniquities God made them an Example to others after they would take no Warning themselves yet still executing his judgments upon them by little and little he gave them place of repentance not being ignorant that they were a naughty generation and that their malice was bred in them and that their cogitation would never be changed Wisd xii 10. How much the true Religion prevailed by these Dispensations of Providence among other Nations besides the Hebrews we have an illustrious Instance in Job and his Friends who were Princes in their several Dominions they had knowledge of the Fall of the Angels Job iv 18. and of the Original Corruption of Man which is expressed with this emphasis that he cannot be clean or righteous who is born of a woman because by Eve's Transgression Sin came into the World Job xiv 1. xv 14. and xxv 4. Adam is mention'd chap. xxxi 33. the Resurrection is described chap. xiv 12. and it appears that Revelations were vouchsafed to these Nations chap. xxxiii 15. It appears that the Fundamentals of Religion were known Doctrines amongst them and are therefore mention'd both by Job himself and by his Friends in as plain terms as may be and as fully as can be expected in a Book which is Poetical the nature whereof requires that known things should be alluded to but not so particularly related as in History And there is no doubt but the Propagation of Religion in other parts of the World would be as evident if the Scriptures had not occasionally only and in the Course of other things but of set purpose treated of this matter as me may gather from the footsteps to be found in Heathen Authors of what the Scriptures deliver to us and from the several Allusions and Representations in the Rites and Ceremonies of their Religions expressing though obscurely and confusedly the chief Points of the Scripture-story as has been shewn by divers learned Men. 2. In succeeding Ages after the giving the Law when the Jews by their Laws concerning Religion and Government may seem to have been wholly separated from the rest of the World and the Divine Revelations confined to one Nation there still were sufficient Means and frequent Opportunities for all Nations to come to the Knowledge of the Truth And here I shall shew 1. That the Law of Moses did particularly provide for the Instruction of other Nations in the Revealed Religion and that the Scriptures give frequent Commandment and Encouragment concerning it 2. That the Providence of God did so order and dispose of the Jews in their Affairs as to offer other Nations frequent Opportunities of becoming instructed in the true Religion and that multitudes of Proselytes were made of all Nations 1. The Law of Moses did particularly provide for the Instruction of other Nations in the Revealed Religion and the Scriptures give frequent Commandment and Encouragement concerning it The Strangers or Proselytes amongst the Jews were of two sorts for either they were such as became Circumcised and obliged themselves to the Observation of the whole Law of Moses who were styled Proselytes of Righteousness or of the Covenant or they were such as believed in the True God and professed only to observe the Precepts given to Noah which comprised the Substance of the Ten Commandments and these were called Proselytes of the Gates because they were permitted to live amongst them within their Gates these are the Strangers in their Gates mention'd Deut. xiv 21. who might eat of such thing 's as the Israelites themselves were forbidden to eat of If any would be Circumcised and undertake the Observation of the whole Law they had full liberty and the greatest encouragement to do it At the first Institution of Circumcision not only Abraham and his Seed but his whole Family and all that were bought with money of any Stranger were to be circumcised Gen. xvii 12 27. and at the Institution of the Passover the Stranger is commanded to observe it as well as the Natural Israelite Exod. xii 19. God made no distinction in the Institution of both these Sacraments between the Jews and those other Nations that dwelt amongst them and were willing to conform themselves to the Observation of the Law but first to Abraham when he appointed Circumcision and then to Moses when the Passover was instituted particular Order is given concerning Strangers or Proselytes who would betake themselves to them one law shall be to him that is home-born and to the stranger that sojourneth among you Exod. xii 49. Deut. xxix 11. And as the receiving the Seal of Circumcision was an admission into Covenant with God and implied an Obligation to observe the whole Law and a Right to the Privileges of it which was confirmed and renewed by their partaking of the Passover so it is to be observed not only that God did in general admit Strangers and Aliens to the same Worship with the Jews but that throughout their whole Law frequent mention is made of them and care taken for their Reception and Behaviour for though what is but once said in Scripture is a sufficient Proof of the Will and Pleasure of God in any matter yet when a thing is often mention'd and every where inculcated it is an
a Venerable Man of about Sixty six Years of Age of great Prudence and Experience and withal very Eloquent whom he knew and had conversed with was one amongst others who followed Ptolemaeus Lagi after the Battle at Gaza in which he overcame Demetrius Poliorcetes He mention'd likewise that Mosollamus a Jew marching with him when the rest made a stand by reason of a Bird which the Augur said portended ill Luck to them if they should march on shot that Bird in the sight of them all and defended what he had done by Argument And indeed the Jews wanted neither Zeal nor Wit nor Courage upon every occasion to appear in behalf of their own Religion against the Superstitions and Idolatries of the Heathen This Book of Hecataeus was extant in the time of Josephus and he referrs his Reader to it and he appeals to the Letters of Alexander the Great and of Ptolemaeus Lagi and the Kings of Aegypt his Successors in favour of the Jews When Ptolemaeus Lagi (k) Joseph Antiqu. l. 12. c. 1 2. took Jerusalem he transplanted the Jews in great multitudes into Aegypt putting many of them into his Garrisons and allowing them equal Priviledges with the Macedonians by which Encouragement many besides those whom he transported voluntarily went to dwell there And the Captives of that Nation set at liberty by Ptolemaeus Philadelphus were above 110000. And besides the signal Favours and Honours bestowed upon the Jews by Ptolemaeus Philadelphus who likewise caused the Holy Scriptures to be translated into the Greek Tongue which was an exceeding great furtherance to the Propogation of Religion Seleucus Nicanor granted them the freedom of Antioch and of the Cities which he had founded in Asia and the Lower Syria and these Priviledges remained to them till Josephus's time after all which the Jews had done to deserve to be deprived of them Antiochus the Great sent forth his Letters and Edicts which are to be seen in (l) Joseph Antiquit. l. 12. c. 3. Josephus in favour of the Jews more-especially in what related to their Religious Worship And Seleucus Son to this Antiochus after his Father's Example out of his own Revenues bore the Cost belonging to the Sacrisices 2 Mac. iii. 3. Antiochus Epiphanes himself at last under the avenging Hand of God upon him for all his impious Cruelties acknowledged himself punished for his Sacrilege and other Mischiefs committed at Jerusalem 1 Mac. vi 12 13. 2 Mac. ix 17. Antiochus Pius when he besieged Jerusalem (m) Ibid. l. 13. c. 16. not only granted a Truce for Seven Days during the Feast of Tabernacles but sent rich and noble Presents for Sacrifices and the City being delivered into his hands upon honourable Conditions with regard particularly to Religion Hyrcanus accompanied Antiochus in his Parthian Expedition and the Feast of Pentecost falling the Day after the Sabbath Antiochus stopt his Army those two Days for the sake of the Jews The Lacedaemonians claimed (n) 1 Mac. viii xii xiv 2 Mac. xi Joseph Antiqu l. 13. c. 9 13. l. 14. c. 16. Justin lib. 36. c. 3. Kindred with the Jews and both They and the Athenians and Romans enter'd into Leagues with them which from time to time were continued and renewed Josephus mentions a Pillar then standing at Alexandria containing the Priveledges (o) Joseph contr Ap. l. 2. granted to the Jews by Julius Caesar And when no other Religion was tolerated except those established by the Laws of the Empire the Jews only had Allowance for a free Exercise of their Religion even in Rome it self and for this and many other Edicts and Decrees of the Senate in favour of the Jews Josephus (p) Joseph Ant. quit l. 14. c. 16. l. 16. c. 4 5 10. l. i9 c. 4 6. appeals to the Tables of Brass then extant and preserved in the Capitol and other places in which they were engraven The Sufferings and Martyrdoms under the Maccabees and the Resolution and Constancy which they shewed upon all occasions in defence of their Religion rendred the Jews renowned over all Nations and besides their Conquests were very considerable and the Advantages which accrued to Religion by reason of them In the time of Hyrcanus (q) Joseph Antiquit. l. 13. c. 17. all Idumaea embraced the Jewish Religion Aristobulus having conquered great part of Ituraea caused all their Males (r) Ibid. l. 13. c. 19. to be circumcised and to observe the Law of Moses as Strabo testifies Under Alexander Father to Hyrcanus (s) Ibid. l. 13. c. 23. l. 14. c. 3. the Jews took twelve Cities from the Arabians and became possessed of many Cities in Syria Idumaea and Phenicia all which they brought over to the Possession of their own Religion and demolished Pella for refusing to embrace it The (t) See Mr. Mede's Discourse 12. Temple built by Sanballat for Manasses who had married his Daughter was an occasion of the Samaritans leaving their False Gods And after the building of the Temple in Aegypt the Babylonian Talmud says (u) Lightf Harmon p. 205. that the Jews there were double the number of those that came out from thence under Moses The Zeal of the Scribes and Pharisees though they were Hypocrites did exceedingly conduce to the propagation of their Religion for they compassed sea and land to make one Proselyte and so far they were to be commended but then they made him two-fold more the child of hell than themselves Mat. xxiii 15. yet still they taught the necessary Points of Doctrine though in Hypocrisie and with the mixtures of Superstition and our Saviour commands his Disciples to observe and do what they bid them but not to do after their works And it was required of the Fathers of the Sanhedrin (x) Lightf Excercit on 1 Cor. xiii 1. p. 783. that they should understand many Languages that the Sanhedrin might hear nothing by an Interpreter which qualified the Scribes and Pharisees who aspired to that Dignity to be the better able to make Proselytes The Jews were dispersed all over the World but chiefly seated themselves in Rome and Alexandria and Antioch the three chief Cities of the Empire in all which they had great and peculiar Priviledges and in Alexandria they had Magistrates of their own (y) Joseph Antiquit. l. 14. c. 12. and lived under a peculiar Government by themselves Never any other Nation had such various Changes and Revolutions to mix them with the rest of the World and never any People were so industrious and zealous and so succesful in the propogation of their Religion They had their Proseuchae and their Synagogues for Divine Worship and for Reading and Explaining the Scriptures which Men of all Religions were admitted to hear in all places where-ever they dwelt and in Aegypt they had a (z) Joseph Bell. Jud. l. 7. c. 30. Temple like that at Jerusalem built by Onias which continued for the space of Three hundred and forty three Years
Matthew only has written it of himself For it was the opinion not only of Eusebius (b) Euseb Demonst lib. iii. c. 5. Orig. contra Cels lib. i. Heraci apud Clem. Alex. stro lib. 4. Grot. ad Mat. ix 9. but of Origen and of Heracleon that St. Matthew and Levi mentioned Mark ii 14. Luke v. 27. were two different persons and Grotius is of the same opinion Or if Matthew and Levi were the same person St. Mark writes that Jesus sat at meat in Levi's house and St. Luke that Levi made him a great Feast in his own house but St. Matthew says only as Jesus sat at meat in the house not mentioning in whose house though he omits nothing that the others set down but the mention of his own Hospitality In St. Mark 's Gospel (c) Tertull adv Marc. lib. iv c. 5. which was written from the account that that Evangelist had from St. Peter when St. Peter answered our Saviour that he was the Christ no further is said of our Saviour's reply but that he charged them that they should tell no man of him Mark viii 30. St. Peter omitting that honourable character given him by our Saviour and the Power of the Keys bestowed upon that occasion which is at large related by St. Matthew Mat. xvi 16. But immediately after St. Peter's behaviour towards our Saviour is fully related which was so unseemly as that he began even to rebuke Christ for speaking of his sufferings and extorted that severe rebuke from meekness it self Get thee behind me Satan This St. Peter has left written of himself by St. Mark who wrote by the approbation and direction of St. Peter but the honourable part is past over in silence though belonging to the same time and place So again the Denial of St. Peter is related in all its circumstances of aggravation by St. Mark as well as by St. Matthew and St. John Matt. xxvi Mark xiv John xviii He acquaints us that without any Torments or Menaces or the least compulsion at the bare question of a poor Maid he denying his Master and that he denied him thrice and the last time even with Oaths and Imprecations A Man that delivers these things of himself plainly shews that he is so far from all vanity and seeking his own praise that he can be supposed to have no other aim or design but to declare the Truth to the Glory of God and the benefit of Mankind tho it prove to be never so much to his own disgrace And they relate that as soon as our Saviour was apprehended all his Disciples forsook him and fled when they might have been able to have Witnessed in his behalf and to have confronted Judas who they might well believe would have turned his Accuser after he had betrayed him But St. Peter soon repented and both he and St. John took courage and returned to see what became of their Master and both St. Peter's denial and their leaving their Master thus in his distress might never have been known unless they had discovered it themselves The Reproofs and sometimes very severe Reprehensions which were given them by Christ could never have come to our knowledge but by their own information as that they were blamed for having little Faith Matt. xvi 8. no Faith Mark ix 19. that our Saviour upbraided them with unbelief and hardness of heart Mark vi 52. viii 17. xvi 14. for being foolish and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Luke xxiv 25. They declare that they were ambitious and emulous and fond of Temporal Honours that they had very wrong Notions of Christ and his Kingdom and they set forth at large how timorous and how difficult they were of belief and how very scrupulous and diffident of Christ's Resurrection St. Paul the great Apostle of the Gentiles as St. Peter was the Apostle of the Circumcision by his Disciple and Companion St. Luke has likewise left an account of himself which none but a sincere honest Man regardless of his own praise would ever have suffered to be given of him St. Luke says that the Witnesses against St. Stephen laid down their cloaths at a young mans feet whose Name was Saul Acts vii 58. and that he was consenting to St. Stephen's death which he repeats twice and once from St. Paul's own mouth in his Speech to the Jews Acts viii 1. xxii 20. He says that St. Paul made havock of the Church Acts viii 3. and breathing ouâ— threatnings and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord went unto the high Priest and desired of him Letters to Damascus Acts ix 1. These are not the words of one that had a design to dissemble or extenuate in favour of any one And out of a deep sense of this offence though it were committed ignorantly in unbelief St. Paul declares himself to be the least of the Apostles and not meet to be called an Apostle because he had persecuted the Church of God 1 Cor. xv 9. and at another time stiles himself less than the least of all Saints Eph. iii. 8. and chief of sinners 1 Tim. i. 15. ascribing all to the Power and Grace of God St. Luke relates that there was a sharp contention between St. Paul and St. Barnabas Acts xv 39. and St. Paul tells the Galatians that he had withstood St. Peter to the face Gal. ii 11 14. So plain it is that they did not act by any confederacy between themselves and that the Truth was dearer to them than any thing besides In the mean time the Apostles have left behind them little or no account of their journeyings and labours and sufferings only St. Paul mentions some things of himself upon a necessary occasion the rest we have from St. Luke and he speaks chiefly of St. Paul and of him only till his first coming to Rome and of St. Peter very little in comparison of the rest of the Apostles scarce any thing in particular so little design had they of propagating themselves a name to posterity St. Paul used all lawful compliances and he who when the honour of Religion was concerned made so stout opposition to St. Peter himself at other times when he might safely do it became all things to all men And he joyns others together with himself in the beginning of many of his Epistles 1 Cor. i. 1.2 Cor. i. 1. Gal. i. 1. Colos i. 1. 1 Thess i. 1.2 Thess i. 1. Philemon i. which was a great condescension and a kind of communicating his Authority to them whom he took as it were into commission with himself But when through the malice and insinuations of false Apostles he was forced to speak in his own defence he does it with great unwillingness and calls it folly and considence of boasting 2 Cor. xi 1 17. and if he must needs glory he will glory in the things which concern his infirmities 2 Cor. xi 30. And at the same time he confesses there was
Marcellin b. xxiii c. 1. Heathen Historian who was then living and wrote the History of those times and has shewn himself in no respect over favourable to the Christians but was a Soldier under Julian and had no inclination to say any thing that might seem to diminish his Character The Judgments also which befell several of the greatest Persecutors of the Christian Religion were so miraculous and so terrible as to extort a confession from some of them of God's Justice in their Punishment and to force them to re-call their persecuting Edicts and change them for others in favour of Christianity (h) Euseb Hist lib. viii c. 17. ix c. 10. Lactant de Mortib Persecut c. xxxiv 49. The Edicts of Maximianus and Maximin to this purpose are to be seen in Eusebius and (i) Hieron in Hab. c. iii. the Judgment upon Julian was so sudden and so remarkable that some of the Heathen cavilled that the God of the Christians had not shewn that Mercy and forbearance which they reported of him in it And when the Power of Miracles which came down on the day of Pentecost upon the Apostles and was continued in the Church after them thus manifested it self in opposition to the pretences both of the Jews and Heathens in such a manner as must provoke them to make all the discoveries they possibly could concerning it when it thus triumphed over all the Gods of the Heathens whilst its poor and persecuted Professors were under the feet of the Heathen Emperors and lay continually exposed to their cruelties and at the peril of their Lives proffered in publick Apologies by a miraculous Power or as the Apostle speaks by the Power and Demonstration of the Spirit to prove their own Religion true and theirs salse and its cruelest Persecutors were by miraculous Judgments forced to become its Protectors this was all that could be desired towards the fulfilling the Promise of our Saviour to his Apostles that they should become his Witnesses to all Nations But III. The Gospel could not have been thus propagated unless this Power of the Holy Ghost had been still further manifest by the courage and resolution and patience of the Apostles under their sufferings Our Saviour tells them that they should receive power after that the Holy Ghost was come upon them to become witnesses unto him both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and in Samaria these were the places where our Saviour himself had wrought his Miracles and where he had been hated and persecuted and at last crucified and there is reason to believe that the Apostles went not from Jerusalem and the parts adjacent (k) Euseb Hist lib. â— o. 18. till twelve years after his Ascention and when they had testified his Resurrection and Preached his Gospel to the Jews their work was not yet an end but they were to be his Witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the Earth and even thither several of them went fearing no dangers and being discouraged at no sufferings There is a natural boldness and courage in some men by which they are often carried both to do and to endure a great deal more than others but it was not so with the Apostles they were naturally very timorous and faint hearted they all forsook their Master and fled when he was first apprehended and then were very backward to believe his Resurrection and when they and the rest of the Disciples were convinced of it they did not preach is to others but after he had been seen of them forty days and discoursed with them of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God they still had mistaken notions and expectations concerning it when they therefore were come together they asked of him saying â—ord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel And when Christ was taken up from them into Heaven they stood gazing up after him not knowing what to think of it till two Angels admonished them that it was in vain for them to stand looking thus any longer and after his Ascention they staid ten days before they ventured to publish any thing of what had come to pass till on the day of Pentecost in a visible and audible manner the Holy Ghost descended upon them and quite changed their temper and of the most timorous made them the most couragious and resolute inspiring them with a Divine Vigor and presence of mind For of all their Miracles few seem to have been more wonderful than that firmness and constancy of mind which men so low and mean and abject and before so fearful as the Apostles were now shewed upon all occasions When our Saviour spoke to these his poor Disciples and commanded them to go and teach all Nations Matt. xxviii 19. it was such a command as no King nor Law-giver ever presumed to give in the height of all his Power and Greatness and when God himself sent Moses to the Children of Israel only Moses feared the success and would fain have declined the Message And how might the Disciples have replyed to our Saviour how shall we Preach to the Romans and dispute with the Graecians and discourse with the most remote and barbarous Nations who have been bred up in the knowledge only of our own Native Tongue How can we compel all Nations to forsake the worship of the Gods of their several Countries and to observe all things whatsoever we are commanded to teach them With what force of Eloquence are we fitted for such a design What hope can we have to succeed in an attempt to set up Laws in opposition to the Laws established for so many Ages in behalf of their own Gods What strength can we have to overcome such difficulties and to accomplish such an Enterprize But they made no objections our Saviour had conversed with them forty days after his Resurrection and now tells them that all Power is given unto him in Heaven and in Earth and he commands them not to depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father which saith he ye have heard of me Acts i. 4. And when the Holy Ghost was come they were endued by him with a courage and resolution almost as wonderful as the Miracles they wrought to perperform the great work which lay before them they were not in the least daunted at any dangers or torments or deaths but went on courageously in their Duty by the power and assistance of the Holy Ghost by whom they were enabled to bring the world to the obedience of the Gospel of Christ They opposed themselves to all the assaults of Men and Devils Nothing could now discourage them who before were so timorous and unbelieving the coming of the Holy Ghost down upon them wrought a mighty change in them who were to work as great an alteration in all the world besides St. Peter standing with the Eleven lift up his voice he spoke with wonderful Resolution and the rest stood by to bear witness to
patience which was necessary for men that were to declare an ungrateful and despised truth amongst those who would think themselves so much concerned to oppose and suppress it If they had wrought no Miracles their courage and resolution might have pass'd for a groundless confidence and if they had not had the courage to stand so resolutely to the truth of what they delivered their Miracles themselves might have become suspected but acting by a Divine Power and being supported in all their sufferings by a supernatural constancy and greatness of Mind and being so suddenly changed and raised above themselves in all they did or suffered and working the same change in others they gave all the evidence and certainty of the truth of the Doctrines they taught that it was possible for men to give And as a power of working Miracles was derived from the Apostles down upon their Disciples so was the spirit of meekness and patience under afflictions communicated to them And it is observable that God was pleased not to raise up any Christian Emperor till above three hundred years after Christ that he might shew that the Religion which came from heaven could need no human aid nor be suppress'd by any human force and that he might recommend the great vertues of meekness and patience to the world by the examples men as eminent for these as for the Miracles they wrought and might instruct mankind in a suffering Religion For to assure the world of the truth of it he would not grant it protection from Christian Emperors till most of the Empire was become Christian and Christianity had diffused it self into all the known parts of the Earth For before the last Persecution begun by Dioclesian (l) Euseb Hist lib. viii c. 1. the Church flourished as much and had the favour of the Court and of great men in as high a degree almost as under Constantine himself till their Prosperity caused their sins and these brought Persecution But at last the persecuting Emperors were forced by a divine power manifested in miraculous diseases inflicted on them to restore the Christians to their former liberty in their worship of God that so it might appear to all the world that the Christian Religion needed no Patronage of men for God would compel its worst Enemies to become its Protectors when he saw it fitting And (m) Sozom lib. v. c. 16. when Julian made it his great aim and business to restore Paganism again in the world he saw to his grief how ineffectual all his endeavours proved he observed that the Christian Religion still retained a general esteem and approbation and that the Wives and Children and Servants of his own Priests themselves were most of them Christians If any one then upon a serious consideration of all circumstances can withstand the conviction of so great evidence I would only ask him whether he believes any History or relation of matters of fact which he never saw and desire him to shew what degrees of certainty he can discern in any of them which are are not to be found here and besides to consider that if in a vicious and subtile Age a Doctrine so contrary to flesh and blood by so weak and incompetent means could obtain so universally amongst men of all Tempers and Professions and Interests in all Nations of the world against so violent opposition without the help of Miracles this is as great a Miracle as can be conceived either therefore the Christian Religion was propagated by Miracles or it was not if it was then the Miracles by which it was propagated prove it to be from God if it was not propagated by Miracles the Propagation it self is a Miracle and sufficient to prove it to be from him CHAP. XVII Of the Writingâ— of the Apostles and Evangelists IT is justly esteemed a sufficient reason for the credibility of any History if it be written by men of Integrity men who have no suspicion upon them of dishonesty and have no Temptation to deceive and who relate nothing but of their own Times and within their own knowledge though the Authors never suffered any loss nor run any hazard in asserting what they deliver But the History of Christ has this further advantage that many of the most considerable things in it were done in the sight of his enemies and that which is an History to future Ages was rather an Appeal to that Age whether the things related were true or not The History of our Saviour's Life and Death and Resurrection and Ascension as it hath been proved was attested by his Apostles to the faces of his very Crucifiers and they all remained upon the place where what they witnessed had been done for several years afterwards declaring and preaching to all people the things which they had seen and heard And soon after his Ascension when all the proceedings against him were fresh in memory they committed the same to writing in Greek which was the most common language and generally known at that time St. Matthew who first penned his Gospel is said to have written it in Hebrew or Syriack tho it was soon after translated into Greek so that whover of the Jews did not understand the Greek tongue might read the Gospel in their own Language Not long after the other Gospels were penned and they were all in a short time dispersed into the several parts of the world and translated into all Languages It is particularly related (a) Eâ—iphan Haerâ—â— Ebion that St. John's Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles were soon translated into the Hebrew tongue The Evangelists give such an account both of the Birth and Death of our Saviour as must suppose them recorded at Rome For there the censual Tables were kept where by St. Luke's account the name of our Saviour must have been registered and his Death and Resurrection were so remarkable as they relate them that according to the custom used in the Government of the Roman Provinces the Emperor must have a relation sent him of them and as I have shewn both Justin Martyr and Tertullian appeal to the Roman Records for the truth both of the Birth and Resurrection of our Saviour The memory of the Massacre of the Infants by Herod is preserved to us by a saying of Augustus concerning Herod upon it (b) Macrob Saturnal lib. ii c. 4. which is mentioned in Macrobius a Heathen Author For Augustus was told that among others Herod had caused his own child to be slain which whether true or no gave occasion to the Emperor to make this observation that it was better to be Herod's Swine than his Son Tacitus mentions our Saviour's suffering under Pontius Pilate and Tertullian in his (c) Tertul. Apol. c. 21. Apology tells the Heathens that the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun which was at Christ's Death stood upon Record in their own Registers whether it were for the strangeness of the thing it being contrary to the course
a higher Principle than they did It is impossible for the wit of man to contrive any thing so admirably fitted to procure the happiness of Mankind as their Doctrines are no precepts can be more righteous and holy no rewards more excellent nor punishments more formidable than those of the Gospel and which is above all no Religion besides ever afforded nor could all the reason of Mankind ever have found out such powerful Motives to the Love of God which is the only true principle of Obedience Our Religion contains no dry and empty speculations but all its Mysteries are Mysteries of Love and Mercy Others may fear God but it is the Christian only that can truly love him and trust in him and in all conditions in Life and in death look up to him as his Father his Saviour and Comforter This Religion places men in the presence of God and entitles them to his peculiar favour and care it declares God to be their Friend and Protector here and their everlasting Rewarder after Death it promises and assures us of all the happiness both in Body and Soul that we are capable of which is the utmost that can be expected or wished for from any Revelation and the proper and peculiar reason why God should establish Religion in the World It appears from this whole discourse that nothing is wanting in the Books of the Old and New Testament which can be expected in any Revelation They are of the greatest Antiquity and have been Preached throughout the World and have abundant evidence both by Prophecies and Miracles of their Divine Authority and the Doctrine contained in them is such as God must be supposed to reveal Mankind having visible Characters in it of the Divine Goodness and Holiness and having exceedingly conduced to the reformation of the world THE Reasonableness and Certainty OF THE Christian Religion PART III. That there is no other Divine Revelation but that contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament THat there is no other institution of Religion besides that delivered in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament which has all things necessary to a Divine Revelation may be shewn in the several Particulars necessary to a Divine Revelation as that no other Religion ever was of like Antiquity or had equal Promulgation that no other had sufficient evidence of Miracles and Prophecies in proof of it and lastly that there never was any other which did not teach many Doctrines that are unworthy of God and contrary to the Divine Attributes and therefore impossible to come from Heaven This I shall prove first of the Religions of the Heathens secondly of the Mahometan Religion CHAP. I. The Novelty of the Heathen Religions THE Novelty of the Religions amongst the Heathens whom we have any certain account of from their Writings in respect of the Scriptures is so notorious having been so often proved by learned men and is so generally acknowledged that it is needless to insist much upon it The Heathens generally were strangers to every thing of Antiquity and therefore must be unable to give any proof of the Antiquity of their Religions The pretences which the Egyptians made to Antiquity so much beyond the times recorded in the Scriptures proceeded from their reckoning by Lunar years or (a) Diodor Sic. lib. i. Plutarch in Numa Var. apud Lactant. de Orig. Error lib. ii c. 12. months but they had so different accounts however of Chronology that as Diodorus Siculus says some of them computed thirteen thousand years more than others from the Original of their Dynasties to the time of Alexander the Great And the Solar year in use among the Egyptians who were most samous for Astronomy was so imperfect that they said the Sun had several times changed (b) Herod Euterpâ— his Course since the beginning of their Dynasties imputing the defect of their own computation for want of intercalary days to the Sun's variation or else affecting to speak something wonderful and extravagant The earliest Astronomical observations to be met with which were made in Egypt are those performed by the Greeks of Alexandria less than CCC years before Christ as (c) Mr. Wotton's Reflections upon ancient and modern Leâ—râ—ing c. 23. Mr. Halley has observed (d) Vitru◠〈…〉 4. The Chaldaeans supposed the Moon to be a luminons Body and therefore could have no great skill in Astronomy besides they wanted Instruments to make exact observations ' All we have of them says the same learned (e) Iâ— Mr. 〈◊〉 Reflect ib. Astronomer is only seven Eclipses of the Moon and even those but very coursely set down and the oldest not much above DCC years before Christ so that after all the fame of these Chaldaeans we may be sure they had not gone far in this Science and though Calisthenes be said by Porphyry to have brought from Babylon to Greece observations above MDCCCC years older than Alexander yet the proper Authors making no mention or use of any such renders it justly suspected for a Fable So little ground is there for us to depend upon the Accounts of Time and the vain boasts of Antiquity which these Nations have made He farther observes that the Greeks were the first Practical Astronomers who endeavoured in earnest to make themselves Masters of the Science and that Thales was the first who could predict an Eclipse in Greece not DC years before Christ and that Hipparchus made the first Catalogue of the fixt Stars not above CL. years before Christ According to that known observation (f) Censorin de Die Natali c. 21. of Varro there was nothing that can deserve the name of History to be found among the Greeks before the Olympiads which were but about twenty years before the building of Rome And whatever Learning or Knowledge of ancient times the Romans had they borrowed it from the Greeks For they were so little capable of transmitting their own affairs down to Posterity with any exactness in point of time that for (g) Id. c. 23. some Ages they had neither Dials nor Hour-glasses to measure their days and nights for by common use and for three hundred years they knew no such things as hours or the like distinctions but computed their time only from Noon to Noon so that it is no wonder that their Calendar was in such confusion till Caesar regulated it The pretensions of the Chineses to Antiquity appear equally vain and upon the same grounds For they understood little or nothing of Astronomy or else the Missionaries by their Skill in that Art would not have been able so much to insinuate themselves with the Emperors of China Indeed the Chineses themselves (h) Martin Hist Sin lib. i. ii Atl. Sinic Praef. Philip Couplet in Confuc Proen Declar. Praef. ad Fab. Chronol Sinicae Monarchiae Le Compt's Memoirs p. 64. 71. 464. confess that their Antiquities are in great part fabulous and they acknowledge
the Gods of other Nations did not worship them after their manner and yet the Rites of the Romans themselves in the worship of Cybele Flora Bacchus c. were very scandalous and wicked And all their sports and spectacles which had nothing surely in them that could be proper for Divine Worship were invented and performed in honour of their Gods (p) Quintil Institut lib. iii. c. 8. whence Quinctilian says the Theatre might be stiled a kind of Temple 3. But besides their bloody Spectacles where men were exposed to be killed by Beasts or by one another their Altars themselves were not free from humane Blood For the barbarous cruelty of the Religions amongst the Heathens was such that they were obliged to offer up innocent Men and Children in Sacrifice to their Deities Some of the Rabbins have been of opinion that Jephtha sacrificed his Daughter but others deny it (q) Utcunque autem seres ea habuerit id certum puto esse non reperiri apud Magistros qui ex jure aliquo immolandam eam esse affirmaveâ—it Selden de jure Nat. Gent. lib. iv c. 2. The â—aughters of israel went yearly to lament or to talk with 〈◊〉 as it is in the Margin Judg. xi 40. and all are agreed that if he did sacrifice her he sinned in doing it and we know that Abraham was hindred by a Miracle and a voice from Heaven when he was about to slay Isaac But it was a custom among the (r) Grot. ad Deutr. xviii 10. Phoenicians and Canaanites for their Kings in times of great calamity to sacrifice one of their Sons whom they loved best and it was common both with them and the Moabites and Ammonites to sacrifice their Children The Egyptians the Athenians and Lacedaemonians and generally all the Graecians the Romans and Carthaginians the Germans and Gauls and Britains and in brief all the Heathen Nations throughout the world offered up men upon their Altars and this not on certain emergencies and in imminent dangers only but constantly and in some places every day but upon extraordinary Accidents multitudes were sacrificed at once to their Bloody Deities (Å¿) Diodo Sic. apud Euseb de laudib Constant c. xiii Lanctant lib. i. c. 21. ex Piscennio Festo as Diodorus Siculus and others relate that in Africk two hundred Children of the principal Nobility were sacrificed to Saturn at one time And (s) Euseb Praepar lib. iv c. 16. Macrob. Saturn lib. i. c. 7. Alex. ab Alexand. lib. 6. c. ult Aristomenes sacrificed three hundred men together to Jupiter Ithometes one of whom was Theopompus King of the Lacedâ—emonians And the same custom is found practised amongst the Idolatrous Indians of offering whole Hecatombs of humane Sacrifices to their false Gods (t) Jos Acost Hist lib. 5. c. 19 21. In Peru when their new Ingra was crowned they sacrificed two hundred Children from four to ten years of Age And the Son was wont to be sacrificed for the Life of the Father when he was in danger of death Sometimes the Mexicans have sacrificed above five thousand of their captives in a day and in divers places above twenty thousand as Acosta writes out of the informations he had from the Indians (u) Liv. lib. xxii c. 57. Livy makes mention of Humane Sacrifices at Rome and (w) Plutarch in Marcello initio Plutarch says they continued in his time and it was not till about the time of Constantine's Reign that A final stop was put to so strange and Abominable a Practice for tho it abated very much under Adrian yet it was used when Minutius Felix wrote and (x) Lact. lib. 1. c. 21. Lanctantius mentions it as not laid aside in his time Notwithstanding it is so much against humane Nature as well as contrary to the Divine Mercy and Goodness yet it made up so great a part of the Heathen Religion and was become so customary that it was hard to bring men off from it which at the same time demonstates both how false such Religions were and that men had a most undoubted experience of invisible Powers or else in so many Nations both the Kings and People would never have sacrificed their own Children to their false Gods to avert the evils which they were threatned withal The Persons that introduced the Heathen Religions were either Men of Design who established themselves in their Power and Authority by it as Numa or Men of Fancy and Fiction as the Poets whom Plato would have banished out of his Common-wealth And the Gods of the Heathens who must be supposed to reveal these Mysteries and Ways of Worship were always more wicked than their Votaries whose greatest Immoralities consisted in the Worship of them the gross Enormities not only of Venus and Bacchus but of Saturn and Jupiter are too well known to need any particular relation There was no Body of Laws or Rules of good Life proposed by their Oracles but on the contrary they were in commendation of lascivions Poets or they flattered Tyrants or they appointed Divine Worship to be paid to such as won the Mastery at the Olympick Games or to Inanimate things or they promoted some other ill or vain and unprofitable design as Oenomaus the Philosopher observed and proved by particular instances recited out of him by (y) Euseb Praepar lib. v. c. 34 35. Eusebius The Laws of (z) Plutarch in Lycurg Lycurgus were approved of and confirmed by the Delphick Oracle and yet Theft and a Community of Wives and the Murder of Infants was allowed by these Laws This is enough to shew that the Heathen Religions could not be from God since they taught the Worship of Idols and of Devils and the Mysteries and Rites of them were utterly inconsistent with the Goodness and Purity of Almighty God And whoever doth but look into the Religions at this day amongst the Idolatrous Indians by their ridiculous and cruel Penances and other Superstitions besides the sacrificing of Men and sometimes of themselves as the Women who offer themselves to be burnt with the Bodies of their dead Husbands and the like will soon be convinced that they cannot be of God's Institution The Chineses themselves who have so great a Reputation for Wisdom are like the rest both in their Idolatries and in many of their Opinions and Practices It is evident therefore that none of the Heathen Religions can make any probable claim to Divine Revelation having none of the Requisites to such a Revelation but being but of a late Original not far divulged supported neither by Prophecies nor Miracles from God and containing Doctrines that are Idolatrous Impure Cruel and every way wicked and absurd CHAP. V. Of the Philosophy of the Heathens BUT besides the Religions of the Heathen divers of the Philosopherss pretended to something Supernatural as Pythagoras Socrates and some others and therefore it will be proper here to examinlikewise the Justice of their Pretensions And
the most implacable enemies of Christianity and brought Christians into contempt among the Heathen for nothing could make the Gospel of less account in their esteem than to deduce its Authority from the Books of the â—ews who soon after the Crucifixion of Christ became vile and contemptible in the eyes of all the World It can be no great wonder to see men drawn into those vices under the pretence of Religion which no Laws nor Punishments can restrain them from but for a Religion that forbids all vice under the severest penalties to prevail in a vicious world is truly miraculous Besides it is Death by the Law of Mahomet to contradict the Alcoran men are forbid all disputation and discourse about Religion they are charged to believe none but Mahometans and to look upon all others as unworthy of all manner of conversation So that the Sword in the hands of furious and ignorant Zealots is the only way by which that Religion was designed to be propagated But nothwithstanding all these compliances with the Lusts and Passions of men if we take in all Ages since the Incarnation of Christ the Christian Religion not to mention the Jewish has had a much larger propagation than ever Mahometanism has had and has at all times been taught in more parts of the world and even amongst Mahometans themselves And the Alcoran it self asserting the Divine Authority and Mission both of Moses and Christ serves in some measure to propagate the Faith of the Old and New Testament so far I mean as to give an advantage and opportunity for men to make enquiry into them and become acquainted with them CHAP. VII The want both of Prophecies and Miracles in the Mahometan Religion MAhometanism is grounded neither upon Prophecies nor Miracles Mahomet indeed calls himself Prophet very solemnly but we have but this one instance of his Prophetick Spirit (a) Alcoran c. 66. When the Prophet went to visit one of his Wives God revealed to him what she desired to say to him he approved one part and rejected the other when he told his Wife what was in her will to speak to him she demanded of him who had revealed it to him He that knoweth all things hath revealed it to me that ye may be converted your hearts are inclined to do what is forbidden if ye act any thing against the Prophet know that God is his Protector Here is not one circumstance to make the story credible Mahomet pretended to no Miracles but when he has raised that objection as he often doth that the world would not believe in him unless they saw some Miracle he answers (b) Meor c. 13. I am not sent but to Preach the Word of God Tho afterwards he mentions that ridiculous story of the Moons being divided in these words (c) Ib. c. 54. The Day of Judgment approacheth the Moon was divided into two parts nevertheless Infidels believe not Miracles when they see them they say that this is Magick they lye and follow but their Passion but all is written Here is no proof nor any pretence to it but only a confident assertion of a thing ridiculous And yet unless we will believe this Prophecy and this Miracle there is nothing in the whole Alcoran either of Miracle or Prophecy to give it any Authority except that must be accounted one which he so often boasts of viz. It s wonderful Doctrine and Eloquence for (d) Ib. c. x xi xvi he challenges all the world to produce any thing like it protesting (e) C. vii that he could neither write nor read and therefore must needs have it by Revelation And he introduceth God swearing to the Truth of it almost in every Chapter and this is all he offers in answer to the suspicions which he so frequently suggests men then had of his being an Impostor CHAP. VIII The Alcoran is false absurd and immoral I. THE Alcoran is false as when it makes (a) Ib. c. xix the Virgin Mary Sister to Aaron when it asserts that (b) Ib. c. iv Christ was not Crucified but one like him in Contradiction to the Testimony of Jews Christians and Heathens and that Christ (c) Ib. c. lxi Prophesied of him by Name without the least proof or ground for it but against all the evidence that can be to the contrary II. The Alcoran contains things absurd and ridiculous as in that story of the sleepers (d) C. xviii the Infidels say they were five and that their Dog was the sixth they sâ—eak by opinion but the true Believers affirm them to be seven and their Dog to be the eighth And (e) Ib. c. xxvii in the story of Solomon's Army composed of Men Devils and Birds of the Queen of the Pismires and Solomon's discourse with the Bird called the Whoop who brought him tydings of the Queen of Sheba III. The Doctrines of the Alcoran are impious and immoral Mahomet makes all the Angels worship Adam in several parts of his Alcoran and his sensual Paradice is well known and his allowance of many Wives but perhaps his injustice is not so generally taken notice of (f) Ib. c. iv xxiii in permitting the professors of his Religion to take away their Slaves Wives from them The Law of Mahomet proceeds from a savage and cruel spirit obliging those that embrace it to destroy all that are not of it however the Mahometans have not always acted according to the cruelty of their Religion humane Nature not being always able to act so much contrary to it self But this is Mahomet's Doctrine (g) Ib. c. iii. God loveth not the unjust he forgiveth sins to those that believe and extirpate Infidels (h) Ib. c. iv If they forsake it the Law of God pretended to be set down in the Alcoran kill them where you find them Be not negligent to pursue the Infidels And this the (i) Tavern Voyage de Ind. lib. iii. c. 24. Faquirs at their return from Mecha are very mindful of with a furious zeal killing all they can that they meet who are not Mahometans till they are killed themselves and then they are reputed Saints and Prayers are made at their Graves Such is the Alcoran as we now have it and yet it is not now as it was at first written by Mahomet (k) Sandys Trav. lib. i. p. 54. many alterations have been made in it by inserting some things and striking out others and taking some of the absurdities away Mahomet the Second particularly is said to have made great alterations and additions (l) Ricauts Hist of the Ottom Empire lib. ii c. 10. But the Persians the followers of Haly charge Abu-Beker Omar and Ozman whom the Turks follow with falsifying the Alcoran CHAP. IX Of Mahomet AFter this account of Mahomet's Alcoran there will be no need to say much of his Person the general Doctrines of the Alcoran shew him to have been lustful proud fierce and cruel
it is a sign of a little Mind when one is able to distinguish himself only by Singularity by an odd Dress or a new Mode when his Wit borders upon Madness and Prophaneness and his Learning is all out of the way Many who are neither Heterodox in Religion nor fond of being singular in any thing else have shewn an extraordinary Sagacity and a surprising variety of excellent Learning upon Subjects which are unusual and in themselves but little considerable And I will not deny but that some of the Men of Singularity have no Worse Design than to gratify a little Vanity and to appear like some body in the Commonwealth of Learning as if Learning were a mere Trifle a very Play-thing to be employ'd to no serious and useful Purpose but would serve only to give men occasion to talk and to be talk'd of This is call'd Pedantry and I know not why that should go under a better Name which is of a worse Nature and join the Trifling of Pedantry to the Mischief of Irreligion If this Sort of Men would but busie themselves no worse than Tiberius did when he examined who was the Mother of Hecuba what Name Achilles went by whilst he hid himself in Womans Apparel and what Songs those were which the Sirens were wont to sing those indeed are profound Enquiries and so worthy of them that it were pity they should be disturb'd in such ingenious Disquisitions But if Men will be for removing Foundations and rejecting established Doctrines and denying the Principles of Religion it is fit they should be told that there is neither Wisdom nor Learning in this and those who are acted themselves by a Spirit of Contradiction have the least Reason of any Men to take it amiss to be contradicted tho' it be in never so plain a manner In short it is possible that some may be well Skill'd in Tricks and Artifices who know little of the substantial and useful Part of the Law and it is certain that many who talk boldly of the highest Points of Religion are ignorant even of the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ. There surely can be little need for any Man to have recourse to Error and Extravagancy for the exercise and improvement of his Faculties they must be strange Faculties to want such Improvement Truth it self is infinite tho' always uniform and consistent in every part and will afford room enough for the free use of Reason in examining and considering the Nature of things in stating particular Cases by general Rules in the Study of Antiquity and in explaining particular Texts of Scriptures according to the Analogy of Faith and the Tenour of sound Doctrine And it may justly be look'd upon as a Defect of Judgment and good Sense or be suspected which is much worse of want of Sincerity and a good Conscience when Men can find nothing by which they may recommend themselves to the World but by setting up for Novelties in Religion For what Man of an honest Meaning and of sufficient Abilities and strength of Parts to proceed securely in direct and approved Paths would run out of the way by Cunning and Artifice to steal a despicable Reputation which another would be asham'd of and of which the best thing that can be said is that as it is never worth the having so it is never lasting After the Reception and Establishment of the Gospel for so many Ages we are call'd upon to prove the Grounds and Principles of our Religion all over again and we will never decline a thing so easy to be done But the Modern Infidels have changed the State of the Question The Truth of the Miracles wrought by our Saviour and his Disciples was never deny'd by the Adversaries of Christianity of old this was not disputed by Celsus Porphyrie Hierocles and Julian the Apostate if some of them did upon any occasion insinuate the contrary that was so malicious and groundless a Calumny that they were neither able to insist upon any Proof of it nor to reconcile it to what they themselves had elsewhere said The Matter of Fact was acknowledged by the antient Jews and has been confest by their Posterity they could not contradict the Miracles but denied the Consequence of them tho' the Men we have to deal withal to make clear work with much Confidence but with as much Ignorance deny both Let them know then that they are in part confuted by the Enemies of our Religion and it were strange if its Friends should fail in the other Part. IV. I have here endeavoured to do some Right to our Religion and to satisfy all such as are willing to be satisfied in the most difficult Points of it And tho' I have discoursed at large upon the Subjects of which I treat and not in the usual Method of Objection and Answer yet I have always had my eye upon the Objections which I have known that I could think at material But to bring in Objections at every Turn in plain Discourses such as these were design'd to be as far as the Matter would permit might have been of no good Consequence A man may very well be guided in the right Road without having all the wrong and dangerous Paths describ'd to him and he may be directed how to recover or preserve his Health without being presented with a Catalogue of Diseases he may get safe to his Journeys end without knowing all the Bogs and Precipices by which he might have miscarried and in order to be well there is no need that he should be acquainted how many ways there are of being sick I have heard of some that read Objections without the Answers as lately a shameless Writer has produced the Objections of Celsus and Faustus against the Canon of Scripture without takeing Notice of the Answers given by Origen and St. Austin from whom he had them And tho' both the Objections and Answers should be read yet Objections are commonly in few Words and are often remembred when the Answers are forgotten And indeed tho' I were never so Expert at it I have no Ambition to try my strength in tying a knot that I may shew my Skill in unloosing it But to provide against all exceptions as much as it is possible I have proved at large that if all Objections could not be answered this would be no sufficient Reason to reject or question the Authority of our Religion I cannot say I must confess that I have been able or have been much sollicitous to obviate all the Cavils which may have been started many have been given up and others seem never to have been seriously urged An Author who had more Learning it seems than Judgment to spare wrote a Book to prove that there were Men before Adam but this was rejected by Judicious Men as a very absurd and Ridiculous Conceit particularly by Grotius as the Author complains who yet afterwards retracted it himself Some notwithstanding are so fond of any
Eloquence as well as the Power and Prejudices and Vices of Mankind were combined against it and yet less elegancy and accuracy of style was employed by the Apostles and Evangelists than had been before used by Moses and th◠Prophets who yet had nothing which seemed so strange and wonderful to deliver Which is one great argument of the Power and Efficacy of the Gospel that it could prevail so much against all the opposition in the world only by telling a plain Truth and in the plainest manner For where the thing is evident the fewest and plainest words are best as in Mathematical Demonstrations it is enough if men make themselves to be understood this likewise was all that the Apostles aimed at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist lib. iii. c. 24. their Cause and Doctrine was so certain and demonstrable that any words which did but fully and clearly express their meaning were sufficient for their purpose their Rhetorick lay in the things themselves not in words there is no great Art required to prove that to any man which he sees with his eyes and therefore as the power of Miracles was greater under the Gospel than under the Law so there was less need of Eloquence in the New Testament than in the Old Yet it cannot be denied as a †Mer Casaub of Enthus c. 4. Learned Critick has declared that St Paul in some kind and upon some subjects is as eloquent as ever man was not inferiour to Demosthenes in whose writings he believes that Apostle had been much conversant or Aeschines or any other anciently most admired 3. It is reasonable to believe that the Scriptures may be written in the Words and Phrases of the Penmen of the several parts of them and that the Holy Ghost might permit them to use their own style so directing them still and over-ruling them in every word and sentence that it should infallibly express his own full sense and meaning and speak the Truth which he inspired And therefore tho there be divers styles in the Scriptures yet this is no prejudice to the Authority and Certainty of them Isaiah for instance being of the Blood Royal and educated at Court may write in a more refined and lofty style and Amos who was brought up among the Herdsmen of Tekoa may speak in a more humble strain and fetch his Metaphors from lower and meaner things and yet the sense and substance of both may be from the Holy Ghost and as exactly true and infallible as if every word and syllable were dictated by him But this has been already considered under its proper head CHAP. IV. Of the Canon of the Holy Scriptures WHatever uncertainty there can be supposed to be concerning the Canon of the Holy Scriptures or the Catalogue and Number of Books of Divine Revelation this ought to be made no objection against the certainty of Divine Revelation itself or against the authority of those Books of Scripture which are universally acknowledged and received by all Churches For if this be a true way of arguing then whatever we are ignorant of must be an argument against the certainty of what we know and by consequence no man can be certain of any thing since the wisest man is ignorant of so many things that he knows very little in comparison of what he is ignorant of And as to the matter in hand there is scarce any Author of great note and fame but that Criticks have had Disputes concerning the number of his genuine Works and yet this has never been thought any prejudice to such as are allowed by all to be genuine Would not that man make himself ridiculous who should reject the Philippicks of Tully or Virgil's Aeneis as spurious because other Books either doubtful or counterfeit have past under the names of these two Authors If some Books have been disputed the rest certainly are genuine beyond all dispute because they have never been called into question or doubt Now if these Books only were of Divine Revelation concerning which there has never been any Dispute they contain all things necessary to be believed and practised and as to the rest concerning which there has been any controversy tho they be exceeding useful to explain divers things which we find in these and perhaps to teach us some things not essential to our Religion nor necessary to Salvation which are not to be found elsewhere yet they are not absolutely necessary to be received because whatever Doctrines are absolutely necessary they are to be found fully and plainly delivered in those Books of Scripture which have ever been received without contradiction or dispute Many men were undoubtedly saved before the writing of these controverted Books nay before the writing of any Books at all Writings being no further necessary than as they are necessary to convey the knowledge of what is written when the things now written could be as well known without writing Books were not necessary and tho for after ages it became necessary that the Prophets and Apostles and Evangelists should consign their Doctrine to writing yet no more of their writings can be absolutely necessary to be known by us than what may be sufficient to instruct us in the ways of salvation It is the infinite Goodness and Mercy of God to afford us more than is absolutely necessary for our spiritual and eternal Life as he has done for our Natural and it is a great sin in any man to reject any means of Salvation or Instruction which God has been pleased to allow but still that man would sustain his Natural Life and Health who should think all that is not necessary to the support of it common or unclean and not fit to be used for food And if a man without any of his own fault or neglect should come to the knowledge only of the uncontrroverted Books he would find them abundantly sufficient to answer all the ends of Revelation and to procure his Salvation It cannot be denied but that one infallible Authority is as great a Security as never so many could be but the same Doctrines are taught in several places of Scripture and we ought to be thankful to God for it that he has been pleased to furnish us with so much more than is absolutely necessary and to repeat the same things in sundry places and in divers manners for our further instruction and confirmation in the Faith tho it would be absurd and wicked to say that he who believes all the points of necessary Faith upon the authority of any one Book of Scripture has no sufficient means of Salvation unless he likewise believe them upon the Authority of all the rest Not that I suppose any wise and good man can now find any cause to doubt of any Book in the Old or New Testament whether it be genuine or no but to suppose the most and the worst that can be supposed if those Books which at any time have been called in
question were not only dubious but certainly spurious the remaining Books which were never doubted of are sufficient for all the necessary ends and purposes of a Revelation and therefore this ought to be no objection against the Authority of the Scriptures that the Authority of some Books has been formerly matter of controversy I shall enter upon no discourse concerning the Apocryphal Books the authority whereof has been so often and so effectually disâ—roved by Protestants that the most learned Papists have now little to say for them but â—re forced only to fly to the authority of their Church which is in effect to beg the thing in question or to beg something as hard to be granted viz. the infallibility of the Church of Rome But I shall here engage in no controversy of that nature Both Protestants and Papists are generally speaking agreed that the Books of Moses and the Prophets in the Old Testament and the Writings of the Evangelists and the Apostles in the New are of Divine Authority and if this be so the Christian Religion must be true whether there be or be not others of the same nature and of equal authority These Books in the main have already been proved to be genuine and without any material corruption or alteration I shall now only propose such general considerations as may be sufficient to obviate objections The agreement between the Jews and Samaritans in the Pentateuch is a clear evidence for its Authority And tho there were many and great Idolatries committed in the Kingdom of Judah yet by the good providence of God there never was such a total Apostacy in the people nor so long a succession of Idolatrous Kings as that the Books either of the Law or the Prophets can be supposed to have been supprest or altered For three years under Rehoboam they walked in the way of David and Solomon 2 Chron. 11.17.12.1 and tho afterwards he forsook the Law of the Lord and all Israel with him his Reign was in all but seventeen years Abijam was a wicked King but he reigned no longer than three years 1 Kings xv 2. Asa the third from Solomon and Jehoshaphat his Son were great Reformers and Asa reigned one and forty years and Jehoshaphat five and twenty years 2 Chron. xvi 13. xx 31. The two next Kings in succession did evil in the sight of the Lord but their Reigns were short Jehoram reigned eight years and Ahaziah but one 2 Chron. xxi 20. xxii 2. During the interval of six years under the usurpation of Athaliah the people could not be greatly corrupted for she was hateful to them as Jehoram her husband had been before her and they readily joyned with Jehoiada in slaying her and in restoring the worship of God 2 Chron. xxii Joash the son of Ahaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada 2 Chron. xxiv 2. We are sure that he reigned well three and twenty years 2 Kings xii 6. and probably much longer for Jehoiada lived to a very great age 2 Chron. xxiv 15. Amaziah his son has the same character and with the same abatement that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect heart 2 Chron. xxv 2. or yet not like David his Father he did according to all things as Joash his Father did 2 Kings xiv 3. Vzziah son to Amaziah reigned well and sought God in the days of Zachariah 2 Chron. xxvi 5. and after he was seized with the Leprosie for invading the Priests office the administration of affairs was in the hands of his Son Jotham vers 21. who imitated the good part of his fathers Reign Chap. xxvii 2. Ahaz was wicked and an Idolater but he reigned only sixteen years Chap. xxviii 1. and his son Hezekiah wrought a great Reformation who reigned twenty nine years Chap. xxix 1. Manasses was much given to Idolatry in the former part of his Reign but after his captivity in Babylon he was very zealous against it Chap. xxxiii 15 16. Amon imitated the ill part of his Father's Reign but his own continued no longer than two years Chap. xxxiii 21. The next was Josiah in whose time the Book of the Law was found in the Temple which must be the Book of Moses's own hand-writing for it is evident that a Book of the Law could be no such rare thing at that time in Jerusalem as to be taken so much notice of unless it had been that Book which was laid up in the side of the Ark and was to be transcribed by every King It seems that Book of the Law had been purposely hid to preserve it from the attempts of Idolaters who it was feared might have a design to destroy it for if it had only lain by neglected the finding of it could have been no such surprizing thing because the place in the Temple was well known where it was wont to be kept in the side of the Ark and where they might have sought for it but it was probably at that time supposed to have been utterly lost and its being found in the Ruines of the Temple which was built for the observation of it and where it ought to have been kept with the greatest care as a most inestimable treasure the veneration which Josiah had for so sacred a Writing and the happy and unexpected recovery of it when it had been disregarded and almost lost through the iniquity of his Predecessors these considerations could not but exceedingly move a mind so tender and affectionately pious as that Kings when he received the Law under Moses's own hand sent him as he believed by God himself and delivered to him as it were anew from Heaven Not long after his time was the Captivity in Babylon till which there were always Prophets frequent Reformations and never any succession of Idolatrous Kings which continued for a long time together very few Kings were Idolatrous throughout their whole Reigns and those that were reigned but a short time * Book 1. Part 2. c. 6. 9. It has been proved that the Pentateuch and the Books of the Prophets written before the Captivity were preserved amongst the Jews till their return and it is acknowledg'd by those who are of another opinion that Ezra who composed the Canon did it by a Prophetick spirit or had the assistance of Prophets in the doing it * Joseph Câ—nt Apion lib. 1. Josephus says that their Books after the time of Artaxerxes are not of equal authority with those before his time for want of a certain succession of Prophets And since the Jews admitted no writings as inspired into the Canon after Malachi's Prophecy this shews their sincerity and exactness in examining the truth and authority of such Writings as they admitted into their Canon of Scripture The Pharisees made the commandment of God of no effect by their Traditions but never durst presume to impose them under the notion and
VII Of the Obscurity of some Places in the Scriptures particularly of the Types and Prophesies HEre it must in the first place be remembred that it has been a common and true observation that all Authors are rather perplex'd and obscured than explained by a multitude of Commentators and this is so true of no Book as of the Scriptures for as none has had so many Glosses and Comments put upon it by men of all Ages and Nations so most of them endeavour to find out some new Explication or to serve a Cause and maintain some particular opinions by their Expositions So that it is a wonder that any part of the Scriptures should be clear after Volumes have been written I may truly say upon every Text rather than that difficulties should be found in them But at the same time it must be acknowledged that we find it declared in the Scriptures themselves that there are places of difficulty in them which makes it but so much the more unreasonable that this should be urged as an objection against them For what is acknowledged and profest must be suppos'd to be with a design and for some good reason and the reason and design ought to be inquired into before this be used as an objection St Peter speaking of Christ's coming to Judgment says that St Paul in his Epistles had delivered some things hard to be understood and St Paul himself intimates that there had been mistakes concerning what he had written in this matter 2 Thess ii 1 2 3. St Peter on this occasion says that it so happened not only to St Paul's Epistles but to other Books of the Scriptures thro the ignorance and rashness of unlearned and unstable men 2 Pet. iii. 16. And it happens more especially in those places of Scripture which are concerning things of this nature or contain whatever Prophecies of things to come Therefore I shall I. give an account how it comes to pass that there are things hard to be understood in the Scriptures in general II. I shall in particular consider the obscurity of Prophecies and shall prove the certainty of the Types made use of by the Prophets and shew that there is great force and evidence in the Arguments brought from them III. I shall prove that the obscurity of some places of the Scriptures is no prejudice to the Authority of them nor to the end and design of them I. I shall give an account in general how it comes to pass that there are some things in the Scriptures hard to be understood 1. Some Doctrines which it mightily concerns us to be acquainted withal could not be delivered in so plain a manner but that they must needs have great difficulties in them as the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity of the Incarnation of Christ of the Resurrection and of the Joys of Heaven and of the Torments of Hell There are several things which we are capable of knowing and which are necessary to be known of which yet we cannot have so perfect and absolute a knowledge but that something of them will still remain unknown to us As there is no object more visible or better known to us than the Sun is but to calculate the dimensions and the distance of the Sun from us to know how its light is communicated and suddenly spread over the face of the Earth are things of great difficulty and can never perhaps be fully accounted for In like manner what the Scriptures deliver to us concerning the Nature of God and the state of the World to come must needs have difficulties in it tho we are never so well assured that there is a God and a future state because these are things above our understandings we may perfectly understand that there are such things but can have no full and clear conception of all that may be fit to be delivered to us concerning them Nothing can be made plainer to us than we are capable of knowing it or than the Nature of it and the portion our Faculties bear to it will allow God being incomprehensible whatever is delivered concerning him can never be without all difficulty and whilst we are in this world we can never understand the state of the next so fully as we shall do hereafter And these are difficulties which must be unless the Nature of the things or our own Nature were different from what it is Nevertheless the greatest Mysteries in the Christian Religion so far as they are revealed and so far as they are required to be known by us contain no inexplicable difficulties but if we will needs know more of the Mysteries of Religion than is revealed and more than is required to be known no wonder if we meet with difficulties What is meaut for instance by the Doctrine of the Trinity is capable of being very well understood as the opposers of this Doctrine must own unless they will confess that they oppose they know not what He that says a thing is not true knows what it is which he pretends not to be true if he understands what he says The thing then is known tho there be difficulties in the explication but the explication concerns the manner of existence not the truth of it For that may certainly be and we may certainly know it to be which yet we know not how it should be And the Doctrine itself only is revealed as necessary to be believed not any particular explication of it And if it can be proved that this is the Doctrine of Scripture and it be plain to be understood what is meant by this Doctrine as it is delivered in Scripture this shews the plainness of the Christian Religion in all things necessary to Salvation tho divers things relating to this Doctrine be difficult to be explained because the Doctrine is plainly enough and intelligibly delivered so far as it is required to be understood and believed Several Arts and Sciences which are very difficult and abstruse in the Theory are easy in the Practice and a man may very well unsterstand what the Theorem itself is which is to be proved tho he be altogether uncapable of understanding the proof of it Now what God says is as certain as any demonstration can be and what he has plainly delivered is plain as well as certain and it is never the less certain or plain because we cannot make out the proof of it nor are able to understand how it can be It is sufficient that the Scriptures are plain in this Doctrine so far as we are concerned to know it it is not necessary that the Doctrine itself should be plain in all the controversies which may be raised about it when we know the meaning we must take Gods word for the Truth of it The manner of the distinction of Persons and the Unity of Essence in the Godhead is not required to be believed but the Thing and we know the Thing to be so because God himself has said it tho
sign we are resolved to find fault and never to be satisfied with what we have unless we be humoured in every thing But we should do well first to consider how we can expect this at God's Hands or how well we have deserved it of Him The Secret of the Lord is with them that Fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Psal xxv 14. For the froward is an Abomination to the Lord but his Secret is with the Righteous Prov. iii. 32. There are Secrets and Mysteries in Religion which cannot be supposed to be known to any but those who are thro'ly acquainted with the plainer Doctrines both in the Study and the Practice of them and therefore if no such Reasons as have been now offered could be given for the obscurity of the Scriptures in some places it would be unreasonable however for such Men as make this an Objection to urge it they have no Right to object whatever others may have because they have never used the Means to know whether the Scriptures are so obscure as they pretend or or not But they will never be able to prove that if things necessary both in Faith and Practice be clearly set down there may not be other things deliverd which are hard to be understood and which those may wrest to their own Destruction who are unlearned and unstable that is who have neither Learning and Skill enough to judge of such Matters nor yet Constancy and Stedfastness enough in the Faith to adhere to what they do understand and not to perplex themselves and suffer themselves to be perverted by judging rashly of things above their Capacity The unlearned and unstable only are said to wrest the Scriptures to their own Destruction And tho' it is not in the Power and Capacity of every Man to be Wise and Learned yet it is in every ones Power not to be unstable but constant and stedfast to what he understands and never to depart from it for any By-ends or Respects Let us learn what is easy to be known and Practice what we know before we complain that the Scriptures are obscure Let us study and practise the Scriptures more and this Objection will not appear so formidable But the Truth is those that most use it neither study nor practise them And yet after all their Pretences of Obscurity they have a greater quarrel against the plain parts of Scripture than against the obscure ones they know many places of Scripture which are plainly against them and this makes them set themselves against all the rest What has been here said in general I hope may be in some Measure useful to those who desire to read the Scriptures for their Instruction and Edification and in particular Difficulties Books must be consulted or such Men as may be supposed to understand them But as for all that are fond of Objections and read the Scriptures only in search of thâ—m it cannot be expected that Discourses of this Nature should signify much with 〈◊〉 Teach us O Lord the way of thy Statutes and we shall keep it unto the End Give us understanding and we shall keep thy Law Yea we shall keep it with our whole Heart Great is the Peace that they have who love thy Law and they are not offended at it Psal Cxix 33 34 165. CHAP. VIII Of Places of Scripture which seems to contradict each other I. THough the sacred Writers no where contradict themselves or one another yet they were not solicitous to prevent the being suspected to do so by injudicious and rash Men as they would have been very cautious of giving any pretence for such a Suspicion if they had written any thing but Truth It could not be agreeable to the Sovereign Wisdom and Majesty of God to comply with the Humours and Fancies of Men but rather when he had by an infallible Guidance and Direction prevented the Pen-Men of the Holy Scriptures from writing any thing but Truth to suffer them to write so as that they might be liable to the Exceptions of the wilful and perverse Because it is more (x) Multum enim refert ut est in Epistola Adriani quam recitatcallistratus L. Testâ—uâ— D. De Teâ—tibus qui. simpliciter visi sunt dicere utrâ—m unum eundâ—â—â—qâ—â— meâ—tiatum sermo em attulerint an ad ea quae interrogati sunt ex tempore veriâ—milia respoâ—deriâ—t Grot. in Adject ad Dan. c. xiii 51. suitable to the simplicity of Truth not to be over-nice and solicitous about every Punctilio and smaller Circumstance but to speak fully and intelligibly and then to leave it to Men whether they will believe or not especially in what is told them for their own Advantage the Relators having no end or design to serve by it but only to do them the greatest Good they can and bringing all the evidence for their Conviction that Miracles and Prophecies can afford which are the only Means of God's revealing Himself to Mankind and then suffering in Testimony of what they have delivered Thus our Saviour when notwithstanding all his Mighty works many would not believe in Him but questioned His Authority and reviled His Person and blasphemed the Holy Spirit by which they were wrought was not concerned to work more Miracles merely for the Satisfaction or rather at the captious Demands of these Men when they required him to do it For if they would be convinced by any reasonable Means he had given it them if they would not it would be to their own Prejudice he was not solicitous what they thought of him And thus it is likewise in the Government of the World God has given Men sufficient Evidence of His Being and Providence but if Men will disâ— believe His Providence and deny His Being he doth not vouchsafe by any immediate 〈◊〉 particular Act of His Power to conâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 Pretences And if because of some places that are difficult in the Scriptures Men will reject the whole rather than be at the pains to search out the true Meaning of these places or than be so modest and humble as to suppose that there may be ways of Reconciling those which appear to them contradictions tho' they have not yet found them out they must fall under the same Condemnation with those who will deny the Being of God if they cannot satisfy themselves how he made and governs the world or with those that would believe none of our Saviour's Miracles unless he would work them when and where and just in what manner they pleased But the wisdom of God sees that nothing would satisfy these Men and that they only tempt God and design no real Satisfaction to themselves and therefore he cannot be obliged to new model the World and alter the Scriptures for their sakes since there is enough in them for the Satisfaction of all that are sincere in their Enquiries after Truth II. The only way to judge rightly of the particular places of any Book is to consider
the performing any good Action Every good Gift and every perfect Gift is from above Jam. i. 17. 3. We learn from hence that God can bring Good out of Evil and doth often over-rule even the worst Actions to the accomplishment of the best Ends and putteth no Trust in his Saints Job xv 15. There is a Remarkable Instance to this purpose in the Case of Jacob and Esau when Jacob came by fraud and subtilty and depriv'd his Brother of the Blessing (p) Casaub in Athenae Lib. 1. c. 11. It was in Ancient times customary to offer that of which they were to eat in Sacrifice especially on so Solemn an Occasion as a Father's giving his final Blessing and as in this Case foretelling the Fate of his Posterity And therefore when Jacob had by subtilty got the Blessing of his Father Isaac could not recall it to conferr it upon Esau because what was done in so solemn a manner had a Religious Obligation amounting to that of an Oath and Oaths tho' obtain'd by fraud were Obligatory as we learn from the Case of the Gibeonites he had blessed Jacob before the Lord and the Prediction that the Elder should serve the Younger Gen. xxv 23. with Esau's despising and selling his Birth-right might now probably come into Isaac's Mind whereupon tho' he did not approve of the fraud by which the Blessing was obtain'd yet he knew it to be irrevocable and that the Divine Purpose and Prediction would be accomplish'd thereby and what he had by a Prophetick Spirit conferr'd it was not in his power to recall The Relation therefore of this Matter doth not justifie Jacob's behaviour in it but manifests the over-ruling Providence of God to make any Means whatsoever instrumental to his gracious Ends which can never be disappointed by any Actions of Men for if they depended upon humane Actions these would often fail them the best Men being subject to so much frailty and sin 4. Tho' God of his Mercy doth accept of the imperfect Services of the Righteous forgiving upon their habitual Repentance the Sins and Frailties which are mix'd with the best Actions and pardoning the worst Actions likewise after a particular Repentance and Amendment of Life yet these stand upon Record for the glory of God's grace in their Repentance and Forgiveness and for a memorial and warning to future Ages that Men may neither presume upon their own Righteousness nor despair of God's Mercy But because they are pardon'd they are not always censur'd And I think the ill Actions of Good Men are seldom or never mention'd with a mark of God's displeasure unless the Series of the History require it and then the reproof is mention'd which pass'd at the time of the Commission of them as in the Case of David of Hezekiah and St. Peter But where no such Censure was pass'd at the time of the Action the Action it self is barely related and nothing further said of it because the Crime being forgiven God forbears to shew any further displeasure against it such is his Mercy to Repenting Sinners And there could be no necessity as I have observ'd for any Censure upon the account of others who may know by the plain Rule of God's word what Actions are sinful tho' they are not always styl'd so in relating the Commission of them CHAP. XVIII Of the Imprecations in the Psalms and other Books of the Old Testament ONE of the greatest Excellencies of the Christian Religion is the Universal Charity which it enjoyns and we shall find that Charity was likewise the Doctrine of the Old Testament and that there is nothing in the Book of Psalms or any other part of the Old Testament contrary to this Doctrine which will appear if we consider the peculiar Reasons for those expressions which may seem to imply any thing contrary to it I. Many of those Expressions are used in reference to the Nations upon whom after signal Acts of Mercy and Forbearance on his part and repeated provocations on theirs God had commanded the Israelites to execute his Judgments and the Sins of the People of Israel were the cause that this was not accomplish'd and therefore it was lawfull for them to pray that they might have grace to repent and that their Sins might be no hindrance to them in the fulfilling his will but that God would enable them to execute vengeance upon the Heathen Ps cxlix 7. And it was lawful likewise to pray against all the other Enemies of God that he would abase their Pride and make them to know themselves to be but Men Ps ix 20. lxxiv. 22 23. cxxxix 21 22. II. David being King had the Sword of Justice committed to him he was the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that did evil and therefore when his Rebellious Subjects were too strong for him as in the Rebellion of Absalom he might make his Appeal to God and beseech him to take the matter into his own hand If he might punish his Subjects he might pray to God that he would enable him to do it And in Foreign Wars if he might kill his Enemies he might pray for Victory and Success over them III. It is lawful to pray that publick and notorious Malefactors may be punish'd for it is lawful to discover them and bring them to punishment and it must needs be lawful to pray that that may be done which it is lawful for us to do It is lawful to seek redress of private Injuries and therefore it is lawful to pray that they may be redress'd for we may pray for success upon any honest undertaking If this be done out of a love to Justice and a necessary care of our own preservation not out of malice and a thirst after Revenge but with the most favourable construction that the worst Actions are capable of and with hearty Prayers to God for his Blessing upon the Offender in giving him the grace of Repentance and granting him whatsoever happiness in this World may be consistent with the honour of God and Justice towards other Men and the Salvation of his own Soul IV. God was the peculiar Law-giver and Political Governour of the Jews and Temporal Rewards and Punishments were the Sanction of the Laws which he had given them For the Mosaical Law is called the ministration of Death and the Ministration of Condemnation 2 Cor. iii. 7 9. because the promises of the Law as such belong'd only to this Life and a Curse was denounc'd against every one that continu'd not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. iii. 10 11. God had expresly threatned to inflict Punishment in this Life for the transgression of those Laws and therefore to pray to God that his Judgments might overtake Evil doers was no more than it is in other Governments to prosecute Offenders before the Magistrate they appealed to God to put his Laws in force against them and not to
unwilling to find the Christian Religion true which puts such a check to all Licentiousness and to their beloved and long accustomed Vices Vice would be sure to make a strong defence and an eager Plea and nothing could be difficult for it to discover when it had such a number of such subtle and devoted Advocates In this Conjuncture of time the Saviour of the World appears and he appears in a mean and low Condition despised by his own People who soon became as much despised themselves by all the World besides The Prince of Peace is Born in a time of setled and Universal Peace when Men had most leisure and opportunity to examine and consider things and when by the Establishment of the Roman Empire under Augustus in its full power and extent there was an open and free Correspondence between all Nations and the Apostles and their Followers by this means might find a like admittance to preach the Gospel in all Countries but to be alike hated and persecuted in all parts of the World The Religion of Christ was not to make advantage of any Troubles and Confusions in the Empire as that of Mahomet afterwards did but to recommend it self by its own worth and efficacy to the most serious and impartial Minds and under all these disadvantages it soon made its way into the Emperor's Court where Craft and Luxury and every thing that is most contrary to the purity and simplicity of the Gospel reigned St. Paul had his Proselytes in Caesar's Houshold and his Bonds in Christ were manifest in all the Palace and in all other places at Rome Phil. i. 13. iv 22. The truth of the Gospel approved itself to the most prejudiced Judgments it stood all the Trials and Conquer'd all Opposition that Wit and Learning and Vice it self could make For by the leave of the Atheists and Deists of our own Age the Christian Religion found the subtilest and most dangerous Adversaries at its first propagation The Epicureans and the Stoicks encountred St. Paul at Athens and these last especially were inferiour to no other Sect of Philosophers either for their obstinacy in adhering to their own Opinions or for their Art and Skill in Disputation And it appears from the several Apologies made afterwards in vindication of our Religion that all was at the very first alledged against it which can with any pretence or colour be objected Thus was Christ Born in the fulness of time when all the Prophecies concerning his coming were fulfilled and when the World was in expectation of him and had such general notice of his coming in a time the most unlikely for an Imposture to pass undiscover'd and therefore the most seasonable for Truth to manifest it self since that must needs be true which neither Learning nor Prejudice nor Vice nor Interest could prove to be false The accomplishment of Prophecies and the Conversion and Martyrdom of such numbers of Men in such an Age recommends the Gospel to us with all the advantage which any Juncture of Time could give CHAP. XXII Of the last Days and of the last Day or the Day of Judgment BY the last Days in the Scriptures must be meant either the last Days of the World or the last Days of the Jewish State and Government or the Days of the Gospel Dispensation which are the last Days in respect of the Means and Opportunities of Salvation vouchsafed to Mankind I. The last Days of the World are seldom mention'd directly and in express terms but under such Resemblances as were fit to represent them in the description of other Events For it was a known thing among the Jews that their whole Dispensation being Typical whatever happened to them under their Law and Government must afterwards be fulfilled in a more eminent manner under the Oeconomy and Dispensation of the Messias and therefore the last Days of Jerusalem must be Typical of the last Days of the World For the Destruction of Jerusalem at the Conclusion of the Jewish Dispensation was only a Type of the final Destruction of the World at the consummation of all things when Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom to God even the Father 1 Cor. xv 24. For which Reason our Saviour makes use of such words Matt. xxiv as are applicable to both of these events and oftentimes more fitly to the last Judgment that after the Destruction of Jerusalem it might appear that the rest remains still to be accomplished at the Day of Judgment But there are likewise such Expressions used as evidently shew that the Destruction of Jerusalem is the thing immediately designed in the Prophecy This will appear if we consider several Verses of that Chapter Then let them which be in Judea flee into the Mountains ver 16. and that with the greatest hast for let him which is on the house top not come down to take any thing out of his house v. 17. Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his Cloaths v. 18. But the Condition of such would be very miserable who should be unfit for flight And woe unto them that are with Child and to them that give suck in those days v. 19. But pray ye that your flight be not in the Winter neither on the Sabbath Day v. 20. There will be no flying from the general destruction of the World but the Disciples are here warned to fly from the destruction of Jerusalem and escape into the Mountains and they are commanded to pray that their flight might be hindred neither by the season of the year nor by the Sabbath on which the Jews were permitted to travel but a very little way Which supposes that the World was to last after the Tribulation there spoken of and that therefore the final destruction of this material World is not the thing there immediately meant And except those days should be shortned there should no Flesh be saved but for the Elects sake those days shall be shortned v. 22. If this Destruction should have raged long in that manner no Man of the Jews could have survived it but it was to be so abated and so soon over that the converted Jews might be preserved from it which Promise was very remarkably and wonderfully fullfilled to the Christians at the Siege of Jerusalem who made their escape into the Mountains and retir'd to Pella For wheresoever the Carcass is there will the Eagles be gathered together ver 28. which is a plain allusion to the Roman Eagles or the Standards of their Armies Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkned and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars shall fall from Heaven and the Powers of the Heavens shall be shaken ver 29. This was in some respect litterally fulfilled at the Destruction of Jerusalem But it is usual with the Prophets by these Figures to describe the Destruction of Nations and the false Teachers are styl'd by St. Jude ver 13. wandring
bring to our remembrance the Body and Blood of Christ offer'd upon the Cross for us to make us Partakers of them and to be Pledges of all the Benefits which we receive thereby And as the Eucharist was appointed by Christ in the room of the Paschal Supper so Bread and Wine were in use among all Nations in their Religious Worship and nothing can more fitly express our Communion with God and with one another than to be entertained together at God's Table So that since there must be Sacraments or External Rites and Ordinances they could neither be fewer nor more suitable to the simplicity of the Gospel and to the Wants of Christians than the Sacraments of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper are CHAP. XXIV Of the Blessed TRINITY I Am not here to prove the Doctrine of the Trinity from the Scriptures but to suppose this to be the Doctrine which the Scriptures teach and to shew that no reasonable Objection can be brought against the Christian Religion upon that Account And indeed this was supposed to be the Doctrine of the Scriptures and objected against by (k) Lucian Philopatr Heathens long before the Council of Nice Which is a strong proof for the Truth and Antiquity of this Doctrine when it was so well known even to the Heathens that they upbraided the Christians with it in the second Century and in all probability from the very beginning for we find it then mentioned as a known and common Reproach Supposing then this to be the Doctrine of the Scriptures that the Father Son and Holy Ghost are but one God I will shew I. That there is no Contradiction in this Mystery of our Religion II. That other things are and must be believed by us which we as little understand III. That the Belief of this Doctrine doth mightily tend to the advancement of Vertue and Holiness and hath a great influence upon the Lives and Conversations of Men. 1. There is no Contradiction in this Doctrine We are ignorant of the Essences of Created Beings which are known to us only by their Causes and Effects and by their Operations and Qualities and our Reason and Senses and Passions being continually conversant about these our Notions are formed upon the Ideas which we frame to our selves concerning the Creatures and this makes us the less capable of understanding the Divine Essence besides the infinite Disproportion between the Nature of God and Humane Faculties When we say that God is an Infinite and Incomprehensible Being we speak the general sense of Mankind and no Man cavils at it but because the Scriptures represent this Incomprehensible Being to us under the Notion of Father Son and Holy Ghost that is Matter of Cavil and Dispute Whereas God being essentially Holy and True we must believe him to be what he declares himself to be in the Scriptures and he being Incomprehensible we may not be able to comprehend it If God be infallibly True why do we not believe what he delivers concerning himself And if he be Incomprehensible what Reason can be given why the Divine Essence may not subsist in Father Son and Holy Ghost These are styled Three Persons because we find distinct Personal Acts and Properties attributed to them in the Scriptures and we may suppose Three Persons in the Unity of the Divine Nature without any appearance of contradiction This will be evident if we consider 1. The Distinction of the Three Persons in the Deity 2. The Unity of the Divine Nature 3. The Difference between the Divine Persons and Humane Persons 1. The Distinction of the Three Persons in the Deity The Divine Nature is in Three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in the Father Originally without either Generation or Procession in the Son as communicated to him by the Father not in any such way as Sons amongst Men have their Nature derived to them from their Fathers but yet in some such manner as is best exprest to our Apprehensions by styling him the Son of God tho' the manner of his Generation is altogether incomprehensible to us The Holy Ghost has the Divine Nature communicated to him from the Father and the Son not in the same way whereby the Son has it communicated to him from the Father but in some other different incomprehensible manner whereby he is not begotten but proceeds both from the Father and the Son The Divine Nature is communicated by the Father to the Son by Eternal Generation and by the Father and the Son to the Holy Ghost by Eternal Procession We have nothing further revealed to us of the Generation of the Son but that he is begotten or received the Divine Nature from the Father in some such way as for want of a fitter Word we can best understand by the Term of Generation and the Scripture teacheth us no more of the Procession of the Holy Ghost but that he is not begotten of the Father as the Son is but proceeds from the Father and the Son some other way and not by Generation But as he that would Discourse to a Man born Blind concerning Light must use many very improper expressions to make himself tho' never so imperfectly understood so it is here we have no words that are proper but these are sufficient to teach us all which we are capable of knowing at least all that is necessary for us to know of the Godhead 2. The Unity of the Divine Nature To say that Three Gods are one God or that Three Persons are One Person is a manifest Contradiction but to say that Three Persons are not One Person but One God is so far from a Contradiction that it is a Wonder how it should be mistaken for One by any who understand what a Contradiction means The Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God and yet they are not Three Gods but One God For neither of these Three Persons is God distinct and separate from the rest but they all are but One God One Lord Jehovah not Three distinct and separate Lords and so not Three Eternals nor Three Incomprehensibles nor Three Uncreated nor Three Almighties distinct and separate from each other but all the Three Persons together are One Eternal Incomprehensible Uncreated Almighty Lord God It is Matter of Dispute what is the Principle of Individuation in Men or what it is which causes one Man to be a different Individual Person from another and it is still more difficult to find out the Principle of Individuation in Beings which are purely Spiritual and have nothing of Material Accidents to distinguish them But whatever the Principle of Individuation in Men may be it is certain that the Consequence of it is that two Men may exist separately both as to Time and Place and that one may know more or less than the other they may live at a distance the one from the other and can never at once sill the same Numerical Place nor
thus for it is ever supposed and agreed in all Cases that no Man is bound to any thing impossible and that God requires nothing of any Man either in Faith or Practice beyond his Power and Capacity Whosoever will be Saved before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly But this supposes that he has already attained or is able to attain to the Knowledge which is necessary to Faith for no Man can hold that Faith the general Knowledge whereof he cannot attain We must with an implicit Faith believe all that God says to be true tho' it be never so much above our Understanding but no Man is bound to believe explicitly any more than he can understand so far as is necessary to such a Belief He is able to understand so much of it as to know in general what he is required to believe tho' he can have no such compleat and comprehensive Notion of it as to give a particular and full Account of the Nature and Manner of Existence of that which is to be believed by him And let the Articles of Faith supposed necessary to Salvation according to Natural Religion be never so few and plain yet there will still be some Men who are uncapable of understanding them in any way or measure and then there will lie the same Objections against those Articles of Natural Religion which are upon this Account urged against their Faith in the Trinity it self which so far as it is required to be known and believed is not above the Capacity of the Generality of Mankind and no more is required to be believed explicitely of any than they are capable of knowing in such a Degree as is necessary in order to such a Belief whatever Articles of Faith be assigned in Natural or Revealed Religion they will be above the Capacity of many Adult Persons and of all Infants to apprehend them who therefore according to all Religions may be Saved without the actual Knowledge of those Articles which are never so necessary to others And what may be objected against all Religions Natural as well as Revealed ought in Reason to be objected against none for there can be no force in it III. This Doctrine exceedingly tends to the advancement of Vertue and Holiness and has a great influence upon the Lives and Conversations of Men. That God the Father should send his Son his only Begotten and only beloved Son to be Born and to Die for us is an endearing and amazing Act of the Divine Goodness The Death not of a meer Man but of the Son of God Blessed for ever in our stead must needs heighten our Love of God and our Faith and Dependance on him our Hatred of Sin and our Assurance of Pardon upon Repentance This I have proved at large in Discoursing of the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God for us and therefore shall not insist upon it here In like manner whatever the Holy Ghost hath done and is continually doing for us must needs be of more weight with us and give us quite another Notion and Apprehension of his Goodness and our own Duty than we could have had if we believed him to be a Creature For unless we believe him to be God we cannot have that devout Love and Faith and Dependance upon him which we ought we cannot have that Esteem and Reverence for his Communion and Presence which is required of us nor that sense of the heinousness of Sin whereby we resist and grieve and do despight to him That Argument of St. Paul what know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost and many other to the like purpose would be lost but on supposition that the Holy Ghost is God We can never have that Sense which it behoves us to have of our Sins committed in opposition to the Gifts and Influences of his Grace without an acknowledgment of his Godhead So that our Faith and Hope and Fear and Love is more excited and enlarged and all the Powers and Faculties of our Souls are more disposed to the obedience of the Gospel thro' the belief of this Doctrine of the Trinity than they could be without it And therefore as there is nothing absurd or impossible to be believed in this Doctrine so it was very reasonable and expedient that it should be revealed CHAP. XXV Of the RESURRECTION of the Dead THE Resurrection of our Saviour from the Dead was that which the Apostles chiefly insisted upon in all their Discourses For if once they could convince Men that Christ was Risen from the Dead they could not fail of perswading them into a Belief of all that they Taught besides There was no other Part of their Doctrine which could seem more strange and incredible than this and when that which they could with so much Difficulty be brought to believe and which could not come to pass but by the Almighty Power of God himself was evidently and undeniably proved to them this must give that Credit and Authority to all their other Doctrine that it could be no longer withstood or gain-said This therefore is the Point which the Apostles most of all urged knowing that if they could gain this all the rest would follow of Course and that every Man must of necessity be Converted to the belief of the whole Gospel of Christ who was once convinced of his Resurrection And St. Paul in his Defence before King Agrippa puts the Question Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the Dead Acts xxvi 8. which implies that it is a very unreasonable thing to think that God cannot Raise the Dead and that therefore there was all the Reasons in the World to believe that he had raised Christ For there was so great Evidence of his Resurrection and so many Men daily Witnessed it at the peril of their Lives that if their Adversaries would but allow the thing to be possible there could be no Doubt remaining but that Christ was indeed raised from the Dead The Apostle Argues that it is a very absurd thing to say that God cannot raise the Dead What Reason could any Man give why God cannot do it Or how durst any Man so limit and confine the Infinite Power of God by his own Notions and Conceptions of things as to say that the Resurrection of the Dead cannot be effected by him This is unreasonable and absurd in the highest Degree and therefore it is manifest that Christ is Risen and that there is to be a General Resurrection of the Dead since there is no other Objection that can lie against it but the Impossibility of the thing it self For our Resurrection is asserted in the Scriptures as a necessary Consequence of Christ's Resurrection 1 Cor. xv 20. and his Resurrection was so well attested that the greatest Enemies to Christianity
immediate Influence of the Divine Power but in Miracles this Power manifests its self in an extraordinary manner above and contrary to the Established Laws or Rules which God has in all other cases prescribed for the producing Effects II. Men would fancy to themselves some kind of Scheme or other and would frame some Notions and Conceits to give an Account of Miracles or they would imagin them to return of Course at certain Periods or upon some Accidents if they saw them frequently done or perhaps they would suppose them to proceed from some Defect in the Nature of Things which could not always keep its course but made many Deviations from it But when Miracles were wrought only in some Ages for peculiar Reasons this shews that they were done by an immediate Divine Power with a particular Design which could be no other than the Confirmation of Religion since they ceased both under the Law and the Gospel when both were fully declared and confirmed III. A perpetual Power of Miracles in all Ages would give occasion to continual Impostures which would confound and distract Mens minds and would make the true Mircles themselves suspected We see now that the Dreams of every Enthusiast and the Pretences of every Impostor are apt to startle weak minds tho' we have so much Reason not to expect Miracles or Revelations But if we were in constant expectation of True Miracles the False would be much more likely to mislead many and to make others reject the Belief of any Miracles at all If Prophecies and Miracles had been frequent in the Jewish Church to the coming of our Saviour his Prophecies and wonderful Works had not so well distinguished and manifested him to be the Christ But when after so long an Intermission they were again revived in him this shewed him to be the great Prophet and Messias who was expected And it is very observable that as Miracles had been discontinued for a long time among the Jews so St. John Baptist who was more than a Prophet and one of the greatest of all the Men that had been before him yet wrought no Miracles that he might be the better distinguished from the Messias and that there might arise no doubt in the Minds of any which of them was the Christ And when our Saviour had been acknowledged to be the Christ in all Parts of the World it was fit that Miracles should cease to preserve the Authority due to the Miracles wrought by himself and his Disciples it being more for the Honour of Christ that the Miracles wrought in his Name should cease when his Religion had been fully Established than that Men should be tempted to doubt who was the true Christ and which was the true Religion upon the account of false Miracles wrought in opposition to the True IV. Another Reason why the Gift of Miracles has been with-held in latter Ages may be this because since there has been a general depravation of Manners among Christians it would have proved a great occasion of Pride and Vain-Glory to those who had possest it as we find it was to some even in the times of the Apostles 1 Cor. xii xiv And our Saviour saw it requisite to give Caution to his Disciples Notwithstanding in this rejoice not that the Spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoice because your Names are written in Heaven Luke x. 20. It must be an eminent and truly Primitive Piety that could bear the having of such Gifts with an humble and Christian Temper of Mind V. It is an Observation of (f) Advan of Lâ—arn l. iii. c. 2. my Lord Bacon's That there was never Miracle wrought by God to Convert an Atheist because the Light of Nature might have led him to confess a God But Miracles are designed to Convert Idolaters and the Superstitious who have acknowledged a Deity but erred in his Adoration 〈…〉 Light of Nature extends to declare the 〈◊〉 and true Worship of God For the same Reason when once the true Religion is confirmed in such a manner as to have the same Evidence for it which there is for the Existence of God himself Miracles are no more to be expected to convert an Infidel than to convert an Atheist Among Men of Learning and Reason there ought to be no more doubt of the Truth of the Gospel than of the Being of a God and they without the help of Miracles may instruct others (g) De Procur Indor Salute Lib. ii c. 9. Acosta enquiring into the Cause why Miracles are not wrought by the present Missionaries for the Conversion of Heathen Nations as they were by the Christians of the Primitive Ages gives this as one Reason because the Christians at first were ignorant Men and the Gentiles learned but now on the contrary all the Learning in the World is employ'd for the Defence of the Gospel and there is nothing but Ignorance to oppose it and there can be no need of farther Miracles in behalf of so good a Cause when it is in the Hands of such able Advocates against so weak Adversaries However though there be no such change as was wont formerly to be wrought in the visible Course of Nature in Confirmation of our Religion yet there is still a Divine Power evident among Christians living in Heathen Countries For the Devil who tyrannizeth over the Heathens has no Power over Christians dwelling among them of which the Indians have taken great Notice and have (h) Lerii Histor Navig in Brasil c. 16. declared the Christians happy in being freed from the Tortures of Wicked Spirits by which they find themselves often seized on the sudden in a terrible manner and stand in perpetual fear of them (i) Capt. Knoxe 's Hist of Ceylon Part iii. c. 4. Christians they do acknowledge have a Prerogative above themselves and not to be under the Power of these Infernal Spirits It is so generally related by Travellers of all Professions both Protestants and Papists that the Devil exercises a manifest Tyranny over the Heathens but is able to do nothing to the Christians abiding amongst them that this cannot be denied to be a plain Argument of a Divine Power discovering it self in Confirmation of the Christian Religion though not by such Miracles as were formerly wrought because there is no longer any need of them CHAP. XXX Of the Causes why the Jews and Gentiles rejected Christ notwithstanding all the Miracles wrought by Him and his Apostles THough the Christian Religion be most certain in it self yet there is a Supernatural Grace required to make us throughly and effectually convinced of the certainty of it No Man can come to me says our Saviour except the Father which hath sent me draw him and this is declared to be the Reason of the Infidelity of such as were offended at his Doctrin and departed from him But there are some of you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not
Opinions of their own besides the general Prejudices which they lay under with the rest of the World And all Men of any Learning and Education studied the Books of the Philosophers and were commonly addicted to one Sect or other It must be confest that Vanity and the Praise of Men was the chief aim of many of the Philosophers as Tertullian and others of the Fathers object and therefore they were very unlikely to become Proselytes to a Religion which was looked upon in the World with such Disdain and Contempt Philosophy in general if we believe (y) Instit lib. I. c. 1. Quintilian was in his time by most used as an Artifice and Disguise to conceal the worst of Vices under a morose Look and a Habit different from that of other Men. And from such Philosophers as these we must expect that the Scriptures should be read with no manner of Candor or good and serious Intention (z) Contra Celf. lib. II. Origen gives Instances of the wilful Abuse of the Scriptures by some of his Time who cavilled at half Sentences without taking notice of the Coherence which they have of the rest And he complains that (a) Ib. lib. I. Celsus seemed never to have read the Scriptures though he pretended to a very exact Knowledge both of the Jewish and Christian Religion but understood little of either (b) Philip. Sidet apud Dodw. Append. ad Dissert in Irenae e. Cod. MS. Baroc Athenagoras who before him had read the Scriptures with more care and sincerity tho' with the same Design became converted and wrote in Defence of that Religion which he intended to oppose (c) Euseb contr Hier. Lactant. Institut lib. V. c. 2 3. De Mortib Persecut c. 16. Hierocles likewise had read the New Testament with a design to write against it but he who could believe the Miracles of Apollonius Tyaneus and prefer that notorious Impostor to our Blessed Saviour and Maximus Aegiensis Damis the Philosopher and Philostratus to St. Peter and St. Paul shews so strange a partiality as might be expected only in him who opposed the Christian Religion by his Persecutions more than by his Arguments for Hierocles was the chief promoter of the Persecution under Diocletian 2. The Gentiles looked upon the poor persecuted Condition of the Christians as an Argument against their Religion and were not only prejudiced against a New Religion which must expose them to Sufferings by that fondness which Men naturally have for their own Ease and Safety but (d) Aug. Civit. Dei lib. I. c. 29. when they saw the Christians in Distress they would upbraid them as the Psalmist's Enemies reproached him saying Where is now thy God They considered their own Religion as the Religion of their Country and of their Ancestors which was what Tully said for it when he ruined all the Grounds and Pretences in behalf of it They alleged that this had been the Religion of their Forefathers and that the Roman Empire had arrived to so much Power and Greatness under its Influence This was so much insisted upon as is to be seen in Zosimus Symmachus and others that Orosius set himself to answer it in a particular Work and St. Austin who put him upon Writing it thought himself concerned in his own Works to oppose so unreasonable but fatal a Prejudice 3. The Consequence of these Prejudices against the Christian Religion both in Favour to the Religion of their Country and in Fondness for their old Opinions and out of an Abhorrence of Afflictions and a Disregard of those who were so much exposed to them as having but small pretence to any part of the Divine Care the Consequence I say of these Errors and Prejudices was that the Gentiles despised the Christian Religion before they understood any thing of it For many Men of Learning and Observation were so little acquainted with it that they did not distinguish Christians from Jews as we see by (e) Sueton in Claudio c. 25. Suetonius They knew not so much the true Pronunciation of the Name of Christ or Christian but were wont to write (f) Nam nee Nominis certa est notitia penes vos Tertul. Apol. c. 3. Sueton ib. Lactant. Lib. IV. c. 7 Chrestus and Chrestianus This the Apologists much insist upon that they condemned and persecuted what they did not understand the Christians desired no more than a fair Hearing and if they might but be suffered to make their Religion fully known to their Adversaries they begged no further Favour 4. It was believed (g) Aug. de Civit. Dei Lib. XVIII c. 53 54. that the Heathen Oracles had delivered that the Christian Religion should continue no longer than Three hundred and sixty five Years and it is observable that Julian the Apostate died A. D. CCCLXV according to some Chronologers tho' others place his Death Two Years before It seems the Devil had some great Expectation from his Reign but at or near that very time in which he had foretold that the Christian Religion should have an end if the Computation were to be made from the Nativity of Christ he saw an end of all his hopes in the Death of that Emperor who was so zealous in his Service and had given out severe Threatnings against the Christians of what they were to expect if he had returned victorious from that Expedition in which he perished And this Prediction had respect probably to his Reign though the Greek Verses in which it was delivered might be altered afterwards or so contrived at first as to extend it to a longer time leaving it uncertain from whence the Calculation was to begin However this Oracle kept many of the Gentiles from being Christians till they saw the time past which they supposed to be meant by it as St. Austin assures us 5. The Heresies and Schisms which soon arose in the Church gave great Scandal and Offence to such as judged of these things at a distance and in the gross without examining into the Occasions of them The (h) Just Martyr Dialog Jews not only Blasphemed Christ in the Synagogues but made choice of Men on purpose whom they sent from Jerusalem into all Parts of the World to vilifie him and his Religion (i) Id. Apol. 2. And because Christians spoke of Christ's Kingdom this was understood to their Prejudice as if they had been for setting up a Temporal Kingdom by Rebellion And the evil Doctrins and Practices of divers Hereticks confirmed Men in any ill Opinion which they had conceived of Christians in general The absurd Doctrins and Heresies of the Gnosticks and other Hereticks were by the Enemies of the Gospel in their Censures and Invectives applied to all Christians without distinction and were taken upon Trust by most Men. (k) Orig. cont Celf. lib. 6 7 8. Celsus makes Objections from the erroneous and wicked Notions and Practices of the Ophitae the Valentinians the Marcionites and others This
other And as all Obliquity supposes Rectitude from which it declines so Vice supposes Vertue and Error supposes Truth and Error in Religion must suppose Truth in Religion For whatever is contrary to any thing necessarily implies the Being of that to which it is contrary and that which is not can have nothing contrary to it Nothing is more certain than it is that if there were no Vertue there could be no Vice if no Truth there could be no Error and unless there were Truth and Excellency in Religion it were impossible that there should be any such thing as Heresie or Schism which are other words for Error and Vice in matters of Religion And it hath been already observed that the worst Heresies give an occasion to the clearing those Points of Religion which are disputed against and so must be far from invalidating the Truth of it But because these are things which some will not understand or may be unwilling to acknowledge and it is generally looked upon as a sure Argument of the weakness of any Cause when those that maintain it are not agreed about it amongst themselves let us consider 1. That all Parties are agreed in the Truth of Religion in general and of the Christian Religion in particular 2. That there is nothing besides in which Men have not disagreed as well as in matters of Religion 1. All Parties are agreed in the Truth of Religion in General Even Hypocrites and Impostors so far own Religion as to believe that it is worth the counterfeiting For no Man counterfeits that which is not no nor that which has no Worth nor Excellency in it No Man will be at much pains to be thought an Atheist or an Infidel who is not such and no Man will endeavour to be thought Vicious unless he be so indeed There are few pretenders to the Shame and Infamy which in Ages have been inseparable from Irreligion but it is the natural Sense which Men have of Religion that gives it so great Credit and Honour in a wicked World that even the Shadow and Counterfeit of it has sometimes too much prevailed But farther all Sects and Parties of Christians are agreed in the Truth of the Christian Religion and the only difference amongst them is concerning particular Doctrins and Opinions that is concerning the true Meaning and Explication of it And no Man disputes about the Meaning of that which they do not at the same time suppose to be When any Point or Clause of a Law is in Dispute it would be ridiculous from thence to conclude that no such Law was ever made because all Parties must agree that there is such a Law or else there could be no dispute about it And when Differences arise in Religion it is an Argument for the Truth of Religion because there can be Difference about nothing and Men would never differ about Religion if it were not true or they did not think it to be so But Christians are not only agreed in the main that the Gospel is true but they are likewise agreed in the Sense and Meaning of it as to the Fundamental Articles necessary to Salvation This was the ancient Rule and Measure laid down by Vincentius Lirinensis of the Catholick Doctrin necessary to be believed that it had been believed in all Ages in all Places and in all Churches And the excellent Arch-Bishop Usher whose Judgment in the Case may safely be relied upon has (a) Brief Declaration of the Universality of the Church of Christ and the Unity of the Catholick Faith professed therein delivered in a Sermon before the King the 20th of June 1624. declared That if at this day we should take a survey of the several (b) This Passage was produced by Dr. Potter and defended by Mr. â—hillingworth chap. 4. §. 44 c. Professions of Christianiny that have any large spread in any part of the World as of the Religion of the Roman and the Reformed Churches in our Quarters of the Aegyptians and Aethiopians in the South of the Grecians and other Christians in the Eastern Parts and should put by the Points wherein they differ from one another and gather into one Body the rest of the Articles wherein they all did generally agree we should find that in those Propositions which without all Controversie are so universally received in the whole Christian World so much Truth is contained as being joined with holy Obedience may be sufficient to bring a Man unto everlasting Salvation Neither have we cause to doubt but that as many as do walk according to this Rule neither overthrowing that which they have built by superinducing any damnable Heresies thereupon nor otherwise vitiating their Holy Faith with a lewd and wicked conversation Peace shall be upon them and Mercy and upon the Israel of God And he afterwards says in relation to the Papists in Ireland that he had sometimes treated with those of the opposite Party and moved them that howsoever in other things we did differ one from another yet we should join together in teaching those main Points the knowledge whereof was so necessary unto Salvation and of the Truth whereof there was no Controversie betwixt us And as to particular Controversies tho' one would imagin that wise Men of all others should be least apt to fall out about Words yet it is an old Observation that when learned and wise Men disagree in Opinion the Difference is commonly in the manner of expressing themselves or however it is generally about the manner of the Existence not about the Existence it self of Things Thus what is better known by all than the Sun and yet what Disputes have there been and ever will be concerning its Light and Motion and Distance and Dimensions But it ought likewise to be considered that in the Management of the Controversies in Religion such as are otherwise good Men are wont many times to be little favourable in representing the Opinions of their Adversaries and if Men might be allowed to explain themselves and were not provoked and exasperated beyond their own calmer Thoughts and Temper the Differences in Religion would not be near so great nor so many as they now appear to be It so happens in all Cases that Differences are widened by eager and contentious Debates Men speak more than they designed and then resolve to defend what they have said so that Disputes become endless and are drawn out into Particulars without number which were never at first thought of Many Books of Controversie are half taken up in asking cross Questions which perhaps neither of the Parties can answer to satisfaction nor do they often seem to design any thing farther than to puzzle one another and to be as captious and as troublesom as they can But this ought not to be imputed to the uncertainty of the Subject but to the perversness of Men and those who upon every occasion fall into so great Heats and Contentions must needs be very
well assured of that in which they agree that is of the Truth of Religion in General and of the Christian Religion in Particular as to the Fundamental Points of it The Differences among Christians may serve to prove to us Divine Authority of our Religion and of the Scriptures which contain it since Christians agree in asserting their Divine Authority and have never been so much at unity among themselves as to be able to agree to corrupt them but have certainly delivered them down entire to us 2. It is not Religion only which Men Dispute about but there is nothing besides in which they have not disagreed It is observed that want of Experience and Knowledge of the World leads Men into more inconveniencies than want of Parts and Abilities And it is as certain that a thorough Knowledge of the Debates and Contentions in Philosophy would sooner cure most Men of their Infidelity than any Arguments could do Those who raise Objections against Religion if they would but consider that almost every thing else has as great Difficulties would be ashamed to reject Religion upon Pretences which if they hold must force them to reject all other things with it and to believe just nothing at all There have been Disputes in all Ages concerning Light and Motion the Wind and Seas and other Wonders of Nature but it would be absurd for this Reason to question whether there be any such thing as Light and Motion and whatever besides Men have disputed And yet it is more absurd if it be possible to allow that is a good Argument against Religion but against nothing else If the Sun yield his Light and Nature go on in her constant Course tho' Men differ never so much in their Philosophy about it what can Religion be the worse for their Disputes no body thinks that he sees ever the less for any Difficulties which have been urged concernning Vision and why should we be ever the less inclined to believe the Truth of Religion by reason of any Controversies in it Men may dispute any thing and there is hardly any thing but it has been disputed but nothing is the less credible for being disputed unless it can be disproved but is rather confirmed and advanced by it Truth is nevertheless Truth for meeting with opposition but is the more tried and the more approved as Strength and Courage is by the sharpest Conflicts Since then there will be Vices as long as there are Men in this World and Differences and Dissentions in Religion as long as there are Vices since they cannot be hindered but by the Omnipotent Power of God and there are great Reasons why he should not interpose to prevent them since Differences in Religion are so far from implying any uncertainty in Religion that they rather prove a Confirmation of it and are in divers respects made useful and expedient to the Edification of Christians it must be great inconsideration and weakness to produce them as an Objection against Religion There must be Heresies and the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter Times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to Seducing Spirits and Doctrins of Devils speaking Lies in Hypocrisy having their Conscience seared with an hot Iron 1 Tim. iv 12. The Scripture could not be true unless these things should happen which are foretold in several Places of Scripture Behold says our Saviour I have told you before Matt. xxiv 25. it ought to be no new nor surprising thing to Christians to see Heresies arise tho' they be never so wicked and abominable because we are forewarned to expect them and they serve to give a kind of Testimony to the True Religion in fulfilling the Predictions of it They help to prove the Religion which they would destroy For if there had been no Heresies that Religion could not be True which has foretold them but since there are Heresies our Religion is at least so far true as to contain express Prophecies concerning them which we see daily fulfilled and as they evidently prove our Religion true in this particular so they invalidate it in no other Which is the (b) Just Mart. Dial. Answer that the Christians anciently returned to the Enemies of Religion when they made this Objection against it Let us follow the plain the known and and confessed Duties of Religion Humility Temperance Righteousness and Charity and when once we have no Temptations to wish Religion untrue upon the account of the plain Precepts and Directions of it we shall never suspect it to be so by reason of any Controversies in it For if Men will impartially consider things that Religion which has now For so many Ages stood out all the Assaults and Attempts with Enemies from without and Parties within could make against it and has approved it much better and more gloriously than it could have done if there never had been either Heresies or Schisms Let us therefore hold fast the Profession of our Faith without Wavering being assured that the Gates of Hell that is all the Power and Stratagems of Satan shall never be able to prevail against the Church of Christ but shall only serve to add to its Victories and adorn its Triumphs The Malice O Lord and fierceness of Man shall turn to thy Praise And the fierceness of them shalt thou refrain Ps Lxxvi 10. CHAP. XXXIII Though all Objections could not be answerred yet this would be no just Cause to reject the Authority of the Scriptures ALL Objections which can with any Colour or Pretence be alleged have been considered and answered by divers Men of Great Learning and Judgment and several Objections which have made most noise in the World as that about the Capacity of the Ark and others have been Demonstrated to be groundless and frivolous But tho' all Difficulties could not be accounted for yet this would be no just or sufficient cause why we should reject the Scriptures because Objections for the most part are impertinent to the Purpose for which they were designed and do not at all effect the Evidence which is brought in proof of the Scriptures and if they were pertinent yet unless they could confute that Evidence they ought not to determine us against them He that with an honest and sincere Desire to find out the Truth or Falshood of a Revelation enquires into it should first consider impartially what can be alleged for it and afterwards consider the Objections raised against it that so he may compare the Arguments in proof of it and the Objections together and determine himself on that side which appears to have most Reason for it But to insist upon particular Objections collected out of Difficult Places of Scripture tho' they would likewise observe the Answers that have been given which few of our Objectors have patience to do but run away with the Objection without staying for an Answer I say to allege particular Objections without attending to the main Grounds and Motives
time as not only to endure but often to humour their Insolence and Vanity and from them he had his Notions of Philosophy which agree with the Christian Doctrine and not from the Scriptures For he owns in his Book from whom he had received his Precepts but if he had Read and considered the Scriptures he could never have looked upon the Zeal and Fortitude of the Christian Martyrs as Lib. 1◠§ 3. Obstinacy But the Sophists who made it their business to oppose the Gospel knew they could not better recommend themselves to him than by Teaching its Moral Doctrines and preventing that esteem which he must needs have had of the Christian Religion if he had â—nown that to this those Doctrines which he so much admired owed either their Original or Improvement Whatever opinion he had of the Christians he was wont to attribute too much to his own Vulcat in Cassio Virtue and Piety to ascribe his deliverance wholly to their Prayers And after all the Praises which have been justly given to M. Antonius it must be acknowledged that he valued himself extreamly upon Two Things which were very great hinderances to his Reception of the Gospel viz. The Capitolin Study of Philosophy and the Love and esteem of his People For it is no Wonder that an Emperour who made the Philosophy of those times his Study the Sophists his chief Favourites and Popularity his Aim should not be Converted to a Religion so unpopular and so opposite in some of its Principal Articles to that which the World called Wisdom It is unconceiveable upon what Principles of Religion or Philosophy this Emperour could Deify id Lucius Verus and Faustina but it was impossible that he could do this and be at the same time a Christian that the same Man who Deisied Notorious Wickedness because it had been Cloathed in Purple and shined in Emperial Robes should believe in the Son of God Crucified is utterly inconsistent 〈◊〉 p. 527. l. 3. after at all add 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man of very great Learning and who upon that account had his Statue erâ—â—ted in the Forum at Rome often acknowledged himself convinced of the Truth of Christianity before he could be persuaded openly to profess it for fear of displeasing his Friends that were Gentiles He pretended he might be a Christian as well in Secret and this no doubt might be the case of many others who never made open Profession of it IB p. 530. l. 7. after with them add The Doctrines of the Epicureans and the Stoicks he speaks of such as were peculiar to either Sect were little regarded in St. Austin's time and none durst maintain them but under the Denomination of some Heresy or other these Two Sects then were in so little esteem that they had not Authority enough to give those errors any countenance which they before had so long with great subtilty and success defended against the Platonists but they who would gain any Reception to their errors were at last forced to assume the Name of Christians and betake themselves to some Heresy Of Plotinus's School some became Christians and others applyed themselves to Magick as Plotinus himself must have done if we believe all that Porphyry Writes of him The Relation of the Serpent which was seen under the Bed and then was observed creeping into a hole of the Wall as he gave up the Ghost is an odd Story FINIS BOOKS Printed for and Sold by Peter Buck. THE Reasonableness and Certainty of the Christian Religion Book I. By Robert Jenkin c. Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning By William Wotton B. D. Chaplain to the Right Honorable the Earl of Nottingham The Second Edition with large Additions The Characters or Manners of the Age. Written Originally in French by Monsieur de la Bruyere to which is added a Key in the Margent made English by several Hands with the Characters of Theophrastus Translated from the Greek The Second Edition Corrected throughout and inlarg'd A Dictionary of the Greek and Roman Antiquities explaining the Religion Mythology History Antient Chronology Geography Sacred and Profane Rites and Customs Laws Policy Art and Engines of War Opinions of their Philosophers Lives of Inventers of Arts and Sciences and others famous for them or Arms containing whatsoever is necessary for Elucidating the abstruse passage which Occur in the Clastical Authors and Historians Compiled Originally in French by the Command of the King of France for the Use of the Dauphin D. of Bourgundy Anjou and Berry by Mr. Danet and now made English with the Addition of Useful Maps ERRATA IN the Preface p. 6. Marg. r. Populo p. 7. Marg. r. Cic. Brut. p. 9. l. 7. r. those p. 11. l. 13. r. 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and it being foretold half a year before the Birth of Augustus that a King of the Romans would be born that year the Senate made a Decree (i) Sueton. August c. 94. Nequis illo anno genitus educareter (k) Plutarch in Lycurg Plutarch himself says that he could find nothing unjust or dishonest in the Laws of Lycurgus tho Theft community of Wives and the murthering of such Infants as they saw weak and sickly and therefore thought they would prove unfit to serve the common-wealth were a part of those Laws Revenge was esteemed not only lawful but honourable and a desire of popular Fame and Vain Glory were reckoned among the Virtues of the Heathens and were the greatest motive and encitement they had to any other Vertue (l) Plut. in Aristide Plutarch tells us of Aristides so famed for Justice that tho he were strictly just in private affairs yet in things of publick concernment he made no scruple to act according as the present condition of the Common-wealth seemed to require For it was his Maxim that in such cases Justice must give way to expediency and he gives an instance how Aristides advised the Athenians to act contrary to their most solemn contract and oath imprecating upon himself the punishment of the perjury to avert it from the Common-wealth Tully in the Third Book of his Offices where he treats of the strictest Rules of Justice and proposes so many admirable Examples of it yet resolves the notion of Justice only into a principle of Honour upon which he concludes that no man should do a dishonest Action though he could conceal it both from God and Men and determines that an Oath is but an Appeal to a man 's own Mind or Conscience Cum vero jurato dicenda sententia sit meminerit Deum se adhibere testem id est ut arbitror mentem suam qua nihil homini dedit ipse Deus divinius The Indians themselves whatever may be thought to the contrary have naturally as good Sense and Parts as other people which (m) Jos Acost Hist lib. iv c. 1. Acosta sets himself to prove in divers instances but they had less communication with those who retained revealed Religion and by their own vices and the subtilty of the Devil the Notions which they had received from it were lost or perverted The Egyptians who were so famous for their Learning are a great instance how poor a thing humane Reason is without the Assistance of Divine Revelation for all their profound Learning did but lead them to the grossest Idolatry whilst they conceived God to be only an Anima Mandi and therefore to be worshipped in the several parts and species of the Universe The Stoicks in effect held the same Error and taught (n) Tull. Acad. Qu. lib. i. that there is nothing incorporeal But when the excellency of the Christian Morals began to be so generally observed and taken notice of the last Refuge of Philosophy was in the Moral Doctrines of the Stoicks For almost all the latter Philosophers were of this Sect which they refined and improved as well as they were able that they might have something to oppose to the Morality taught and practised too by the Christians (o) Theophil ad Autolych lib. iii. But the Ancient Stoicks had been the Patrons and Advocates of the worst vices and had filled the Libraries with their obscene Books II. The Stoicks first sprang from the Cynicks that impudent and beastly Sect of Philosophers and they refined themselves but by degrees Zeno who had as great Honour done him by the Athenians as ever any Philosopher had under the Notion of his Vertue taught that men ought to have their Wives in common and would have been put to death by the Laws of most Nations for sins against Nature (p) Diog. Laert. in Zenon Chrysipp Chrysippus taught the worst of Incest as that of Fathers with their Daughters and of Sons with their Mothers and besides his opinion for eating humane Flesh and the like his Books were filled with such obscene Discourses as no modest man could read Athenodorus a Stoick being Library-keeper at Pergamus cut all such ill Passages out of the Books of the Stoicks but he was discovered and those Passages were inserted again But these Philosophers might do as they pleased for they pretended to be exempt from sin and the stoical Philosophy in the Original fundamental Doctrines of it is nothing as Tully observed but a vain pomp and boast of words which at first raise admiration but when throughly considered are ridiculous as that men must live without love or hatred or anger or any other passion that all sins are equal and that it is the same Crime whether a man murther his Father or kill a Cock (*) Tulâ— pro Muraena as Tully says if there be no occasion for it And it is no wonder that Plutarch and others wrote purposely to expose the stoical Philosophy upon its old and genuine principles but the latter Stoicks being very sensible of the many defective and indesensible parts of their philosophy endeavoured to mollify what seemed too harsh and absurd that they might bring their own as near the Christian Doctrine as they could Quinctilian will not allow that Seneca was any great Philosopher but says that his main talent lay in declaiming against vice (q) Quint. lâ—st lib. x. c. 18. in Philosophia parum diligens egregius tamen vitiorum insectator suit It was rather the Art and Design of Seneca who knew wherein the strength and defects of his Philosophy lay to endeavour to give it all the advantage he could and to recommend it to the world by exposing the Follies and Vices of men rather than by instructing them in the Notions of his own Sect. But (r) Seu de Tranqu Animi c. 15. this notwithstanding was one of his Rules nonnunquam usque ad ebrietatem veniendum and when he had expos'd the cruelties the filthiness and the absurdities of the Religions in use amongst the Heathens in a Book written upon that subject yet says he (Å¿) Aug. Civit. Dei lib. vi c. x. quae omnia sapiens servabit tanquam legibus jussa non tanquam Diis grata And Tully likewise in divers places when he has reasoned against the absurdities of their Religion resolves the obligation to observe it into the Duty which men are bound to pay the Laws of the Government under which they live their Philosophy it seems taught them that we must obey Men rather than God But they held no more than (t) Xenophen Memorab lib. 1. Socrates had taught and practised before them Epictetus himself who has set off the Heathen Morality to the best advantage cannot be excused from as great errors and defects He teaches also that men should follow the Religion of their Country whatever it be Enchirid. cap. xxxviii He allows too great indulgence to lust cap. xlvii And
when he proposes Rules of Vertue and cautions to arm men against Vice and Temptation how much short doth he fall of the Christian Doctrine If any man says he tell you that such an one hath spoken ill of you make no Apollogy for your self but answer He did not know my other faults or else he would not have charged me with these only cap xlviii This is a sine saying a pretty turn of thought but what is there in it comparable to that aweful and sacred Promise Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven Mat. v. 11 12. Again when a man values himself says Epictetus for being able to understand and explain the Books of Chrysippus say you to your self unless Chrysippus had written obscurely this man would have had nothing to boast of But what do I design To study Nature and follow it cap. lxxiii This is no ill Satyr upon the vanity of men but is there any thing in it like that Piety and Authority with which St. Paul reproves the same vice 1 Cor. viii 1.2 3. The best thing that can be said of the Heathen Philosophers is that most of them frequently confest the great imperfection of their Philosophy and placed their greatest wisdom in this That they were more sensible than others of their ignorance and Socrates profest that to be the Reason why the Oracle of Apollo declared him to be the wisest man because he knew how ignorant he was better than other men did As to the Chinese Philosophy we know little of it their (u) Confuc lib. iii. Par. 4. p. 36. Philippi â—â—uplet Prooem Declar. Books of Philosophy being all destroyed at the command of a Tyrant who reigned about two hundred years before Christ from the Fragments which were afterwards gathered up and yet remain among them we can only perceive that Confucius and the rest of their best Philosophers taught no more than what they had learnt by Tradition from their Ancestors and when they forsook this Tradition they fell into the grossest errors which are maintained by the learned men amongst them at this day II. Whatever there is of excellency in the Philosophy of the Heathens is owing to Revelation It is generally supposed that humane Reason could have discovered the more common and obvious Precepts of Morality contained in the Scriptures but it is more probable that it could not have discovered most of them if we may judge by the gross absurdities which we find as to some particulars in the best Systems of Heathen Philosophy and from the general practice of offering up men for sacrifices to their Gods and of casting away and exposing their Children in the most civilized Nations But it is evident from what has been already proved at large that the Heathens were not left destitute of many helps and advantages from the Scriptures which divers of the Philosophers had read and many things which seem now to be deductions from natural Reason might have their Original from Revelation for things once discovered seem easie and obvious to men which they would never have been able to discover of themselves We wonder now how men should ever suppose there could be no Antipodes and are apt to admire how America could lie so long concealed rather than how it came at last to be discovered and the case is the same in many other Discoveries especially in moral Truths which are so agreeable to Reason that they may seem the natural Productions of it though a contrary custom and inclination and the subtlety of Satan working upon our depraved Nature might perhaps have made it very difficult if not impossible without a Revelation to discern many Doctrines even of Morality which now are most common and familiar to us What Maxim is more agreeable and therefore as one would think more obvious to humane Reason than that every man should do to others as he would have them do to him And yet Spartianas an Heathen Historian says that Alexander Severus had this excellent rule of natural Justice and Equity either from the Jews or Christians There is no Book of Scripture which seems to contain plainer and more obvious things than the Proverbs of Solomon and (x) Ld. Bacon Advance of Learning B. viii c. 2. yet an Author of great Learning and Judgment has given an Essay how a considerable defect of Learning may be supplyed out of this very Book producing such cautions instructions and axioms from thence relating to the business and government of humane Life in all varieties of occasion as are no where else to be met withal No man can tell how far humane Reason could have proceeded without Revelation since it never was without it but always argued from those Principles which were at first delivered by God himself to Noah and were propagated amongst his Posterity throughout all Ages and Nations though they were more corrupted and depraved in some Ages and Nations than in others (y) Plat. de Legib. Dialog 1. Plato derives the Original of all Laws from Revelation and the Doctrines of Morality of the most ancient Philosophers were a kind of Cabbala consisting of general Maxims and Proverbs without argument or deduction from Principles and it is the same thing at this day in those Countries where Aristotle's Philosophy has not prevailed who was one of the first that undertook to argue closely from Principles in Morality And in other parts of Philosophy I shall prove by some remarkable instances that humane reason failed them in the explication of things which were generally received and acknowledged The existence of God is clearly and unanswerably demonstrated by Tully and (z) Tull. de Legib. lib. 1. the Unity of the God-head is as plainly asserted by him with what strength of Reason with what plainness with what assurance doth (a) Tull. de Natur. Deor. lib. 2 ii Balbus the Stoick speak concerning the existence of the Deity but when he would explain the Divine Nature he describes a mere Anima Mundi and exposes himself to the scorn and laughter of his Adversary which shews that humane Reason could go no further than to discover the existence of God and that we can know little of his nature but by Revelation and that whatsoever true and just notions the Heathens had of the Divine Nature must be chiefly ascribed to that That the world was created the Philosophers before Aristotle generally asserted and that Water was the first matter out of which it was formed is acknowledged by (b) Arist de coelo lib. i. c. 10. Metaphys lib. i. c. 3. Aristotle to be esteemed the most ancient opinion but when he set himself to argue the point he concluded the world to be eternal which according to modern Philosophy is as absurd and impossible as any thing that can be imagined The Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul was delivered down from all