REFLEXIONS Upon the BOOKS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE To Establish the TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION In Two Volumes Volume I. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXVIII IMPRIMATUR Liber cui Titulus est Reflections upon the Books of the Holy Scriptures c. in II. Vol. The 12th of January 1687 / 8. H. Maurice R mo in Christo P.D. Willielmo Archiep. Cant. Ã Sacris TO THE KING Great SIR THe gracious acceptance which your Majesty was pleased to allow the first Volume of my Reflexions upon the Holy Scriptures to establish the Truth of the Christian Religion encouraged and almost necessitated me to the further presumption of laying these two Volumes at this time at your Majesties Feet Your Majesty did me the honour to say That you were pleased to see Divines apply themselves to the clearing of Subjects so important And after this Judgment given by so great a Prince which is so evident a Demonstration of your Zeal for the Fundamental Truths of the Christian Religion it had been unpardonable in me not to have gone on with the Work and I had Reason then to Consecrate it wholly to your Majesty who I was assured would approve of my Intentions and for that Reason would pardon the Imperfections of the Performance As your Majesty continues still to give such illustrious Instances of your Clemency and Royal Protection to those of our Nation so I confess Sir I thought my self under an Obligation to lay hold upon this Opportunity of publishing what all those who find so sure a Protection in your Majesties Dominions feel and think as much as my self upon these new Testimonies of your Royal Bounty When your Majesty had taken us into your particular care and had granted us several Priviledges and so made us sharers in all the Advantages which those who live under your Government enjoy your Majesty did yet something more and inspired all your Subjects with the same compassion towards us with which your Royal Breast was already touched You saw our miseries and resolved to give us ease and this generous Design was executed and your Royal Clemency diffused in the hearts of all your Subjects The whole World Sir which has received upon all its Coasts some Remainders of our Shipwrack is fill'd with admiration of the unexampled effects of your Majesties Clemency There is no place so barbarous whither the renown of that mercy which has been so gloriously extended towards us has not been carried and the remembrance will be ever dear to the remotest Ages of Posterity We must Sir be wholly insensible if we had not all of us the highest sense of so great a Bounty and we should justly appear to the whole World to be unworthy of this your Majesties Paternal care if notwithstanding that low condition to which we are now reduced we should not prostrate our selves before your August Throne with the humblest demonstrations of Thankfulness When God show'rs down the greatest Blessings upon Mankind he requires this just Tribute which is also their greatest honour by opening to them an access unto the Throne of Glory And this sacred Pattern we crave leave to follow when we solemnly pay the like Tribute to your Majesty who can receive nothing from us again that can answer the greatness or the number of those Favours which have so very much exceeded all our desires I could wish Sir that this Work which I now present to your Majesty might be so haypy as to pass to Posterity with this Character of our acknowledgment and that it might stand as a faithful Record for ever to perpetuate the memory of that lively sense of your Bounty which is imprinted on all our hearts If this could be hoped for it must be wholly owing to your Majesties glorious Name which latest Ages will receive with Reverence But Sir tho' I dare not hope that these Reflexions can obtain that honour yet our Age at least may see that they bear these publick Marks of Gratitude for all your Majesties Royal Favours This Sir is my sole aim in the Dedication of this Work to your Majesty and may your Sacred Majesty be pleased to approve of these poor Testimonies of our Thankfulness in general and to look upon them as Instances of mine in particular and of that profound Respect with which I am London May the 7th 1688. Sir Your Majesties most dutiful and obedient Subject and Servant P. ALLIX THE PREFACE ONe may divide Men into two general Classes some are without any knowledge of a Diety or Sence of Religion Travellers tell us that in the West-Indies the Eastern parts of Tartary and some places of Africa such people are to be found I know this is a Fact which is disputed by others and Fabricius a Divine of the Palatinate pretends that he has solidly confuted it If this Fact should be thought doubtful yet it is known at least that some persons may be found here and there in the World who look upon the Existence of a Deity as upon a Fable and who ridicule all acts of Religious Worship whatsoever But one may also say that if he compare these with the rest of the World they make the least and worst part of Mankind tho many of them affect to live Morally well All the rest of the World make Profession that they own a God that is to say a most perfect Eternal and independent Being that he governs all things by his Providence that there is a difference between Good and Evil that Man doth well or ill in those Actions which depend on his Liberty From whence they equally conclude that Man was design'd for the Duties of Religion that Society without it would be pure Robbery And that as it is hard to conceive that Men should be wholly destroy'd by Death so it is directly contrary to the Sentiments of Conscience to deny all Rewards for Virtue or Punishments for Vice after this Life All the Diversities of Religion amongst Men are reducible to two kinds The first is of those who suppose that there is more than one God and this is the Belief of all Pagans in general The Second is of those that acknowledge one only God such are the Jews Christians and Mahometans Now as for the cure of different Diseases several Remedies are made use of so it is visible that to deliver Men of their various prejudices we must take very different Methods The ignorance of those Barbarous People in the Indies Tartary and Africa must be removed by teaching them the first Principles and making them apply the little sense they have left them of good and evil right and wrong to the fundamental Maxims of Religion Atheists must be convinced by Reflexions upon those Principles which they admit by shewing that the Truths which they reject are the natural Consequences of those Principles which they dare not dispute To convince the Heathen who suppose many Gods we must
if it had been absolutely necessary to be a Jew before they have a share in the benefits of the Promise Secondly It supposes that God was to remove that People out of Canaan into remote Countreys and to disperse them as it were into the uttermost parts of the World which was done by Divine Providence only to publish the Promise of the Messiah to establish the Belief in the Prophets and so to facilitate the calling of the Gentiles to the Faith. Thirdly He declares expresly as St. Paul observes that he was to call his people that which was not his people that he might by that means provoke the people of Israel to Jealousie This Notion of Jealousie mentioned by St. Paul deserves to be taken notice of with very great care if we reflect upon the Spirit of Jealousie which reigned amongst the Israelites and their Neighbours I shall take notice in another place of the great number of Oracles of David upon the same Subject altho he otherwise insults upon the Moabites and Edomites upon all occasions and shews as much Aversion and Jealousie against those Nations as was possible for one that lived in a continual War with those people I shall also make some Reflexions upon Solomon's Marriage with the Princesses of Tyre of Sidon and of Egypt that is to say with the Posterity of Ham which was united to that of Judah to take a part with them in the Blessing from whence it came to pass that the Song that was written upon that Marriage was preserved as a piece divinely inspired and ought to be considered as a happy presage of the calling of the Gentiles to the Communion of the Messiah One may also joyn here the manner of Solomon's giving to Hiram's Subjects who had helped him in the building of the Temple the Countrey of Chabul which was inclosed within Judea altho those people were of the Canaanites Posterity upon whom Noah had particularly pronounced Gen. IX Cursed be Canaan One may also see that as God had permitted his people to be Transported into Chaldea and Babylon and had raised up there Prophets amongst them on purpose to acquaint the World with the glorious hopes of the Jews so he caused the Books of Scripture to be Translated into Greek about 300 years before our Saviour's Birth not only to prevent all suspicion of falshood in the minds of the Gentiles if they were produced of a suddain after the Birth of the Messiah but also to instruct the Heathens by little and little of the Right which all Nations had as well as the Jews to that Promise that they might take their share in it whenever they should be invited to it by God and especially to take away the Scandal which was to follow upon God's destroying the Form of that Commonwealth by the Romans according to Daniels Prediction All these things no doubt engaged the Jews who read the Books of Moses to make particular Remarks upon them But they ought to have observed three things especially The First was That altho God had at first chosen their whole Nation yet he was pleased to disperse afterwards almost ten parts of thirteen which plainly shew'd that this choice which he had made was only an Oeconomical choice and for a particular design The Second is That altho he was very severe and punctual in exacting obedience to the Ceremonial Service yet he had fixed the most part of their observances to certain places to certain times and to certain persons It was easie to judge that when God bounded them in this manner it was only for an Oeconomical Service prescribed only upon a particular prospect which was one day to have an end The Third is That experience convinced them that altho God seemed to have fixed his Service to the Temple yet he suffered the Chaldeans to destroy the first and did not restore to the second the first Marks of his presence when it was rebuilt by the order of Cyrus From whence it was natural to conclude that such a glory as retired by little and little from that place which God had chosen was only design'd to be there for a time till God should extend his Service by calling all the World to his Religion and so making the whole Universe his Temple as we see it done in our days by the calling of the Gentiles to the Religion of our Saviour FINIS REFLEXIONS Upon the BOOKS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE To Establish the TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION Volume II. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXVIII THE PREFACE IN my Reflexions upon the Book of Genesis I have shewed the means God made use of to imprint the Idea's of the Creation of the World and the Promise of the Messiah during that long Tract of 2500 years before the Children of Israel departed out of Egypt and before the History of it was penn'd by Moses They that consider that God at first prescribed the Law of the Sabbath to fix the belief of the Creation of the World and that this Law hath been constantly observed since the beginning of the World until Moses and is still to this day observed amongst the Jews easily apprehend that this Fact of the Creation could not be more incontestably proved or more firmly grounded In like manner an attentive Reflexion upon the Oracles which I have mention'd and which alone at first were the foundation and hope of the Religion of the Patriarchs and were afterwards recorded in the Book of Genesis is sufficient to perswade any one that it was impossible but the memory of the Promise of the Messiah should be deeply engraven in the minds of the Israelites tho' we should suppose that the Spirit of Jealousie which God had raised amongst the several Pretenders to the execution of that great Promise did not much contribute to preserve the remembrance of it as I have shown very carefully that it was very useful for that purpose I have in my Reflexions afterwards proved upon the four last Books of Moses that God prosecuted the same design in the Laws which he gave to the People of Israel as well as in the peculiar Forms and Regulations of their Government and Religion the great design of which Rules was only that the Messiah at his appearance in the World might be unquestionably known Whoever shall read the Reflexions which I have made upon this matter will easily perceive that the long Life of the Patriarchs was of great efficacy to make so fresh and lively an impression of those illustrious Facts the Creation of the World and the Promise of the Messiah that there was no need of very frequent Oracles to confirm the same as indeed we find that in the space of 2553 years only five or six principal Oracles were given which have a particular Relation to the Messiah as I shall shew afterwards Now this Reflexion being once supposed as the Life of Man was afterwards
care which he afterwards took to confirm this truth of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ He was a declared Enemy of Jesus Christ and of the Christian Religion and yet soon after the Death of Christ he preaches him up for the Messiah How came this suddain change He asserts that he had seen in Heaven this Jesus who was risen from the dead and received from him the Apostleship accordingly we find him preaching by these Orders without any communication had with the first Disciples of Jesus Christ He relates these matters in a manner so little affected to advance his Ministry in the minds of the Galatians who preferred S. Peter and the other Apostles before him that there is no ground left to doubt of them One ought to make a like Reflexion upon the Conversion of Cornelius the Centurion he was a Proselyte that is a Gentile by Birth but a Jew by Profession and by the Imployment he was in he had occasion of being more particularly informed of the deposition of the Souldiers who probably were not unknown to him for he was in the Garrison at Caesarea which was not far from Jerusalem Yet however this Cornelius after he had a vision which commanded him to send to Joppa a place made famous because Jonah the Prophet set Sail from thence who was a Type of the Messiah in his Death and Resurrection this Cornelius I say embraced the Christian Religion becomes the first Bishop of Caesarea and dyed a Martyr for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ The great affection which S. Luke had for S. Paul confirms the same truth S. Luke had never seen our Saviour he was born at Antioch where in all probability he exercis'd his Profession of Physick yet he was converted to Christianity and follow'd S. Paul in all places and writ the History of his Miracles and Preaching who doubts but that the reason hereof was because he had seen the Dead whom Christ had raised to life and had seen S. Paul whom Jesus Christ had dignified with the Apostleship raise others also from the dead It is certain that those who were first convinced by the Relation of the Apostles must needs have had very evident proofs of the truth of it The Jews had Sadducees amongst them who denied the possibility of the Resurrection in general the Council of the Jews especially had made it their business to decry the Conduct the Doctrine and the Miracles of Jesus Christ and in particular to make the belief of his Resurrection suspected and so much the more because Jesus Christ had foretold it and his Apostles maintained that it was come to pass accordingly If in opposition to these strong prejudices there had only been the deposition of two or three persons to confirm this Fact there would have been reason to doubt of it but we find that this thing which of it self seems hard to be believed and was otherwise so much contested is 1. Proved by ten several Apparitions 2. It is attested by above five hundred Disciples 3. It was publickly preached by the Disciples of Christ at Jerusalem it self and throughout all Judea where it was most of all disputed 4. It was received by the very Enemies of Jesus Christ as S. Paul and Cornelius and by thousands of those who having demanded his Death were converted by the preaching of the Apostles 5. It was confirmed by the Martyrdom of the greatest part of them and 6. It was not not only authoriz'd by the presence of the three persons whom Christ had raised to life and who lived one of them at Bethany fifteen furlongs from Jerusalem where Jesus ascended to Heaven another at Naim c. But it was further verified by several Resurrections wrought by the Apostles to whom Christ had vouchsafed that astonishing power It was also a very considerable thing that the Commonwealth of the Jews continued near forty years after the time that the Apostles undertook openly to preach up the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as the capital Article of their Religion and yet in all that time it was never opposed by any publick Writing either of the Jews or Gentiles If the Jews in their unjust intrigues against Jesus Christ and his Religion endeavoured to abuse the World in this matter with calumniating Stories neither have the Apostles been wanting to accuse the principal Men of their Nation of imposture and they have despised the most cruel of their Punishments to maintain the Justice of their Charge and yet none of them would undertake to justifie the Calumnies of their Council tho' they saw Christianity spreading it self not only over all Judea but in all parts of the World. To speak of it as it is this Conduct of theirs was a manifest betraying of their Cause or rather an open acknowledgment that what they had published against the innocency of the Disciples and the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus was without all ground I foresee only one probable difficulty which can be opposed to the solidity of these Reflexions A Jew may demand why Jesus Christ after his Resurrection did not converse as openly amongst the Jews as before that so he might have been known by those who had crucified him which would have put the truth of the Resurrection out of doubt But to speak truth this Objection is not reasonable for 1. Jesus Christ had threatned the unbelieving Jews they should see him no more and he ought to make good his threatning 2. Who sees not that they would have looked upon his appearing amongst them as a phantastick Apparition after they had seen him work so many Miracles and had attributed them to the Devil 3. I say that such an Apparition was not agreeable to our Saviour's Doctrine in the Parable of the Rich man Luke XVI 29 31. They have Moses and the Prophets if they hear not them neither will they be perswaded tho' one rose from the dead 4. Jesus Christ having for the most part conversed in Galilee at Nazareth and Capernaum it was to the Galileans and his Disciples that he was chiefly to shew himself to be acknowledged by them as being the persons who were particularly to bear witness of this truth After so strong a presumption as the Governours of that People had of Christ's Resurrection founded upon the Earthquake which accompanied it and upon the Deposition of the Souldiers to whom the Angels had appeared had not they all the reason in the World to believe the testimony of the Apostles concerning this truth which they heard several times attested by them in full Council and saw confirm'd by miraculous Cures which they could not question in the least Lastly Is not this Objection the most ridiculous thing in the World For let us suppose that these Considerations are not strong enough to justifie our Saviour's conduct when he gave these proofs of his Resurrection doth it follow that because he did not make choice of means in order to perswade the Jews which they
therefore that occurs in this Matter consists in the proof of those Facts which the Christian Religion propounds to us that is to say in proving the Creation of the World the Fall of Man the Promise of a Redeemer his coming into the World his Miracles Death Resurrection Ascension into Heaven c. which are the Foundations of the Christian Religion And indeed these are the very matters of which Atheists and Libertines require a solid proof And it doth the more concern us to satisfie their demands forasmuch as the Jews who are scatter'd throughout the whole World do oppose our assertion that the Promise of sending the Messiah is already accomplish'd tho' they agree upon the matter with us in all other Articles Moreover the performing this Task may very much contribute to the Conversion of a great number of bad Christians whose sall and continuance in vices and licentiousness is to be ascrib'd to their being so weakly perswaded of the truth of these Fundamentals and that because they have never consider'd of them with sufficient attention CHAP. II. That the Christian Religion is founded upon Proofs of Mattter of Fact. FOrasmuch as in order to establish the truth of the Christian Religion we confine our selves at present to those proofs which make out the Matters of Fact it proposes omitting all other arguments which may evidence the truth of it tho' possibly no less convincing it is obvious that the proofs we are to produce in confirmation of them must be such as are proper to evince the truth of things long since past and done If we were treating of the Events of the time we live in it might be justly required that we should produce Eye-witnesses of them but forasmuch as the question here is concerning matters long since past it is natural for us to have recourse to History which furnisheth us with the relations of those who where Eye-witnesses of the same This being the only way left us to confirm our belief of things at so great a distance from us I am beholding to History only for the knowledg I have of a Cyrus an Alexander or a Caesar and yet having read the account they give me of them I find them matters I can no way rationally doubt of I acknowledg that the certainty we have of things long since past is much inferiour to that which we have of matters confirm'd to us by Eye-witnesses Nevertheless because it is evident that the Events of ancient Times cannot be confirm'd but by proofs of this nature it has never entred into the minds of any to account the existence of such men as Cyrus and Alexander for Fables upon the pretence that none now alive did ever see them or because there are scarce any traces left of those Empires of which they were the Founders Indeed the certainty we have of these things is such as nothing can be superadded to it for tho' it be founded on the Authority of Historians who liv'd many Ages ago yet withal we are to consider that the matters related do not only carry the Idea of probability and truth along with them but that they are the very ground and foundation of all the Histories of following Ages which cannot be questioned if we consider the connexion and dependance of the things related according to the light of Sense and the equity of Reason A Matter of Fact then is accounted certain when it is attested by those who were Eye-witnesses of it when recorded by an Historian who liv'd amongst those who had perfect knowledg of it when the Matter is not gainsaid or contradicted by any if we find it pen'd at a time when the things could not be related by any otherwise than indeed they were without exposing themselves to publick derision And last of all when the matter is found to be of that nature as none could be ignorant of it either because it was the interest of every one to be inform'd of it or because the thing was so publick that it could not be hid from any or lastly because of its natural connexion with all those other Events which necessarily depend on it To speak plain it is very unjust to demand either more proofs or such as are of another nature for the confirmation of the Truth of our Religion than are required to verisie any other matters of Fact. Why should not the Testimony of Noahs Children be sufficient to conclude there was such a man as Methusalem in case they assure us that they have seen him Or why should not the testimony of Methusalem be of credit enough to prove there was such a Man as Adam if he avers that he saw him and convers'd with him Do'nt we every day give credit to the account which old men give us of their Predecessors especially when we find that what they relate hath an exact reference and connexion with those things we are Eye-witnesses of But it is an easie thing to make it appear that the proofs which evidence the Truth of the matters which our Religion proposeth are infinitely more strong and convincing All the circumstances we can imagine proper to evince the Truth of any Relation do concur to place the matters recorded in Holy Scripture beyond the Reach of doubt or uncertainty We account the single Testimony of an Historian a sufficient proof that there was once a very famous Temple at Delphos or Ephesus notwithstanding that all the Monuments remaining at this day to confirm his relation be very doubtful and defective Whereas I shall make it appear that an entire Nation yea many Nations do attest the truth of those Matters which the Christian Religion proposes and that all the Actions Discourses and whole Series of Events thereto relating do furnish us with an infinite number of characters which invincibly signalize the Truth of the Holy Scrïptures CHAP. III. Some General Remarks in order to establish the Truth of Holy Scripture FOrasmuch as I have undertaken to prove the truth of the Matters of Fact contain'd in our Religion from the testimony of the Pen-men of the Old and New Testament it will be proper in order to the executing of my design to begin with a general proof of the Truth of the said Books which will not be difficult if one makes the following remarks The First is That it appears from the Five Books of Moses that he wrote the History of the Creation of the World and of the Promise of the Messiah of the Deluge the Rise and Pedigree of the several Nations of the World of the Division of Tongues and in particular the History of the Family of Abraham until the entring of the Children of Israel into Palestina 2552 years after the Creation of the World. The Second is That the following Books viz. of Joshua Judges Ruth the four Books of Kings of Chronicles with the Books of Ezrah and Nehemiah are a Continuation of the said History from the entring of the Jews into Palestina until their
he who had made himself so famous by his Sorceries becomes a Disciple S. Luke in a History of the Actions of thirty years relates the continual Miracles wrought by the Apostles and particularly by S. Paul whom he constantly followed It seems to me that if one considers the History it self and the person who made it that it will appear to be a true and faithful Relation however there are other testimonies which invincibly establish the same Truth 1. The Gospel was in effect established in most of the Provinces and great Cities of the Roman Empire S. Paul writes to the Christians of Thessalonica Corinth and Ephesus to the Galatians Colossians c. which is an evident Argument that there were Christians every where that is Disciples of these twelve Fishermen who understood nothing but their native Syriack Language How then were all these Nations converted without supposing the truth of the Miracle at the Pentecost 2. The Apostles speak to them of these miraculous Gifts as of a common thing S. Paul employing some part of his first Epistle to the Corinthians to regulate those disorders which arose in the Church by reason of the abuse of those Gifts S. James speaks of the power that the Priests had to cure the sick and S. Paul wishes for an opportunity of going to Rome to communicate those Gifts to the Romans 3. They take occasion to raise the Dignity of the Gospel above that of the Law in calling it the Ministry of the Spirit in opposition to the Letter of the Law notwithstanding the Tables of the Law had been given to Moses in so very illustrious a manner It is of great moment here to consider Three things which alone are sufficient to confirm the truth of the Christian Religion The first is That this Mission of the Spirit is alone sufficient to convince Mankind of the Divinity of Jesus Christ God gave to Adam a power of speaking one Language and afterwards he divided the same to make a confusion amongst the Builders of Babel and Jesus Christ doth the same thing to confirm the Glory and Belief of his Divinity God vouchsafes the power of Miracles to some Jesus Christ communicates it to a far greater number Miracles not having been so generally wrought because no People ever had that power in all the foregoing Ages The Father wrought so few Miracles that he might leave to the Son this means of making himself known The Son had the glory of pouring forth the Holy Ghost in a greater abundance than the Father thereby to supply the shame of his humiliation This is the true Reason why the Scripture saith That the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus Christ was not yet glorified The second is That from this Miracle one ought to infer these two Conclusions The first is That God was fully pacified by the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ the Apostles constantly representing the Passion of our Saviour as a Sacrifice offer'd by him The other is That from that time forward Mankind was conscerated to God as his Temple Jesus Christ in his prayer before his Death expresses himself much in the same manner as Solomon did at his Dedication of the first Temple and Fire from Heaven falls down on his Sacrifice Jesus Christ consecrates his Apostles to be the living Stones of his Temple and causes the heavenly Flames to fall down upon them as had formerly been granted at Solomon's Dedication of the first Temple The third is That the Jews themselves cannot conceive a more glorious or magnificent Accomplishment of the ancient Oracles concerning the effusion of the Holy Spirit at the time of the Messiah than what we find related by S. Luke whereof the whole World may see the visible Effects in the Calling of the Gentiles to the Christian Religion from whence one may rationally conclude That Jesus Christ must be acknowledged for the Messiah whom God had promised CHAP. XV. That according to the Prophecies the Apostles of Jesus Christ have called the Gentiles to the profession of the Christian Religion WE have already seen what was the design of God and that the distinction which he made of the Jews from other Nations was only that the Messiah might by that means be the more certainly known in whom all Mankind had a right as being promised to Adam God renew'd the Idea of this truth in a very lively manner when he assured Abraham before he gave him the Law of Circumcision That in his Seed all Nations should be blessed Jacob enlightned by the Spirit of Prophecy on his Death-bed plainly takes this truth for granted when he says that the Messiah whom he calls Shiloh was to be the expectation of the Gentiles Gen. XLIX Why doth he not say That he was to be the expectation of the Jews but because he supposeth that they were to be rejected and the Gentiles called in their stead One see 's in the Psalms and in the Prophets until Malachi inclusively a thousand Declarations of this future Calling of the Gentiles to the Faith of the Messiah and tho' the most part of the Idea's which the Prophets make use of seem to be very figurative describing the Messiah as a Conquerour who was to subdue the whole World to his Dominion by the force of Arms yet we find a great many others interwoven with them which only relate to the Profession of the Religion of the Messiah and which not being capable of any other Sense sufficiently determine the others so as not to perplex the Reader with those seeming Obscurities But Jesus Christ very distinctly declares this in divers places and above all in the XXIV of S. Matthew This Gospel saith he shall be preached throughout all the World. Now nothing could ever be more exactly fulfilled than these ancient Oracles have been let the Jews cavil as long as they please about our application of many of the Prophecies of the Old Testament to our Saviour let them put a sense upon the Scriptures which treat of this Subject contrary to what the Jews who were contemporary with Jesus Christ ever did and to the most of those with whom the first Christians as Justin Tertullian and others from time to time disputed yet at least they cannot deny but that the thing has been exactly fulfilled It is clearer than the day that nothing could be more exact All Christians from one end of the World to another worship the God of Israel according to the Prophecy of Malachi Jesus Christ subjected them to the Moral part of the Law of Moses The Mahometans themselves have learnt of the Christians to acknowledge no other God but the God of Israel The multitude of false Gods which the World worshipped are vanished from all places where Christianity has been planted and very few are left in comparison of those which are already destroy'd so that we must consider the thing as already gone very far In truth while things continue thus one may reasonably maintain against the
Fact which they have asserted in the midst of the most cruel Torments and even until Death That Jesus Christ sent down upon his Apostles the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Spirit is a Fact of which all Jerusalem was a witness fifty days after the Feast of the Passover when Jesus Christ was crucified it is as remarkable a Fact as ever happened twelve Fishermen of Galilee maintain in the face of the whole Jewish Nation that the same Jesus whom the whole Nation had demanded to be crucified but fifty days before and who did actually suffer upon an infamous Cross is risen from the dead and ascended into Heaven after he had eaten and drunk with them and had appeared several times to them after his Resurrection and that he had given them the power of speaking all sorts of Languages and of healing all manner of Diseases That they spoke divers Languages is a Fact most notorious the truth whereof appears from the Conversion of the World which was found to be fill'd with their Disciples but a few years after this Fact was done That they had the power of healing all Diseases as well as their Master is a Fact the truth whereof is establish'd upon indisputable testimonies insomuch as their Successors received the same Gift by the laying on of their Hands Two hundred years after Tertullian mentions this Gift as being at that time well known amongst Christians That the Apostles after they were rejected by the Jews preached the Gospel to the Gentiles who also received it is a Fact of which there are so many proofs in the World that it cannot be called in question That the converted Jews strongly opposed themselves against the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles pretending as the Jews now do that the Messiah with his Gifts and Graces was confin'd to their Nation is a Fact so well attested that it cannot be called in question if we consider the first dispute which gave occasion to the first Council of the Apostles and to the contests of S. Paul with those of his own Nation That since that time the Apostles and their Disciples have maintained by their Writings and Disputes and finally by their Martyrdom that Jesus was the Messiah that they have constantly stood to this claim alledging the Facts which the Gospel proposes and maintaining that the matters there related were exact Accomplishments of the Promises of God and of the ancient Prophecies That all this is unquestionable one needs only read their Sermons and Speeches set down by S. Luke and their Epistles one needs only peruse the Heathen History and the Works of those that succeeded the Apostles who followed their footsteps in establishing the truth of the Christian Religion That the Apostles discharged their followers from the Ceremonies which Moses prescribed obliging them only to the Essentials of Morality That they annul'd the Law which permitted Divorces without sufficient cause and Polygamy these are things which none who have read their Writings or those of their first Disciples can in the least question Lastly That they foretold many things as well as their Master that they published their Predictions which they have extended to the end of the World and the return of Jesus from Heaven to judge the World and that they have recorded the particulars of many considerable Events observed by the Christians which have happened from time to time these are Facts as well known and as incontestable as any thing can be in the World of such a nature Whole Nations are Witnesses of it differing Sects Interpreters who have several Opinions concerning these Prophecies the Contests of the Jews the Opposition of Atheists the Cavils of Hereticks the Cruelty of Tyrants all these concur to prove clearly that the Christians received these Prophecies from the Apostles as well as the truth of them since even these Oppositions were foretold as well as the Persecutions Thus I have given you a view of the greatest part of the most important Articles which are contained in the Christian Religion and I think that they are so solidly grounded upon proofs of Fact that I can assert with reason That no Facts in the World can be produced so well established as these are which are the Fundamentals of our Religion What Facts are there which are attested by whole Nations as the Miracles of Jesus Christ were What Facts are there about which men were so careful to inform themselves as when a Man pretends to the Title of the Messiah What thing can we suppose that requires a stronger conviction because of the difficulties it involves than that of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ for those who were Eye-witnesses of his Crucifixion that is who had seen him punished by the Magistrate the horrour of all his own People and in all appearance forsaken of Heaven To speak the truth as there cannot be a greater instance of fanatical folly than to attribute to twelve poor Fishermen whose Master was crucified at Jerusalem by publick order and by an effect of the hatred of the whole Nation I say to attribute to them the design of perswading that People and the Gentiles also that this man was raised again from the dead that he rules in Heaven that he has bestowed upon them the miraculous Gifts of speaking all sorts of Languages and healing all manner of Diseases if this Jesus had been never raised from the dead nor had bestowed such Gifts upon them the mind of Man not being capable of so great folly So we have all the reason in the World to conclude That since they have attested this Fact and confirmed it by all the proofs which might convince those who tho' they were not prejudic'd yet were astonish'd at the difficulty of the things themselves so that nothing can be more certain than Facts so confirmed as we pretend that these actually were CHAP. XVII That it cannot be questioned whether the Books of the New Testament were written by the Apostles BEfore we alledge those Arguments which will invincibly confirm the truth of the Books of the New Testament I desire the Reader to make these three or four Reflexions which seem to be very important to our present design The first is That we can scarcely conceive a more simple and strong way of proving a Fact than what we find in the Books here mention'd The design of the four Evangelists for instance is to prove that Jesus the Son of Mary is the promised Messiah and that in his Birth his Life his Doctrine his Death and Resurrection we meet with all the Characters which the Prophets attributed to the Messiah How do the Evangelists execute this their design In the most proper way imaginable to convince others and most proportionable to their design They simply relate the Facts and Facts so clear that if we do not question the truth of them we cannot doubt that Jesus is the Messiah They relate the most important of these Facts as things that happened in
examine their Principles and confute them which is the easiest thing in the World the Wisest Men having formerly acknowledged as they also own to this very day that there is but one God. And indeed it seems that the greatest part of Philosophers did own a plurality of Gods only in compliance with the Opinions of the people which it was dangerous to contradict And as for the Jews forasmuch as they agree with the Christians and Mahometans about the Vnity of God we are only to prove to them the truth of that which is the very Essence of the Christian Religion in opposition to their prejudices One may prove this against the Jews without any trouble because they are agreed in most of those Principles which the Christian Religion supposes So likewise it is easily established against the Mahometans who grant the truth of Christian Religion in general but pretend that it ought to give place to Mahometanism as the Law ought to give place to the Gospel preach'd by Jesus Christ My design is not to prosecute every one of these ways in particular There are Books enough in the World which solidly prove the necessity of Religion against all sorts of Atheists as well those who are so through ignorance as those who profess themselves such from Love to Libertinism and to pass for Men of a mighty reach There are also several Famous Authors who have made it evident that Reason alone is sufficient to overthrow all Pagan Religions whatsoever I am resolved to follow a more compendious and sure Method that is to demonstrate the Truth of the Christian Religion considered by it self In short It is impossible considering the opposition there is between the Christian Religion and all other Religions in the World that the Christian Religion should be the true but that all others must be false in those Articles wherein they essentially differ from it And on the other hand one cannot explain those Arguments which clearly evince the truth of Christianity without convicting all other Religions of falsehood because they are destitute of those proofs which are peculiar to the Christian Religion I know very well that there are several ways which lead to the end which I propose Men that think much wish that a perfect Conformity of the Christian Religion with the Conscience of Man might be demonstrated from Reflexions on the Heart of Man and the Dictates of it which to them would be a convincing and demonstrative proof Others apply themselves to a speculative examination of the Doctrines and Proofs of the Christian Religion to shew their Conformity with the Notions of Reason I will not deny but that both these employ themselves usually in this sort of study and that Truth finds a considerable support from their Meditations But how useful soever they may be I have rather chosen to follow another course as thinking it of more advantage solidly to establish the Facts which the Christian Religion proposeth which appears to me to be more proper to perswade all sorts of Readers and better levell'd to the ordinary Capacity of those who newly enter upon the examination of this Truth And as the necessity of Revelation is generally owned by Heathens and by all other Nations of the World I thought it a thing altogether unnecessary to enter upon the examination of several abstracted Questions such as these Whether there be any natural knowledge of God whether Men are naturally inclined to be Religious and the like When I shall have firmly proved that God revealed himself that he prescribed a Service to the first Men who left the Rules of it to all their Posterity from whence all the Religion that ever was or is yet in the Heathen World was derived I shall have prevented many very unprofitable Disputes and which can only perplex the mind by their obscurity I have therefore confin'd my self to certain Considerations which do so establish the truth of the Books of the Old and New Testament as by their Vnion they firmly prove the truth of the Christian Religion I hope that it will not be thought needful for me to demonstrate that the Mahometan Religion ought not to abolish the Christian as the Christians pretend that the Christian Religion abrogated the Ceremonial part of the Jewish Worship As soon as an understanding Reader shall make some Reflexions upon the nature of the Arguments which demonstrate the Truth of the Christian Religion he may easily perceive that God never framed the Model of that Religion which the Mahometans would obtrude upon us THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE First Part of the First Volume Chap. 1. COncerning the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion Page 1 Chap. 2. That the Christian Religion is founded upon Proofs of Matter of Fact 5 Chap. 3. Some General Remarks in order to establish the Truth of Holy Scripture 8 Chap. 4. That the Testimony of Moses concerning the Creation of the World and the Promise of the Messiah is unquestionable 16 Chap. 5. That Moses is the Author of the Book of Genesis 23 Chap. 6. That the Book of Genesis could not be forged under the Name of Moses 27 Chap. 7. That it appears from Genesis that the Sabbath was constantly observed from the beginning of the World until Moses 34 Chap. 8. That Adam was convinced of his Creation by Reason and Authority 44 Chap. 9. That Adam was confirmed by his own Experience in the perswasion he had entertain'd concerning his Creation 49 Chap. 10. That the Children of Adam had reason to be convinc'd of the Creation 52 Chap. 11. That the Children of Adam were actually convinced of the Truth of the Creation and the Promise of the Messiah 54 Chap. 12. That Noah was fully perswaded of the Creation of the World and the Promise of the Messiah 61 Chap. 13. That the Children of Noah were convinced of the truth of these Matters 64 Chap. 14. That the Posterity of Noah 's Children were perswaded of the truth of the Creation and first Promise 67 Chap. 15. That we find the Family of Abraham and his Posterity till Jacob fully perswaded of those Truths 71 Chap. 16. That this very perswasion seems to have been kept up amongst the Posterity of Jacob until Moses 's time 81 Chap. 17. That the Tradition which gives us an Account of the perswasion which the Ancients had of the truth of the Creation of the World and of the Promise of the Messiah before Moses cannot be suspected 86 Chap. 18. An Explication of Moses 's way of Writing where it is shew'd that in writing the Book of Genesis he mentioned nothing but what was then generally known 89 Chap. 19. An Answer to an Objection which may be drawn from the Histories of the Egyptians and Chaldeans concerning the Antiquity of the World. 95 Chap. 20. An Answer to the Objection which may be drawn out of the History of China against the Mosaick Hypothesis concerning the newness of the World. 106 Chap. 21. Wherein the
last Objection of Atheists is answered 120 Chap. 22. The Consequences of what we have proved in our foregoing Observations upon the Book of Genesis 126 The Contents of the Chapters of the Second Part of the First Volume Chap. 1. THat it cannot reasonably be doubted but that Moses is the Author of Exodus and of the three other following Books Page 137 Chap. 2. That both the Character of Moses 's person and the nature of the things he relates has always made Men read his Books with attention 146 Chap. 3. That the truth of the Miracles related by Moses cannot reasonably be doubted of 153 Chap. 4. A Continuation of the proofs of the truth of the Miracles wrought by Moses 158 Chap. 5. That Moses 's Description of the manner of God's giving him his Laws is evidently true 164 Chap. 6. Some other proofs that confirm Moses 's Description of the manner how the Law was given and promulgated 169 Chap. 7. That there is no just Exception can be made against Moses 's History in what relates to the Oracles which he hath recorded in his Books 173 Chap. 8. That the Testimony of the Jews is a constant proof of the truth of the Oracles related by Moses 177 Chap. 9. That it appears by the nature of his Relations that Moses had the Messias in view when he wrote the Book of Genesis 180 Chap. 10. That the same perswasion appears throughout the whole Conduct of Moses until his Death 185 Chap. 11. That Balaam 's prophesie which Moses relates is a further Argument of the same perswasion in him 188 Chap. 12. That one may see also in Moses 's Law plain Footsteps of God's Design in distinguishing these from whom he would have the Messiah to be Born. 194 Chap. 13. That the manner of God's promulgating his Law amongst the Israelites did much conduce to the distinguishing them from all other Nations 200 Chap. 14. That God seems to have designed to keep up a Spirit of Jealousie in the very Bosom of the Jewish Nation 206 Chap. 15. That Circumcision was a means of distinguishing the Israelites from other Nations 212 Chap. 16. That the Law of Moses engaged the Jews to the study of their Genealogies that they might certainly know that of the Messiah 219 Chap. 17. A Solution of some Difficulties in these Genealogies 223 Chap. 18. That the manner whereby the Law of Moses fixed the people of Israel to the Land of Canaan was to keep them separated from other Nations 228 Chap. 19. That the Law tied the people of Israel to the Land of Canaan and by several other means established the distinction betwixt Tribes and Families amongst them 234 Chap. 20. That the Laws which Moses made coneerning the state of Virginity did principally relate also to the Messiah which holds also as to several other Laws 241 Chap. 21. That it was the design of God by all these Ceremonies and particularly by that Veneration which he inspired the Jews with for the Tabernacle to preserve the Idea's of the Messiah whom he had promised in their minds by distinguishing them from all other Nations 249 Chap. 22. That it appears by the Books of Moses that this whole Model which God had framed was to last but until the coming of the Messiah 256 To the Courteous Reader THE Errata's are so small that they will not disturb the sense any where and so few that we need not trouble the Reader with a Table of them And therefore hope he will take such inconsiderable pains upon himself and excuse the Author REFLEXIONS UPON THE BOOKS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE For the Establishing of the Truth OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION CHAPTER I. Concerning the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion WE are to consider three things in the Christian Religion the Matters of Fact it propounds to us for true the Promises it affords us and the Worship it commands The Matters of Fact it propounds to us as true are that God created the World that he formed the first Man from whom the rest of mankind have been propagated that a while after this Man was created he violated the Law God had given him and that whereas he deserved to have perished for this his disobedience God was pleased instead thereof to comfort him with the hopes of a Saviour which was to be born of the Seed of his Wife that God hath actually sent this Saviour into the World which comprehends the whole Oeconomy of Christ viz. His Birth Life Preaching Miracles Death Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven c. The Promises it vouchsafes are the forgiveness of our Sins the Resurrection of our Bodies and a state absolutely happy for ever in Heaven And lastly the Worship or Divine Service it prescribes consists in Obedience to the Law of God in Prayer for the pardon of our Sins and his Protection and in a grateful Acknowledgement of what we owe him for all his Benefits towards us The first of these three parts of the Christian Religion viz. The Truth of the Matters of Fact it relates may be said to be the foundation of the other two viz. The Promises and Commands It is impossible to be perswaded that God hath created this World in which we live and made Mankind of one and the same blood that after the Fall he promised to save Men and did actually redeem them in sending Jesus Christ who suffer'd Death and being rais'd the third day Ascended into Heaven c. I say it is impossible to look upon these Facts as true without being assured that God will accomplish the Promises he hath made to us And it is as evident that we cannot be convinc'd of the truth of these Matters without being sensible of a strong obligation laid upon us to perform all the Duties of the Christian Religion As soon as a Man reflects upon his being Gods Creature he finds himself naturally oblig'd to obey God universally according to his utmost ability but when he comes further to believe that God did not destroy the first Man for his disobedience but was graciously pleased to promise him a Saviour for himself and all his Posterity and when moreover he is assured that God hath really sent this Saviour in the way and manner the Gospel relates to us we cannot conceive but that he must find himself under the highest engagements imaginable of rendring to God a religious obedience and believing his Promises But there is yet another obligation whereby Man is bound to obey God to pray to him and to offer him all manner of Religious Worship God by redeeming him hath obtained a new claim to and right over him and a more indispensable obligation is laid upon Man to submit himself to God in all religious Concerns as being not only created but also redeemed by him Reason acknowledgeth that if the truth of these things be once admitted nothing can be more just and natural than those consequences which the Christians thence infer All the difficulty
re-establishment in the said Country about the year of the World 3600. Here we read the Conquest of Palestina under the Conduct of Joshua how it was divided amongst the Tribes after they had destroyed drove out or subdued the Inhabitants thereof how often they were brought into bondage by the bordering Nations whose rise and pretensions Moses sets down Here we have recorded the several Names and actions of the Judges which God from time to time raised to the Israelites to restore them to their first estate Here we have an account of the establishment of a Kingly Government amongst them which happened about the year 2909 as likewise of the division of this people into two Kingdomes which for three Ages together were most opposite in their interests and made great wars against each other as well as against their neighbouring States We find here the utter ruin of the most puissant of these two States viz. That of Israel by the Arms of the Kings of Assyria about the year of the World 3283 and after that the destruction of that of Judah by Nebuchadnezar King of the Chaldeans Anno Mundi 3283. And last of all we have an account of the Jews Restoration by Cyrus King of Persia and the State of the Jews under his Successors The Third thing observable is That in the remaining Books of the Old Testament we find several historical Relations relating to both Kingdomes with several prophecies relating to their decay and restoration as likewise many Discourses of Morality and Piety and that all these relations and prophecies appear to have been writ at such a time and with those circumstances which have a natural reference to what the other Books recite to us and an essential Relation to the Books and Laws of Moses which we find to be the foundation of all these prophesies relations and whatsoever else we find there concerning their Government or Religion The Fourth is That the Books of the New Testament contain an exact relation of the Life of Jesus Christ who appeared to the World under the Reign of Tiberius of the establishment of his Religion in the World together with some disputes with the Jews who refused to own him for the Messiah promised by the Prophets and lastly Prophesies declaring what in in process of time was to happen both to the Jews and Christians until the end of the World. These Books take the Truth of Moses's Writings every where for granted as also of all the other Sacred Writings of the Old Testament both Historical Prophetical and Moral These Four particulars do in a manner give us an intire Idea of the Holy Scripture and we shall scarcely stand in need of ought else to manifest the Truth of those Writings if we consider those undisputable matters of fact I am now to speak of and will but make some very natural reflexions upon them The First is That the Christians notwithstanding their being divided into several Sects and Parties presently after our Saviours time have and do still in all places every first day of the Week read the Books of the New Testament translated into their respective Languages so that it appears absolutely impossible that any spurious Writings should have been slipt in amongst them The Second is That as the Christians have had the Books of the Old Testament amongst them in Greek these 1600. years so the Heathens had them in that Language 300. years before being translated by order of one of the Ptolomy's Kings of Egypt whither a considerable party of the Jews were carried after that Alexander the Great had conquered the greatest part of Asia having overthrown the Empire of Persia to which the Jews were in subjection The Third is That tho' the Jews had not all the Books of the Old Testament from the beginning of their Commonwealth they that followed the Party of Jeroboam and formed the Kingdom of Israel having only had the Five Books of Moses amongst them yet notwithstanding their irreconcilable hatred against the House of David they have most religiously preserved the said Books from Anno Mundi 3030. in which the divisions of the two Kingdoms happen'd even until this day The Fourth and last is That as the Jews every where at this day read the Books of Moses and of the Prophets each Sabbath day which is also observed by the Samaritanes and the Christians read them every first day of the week so the Jews have always continued to read them for a long series of Ages as esteeming it a great part of the sanctification of the Sabbath Besides which they also solemnly read them every seventh year in obedience to a Law of Moses as being one of the principal parts of their Religion I say that the sole consideration of these matters of fact which are indisputable are sufficient to prove in general the truth of the Books of the Old and New Testament First then I affirm that it is as ridiculous to maintain that the Books of the Old and New Testament translated into so many Languages cited by an infinite number of Authors and which have been the subject of various disputes from the very times of the Apostles or soon after should be supposititious as to aver that the Books of Justinian or Mahomets Alcoran have been falsly obtruded on the World under their names I speak now only of the Books themselves not of the truth of the History they contain Secondly It is ridiculous to suppose that the Books of the Old Testament were forged since the time of Ptolomy Philadelphus forasmuch as they have been in the hands of the Heathens themselves ever since that time Thirdly It is as inconsistent to suppose them contrived since the time of the separation of the ten Tribes from Judah because we find the Books of Moses among the Samaritanes who have preserved them ever since their Revolt without any other change but what is incident to all Manuscripts that pass through many hands I grant indeed that the Samaritans have none of the other Books of the Old Testament but this being to be look'd upon only as an effect of their departure from the Kingdom of Judah it cannot in the least shake the certainty we have of those Books For first the three other Tribes had them and preserv'd them with the greatest care esteeming them of Divine Authority Secondly there were also reasons of State which made the Kings of Israel not to regard the divisions made by Joshuah of the Land of Canaan nor the authority of the Priesthood which Reasons of State hereafter mentioned where the cause why the ten Tribes would not allow the same authority to some of those Books which were written before their Revolt as those of Samuel and the writings of David and Solomon which they did to the Pentateuch of Moses Most of the others we know were pen'd since the Division of the two Kingdomes and so did more particularly respect the Kingdom of Judah and some them after the
get himself reputation by exciting a Curiosity in people for his Books This would not have been becoming the Gravity and Wisdom of so great a Legislator of whom all succeeding Ages have borrowed their Laws It is apparent that his end in the recording of these Matters was to inspire with a sense of Piety and Religion those who were committed to his charge This is that which in general we may observe about these Matters but more particularly it is certain that Moses his end in recording the Oracles by which God promised to Abraham the establishing his Posterity in the land of Canaan was to represent to the Jews the right they had to that Land according to the design and intent of the Divine Wisdom But without making this particular Reflexion it is clear that the Law took its beginning at the twelfth of Exodus where God prescribes to his People the manner of celebrating the Passover at least this is the first Law which God gave them through the Ministry of Moses but forasmuch as Moses his end was to justifie in the minds of his People the design he had to make them leave Egypt as well as their pretensions to the Land of Canaan whither he was to lead them it was natural for him to lay before them the ground of those Pretensions which he could not do without relating the whole Series of the History until the time of their Bondage in Egypt which we read in Genesis the greatest part of which only concerns the Ancestors of that People after that Moses had first laid down the grounds of Religion and that which was known to all Nations Let us now imagin to our selves a Man endeavouring all of a suddain to introduce into the World the belief of things so far distant from common apprehension as these two points must needs be viz. That of the Creation and the Promise of Christ in case we suppose them generally unknown Let us yet further conceive a Man not only relating those things but making them the foundation of a new sort of Laws never before heard of Is there any Wit or Judgment in such an undertaking Can we therefore suppose that Moses whose Writings testifie his great Wisdom should ever have entertain'd such unaccountable thoughts I dare aver that there was any never Legislator so stupid and inconsiderate as to pretend to engage a whole people to submit themselves to the yoke of obedience and to receive a great number of Laws respecting their Civil Government and Religion by declaring to them two Fictions of which they had never before had the least Idea It is also very considerable that these things are not recited by Moses as a Preface to the Decalogue as if then first they had been proposed to Moses or the People by God but Moses sets them down as Truths known to them all and as Principles universally admitted and such as the meer mentioning of them could not but strongly engage the Jews to render a ready obedience to the Laws which God gave to Moses in their presence of the Divine Authority of which their very Senses were convinc'd Let us also consider the nature of those things the Relation of which Moses has joined with these two General Points to make an impression on the Minds of the Jews Let us consider the account he gives them of their Ancestors nearer or farther off whom he represents as equally inform'd of these Matters as having severally delivered the knowledge of them to their Children and having join'd to these first Truths of the Creation and the Promise of a Saviour many other Notions thereon depending and which tied their hopes and expectations to the Land of Canaan And now judge whether Moses were not to be accused of great folly and senselesness if he had proceeded to make such a vast People all of the sudden to receive for Truths publickly and generally owned what indeed was nothing but the most ridiculous and ill cohering Romance that ever was broached Now since as it is visible taking in the Circumstances I have hinted that the Authority of such an Historian and Law-giver as Moses was relating such importent Matters cannot be call'd in question it follows that the Atheist can have nothing to object against his Testimony with the least shadow or pretence of reason So that we may already assert that there is nothing better attested than the Creation of the World and the Promise of Christ which are the immoveable Foundations of the Christian Religion Nevertheless for a more evident Conviction we are willing before we draw this Conclusion to make it appear how weak and inconsiderable all those Objections are which Atheists can possibly frame against what Moses relates concerning these Matters What can they with Reason object Perhaps they 'l say that Moses is not the Author of Genesis but that it was foisted in under his Name and consequently that whatsoever is built upon the Authority of Moses and his evidence is all without ground Or they may object that if Moses be indeed the Author of Genesis that he lived at such a distance of time from the things which he relates that it makes void the authority of his Writings They may moreover alledge that Moses relates things impossible and of which therefore those that mentioned them before the things themselves being so long since past and done could not be fully inform'd of and that they may well be suppos'd greatly changed and alter'd by a Tradition of so many Ages They may also alledge that according to the common Opinion Moses penn'd not these things as an Historian but as a Prophet and that the apprehension of most concerning his Books are that he wrote of things whereof the knowledge before his time was very obscure and confuse or rather were generally unknown They may object against these relations of Moses that which the most ancient People such as the Aegyptians Chaldeans and Chinese alledge for their Antiquity which far surpasseth the date of the World according to Moses These are the principal ways to assault the Truths which Moses relates either by maintaining with the Atheists on one hand that the things which Moses relates are indeed mentioned by other Authors but that they forged them themselves or that Moses being an able and refin'd Politician design'd by Creating a belief of these Matters in the Jews to make them more submissive and obedient to him In a Word it may be said that supposing the Book of Genesis to be writ by Moses it was an easie matter for him to dictate whatsoever he pleased to a People who were under a Law that made it Capital to call in question the truth of his Relations or the Authority of his Laws This certainly is the farthest to which the height of Obstinacy can carry this matter and the very last refuge of the strongest prejudice But it is an easie matter to confound the Atheists and Libertines in every one of these Articles and
little more than forty years interval betwixt the Conquest of Canaan by Joshua and the Bondage of the Israelites under the Neighbouring Nations Had it not been a fit time then to cast off the Yoak of Moses's Laws and to publish the pretended Lies and Impostures of his History Was not the Comparison which the Israelites could easily make betwixt the Mosaick Writings and the Tradition generally received in the Countrey of their Captivity a natural and ready means to undeceive them Yet notwithstanding all this we see that they obstinately entertain the belief of the several Transactions recorded by Moses and stand firmly to all their Pretensions Nay we see them have recourse to the Remedy of Repentance which Moses prescribed them to use in those sad Misfortunes which he foretold should befal them and out of which he promis'd at the same time that God would miraculously deliver them which indeed was done accordingly even fourteen times within less than four hundred years as is manifest from the Book of Judges Can there then be a more pregnant Argument that if Moses made it Death by one of his Sanctions for any of the Israelites to contest the truth either of his Writings or of his Oracles and Miracles it was not to force the belief of them without examination but rather only to prevent the corruption of that People and their mingling and confounding themselves with the Heathens which God intended to hinder on purpose because he would have the Messiah to be born according to his Promise out of that Nation which to effect he thought fit in his infinâ—â—e Wisdom to employ the rigour of some Capital Laws to keep that people unmixt and distinguish'd from all other Nations of the World till the Messiah was born CHAP. XXII The Consequences of what we have proved in our foregoing Observations upon the Book of Genesis THese several Observations which I have made upon the Book of Genesis are all I think very natural and easie and if I am not mistaken sufficient to prove solidly the truth of Moses's Account of the Creation of the World and of the Promise of the Messiah which is the foundation of the Christian Religion The Conclusion that I draw out of the Premises is That First I assert that Moses that famous Hebrew who was design'd to be the Heir of Pharaoh's Daughter is the true and sole Author of the Book of Genesis Secondly I maintain that this being once granted he could not according to his way of Writing record those important Transactions he relates otherwise than they really came to pass Thirdly I maintain that tho he had not been an Eye Witness of the Creation of the World yet he hath made the Description of it according to such an Authentick Tradition as cannot be reasonably doubted of because it was then the Universal Tradition not only of the Moabites of the Ammonites of the Ishmaelites and of the Edomites who were all of Sem's Posterity and amongst whom he had been travelling for forty years together but also of the Egyptians of his own People and in a word of all Men then living in the World. Fourthly I maintain that he never was found fault with nor contradicted till true Reason and Sence if I may say so was lost and banish'd from amongst Mankind till the Egyptians for example they who used before to look upon the Greeks as meer Children and Ideots were fallen into so great a Stupidity and Deprivation of Sence as to believe and maintain that Men were first born in Egypt because forsooth Frogs did naturally as they thought breed out of their Muddy Fenns and Marshes Fifthly I maintain that for many Ages after Moses no body did ever publickly declare for the Eternity of the World nor yet for its Fortuitous Production These Opinions are meer Absurdities and Chimeras brought forth into the World by the Chaldeans and Greeks only about Alexander's time or perhaps an hundred years before him i. e. about eleven or twelve hundred years after Moses's Decease Sixthly I maintain that seeing there is no particular time to be found wherein the reading of the Law was interrupted and discontinued for any considerable time amongst the Jews seeing it continues still to this very hour amongst them every Sabbath day in the several places of the World wherein they are dispersed and seeing besides that it is certain that this Law which enjoyns the Observation of the Sabbath in remembrance of the Creation could never be imposed upon them without their perceiving and declaring presently the Novelty and Supposition of that Account and consequently of the Book wherein it is related Seeing all this is certain I do positively maintain that the truth of the Creation can never be better proved than it is by the Book of Genesis because in it Moses hath followed the Tradition of all the Ages that preceded him and only recorded in Writing what was then generally known of all Men in the World and that in a time when every Man was able to run his own Pedigree up to Adam Lastly I maintain that as the certainty of the Creation cannot reasonably be doubted of without rejecting at the same time all those Proofs from Facts which I have brought to strengthen my Assertion So there is all the reason in the World to entertain the belief of it as of a matter of Fact which is indisputable As being Related by the most Ancient Historian Confirmed by the most Ancient Tradition Believed by the most Ancient People of the World who did not only believe it but also had always had according to God's Command the Memory of it Celebrated amongst them and their Ancestors in all their Generations fifty two times in a Year from the very beginning of the World. REFLEXIONS Upon the Four Last BOOKS OF MOSES To Establish the TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION PREFACE WHen I began at first these Reflexions upon the Book of Genesis I design'd only to demonstrate the certainty of the Creation of the first Man and so to shew by Arguments from matters of Fact that neither the Creation of the World nor yet the Promise of the Messiah which God made to Man after his sin can reasonably be disputed or doubted of I design'd after that to establish the truth of Christ's Resurrection by such another undeniable Argument viz. by shewing that the Apostles were Eye Witnesses of it and instituted a solemn Day in every Week to celebrate and perpetuate the Memory of it amongst Men from their time down to the end of the World. And this I thought was sufficient to demonstrate the truth of the Christian Religion For as the Jews by the continual Celebration of the Sabbath every Week could easily run back to the Creation of the World which was the occasion of the Institution of the Sabbath so the Christians may by the Weekly Observation of the Lord's day prove Christ's Resurrection which occasioned the Institution of the Lord's day If we consider the
thing in it self there is no less Absurdity to dispute our Saviour's Resurrection than the Creation of the first Man. Now if this Argument holds as there can be no easier so neither can there be a stronger proof of the truth of the Christian Religion for provided we be once well assured of the certainty of Christ's Resurrection we must acknowledge him to be the true Messiah and consequently embrace his Religion But it seems in the heat of Meditation I was insensibly carried further in my Observations upon the Promise of the Messiah than I thought at first to be Therefore instead of passing now as I proposed in the beginning to the proof of Christ's Resurrection which is a solid and compendious way of demonstrating the truth of his Religion I find my self engaged according to my present Method to continue to make the like Reflexions upon the other Books of Holy Scripture that I may yet more fully demonstrate that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah whom God promised to Man immediately after his sin And this I intend to shew so plainly as will make it evident that God hath really accomplished his first designs and exactly performed all his Promises relating to the Messiah according to the first Idea's he gave of his coming to the Ancient Patriarchs First Then I design to trace up the Method that God was pleased to use to make the Messiah known without mistake when ever he should come into the World. Secondly I will make some Reflexions upon the several Notions he gave of him long before in his Oracles to Characterize his Person his Offices his Actions his Sufferings his Glory c. Last of all I will shew that we have all this whole Project and Design exactly accomplished in the History of the Gospel as it was written by Christ's Disciples Now as this Method which God hath particularly chosen to make the Messiah known appears also in the other Books of Moses So I think it will not be amiss for me particularly to view and examine these Books that I may have occasion to illustrate several things in them which deserve a particular attention especially when they are considered together and as it were at one view For the Prophecies being thus consider'd together in their Connexion and Progress do more plainly evidence God's Design and may better convince or confound the Jews Therefore I intend accordingly to consider those Oracles with attention and to join them together that so they may in their Conjunction cast forth the brighter Beams of Light to the Conviction of all Infidels who may happen to peruse this Book For I am perswaded that after the perusal of my Observations in it an ordinary attention in the reading of the Gospel will be sufficient to convince any Man that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah which is all I intend to prove as the Conclusion of this Treatise Now as the examination of the Patriarchs Religion according to the account Moses hath given us of it in his Book of Genesis hath taken up the first part of it so I design to examine in this second part the Israelites Religion and to follow in my search the account which Moses gives of it in his other four Books And as to effect this it is very important to establish beforehand the Authority of those four Books so I intend to shew first of all that Moses is the true Author of them and that they have Intrinsick Characters of undeniable certainty Then Secondly It will be natural for me to shew that Moses in the writing of them had the Promise of the Messiah in view as particularly promised of God to the Patriarchs of his own Nation and as being consequently the principal if not the sole Object of their hope Thirdly I intend to shew that if we seriously examine Moses's Laws we shall find in them such a Method observed as is both very agreeable to the manifestation of God s design in Genesis and very worthy of his Wisdom especially if we consider what he was pleased to reveal unto us of his Intentions by the Prophets who followed Moses REFLEXIONS Upon the Four Last BOOKS OF MOSES To Establish the Truth OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION CHAPTER I. That it cannot reasonably be doubted but that Moses is the Author of Exodus and of the three other following Books THis is a Truth which may be grounded upon several solid Arguments I might observe That Moses hath always been acknowledged by the very Heathens themselves not only to be the most Ancient Historian but also the most Ancient Legislator in the World. I might likewise observe That there is a particular connexion betwixt the Book of Genesis and the other Books of Moses as well in regard of the general Design of their Author as of the Matters treated of in them For Example We see that the greatest part of the Laws and Transactions which we find written and recorded there derive their Original from those Transactions and Passages that we read of in Genesis Thus we may plainly discern that the pretension of the Israelites upon the Land of Canaan was grounded upon the Promise that God made to Abraham to give it to his Posterity in the fourth Generation Thus we may see That the Amalekites could have no other reason to make War against the Israelites than the old Alliance that was formerly made betwixt Amalek and the Canaanites which without doubt engaged his Posterity to be the first Opposers of the establishment of the Israelites in the Land of Canaan Thus we see that the Seditions of the Israelites against Moses under Corah Dathan and Abiram did proceed from the Order of the Birth of the Children of Israel as it is set down in Genesis because the eldest thinking themselves wrong'd of their Birthright thought they might justly Rebel against Moses in order to recover it But I haste to things more material than these And first it is here observable That those Books were not only religiously kept in every Family of Israel but that they were also once solemnly deposited in the Tabernacle as a publick Record and that by Moses himself a little before his death that they might be a Testimony against that People as we read it Deuteronomy XXXI 26. Secondly It cannot be denied that Moses did straightly charge both Joshuah and the Heads of the People to read them frequently and carefully for it is expresly said so Joshua 1.8 Nay we see about 500 years after the holy Man David who had made during his life Psal I. the supream felicity of a man to consist in the reading the Law of God day and night We see I say that holy Man give in his Death-bed the same Charge to Solomon I Kings Thirdly Moreover it is certain that there were many Laws and Sanctions contained in those Books which are the Foundation of the History of succeeding Times And this is the reason why we read nothing in the Book of
gave notice by the Prophets of all those Lights which should particularly appear in him In prospect of this God gave by the Ministry of Moses such Characters as would distinguish the true Prophets from those who endeavoured to usurp that Name It appears also that because God was to Communicate to the Messiah a power of working Miracles which Moses intimates by saying that he was to be a Prophet like unto him Therefore Isaiah specifies the Character of those Miracles in XXXV Chapter of his Prophesie and God explains in particular the Laws concerning the Blind and the Lame and for the same Reason he gives an account of all sorts of Leprosie that it might be distinctly known which was incurable It is easie to those who will attend to the Laws of Moses to see that they were subservient to this design of God in pursuance of those Prospects which we have already set down CHAP. XXI That it was the design of God by all these Ceremonies and particularly by that Veneration which he inspired the Jews with for the Tabernacle to preserve the Ideas of the Messiah whom he had promised in their minds by distinguishing them from all other Nations AFter all those Observations which I have made upon the several Laws that God made use of to execute his design of fixing his people to a certain place and there to keep them separate it is natural to judge that the Ceremonial Laws which he gave them for the regulating their outward Worship were also intended for the same end This I must shew in respect of the Holiness which God ascribes to the Land of Canaan and in respect of the whole Service of the Tabernacle of its Misterious Construction in all its parts And in respect also of the raising of the Material Temple afterwards to be as it were the Center of their whole Religion It was certainly for this purpose that he particularly Consecrated several things to himself as the first fruits and the first-born and that he set apart certain times as the first day of the Month and certain Solemn Feasts besides the Sabbath-day which was Celebrated long before And he also Consecrated several places as the Towns of refuge and yet more particularly the Tabernacle and the Temple But it was especially for that reason that he had Consecrated certain Rites and Ceremonies certain Sacrifices both of Animate and Inanimate things and certain Offerings of Gold and Silver Perfumes c. One see 's that he rejected any first fruits that did not grow in the Land of Canaan One see 's that tho some Sacrifices were common to the Jews and their Neighbours yet he distinguish'd them by so many Circumstances that they were much different from the others Thus he forbids them to make use of Statues before which other Nations used to Sacrifice at that time and he commanded them not to Sacrifice upon high places where the Heathens used to make their Offerings very early in the Morning at Sun-rise which gave rise to their Worship of the Rising Sun. But there is nothing more discovers the design of God than the Laws by which he fixed their Worship first to the Tabernacle and afterwards to the Temple at the places where God did particularly reside One may say that it was for that reason God commanded the representations of Angels and of his Law and of the Manna to be preserved there all which besides that they were Memorials of the Ancient Apparitions and favours of God to that people they were express figures of God's Glory of his Will and of his miraculous power he added also a Candlestick with seven Branches a Table covered with Loaves and an Altar of Incense which were figures of the Seven Planets of this visible World of the Blessings which we enjoy by Nature and of those acknowledgments which we owe unto God for all these He commanded also that none should offer Sacrifices in any other place except the Temple He would not permit that any but those who were purified according to the Law should enter into it he excluded all Uncircumcised persons for ever as Moses had formerly been commanded to pull off his Shooes in the Desert at his approaching to the burning Bush so every one that entered into the Temple was to enter barefoot as a mark of that respect which had formerly been exacted of Moses And what other reason but that could oblige him to give both at the Consecration of the Temple and afterwards so many sensible Marks of his presence that Cloud which was called his Glory rested there The Urim and Thummim which was an Oracle for that whole Nation was there there was a daily Sacrifice offered up for the whole People there were celebrated the three Solemn Feasts of the Passover of Pentecost and of Tabernacles he forbid them to Sacrifice any where else and he gave frequent and illustrious Oracles at that place One ought also to observe that after his Temple to which all the glory of the Tabernacle was transmitted was fixed at Jerusalem he ordered it to be such a sensible mark of his presence that when we read the History of Israel's March in the Desart we find that the Tabernacle was the Image of the Temple and built after its Model so that as the Tabernacle stood always in the midst of the Tents of the Levites and the Levites in the midst of the whole Camp of all the Tribes of Israel who were all listed under their proper Standards So one see 's afterwards that the Temple the Levites and the people of Jerusalem were placed according to their different degrees of Holiness as they were to approach to the most Holy place which was the Habitation of his Holiness Certainly one may say that the building up of a Tabernacle or of a Temple seems to be directly contrary to the nature of Religion according to which God who is a Spirit will be Worshipped in Spirit and in Truth So that this seems to have been quitted for a time when he commanded the building of a Tabernacle But really there was nothing more agreeable to the design which God had formed at first as to that people he intended to make it visible and it appears that nothing could be more effectual to make it so than the double necessity to which that whole People was reduced to to meet in a Body several times every year in the same place and to offer all their Sacrifices in the Tabernacle and to be there perpetually employed in the Ceremonial Service which did inseparably draw them thither and fix them there The end of all those visible Assemblies was to perpetuate the knowledge of the principal Verities of their Religion and especially to renew perpetually the hopes of that people as to the Messiah who was promised to them from God. For God having shortned the long Lifes which Men commonly enjoy'd in the beginning before they went out of Egypt so that five or six persons could no
be very short I will confine my self to some general Reflexions upon those Books of the Old Testament which were writ since Moses but such as I hope will be sufficient to satisfie an equitable and intelligent Reader THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE First Part of the Second Volume Chap. 1. THat there is in the Historical Writings of the Old Testament an uninterrrupted Series of Events which have a natural and necessary dependance for more than Ten Ages Page 1. Chap. 2. That there is a strict Connexion between the Sacred History and the oldest Monuments which we have of prophane History 8 Chap. 3. That there is an uninterrupted Series of Events foretold by the Sacred Oracles of which we may see a very great number accomplished in every Age. 15 Chap. 4. That how common soever Oracles may have been amongst the Pagans yet nothing amongst them can justly be compared with those which are found amongst the Jews 24 Chap. 5. That the Books in which we may find these Oracles were never forged 28 Chap. 6. That the manner of Writing the Prophetical Books of the Old Testament shews that those Oracles could not have been forged after their Completion 35 Chap. 7. For what reason the Oracles which relate to the Messiah were interwoven with other things which seem to be very widely distant 45 Chap. 8. General Rules for the understanding of ancient Oracles and for the Application of them to the Messiah 51 Chap. 9. Of those Oracles concerning the Messiah which are to be found in the Book of Genesis 60 Chap. 10. Of the Oracles which concern the Messiah in the Book of Psalms 71 Chap. 11. Considerations upon the Sufferings of the Messiah and upon his glorious Ascension into Heaven foretold by David in the XXII and CX Psalms 80 Chap. 12. That the Messiah was to have a Forerunner and what was to be his Character 89 Chap. 13. That the Messiah was to be born before the dissolution of the Jewish State and the destruction of the second Temple 93 Chap. 14. That the Messiah was to be born of a Virgin of the House of David 101 Chap. 15. That the Messiah was to be born at Bethlehem of the Family of David which at that time was reduc'd to a private state 107 Chap. 16. That the Messiah was to work great Miracles for the establishing of his Mission and of the Truth of his Doctrine 111 Chap. 17. That the Messiah was to be an illustrious Prophet 114 Chap. 18. That the Messiah was to propound a new Covenant from God with all men 119 Chap. 19. That the Jews by a dreadful effect of their blindness were to reject the Messiah 125 Chap. 20. That the Messiah was to dye and an Account of the several Circumstances of his Death 130 Chap. 21. That the Messiah was soon after to rise again 136 Chap. 22. That the Messiah was to ascend into Heaven and send down from thence the miraculous Gifts of Prophecy Languages c. 140 Chap. 23. That the Gentiles in the time of the Messiah were to be called to the knowledge of the true God. 144 Chap. 24. That the Jews were to be rejected in the time of the Messiah 152 Chap. 25. Of the time which succeeded the publishing of these Prophecies till the Coming of the Messiah 157 The Contents of the Chapters of the Second Part of the Second Volume Chap. 1. That there appears a very just Connexion between the Idea's of the Old Testament and those of the New the latter borrowing light from the former Page 175 Chap. 2. That the Idea's of the Messiah continued very fresh in the Minds of the Jews at the time of the Coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ 183 Chap. 3. That the Commonwealth of the Jews did still subsist and follow the Model which God had formed in order to the certain knowing of the Messiah 189 Chap. 4. That all the Distinctions necessary for discovering of the Messiah still continued in the State of the Jews at the time of our Lord. 197 Chap. 5. That the time pointed out by the Prophets for the Coming of the Messiah is the very time in which Jesus Christ appeared to the World. 202 Chap. 6. That Jesus Christ had precisely such a Forerunner as the Prophets had described to precede the Messiah 207 Chap. 7. That Jesus Christ was born of the Family of David then reduced to a mean Condition as had been aforetold by the Prophets 213 Chap. 8. That Jesus Christ was conceived by the Virgin Mary without any Operation of Man. 222 Chap. 9. That Jesus Christ lived and preached after the same manner as the Prophets had foretold the Messiah should do 229 Chap. 10. That the Miracles wrought by our Saviour clearly prove that he is the Messiah 237 Chap. 11. That the Predictions of our Lord Jesus Christ clearly prove him to be the Messiah 242 Chap. 12. That Jesus Christ died precisely in the same manner as it was foretold that the Messiah should dye 250 Chap. 13. That Jesus Christ was raised again the third day according to the Prophets and afterwards ascended into Heaven 258 Chap. 14. That Jesus Christ sent to his Apostles and to the primitive Christians the miraculous Gifts of his Holy Spirit as he had promised in the Ancient Prophecies 270 Chap. 15. That according to the Prophecies the Apostles of Jesus Christ have called the Gentiles to the profession of the Christian Religion 277 Chap. 16. That the Christian Religion is founded on proofs of Fact and that consequently nothing in the World is so certain as the truth of it 284 Chap. 17. That it cannot be questioned Whether the Books of the New Testament were written by the Apostles 292 Chap. 18. That one cannot doubt of the faithfulness of the witness of the Apostles concerning those Facts which they relate 298 Chap. 19. More Reasons to manifest the faithfulness of the Apostles 304 Chap. 20. That the whole Model of the Religion and Commonwealth of the Jews is at this day so entirely destroyed that the Messiah could no more be known 311 Chap. 21. That the greatness of the Mysteries of the Christian Religion and the Division which is amongst Christians cannot be any prejudice to the proofs of the truth of the Christian Religion 317 REFLEXIONS UPON THE Historical and Prophetical BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT To Establish the Truth OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION CHAPTER I. That there is in the Historical Writings of the Old Testament an uninterrupted Series of Events which have a natural and necessary dependance for more than Ten Ages THE first general Proof which I make use of to establish the Truth of the Historical Books of the Old Testament after Moses may be lawfully drawn from the uninterrupted Series of Events which are related by those Authors who have written the History of the State and Church of Israel We may observe several considerable Epocha's of this History which takes in about One thousand and forty years
so prophane as to deny that if in the same Author and in the same Chapter any man should read in one continued Series Predictions which should explain the miraculous Birth of the Messiah his Family his Preaching his Miracles his Sufferings his Resurrection his Ascension into Heaven the Sending of the Holy Ghost the Calling of the Gentiles but that the History of the Gospel would sufficiently justifie Jesus Christ to be the promised Messiah But they take it to be a very strange thing that the Apostles should apply several passages in ancient Authors to the History of Jesus Christ tho' the whole Contexture of their Books do not seem to oblige us to make any such Interpretations They therefore suppose that the Apostles made several fortunate Allusions to the more remarkable passages in those ancient Authors which may pass for Predictions of those Events which afterwards happened just as Nonnus wrote the History of the Gospel in Homer's Verses and as Eudoxia made a Cento out of Virgil's Poem which contained the same History tho' neither Homer nor Virgil had any of the Mysteries of the Christian Religion then in view That this apparent Difficulty may be solved it will be necessary to examine Three things I. The Matter of Fact it self II. The Reasons which gave occasion for the doing of it III. The Impression which this Fact has produced in the minds of men to this very time For the First Tho' it is well known that common use do's not allow men to joyn Foreign Idea's in the same Discourse yet we may easily conceive that God might and ought to do it if we will allow what may be easily collected that he resolved to send the Messiah into the World Such a practice was the more natural because the ancient Patriarchs before Moses and Moses himself who form'd the Commonwealth of the Jews had prepar'd the minds of the People to such sort of Expressions as were raised above the present Subject And certainly if one takes but the pains to consider the wisdom and beauty of the Authors who writ these Prophetical Books on the one side and the Character of the Writers of the New Testament on the other he would perceive that if these words That it might be fulfilled were of necessity to be changed into these As one may perceive a sort of Completion of such or such Passages in the Old Testament yet notwithstanding that the most part of those Quotations would evince an exact Accomplishment and the Oracles which they alledge would bear a just proportion to those Events which are related by the Evangelists in our Saviour's Life Can any thing be more singular than the Prophecy in the Seventh of Isaiah of the Messiah's being born of a Virgin of the piercing of his hands and feet Psal XXII of the mixture of Gall which was offered him to drink hinted at Psalm LX. 22. of his being sold for Thirty pieces of Silver Zechar. XI 3. or then several others of a like nature which at present I shall not stand to reckon up It must be confessed however that these Oracles are interwoven for the most part with Matters relating to Events happening in the time when each Prophet lived or which seem to be applicable personally to the Prophets Three Orders or Reasons may be conceived which will justifie the Wisdom of God in the ordering of these Oracles in a way which seems so contrary to the common practice of the World. The first Order contains Reasons drawn from the person of the Messiah himself of whom we speak The second Order contains those which arise from the consideration of the People amongst whom the Messiah was to be born The third contains those Reasons which respect other Nations amongst whom the Messiah was to be preached I shall examine these three sorts by themselves and I hope that we may gather from thence that the Eternal Wisdom presided over this mixture of these Oracles which relate to the Messiah with other Idea's which seem to be wholly foreign to the Subject In short it may be urged That the belief of a Messiah form'd of so apparent Contradictions cannot easily be received of the suddain A Messiah of the Seed of David whom David calls his Lord a Messiah who complains that he is forsaken by God whom however he ought to adore A Messiah born with the weaknesses of Youth who at the same time is called a mighty God and the Father of Eternity c. However these Idea's which seem so opposite ought of necessity to have been so separated by the Prophets least they should have been looked upon as Chimerical Descriptions and incompatible in one and the same Subject A second Reflexion which may be made upon this Matter is That the Jews were bound not only to preserve their Oracles but also to execute them in part Thus for instance there was a necessity for them to reject the Messiah to deliver him up to the Gentiles to be crucified there was a necessity that their punishment should be as signal as their Crime and that they should be dispersed over the World after the Destruction of Jerusalem as the Prophets have clearly shewn Now how could all this have ever been effected if the Description of the Messiah by the Prophets had been as Historical as that of the Apostles or the Evangelists who gave us only a Narrative of Matters of Fact. In a word was it not the interest of the Gentiles to whom the Gospel was to be preached that these Oracles should be scattered up and down the Writings of these ancient Authors They were to be Called upon the Rejection of the Jews The Jews were bound to preserve the Books of the Old Testament after they were cast off by God that the Authority of these Books and these Oracles might be beyond all contest as Testimonies with which we are furnished by the adverse Party which ought to have place until the fulness of the Gentiles should profess Christianity Let any one therefore judge if it was not necessary in this state of Affairs that there should be some obscurity in the Prophetical Descriptions and by consequence that this interweaving of foreign Idea's with those which concerned the Messiah as also this dispersion of the Oracles through different places of the Sacred Writers was not necessary and so much the more as they were uttered upon several Occasions by different Authors And we may affirm it as a certainty That according to the purpose of God this obscurity did not hinder either Jews or Pagans from perceiving those ruling Idea's of a Messiah when they read the Old Testament Neither was the dispersion of these Oracles through so many different places any greater hindrance to their application since the Jews laid it down as a constant Maxime That the accomplishment of every thing which we find to be foretold as great and illustrious by the Prophets ought to be looked for in the Person of the Messiah when the
that Alexander preserved them in the Enjoyment of their Rights and Liberties as they enjoyed them under the Kings of Persia and in particular exempted them from paying any Tribute every seventh year because then they did not sow their Ground and consequently could not reap And if we find that Ptolemy took Jerusalem on a Sabbath day the Jews making Conscience of defending themselves because the Law required their ceasing from all work from whence Agatharcides an Heathen Author takes occasion to blame their Law if we find him carrying a great number of Jews with him into Egypt yet withal we find him treating them with as much kindness as the Macedonians themselves appointing distinct places in Egypt and Lybia for their Habitation If we find that powerful Princes such as Antiochus Epiphanes and some others of his Successors broke the power of the Jews prophaned their Temple and forc'd great numbers of them to abjure their Religion yet we see them also at the same time giving the highest instances of an immoveable constancy and courage in defence of their Law and in enduring the most exquisite Tortures we see others of them encouraged with the love of their Country as well as Religion putting themselves into a posture of defence purifying the Temple and celebrating a Festival which is observed even at this day and lastly obtaining favourable Treaties at the hands of their Enemies as may be seen in the Books of the Maccabees and in the Twelfth Book of Josephus his Antiquities yea we find their name and glory at that time spread as far as Lacaedemon with which Common-wealth they made an Alliance during the High-Priesthood of Onias One see 's them after this so considerable under the Successor of Antiochus their Persecutor that even those Kings sue for their Alliance with great presents One see 's that Ptolomy Philometor granted to Onias the Son leave to build a Temple in Egypt for the convenience of those Jews whom Ptolomy the Son of Lagus had carried thither as well as for those who left their Country for the oppression of the Seleucidae for Judea being situate between Syria and Egypt was ordinarily the Theatre of War between those two States 'T is here worth our noting That the Jews undertook the building of the Temple in Egypt as thinking themselves authoriz'd by that Prophecy Isai XIX 24. it being a thing otherwise forbid by the Law. One sees in the same Prince's Reign a great contest between the Samaritans and the Jews about the pre-eminence of their Temples at Jerusalem and Mount Garizim decided by him in favour of the Jews on which occasion the Jews shewed that Prince their Law and acquainted him with the Series of their History to confute the Samaritans pretensions One see 's after this when the Jews had conferred the Soveraignty and High-Priesthood on Simon that their State became so powerful that under Hyrcanus his Successor they were in a condition to attacque their Enemies in Syria and compel the Edomites to admit Circumcision Aristobulus his Son was crowned his Brother succeeded him in the Royal Dignity and left the State in a flourishing condition notwithstanding the Civil and Foreign Wars he was engaged in We find afterwards That the intestine Divisions among the Successors of those Jewish Princes did by degrees open a gap for foreign power to enter and prevail over them Pompey siding with Hyrcanus took Jerusalem and made the Jews tributary to the Romans but without changing any thing in their Religion Julius Caesar a while after bestowed the Kingdom of Judaea upon Herod the Edomite Augustus after him used the Jews with the same Equity as Pompey before him had done as appears from one of his Declarations publish'd in favour of the Jews of Egypt and Asia recorded by Josephus This Herod and Augustus are the same under whom our Saviour Jesus Christ was born It is evident therefore That the State of the Jews has continued distinct from other Nations and sufficiently known from the time of the Prophet Malachy until Herod We may also truly assert That whatever inclination the Jews of old had for the Idolatries of their Neighbours yet we don't find them given that way during this interval between the last of their Prophets and Herod as if the charge and command of that Prophet Malachy had always sounded in their Ears Mal. IV. verse 4. Remember the Law of Moses my Servant c. One see 's that the Jews under the Maccabees in great numbers suffered Martyrdom rather than abjure their Religion and that they observed the Ceremonial Law with all carefulness of which Augustus himself was witness One see 's that under Strangers and Heathen Kings they exempted themselves from answering any Suit at Law on the Sabbath day from paying Tribute the seventh Year and preserving the Rights and Priviledges of their Temple in spight of all opposition Lastly one finds them during Herod's Government supported by the favour of the Roman Empire in refusing to set up the Emperour's Trophees for fear least some Images might be hid under them which they looked upon as a Crime against their Law. I am not ignorant that since Malachy some Heresies sprung up among the Jews their Commerce with the Greeks who applyed themselves to Philosophical Speculations having contributed to make them much more Disputacious than they were before The Authority likewise of their Kings who were High-Priests also may have had a great stroke in blemishing the Purity of their Religion But yet the Disputes which we find amongst them as that of the Fatality of Events did not at all touch the Substance of their Religion They no sooner found the Spirit of Epicurisme to creep in amongst them but they framed such additions to their publick Liturgy as they thought most proper to eradicate or at least condemn that Corruption I confess also that the Pharisees and Doctors of their Law had greatly alter'd their Morality in making their own Explications by the great Authority which they had amongst the People to pass for Authentick but yet this change and corruption in their Morals as to practice did not go so far as to abolish the Laws themselves which were only wrested from their true meaning This was indeed a great Corruption but not such a one as could make it to be no more the same Religion So that we may boldly assert which is a thing very important to our present purpose That the State and Religion of the Jews have continued sufficiently entire till the time of the appearing of the Messiah in the World for their preserving of whatsoever was necessary viz. as well the Books of the Old Testament as the knowledge of those Oracles which foretold the coming of the Messiah together with the Knowledge of these Principles according to which the Prophets have spoken in their Predictions concerning him REFLEXIONS Upon the BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT To Confirm the TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION THE PREFACE I Have shewn in my
Reflexions upon the Book of Genesis That the Facts of the Creation and the Promises of the Messiah are Truths not to be questioned and that the Idea's of this Messiah continued vigorously all the time that preceded the Children of Israel's going out of Egypt We have seen afterwards in the Remarks which I have made upon the Laws which God gave to Moses that it was the great design of God to keep men in the expectation of this Messiah and to take care that they might certainly know him whenever he should appear in the World. I have taken notice in the third part of these Reflexions of the care which God took to give a great number of Oracles to explain particularly all the Characters of this Messiah the Place and Manner of his Birth the principal Circumstances of his Life Death and Resurrection and to foretel the Effusion of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost upon the Gentiles their Call to the Religion of the Messiah and lastly the overthrow of the whole Model of the Jewish Religion and Common-wealth which was no longer of any use after the Coming of the Messiah and the Calling of the Gentiles My present business is now to shew That in the Books of the New Testament we may find an exact accomplishment of this whole Design wherein God had with so much care instructed the World so long before and there is nothing more easie if we will but take a little pains to read these Books attentively and to compare them with the Model which God himself made as we have hitherto described it To make this Truth yet more evident I think it will be necessary to do two or three things which seem to be very important for my present Design And first I am to observe that there appears a most perfect Coherence between the Idea's of the Old Testament and those of the New which is absolutely necessary to shew that there is in these Books a perfect unity of Design notwithstanding the vast difference there is between the Jews who preserve the Old Testament and the Christians who preserve the New. Secondly I am to demonstrate that the Idea's of the Messiah were very strong in the minds of the Jews at the very time that Jesus Christ appeared in the World. This was absolutely necessary that they might not have wherewith to accuse those who received Christ for the Messiah of being deceived in their choice for not having had the exact Idea's of the Messiah which God had promised I shall upon this account shew in the third place That when Jesus Christ did appear in the World the Model which God had framed in the Law of Moses whereby the Messiah might be plainly known did then subsist in the manner wherein God had framed it After this I shall endeavour to shew by prooss which are indeed unquestionable That in examining all the Characters which the Prophets gave by which the Messiah might be known we cannot conceive a more exact execution of God's Design as to the Messiah than that which we find in the Person of Jesus Christ whereof the Books of the New Testament have given us the History Lastly I shall shew clearly that this Model which God had framed in giving the Law and in forming the Common-wealth and Religion of the Jews in so proper a manner to make the Messiah certainly known is not in being at this day but that it was so destroyed by the total Dispersion of that People that we should not be able to know the Messiah if he should now appear again in the World. And that indeed the principal Events which according to the Oracles were to follow the Coming of the Messiah are already come to pass in part and do still come to pass every day I hope to evince these Truths beyond all contest Indeed the bare reading of the Books of the New Testament plainly discovers the Coherence which they have with the Books of the Old. It shews clearly that the Idea's of the Messiah were at that time very strong in the minds of the Jews and it supposeth without any affectation that that Model which God had made so necessary to distinguish the Messiah stood at that time intire In particular It is certain that the four Evangelists by the Relation of unquestionable matters of Fact have proved that Jesus the Son of Mary is the Messiah which God had promised Saint Luke shews in the Acts of the Apostles that after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Effusion of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost the Gospel was preached to the Heathens The Epistles are a natural Consequence of this Vocation of the Heathens and of the abolishing of the Law of Moses which the Apostles had undertaken They unanimously conspire to shew that God had resolved to call the Heathens to partake of Salvation that the Jews for the greatest part should be justly deprived thereof because they obstinately rejected the Messiah Several Questions are examined which arose either from the Calling of the Gentiles or from the abolishing of the Ceremonial Worship The Succession of the History of the Christian Church justifies That after the Destruction of Jerusalem all People imbraced the Religion of Jesus Christ in receiving him for the Messiah whom God had promised to the Patriarchs and to the Jews I shall resume all these Articles one by one in that Natural Order in which I have proposed them REFLEXIONS Upon the BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT To Establish the Truth OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION CHAPTER I. That there appears a very just Connexion bètween the Idea's of the Old Testament and those of the New the latter borrowing light from the former AS it is not much the Character of Romances even then when they are most tyed up to the Rules of Probability to borrow either the Stile or Idea's of those Authors from whom they take their-Subject so I suppose that in this my Undertaking to shew that the New Testament is an exact accomplishment of the Old it is very important to make out that at the first reading of the Gospels and Apostolical Writings one finds in them a perfect conformity of Idea's with the Writings of the Old Testament One may to this purpose observe in general That the Gospel supposeth the Divine Authority of the Book of the Old Testament as an unquestionable Truth The Gospels and Epistles have the same coherence with the Books of the Law and Prophets which the Writings of the latter Prophets have with those of the former and which the Books of all the Prophets together have with the Books of Moses and with the Prophecies Laws and Histories which are contained therein One may take notice afterwards That all the Books of the New Testament have an essential relation to those of the Old in their most principal Designs I have shewed that their design was no other than to raise men to expectations of the Messiah and to paint him to the life whom God
had promised from the beginning of the World and the only design of the New Testament is to prove that the Messiah is come according to the Prophets The first speaks concerning the Messiah as expected the latter as already come But we must proceed to a more particular view of this matter I say then first of all That the Christians have the same Object of their Faith which the Jews had this Jesus Christ himself declares where he saith This is life Eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Behold here the true Character of the Christian Religion as well as of the Jewish to believe one only God to own a Messiah and to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is he The Jews agree with us in the two former Articles tho' they dispute the last I say in the second place That the Laws of the Gospel which regulate Religion and the Conduct of particular persons in that Society are exactly the same with those of the old Testament Jesus Christ in his Sermon upon the Mount which contains an Abridgment of his Ethicks had no other end but to restore the true sense and meaning of those Laws God had given upon Mount Sinai and tho' in the matter of Divorces it seems opposite to that Law wherein God had before permitted them yet we may easily conceive that he began to abrogate those Orders and Dispensations which were only given to make the Messiah known whenever he should appear The prayer which Jesus Christ taught his Apostles is full of Notions which reigned among the Jews as several Expositors have manifested I shall content my self with alledging the instance of the petition for our daily Bread which has an evident regard to the Manna which God gave the Children of Israel in the Wilderness for Forty years We know also that the Sacraments of the Baptism and the Eucharist are originally Jewish Ceremonies which Jesus Christ hath applied with a very little variation to much more important Subjects Baptism was a washing which accompanied the Sacrifices and Circumcision of Proselytes lites And the washing practised under the Law of Moses signified that the Proselyte who was admitted to the same was resolved to renounce his former Courses and for the time to come to follow an opposite way of living according to the Rules prescribed him by the Ministers of Heaven after that they in the Name of God had assured him of the remission of his sins The Eucharist was an Appendix of the Feast of the Passover which preserved the Memory of the Sufferings of the Israelites in Egypt and the deliverance he afforded them in punishing of the Egyptians This Ceremony did perpetuate the Memory of that Deliverance till the coming of the Messiah Jesus Christ hath substituted to this figure an instance of the Curse of God against the Posterity of Cham the Idea of his Death by which he hath communicated his Blessing to all Nations of the Earth according to his promise And he hath made it a more full and exact Memorial of his Death which he would have us to consider as the death of the true Lamb which takes away the sins of the World. As the old Covenant was made in the Blood of a Lamb so Jesus Christ with regard to the New Testament or Covenant promised by Jeremiah Chap. XXXI ordains the celebrating the Memorial of the Blood he had spilt This is the New Testament in my Blood c. And lastly whereas the Law ordained the Commemoration of the Paschal Lamb but once a year Jesus Christ seems to appoint a much more frequent celebration of the Eucharist when he saith As oft as ye shall eat this Bread c. the reason of which without doubt is taken from the greatness of the benefit which his death confers upon us It is well worth our Observation That ordinarily the same Prophetical Idea's that are found in the Old Testament may be met with in the New. The Book of the Revelations contains abundance of particulars set down in the Prophecies of Zachariah and Ezechiel Jesus Christ himself pursues the Idea's of the Prophet Joel in the XXIV of Matthew when he sets forth the Destruction of Jerusalem and afterwards he describes the same according to the Notions which Daniel gives us thereof Daniel foretels in the VII Chapter of his Book the Destruction of the Roman Monarchy by the Christians whom he stiles the People of the most High. St. Paul follows the same Notion 1 Cor. VI. 2. where he supposeth it as a known thing The Saints saith he shall judge the World. And St. John in the XX of the Revelations verse 4. represents Satan bound and the Government put into the hands of Believers It is also very remarkable That the promises and threats of Jesus Christ are expressed in terms borrowed from the Old Testament These words of Jesus Christ He that hears my words and believes in him that sent me hath eternal life and shall not come into Judgment c. have not they a plain relation to Adam's unbelief and disobedience to the judgment he underwent and the punishment imposed on him Is it not from this Spirit which penetrates both that the New Testament so oft makes mention of a New Canaan a New Jerusalem a New Name c. and that Glory is represented to us sometimes under the Notion of Paradise sometimes of a Feast where Abraham who is called the Father of the Faithful sits at the upper end Eternal Damnation is represented to us under the Notion of the Valley of Hinnom of a Lake burning with Fire and Brimstone with regard to the Lake of Sodom and to the place where the filth of Jerusalem was wont to be burnt up and consumed 'T is upon this account that Believers are exhorted to remember Lot's Wife Luke IX 62. and XVII 32. and to depart from the midst of the wicked Hebr. XIII If we consider the Election of the Apostles and of the Seventy Disciples we shall find the reference they have to the Heads of the Twelve Tribes and to the Seventy Elders whom Moses chose to preserve the memory of the Seventy Souls Jacob brought with him into Egypt These passages Ye shall sit on Twelve Thrones and your Names are written in the Book of Life and the Number of 144000 being the product of 12 times 12 by allusion to the Twelve Tribes do all borrow their Light from those ancient Histories Throughout the New Testament we find nothing but a continual allusion to the state of the Jews all those Idea's of the Liberty of the Sons of God do allude to the Ceremony of their Jubilee The First born mentioned there and the Kingdom of Priests are not to be understood but by casting our eye on the Old Testament If Jesus Christ be called the chief Corner Stone if Peter be called a Stone or Rock Believers living Stones and the Apostles Foundations it is by way of allusion to
Doctrines with which Christ upbraids the Pharisees and Saduces but this corruption respected rather their Morals than the Externals of their Religion as appears plainly from hence that Jesus Christ upbraids the Pharisees with their tithing Mint and Cummin that is with their observance of outward Niceties whilst they neglected the very Essentials of Piety They held that Heathens could not pass for their Neighbours from whence it would follow that God did not forbid them to bear false witness against a Heathen Hence also they concluded that it was lawful for them to kill their Enemies and this fomented their hatred and animosity against all other Nations It was on this account that the Disciples of Jesus Christ marvelled that he talked with a Samaritan Woman Their Decisions concerning Adultery were no less corrupt which they declared to be no sin so long as it did not proceed to the outward Act which Opinion of theirs was more gross than that of many Heathens who had a truer Idea of the Purity of Heart which God requires of us as well as that of the Body But yet this did not altogether destroy their Religion tho' it obscured the Excellency and Sublimity thereof As for the Saduces besides that their Errours were only speculative amongst the greatest part of them it is certain that what the Gospel saith of their denying the Existence of Souls and Spirits and the Doctrine of the Resurrection must be understood with some qualification as the Learned have solidly proved and amongst others Dr. Lightfoot on the Gospels And without repeating those things which seeur'd the preservation of their State and which also visibly tended to the preserving of their Religion I shall only observe That the Jews at this day with very little difference are found in the same practices and opinions as to their Religion which they had at the time of our Saviour Seeing then that after so long a time of Sixteen hundred years we find no greater change in their Belief though their Traditions are considerably encreased the Rules whereof they have infinitely multiplyed and thereby encreased this Corruption how can it be imagin'd that the Religion of the Jews was wholly lost or had no being at the time of our Saviour Jesus Christ Let this therefore be established as a certain Truth That the Common-wealth of the Jews subsisting entirely it was easie to know whether the distinctions which were necessary to discover and make known the Messiah were still found in the state of the Jews and their Religion This is that I am now going to make out CHAP. IV. That all the Distinctions necessary for discovering of the Messiah still continued in the State of the Jews at the time of our Lord. I Do not know whether any man can deny that Circumcision which is one of the principal Marks of the Jews was practised at that time if any one should dare to dispute this Truth we need only to represent to him that the main Dispute between the first Disciples of Jesus Christ and the Jews was about the Observation of this Ceremony Neither were the Jews only obstinate in this Belief but we find also that those who first embraced the Christian Religion maintained that the Heathens themselves ought to submit to the Yoke of Circumcision before they could enter into the Divine Covenant and enjoy the Priviledges of Gods People whom Circumcision distinguished from the rest of the World. One see 's that tho' God scattered the Ten Tribes yet some of them still remained in Palestine and were distinctly known as such This appears from the Acts of the Apostles where mention is made of a Widow of the Tribe of Asher and S. Paul boasts of his being a Benjamite They upbraided Herod notwithstanding he was their King with his being an Edomite and not originally a Jew One see 's that about Tyre and Sidon there remained still a distinct knowledge of the Canaanites It is known that Galilee was less esteemed than Judea because many of the Gentiles were settled there by which means the Jews of that Province were obliged to some Commerce with them from which those who lived more distinct thought that they had a right to undervalue those that were settled in Galilee One may also boldly assert That all places were still distinctly known to what Tribe they did belong Thus it is observed that Capernaum was in the Borders of Naphthali and Zebulun that Bethlehem was in the Tribe of Juda which is related as a thing publickly known It is known that the Priests still possess the Cities which Joshua had assigned to them Zacharias the Father of John the Baptist dwelt at Hebron Josh XXI 10 11. a City belonging to the Priests in the Tribe of Juda. One see 's that even the Samaritan Woman had a distinct knowledge of some famous places in the Holy Land as Jacob's Well and the Possession which he gave to his Son Joseph and that those of her Religion took a Prejudice against the Jews because Jacob had built an Altar at Sichem One see 's that they kept up the Practise of Redeeming their First-born which at this day is still observed by the Jews As also the practise of Polygamy which was so common amongst them that S. Paul thought himself obliged to forbid the same to the Pastors of the Christian Church that he might abolish it by little and little amongst those that embraced the Doctrine of Jesus Christ One see 's from the Nineteenth of S. Matthew that Divorces were publickly practised amongst them as they are to this day If one makes any Reflexion upon the Objection the Sadduces made to our Saviour concerning the Woman that successively had seven Brothers for her Husbands we shall perceive that the desire of Posterity being predominant amongst them was the cause of the continuance of this Custom which began in the time of the Patriarch Judah We have elsewhere taken notice of the extream carefulness of the Jews in preserving the marks of their Daughters Virginity which has constantly continued down since the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ The Gospel which informs us that the Jews were deprived of the power of the Sword doth notwithstanding sufficiently signifie to us not only the extream horrour which the Jews had conceived against Adultery thus we find Jesus Christ upbraiding the Pharisees that Adulterers that is the greatest of sinners entred into the Kingdom of Heaven before them but also that the Laws against Adulterers and Adulteresses were severely executed In short one see 's that by a Judgment of Zeal as they call it they brought a Woman to our Saviour which was taken in Adultery before they went about to stone her for one ought to know that the Law only subjected young Women who were defiled after a Contract to that sort of Punishment because after they were once contracted they were reputed the Wives of those to whom they were betrothed and such an one was she of whom we read
Marriage or rather Incest with Herod he had reproved Before S. John was beheaded he sends his Disciples to Jesus Christ to inform himself whether he were the Messiah which our Saviour proves to them by the Miracles which he wrought in their presence and by the Testimony of the Prophet Isaiah which S. John had before alledged as a proof of his Call. All these Facts were so illustrious and so well known that S. John constantly passed for a great Prophet amongst the Jews the Pharisees themselves not daring to question it He received publick Deputations from the Jews who demanded the Reason of his Ministry and he himself sent one to Jesus Christ that his Disciples might be acquainted with him and that they might give him a second publick Testimony and last of all he dies a glorious Martyr for his Purity after he had made a vast number of Disciples who were so well dispersed in all places that S. Luke tells us in the Acts that some of them were found in Asia who received the Gospel and the Gifts of the Spirit in which they had been as it were initiated already by the Baptism of S. John. It appears afterwards that S. John was look'd upon as the Forerunner of the Messiah Jesus Christ saith he was the greatest of all the Prophets and when Herod heard of the Reputation of Jesus Christ he supposed that S. John was raised from the dead The Jews not conceiving that John the Baptist was the Forerunner of the Messiah because they understood the Prophecy of Malachy literally Mal. IV. 5. which also made the LXX add to the Text the word Thisbite in the passage of Malachy therefore Jesus Christ declares that it was indeed he of whom Malachy had spoken I acknowledge that John the Baptist did not do any Miracle but then he uttered 1. So plain an Oracle concerning the miraculous effusion of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost upon the Disciples that we find nothing so great or so clear in all the ancient Prophecies He that comes after me saith he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with Fire 2. He gave a second Oracle tho' not so plain as the former concerning the destruction of Jerusalem Whose fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his floor and will burn up the Chaff with Fire These two Oracles contain the end of the old Dispensation and the beginning of the new the miraculous Gifts of the Spirit were given to facilitate the publishing of the Gospel among the Gentiles and the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple happened as well to punish the Crime which the Jews had committed when they put the Messiah to death as to take away all their pretences of believing that the Messiah was not come who was to appear whilst that Temple stood But before I conclude this Chapter I must observe three or four things which are very necessary to confirm the Authority of the Testimony which this Forerunner of the Messiah hath given to Jesus Christ It is a Maxim amongst the Jews Maimonid de fundam legis That he who is acknowledg'd for a Prophet may confirm the Authority of another by attesting him to be a true Prophet And this is that which S. John did to Christ he was generally accounted a Prophet and he attested that Jesus Christ was so This was that which confounded the Elders of the Jews when they demanded of our Saviour by what Authority John acted Jesus Christ answered their question with another Whether S. John had a call from God The first Observation therefore is That we cannot accuse him of acting underhand with Jesus Christ for we do not find any correspondence kept up between them one of them was the Son of a Priest the other of a Carpenter's Wife the one dwelt in Judea the other in Galilee the one concealed himself whilst the others Reputation had got him a great many Disciples The Disciples of the one were very jealous of the Disciples of the other and endeavoured to inspire their Master with the jealousie that possessed themselves The second is That the Disciples of Jesus are the persons that wrote the History of John the Baptist which they do as those who were concern'd for his Glory and Reputation tho' at first they did not stand in the least by him but rather by that means inflamed Herod's hatred against them who contributed to the death of S. John as well as of Jesus Christ The third is That when S. John was beheaded who never had any correspondence with Jesus Christ it is extravagant to conceive that the Disciples of Jesus Christ should have forged the Testimony which they say this great man gave to Christ because this would have been to employ the Authority of a Man who never having wrought any Miracles and being long since beheaded by the order of Herod seem'd to be quite forgotten The fourth is That it is not probable that they could ever entertain a design of imposing on the World in such a matter as this which related to publick Facts known to all Judea to all the Priests yea to the whole Nation assembled at their publick Feasts to Herod the King and to the Disciples of John themselves who would not have been wanting to refute and convince them whereas on the contrary we see that by the disposition which S. John had wrought in them they were easily won to the Faith of Christ This is evident from the Example of Apollos a Disciple of John the Baptist's Disciples who became afterwards so excellent a Preacher of the Christian Religion CHAP. VII That Jesus Christ was born of the Family of David then reduced to a mean Condition as had been already foretold by the Prophets WE have considered the time in which our Saviour was to be born let us now speak of the Family from whence he was to proceed It has been proved already that this promise was made to the Family of David by Nathan the Prophet 2 Sam. VII 12. I Chron. XVII 11. in the Year of the World 2959. David repeats this his hope Psalm LXXXIX 4. and Psalm CXXXII 11. And about the Year of the World 3292 the Prophet Isaiah adds further that the Messiah should be in a despicable condition There are four things which fully confirm this Truth The first is the Kindred which was between Elizabeth and the Blessed Virgin whence it appear'd that her Relations were of the Tribe of Juda and that she was known to be of the Family of David One ought to observe here a thing which tho' at first sight seems to be of small importance yet we cannot but think that S. Luke wrote it without design and that is the Journey of the Blessed Virgin to one of the Cities of Judah after her Conception to visit Elizabeth her Kinswoman the Wife of Zachariah and the Mother of John the Baptist I shall not mention at present any other Reasons of this Journey which
would have taken by force to make him their King What likelyhood was there that the Apostles a company of poor miserable Jews should bring over the Gentiles to the Religion of a man who was accursed by the Synagogue of the Jews and crucified like a Slave by the Authority of the Roman Magistrate What probability was there of the destruction of Jerusalem whilst the Jews accustom'd to the Roman yoke made it their business to avoid all manner of occasions that might stir up the indignation of their Masters against them It is expedient say they rather that one man perish meaning Jesus than to hazard the welfare of the whole Nation The third is That these Oracles were written by the Apostles not only amongst Discourses of another nature but also linked together in such a Chain that their connexion will not permit us to believe that they were contrived after the matters which they relate to were past and also that they are constantly related by three Evangelists long time before the things came to pass S. John being the only Witness of the Destruction of Jerusalem The fourth is That these Oracles gave the Apostles as much grounds to expect Calamities and violent Deaths as to Jesus Christ himself so that there is no pretence of doubting that they were not faithfully recorded by the Evangelists and that therefore seeing the Accomplishment has exactly answered to the Oracle we ought to look upon them as Divine Oracles I confess that these Oracles no more than the Books of the New Testament were ever committed to the publick custody of the Jews as formerly the Oracles of the Prophets of old were but this cannot really diminish their Authority I will not observe at present that because the Temple was to be burnt it was not proper to depose them there and 't was for this reason God thought fit to cause the Oracles of the Old Testament to be translated long before Nor yet that it was very proper that these Predictions as well as the Books of the New Testament should be put into the hands of the Gentiles who thence-forward were to be the People of God and his Temple But this I observe that nothing can be imagined more solemn than these Prophecies of our Saviour and his Disciples as well as never any thing was more exactly fulfilled Jesus Christ was born at Bethlehem according to the Oracles Now as no man is Master of the place of his Birth so it is plain that here is no room left for imposture neither is a man any more the Master of his Death wherefore to give a certain Character to his Prophecy he foretells his dying at Jerusalem which accordingly was accomplished in all its Circumstances can any thing be more exact But one may say That it was easie for the Disciples to forge Predictions suitable to the Event in like manner as Virgil hath done in the sixth of his Aeneids of Marcellus One may indeed contrive an imposture which shall be possible and which may answer to some few Oracles but I shall hereafter shew the folly of that thought when I come to prove the faithfulness of the Apostles and Evangelists But can we conceive such a suspicion concerning the Conversion of the Gentiles the ruin of Paganism the Victory of Christianity after Ten Persecutions 'T is now above 1600 years that the Christian Religion subsists whereas who could have assured the Disciples of Jesus Christ that their Doctrine would have had so much as one or two followers after their Death The greatest Empires that of the Chaldeans of the Persians of the Grecians and that of the Romans have been overturned and none of them singly have been of so long continuance as the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which nevertheless was attack'd by all that was great and powerful in the World. Who see 's not that this is the Empire whereof Daniel speaks in the seventh of his Revelations which was never to have end Jesus Christ foretold as it is set down by his Disciples according to the Prophecy of Daniel that the Temple of Jerusalem should be destroyed and never built again who could tell the Apostles if they had forged this Oracle themselves that the endeavours of Julian to confound this Prophecy when he began to rebuild the Temple would be in vain as indeed they proved by an effect of the Divine vengeance against the Jews who were engaged in the rebuilding of it Ammian Marcellin Lib. 23. under the Authority of that Emperour Indeed if one reflects on the Oracles of Jesus Christ one shall find them a thousand times more known than those of the Jews 1. The greatest part of them were penn'd at one and the same time 2. They were writ by several Authors who lived in different places 3. They were read over the whole Earth every Lord's day they have been explained and commented upon soon after every one endeavouring to take notice of their Accomplishment 4. They have been alledged in Disputes against Jews and Gentiles and have served for a Foundation to the Faith of the Christian Church whose Teachers have made it their business to shew their uniformity with the Oracles of the Old Testament which are in the hands of the Jews tho' the Jews have always considered the Christians as their most mortal Enemies But one may also find that these Oracles being for the most part much more clear and express their Accomplishment also hath been so much the more easily discernible from whence it evidently follows That Jesus Christ ought to be acknowledged as the Prophet that was like unto Moses as is mentioned in the Eighteenth of Deuteronomy that is indeed the true Messiah CHAP. XII That Jesus Christ died precisely in the same manner as it was foretold that the Messiah should dye I Have shewed in my third part that God had given to his Church several Oracles to explain distinctly this great Truth concerning the Messiah 1. He had set this up for a Rule by Moses Cursed is he that hangeth on a Tree 2. He had proposed by David the Idea of the Messiah as having his hands and feet pierced the Gentiles and Jews uniting themselves against him 3. He had foretold by Isaiah that the Messiah was to be accounted a Malefactor and put to death 4. He had repeated the same Idea's by the Prophet Zechariah who describes the manner of his being pierced which has a natural reference to the notion of Crucifixion I have also set down the Reasons for which God separated the several parts of those Prophetical Descriptions of so surprizing an Event the difficulty there was on the one hand to make these Idea's to be received which seem full of Contradictions the Messiah having been at first set forth as the Fountain of Blessing and on the other hand their seeming incompatibility with the Glory which God had promised to the Messiah and by him to the Israelites And at last I have shewed that these Oracles do exactly
Palsey to the Dead Upon this all were converted and the Cross of Jesus Christ triumphs There are three sorts of People in the World Wise men Men of a middle sort and such as are of a lower capacity and several of these three Orders of Men made profession of the Christian Religion as well amongst the Jews as Heathens CHAP. XVII That the Christian Religion is founded on Proofs of Fact and that consequently nothing in the World so certain as the truth of it THis Reflexion ought to be made more than once because there is nothing so proper to establish the truth of the Christian Religion beyond all contest or that will confound Atheists prophane Persons and Jews who endeavour to oppose it more effectually I say then that the chief Articles on which the whole Christian Religion is grounded are confirm'd by proofs of Fact that is by Witnesses whose Evidence cannot be questioned without shaking all the certainty which we can have of any thing in this World and without rejecting all the means whereby we can assure our selves of the knowledge which we enjoy Many particular Events which were perfectly Divine happened at the Birth of John the Baptist the Forerunner of the Messiah they were known throughout all the Hill Country of Judea they happened to a Priest that is a publick Person and it was when he was employ'd in his publick Function in the Temple they are seconded by Miracles which were known to the whole Nation of the Jews they are follow'd by the publick Ministry of John the Baptist a man who censures all Judea who openly declares himself the Forerunner of the Messiah and who hath a great number of Disciples who are distinguish'd from those of our Saviour who were spread throughout all Judea and who continued after the death of our Saviour these were Disciples of a Man who besides all this doth not keep up any correspondence with our Saviour and who at last falls by the hand of Herod for censuring his Incest and Lusts JESUS CHRIST is born in Bethlehem under Augustus a Fact of which the Roman Commissioners were Witnesses and which the Records of that Empire preserv'd as long as they were in being That the Angels testified their Joy at his Birth is a Fact which was confirm'd by the Shepherds of Bethlehem long before Jesus Christ had any Disciples That a new Star conducted the Wise men of the East to Bethlehem was an illustrious Fact and of which Herod and the Priests and great men amongst the Jews were exactly informed and the Apostles would have found it a very difficult matter to impose this upon them if the thing had not been distinctly known That the Birth of Jesus Christ and the arrival of the Wise men affrighted Herod was a publick thing confirmed by the murther of the Infants of Bethlehem and reported to Augustus together with the death of Antipater whereof Macrobius a Heathen who was qualified for the knowledge of such a Story hath preserved the memory Neither can this Fact be called in question because Josephus makes no mention of it since so famous a Heathen attests it Augustus saith he having heard that amongst the Infants which Herod the King of the Jews had caused to be kill'd in Syria under two years of age he had kill'd his own Son said that it was better to be Herod 's Hog than his Son. That Jesus Christ was in Egypt and that he returned from thence is a Fact with which the Jews to this day reproach our Saviour as if he had learnt there the secret of working Miracles That he confounded the Doctors at twelve years of Age is a Fact of which the whole Nation of the Jews were informed because it happened at one of those three solemn Feasts which brought up the whole Nation to Jerusalem That Jesus Christ was baptized by S. John and that he received a most glorious testimony from him is a Fact of which all those Jews whom the Ministry of S. John had drawn to the River Jordan were Witnesses That Jesus Christ chose for his Apostles men without Learning and of the meanest of the People that he lived with them three years and an half preaching his Doctrine correcting the Traditions of the Jews working Miracles and foretelling things to come are Facts of which the whole People of the Jews were Witnesses and all the Romans that were in Judea were fully informed of them yea they were known to all the World. The Jews could not be ignorant of them who came up to Jerusalem from all parts of the World to celebrate ten solemn Feasts according to the Law during the time in which these things were acting and from thence carried the report of them into several parts of the World where they were dispers'd It is evident also that Jesus Christ laboured to perswade men that he was the promised Messiah this was the most considerable Fact in the World to the Jews and which had relation to the most important point of their Religion and touched them the nearest a Fact which happened at a time when all were in expectation of the Messiah as appears by the consultation of Herod when the Jews who were oppressed by the Romans did most earnestly sigh for his appearance a Fact confirm'd by publick Oracles and known to the whole Nation yea to the Heathen themselves for near Three hundred years That Jesus Christ notwithstanding all his Miracles was crucified at the pursuit of the Jews and by the order of Pontius Pilate is a Fact of which the whole People of the Jews were Witnesses because it happened at the Feast of the Passover that is at a Solemnity where the whole Nation of the Jews was assembled it is a Fact which no Heathens ever went about to deny they reproached the Christians with it who are so little asham'd of it that according to the orders of the same Jesus they celebrate the memorial of it in the Sacrament of the Eucharist That there was thick darkness over all the Land at the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ from the third hour till the sixth that is from nine of the clock till twelve according to our way of computing the time was a Fact of that nature that the whole Nation of the Jews might easily have convinc'd the Apostles of this imposture if it had not been as confessed a truth as the darkness in Egypt before the departure of the Israelites That Jesus Christ was raised the third day is a Fact attested by a great number of Witnesses the memorial whereof they celebrated every eighth day as long as they liv'd by a constant Law because they considered this Resurrection as the Seal of those Truths which Jesus Christ had taught them 'T is a Fact the truth whereof they have maintained before Magistrates before the People in all parts of the World. 'T is a Fact which they have publickly preached up notwithstanding all Prohibitions which have been made In short it is a
become Christians 'T is also of great importance to observe further as I have already done that the Books of the New Testament were penn'd before the overthrow of the Commonwealth of the Jews There are only some of the works of S. John which were writ after the Destruction of Jerusalem I have before observed that the Divine Providence order'd it so that all the Jews for five and thirty years together repairing thrice a year to Jerusalem at their three solemn Festivals might have greater opportunities to inform themselves of the truth of the Facts contained in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles To this Remark I shall now add two weighty Considerations The one is That the Christians for some years submitted themselves to the Ceremonial Law and repaired with the Jews to Jerusalem and by this means were engaged to examine the Facts contained in the Gospel The other is That after the Council of Jerusalem they were dispensed with as to that Custom as well as the observing of all the other parts of the Ceremonial Law which set the Christians in a greater opposition to the Jews and so encreased the necessity of examining very scrupulously on both sides whatsoever was for or against them in those matters of Religion This Observation leads us naturally to another That it is absolutely impossible that an imposture of this nature should not be discovered when there ariseth a Difference between those who may be looked upon as the Authors of the Forgery and those who after them endeavoured to gain credit to it Now if we find that one Disciple of Jesus Christ betrays him without accusing him of the least Crime or Imposture if we have seen the Christians at first united in the same Assemblies with the Jews and that there were several Contests and Disputes between the Apostles and those first Christians yet without calling those Facts which are continued in the Gospel in question by either side S. Paul takes notice of the Contests which happened betwixt him and S. Peter S. Luke relates the heats between S. Paul and Barnabas upon very slight occasions he sets down also the Dispute which arose about the distribution of Alms to the Greek and Jewish Widows One see 's that there arose a Dispute amongst the Apostles themselves about the Calling of the Gentiles to the Gospel one see 's afterwards the obstinacy of some of the Jews of the Sect of the Pharisees who maintained the absolute necessity of submitting to Circumcision and S. Paul's opposition set down in his Epistle to the Galatians We need no more to make it evident that there could be no concert nor collusion between them to deceive or impose upon those to whom they preached the Gospel Let us go a little further a Dispute happens about a Capital Point of Christian Religion about the Resurrection insomuch that S. Paul thinks himself obliged to write concerning it to the Corinthians so that there was a necessity of examining the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ again Now we find that S. Paul to confirm this Doctrine in general chiefly makes use of the instance of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ which he proves by Arguments taken from the Fact it self that is by witnesses whom he produceth Whereupon I make this considerable Reflexion That in comparing this Dispute of S. Paul with the Writings of the Evangelists it clearly appears that they did not alledge all the proofs they might have done None of them relates in particular the number of those who saw Jesus Christ in Galilee upon the holy Mountain but S. Paul who had examined the faithfulness of their Relations and knew the witnesses specifies the number and observes that many of them were yet alive if perhaps any of them were already dead I shall add only two Considerations more which prove that it was even impossible for the Apostles to impose upon the World on this occasion The first is taken from their State and Condition They are no great Lords whose Power might terrifie any one from examining their Writings or whose Reputation could not have been called in question without danger On the contrary they were men of mean condition employ'd in base Professions often cast into Prisons and from time to time oblig'd to appear before Magistrates for the same Doctrine and the same Facts which they published to the World. Let us consider then whether it were an easie matter for S. Paul for instance I say for this S. Paul a maker of Tents this S. Paul without Reputation without Riches this S. Paul who was seized at Jerusalem after divers Persecutions this S. Paul who was sent a Prisoner to Rome and imprisoned there under the power of the Roman Magistrate and who at last lost his life by Nero's order to make those blindly believe all he said who were at liberty to examine whether all that Luke related as happening to him at Jerusalem at Maltha at Philippi at Athens were indeed true or only a framed Story The second thing we ought to observe is That not only the Books of the Apostles were publickly read every Lord's day by a constant Law of which we have most authentick witnesses in the Writings of the Apostles themselves and in other ancient Books which are still extant but also that they were all of them written not in Hebrew which at that time was a dead Tongue nor in Syriack a Language spoken in a very few places but in Greek which at that time was the Language commonly received throughout all the Roman Empire and besides was the Language into which the Divine Providence had caused the Old Testament to be translated about three Ages before that men might compare the ancient Oracles and their accomplishment together CHAP. XX. That the whole Model of the Religion and Commonwealth of the Jews is at this day so entirely destroyed that the Messiah could no more be known WHat I have before set down to establish the truth of those Facts which serve for a Foundation to the Christian Religion is certainly sufficient to answer the design which I formed in writing these Reflexions upon the Books of the Holy Scripture and I believe I may with justice conclude That as nothing is more uncontestable than the truth of those Books and of the Facts in them related so there is nothing more certain than the Truth and Divinity of the Christian Religion So that now I have only two things to do with which I conceive it will be necessary to conclude these Reflexions The one is to shew the absolute impossibility of conceiving any other accomplishment of the ancient Oracles than what is set down in the Gospel The other is that concerning the Divisions amongst Christians which are a scandal to the Jews and especially concerning the difficulty of the Mysteries which the Gospel proposes which are as so many stumbling Blocks to them which hinder them from discerning those Characters of Truth in the Gospel which by
who declared himself to be the Messiah were so indeed so it is absolutely impossible to examine it or know it since the destruction of that Model if we suppose that God at first framed it for the determining of this question as we have no reason to doubt it The second is That the Christians exactly followed this Divine Model and being convinced of the truth of the Facts which exactly corresponded with it and which answered it in all its parts they had all the Reason imaginable to believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah In short if we consider it well we shall find that the whole Christian Religion is nothing but a question of Fact between the Jews and Christians But such a question as the Jews at present are not in a condition to maintain against the Christians Both Jews and Christians agree in the Characters of the Messiah or at least about the most of them According to these Characters the Messiah ought to be come The Christians maintain that they may be found in Jesus Christ and they prove it by matter of Fact wherefore we must conclude That either these Characters attributed to the Messiah are not proper Characters to know him by and so the Wisdom of God will be eluded and both Jews and Christians equally deceived in taking that for a Character of the Messiah which is not or else that both the Messiah is certainly come and and that He is no other than that Jesus whom we worship CHAP. XXI That the greatness of the Mysteries of the Christian Religion and the Division which is amongst Christians cannot be any prejudice to the proofs of the truth of the Christian Religion I Come now to examine the double stumbling Block which the Jews pretend against the Christian Religion This Religion say they propounds Doctrines that are inconceivable and contrary to Reason For instance that of the Trinity that of the Incarnation and the Divinity of the Messiah These are the Doctrines which the Jews reject as absolutely incompatible with the Books of the Old Testament which we have received from their hands But it is an easie matter to answer this Objection 1. It is founded upon a total forgetfulness of the solidity of those proofs of Fact which I have alledged Jesus Christ is risen from the dead this is a Fact confirmed by several Witnesses It appears from Tacitus that Jesus Christ suffered death under Tiberius Pontius Pilate being Governour of Judea It is known that Claudius banished the Christians from Rome in the Year of our Lord 54. It is evident from Tacitus in his Life of Nero that he accused the Christians of burning the City of Rome which himself was the Author of the Christians therefore made a considerable Body in the Capital City of the Empire and this happened in the year of our Lord 64. Suetonius says the same thing 2. It appears that Pliny in Trajan's time takes notice of the manner of their Meetings 3. Dion Cassius sets down the Accusation brought in against Flavius and Domitilla as against Atheists which is the Title Julian the Apostate gives to Constantine because the Christians rejected the worship of the Heathen Gods. 4. It appears by the latter end of the Acts of the Apostles that this Book was writ in the Year of our Lord 63 and yet this Book supposes the Gospel of S. Luke to have been written before it and S. Luke's Gospel takes it for granted that some of the other Gospels were already published 5. It appears from the Writings of Clemens Romanus that the Epistle to the Hebrews was then written and the same may be gathered from the Books of S. Ignatius Polycarp and S. Justin. These Facts which are certain are sufficient to prove that immediately after the death of Jesus Christ his Apostles and their Disciples as Eye witnesses maintained the truth of his Resurrection After this it may indeed be disputed by what Power he was raised whether by a Divine Power or by his own but it is ridiculous to dispute the Fact by reasonings drawn from pretened Absurdities which one may think to find in the Doctrines of the Gospel Secondly These Mysteries as for instance that of the Trinity relates to the Divine Nature which is incomprehensible so that it is no strange thing if an Idea of it be proposed to us which not being distinctly known by us may raise Difficulties and Perplexities in our Minds If I would discourse with one born blind of the Sun of its Light and Heat and should attribute to the Sun the Production of Light and afterwards of Heat he would find an infinite trouble not to imagine three Suns It is known how the Philosophers who agreed about the Unity of the Soul have notwithstanding been obliged to attribute several Faculties to it which the common People look upon as very different things and which seem to oppose the Idea's of its Unity and Simplicity In the third place The Christians prove very solidly that these Mysteries have been clearly proposed by the Apostles who received their light from Heaven as to these Truths and so might necessarily be believed upon their word for the same reason that the Prophets of the Old Testament were formerly believed Moreover they assert that these Doctrines were first expressed tho' not so clearly in the Old Testament which is in the hands of the Jews the mortal Enemies of Christians I add to these Remarks that most of those Facts whose truth is so invincibly established suppose these Doctrines and that the whole frame of the Religion doth so necessarily require them that we rob it of a considerable part of its Glory in questioning or contesting any of them These Reflexions may suffice in general to resolve this difficulty of the Jews and for a more particular Satisfaction we refer the Reader to those Books which purposely treat of these Mysteries desiring him to observe carefully that commonly the most difficult Objections of Hereticks against these matters do rather oppose the terms which are made use of or the notions which men follow in speaking of these truths than the Propositions contained in the Writings of the New Testament At least one may be assured that the Jews are constrained to resolve several parallel Objections to which one can scarcely give a satisfactory Answer without borrowing some Distinctions and Notions from the Christians Neither can the second Objection of the Jews give us any more disturbance It is true that there have been Divisions amongst Christians and are still to this day What can we conclude thence Can we reasonably conclude that therefore the first Founders of Christianity were doubtful concerning the truth of those Facts which are the support and foundation of it On the contrary upon an attentive Observation one may find 1. That Heresies have only served to render the truth of these Facts more incontestable by obliging those that had consider'd of them to examine their certainty with more care and application This is the Judgment one ought to make upon all those Heresies in the second Age about the truth of the Flesh of Jesus Christ or about the truth of his Death From thence men took occasion to take notice of and collect with great care all the Circumstances that prove the truth of both these Facts 2. We find that the greatest part of these Contests do not concern the truth of the Facts but the several Consequences drawn from them the truth of those Matters continuing still beyond dispute This we find in the Dispute raised about the Millennium the truth of the Promises of Jesus Christ being equally believed by both the disputing Parties but differently understood according to the temper of those that consider'd of them some forming gross and sensual Conceptions concerning them others having a more spiritual relish which they had acquired by studying the Prophecies and their true sense 3. We find that this Division which hath sprung up amongst Christians is one of the most solid proofs of the truth of the Books of the New Testament If some Fools have endeavoured to decry some of them or to falsifie some particular places we see that both Parties unite to repel that violence by producing their Copies and beating back the Impostors with their united strength One see 's that Tertullian tho' a Montanist writ Prescriptions against Hereticks and Epiphanius takes notice without any respect to some that were Orthodox of their Crime in blotting out of their Copies that Christ had wept It is known that the Division of the Jews into Karaites and Thalmudists the Jealousie between the Jews and Samaritans and the Division between the Jews and Christians is a means of preserving the Scripture and hindering its Corruption each Party being very vigilant to hinder their Adversaries from attempting any thing to its prejudice in corrupting a Book which they consider as common to them all I might observe many other advantages which accrew to the Truth from these Human Failings but I will only instance in one which has always seem'd to me very considerable and that is That these Hereticks distinctly prove the truth of the Predictions of our Saviour An impious person would have reason to accuse our Oracles as false if there had never been any Heresies But Truth triumphs in seeing so great a multitude of them who the more they encrease the more she see 's her self confirm'd and established This is the Reason induced God to permit so great an increase in the first Ages when the Truth meeting with the greatest Opposition by Persecutions stood in the greatest need of sensible Characters by which it might be known I conclude this Work with desiring my Reader to consider these Reflexions upon the Holy Scripture here propounded with a serious attention and to examine the Coherence and Indissoluble Connexion of them and with prayer to God that it may please him to make them serviceable to advance the Glory of his Name which is the only end I have proposed to my self in the writing of them FINIS