the most considerable proofs that every thing here was solely transacted by the finger of God Had he chose for his Ministers the Princes and Potentates of the World some would perhaps have ascribed the wonders of Christian Morality to Policy and the design of keeping people in obedience by obliging them to a charitable Union among themselves Had he chose Philosophers some would have ascribed their heroical self-denial to the singularity and pride of their Sect or to those elevated thoughts which Philosophy had inspired them with Had he chose Orators some would have thought that they might have seduced men by the charms of their Eloquence Had he chose very Powerful and Rich men some would have attributed the success of their preaching to their liberalities He chose therefore mean and contemptible persons who had ever lived in great simplicity and labour'd under an obscure condition to shew more clearly that the success of the Gospel was the work of God and not of Men. In answer to the third Objection we assert that tho' Jesus Christ was usually attended with Publicans and Sinners yet they were Sinners converted by the efficacy of his Doctrine they were Publicans regenerated whose testimony of the Christian Religion was the more authentick as it more plainly evinced that this Religion was the only one truly capable of sanctifying Mankind Certainly I cannot perceive a more evident sign of the Divinity of our Saviours Mission than to see that he acted with so much efficacy that sinful women came and wash'd his feet with repentant tears and wiped them with their Hairs that one word of his could draw Levi from the receit of Custom oblige Peter and Andrew to follow him to forsake their Nets their Boat and even their Father Zebedee But some will say if Jesus Christ made his Disciples utterly renounce all worldly advantages 't was meerly by the hopes he gave them of a blessed and eternal life and consequently it was to their advantage thus to renounce them I grant it but then I say this consideration makes for us and is more than sufficient to give an invincible Demonstration of the Truth of the Christian Religion For if the Disciples did verily expect an everlasting Life from Jesus Christ and if it was purely on the account of that interest the greatest indeed of all our Interests and of that hope far stronger than all their passions that they suffered such torments for the name of Jesus as we must either believe it or look upon the Disciples as so many Fools or mad Men I say if the Disciples hoped for eternal life from him it necessarily follows thence that they sincerely believed him to be what he professd himself to be since they could not expect eternal life from an Impostor And if they believed his calling to be true they likewise believed his Miracles and Resurrection to be so too And if they thought his Miracles and Resurrection true it follows thence that they were necessarily so it being impossible that the Disciples should have deceived themselves in certain matters of fact which required only seeing hearing and feeling Let the Incredulous use what Shifts and Evasions they please I dare say they can bring nothing but absurd impertinencies in answer to this argument which we look upon to have the force of Demonstration If the Apostles expected everlasting life from Jesus Christ it follows thence that they could not look upon him as an Impostor nor abet his Imposture nor be Impostors themselves as they necessarily must have been were not the Christian Religion infallibly true Now 't is most certain that the Disciples did hope for everlasting life from Jesus Christ because he never proposed any other object to their Faith he foretold them nothing but Crosses and tribulations in this life publickly declaring that his Kingdom was not of this World besides Experience and Reason taught them the very same thing they themselves declared in all their Epistles that they expected nothing but crosses and tribulations in this life comparing it to a Warfare a Wrestling the World to a Field of Battel calling themselves the Champions of Jesus Christ and continually rejoycing that they were to suffer in hopes of the Crown that was reserv'd for them As to the Fourth Objection we answer that we are willing to compare the Witnesses of the Synagogue with those Writings of Jesus Christ The Witnesses of the Synagogue testify'd that which was unknown to them that which they had not seen and which they therefore could have no certain Knowledge of For who can believe the report of the Watch If they really saw any one taking away the body of Jesus why did they not prevent it But if they did not see it how can their Testimony be valid But as for the Disciples of the Lord they testifi'd those matters of fact which their Eyes were Witnesses to That which we have seen say they with our Eyes which we have heard with our Ears and our Hands have handled of the Word of Life declare we unto you 1 John 1. 1. The former Witnesses were Soldiers the latter Martyrs The former endeavoured to perswade men by force the latter perswaded them maugre all the violence offered to them To be such a witness as the Apostles were there is need of Constancy and perswasion To be such a one as those suborned by the Synagogue there is need only of fury and violence But was there never a one of either party that recanted his Opinion Yes without doubt and this consideration alone is sufficient to decide the Controversy Saul a servant of the Synagogue going one day to Damascus not only to testify that Jesus Christ had been a Seducer but also to persecute all those that believed on him was on a sudden changed and became a Disciple of him whom before he went about so furiously to persecute Judas on the contrary a Disciple and Apostle of Jesus Christ renounced his Master and deliver'd him to the Jews who put him to Death Here are two several witnesses who seem to recant their opinion but consider the different end of their Recantation Saul was a Pharisee the Son of a Pharisee and consequently a Member of a Sect particularly exasperated against Jesus Christ He had obtained letters from the Sanhedrin or grand Councel at Jerusalem to the Synagogues of Damascus to demand assistance from them against the Christians that dwelt therein whom he had purposed to himself to drag along to Prison and to put to Death as he had done several others before He was therefore on his journey and drew nigh unto Damascus he was upon the point of satisfying his rage and fury but on a sudden he is altogether changed What was there that could have obliged this Witness thus to recant What proffers were then made to him or who was then in a condition to make him any What unexpected force so suddenly overthrew all the designs and prejudices of a man that was
tho perhaps he is ignorant of any true and real one he frames at least an imaginary one to himself and would feign out-live his Days in spite of Death by immortalizing himself in the remembrance of Men. Who then can reconcile Man to Himself How come such lofty Sentiments to be joyned with so much Wretchedness and Misery Or why should a Being so mean and humble have such great and elevated Notions If we consult the Christian Religion we shall soon be satisfied in this Point For the first Rudiments of it will solve all the seeming Riddles It will teach us that Man consists of two Parts Body and Soul whose qualities and parts are very different The Body makes him a Member of the Material World from whence he derives his Wretchedness and Misery In his Soul he bears the Image of God which is the Foundation of his real Goodness If the Mind be subject to Matter we see only his Imperfections and find nothing but a Sensitive Man in him but if the Body be wholly subject to the Soul then only the Greatness and Glory of the Soul appears and we find a Spiritual Man in him Whatever therefore may be said concerning the Greatness of Man becomes an incredible Paradox if applied to his outward and carnal part And whatever may be said concerning his Imperfection and Unworthiness will be utterly false if applied to him as a Being glorious and purely Spiritual But in our present State the Soul and Body are in a continual War Sometimes the Excellence and Greatness of Man's Nature and sometimes the Weakness and Vnworthiness of it appears according as the Flesh or Spirit are predominant and this serves for a certain Rule to judge of Mans Perfection or Imperfection that every thing is great and noble in him that brings the Flesh in subjection to the Spirit and every thing seems vile and contemptible that basely brings the Spirit in subjection to the Flesh For what sort of Greatness can we find in the latter and wherein consists the Excellence of his outward qualifications by which alone he endeavours to procure the Esteem of other Men Not in the Antiquity of his Original for that brings him but the nearer to his primitive Nothing or to the Clay out of which he was first formed He betrays his weak Judgment in esteeming so much the Original of his Body and not regarding that of his Soul As for the Goods of Fortune they swell his Heart with Pride and therefore he values himself more for what he enjoys than for what he really is Suppose him a Conquerour or if you please Lord of the Vniverse But alas that can be of no great continuance His Reason indeed exalts him far above all other Creatures but even that Reason is a Slave to his Scnses his Passions deject rather than elevate him Ambition is a Weakness which makes him unable to rule his Desires Pride an Imperfection which so possesses his Mind that he cannot pass by the least Affront to his Reputation Avarice a base fear of future want a limited Consideration of Self-love that forgets it self to think better upon what is least valuable in its condition The Punctilios of Honour a vain Imperfection that makes an Idol of it self That Valour which affronts Death nothing but a Mans strangely forgetting himself and being insensible of the Dangers that surround him And Lastly all the Passions but so many Deviations from the End we ought to pursue so many Disorders and Irregularities of the Soul as appears fully by what we have said elsewhere concerning the End for which Man was orginally designed And tho' these be all Moral Truths they are not the less certain Experience confirms them and â—he free confession of the Incredulous who are glad of any Opportunity of making us observe all these signs and characters of our Wretchedness and Misery thinking thereby to persuade us that so miserable a Creature was not designed for such a glorious End as we imagin But let them only consider how truly great Man is when he submits the Lusts of the Flesh to the Rule of the Spirit and they 'll be asham'd of their false Opinions They 'll find him indeed a Being that had a Beginning but yet one that glories in God as the Author of it They 'll find him an Atom that raises it's self above all other Creatures by running back to it's first Author and paying him Homage for it's Unworthiness A Worm that has the Honour of referring it's self to the Glory of God to which also all other Beings are referr'd but without knowing it They 'll find him a Being that is indeed Mortal carries it's Hopes beyond Death A Being that is finite yet it's Desires and Intentions are unlimited A small quantity of Earth will cover his Body yet nothing but Immensity will satisfy his Soul He possesses all things for he calls himself the Son of him that created all things He is not to be rank'd among those Creatures which grow proud by promotion or cannot be humble without debasing themselves He is great but not proud because he knows his Natural Vileness and he is humble but not base because he is sensible of his true Greatness and Worth He has made such a Covenant with his God as the Destruction of the Body is not able to dissolve Tho' he conqers not Kingdoms nor razes Cities yet he is able to overcome those Passions which have produced the like effects He sacrifices to God those very Passions to which Men heretofore sacrificed all their Possessions He esteems not a Crown and the highest Dignities are of no Value in his Thoughts He quits a Throne to equal himself to Shepherds and tho' but a Shepherd he thinks himself as great as the most powerful Monarch What the World admires is but a Dream to him Tho he enjoys the greatest Titles yet has he the same humble Thoughts of himself Should the World afflict him on every side it cannot lessen his Opinion of himself He raises himself above what he sees to humble himself in the sight of God who is invisible He possesses Eternity tho he exists in Time He is a Child of God tho he lives amongst Men He is sensible of his Exaltation above all other Beings but he is truly Great in his own Humility Thus the Christian Religion not only shews us Man's Excellence but is also the Cause of it by making the meanest part of our Nature subservient to the nobler He therefore that utterly renounces all Religion loses the perfection of his Nature and the less he believes the more he debases himself below other Creatures 'T is therefore the Christian Religion alone that shews us the Cure as well as the Disease that produces our hidden Virtues and unmasks our Vices that discovers to us our Misery and frees us from it that puts an end to all the Wretchedness of our Nature by making us truly sensible of it that makes us great by making us humble that fits it self to all the Conditions of Life and
account Perhaps we should not think it at all hard to conceive if the Holy Ghost had been pleased to reveal its Nature a little more clearly to us But such is the wonderful Conduct of God who is resolved to humble us and not to satisfy our vain Curiosity nor indulge the Pride of our Understanding which is too greedy of Knowledge 4 thly Because we are not wholly destitute of Images there being several capable to illustrate that Object tho never so incomprehensible in it self Thus for instance the same Soul is an Vnderstanding as it perceives a Will as it has a desire and a Memory as it recalls the things past to the Mind all which three Faculties are comprehended in one and the same Understanding In like manner also the same Light is in the Heavens a Sun in the Air Brightness and in the Cloud a false Sun 5 thly To all this we may yet further add that the greatest Difficulties of this Mystery proceed from those Speculations in which School Divinity has involved it to the great Scandal of our Faith and eternal Confusion of our Reason For who can endure the Liberty those Metaphysical Divines have taken in pretending to form and decide ridiculous rash and impious Questions concerning that greatest Mystery of our Religion Can we think any reasonable Man could read all their impertinent Questions without Indignation As whether several Divine Persons could take but one and the same Person Whether the Word could have taken upon him in an Hypostatical Union the Form of an Angel of a Beast of a Woman of an insensible Being of an Accident of an Act of Sin of a Devil so that if these Propositions were true God is a Sin a c. Whether the Word has taken the Soul in an Hypostatical Union rather than the Body or the Body rather than the Soul Whether if Man had not Sinned the Word would not have taken our Flesh upon him Whether Humane Nature was first united to the Essence or the Person Whether the Humane Nature was united to the Divine by several Unions Whether a Divine Person may take upon it self the Form of a created Person Whether Humanity was united to the Person of Christ by way of Accident or of Substance Whether the Humane and the Divine Nature are a part of Christ and whether Christ be two several things Whether Christ be of a create or uncreate Unity How it came to pass he did not take upon him the very individual Nature of Adam Whether this Proposition Christ is Man was true during those three Days he remained in the Grave Lastly Whether Christ should have died of old Age had he not been crucified in his Youth c. These are the only Difficulties that occur in the Christian Religion As for the rest 't is so essentially so visibly and so necessarily agreeable to Reason that we cannot but wonder that our Incredulous Adversaries have not yet perceived it This we have already sufficiently proved in several places of this Work and we cannot well insist further upon it without repeating again what has been already said It is sufficient therefore to observe that Christ is as it were the Reason of Nature Society and Religion He is the Light enlightening every thing without which we should fall into infinite Troubles and Perplexities Christ is the Center of all Events which seemingly relate to his coming he is the Center of Truths which are the more clearly revealed the nearer we approach him the Center of all the Mosaical Ceremonies which are meer Extravagance in themselves if they relate not to him the Center of all Virtues which have no sufficient Force or Motives able to induce us to practise them but by the consideration of Life and Immortality revealed to us in Christ the Center and Foundation of the inviolable Rule of Conscience which would be nothing else but Errour and Illusion if the Christian Faith were a Fable The Center of all those Characters of Wisdom visibly diplay'd in all the Works of God since nothing but the Christian Religion can lead Man to the true End of his Creation none but that can justify the Wisdom of God the Center of all the Hopes of Man for what is there that he could hope for if Christianity were a Lye The Center of all the Evidence and Certainty that is in our Knowledge for what is there that we could be certain of if our Soul were only a Disposition of Atoms and had no such Spirituality and Immortality as that imputed to it by the Christian Religion There need have been only a different Configuration of Parts to form first Notions quite contrary to those we now have Let any one therefore closely consider the Matter and it will appear to him that if we deny Christ who teaches to know our own selves in revealing to us Life and Immortality no Salvation can be expected either for Reason or Conscience X Portraiture of the Christian Religion Or the Proportion it bears to the Jewish Religion THere is nothing truer than that the Jewish Religion is great noble and divine and we cannot reflect on the Greatness of its Miracles the Sublimity of its Morality the Purity of its Doctrin the Holiness of its Precepts and the Completion of its Prophecies without immediately acknowledging it to be stampt with Divine Characters But yet we shall find it altogether defective if we separate it from Christianity since its Essence consists in its relation to that We cannot conceive without it how God can be the God of one Nation and yet not be that too of other Nations also that the Deity should be contained in a material Ark and being the Father of Spirits should so carefully seek after an external and corporeal Purity that unwilling to satisfy his Justice he should require Sacrifices of Men or if willing to be appeased by Offerings and Oblations he should demand such mean ones of them which were unworthy the Majesty of his God-head that God who made Heaven and Earth should dwell in a Temple made with Hands or that he who created all things visible and invisible should take pleasure in an external Pomp that he who made the Smelling which he wants not himself should delight in the smell of Incense or that his Voice properly so called should be heard to which Thunder it self scarce bears the Resemblance of an Echo I say we can never conceive any of these things without the help of Christian Religion For who can reconcile the Wisdom seen in the Religion of Moses with the Imperfections discoverable in it How could that Lawgiver prove so contrary to himself And how could so many Characters of Divinity be attended with so many seemingly superstitious Customs and trivial Ceremonies Consult but the Christian Religion and you 'll then no longer wonder at it there you will find both the Reason and Wisdom of every thing that surpris'd you in the Old Covenant All the Customs contained in the
the Emperour that having strictly inquired into the lives of the Christians he found nothing else but that they assembled together in remote places early in the morning and there said their prayers to heaven and bound themselves under a Solemn Oath not to commit Murder Adultery Injustice or any other crime They would also produce an answer from Trajan to Pliny wherein that Emperour gave positive orders that for the future there should be no particular enquiries made after the Christians but those only should be punished who should discover themselves And that we may not think that these letters are forged we may consider that 't is Tertulian that mentions them in his Discourse to the Senate and the Roman Emperour whom he could not impose upon without endangering his own life and prejudicing his Religion CHAP. II. Wherein we shall examin the Martyrdom of the Primitive Christians BUt Perhaps we may sooner suspect the credulity of the Primitive Christians than their innocence We are sure their Constancy proceeded from their hope and their hope from their perswasion But who knows the ground of that Perswasion Are there not Mahumetans so strongly perswaded of the Divinity of the Alcoran as to die in defence of that Errour The multitude then of Martyrs shews an infinite number of persons to be strongly perswaded of the truth of Christian Religion but proves not that perswasion to be well grounded We mâ—st therefore go a little further And here we may easily suppose without fear of being mistaken that the Primitive Christians had some sort of Common sense Those who made it their profession to ridicule the plurality of Gods and the many superstitions of the Heathens which were really contrary to Reason those who put in practice such wise Rules of Morality who were so regular in their behaviour so averse to all the excesses that disorder Reason who formed to themselves such rational Ideas of the Deity in comparison to others those men I say could not be wholly destitute of the light of Nature Now supposing them to have but the least glimmering of that light 't will be hard to conceivâ— that they should wholly renounce their Estates and Fortune and couragiously suffer Death in defence of any cause whatsoever unless they had very powerful Reasons to believe it were good This consideration will be further strengthn'd by two very important Reflexions And first we speak not here of such only who being born Christians blindly followed the prejudices of Birth and Education but also of a great number of persons who renounced Paganism to embrace Christianity and laying aside the favourable prejudices of Education and Birth which in them were quite contrary to the Christian Religion were yet willing to die for it as soon as 't was known and embraced Secondly The truth of Christian Religion is altogether founded upon mattters of fact For if Jesus Christ wrought Miracles and rose again from the Dead than is the Christian Faith True But if Jesus Christ wrought no miracles nor rose from the Dead then is the Christian Faith false And surely 't would have been folly or madness in those men to forsake so flourishing a Communion as Paganism to take upon them the name of Christians a name so vile and contemptible in those days to suffer voluntarily the loss of their Estates and undergo a most terrible Death only to defend a Religion grounded upon such matters of fact as they had no reason to believe to be true Those indeed that are born and live peacably in a Communion may blindly believe the Doctrines of it but he that is never so little acquainted with the constitution of man's heart can scarce imagin men to be so sensless as to renounce the prejudices of Birth and Education to offer violence to their dearest and most tender Inclinations and embrace a Faith pursued with fire and sword and persecuted by all the powers of the World unless they had first duely examined the nature of it and knew well upon what grounds they thus embraced it If it be objected that some of these men were of the meanest sort of people whose example cannot be alledged as a precedent for Wise and learned men We 'll grant it But then it must also be confess'd that the Vulgar usually embrace that Religion which is attended with Power and Prosperity Pomp and Authority and hate even Truth it self when once destitute of all these outward helps How is it possible then that against all outward appearance they should have acted so contrarily to themselves in this Occasion But supposing the commmon sort of Christians to have lost their Reason can we say the same of the Doctors of the Primitive Church as Clement Polycarp Justin Iraeneus c 'T is certain on one hÄnd these men were men of very good sense as their Writings those Monuments they have left us evidently demonstrate And on the other 't is very well known they lived in a time so very near to that of the Apostles that it is absolutely impossible they should have been deceived in this respect For Polycarp conversed a long while with St. John Iraeneus saw Polycarp and Justin was a more ancient Father than Iraeneus Had those Doctors only told us that Jesus Christ and his Apostles wrought several Miracles we might perhaps have suspended our belief upon their bare word But since they suffered Death in defence of the truth of certain matters of fact which they must necessarily have fully been informed of since I see that Clemens and Polycarp Disciples and Contemporaries with the Apostles chearfully came to the stake to maintain a Religion essentially founded upon those matters of fact such as were the gift of divers Languages conferred upon the Apostles the power of working Miracles and imparting those very gifts themselves to others Since I say these Christian Doctors suffered Martyrdom for the confirmation of matters of fact which the Christian Religion is essentially united to I confess I begin to be convinced Nevertheless let us search more narrowly into this matter and see whether we shall yet have any Reason to entertain any further scruples CHAP. III. In which we further prove the Truth of Religion by several undeniable matters of fact WHo told us Clemens and Polycarp suffered Martyrdom And supposing they did who will assure us they were not deluded by the Apostles Nay who can tell whether there ever were any such men I suppose I shall not be obliged to prove with a great many arguments there were such men as Clemens and Polycarp who suffered Martyrdom Eusebius who wrote their history could not wholly have invented it unless he had corrupted all the Writings of the Fathers that lived before him for they all speak of it Iraeneus Justin Clemens Alexandrinus c. mention it as a known matter of fact The first of them glories in several places of his works that he had seen Polycarp in his youth and it appears they all suffered Martyrdom
in imitation of those Primitive Christians That the Apostles deceived Polycarp and Clemens and the rest of their Disciples is a thing much less to be suspected because they themselves stuck not to boast of their being able to work miracles heal all kind of diseases speak all sorts of languages and impart to others those gifts they called the gifts of the Holy Ghost And it is impossible that Clemens Polycarp c. should have suffered themselves to be deceived in this respect especially to â—uch a degree as to suffer Death for the testimony of a Religion founded on so many impostures But whence appears it that the Apostles boasted of a power to work miracles and impart the gifts of the Holy Ghost It appears not only from their own Epistles which can't be forged as we shall prove by and by but also from the writings of the Doctors of the Primitive Church and in fine 't is manifest of it self For as we can't deny that there was such a man as Alexander the Great without overthrowing the common Opinion that he subverted the Empire of Darius and the Macedonians subdued all Asia under his conduct because one matter of fact depends upon the other so we cannot acknowledge the Divinity of the Christian Religion without believing the Miracles of Jesus Christ his Resurrection his pouring out the Holy Ghost on the Apostles and the miraculous Gifts imparted to those that believed For take away these matters of fact and what would become of the Christian Religion Wherein would the Divinity of it consist Wherein would lie the Strength Promises and Essentials of it Since therefore Clemens and Polycarp suffered Martyrdom for the truth of Christian Religion it follows also that they died in defence of the truth of those matters of fact we just now mentioned So that those matters of fact being very palpable and it being very easy for Clemens and Polycarp who lived and conversed with the Apostles to know certainly whether they really had the pretended gifts of divers tongues of healing all sorts of diseases and of communicating these extraordinary gifts to others so as to render them frequent in the Church I do not see how its possible to call the truth of them in question The soul of man however fruitfull in imaginations can hardly raise here a doubt of a moment's continuance For should I fancy they may have given me a false Relation of the Martyrdom of Clemens of Polycarp and the successors of the Apostles this thought soon vanishes when I consider the number quality and unanimous consent of the Witnesses of this matter of fact For can we think that the Sucessours of Clemens and Polycarp would have suffered a real Martyrdom in imitation of one that was but imaginary Would they so couragiously have imitated a fictitious Martyrdom of their own invention And should I imagin Clemens and Polycarp were imposed on by the Apostles I am soon convinced of the contrary since those matters of fact which we have now before us are matters of Experience so evident in themselves that we cannot be mistaken in them Lastly should I doubt whether the Apostles endeavoured to perswade men of the truth of them I am made to understand that there can be no Christianity without these matters of fact and that the Apostles could never have established the Christian Religion unless they had first perswaded men of the truth of them This will be farther seen by what we shall offer in the following chapters In the mean while may we not know what the profess'd Enemies of Christianity said of them For it seems unjust to hearken to that only which the Christians alledge in defence of their own cause This is no hard matter We find Porphirius Celsus and Julian surnamed the Apostate maintaining that Jesus Christ did no miracles at all but by a magick power and that it was a fantom which appeared to the Disciples instead of Jesus Christ risen again from the dead Whereupon I think it necessary to make some few Reflections It is very remarkable that those who were far more exasperated against the Christians than the Incredulous of these imes are and who living in a time nearest to that â—f the Apostles might have easily known the truth â—r falshood of those matters of fact I say 't is remarkable that those men durst not in the least call â—ny of them in question but were forced to have â—ecourse to Ghosts and a Magick power to avoid â—eing perplexed with them 'T is also worth our while to observe that Celsus himself who ever before questioned Magicians was at length forced to aâ—cribe the miracles of Jesus Christ to a Magick power â—s Origen himself upbraids him in some part of his works Thus it immediately appears that the Primitive Christians were men of very good sense and very honest and sincere principles too that part of them lived in a time so very near that of the Apostles in whose days all those things came to pass that they must necessarily have known the truth of them that in the mean time they suffered Death to seal the truth of a Religion founded upon all those matters of fact and lastly that their Enemies themselves durst not presume entirely to call any of them in question But I will not yield my self conquered for all that but rather raise my self a little higher and stop for a while at the latter end of the first Century which is the time wherein St. John the last of the Apostles was yet living and wherein Clemens and Polycarp whom we just now mentioned flourish'd and this shall be our fixed point in the following Chapters CHAP. IV. Where we yet further prove the Truth of the Christian Religion by several undeniable matters of fact 'T Is an hundred years since there were no Christians at all in the World and now there are some in all parts of it at Rome and at Antioch at Alexandria at Corinth at Ephesus in Spain and among the Gauls c. I confess I am some what surprised to see this progress yet not so much as to be convinced of the truth of Christian Religion because Mahomet's Religion was established in a lesser time We must then go yet farther and consider that the Christian Faith was not only destitute of the assistance of Policy and Authority but received notwithstanding the continual oppositions of both 'T is observable that other Religions as that of the Heathens and Turks were established in the World by some singular and extraordinary prosperity and by the policy of persons raised to dignities and grandeur but Christianity in a small time became Master of mens hearts and understanding tho it was attended with nothing but shame and Misery tho all the powers of the World strove to stifle it in its very birth and for that purpose invented such tortures and punishments as no other interest could have made men devise We might indeed question the sufferings of the Christians
Holy Ghost But perhaps 't is a question whether there was ever any Christian Church founded at Jerusalem If so then must the Ancient Doctors of the Church who lived in different times and in different places have conspired together to deceive us in this respect and the Jews and Heathens and all other profess'd Enemies of our Religion as well Ancient as Modern who never contested the truth of this matter of fact must utterly have lost their Reason In a word supposing the Book of Acts composed long after the destruction of Jerusalem that is when there could be no longer any flourishing Church in that City yet there is no point gained For it is true still that the Apostles set down the matter of fact we speak of and that their Epistles are filled with such things as visibly relate to it I shall not here further add that the Book of Acts mentions nothing of the Death of the Apostles which manifestly shews that it was composed during their lives and consequently in a time wherein the Church of Jerusalem flourish'd nor that it mentions nothing of the last destruction of Jerusalem no not so much as any of the signs or presages of it which induces us to believe that that Book was composed some time before that great Event it being very probable that the Author who composed it meerly for the Glory of the Apostles and of the Christian Religion as the Incredulous undoubtedly imagin would never have failed to have inserted in it the History of all those dreadful Misfortunes which fell upon the Jews and which the Christians look upon as the effect of their rejecting the Messias But since my design is not to leave the Reader the least shadow of a doubt I promise to prove by and by that the Apostles both received and imparted many miraculous gifts In the mean while till the Method I have prescribed to my self gives me leave to enter upon that subject I think it fit to make some few Reflexions concerning the success of the Apostles's preaching which is that essential head to which all other matters contained in the Book of Acts relate CHAP. X. Wherein we shall take into Consideration what success the Preaching of the Apostles had THis matter of fact is related with very remarkable Circumstannces As I. That those men who first preached the Gospel were Fishermen that is gross and ignorant people of no appearance or authority in the world II. That those men went about preaching that they had seen Jesus Christ risen from the Dead and ascending into Heaven and that they had long before been Eye-Witnesses to his Miracles III. That they offended by their preaching all the Powers of the World and exposed their persons to an infinite number of Dangers and Misfortunes IV. That they suffered them with Patience or rather with Joy V. That the success of their preaching was so swift and sudden as is almost inconceivable In all this St. Luke has told us nothing but what our own Reason would tell us We may conclude that they were men of no extraordinary birth or credit in the World that first preached the Gospel since no body has ever said any thing to the contrary 'T is manifest that those men ought to have testified that they had seen Jesus Christ work many miracles seen him risen from the Dead and ascending into Heaven because they would never have converted so many Nations as they did had they only said they knew all those things by hear say and besides that the Epistles of the Apostles inform us that that was the subject of their preaching There is no doubt but all the Powers of the World persecuted these men for as much as Policy is an Enemy to all new Sects and the People themselves are always Jealous of their Religion It cannot be doubted neither but that the Apostles very couragiously suffered the effects of that persecution because had they recanted or drawn back for fear of punishments their design would have miscarried in its very beginning Lastly who can deny but that the success of their preaching was very swift and sudden in as much as in a short time there were several Churches established in all parts of the known World This is a matter of fact which was never contested And therefore Reason as well as St. Luke tells us all these things The Book of Acts informs us of the Truth of them and the Nature of things will not suffer us to doubt but that they were so which utterly destroys the suspicion we might entertain that they were all forg'd or invented In the mean time I cannot consider all these matters of fact nor unite them together and observe the proportion they have one with another without presently believing the Truth of that Religion which they so plainly Prove and Establish CHAP. XI Wherein we shall examin the matters contained in the Epistles of the Apostles THo' the Ancients had not unanimously received the Epistles of St. Paul tho' Clemens Polycarp and Barnabas had made no mention of the second Epistle of St. Peter yet it would be sufficient to observe that they were written to some Churches that is to whole Societies who for a long while preserved the Originals of them to assure us that they were not forg'd 'T is then our concern to see whether we can find therein any Characters of the Divinity of our Religion We cannot Read St. Paul's Epistles without observing therein I. The Piety and Charity of that Apostle II. His Impartiality and Contempt of the advantages of the World III. His Courage in enduring afflictions which instead of disheartning rather overjoy'd him IV. A continual repetition of the Testimony which the Apostles bore of the Truth of the Resurrection of the Lord. V. Such things which manifestly denote that St. Paul had received the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost and that those that then believed very frequently received them The Piety of that Apostle so variously discovers it self in his Writings that we cannot think it dissembled without offering Violence to our Understanding For tho' a man should constrain himself upon some occasions yet is it possible he should after the very same manner during a great part of his life in all his Actions in all his Words in his manner of telling of things which oftener discovers the bottom of the heart than the things he speaks of I know very well Hypocrisy covers it self with the external shew of Vertue but really there is yet something which I can't express a simple and natural air in true vertue which is not to be met with in Hypocrisy or rather Hypocrisy is neither so subtle nor clear sighted but that it discovers it self on one side or other nay often it lets drop a wordwhich unmasques it to the eye of the World However I am willing the Epistles of St. Paul should be strictly examin'd to see whether any thing but what is very natural and sincere can be found
in them Could there proceed from the Malice and Perfidiousness of a man who had so lately accused his Nation of a Crime he knew to be utterly false so many Exhortations to fear God so strong so moving in themselves and so often repeated that they wholly take up the Writings of this Apostle Could his humility proceed from thence whereby he refers every thing to God as to the Center of all good things so sincerely telling us What hast thou that thou didst not receive And if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it 1 Cor. 4. 7. We are yours you are Christs and Christ is God's 1 Cor. 3. 23. Could his hatred too for vice arise from thence which upon all occasions he testifys and expresses after so strong and lively a manner His Charity appears no less in his passionate concern for the sanctification of his Brethren All his Epistles are a continued serious of tender or moving Exhortations or rather ardent requests he makes them to love one another He desires they should live soberly justly and religiously He addresses himself both to Servants and Masters to Poor and Rich to Parents and Children to Young men and Old men Having no prejudice nor hatred for any one he pours out himself in thanksgivings and blessings for all men he speaks to them after a very tender and moving manner He calls them his little Children his Beloved his Bowels his Glory and his Crown And what was his design in all this only to inspire them with the love of God and their Neighbour How does he extol the excellence of Charity Tho' I speak says he with the tongues of men and of Angels and have no Charity I am become as sounding brass or tinkling Cymbal and tho' I bestow all my Goods to feed the Poor and tho' I give my body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing Charity suffereth long and is kind Charity envieth not Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up does not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no Evil rejoyceth not in Iniquity but rejoyceth in the Truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things 1 Cor. 13. 1 3 4 5 6 7. Such is the Idea St. Paul had of Charity in which appears the force of Reason and of true Vertue without the fantastical weakness of superstition he prefers Charity to miraculous gifts and therein appears the spirit of true Religion This consideration of the Character and Vertue of this Apostle is so much the more considerable that it forces us in despight of our selves to assertâ— one of these two things either that St. Paul was a wicked man and a notorious Impostor or else that he had heard the voice of Jesus Chrict in the way to Damascus that he had received the Holy Ghost and was truely the Apostle of Christ So that whosoever proves that St. Paul was no wicked person does even thereby prove the Divinity of Christian Religion I desire therefore the Reader throughly to consider the style of his Epistles and examine them from the beginning to the end to discover the true Genius and Character of them What is it this Apostle desires of God that those whom he speaks to might live good lives and that God might be glorified by their works What does he complain of Vice What is it he chiefly praises Vertue By what motive does he act or speak as he does By quite another motive than that of self interest St. Luke had already told us in the Book of Acts that he work'd for his Living and that his Employment was to make Tents Whereupon we shall make these two observations I. That St. Paul having been a Pharisee bred up at the feet of Gamaliel would have thought it beneath him to follow so vile a profession had he been worldly minded or ambitious Secondly that this Apostle resolved to work with his own hands for his Living in a time which other people would have greedily embraced to acquire wealth For what could have been refused to those men who opened to mankind the direct way way to Heaven and gave them certain hopes of Eternal Salvation For it cannot be denied but that was the opinion of the Primitive Christians with regard to the Apostles But if St. Luke should be thought to have imposed upon us in the Relation of this Matter 't is but hearing what St. Paul himself says of it who certainly would not have undertook to perswade those people of it against their own proper knowledge Behold says he to the Corinthians the third time I am ready to come to you and I will not be burdensome to you for I seek not yours but you For the Children ought not to lay up for the Parents but the Parents for the Children 2 Cor. 12. 14. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you c. and then have I caught you with guile And in another place Have I committed an offence in abasing my self that you might be exalted because I have preached to you the Gospel of God freely 2 Cor. 11. 7. St. Paul would never have spoken to them after this manner had he preach'd only out of self interest according to the Custom of those who carrying a worldly mind along with them into the Sanctuary are meer huchsters of Religion and make a Trade of the most sacred and sublime Mysteries of Christianity But supposing St. Paul acted not by a principle of self interest which is generaly the center of other mens Actions who will assure us that he owed not his Virtues to Pride which is another nice kind of Interest to which some men direct all their Actions I am very well perswaded that men may out of a capricious fancy ascribe the best Actions to Pride and give the name of Hypocrisy to the most sincere Vertue For what can put a stop to the continual rovings of a Soul that endeavours only to raise doubts and scruples But then I also affirm that there are such visible marks in the conduct and actions of St. Paul as manifestly evince in spight of Incredulity that his Vertue was solid and his self denial â—incere But this I hope will more plainly appear by the following reflexions We need but a very indifferent Knowledge of mens hearts and inclinations to know that as there are two different states into which men may fall so likewise there are two different sorts of Passions which then arise in the soul Prosperity is the cause of pride with all the other Vices that accompany it Poverty and Misery that of Covetousness with all that is consequent upon it Not but that Covetousness is found sometimes even in Prosperity as well as Pride in the midst of Misery but that is not my meaning I only would say that Prosperity is as it were the Kingdom of Pride and Poverty the Kingdom of Avarice because a man that is
uncircumcision but a new Creature Great indeed was his Faith for he would not subscribe to their Maxims who constrained the faithful to be Circumcised tho he might have thereby avoided a sharp Persecution But he shews us that the Circumcision of the Heart only was acceptable to God that none but the New Creature could be for the future agreeable to him A Circumcision indeed infinitely more painful than the first and a New Creature established upon the Ruins of the World the pleasures of which are so dear to us Certainly it is impossible this Doctrine so spiritual so holy and so necessary in it self should have proceeded only from Flesh and Blood Epistle to the Ephesians Chap. III. 17 18 19. That ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth all Knowledge c. Had the Apostles been such Deceivers as the Incredulous would have them to be what mean those transports of admiration as often as they reflect on the mercy of God which every Page of this Book is full of Were they then deceived No surely because they could not be imposed upon in such certain matters of fact Had they then a mind to deceive other people That could not be neither because their Writings seem to be designed only to induce Men to fear God Chap IV. 24 25. And that ye put on the New man which after God is created in Righteousness and true holiness Wherefore putting away lying speak every Man truth with his neighbour c. A strange and surprising Discourse indeed but which would have been much more astonishing should it have been uttered by the mouth of an Impostor Epistle to the Philippians Chap. I. 29. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake The Stoicks who had so much distinguished and raised themselves above all other Men by their sublime Morality had ever imagined that the Wise man might very well preserve a tranquil and sedate Mind in the midst of his Afflictions and they were so much intoxicated with Pride that they were altogether insensible of any Pain or Torment But the Disciples of Christ went yet higher They looked upon the most cruel Sufferings as upon so many Benefits and so many causes of Joy and Peace and Ineffable Consolation and Comfort They cried out I rejoyce in my sufferings c. I delight in Stripes in Afflictions c. Nay more than this they returned Thanks to God for having been thought worthy to suffer for his Name 's sake Their Afflictions gave rise to their Gratitude And all this because they were supported by a Divine hand and were most certain to obtain an everlasting Reward A strange thing indeed that this Certainty only should be absolutely requisite to demonstrate the truth of Religion The Apostles could never have entertained any false hopes of reward because their hopes were grounded on what they had seen and on the miraculous Gifts of God they had both received and often imparted to others We can't then doubt but that they had the hopes of a future Reward in prospect unless we will be wilfully Blind and Ignorant So blind must the Incredulous be who wilfully shut their Eyes and refuse to be convinced of so evident a Truth First Epistle to the Thessalonians Chap. I. 4. For our Gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost c. By these words it appears that the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost continually testified of the Gospel Chap. III. 4. For verily when we were with you we told you before that we should suffer tribulation even as â—t came to pass and ye know The Disciples of Christ had been prepared by him and had prepared themselves nay prepared their Successors also to suffer patiently according to the Words of this Apostle who says in another place 2 Tim. 3. 12. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution T was therefore in cold Blood with their own choice and free deliberation they suffered such Torments Chap. V. 27. I charge you by the Lord that this Epistle be read unto all the holy brethren St. Paul feared not in the least his being contradicted or convinced of any Falsity he had advanced concerning his Afflictions and the Gifts of the Holy Ghost And therefore he commanded that his Epistles should be read to all the holy Brethren First Epistle to Timothy Chap. III. 16. And without controversy great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into glory This mystery can't be invented only by Humane understanding for several Reasons 1. Because it is so great and sublime that Men tho never so learned and quick sighted in other things yet would never have been able to find it out of themselves barely by the Scrutinies of their Reason 2. Because they were only poor Fishermen that preached it 3. Because this so sublime and magnificent Object proceeds if I may so speak from the Death and Sufferings of a Man who was condemned and punished with the most rigorous Punishments that could be thought of For t was only after the Passion of Christ that the Disciples went about preaching every where the wonderful works of God 4. And lastly because the contemplation of it depends upon Experience it self and altho this mystery appears at first view infinitely exalted above the reach of our capacity yet it must have been both seen and touched by the Disciples They certainly saw Christ and beheld his glory as the Glory of the only Son of God full of Grace and Truth They saw with their Eyes that Flesh in which corporeally dwelt an intire fulness of the glorious Godhead They were fully convinced of the extraordinary excellence of his Mysteries and the perfection of his Holiness They themselves received the Gifts of that same Spirit in which God himself was justified They saw Angels ascending and descending to minister unto him They preached it themselves to the Gentiles and so compelled the World to believe in him by their Patience and Preaching which was continually attended with the Demonstration of that Spirit and the Evidence of those Miracles performed by them in the Name of Jesus Lastly he ascended into Heaven in their sight So that these are all sure and certain proofsof the Truth of that great Mystery which can't in the least be suspected Second Epistle to Timothy Chap. III. 15 16. And that from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures c. All Scripture is given by inspiration There is no maintaining false Religions in the World but by the help of Ignorance Negligence and a blind Submission But the Christian Religion can't be suspected of any
such defects because it is wholly founded upon Instruction and Knowledge Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal Life John 5. 39. Chap. IV. 7 8 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness St. Paul was drawing nigh toward his latter end and the words of a dying Man are always to be regarded Whence then comes that chearful Joy the Apostle so naturally expresses in this occasion His Hopes had they been of this World must have been soon buried with him in his Grave and his Happiness too at an end Whence then derived he that great Confidence which he seems to have had Was it from the inward sense of a guilty Conscience which reproach'd him for having betray'd the Synagogue blemished his Country Men deceived Mankind testified of a Seducer and forg'd such fictitious Visions by the most signal Imposture that ever was Let any one believe it if he can First Epistle of St. Peter Chap. I. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively Hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead The Mind of those Writers was so full of the Salvation that was revealed to them that they were never weary of returning thanks to God for it Chap. II. 17 18 19 20. Honour all men Love the brotherhood Fear God Honour the King Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward c. For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently But if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God c. It is a strange thing we should be desired to own that a mutual Agreement of Malice and Falshood which really is a wonderful Agreement of Piety Charity Obedience and Righteousness Paul expressed himself like Peter and Peter spoke like Paul They both acted and suffered alike nay they bore the very same Testimony being endowed with the same Patience practising the very same Virtues and discovering one and the same Wisdom in all their words Now what have we any reason to suspect in all this Second Epistle of St. Peter Chap. I. 16 17 18. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were Eye-witnesses of his Majesty For he received from God the Father Honour and Glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And this voice which came from Heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy Mount c. This is a Witness who spoke of what he had seen who suffered Death in defence of the Truth of his Testimony who saw it not alone for several others had seen the same thing who spoke not out of any principle of Interest or concealed what he knew through any fear or apprehension of Death and who for all that did his utmost endeavours to sanctifie Mankind and bestowed all his Time his Labour and his Life in advancing such an extraordinary work which is so little to be suspected And if so what Man is there that can reasonably mistrust him First Epistle of St. John Chap. I. 1 3. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of Life declare we unto you c. If you should doubt whether the Apostles did really go about testifying every where that they had seen with their Eyes both the Miracles and Resurrection of Christ 't is but learning it from their Epistles and their own words too Chap. II. 1. My little Children these things write I unto you that ye sin not But what was it to him whether Men sinned or not Did ever the design of sanctifying Mankind and contributing to their Salvation at the cost of ones Blood ones Liberty ones Life enter before into any Man's Heart but theirs These and the like Reflexions are of themselves sufficient to give the Reader a relish of those Truths and incite him to make some of his own as shall more effectually instruct and convince him For my part I have made several which perhaps satisfy me better than they would any body else And no question but he will also make several of his own that will convince him far better than those of another In the mean while let us pass on to the consideration of the Substance of that Religion which Christ himself did bring into the World For after having considered the outside t is very necessary to look into the inward part of the Building SECTION IV. Wherein we shall prove the Truth of the Christian Religion by the Consideration of it's Nature and Properties Several Portraitures in which it may be considered HItherto we have insisted as it were upon the Shell and Bark of Religion we have examined the proofs taken from matters of fact being the first that offered themselves to our mind It seems therefore now Expedient we should discover as it were the Substance and Spirit of Christianity and so proceed to those other proofs drawn from the Nature of it and that by shewing the truth of it by it's Beauties and proper Excellencies But because this is too copious a Subject for us who study Brevity we shall endeavour to reduce what we have to say into as small a Compass as we can and since we cannot allow our Reflexions their due and proper Extent to give at least some Plan or Draught of the same as shall supply that defect And tho the Christian Religion may be considered under several different Faces because in this respect 't is like unto its Object which has no Bounds to confine it's Extent yet methinks we may give an Idea just and adequate enough to our present design by considering it in eleven different Draughts or Portraitures I. In the Multitude of Testimonies given in favour of it which we shall touch upon cursorily because we have already partly examined them all II. In its essential opposition to all false Religions that ever were III. In it's Effects which can only justly be referred to a Divine and Supernatural Cause IV. In the Purity of its end V. In it's Suitableness to the Heart of Man which it undertakes to reform VI. In the Relation it has to the Glory of God which it should advance VII In it's Morality VIII In it's Mysteries IX In the conformity of it's Mysteries to the light of Reason X. In that exact proportion it bears to the Jewish Religion XI And lastly in that proportion it bears to Natural Religion I hope these Portraitures will like so many
degrees of Light wonderfully illuminate the Minds of the incredulous and discover to them the truth and certainty of the Christian Religion by the sublimity and excellencies of it I. Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is considered in the multitude of Testimonies given in favour of it THough Testimonies be somewhat foreign and exterior to the Christian Religion and therefore may seem improper to discover the Perfection of it Yet it will appear they do discover it if we but carefully unite them together and so consider well their joynt union and agreement We can't but have a very great Idea of a Religion which the Wisdom of God has been pleas'd to confirm unto us by Nine several Testimonies each whereof would have been singly sufficient to discover the Truth of it The first is that of the Prophets who all testified of Jesus Christ by a long and continued series of Prophecies some far plainer than the rest for some of the Prophets saw almost as clear in the Night as I may so speak of shadows and figurative Types as we can in the Day of their exact accomplishment as has been already shewn The second is that of John the Baptist so much the more certain because it was foretold in the old Testament and Christ and his Disciples continually refer'd the Jews to that Testimony so much the more considerable because we can't suspect John the Baptist of having been guilty of any base complacency towards the Jews or mean designs for his own Interest The Wisdom of God having been pleas'd to set him above such Suspicions by the Austerity of his Manners and his unusual way of living set down in the Gospel with such a strange and particular Description The third is that of the Apostles those witnesses whose Constancy was tried by the severest Punishments inflicted upon them yet they boldly resisted the Violence offered them by so many Torments they endur'd Torments sufficient to extort even from the greatest Malefactors a confession of their Crimes Yet here is the difference between Them and common Offenders that the latter are compell'd unwillingly to undergo the Torture but the Disciples of our Lord rejoyc'd in being thought worthy to suffer Malefactors indeed know certainly they shall be executed if they confess the Truth but the Disciples of Jesus would have had much more reason to fear Death had they disguised the Truth by any close Deceit The fourth Testimony is that of the three Persons which bare record in Heaven the Father when he declared in Jordan that Jesus Christ was his well beloved Son in whom he was well pleased and in another place I have glorified him and will glorifie him again The Son when he testified of himself by his Miracles And the Holy Ghost when he confirmed the Testimony of the Son by the Effusion of his extraordinary and miraculous Gifts upon the Disciples The fifth is that of the Conscience of Men which acknowledges freely that the Christian Religion can remove our Fears comfort us in our Afflictions humble our Minds in the midst of plenty and strengthen them in poverty in a word sanctifie us by delivering us from our sins and so consequently supply all our wants and necessities The sixth is that ev'n of the Enemies of our Religion who have been forced to speak favourably on our side The Jews and Gentiles have testified in our behalf the Wisdom of Providence and the convincing force of Truth having obliged them tacitly to own that Truth against which they had declared themselves such inveterate and implacable Enemies The ancient Jews believed that the famous prophecy Jacob uttered upon his Death-bed The Scepter shall c. was to be understood of the Messias This their own Writings testify and their Talmud acknowledges that that Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief who was to be bruised for our iniquities and from whom they hid their faces as from a Leper was the true Messias Nay they are forced to have recourse to the extravagant Fiction of a double Messias and ev'n by that they pay a kind of homage to the Truth The Samaritans were of Opinion that the Messias was shortly to appear in the World as is evident by the discourse of Christ with the Woman of Samaria And this the Jews were so strongly perswaded of that some of them chose rather to own Herod the Great for the Messias tho an Idumaean and wicked Prince than renounce an Opinion they were prepossess'd with and which was so deeply rooted in their Minds Others led away by the same Opinion cast their Eyes upon one Agrippa descended from Herod who was engaged in the Roman party Others also instigated by the same hopes followed a certain Robber into the Wilderness And the Jews seeing their City just ready to be laid in Ashes imagined that their Messias was just upon manifesting himself Nay the merciless Ring-leaders of those factious Wretches who tore one another in pieces during the devastation of Judea so obstinately sought after one another's Ruin only because they expected to vanquish the Romans and so become the Conquerours of the World that were to fulfil ancient Prophecies Few Ages after they turned to one Barkokebas a villainous Robber only because they thought him the Messias according to their Computation of the years of his coming Josephus a great Man and well versed in the Scriptures imagined as well as others that the Time prefix'd for his coming was accomplished or if he did not really think so himself he took at least an occasion from that Opinion commonly approved of in the East to ingratiate himself with Vespasian Herod the Great himself terrified and amazed by all these Reports made his fearful apprehension remarkable by a deluge of Blood Then did the Jews acknowledge that in the days of the Messias there would be no Government No Magistrates nor any Commonwealth left in Israel But afterwards the necessity of maintaining their Opinion against us made them have recourse to several different Evasions Not many Ages after the coming of Jesus Christ into the World when they found that their Messias did not appear some of them began to say that he had hid himself others that he was come already in the Person of Hezekiah others that his coming was put off by reason of the crying sins of the People nay they went on to that degree of impiety and irreligion as to pronounce them cursed who should calculate the years of the coming of the Messias From all which we see plainly that by these their Confessions and Shifts they in a manner bear witness tho unwillingly and without design to the Christian Faith As for the Heathens besides the authentick Testimony of Pliny the younger concerning the Innocence of the Christians and besides that of Tiberius concerning Jesus Christ whom he would have inserted among the Gods being himself astonished at the surprising Wonders which he had heard of him we all know that there have
been several famous Emperors who were not able to conceal from the World their favourable Opinions of the Christian Religion that some of them had for Inscriptions in their publick Edifices several Maxims of the Gospel that others would have consecrated Churches for the Use of the Christians and lastly that others professed themselves Admirers of the Morality of Christ. But what shall we say of the Jews and Gentiles who not being able to deny Christ's Miracles were forced to refer them some to a Magick Power and others to a certain I know not what mysterious Pronunciation of the word Jehovah So strange a thing it is that ev'n the very Enemies of our Religion should thus testify of it and yet scarce perceive it The seventh Testimony is that of several strange Events which the Wisdom of God so ordered that they firmly establish the Truth of Christianity Of these there are several very remarkable but it shall suffice at present to mention Three only which among the rest deserve a particular Consideration the First is the Destruction of the four Monarchies which had sorely afflicted and harass'd God's People at the end of which the Kingdom of Heaven was immediately to be established the Second the entire Destruction of the Jewish Government and the signal Devastation of the holy Land an Effect of the divine Wrath pour'd out upon that Nation the Third and last the Settlement of the Christian Church or the Calling of the Gentiles attended with so many Circumstances as plainly shew that nothing but the hand of God could perfect so great a Work The Eighth is that Testimony given of Christ by the Revelation of Moses And the Ninth that which is given of him by Natural Religion But of these two Testimonies we shall not speak at present for as much as we design to end this Work with a particular Consideration of them In the mean time 't is plain the Christian Religion must be true because it was confirmed by the Testimony of so many authentick Persons which can't be suspected of Deceit And it would be extravagantly ridiculous to imagine that the Prophets should have so clear an insight into Futurity meerly to countenance and authorize a Fiction that John the Baptist having been at first taken by the Jews for the Messias should renounce the Honour which that Title would have conferred upon him only out of Love and Complaisance to an Impostor that the Apostles and the rest of the Disciples should so readily sacrifice their Estates Reputation Repose and Life it self to a Person they knew to be a false Christ that the Heavens should countenance a Flam and a Lye by working such signal and sensible Miracles that the Heart of Man should have found every thing that can supply it's Wants and Necessities in a meer Cheat that ev'n the Enemies of our Religion should countenance and approve of our false Prejudices that all Events should so exactly coincide with an erroneous Imposture and that the Revelation of Moses and Natural Religion should thus testify so palpable a Fiction To this we may add the Necessity and Importance of the Christian Religion since the Wisdom of God leads us to it by so many different ways as also the admirable Perfection and Transcendency of it since in a manner Heaven and Earth the Time past and present Events ordinary and natural as well as those supernatural and miraculous since the Prophets and Apostles who were altogether unknown to one another have agreed unanimously to reveal it and propose it to us as an Object for it's transcendent excellency worthy of our greatest Admiration II Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is opposed to all other Religions ALL these Truths will more evidently appear if we consider the Christian Religion in it's Opposition to all other Religions The Excellency of the Christian Religion consists in that it has Advantages which other Religions have not and yet none of their Faults I say no other Religion has Advantages equal to those of the Christian Religion for no other can boast of it's having been confirmed by ancient Prophecies Ev'n Mahomet thought it better to oblige Men to call the Scripture in question than do derive any Arguments from it which might serve to confirm his Mission as appears by his not boasting that he had been preceeded by any Forerunner who made his paths streight There are indeed several Religions which perhaps may have had their Martyrs But what sort of Martyrs superstitious Men who blindly exposed themselves to Death without knowing what they did like those Barbarians who prostrated themselves by thousands before their Idol that their Colossus might crush them in pieces with it's Wheels as it passed along But no Religion besides the Christian was ever confirmed by the Blood of an infinite number of sensible understanding Martyrs who voluntarily suffered Death in Defence of what they had seen who from vitious and profligate Persons became Saints upon the Confidence they had in their Master and who at length being dispersed in all places of the World by their Death gain'd Proselytes and making their Blood the Seed of the Church chearfully suffered Martyrdom having certain Assurance of being crowned after their Death A certain Assurance which they derived from what they themselves had formerly seen We find other Religions which pretend to be confirmed and authorized by several Signs and extraordinary Events from Heaven The Romans used to attribute to their Religion all the Advantages they got over other Nations And the Mahumetans pretend that the great Successes God was pleased to give their Prophet were so many certain and undeniable Marks of the Truth of their Religion But to pretend that temporal Prosperity is a certain Character of a true Religion or Adversity that of a false one is to suppose as we have already said else where that the most profligate Wretches provided they are happy in this World are the greatest Favourites of God But certainly 't is not Prosperity or Adversity simply considered but Prosperity or Adversity as foretold by God or his Prophets that is a certain Character of true Religion And when we affirm that several extraordinary Events bear witness to the Truth of Christianity we mean only those Events which had been foretold by the Prophets as for instance the calling of the Gentiles the Destruction of Jerusalem and the establishment of the Christian Church Finally there may be several Religions that may deceive but none but the Christian Religion that can truly satisfy Mankind There are some Religions grounded upon fabulous Miracles and confirmed by Witnesses easily convinc'd of Imposture but none but the Christian Religion is firmly and solidly establish t upon true Miracles and valid Testimonies It appears then that no Religion in the World has such extraordinary qualifications as the Christian Religion of which it must also be affirmed that it is free from all such Defects as are incident to other Religions We need no deep
search no great sagacity or penetration of Mind to discover this Truth For it is manifest that the Christian Religion is not design'd for the satisfaction of the carnal and worldly Appetites of Men as that of the present Jews who aspire only after temporal Prosperity and worldy Pomps Nor is it a Monstrous medly like that of the Samaritans made up of a ridiculous mixture of the Pagan and Jewish Religion Nor is it impious and cruel like that of the Gnosticks nor has it any of the Faults or extravagant Superstitions of the Pagan Religion But since we have not leisure to oppose it particularly to all the Errors of other Religions we must be contented to shew in this Comparison the advantages the Christian Religion has above all the rest by laying down the following Rules I. Other Religions as being principally of human Invention and Institution were formed by degrees from the different Imaginations of several Persons who successively made such Additions or Alterations as they thought convenient The Greeks for Example added several things to that Religion they received from the Egyptians and the Romans to that they had received from the Greeks Menander sâ—â—ll improved the â—ottish Impieties of Simon Magus and Saturninus and Basilides added to those of Menander And the reason is because Men are never weary of inventing nor the People of believing Novelties But it is not so with the Christian Religion which was wholly deliver'd by Christ is entirely contain'd in every one of the Gospels and ev'n in each Epistle of the Apostles What ever alterations Men have thought fit to make in the Doctrine Christ brought into the World did only corrupt the Purity and Spirituality of it as appears by the great disproportion there is betwixt the Apostolical Doctrine and the ordinary speculations of Men. II. Other Religions durst not shew themselves openly in full light and therefore were veiled over with a mysterious Silence and affected Darkness The Gnosticks chose the Night to cover the Impurity of their abominable Mysteries And the Romans exposed themselves to the satyrical Railery of their Poets 〈◊〉 being so careful to conceal the Worship they paid to their Goddess Bona Julian and Porphyrius set all their Wits to work either to set off the ridiculous and offensive Ceremonies of Paganism or to palliate their Superstition by several various explanations of it as when they so stâ—ffly affirmed that they worshipped one only supreme God tho they acknowledged at the same time other Subordinate Deities depending one upon another and when they endeavour'd to justify the Worship they paid to their Idols by using many subtile and nice Distinctions It is certain there is a Principle of Pride implanted in the Hearts of Men which is the Reason they cannot endure to be accused of entertaining any absurd and extravagant Opinions so that when ever their Passions have made them embrace a Religion which seems not very reasonable they employ all heir Wit to make it at least appear consonant to Reason But the Christian Religion requires no Veil to cover it no mysterious Silence no dark Dissimulation or close Disguise altho it proposes such kinds of Objects to us as are vastly contrary to all our Prejudices and receiv'd Opinions The Apostles freely confess that the Preaching of the Gospel is as it were an apparent Folly but yet they assure us God was resolved to save the World by that seeming Folly They knew that the Death of Christ became a scandal to the Jew and a folly to the Greek yet they publickly declared that they were determined not to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him crucified And how comes it then that they did not in the least mince or endeavour to soften the sense of that seeming Paradox so far were they from concealing it but that they were strongly and fully persuaded of the Truth of that adorable Mystery and that the abundance of their Understanding serv'd only to make them more fully comprehend the efficacy of the Cross III. Should we strictly consider some Religions we should find they were first for the most part institued either by Poets or Philosophers and that they generally spring from the sportive Conceits or witty Speculations of the Understanding which is the reason they were not so universally approved The Philosophers always derided the Religion of the Vulgar and the Vulgar understood nothing of the Religion of the Philosophers Socrates ridiculed the Religion of the Athenians and the Athenians accused Socrates of Impiety and Atheism and condemned him to death The Christian Religion alone is approved of as well by the Philosophers as the vulgar People as neither depending upon the Ignorance of the latter nor proceeding from the Learning of the former It has a divine Efficacy and agreeable Power suitable to all Hearts It is adapted to the Capacity of the most simple and ignorant tho infinitely raised above the Philosophy of the Wise It is sublime without being nicely speculative and simple without being mean in its Sublimity preserving its Clearness and in it's Simplicity preserving it's Dignity In a word there is nothing so great nor so inconsiderable in human Society but what may some way fall under it's consideration and it is equally approved of and admired by all IV. Other Religions brought Men from Spiritual Objects to those that were Corporeal and Earthly The Christian Religion brings them from the Objects of Sense to those of the Vnderstanding We all know that the Heathens when they Deified Men or worship'd a Deity under an human Shape they were so far paying that Deity a Worship due to a Spiritual Nature that their Adoration consisted in several Games Shews and divers Exercises of the Body The Jews and Samaritans by their eager Disputes whether God was to be worshipped in Jerusalem or in Mount Gerazim extinguished Charity the true Spirit of Religion in their too hot defence of the external part of it Nay the Prophets complained formerly that the Jews made 〈…〉 to consist in bowing down their Heads as a â—â—â—rush and putting on Sackcloth and Ashes And the holy Scripture observes that the Priests of Baal were wont to cut themselves with Knives and Lances when they sacrificed to him as if there were no other way to make their God hear their Prayers but by inflicting such Punishments on their own Bodies The modern Jews can't be persuaded that we have been called to the knowledge of the true God tho they find we all profess to put our trust and confidence in him because they perceive not that we use any Corporeal Ceremonies And the Mahumetans more irreligious than superstitious make their Religion and its Happiness depend chiefly on their Senses when they Worship they turn themselves towards Mecha as the Jews did towards Jerusalem and earnestly desire of God that he would gratify their Senses and tho they have a sort of a Religious Respect for the Letters that compose the Name of God and
God but then being willing also to flatter Men's Inclinations to draw them to his side he confusedly mixed with that Idea the carnal and gross Notions the Heathens had of Paradise borrowing from Christianity such Objects as must necessarily mortify our Passions and assuming those from Paganism which serve to flatter our bad Inclinations But the Christian Religion keeps no such Measures either with Policy or Corruption Policy complains that the Doctrine of Christ necessarily softens Men's Courage and that instead of encouraging them to list themselves Soldiers for the welfare and preservation of the State it rather makes them Lambs who can hardly be exasperated against their Enemies whom they must continually pray for and are obliged to love as themselves And as for human Frailty and Corruption it murmurs to see itself impugned by the Christian Religion even in the Dispositions and most secret Recesses of the Soul and that the Veil of Hypocrisy and the pious Pretences and Dissimulations of the Soul under which it thought to lye secure are ineffectual against it VVho then but God can be the Author of a Religion so equally contrary both to the covetous Desires of the mean and the Ambition of the great and so equally averse both to Policy and Corruption X. Other Religions would have God should bear the Image of Man and so necessarily represent the Deity as weak miserable and infected with all manner of Vices as Men are Whereas the Christian Religion teaches us that Man ought to bear the Image of God which is a Motive to induce us to become perfect as we conceive God himself to be holy and perfect That Religion then which restores God his Glory and the Image of God to Man must necessarily be of Divine Authority XI Lastly Other false Religions were the irregular confus'd Productions of the politest and ablest Men of those Times whereas the Christian Religion is a wonderful Composition which seems wholly to proceed from the most Simple and Ignorant sort of People The Heathens have often condemned the extravagant Notions the vulgar People had framed to themselves of the Deity they have blamed the barbarous Cruelty of those Sacrifices which were offered to their Gods in so many places and the impurity of their Mysteries the Falshood of their Oracles and the Vanity and Childishness of their Ceremonies Cicero says in some part of his Works that two Augurs could not look one another in the Face without Laughter And nothing can be more extravagant than the Divinity of the Gnosticks who held that there are Invisible Eternal Spirits who mixing one with the other produc'd others We all know that when Philosophers took upon them to treat of Religion they always exceeded one another in Extravagancies and no one I dare say is still to learn what are those Visions and fabulous Stories with which the Rabbins filled their Traditions the Catalogue of which would be very curious indeed were it not so extreamly long And tho we cannot disown but that the Heathens the Philosophers c. made several wonderful Discoveries in Arts and Sciences Yet it will appear that a long succession of very understanding Men among them were guilty of many repeated Extravagancies in this respect and that by a Prodigy not to be parallelled did not the Christian Religion offer such another by shewing us a Company of Wise and Learned Men in such Ignorant Persons as the Disciples of Jesus Christ Certainly 't is a strange thing to see the most understanding Men become the most stupid and the most ignorant prove the most understanding in matters of Religion 'T is a true sign that God design'd to confound the understanding of the VVise and a proof that their Religion was form'd rather according to the corrupt desires of their Hearts than the dictates of their Understanding For had it been according to their Understanding it would have been more reasonable in proportion to the VVisdom and Knowledge of the Authors of it But because it was made to sooth their corrupt Desires and flatter their Passions it is as extravagant and irregular as those Passions And now let us put together all these Characters and ask the Incredulous whether they can be so extravagant as to ascribe to an Impostor a Religion so perfect in it's Original that nothing could ever since be superadded to it but what necessarily lessens the Perfection of it a Religion that proposes it's Mysteries with such Authority and Boldness that brings Men from Sensual Objects to Spiritual ones that extirpates Corruption restores the Principles of Righteousness and Vprightness that were imprinted on our Souls that teaches us to glorify God without any regard had to Self-love or Pleasure to exalt God and humble our selves to submit our selves to his VVill who is above us all and to raise our selves above those Beings that he has put in subjection under us a Religion that is contrary to Policy and yet more averse to Corruption that astonishes our Reason and yet gives us the peace of a good Conscience and in a word is as delightful to the one as it is comfortable to the other If the Christian Religion then has all these Qualifications as it certainly has we cannot doubt but that it is directly as to these Qualifications opposite to all other Religions And if it be thus opposite to all other Religions it must necessarily have a Principle opposite to them So that as all other Religions peculiarly belong to the Flesh the Christian wholly appertains to the Spirit and as the former are the Products of the corrupt Desires and Imaginations of Men so the latter must have for it's Principle the God of Holiness and Purity III Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is considered in it's Effects WE may distinguish Four several kinds of Societies in which the Efficacy of Religion may be acknowledg'd viz. a Natural a Political a Vicious and a Religious Society And first the Society of Nature is innocent and equitable in it self but it cannot stand out a Trial with Men's irregular and disorder'd Passions Men will indeed be united among themselves as long as they are concern'd only in indifferent matters but Covetousness soon disunites them And therefore there is something wanting to establish and confirm it As for the Society of Corruption and Vice it is essentially sinful and therefore Self-interest and Men's Desires and Passions that form it are either to be remov'd or regulated A Political Society is soon violated by Law-suits Wars and Dissentions all which are occasion'd too by the Passions To support therefore and maintain it such Principles of Fidelity are to be establish'd as shall remain inviolable All which is best done in a Society of Religion the most perfect of them all and as it were a Prop to the rest This Society must be firmly oppos'd to all accidental Revolutions must unite those Persons together whom the distance of Time and Place and the disparity of Interest would otherwise
say that Imposture and Deceit never had such a design or the like success For tho' self-love may have hitherto made use of Deceit and Falshood to effect its own Desires without any regard had to Justice and Charity so indispensably due to our Neighbour it was yet never known nor ever will be that Charity made use of Imposture and Deceit to bring about its Designs for the good of others without the least consideration of its own Interest and Desires And to insist further upon it would be to endeavour to add Light to the Sun and prove a thing that is already as clear as Noon-day V. Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is Considered in it's Suitableness to the Necessities of Mankind WE cannot seriously reflect upon our selves without immediately discovering our own Weakness Misery and Corruption Neither can we look upon the Christian Religion without acknowledging that it was peculiarly designed to free us from those three Imperfections inherent in our Nature As to the Corruption of Man it may be said that it was the only thing in the World that Men most knew and yet at the same time were most ignorant of For the effects of it were palpable and evident to the Senses It was easily believed that Men were very wicked and corrupt when it was so manifestly seen that they committed so many enormous Crimes But Men were still ignorant that there was a general Depravation from Nature in the Heart of every Man that dispos'd him to the strangest Irregularities and it has so happened that Men have made no great Reflexion upon the Nature of that Original Depravation so incident to Mankind that it continually attends them from the Cradle to the Grave They only concern'd themselves about what was external without searching into the bottom of their Hearts and Consciences But the Christian Religion gives us in that respect all necessary light It teaches us that we are corrupt and that that Corruption proceeds from our selves It shews us the extent of it and confirms what the Old Testament taught us That all flesh had corrupted his way Gen. 6. 12. It shews us that that Corruption makes us subject to the Curse of God and that we are by nature the children of wrath Eph. 2. 3. It assures us that that Original Corruption has such power over Man's Heart that it moves all the Faculties of his Soul so that every imagination of the heart of man is only evil continually Gen. 6. 5. Lastly It shews us how impossible it is for Man ever to recover himself of that Malady so inveterate and deeply rooted within him and that by representing him to us as one that is lame that has a Lethargy that is dead in respect of Life Holyness and Justice all which Truths we know too well by Reason and Experience How comes it then that the Christian Religion teacheth us such things as were so generally unknown to Mankind Above all how comes it to shew us so distinctly the true Principle of our own Corruption Who taught the Son of Mary that Self-love is the true Source and Original of all our Irregularities And why does he make Man to become an Enemy to himself Yet the Christian Religion not only teaches us to know Man and thoroughly to search into all his Frailties but also that alone furnishes us with such Remedies as can cure all his Weaknesses and Imperfections For we can't see that any thing else can do it Not Education which is as often evil as good not the Civil Laws whose business is only to regulate outward actions Nor the Law in general which instead of removing rather increases this Original Corruption being in that respect like a Bank which causes the Flood to swell Not the Decorum observed among Men which usually varies according to the diversity of Countries Nor the Respect we commonly have for our selves a thing too thin and metaphysical not to submit to the Sense of Pleasure Not Reason it self which the Passions so easily corrupt Nor the Example of Men who commonly lead a very irregular life Not worldly Honour which regards only external Pomp and Grandeur nor Lastly Philosophy which wants motives sufficient to effect it or if it has any it derives them all from our own Pride Must we then have recourse to the Virtues in fashion in the World we may easily perceive that they are only Pride and Interest differently manag'd according to the various Turns and Affairs since they have no other Motives but what they have from the World The Falshood of Human Virtues is a thing not to be disputed We all know that Self-denial is only a piece of nice delicate Interest Liberality a meer Trade of Pride which values no Gifts provided it have the Glory of being liberal Modesty the Art of concealing our Vanity Civility but an affected Preference of other Men before our selves to conceal how much we really value our selves above all the world Bashfulness but an affected Silence in those things which our Lusts make us think of with pleasure the desire of obliging other Men but a secret desire of obliging our selves by getting them to befriend us another time just as Impatience to acquit our selves of an Obligation is but a Shamefacedness for having been too long beholding to others for some Favour received So that all these Virtues in general are so many Guards Self-love makes use of to prevent our darling and secret Vices from appearing outwardly What Remedy then can be brought for the Irregularities of our corrupt Nature the pernicious Poyson of which secretly insinuates it self ev'n into our Virtuousactions And who can cure such a Distemper when the Remedies applied to it are rather a Disease than a Cure Experience shews us that by effectually resisting one Vice we often confirm and establish another Would you destroy Avarice you must attack it by such Arguments as necessarily flatter Pride And is Pride to be overcome it must be impugn'd by such Motives as encourage Avarice In vain shall you strip Self-love of all it's pleasing Objects and Allurements still it will endeavour to secure it self either by contemning the Goods of Fortune or by shewing it's Moderation in patiently enduring Disgraces Self-love when seated on the Throne makes Tyrants when reduc'd to Want and Poverty it makes Philosophers who despise every thing they can't enjoy It oft indeed changes it's Object but not it's Disposition It 's Pride as I may say out-lives its own Death and not being able to prevent it's perishing it would seem to look pleasantly upon its Downfal and as it were triumph in it's own Ruin Who then can give this Hydra it's Deaths wound when the lopping off one Head serves only to give rise to another It is certain therefore that nothing can remedy this Corruption unless it be more constant than the Principles of Education more infallible than the Rules of Decency and Civility more holy than the Civil Laws which require only an
outward Purity and consult the exterior Good of publick Society more powerful than all worldly Honour which regards only Pomp and Renown more Effectual than all worldly Motives which are unable to subvert those Passions the Vanity of which they flatter more strong than a vain and fruitless Wisdom which pretends to free Man from his Misery by annihilating him and has no other Motives but what proceed from the greatest of our Imperfections our Pride The Christian Religion alone has all these Advantages and consequently is alone suitable to the Necessities of Man It is that which purifies the very Bottom of our Consciences by shewing us that it is to no purpose to cleanse the Outside of the Cup and the Platter It reforms our Principles by making a Temporal Interest give place to an Eternal one and extinguishing the desire of an imaginary by the hopes of a real Immortality It proposes to us an unalterable Rule and a true Model of Perfection to go by It informs us that we have both a Judge and a Witness of all our actions who discovers us tho' in the Dark and cover'd as it were with a Cloud whose piercing Eye sees through all our Pretences and Disguises who forces us to know our selves to combat and mortify our Desires and that whether we are seen or not seen whether the World approves or condemns our Actions God being Essentially independent from all outward Objects and not limited by any exteriour Circumstances And indeed what but such an infinite Deity could have supplied us with such a Remedy so effectual and so suitable to all our Wants and Necessities For Misery and Wretchedness are the portion of our Corruption and he that cannot shake off the latter will certainly always be subject to the two former Nor is it sufficient to say that Man is miserable We may add that he is in some measure the very Center of Misery We see that whilst all other Animals peaceably enjoy those good things Nature has allotted them Men seem to be in some respect mark'd out for Misery by the hand of Divine Justice they are equally dissatisfied as well with what they possess as what they possess not They are terrified with the Idea they have of Death tormented with the consideration of Futurity afflicted that they are unable to fix Time which bears them away with it as it rolls on Miserable for what they know or rather for not knowing more mortified and disappointed in their Desires tormented with Remorses affronted and injured by their Fellow-Creatures and harrass'd by the continual Inquietudes of their Heart In a word they enjoy Peace and Tranquility no longer than they can deceive themselves with a Scene of imaginary Bliss and frame to themselves false Ideas of their present Condition And this desire of imposing thus upon our selves in fancying our Happiness greater than it is makes us vainly imagin we should be less miserable if we were in the condition of those that are far above us But Experience soon undeceives us and shews that the distant Prospect of Honour and Riches gives more pleasure and delight than a nearer possession of them and that the Hope of enjoying them makes us more truly happy than their Fruition which excellently shews us the Emptiness and Insufficiency of all such temporal Advantages Nor do we think it enough to deceive our selves in respect of our Condition but endeavour also to deceive others by making them entertain a vast Idea of our Merit or our Happiness and through a certain Weakness to be pitied we afterwards make use of that Esteem and Respect we have accidentally and unawares extorted from others to impose more effectually upon our selves and enlarge that Chimerical Idea of our own Perfection which Self-love entertains in our Breasts with so much complacency and satisfaction Who then can direct our Minds or clear our Undestanding in this inextricable and continued Maze of Illusions and Errors the false Principles of a false Satisfaction And who can find Remedy for so great a Misery Since barely to bring us acquainted with it would serve only to increase it The Christian Religion then having the Character of performing all this is certainly a Religion truly Divine and is it not strange that it should make Man happy by teaching him how to know Himself and to remove his Misery by shaking off his Ignorance especially when that Ignorance is the cause of his Tranquility and Satisfaction Yet we ought not to wonder at it since Religion gives us a new Prospect of things and much different from what we ever had before It makes us patiently endure Diseases by discovering to us the Cause and Design of them It comforts us in all our sudden and unexpected Disgraces by assuring us that nothing can come to pass without the Dispensation of God's Providence who turns all things to our advantage It humbles us in Prosperity and supports us in Afflictions It eases the Troubles of our Heart by calming our Passions It strengthens us against the Fear of Death by teaching us to consider it as a Passage to a far better Life It comforts our Consciences by it's Promises It continually attends us in all Times in all Places and in all Dangers strengthens us in our Solitude hinders us from falling into deep Melancholy and Sorrow when we consider our selves and what shall be our future State and Lastly comforts and chears us upon our Death-bed where alone it serves us indeed instead of all things when the Charms of Self-love are at an end and the Scene of the World begins for ever to vanish out of our sight And truly we must be wilfully blind if we perceive not the Divine Author of that Religion which at once shews us so well our own Misery and gives us such excellent Remedies for all the Imperfections of our Nature Nor does it less enlighten our Understanding in respect of our Wretchedness another Consequence of our Corruption For is not Man strangely wretched and contemptible when in his own natural State he neither knows what he himself is nor what he should be but is continually taken up with Concerns unworthy his Nature full of Projects and Notions but of a Moment's concern unable to bear long the consideration of himself and incapable of living without the help of Others Yet to speak the Truth it must be confess'd that there are such Sentiments implanted in Man that plainly discover some Greatness in him even through his Weakness and Vnworthiness His Mind indeed is often taken up with the meanest Objects yet can't be satisfied with the consideration of the greatest He cannot subsist without other Men's help yet endeavours to be esteem'd by all desiring to diffuse himself every where by a sort of Immensity which he derives only from the Author of his Being He is buried as it were in the Cares of this Life yet since he finds every thing in it disproportionable to his Nature his Thoughts aspire to Eternity and
satisfies all the Desires of our Hearts In a word it is the Christian Religion that sanctifies us exalts us and compleats all our Wishes and tho Men and Angels should jointly endeavour to contrive a more excellent one and more suitable to our Wants and Necessities than this 't is certain they could never accomplish their Design VI Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is consider'd in the Relation it bears to the Glory of God IT is with the Deity as with the Sun which being bright in it self diffuses abroad it's Glory by it's Beams and imprints upon the Clouds or Waters an imperfect Image of it self which Image tho it wants the full Splendor of it's Original is yet pure agreeable and adorn'd with sufficient Brightness and Majesty The Deity has an essential Glory consisting in it's supereminent Virtues and infinite Perfections to which nothing can be superadded and the Brightness of it is more than Man can bear This Glory streaming from the eternal Author of All things diffuses it self abroad in all his Works and forms out of the bright Efflux of those Beams which strike by reflexion upon us and are united into the Heart of Man an Image of that refulgent and immortal Sun which Image tho it has not all it 's full perfect and dazling Splendor is yet pure bright lively and transcendent And this Glory is what we call the Christian Religion easily prov'd to be so in that it refers it self solely to the Glory of God and is as it were a lively Image and Transcript of His Perfection and Our Duty This Religion is alone capable of undeceiving Man by removing those false Notions they had so long entertain'd of the Deity This alone discovers the true Nature of God removes all Symbols Types Shadows material and sensible Appearances under which he was Worship'd all which were more proper to disguise than discover the true Nature of the Deity It gives us some insight into that Nature by assuring us that God is invisible and removes him from our Senses to make him the Object of our Vnderstanding 'T is this Religion alone that discovers that Eternal Counsel of God so full of Mercy and Consolation to us that he sent his Son into the World that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life 'T is this alone that glorifies God in his Attributes and shews distinctly their infinite Perfection By this alone we are taught that God governs all things by his Providence that he makes Evil it self instrâ—mental to our Good that by his Goodness he supplies all our Necessities that our Sins being inconsistent with his Truth and Justice he cannot consequently bear with them and yet that his Mercy and Compassion is without Bounds It teaches us not only that we are bound to Worship God and serve him but assures us also that this was the End of our Creation It teaches us to ask of him above all things the advancement of his own Glory and to begin our Petitions with this Form Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done It requires of us that we should glorify him not only with our Lips or barely by our spiritual Songs but with all our Thoughts Words and Works It shews us that there is no Creature but what is under his Providence no Sin but what may fall under his Justice no Sinner but what may experience his Mercy no motion or inclination to â—â—â—ty but what ought to be attributed to the Efficacy of his Grace nor no unlawful Action but what will one day fall under his Judgment It discovers to us such Miracles as glorify his infinite Power such Events as clearly manifest the Wonders of his Providence such Benefits as evince his Goodness and Mercy and it allows all his Divine Attributes a thing before unknown to Man their just Extent that is an Extent without Limits Now from whence can proceed those Ideas we have of the Eternity of God of his Immensity Omnipotence his infinite Knowledge and Immutability c. but from this Divine Religion No other Religion could at once elevate both God and Man It shews us how admirably Man is united to God and God to Man It alone induces us to submit our Will to God to acquiesce without any murmuring to the Decrees of his Providence and to direct all our Desires and Affections to him as our supream Good Men indeed heretofore endeavour'd to honour their Deities by Offering Beasts as a Sacrifice But was it ever known before that they were to glorify God by the Sacrifice of themselves And what other Religion but this could incite Men to Offer such a Sacrifice in which there seems to be so much Pain and Reluctance Certainly unless we wilfully blind our Selves 't is a thing incredible that we should not perceive that the Christian Religion is as it were a pure and spiritual Communion between the Perfections and Attributes of God which make Man sensible of their effects and the inward sense of Man's Heart which glorifies God Neither Flesh and Blood Neither the World Nature or Education were forcible enough to produce so great and sublime an Effect and this can be the Work of none but him who perfectly knew the agreement of all things and was certain that our Hearts were wholly made for the Glory of God and that the Sentiments of his Glory were to be imprinted in our Hearts only by the help of Religion VII Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is considered in its Morality WEre we never so little acquainted with what passes within us we should not only find that the two principal Faculties of our Soul the Sensitive and Intellectual Apetite by consent alternately deceive one another but we should also perceive that it is almost impossible to undertake to rectify the one without increasing the Disorders of the other If by the Knowledge of those things we were before ignorant of we remove the Darkness of our Understanding we usually then grow proud of our Learning And if we satisfy our Desires by soothing our Passions we often cherish the most dangerous Principles of Errour and Prejudice that obscure the Light of the Understanding And 't is a Truth but too well experienced that the Knowledge which enlightens the Understanding often corrupts the Heart and a Sin indulg'd in which satisfies the Heart corrupts the Understanding And this is the cause of the ill Success those Men have met with who endeavour'd to regulate the Desires of Man For some observ'd not the Dictates of Right Reason in being too indulgent to their Passions as the Epicureans who making Pleasure the only End of Man debase him to a Brute to render him more happy Others were puff'd up with a kind of Spiritual Pride in ascribing the knowledge of too many things to their Reason such were the Stoicks who forgot that they were Men because they had
such a deep penetration of Mind and attempted to exalt Man above himself by infatuating him with the Conceits of his own Wisdom But God who knows best what Remedies are most proper for us has given us a Religion which satisfies the Heart without corrupting the Vnderstanding and enlarges the Vnderstanding without corrupting the Heart and that because it satisfies and yet mortifies it enlightens and yet confounds the Understanding If to the Understanding several great and sublime Truths are revealed it has not therefore any pretence to exalt it self because it knows that Knowledge to be above its Capacity and ows it only to Revelation If the Heart finds the Objects of Religion answerable to it's infinite Desires it has no reason to be puffed up by them because those Objects destroy its darling Passions and vitious Inclinations So that the only means to enlighten and at the same time humble our Understanding was to intermix some Obscurity with the Light of Revelation and the only way to satisfy the Heart and prevent its being puffed up was to qualify some sorrowful and mortifying Duties with the extraordinary Promises of the Gospel Thus the Severity of Christian Morality and the Obscurity of its Mysteries are two different means which God has made use of to enlighten the Understanding without puffing up the Heart and to satisfy the Desires of the Heart without flatering those Passions which corrupt the Understanding Which manifestly shews that the Christian Religion has not only the Divine Stamp upon it since it contains the true manner of reforming and regulating the Desires of Mans Heart but also that the Severity of the Christian Morality and the Difficulty of its Mysteries which shock the Incredulous most in the Principles of Christianity were purposely made use of by God in his eternal Wisdom as the most proper Means to sanctify Mankind which is the grand Design of the Christian Religion We have then here the Two most essential and most important parts of our Religion Its Morality and Mysteries The latter are necessary in respect of Faith and the former is the Rule of those Duties which God is pleased we shall perform as a Means to attain Everlasting Life It would be superfluous to lay down here at large what Doctrin or Precepts are contained in the Gospel because it has pleased God that we cannot pretend any Ignorance of them and besides 't is the Truth of Religion in general we are now treating of we are oblig'd to speak here only of Christian Morality and the Doctrin of Faith in general As for the Morality of Christ it has so many remarkable Characters that it is impossible to reflect upon any of them without immediatly acknowledging its Divinity For I. 'T is it seems a Paradox to the Senses to the Heart to the Mind and Nature of Man It was never before heard of or known that a Man must take up his Cross and think those Blessed that are poor in Spirit that mourn and are persecuted for Righteousness sake that we must love our Enemies and pray for them that shall revile and persecute us that we must not only comfort our selves in the midst of our Afflictions and Crosses but also rejoyce for being thus afflicted and esteem our Happiness and Glory the greater as our Sufferings are increased Men I say had never such Thoughts before and the Puradoxes of the Stoicks are nothing to these for here we find to our great surprize that a few poor Fishermen rustick in their Speech preach such Maxims abroad as are as far above the ordinary Capacity of the Understanding as they are contrary to the Affections and Inclinations of the Heart II. 'T is observable that Christian Morality seems to be a very sad and mortifying thing For it curbs and restrains all our Passions Self-love repines at it Voluptuousness can't endure it Pride is wholly humbled and mortified by it and those who seem to allow of it most cannot but privately hate it when ever their Hearts are engaged in any Passion It has been often observ'd that there have been Christians in all Ages who attempted to pervert the sense of it by putting such Glosses and Interpretations upon it as were more conformable to their Inclinations than to the Truth it self and by endeavouring to extirpate it at least indirectly when they durst not attempt it in a more open manner But let no man imagin that this Morality was offered to the World under any Disguise Christ who among so many other wonderful Characters of his Calling has a very remarkable one and that is never to flatter the loose Inclinations of Men plainly declares that whosoever will be thought his Disciple must pluck out his Eyes and cut off his Hands must hate himself deny himself nay even hate his own Soul c. Expressions which explain one another and certify us that the Pains and Torments the observers of his Morality must undergo are like unto those which Men endure when they cut off their Arms or pluck out their Eyes or are in a manner separated from Themselves There is nothing in all this like the cunning Address and subtle Management of Men in the World when they endeavour to establish new Doctrins and it evidently appears that Christ alone is a Teacher come from God III. The better to comprehend this it is observable that all the Principles of Christian Religion depend upon Humility as their chief Foundation For if we pretend to the qualification of Christ's Disciples we must be meek single in heart poor in Spirit weary and heavy laden little in our own Conceits Lambs little Children in Innocence and want of Malice and Servants of other Men. Christ has united two different qualities before not easily reconcilable the Humility of the Heart and the Light of the Understanding charging us to be wise as Serpents and harmless as Doves 'T is manifest this Union was necessary for the true Sanctification of Mankind a Secret indeed Men had not yet been able to find out There have been some who have forsaken their Interest and have been either burnt or had their Arms and Hands cut off who durst encounter Death it self supported by Pride and a vain hope of Glory which they prefer'd before all things But it was never known that Men had so little Self-love as to sacrifice their Lives unless at the same time they could make their Name immortal Such a Miracle is only to be produced by the Christian Morality IV. After what has been said we shall have less Reason to wonder that this Morality roots up every Vice since all Vices proceed either from Pride or Voluptuousness This Morality then which subverts the former by the severe Mortifications of Repentance and destroys the latter by the Ideas it gives us of the Greatness and Perfection of God as opposed to our Wretchedness and Misery I say this Morality contains every thing absolutely necessary to extirpate our Vices in their first Rise and
this Necessity and it is to no purpose to alledge his Meanness and Wretchedness for that Circumstance rather aggravates the Crime than excuses it it being impudent beyond all pardon for a Traytour to plead Innocence because he is a Peasant and not a Lord. It will be also in vain to lay the Fault upon the evil Temperament of Body and Mind For if either submits to those Reasons which you have for committing no indecent action before a Sovereign and if that and all its Passions are calm when you fall into any Danger or expect Sentence of Death there is the same Reason that the Presence the Will and Judgments of God should have the same effect upon it Nor will Ignorance be any Excuse It would indeed justifie you if it were not only a bare pretence as it does Brutes Children and Ideots But what Man knows not his Duty 'T is also in vain to rely on the Mercy of God for that extends not to impenitent Sinners and the Almighty saves only those that desire and endeavour to be saved Lastly 'T is meer folly to assert that eternal Punishments are disproportionable to the weakness of our Nature For is not God himself eternal whom you have offended And is not your Soul also eternal that has Sinned against him Self-love however blinded thinks not life eternal a thing disagreeable and imagins nothing in it disproportionable to our Condition But 't is shock'd at the Thoughts of everlasting Pains and therefore willing to believe them improbable Dreams and Whimsies But why it does so is hard to be imagin'd unless we suppose its design to be at any rate to impose upon it self In the mean while since you can neither destroy the Eternity of God or the Soul which Reason it self forces you to acknowledge you must either suppose that the Soul is to dwell eternally with God or that it must be eternally banished from his Presence that is that it must live or die eternally For to live with God is to enjoy the greatest Perfection of Happiness and to be banished his Presence is certainly the greatest Misery that can be thought of As soon as we know the Existence of God that the Soul has no Parts and that 't is incapable of any Dissolution that its Nature altogether distinct from that of Matter cannot be buried under the Ruins of the Body it is then very hard for us to oppose the Doctrin which the Gospel teaches us concerning the State of the Soul after Death Nay we are so far from impugning of it that there is even a Necessity incumbent upon us readily to embrace the same For if the Souls of the Wicked together with those of the Good are equally to be banished the Presence of God then Reason Nature and all our other Knowledge impose upon us in giving us Hope of a future Reward And if the Souls both of the Wicked and the Good are to enjoy alike the Presence of Almighty God then too those very Principles delude us in making us dread his pretended Judgments and so Gods Justice and Veracity together with all our other Knowledge are at an end To avoid therefore falling into such an impious Assertion we must own that the Souls of the Good are to dwell for ever with God but that contrariwise those of the Wicked are to be banished his Presence and in owning this we affirmthe only thing in the World that is most agreeable to all our Knowledge and most visibly flows from the nature of things themselves The Blessings of God excellently answer his liberal Promises and the formidable Severity of his Punishments All the Creatures of this visible World conspire together to do us good And besides all the temporal Blessings daily conferr'd upon us besides the whole Earths being replenished with the Knowledge of the true God the Hearts of Men are sanctified their Souls comforted the Gospel preached throughout the whole World the Son of God died for our Offences and was raised for our Justification our crucified Saviour came out of the Grave to bring us Peace from God and seal the Truth of his Gospel by his frequent Apparitions after his Death there was a visible and frequent Effusion of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost upon Men a multitude of Martyrs sent from God to reclaim the World by their Examples and Conversation from Vice and Idolatrous Superstition all these things I say are such Blessings as are wonderfully suitable to the Promises and Threatnings of God and fully convince us that the Christian Morality has as many Objects to exalt and comfort Men's Souls as it has to excite and terrify their Minds to the performance of their Duty X. But to prove that this Morality is not a meer Idea of Perfection God in is Wisdom was pleased not only to have it set down in the Book of the New Testament but also to have it lively Painted first in the Life of Christ and afterwards in the daily practice of the Primitive Christians These Men are not such Teachers as might deservedly be accused of speaking well but doing ill as it was objected formerly to Seneca who composed very excellent Discourses concerning Poverty and the contempt of the Goods of Fortune when he himself was richer than the wealthiest Citizen of Rome These on the contrary confirm'd by their practice what they taught And by extirpating their evil Desires form'd such a Society as is conformable to that we have had above but a faint Prospect of when we laid down the Idea of Man's Duty They utterly renounced those Passions which put a Distinction betwixt them and other Men. They forgot their Quality and Condition the better to use one another like Brethren The same Interests were common to them all They sold their Possessions to ease the Wants and Necessities of those that suffered Adversity They rejoyced for having been thought worthy to suffer for the Name of God Every thing conduced to their Happiness even Afflictions themselves They prayed for those that despitefully us'd them and as Charity and not Selflove was the Rule of their Affections so all the Motions of their Heart tended to one as to the same Center to the Glory of God and the good of their Neighbours which gave the Scripture occasion to say that they were but one Heart and one Soul I confess that State could not always continue in the Church but the Wisdom of God permitted it should last for some time to give us a lively Image and Idea of Heaven here on Earth and so to confirm by the excellence of such an Example a Morality already supported by so many great and powerful Motives VIII Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is consider'd in its Mysteries THe Mysteries God has revealed unto us in his Word are like the cloudy Pillar which led the Children of Israel through the Wilderness For like that they are clear on one side but dark and obscure on the other If we contemplate
must renounce our selves and beg of Almighty God that he would enlighten our Understanding when we perceive that such a sublime and elevated Science which offers such noble and magnificent Objects to our Consideration is yet conceived by those only that are pure in Heart Here then ought we to cry out what a Divine Religion is this Which at once enlightens and humbles us which amazes and yet clears our Understanding which leads us to saving Knowledge by the free and ready confession of our own Ignorance and takes away all the Imperfections of our Understanding by making it submit to Faith Where is the Wise Where is the Disputer of this World IX Portraiture of the Christian Religion or the Conformity of its Mysteries to the Lights of Reason HAving look'd into the Original of all our false Prejudices 't is now no difficult matter to distinguish Religion from Superstition and Divinity from Philosophy Without such a Distinction we must inevitably fall into the greatest Difficulties and by it 't is easy to demonstrate that Religion contains no greater Difficulties than even Nature it self Thus the Doctrin of Predestination of Grace and Original Sin are such unfathomable Depths as terrify at first view the Mind of him that endeavours to reconcile them to the Light of Nature and methinks I already hear a Multitude of Doctors crying out against me that I ought not to presume to dive into thebottom of those profound Mysteries which confound their Reason the more attentively they consider and reflect upon them But I beg leave of those worthy Men to tell them that all those matters would seem to them less difficult than they do were they less Philosophers than they are And I would have them always remember that Faith and Reason Divinity and Philosophy are essentially distinct one from the other in as much as the former barely perceives the Object it self without endeavouring to search into the manner of it and consists in that Submission which prevents its further Enquiries Pride and Rashness being contrary to it whereas the latter continually endeavours to know both the things and the manner of them together with the Physical Causes of them having no greater Enemy than Ignorance to oppose its Progress Accordingly a Divine ought only to enquire whether there be any such thing as Grace Predestination Original Sin c. But a Philosopher not satisfied-with a bare Knowledge of it will yet further enquire what is the order of the immutable Decrees of God after what manner Grace determines our Free Will and by what means Original Sin was transmitted from the first Man to his Posterity The Apostles who were the truest and indeed only Divines that confined themselves within the due Limits of Divinity have very largely instructed us in all those Objects by fully demonstrating the truth and necessity of them yet have not let fall the least Word that could give us an Insight into the manner of them But the succeeding Christians applying themselves to the study of the Platonic and Aristotelian Philosophy really thought the knowledge of Salvation a Science as well as the rest and thereupon framed to themselves many fruitless and unprofitable Speculative Systems which in many places were repugnant to Piety and perplex'd our Divine Religion with several humane Difficulties It would be injurious to imagin that St. Paul in his large Discourse about the Doctrin of Predestination aimed at nothing else but to gratify the vain Curiosity of those he address'd himself to All that he there says tho' seemingly Speculative is in reality Practical The Question was Whether the Distinction that was between the Jews and Gtntiles was not wholly taken away and if so whether the Gentiles were not to make up one and the same Body with the beliving Jews Those of the Circumcision being accustomed to look upon the Heathens as a People that were cursed could not easily imagin that they should ever enjoy the same Privileges with them But St. Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles endeavours to confute this Prejudice of theirs and to that purpose he shews them that God is the God of all Men that he suffered that all Men should Sin that he might thereby extend his Grace to all that the Choice he made of the Jews for his peculiar People was a free and liberal Election that 't was by by Faith alone and not by Works that the Patriarchs were acceptable to him that his Mercies were not entailed upon the Posterity of the Patriarchs that the Circumcision of the Flesh was not the reason of their Acceptance with God that the Law of it self could not have that effect that it was not for the Good Works of Jacob that his Posterity was preferred before that of Esau for whilst the Children were yet in their Mothers Womb and had done neither Good nor Evil it was told Rebekah consulting the Divine Oracle about them that the Elder should serve the Younger Now the Reflections to be made upon this Doctrin of St. Paul are these 1. That the absolute Necessity there was then to treat of those matters and the urgent occasion that obliged the Apostles to speak of them is now wholly at an end for there 's none among the Christians that either calls or ought to call in Question the Election of those Gentiles who sincerely believed the Gospel So that if we happen now adays to be ingaged in any eager Disputes about those matters 't is meerly out of a Principle of Vanity or Obstinacy or a rash and impious Curiosity Every thing was practical in St Paul's Discourse of Predestination whereas those are wholly Speculative that are in these latter Days composed about it St. Paul had no other Design but to create Peace and Charity between the Jews and Gentiles by shewing them that they were both the Object of the Divine Election But now this Doctrin is changed into Speculation and Philosophy and has no other use but to create Scandalous Divisions in Christian Societies 2. The best and surest Method in this Case is to imitate the Modesty of St. Paul who barely asserted the thing taking great care not to search into the manner of it He only spoke of Election in general And when his curious and impertinent Reason went about to examine the performance of it he only cryed out O the Depth of the Riches c. It must be confessed St. Paul had as much Wit as any modern Divines can pretend to and so could have framed as probable Systems of the Consent and Harmony of the Decrees of God or have found out either in the ill use we make of our Free Will or in the Springs of our Soul wherewith to solve these Difficulties Yet he never attempted it And the reason was he was a true Divine and not a meer Philosopher and knew very well that the most essential part of Faith consists in humbly casting down our Eyes before the dark side of the Mystery 3. But because we are
Nature And what is most surprising in the former of those two Unions is to see that the Soul which is so noble a Being should be so closely fastened and united to Matter and even depend upon it in all its Operations Now 't is not so with the Incarnation of Christ And it can never be said that the Divine Nature depends on the Humane but contrariwise 't is the Humane Nature which depends on the Divine In this Union God remains the same as before All-perfect All-mighty All-full Eternal and Immutable but Man is changed and sanctified and exalted by it What Inconveniency then can there result from it As it is surprising to see a most noble Being subject to a less perfect Being so it is natural for a less perfect Being to be subject to one more Noble Now the latter of these the Mystery of the Incarnation evidently demonstrates and the Union of the Soul with the Body discovers the former It follows hence therefore that the Union of the Soul with the Body is in some sense very extraordinary and far more surprising than the Mystery of the Incarnation 3. If still you require another Representation of this Object that might further give you a clearer Notion of the same Conceive a false Sun composed of two different things so closely united together that they seem as it were confounded together viz. A Cloud and the Light of the Sun The Cloud is not the Sun nor is the Sun the Cloud And thus the Humane Nature of Christ is not the Divine Nature the same with the Humane This false Sun is a Sun and yet a Cloud so likewise Christ is God and Christ is Man This false Sun is formed of the Substance of the Earth because it is composed of a Cloud which is nothing else but the Vapours of it and of the Sun himself being formed out of those Beams in which the Body of that Planet consists so in like-manner Christ is taken from the Earth and is a part of the common Lump of Mankind because he is Man which does not hinder him from being the Substance of the Father since he is the Brightness of his Glory This is a very just Representation of that great Mystery but not perfect But we hope every just and equitable Reader will easily forgive the Defects of this Comparison in a Subject that is so far exalted above our weak Imagination 4. Moreover of all those who pretended to treat of the Nature of the Deity none but the Epicureans who thought it was idle and lazy divided it entirely from its Creatures and all other Men besides looked upon it as united to its Works The Heathens for instance imagined it was affixed to their Temples and Statues to which they supposed it constantly united But the Jews more properly looked upon God as being united in a more partilar manner to a Bush or a Cloud or the Ark. And several of the Incredulous now adays represent the Deity to themselves as an Vniversal Soul affixed to universal Matter just as our Soul is united to our Body If then it be so common to Men to conceive God as being united to his Works why should it seem so strange to them to represent him as closely united to the Humane Nature of Christ and that too in a more particular manner than to any of his other Creatures For if there be any Creature which the Deity may be united to it must necessarily be such an holy and innocent Creature as that is And if it be possible for God to unite himself to any living Body it is much more likely he should impart himself to the Soul of Jesus Christ. If an Ark was capable to be filled with the Presence of God there is not the least Difficulty in conceiving that Humane Nature being pure and holy and far perfecter than all the Arks in the World should have been thus honoured in a more particular manner And if Men in short stick not to make the Vniversal Soul as it were depending upon Matter by its Union to it why should we refuse to admit of an Union which leaves to God his intire Independence and Liberty and aims at nothing else but the bringing the Body and Soul of Christ in a greater subjection to Him We no sooner embrace the Mystery of the Incarnation but every thing that seems offensive in the Doctrin of Christian Religion will presently vanish We shall then easily comprehend that 't was possible for Christ to die since he was Man and that his Death is infinitely valuable since he was God And so great is the Dignity which proceeds from the Union of those two Natures that it makes the Death of Christ equivalent to the Punishments our Sins had so justly deserved We shall not then think it difficult to be fully convinced of the Truth of the Resurrection of our Lord for it would be unreasonable to suppose that a Nature as had been honoured with so particular an Union to the Deity should yet have been for ever dissolv'd and remain'd to all Eternity under the Power of Death But we shall think it very reasonable to imagin that it could not but have risen from the Grave into which it had been pleased to descend If then Christ be truly risen from the Dead can our Incredulous Reason still refuse to believe that we shall also rise again But how can that Reason contradict a Truth which the Disciples saw They beheld the Glory of Christ both in the Miracles which he performed and in his Holiness of life They saw God manifested in the Flesh and were Witnesses of the Resurrection of our Lord They perceived Angels coming down towards him The Gospel was preached to the Gentiles by their Ministry The World believed on their Preaching and Lastly they saw Christ ascending into Heaven all which were very sensible and evident matters of Fact The Mystery then of the Incarnation tho the hardest to comprehend of all those of Christian Religion implies however nothing contrary to Reason But we must except the most Holy and ever-blessed Trinity another Mystery which being infinitely exalted above the reach of our shallow Capacity is not easily reconcilable to it Nevertheless 't is most certain that the Sublimity of its Nature renders it not any ways repugnant to Reason 1 st Because the word Person is not to be taken in the same sense with that of Essence I grant that three Persons and one Person one Essence and three Essences implie a Contradiction but the Notion of one Essence and three Persons is not liable to any after you know the Signification of those two Terms 2 ly Because the Deity is so great and so sublime a Subject that we ought not to wonder if we can't reach to the Greatness of it by our weak Imagination 3 dly Because for ought we know the most considerable Difficulties of this Mystery proceed from a Defect of Revelation or the silence which holy Writ observes on that
Hearts which can never be truly satisfied with any Object we see seek after God as a Supreme Good which contains in it all other Advantages It was a thing before unheard of that a Man must satisfy the Desires of his Heart by glorifying God To give our selves up to Godby renouncing our selves and to renounce our selves to dedicate our selves wholly to God are meer Paradoxes yet such the Christian Religion plainly demonstrates to be true by supplying the Defects of Mankind and restoring natural Religion And now reflect upon those Eleven different Portraitures or Characters which we have thus offered to your Consideration Observe that our own Imagination had no share in the Product of natural Religion of the Revelation of Moses of the Heart of Man of the Morality of Christ of its Doctrin its End and the Effects of it of the Testimonies given in favour of it of its relation to the great End of Man's Creation the Glory of God Consider that all those Representations depend not upon any of our foolish Fancies or fantastical Whimsies of the Incredulous and that altho we should not understand the Original of the Christian Religion yet we ought to refer it to a Celestial Principle since we have discovered that it is qualified and adorn'd with so many Characters of Divinity What then shall we say when we reflect that we have it by a voice from Heaven that an infinite number of Martyrs suffered Death to confirm it that the Events and Miracles performed in the World taught it us that many undeniable matters of Fact convince us of it that the Prophets declare it and the Devils themselves silently own it What can we say now that we are surrounded on all sides with Light with the Light of the Senses the Light of Reason the Light of Prophecy and the Evidence of their accomplishment the Light of Knowledge the Light of inward Sense the Light of Experience the Light of Testimony the Light of matter of Fact the Light of Doctrin the Light of the Heart and the Light of the Vnderstanding We shall certainly own that it is the Work of God and earnestly beseech him who granted us the Knowledge of his holy Religion that he would be pleased both to defend it against the false Subtilties of its secret and open Enemies and deeply imprint it in our Hearts for the sake of his Glory and the Salvation of our own Souls Amen FINIS ERRATA Occasioned by the Translator's Absence from the Press PAge 15. l. 36. r. Ministry p. 39. l. 6. r. not now p. 44. l. 23. r. Epistles p. 71. l. 6. r. of the p. 81. l. 32. r. throughout the p. 90. l. 3. r. series p. 93 l. 23. for the r. he p. 116. l. 28. r. any one p. 130. l. 14. for Writings r. Witnesses p. 139. l. 7. r. ascending p. 137. l. 6. r. contemned p. 162. l. 28. r. implied p. 202. l. 19. r. State p. 307. l. 22. for do r. to p. 312. l. 28. r. far from p 315. l. 9. r. even p. 339. l. 15. r. Mortal but p. 391. l. 31. for has r. was p. 405. l. 33. delâ— are Tertullian in his Apolog. Origen contra Cels lib. 16. Mat. 26. 39. Mat. 11. 19. Mark 13. 2. John 21. 22. Joseph de bello Judaico lib. 3. cap. 14. 7 12. Sueton. in vitâ— Claud. Tacit. lib. 5. Histor cap. 13. Plutarch in the life of Romulus Mâ—l 4. 2. Luke 1. 78. Gem. tract San. Cap. 11. Gem. tract San. Lib. 12. Gem. Tract San. Cap 11. Tertul. Apolog. 5. See a discourse concerning Universal History by the Bishop of Meaux See Minâ—t Feliâ— Juvenal 〈…〉 58. 5. â— Kings â—8 28.
A VINDICATION OF THE TRUTH OF Christian Religion Against the Objections of all Modern Opposers PART II. Written in French by James Abbadie D. D. Render'd into English By HENRY LUSSAN M. A. of New College in Oxford LONDON Printed for J. Wyat at the Rose and R. Wilkin at the Kings-Head in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCXCVIII The CONTENTS SECTION I. Containing some Arguments for the Christian Religion drawn from the Testimony of those who were the first Publishers of it THE Design of this Work Page 1 Chap. I. Where we shall enquire whence the Christians had their Original and what their Profession is by looking back into the first Ages wherein they appeared p. 3 Chap. II. Where we shall examin the Martyrdom of the Primitive Christians p. 7 Chap. III. In which we further prove the Truth of Religion by several undeniable matters of Fact p. 10 Chap. IV. Where we yet further prove the Truth of the Christian Religion by several undeniable matters of Fact p. 14 Chap. V. Which demonstrates that all the matters of Fact contained in the Books of the New Testament can never be forg'd p. 17 SECTION II. Wherein we shall prove the Divinity of the Christian Religion by examining the Books of the New Testament CHAP. I. Where we shall prove that those Books can never be Supposititious p. 33 Chap. II. Proving that the Books of the New Testament were never Corrupted p. 39 Chap. III. That the Apostles did not write what was False p. 44 Chap. IV. That the Disciples of Jesus Christ could not impose upon Men in the matter of their Writing or Preaching p. 49 Chap. V. Where we shall more particularly examin whether the Apostles had the Power or the Will to deceive Mankind p. 53 Chap. VI. Where we shall examin the matters contained in the Gospels and see whether they are capable of Illusion or Imposture p. 58 Chap. VII Of the Holyness of Life of Jesus Christ p. 63 Chap. VIII Of the Prophecies of Jesus Christ p. 71 Chap. IX Wherein we shall examin the matters contained in the Book of Acts. p. 82 Chap. X. Wherein we shall take into Consideration what success the Preaching of the Apostles had p. 86 Chap. XI Wherein we shall examin the matters contained in the Epistles of the Apostles p. 88 Chap. XII Wherein we further examin the Epistles of St. Paul p. 102 Chap. XIII That we ought to look upon the New Testament as a Divine Book p. 107 Chap. XIV Wherein we shall examin those Difficulties which may probably be raised against the foregoing Truths p. 113 Chap. XV. Where we further examin the objections of the Incredulous p. 119 Chap. XVI Where we further examin those Difficulties which may be raised against our Principles p. 126 Chap. XVII Where we further answer the objections of the Incredulous p. 133 SECTION III. Wherein we shall endeavour to carry even to a Demonstration the Proofs drawn from the External Evidence of matters of Fact contained in the New Testament and the inward sense we have of them CHAP. I. Of the natural Temper Dispositions and Inclinations of the Disciples and what sort of prejudices they were possessed with when Jesus Christ Manifested himself to them p. 143 Chap. II. The first Center of Truth a particular Consideration of the Miracles of Jesus Christ p. 162 Chap. III. The second Center of Truth a particular Consideration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ p. 184 Chap. IV. The third Center of Truth a particular Consideration of the Ascension of Jesus Christ p. 200 Chap. V. The fourth Center of Truth A particular Consideration of the Effusion of the gifts of the holy Ghost upon the Disciples p. 213 Chap. VI. Wherein we shall joyn all the Miraculous matters of Fact together and form thereby a full and perfect Demonstration of them p. 220 Some reflections on the Gospel according to St. Matthew p. 242 Chap. VII Wherein we shall further Produce out of the other Gospels several places very proper to make us truly sensible of the Truth of the Christian Religion p. 258 Chap. VIII Wherein we shall further produce from the Acts of the Apostles several places very proper to make us truly sensible of the Divinity of the Christian Religion p. 274 Chap. IX Wherein we shall yet farther produce from the Epistles of St. Paul St. Peter and St. John several Texts very proper to make us truly sensible of the Divinity of the Christian Religion p. 282 SECTION IV. Wherein we shall prove the Truth of the Christian Religion by the consideration of its Nature and Properties SEveral Portraitures in which it may be considered Page 300 I Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is considered in the multitude of Testimonies given in favour of it p. 301 II Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is opposed to all other Religions p. 307 III Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is considered in its effects p. 320 IV Portraiture of the Christian Religion as considered in the Purity of its end p. 325 V Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is considered in its suitableness to the necessities of mankind p. 329 VI Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is considered in the relation it bears to the Glory of God p. 341 VII Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is considered in its Morality p. 344 VIII Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is considered in its Mysteries p. 360 IX Portraiture of the Christian Religion or the conformity of its Mysteries to the Lights of Reason p. 399 X Portraiture of the Christian Religion or the proportion it bears to the Jewish Religion p. 420 XI Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is considered in the proportion it bears to Natural Religion p. 432 A TREATISE OF THE TRUTH OF Christian Religion PART II. Wherein the Christian Religion is proved by its own proper Characters SECTION I. Containing some Arguments for the Christian Religion drawn from the Testimony of those who were the first Publishers of it The Design of this Work IN the first Part of this Work we took our rise from this Proposition There is a God and from thence we proved that Jesus Christ the Son of Mary is the Messias who was to come We shall now take a contrary course and begin with this Proposition There are at present Christians in the World and from thence prove that There is a God who has been pleased to manifest himself by the means of Religion There we have had but a faint prospect of Jesus Christ by the Light of Nature and Revelation of Moses Here we shall as it were draw the Curtain and discover Jesus Christ with that brightness of Truth and fulness of Light as will wonderfully illustrate both the Religion of Moses and the Revelation of Nature and in an excellent manner confirm the truth of the Existence of God In order to which we shall do these three things I. We shall consider the
shell and bark If I may so say of the Christian Religion by examining all those Arguments that are drawn from the external Testimony which the Primitive Christians gave of it and by considering their natural Capacities the discoveries that were made to them their prejudices the peculiar frame of their minds their Martyrdom and the reasons that induced them to suffer it c. And all this before we proceed to the consideration of the Writings of the New-Testament II. We shall consider these Writings themselves and enquire whether they are forged or not We shall examin the subject-matter of them and endeavour both to defend them against the suspicions of the Incredulous by shewing that they contain nothing but what is certainly true and to evince the Divinity of them by the Character of those things they contain III. and lastly We shall endeavour to shew the very substance and spirit of Christianity by discovering the Excellence uses advantages the end genius and in general all the beauties which are proper and natural to it And this is what we design to treat of in the following Sections whereof this second part is composed But since our Adversaries by their prejudices may be inclined to fear lest we should impose upon them by making them believe such Doctrines as can't be proved by Reason and since it is much for our advantage to remove all such suspicions we will for a while doubt of every thing with them and raising our selves by degrees to the Knowledge of those matters of fact which establish Christianity it self admit of nothing for truth but so far as appears evident CHAP. I. Where we shall enquire whence the Christians had their Original and what their Profession is by looking back into the first Ages wherein they appeared IN order to which we suppose that there are now Christians in the World and there have not always been such From this I gather that I must look back into past Ages to find out the Original of my Religion In this search I pass therefore from Age to Age till I come to Constantine without being able to clear this doubt But here we must make a little stop The prosperity of this Prince gives at first some occasion of suspicion and we easily mistrust a man who being Master of the most considerable part of the World seems probably to have established the Christian Religion therein either by Force or Policy looking perhaps upon it as more proper than that of the Heathens to carry on his designs Yet that suspicion soon vanishes since we are assured there were Christians in the World before Constantine's time All the Heathen Writers who lived before him speak of them and the Ecclesiastical Historians are wholly employed in describing their sufferings But supposing that these Historians lived in the days of Constantine or after him they must needs have either lost the use of their reason themselves or have imagined that the men of their age had lost theirs when they give them the History of the Christan Church down from the Apostles to Constantine if 't were certain there had not been Christians in the World before that Prince And therefore this must be too extravagant a suspicion to be entertained long But here is something still more observable viz. that on the one hand the Christians who lived before Constantine were then possessed of the Books of the New-Testament and on the other that those very Christians were so strongly perswaded of the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ of his miracles of the pouring out the holy spirit on the Apostles and of all other matters of fact that establish the Christian Religion that they hardly speak of any thing else their books are full of them and their Doctrine is altogether built upon this foundation And therefore if Constantine invented the matters of fact which establish Christianity he must not only have forged the Books of the New-Testament but also the Writings of Clemens Justin Iraeneus Athenagoras Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian Origen and in general of all the Fathers who lived before him because every one of their Writings have an essential relation to those matters of fact that prove the truth of Religion And should we go up a little higher than the reign of Constantine we should hear of Christians that were afflicted during the three first Centuries of the Church and persecuted throughout the whole World and punished with most barbarous and new invented torments They were put to Death upon wheels and scaffolds tortured by fire their flesh torn with pincers their bodies were mangled by cutting off limbs one after another they were thrown into Rivers and cast into the Sea and exposed to Wild Beasts wrapp'd up in garments dipped in sulphur to serve for torches and set up to light Passengers in their Way In fine it was never known that men so universally agreed in any one thing as in their design of tormenting the Christians in so much that the ordinary people who have generally some compassion for the greatest malefactors upon the Scaffold conducted the Christians to the place of Execution with acclamations of Joy Certainly 't is a very difficult matter to restrain one's Curiosity so much as not to desire a more particular Knowledge of a people persecuted by the World with so much rage and malice For to see the whole World so strangely incensed against one sect of men one would easily think them the common Enemies of all mankind and the offspring of Hell it self born for a common plague to the Rest of the World What then were the great Crimes these Christians were guilty of They were accused of impiety murther and incest 'T was pretended that they violated the respect due to the Gods that they murthered their own Children which they scrupled not to eat up after having Killed them and lastly that they lay promiscuously together the Brother with the Sister and the Son with the Mother But first of all there is little likelyhood that the Christians should suffer Death and torments worse than Death it self in defence of a Religon which engaged them to the Commission of such infamous actions That stedfast constancy they shew'd in the midst of their Torments and which their Enemies themselves acknowledged sutes very ill with the voluptuousness and enormities they were accused of Besides were they question'd concerning these Crimes which they are obliged to clear themselves of they would produce in their Behalf the Apologies of Justin Athenagoras and Tertullian wherein they earnestly desired the Senate and Roman Emperours that they would make a strict enquiry into their lives and inflict upon them such torments as were a thousand times if possible more cruel than those they had already endured if they were really guâ—lty of what they were accused They would shew us likewise a letter from Pliny to Trajan which ought to be looked upon as an authentick monument of their Innocence Since Pliny there informs
were we not assured of them from the Writings of the Heathens and had we not a clearer proof in the complaints of the Fathers who certainly were not so extravagant as publickly to complain of an imaginary persecution when it was so dangerous to complain of one that was real And therefore I would fain know what this Christian Faith and Doctrine is which made men so patiently suffer and abandon all things But to my great amazement I find that they believed that a certain crucified man was the Son of God that a man hang'd and nailed on a Cross was the sovereign judg of the World and the object of our Adoration I confess I can't but acknowledg some supernatural power in all this For tho' men of as mean appearance as those who first preached the Gospel might without any Miracles have weigh'd down the Authority of Emperours and Prelates and all the Magnificence and glory of Paganism objects very suitable to the worldly and ambitious heart of a man yet how can we conceive that they could without the help of Miracles perswade men to believe a Paradox so offensive to Reason and which appears at first view so horrible as this that the Son of God was nailed on a Cross We can never perswade our selves without offering violence to our Reason that those who from their youth represented their Deities to themselves as the greatest and most glorious Beings they could imagin and gave the name of Divine to whatever they thought in the highest degree beautiful and magnificent should yet substitute to all these great Ideas the notion of a God who died an infamous Death upon the Cross That not one alone but an infinite number of persons embraced an Opinion that immediately overthrew all their first Ideas of a God that this great change was not gradually and insensibly brought to pass or in the compass of several ages but in a very few years and with an incredible swiftness by the Mystery of vile and contemptible persons of no power or authority in the World and that the passion they had for a Doctrine which seemed at first so monstrous to Men induced them to suffer Death in defence of the same after having renounced their Fortune Reputation and Pleasures But does not prejudice over-rule in all this and make me Fancy I see that distinctly which I perceive but confusedly in truth I ought yet further to distrust my self and tho' I honour Errour too much in suspecting it may be so coherent so united to the Principles of Common sense and involved in so many appearances of Truth yet I will not pass by any scruple for all that has been hitherto said I find then that the Christian Religion was established in the World an hundred years ago I know that the Christians believe in a certain Jesus Christ crucified I know also that this Opinion of theirs was not innate I am fully perswaded that neither the Heathenish Priests nor their ordinary Guides taught them this Doctrin because they were the profess'd Enemies of it I am compelled therefore in despite of my self to credit at least in some respect the Relation the ancient Doctors of the Church unanimously gave of it viz that some persons called Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ went about the World preaching that this same Jesus Christ was the Son of God and the Messias whom God had promised to the Jews But these fundamental Truths require a more particular Examination and therefore we must shew more distinctly whether there were ever such men as the Apostles in the World what their Original was what Doctrine they preached and how they were qualified This we shall presently see by laying down for a certain Principle that the Christians had the books of the New-Testament in their possession at that very time we have chose for our fixed point I shall not at present enquire whether those Books are forged or not my design being to argue some time without entring upon that Enquiry For whether they are forged or not at least we learn from them certain undeniable matters of fact which will wonderfully illustrate all our following Enquiries CHAP. V. Which demonstrates that all the matters of fact contained in the Books of the New Testament can never be forg'd IF the New Testament be forged It may well be presumed that the Contrivers of that forgery who certainly could have no other design but to make it pass for truth endeavour'd to ground it upon some foundation either good or bad So that we have reason to believe that tho' they should have invented all that they relate at least they invented not the Names Country and Persons of Jesus Christ and his Apostles under whose Names they speak and to whom they ascribe the Establishment of the Christian Religion For is it probable they should endeavour to perswade men to worship a certain Jew called Jesus the Son of Mary a Galilean too who was crucified at Jerusalem and had several Disciples whose names â—re exactly related if the Jews could have immediâ—tely convinced them of the falsehood of all those matters by producing the Testimony of their own Nation who would have thronged in to tell them â—hat Jesus and his Disciples were only fictitious â—ames and that there was no more to do but conâ—ult all the Registers and Decrees wherein Augustus commanded all the Jews should be taxed in the days of Cyrenius and where it must have appeared that Jesus Christ himself if there was any such Person was also taxed 'T is all one as if a man should publish in this age a book full of excellent precepts of Morality intermixt with several fictitious actions which book he would have the World receive as the Doctrine of some divine and extraordinary man who in the beginning of this age raised up several men from the Dead healed all sorts of Diseases calm'd the Winds and Tempests of the Sea gave Authority to several of his Disciples to work many strange Miracles was at length seiz'd and put to Death in Germany and whose Disciples who bore such and such names and were born in such and such a Countrey came afterwards into France dispersed themselves throughout the other parts of Europe preach'd his Doctrine and at length died all unanimously in defence of it What think you of this Tale And how would it be received in the World but as a System only of many evident and palpable falsities What think you those persons would say of it who should be thus accused of so dreadful a parricide They would certainly reply that that fictitious book was purposely design'd to blast their Reputation But it appears the Jews never attempted to clear themselves after that manner They confess there was such a person as Jesus Christ and that their Fathers put him to Death neither do they deny the least Circumstance of his Life Ministry or Death excepting those which might probably make him pass for the Son of God But we
have here something still more clear and convincing than all this to offer Either those Books which you may think forg'd or not forg'd spread of themselves the Christian Doctrine throughout the World after they had been carried into several Parts of it before there were any Apostles to preach it there or else those Books were composed after the Apostles had published their Doctrine in the different parts of the Universe I see no medium If the Books of the New Testament instructed men in the Christian Doctrine before any of the Apostles had preached it how could the Romans be perswaded that St. Paul which is a meer Name had wrote an Epistle to them or those of Antioch that St. Peter had been in their City or the Galatians that St. Paul had preached the Gospel to them or in general all Judea and Galilee that Jesus Christ with his Disciples had preached there or in particular the people of Jerusalem that he was there condemned to Death by the Sanhedrin c. But if the New Testament was not collected into several Books nor composed till after the Disciples of Jesus Christ had preached the Gospel in the several parts of the World it must follow from thence that there were some Apostles before that time and a certain Jesus Christ crucified who was reputed the Son of God and the true Messias according to the Christian Doctrin So that whether those Books be forg'd or not still I am certain they relate certain fundamental matters of fact which are necessarily true For it is certain there was such a person as Jesus Christ who dwelt in Nazareth and was at last crucified at Jerusalem 'T is also as certain that Peter James and John were Fishermen who followed him out of Galilee and preached the Gospel after his Death in several Parts of the World Wherefore then should I be the only person that should question a thing never so much as doubted of among the Christians or the Jews nay which the Incredulous themselves of these times do not pretend to call in question But to stop a little here It seems that Jesus the Son of Mary living in a certain Corner of Judea pretended himself to be the Son of God or if you will the Messias 'T is very strange indeed that a Man of so mean an extraction who all his life time followed the profession of a Carpenter as his Enemies so often reproached him to have done should notwithstanding pretend himself to be the Messias who was to have been according to the profess'd opinion of that age surrounded or attended with pomp splendour and temporal Prosperity Let us therefore enquire a little into it This Jesus whoever he might be and whatever Idea we may frame to our selves of him gathered together a company of Disciples some of which he took from among Fishermen on the bank of the Lake of Gennesareth some out of the Towns of Galilee nay and some he called from among the Publicans themselves whom the people ever had in abomination as the First Enemies of Christian Religion laid to his charge Those men which thus followed him were of mean Education and Birth They neither had Learning nor Politeness they neither were acquainted with the heart nor the inclinations of men neither with the Policy of Princes nor the elevated Morals of the Stoicks nor lastly with the misterious and secret Wisdom of the Sages But they were mean and simple Persons as the Enemies themselves of Christianity readily acknowledge I shall not at present examin what Reasons induced them so firmly to adhere to Jesus Christ nor what convincing arguments he used to engage them to follow him It is enough we know they were ignorant persons who looked for the Messias according to the common Opinion of those times and so might probably be thought to have been imposed upon in that respect But here I cannot but admire that those mean and ignorant people who had undoubtedly framed to themselves a very sublime Idea of their Messias and imagined no less than that he would have distributed Crowns to them to use that expression since this was always a strong opinion amongst the Jews I say I cannot but admire that those ignorant sort of people should content themselves with the outward and apparent meanness of a man who took quite another form upon him than that of a Conqueror It can't be denied that Jesus Christ was in a very poor and mean condition when he called his Disciples since Porphirius Celsus and Julian the Apostate reproach him with it Besides this is such a matter of fact as no man would invent tho' he could easily have done it and which he could not easily invent tho he would have done it 'T is certain the Jews at that time and always before expected a Triumphant Messias 'T is also as certain the Disciples adher'd to Jesus Christ notwithstanding the profess'd opinion they were prepossessed with at that time this is what we are surpris'd at Since the Disciples found not in Jesus Christ all the Glory and temporal power they were strongly perswaded their Messias should have been invested with they undoubtedly imagin'd that what their Master did not then actually possess he would certainly enjoy some time after They did not at all question but that he was to re-establish the Monarchy of Israel and overcome the Enemies of the Jews This made them to dispute the Priority among themselves They would know who was to be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven that is in the flourishing Kingdom of the Messias which they termed the Kingdom of heaven in imitation of the Prophet Daniel Nay two of them importuned our Saviour to grant them to sit the one on his Right Hand and the other on his Left as soon as he was exalted to that state of Glory I admit not of these matters of fact meerly because they are in the New Testament but because they are very conformable to the Jewish Tradition and Reason it self Common Sense assures us that the Disciples adhered not to Jesus Christ without some hope or other Now what could they hope for from him whom they looked upon as the Messias but that which they expected from the true Messias himself viz. a temporal deliverance attended with the like Prosperity But not to advance any thing doubtful or in the least uncertain in it self I affirm that the Disciples considered Jesus Christ as the true Messias and that they could not regard him as such but either in the sense of the Jews or in that of the Christians that is either as a temporal Deliverer or a spiritual one and consequently that whatever sense we take it in still were they to hope for some advantage or other from him but let us see how far this twofold Consideration will lead us Whilst the Disciples were strongly preposessed with the thoughts that Jesus was their Messias that is the person that should have raised up their Nation to
the utmost pitch of Prosperity and Glory this Jesus himself was seized and nailed on a Cross where he suffered a most infamous Death infamous in the esteem of all Nations but more particularly accursed in the Jewish Law What a mighty thunder bolt must this have been to such men who had fed their fancies with such charming hopes They were long since perswaded that the Messias would make his appearance in a very Glorious State that he would overthrow at his coming the Empire of Cesar together with all the Roman Grandeur and thereby make the Jews absolute Masters of the World All these things they impatiently expected from Jesus and yet this Jesus was dishonoured by an infamous punishment he was compelled to endure The Jews themselves not only sacrificed him but they sacrificed him even to Cesar himself and delivered him up to the Romans to put him to Death There was no power able to deliver him out of the hands of his Tormentors so that he died and his Disciples heard of his Death or rather were eye-witnesses of it In truth I cannot conceive how they should after all this have still preserved the least of their pretentions They might reasonably grieve at the loss of such pleasing hopes but nothing could redeem the loss of them They might abhor the furious passion of the chief Priests and Sanhedrin who had utterly deprived them of their dearly beloved Master but they must at length lay aside the opinion they had entertained of him And therefore nothing can be so likely as that which St. Luke makes them utter in the midst of their sorrow and astonishment But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel and besides all this to day is the third day since these things were done Luke 24. 21. But supposing they had no such Hopes or Expectation it is enough that the Disciples look't upon Jesus as the promised Messias Nay 't is all one whether it was in the sense of the Jews or in that of the Christians For if it was in the sense of the Jews they could not but imagin that Jesus would have raised up the glory of the Jews to its utmost height so far were they from conceiving he was liable to be put to Death by them But if it was in the sense of the Christians they ought surely to have believed that in case he should die he would certainly raise up himself and those that believed on him from the grave because the whole System of Christian Religion essentially depends upon this foundation Thus were the Disciples preposessed with the general opinion of the Jews they could not chuse but lose it at the sight of the Death of Jesus and were they prepossessed with the profess'd Doctrine of the Christians they could not likewise but be undeceived of their Errour when they saw that Jesus Christ rose not again from the Dead What then shall we think of certain Fishermen who were a most mean wretched sort of people as the Enemies of Christianity called them who had not the courage to accompany their Master even when they looked upon him as the true Messias but gave him over to his Executioners Sure they are by this time sensible of their mistake What care then does it appear they took to hide themselves to conceal their shame and confusion from men let us see what was the Event and we shall know the Truth We find that few weeks after the Death of Christ his Disciples publickly shewed themselves in Jerusalem and confidently affirmed that they had seen their Master who was risen again from the Dead had spoken with him handled him eat with him conversed with him for forty days and lastly that they had seen him ascend into Heaven 'T is certain this was the Testimony of the Disciples since the Faith of the Primitive Christians was founded on this Testimony Who could have thought of this unexpected turn The Disciples affirmed that Jesus was the Messias but could they still believe it when they saw him give up the Ghost Or if they did not believe it were they now grown bolder to maintain an imposture than before to follow their Master when they thought him the true Messias Could certain Fishermen dejected fearful Fishermen who ought with shame to have owned their Error could they invent such a fable preach it with so much confidence maintain it with so much boldness expose their persons to all sorts of Torments and even to Death it self in defence of such an incredible fiction Could any of them imagin that they could seduce Mankind or had any one of them imagined it could the rest have been so extravagant as to approve of his ridiculous fancy Did they think the World would believe them upon their bare Word And were they then no longer in any dreadful apprehension of the Sanhedrin that had inhumanely put their Master to death Did they believe they might safely reproach the Jews for having put the Messias to death without being themselves severely punished Were they not sensible into how many troubles and afflictions this fable would inevitably cast them And if they were could they still be so couragious as to maintain such an imposture Is it possible that no one of them should recant his opinion not one contradict himself but that all should unanimously depose notwithstanding the most rigorous punishments inflicted on them a matter of Fact which they knew to be altogether Chimerical and false Certainly this is a thing so very strange or rather which appears to me so very absurd and extravagant that I question whether our incredulous Adversaries could perswade themselves of it provided they would but reflect never so little upon it But let us continue still to distrust our selves may we not probably have made some false Supposition in what we just now affirmed we will therefore go over again the same principles we just now established And indeed the more I reflect upon them the less I conceive how we can possibly call any of them in question For can I deny that Jesus ever was in the World that he ever had any Disciples or that those Disciples thought him at first the promised Messias But why should I alone question a matter of fact which the Thalmudists nay Julian Porphirius and all other Enemies of Christianity have always acknowledged This is what I have shewn to be absurd Can I question but that if Jesus died and rose not again from the dead his Disciples were then undeceived of the opinion they probably entertained that Jesus was the Messias the Son of God If so either they understood nothing at all by these two words the Messias the Son of God or else they understood quite another thing than that he was a Meer Man who was to remain for ever under the power of Death after his Crucifixion Can I deny that the Disciples declared the Resurrection of Jesus Christ after his Crucifixion It 's self evident All
different Countries who speak different Languages do all understand my speech there can certainly be no illusion in that The Validity of a Testimony is no longer incertain when we are sure of two things First that the witness is not himself deceived and Secondly that he does not intend to deceive Others Now this might easily be verified concerning the Disciples of Jesus For first the matters of fact upon which their depositions were founded are so evident and notorious that none can ever be deceived in relation to them Thus how is it possible that the eyes should think they saw what they did not really see that the ears should agree to witness nothing but what was agreeable to the Testimony of the eyes that the hand should touch that which both the eyes and the ears perceived not once only but several times not the eyes the ears and the hands of one single man but of several men together that they should unanimously profess themselves to be endowed with an extraordinary power and that too of working miracles unless they themselves knew the certainty of it but tho we should suppose a man so Whimsical as to impose upon himself after that prodigious rate yet sure we could not without extravagance imagin that the Apostles had utterly lost their senses by the same kind of madness that this madness begun exactly after the Death of Jesus Christ that the spreading of the Gospel over the face of the Universe was a wonderful contrivance of the same that it was joyned to that Morality which is so excellent so sublime and yet so just and pious in it self that the very Enemies of our Religion always reverenc'd it And Lastly that all manner of vertues deriv'd their original from such pretended madness which works a change upon the World sanctifies mankind and exactly fulfills all those Oracles which foretold the calling of the Gentiles But if it appears that those men did not impose upon themselves much less ought they to be suspected of having had the will to deceive others because their Simplicity and mean Education allowed them not to frame any such design and besides the confusion they were in to see themselves frustrated of their hopes by the unexpected Death of their Master would wholly have diverted them from it Their temporal concerns too could not admit of it and their shame to shew themselves to the World after what had happened was of it self sufficient to hinder them from it Moreover their Conscience would have check'd them for their superstitious fondness of the vain shadow of a Messias And it is impossible they could ever have agreed together so as to contrive that strange and notorious imposture But supposing they undertook it the Torments inflicted on them would have made them repent such a rash design and the confession of one single person amongst them would have sufficiently discovered them all Lastly their Shame and Poverty the Gaols and the Chains the Stripes the Fire and the Sword that were used against them to make them recant sufficiently warrant us that they never intended to deceive the World And if one single person so disposed is to be looked upon as an unheard of prodigy how much more unlikely is it that a whole Society could have conceived such an extravagant design If the Testimony of the Disciples be false we cannot chuse but look upon them as Mad men or rather as Rascals nay perhaps as both And yet their preaching sufficiently shews the glory of their Innocence and Wisdom to confound both these Calumnies Let any man but read over the Books of those admirable Writers and there he will to his satisfaction find that Honesty Sincerity and Self denial is inseparably interwoven with the most pure and most judicious Morality that ever was But this Reflexion puts me in mind that I must now hasten to the consideration of the Books of the New Testament not to see whether they be human or divine for that will be considered in its own proper place but whether they be forged or not For if once we shew that they are not forg'd we need only read them over to know the Testimony the Disciples bore of Jesus Christ himself And because that Truth will serve for a confirmation of what we have already said we shall begin the following Section with the Consideration of it SECTION II. Wherein we shall prove the Divinity of the Christian Religion by examining the Books of the New-Testament CHAP. I. Wherein we shall prove that those Books can never be supposititious WHen I examin the Books of the New Testament all the doubts I strive to raise concerning them amount only to these three I. Whether those Books were not composed by some Impostor who probably might have ascribed them to the Apostles II. Whether those Books supposing they were composed by the Apostles were not afterwards corrupted by the Christians III. Whether the Apostles the pretended Authors of those Books did not themselves fill them up with many fictions for their Masters honour and the advantage of their Religion It is but just we should examine whether these three suspicions are well grounded or no. And First it is certain that in taking away the evidence of the Books of the New Testament we overthrow that of all other Books and call in question the account of all things past For who will warrant me that Cicero's Orations are his own if I can't reasonably assure my self that the Epistles of St. Paul were written by St. Paul himself But hold Perhaps it was easier or more advantageous to counterfeit the Books of the New Testament than those of Humane Learning This is what we must a little enquire into And I. the facility there is in Counterfeiting the the works of an Author wholly depends upon the several Circumstances of time place and persons upon the subject matter of that Book the temper of mens minds their different notions and their various interests which must be carried on in it Now to counterfeit Books of Humane Learning seems infinitely more easy in all these respects than to counterfeit those of the New Testament I. Because they who counterfeit a Book of Humane Learning may take as much time as they please for it but here we know not what time can be imagined the Books of the New Testament were forged in If we look back from age to age we find the Christians had those Books continually before their eyes and that they were quoted by the most ancient Fathers who looked upon them as Sacred and Divine II. It is easy to counterfeit Books of Humane Learning because there are generally but few people that interess themselves at all in them at least but very indifferently but it would have been a very difficult matter to counterfeit those Books which compelled men to suffer Martyrdom as the Books of the New Testament did If a man that lends out his money seeks the best security he can for it what
then must that person do or rather what must an infinite number of persons do who utterly renounce all things for the sake of the Gospel III. There has been found some who have counterfeited Books of Humane Learning but none ever known that were willing to die in defence of their forgery Now none here can be suspected to have forged the Books of the New Testament but only those who suffered Death in defence of the Christian Religion and consequently to confirm the Truth of these matters of fact on which Chistianity it self is founded IV. A man may very well counterfeit a Book of Humane Learning but not always nor in all circumstances and 't would be very ridiculous in a man to forge Letters that must have been written not long ago to whole Societies or Epistles that must have been deposited in the hands of an infinite number of persons and in very many different places Now this must needs be affirmed of all the Epistles of the Apostles which make up a very considerable part of the New Testament And how could the Church of Rome have possibly been made to believe that St. Paul wrote an Epistle to her or the Church of Corinth that she had received two Epistles from him and so of the rest unless it had been so V. This argument is so much the more considerable since he that grants one point in this matter unavoidably grants the whole and if you should agree with me that perhaps one single Epistle among all those of the New Testament was not forg'd you must grant the same thing of them all or at least it will be to no purpose for the Incredulous to to cavil thereupon For what if I should grant the four Gospels to be forg'd does not the Book of the Acts of the Apostles contain nay does it not necessarily suppose the same essential matters of fact related to us in the Gospels should I grant the same of the Book of Acts are not the Epistles of St. Paul sufficient to inform us that Jesus Christ wrought several miracles rose again from the Dead and ascended into heaven and that the Holy Ghost descended upon the Disciples on the day of Pentecost and that 's as much as I desire In a word should I grant all the Epistles of St. Paul to be the works of another man I need but receive those of St. Peter or those of St. John to prove the same thing There being never an Epistle in all the New Testament but what mentions or implies those essential matters of fact without which there can be no such thing as Christianity in the World Let us now see whether we can perswade our selves that all the Books of the New Testament without excepting one fragment or single Epistle amongst them are forg'd and whether we can entertain such a suspicion which no Heretick no Impious or Incredulous Person ever entertained But how is it possible all the Epistles of the Apostles should be forg'd since they must have been committed to an infinite number of Persons as they were really in the begining of Christianity and since Tertullian tells us that in his time they carefully preserved in several Churches the Originals of those Epistles which the Apostles had wrote to them Again in what time and on what occasion could this Forgery have been made Was it during the lives of the Apostles No For could the World consider those Books as Sacred and Divine which the Apostles themselves forg'd Was it then immediately after the Death of the Apostles Do we owe it to Clemens Polycarp and the other Doctors of that Age By no means for those Disciples of the Apostles separated themselves as soon as those great Lights of the World were extinguished Polycarp went to Rome to decide a controversy with a Bishop of Rome occasioned in the Church about the time wherein they were to celebrate the Feast of the Christian Resurrection or Passover Those two great men differed much in that point but yet they both greed unanimously to receive the Writings of the Apostles and to look upon them as the true standard of their Faith and Manners Moreover what Probability is there that so great a number of Churches could have been induced to receive so many false Epistles so soon after the Death of the Apostles and when there was so many Persons yet living who had conversed with them In truth this is so extravagant a Notion that we hold our selves not at all obliged to refute it But it may be objected that the Primitive Christians question'd the Authority of some Epistles such as the Epistle to the Hebrews whose Author was never certainly known the second Epistle of St. Peter that of St. Jude c. I grant it but then I presume that this consideration makes for us since it cannot be conceived that the Ancient Primitive Christians should dispute so long about some Epistles in particular had the rest altogether been as liable to suspicion But may we not reasonably imagin that during those strange disorders which followed the destruction of Jerusalem some Christians either perfect cheats or but partly perswaded of that Faith might have composed the Books of the New Testament and so after having inserted in them whatever stories they pleased ascribed them to the Apostles to gain the greater veneration and respect for their fictions No certainly because the devastation of Jerusalem hinder'd not but that there might be very numerous Churches at Rome at Antioch at Thessalonica Philippi c. whom it would have been impossible to have perswaded that the Apostles had wrote them some Epistles which must have been already deposited in their hands And besides that it appears plainly that the Books of the New Testament were composed before the destruction of Jerusalem because Jerusalem and the Church established at Jerusalem is often mention'd therein without the least hint that Jerusalem was then utterly destroyed Besides how could it come into any mans mind to forge such Books after the destruction of Jerusalem whose design was only to humble the pride of the Jews to induce them no longer to hate the Heathens as being strangers and to perswade them that tho God as yet suffered the carnal worship of their Law they ought not to expect to be justified by that This I say was the end of the New Testament and especially the Epistles of St. Paul who seems earnestly to desire to unite the minds of the two Nations And Heaven having sufficiently declared it self against the Jews by the destruction of their City the confusion of their Tribes and Families and that general dispersion which made them Tributaries to all other Nations there was no need of any further reasons to prove that the Jews were not the only Nation called to the Knowledge of the true God 'T was enough that this proof was evidently written by the hand of God in the just punishment of that people In the mean while 't is necessary to observe
that by shewing that the New Testament was composed before the destruction of Jerusalem I shew also that it is as ancient as the Apostles themselves which affords us one determination very advantagious to our Cause So that this objection being very favourable to instead of proving any thing against us nothing hinders but that we pass on to the consideration of the second suspicion we were willing to entertain concerning the Books of the New Testament CHAP. II. Proving that the Books of the New Testament were never corrupted 'T Is certain that from the Apostles time to ours the New Testament was ever look'd upon as sacred and not to be corrupted without impiety and Irreligion But whether it were Reason or Prejudice that made it so esteemed by the Christians I shall now examin It is enough that the esteem men have of it seems as ancient as the Book it self It s being considered as the foundation of all our hopes and the original of heavenly Revelation its being read and order'd to be read in Publick and Private from the Age of Clemens Polycarp Justin and Iraeneus to ours I say all this shews that it could not have been corrupted in its Essentials But this Truth very well deserves a more strict consideration I say then how is it possible that all the World should have unanimously conspired to corrupt this Book For tho' one single Doctor of the Church should have attempted it yet the rest would certainly have opposed it Tho' all the Christian Doctors dispersed up and down the World should have agreeed to it yet the people would never have consented to 't Tho' the Doctors and the People together should have been inclinable to it yet sure their Adversaries would not have failed to reproach them with it The Jews and Heathens whose only aim was to cry down their Religion would never have concealed it Julian Porphirius and all other particular Enemies of the Christians would have drawn some advantage from it In a word tho' the silence of their Adversaries had favoured so strange an Enterprise yet the different parties and various Heresies which soon after sprung up among the Christians were an invincible obstacle to it 'T is well known that immediately after the Death of the Apostles the Church was strangely disturbed by several various Controversies For not to speak here of the Gnosticks that abominable Sect which deserves not the honourable name of Christians certainly the Opinion of the Millenarians which Papias seems to have been the Author of founded upon the Apostolical Tradition fifteen years after the death of St. John the Controversy which soon after happened concerning the Christian Passover together with the Disputes of the Orthodox against the Origenists concerning the Resurrection and several other Articles of the Christian Doctrin I say these Disputes might easily have divided the Christians in the first Century of the Church Next to them succeeded the famous Disputes of the Orthodox with the Arrians and with what heat and animosities they were carried on is sufficiently known to all the World But however fatal all those Controversies were to the Church yet they produced that good effect by the direction of Providence which orders every thing to some good end that they preserv'd the Revelation of the New Testament pure and entire and at present strengthen our belief against all suspicions we might probably entertain in this respect For tho the Millenarians the Origenists and the Arians should have attempted to corrupt the Scripture yet how were it possible that the Orthodox which were so exasperated against them should have suffered it to be done or that if the Orthodoxes had had any such design their Adversaries which were so incens'd should have agreed with them in the same Intention Should I further grant this mutual agreement possible doubtless the almost infinite number of Copies of Editions and Translations made at first of the New Testament rendered the execution of that design impossible For tho' a man had corrupted one single Copy among all those Copies or translated those Books false yet how could he corrupt all the other Copies of them which are dispersed in the World or how could he alter so many other Translations which have been made of them in different times and in different places But supposing this were feasible if the Writings of the Apostles were ever corrupted it must have been either in their Essentials or in things of little Importance I mean by their Essentials those miraculous matters of fact related in the New Testament as well as all those others which if true demonstrate the Truth of the Christian Religion Now if those Writings were not corrupted in their Essentials it necessarily follows that they contain several true matters of fact sufficient to prove the Truth of Christianity But if they were altered in their Essentials there must have been added to them the Miracles of Jesus Christ his Resurrection Ascension into Heaven the pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost the power the Apostles had of speaking strange Languages and of imparting miraculous gifts to others Now I affirm that all those matters of fact could not have been added to the New Testament unless the whole Book was forg'd because the subject matter of the New Testament consists of nothing else but of those matters of fact or if you will of such things as evidently relate to them and which would certainly be false if those matters of fact were false But let us joyn Experience to Reason and consider that if the Christians had corrupted the writings of the Apostles the Books of the New Testament would now be quite different from what they were in the former ages and that having been continually altered from that time untill now nothing could be more apparent than such an alteration Yet 't is easy to perceive the contrary and it evidently appears by an almost infinite number of places of the New Testament quoted in the Books of the Fathers that there never was a Book that suffered less alteration by the revolution of years than that did There are but two things in my opinion that may be answered to this Argument the first is that in corrupting the Books of the New Testament those places quoted in the Works of the Fathers might also have been altered But this thought can never enter into any reasonable mans mind for he must then suppose that there was a person in a manner Immortal who might have had time enough to alter so many Books composed from Age to Age and a man too so much Master of other Mens hearts and understandings as to have been able to corrupt a Book the most universally read and most carefully preserved that ever was and to alter also with it all the Books of the ancient Fathers without any body ever perceiving it or making the least opposition against it The second thing that may be answered is that this
Preaching a Church at Jerusalem II. Would you know the time 'T was in the space of three years that the Miracles of Jesus Christ his Death Resurrection and Ascension were brought to pass and a few Weeks after the Ascension the Apostles begun to Preach publickly in Jerusalem III. Would you know the witnesses of the truth of these matters of fact We can produce a great number of persons who both lived and conversed with Jesus Christ himself IV. Would you fain know the nature of the matters of fact here attested We shew you that they are very evident and singular ones that the Sick are healed the Winds and Seas hush'd the Dead raised a man put to death who convers'd with his Disciples and ascended into Heaven c. V. If you would know their number we can shew that the whole Life of Jesus Christ was but one continual series of Miracles VI. Lastly Would you know the proofs of all this The Apostles themselves boast of having received miraculous gifts and that too by a good Title as we shall shew in the sequel of this Work In the interim do but unite all these Circumstances together and see what an irresistible evidence arises from their Union How could the Apostles perswade so many persons concerned in this thing so many that had both known and seen Jesus Christ Would they not soon have lost all Credit if search had been made into the places and the truth of what they affirmed strictly examin'd Or rather how is it possible that whilst they ventur'd to publish such things in the very places where they must necessarily have been brought to pass the Jews should not have stopt the progress of the Gospel by discovering to the World so visible and evident an Imposture For the Apostles did not publish only one single matter of fact of this nature They affirm'd also that their Master had raised Lazarus from the Dead together with the Son of the Widdow of Naim and the Daughter of Jairus that he had heal'd almost an infinite number of people possessed with the Devil Deaf Blind and sick of the Palsy and that his fame had spread throughout all Syria Nor were the Apostles content barely to preach all these things they put them also down in writing and their Writings are dispers'd throughout all the World Therefore they hid not themselves but were willing every one should know the certainty of what they testify'd and examine as much as they pleased the matters of fact they related They gave them out to the World and exposed them to be search'd all manner of ways But supposing I should grant those Books to be written forty fifty or sixty years after the Death of Jesus Christ still is it evident that before that time there was a Church at Jerusalem founded by the preaching of the Apostles and it is certain that the Apostles had declared by word of mouth the Miracles and Resurrection of Jesus Christ which are the essential matters of fact contained in those Books For how could they otherwise perswade the World to worship a crucified man or convince them that Jesus Christ was the true Messias How was it possible the Christians should look upon that Book as Divine which went upon a supposition of what was never done By what kind of agreement should four persons who wrote in different times and places and copy'd not one anothers Writings as is plain if we read them over with never so little attention and consider their different manner of relating the same things I say by what kind of agreement should they have conspired to inform us of the same matters of fact if the Apostles had not first of all unanimously and universally publish'd them How could the Apostles have perswaded men to turn Christians had they not declared the Miracles Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ since Christianity can't subsist without these matters of fact Thus we see 't is to no purpose for Impostors to disguise themselves for all their shifts and tricks serve only to discover them CHAP. V. Where we shall more particularly examine whether the Apostles had the Power or the Will to deceive mankind THose men who have a design to deceive the World must have more skill wit and cunning than others which skill wit and cunning will appear in their works in spite of all their Art and subtilty But when I strictly examine those Authors whom we call Sacred I neither find Cunning Wit nor Affectation in their Books Every thing they contain seems to me very simple naked and open They all exactly relate their own Weaknesses and imperfections They do not conceal their true Birth and extraction They discover their ambition in their controversy who amongst them should be the greatest in the flourishing Kingdom of the Messias their gross ignorance in the Questions they asked their Master and one another viz. What meaneth this to rise again from the Dead their cowardise in betaking themselves to flight at the sight of the Soldiers that came to take away their Master and their incredulity in those scruples they raised concerning his Resurection All these things plainly discover the greatest sincerity and impartiality But yet there arises here a certain scruple which seems not altogether inconsiderable and may deserve a little consideration Who knows perhaps some will object but that this is an affected sincerity which prepossesses our minds in their behalf only to deceive us the more securely In order to overthrow this notion I shall not assert that the Writers we speak of were originally Fishermen and Publicans and that it would seem very strange that men of that Birth and Education should affect simplicity and be capable of so refined apiece of policy of which there can hardly be given an example amongst the most able Politicians that ever took upon them to deceive mankind Neither shall I say that since the four Evangelists composed their Writings apart 't would be very surprising that they should all concur in the design of imposing upon the credulity of men by Writing after so simple and ingenuous a manner and that they should not only be entirely conformable to one another in this respect but also should agree with the other Writers of the New Testament 'T is sufficient to observe that they sometimes relate such things as at first view suggest those notions in us which Piety utterly rejects and Incredulity makes use of to oppose the Christian Religion by attacking its divine head This they would never have done had they only affected an ingenuous simplicity Thus it 's ask'd why Jesus Christ who was subject to his holy and ever blessed Mother according to the observation of the Evangelists should make her this answer which is some what rough and severe Woman what have I to do with thee my hour is not yet come Thus Julian the Apostate Celsus Porphirius and other Enemies of the Christian Religion stick not to say that Jesus Christ gave
some marks of his weakness in the Garden of Gethsemane where the fear of Death made him sweat great drops of Blood and where he cried out several times O my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me They also pretend that this exclamation of Jesus Christ when nailed on the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me was an expression of his despair I know not here what to admire most either the impudence of these proud Enemies of our Religion or the force of Truth which still becomes stronger the more they endeavour to shake it For as for the first If the Enemies of the Christians wont believe the report of the Evangelists how came they to know that Jesus Christ uttered these words which give them occasion to think he wanted constancy But if they will believe the report of the Evangelists why should they refuse to believe so many miraculous matters of fact which the Evangelists left to us in writing after having been eye-witnesses of the same It is certain that we may find in our principles wherewith to explain those places they bring against us The words which Jesus Christ spoke to his blessed Mother give us only to understand how very jealous he was of the duties of his Calling He spoke to her as a Mediatour between God and Man as the person in whom she ought necessarily to believe in order to her Salvation and who doubts but in that quality he had some Authority over her As for the sorrowfulness he expressed in his Agony it might proceed from a double cause the one natural and the other supernatural He might very well fear Death as Man and the pains inflicted on his Humane Nature might force him to utter some innocent complaints But that was not all that made his torments grievous He was loaded with the Sins of Mankind and subject to the curse of the Law He looked upon God as his Father but God offered himself to him as an angry Judge The more he loved his Father the more sensible he was of the Grief he sustained in being remov'd from him The measure of his sufferings consisted in the measure of his vertue and what he says here to his Father is rather the Language of his Love than that of his Despair But if the Incredulous should say they are not obliged to subscribe to my explanations because it is incertain whether they have any other ground than my bare imagination I am willing they should entertain this scruple and cherish it till by establishing my principles I have an opportunity of answering yet more fully all those difficulties But in the mean time I hold that nothing can more demonstrate the sincerity of the Evangelists than those places just now mentioned and I affirm that the sincerity of the Evangelists being well demonstrated does invincibly prove the Truth of the Christian Religion For certainly either those who composed the Gospels had a design to deceive Mankind in behalf of Jesus Christ and his Religion or they had no such design at all If they had any such design they would have taken special care not to set down those Circumstances of the death of their Master which might give the World an occasion to suspect he wanted Courage or thought himself forsaken of God But if in writing the matters of fact contained in the Gospel they had no manner of design to deceive Mankind we must then of necessity look upon them as being very sincere Authors who would not deceive us unless they themselves had first of all been deceived So that all the question is whether the matters of fact they tell us of are such as are shewn only by Illusion And we need here only consider whether all the Disciples could have fancied they saw an infinite number of very singular and sensible Miracles such as sick men healed Dead raised to Life c. and have believed that they themselves work'd miracles when all the while there was no such thing 'T is to no purpose here to alledge that the Evangelists affected an ingenuous simplicity to avoid the suspicion of dishonesty For had that been their design they would have taken special care not to furnish impious men with places and passages on which they might raise imaginary triumphs Nor is there any reason to believe that the Evangelists related those words because their simplicity was so great that they had not judgment to discern whether they were for or against their cause For what probability is there that men who had wit enough to deceive other people should have so little in this occasion Must a man needs be wise and learned when he chuses to represent his Master constant and undaunted rather than sorrowful unto Death And yet 't is not one single Evangelist that relates the history of his passion after this manner they all agree in this respect And how could this be so but that they only proposed to themselves to speak the plain truth and they spoke it without considering the impression it would make on Mankind without examining whether the Incredulous would take occasion from thence to slander the Christian Religion In the mean while if what has been said here is not sufficient I am willing more particularly to examin the matters contained in the Gospels CHAP. VI. Where we shall examine the matters contained in the Gospels and see whether they are capable of Illusion or Imposture THose Books contain an infinite number of extraordinary divine and admirable things but the principal of them are reducible to these four heads I. The Birth Genealogy and Education of Jesus Christ with all the Circumstances of them which we shall not speak of at present least we should be too tedious having already mention'd them in our first part of this work II. The Exercise of his Office confirmed by an infinite number of miracles from his Baptism to his Ascension III. The holiness of his life and conversation seen clearly in several occasions and shining throughout the various Actions of his life IV. His Doctrin and his Prophecies From these four different heads spring forth such beams of Truth as wonderfully illustrate this whole matter Let us therefore examine them in their order and keep still to our usual method which is to raise as we go along as many difficulties as we can and urge them on with all their force to stop if it be possible the complaints of the Incredulous against us We may very well consider in the miracles of Jesus Christ their number variety and greatness the noise they made in the World and the manner in which they were received And first the Evangelists make appear the number variety and greatness of them in telling us that he changed Water into Wine in Cana that he restored sight to the Blind hearing to the Deaf and health to the Sick that he cleansed the Leprous healed the sick of the Palsy cured one of a withered Hand
rich being content in that respect generally seeks after Glory Whereas a man that has scarce wherewithall to live little thinks of acquiring glory but aims only at a bare subsistance Whence it follows that instead of vainly imagining that St. Paul design'd to reduce himself to extream Poverty and at the same time was very earnest in the pursuit of Glory it is rather more natural to believe that he could not so much as propose to himself Glory as the only end of all his Actions untill the first found himself exempted from Want and Misery Nevertheless this reasoning seems to carry with it the force of Conviction since there have been those who have despised riches only to gain the esteem of men It must therefore be further added to distinguish St. Paul from this last sort of men that he was not only poor and forced to labour for his living but that he suffered also all the Misfortunes and Disgraces a man is capable of enduring 'T is well known how much Adversity dejects our minds and humbles the proud thoughts of our hearts and we may venture to say that had those Philosophers we lately mention'd been overwhelm'd with a continual series of Misfortunes still leading on and following one another had they been loaded with Chains mark'd with stripes exposed to storms and shipwracks to the scorn of the learned the bitter scoffs of Princes the hatred of Magistrates and the fury of the People as St. Paul was their Pride would soon have been abated their hopes disappointed and the Natural love of ease and quiet together with the impatience to get out of so wretched a Condition would soon have superseded all other thoughts Besides those very Philosophers who so much despised riches and dignities despised them only out of self love but not for the sake of others since being little concern'd at the welfare of their neighbour they commonly retired into solitary places or kept company only with other wise men where they took pride in applauding one another for having renounced the World to give themselves wholly up to the study of Philosophy But here the Apostles forsook every thing to labour for the Conversion of mankind St. Paul made Tents as well as Abdolominus dug in a Garden but the one ceased not to perswade men by preaching the Gospel whilst the other minded nothing but his own repose and tranquillity Lastly the Philosophers had this consolation that however they renounced riches they esteemed themselves happy in the enjoyment of true Vertue For blinded as they were by self-conceit they were far from imagining their Vertue false and the Idea they had of its excellency was their only comfort for what they had lost of the things of this World Whereas St. Paul and the other Apostles being but Impostors as Irreligious men suppose could not have that comfort which arises purely from the sense of ones own Vertue but were wholly deprived of the support of a Good Conscence which keeps the soul from sinking under the greatest dangers and afflictions In a word consider this matter on which side you will still you will find somewhat singular in the conduct of St. Paul and that no Character equals his Apostolical Character But perhaps some will object that St. Paul seems to boast a little too much in some of his Epistles of the Excellence of his Revelations He writes to the Galatians Chap. 2. 9. that he had received nothing from the most excellent of the Apostles or rather that he was not behind even the very best of the Apostles That James Cephas and John who seemed to be Pillars of the Church had given him the right hand of fellowship Chap. 1. 16. that after he had been made an Apostle he did not confer with flesh and blood neither went he up to Jerusalem to be there approved of by the other Apostles Chap. 2. 11. that he withstood Peter to the face and blamed him because he deserved to be blamed But this difficulty cannot perplex those who shall be acquainted with the reasons that obliged St. Paul to speak and act thus There were several false Teachers among the Galatians who endeavoured to destroy the fruit of the preaching of that Apostle by joyning the Jewish Ceremonies to the Christian Faith and alledged for it the Authority of Peter James and John whom they had seen at Jerusalem He therefore fearing lest under pretence of following the Doctrine of the three principal Apostles of our Lord they should subvert his Work undertakes to shew that the Excellence of his Ministry was not in the least inferiour to that of any other Apostle Under this consideration he compares himself to the other Apostles in his Epistle to the Galatians beginning it after this manner Paul an Apostle not of men neither by man but by Jesus Crist and God the Father c. And t is upon the very same account that comparing himself in his second Epistle to the Corinthians to some Teachers who endeavoured to disturb him in his Ministry he expresses himself after this manner Chap. 11. v. 22 23 23 24 25 26 27 28 29. Are they Hebrews So am I Are they Israelites So am I Are they Ministers of Christ I speak as a fool I am more in labors more abundant in stripes above measure Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one Thrice was I beaten with rods Once was I stoned thrice I suffered shipwrack In journeying often in perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils by mine own countrey-men in perils by the heathen in perils among false brethren in weariness and painfulness in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and nakedness Besides those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily the care of all the Churches Who is weak and I am not weak Who is offended and I burn not Can any one suppose that St. Paul would have presumed to speak so particularly of all his afflictions and with so much confidence for the good of the Church whom certain Seducers would have disswaded from the faith if those afflictions had not been real and well known to the World If what he asserts had been false sure he must have perceived that far from silencing his Enemies this way he rather supplied them with new matter to reproach him with But if what he asserts was true who doubts but that he was strongly perswaded of the Truth of the Christian Religion when we see how much and in what manner he suffered in defence of the same What piece of imposture or mistaken principle can inspire a man with so much confidence as this Apostle shew'd Produce a wicked man that can undergo a continual Martyrdom in defence of a cheat and yet breath out nothing in all his Writings but Zeal Confidence and Charity Produce a wicked man who being just come out of Prison shall strive to re-enter into it and continue preaching a Gospel which has cost
to look upon that word as Divine which those Tongues have preached we cannot but look upon those Writings as Divine in which that Word it self is contained I hope that whosoever shall seriously reflect on the Connexion of all these principles will fully be perswaded that their Union is not to be dissolved If there was such a Book as the New Testament in the days of Clemens Polycarp and of the Primitive Fathers as without dispute there was that Book could never have been forg'd If the Book of the New Testament could not have been forg'd it is impossible but that certain publick matters of fact which are inserted in that Book as being publickly known by all the Christians are true And if those matters of fact are true it can never be denied but that the Apostles received the Holy Ghost If the Apostles did receive the Holy Ghost certainly their Writings must be looked upon as Divine I have made choice of these principles only among several others which I have established but lest any one should imagin that they subsist meerly by their Connexion I desire the Reader to remember that I have proved each of them apart by themselves after several different ways It is very true therefore that the New Testament as well as our Religion is divine for these two Truths are properly one and the same The Christian Religion can't be Divine if the Word or the Scripture which is the ruleof the Faith of its Professors be Humane and the Scripture can never be Divine unless the Christian Religion be of an heavenly Original and proceeded from God But it is fit that we should examin the Difficulties that are opposed against this grand principle CHAP. XIV Wherein we shall examin those Difficulties which may probably be raised against the foregoing Truths TRuth is an Enemy to all shifts and tricks let us therefore briefly consider what doubts we may possibly entertain in the foregoing Truths Let us give full scope to our imagination to frame what suspicions we can as to the persons of Jesus Christ and his Apostles their Miracles the Resurrection of our Lord and the extraordinary and miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost which were imparted to mankind by the hands of the Apostles themselves And I. to begin with the Person of Jesus Christ there are some who believe that Jesus Christ was an Essene and that he borrowed from that Sect the purity of his Morals and the soundness of his Doctrine And indeed it appears from the Description which Philo and Josephus gave us of that Sect that the Essenes lived among themselves in a perfect union that they possessed all things in Common that they looked upon one another as so many brethren and that they had very rational and sound Ideas of God and Religion All this pretty well agrees with the Nature of Chistianity Besides it does not appear that Jesus Christ ever opposed their Doctrine when he pronounced so many woes against the Scribes and Pharisees And if it be true that Jesus Christ borrowed his Doctrine from that Sect we should have less Reason to be surprised at his extraordinary Morality and Holiness of life But 't is easy to refute this notion if we consider that there was no such Sect as that of the Essenes in Galilee which was the native Country of Jesus Christ that the Essenes avoided all correspondence with other men as looking upon them as impure and prophane and for that reason dwelt not in any great Cities Whereas Jesus Christ travers'd Towns and Villages taught multitudes Preached in the Synagogues c. Besides the Essenes abhorr'd Matrimony whereas Jesus Christ made choice of such Disciples as were Married and lastly that he had several Fishermen to attend him but none of them were Essenes But II. May we not think that Jesus Christ ow'd his knowledge to his Education But how could that be For as much as he was bred up in the shop of a Carpenter as his Enemies themselves confess in their reproaches of him III. Some will object that 't was out of spite to the Scribes and Pharisees and other Rulers of the Jews that he first exclaimed so much against them and after invented on purpose to thwart them a Religion quite opposite to theirs But what had the Son of Mary to do with all those Teachers since he neither was Priest nor Levite nor pretended to any such dignities What should make him come in competition with them Besides it is not sufficient to assert that Jesus Christ seemed very much exasperated against their Doctrine and Behaviour it must also be considered whether he had not a great deal of reason to be so IV. 'T is objected that perhaps he was ambitious of being thought a Prophet or it may be not rightly understanding certain Oracles which seemed to determine at that time the coming of the Messias he really thought himself to be that Messias But nothing of this is true For Jesus Christ could not have thought himself to be the Messias out of meer simplicity and ignorance nor have endeavoured to make the World believe it out of malice or deceit We have no reason to believe the former if we consider his Morality and Doctrine and his holiness of life gives us no occasion to imagin the latter The incredulous will soon be reduced to an evident absurdity if they assert that Jesus Christ was the most ignorant or most wicked of men the most ignorant if he thought himself to be the Messias without being really so or the most wicked if he endeavoured to make other men believe it when he believed it not himself because one must be wilfully blind not to perceive that the Christian Religion proceeds both from a very clear principle and a good foundation too V. But may we not say the same of Mahomet The incredulous compare them often together They pretend that Jesus Christ and Mahomet might have been animated both with the same Spirit But of all the shifts of the Incredulous this is certainly their weakest and 't is a plain demonstration that they have no manner of Idea of the things they speak of when they insist upon this comparison For we can here produce several essential differences betwixt Jesus Christ and Mahomet Mahomet never pretended to Establish his Religion by working miracles although several have been imputed to him Whereas Jesus Christ desired no belief but upon the testimony of his extraordinary Miracles being willing thereby to convince the eyes and senses of his Disciples by sensible matters of fact and such miracles as he gave them also power to work themselves when he sent them forth to preach abroad his Resurrection and Miracles at the same time he threatned them with Death and eternal Damnation in case they should endeavour to deceive any body with fictions or even disguise the Truth it self Mahomet left no such prophecies behind him as have been accomplished whereas we have several of Jesus Christ which have
just going to shed the blood of Christians He went about afterwards preaching that he had seen Jesus Christ that a great light shone round about him that the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven were revealed unto him He affirmed that God had set him forth unto the World and that he became a Spectacle unto Men and Angels 1 Cor. 4. 9. If men will not credit his report let them try him by torments and see what effect they will have upon him Let them load him with Chains and cast him into Prison let them expose him to Wild beasts at Ephesus let the Elements Men and Devils be all at once set against him let them scourge him drag him along stone him let them bring him from Jerusalem to Cesarea from Cesarea to Rome increase and prolong his Afflictions Saul the Witness of the Synagogue 't is true recanted his opinion but Paul the Witness of Jesus will never recant his Having seen the strange alteration which happened to the Person of the Minister of the Synagogue let us reflect a little on that which happened to the Person of the Apostle of Jesus Christ Judas betrayed his Master and received for his reward thirty pieces of Silver But how comes it to pass he was so much disturbed after he had done it The Jews the Romans the People the Doctors the Magistrates and Judges all favoured his crime and let him go unpunished yet the remorse of his own Conscience tormented him to that degree that he could not rest any where and at length not being able to overcome his Despair he made away with himself and the Wisdom of God so ordered it that the Jews themselves preserv'd the memory of that astonishing event by buying with that mony a field which is since called Aceldama because it was the price of blood What a strange difference we find in these two Persons of Judas and Saul Judas killed himself in the midst of his Prosperity but Saul rejoyced in the midst of his afflictions Judas prevailed upon by the Synagogue could not be comforted by the same but died in despair Paul became the Disciple and Witness of Jesus and to him the Cross of Jesus was matter of the greatest joy God forbid says he Gal. 6. 14 that I should glory save in the Cross of my Saviour Christ by whom the World is crucified unto me and I unto the World Will any one believe that Judas was his own Executioner meerly out of remorse for having betray'd an Impostor to the Jews Or that St. Paul derived from the sense of his infidelity the courage he shewed in all his sufferings Certainly it may be very properly said that they were both the Martyrs of God but only with this difference that Judas was so against his will but Paul voluntarily If the constancy of the one testify'd in behalf of Jesus Christ the despair of the other was no small honour to him And the only difference is this that Paul was properly a Martyr but Judas in spite of himself a witness of the Truth of Religion CHAP. XVII Where we further answer the Objections of the Incredulous OF all the Objects which the Christian Religion offers to our understanding there is no one seems more to shock the Reason of a prejudiced and incredulous person than the Death of the Messias The Cross of Jesus Christ was according to the Expression of an Apostle a scandal to the Jew and a folly to the Greek But in our opinion there is nothing bears more visible characters of Greatness and Divinity than that does The Incredulous tell us that could we but rid our selves of all our prejudices we should be heartily ashamed to entertain such strange Ideas of God And we also tell them that could they once but free themselves of those passions which darken their understanding they would certainly admire with us the wonders of so Divine an object Who then is in the wrong in this thing That will best appear by the answers we shall make to their objections We find in the Person of Jesus Christ one who suffered himself to be seized upon and was afterwards nailed on a Cross not having any one to deliver him from the power of his Enemies This they object was a mark of his Weakness For say they had he been the King of the Jews why did he not come down from the Cross and all the World would have believed on him He died as one condemned by the grand Council of the Jews which God himself had established This was he as was found guilty He was seized with sorrowfulness even unto Death the day before his Passion and cried out bitterly when he gave up the Ghost This shews his wretched condition He was made to suffer a punishment proper only for Slaves It cannot therefore be doubted but that he died a most infamous Death And who can imagin that Weakness Guilt or at least Condemnation Wretchedness and Infamy should be the true Characters of the Son of God Thus the Incredulous argue We answer that Jesus Christ suffer'd by the determinate Council of God since the Scriptures foretold that he was to be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities that he was to make his Soul an offering for sin that he was to be cut off but not for himself And St. John the Baptist seeing him coming to him at a time wherein it was very unlikely he should ever suffer called him the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World John 1. 29. Jesus Christ suffered voluntarily he foretold all his own Sufferings to his Disciples inviting them to take up their Cross and follow him He told them that he had made choice of a Company of miserable and afflicted Wretches in the World who were notwithstanding to overcome the World and by their sufferings establish the Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth He freely owned to them that he was not come to settle peace in the World but the sword that God would smite the Shepherd and that the Sheep should be scattered that they were to drink of the same cup with him and be Baptised with his Baptism that is to taste the bitter cup of his Afflictions and be Baptised with him with a Baptism of Blood He intermixed his suffering with theirs that they might the better bear them in remembrance If we should in the least doubt whether Christ foretold his sufferings we need only consider the design of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the time wherein this Ceremony was instituted For unless we should call in question the real institution of that Sacrament and so affirm that the Disciples out of an unaccountable and fantastical Extravagance pretended only that Jesus Christ had instituted that Ceremony when there was no such thing it will appear that Jesus Christ foresaw his Death that he prepared himself for it and affirmed he suffer'd it voluntarily for the Salvation of Mankind The Sacrament of the Eucharist which he
three Years or three Years and an half as long as his Office lasted wrought more surprizing Miracles than have been either seen or known since the Beginning of the World And so to believe the Gospel is firmly to believe that Christ work'd those Miracles which are so often and so circumstantially repeated in it and so inseparable from the other Parts and Accidents of his Life It must not then be affirmed that the Primitive Christians embraced Christianity without enquiring in the least into the Miracles of Christ for that implies a Contradiction Neither must we say that they believed those Miracles without a due Examination of them Such Things as these indeed require no very great Examination but they could not avoid examining them had they endeavour'd it for 't is not wholly left to my Choice either to know or not to know the Things which are done in the Place which I inhabit neither does it wholly depend upon me to believe or not to believe certain matters of fact that are contradictory to publick Knowledge And tho' a Man under Pretence of Religion or otherwise should endeavour to make me believe he had raised a dead Man to Life again in a Village a few Miles distant from the Place I dwell in whom I might have both seen and known after his Resurrection or if I had not seen him my self many others had both seen and known and many went to see I say all this is no more left to my Choice to know or not to know than it is left to my Choice to be Mad or in my Senses For the better apprehending the Strength of this Argument I shall make this Supposition What if we being fully perswaded that Christ did all those Miracles the Gospel relates had gone up to the City of Jerusalem in the time of the Apostles themselves and reach'd thither just at the Evening of that Day of Pentecost on which St. Peter Converted so many People by convincing them that he had received the Holy Ghost I dare maintain first that we could not have forborn examining such Things which made so great a Noise then secondly I affirm that however willing we might have been to delude and impose upon our selves we could not have been so much as twenty four Hours at Jerusalem without knowing very distinctly the certain Truth of all those matters of fact It would have been no very great Trouble for us to have enquired how Lazarus did and his two Sisters Mary and Martha and tho' by chance they might have been all three dead to have desired to speak with their Friends and Relations or with those that had seen Lazarus and eaten with him both before and after his Resurrection In like manner we might have easily spoken with the Friends and Relations of Jairus and with those too of other People whom Christ had healed or raised from the Dead in the different Parts of Judea and Galilee and that was so much the more easy because Commerce was much more stirring between the Metropolis of Judea and the other Cities of the Holy Land than between the Metropolis and the other Cities of the other Provinces the Jews being wont to go up to Jerusalem at least on every solemn Feast-day Nay farther we might have enquired about the Truth or Falshood of those wonderful Prodigies which as the Gospel tells us attended the Death of Christ And since it was impossible that several thousand Witnesses should have been imposed upon concerning so great a number of evident and sensible matters of fact so in like manner it would have been absolutely impossible we should have become Christians only for twenty four hours after we had left Jerusalem supposing those matters of fact had been utterly false I have already shewn that the Life and Death of Jesus Christ were attended with such wonderful Circumstances as the Evangelists durst not have presumed to invent had they been utterly false neither had the Power to forge or make one single Person believe them had they design'd to impose upon Mens Belief There remains only for our full Conviction in this matter to shew that they would not have forged them had it been wholly left to their Choice I shall not here alledge that the Miracles of Jesus Christ according to the Recital of the Evangelists were attended with such Circumstances and so many strange Events that it is inconceivable the Disciples should take any Pleasure in inventing them such is for Example the tempting of our Saviour a strange and most scandalous Passage indeed to all those who are not fully acquainted with the true Mystery of it since it represents Christ to us as being in the hands of the Devil who sported himself with his Weakness tho' he was not able to overcome his Virtue one while placing him upon the Pinacle of the Temple whence he advised him to cast himself down another while upon an exceeding high Mountain from whence he shewed him all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them Now to see a Man in the hands of Satan would be a Sight that would shock us to see a just Man would be an Object more terrible but to see a Prophet himself would be a Wonder that would create Horror in us What must it be then to see a Divine Person in his Clutches or rather one that is both God and Man one that was called by way of Eminence the Just the Holy the Man without Sin or Blemish the greatest of all the Prophets in â—ine the Son of God himself He must necessarily be much mistaken that can imagine that such Thoughts as these could have naturally offered themselves to any Man's Mind much less to the Mind of Ignorant People who judge of Things by the Prejudices they are generally possest with 'T is true indeed Christ is represented to us in the Gospel as surrounded with Angels who ministred unto him after his Temptation but yet that Circumstance is so far from removing that which may seem offensive and surprising in that Event that it rather makes it the more strange and incomprehensible nothing so ill befitting a Man who was but just now in the Power of the Devil and carried about by him wherever he pleased as to be immediately after waited upon by Angels Add to this the uniting of so many mean Circumstances with so many glorious ones that occur in his Nativity in his Life and in his Death to instance in Christ's lying in a Manger whilst he was praised by the Hosts of Heaven his having not a Hole wherein to lay his Head whilst at the same time he commanded the Fishes of the Sea to bring him Mony to pay Tribute to those who asked it of him his shewing a great deal of Fear nay even apparent Weakness whilst he shook the whole Frame of the World and made the Earth tremble and the Sky to become dark his begging of his Father that the Cup of his Sufferings might pass away from
Christ into Heaven And how can any Man reasonably imagin that it was natural and according to the regular Course of second Causes to see a Man that had been crucified and laid in a Sepulcher where a Watch was appointed to guard him rise out of that Sepulcher again appear alive to several Men that touched and handled him and afterwards ascend into Heaven in their sight Certainly that very Ascension of Jesus Christ cannot but convince the most suspicious and scrupulous Person that it was an Event purely divine and supernatural For otherwise our Incredulous Adversaries might imagin since they are everlastingly raising Doubts that the Body of Jesus Christ might have been taken down from the Cross before the Breath was gone out of it that Joseph of Arimathea who was his Disciple tho he durst not own it publickly might have dress'd his Body and recover'd him out of his Swoon by the strength of the Remedies he gave him that he might have laid another counterfeit Dead-body in his place and buried it and that afterwards Jes Christ might have privately shewed himself to his Disciples not daring to appear in publick for fear of falling a second time into the hands of the Jews and suffering a true and real Death instead of that imaginary one he had suffered before But this Fiction is absurd and incredible and that for several Reasons First Because the Evangelists relate that Christ had his Side pierced with the Lance of a Soldier which thing alone was enough to give him his Death Secondly It is very improbable to think that the Jewish Sanhedrin who had condemned him to die nay who had taken such care to set a Watch over his Sepulcher should yet suffer his Body to be taken down from the Cross before the Breath was gone out of it Lastly because it can never be supposed that a Man who hung several Hours together on a Cross should yet escape Death and shew himself not long after safe and sound to his Disciples But that which will immediately remove all these Doubts is that Jesus Christ not only rose from the Dead but also ascended into Heaven in the sight of his Disciples And this is so sensible and evident a matter of fact that they could never have been imposed upon in that respect So that it may very well be affirmed that the Argument for the Truth of the Christian Religion chiefly depends upon that Important Inquiry whether the Disciples designed to impose upon us by relating to us a false Event which they did not believe themselves Now if we can clearly prove the contrary we shall invincibly demonstrate the certain Truth of our Faith Let us therefore in order to it closely stick to the Examination of that matter of fact the most essential and the most important that ever was and endeavour to discover whether it be possible we should have been imposed upon by those Men which could not deceive themselves If we would suppose that the Disciples of Jesus Christ deceived us in their relation of a fictitious Event we must also necessarily suppose these three things 1. That their Illusion or Imposture must be a thing that was possible to be put in Execution 2. That it must be of some Use or other to them 3. That it must be such as Men and only Men make use of Now it is certain that their pretended Illusion here in question could not have any of these three Qualities 1. It could not have been possible because it must have been agreed upon by many Persons who all knew the bare Truth of the matter of fact it self 2. It would have been of no use for what could those Men propose to themselves in inventing such a Fiction 3. It could not be such as Men usually contrive because from the Beginning of the World till now we never heard of any Man that invented Lyes on purpose to have the pleasure of being hanged scourged burnt or executed upon a Scaffold 1. As to the first I 'll grant you if you will that Peter with some other Disciples might have taken away the Body of Jesus Christ out of the Sepulcher either by tricking the Watch or taking the Advantage of their sleeping or lastly by bribing them with Mony I 'll grant you too if you will they might have easily perswaded the whole Company of Disciples who were too credulous and too eager in swallowing of Novelties that Jesus Christ had appeared to them indeed and that he was risen from the Dead I 'll grant you likewise that the other Disciples might have imagined thereupon they had seen some Visions or thought they had seen him in several Places and on several Occasions but then I ask How they could have all agreed together concerning the truth of his Ascension By what Charm or Cunning could Peter and the other Apostles have made them see that which they never saw or heard a Man speak whom they really never heard By what Machine could they have caused the Clouds to descend Or by what sort of Inchantment could they have produced two Men in white Raiments telling them Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go up into Heaven Acts 1. 11. By what secret Power could they have so deeply imprinted in the Minds of the Disciples the Words which Jesus Christ spoke to them after his Resurrection the Reproaches he made them of their Infidelity his Promise of sending the Holy Ghost to them his forbidding them to depart from the City of Jerusalem and the Command he gave them to Baptise all Nations in the Name of the Father the Son and Holy Ghost I say how could they have done all this if all these things were but the witty Conceits of their Imagination and Fancy Certainly tho St. Peter or some other Disciple of Jesus Christ should have formed to himself the Design and Plan of so Signal a Cheat and tho he should have set down in writing all the Articles one by one which he was obliged to make other Men believe against the plain Truth yet he could never have been so bold as to propose any such thing to those Men who were prepossessed with the Opinion that Lying was a great Sin but Truth and Sincerity on the contrary a great Vertue Nay it is even impossible it should ever come into his Head to frame so Signal an Imposture upon so sad and sorrowful an Event as the Death of Jesus Christ Neither does it appear that his Mind or his Thoughts were any ways bent upon any such Design And tho he should have been induced out of a Spirit of Revenge to invent such a Lye to discredit the Scribes and Pharisees yet it can't be supposed he should have been so very silly as to imagin that the rest of the Disciples would consent to that Imposture or be willing to maintain it
Man would conceive or endeavour to put in Practice It is absolutely impossible to find any Man so much an Enemy to himself as willingly to lose his Quiet his Liberty Friends Relations and all his Acquaintance only to assert and defend a Lye that must unavoidably be attended by such fatal and sorrowful Consequences For Nature is not insensible of Grief and Pain As she is exposed to Griefs and Sufferings so when she suffers 't is with Reluctance Complaints Sighs and Tears She cannot accustom her self to bear slightly Contempt or Infamy Nothing disturbs and exasperates her more nothing makes her more impatient than Mortifications and Disgraces How then is it possible so great a Company of People should on a sudden renounce all those inviolable Sentiments of Nature which no Violence can root out on purpose to maintain that they had seen a thing which they really never saw This is a Consideration that cannot be too often repeated Lastly it is such a Design as is not in the nature of Man to conceive For to maintain an Imposture with such Constancy as the Disciples did is such a piece of extraordinary Courage as is above the Nature or Power of Man An Impostor that thinks and knows himself to be one whose Mind tells him that he acts contrary to his Natural Sentiments cannot go long undiscover'd He is seiz'd with Remorse and his Conscience is awakened He trembles and unwarily discovers himself to the World upon the least danger he meets with He is ready to confess the whole Cheat as soon as he is brought before his Judges and is frighted with the Punishments of a secular Power and he never fails of betraying himself either by confessing the whole Business or maintaining what he has advanced after so weak and fearful a manner that he will not be long if but closely urg'd to it before he discovers the whole Truth For such is the usual Temper of Men upon such an Occasion And if a single Person that should not act thus in this respect would be looked upon as an unheard of Prodigy how much more shall an infinite number of People be looked upon as such Who can imagin that so many Persons should either on a sudden renounce their humane Nature or be of a different make from all other Men since the Beginning of the World For my part I cannot conceive how it should be and therefore look upon this as a most sensible and evident Truth But we must yet carry on this Conviction further by following those Notions which it has pleased God in his Wisdom to put into our Mind upon this Subject CHAP. V. The fourth Center of Truth A particular Consideration of the Effusion of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost upon the Disciples THE last Degree of Evidence that occurs in the Demonstration which sensibly proves to us the Truth of the Christian Religion is the Truth of a fourth matter of fact naturally proved by its own proper Characters and that is the Effusion of the Holy Ghost on the Disciples of Jesus Christ This Demonstration of the truth of Christian Religion has three different Degrees of Evidence which also consist in the three Parts of the Testimony of the Apostles The first whereof is this Jesus Christ the Son of Mary did such Actions as cannot but be supernatural and miraculous such are for instance the Resurrection of the Dead which we have been Eye-witnesses of The second is We even we our selves have received the Power to work Signs and Wonders and such as are equal to those of Jesus Christ himself as he foretold and declared it several times unto us The third is We have not only the power to do those Miracles but can also impart it to others and those we shall hereafter convert will know themselves to be the true Disciples of Jesus Christ in that they shall work Signs like unto ours and to those which Jesus Christ himself wrought The first Degree of this Evidence must necessarily convince us For it is a very convincing Demonstration indeed to have present to one's Eyes nay in ones own Disposal and Power the Witnesses of the Miracles of Jesus Christ and such Eye-witnesses too that both heard what he said saw every thing he did familiarly conversed with him and often question'd him concerning the Difficulties that offered themselves to their Mind and lastly such Witnesses who all unanimously deposed the very same matter of fact and boldly maintain'd it even in the midst of the most cruel Torments And yet such Witnesses as these had those who were first converted to the Christian Faith But it is a thing yet somewhat more perswasive to hear those Men affirm that they had not only seen the Miracles of Jesus Christ but that they themselves were able to work the same Miracles Certainly of all the Witnesses in the World those are soonest to be received and believ'd who proffer to shew you the very Things they testify But what seems to me to be the last Degree of Evidence and the clearest Demonstration is that those very Witnesses undertook to convince Men of those matters which they affirmed to be true not only by relating those Miracles which they saw Jesus Christ do not only by profering to do the like themselves but also by promising to enable those People who should believe their Words to operate the very same things For they imparted the extraordinary and miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost to their Proselytes as it appears by the Example of the Centurion Cornelius And those Gifts became afterwards so frequent and visible that Simon Magus would have bought them for Mony They were so very remarkable that they made great and publick Impressions on the Minds of several Jews who were already converted to the Gospel of our Lord and praised God for his having also visited the Gentiles Lastly the Gospel which those Disciples preached tells us that such should be the Signs that followed the true Disciples of Jesus Christ namely that they should heal the Sick c. Certainly how strong soever the obstinacy and prejudices of the Incredulous may be yet they cannot any longer hold out against the powerful Convictions of that threefold Truth It is impossible that the Disciples should bear witness to the Miracles of Jesus Christ if they had not been true neither can we suppose they would have had the Boldness Power or Will to do it It is impossible they should have contrived together such an unparallel'd Imposture by agreeing among themselves to preach the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ of which they were never Witnesses But it is extravagant to imagin that the Apostles boasted they were able to do Miracles meerly to have other Men believe those of Jesus Christ and it argues yet a greater Extravagance to suppose they promised all those they should convert to him to make them able to work the very same Miracles they attested Besides we are to consider two things in
Neither was it because of his extraordinary Piety For Moses called the meekest of Men was without doubt in that equal to him 'T was then because of the advantage he enjoyed both in Seeing and Hearing the Messias But how comes our Saviour to add that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven was greater than him Must we understand by the Kingdom of Heaven that Kingdom of which John himself said the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Was it not rather because John saw none of all the Wonders of that Kingdom which the least of Christ's Disciples had seen Which indeed was the reason that our Saviour told them Blessed are your Eyes for they see and your Ears for they hear For verily I say unto you that many Prophets and righteous Men have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them Matth. 13. 16 17. Now all this evidently supposes the Miracles of Christ and all the other marvellous Events which serve for a Confirmation of our holy Religion What he also said himself concerning Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is altogether strange and very surprising Nay the very name he gave to that sin implies something in itself Singular and Extraordinary For no body before him ever expressed himself after this manner Men were not ignorant that sinning against God was a very great Crime but they had no Knowledge of the sin against the Holy Ghost much less were they satisfied if there was any harm in Blaspheming against him This unusual Language necessarily proceeded from a new Revelation and from new and different objects not seen or heard of before For the Jews knew not what the Holy Ghost was if we take that word in the Sense of the Evangelists Nay there were some of them who tho converted to the Gopsel of Christ yet still were ignorant of the true meaning of that Expression In the mean while if we will but consult the Writings of the New Testament and therein the Gospels the Acts of the Holy Apostles and the Epistles of those great and extraordinary Men they will presently inform us that by the Holy Ghost must be understood in most of those places the extraordinary and miraculous Gifts of the Holy Spirit imparted to the Men of those days and that to Blaspheme against him is downright Blasphemy against that Divine and Glorious Principle of all things which was the cause of all the Perfections and Miracles of Christ and gave such Power unto Men. So that there is first in that Text such an obscurity as proves that the Evangelists could not have thought of inventing it had not Christ himself really utter'd these very words and secondly it undeniably supposes the miraculous matters of fact the Pharisees were wont to ascribe to the Power of Belzebub wherein indeed Chiefly consisted the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost In like manner this Text Except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit John 3. 5. implies a very puzling Difficulty because it was not usual formerly for Men to express themselves after this manner It is a very difficult matter indeed to understand the true meaning of that Text but it is yet far more difficult to invent it and all the Doctors in the World might put their Heads together and yet never be able to invent the like Text. Above all it was not natural for the Jews to invent any such thing because they had no such objects amongst them as could fill up their Minds with any such Ideas When we suppose the Baptism of the Holy Spirit confer'd upon Christ's Disciples we may then easily comprehend the true meaning of that mysterious but very remarkable Expression We might also add to this Text that other which mentions the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire In like manner it pleased God in his Wisdom that they who related to us the History of Christ's Resurrection should tell us also some things which we cannot at first view easily comprehend tho they have a true and reasonable meaning on purpose to make us understand that as it was impossible those obscure and difficult sayings ascribed to him by them should come of themselves into their thoughts had not he really spoke them so consequently it can never be supposed that those Men should have forg'd the History of Christ's Resurrection or their Discourses with him after he was risen from the Dead as for instance these Words which he spake to Mary touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father John 20. 17. We could make almost an infinite number of such Remarks as these which tho' they cannot come up to an evident Demonstration yet are very proper to make us sensible of the Truth of those matters of fact we are now speaking of The Sincerity of the Disciples will further appear by the great number of Circumstances with which their Narrative is fill'd some whereof are so singular that they can't easily enter into any Man's Mind and others so unbecoming their Master or dâ—â—â—dvantageous to themselves that there is not the least Probability they could have any Desire to forge them others are so inseparably united with those Events which must necessarily have been well known that they durst not so much as think of forging them against the publick Knowledge every body must have had of them as we have already proved at large But lastly 't is not our present Design to insist purely upon probable Reasons tho' never so probable and sufficient of themselves to form a true and perfect Demonstration when joyned together I therefore proceed to that which is in itself wholly Demonstrative Now the whole Demonstration of the Truth of Christian Religion depends upon this Argument namely that the Apostles and Disciples of Christ sincerely believed his Miracles Resurrection Ascension and the Effusion of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost whence it follows that all those matters of fact are most certainly true We have already given an invincible proof of the Consequence of this Argument by shewing that it was impossible the Disciples should have been imposed upon in all these matters of fact that tho' they might have been deceived in the Miracles of Christ yet they could not be imposed upon in his Resurrection that tho' they should have been imposed upon in his Resurrection yet they could not be deceived in his Ascension and that tho' they should have been deceived in his Ascension yet they could not be so too in the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost which are matters of fact that they knew by inward sense and continual Experience I prove also the Principle of this Argument viz. that the Disciples of Christ sincerely believed all those matters of fact by the same Gradation I say then that the Disciples could not impose upon Men as to the Miracles of Christ not only because they asserted them at the Expence of their own
Mankind or at least those Countreys where all those things came to pass I answer first those matters of fact were not in the least stifled or concealed They were so far from it that they converted an infinite number both of Jews and Gentiles and that too in a very short time Secondly there were several external Causes which very much contributed towards the weakning the Impression they would otherwise have made upon Mankind For first the Elders amongst the Jews endeavour'd as much as they could to perswade the People that all those Miracles were nothing but the product of some Magick Power or a kind of compact with the Devil Secondly Those that were in Power were so much exasperated against the Disciples of Christ that whosoever resolved to embrace his Doctrine must immediately prepare himself to be cast into a Dungeon or executed upon a scaffold Nay to undergo if possible any thing more sorrowful and fatal than this And because nothing makes a greater Impression upon Men than to see Punishments inflicted on others all Parents strictly charged their Children not to hold any Conversation with the Christians least they should see them end their days in the midst of Torments Nay they were very cautious and strict themselves in avoiding their Society which was the reason that keeping such an extraordinary distance from the Christians they shut their Eyes and stopped their Ears that they might not hear their Words nor see the Miracles which they perform'd Thirdly The Doctrine of the Apostles was so contrary to the Opinion the Jews had been prepossessed with that they could not but hate and avoid it For the Cross of Christ became a scandal to the Jews and was treated as a folly by the Greeks Lastly The Christian Religion putting an end to the bondage of the Law and the Religion of the Heathens a Jew then could not be converted to Christanity without utterly renouncing what he always esteemed inviolable nor could a Heathen believe in Jesus Christ without looking upon that as profane which he thought before most sacred Hence it is that the holy Scripture speaks to us of the effects of the Gospel attended with the power of the Holy Ghost as of the Creation of new Heavens and of a new Earth If we add to this the extraordinary care the Jewish and Heathenish Priests and the Magistrates of both Nations took to smother the light of the Gospel and the Weaknesses and Passions of Men who were unable to sustain so much as the Idea of the torments that were invented on purpose to hinder the progress of Christanity I say if we consider this we shall have no Reason to be any longer astonish'd at that which at first view so much surprised us But secondly it may be asked why the Historians among the Heathens never mention'd any thing of those mighty Wonders of the Gospel which yet deserved to have the most considerable place amongst the many other Events they have so carefully related We answer That this Consideration proves nothing against the truth of those Matters of fact we have so firmly established First because it is needless and extravagant to draw any further Consequences from a Principle which proves more than enough already 'T is true the Heathen Writers say little or nothing concerning Jesus Christ for they hardly knew his Name Suetonius speaks of him after this manner Judaei tumultuati sunt Cresto impulsore But what then Does it follow that because Suetonius hardly knew the Name of Christ that there was no such Person as Christ or that he was not really called Christus The Heathen Authors you see relate not how several Christian Churches were in a small time settled at Rome at Corinth at Ephesus at Sardis at Smirna at Philippi at Thessalonica c. But must it follow from thence that there was no such thing Certainly if any matters of fact were true this was undoubtedly true I grant indeed that the Miracles Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ were all matters of fact that might be doubted of yet we may at least affirm that the Establishment of those Christian Churches composed of such Men as believed all those things was a thing not to be doubted of This was a matter of fact very important and remarkable Yet it was not in the least mention'd by the Historians of that Age therefore the Objection goes too far it proves too much and so consequently proves nothing Secondly I say that the Historians of those Times have so ignorantly treated of the Jewish Affairs that we need not wonder they appear so little instructed in the Knowledge of what concerned the Christians whom they supposed to have been a Sect belonging to the Jews For if it appears that the History those Authors composed of them agrees not very well with the Gospel of the Apostles 't is but comparing it with that of Josephus and we may clearly see that it agrees no better with one than with the other Lastly the Heathen Authors consider'd the Christian Religion as a kind of Magick and a detestable Superstition which aimed at the total Destruction of Mankind It is certain that some Men earnestly endeavour'd to make it pass for such among those who lived both in the Time of the Apostles and long after them and it was very dangerous to give it any other Name The World was divided between the Friends and Enemies of Christanity Those who were the Friends of it professed it and deliver'd not only by word of Mouth but in Writing what they knew concerning the Wonders of it As for its Enemies they neither had the Boldness Power or Will to write ofit as the former had done They would not do it lest they should wrong their own Cause and dishonour their own Religion And they could not do it because they themselves were not so well acquainted with the Miracles of Christanity having always been afraid to converse with the Christians and esteemed the Belief of those Men a very sorrowful and dangerous Persuasion since by professing their Religion they were sure of getting nothing but Torments and Death it self Lastly they durst not presume to write things as they really were tho' they had been never so well acquainted with them because their own Writings would accuse them of having embraced Christianity a Crime which was so severely punish'd in those days that it would unavoidably have brought upon them certain Death and Ruin or at least after their Death Shame and Infamy upon their Families But thirdly it may be asked why the Apostles who had Power to heal the Sick and raise the Dead did not raise all the Dead to Life again nor heal all the sick that were in Judea because then all the World would have been forced in spite of themselves to believe in Jesus Christ We answer That this Question is much like what the Murtherers of Jesus Christ said to him upon the Cross He saved others let him save himself let him come
down from the Cross and we will believe in him Nay it is all one as if a Man should say If there be a God why does he not shew and manifest himself after a sensible manner by speaking to men immediately from the highest Heavens and then they would all be forced in spite of themselves to acknowledge him But God does not desire us to acknowledge him against our own Inclinations and consequently he is not obliged to manifest himself as we in our extravagant Desires would have him but as it seemeth best to his infinite Wisdom Had Christ or his Apostles raised all the Dead they found to Life again we should then contrary to the Design of the Almighty have had no other Faith but what depended entirely upon our Senses It is enongh that they healed almost an infinite number of Sick People and raised not only one but several Dead Men to Life So much indeed was absolutely necessary to confirm the Truth of their Calling Because they were not only to make Men believe in a crucified Saviour and adore him as the Son of God but also to oblige them for the Confirmation of their Faith to undergo Martyrdom More than this would have been but superfluous because they were not obliged to alter the Oeconomy of Faith but only to perfect it not to make Men believe against their own Inclinations but conformably to the Lights of their own Understanding But tho' I should grant all these Difficulties to be greater than they really are yet we ought to regulate our speculative Opinions by some Arguments drawn from matters of fact and not on the contrary regulate the Arguments drawn from matters of fact by any speculative Opinions And this is such a general Maxim that it holds good in all respects Many Difficulties arose at first about the Belief of the Antipodes Some pretended that such an Opinion was contrary to Reason others affirmed it could never be reconciled to the Principles of Religion And both Parties raised several notable Objections against it But as soon as the thing was evidently proved from undeniable matter of fact all their Objections and Difficulties were turned into Ridicule Some Philosophers have pretended to prove by Arguments that Motion is impossible But since we have daily Experience that there is such a thing as Motion we let these Philosophers talk on and chuse rather to believe our own Senses And I dare affirm without begging any Excuse for the Boldness of my Assertion that there never were nor never will be any matters of fact against which we might not raise several plausible Objections and considerable Difficulties that are meerly speculative Some are daily raised against the Flux and Reflux of the Sea against the Attraction of the Loadstone with Iron the Source or Head of the River Nile against Comets and Meteors nay even against the peopling of the World and the Propagation of Mankind We readily grant the Incredulous that several considerable Difficulties may be raised against the Mysteries of Religion as we see there are no less considerable ones daily raised even against the Mysteries and secret Operations of Nature But I still affirm that we must renounce the Evidence of Sense if we prefer any Difficulties of meer Speculation before those Arguments which are taken from undeniable matters of fact Tho' we should argue only upon the Nature of Things and the Principles of Natural Religion it would appear if we compare the Obscurities which cause those Difficulties with the Evidences which clear them that the latter would gain more upon our Belief than the former and this Truth we think we have sufficiently proved in our first Part of this Work But tho' we should meet with nothing else but Difficulties in those natural Principles without any Lights at all to clear them yet ought we to banish all Scruples and Doubts that arise meerly from Speculation the better to embrace the Opinion which proceeds from the Arguments drawn from undeniable matters of fact unless we have a mind to be guilty of an Absurdity not to be met with which is wholly contrary to common sense and Reason But having thus evinced the Truth of the Essentials of our Religion namely those matters of fact contained in the Writings of the Apostles it remains only that we make Men further sensible of them by laying down a few short Remarks which we shall make on several places of the New Testament whose whole Purport shall be either to perswade us that the Apostles did really teach all these matters of fact or assure us that they sincerely believed the things which they declared or else to make it appear that they could not have been imposed upon in those matters of fact For from those three principles is formed the Demonstration of the Truth of the Christian Religion SOME REFLEXIONS ON THE Gospel according to S. Matthew CHapt II. 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea behold there came Wisemen c. Those Wise-men were of all Nations the first that came to pay their Homage to Jesus Christ The Priests and Elders amongst the Jews being consulted concerning the Birth of the Messias freely owned he was to be born in Bethlehem and were quite of another Opinion than the Modern Jews who pervert the Meaning of the Prophecy of Micah Chap. 5. As to what concerns us we affirm that the History of the coming of the Wise-men could not be falsely invented I. Because it agrees admirably with the Prophecy of Balaam Numb 24. 17. where he Cries out I shall sâ—e him but not now I shall behold him but not nigh There shall come a Star out of Jacob and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel A Star of the Wise-men indeed and a Scepter of Jesus Christ II. The Evangelist could not have made the whole City of Jerusalem believe that they were troubled and astonisht at the Coming of those Wise-men and much less perswaded the Inhabitants against their own publick Knowledge that Herod had so barbaroufly shed so much Innocent Blood III. Herod must necessarily have been told that the Christ or Messias was to be born in Bethlehem because thither he sent directly the Ministers of his execrable fury IV. And lastly Joseph fled into Egypt and was afraid to return again into Judea when he heard that Archelaus Reigned in the room of his Father Herod A Circumstance that wonderfully agrees with all the rest Chapt. III. 1. In those days came John the Baptist In this Chapter John foretells the Destruction of the Jews in these Words O generation of Vipers who has warned you to fly from the wrath to come and now also the ax is laid to the root of the Tree therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire c. He foretells also the Effusion of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles in these words I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance but he that
the Divinity of the Christian Religion St. MARK CHapt I. 14. Now after that John was put in Prison Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God c. All these Expressions the Gospel or good Tidings the Gospel of the Kingdom of God c. are very strange and extraordinary And because our Ears are somewhat used to them we do not reflect on them so much as we ought Certainly it must be a strange kind of mutual agreement that several Fishermen made together to go preaching about the World and call the Subject of their preaching by the name of Gospel Chap. IV. 19. And the Cares of this World and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things entring in choke the word c. T is not usual for other Men thus to declare open War against their Passions or if they do they fail not presently to discover themselves and lay open their own Hypocrisy to the World Vers 41. And they said one to another what manner of Man is this that even the Winds and Sea obey him c. We too may as well say what manner of Man is this that not only the Sea and Winds but Diseases Graves Death Hell Earth Men and Devils all obey him For it is observable there was nothing within the bounds of Nature but what was sensible of his Miracles Chap. VI. 2 3. From whence has this Man these things And what wisdom is this which is given unto him that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands Is not this the Carpenter the son of Mary c. Whence rather proceeds this astonishment of theirs and what is the reason of this sort of reproach had not Christ wrought several Miracles amongst them Vers 4 5 6. But Jesus said unto them a prophet is not without honour but in his own Country c. And he could not do many mighty works there save that he laid his hand upon a few sick folk and he healed them And he marvelled because of their unbelief Every thing in this passage carries with it an Air of Truth without the least semblance of Falsity For he that would invent a story and desire other Men should believe it would never make choice of such Circumstances as these Vers 56. And whithersoever he entred into villages or Cities or Countries they laid the Sick in the Streets and besought that they might touch if it were but the border of his Garment and as many as touched him were made whole It is impossible for any Man to impose upon other People in such matters of fact as these Chap. VIII 27 28. And by the way he asked his Disciples saying unto them Whom do Men say that I am And they answered some say John the Baptist but some say Elias and others one of the Prophets Here we may observe what a great Impression Christ 's Miracles had already made upon other Mens minds Chap. XIV 33. And He began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy To own that Jesus Christ was reduced to this State nay him whom they would have Men look upon as the Son of God is the effect of a strange and surprizing sincerity Vers 62. And Jesus said I am And ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of Power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven Did ever any Criminal brought before a Tribunal of Justice speak thus Chap. XVI 17 18 20. And these signs shall follow them that believe in my name they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with strange Tongues they shall take up Serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay hands on the Sick and they shall recover c. And they went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the word with Signs c. Either all these matters of fact must have been necessarily true or St. Mark must have been strangely besides himself when he related them Let us consider What is it that he relates Or whom did he design to impose upon nay what time did he choose to effect it How could he possibly perswade the Disciples that they had done such Miracles as they were never able to do And how should they perswade themselves that Christ had given them that power to do Miracles which they never received St. LUKE Chap. I. 64. And his mouth was opened immediately and his Tongue loosed and he spake and praised God And fear came on all that dwelt round about them and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the Hill Country of Judea No man is so mad as to pretend to impose upon Men's belief in matters of fact so publick as these he would rather make choice of passages scarce heard of or at least but obscurely known Chap. II. 16. And found Mary and Joseph and the Babe lying in a Manger Great was the exactness of these Writers in giving us a simple Relation of things as they really were What can seem more contrary and irreconcilable one with another than all these Circumstances A Child sleeping in a Manger but a Child whose Nativity was declared even by Angels and celebrated by all the Host of Heaven a Child that was banished the Society of Men but elevated in dignity even above the blessed Spirits a Child that was inconsiderable and of no esteem on Earth but great in Heaven and adored by Angels that was indeed a while after his Birth worshipped by some Wise-men that brought him Presents but soon â—orced to fly into Egypt for the safety of his Life Certainly there appears nothing like a Fiction in all these Circumstances Chap. V. 19. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude they went upon the House-top and let him down through the tiling with his Couch into the midst before Jesus Do such things as these enter easily of themselves into a Man's mind who writes nothing but of his own invention Chap. VII 38. And she stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with Tears and did wipe them with the Hairs of her Head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the Ointment 'T was easie to know the Redeemer of the World by that saving alteration he was seen to make in those that followed him Chap. IX 45. But they understood not this saying and it was hid from them that they perceived it not Great indeed was the Evangelists sincerity who stuck not to own the ignorance and stupidity of the Disciples Chap. X. 19. 20. Behold I give unto you Power to tread on Serpents and Scorpions and over all the Power of the Enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you Notwithstanding in this rejoyce not that the Spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoyce because your Names are written in Heaven A certain Character of true Religion indeed which sets a greater value upon
represents the Disciples continually fasting and praying could not devise that matter of fact supposing it to be false He would be very extravagant that should believe that the Apostles led an ill course of Life and plunged themselves in all sorts of lewd Debaucheries Their Words their Actions convince us of the contrary Yet it may be said that they were Villains indeed if what they preached was false But if they were downright plain honest Men as their speech necessarily evinces to us then was their preaching also necessarily true Vers 12. Then the Deputy when he saw what was done believed being astonished at the Doctrine of the Lord. 'T would argue but little Judgment in any one that designs to impose a Fiction upon Men's belief to pitch upon Circumstances as are contrary to publick knowledge The Conversion of a Deputy was certainly an Event very remarkable Chap. XV. 39. And the contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder one from the other and so Barnabas took Mark and sailed unto Cyprus This Historian is very exact in relating the least occurrences He is sincere too since he scruples not to relate the Contentions which arose among the Apostles themselves Chap. XX. 12. And they brought the young Man alive and were not a little comforted Can any thing be more surprising or convincing than the Resurrection of the Dead Chap. XXIV 25. And as he reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Felix trembled and answered go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee Great indeed was the Divine efficacy of his words which made a Judge tremble sitting on his Tribunal of Justice and before the Chains of his Prisoner Chap. XXVIII 30 31. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired House and received all that came unto him preaching the Kingdom of God c. Here endeth the History of the Acts of the holy Apostles written by St. Luke 'T is manifest he compiled it before the Destruction of Jerusalem because he mentions nothing of that Event Neither do the Gospels or Epistles of the Apostles speak of it But they often speak of the sudden coming of the Lord or of the Judgments he had resolved to execute upon the Jewish Nation CAHP. IX Wherein we shall yet farther produce from the Epistles of St. Paul St. Peter and St John several Texts very proper to make us truly sensible of the Divinity of the Christian Religion Epistle to the Romans CHap. I. 1 2 3 4. Paul the Servant of Jesus Christ called to be an Apostle separated unto the Gospel of God c. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the Flesh and declared to be the Son of God with Power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the Dead Men generally insert all their Titles in the Epistles they write but St. Paul inserts the whole Gospel in his And what was the reason of it Because his Mind and Heart were so full of it that he could not speak of any thing else Jesus Christ was his Alpha and his Omega his Beginning and his End Vers 7. To all that â—e in Rome beloved of God called to be saints Grace be unto you and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Did ever Man before him write in this stile He directs his Discourse to those only that were called to be Saints He does not vainly complement them after the usual way of the World but wishes them the Peace and Grace of God Certainly he would not have wrote thus had he been an Impostor or an Enemy to his Country Men who endeavoured to render them odious throughout the World by accusing them of an imaginary Crime Vers 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth c. How strongly perswaded must that Man be of what he says who expresses himself after so pathetical a manner And how well does the fulness of his mind appear by all these manifold and multiplied expressions Chap. VIII 37 38 39. Nay in all these things we are more than conquerours through him that loved us For I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels c. An immoveable Constancy indeed and a Divine confidence which he so naturally set down and which could not possibly arise from the Soul of an Impostor Chap. XI 28 29. As concerning the Gospel they are Enemies for your sake but as touching the Election they are beloved for the Father's sake For the Gifts and calling of God c. Why did St. Paul here speak so movingly and tenderly of the Jews And why did he earnestly endeavour to soften and mitigate the Minds of the Gentiles towards them Whence comes that inclination both of his Heart and Affections to favour those implacable Enemies who sought nothing but his Destruction and Ruin Certainly a Man that had forsaken his own Nation out of spight or a desire of revenge could not be of such a Temper Chap. XII 2. And be not conformed to this World but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind c. We have here a Man who having been wholly changed having acquired new Knowledge new Habits and new Affections speaks of nothing but of being transformed renewed and becoming a New Creature c. A Man who having been enlightned in his way to Damascus speaks of nothing but of illumination of a Light that shone from Heaven of a Kingdom of Light A Man in fine who having had mercy shewn him in the midst of the fury of his persecutions speaks of nothing but Pardon and Grace T is an easy matter to collect his History from his very expressions Vers 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love in Honour preferring one another not slothful in business fervent in Spirit serving the Lord Rejoycing in hope patient in tribulation continuing instant in prayer distributing to the necessity of Saints given to hospitality Bless them which persecute you bless and curse not rejoyce with them that do rejoyce c. Can we suppose these to be the words or thoughts of an Impostor Chap. XIII 5. Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake Religion as it were Cements the good and welfare of a State and Piety seems inseparable from the publick good of a Society because God by whose appointment Kings reign is the prime Author of Religion Vers 12 14 The night is far spent the day is at hand c. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof This Author's words continually follow and express his thoughts He considered the Gospel as a Light that dissipated all the erroneous Darkness and Ignorance of his Mind he considered
the Paper it is written upon yet they are enjoyned to oppress Men that bear the Image of God by their Religion which breaths out nothing but Violence Fury and Oppression The Reason why Men usually refer thus every thing to their Senses is because a Worship that is corporeal and sensual is far more easie It is much easier for a Man to take the Sun for a God than to be continually taken up in seeking after a God that is invisible to solemnize Games and Festivals in honour of a pretended Deity than to renounce himself for the sake of a true one 'T is much easier for him to fast than to renounce his Vices to sing spiritual Songs or bow to a Statue than forgive his Enemies It appears then that the Christian Religion bears a more excellent Character in that it gives us for the Object of our Worship not a God under an human Shape but a God that is a Spirit in that it teaches us to honour him not with a carnal but a Spiritual Worship And this Christ himself has very elegantly told us in these Words God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth John 4. 24. Who could fill his Mind with such elevated Notions And how comes it that he so excellently sets down in that short Precept the Genius of true Religion of which Men before were wholly ignorant V. It may be said of all other Religions without Exception that they induce us to look after the Pleasures and Profits of the World in the Worship of God whereas the Christian Religion makes us glorify God by renouncing the World Thus the Heathens designing rather to please themselves than their Deities introduced into Religion whatever could any ways flatter and divert them And the Mahumatan Religion not being Incumbred with many Ceremonies at least affixes temporal Advantages to the Practice of its Worship as if the Pleasures of the World were to be the future Reward of Religion But certainly both of them are much mistaken for the Heathens should have known that the Worship of God consisted not in diverting and pleasing themselves and the Mahumetans should not have been ignorant that since temporal and worldly Advantages were insufficient in themselves to satisfy the boundless Desires of Man's Heart they could not come in Competition with those Benefits which true Religion had peculiarly designed for him But both these follow'd the Motions of Self-love which being naturally held in suspense between the World and Religion imagins that nothing can be more pleasant than to unite them both thinking thereby to reconcile its Inclination and Duty consecrate it's Pleasures and put no difference between Conscience and Interest But the first Rule of true Religion teaches us that that mutual Agreement is impossible or to use it 's own Words that Christ and Belial are incompatible one with the other that we must either glorify God at the expence of worldly Pleasures or possess the Advantages of the World with the Loss of our Religion And this certainly shews the Christian Religion to have a Divine Character VI. Other false Religions debase the Deity and exalt Man whereas the Christian Religion humbles Man and exalts the Deity The Egyptians a Nation that boasted so much of their Antiquity made Monsters of their Deities and the Romans made Deities of their Emperors who were rather Monsters than Men The most famous Philosophers were not ashamed to rank their Deities below themselves and themselves ever before Jupiter but the Christian Religion teaches us that we owe all to God who owes nothing at all to us It humbles us by the Consideration of that infinite Distance there is between God and us it shews that we are miserable despicable Creatures in comparison of God who is a Supream Being and only worthy our Love and Adoration Who then can chuse but admire so excellent a Religion VII Other Religions made us depend upon those Beings which were given us to command and saucily pretend a Power over that supream Being upon whom we ought wholly to depend They taught Men to burn Incense to the meanest Creatures and impudently to equal themselves to the Universal Monarch of the World But 't is no wonder that Men should be so impious as to desire to become Gods since they were so base as to forget that they were Men and yet how ill their Pride became them when they disdain'd not to submit to the four-footed Beasts to the Fowls of the Air the creeping Animals and Plants of the Earth as St. Paul reproaches them and how basely superstitious were they in that they were not content to Deify themselves but would also Deify their own Vices and Imperfections But the Christian Religion alone restores that equitable Order which ought to be establish'd in the World by submitting every thing to the Power of Man that he might submit himself to the Will of his God And what can be the Duty of true Religion but to restore such just and becoming Order in the World VIII We need no deep search into other Religions to find that they chiefly tend to flatter Men's corrupt Desires and efface those Principles of Justice and Vprightness which God has imprinted on their Minds But he that shall truly consider the Christian Religion will certainly find that it tends to the rooting up those corrupt Desires out of our Hearts and restoring those bright Characters of Honesty and Justice imprinted on our Minds by the hand of God The Heathens flattered their Passions to that degree as to erect Altars in Honour of them and Mahomet was so well pleas'd with temporal Prosperity that he made it the End and Reward of his Religion The Gnosticks imagined that when they had arrived to a certain degree of Knowledge which they called a State of Perfection they might commit all sorts of Actions without any Scruple of Conscience and that Sin which polluted others would be sanctified in them But what Blindness what Impiety was this How admirable is the Christian Religion which alone among all others shews us our own Wickedness and Corruption and heals it with such Remedies as are as wholsome to the Soul as unpleasing to the Body IX 'T is observable that other Religions are contrary to Policy either in favouring or restraining too much human Weakness and Corruption upon the Account of Policy Whereas the Christian Religion preserves it's Rights and Privileges inviolable independent from either The Pagan Religion was against Policy in giving too much to human Weakness and Corruption It would have been much better for the Good and Welfare of the State if Men had framed to themselves a greater Idea of the Holiness of their Gods because they would have been less licentious and more submissive to the Civil Laws whereas they were encourag'd by the Example of their Deities to violate the most sacred and inviolable Rights Mahomet desirous to avoid this Irregularity retain'd the Notion of a true
have for ever divided Now the Christian Religion restores the Society of Nature For by uniting Men so strictly in the Bond of Charity it farther strengthens that natural Love which we call Humanity It destroys too the Societies of Interest and Ambition because it extirpates such inordinate Desires as are not true Principles of Vnion and good Vnderstanding one among another It also strengthens Civil Society by commanding us to obey our Superiours and teaching us to render unto Cesar the things that are Cesars and unto God the things that are Gods Lastly it establishes such a Society as restores the Equality of Nature among us and whereas there was in the World till the coming of Christ a Society of Men externally indeed united by the Bond of Civil Laws Government and the Degrees of Proximity of Blood but internally divided by their irregular Passions Christ shews us a Society of Men externally divided by the distance of Time and Place and the disparity of their Conditions but internally united by the Bonds of the same Faith the same Hope and the same Charity Nor are these meer Ideas or Speculations for besides that the Christian Religion visibly relates wholly to the Design of making Men holy and pure and dedicating them to God besides that the Apostles tell us that it is the End of their Preaching directing themselves in their Epistles to those that are called to be Saints and to the Spiritual Israel and declaring concerning Apostates that they went from them because they were not of them besides that Jesus Christ on all occasions makes the very same Distinction refusing to own them for his Disciples that should be wholly taken up with the advantages of the World and giving this Mark and Character of those whom he owned for his My Sheep hear my Voice and the World hates them because they are not of the World Joh. 17. 14. I say besides all this we have this Satisfaction that we can produce a Society of holy Men that yielded not to any Powers of the World but withstood the most rigorous Trials of Persecutions and renounced the enticing Charms of the World the better to adhere to the Cross of Christ A Society victorious in Temptations that overcame Vices and deluded the indefatigable Endeavours of Tyrants a Society composed of Mortal Men yet not to be exstinguished by Death that was subject to the Laws of Nature yet encourag'd with motives Super-natural that conversed in the World yet despised it that was dispersed in several different Times and Places yet always united in the same Thoughts and Opinions that was continually attack't by different Passions yet constantly surmounted them In a word a Society that still flourish'd in the midst of Persecution increas'd the more as often as it was defeated and rais'd it self out of it 's own ruins Certainly he must have read but little of Ecclesiastical History that is unacquainted with all these Truths and he must be wilfully blind and purposely impose upon himself that acknowledges not the Efficacy of Religion in all those wonderful Effects And 't is properly in that Society of holy Men or in the Church it self that we ought to seek for the Fruits of Religion for there we shall find the Accomplishment of those ancient Prophecies which promised to shew us the Sheep feeding with the Bear and the Leopard with the Lamb c. And as the Ark of God could not be left in the midst of it's Enemies without working several Wonders among them which even those Infidels were sensible of so the Christian Church cannot continue in the World without producing such remarkable Effects in it which the most incredulous themselves cannot call in question For let them tell us if they can how came the Oracles of the Heathens to be immediately silenced when the Apostles first preach'd the Mysteries of Christianity and by what Power the Sound of those Men being gone to the end of the World made those Oracles eternally cease which had so long foretold things to come and so forc'd the Heathenish Writers as Plutarch and others to inquire into the Cause of that so sudden and so unexpected Silence For to object with Julian that the Jewish and Christian Oracles have been also silenced concludes nothing because the Apostles foretold that the Gift of Prophecy should cease But how appears it that the Oracles among the Heathens declar'd they should one day be silenced The Accomplishment of our Prophecies being an everlasting Proof of the Truth of our Religion serves us instead of Perpetual Oracles But what Accomplishment of Prophecies confirms the Pagan Religion No less wonderful an Effect of our Religion was the abundance of Revelation which brought so many Superstitious and Idolatrous Nations to the Knowledge of the true God Hence came the World to be fill'd with Wisdom by the preaching of ignorant Persons and the meanest Servants to have more noble and rational Ideas of the Deity than the most quick Clear-sighted Philosophers and that too by the Proposal of such a Doctrin as seems indeed to the Flesh an Object of Scandal and Horror We cannot deny but that the Christian Religion has the advantage of all others for having utterly abolished all those Sacrifices wherein they offered the Blood of Men Neither can we doubt but that this cruel and bloody Superstition was sufficiently advanc'd in the World since we find that the Holy Scripture reproaches the Jews for having sacrificed their Children to Moloch and that Julius Cesar tells us in his Commentaries that it was an ancient Custom among the Gauls to offer Human Victims to their pretended Deities I confess indeed the Romans had already renounced such a barbarous and cruel Superstition but then I question whether they did not still retain some Spice of it in those Spectacles they exhibited to the People wherein they were extreamly pleased to see the Blood of their Gladiatours run down who killed one another meerly to make them Sport A Sacrifice so much the more impious because dedicated rather to the unlawful pleasure of Men than the Honour of those Beings they look't upon as Gods And what but the Christian Religion could have abolished all those bloody Spectacles and horrid Divertisements We have just reason to be surprized to think how licentiously that abominable Sin usually punish'd by God and Man with Fire reign'd heretofore in the World and we cannot without horror and amazement reflect how that the love of both Sexes seem'd equally grown common to Men and that ancient Authors freely speak of that kind of Debauchery which our own Writers dare not so much as mention lest they defile their Writings Socrates is represented to us by some of them as being deeply smitten with the Beauty of Alcibiades and the Emperour Trajan whose Panegyrick well deserv'd thirty Years labour strangely blemished his Reputation by that monstrous Lechery Which pretty well shews the just Grounds for St. Paul's reproach to the Heathens who says that because when
they had known God they glorified him not as God therefore God also gave them up unto vile Affections Rom. 1. 21. And indeed it was no inconsiderable service the Christian Religion did Men in partly abolishing and disgracing so much that kind of detestable Debauchery that we look upon those to be no less than abominable Monsters that seem any way inclinable to it Humility and Charity those two Virtues so Essential and necessary to Men were so utterly unknown formerly that their Names were scarce known in all the Pagan World To what then do we owe the knowledge and Esteem we have of those two so excellent Virtues but to the Religion we profess Lastly 't was by the means of this Religion that the Creature was again call'd a Creature and God again called by his own Name Jehovah 'T was this Religion that took away from Vice the name of Virtue and reclaimed Virtue from the scandal of passing for Vice restored right Reason to it's former Privileges enlightned the Consciences of Men mortified their irregular and disorderly Passions and confounded their Avarice And surely by all these divine effects you must necessarily perceive and acknowledge the Divinity of Christianity IV. Portraiture of the Christian Religion as consider'd in the Purity of it's End IF the Effects of the Christian Religion are truly answerable to the Characters of it we may also affirm that it's End is truly answerable to it's Effects it being manifest there never was any so uncorrupt so pure so extraordinary and so perfect For we cannot but acknowledge that it is the main End and Design of Christian Religion to check and mortify Men's irregular Passions and restore the Principles of Righteousness and Uprightness in them which their Corruption had as it were Effac'd And it cannot be suppos'd this was the intention of the Devil whom we conceive to be as a Spirit naturally averse to the Good of Mankind nor that of Flesh and Blood that aim at nothing else but to satisfy their Lusts nor that of Nature which is easily perswaded being byassed by the Pleasures which Vice gives her a Prospect of nor that of Policy which tends only to the restraining the Licentiousness of all external Crimes in as much as they violate and invert the Order of publick Society but looks indifferently upon all Crimes that respect the Soul Neither can it be the scope and design of Reason which is easily corrupted by Avarice nor even that of Pride which is mortified much more than all the other Passions by this Doctrin unknown to the Flesh and insufferable to Nature Who then is it that concerns himself so much with Pride as to take away it's Errors it 's Vain-glory it 's chimerical Perfections Preferences Hypocrisy and Affectations and all this only by a serious Consideration of the divine Nature Who takes upon him to deprive Self-love of it's Injustice the Flesh of it's unlawful Pleasures and in a word all human Passions of their Disorders and Irregularities What can such a Design mean And how could this Thought of sanctifying Mankind enter of it self into any Man's Mind We may justly therefore ascribe this End and Design to the Christian Religion For it is certain it contains neither Exhortation nor Precept Promise nor Threat History nor Prophecy but what directly aims at that very End The Holy Scripture is not of the Nature of those Books that contain nothing but vain Speculations or curious Enquiries all those of that kind were brought to the Apostles to be burnt who returned no other Answer to those that asked them Men and Brethren what shall we do But this Repent ye They plainly declared that the Design of the Gospel was to free Men from the Bondage of their Sins and their Example shews us as much For what other Design could they have had in renouncing every thing and enduring all Persecutions but to perswade other Men they should renounce this present World Besides whether they speak or write they don't run out into vain Contests and Disputes the ordinary product of the Vanity of Mankind but come immediately to their purpose and insist only on what is material and essential to it Every particular in their Discourses and Writings is practical and relating to the Perfection of Morality so much they despise the Fineness of Eloquence and Subtilty of Human Philosophy and propose only to themselves the edification of Men. These things write I unto you say they that ye Sin not 1 John 2. 1. But supposing them such Deceivers as the Incredulous imagin what was it to them whether we Sinned or not What injury would it have been to the Son of a Carpenter tho the Pharisees were dissembling Hypocrites and dishonour'd the Deity by their Traditions and tho there had been Tables of Money-changers in the Court of the Temple What was it to him whether Sinners repented of their Sins or not Whether Men were Just and Merciful or thought they could appease God only with vain Offerings Whether the City that kill'd the Prophets knew the things that belong'd to her Peace or not What could move him to shed Tears in such abundance at the thoughts of the approaching Destruction of Jerusalem A sensible and effectual Proof indeed of his being very much concern'd for her Salvation What would it have signified to a few poor deluded Wretches whether the Gentiles had the Knowledge of the true God or not To a Company of false Witnesses whether Men were Cheats or Liars To persons odious and had in abomination every where whether Men truly loved one another or not To the Victims of publick Hatred whether Men were reconciled to God or not To such afflicted and disconsolate Wretches whether other Men were truly made sensible of a Divine Comfort and of the Peace of God which passeth all understanding Who can imagin that those Men designed to be wicked only to make us become honest To deceive all Mankind on purpose to establish a sacred and inviolable Law of Fidelity To become the Enemies of their own Nation to make us be in Charity with all Mankind In a word to establish a Religion in the World that tends wholly to the Sanctification of Mankind by the most signal Imposture and most heinous Crime that Men could be guilty of 'T would be strange if such wicked and deceitful Men as the Incredulous imagin the Apostles to have been should have the least Thoughts of sanctifying others And 't would be yet more surprizing if that Thought should be so fixed in their Minds as to become a full and perfect design of venturing and losing all to compass it Nay 't would be next to a Miracle if that Design should be put in execution and yet more 't would be an unheard of Prodigy if a continual succession of People should adhere to the same Principles and continue in the same disposition of Mind against their own Interest and in spite of the severest Persecutions Certainly we may confidently
the other Scale to overbalance it but t is not the Pleasure of God we should and we must rest content to believe those Objects which make us thus renounce that which we actually see And should they be never so agreeable to the Principles of Common Sense yet Faith and not Reason ought chiefly to induce us to receive them Now the same Principle that sets the Heart at variance with the Law that imposes on it the necessity of acting after that manner the same Principle I say makes Reason oppose Revelation which lays upon it an invincible Necessity of believing what it cannot comprehend 'T is certain however that this Command of God is very conformable to the nature of things very suitable to our present Condition necessary to our Sanctification and useful for the advancement of Gods Glory We must not think it strange that the Dispensation of Faith should preceed that of Sight since we daily observe Darkness to preceed Light by a natural Order and that we are Children before we come to be Men. Both Experience and Reason tell us that our Knowledge is very imperfect in this Life wherein the Soul is as it were pressed down by the Clog of the Body that we may walk more secure by the help of the Light of Nature And those Heathens who attempted to go beyoud it wandred blindly about and lost their Way There are two sorts of Irregularities in Man which produce all his other Disorders Pride and Voluptuousness The latter of which springs up in the most inferiour part of the Soul and is chiefly produced by the Senses But Pride is properly a Defect of the Mind As therefore there has not been found hitherto a better Remedy against Voluptuousness than that of afflicting the Senses by denying them those Pleasures they so earnestly thirst after so it does not appear there has been as yet a better means thought of to remove the Pride of the Mind than to humble it by restraining those Speculations of Knowledge which puff it up beyond measure and mortify it by requiring it to sacrifice all its weak Conjectures and vain Reasonings to Faith And indeed this Sacrifice of our selves is deservedly owing to God since there is as much Reason for submitting our Willby our Obedience to his Laws as there is for subjecting our Mind to him by Faith For by the former of these acts we own him for our Lord that has a Right to command us and by the latter we readily confess his Veracity and that we need not fear being imposed upon when we receive those things he commands us to observe Thus Man who had lost himself in his Desire of infinite Knowledge is bound in some measure to expiate his Crime in not desiring to know any thing by himself He had attempted to get as clear a Knowledge of all things as God himself But now he refuses to know any thing but from God He was blind whilst he walked in the Light of Nature but now he must see clear in the Darkness of the Dispensation of Faith For after that in the Wisdom of God the World by Wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1. 21. 'T is certain should God familiarly and frequently Reveal himself unto Men by sensible and continued Miracles we should then walk by Sight and not by Faith and 't is true also that if the Objects of Revelation were not in some sort obscure there would be no Endeavours no Difficulty no Sacrifice of Reason made to believe them The Difficulties that Mysteries are attended with have almost the same Influence over our Vnderstanding as Afflictions have upon our Heart For as these bring the latter in subjection so the others serve to try the Constancy of the former And since God Almighty was pleased to encrease our Patience by two different sorts of Sufferings the one which he himself inflicts immediately upon us and the other he permits worldly minded and sinful Men to inflict upon us so in like manner he was pleased to exercise our Faith by two different sorts of Difficulties some whereof spring immediately from God himself and others proceed from the very Heart and Vnderstanding of Men. For we must distinguish betwixt that Obscurity with respect to the Mysteries which proceed from God and that which proceeds from the Vnderstanding of Men. The first is either necessary as all those Difficulties which arise from the essential Disproportion between infinite Objects such as those of Revelation and a finite Understanding like ours or else voluntary and so enter into the very Plan and Design of Religion it self And these again may be distinguished according to that Diversity which in our manner of conceiving things we are obliged to suppose in the Perfections of God himself There being some which proceed from the Council of his Wisdom others from that of his Justice others from that of his Majesty and lastly from that of his Goodness and Mercy Thus Divine Wisdom was pleased to intermix some sort of Darkness amidst the most express Prophecies we have lest that too clear an Evidence of them should destroy their Event To this Principle also must we refer all those Shadows Types Parabolical Representations that mixture of sensible Objects with spiritual Benefits that of the State of the Church with the State of Israel according to the flesh and generally all those other means which the Holy Ghost made use of partly to cover those Events he has declared to Men many Ages before their Completion God drew a Veil over the most essential Truths of the Old Testament such as the Immortality of the Soul the Trinity the Redemption of Mankind c. that a distinct Revelation from all these Objects might be an undeniable Character of the Messias and that his Disciples might boldly affirm that Life was manifested in Jesus Christ that Grace had appeared unto all Men. For no Man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him John 1. 18. To this Wisdom of God also must be referred that Conduct of the Holy Ghost in inspiring the Patriarchs thereby to reveal a better life to them and make them cry out upon their Death-beds Lord I have waited for thy Salvation but withal giving them but a faint Prospect of that Object by such obscure Thoughts and dark Notions as they were not able of themselves to solve deferring to give a more perfect Knowledge of his Mysteries till that Time which he had set apart for the fulfilling of his Oracles and the Manifestation of him that was to be the Author and End of Christian Religion For this cause therefore there is hardly mention made of any thing else in the Writings of Moses but of temporal Promises and Threatnings and hence it was that Jesus Christ himself when disputing against the Sadducees proved the Resurrection of the dead but by
like Speculations whose End is to dive into the Manner how those things are done which God has revealed to us thereby give Rise to the most considerable Difficulties of our Incredulous Adversaries who heap up all those humane Speculations together the better to impugn the Foundations of Religion it self or else rashly conclude from those vain Disputes of humane Curiosity that Religion has nothing of Certainty or Solidity in it But we shall easily confute both the Errour and Injustice of those Un believers Faith is assaulted by two sorts of Enemies 1 st The Incredulous who impugn it on that side on which it is most clear and evident and 2 ly The Inconsiderate and Curious who have no regard to its sacred Obscurity so that we have here those who deny all things and those who will know all things You will do well to shew those curious inconsiderate Men that they are mistaken and think not that their being convinc'd of the Uselessness of their nice Distinctions can do any prejudice at all to Religion because an unseasonable Curiosity is no less contrary to the Genius of Religion and the Nature of Faith than Scepticism and Incredulity V. This Curiosity is inseparably attended with Rashness and it is impossible to express into what strange Excesses both of them have insensibly brought Men. To confirm this we shall only set down one necessary Example and that is of the Trinity and Incarnation one of the most profound and unsearchable Mysteries of our Religion In this Curiosity has induced Men to exceed the Bounds of Revelation and Rashness has obliged them not to believe it The Scripture teaches us that there is but one God and one Mediatour It assures us also that Jesus Christ is God that he thought it no robbery to be equal with God that he made the World Time and all things therein It ascribes to him all the Attributes the Works and the Names of the Deity his Power his Wisdom his Eternity Immensity c. It further assures us that the Holy Ghost is God It asserts that those Three are One. It commands Baptism in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost It speaks of the Father Son and Holy Ghost as of Three Persons And why should we not rest satisfied with this 'T is because the Pride of Men thinks fit it should be otherwise I do not know or I do not understand are Confessions so terrible to them that there is nothing they won't invent to avoid them They are desirous to know how three Persons can subsist in one and the same Essence They tell us of Modes and Relations of modal and formal Distinctions of absolute and relative Entities c. They assert that the divine Intellect produced the Word and that the Holy Ghost is the uncreated production of the Divine Will and a thousand other things of this kind which if certain at least are not revealed And why all these Distinctions and Subtilties Unless they would make us comprehend a Mystery God is resolved shall remain the incomprehensible Object of our Faith Others displeased with those Scholastick Speculations are so impious as to attempt to destroy that Mystery which they cannot conceive either by utterly rejecting those places of Scripture which mention it or if they receive them by putting such a forced Interpretation upon them that the Holy Ghost must needs have had a design to deceive us if he meant what such Teachers would have him Thus for instance this place of Scriptnre Before Abraham was I am signifies according to the Socinians before the Prophecy contained in the Name of Abraham was fulfilled and before he became the Father of all Nations I am So they say this Text Glorify me with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was John 17. 5. imports as much as Glorify me with the Glory thou hadst resolved to honour me with And this other The same was in the beginnning and all things were made by him that is as they interpret it he was before the time of John the Baptist and by him all things were done in the Church But to what end do they invent those Niceties so contrary to the Gospel Simplicity and Truth 'T is doubtless on purpose to make void the effect of those sacred Obscurities which God has dispersed throughout his Mysteries and to save those by Humane Wisdom whom God designed to bless with Life eternal through the Foolishness of preaching as Men first called it VI. We may add Superstition to this irregular Curiosity and rashness of the Mind which arises by little and little from the Passions endeavouring to hide themselves or avoid by vain Pretexts the Mortification of Repentance and shift off the severe Injunctions of Christian Morality and to that end they employ Man in some unprofitable bodily Exercises or else wholly fix his Mind upon some carnal Worship Superstition is no sooner thus insensibly formed but it thrusts it self into Credit and as it were claims a privilege of Freedom in Religion So that the most prodigious Whymsies and Imaginations of the former are confusedly hudled together with the most sacred Mysteries of the latter and then there are no Absurdities so extravagant that human Passions suggest but what the Incredulous immediately take hold on as Instruments wherewith they attack the Foundations of Religion which is in some respect as it were infected with them And such is the Folly of Men that they will needs save all or lose all For if you go about to destroy Superstition you are then immediately condemned for being an Enemy to Christianity And if you endeavour to maintain the Glory and Holiness of Christianity Men expect you should too in some manner defend the absurd Extravagances of Superstition But our Design of writing in behalf of the Christians in general suffers us not to make any Application of this at present It is enough if the Position we advance be certainly true as will fully appear by the Examples as may be sought of it elsewhere and which 't is no difficult matter for any Man to find out We shall therefore rest contented to assert in that respect that the Multiplicity of Sects which so miserably divide the Christian Church amongst Men and on whose Account the Name of our common Lord and Master is so frequently Blasphemed among Infidels solely springs from these Three Principles viz. An irregular Curiosity a Rashness of the Mind and Superstition and these Three Principles themselves proceed from a more antient Original which is the Disorder and Irregularity of our Passions Now to demand why God permits such a multitude of Sects and different Religions to reign amongst Men is just as if one should ask why God suffers Wicked Men to live in the World For he that permits the Licentiousness of the Passions necessarily suffers the natural Effects and infallible Consequences of them VII This being granted we cannot doubt but that Philosophy it self is another Source of
easily beleive Mysteries tho we are not able to dive into the manner of them 3 dly This Submission to God is so very reasonable that none but a Man utterly void of Sense can be so stupid as not to perceive it For till we are endowed with an infinite Understanding we shall never be able to know but one side of things and consequently we must necessarily be for ever ignorant of the other 4 thly It is very just and equitable if ever any thing was so and it aims at nothing but shewing us our Ignorance and representing to us that being liable to be deceived we ought carefully to follow Revelation as a true and faithful Guide We should certainly be extravagant proudly to deny our own Ignorance or impiously suspect that God could deceive us when his Design is to reveal his Majesty to us V. But what is chiefly to be observed for the Honour of our Religion what shews the Characters of its Divinity and forces us to acknowledge them is that it teaches us that to see clear into matters of Religion we ought not to rely upon the Light of our Understanding and that we must lay aside the Evidence of Reason if we would be free from Errours in point of Faith 'T is a wonderful Effect of the Christian Religion that it renders us happy by inducing us to renounce our selves and no less admirable that it enlightens our Minds by obliging us to renounce our Reason To look boldly and stedfastly upon Mysteries is the way to be blind whereas we shall easily perceive the Light of God shining about us if we do but humbly cast down our Eyes We shall be sufficiently learned if we rest satisfied with the Knowledge of what God has been pleased to reveal unto us And nothing more betrays an Universal Ignorance than an insignificant Desire to be ignorant of nothing In other Sciences a Man's Skill is measured by his Knowledge but in that of Salvation he is best instructed who is most humble he who has the least Pride has the most understanding And the proof of it is easy We have already seen that the nice Speculations of Reason about Mysteries do but more perplex and darken what was before obscure Let us now see how much the submitting our Reason to Faith makes us have a clearer Insight into those Mysteries or at least how much it hinders our being confounded by them 'T is certain that by continuing in such a state of Humility whatsoever Difficulties may arise they will not have force enough to discompose our Minds We shall not be surprised that we are not able to comprehend the Nature of God or his manner of Knowing loving and acting or his Eternity Immensity c. but we shall rather be ravished with Admiration to think that we that are no better than Worms or Atoms are yet thought worthy to know him and raised to that pitch of Glory as to have some Prospect tho but a faint one of his wondrous Works and infinite Perfections Neither shall we have any reason to be offended because God formerly abandon'd the Gentiles and casts away other Nations which still abide in profound Ignorance and Darkness tho perhaps there is nothing in Nature so difficult or incomprehensible as the Conduct of God But we shall rather reflect upon our Selves and endeavour to search into the Knowledge of our own Nature And upon such a consideration we shall find our selves buried and swallowed up if I may so speak in some Corner of this vast Universe and that too in such a Time or conjuncture as is a meer Point in comparison of that almost infinite Duration of Time which has elapsed and that Eternity which is still to pass away We shall only perceive a few Years and a few Nations which we ascribe to Providence as its Object as if that which presides over the whole Creation were to be bounded by a few Ages or Nations But weak and foolish Creatures that we are we perceive not that infinite Succession of Objects which take their Turn and move on according to the Decree of eternal Wisdom we perceive not the strict union of this World with that which is to come or the share those Nations whose Ignorance we so much deplore have in that continued Chain of Events nor the Rights which Divine Justice has over them or at least we have but a faint and imperfect Knowledge of them We consider not that a thousand Years are as one Day and one Day as a thousand Years one Nation as an hundred Nations and an hundred Nations as one Nation in his sight who is able to create an infinite number of them out of Nothing as he did us And in this we may be compared to those who lying in the bottom of a Well would fain see the whole Extent of the Heavens Were we truly sensible of our wretched Nature we should not be so curious or inconsiderate but rather dread the Fate of those Men who were smitten from above for having looked into the Ark of God We should find out the Falsity of those Opinions which are the products of a rash Curiosity and whilst we limited our Enquiries by Revelation we should easily discern those that went beyond it We should distinguish Religion which mortisies us from Superstition which flatters and agreeably deludes us and however Policy in the height of its Pride might rank us among Creatures not much superiour to Brutes we should not cease to think our selves the Children of God No Charms of Eloquence should impose upon our Belief no idle Niceties of Grammar perplex that Faith which depends upon the Objects of the Gospel which are indeed too manifest in their Nature too often repeated and closely united to the Principles of Common Sense too well confirmed and attested by their Events too worthy of God himself and conduce too much to our Sanctification to be ever called in question In a word we should then shake off our Incredulity when we removed that which excited within us a secret Propension to it It is therefore certain that God has covered the Mysteries of Religion with a sacred Darkness and has even permitted Men to make them yet more obscure by their vain Speculations But what at once gives us Wonder and Consolation is that the deepest Philosophers and most curious Enquirers see not always clearest into the matters of Religion but those only who make least use of the force of their Reason and forbear to enquire nicely into those things which it becomes them humbly to believe This seems to be the Opinion of Christ himself who said to his Father I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent and hast revealed them unto Babes Mat. 5. 11. And here indeed we cannot but tremble with Reverence and Admiration when we joyn this Character of the Divinity of our Religion to the rest Hence it is that we
Difficulties as it is now adays through the fault and neglect of Men 'T would then appear to us more conformable to Reason to hold Predestination than otherwise For if there be a God he cannot but foresee what will become of Men and that they will fall into Misery and Sin And if some of them be saved 't would be very absurd to think that God designed them not unto Salvation And this Doctrin of Predestination when distinguished from the Speculations of Schoolmen and vain inquiries of humane Curiosity is wholly comprised in these two Propositions God foresees the Sin and Misery of Mankind and some part of them he designed to Save according to that of the Apostle those whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate c. Now can any thing be more reasonable than these two Principles are For if a wise Man can be said to foresee the Time to come by the Rules of his Prudence and Conduct would it not be below the Majesty of God to suppose him ignorant of Futurity who was the Author of Time Is it possible he would not as yet be concerned in the Salvation of Mankind And can it be supposed that Man should be saved as it were by an unforeseen Chance against his Will What would become of his Mercy if what he did proceeded not from the Design he had to save us Could he have sent his Son into the World and yet deny Salvation to those who were to be born after the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ There occurs in all this but one Difficulty which is the same that St. Paul urged to himself when he said Thou wilt say then unto me Why doth he yet find fault For who hath resisted his Will Are we guilty then will the Gentiles say because we were not sooner partakers of his Light Or how can I be saved the Reprobate will cry out since God did not predestinate me to Salvation To this we reply We must not call in Philosophy to our assistance to avoid this Difficulty which is common to all Systems and in some becomes greater St. Paul went no further than this let us in imitation of him stop there also Let the Bounds of Revelation be those also of our vain Curiosity The greater skill Philosophy affords us to solve this Objection the further it removes us from the Truth which seemed wholly impenetrable to a Writer far more learned than us and who was forced to cry out when he reflected upon it O the Depth c. 'T is easy to shew that this is a common Difficulty We cannot own the Existence of God without ascribing to him a Fore-knowledge of the Time to come and it is certainly true that to explicate the Divine Prescience will produce in us the same intricate Doubts as Predestination so that both of them being infallibly true 't is utterly impossible to go against either of them 'T is further evident that this Difficulty is no less considerable in natural things than it is in those that concern Religion For if God can foresee the Time to come he must of necessity have foreseen and set Bounds to our Lives which if true we may eat or not eat we may preserve or not preserve our Selves it being all one since we cannot exceed or come short of those Limits which the Almighty has prescribed us Whence I conclude That the Doctrin of Predestination contains two sorts of Difficulties the first which spring from the too refined Notions of Philosophy which ought not to perplex our Minds for we are not obliged to answer them The second which are natural and common to all the Affairs of Life so soon as you have laid down this Principle That there is a God who made us and that he can foresee that which will certainly come to pass For if we are taught both by Experience and Reason that God hath a knowledge of Futurity and that he hath foreseen and foretold it upon many Occasions as it appears by the fulfilling of Prophecies 't is evident from thence that both Experience and Reason perswade us to receive the most difficult things or rather the only Difficulty that is implied in the Doctrin of Predestination The same might easily be proved in Original Sin and the Efficacy of Grace if we distinguish between the manner and the thing it self It is true we are Originally defiled with Sin having been shapen in iniquity and conceived in Sin and being by nature Children of Wrath. The Holy Scripture informs us of the thing it self because absolutely necessary to our Humility and Sanctification 'T was unnecessary to know the manner of it since it is to no purpose for a Man to know how he fell into a Pit his business then being to find the means how to get out of it And therefore the Holy Scripture is silent as to the manner in which Original Sin was transmitted to us that is as to the Physical manner of its infecting the whole Race of Mankind All the Questions which Divines generally Start are meerly Philosophical containing such Difficulties as we are not obliged to answer If we distinctly understood the union of our Soul and Body we might very clearly explain that incomprehensible Transmission of Original Sin but since our Learning can never arrive to that Height we have great Reason to distrust our Philosophy but be it as it well the Difficulties proceeding from our vain Curiosity ought not to be taken for the Effects of Faith Faith and Reason are here in a perfect union by keeping themselves within their due Bounds Faith teaches us the thing it self and Reason assents to it Reason comprehends not the manner of it and Faith supposes it incomprehensible If Reason could deny that Men were from their Cradles inclinable to Evil it would be contrary to Faith which teaches us that Principle And if Faith should flatter us with the hopes of freeing that Object from all the Difficulties occuring to those who endeavour to search into the bottom and manner of it it would be also contrary to Reason which knows Faith wholly incapable of such an attempt But since it is not so nothing hinders but that we acknowledge the agreement between Faith and Reason The same proportion there is between Reason and Faith is also betwixt Reason and Sense And as Faith is above Reason so is Reason above Sense 'T is an undeniable Truth that Reason and Sense never oppose one another altho one of these Faculties cannot comprehend the manner of those things which the other does Thus for instance Sense testifies that there is an ebbing and flowing of the Sea and Reason which is truly convinced by this Testimony together with the unanimous Consent of Men agrees to the Truth of it tho wholly ignorant of its Physical Cause If Sense could certify that this Phenomenon could be perfectly known it would be contrary to Reason which scarce understands it at all and if Reason absolutely denied there were any such
Phenomenon it would be also contrary to Sense since all unanimously testify there is such a thing But Sense certifies the Existence of that Phenomenon and Reason is truly perswaded that it is so Reason thinks it a very hard matter to understand and Sense affirms not the contrary Reason therefore and Sense perfectly well agree together and such is likewise the joint Agreement of Faith and Reason in the greatest Mysteries of Religion Those are Difficulties indeed worthy to be admired which Philosophy so confidently starts up in matters of Divinity There are many things in Nature whose Existence we readily own but nothing tho inconsiderable in it self the manner of which we can comprehend and yet it never came into any Man's Mind that had but common Sense to call them in question If then we shew our selves so very reasonable in Natural things why should we prove so senseless in matters of Religion In common things our Understanding acts naturally but in Religion 't is deluded by the Passions which continually seek how to suggest to it new occasions of Doubting We may pass the same Judgment upon matters of Grace Do but distinguish Philosophy from Divinity and you will avoid thereby an infinite number of Difficulties it being certain that for the most part they proceed either from the eager desire we have to understand what is altogether incomprehensible or from the Speculations we have already made upon that we could not comprehend Now to know the Injustice of Men in this we need but observe that most of them being fully perswaded that God preserves us nourishes and supports us by his perpetual Concurrence without which the Meat we eat and the Care we have of our Preservation would stand us in no stead and by which we immediately Subsist yet we never heard that any one did seriously conclude from thence that we ought wholly to lay aside the Care of our own Preservation and solely rely on the Concurrence of God We never saw any one so sensless as to perplex himself with these sorts of needless Questions If it can be said that I nourish my self by taking those Aliments as are absolutely requisite for my Preservation how can it be reasonably affirmed that God nourishes or preserves me Or if it be God as nourishes me how do I lie under an Obligation of doing it my self I say we never heard any of those Difficulties objected against Natural things whereas it appears they are continually started in matters of Religion However there are as good Grounds for them in the one as the other because they consist in the Dependence we have upon the Deity either in our being Creatures already or being born again or becoming new Creatures In Nature we all know we subsist only by the Concurrence of God without inquiring into the manner of it But in Religion we are not content to know that we are Regenerated by Grace we further desire to search into the manner of that Operation and our principal care is how to find it out so that those very Difficulties which could not perplex Men in matters of Eating and Drinking seem terrible and frightful to them when 't is requisite they should lead a good Life If you would know the reason of it you must consult the Heart of Man 'T will be sufficient for us if we Act with as much reason in Religion as we do in civil Life If we consult the purest Lights of Reason it will inform us that 't is as necessary the New Creature should have its Dependence upon God as that the Creature should depend upon him because God himself is as well the Author of the one as of the other and as our Bodies have neither Life Motion nor Being but from him so our Souls have no Faculties Knowledge or Affections but what they derive from thence Every Being comes from him and nothing but what is defective can have any other Principle The thing it self then is very certain I mean that there is such a Grace to which we must necessarily refer all the good that is within us and that belongs to Divinity But the manner of its operation that is the degree of virtue it displays over us the manner in which it determines our Free-will its minutest Conjunctures c. may be hidden Mysteries belonging to the consideration of Philosophy but not in the least prejudicial to our Faith which consists in an humble Submission as well as in Knowledg and can as readily profess its utter Ignorance of a hidden Mystery as it gladly perceives it when revealed I question whether Divines have observed that when the Apostles are pleased to point out to us what is most eminent in Mysteries they neither examine the Order of the Decrees of God nor the inconceivable Transmission of Original Sin whereby the Wickedness of the First Man was conveyed down to us nor why Grace seems incompatible with Free-will Whence proceeds this if not from their Ignorance of Philosophy and want of vain Curiosity which by their own Example they designed to teach us to avoid What is then according to them the great Mystery of Godliness This is it God was manifest in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels believed on in the World preached unto the Gentiles received up into Glory Tim. 3. 16. The Incarnation which is expressed in these Words God was manifest in the Flesh is a great and sublime Mystery but if we lay aside our Prejudices we shall find it conformable to our Reason 1. For it must be first of all granted that in this Covenant the Almighty debases not himself in favour of those with whom he makes it as we see in dishonourable Treaties where a King is upon equal terms with his Subjects This is a Covenant wherein God unites himself to the Creature without diminishing his Greatness and Glory and where the Creature unites it self to God without losing its due sense of Humility The Sun unites himself with the Cloud where it imprints its Brightness without an Eclipse and why should not God unite himself with an innocent Nature without lessening his real Worth and Dignity 2. We have an excellent Representation of this Truth in the Union of our Soul and Body where two Substances distinct in the highest degree are united together without having any natural proportion betwixt them What has the Soul to do with the Body And how can there be any Affinity betwixt things of so different a Nature It may perhaps be answered that there is a greater Disparity betwixt the Humane and Divine Nature than the Soul and the Body I agree that the Disparity is infinitely greater but the Diversity is still the same and there is a great deal of difference betwixt an Union which carries a mutual dependence along with it such as that of our Soul and Body and an Union which contains the dependence only on the one part such as that which is betwixt the Divine and Humane
that was divided into the Porch the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies is answerable the World the Church and the Heavens the eternal Sanctuary of God To the Levites all the Faithful without Exception that are designed to serve God to the White Cloathings of the Ministers of the Tabernacle the Innocence and Holyness of all those who design to approach unto him to the Purity of the Body the Purity both of the Heart and Conscience to the Blood of Goats and of Lambs which was a Confirmation of the Old Covenant the Blood of Jesus Christ which confirms the New Testament to the Entrance of the High Priest into the Holy of Holies wearing the Names of the Twelve Tribes written upon his Breast and presenting to God the Blood that was shed in the Porch corresponds the Ascention of Christ into Heaven where he continually presents us to God his Father and intercedes for us by virtue of that Blood which he shed for the Expiation of our Sins to the purifying Waters which washed away all the Pollutions of the Body the Waters of Grace which sanctify the Spirit To Mount Sinai Mount Zion to the sound of the Trumpet of Rams Horns the Voice of the Gospel to Moses himself the Mediatour of the Law Jesus Christ the Mediatour of the New Covenant The different state and condition of the Church is is also further represented to us by the various condition of the People of Israel Our spiritual Bondage is marked out by their temporal Slavery our Deliverances by their Deliverances our Enemies by their Enemies and so just and reasonable is the Conformity there is betwixt those Images and their Original that the Holy Scripture often makes little distinction betwixt them and intermixes in one and the same Chapter that which concerns the temporal State of the Israelites and that which concerns the Spiritual condition of the Faithful as also the Events that attended the Jewish Oeconomy and the Wonders of the New Covenant These things are worth our Observation and he that does not duly consider them will never be able to understand any thing in the Prophecies contained in the Books of the Old Testament Lastly The Wisdom of God was resolved we should not want a competent number of Types that might sufficiently represent to us the Excellence Offices and Ministry of our Mediatour Thus Isaac conceived in the Womb of a barren Woman the Delight of his Father the Foundation of all the Promises of God offered up for a Sacrifice upon a Mount by the very hand of his Father rising as it were from the Dead by being delivered from the Knife he had already lifted up against him and having afterwards a Seed as numerous as the Stars of Heaven and the Sand of the Sea this Isaac I say was a lively Image of Jesus Christ who was conceived in the Virgins Womb the Darling of his Father in whom he was well-pleased the Foundation of all his Promises the Source of his Blessings dying upon Mount Calvary rising again in a wonderful manner after his Death and seeing his Seed after him when he had made his Soul an Offering for Sin Thus again Joseph sold by his Brethren betrayed out of Envy accused tho' Innocent condemned because he would not submit to the immodest Desires of a lascivious Woman delivered out of Prison appearing before Pharaoh cloathed in Garments suitable to that Honour and then sitting at his Right Hand was a wonderful Representation of Jesus Christ betrayed out of Envy sold by the Jews themselves who were his Brethren condemned for refusing to comply with the Synagogue cast down into the Darkness of Death endued with heavenly Gifts raised again to Heaven and sitting at length at the Right Hand of God Moses defigned to be the Mediatour of the Legal Covenant rescued at his Nativity from a Deluge of Blood exposed to the River-side and as it were given up to a sure and infallible Death but afterwards delivered by a kind of Miracle from the Fury of the Waters and also delivering not long after his own Nation himself by a lucky Turn when he seemed to be cast away was an exact Representation of Jesus Christ who came into the World to be the Mediatour of the New Covenant was delivered at his Birth from the Murder of Herod and saved Men after his having suffered Death Jonas who was cast into the Sea to appease the Tempest and swallowed by a Whale which three Days after cast him again on the Shore sufficiently gives us to understand who it was that calm'd by his Death that Storm our Sins had raised that went down into the Grave and afterwards rose again the third Day Lastly David being raised from the State of a Shepherd to that of a Monarch was an excellent Type of Christ who after his Humiliation inherited a Name that is above every Name And as for those Prophecies which have described to us by such notable Epochaes and signal Characters both the Person Coming and the Time of the Coming of the Messias we have already very largely spoke of them so that what we have said in that respect is more than sufficient to make us admire the exact Proportion there is betwixt the first and second Covenant as well as betwixt the Jewish and Christian Religion Moses Illustrates Christ as we have proved in our first Part of this Treatise and Christ again Illustrates Moses as appears plainly by the Comparison we just now made of them XI Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is considered in the Proportion it bears to natural Religion WE have already described the Christian Religion as it is thus considered in having fully proved in several places of this Work that it takes away the Corruption which had disordered Nature that it subverts Paganism which was the Corruption of natural Religion that 't is the perfect Restauration of the latter that it reestablishes the Principles of Justice and Equity which God had imprinted in our Hearts that it produces the most perfect Union of Society by Love and Charity that Humility Temperance Wisdom and all other kind of Virtues which support natural Religion derive the Force of their Motives from the Christian Religion they alone being equivalent to all sensible Objects and lastly that it makes us answer the End of our Creation 'T is a wonderful Comfort and Satisfaction to our Minds and at the same time exalts our Nature to reflect that the End for which Man was designed is the same with that of Christian Religion and the End of Christian Religion the same with the true End of Man's Creation Every thing that goes to the Constitution of Man's Nature does in a manner seek after God The infinite Curiosity of our Minds incessantly thirsting after the Knowledge of New Objects seeks after that Deity which the Christian Religion discovers to us because that Deity contains all things in the Excellence of its own Nature The greedy and hasty Desires of our