necessary in order to the ends of Policy that a Religion should be kept on foot and 38 knew nothing better to strike an awe upon the consciences of men than the religion then estalished and therefore had Just reason to conceal but no inducement to disclose its falsehood 2ly Who e're should venture to oppose what was so Generally own'd must have done it without encouragement For they might well expect the Greatest opposition and affronts from men nor could they promise to themselves assistance from an higher power in propagating any other doctrine § 7. 5ly T was the concernment of the swicked one thus to confirm their superstitious and Idolatrous worship and their absurd and brutish ceremonies and give in his assistance towards the propagation of those heresies which did evert the Faith of Christ. This was to propagate and to uphold his kingdome and put a fatall stop to the prevailing influence of Christian Faith It was also the concernment of all Heathen Priests they got their Honours and revenues by it therefore all those seeming miracles and those pretended divinations this objection mentions may be presumed to derive from him who is the Great deceaver of the world and to whose power arts and subtilty the Fathers do so oft ascribe them or from the skill and Magick of those Priests who served at his Altars § 8. Obj. 2. If the Miracles of Christ were so Great and many and if He so visibly performed all that the scriptures had foretold and spoken of the true Messiah If his doctrine were so holy his life so full of Goodness and obliging Charity is it not matter of astonishment that of that Nation which was then big with expectations of a Saviour and did so readily embrace false Christs which saw the miracles he did were the objects of his pity and living monuments of his power so few embraced his doctrine so many did reject and blast him as a deceaver and a Malefactor § 9. Ans WE shall have little reason to admire this issue of our Saviours coming if we consider 1 the temper and the disposition of those men with whom he had to do whose promises being mostly carnall their minds were wholly bent on Riches Victory Grandeur Act. 7.51 Dominion and such things which bore the Greatest opposition to Christs spirituall Kingdome They also were persons of the most stubborn and rebellious natures a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. in Celsum l. 2. p. 106. Nihilmirum videri potest Christum ab his non esse receptum cum jam inde ab initio toties in Dominum rebelles deprehendantur Sulpitius Hist l. 1. c. 48. p. 135. proud and ' covetous and very prone to infidelity and of most wicked and unhallowed lives and therefore very much indisposed to receive this pure humble self-denying doctrine of Jusus Josephus tells us that never any Generation of men was more corrupt or could more deserve that ruine which befell them than the Jaws And as a just result of their impiety their disobedience and deafness to the prescripts of their holy Prophets they were men given up by Gods just Judgments to unbeliefe and blindness Hence holy Scripture tells us that the destruction which befell them was that to which they were designed they being Vessels fitted for it 1. Pet. 2.8 1. Ro. 22. Joh. 12.40 that both their hearts were hardned and their eyes blinded least they should be converted and be healed § 10. AND 2ly We shall have little reason to admire this issue of our Saviours Preaching to the Jews if we consider the danger to which it exposed them To own him for the true Messiah Joh. 9.22 was to incurre the censure of the Jewish Sanhedrin Joh. 12.42 and to be rejected from the Synagogue a thing exceeding dreadfull to the people and to the Rulers of the Jews Besides Christ gained the favour of the Multitude and was a likely man to blast the reputation of the Scribes and Pharisees and as they thought to raise a tumult Joh. 11.48 and so engage the Roman Empire to take away their Place and Nation So that their interest and Reputation were both engaged to disown him § 11. BUT 3ly This will be yet more clear if we reflect upon those many prejudices which they conceav'd against his Person and his doctrine And 1. against his person they had these prejudices 1. That they were very well acquainted with his birth and parentage Joh. 7.27 but when Christ cometh no man can know saith their tradition whence he is Mat. 13.55 2ly that his descent was mean and base his Parents being not sufficient to redeem him with a Lamb LUc. 2.24 but only with a pair of turtles And 3ly he came out of Galile Joh. 7.41.52 from whence no Prophet could arise 4ly He came not riding on the Clouds of Heaven as the Prophet Daniel did foretell of the Messiah nor 5ly Dan. 7.13 Did Elias come to usher in his advent according to the prediction of Malachi Chap. 4. 5. 6ly Joh. 12.34 That Christ was to abide for ever whereas our Lord was lifted up and died an ignominious death Tryph. Dial cum Justin Mart. p. 249. 365. Coch. in Tit. Talm. p. 364. 365. 7ly That the Messiah Ben David was expected in a triumphant manner to subdue Nations under them and make the Jews to Lord it over all their enemies whereas our Jesus renounced all title to an earthly kingdome § 12. BUT 2ly His doctrine and his conversation was greater matter of offence unto them For 1. He did what seemed inconsistent with their holy and perfect man for he conversed with publicans and sinners suffer'd a sinfull woman to embrace his feet 2ly He did what they esteemed a violation of the Sabbath and hence they took occasion to conclude this man is not of God Joh. 9.16 because he keepeth not the sabbath day 3ly He represented the Scribes and Pharisees and renowned Rabbies as the most gross deluding Hypocrites Matt. 23.19 men blind and foolish and busie about mint and Cumin V. 23 whilest they neglected the most substantial matters of the Law as Children of Satan V. 15 and Factors for the Devil V. 13 such as refused to enter into Heaven or suffer others so to do whereas the Jews esteem'd them men of greatest piety and knowledge and did proverbially say if Heaven were reserved for but two men the one must be a Scribe and the other a Pharisee He representted their whole Nation as men that neither did observe nor yet believe the Law of Moses Joh. 5.49.7.19 Joh. 5.38.42 Joh. 8.44 that had no reall love to God nor any knowledge of him such as pretended to be the seed of Abraham but were indeed the Devils Children as people whom no reason could reclaime they having shut their eyes made Gross their hearts Matt. 13.15.16 and stopped their eares least they should be concerted and be healed
the prince of Peace 2ly It is most apparent that the immediate succeeding Age could not be ignorant of what was thus delivered to the Church whilst the Autographa were extant as Tertullian tells us in his time they were when the Canonical books were evidently proposed as such and if we may believe the suffrage of Antiquity collected and avouched by St John yea whilest those very persons were alive to whom those writings were directed and with whom they were entrusted yea by whom they were transcribed and 3 read in publick and in private 3ly This corruption of the word of God or substitution of any other doctrine for it could not be done by any part or Sect of Christians but they who had imbraced the Faith and used the same Copies of the word of God in other places of the Christian world must have found out the cheat and therefore this corruption if at all effected must be the work of the whole world of Christians But can it be supposed that the immediate succeeding ages should universally conspire to substitute their own inventions for the word of God and yet continue stedfast in and suffer so much for that Faith which denounced the severest judgments against them that should doe such things or that a world of men should with the hazard of their lives and fortunes and all that was dear to them in this present world avouch the Gospel and at the same time make so great a change even in the frame and substance of its doctrine become guilty of so universal an Apostacy from what the Gospel had delivered whilst it yet sounded in their eares employ'd their tongues and was the Matter of the worlds Great Contest and by so doing make it ineffectual Can it be thought that they should venture upon that which were the Gospel true or false must needs expose them to the Greatest evills whilst they continued Abettors of it But had this bin done can we in reason think that of those many thousands who in the Primitive Ages did renounce the Gospel that of those many 3 wavering Spirits those excommunicate Members especially those 4 Hereticks who upon other motives did renounce the Greatest part of Scripture I say can it be thought that none of those should publish and disclose the forgery or answer the Allegations made from Scriptures that they were all supposititious but that such apparent forgeries should find a general reception from all that searched into their Truth and be unquestionably received as genuine both by Jew and Gentile Christian and Pagan ever in those times in which and in those places where they first were uttered and by those Persons who so lately received another doctrine 4ly Suppose those Primitive Professors could have been Guilty of so vile a thing Can we believe that God who sent his Son out of his bosome to declare this Doctrine and by the assistance of the Holy Spirit to indite and Preach it and by the witness of so many and great miracles confirme it to the world should suffer any wicked Persons to corrupt and alter any of those termes on which the happiness and welfare of mankind depended Much more to suppress and smother them as that a counterfeit repugnant Story should obtain in lieu thereof and so the benefit of all that Christ had done and his Apostles delivered to the world should be entirely lost That Christ should do or suffer so great things in order to the welfare of mankind and yet permit those Sons of Belial to frustrate all that he had done and rob the world of all the vertue of his death and sufferings can be conceived rational by none but such as think it not absurd to say that That God who sent his Son to die for our Salvation and that Jesus who became so great a sufferer in order to the same designe should jointly envie and maligne the Good of Man Nay since those very Scriptures which have been received for the word of God and used by the Church as such from the first ages of it pretend to be the termes of our Salvation Joh. 7.16.26 28. Joh. 3.16 Joh. 6.40 and precepts of that Saviour whose message was from heaven and to be scriptures indited by men commissionated from Christ and such as did avouch themselves Apostles by the will and command of God Gal. 1.1.1 Cor. 1.1 Eph. 1.1 Col. 1.2 Tim. 1.1 for the delivery of the faith of Gods Elect and for the knowledge of the truth and the delivery of that which they received by the revelation of the holy Ghost they must be what they are pretended to be or Providence must have permitted yea contributed unto that Error which hath continued fifteen Ages and which if it be a Forgery hath ruined so many Thousand of well-meaning Souls Lastly Those Records being once so 6 generally despers'd through places at the greatest distance so universally acknowledged and consented to by Men of curious Parts and different Perswasions and repugnant Judgements and great Aversions from each other preserved in their Originals unto succeeding Ages and 7 multiplyed into divers Versions esteemed the Christians Magna Charta the Records of his Hopes and Fears and thereupon being so 8 carefully sought after so riveted in their minds for many Fathers had them all 9 memoriter so frequent in their Writings so constantly 10 rehearsed in their Assemblies by Men whose work it was to Read and Preach and to exhort to the performance of those Duties they enjoyned being so often cited in the Confessions Comments Apologies and Epistles of the Christian Worthies as also in the Objections of those Adversaries to whose view they still lay open it must needs be true that they were handed down to the succeeding Generations pure and uncorrupt and therefore they are such upon whose Credit we may venture to pass an Estimate of Christian Doctrine § 2. AND if it be objected That we find by the Citations of the Ancients that there was a difference betwixt their Copies of the Scripture and these now extant among us it is answered from ocular Demonstration whosoever shall compare the ancient Copies or any Texts that were cited by the Primitive Christians with those Scriptures which we now own and use shall find no considerable variation We see that English Bible which we read and use in every Parish and Family though it be often falsely Printed yet receives no variation which is not soon and easily corrected and why should we suspect the same of the Original Scriptures and of those Versions which were transcribed and read thorowout the Christian World If then no Writing whilest the Apostles lived could pass for Christian Faith and yet destroy and undermine it and be receiv'd as their Epistles when it was nothing less If their immediate Successors could not be ignorant of what the Apostles committed to them to be read and Preached as the Records of their Faith and Doctrine nor would they be induced to deliver
believe it nothing besides this power of working Miracles but death and miseries at present which their experience proved to be true I say it is prodigious to think that He and his Disciples should with no other charmes worke such a lasting Faith in all the wisest part of men that neither time nor vice though most concerned to do so should ever be able to deface it And yet what 's so prodigiously incredible must be certain truth or else the Resurrection must be so THE CONCLUSION SHEWING that if what hath been delivered should be only probable yet the Christian Faith must in all reason be embraced as being 1. the safest way and 2ly the greatest instrument of present Happines A recapitulation of the whole with a practical reflection upon what hath been discoursed IF what hath been delivered do not seem to any to carry a convincing evidence let it but passe for probable and that which proves the Christian Faith more likely to be true than false and this will be sufficient plea for the profession of it For were it supposed only such it must in reason be embraced as being the securest way and the best instrument of present happiness And 1 CHRISTIANITY is the best help to present happines because it gives the highest motives to contentment in our present state the strongest comforts and supports against those evils we can fear or suffer the best preservatives and remedies against the terrors of an evil conscience the most effectual remedies against those passions and corrupt affections which impair our health and which disturb our peace and quiet It gives the fairest hopes and promises and so the greatest motives unto love and kindnes as is exceeding evident from Scripture and from what we have discoursed in the 10th Chap. of this Book 2. That Christianity is also the securest way hath been already proved and is invincibly concluded from what Arnobius saith of it See the Preface in illo periculi nihil est si quod dicitur imminere cassum fiat vacuum in hoc damnum est maximum id est salutis amissio si cum tempus advenerit aperiatur non fuisse mendacium Besides all other waies of Worship which stand in competition with it are so absurd or surely antiquated as not to bear the least degree of Evidence compared to the Evidence of Christian Faith and therefore we may rest assured that if there be a Providence it cannot be offended with us for preferring this before them But God may justly be incensed against us for not embracing of the Christian Faith though the Inducements so to do were only probable because we prosecute the most important Actions and Affaires of humane life upon the like Inducements We goe to sea only in hopes of a good Voyage and a safe returne and have recourse to the Physician only in hopes of a recovery and therefore cannot be excused if we neglect to do what we have like or greater reason to believe is both the will of God and that which doth conduce to our eternal happines especially considering that Christianity doth promise greater measures of Conviction and degrees of Evidence to such as do obey its Precepts assuring us that he who doth the Will of Christ shall know the Doctrine whether it be of God or not § 2. IF then it be but probable that Christ and his Disciples were endowed with any Power of working Miracles in confirmation of the Christian Faith that any of them healed diseases cast out devils raised the Dead and whilst they constantly pretended to these things for many generations and in all places of the World and did avouch them with their dearest blood were not the worst of fools and knaves or most deluded persons Or if it be but probable that such Men could never leave unto the world the best and the sublimest Revelations such as outdid the Laws of wisest Nations and all the Precepts of Philosophy such as best serve the present and eternal Interests of Man such as are most consistent with the common Principles of Reason and yet too hard for reason to invent If it be probable that they could never by the bare Assertion of the Resurrection of a condemned malefactor confirmed only by a lye prevail upon the world to owne him for their God to desert all other ways of Worship and to run the greatest risks at present only in expectation of some future Blessing which he had promised in another life If it be probable that such a world of men would never suffer fiery tryals and sundry kinds of death become the scorne and the Ofscouring of the world only to propagate that lye which scarce afforded a temptation so to do If it be probable that any real Judgments were inflicted upon the Enemies of the Christian Faith or upon such as did prevaricate in the profession of it or that the Church and chiefly the Apostles had power to inflict such Judgments and did not terrify their converts vith vain words If it be probable that any Revelations have been ever made in favour of the Christian Cause 1. Cor. 14. 29 30 31 32. and that S. Paul in his Epistles to the Church of Corinth doth not give directions about things of nought and confidently tell them that ever one had a Revelation when no man did enjoy it If it be probable that any Dreams or Visions have been vouchsafed to them or any tokens of divine Assistance under sufferings of wonderful deliverance from them of confusion to their Adversaries If it be probable that the predictions of the Messiah of the Jews were perfectly accomplish'd in our JESUS and that things particularly foretold by him viz. his Death and Resurrection the large and speedy Propagation of the Christian Faith the Miracles of his Disciples the destruction of the Jewish nation however most incredible were most assuredly fulfill'd or that that gift of Prophesie to which so many thousand soules pretended throughout divers centuryes was really vouchsafed to any one of them If it be probable that any of them spake with Tongues and the Apostle did not charge the Church of Corinth with the too frequent exercise of a gift with which they never were acquainted If it be probable that the whole Sect of Christians for three hundred years were neither wicked Impostors nor yet deluded Persons If it be probable that they had no assistance from good or evil Angels to delude the World and yet did things which could not be effected without the aid of some supernaturall Powers If it be probable that both their Gospels and Epistles were indited in that Age they lived in and sent to those Persons to whome they are inscribed and if it be improbable that whilst so many were alive that could attest the truth or falsehood of their story it should though a prodigious and bare-faced lye obtain to be the Rule of Faith I say if all these things are probable then must Christianity
ΑΟΓΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΠΙΣΤΕΩΣ OR An Endeavour to evince The Certainty of CHRISTIAN FAITH In Generall And of the Resurrection of Christ in Particular By Daniel Whitbie Chaplain to the Right Reverend Father in God SETH Lord Bishop of Sarum And Fellow of Trin. Coll. OXON Printed at the THEATER in OXFORD And are to Sold by GEORGE WEST Ann. Dom. MDCLXXI Imprimatur PET. MEWS Vice-Cancel Oxon. April 8. 1671. TO THE Right Reverend Father in God SETH Lord Bishop Of Sarum My very Good Lord MY last came to tell your Lordship I had a great Ambition to be related unto so much Worth and Goodness this to declare unto the world how happy that Relation makes me and what my Obligations are unto your Lordship to whose Instructions and Example Discourse and Counsil next to the Divine Benediction I owe those small Improvements which I have hitherto attain'd and from whose Favours and Protection I derive the Comforts the Satisfactions of my Life and the Encouragements of all my Labours But had I no such motives to induce yet Equity Prudence would oblige me to lay this Essay at your Lordships feet Whose Works sufficiently inform us You are as powerfully convincing and happily succesful in your divine Attempts against those Great Leviathans and proud Goliahs who have defy'd the Armies of the living God as in those Matters which alone admit of perfect Demonstration Your Lordship hath secured that Scripture to us on which our Hopes and Happiness depend and all our Arguments do bottome and rendred Infidelity as base and scandalous as it is hurtfull to the Soul by adding this unto the Sinfulness and Danger of it that it must be now embraced and continued in against the highest Reason most clear Conviction to the contrary And now my Lord what can the man do that cometh after You even that which hath been done already He therefore best consults his Credit in this cause who writes after your Lordships Copy as being not so vain to imagine that he can do better he fights securely who marcheth under your Lordships Banner against this Host of Philistins and becomes Armour-bearer to such a Jonathan without whose happy Conduct it would be difficult to keep an even Passage betwixt the Bozez and the Seneh the two sharp Rocks of Atheisme and Superstition 1. Sam. 14.4 Besides your Life and Conversation as well as your Endeavours from the Press and from the Pulpit declare unto the World Your Lordship hath the warmest Zeal and the most passionate Affection and Concern for Piety and doth so vigorously consult so tenderly regard and so industriously promote its Interests that all attempts of such a nature though not so happy in Expressions nor so exactly managed as the Concern and Moment of this Cause requires may yet presume upon your Lordships Favour and Acceptance even when they dread and deprecate and find themselves unable to sustaine the Sharpness of your Judgment and may hope though Your more piercing Eye discovers many Spots ill Features and undue Proportions in so rude a Draught Your great Affection to the Subject may draw the Veil before them However I have great Experience that my Lord is Gratious even to the meanest and the least deserving and that his Goodness is like his other Virtues advanced unto to the highest Measures and therefore will extend it self unto Your LORDSHIPS Most Obedient and HUMBLY DEVOTED Servant Daniel Whitbie The Preface to the Reader Courteous Reader A Dissolute ungodly Life being as well the cause as the result of Atheism we cannot wonder that it should improve so fast or think it needless to prevent its Growth in such an Age of Wickedness as this in which we live wherein men dayly offer such Affronts to Heaven that it concerns them there should be no God to punish them and live so great a contradiction to Christianity that it becomes their Interest to prove it false and then their Interest perverts their Judgments and they are easily perswaded to believe what they are so concerned to wish and they find so needfull to procure an undisturbed progress in the ways of Sin and to quiet all the Clamors of a Guilty Conscience And since these Sons of Belial do so industriously promote the Devils Kingdome since they have wholly given up themselves to vile Affections and freely do indulge to all the Pleasures of a sinfull appetite it is no wonder that their Eyes are blinded by the Prince of darkness and that they are led captive by him at his will It is but just that God should send among them strong Delusions that they all may be damned who believe not the Truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness And indeed the Generality of Atheists are such raw shallow trifling things and so unable to judge of serious Matters that we cannot reasonably impute their Infidelity to any thing they can object against Christianity and therefore must ascribe it to those impetuous and headstrong Lusts which bear the greatest Opposition to it And yet had they but leasure to consider did not their Lusts both busy and pervert that little Reason they have left they might perceive it was not want of Motives or of sufficient Reason to believe which did betray them to their Infidelity but want of Wisdome to consider of the Motives tendred and that to live the Atheist is to act in contradiction to the avowed Principles of Humane Nature and the known Rules of Reason For 1. Who knows not that in matters of the highest Moment that way must be the best which is the safest Since then Christianity affords the highest Comforts in Calamities and gives the noblest Pleasures and the most powerfull Inducements to be just and upright kind and helpfull to our brother suppose it were a cunningly devised Fable what could we suffer by the practise of it in a Christian Commonwealth Whereas should it prove true our Infidelity must rob us of the highest Blessings and everlastingly subject us to the worst of Miseries 2. Such a Perswasion as will make men circumspect and earnest to avoid a lesser danger ought with more reason to prevail upon them to decline a greater Such a perswasion as will sharpen mens Desires after and quicken their Endeavors for the obtaining of a lesser Good ought with more reason to engage them with an equal vigor in the pursuit of a greater yea an infinite good For since the apprehension of Good or Evil is the sole motive to make us undertake or decline any Action the greater that Good or Evil is the stronger motive it must be Now do not many Millions in the world foregoe their present Ease and Pleasure encounter Difficulties adventure upon Dangers and undergoe most toilsome Labours in hopes and expectations of some finite temporal Advantage of which they cannot have assurance Do they not oft abstain from what they passionately love only for fear of danger which possibly might not ensue upon the Satisfaction of their Appetite Do they
that Reason which is obliged to own such Notions as do abound with equal if not greater Difficulties And certainly if Mathematicks will afford its Demonstrations pro and con if Matters obvious to sense do oft confound the Vnderstanding it is not to be hoped it should wade thorough the Abyss of infinite perfections and not be overwhelmed and lost 2. Consider whether you have not greater reason to believe these Doctrines then to disbelieve them From what is here discoursed in the introduction it is clear we have as many reasons to assert a Providence as we have reasons to believe that any signal Demonstrations of Gods power have been made by any acts of Judgment or of Mercy in any Parts or Ages of the World or that his Wisdome was engaged in any Revelations Oracles Predictions Dreams or Visions supernatural or in the Production of the World and in the exquisite Contrivance of any Portion of it We have as many reasons to believe a Providence as we have to assert that any good or evill Angels do exist or ever did appear or interest themselves in any actions of Mankind And yet our reasons which evince the truth of Christian Faith are far more numerous and cogent Let then the Atheist view and ponder what we have here produced in confirmation of these Truths and then consider whether his motives to renounce Christianity and to reject a Providence be more numerous and more convincing then what this Treatise offers to establish them If not he must have greater Reason to assert then to disown them and so his Infidelitie must be the worst of Follies Lastly Consider whether he that rejects the Christian Faith must not be forced to believe what 's more incredible then any Mystery contained in it For he must believe that Christ and his Disciples and the Christians of the three first Ages did endeavour to confirm the world in the belief of what they knew to be a lie and consequently that all the Primitive Professors who did so court the Flames and were so wearie of this present life were yet the vilest Atheists as not believing there was any God to punish this their pernicious lye Or secondly that they were all beside themselves that they had lost the principles of preservation and Self Love which Nature hath so deeply planted in the very Brutes and that they made it their designe to ruine and destroy their Souls and Bodys their Friends and their Relations to abandon all the Pleasures of this Life and to expose themselves to all the Miseries that can be incident to humane Nature without any motive but the love of Miserie And yet he must believe that they who did so little understand the common Principles of humane Nature were able to enrich the World with the best Notions of a Deity and of a future State and the best precepts of Moralitie that humane Nature ever was acquainted with And that these Fools had wit enough to propagate their Doctrine and to obtain belief throughout the World maugre all opposition that all the powers of men and Devils could make against them Or 2ly he must believe these Atheists chose to quit their Lives and suffer all the miseries they underwent only to beat down Atheisme and to establish that Religion which bears the Greatest Opposition to all the Naturall results of Atheisme He must believe that what is written in the Books of Scripture and the Apologies of all the Christians and that all that they pretended and appealed to in every corner of the World were but prodigious impudent untruths and that the World was universally induced to Worship a condemned Malefactor as God Blessed for evermore and to embrace the Doctrine of the Cross with all its Disadvantages without a seeming Miracle Or 2ly he must believe that they had no assistance in the Propagation of the Faith besides those arts of Magick in which both Jew and Gentile were more expert then they and which Apostates who were very numerous and frequent learned and ingenious were equally acquainted with and yet that never any of them did attempt to imitate or to disclose their Art or that the world when thus convinced of the Delusion would notwithstanding universally embrace and chuse to suffer for what they knew to be confirmed only by those Magical Collusions which they saw daily practised by Jew and Heathen and in which they were instructed by those very Christians who did so signally condemn those Arts as Devilish and threaten everlasting Misery to all that used them He must believe that all the Records of any signal Judgement which ever did befall the Enemies and Blasphemers of the Christian Faith or any portion of it or of any Mercies Preservations Gifts or Assistances vouchsafed to them in any age or places of the Christian World are void of Truth in every particular He must believe an hundred matters of like nature which this Treatise will suggest And therefore Reader I intreat you to peruse it with that care and diligence which matters of this moment do require and then I hope it may be instrumentall to convince you of and confirm you in the Truth of Christian Faith which is the hearty desire of Your Servant in the Defence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ DANIEL WHITBIE The Contents of the Chapters CHAP. I. WHAT Endeavours have been made to stop the growth of Atheism and Irreligion by asserting an All-wise presiding Power visible in the production of the World What seemeth further necessary to be alledged against the Atheist An Essay towards the eviction of a Providence 1. From the existence of evil Spirits 2. From many signal demonstrations of Gods Power 3. Of his Judgements upon rebellious Sinners And 4. of his power and mercy in preservation of his servants and his miraculous answers to their Prayers 5. From Revelations and Predictions of things contingent in their various Circumstances 6. From Apparitions of good and evil Angels 7. From Dreams and Visions supernatural 8. From things performed by pretenders to Miracles Magicians Witches Oracles Philosophers which could not be effected naturally c. The confirmation of the Christian Faith by what hath been delivered 1. by evincing that Providence hath been engaged for the establishment of some particular Religion in the World 2. That that particular Religion is no other then the Christian Faith pag. 1 2. CHAP. II. That common Prudence would not suffer the Apostles to pretend such things in their Historical Relations of the Life of Christ and in their Epistles to the Churches newly converted as must infallibly disgrace their Testimony and make them appear guilty of Delusion 2. That the Miracles recorded in those Historical Narrations and Epistles if true are a convincing evidence that some superior Power did assist the Workers of them 3. That Christ and his Disciples had no assistance from good or evil Angels to impose upon the World p. 55. CHAP. III. Sect. I. Proleg 4. That Christ and his Apostles did
not endeavour to impose upon the World Not Christ For 1. He could have no temptation to fulfil those Prophesies of the Messiah which concerned his ignominious poor and miserable life and his accursed death 2. He could have no expectation of his own Resurrection or of the sending of the Holy Ghost or of the destruction of the Jewish Nation or of the famishing of the Heathen Deities or of the propagation of his Gospel throughout the World or the performance of those mighty Deeds which were expected from the Messiah of the Iews 3. No hopes this should be done by Men so timerous so dull so ignorant as were the twelve Apostles 4. His Disciples must be acquainted with the Impostures of their Lord and so have greatest reason to disown him 5. If so John Baptist who obtained so great a reputation from the Iews must have been guilty of the same endeavour to delude them 2. Not Christs Apostles as is argued from their simplicity Sincerity Interest The things they did or were obliged to pretend 3. Not their immediate Successors for the same and many other reasons The assurance which we have of what these Arguments suppose Coroll That what they have delivered to the World must be related bona fide and with a full conviction of its Truth p. 77 78. CHAP. III. Sect. II. Proleg 5. That Christ and his Disciples could not be deceived in their pretensions to the things they spake of and presumed they did and yet prevail upon the World to own and to assert their Doctrine p. 107. CHAP. IV. Proleg 6. That we may safely take an estimate of Christian Doctrine from what we find recorded of it in the Books of Scripture those Writings not being corrupted nor yet containing any thing repugnant to the Christian Faith Corol. concluding that those Scriptures which we daily read must be the Works of those Apostles and Evangelists whose names they bear p. 113. CHAP. V. The Truth of Christian Faith asserted from the Gifts and Operations of the Holy Ghost in general and more particularly from the Gift of Prophesie and from the Gift of Tongues p. 131 CHAP. VI. The veracity of the Christian Faith concluded from the deportment of the Christians under sufferings the patience and undaunted Courage of the weaker sex from the kindness of the Christians to their persecutors and those Indignities they suffer'd from them from Gods miraculous assistance of them under sufferings great deliverances from them For had they not been assured of the truth of Christian Doctrine 't is both impossible they should and inconceivable they would have suffer'd after such a manner An Objection from Instances of the like nature answered p. 139. CHAP. VII Sect. I. That from the fulfilling of things future and contingent we may reasonably infer the Being of an over-ruling Providence which interests it self in their completion The truth of Christian Faith evinced 1. From those Predictions which concern the Person Birth Life Actions and Passions of our Lord and Saviour The confirmation of this Argument 2. From those Miracles which his Disciples wrought agreeable to our Saviours promise prediction and commission for they healed the diseased and ejected Devils according as our Lord foretold p. 163. CHAP. VII Sect. II. The Truth of Christian Faith evinced from those Predictions which concern the ruine of the Jewish Temple Discipline and Nation the authors time and manner the Greatness and Duration Concomitants and Attendants of it as the Scripture mentions them and the wonderful completion of them all A confirmation of this Argument from the attempt of the Apostate Julian to rebuild the Temple and the miraculous frustration of it p. 191. CHAP. VIII Sect. I. Arg. 4. Evincing the truth of Christian Doctrine 1. From the Miracles wrought by Christ suitably to his Design and to the Prophesies of the Old Testament and to the expectation of the Iews These Miracles were many mighty and they had most remarkable Effects upon the Hearers and Spectators of them They were avouched with greatest confidence by his Apostles who by those means converted thousands and whose Records of those things became the rule of Faith unto the Christian Converts The confirmation of this from the Miracles wrought by Christs Apostles who affirm Christ gave commission to them whilest abiding with them to work the greatest Miracles which they accordingly performed And that this Power was more abundantly conferr'd upon them after the Resurrection of their Lord is argued from the promise of Christ from the Confession of Jews and Heathens from the Records of Scripture Like wonders were performed by Christians in all places of the World and the same Power continued in the Church for divers Centuries The confirmation of the second Argument The result of these Particulars p. 215 216. CHAP. VIII Sect. II. Arg. 3. Proving the truth of Christian Doctrine from the speedy Propagation of it through the World by inconsiderable and unlearned Men against those many prejudices which did attend it The avowed Principles on which this Argument depends A further Confirmation of it by comparing its Effects with those of Heathen Wisdom or Philosophy p. 241. CHAP. IX An Answer to some Objections 1. Touching the Miracles of Simon Magus Apollonius and touching those Predictions Miracles and gifts of Healing to which the Heathen Oracles and Deities pretended And that 1. From the issue of them for they were blasted and confounded And 2ly From the Designs they aimed at which were all unworthy of a Deity They were controuled by Providence They were such whose deceit 't was no Mans interest to detect Obj. 2. Touching the general rejection of Christianity by the Jewish Nation An account of their rejection of it 1. From the temper and disposition of that People From the danger to which it exposed them From the Prejudices they conceived 1. Against the Person of our Saviour And 2ly Against his Doctrine p. 267. CHAP. X. Arg. 5. Concluding for the truth of Christian Doctrine from the excellency of its Precepts in order 1. To the publick Welfare of Man-kind 2ly To the perfection of humane nature 1. By the clearest Informations of Man's understanding in matters which concern the knowledge of God and of Virtue and Vice And 2ly by tendering the most prevailing Motives to engage the Will and the Affections to obedience And 3ly The most strong engagements to seek the welfare of our Brothers Soul Heathen Philosophy and their receiv'd Theology destructive of Religion and fitted to promote the Interest of Satans kingdom This proved from their conceptions both of God and of his Providence and of his Attributes and their uncertainty in matters of this nature and from their want of Precepts to direct them in or promise to encourage to the performance of their duty and from their doubtings of a future State and their denyal of all future Punishments and from the false Conceptions of the rise and fatality of Sin That these Opinions are destructive to the service
that might accrue unto him such as the resurrection and those other glorious things that were foretold of the Messiah But now could any other person hope for such a glorious resurrection and to enable a few illiterate despised persons by mighty signes and wonders by admirable Gifts and Graces of the Holy spirit to subdue the world to the beliefe of things incredible viz. To owne and worship for the God of Heaven and Earth one who was lately hanged on a tree and one that by his owne Nation was rejected as the worst of Malefactours § 4. AND now to take off that objection which is so often made by 18 Celsus and other Adversaries of the Christian Faith that all those places of the old Testament which are supposed to respect our Jesus are in themselves ambiguos and may by pregnant phansies be applyed and fitted unto any subject Let it be considered 1. that the prophesies which are here selected are in themselves most clear and such as cannot well admit of any other sense And 2ly That the sense here given of them is confirmed where it is needfull in the Annotations And 3ly That they are such as Christ and his Apostles urg'd with greatest confidence in their discourses with the Jews and their Epistles to them and by these they prevail'd upon some thousands of them notwithstanding their great and many prejudices to owne this Faith as being publickly and mightily convinced from the scripture Act. 18. 28. that Jesus was the Christ which sure would not have been attempted nor could possibly have been effected had not those scriptures been applyed by them according to the clear importance of the words or the received interpretations of the Jewish Doctors And hence when Justin Martyr in his dispute with Trypho urged those places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Dialog p. 316. he though a Jew confessed that they were all intended of the Messiah of the Jews the truth of which confession we shall abundantly make good in the ensuing Annotations on this Chapter But to proceed unto some further instances the prophesies of Christ touching the mighty signs and wonders which should attend the first Professors of the Christian Faith and touching the destruction of Jerusalem have been so signally fulfill'd that 19 Phlegon reflecting upon those and such like instances confessed Christ was endowed with the Gift of prophesie and the event did answer his predictions And 1. It was prophesied and that without exception or restriction to any sort of persons that they who did believe his doctrine should be endowed with power to cast out devils and to heal diseases and to speak with tongues Of the completion of which prophesie as to the Gift of tongues we have already spoken Mark 16. 17. 18. As for the Gift of healing this was so common in the Apostles days that the Epistle of St. James directs the Sick and the Diseased to the Rulers of the Church with promise that they shall be healed It was a thing so constantly pretended in their Story Act. 5.12 4. 30. 8. 7. 28. 9. and made so oft the matter of their Prayers as well as of our Saviours promise that Christianity had this pretention been a lye would have assuredly been blasted by it Besides this Gift continued frequent and notorious in after Ages its instances were famous and innumerable throughout the Christian World a Net e im caecis possunt donare visum neque surdis auditū neque omnes daemones effugare neque debiles claudos aut paralyticos curare vel alia quadam parte corporis vexatos quemadmodum saepe evenit fieri secundum corporalem infirmitatem vel earum que foris accidunt infirmitatum bonas valetudines restaurare Iren. l. 2. c. 56. c. 57. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To restore to health by imposition of hands to cure the Weak and Lame and Paralytick and those that labour under any other malady is a thing frequent in the Church faith Ireneus And b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig in Celsum l. 1. p. 34. rursus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vid. l. 2. p. 80. Origen gives us his owne experience of it in these words We oft have seen the people by the Christians freed from extasies and madness and from a 1000 other dreadful symptomes and calamities from which nor Men nor Devils could recover them and they at present heal by invocation of Christs name Whence 3ly We may note that generally those diseases were incurable by all the powers of humane Arts and all assistances of Heathen Deities or any other name then that of Jesus Thus c Et quoniam beneficia salutis datae aliorum numinum comparatis Christi quot millia vultis a nobis debilium ostendi Quot tabificis afectos morbis nullam omnino retulisse medicinam cum per omnia supplices irent templa cum Deorum ante ara prostrati limina ipsa converrerent osculis cum Aesculapium ipsum datcrem ut praedicant sanitatis quoad illis superfuit vita precibus fatigarent invitarent miserrimis votis Quid ergo prodest oftendere unum aut alterum fortasse curatos cum tot millibus subvenerit nemo Arnob. l. 1. p. 29. Arnobius And since you have the confidence to bring the petty cures of the Heathen Deities into contest with Christ how many thousands shall we instance in who have in vain repaired to their Temples And what doth it availe to tell us of the Good success of two or three when the complaints of thousands speak their want of power to assist the needy As for the 20 ejection of Devils both out of Men and Beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Celsum l. 7. p. 334. and places where they did reside that this was done etiam à rusticis Christianis as Arnob. or by the rudest and most simple Christians as Origen we have the frequent attestations of all the Records of Christianity through divers Centuries and their Apologies unto the Heathen world all which abound in frequent mention of this thing Moreover they did often urge sollicite and 21 provoke their adversaries in their Apologies and Disputations with them to try the truth of their assertion and make their 22 Senses Judge of what they did pretend to They did 23 appeal to their own Consciences and knowledge of it and tell them that many 24 Hundreds were still living of their owne superstition as well as Christian Proselytes who by their personall experience could attest it They offer'd upon 25 pain of Death and loss of all that could be dera unto them not only to eject those very demons they invoked but make them confess that 26 they were cheats and own themselves to be but Devils They publickly declared that by their presence only they could stop 28 mouths of Oracles and put to flight their Gods or render them unable to assist the Priest See notes in Chap. 2. Num. 1. 2. 3. that
weigh these things must soon be forced to confess and to admire the Truth and the Divinity of Christs Predictions or in the Words of Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 B. p. 83. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What can the Wise men of the World object against such clear Predictions and such convincing Demonstrations of the Power of Christ ANNOTATIONS On the 7th Chapter SECT II. THeir Doctors had concluded Ideo moderni Judaei dicunt Messiam non venisse quia nondum viderunt eum venire in nubibus Coeli Raymund Pug. fid p. 276. 2 Euseb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eccl. Hist l. 2. c. 11. 3 Of an Aegyptian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist l. 2. c. 21. 4 Josephus ascribes their ruine to a lying Prophet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph de Bello Judaico l. 7. c. 11. 5 Their frequent Exorcisms by the invocation of the God of Jacob Matt. 12.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Dial. cum Tryph. p. 311. vide Tertull. contra Marcionem Theophilum l. 2. ad Autolyc Orig. in Celsum p. 185. vide Annot. in c. 1. num 4. 6 Their assertions that God gave power to his law name and attributes to heal diseases The Author of Sepher Ikkarim tells us That the Attributes of God are Instruments to which he hath annexed a power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est That signs and wonders should be done by them Why is it that they who skill this art work miracles The reason is because the law is of divine Original Auctor Neve Shalom l. 5. c. 5. 7 These Instances Josephus gives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Bello Jud. l. 7. c. 12. 8 That comet which appeared like a flaming sword 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph de Bello Jud. l. 7. c. 12. 9 R. Saadias Quod autem scribit Cum nubibus coeli illi sunt Angeli de exercitu coeli haec erit maxima dignatio quam conferet Deus Christo In Dan. 7. 10 The Appearance in the clouds of chariots and of armed men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph ibid. 11 To the Anger of their Gods against the Christians vide infra Not. in c. 8. s N. 19. 12 A Prophetick Scheme See the like Esaiah 13.10 c. 24. v. 18.19.20.23 c. 34. v. 4. Jer. 4.23 Ezek. 32.7.8 Joel 2.10 Rev. 6.12.8.12 13 And sutably to the manner of the Eastern Nations Apud Arabes de eo cui singulare aliquod infortunium accidit dicitur quod coelum ipsius in terram conversum sit vel super terram ejus ceciderit Maimon More Nevochim p. 265. againe Neque quemquam puto ita ignorantem caecum literaeque Parabolarum narrationum Historicarum vel Oratoriarum addictum esse ut existimet stellas coelum lucem Solis Lunae mutata esse vel terram de centro suo motam quando destructum fuit regnum Babel verum repraesentat nobis tota haec narratio statum conditionem hominis victi cui lux omnis atra dulce amarum immo cui terra nimis angusta coelum ruinam minitari videtur ib. part 2. c. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Artemidorus Oneirocrit l. 2. c. 36. 14 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may respect the flying open c. Of which things we have the testimony of Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scilicet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Bello Judaico l. 7. c. 12. c. 11. Evenerant prodigia visae per coelum concurrere acies rutilantia arma subito nubium igne collucere Templum expassae repente delubri fores audita major humanâ vox excedere Deos simul ingens motus excedentium Tacitus Hist l. 5. p. 621. 15 Of the famine see Josephus de Bello Iudaic. l. 7. c. 7.8 16 Of the Earth-quakes in divers places Grot. in Matt. 24. vers 7. 17 From what Josephus hath recorded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paulo post 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Bello Jud. l. 7. c. 18. lin 1. Gr. 18 S. Cyril Bishop of Ierusalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrat. Hist Eccles l. 2. c. 20. Ruff. l. 10. c. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socr. ibidem 19 Of the greatness of the judgement Iosephus gives account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 20 The manner of the Siege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioseph Bell. Iud. l. 6. c. 13. 21 They did quit Ierusalem being admonished from Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eccles Hist l. 3. c. 5. Epiphanius de Ponderibus Mensuris c. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 22 Whether this desolation shall be perpetual as many of the Fathers held Origen Annot. in Sh. 16. c. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Cels l. 4. p. 174. Chrysost crat 3. adv Iudaeos Dionysius Alexandrinae Ecclesiae Pontifex elegantem scribit librum irridens mille annorum fabulam instaurationem Templi c. Hieron Proaemio ad l. 18. Com. in Esaiam 23 As Hugo Grotius thinks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intelligere licebit â—â—mpora divinae patientiae praestituta emendationi eorum qui ex Gentibus Christi nomen professi à disciplina Christi plurimum recesserunt ut nimirum intelligamus Deum irritatum à Gentibus modo quodam novo atque extraordinario usurum in convertendis adse Iudaeis sicut ab Iudaeis irritatus modo simili Gentes ad obsequium suum pertraxit In locum 24 Sayth Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 orat 3. adv Iudaeos 25 That it was believed by the very Atheist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. p. 81. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sozom. l. 5. c. 21. 26 The effect of it the invocation of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. p. 85 Sozom. Hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 21. Socr Hist Eccl. 21. c. 29. 27 Conclude with that of our Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eccles Hist l. 3. c. 7. CHAP. VIII SECT I. The Contents Evincing the truth of Christian Doctrine Arg. 4 1. From the Miracles wrought by Christ suitably to his Design and to the Prophesies of the Old Testament and to the expectation of the Iews These Miracles were many mighty and they had most remarkable Effects upon the Hearers and Spectators of them They were avouched with greatest confidence by his Apostles who by those means converted thousands and whose Records of these things became the rule of Faith unto the Christian Converts The confirmation of this from the Miracles wrought by Christs Apostles who affirm Christ gave commission to them whil'st abiding with them to work the greatest Miracles which they accordingly performed And that this Power was more abundantly conferr'd upon them after the Resurrection of their Lord is argued from the Promise of Christ from the Confession of Iews and Heathens from the records of Scripture Like wonders were performed by Christians in all places of the World and the same Power continued