of time often cause them to be quite laid aside But then this borrowed and Metaphorical sense of words may be very strange to Men of other Countries especially when they are taken for things peculiar to the place where they are used The Horn of the Son of Oyl signifies in our way of expression a very fruitful Hill Isa 5.1 and Horn signified strength in the Hebrew Tongue as familiarly as Robur or Oak signifies the same in Latin And not only the Valleys are said to shout and sing Ps 65.13 but the best Fruits in the Land are in the Hebrew called the singing of the Land Gen. 43.11 The word Rock is often used to denote the Almighty Power of God and by the Septuagint and vulgar Latin is sometimes translated God For their Rock is not as our Rock even our Enemies being Judges Deut. 32.31 those versions render it their Gods and our God and in like manner v. 4 15 18. Ps 31.3.73.26 Is there any God besides me yea there is no God I know not any Isai 46.8 in the Hebrew it is there is no Rock as the Margin of our Bibles remarks This use of Metaphors ariseth partly from the likeness that is perceiv'd between things which makes one thing to be exprest by another and gives a delightful illustration to the things discoursed of and partly from our want of fit words to express the various natures of things especially of things spiritual which we commonly speak of in Negative terms and rather deny that they are like things sensible than positively affirm what they are Thus we say that they are immaterial invisible incorruptible c. And when we speak positively of them we must use such words as sensible objects can furnish us withal since we can have no other for we understand their Nature so imperfectly that we are not able to frame a Language on purpose to express it and he who should go about such a work would neither be understood by others nor well known what he meant himself But of all Beings God himself is so far above our comprehension that we can never speak of him in expressions suitable to his Divine Nature and therefore when true concâ—ptions are had of him it is fittest to speak of him in such terms as many serve to raise and preserve in us a due sense of Gods Honour and of our duty to him The Reasons then why God is often spoken of in the Scriptures after the manner in which we are wont to speak of men may be reduced to these particulars 1. The use of Metaphorical and Figurative expressions is usual in all Languages and no Language is sufficient to set forth the Majesty and Attributes of God 2. The peculiar Nature and Genius of the Hebrew Tongue inclined or constrained the Writers in that Language to express themselves in this manner Gen. 9.5 at the hand of every Beast will I require it that is I will require it of every Beast Sin in the Hebrew signifies a Sin-offering as it is translated and must of necessity be understood in many places of Scripture and in this sense Christ was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 We read Jos 24.27 that Joshua said unto all the people behold this stone shall be a witness unto us For it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us it shall therefore be a witness unto you lest ye deny your God This might have been a very improper and unintelligible Speech to another people but was most significant and emphatical to the people of Israel who well understood upon what account sense was often ascribed to inanimate things as Gen. 31.52 Num. 20.8 Deâ—t 4.26.30.19.32.1 and afterwards frequently by the Prophets 3. An express Law was made against the worshipping of God under any Image or Similitude and the people are put in mind that they saw no similitude but only heard a voice when the Lord spake to them from the Mount Deut. 4.12 and that he is without change or repentance Num. 23.19 1 Sam. 15.29 Malach 3.6 4. When this caution had been given and such a Law made it cannot be expected but that the Divine Writers should make use of such expressions as were commonly used and were as commonly understood in a Metaphorical or improper sense when applied to God to give the more force and emphasis to their discourse * Maimoâ—id More Nevoch Par. 1. c. 1 26 27 28 36.48 Maimonides has proved from the propriety of the Hebrew words that the Image and Likeness of God in which man is said to have been made is to be understood of the faculties of his Mind and he lays this down as a general and known rule amongst the Jews Loquitur Lex secundum linguam Filiorum hominum and he likewise observes that both Onkelos and Jonathan have in their Paraphrases taken care to give the true sense of such expressions as seem to imply any thing corporeal in God The Scriptures make mention of his eyes and hands and feet to express the effects of those Actions which are performed by men with these members and when it was said it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart Gen. 6.6 This was well understood to mean no more than that God acted as men are wont to do when they change their minds and repent and grieve at what they have done and that he would certainly destroy the world which he had made for Moses himself instructs the Children of Israel that God is without any bodily shape or substance and therefore cannot be said to have any heart or to be grieved at his heart in the same sense that it is said of men And Num. 23.19 it is declared that God is not a man that he should lye neither the Son of man that he should repent And when God says that it repented him that he had set up Saul to be King 1 Sam. 15.11 this is explain'd v. 29. where we read that the strength of Israel will not lye nor repent for he is not a man that he should repent and yet again in the last verse it is said that the Lord repented that he had made Saul King over Israel The most careless writer could not so soon and so often forget himself but what is said of Gods repenting is to be taken in an improper and figurative sense to imply that God would act in that case as men act when they repent of what they have done tho without any change of mind or any grief or other passion in him attending it the effect was the same as if God had repented and therefore by a Metonymy the effect is exprest by that which in men is wont to be the cause of such effects tho repentance was not the cause of it but the reason and state of the case which he had fully known and considered from all eternity and therefore could not be surprized or
for what Book is there without 'em or what Book of the same bigness and of any Antiquity has so few various Lections as the Bible and what Book can be Transcribed or Printed but it is liable to have mistakes made in it IV. No difference between the Hebrew Text and the Septuagint and other Versions or between the several Versions themselves is any prejudice to the Authority of the Scriptures nor can prove that the Hebrew Text was ever different in any thing material from what it is now The Translation of the Septuagint * Id. Prolegom ix s â—2 x. s 8. as it hath been observed from St. Jerom and others is in many places rather a Comment or Paraphrase than a strict Version and gives the sense rather than the words of the Hebrew Texts Many times there is supposed to be a difference where there is none for want of a sufficient knowledge of the Original as †Pocock Append. ad Porâ— Mos c. 1 2 3 4. Pears Praef. ad Septuag Edit Cantab Is Voss de lxx Interpret Walt Proleg ix 46. Dr Pocock has shewn in divers Instances and Bp Pearson in others besides what has been written by Isaac Vossius to this purpose and one very skilful in the Oriental Tongues had undertaken to shew the agreement between Hebrew and and the Septuagint throughout and had made a considerable Progress in the work as Bishop Walton informs us Other differences proceed from the mistakes of Transcribers as it must needs happen in Books of which so many Copies have been taken in all Ages and from the rashness of Criticks in making unnecessary alterations or by inserting into the Text such Notes as were at first placed only for explication in the Margin In some things of less consequence the Translators might be mistaken or they might follow a different Copy The Authority of the Text of Scripture is greatly confirmed from the citations of the Greek and Latin Fathers from whence it appears that in the several Ages of the Greek and Latin Churches the Copies which they made use of had no such variations from those we now use as to be of any ill consequence in matters of Religion As to the Imputation that was charged upon the Jews by some of the Fathers that they had corrupted the Scriptures in such places as according to the Translation of the Septuagint and the sense of their Ancestors must prove the Truth of the Christian Religion against them this is to be understood of the Versions of Aquila Symmachus and Theodosian who being all either profest Jews or Judaizing Hereticks designed their Translations to countenance their own errors especially Aquila who undertook his Version purposely to oppose that of the Septuagint For it is now generally agreed that the Jews never deserved the Censure of having corrupted the Hebrew Text tho they perverted the sense of it and where there were various Readings chose to follow that which was most favourable to their own pretences tho it were in contradiction to the Judgment of their Forefathers as well as the Christians Philo in a discourse cited * Euseb Praepar Evang. lib. viii c. 6. by Eusebius who thereby owns the Truth of it said that for the space of above two thousand years there had not been a word altered in the Law but that the Jews would chuse to dye never so many deaths rather than they would consent to any thing in prejudice of it And †Contra Apion lib. i. Josephus declares of the whole Old Testament that it had suffered no alteration from the beginning down to his own Time * Antiqu. Eccl. Orient Epist 38. Morinus himself whatever he hath elsewhere said to the contrary declares in a Letter to Dr Comber Dean of Carlisle that he supposes no man can doubt but that the Jewish Copies caeteris paribus are to be preferred before any Copies of the Samaritans which he in his Writings so highly magnifies It must be acknowledged that the numbring of the Verses and Words and Letters and the observing which was the middle Letter of every Book could signify little to the securing of the Hebrew Text entire because there may be the same number of Verses and Words and Letters in different Books and the same Number of Letters may make up different Words and the same Words diversely placed and apply'd may express a very different sense nor could there be any charm in a word that stood in the midst of a Book to keep all the rest in their proper places But this scrupulous and even superstitious diligence of the Jews in little things is an evidence of their constant study of the Scriptures and of the great value and reverence they had for it so that they would neither corrupt it themselves nor suffer it to be corrupted by others but were careful and zealous to preserve every ever letter and tittle and as I observed before from Josephus they were so well acquainted with it that he thought he could not fully enough express their skill and accuracy but by saying that they knew it better than their own names V. It is evident and confest by the Criticks that neither by these nor by any other means any such difference is to be found in the several Copies of the Bible as to prejudice the fundamental Points of Religion or weaken the Authority of the Scriptures All relating to this controversy has been eagerly debated by contending parties who yet agree in this whatever they differed in besides that the various Lections do not invalidate the authority of the Scriptures nor render them ineffectual to the end and design of a Divine Revelation inasmuch as all the various Lections taken together are no preiudice to the Analogy of Faith nor to any Points necessary to Salvation * Non minus ex ijs quae supra disputata sunt planum est id quod statim libri primi initio monuimus saepius toto opere inculcavimus plerasque omnes quae observari deprehendi in sacris libris possunt varias Lectiones levissimi esse ac pene nullius momenti ut parum admodum intersit aut vero perinde omnino sit utram sequaris sive hanc sive illam Ludovic Cappel Crit. Sacr. lib. 6. c. 2. Ludovicus Cappellus who had studied this subject as much as any man and was as well able to judge of it after the strictest examination he could make found that the things relating either to Faith or Practice are plainly contained in all Copies whatever difference there is in lesser things as in matters of Chronology which depend upon the alteration or the omission or addition of a Letter or in the Names of Men or of Cities or Countreys But the fundamental Doctrines of Religion are so dispersed throughout the Scriptures that they could receive no damage nor alteration unless the whole Scriptures should have been changed Wherefore not only the most learned Protestants but â€
manner what our inward Faith and Resolutions are This is that sort of security which Men have of one another and when God makes a Covenant with Men he considers them as Men that is he appoints such Solemnities of it as have respect to the Body as well as to the Soul he doth not deal with us as with immaterial Spirits but as with Creatures consisting of Soul and Body and who little regard and are little affected with that which doth not some way concern the one as well as the other And it is strange to see to what Extravagancies those have proceeded who have set up for a purely Spiritual Worship without any thing Sacramental for a visible Sign in it For not to mention the Pretensions of our Enthusiasts who by decrying the use and necessity of Sacraments have made Religion nothing but an empty and uncertain Name amongst them Prophyry who was a Man of Study and Learning after he had Apostatiz'd from the Christian Religion upon a ridiculous Occasion as History relates it was ashamed to return to the Heathen Idolatry which after the appearance of Christianity in the World soon became too notoriously absurd and abominable for any Man pretending so much to Reason and good Sense to own it but he placed all Divine Worship in Mental Prayer and so far rejected all outward and Bodily Worship (g) Porphyr de Abstinent lib. 2. §. 34. that he pretended the Prayers of Men were polluted and defiled by any thing of that Nature and rendred unacceptable to the Deity and that they never were sufficiently pure and perfect if they were express'd by the Voice but were then in their highest degree of Perfection when they were all Contemplation and Rapture and Extasie And the very same Notions were taught by (h) Euseb Praepar Evang. lib. iv c. 13. Apollonius Tyanoeus and have been revived of late by such as undervalue all outward Ordinances which may be a Warning to others and an Evidence of the Divine Wisdom in appointing Sacraments as outward and visible Signs of our Covenant and Communion with God 2. As these outward Signs serve to raise our Attention and fix our Minds and to put us in Remembrance that Heaven and Earth Angels and Men are Witnesses against us if we prove treacherous and unfaithful in this Covenant so they are as Tokens and Pledges to us of God's Love and Favour and of his merciful and gracious Intentions towards us in taking us into Covenant with himself they give us sensible and visible Assurances of that Grace which is invisible and Spiritual And this seems but necessary for Creatures that are led so much by Sense as we all are in this Life that God together with his Word and Promises should besides appoint something which may be perceiv'd by our Bodily Senses in Token of those Blessings which are bestow'd upon the Soul that what is no Object of Sense may yet be represented and signified by something that is sensible to bring as far as it is possible the most Divine and Heavenly things down to our very Senses which may be a Sign and Token of present Grace and Favour and a Pledge and Earnest of future Glory and Happiness And this is what is found very useful and necessary amongst Men who are better contented with something present and in hand tho' of little value and insignificant in itself as a Token and Pledge of what is promised and made over to them than they are with the greatest Promises and Protestations without any thing as an Earnest to confirm them because this is a Natural Evidence that they are indeed in Earnest as our English word expresses it and really intend what they say and it may be produced against them if they should fail of Performance Now what is inward and invisible is absent as to Sense and what is future has need of something present to represent it to us And God who was pleased to bind himself even by an Oath for our farther Comfort and Trust in him has been pleased likewise that he might be wanting in nothing which might help our Infirmities and assist our Faith he has been pleased in condescention to the Condition and Frailty of Humane Nature to appoint visible Signs and Pledges of that which is Invisible and to give all the Assurance to our very Senses that they are capable of that all the Promises of his Spiritual Blessings and Graces shall as certainly be fulfilled to us as the outward Signs and Pledges are appointed for us and duly received by us 3. Sacraments are not only Signs and Tokens of Spiritual Gifts and Graces but they are ordained as Means and Instruments of Grace and Salvation to us that as the Body partakes in the Moral Actions of Vertue and Vice so it might concur in the Religious Acts ordained for our Sanctification For God who has made us so as to consist of Soul and Body and to have the Vital Union between Soul and Body depend upon a fit Disposition of the Body and to be maintained by the Health and Nourishment of it has been pleas'd to appoint certain Bodily Actions as the Means and Instruments of our Spiritual Life that the Soul might not even in this Case where itself is more immediately concern'd be wholly independent of the Body but that since both must be either happy or miserable together in the next Life both might concurr in the way and means of Salvation in this yet so as that the Soul should be the first and principal Agent and the Body should act only in subordination and subserviency to it in this as it doth in other Cases that as in Moral Actions the Soul acts vertuously or viciously by the Body so in Spiritual Actions the Soul might receive Advantage and Benefit by Bodily Acts and be deprived of it upon the Omission or Neglect of such Acts. The Body without the Soul is not the Man nor the Soul without the Body but both Soul and Body together and the whole Man becomes dedicated and consecrated to God's Worship and Service in the use of Actions performed outwardly in the Body And it is requisite that the Body as well as the Soul should be thus dedicated to God in Token of the Resurrection of the Body and of that Happiness which it must receive in Heaven if the Soul be happy St. Paul exhorts the Corinthians to glorifie God in their Body as well as in their Spirit 1 Cor. vi 20. he tells them that the Body is not for Fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the Body know ye not says he that your Bodies are the members of Christ what know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost There have been those in several Ages who have made such high Pretences to Spiritual Worship that they would allow the Body no part or share in it and others from the great irregularity and corruption which they could not but observe in
who scorn so much in all other cases to depend upon the Practice and Authority of others And it is hard to believe that Men who think at all can think as they speak when they make use of this Objection Will any Man suppose that Temperance doth not preserve Health tho' he should see his Physician run into excess or that Poyson will not kill tho' the Man who tells him so and advises him against it be so desperate as to take it himself But as absurd as this Objection is in it self it is most of all absurd when it is urged against the Christian Religion of which we are assured that one of the Twelve who first preached it was an Apostate and a Traytor and our Saviour declares that many who had Preached and wrought Miracles in his Name should be at last rejected by him Matth. vii 21. And therefore for any to make this cavil against Christianity is only to shew that they do not consider it or will not remember the plainest and most remarkable Points of it 3. The causes of Vnbelief amongst Christians notwithstanding the clearest Evidence for their Religion are too many to be here recounted But I shall mention some of the chief of them 1. Vicious Men are very unwilling to believe that Religion to be True which is so directly contrary to their whole course of Life and to all their Inclinations and Desires but they are very ready to catch at any Cavils and Pretences against it The Lives of too many Christians have brought a Scandal though a very unjust one upon the Religion which they profess and Men who find themselves more enclined to do as they see them do than as they hear them acknowledge they ought to do make no sufficient enquiry into the Principles of Religion 2. Divers Men have had a strange Ambition to say something new upon every Subject they treat of and in order to that have set themselves with all their Skill and Power to contradict and overthrow what has been said by others that they might make way for their own Opinions or so to refine upon the Notions of others that they might appear New and of their own Invention which has made inconsiderate Men conclude that we are always to seek in our Doctrine and have no fix'd Principles whereas Men of Learning and Judgment know that commonly what is with so much ostentation proposed and recommended to us for New has been considered and rejected of old though not perhaps in the very Terms yet in the Sence and Substance of it or else it is some True Doctrine under a different Form and Manner of Expression The Improvements which have been made in Philosophy this last Age afford a real and great advantage towards the Proof and Establishment of Religion in Mens Minds and yet there are few things which have been more abused to the Dishonour of it For when Men find it convenient to give some vent to the Philosophical Humour they bethink themselves of a fit Subject for it to discharge it self upon and this must be something Great and something that is very New and Surprising and there is nothing which answers all these Qualities so well as a New Account of the Origin of the Vniverse and then the History of the Creation in Genesis as well as the World it self must undergo all the Alterations which they are pleased to impose upon it that it may perfectly submit and comply with their New Hypotheses If this Fancy should hold New Systems of the World will be as common as New Romances They must pardon me the Expression for Des Cartes himself among his Friends gave no better Name to his System which was the first Ground and Occasion to all the rest And nothing is more easie with a Philosophical Wit than to build or destroy a World But it is to be hoped when they have wearied themselves with New Contrivances they will let us have our Old World again In the mean time these Men who have too much Philosophy to have no Religion put dangerous Weapons into the Hands of those who have neither the one nor the other and know not how to use them but to do mischief And there is nothing so plain but it may be rendred difficult and obscure to many Men by long and subtile Disputes If great numbers of Men should write concerning the Sun's Heat and Light and Motion for many Years and every one should still contradict all that went before him and strive to say something New and Strange upon the Subject the last for ought I know might pretend to prove that perhaps there may be no Sun at all Which indeed is no more than what the Scepticks have said And this Infidelity and Scepticism concerning God and his Providence and Revelation must end in the Scepticism of our very Senses if these Principles be pursued in their direct and unavoidable Consequences Others have been too bold with the Mysteries of Religion and have pretended to explain them so far as if they would endeavour to present us with a Religion without all Mystery which at the same time has exposed Themselves to Reproach and Religion to the Scorn of such as are glad to take all occasians to shew their Good-will to it The evident and declared Design of the Socinians is to retain no Mysteries but by forced Interpretations of Scripture to expound them all to their own that is to a new and absurd sence and it is but too plain that there is a combined Design carried on between Them and the Deists who are contented to pass for Christians with a Distinction and without a Mystery Anti-Trinitarian is a milder word than Anti-Christian and Unitarian is but a different Name for Deist Another sort have been very laborious in finding out Mysteries where there are none and under a pretence of reducing the plainest Doctrines to clear Principles have only amâ—â—sed and confounded Men in the true and obvious Notions of them Thus the Duties of Love to God and to our Neighbour are plain in themselves and are as plainly set down in the Scriptures And to raise Abstracted and Metaphysical Speculations upon so plain Texts is only to tell us what we know before in other and less intelligible Terms or else to fall into the nice and rash Disputes of the School-Men or into the Enthusiastick Heats of the Mystical Divines which can have no Tendency to the Peace or Edification of the Church but gives an Occasion to the Adversary to Blaspheme 3. A Third Cause of Infidelity has been the Rashness of some Criticks For if any thing relating to Religion has been once call'd in Question by Men who have got themselves a Name by writing more boldly than wiser Men have done the Authority of such Men shall be thought a sufficient Answer to all the Arguments which can be taken from any thing which they are pleas'd to dislike Criticism when it falls to the share of a prudent
we may not be assured of some things as certainly from the Testimony of others as from our own Senses 2. Whether this be not the present case relating to the resolution of Faith I shall therefore consider in the first place the certainty which we have for the matters of fact by which the Authority of the Scriptures is proved and confirmed to us compared with the evidence of sence and will then apply it to the resolution of Faith I. In many cases men seem generally agreed that there is as much cause to believe what they know from others as what they see and experience themselves For there may be such circumstances of credibility as equal the evidence even of sence it self no evidence can satisfie sence so much indeed nor perhaps so much affect the passions as that of sence but there may be other evidence which may give as clear conviction and altogether as good satisfaction to our Reason as that which is immediately derived from our sences concerning the Being of Objects or the Truth of matters of fact Thus those who never travelled to the Indies do as little doubt that there is such a place as those who have been never so often there and all men believe there was such a man as Julius Caesar with as little scruple as if they had lived in his time and had seen and spoke with him I suppose no man in his wits makes any more doubt but there are such places as Judoea and Jerusalem from the constant report of Historians and Travellers than if he had been in those places himself and had lived the greatest part of his Life there and the greatest Infidel that I know of never pretended yet to disbelieve that there was such a person as our Saviour Christ But all men think themselves as well assured of things of this nature upon the credit of others as if they had seen them themselves For how doubtful and intricate soever some things may be for want of Knowledge or credit in the Relaters yet there are other things delivered with that agreement and certainty on all hands that to doubt of them would be as unreasonable as to doubt of what we our selves see and hear And if our Saviour's Resurrection for instance be of this nature we can with as little reason doubt of it as if we had lived at that time and had conversed with him after his Resurrection from the Dead But we have as great assurance that he was alive again after his Crucifixion as that he ever lived at all and we have at least all the assurance that there was such a Person as Christ that we can have that there once lived any other man at that distance of time from us We can no more doubt that our Saviour was born in the Reign of Augustus Coesar and was Crucified under Tiberius than that there were once such Emperors in the World nay we have it much better attested that Christ was Born and was Crucified and rose again than that there ever were such Princes as these two Emperors for no man ever made it his business to go about the world to certifie this and to testifie the truth of it at his Death But the Apostles themselves and their Disciples and Converts and innumerable others ever since from the beginning of Christianity have asserted the particulars of the Life and Death and Resurrection of our Saviour under all dangers and torments and deaths and have made it their great aim and design both living and dying to bear Testimony to the Truth of the Gospel So that a man may as well doubt of any matter of fact that ever was done before his own time or at a great distance from him as doubt of these fundamentals of the Christian Religion and yet there is no man but thinks himself as certain of some things at least which were done a long time ago or a great way off as if he had been at the doing of them himself Indeed in some respects we seem to have more evidence than these could have that lived in the beginning of Christianity for they could see but some Miracles we have the benefit of all they relyed upon their own sences and upon the sences of such as they knew and conversed with we upon the sences of innumerable People who successively beheld them for the space of Divers hundred years together so that whoever will not believe the Scriptures neither would he believe though one rose from the Dead that is though the greatest Miracle were wrought for his conviction This was said of the Old Testament and therefore may with greater reason be said of that and the New both And we have besides one sort of evidence which those that lived at the first planting of Christianity could not have for we see many of those Prophecies fulfilled which our Saviour foretold concerning his Church we know how it sprung up and flourished and from what small unlikely beginnings it has spread it self into all corners of the Earth and continues to this day notwithstanding all the malice of Men and Devils to root it out and destroy it The continuance and success of the Gospel under so improbable circumstances was matter of Faith chiefâ—y to the first Christians but to us is matter of Fact and the object of sense they saw the work indeed prosper in their hands but their Faith only could tell them that it should flourish for so many Ages as we know it has already done This is a standing and invincible proof to us at this distance of time and has the force of a twofold Argument the one of a Power of Miracles the other of Prophecies we know that a miraculous power has been manifested in conquering all opposition and in a wonderful manner bringing those things to pass which to humane wisdom and power are altogether impossible And the fulfilling hereby of Prophecies is a visible confirmation to us of the truth of those Miracles which by the Testimony of others we believe to have been done by the Prophets whose Prophecies we see fulfilled And since it must be acknowledged that things may be so well attested that we may with as much reason doubt of the truth of our own sences as of the Authority by which we are assured of the truth of them and must turn Scepticks or worse if we will not believe them we may conclude as well upon the account of these Prophecies which we our selves see fulfilled as upon all other accounts that the Historical evidence in proof of the Christian Religion amounts to all the certainty that a matter of Fact is capable of not excepting even that of sense it self II. Let us now apply all this to the Resolution of Faith and give an account how a divine and infallible Faith may be produced in us Humane Testimony is the Motive by which we believe the Scriptures to contain God's revealed Will this certifies us that such Miracles were wrought
own thoughts in a way much more free and unconfin'd than in this Life as they have more knowledge in a separate state so they must have fitter means to communicate it And since the happiness of Heaven consists in the Vision of God that is in the communications of the Divine Wisdom and Goodness God certainly can as well act upon the minds of Men in this mortal state tho we be less capable of receiving or observing the influences of his Spirit Since finite Spirits can act one upon another it is reasonable to believe that the Spirit of God the God of the Spirits of all flesh doth move and work upon the Spirits of Men that he enlightens their understandings and inclines their Wills by a secret Power and Influence in the methods of his ordinary Grace And he can likewise act upon the Wills and the understandings of some men with a clearer and more powerful Light and Force than he is pleased to do upon others in such a manner as to render them infallible in receiving and delivering his Pleasure and Commandments to the World He can so reveal himself to them by the Operations of his Holy Spirit as that they shall be infallibly assur'd of what is revealed to them and as infallibly assure others of it Which kind of Revelation is styl'd Inspiration because God doth not only move and actuate the minds of such men but vouchsafes to 'em the extraordinary Communications of his Spirit the Spirit then more especially may be liken'd to the Winds to which it is compared in Scripture for by strong convictions and forcible but gracious Impressious he breaths upon their Souls and infuses his Divine Truths into them But upon those to whom God did thus reveal himself by inward light and knowledge he did moreover bestow a power of giving external evidence by miraculous works that their pretences were real and that what they spoke was not of them but was reveal'd to them from God This inspiration the Apostles profest to have both in their Preaching and Writings and this evidence they gave of it In speaking of the Inspiration by which the Scriptures were written I. I shall shew wherein the Inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did consist or how far it extended II. I shall from thence make such inferences as may afford a sufficient answer to the objections alledged upon this subject I. I shall shew wherein the Inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did consist or how far it extended And here we must consider both the Matter and the Words of Scripture The Matter is either concerning things reveal'd and which could not be known but by Revelation or it is something which was the object of Sense and Matter of Fact as when the Apostles testify that our Saviour was crucify'd and rose again or lastly it is matter of Reason as discourses upon Moral subjects and inferences made from things reveal'd or from matter of Fact God who is a Spirit can speak as intelligibly to the spirits and minds of Men as Men can speak to the ear and in things which could not be known but by Revelation the notions were suggested and infused into the minds of the Apostles and Prophets by the Holy Ghost but they might be left to put them into their ow 〈◊〉 * Praeterea scito unumquemque Prophetam pecuâ—iare quid habere ea lingua eaque loquendi ratione quae ipsi est familiaris consueta ipsum impelli à Prophetia sua ad loquendum ei qui intelligit ipsum Maimon More Nevoch Part 2. c. 29. Words being so directed in the use of them as to give infallibly the sense and full importance of the Revelation In matters of Fact their Memories were according to our Saviours promise assisted and confirm'd In matters of Discourse or Reasoning either from their own natural Notions or from things Reveal'd or from matters of Fact their understandings were enlightned and their Judgments strengthned And still in all cases their natural Faculties were so supported and guided both in their Notions and Words as that nothing should come into their Writings but what is infallibly true They had always the use of their Faculties tho under the infallible Direction and Conduct of the Holy Ghost and in things that were the proper objects of their faculties the Holy Ghost might only support and guide them as in matters of sense and natural Reason and Memory and in their Words and Style to express all these But in things of an higher Nature which were above their faculties and which they could have no knowledge of but from Revelation the things themselves were infused tho the words in most cases might be their own but they were preserv'd from error in the use of them by that Spirit who was to guide them into all Truth For tho the several Writers of the Scriptures might be allowed to use their own Words and Style yet it was under the infallible guidance and influence of the Spirit as when a man is left to the use of his own Hand or manner of Writing but is directed in the Sense and Orthography by one who dictates to him or assists him with his help where it is needful Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God 2 Tim. 3.16 The Holy Ghost saith by the Psalmist to day if ye will hear his Voice Hebr. 3.7 David saith of himself the Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my Tongue 2 Sam. 23.2 And God is said to speak by the hand of Moses his servant and by the hand of his servant Ahijah the Prophet 1 Kings 8.53.14.18 By which it appears that he used the Prophets as his Instruments in revealing his Will For as Miracles were by the immediate power of God though wrought by the hands of men so the Revelations were of God though spoken or written by the Prophets and Apostles But though God used them as his Instruments yet not as mechanical but as rational Instruments and as in working their Miracles they were not always necessarily determined to the place or to the persons on whom they were wrought but in general were guided to work them when they were proper and seasonable and the Actions by which they wrought them were their own though the power that accompanied them was of God so in their Doctrines they might be permitted to use their own Words and Phrases and to be guided by prudential Motives as to time and place and persons with a directive power only over them to speak and write nothing but infallible truth upon such occasions and in such circumstances as might answer the end of their Mission with which they were entrusted God promised Moses when he sent him to Pharaoh that he would be with his mouth and with Aaron's mouth and would
gift any one had received he was confined to the exercise of it and might not presume to pretend to another which he had not received The gift of tongues and of the interpretation of tongues being so particularly distinguished this must imply that the Apostles who are supposed to have had all the gifts which others had but in part were guided by the Spirit in their words and expressions since those who spoke by the Spirit were unable to interpret without a particular gift for no interpretation was sufficient but such as rendred the sense with infallible truth and exactness and if this exactness of words was requisite in their Assemblies it must be much rather necessary in the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists Among other gifts of the Holy Ghost are reckon'd the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge 1 Cor. 12.8 the former Grotius understands of speaking wise sayings and the latter of knowledge in History and to the rest was added the gift of discerning of spirits v. 10. And as there were several gifts so there were several offices in the Church Ephes 4.11 12. Now the several gifts of the Holy Ghost were not all bestowed ordinarily upon the same person but such as were necessary for that office and employment which he was to execute But as the Apostolical Power comprehended in it the powers of every other office so it was requisite that they should possess the gifts proper for the performance of whatever was to be done by them And when God by his providence and disposal of things gave the Apostles and Evangelists occasions of writing upon such and such subjects and to such and such persons or Churches he by his Spirit inwardly excited and assisted them in it bestowing upon them the gifts of Wisdom and Knowledge and of writing and speaking either in their own or any other Language in which they were required to write or speak For we are not to suppose that any gifts were bestowed upon others and yet denied to them to whom they were most useful and necessary in order to the delivering of that Faith and Doctrine which was to be the standing rule for the attainment of Salvation to all Christians unto the end of the world When others had the gift of speaking and interpreting strange Languages it cannot be conceived that the writers of the Holy Scriptures should be refused that necessary assistance in the Languages in which they wrote that might preserve them from error and if any without the gifts proper for it had undertaken any office or ministration the gift of discerning of Spirits was a security to the Church from any hurt that might ensue by the pretences of such undertakers We may be certain that all the Gifts which were bestowed for the edification of the Church were as far as they were needful vouchsafed more especially to all such as were to leave behind them for the benefit of the Church in all Ages an account of the Gospel of Christ and the terms of the Salvation to be obtained thereby and that no such Guidance and Direction of the Holy Ghost was wanting as might preserve them from error in any particular for there is no particular but it will fall under some one of those gifts which were bestowed upon the first Disciples They were not necessarily to write in an exact and elegant style but in such as was secured from error in whatever they delivered To what purpose else had been so many several Gifts To keep them from gross errors and fundamental mistakes there could have been no need of such a variety of Gifts but when every sort of error which men are prone to had a Remedy provided to prevent it we may be assured that no error was suffered in those Writings which were the most important work of the Apostolical Function and designed for the edifying of the Body of Christ not in one Age and Nation only but throughout all Ages and in all parts of the World II. I shall now proceed to make such Inferences as may afford a sufficient Answer to the objections alledged upon this subject 1. The Inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did not exclude humane means such as information in matters of fact either by their own senses or by the testimony of others or reasoning from their own notions and observations but the Holy Ghost guided them infallibly in the use of all such means 2. The Inspiration of the Prophets and Apostles or Evangelists did not exclude the use of their own words and style and as they might be permitted the use of these so they might be permitted or in some cases directed to use the words of others Many things delivered in one Book of the Scriptures are likewise delivered in another and some things are repeated in the same words that God revealing the same things and in the same express words at different times and by different persons might make the Revelation of them the more evident and remarkable For that in which several inspired persons concur is the more taken notice of and becomes the more observed as a thing of great weight and moment The reason why the Dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice was because the thing was established by God and God would shortly bring it to pass Gen 41.32 It is in this as it is in all other things it is expedient that in matters of great concernment there should be the more solemnity and that they should be the oftner repeated and the more insisted upon and if they be exprest in the same words this implies that those words carry more than ordinary weight in them And therefore not only all the Divine Writers agree in the same purpose and design and testiâ—â—ie the same things as to the chief points of Religion but some Prophets have foretold the same things even in the same words with others as Isai 2.2 3 4. Mic. 4.1 â— 3. and several Laws and Matters of Fact are repeated in words which are very near the same 3. Tho some things are set down in the Scriptures indefinitely and without any positive assertion or determination this is no proof against their being written by Divine Inspiration For this doth not prove that the Pen-men of those passages were uncertain and doubtful in the particulars so exprest because the things were of that nature that it was needless to speak precisely of them As when St John says Jo. 21.8 They were not far from Land but as it were two hundred Cubits it cannot from hence be concluded that the Evangelist was ignorant how far they were from Land For it was not material to his design to be more particular in a circumstance of that nature but it was sufficient to say that they were about two hundred Cubits off at Sea and it is usual with all Writers to omit fractions and insert only whole numbers when it is not material to their purpose to insist upon every minute circumstance It
Eloquence as well as the Power and Prejudices and Vices of Mankind were combined against it and yet less elegancy and accuracy of style was employed by the Apostles and Evangelists than had been before used by Moses and th◠Prophets who yet had nothing which seemed so strange and wonderful to deliver Which is one great argument of the Power and Efficacy of the Gospel that it could prevail so much against all the opposition in the world only by telling a plain Truth and in the plainest manner For where the thing is evident the fewest and plainest words are best as in Mathematical Demonstrations it is enough if men make themselves to be understood this likewise was all that the Apostles aimed at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist lib. iii. c. 24. their Cause and Doctrine was so certain and demonstrable that any words which did but fully and clearly express their meaning were sufficient for their purpose their Rhetorick lay in the things themselves not in words there is no great Art required to prove that to any man which he sees with his eyes and therefore as the power of Miracles was greater under the Gospel than under the Law so there was less need of Eloquence in the New Testament than in the Old Yet it cannot be denied as a †Mer Casaub of Enthus c. 4. Learned Critick has declared that St Paul in some kind and upon some subjects is as eloquent as ever man was not inferiour to Demosthenes in whose writings he believes that Apostle had been much conversant or Aeschines or any other anciently most admired 3. It is reasonable to believe that the Scriptures may be written in the Words and Phrases of the Penmen of the several parts of them and that the Holy Ghost might permit them to use their own style so directing them still and over-ruling them in every word and sentence that it should infallibly express his own full sense and meaning and speak the Truth which he inspired And therefore tho there be divers styles in the Scriptures yet this is no prejudice to the Authority and Certainty of them Isaiah for instance being of the Blood Royal and educated at Court may write in a more refined and lofty style and Amos who was brought up among the Herdsmen of Tekoa may speak in a more humble strain and fetch his Metaphors from lower and meaner things and yet the sense and substance of both may be from the Holy Ghost and as exactly true and infallible as if every word and syllable were dictated by him But this has been already considered under its proper head CHAP. IV. Of the Canon of the Holy Scriptures WHatever uncertainty there can be supposed to be concerning the Canon of the Holy Scriptures or the Catalogue and Number of Books of Divine Revelation this ought to be made no objection against the certainty of Divine Revelation itself or against the authority of those Books of Scripture which are universally acknowledged and received by all Churches For if this be a true way of arguing then whatever we are ignorant of must be an argument against the certainty of what we know and by consequence no man can be certain of any thing since the wisest man is ignorant of so many things that he knows very little in comparison of what he is ignorant of And as to the matter in hand there is scarce any Author of great note and fame but that Criticks have had Disputes concerning the number of his genuine Works and yet this has never been thought any prejudice to such as are allowed by all to be genuine Would not that man make himself ridiculous who should reject the Philippicks of Tully or Virgil's Aeneis as spurious because other Books either doubtful or counterfeit have past under the names of these two Authors If some Books have been disputed the rest certainly are genuine beyond all dispute because they have never been called into question or doubt Now if these Books only were of Divine Revelation concerning which there has never been any Dispute they contain all things necessary to be believed and practised and as to the rest concerning which there has been any controversy tho they be exceeding useful to explain divers things which we find in these and perhaps to teach us some things not essential to our Religion nor necessary to Salvation which are not to be found elsewhere yet they are not absolutely necessary to be received because whatever Doctrines are absolutely necessary they are to be found fully and plainly delivered in those Books of Scripture which have ever been received without contradiction or dispute Many men were undoubtedly saved before the writing of these controverted Books nay before the writing of any Books at all Writings being no further necessary than as they are necessary to convey the knowledge of what is written when the things now written could be as well known without writing Books were not necessary and tho for after ages it became necessary that the Prophets and Apostles and Evangelists should consign their Doctrine to writing yet no more of their writings can be absolutely necessary to be known by us than what may be sufficient to instruct us in the ways of salvation It is the infinite Goodness and Mercy of God to afford us more than is absolutely necessary for our spiritual and eternal Life as he has done for our Natural and it is a great sin in any man to reject any means of Salvation or Instruction which God has been pleased to allow but still that man would sustain his Natural Life and Health who should think all that is not necessary to the support of it common or unclean and not fit to be used for food And if a man without any of his own fault or neglect should come to the knowledge only of the uncontrroverted Books he would find them abundantly sufficient to answer all the ends of Revelation and to procure his Salvation It cannot be denied but that one infallible Authority is as great a Security as never so many could be but the same Doctrines are taught in several places of Scripture and we ought to be thankful to God for it that he has been pleased to furnish us with so much more than is absolutely necessary and to repeat the same things in sundry places and in divers manners for our further instruction and confirmation in the Faith tho it would be absurd and wicked to say that he who believes all the points of necessary Faith upon the authority of any one Book of Scripture has no sufficient means of Salvation unless he likewise believe them upon the Authority of all the rest Not that I suppose any wise and good man can now find any cause to doubt of any Book in the Old or New Testament whether it be genuine or no but to suppose the most and the worst that can be supposed if those Books which at any time have been called in
main they are aâ—â—eed and whoever will be at the pains to consulâ—â—â—em may be greatly confirmed in the Truth of the Prophecies upon this very consideration that there is less difference in the explication of the Principal Prophecies than there is in the Comments upon most Histories and that those who differ in other matters must have the greater evidence for that in which they do agree Tho there be some difficulty and variety of opinion in the calculation of the precise time when some Prophecies were fulfilled because it is disputed where the computation is to begin or how some other circumstance is to be understood yet all Expositors are agreed concerning these very Prophesies that they are fulfilled For instance it is certain that the Scepter is departed from Judah whether that Prophecy be to be understood of the Tribe of Judah or the Jewish Nation denominated from that Tribe it is certain that the City and Sanctuary are destroyed and the Sacrifice and Oblation taken away tho Interpreters do not agree about the precise time and manner of the accomplishment of every particular Plain matter of Fact shews that the Prophecy is fulfilled and there is no difficulty but about a Circumstance and to doubt of the fulfilling of Prophesies because we do not certainly know the exact time when every particular was fulfilled tho we certainly know that they must have been all long since fulfilled is as unreasonable as if a man should question the Truth of History upon the account of Uncertainties in Chronology What man doubts whether there were such a man as Homer because it is uncertain when he lived or whether there ever were a Trojan War because the time of the taking of Troy has been variously determined And yet is there not as much reason to reject this or any other History which has occasioned disputes in point of time as there can be to doubt of the truth of Daniel's Predictions concerning the destruction of Jerusalem because there may be matter of controversy in explaining his seventy Weeks The Prophecy it self is plain and the Accomplishments certain however men may differ in assigning the Epocha of time History relates what has come to pass and Prophecy foretells what shall come and our uncertainty in point of Time no more affects the Credibility of the one than of the other We may be uncertain of the time foretold by the Prophet and as uncertain of the time mentioned by the Historian but when all other Circumstances agree there is no reason why our uncertainty as to the single Circumstance of Time should be alledged against the Credibility of either of them But the Obscurity arising from the difficulties in Chronology is spoken of in the former Chapter 2. Some Prophecies were purposely obscure because they did not so nearly concern the Age in which they were delivered but were designed not so much for the information of preceeding Ages as for the confirmation of Posterity in the Truth of Religion when they see them fulfilled God doth not send Revelations to gratify the curiosity of men in acquainting them with what shall befal their Posterity but rather conceals the knowledge of future events from men because the knowledge of them might have an ill effect in making them proud or careless and negligent or else too sollicitous and concerned about what was to befall their Posterity The Judgments and Afflictions of Parents would be so much abated if they had a clear prospect of the happiness of their Posterity that they would lose that effect which God designs by sending his Judgments And a perfect view of the miseries which were to befal the Posterity of the most happy Parents would render the Blessings of God the less Blessings to them So that both the Rewards and Punishments of this life would very much lose their force and effect if Prophecies were less obscure than they are It is a sufficient Reason for the obscure and mysterious delivering of some Prophecies that they thereby serve to prove the Faith and Patience and excite the Care and Watchfulness of men for which reason the day of Judgment and the day of every man's Death is concealed from us because the particular and distinct Revelation of these things would cause security in some and despair in others and the case is the same as to the destruction of Churches and Nations We are commanded to watch and pray watch ye therefore lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping and what I say unto you I say unto all watch Mark xiii 35. Which in the direct sense of the words concerns Jerusalem but the reason of them will extend to the destruction of any other City or to any other judgment which God has foretold but has concealed the time or other circumstances either by silence or by uncertain and mysterious forms of Speech A full prospect of Prosperity to come oftentimes has proved fatal to men Jeroboam Hazael and Jehu were the worse probably for the Declarations made to them as Achithophel if it had been foretold plainly what would befal him would in all likelihoed sooner have hastened his own death Whether therefore the event be good or bad and whether it concern our selves or our Posterity it is fit most times that it should not be clearly revealed to us because this would in great measure exclude the exercise of the Graces of Faith and Hope and Patience in men under their present condition And at the time of fulfilling the Prophesies which are now most obscure such a continued Train and Series of Aftairs with all their Circumstances and Particularities may appear in so full and undeniable evidence as may convince Infidels and confirm Believers in the truth of the Predictions and of the Religion taught by the Prophets by whom the events were foretold 3. Obscurity was necessary in some Prophesies at the * Euseb Demonst Evan. â—ib vi 〈…〉 Châ—â—â—â—n c. 〈◊〉 Isai 〈◊〉 Theodoret in Ezech Praef. Fathers observe because without a constant Miracle to preserve them they would otherwise have been lost and would never have been delivered down to Posterity Of this Nature are some of those Prophesies which relates to our Saviour's state of Humiliation his Poverty and Crucifixion and Death to the destruction of Jerusalem and the rejection of the Jews which by the Circumstances are manifest to us in the Accomplishment but were written with some obscurity to conceal them from the obstinate and malicious Jews that seeing they might see and not perceive for if they had fully understood the scope and importance of them they would have endeavoured rather to have suppressed and destroyed them than they would have suffered them to remain to be urged against themselves A People who were so wholly possessed with the Notion and Expectation of a Temporal Messias would have rejected those Prophesies which set forth his Humiliation and Crucifixion if they had been expressed in plainer terms They would have spared Christ no more in the
unless we were likewise acquainted with the particular time and the Names of the Places and Persons described in it It is as much as our Salvation is worth to be informed of a Future Judgment tho' we are not told when it shall be and that Book which sets Rewards and Punishments Heaven and Hell before us is of the greatest Advantage for the Edification and Salvation of Men tho' the several Circumstances and Particularities described are unknown to us 8. Tho' the Arguments from Types are above all apt to be look'd upon as uncertain and to depend rather upon the Conjectures and Fansies of Men than upon any clear Evidence Yet we shall find the contrary if we do but a little consider the Nature of them A Type is a Likeness a Form or Mould as the word signifies and where the Antitype represented by it and prefigured Answers exactly to it there is no more question to be made but that the one belongs to the other than there is reason to doubt when we see an Impression made upon Wax what kind of Seal it was by which it was made Or when we see a good Picture of one we know to enquire who sat for it A Type is much of the same Nature in Actions or Things and Persons as an Allegory is in Words but Allegories are oftentimes so plain that no man can well mistake what is meant by them And thus it is as to Types in many Cases Indeed where there is but one Type or one Resemblance it is not so easily discern'd but where many concur he must be very wilful that does not acknowledge the Agreement When an Author as it often happens describes the Persons of his own Time under feigned Names a Reader who knows nothing of it may perhaps over-look one or two Characters supposing them to be by chance but when he perceives that they all exactly agree to so many several Persons whom he knows he no longer doubts of the Author's Design And when many Types concur in the same Person with a great number of Particularities any two of which perhaps never concurr'd in any one Man before as in the Person of our Saviour these things concurr'd that he was compell'd to carry his Cross as Isaac had carried the Wood that he was lifted up and fastned to it as the Brazen Serpent had been lifted up in the Wilderness that as the Bones of the Paschal Lamb were not broken so not a Bone of him was broken when the Bones of these were who were Crucified with him and that he was Crucified at the very time when the Paschal Lamb was to be Sacrificed when so many different Circumstances concur which have no dependance one upon another nor upon the Will of Him in whom they concur but proceed from the Will and as in this Case from the Malice of others if these things meet by chance it must be a very extraordinary and unaccountable Chance indeed and much such another as that was which some would perswade us made the World it must be such a Chance as never happened before nor will ever happen again But must not these Men rather speak and think by chance who can argue at this Rate Sometimes the Characters are so lively that the Types are as evident as express Words could have made them as when in the Description of the Kingdom of Christ he is stiled David because as he was prefigured by David so he was to descend from him Jer. xxx 9. Ezek. xxxiv 23. xxxvii 24 25. Hos iii. 5. several Descriptions which were Metaphorical in reference to the Persons immediately concern'd in them were litterally fulfilled in our Saviour Thus the Gall and Vinegar the Casting of Lots upon the Garments and the Piercing of the Hands and Feet are Metaphorical Expressions of great Contempt and Cruelty used towards the Persons to whom they were at first applied but in their ultimate End and Design they were true to the very Letter And where there is thus a Two-fold Signification of any place of Scripture the one improper and Metaphorical the other proper and Litteral the Person described in Metaphorical Terms is as clearly a Type of him from whose real Condition and Circumstances the Metaphor is taken as a Metaphor is a Representation of the plain Sense contained under it The Legal Dispensation was all Typical and so the Jews ever understood it to be which made the Apostles dispute with them from the Types of their Law as they surely would never have done if it had not on all sides been agreed that it was a proper way of Argument Their Prophecies were given out in Actions as well as in Words and as the Mind either of God or Man may be exprest as fully by Actions as by the plainest Words so certainly we must acknowledge this to be the Case when Types so evidently denote the Person and so properly belong to him as to declare and bespeak him to be the Man in such a manner that we should conclude that any Person of our own Times must needs be meant by any Author who should thus describe him in a Book the Design whereof was known to be to make such Descriptions It is not indeed every Resemblance which we may conclude from but where many Types concur in the same Person where the concurrence depends wholly upon the Will of his Adversaries or not in the least upon his own Will when these Types were alledged from a Dispensation which was all along held to be Typical in this case they may be urged and as safely relyed upon as any other Argument III. In the last place I am to shew that the obscurity of the Scriptures is not such as to be any prejudice to their Authority nor to the End and Design of them And the Reason of this is implied by St. Peter when he says that there are but some things hard to be understood in the Scriptures and the rest are plain and obvious All things necessary to Salvation are sufficiently clear in the Scripture and tho' there be other things in them which are obscure yet we see that Reasons may be given and perhaps many more and better than I am able to produce why they are and ought to be so God supplies us in Necessaries with a bountiful and open Hand and what is not necessary he surely may discover more sparingly and more obscurely to us It is so in the things of this Life Our Senses seldom or never fail us in things necessary to our Life and Health tho' in other things we find our selves misled by them every Country and Place affords the Necessaries of Life and that which is most rare is always least necessary it may be useful but yet we may very well be without it Now to complain that all places of Scripture are not intelligible by all is as if we should blame Providence for not making all Men Rich and all Countries like the Land of Canaan it is a
Messiah the Jewish Law was to become impracticable and impossible to be observ'd For if the City and Temple were not destroy'd the confinement of the Jewish Worship to one certain Place must necessarily imply an alteration in their Worship upon the coming of the Messiah and the calling of the Gentiles who could not all be supposed to assemble thrice every year at Jerusalem and therefore the Prophets foretold That Jerusalem should then be no longer the only place of God's Worship but that Men should Worship him in any place of the World 'T is true the Prophets often mention the resort which should be made from all Nations to Jerusalem and to the Temple or the Mountain of the Lord. But then these are Mystical Expressions for the City of Jerusalem and the Temple are used by the Prophets as Types of the Christian Church and therefore Ezekiel (m) Lightfoot 's Prospect of the Temple ch 2. describes the Temple larger than the whole City of Jerusalem and the City in greater dimensions than all the Land of Canaan to shew that we are not to understand these Expressions literally A Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedeck different from that of Aaron was Prophesied of Psal cx 4. and a New Covenant different from that which was made with the Children of Israel upon their coming out of the Land of Aegypt Jer. xxxi 31 32. And this Covenant was to extend to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews For from the rising of the Sun even unto the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place Incense shall be offered unto my Name and a pure offering for my Name shall be great among the Heathen saith the Lord of Hosts Malach. i. 11. If against all this it be alledged That the Mosaical Law was to endure for ever it ought to be considered what sense that expression bears in the Law it self And that expression is there used to denote the continuance of any thing which was not designed for some particular occasion or season only but was to last as long as the nature and general design of its Institution would admit The Servant whose Ear was bored was to serve his Master for ever Exod. xxi 6. by which is to be understood not all his Life but only till the year of Jubilee whereas he that had not his Ear bored was to be set free in the seventh year ver 2. And even before the year of Jubilee he whose Ear was bored might be freed with his Master's Consent (n) Grot. ad loc either by Manumission or Redemption and was at liberty upon the death of his Master not being bound to serve his Son Their anointing shall surely be an everlasting Priesthood throughout their Generations Exod. xl 15. which can be understood to extend no farther than as long as their Genealogies were preserved and the Tribe and Generations of the High-Priests could be distinguished I will abide in thy Tabernacle for ever Ps lxi 4. or in other words all the days of my Life Ps xxvii 4. Samuel was brought by his Mother to abide before the Lord for ever that is during his Life 1 Sam. i. 22. And by parity of Reason those Statutes and Laws are said to be Established for ever which were designed to be perpetual and standing Laws not temporary during their journeying in the Wilderness only as others were but to continue as long as the Constitution of the Government was to last and in this sense the Jews themselves (o) Id. de Veritat Lib. 5. §. 7. have taken the word and it is sufficiently explain'd Deut. xii 1. These are the Statutes and Judgments which ye shall observe to do in the Land which the Lord God of thy Fathers giveth thee to possess it all the days that ye live upon the Earth or as we read ver 19. as long as thou livest upon thy earth that is their Law was obligatory to them as long as they had possession of the Land of Canaan or retained any right to possess it by God's donation But those Statutes and Judgments which were to be observed in the Land which the Lord had given them to possess can no longer be of any obligation to them when they are finally deprived of that Land The Ceremonial Law therefore by its Original Design and Institution being to continue in force but till the coming of Christ he gave the accomplishment to it and put a final period to its Obligation Instituting his Gospel in its stead which had been pre-figured by the Law and foretold both by Moses and the Prophets CHAP. XVII Of Sinful Examples Recorded in the Scriptures AS some have endeavour'd to excuse their own Sins by alledging the Sinful Examples which we find mention'd in the Scriptures so others who are no less fond of imitating them yet have from hence taken a pretence for Objections and Cavils I shall therefore shew that the bad Examples in some actions of Men whom we find in all other respects commended in the Scriptures are far from being proposed for our imitation but there is great reason why the Faults and Miscarriages of the best Men should be deliver'd down to us in the Scriptures for our Caution and Prevention as well as upon other accounts I. Several passages of the Scriptures contain only Matter of Fact and that very briefly express'd and a bare Narrative of any Action implies neither the Approbation nor the Censure of it but only declares that such a thing was done and in such a manner but the Nature of the Fact it self with the Circumstances of it or some Command or Permission or Prohibition in Scripture must discover the goodness or lawfulness or the wickedness of the Action No Historian is supposed to approve of all which he relates but he must report bad as well as good Deeds who will do the part of a faithful Historian II. The Rules of Good and Evil are plainly delivered in the Scriptures by which we are to judge of Actions and we are to conform our Actions not to the Example of Men but to the Law of God We are forewarn'd to follow no Man's Example when it is contrary to the Divine Law and therefore it could not be necessary in the relating of every evil Action to set a mark of Infamy upon it and a Caution against the imitation of it III. The Relation of the bad Actions of Good Men may be of great use and benefit tho' we are not to follow but avoid them Because 1. This shews the sincerity of the Pen-Men of the Scriptures that they spare no person whatsoever but relate the plain Matter of Fact even tho' themselves be concern'd when it is never so much to their disgrace as in the Denial of St. Peter and other instances 2. By this we learn the Frailty of Humane Nature and the necessary dependance that the best Men must have upon God for his Grace in
astray thou shalt surely bring it back to him again If thou see the Ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burthen and wouldest forbear to help him thou shalt surely help with him And in divers other places of the Old Testament Charity towards Enemies is highly recommended and earnestly inculcated Job xxxi 29. Prov. xx 22. xxiv 29. Malach. ii 10. Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self we read Lev. xix 18. but thou shalt hate thine Enemy is no where to be found in the Old Testament and therefore Matt. v. 43. it is to be taken as a false gloss of the Interpreters of the Law which our Saviour rejects unless it be to be meant as Grotius understands it of that enmity which the Jews were to shew in all acts of Hostility towards the seven Nations of Canaan and the Amalekites Exod. xvii 16. xxxiv 11. Deut. vii 1. xxv 19. yet these very Nations were not utterly excluded from becoming Proselites and to me it seems very remarkable that tho' the Children of Israel had receiv'd such hard and cruel usage in Aegypt which is so often mention'd in the Law of Moses they were nevertheless by the same Law commanded not to abhor an Aegyptian but to admit the Children of Aegyptian Parents into the Congregation of the Lord in the third Generation Thou shalt not abhor an Aegyptian because thou wast a Stranger in his Land Deut. xxiii 7. Thou shalt not abhor him that is thou shalt not revenge upon him the injuries done thee but shalt relieve him in time of distress which (q) Lightf Hebr. Talmud Exercit. on Matt. vi 2. Charity the Jews ever held themselves oblig'd to extend to the Gentiles and there is reason to suspect that they have been wrong'd in the reports of their uncharitableness to all of other Nations but any thing is easily believ'd of a hated and despised People And I am not to vindicate their Practice but their Law (r) Philo Jud. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo Judoeus has an excellent Treatise in which he discourseth at large upon this Subject and shews to how great Humanity and Charity the Jews were oblig'd by the Law of Moses CHAP. XIX Of the Texts of the Old Testament cited in the New THO' the Apostles having prov'd their Divine Commission by so many and so undeniable Miracles had an infallible Authority to interpret and apply the Texts of the Old Testament in confirmation of the Gospel yet it is not to be doubted but that the Citations which seem to have most difficulty in them are such as that the Jews of that time against whom they were urged could not but acknowledge that the Apostles gave the true Exposition of them tho' they deny'd that they were truly apply'd to our Saviour and his Gospel For unless the Apostles had either made out their Citations from the Old Testament by Maximes and Principles then known and receiv'd among the Jews or had alledg'd them in such a sense as was then generally acknowledg'd it had been to no purpose to alledge them at all against them It is known likewise and observable upon this occasion that after the Captivity in Babylon tho' the Bible was read in the Synagogues in the Original Hebrew yet it was also Interpreted into the vulgar Language and the Interpreter did not always Translate the Text verbatim but often gave the sense of it in different words and with some latitude to render it the more intelligible This way of Interpretation was at length improv'd into a Chaldee Paraphrase containing with the Text a short explication of it according to the sense of the most Learned among the Jews tho' there must be supposed to have been many Notions current among them which would not be brought within the compass of that Exposition The Writers therefore of the New Testament might sometimes give such an Interpretation of the Texts of the Old Testament as was as well or better known among them for whom they wrote than the Greek or Hebrew Text was or they might take upon themselves the liberty of Interpreters the better to explain the Texts alledged and enforce their Arguments Thus for instance St. Stephen Acts vii would never have produc'd any thing out of the Old Testament before the Sanhedrim nor would St. Luke have Recorded it soon after if it had been capable of any disproof or confutation whatever difficulties at this distance of time there may appear to us to be in it And so in all other Cases we may depend upon it that the Apostles and other Disciples who had such demonstrative Evidence for the conviction of Unbelievers by a constant power of Miracles would never make use of any Arguments to the Jews from the Old Testament but such as they well knew their Adversaries could never be able to disprove or deny For there were then certain Methods of Interpretation as we learn from (s) Joseph Bell. Jadaic lib. iii. c. 14. Josephus which are now lost and they disputed from acknowledg'd Maxims and Rules the only difference and matter of dispute was in the application of them to their particular case however our ignorance of things then generally known may now make it difficult to reconcile some Texts of the New Testament with those of the Old from whence they were cited F. Simon (t) Sim. Crit. Hist of the N. T. Part I. C. xxi in his Critical History has a remarkable Passage upon this Subject The Book says he where the most of that sort of Citations are found is the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews where we find nothing else but passages of the Old Testament explain'd in a manner that is altogether Allegorical and foreign to the Letter which has also given an occasion to some Writers to suspect that St. Paul was not the Author But it seems on the contrary that if we reflect upon the Pharisees Method in their expounding Scripture it cannot be attributed to any other than to that holy Apostle who having studied in Jerusalem under the Doctor Gamaliel did penetrate into all the most refined points of their secret and mystical Interpretations of the Bible And indeed after I had recommended the reading of this Epistle to a Jew who was well read in his own ancient Authors he having perused it freely declar'd that it must needs have been written by some great (u) A Man of Tradition Mekubal of his own Nation And he was so far from telling me that St. Paul had wrested the true sense of Scripture with his Allegories at pleasure that he extolled his profound Skill in the sublime sense of the Bible and always return'd to his great Mekubal of whom he never spake but with admiration Hoc in omnibus scripturis sanctis observandum est Apostolos Apostolicos viros in ponendis Testimoniis de veteri Testamento non verba considerare sed sensum nec eadem Sermonum culcare vestigia dummodò à senteniis non
is their Knowledge the same there is nothing in their common Nature to determine them that they should be born or die together or that there should be any mutual communication of the Thoughts and Operations of their Minds much less that their Life and Death and Operations should be all the very same So that this Principle of Individuation whatever be assigned to be it cannot belong to the Divine Nature which is Omnipresent Eternal and Omniscient the Existence Knowledge and Local presence of Men are Personal not Essential but Omnipresence Eternity and Omniscience are Essential Attributes of God and not Personal or do not belong to each Person as they are distinguished from one another but as they are united in the same Essence for they are predicated of the Father as God of the Son as God and of the Holy Ghost as God and not of each severally as Father as Son and as Holy Ghost Every of these Essential Attributes therefore cannot be numbred with the Persons in the Deity but can be but One as the Essence itself of the Deity is and tho' the Father be Eternal the Son Eternal and the Holy Ghost Eternal yet they are not Three Eternals or Three Individual Beings of Eternal Existence as Three Humane Persons are Three Men of a Finite Existence It is a Contradiction that there should be Three separate Infinite Persons for their being separate must suppose them to be Finite or to have a limited and confined Subsistence and therefore Three Infinite Persons can be but One God or One Being which has all the perfections of Personal Distinction without the imperfection of the Division of Persons 3. From hence appears the Difference between the Divine Persons and Humane Persons The Persons of Men are distinct Men as well as distinct Persons but this is no ground for us to affirm that the Persons in the Divine Nature are distinct Gods because the Divine Nature is acknowledged to be Infinite and Incomprehensible and when we speak of Three Persons in it we do not mean such Three Persons as Three several Men are But we read of the Person of the Father Hebr. i. 3. and of Three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these Three are One 1 Joh. v. 7. and when we speak of Three Intelligent Beings we can have no Conception of them but under the Notion of Persons We learn from the Scriptures that there are Three Persons in the Deity which bear that Relation to each other which is best express'd by the Terms of Father Son and Holy Spirit but the Terms of Father Son and Spirit are not therefore so to be understood as they are in Humane Relations and the word Person is not to be understood as it is of Humane Persons and therefore whereas we use the word Person the Greeks call them Subsistencies but acknowledge that they mean the same thing under that difference of words And yet this is all the foundation of any pretence of contradiction in the Notion of the Blessed Trinity that Men will needs understand the Terms of Person and of Father Son and Spirit when they are applied to God as they do when we speak of Men and from thence they conclude that Three Persons in the Divine Nature must be Three Gods as Three Persons amongst Men are Three Men and that the Father must be Superiour and Elder than the Son as it is in Humane Generations But this is all Mistake Adam is stiled the Son of God in a sense of the word peculiar to himself Luke iii. 38. God is in one sense the Father of all Mankind and in another sense he is the Father of the Regenerate only and when in either sense we call him our Father we take not the Word Father in the same sense that we take it in when we apply it to Men and when we say he is the Father of his only begotten Son this is another sense of the word Father very different from all the former The Relation between the Father and Son is not the same in the Nature of God that it is amongst Men nor are the Divine Persons such as the Persons of Men are but these are the fittest and the most proper and significant Terms to express the Nature of God to us that Humane Language and Humane Understandings are capable of We must acknowledge that there is a vast disproportion and impropriety in these expressions and that they give us but a very imperfect conception of the Divine Nature but it is the most perfect that we are able to have of it or that it is necessary for us to have of it in this Mortal state and if we will but allow for the incompetency of our own Faculties to have Words and Notions adequate to the Divine Nature and will remember that God is God and that we are but Men there will appear to be no contradiction in the Notion of the Trinity The Divine Nature is such that it has Three distinct Principles of Operation and Subsistency which are so described and represented in the Scriptures by Personal Acts and Properties that we know them to be as really distinct as Humane Persons are which yet being but One God cannot in this respect be like Humane Persons And whoever will oppose this Doctrine of the Holy Trinity must prove that the Three Persons of the Trinity cannot be as really distinct as the Persons of Three Men are tho' they are not such Persons as the Persons of Men. And to prove this he must understand the Nature of God as well as he understands the Nature of Man for otherwise he can never be able to prove that Three Divine Persons may not be One God tho' Three Humane Persons cannot be One Man That they are distinct Persons is revealed and that these Three distinct Persons are but one God is revealed but wherein the Distinction and the Unity of these Three Persons consists is not revealed nor is it possible for us to understand it at least without a Revelation The Distinction of the Persons of Men is founded in a separate and divided Subsistence but this cannot be the foundation of the Distinction of the Divine Persons because Separation and Division cannot belong to an Infinite Nature There is then not Repugnancy in saying that there are Three Subsistencies or Three distinct Principles of Personal Acts and Properties in one undivided Infinite Nature or that the Persons in the Trinity act as distinctly and personally as Persons do amongst Men but are united in one Infinite Nature which is uncapable of existing in separate Subsistencies tho' not of acting and subsisting in Three distinct Persons or as distinctly from each other as the Persons among Men do act and subsist The Summ is that in the most perfect Unity of the Divine Nature do subsist the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost between whom is a real Distinction which tho' not the same yet is
Witness to the Truth of their Doctrine God himself bears Witness to it and the Jews might have said in this as they did in a very different Case What need we any further Witnesses for we our selves have heard of their own mouths in the Miraculous Gift of Tongues or seen it with our own Eyes in the many wonderful Works which were continually wrought in the most publick manner in Testimony of the Resurrection of Christ Our Blessed Saviour therefore gave as full proof of his Resurrection as if he had appear'd in the Temple or in the midst of Jerusalem to the whole People of the Jews For this had not been more effectual to the Conversion of most of them nor more sufficient to evidence the Truth of the Gospel than his Appearance to his Disciples was and if the Jews had unanimously believed it could not have contributed more to convince Men of the Truth of the Resurrection than their Unbelief has done he sent his Apostles with a Miraculous Power as convincing as his own Appearance could have been and all things considered the Jews afford us as full Evidence in behalf of the Gospel by opposing it as they could have done by their compliance with it And since we have sufficient Testimony to resolve our Faith into the Divine Veracity the certainty is the same whether the Witnesses be more or fewer because it depends upon the veracity of God which is always the same whatever the means be by which our Faith is resolved into it CHAP. XXVII Of the Forty Days in which Christ remain'd upon Earth after his Resurrection and of the manner of his Ascension OUR Blessed Saviour had certified his Disciples of his Resurrection in such a manner as to give them many infallible Proofs of it or else it is impossible for any thing to be infallibly proved and that which is chiefly to be considered in this matter is that he was seen by them not once but often not for a short time or at a hasty Interview but for forty days together and then he performed the common Actions of Humane Life he did eat and drink with them and discoursed with them of the things relating to his Kingdom To whom also he shewed himself alive after his Passion by many infallible proofs being seen of them forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God Acts i. 3. That which I here design is to make some Observations upon the Conversation that our Saviour had with his Disciples during the Forty days between his Resurrection and his Ascension and upon the manner of his leaving them when he ascended into Heaven 2. The Scriptures acquaint us that our Saviour was seen of his Disciples Forty Days or that he vouchsafed them his presence the greatest part of that time which he remained upon Earth after his Resurrection But in what manner all that time was spent with them we are no where told which is no wonder if we consider how much of his former Life is concealed from us In the Scriptures which are written for our Instruction and in the plainest and sincerest manner in the World to inform us of all things necessary to our Salvation we have nothing taken notice of for Ostentation nor for Ornament but many things omitted in the Life of Christ which are thought needful in Humane Authors to make up a compleat History We have no more mentioned of his Parentage than was necessary to make it evident that he was descended from David and born of a Virgin as the Prophets had foretold of him When he was born we read that the Shepherds and the Wise-Men came to Worship him that he was Circumcised that he was brought to Jerusalem to be presented to the Lord and that he was carried into Aegypt to avoid Herod's Cruelty and hereby known Prophecies were fulfilled Afterwards he was brought to Nazareth upon the death of Herod and from that time we read no more of him 'till the twelfth Year of his Age when he Disputed with the Doctors in the Temple And then we are told that he went down to Nazareth and was subject to his Mother and to Joseph and in general Terms that he encreased in Wisdom and Stature and in favour with God and Man as it was before said of him that he grew and waxed strong in Spirit filled with Wisdom and the grace of God was upon him Luke ii 40 52. The next time we read any thing of him is when he was about Thirty years of Age and came to John to be Baptized Thus not only during his Infancy and Childhood there is little related of our Blessed Saviour but his riper years are passed over in Silence in all which time we may be sure that there was no Speech or Action of so Divine a Person but what well deserved the observation of all that knew him and was more worthy of mention in History than all the Renowned Adventures and Exploits or than the Wise or Witty Sayings which adorn the Lives of the Greatest among the Sons of Men. But Modesty Humility and a Contempt of the praise of Men were some of the great and useful Doctrines in which he came to instruct Mankind and he could not do this more effectually than by his own Example in leading a mean and obscure Life little known or taken notice of in the World 'till two or three years before he was to leave it by a Cruel and Infamous Death He did not chuse to spend his time in places of publick Resort and Converse and when he Disputed in the Temple yet nothing of the particulars is mentioned This obscure and unknown Person was to rebuke and comptroll the Pride and Vanity of the Popular Scribes and Pharisees And after he had appeared in the World very much of his Life was spent in privacy and retirement not many of his Discourses are delivered down to us and the greatest part of his Actions are omitted For if they had been all written and described in their several Circumstances many Volumes must have been taken up in the Narrative of them insomuch that St. John supposes that even the World itself could not have contained the Books that should have been written Joh. xxi 25. that is as we might express it in our Language he did a world of things more than these which are related of him and in the same sense of the Word St. James says that the Tongue is a world of Iniquity Jam. iii. 6. The meaning of St. John is that hardly any words could express how many other things were done by our Saviour besides those which he had set down Christ might have employed some accurate Historian to compose the Annals of his whole Life with the greatest exactness imaginable but he was pleased to be represented to the World very imperfestly by such as knew nothing of what belonged to the writing History any farther than to be able to tell the strict and necessary Truth The