met with many Bishops and found them all of one Mind and teaching the same Doctrine and having given some account of Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians he adds that the Church remain'd after that in the pure and right Doctrine untill the time of Primus Bishop there with whom sayling to Rome I conferred and abode many days being come to Rome I stayed there till the time of Anicetus whose Deacon was Eleutherius whom Soter succeeded and after him Eleutherius In all their Succession and in every one of their Cities it is no otherways taught than as the Law and the Prophets and the Lord himself preached This is a singular Testimony of the sincere Tradition not onely of one or two or a few Churches but of the Catholick Church And as he described the Ecclesiastical Succession every where so has he the rise and birth of Heresies and particularly in the Church of Jerusalem After that James sirnamed the Just had suffer'd Martyrdom his Uncle Simeon the Son of Cleophas was chosen Bishop being preferred by the unanimous Vote of all because he was the Lord's Kinsman And hitherto that Church was call'd a pure Virgin because as yet it had not been deflour'd with any false Doctrines But Thebalis being displeased that he was not chosen Bishop secretly endeavour'd to debauch it from whom sprang those many Heresies that he afterward reckons up and so having elsewhere described the Martyrdom of Saint Simeon he adds untill those times the Church of God remain'd a pure and undefiled Virgin For such as endeavour'd to corrupt the perfect Rule and the sincere delivery of the Faith hid themselves till that time in secret and obscure places but after that the sacred Company of the Apostles was worn out and that generation was wholly spent that by special favour had heard with their Ears the heavenly Wisedom of the Son of God then the conspiracy of wicked and detestable Heresies through the fraud and imposture of such as affected to be masters of new and strange Doctrines took rooting And because none of the Apostles were then surviving they published with all imaginable confidence and boldness their false conceits and impugned the old plain certain and known truth At these passages I must stop a little because though they are a great Testimony of the purity of the primitive Church yet I find them very confidently made use of by Innovatours as unanswerable Arguments for rejecting its Authority Thus Gittichius an eager Socinian contending with Ruarus both concerning Grotius his way of writing in making so much use of citations out of the ancient Fathers in his Commentaries and withall concerning the primitive Fasts of the Church which Schliclingius and some of that party began to imitate condemns it not onely as altogether useless but dangerous De antiquitate in Religionis negotio statuo extra ipsas sacras novi foederis literas in iis exempla Apostolorum nullius omnino antiquitatis habendam cuiquam Christiano ullam rationem And then proves his Assertion from this passage of Hegesippus and the more ancient he says the Tradition is after the time of the Apostles so much the worse it is because from the very time of their dissolution the Church was overrun with Heresie and Superstition So peevish are Men against the honour and authority of the ancient Church when they are sensible of their own Apostasie from it And the truth is all our Innovatours agree in this one principle and that for this one very good reason because the ancient Church if it were permitted to give judgment upon them condemns them all For these Men finding errours and corruptions in the Church of Rome instead of reforming them as they ought to have done according to the Constitution of the primitive Church they fall to contriving new Models and Bodies of Divinity out of their own brains And among others Socinus disliking the Calvinian Theology as contrary not onely to the holy Scriptures but to the first principles of natural Religion sets up a new Divinity of his own contrivance without ever enquiring into the Doctrine and Discipline of the ancient Church and being advised of his flying so wide of it he together with his followers rather than part with their own fine new Notions of which they had the honour to be the first Authours and Abettours will by no means allow of any such thing as a true and uncorrupted Church ever since the time of the Apostles But with what vanity and arrogance it is none of my present task to enquire onely in answer to this Objection I must reply that it is a very wide and I am sure very far from a civil Inference to conclude that because there were Heresies in the primitive Church there was nothing else And they might with as much reason have applied the Objection against the Apostolical Church it self because then as the Apostles themselves complain the Tares were sowing though it seems not so openly and so impudently as afterwards Nay upon these terms it is impossible their should ever be any such thing as a true Church in the World for as long as there are such things as Pride and Vanity among Mankind there will be such Men in all Societies as will be tainted with their own idle dreams and conceits and then rub their itch upon the common People But though there were Heresies in the primitive Church which I say was not to be avoided as long as it consisted of Men yet they were never able to prevail but after some struggling for admittance were sooner or later utterly stifled And we have as certain a Tradition of the Birth Growth and Death of Heresies as we have of the true Doctrines of the Church and it is very considerable that all the ancient Doctours of the Church overwhelm the Hereticks with this one Argument by convicting them of apparent Innovation and deriving down their own Doctrines from the Apostles themselves So that though there were Heresies in the primitive Church yet its Apostolical Tradition was never mixt or tainted with them but run down in a pure and clear chanel by it self And therefore it is a very childish as well as disingenuous Objection against its Authority that there were some Men in it that would have been corrupting the purity of its Doctrine but were never able to compass their design especially when they were so far from passing undiscover'd or uncontroul'd that we have as certain an account both of the Men and of their Opinions and their inconsistency with the Apostolical Tradition as we have of the new fangled conceits of our own present Innovatours And therefore there is no more danger of our swallowing down old Heresies together with the Tradition of the Church than there is of sucking in their new ones whilst we adhere faithfully to that And thus having upon occasion of this particular passage of this ancient Authour cleared the Authority of the ancient Church in
hope of Immortality The vanity of Epicurus his great Antidote against the fear of Death viz. That Death cannot hurt us because when that is we are not p. 106. § XXII All the other Receits prescribed by the Philosophers against the fear of Death represented and exploded p. 113. § XXIII Without a future State no sufficient foundation for Vertue First Not for Temperance p. 120. § XXIV Secondly Not for Justice nor Magnanimity p. 124. § XXV The vanity of the stoical Philosophy represented upon its Principles neither Happiness nor Vertue without a future State p. 131. § XXVI An account of the Platonick and Peripatetick Morality out of Tully And first his consolatory Discourses in his first Book of Tusculane Questions against the fear of Death proved vain and ineffectual p. 139. § XXVII The same shewn of the Remedies prescribed in his second Book for the alleviating of Pain p. 147. § XXVIII The same shewn of the Prescriptions of the third and fourth Books against Grief and Trouble under the calamities of Life and all other perturbations of the Mind p. 151. § XXIX An account of the fifth Book where he forsakes the Peripatetick Philosophy as insufficient to his purpose and what good reasons he had so to doe p. 157. § XXX The defect of his own new way of philosophising proved in general p. 162. § XXXI That great and glorious Maxime of his Friend Brutus That Vertue is sufficient to its own Happiness proved to be a vain and empty saying without Immortality The Argument concluded p. 167. PART II. A Demonstration of the Divine Authority of the Christian Religion from the undoubted Certainty of the Matter of Fact and the uninterrupted Tradition of the Church § I. THE great advantage of the Gospel above the Law of Nature pag. 175. § II. The Evidence and Certainty of the Christian Faith demonstrated from the infinite and intolerable Absurdities of Unbelief p. 179. § III. This particularly proved according to our Saviour's own Advice in the Article of his Resurrection p. 182. § IV. The impossibility of the Apostles being false in their Testimony of it demonstrated from the first Instinct of humane Nature love of Life and desire of Self-preservation p. 184. § V. The same proved from its contradiction to all the principles of Prudence and common Understanding p. 190. § VI. The same proved from its inconsistency with and contrariety to their own design in publishing Christianity to the World p. 193. § VII The undoubted Truth of the Scripture History if written by those Persons whose names it bears p. 199. § VIII That it could not be written by any other demonstratively proved p. 204. § IX The Books of the New Testament whose Authority was sometime disputed proved to be of Apostolical Antiquity p. 207. § X. Mr. Hobbs's Witticism against the Divine Authority of the Scriptures that the Canon was first compiled by the Council of Laodicea confuted p. 210. § XI The concurrence of Jews and Heathens with the Testimony of Christian Writers p. 112. § XII Josephus and Saint Luke reconciled about the Tax of Cyrenius and the Death of Herod Agrippa p. 215. § XIII The famous Testimony of Josephus concerning our Saviour vindicated from the exceptions of Tanaquil Faber and other Criticks p. 222. § XIV The Testimony of Phlegon concerning the Eclipse at the Passion asserted p. 229. § XV. Pontius Pilate his Narrative concerning our Saviour to Tiberius and Tiberius his Opinion of it cleared p. 230. § XVI The Story of Agbarus proved genuine p. 235. § XVII The impossibility of the Apostles prevailing upon the Faith of Mankind if their Story had been false p. 239. § XVIII The speedy propagation of Christianity in all parts of the World described Philo's Therapeutae proved to have been Christians p. 241. § XIX The first disadvantage of Christianity if it had been false its being a late matter of Fact p. 251. § XX. The second disadvantage of Christianity was its contrariety to the Atheism and the Luxury of the Age in which it was published p. 256. § XXI The third disadvantage of Christianity was its defiance to the establisht and inveterate Religions of the World both Jewish and Heathen p. 259. § XXII The wonderfull success of Christianity notwithstanding all other disadvantages not to be ascribed to any thing but the greatness of that rational Evidence that it gave of its Truth p. 263. § XXIII That the Apostles planted the Christian Faith with so much speed by the power of Miracles and that it was not possible to have done it any other way p. 266. § XXIV The continuance of the same power to the next following Ages asserted and with the greatest Assurance appeal'd to by all the Advocates of Christianity in their publick Writings p. 275. § XXV The vanity of the Objection of the Ancients against the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles that they were wrought by Magick p. 283. § XXVI The vanity of the Miracles opposed by the Heathens to our Saviour particularly that of Vespasian in curing the Lame and the Blind p. 287. § XXVII An account of the evident Imposture of Apollonius Tyanaeus from his own Historian Philostratus p. 293. § XXVIII The Evidence of the Christian Faith from meer humane Tradition and that first publick by the uninterrupted succession of Bishops in the chief Churches from the Apostles p. 300. § XXIX The same proved by private Tradition and first of Saint Clement Bishop of Rome p. 308. § XXX Secondly of Saint Ignatius with an account of himself and his Epistles p. 311. § XXXI Thirdly of Saint Policarp Pothinus and Papias The wisedom of the Ancients vindicated as to the Paschal Controversie p. 320. § XXXII Of Hegesippus The purity of the primitive Church vindicated against all Innovators And Hegesippus his History against the cavils of Scaliger p. 328. § XXXIII Of Justin Martyr Irenaeus and a great number more p. 338. § XXXIV The Objection from the Infidelity of great numbers of Men in that Age answered the first ground of the Infidelity of the Jews was their invincible Prejudice in honour of Moses p. 343. § XXXV Their second great Prejudice was their expectation of a great Temporal Prince for their Messias and how they were crossed in it by our Saviour p. 349. § XXXVI Atheism the ground of the Sadducees opposing Christianity and fanatick Pride and Arrogance of the Pharisees p. 357. § XXXVII The Heathens opposed Christianity for the sake of Idolatry The Neronian Persecution onely a trick of State to secure himself from the fury of the Multitude by delivering up the Christians to it p. 363. § XXXVIII Domitian's Persecution founded upon jealousie of State against the Line of David Hegesippus vindicated in his account of it against Scaliger The jealousie both of the Emperours and the Senate about the Messias p. 370. § XXXIX An account of the following Persecutions and of the injustice and unreasonableness of their several Proceedings against
Deity has enacted those Laws for the government of the World that I have described in the former part of this Discourse it follows with undeniable demonstration that for that Reason alone though there were no other he has withall provided some other state of things beyond that of this present Life because otherwise when he has built this World with so much art and contrived the Nature of Things with so much wisedom he has done it all to no purpose and then there is neither Art nor Wisedom So that these being antecedently proved this that is so unavoidably connected with them though it had no other proof stands upon the same evidence of Reason Especially when it is so needfull not onely to moral but to natural Philosophy that without it not onely all the Laws of Vertue vanish into nothing but the whole frame of Nature sinks into utter Chaos and Confusion For that the World was built by a Principle endued with Wisedom and Understanding is I hope sufficiently demonstrated from those evident Ends Uses and Designs of Things that he propounded to himself in their order and contrivance and yet unless we suppose some other state of things than what is at present visible after those undeniable Demonstrations of all those wise Designs that appear in every part and parcel of Nature it will as demonstratively follow that the whole was made to no end at all Which because it is so plain a contradiction to what was before so evidently demonstrated that alone is as evident a Demonstration of this that is so certainly connected with it as it is of it self A Demonstration OF THE DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION From the undoubted Certainty of the Matter of Fact and the uninterrupted Tradition of the Church PART II. § I. HAving demonstrated the general Providence of God in the Government of the World by those Laws of Nature that he has enacted and proclaimed to all his rational Creatures and proceeded as far as the natural use of our Faculties would guide me to discover both the Duty and the Happiness of Mankind I now advance to a much greater and more glorious discovery of both by that particular Revelation that he has made both of them and himself in the Christian Institution And here the Advantages both as to the Certainty of the Reward and the Perfection of the Law are so exceedingly great as almost utterly to supersede the necessity and usefulness of the former Discourse For first we were there forced to make out the Law of Nature to our selves by various Observations of Nature and Trains of Reasoning but here we find them all distinctly and exactly drawn forth for our present use into particular Rules and Precepts and made easie to our practice by familiar Instances and Examples of Life so that now without any laborious workings of our own Minds without any knowledge of Nature and without any skill in Philosophy our whole Duty is made known to us in a System of plain and easie Propositions And then secondly when we had wrought out the Laws of Nature to our selves from the nature of Things after that we were forced to work the proof of a future Reward out of them and though the connexion when it is discovered is very evident and undeniable yet it requires some carefull intention of Mind and competent skill in the Art of Reasoning to discover it whereas now it is made evident to us beyond all doubt and exception both by certain Revelation and experimental Proof the knowledge whereof is conveyed to us by such undoubted Records that we could scarce receive greater satisfaction of the matter of Fact by the Testimony and Conviction of our own Senses And the Divine Providence has given us so great an Assurance of the Being of a future state that we have not much more of the present At least the Grounds and Motives of our Christian Faith are so convincing and demonstrative as not onely to perswade but even to enforce our Belief so that no ingenuous and unprejudiced Mind can withstand their Evidence though it is possible that malice and peevishness may defeat their Efficacy and so it may too if it please over rule the Power of Mathematical Demonstration But if Men will be honest and impartial in the Enquiry and not do manifest violence to their own Convictions it will be as easie for them to doubt of or disbelieve all the Problems about Lines or Numbers as to suspect the Foundations of the Christian Faith Not that it is capable of the same kind of Evidence but because its Proofs are so forcible in their own kind that upon the same ground that any Man shall distrust or demur upon their credibility he is obliged to an universal unsettledness and irresolution of Mind For when we have weighed and consider'd the whole account of Things we shall find the rankest Scepticism to be very little more unreasonable than Infidelity Because though the Evidence of all matters of Fact and Faith be onely historical yet some historical Evidence is so strong and convictive as in the last result of things to equal Mathematical Demonstrations I know indeed we are told by some learned Men that in matters of this nature we are not to expect demonstrative Arguments when the things themselves are not capable of any other than moral Certainty But here I would first enquire What they mean by moral Certainty And to this their Answer is ready That it is all the certainty that the Nature of the thing is capable of But if that be the definition of moral Certainty then is all certainty moral for every truth is capable of its own kind of certainty But then secondly There are very many things from which I am in reason obliged to suspend my Assent because they are not capable in their own Natures to warrant its Wisedom and though I cannot rationally expect more certain grounds concerning them yet I cannot rationally give up my Assent to them because their Evidence though the clearest that in that case I can expect is too obscure and uncertain to found any consident Assent upon Thus have I a moral Certainty that Romulus was the Founder of Rome i. e. I have all the proof of it that the matter is capable of and yet have I not sufficient grounds to venture any thing that nearly concerns me upon the truth of it because the first beginning of the Roman Story is in many things very fabulous and in all very far from being sufficiently certain And therefore thirdly If by moral Certainty they mean any less degree of evidence as they plainly do when they distinguish it from the more certain ways of proof then the scruple that remains after this their determination is this that the very thing the belief whereof is made the very Foundation of our Religion is capable of no higher degree of evidence than onely moral Certainty In that it seems not consistent with the Divine
were written by any of them it is not much material so it were written by some of them and that it was so is very evident from Clemens his Epistle who has borrowed divers passages out of it word for word And to the same purpose is the Controversie concerning the Revelations all allowing it to have been of Apostolical Antiquity onely some will have it to have been written by Saint John the Apostle others by Saint Mark sirnamed John others by Saint John call'd the Elder but whosoever it was that wrote it it was written in the Apostolical Age and that is enough Though it is moreover sufficiently attested that Saint John the Apostle was the Authour of it both by the Testimony of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus who lived very near the time of its writing Lastly Those that were at first doubted of were not afterwards rashly admitted into the Canon but were admitted upon carefull enquiry mature deliberation and unexceptionable Testimony For as they were at first own'd by some and disputed by others this became a matter of debate in the Church and that obliged them to make farther enquiry after the evidence of their Authority and by that means the whole Church was at last satisfied of that which at first onely a part of it was able to prove And this might come to pass after this manner the Apostles directed many of their Epistles to particular Churches so that it is possible that some of them might be known to some Churches and not to others who therefore doubting of them put those who asserted them to have been true Apostolical Writings to prove their Assertion and they it seems brought such evident proof of their Tradition as gain'd the consent of the whole Church to their Authority And this probably they did by producing the Originals written under the Apostles own hands and reserved in the Archives of the several Churches For that many such there were Tertullian informs us even in his time and to them refers the Men of his own Age for their full satisfaction § X. And therefore it is but a very slender Witticism of Mr. Hobbs in derogation of the Authority of the holy Scripture when he has acknowledg'd that the Writers of the New Testament lived all in less than an Age after Christ's Ascension and had all of them seen our Saviour or been his Disciples except Saint Paul and Saint Luke and consequently that whatsoever was written by them is as ancient as the time of the Apostles yet were they made canonical Scripture onely by the Authority of the Church that is the Council of Laodicea which first collected the Canon of the Scriptures and recommended them to us as the Writings of those Apostles and Disciples under whose Names they go hereby wittily intimating or rather broadly asserting that these Writings were not canonical Scripture till that Council that is till the year 364. But first Supposing that it is not the Authour but the Authority of the Church that makes a Book Canonical then were the Books of the New Testament made so long before the Council of Laodicea in that we find them enumerated in the Apostolical Canons which though they were not compil'd by Clement as was vulgarly supposed yet were they the Decrees of Councils in the first and second Ages succeeding the Apostles So that upon this account they were stamp't Canonical almost as soon as they were written Secondly The Testimony of the Church neither is nor can be any more than a proof or an argument of the Original and Divine Authority of the canonical Books as any other Testimony is or may be Thus when we cite Clement of Rome Ignatius Policarp Justin Martyr Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus yes and Celsus himself that lived either in or near the Apostles times as giving in Testimony to their Writings no Man can without very wilfull impertinence thence infer that it is they that give the Books their Divine Authority when it is so evident that they are onely made use of as competent Witnesses to attest that they were no forged Writings but were pen'd by those very Persons under whose Names they go and if they are then they themselves make good their own Authority For Authority is nothing else but the right or power of binding our Assent which unless it be done by the Authour himself it is impossible to be done by any other and all the Councils in the World can never give Divine Authority to any Book if it had it not before All their Office is to bear testimony to their Authenticalness and it is no inconsiderable Evidence of it when so many grave and learned Men of the first Ages of Christianity upon mature deliberation of the whole matter in Council declare that upon the strictest enquiry they are fully satisfied that those Books were written by those very Authours whose Names they bear But from hence to infer as the Leviathan does that their canonical Authority that is their being the Law of God depends entirely upon the Decree of the Church as if it could give or take it away at pleasure onely becomes Mr. Hobbs's Logick and Modesty and them it becomes equally for it is very hard to determine whether the Conclusion be more impudent or more impertinent § XI And now beside this direct demonstrative proof of the Apostolical Antiquity and Authority of the holy Scriptures which alone is a full demonstration of the Divinity of the Christian Institution there is another more remote way of proving the truth of the History insisted upon by learned Men that is by the concurrent Testimony of foreign Writers Jews or Heathens who lived in or about the same time but this Evidence is so weak in comparison of that which I have already produced that I shall not prosecute it as an Argument in my Cause but rather consider it as an Objection against it viz. That if the History of our Saviour were so known and notorious as is pretended how comes it to pass that so little notice is taken of it by any Authours but onely such as were his own Disciples There were many other excellent Writers especially Historians about that time so that if his Actions had been so great and remarkable as his Disciples tell us they were it is scarce credible that they should pass him over with so slender a regard and scarce any mention of him In answer to this I shall in the sequel of this Discourse give a satisfactory and rational account of the Infidelity both of Jews and Heathens notwithstanding Christianity brought along with it all that Evidence that we pretend it did But beside this I shall here shew that the best Writers of that time concur with and so confirm the main strokes of our Saviour's History and by consequence all the rest that is interwoven with them especially when what they write is purely to deliver matter of Fact without any design to serve the cause of Christianity For when all things
same time and laid down their Lives out of that undoubted assurance they had of its truth and certainty We may now with much more reason doubt of what was done to his late Majesty in January 1648. than they could at that time of the Testimony of the Apostles concerning the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Neither did the current of this Tradition stop here in the Corinthian Church but as it came down from the first Witnesses so it descended in the same chanel to after-times for as the Apostolical Writings are own'd by this Epistle so is this Epistle by those who could not but be certain of its Authority especially Dionysius Bishop of that Church to whom it was written for as Saint Clement's Epistle was written not long after the time of the Apostles probably in the Reign of Domitian so was that of Dionysius written not at a greater distance from Saint Clemens for he flourished in the time of M. Aurelius and had full assurance of its being authentick from its having been constantly read in the Corinthian Church So that the Tradition of the Apostles Testimony was as certain in that Church in the time of that Emperour who began his Reign about the year 161. as it was in their own time so that if the Corinthians who lived in the time of Dionisius had been contemporary to the Apostles themselves they could not have had a more satisfactory and unquestionable information of the truth of those things that they preached than was given them from so clear and uninterrupted a Tradition for that being so entirely free from all manner of doubt and suspicion the distance of time made no alteration as to the certainty of the thing § XXX To the Testimony of this Apostolical Man we may joyn that of Ignatius Policarp Papias and Quadratus as having all conversed with the followers and familiars of our Saviour And first as for Ignatius he was educated under the Apostles themselves and by them constituted Bishop of the great City of Antioch where he sate many years and govern'd his charge with extraordinary zeal and prudence and at last with infinite courage and alacrity suffer'd Martyrdom for the Testimony of his Faith There have been great Controversies of late in the Christian World concerning his Epistles though with how little reason on their side that oppose them I have accounted elsewhere and though I shall by and by make use of their Authority and make it good too yet our present Argument is not concern'd in that dispute for whether these Epistles that at this time pass under his name be genuine or counterfeit it is certain that there was such a Man and that he wrote such Epistles and if so then he is another competent Witness of the truth of the Apostolical Testimony and his great sense of Immortality and earnest desire of Martyrdom shew his great assurance of our Saviour's Resurrection upon which they were founded so that he is another undoubted Witness of the Apostolical Tradition viz. That the Christian Faith descended from the Apostles and that they gave that proof of their Testimony that is recorded of them in the holy Scriptures And by his Testimony of the truth of all that Christianity pretends to is the Tradition of the Apostles connected with the certain History of after-times so as to leave no dark and unknown Interval wherein the Story pretended to have been formerly acted by the Apostles might have been first obtruded upon the World but on the contrary to make it undeniably evident that there could never have been any such Story had it not first descended from the Apostles But though this be enough to my purpose for attesting the truth of the Apostolical History by such a near and immediate Witness to make the Tradition of the Church certain and uninterrupted yet I will not wave that advantage that I have from this glorious Martyr's Epistles because they breathe so much the genuine spirit of the ancient Christianity especially as to the undoubted assurance of a future Immortality which shews what mighty satisfaction they had of the reality of the thing that they so firmly believed and so vehemently desired And as for the Epistles themselves they are so strongly and unanimously attested by the Records of the ancient Church that they had never been so much as question'd but for their resolute Opposition to some Mens Prejudices for they being resolved in their own Innovation of Church-government contrary to that of the Apostolical and primitive Constitution which these Epistles so zealously assert and that as establisht by the command of God and thereby made necessary to the peace of the Christian Church they had no way left but stubbornly I ought to have said impudently to reject their Authority But alas that is so admirably vouched as if the Providence of God had purposely design'd to secure their credit for ever And particularly in the first place by his Friend Policarp who sent a Copy of them to the Church of Philippi with a Letter of his own now Policarp's Epistle was never question'd nay it was for some hundred years after publickly read in the Churches of Asia how then is it possible to avoid so clear and certain a Testimony as this they have no other way but onely by saying that this particular passage was foisted in without any shadow of ground for the surmise nay contrary to the common sense of Mankind that an Epistle so universally known to the learned and the unlearned should be so easily corrupted and the corruption never taken notice of and when this counterfeit passage was thrust into it contrary to the faith of all the publick Books it should pass down uncontroul'd and unquestion'd to all after-ages Nay farther if it were forged it must have been before the time of Eusebius who gives an account of it and believes it genuine and yet himself affirms that it was at his time publickly read in Churches as Saint Jerome afterwards that it was in his now it is a very probable thing that Eusebius would be imposed upon by one private Copy contrary to the faith of all the publick Books or that he should impose the mistake upon all that followed him when the same Books were preserved in the same publick manner till the time of Saint Jerome But beside this they have another shift altogether as groundless and not less bold viz. That it is true that there had been such Epistles of Ignatius that Policarp speaks of but that a little before Eusebius his time the true ones were lost and a counterfeit Copy put upon the World which as it is nothing but meer conjecture for the sake of a desperate cause and void of all pretence of probability so it is incredible in it self and not possible in the course of humane Affairs that such a famous Writing of such an ancient and apostolical Bishop of such an eminent and glorious Martyr written at such a time at the
very point of his dissolution as his Legacy to the Christian Church communicated to several Churches publickly and vulgarly known attested by Saint Policarp Irenaeus Clemens of Alexandria and not long since by Origen 't is not possible that all the Copies of such a Writing as this should be lost about one and the same time and that a false one should immediately rise up in their stead and that Eusebius a Man so familiarly acquainted with the choicest Libraries of that part of the World should embrace so late and so gross a Forgery and put the mistake upon all learned Men that followed after him The Man that can satisfie himself with such wild surmises and suppositions as these there is nothing so absurd but he may easily swallow its belief nor so demonstratively proved but he may withstand its evidence Now the Authority of these Epistles being vindicated and I am apt to think that they will never more be call'd in question they are a brave and generous Assertion of the truth of the Christian Faith being written with that mighty assurance of Mind that shews the Authour of them to have had an absolute certainty or a kind of an infallible knowledge of the things that he believed In every Epistle his Faith is resolved into that undoubted evidence that he had of our Saviour's Death and Resurrection and particularly in that to the Church of Smyrna he protests that he could no more doubt of its reality than of his own chains and again positively affirms that he knew it to be true And yet not withstanding that all the ancient Copies and all the quotations of the Ancients out of him agree in this sense that he knew Jesus to be in the flesh after his death because in Saint Jerom's Translation who excuses himself for the haste and carelesness of the work it is rendred that he saw Jesus in the flesh this is made use of by the learned Men of our new Church of Geneva as a sufficient Objection to overthrow the Authority of all these Epistles It is possible indeed he might have seen Jesus in the flesh but it is not probable neither is it his design to affirm it in this place seeing he proves its truth from the Testimony of the Apostles as Eye-witnesses and not from his own immediate knowledge but when he onely says that from them he knew it to be true to put this assertion upon him that he saw it with his own eyes against the reading of all the ancient Books from a careless Translation proves nothing but the invincible stubbornness of prejudice and partiality But the truth is these Men have been so zealous for their Faction as not to care how in pursuit of it they endanger'd nay destroyed their Religion For whereas one of the greatest Pillars of the Christian Faith is the Testimony of the Ancients in the Age next to the Apostles in that it is hereby particularly proved that it is no figment of an unknown time and that the Records of it were of that Antiquity that they pretend to be yet because they do as positively assert the original Constitution of the Christian Church which this faction of Men have hapned to renounce they have labour'd with indefatigable industry utterly to overthrow all their Authority but thanks be to God with that ill success that by their endeavour to shake our Faith they have onely made it to take the better root for by this occasion the most ancient Tradition of the primitive Church has been much more inquired into and better clear'd than if it had passed without any dispute or contradictition But to keep close to our Ignatius what has been the bottom of all the zeal and fury against his Epistles but his earnest pressing all good Christians to submit to the government of the Church as to the Ordinance of God or rather because he describes the Constitution of the primitive Platform so accurately as to condemn their Discipline of folly and rashness in departing from the prescription of God himself And yet all the ancient Doctours of the Church have done the same thing laying as great a stress as he has done upon the duty of Obedience to their Ecclesiastical Governours as set over them by Divine Institution For as there was nothing of which they were then more tender than the Peace and Unity of the Church so they thought it could be no other way preserved than by submission to those Guides and Governours that Christ had set over it This it were easie to make evident out of their Writings especially Saint Cyprian's who as he was a Person of very great prudence and discretion so is he full as peremptory in this point as Ignatius But I shall onely instance in the Epistle of Saint Clement because of its greater Antiquity For if that assert a certain form of Church government establisht by our Saviour and observed by the Apostles that prevents and confutes the groundless conjecture of an unknown time immediately after the Apostles in which the whole power of the Church devolved upon the Presbyters because they had appointed no one particular and perpetual form of Government And this Saint Clement asserts in these positive words The Apostles were appointed to preach the Gospel to us from our Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ from God himself Christ being sent by God and the Apostles by him the sending of both was in an orderly manner after the will of God For the Apostles receiving their command and having a full confidence through the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and faith in the word of God with an assurance of the Holy Spirit went forth publishing the Gospel of the Kingdom of God which was erecting They therefore preached the Word through divers Countries and Cities ordaining every where the first fruits of such as believed having made proof and trial of them by the Spirit to be Overfeers and Deacons to minister unto them that should afterwards believe So that it seems they were so far from neglecting to provide Governours for the future state of the Church that they were carefull beforehand to provide Governours for future Churches And this he affirms the Apostles did because they understood by our Lord Jesus Christ that strife and contention would arise about the Title of Episcopacy for this cause therefore having absolute knowledge beforehand thereof they ordained the forenamed Officers and for the future gave them moreover in command that whensoever they should dye others well approved of should succeed into their Office and Ministery So that it is evident that the Apostles themselves by virtue of our Saviour's order observed and prescribed a particular form of Government to be continued down to future Ages And though our Authour does not express the several distinct Orders by the common names of Bishop Priest and Deacon yet he describes them as expresly by allusion to the Jewish Hierarchy under the names of High-priest Priest and Levite
when they are quoted as such by those Persons that lived next and immediately after them and have passed from the very first Age through all Ages downward with an unquestionable Authority there is no possible account to be given how they should first come by it and then for ever after retain it unless they were for certain the Works of those Men whose names they bear Thus particularly Saint Matthew's Gospel is quoted by Clemens of Rome a Familiar of Saint Paul by Ignatius by Policarp by Papias the Disciples of Saint John not to mention Justin Martyr Athenagoras Irenaeus and all the other Writers of the Age next after the Apostles Now if this be so Then first Either this Gospel was written in the Apostles time or it was not If not how could it be cited by those that were their Contemporaries Secondly The things reported in it were either true or false if true then so is the Gospel too if false then it had destroyed its own credit by publishing known falshoods For though it is easie to forge a Story acted in former times without discovery and contradiction yet to make a Forgery of so wonderfull a transaction as was the History of Jesus of Nazareth so near the time in which it was pretended to have been acted and that without controll or contradiction nay with full credit and undoubted Authority as appears by these Apostolical Mens unanimous Testimony is if any thing in the World absurd and incredible enough to make up another Article of Infidelity Thirdly Either this Book was written by Saint Matthew or it was not If it was then it was the Testimony of an eye Witness that converst with our Saviour both before and after his Resurrection If it was not then how could it be thrust upon him in his own Age and gain so unquestionable an Authority with those Men that conversed either with him or with his Companions And now if we gain the Authority of this one Gospel that alone is a sufficient proof of the Divine Authority of the Christian Faith in that the main Foundations of it are here recorded viz. The Life Death and Resurrection of our Saviour which being believed as they are here recorded are an infallible demonstration of his Divinity The same account I might give of almost all the other Books of the New Testament in that they were received from the beginning as the most unquestionable Records of the Apostles But that were onely to repeat the same Argument so many times over and therefore supposing the same ancient Testimony concerning them as we have concerning Saint Matthew I shall leave the Reader to apply the same Argument that I have urged concerning him Neither do I this onely to avoid needless Repetition but because it has been often done by other hands particularly by Eusebius of old and Huetius of late who have vouched every Book by it self from the Testimony of the earliest Antiquity And therefore as for the truth of the matter of Fact I had rather refer to them than transcribe them though that being supposed the Argument is of the same force in every one as it is in Saint Matthew's Gospel § IX It is true that some few Books were for a good time doubted of as the Epistle to the Hebrews the Second of Saint Peter the Second and Third of Saint John and the Apocalypse But then first Suppose their Authority was still questionable the Christian Faith can subsist very well without them by the remaining Authority of those that were never questioned And though they are very usefull and excellent Discourses yet have they little peculiar in them that is not to be found in the other Apostolical Writings And if we understand the matter aright though they are written by Divine Inspiration yet are they not of the Foundation of the Christian Faith but onely pious Discourses proceeding upon the supposition of it Being written occasionally either to exhort us to an effectual belief of those things that are recorded in the Gospels or to encourage us against Tryals and Persecutions or to allay Schisms and Contentions or to confute Errours and Heresies or to reform Abuses and Corruptions so that though they had never been written the Foundations of our Faith were before firmly laid in the History of our Saviour's Life Doctrine Passion and Resurrection And therefore the Authority of all the rest is at last resolved into that of the historical Books that is the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles which being supposed true they warrant both the Reason and Authority of the Apostolical Epistles that onely deduce those proper and natural Conclusions that flow from their Premises Nay farther 't is not primarily necessary to Christianity to believe that the Books of the New Testament were dictated by an infallible Spirit but it is sufficient that the historical Books are good and authentick Records of the Life of our Saviour and the design of his Errand into the World and that the Writings of the Apostles are pious Discourses consonant with and conducing to the Ends of Christianity The Foundation whereof seems to lie in this one thing that Jesus Christ was sent into the World for the Work he pretended to come about by Divine Commission For God having set several Hypotheses of Providence on work in the World to bring all things to their end and perfection at last design'd this as the most compleat model of all Vertue Goodness and Morality So that if the History of those things which Jesus both did and taught be truly recorded by the Evangelists that is a sufficient evidence of his own Divine Authority But as for his Historians that comes in upon another score in that we know that the Authours of all those Writings were inspired and directed by the Holy Ghost but then that we know onely from the Writings themselves and therefore their Truth must be supposed antecedent to their Divine Authority and that being supposed our Saviour's Divine Authority is thereby proved and that being proved that alone is a full demonstration of the Divinity of the Christian Religion But secondly If those few Books were so long debated before they were admitted into the Canon that is an Argument of the great care and caution of the Church in its belief in that it would not lightly receive any Book till it was fully satisfied of its being Authentick and therefore its long doubtfulness and disputation about these Books clears it from all suspicion of rashness and credulity as to those that she always own'd with a full and unanimous Approbation Thirdly The Controversie concerning the disputed Books relates not so much to their Antiquity as their Authour and they are not brought in question because they were not written in the Apostolical Age but because it seemed uncertain by whom they were then written Thus the Epistle to the Hebrews some attribute to Saint Paul some to Saint Luke some to Barnabas some to Clemens but if it
with all the opposition that Mankind could make it it was forced to encounter the Fury of the Multitude the Zeal of Superstition the Hatred of the Jews the Contempt of the Greeks the Power of the Romans the Pride of Philosophers and the Policy of Statesmen and by all these together that is by all means possible was it every-where harrassed with all the outrage and cruelty of Persecution No other party of Men in the World were ever hunted with that keenness of Malice or sacrifised with that cheapness and contempt of humane Bloud and as the Enemies to Christianity supposed it to be a new thing in the World they resolved its Punishments should be so too invented new methods of Torment studied all the arts of Pain and were not satisfied with the death of Christians unless they might tire them out of their Lives with length and variety of Tortures In short it wanted not the utmost opposition that could be made against it by Men or Devils if we suppose as we may for argument sake that there are any such malignant Beings And yet notwithstanding all disadvantages it grew and flourished after such a rate all the World over as if it had met with all the contrary ways and methods of encouragement Now what could be the reason of all this There is no other imaginable account to be given of it but that irresistible force of evidence that it gave of its Truth and Divine Authority For when every thing else was against it and yet notwithstanding it prevailed so wonderfully by the power of its own truth it must be clear of all doubt and suspicion that could bear away the Minds of Men with so great a force against all Arguments and Motives in the World beside For I do not urge this at present as an argument of God's Providence being concern'd in its propagation but for the reasonableness of the thing it self viz. that a Doctrine labouring under all these mighty and unparallel'd disadvantages should ever have prevaild with such suddain and admirable success had it not come attested with the clearest and most irresistible Proofs For is it not utterly incredible that an Institution so destitute of secular Power and Interest so uncouth to the Principles and Prejudices of Education so contrary to the Vices and Inclinations of Men so contradictory to the settled Laws and what was much more considerable to the establisht Religions of Common-wealths so much opposed by all the Power all the Wit and all the Zeal in the World should yet so effectually bear away all resistence and force the strugling World in spite of all their opposition to yield up all that was dear to them to the evidence of its Divine Authority For seeing it could have nothing else to recommend it to the World nay seeing it had all other things to oppose it and yet found such strange and otherwise unaccountable entertainment that alone I say is a demonstrative proof of its infinite evidence and certainty Neither am I ignorant that learned Men both Ancient and Modern usually ascribe it to the Almighty and miraculous Power of God overruling the Minds of Men And the truth is the thing was so prodigious that it is scarce accountable how it could be done without a Miracle But though I do not doubt of the secret and inward workings of the Spirit of God upon the Minds of Men yet I can by no means allow the reason of any thing to be resolved into that alone for if that be the onely reason of any Man's assent then his assent is unreasonable and all the account he can give of his Faith is that he finds himself vehemently inclined to believe he knows not why But that is not a proper way of determining rational Creatures and therefore we cannot suppose that God would force the Minds of Men to a stronger assent than the evidence of the thing assented to requires for that instead of helping the Understandings of Men would utterly destroy them And therefore how strong soever the influences of the Spirit of God were upon the Minds of the Primitive Christians as no doubt they were very extraordinary yet the outward and rational evidence that he gave them of the truth of Christianity was still proportionable to that inward confidence that he wrought upon their Minds otherwise they had more confidence than they had reason for and then all that they had over and above was unreasonable Seeing therefore their Faith was so infinitely confident I shall demonstrate that the grounds and motives that they had for it were equal to their greatest assurance and they were chiefly these two undeniable Miracles and undoubted Tradition from both which they had so great an assurance of the Christian Faith that it was not possible for them to be deceived and if they had so much they had as much as can be desired because no Man can have more § XXIII I have already shewn in the beginning of this Discourse the great and unparallel'd credibility of the Apostles Testimony taken by it self as it stands upon their own naked Reputation in that we have all the evidence in the World that they were sincere and serious in their Design so that meerly by virtue of their own Authority they might justly chalenge the Faith of Mankind But to the undoubted Integrity of the Witnesses God was pleased to adde a more forcible Testimony of his own by enduing them with a power of working Miracles and thereby demonstrating to the World that as they who pretended to be his Ambassadours were serious and in good earnest in their Design so was he too And in truth unless he had endued them with this power from above they could never have had the courage so much as to have undertaken the work but instead of travelling into all parts of the World to tell a Story to the People of which they could not understand one word as being utter Strangers to the Language in which they spake they must have concluded it a wiser course to resolve upon mending their old Nets and betaking themselves to their old Trade But this Eusebius has excellently represented to us in their own Persons In that when our Saviour commanded them to go and teach all Nations they ought to have replied upon him how is this possible that we who are unlearned Persons and understand onely our mother Tongue should discourse in their several Languages to the Romans Grecians Egyptians Persians Armenians Chaldeans Scythians Indians and all the other numberless Nations of the barbarous World And if we cannot as without a Miracle we cannot to what purpose is it to travel from Pole to Pole and tell an unintelligible Story to the People Nay how can we so much as dream that it is possible for us to perswade them to renounce their Country Gods and to worship a new and unknown Deity What eloquence what unheard of power of words must we be inspired with to encourage us
is so weak as to fetch Testimonies out of the fabulous Age it self and to compare the descents of Orpheus and Hercules into Hell and of Rampsinitus who went thither to play at Tables with Ceres with our Saviour's Refurrection but such trifles as these are to be laughed at not to be answered and therefore in the next Book he pieces up these Fables out of the Poets with some Examples out of Historians but those so remote so obscure so lamentably attested and so altogether without any grounds or motives of belief that the Metamorphoses of the Poets are scarce more incredible And therefore Origen very well puts it to him whether he believes the stories that he relates or not if he does not then they are nothing to his purpose but if he does then he shews his strange partiality that whilst he rejects the story of our Saviour he believes things so ill-vouched in comparison of it For it is not the matter of the Narrative but the motives of credibility that are the ground and reason of our Assent and the same Relation may either be a meer Fable or an undoubted Truth as the matter of Fact it self and the onely thing that makes the difference is the Testimony wherewith it is vouched and that is the onely difference between the story of our Saviour's Resurrection that is so strongly confirm'd by all that Testimony that I have represented whereas the Tales that they oppose to it are destitute of all manner of proof and when pursued home to their original Authority appear no better than poetick Fables The first and chiefest of them is that of Aristeas Proconnefius who is reported by Herodotus to have often died and lived again But upon what Authority Nothing but an old-wives Tradition among the People But to whom did he appear First to the People of Proconnesus and between two or three hundred years after to those of Metapontum How then was any Man at that distance of time able to affirm that it was the same Man But as vain a Fable as it is it is not as Huetius conjectures without some ground of History in that there was such a Man as Aristeas of great Authority in the Town of Proconnesus about the Reign of Cyrus but beside him there was another in the fabulous Age the Son of Apollo whom the Poets feign'd to have taken a sudden flight to Heaven now it was easie to report of the one what was feign'd of the other especially by his own Country-men it being the custom of the Greeks to apply the deeds of their Gods to the honour of their own Citizens and here they had an especial advantage from the Identity of their Names and that is the most natural foundation of the whole story that he was Namesake with one of whom these things had been fabled of old time Another is that there was a Poem call'd Arimaspea falsely ascribed to this Aristeas where the Poet begins as the usual manner of Poets is with the imagination of his being conveyed out of himself by Apollo to a certain place where he might have the most convenient Prospect of what he was to describe Now what he thus spake in a Poetick Scheme they afterward understood in rigour of Speech and when once the mistake was raised it easily supported it self among the common People from whom Herodotus as himself confesses a long time after received it Now is not this a worthy story to vye with our Saviour's Resurrection when this has all the proofs in the World of its truth and certainty that not one but on the contrary all the signs of folly and fiction And it were easie to give the same Account of Cleomedes Hermotimus Epimenides but the stories are so apparently fabulous and so utterly void of all original Authority and so very like meer Mythology that seriously to confute them were to betray my own Understanding and affront my Readers But beside these Romances of Antiquity they insist upon some few Miracles of a later date but those too so slenderly attested that onely to compare them is enough to destroy them Those of most seeming credit are the stories of Vespasian and Apollonius Tyanaeus As for Vespasian he was strangely befool'd with the Ambition of being the Messias that is as he understood it the Monarch of the World which some say was the first rise and occasion of his Glory for being naturally inclined to an easie belief of Prophesies and Predictions and there being at that time as the Roman Historians attest a strong and unanimous Opinion among the Eastern People of an Universal Monarch that was foretold by some ancient Prophets about that time to come out of Judaea he first applies this Prophesie to himself and then applies himself to fulfill it Percrebuerat Oriente toto says Suetonius vetus constans Opinio esse in fat is ut eo tempore Judaeâ profecti rerum potirentur And so Tacitus Pluribus persuasio inerat antiquis Sacerdotum literis contineri eo ipso tempore ut valesceret Oriens profectique Judaeâ rerum potirentur And this he says was the main reason of the Rebellion and ruine of the Jews the application of this Prophesie to themselves whereas it is evident from all circumstances that it marked out Vespasian and Titus And then beside the Prophesies themselves he was grosly abused as vain-glory is sufficiently credulous by the flatteries of Josephus who accommodated all the Characters and Descriptions of the Messias to his Person and the circumstances of his Affairs And not onely so but he added great authority to his Prediction by his great confidence presevering in his flattery in spite of Vespasian's unkindness for when he had cast him into Prison Josephus made light of it and assured himself and his Friends that he should in a short time be delivered by Vespasian himself but that it should not be done till after he was possest of the Empire Unus ex nobilibus captivis Josephus cum conjiceretur in vincula constantissimè asseveravit fore ut ab eodem brevi solveretur verùm jam Imperatore And it seems he was so taken with this conceit of his Messiahship that he is said to have searched after and slain all that pretended to have been of the posterity of David thereby to secure the Title to himself against all Rivals and Competitours Flusht with these pleasing Omens in Judaea but much more with some answerable success finding all his Competitours removed but onely Vitellius whom he feared least of all he repairs to Rome and by the way visits Egypt to secure those parts or to fulfill a Sibyllan Prophesie and here he was more abused with the flatteries of Apollonius Tyanaeus than he had been before by Josephus for he was no sooner come to Alexandria where that wandring Pedant hapned to be at that time but he beggs of him his confirmation of those Omens that he brought along with him from Judaea begging
affirms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he quite vanisht away at last he onely says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he went away and this though he would seem to affirm that it was after a wonderfull manner and no body knows how is a pitifull abatement to the bigness of his former expression vanishing away Though the truth is if he had stood to it it must unavoidably have proved it self a Lye for it is utterly incredible that so strange a thing as that should have been done in so great a presence as that and yet never any notice be taken of it But in the last place the Historian would fain bid at something of his Hero's appearing after Death yet he does it so faintly that in the conclusion of all it comes to nothing especialy when he tells us that the time of his Death was altogether unknown and that the uncertainty of it took in no less than the compass of thirty years and then they that were so utterly at a loss as to the time of his decease and that for so long a space were likely to give a very wise account of the certain time of any thing that he did after it But how or to whom did he appear Why to a young Man one of his Followers that doubted of the Immortality of the Soul for ten months together after his Death But how or where Why the young Man being tired with watching and praying to Apollonius that he would appear to him onely to satisfie him in this point one day fell into a dead sleep in the School where the young Men were performing their several Exercises and on the sudden starts up in a great fright and a great sweat crying out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I believe thee O Tyanaeus And being asked by his Companions the meaning of his transport Why says he do you not see Apollonius They answer him no but that they would be glad to give all the World that they could 'T is true says he for he onely appears to me and for my satisfaction and is invisible to all others and so tells them what he had said to him in his sleep concerning the state of Souls This poor account of a Dream and a Vision of an over-watched Boy is all that this great Story affords to vye with our Saviour's Resurrection And now upon review of this whole History it seems evident to me that this Man was so far from being endued with any extraordinary or Divine Power that he does not deserve the reputation of an ordinary Conjurer For though Huetius has taken some pains to prove him so yet he gives no evidence of it beside the Opinion of the common People and if that were enough to make a Conjurer there is no Man of an odd and a singular humour as Apollonius affected to be who is not so thought of by the common People And therefore when he was accused for it before Domitian the Emperour when he came to hear the cause slighted both him and his accusers and dismist him the Court for an idle and phantastick fellow And it is manifest from the whole series of his History that he was a very vain Man and affected to be thought something extraordinary and so wander'd all the World over in an odd Garb to be gazed at and admired and made himself considerable in that Age by Wit Impudence and Flattery of all which he had a very competent share But for his Wonder-working Faculty which he would needs pretend to he fetcht that as far off as the East Indies that is the farthest off as he thought from confutation And yet the Account that he has given of those parts is so grosly fabulous that that alone convicts his whole Life of imposture and impudence And this may suffice to make good this part of the demonstration of our Saviour's Divine Authority from the certain Evidence both of his own and his Apostles Miracles and to set it above the reach of all manner either of Objection or Competition § XXVIII But though the History of Jesus of Nazareth have this advantage of all others in that the Tradition whereby it has been conveyed down to us has proved the truth of its own Testimony by plain and undeniable Miracles yet if we set aside this peculiar Divine Attestation and consider the Tradition by it self as meerly Humane and deliver'd down in the ordinary course of things it has been so constant so catholick and so uninterrupted as to be its own demonstration For if there had been no such thing as the Story of Jesus of Nazareth in that Age there could never have been any such Tradition or if there were it was so early that if it had been false it must immediately have perished as a manifest Lye in that when it comes so near the very time in which the thing it self was acted nothing but undoubted Truth could ever have maintain'd its Authority For though it is easie at a distance to tell strange stories of the times of old as we find by those many idle and incredible Legends added to the History of the primitive Church in the after-ages of ignorance and superstition yet to raise a story so strange and remarkable as that of Jesus of Nazareth and his Apostles without any ground or foundation for it nay against the certain knowledge of those who lived in the place where it was first broacht and to gain Proselytes to such a notorious Fiction is a thing not possible in the course of humane Affairs For to pass by all the other disadvantages that I have already represented that this Tradition must labour under if it rise not up to the very time that it pretends to especially that of its being a matter of Fact which must unavoidably have destroyed it if false that which I have already proposed and come now to prosecute seems as insuperable as any of the rest viz. That great numbers of learned and wise Men who lived in the Ages next and immediately after it should after the strictest enquiry concerning its truth not onely suffer themselves to be imposed upon by so late and palpable a Fiction but lay down their Lives in defence of it This is not credible unless they were fully assured of the undoubted certainty of the thing it self and their assurance alone is to us a sufficient demonstration of it But though that be enough yet I will undertake more viz. To give an account of the grounds and reasons of their Assurance by tracing up the certain Tradition of the thing it self to the very times of the Apostles and from them deriving it down to after-ages through the hands of wise learned and judicious Men and that as I take it will make a new and distinct demonstration of the infallible certainty of the Christian Faith Now this Tradition is conveyed two manner of ways either by a succession of Churches or of single Persons First by a succession of Churches and
little agreement among themselves concerning the manner of the preparatory Fast before Easter and yet this variety being of long standing among them no Man thought himself obliged to impose his own particular conceit upon others in such an indifferent thing and last of all minds him of the prudence and moderation of his Predecessours especially Policarp and Anicetus who did not so much as go about to perswade one another to change the ancient custom of their Church And the effect of these Epistles from all places especially of this of Irenaeus probably was this that they diverted Victor from pursuing his design For we do not find that he ever actually excommunicated the Asian Churches but onely that he threatned it But whether he did or did not it is a worthy piece of ingenuity to charge the folly of one furious and intemperate Man upon the whole Church and that in spite of their own protestation against it And yet this is all the grossness and folly wherewith our Innovatours have made so much noise against them And thus having removed this poor Objection which I could not avoid because it has of late appear'd among us with so much huff and confidence I proceed to the remaining Witnesses of our primitive Tradition And here I cannot pass by Papias for though he were a Person of no great Learning or Judgment yet he was a Man of clear Honesty and Simplicity and living near the time of the Apostles themselves did not search after their Story in Books but made it his particular business to enquire of their familiar acquaintance after their Sayings and Customs If any came in my way says he that was a follower of the Apostles forthwith I enquired of him after the Sayings of the Ancients what Andrew what Peter what Philip what Thomas or James or John or Matthew or any other of the Lords Disciples what Ariston and John the Elder distinguisht from John the Evangelist and out of the Catalogue of the Apostles Disciples of the Lord were wont to say for I did not think I could profit my self more by reading their Books than by the more lively report of those Persons who are still alive and heard their discourses This is a peculiar sort of Testimony given in to a matter of Fact by a Man plain and simple and yet curious and inquisitive who inform'd himself of the truth of the things so lately transacted not onely by reading the Narratives that were written of them but from the more lively information of such who received it from Eye-witnesses I will easily grant that he was as Eusebius describes him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Person of a small Judgment and by consequence of little Authority as to his Opinion especially of the Millennium of which yet himself was not the first Authour but was betrayed into it by the Tradition of the Jews who generally believed that their Messias should reign a thousand years upon Earth in all manner of greatness and glory and therefore it was no wonder if those who were converted from Judaism to Christianity brought this Opinion along with them onely understanding the Jews more gross and carnal Notion in a more refined and spiritual sense and this was the dispute in those early days against the Jewish Hereticks particularly Cerinthus who believed of our Saviour as they had of the Messias that they expected that he should come once more upon Earth and reign at Jerusalem in all manner of pomp and grandeur but be that as it will Papias was ever thought of as a Man of a downright and untainted Integrity and had both the advantage of conversing with those that conversed with the Apostles and the curiosity of recording all the Traditions which they delivered to him by word of mouth and lastly was satisfied in that way of information of the truth of all those things that were registred concerning Jesus and his Apostles To him ought to be ranked Quadratus who wrote an Apologetick to the Emperour Adrian in which he positively avers that many of the Persons cured by our Lord of their Diseases were alive in his time and Aristides a Christian Philosopher at Athens who at the same time presented a learned and eloquent Apology to the same Emperour in behalf of the same cause § XXXII This is the first file of Witnesses next and immediately after the Apostles though I might have reckoned the following rank into the same Catalogue because they are twisted with them as they are with one another for as these that I have already mentioned are not all precisely of the same Age yet being of Antiquity enough to be competent Witnesses of the Tradition of the Apostles may be join'd together into one complicated Testimony of it so their next Successours followed them by the same degrees as they followed one another for Succession is not conveyed down like a Chain by certain Links but like a Cord by the same continued interweaving every part being some part of the part above it And though the Ages of the Church are distinguisht by Centuries yet the Lives of Men are not and the beginning of the next series lived with some of the former as they lived with the first that lived with the Apostles so that there is no possibility of making an Interruption any where between the Chanel and the Fountain head whereever we find the Stream that alone will certainly lead us up to its own Original But this will appear more distinctly by the degrees of its Conveyance having therefore brought the Tradition down to the time of M. Aurelius that is a considerable time beyond that of Trajan to which time Scaliger and some others are pleased to complain of a defect of Records but with what reason we have in part already seen and shall now further discover by our following Witnesses who were not onely able to testifie of their own times but of the foregoing Ages Among whom Hegesippus deserves the first place not onely for his great antiquity but for his manner of writing as an Historian and so not concern'd meerly to give an account of the Affairs of his own Age but to make a diligent enquiry into the Records and Transactions of former times He wrote five Books of Ecclesiastical History which he styled Commentaries of the Acts of the Church wherein he has in a plain and familiar style given an account of the Tradition of the Church and the most remarkable passages in it from our Lord's Death till his own time which was about or rather before the Reign of M. Aurelius for he says he came to Rome and stayed there till the time of Anicetus now Anicetus according to the latest computation succeeded in that See at the beginning of the Reign of Aurelius but according to the earlier account under Antoninus Pius so that it is probable that he was at Rome before Policarp And this description he has given of his Voyage that coming to Rome he
his Power and his Doctrine reciting his Commandments and all other things agreeable to the Holy Scriptures out of their very mouths I say who had seen with their Eyes the word of Life incarnate These things at that time through the mercy of God which wrought in me I diligently marked and Printed not in Paper but my heart upon which continually through the Grace of God I Ponder and Meditate And I am able to testifie before God that if that Holy and Apostolick Elder had heard any such thing as you Teach he would immediately have disavowed it and after his manner stopping his Ears cryed out Good God into what times hast thou reserved me that I should hear and suffer such Discourses Yea and would straight have quitted the Place where he had heard them In short this is evident from the Epistles which he wrote to Neighbour Churches or to particular Brethren And beside Policarp he frequently quotes in all his Books Apostolical Ancients though he does not mention their names He was a diligent Enquirer into the Records of the Church and has particularly described the order and occasion of the Writing of the Four Gospels to which might be added his knowledge of the Epistles of St. Clement Ignatius the Books of Justin Martyr his searching into the Records of the most Famous Churches his enquiring into the Writings and Traditions of the most Eminent Doctors and with this Argument putting to silence the Hereticks by demonstrating to them what was and what was not derived from the Apostolick times All which considered how could we have a more sufficient Witness of the Primitive Tradition for allowing him some very few small slips and mistakes which must be allowed to all Humane Writers in the World his knowledge as to all the material parts of the Christian Doctrine was built upon the most complicated and uninterrupted Tradition And the certainty of his own knowledge he has Recorded with all possible assurance discovering in all his Writings a vehement zeal and a Spirit highly prepared for Martyrdom which he at last suffered with the same Christian courage that appeared in all that went before him And that is a mighty accession to the weight of their Testimony as if it had been peculiarly design'd by the Providence of God that as they proved the certainty of their Faith by undoubted Tradition so they seal'd its sincerity with their Blood Though the Testimony of these Witnesses be so abundantly satisfactory both from their number their quality and their agreement that I need produce no more and the truth is I should have been very thankful for half so many but could never have had the confidence to ask for more yet because a great number beside offer themselves we cannot in civility altogether refuse their kindness but that I may not be too tedious I shall at present onely give in a List of their Names that any man may examine them at his leisure About this time then there was beside those that I have mention'd a great concourse of Learned men that were not only Confessors but Defenders of the Christian Faith as Athenagoras the Christian Philosopher of Athens Theophilus Bishop of Antioch Melito Bishop of Sardis Apollinaris Bishop of Hierapolis Tatian the Assyrian and Scholar to Justin Martyr who all wrote in the time of M. Aurelius And in the Reign of Commodus Pantoenus Clemens Alexandrinus Miltiades Tertullian who were closely followed by Origen Minutius Felix Arnobius St. Cyprian all men of Learning who diligently enquired into the truth and falsehood of things and have given their reasons of renouncing Heathenism and embracing Christianity in short they have all maintain'd it with their Pens and most of them with their Blood And most of their works being still remaining it were an easie task were it not too tedious to give an account of every man's performance but there is enough of that said already and to say more were only so much needless repetition of the same matter of fact upon the same Argument And the most material passages of Record extant in these Authors I have either alledged already or shall have occasion so to do hereafter Therefore all that is requisite to be done at present is only to suppose that there were such Writings of such men and that I may easily do because they are so very common and so very well known at this day and then upon that supposition to argue the certain conveyance of the Christian Tradition through their hands and that compleats the demonstration of its truth and Divine Authority For when I have proved the certainty of its Original from the undoubted Testimony of the Apostles and the Tradition of their Testimony by the complicated attestation of others that lived either with or immediately after them and so downward from age to age and that by very short Periods of time into the Third Century for beyond that it were very impertinent to pursue the Argument if I say this be performed in the premises I do not understand how any man can in reason or modesty demand a greater Evidence and more satisfactory demonstration of his Faith § XXXIV But if Christianity came into the World attended with all this variety and train of proof that I have represented how came it to pass that such great numbers of the men of that Age lived and dyed in Infidelity If the evidence were so full and free from all exception as is pretended how was it possible for any man that had eye-sight enough to discern the mid-day Sun not to submit to its Conviction Much less how could such Creatures as men endued with Rational faculties be so utterly blind or extravagantly mad that when Almighty God had given such undeniable Proofs of his own Divine Authority they should hate oppose and persecute this Religion Mear stupidity or want of Enquiry might have left men in Infidelity though the State of things had been as evident as we say it was but when men concern'd themselves with all their Zeal and Power to root it up they must understand what it was that they so eagerly opposed Neither was this done by the ordinary sort of Mankind alone but by the Wise and the Learned who did not only reject it as an idle Fable but bestir'd themselves with all their might to suppress it as pernicious to the peace and quiet of the World This is an Objection in appearance very great for it cannot but look very strange that men Learned and wise should be so foolish and so Ignorant as not to perceive such evidence of demonstration nay to scorn and to despise it And yet as big as this Objection is in shew it is in reality none at all and if it were any is abundantly answered by the Premises For it is plainly impossible that so great a part of the World especially the Learned and Inquisitive should ever have been prevail'd upon to embrace such a Story in all those circumstances and
thing and after that when Men reported that to have been done which they knew impossible to be done what followed but away with them for idle Cheats and Lyars And therefore without ever examining them they thrust them into Prison with all manner of scorn and indignation Acts 5. 17 18. Secondly as for the Pharisees who were of the greatest power and reputation with the People they were a strange sort of ignorant supercilious and conceited Fanaticks And there is no temper of Mind so fixed and stubborn as religious Pride and Self-conceitedness 't is of all Illusions the most delightfull to the minds of Men and when they are once throughly possest with it it barrs up their Understandings against all Arguments it takes away the use of their natural Faculties and to go about to convince them of their folly and hypocrisie is onely to provoke their rage and choler This was the state of the case between our Saviour and the Pharisees They pretended to the strictest Piety and valued themselves at a mighty rate beyond all other Men for the singularity and exactness of their devotion And yet this they placed not in any conformity to the Divine Laws but in the observation of some vain Customs and Traditions derived from their Forefathers Now this being so gross and so foolish an Imposture our Saviour set himself particularly to represent its vanity and took all occasions to convince them that they had utterly forsaken the Law of Moses for which they pretended so much reverence and that the Customs they were so fond of were no part of his Religion because no where injoin'd in his Law but meer arbitrary conceits of their own devising And this it was that raised their displeasure against him to so great an height of hatred and indignation that a Person who pretended to so great an Office and Authority as that of the Messias should represent them so contemptibly in his publick and constant discourses to the People And therefore instead of considering the nature and truth of his Doctrine they all along set themselves to trapan him in his Discourses and minded nothing else but to pursue their revenge against him and never rested till they had wrecked all their malice upon him as the mortal Enemy of their Sect. Now 't is no wonder that Persons of this complexion were so strangely blinded against all that evidence that our Saviour gave of his Divine Commission For none so blind as those that will not see and none so wilfull as those that are in love with themselves and no self-love so doting as that which is grounded upon a false conceit of Sanctity and Religion And yet notwithstanding this some of the more ingenuous among them as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were overcome by the Divinity of his Works and afterward even Gamaliel himself was startled at them For the advice he gave to let the Apostles alone seem'd to have proceeded meerly from the unsettledness of his own Mind that was not then throughly satisfied concerning the truth or falshood of their pretences And the truth is his advice took with the Sanhedrin not from the reason of the thing but the authority of the Man for otherwise it was but very foolish Counsel that if this Work be of Men it would of its own accord come to nought for by that principle they must give liberty to all the Impostors in the World to disturb as much as in them lies the publick peace and quiet of Mankind But when it was doubtfull as it then seem'd to him lest haply by punishing the Apostles they might be found to fight against God upon this supposition it was not onely wise but pious advice to stay for a little farther tryal of the Cause before they undertook its utter extirpation And it is not a little observable that though some of the Pharisees were shockt out of their Prejudices the Sadducees were all impregnable for we no where reade that any of them were ever converted to the Christian Faith and the reason is plain because their first Principle supposed its truth utterly impossible and then they would not so much as enquire after it or hear any thing concerning it But the Pharisees not lying under this invincible Prejudice were notwithstanding all their other great hindrances in some capacity of conviction So that though we find that notwithstanding they were at first the fiercest Enemies to our Saviour's Doctrine yet afterwards they were out-stript by the Sadducees in their zeal and fury against it For as in the Gospels the Pharisees are every where noted as his most implacable Enemies so in the Acts of the Apostles after our Saviour's Resurrection the Sadducees are remarked as their most bitter and vehement Prosecutors And now this I think may be a sufficient account of the Incredulity of the Jews notwithstanding our Saviour gave all that Evidence of his Authority that we pretend he did And it is obvious enough to any Man that understands humane Nature to apprehend how easie a thing it is for Men not onely byassed but pressed down by all these Prejudices to avoid or neglect the force of all the Arguments and Demonstrations in the World § XXXVII And thus having described the several unreasonable Prejudices that withheld so many of the Jewish Nation from embracing of the Christian Faith we proceed now in the last place to the grounds that the Heathens went upon in their Opposition to it And these were as much more absurd and unreasonable than those of the Jews as was their Religion For that the Jews had some appearance of pretence against our Saviour's alteration in Religion we have already shewn in that it was own'd by himself to have been establisht by Divine Authority But as for the War that the Heathen World raised against it they grounded it upon such false Principles as though Christianity it self had been false betray their own folly and absurdity Atheism and Contempt of God and all Religion was their master-objection against the Christians and the onely thing they set up and contended for in opposition to it was their own wretched Idolatry and Superstition both which are too great demonstrations of an invincible prejudice and inflexible partiality And they are both so very absurd that which is most so 't is very hard to determine For whatever the Christians were guilty of it is certain that they were at the greatest distance from Atheism of any party of Men in the World And as for the Religion of the Gentiles it was so grosly wicked and foolish that it was impossible for any wise Man to embrace it without affronting both God and his own Conscience This was the true state of the Controversie between them they never enter'd into the debate of the matter of Fact or so much as once enquired into the merits of the Cause but for this reason alone they reputed all Christians as vile and profligate Persons because they would not join
trick upon himself as to think of bringing down the History of Moses below the known times of Greece As for the Eternity of the World which follows next I shall not answer him here because if it were true as I have elsewhere proved it false it runs too far from the present Argument of the truth of our Saviour's History And as for Moses his commanding the Jews to Worship Angels I scorn to answer it because it is so impudently false when the great Commandment of his Law is to Worship one God alone and when himself had but a very little before objected this as a singularity in the Jews against all the World beside And then as for our Saviour's being a Magician I hope I may now let that pass too without being suspected as guilty of any Omission And as for his Meanness and Poverty I think I have sufficiently accounted for that too already in that it was but suitable to the design of the Divine Providence that he should be sent into the World stript of all Worldly advantages that he might subdue it purely by the power of Truth And therefore that alone is to be consider'd in this Enquiry whether he wrought such Miracles in Confirmation of his Doctrine or not if he did the meanness of his condition is no objection against the truth of his Miracles if he did not he is to be rejected for a much worse objection Nay this is so far from bringing any real disadvantage upon the Christian cause that it brings a considerable accession to its demonstrative proof and evidence In so much that without it it must have ever been lyable to suspicion for if he had appear'd with Kingly splendour and all the advantages of earthly power the strange and wonderful entertainment of his Doctrine might have been imputed to Worldly Interest and not to the force of truth and Men would have followed him for politick Ends and not for any Conscience of Religion And therefore to be secure of the Integrity of his Disciples he gives them no secular Encouragement nay on the contrary ensures to them all the miseries of humane life in their propagation of the Christian Faith His Institution was pure Religion and conscience towards God was its onely Obligation and therefore it was but agreeable to its own intention that it should carry along with it no other recommendation And thus I remember when Julian objects the meanness of our Saviour's condition in that he was born a Subject of the Empire which as he fancies was below the dignity of the Son of God St. Cyril answers that if he had appear'd with Imperial Power and by virtue of that commanded the Obedience of Mankind Men must have submitted to him for Worldly Interest and not out of any sense of duty or Religion and he had been just such another Deity as Caligula and the rest of their Emperours were who forced Men in spite of themselves to give them the shew of Divine honour by their own Laws And whereas you object sayes he that he was subject to Caesar what is that to the purpose when he did such things as neither Caesar nor any other Man ever did He raised Men from the Dead did any of your Caesars ever doe so What then if he were subject to Caesar it is evident from his Works that he was greater and they alone demonstrate him to have been the same Person that he pretended to be So that being the Son of God he scorn'd all your outward pomps and shews of Majesty and would receive no honour but what reflected upon him from the glory and greatness of his own Works To which might be added Origen's reply that it is no wonder for Men that have all the advantages of Birth and Fortune to make themselves considerable in the World but this is the thing that is most wonderful in Jesus that a Person so obscure upon all Worldly accounts should raise himself to so great a fame and reputation that a Man so poor and meanly Educated and never instructed in the arts of Eloquence should take upon him to convert the World to a new Doctrine to Reform the Religion of the Jews and to abolish the Superstition of the Greeks and yet that without any force or Artifice he should so speedily effect what he undertook this sayes he is a thing singular in him and was never done by any Man that I know of in any other Age. Nay farther beside the obscurity of his Life and all other things designedly laid to Eclipse his Glory his ignominious death one would think should have put it out for ever and that even those that he had deluded in his Life-time should then have been convinced of the grossness of the Imposture And therefore it is most wonderful of all that if the Apostles had never seen our Saviour after his Resurrection or had no assurance of his Divinity how it could ever come into their minds to leave their Country and expose themselves to all hazards and hardships to publish and propagate the belief of a known falsehood So that we see that the meanness of that State in which our Saviour appear'd is so far from being any material Objection against his Divine Authority that upon several accounts in the last result of things it lyes at the bottom of itsdemonstration In the next place he flouts at the Relation of the appearance of the Holy Ghost and the voice from Heaven at our Saviour's Baptism as a thing in it self absurd and incredible But here the Epicurean forgets that he is a Jew in that there are many Relations of such appearances in the Old Testament which yet if this objection hold good every Jew is bound to believe false and impossible But to treat with him as an Epicurean why is it impossible Because all Stories of God's concerning himself in Humane affairs are undoubted Fables An admirable way this of confuting a matter of fact onely by saying that it is impossible upon a precarious Principle of our own So that the last result of this rude objection against the Faith of the Evangelists is onely this that it cannot be true because there is no such thing as a Divine Providence But he adds that there was no witness of it but onely John the Baptist his Companion in wickedness And this is another unhappy mistake of a Man that sustein'd the Person of a Jew when all the Jewish Nation even the greatest Enemies to Jesus had a very great Reverence for John the Baptist. And yet it is not his Testimony that we rely upon for the truth of the Story but the truth of the Evangelists that have Recorded it they knew what Evidence they had of its reality and we know what evidence we have of their sincerity And now having discharged all his little Topicks of Calumny against our Saviour's own Person in the last place he falls foul upon his Apostles and that with the same unhappy success For
as little as he gain'd by objecting the meanness of our Saviour's condition he gains just as much by insulting over their Ignorance that is but another enhancing circumstance of his Divine Authority For as it was a wonderful thing for so obscure a Person to make such an alteration in the World so was it much more so to effect it by such contemptible Instruments For no Man that ingenuously considers the prodigious success of the Apostles can ever impute it to any other cause than either some Divine and extraordinary Power or the great and irresistable evidence of the thing it self In that by the Objection it self it is plain that they were destitute of all the Arts of Eloquence and Learning by which it was possible that they might perswade or deceive the People into any belief Whereas if Jesus had chosen the Learned and the Eloquent for the propagation of his Doctrine he might have been justly suspected of the same design with the Philosophers of erecting a new Sect by the Power of wit and Rhetorick But when a few Fisher-men that wanted all the improvements of Learning and Education as the Evangelists Record and Celsus objects effected it with such prodigious success it is not conceivable how they should do it any other way than by Miracle either in their words or actions And thus all along the more they object the contemptibleness of the means the more the strangeness of the Event returns upon themselves so that if there had not been something more than Humane in the design it could never in the way in which it was Prosecuted have taken any effect In the Second Book the counterfeit Jew first rates his Country-men for quitting the Laws of their own Nation to follow this Innovatour But setting aside the answer of Origen that the Christians did by no means forsake the Religion of Moses but pursue and improve it Still this is short of the Argument and comes not up to the reasons for which they did it If they had none their lightness was justly blameable but whether they had or had not it concern'd not this Atheist to enquire And then this becomes Celsus the Jew and the Epicurean very well that when the Epicurean had begun his discourse with a disparagement of the Impostor Moses the Jew should make this an Argument against the Christians that they renounced the Man that his Friend had proved an Impostor In the next place when he objects our Saviour's Cowardise that he fled and hid himself and such other trash it is equal malice and folly without ground or pretence in that there was no History of Jesus extant beside the Evangelists who all affirm that he went up to Jerusalem purposely to deliver up himself into the hands of his Enemies Now sayes Origen I leave it to any Man of common sense to judge which is most reasonable to believe these unvouched and vagabond surmises invented out of meer hatred to the Christians or to believe things as they are deliver'd by the Evangelists who pretended either to have been Eye-witnesses or to have had a full information of the matter of fact and were ready to seal the truth of their Testimony with their blood This strange constancy and resolution even to death it self is not like Men who were conscious to themselves of having forged a false Story but on the contrary a clear and manifest Argument that they were serious and very well satisfied in the truth of the things that they Recorded Is not this then an ingenuous way of proceeding to oppose the truth of their History with flying Reports that have neither Author nor Authority and indeed such that whilst there is malice in the World no true Story can escape But sayes Celsus though he was pleased not openly to shew his Divinity before yet at least he ought to have done it by vanishing miraculously from the Cross. No no Celsus he had a farther design to demonstrate not onely his own Divinity but Man's Immortality If he had onely disappear'd you might have imputed that to a trick of Magick but when he arose from the dead after he had been so publickly executed this was both an undeniable proof of his Divine Authority and a full assurance to Mankind of their capacity to subsist after Death And though there were other indispensable reasons why he suffer'd himself to be sacrificed upon the Cross yet if it were for these alone he had sufficient reason to suffer what he did Especially when himself had through the whole course of his Life referr'd the proof of his Authority to his Resurrection so that if he had according to Celsus his advice withdrawn himself from the Cross he had apparently defeated his own design that he had laid through the whole History of the Gospel But beside this by his Death Passion and Resurrection he has demonstrated to Mankind that the Divine Providence has reserved the happiness of humane Nature to another Life and clear'd up the future existence of Souls by an undeniable Experiment And that is the thing that so much frets the Epicureans that he has put so clear a basfle upon their Impiety But as for his next Cavil he is really to be pitied when he asks Why we do not Worship all other crucified Malefactours It is an Objection worthy the wisedom and gravity of a learned Philosopher but yet for his satisfaction it is fit to let him know that we Worship all such Malefactours as our Saviour was who own'd himself to be the Son of God and then suffer'd himself to be murther'd to prove it by his Resurrection But he says his Disciples forsook him and would dye neither with nor for him They did so by sudden surprise but what did the same Disciples immediately after upon his Resurrection They that were but a little before seised with so much Cowardise feared then no danger to attest it to the World and most of them dyed for the truth of their Testimony So that this Objection of Cowardise in the Apostles is just such another advantageous circumstances to the cause of Christianity as that of their ignorance and want of learning For as it is an Argument of the great Evidence of their Cause when Men neither learned nor eloquent were able so successfully to propagate it among Mankind in that they could give it no more advantage than it brought along with it So when Men so timerous and cowardly should afterward grow so very fearless in asserting it even to the Death that is an unquestionable evidence that they were abundantly satisfied in the truth of what they attested But as for Celsus his insinuation that the Apostles onely dream't and fancied that they saw Jesus after his Resurrection as it may be applied to any matter of Fact in the World and turn even all the actions of his own Life into dream and fancy so if it be compared with all the peculiar circumstances as to this thing they prevent the folly