But thus much in this place shall suffice all particulars having been largely insisted upon in their proper places And since as sure as there is a God there must be a Revealed Religion if any Man will dispute the Truth of the Christian Religion let him instance in any other Religion that can make a better Plea and has more certainty that it came from God let him produce any other Religion that has more visible Characters of Divinity in it and we will not scruple to be of it but if it be impossible for him to shew any such as has been proved then he ought to be of this since there must be some Revealed Religion and if that Religion which has more evidence for it than any other Religion can be pretended to have and all that it could be requisite for it to have supposing it true and which it is therefore impossible to discover to be false if it were so If this Religion be not true God must be wanting to Mankind in what concerns their eternal Interest and Happiness he must be wanting to himself and to his own Attributes of Goodness Justice and Truth And therefore he that upon a due examination of all the Reasons and Motives to it will not be a Christian can be no better than an Atheist if he discern the consequence of things and will hold to his own Principles for there can be no Medium if we rightly consider the Nature of God and of the Christian Religion but as sure as there is a God and nothing can be more certain the Gospel was revealed by him CHAP. II. The Resolution of Faith HAving proved the Truth and Certainty of our Religion I shall in the last place upon these Principles give a Resolution of our Faith which is a subject that has caused such unnecessary and unhappy Disputes amongst Christians in these latter Ages for in the Primitive Times this was no matter of Controversie as indeed it could not then and ought not now to be 1. Considering the Scriptures only as an History containing the Actions and Doctrines of Moses and the Prophets and of our Saviour and his Apostles we have the greatest humane Testimony that can be of men who had all the opportunities of knowing the truth of those Miracles c. which gave Evidence and Authority to the Doctrines as Revealed from God and who could have no Interest to deceive others but exposed themselves to all manner of dangers and infamy and torments by bearing Testimony to the Truth of what is contained in the Scriptures whereas Impostures are wont to be invented not to incur such sufferings but to avoid them or to obtain the advantages and pleasures of this world And so this Testimony amounts to a moral certainty or as it is properly enough called by some to a moral infallibility because it implies a moral impossibility of our being deceived by it such a certainty it is as that nothing with any reason can be objected against it We can have as little reason to doubt that Christ and his Apostles did and suffered and taught what the Scriptures relate of them in Jerusalem Antioch c. as that there ever were such places in the world nay we have that much better attested than this for many men have died in Testimony of the Truth of it II. This Testimony being considered with respect to the nature of the thing testified as it concerns eternal Salvation which is of the greatest concernment to all mankind it appears that Gods Veracity and Goodness are engaged that we should not be deceived inevitably in a matter of this consequence So that this Moral Infallibility becomes hereby Absolute Infallibility and that which was before but Humane Faith becomes Divine being grounded not upon Humane Testimony but upon the Divine Attributes which do attest and confirm that Humane Testimony and so Divine Testimony is the ultimate ground why I believe the will of God to be delivered in the Scriptures it is no particular revealed Testimony indeed but that which is equivalent to it viz. the constant Attestation of God by his Providence For it is repugnant to the very notion of a God to let men be deceived without any possible help or remedy in a matter of such importance And so we have the ground of our Faith absolutely Infallible because it is evident from the Divine Attributes that God doth confirm this Humane Testimony by his own III. The Argument then proceeds thus If the Scriptures were false it would be impossible to discover them to be so and it is inconsistent with the Truth and Goodness of Almighty God to suffer a deceit of this nature to pass upon mankind without any possibility of a discovery therefore it follows that they are not false Here is 1. The object or thing to be believed viz. that the Revelation delivered to us in the Scripture is from God 2. The Motive or Evidence to induce our Belief viz. Humane Testimony 3. A confirmation of that Testimony or the Formal Principle and Reason of our Belief viz. the Divine Goodness and Truth The object therefore or thing believed is the same to us that it was to those who saw the miracles by which the Scriptures stand confirmed viz. the revealed Will of God and the Ground and Foundation of our Belief is the same that theirs was viz. the Divine Goodness and Truth whereby we are assured that God would not suffer Miracles to be wrought in his own Name according to Prophecies formerly delivered and with all other circumstances of credibility only to confirm a Lye The only difference then between the resolution of Faith in us and in the Christians who were Converted by the Apostles themselves is this that tho we believe the same things and upon the same grounds and reasons with them yet we have not the same immediate motives or evidence to induce our Belief or to satisfie us in these reasons and convince us that the Revealed Will of God contained in the Scriptures is to be believed upon these grounds that is to satisfie and convince us that the belief of the Scriptures being the Word of God is finally resolved into the Authority of God himself and is as well certified to us as his Divine Attributes can render it For they were assured of this from what their own senses received but we have our assurance of it from the Testimony of others The Question therefore will be whether the motives and arguments for this Belief in us or the means whereby we become assured that the Revealed Will of God is contained in the Scriptures be not as sufficient to produce a Divine Faith in us and to establish our Faith upon the Divine Authority as the motives and arguments which those had who lived with the Apostles and saw their Miracles could be to produce that Faith in them which resolved it self into the Divine Authority And this enquiry will depend upon these two things 1. Whether
we may not be assured of some things as certainly from the Testimony of others as from our own Senses 2. Whether this be not the present case relating to the resolution of Faith I shall therefore consider in the first place the certainty which we have for the matters of fact by which the Authority of the Scriptures is proved and confirmed to us compared with the evidence of sence and will then apply it to the resolution of Faith I. In many cases men seem generally agreed that there is as much cause to believe what they know from others as what they see and experience themselves For there may be such circumstances of credibility as equal the evidence even of sence it self no evidence can satisfie sence so much indeed nor perhaps so much affect the passions as that of sence but there may be other evidence which may give as clear conviction and altogether as good satisfaction to our Reason as that which is immediately derived from our sences concerning the Being of Objects or the Truth of matters of fact Thus those who never travelled to the Indies do as little doubt that there is such a place as those who have been never so often there and all men believe there was such a man as Julius Caesar with as little scruple as if they had lived in his time and had seen and spoke with him I suppose no man in his wits makes any more doubt but there are such places as Judoea and Jerusalem from the constant report of Historians and Travellers than if he had been in those places himself and had lived the greatest part of his Life there and the greatest Infidel that I know of never pretended yet to disbelieve that there was such a person as our Saviour Christ But all men think themselves as well assured of things of this nature upon the credit of others as if they had seen them themselves For how doubtful and intricate soever some things may be for want of Knowledge or credit in the Relaters yet there are other things delivered with that agreement and certainty on all hands that to doubt of them would be as unreasonable as to doubt of what we our selves see and hear And if our Saviour's Resurrection for instance be of this nature we can with as little reason doubt of it as if we had lived at that time and had conversed with him after his Resurrection from the Dead But we have as great assurance that he was alive again after his Crucifixion as that he ever lived at all and we have at least all the assurance that there was such a Person as Christ that we can have that there once lived any other man at that distance of time from us We can no more doubt that our Saviour was born in the Reign of Augustus Coesar and was Crucified under Tiberius than that there were once such Emperors in the World nay we have it much better attested that Christ was Born and was Crucified and rose again than that there ever were such Princes as these two Emperors for no man ever made it his business to go about the world to certifie this and to testifie the truth of it at his Death But the Apostles themselves and their Disciples and Converts and innumerable others ever since from the beginning of Christianity have asserted the particulars of the Life and Death and Resurrection of our Saviour under all dangers and torments and deaths and have made it their great aim and design both living and dying to bear Testimony to the Truth of the Gospel So that a man may as well doubt of any matter of fact that ever was done before his own time or at a great distance from him as doubt of these fundamentals of the Christian Religion and yet there is no man but thinks himself as certain of some things at least which were done a long time ago or a great way off as if he had been at the doing of them himself Indeed in some respects we seem to have more evidence than these could have that lived in the beginning of Christianity for they could see but some Miracles we have the benefit of all they relyed upon their own sences and upon the sences of such as they knew and conversed with we upon the sences of innumerable People who successively beheld them for the space of Divers hundred years together so that whoever will not believe the Scriptures neither would he believe though one rose from the Dead that is though the greatest Miracle were wrought for his conviction This was said of the Old Testament and therefore may with greater reason be said of that and the New both And we have besides one sort of evidence which those that lived at the first planting of Christianity could not have for we see many of those Prophecies fulfilled which our Saviour foretold concerning his Church we know how it sprung up and flourished and from what small unlikely beginnings it has spread it self into all corners of the Earth and continues to this day notwithstanding all the malice of Men and Devils to root it out and destroy it The continuance and success of the Gospel under so improbable circumstances was matter of Faith chiefâ—y to the first Christians but to us is matter of Fact and the object of sense they saw the work indeed prosper in their hands but their Faith only could tell them that it should flourish for so many Ages as we know it has already done This is a standing and invincible proof to us at this distance of time and has the force of a twofold Argument the one of a Power of Miracles the other of Prophecies we know that a miraculous power has been manifested in conquering all opposition and in a wonderful manner bringing those things to pass which to humane wisdom and power are altogether impossible And the fulfilling hereby of Prophecies is a visible confirmation to us of the truth of those Miracles which by the Testimony of others we believe to have been done by the Prophets whose Prophecies we see fulfilled And since it must be acknowledged that things may be so well attested that we may with as much reason doubt of the truth of our own sences as of the Authority by which we are assured of the truth of them and must turn Scepticks or worse if we will not believe them we may conclude as well upon the account of these Prophecies which we our selves see fulfilled as upon all other accounts that the Historical evidence in proof of the Christian Religion amounts to all the certainty that a matter of Fact is capable of not excepting even that of sense it self II. Let us now apply all this to the Resolution of Faith and give an account how a divine and infallible Faith may be produced in us Humane Testimony is the Motive by which we believe the Scriptures to contain God's revealed Will this certifies us that such Miracles were wrought
and such Prophecies delivered as give to the Scriptures the full evidence and authority of a Divine Revelation If therefore it be enquired why we believe the Scriptures to be the word of God the Answer is upon the account of the Miracles and Prophecies which concurring with all other circumstance requisite in a Revelation confirm the Truth of them If it be asked how we know that these Prophecies and Miracles are true and effectual and not feigned or insufficient I answer because we have them so related and attested that considered barely as matter of Fact they have all the credibility that any matter of Fact is capable of and therefore may as safely be relied upon as any thing which we do our selves see or hear If it be further urged that for all this I may be deceived since all men are fallible and no man is infallibly assured that there is such a place as Rome who never saw it though no man neither can any more doubt of it than he can doubt whether there be such a place as London who lives in it I acknowledge that there is a bare possibility of being deceived in all humane evidence but yet I deny that we can possibly be deceived in this case because though the evidence it self be humane yet the things which it concerns are of that Nature that God would never suffer the World to be thus long imposed upon in them without all possibility of finding out the Truth So that here we resolve our Faith into the Divine Authority by reason of the same Miracles by reason whereof the Eye witnesses of them did resolve theirs into it but they believed these Miracles as seen by themselves and we believed them as seen and witnessed by others but both they and we believe them as the works of God himself It might have been alledged if we had seen those Miracles that we might possibly be decived and so indeed we might if we could not have securely relyed upon Gods Truth and Goodness that they were designed by him to confirm the Doctrine for the sake of which they were wrought and we may with equal security rely upon the same Truth and Goodness for the certainty of the History of them as we could have done for the sufficiency of them to the purpose for which they were wrought tho they had been performed in our sight since it is as impossible to find out any deceit in the account given of them as it would have been for us to find any in the Miracles themselves at the time of their performance Humane Testimony is the conveyance and the means of delivering the Truths contained in the Holy Scriptures down to us and we who could neither see the Miracles nor hear the Doctrines at the first hand have at this distance of time the truth of them ascertained by a continued successive Testimony till we arrive at such as were immediate witnesses of them Now those that saw and heard all things which are delivered to us in the Scriptures could not esteem their sences infallible but they notwithstanding believed our Saviour and his Disciples to be so of whom yet their senses only could give them means of assurance that they were infallible They knew their senses might deceive them or that they might be mistaken concerning the objects of sence but nevertheless they believed that our Saviour and the Apostles could not deceive them upon this only ground that their sences or their reason by deduction from sence told them so There was not one man of them perhaps but had often observed his senses misrepresent objects to him and yet in this case upon the sole Testimony of their senses they grounded an infallible Faith because though their sences had misrepresented objects yet it was in a wrong medium at an undue distance or by reason of some indisposition of the sense it self and still their sences or rather their reason by the help of their sences discovered that their sences had led them into mistakes But in the present case when the Object was placed in open and frequent view to the greatest advantage when it was publick and exposed to multitudes when all agreed in the same opinion concerning it and when the matter was of infinite importance here they had reason to conclude that the God who framed their Sences would not suffer them to be so hurtful to them as they must needs have been if they had been deceived by them In like manner in the Testimony which descends to us from former Ages we see with other mens eyes and hear with other mens ears and though the Testimony of others may often fail us and is subject to a double inconveniency through the incapacity and unfaithfulness of witnesses yet as in the former case so here when all circumstances are weighed and considered and after the utmost tryal no reason can be found to with-hold our assent but all things stand undisproved and no just scruple appears but only a bare possibility of being deceived and this arising not from any defect but that of humane nature it self here Gods Goodness and his Truth must needs interpose to take away that only impediment which otherwise must unavoidably hinder any thing from ever being known to be infallible The only certainty which we can have that our sences are true is this That God will not suffer them to be deceived where the disposition of the medium and distance of the Object and all other circumstances are rightly qualified because that would be inconsistent with his Attributes of Justice Goodness and Truth but it would be inconsistant with these Attributes not upon the account of our Bodies for they would be provided for as well though our sences were deluded we should see and hear and taste just as we do now though we were never so much deceived in these sensations therefore the Truth and Goodness and Justice of God are engaged not to suffer us to be deceived in respect to our Souls not in regard to our Bodies and if we have no certainty that our sences do not deceive us but because God would not suffer such a cheat to be put upon us as we are intelligent and rational Beings we have the same and much greater reason to conclude that he would not suffer us to lye under such a delusion in reference to our eternal Interest If God would not suffer our minds unavoidably to lye under a temporal delusion of no great consequence have we not much more reason to conclude that he would not suffer us unavoidably to be deceived by any means whatsoever in reference to our eternal Interest For in this case to be deceived is to be destroyed and to suffer it is a thousand times worse than if he should suffer all Mankind at once not only to be deceived by their sences but to be poisoned by that deceit and therefore the special Providence and particular care of God must be concerned to prevent it
If we have nothing to object but the imperfection of human nature we may rely upon God that this shall never mislead us in a matter of such consequence whether the imperfection be in our own sences or in the Testimony of others In short the Miracles related in the Scriptures will as effectually prove a Divine Revelation to us as they could to those that saw them but the difference is that they believed their sences and we believe them and all things considered we have as much reason to believe upon their evidence as they could have to believe upon the evidence of their sences Let us consider History as a medium by which these Miracles become known to us and compare this medium with that of Sight If a man would be sceptical he might doubt whether any medium of Sight be so fitly disposed as to represent objects in their due proportion and proper shape he might suspect that any Miracles which he could see were false or wrought only to amuse and deceive him and there would be no way to satisfy such an one but by telling him that this is inconsistent with the Truth and Goodness of God So in this other medium of History which to us supplies the want of that of Sight a man may doubt of any matter of Fact if he Pleases notwithstanding the most credible evidence but in a matter of this nature where our Eternal Salvation is concerned we may be sure God will not suffer Mankind to be deceived without all possibility of discovering the deceit The circumstances have all the marks of credibility in them and therefore if they be duely attended to cannot but be believed and the Doctrine which they are brought in evidence of being propounded to be believed under pain of Damnation require that they should be attended to and considered and that which is in its circumstances most credible and in its matter is supposed necessary to Salvation must be certainly true unless God could oblige us to believe a Lye For not to believe things credible when attended to and known to be such is to humane nature impossible and not to attend to things proposed as from God of necessity to Salvation is a very heinous Crime against God and to think that God will suffer me to be deceived in what I am obliged in Honour and obedience to him to believe upon his Authority is to think he can oblige me to believe a Lye But it may be objected if this be so how comes it to pass that they are prâ—nounced blessed who have not seen and yet have believed John xx 29. Which seems to denote that a peculiar Blessing belongs to them because they believe upon less evidence I answer that they are there pronounced Blessed who had so well considered the nature and circumstances of things the Prophecies concerning the Messias and what our Saviour had delivered of himself as to believe his Resurrection upon the report of others not because others might not have as sufficient Grounds for their Belief as those who saw him after his Resurrection but the evidence of sense is more plain and convincing to the generality of men though Reason proceeds at least upon as sure and as undeniable Principles A demonstration when it is rightly performed is as certain as the self evident Principles upon which it proceeds though it be so far removed from them that every one cannot discern the connexion Demonstrations may be far from being easie and obvious but are oftentimes we know very difficult and intricate which yet when they are once made out are as certain as sense it self The Blessing is pronounced to him who believes not upon less evidence But upon that which at first seems to be less which is less observable and less obvious to our consideration but not less certain when it is duly considered For which reason our Saviour after he had wrought many Miracles that were effectually attested by sufficient witnesses required Faith in those who came to be healed of him because the Testimony of others was the means which in Ages to come was to be the motive of Faith in Christians and he thereby signified to us that there may be as good Grounds for Faith upon the report of others as we could have from our own sences and generally those who came in unbelief went away no better satisfied Wherefore it is said that in his own Country because of their unbelief he could do no mighty work save that he laid his hands upon a few sick Folk and healed them Mark vi 5. He could not do his mighty works because they would be ineffectual and would be lost upon them and he could do nothing Insignificant or in vain if they would reject what had been so fully witnessed to them they would not believe whatever Miracles they should see him do It is very remarkable that amidst all his Miracles our Saviour directs his Followers to Moses and the Prophets and appeals to the Scriptures for the Authority of his very Miracles and that even after his Resurrection he instructs his Disciples who saw and discoursed with him out of the Scriptures to confirm them in the truth of it Luke xxiv 26 27. He requires the Jews to give no greater credit to his own Miracles than that which he implies they already gave to the wrirings of Moses so as firmly and stedfastly to believe that he came from God And we having all the helps and advantages which the Jews had to create in them a Belief of the Scriptures of the Old Testament and many more and greater Motives if it be possible to believe these of the New must therefore have sufficient means to excite in us that Faith which our Saviour required of those who saw his Works and heard his Doctrine which certainly was a Divine Faith and all the Faith which if it be accompanied with sincere and impartial obedience is required in order to Salvation Upon the whole matter I conclude that the Truth of the Christian Religion is evident even to a Demonstration for it is as Demonstrable that there is a God as it is that I my self am or that there is any thing else in the World because nothing could be made without a Maker or created without a Creator and it is as Demonstrable that this God being the Author of all the perfections in men must himself be infinitely perfect that he is infinitely Wise and Just and Holy and Good and that according to these Attributes he could not suffer a false Religion to be imposed upon the world in his own Name with such manifest Tokens of credibility that no man can possibly disprove it but every one is obliged to believe it FINIS BOOKS Printed for and Sold by R. Wellington at the Dolphin and Crown in St. Paul 's Church-Yard Newly Published A Treatise of Medicines containing an Account of their Chymical Principles the Experiments made upon them their Various Preparations and Vertues and the
Eloquence as well as the Power and Prejudices and Vices of Mankind were combined against it and yet less elegancy and accuracy of style was employed by the Apostles and Evangelists than had been before used by Moses and th◠Prophets who yet had nothing which seemed so strange and wonderful to deliver Which is one great argument of the Power and Efficacy of the Gospel that it could prevail so much against all the opposition in the world only by telling a plain Truth and in the plainest manner For where the thing is evident the fewest and plainest words are best as in Mathematical Demonstrations it is enough if men make themselves to be understood this likewise was all that the Apostles aimed at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist lib. iii. c. 24. their Cause and Doctrine was so certain and demonstrable that any words which did but fully and clearly express their meaning were sufficient for their purpose their Rhetorick lay in the things themselves not in words there is no great Art required to prove that to any man which he sees with his eyes and therefore as the power of Miracles was greater under the Gospel than under the Law so there was less need of Eloquence in the New Testament than in the Old Yet it cannot be denied as a †Mer Casaub of Enthus c. 4. Learned Critick has declared that St Paul in some kind and upon some subjects is as eloquent as ever man was not inferiour to Demosthenes in whose writings he believes that Apostle had been much conversant or Aeschines or any other anciently most admired 3. It is reasonable to believe that the Scriptures may be written in the Words and Phrases of the Penmen of the several parts of them and that the Holy Ghost might permit them to use their own style so directing them still and over-ruling them in every word and sentence that it should infallibly express his own full sense and meaning and speak the Truth which he inspired And therefore tho there be divers styles in the Scriptures yet this is no prejudice to the Authority and Certainty of them Isaiah for instance being of the Blood Royal and educated at Court may write in a more refined and lofty style and Amos who was brought up among the Herdsmen of Tekoa may speak in a more humble strain and fetch his Metaphors from lower and meaner things and yet the sense and substance of both may be from the Holy Ghost and as exactly true and infallible as if every word and syllable were dictated by him But this has been already considered under its proper head CHAP. IV. Of the Canon of the Holy Scriptures WHatever uncertainty there can be supposed to be concerning the Canon of the Holy Scriptures or the Catalogue and Number of Books of Divine Revelation this ought to be made no objection against the certainty of Divine Revelation itself or against the authority of those Books of Scripture which are universally acknowledged and received by all Churches For if this be a true way of arguing then whatever we are ignorant of must be an argument against the certainty of what we know and by consequence no man can be certain of any thing since the wisest man is ignorant of so many things that he knows very little in comparison of what he is ignorant of And as to the matter in hand there is scarce any Author of great note and fame but that Criticks have had Disputes concerning the number of his genuine Works and yet this has never been thought any prejudice to such as are allowed by all to be genuine Would not that man make himself ridiculous who should reject the Philippicks of Tully or Virgil's Aeneis as spurious because other Books either doubtful or counterfeit have past under the names of these two Authors If some Books have been disputed the rest certainly are genuine beyond all dispute because they have never been called into question or doubt Now if these Books only were of Divine Revelation concerning which there has never been any Dispute they contain all things necessary to be believed and practised and as to the rest concerning which there has been any controversy tho they be exceeding useful to explain divers things which we find in these and perhaps to teach us some things not essential to our Religion nor necessary to Salvation which are not to be found elsewhere yet they are not absolutely necessary to be received because whatever Doctrines are absolutely necessary they are to be found fully and plainly delivered in those Books of Scripture which have ever been received without contradiction or dispute Many men were undoubtedly saved before the writing of these controverted Books nay before the writing of any Books at all Writings being no further necessary than as they are necessary to convey the knowledge of what is written when the things now written could be as well known without writing Books were not necessary and tho for after ages it became necessary that the Prophets and Apostles and Evangelists should consign their Doctrine to writing yet no more of their writings can be absolutely necessary to be known by us than what may be sufficient to instruct us in the ways of salvation It is the infinite Goodness and Mercy of God to afford us more than is absolutely necessary for our spiritual and eternal Life as he has done for our Natural and it is a great sin in any man to reject any means of Salvation or Instruction which God has been pleased to allow but still that man would sustain his Natural Life and Health who should think all that is not necessary to the support of it common or unclean and not fit to be used for food And if a man without any of his own fault or neglect should come to the knowledge only of the uncontrroverted Books he would find them abundantly sufficient to answer all the ends of Revelation and to procure his Salvation It cannot be denied but that one infallible Authority is as great a Security as never so many could be but the same Doctrines are taught in several places of Scripture and we ought to be thankful to God for it that he has been pleased to furnish us with so much more than is absolutely necessary and to repeat the same things in sundry places and in divers manners for our further instruction and confirmation in the Faith tho it would be absurd and wicked to say that he who believes all the points of necessary Faith upon the authority of any one Book of Scripture has no sufficient means of Salvation unless he likewise believe them upon the Authority of all the rest Not that I suppose any wise and good man can now find any cause to doubt of any Book in the Old or New Testament whether it be genuine or no but to suppose the most and the worst that can be supposed if those Books which at any time have been called in
question were not only dubious but certainly spurious the remaining Books which were never doubted of are sufficient for all the necessary ends and purposes of a Revelation and therefore this ought to be no objection against the Authority of the Scriptures that the Authority of some Books has been formerly matter of controversy I shall enter upon no discourse concerning the Apocryphal Books the authority whereof has been so often and so effectually disâ—roved by Protestants that the most learned Papists have now little to say for them but â—re forced only to fly to the authority of their Church which is in effect to beg the thing in question or to beg something as hard to be granted viz. the infallibility of the Church of Rome But I shall here engage in no controversy of that nature Both Protestants and Papists are generally speaking agreed that the Books of Moses and the Prophets in the Old Testament and the Writings of the Evangelists and the Apostles in the New are of Divine Authority and if this be so the Christian Religion must be true whether there be or be not others of the same nature and of equal authority These Books in the main have already been proved to be genuine and without any material corruption or alteration I shall now only propose such general considerations as may be sufficient to obviate objections The agreement between the Jews and Samaritans in the Pentateuch is a clear evidence for its Authority And tho there were many and great Idolatries committed in the Kingdom of Judah yet by the good providence of God there never was such a total Apostacy in the people nor so long a succession of Idolatrous Kings as that the Books either of the Law or the Prophets can be supposed to have been supprest or altered For three years under Rehoboam they walked in the way of David and Solomon 2 Chron. 11.17.12.1 and tho afterwards he forsook the Law of the Lord and all Israel with him his Reign was in all but seventeen years Abijam was a wicked King but he reigned no longer than three years 1 Kings xv 2. Asa the third from Solomon and Jehoshaphat his Son were great Reformers and Asa reigned one and forty years and Jehoshaphat five and twenty years 2 Chron. xvi 13. xx 31. The two next Kings in succession did evil in the sight of the Lord but their Reigns were short Jehoram reigned eight years and Ahaziah but one 2 Chron. xxi 20. xxii 2. During the interval of six years under the usurpation of Athaliah the people could not be greatly corrupted for she was hateful to them as Jehoram her husband had been before her and they readily joyned with Jehoiada in slaying her and in restoring the worship of God 2 Chron. xxii Joash the son of Ahaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada 2 Chron. xxiv 2. We are sure that he reigned well three and twenty years 2 Kings xii 6. and probably much longer for Jehoiada lived to a very great age 2 Chron. xxiv 15. Amaziah his son has the same character and with the same abatement that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect heart 2 Chron. xxv 2. or yet not like David his Father he did according to all things as Joash his Father did 2 Kings xiv 3. Vzziah son to Amaziah reigned well and sought God in the days of Zachariah 2 Chron. xxvi 5. and after he was seized with the Leprosie for invading the Priests office the administration of affairs was in the hands of his Son Jotham vers 21. who imitated the good part of his fathers Reign Chap. xxvii 2. Ahaz was wicked and an Idolater but he reigned only sixteen years Chap. xxviii 1. and his son Hezekiah wrought a great Reformation who reigned twenty nine years Chap. xxix 1. Manasses was much given to Idolatry in the former part of his Reign but after his captivity in Babylon he was very zealous against it Chap. xxxiii 15 16. Amon imitated the ill part of his Father's Reign but his own continued no longer than two years Chap. xxxiii 21. The next was Josiah in whose time the Book of the Law was found in the Temple which must be the Book of Moses's own hand-writing for it is evident that a Book of the Law could be no such rare thing at that time in Jerusalem as to be taken so much notice of unless it had been that Book which was laid up in the side of the Ark and was to be transcribed by every King It seems that Book of the Law had been purposely hid to preserve it from the attempts of Idolaters who it was feared might have a design to destroy it for if it had only lain by neglected the finding of it could have been no such surprizing thing because the place in the Temple was well known where it was wont to be kept in the side of the Ark and where they might have sought for it but it was probably at that time supposed to have been utterly lost and its being found in the Ruines of the Temple which was built for the observation of it and where it ought to have been kept with the greatest care as a most inestimable treasure the veneration which Josiah had for so sacred a Writing and the happy and unexpected recovery of it when it had been disregarded and almost lost through the iniquity of his Predecessors these considerations could not but exceedingly move a mind so tender and affectionately pious as that Kings when he received the Law under Moses's own hand sent him as he believed by God himself and delivered to him as it were anew from Heaven Not long after his time was the Captivity in Babylon till which there were always Prophets frequent Reformations and never any succession of Idolatrous Kings which continued for a long time together very few Kings were Idolatrous throughout their whole Reigns and those that were reigned but a short time * Book 1. Part 2. c. 6. 9. It has been proved that the Pentateuch and the Books of the Prophets written before the Captivity were preserved amongst the Jews till their return and it is acknowledg'd by those who are of another opinion that Ezra who composed the Canon did it by a Prophetick spirit or had the assistance of Prophets in the doing it * Joseph Câ—nt Apion lib. 1. Josephus says that their Books after the time of Artaxerxes are not of equal authority with those before his time for want of a certain succession of Prophets And since the Jews admitted no writings as inspired into the Canon after Malachi's Prophecy this shews their sincerity and exactness in examining the truth and authority of such Writings as they admitted into their Canon of Scripture The Pharisees made the commandment of God of no effect by their Traditions but never durst presume to impose them under the notion and
thing else be of the same Colour or Tast which it appears to be of because they could amuse themselves with Difficulties and they were too much Philosophers to assent to any thing that they did not understand tho' it were confirmed by the Sense and Experience of all Mankind They were rational Men and it was below them to believe their Senses unless their Reason were convinced and that was too acute to be convinced as long as any Difficulty that could be started remained unanswered And thus under the pretence of Reason and Philosophy they exposed themselves to the Scorn and Derision of all who had but the common Sense of Men without the Art and Subtilty of imposing upon themselves and others And it is the same thing in effect as to matters of Religion The Scriptures come confirmed down to us by all the ways of confirmation that the Authority of any Revelation at this distance of time could be expected to have if it really were what we believe the Scriptures to be Why then do some Men doubt whether they be Authentick Can they disprove the Arguments which are brought in defence of them Can they produce any other Revelation more Authentick Or is it more reasonable to believe that God should not reveal himself to Mankind than that this Revelation should be his No this is not the case but there are several things to be found in the Scriptures which they think would not be in them if they were of Divine Revelation But a wise Man will never disbelieve a thing for any Objections made against it which do not reach the Point nor touch these Arguments by which it is proved to him It is not inconsistent that that may be most true which may have many Exceptions framed against it but it is absurd to reject that as incredible which comes recommended by our Belief by such Evidence as cannot be disprov'd Till this be done all which can be said besides only shews that there are Difficulties to be met withal in the Scriptures which was never denied by those who most firmly and stedfastly believe them But Difficulties can never alter the Nature of Things and make that which is true to become false There is no Science without its Difficulties and it is not pretended that Theology is without them There are many great and inexplicable Difficulties in the Mathematicks but shall we therefore reject this as a Science of no Value nor Certainty and believe no Demonstration in Euclide to be true unless we could Square the Circle And yet this is every whit as reasonable as it is not to acknowledge the Truth of the Scriptures unless we could explain all the Visions in Ezekiel and the Revelations of St. John We must believe nothing and know nothing if we must disbelieve and reject every thing which is liable to Difficulties We must not believe we have a Soul unless we can give an account of all its Operations nor that we have a Body unless we can tell all the Parts and Motions and the whole Frame and Composition of it We must not believe our Senses till there is nothing relating to Sensation but what we perfectly understand nor that there are any Objects in the World till we know the exact manner how we perceive them and can solve all Objections that may be raised concerning them And if a Man can be incredulous to this degree it cannot be expected that he should believe the Scriptures But till he is come to this height of Folly and Stupidity if he will be consistent with himself and true to those Principles of Reason from which he argues in all other Cases he cannot reject the Authority of the Scriptures upon the account of any Difficulties that he finds in them whilst the Arguments by which they are proved to be of Divine Authority remain unanswered And all the Objections which can be invented against the Scriptures cannot seem near so absurd to a considering Man as to suppose that God should not at all reveal himself to Mankind or that the Heathen Oracles or Mahomet's Alcoran should be of Divine Revelation CHAP. XXXIV The Conclusion containing an Exhortation to a serious Consideration of these things both from the Example of the wisest and most learned Men and from the infinite Importance of the Things themselves AS Wise and as Learned Men as any that ever lived in the World have died in the Belief of the Christian Religion when they had no Interest to engage them to it and many of them have led their Lives under Pesecutions and have at last been put to Death rather than they would renounce that Faith which the Scriptures declare to us It cannot be denied but that there have been Men of as great Learning and as great Numbers of them professing the Christian Religion as have been of all other Religions in the World Indeed all manner of Arts and Sciences have been more improved by Christians than by all other sorts of Men whatsoever and all rational and solid Learning is confined as I may say within Christendom For besides the Idolotrous Worship and other Impieties notorious among them whatsoever Learning is to be found among the Chinese or other Heathen Nations their Notions of Things so far as they differ from what is contained in the Scriptures are so obscure and confused at the best and so groundless that that Christian must be very weary of his Religion who can think of changing it for such Uncertainties And no Man that profess'd and called himself a Christian ever disbelieved the Scriptures but there were visibly other Reasons for it than these which the Nature of the Christian Religion could afford It was apparent in his Life that he wished the Christian Religion were false before he endeavoured to persuade himself that it is not true Some are possess'd with that intolerable Spirit of Pride and Contradiction that meer Vanity and a Conceit of being wiser than others makes them find fault with any thing that is generally received and the greatest Fault which these Man can find with the Christian Religion is that they have been bred up in it and therefore they make heavy Complaints of the prejudices of Education and the hindrances which ingenuous Minds labour under from the influences of it in the pursuit of Truth And these Men perhaps might have talk'd as much and to as much purpose for Christianity as they now talk against it if they had not been Born among Christians and been bred up in the Christian Religion they scorn to be the better for their Education and are ashamed of nothing more than to believe and think like other Men and they might almost be persuaded to be Christians still if they could but be singular in being so For the mere Affectation of Singularity makes them dispise and dispute against any thing which others allow and esteem But it will be hard to find any learned Man of tolerable Modesty and Vertue and
come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods Isai xlii 23. But because Things foretold may sometimes come to pass by Chance or it may be in the Power of Evil Spirits to foretell them when they are in Design and Agitation and just ready for Action or to discern Things done at distant Places and to make probable Guesses which may prove true from the various Circumstances of Affairs which they observe in the World We may therefore be assur'd from the Consideration of the Divine Attributes of Goodness and Truth that God will not suffer false Religions to be impos'd upon the World under his own Name by Diabolical Predictions without affording Means to discover them to be such When a Prophet speaketh in the Name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not be afraid of him Deut. xviii 22. This is the Mark of Distinction between a False and a True Prophet That whatever the latter foretold in the Name of the Lord should come to pass but whatever the first foretold in his Name should not come to pass which implies that God will disappoint such Predictions and not suffer them to come to pass otherwise the coming to pass of Things foretold could be no certain Mark of a true Prophet because they might come to pass by Chance The Prophet which prophesieth of peace when the word of the Prophet shall come to pass then shall the Prophet be known that the Lord hath truly sent him Jer. xxviii 9. But if the Prophecy were not pretended to be in the Name of the True God but were given out with a profess'd Design to entice Men to the Worship of False Gods then God might suffer it to be fulfill'd to prove his People Deut. xiii 1 2 3. For this was consistent with God's Truth and Goodness especially after Warning given and after so clear a Revelation both by Prophecies and Miracles If any Man in this Case would be seduc'd by any Wonder or Prophecy to follow other Gods it must be great Perverseness in him But when Prophecies are deliver'd by many Prophets in divers Ages and different Places all teaching the same Doctrine and tending to the same End and Design in their several Revelations and that End is the Discouragement of all Wickedness and the Maintenance of all Vertue and true Religion these Prophecies have all that can be requisite to assure us that they are from God and God by suffering them to pass so long in the World under his own Name and with all the Characters of his Authority upon them has given us all possible Assurance that they are his and engag'd us in Honour to his Divine Attributes to believe that they really are by his Authority And the Certainty of Prophecies being thus grounded upon the Divine Attributes besides the direct Evidence which they afford to whatever is deliver'd by them they add an undeniable Confirmation to those Miracles which have been foretold and are wrought at the Time and in the Manner and by the Persons foretold by the Prophets and the Prophecies likewise receive as great a Confirmation from such Miracles For Prophecies and Miracles which are singly a sufficient Evidence of Divine Revelation do mutually support and confirm each other and hereby we have all the Assurance that can be expected of any Divine Revelation And therefore as Prophecy is in it self a most fitting and proper way of Revelation so in Conjunction with Miracles it is the most certain way that can be desir'd 2. The Suitableness and Efficacy of Miracles to prove a Divine Revelation It is an extravagant thing to conceive that God should exclude himself from the Works of his own Creation or that he should establish them upon such inviolable Laws as not to alter them upon some Occasions when he foresaw it would be requisite to do it For unless the Course of Nature had been thus alterable it would have been defective in regard to one great End for which it was design'd viz. it would have fail'd of being serviceable to the Designs of Providence upon such Occasions The same Infinite Wisdom which contriv'd the Laws for the Order and Course of Nature contriv'd them so as to make them alterable when it would be necessary for God by suspending the Powers or interrupting the Course of Nature to manifest his extraordinary Will and Power and by the same Decree by which he at first establish'd them he subjected them to such Alterations as his Wisdom foresaw would be necessary We can as little doubt but that He who made the World has the sole Power and Authority over it and that nothing can be done in it but by his Direction and Influence or at least by his Permission and that the Frame and Order of Nature which he at first appointed can at no time be alter'd but for great Ends and Purposes He is not given to change as Men are and can never be disappointed in his Eternal Purposes and Designs But when any thing comes to pass above the Course of Nature and contrary to it in Confirmation of a Revelation which for the Importance and Excellency of the Subject of it and in all other respects is most worthy of God we may be sure that this is his doing and there is still further Evidence of it if this Revelation were prophesy'd of before by Prophets who foretold that it should be confirm'd by Miracle As when Men Born blind receiv'd their Sight when others were cur'd of the most desperate Diseases by a Touch or at a Distance when the Dead were rais'd and the Devils cast out these were evident Signs of a Divine Power and Presence which gave Testimony to the Doctrine deliver'd by those by whom such Miracles were wrought and the Divine Commission and Authority was produc'd for what they did and taught For what could be more satisfactory and convincing to Men or more worthy of God than to force the Devils themselves to confess and proclaim his Coming To cause the most insensible things in Nature to declare his Power by giving way as it were and starting back in great Confusion and Disorder at his more immediate and particular Presence to inform Men that the God of Nature was there This gave Testimony to the Things reveal'd and challeng'd the Belief of all Men in a Language more powerful than any Humane Voice whilst God shew'd forth his Glory and made known his Will by exercising his Sovereignty over Nature in making the whole Creation bow and tremble and obey All which was perform'd according to express Prophecies concerning Christ that there might be a visible Concurrence both of Prophecies and Miracles in Testimony of him And this Dispensation of Miracles was admirably fitted to propagate that Religion which concern'd the Poor as well as the Rich the Unlearned as well as the Learned Miracles were suitable
to the Simplicity of the Gospel and to the universal Design of it For they are equally adapted to awaken the Attention and command the Assent of Men of all Conditions and Capacities they are obvious to the most Ignorant and may satisfie the wisest and confute or silence the Cavils of the most Captious or Contentious And this is what all the World ever expected That God should Reveal himself to Men by working somewhat above the Course of Nature All Mankind have believ'd that this is the way of Intercourse between Heaven and Earth and therefore there never was any of the false Religions but it was pretended to have been confirm'd by something miraculous We may appeal to the Sense of all Nations for the Authority of Miracles to attest the Truth of Religion For whenever any thing happen'd extraordinary they always imagin'd something supernatural in it they expected that Miracles should be wrought for the Proof of any thing that had but the Name of Religion and no false Religion could have gain'd Belief and Credit in any Age or Nation but under the Pretence of them The only Difficulty therefore will be to know how to distinguish True Miracles from False or those which have been wrought for the Confirmation of the True Religion from such as have been done or are pretended to have been done in Behalf of False Religions But here it must be observ'd That it is not necessary in this Controversie that we should be able to determine what the Power of Spirits is or how far it extends and what Works can proceed only from the immediate Power of God It is sufficient that we know that God precides over all that Good Spirits act in constant Subjection and Obedience to him that Evil Spirits act for Evil Ends that Good Spirits will not impose upon Men and that he will not suffer the Evil to do it under any Pretence of his own Authority without affording Means to discover the Delusion And the Question here is not concerning any strange Work whereof God is not alledged to be the Author but concerning such as are wrought with a profess'd Design to establish Religion in his Name Suppose then that there have been many Wonders wrought in the World which exceed all Humane Power and which yet we know not to what other Power to ascribe This makes no Difficulty in the present Case because here not only the Works themselves but the Design and Tendency of them is to be consider'd For Instance Whether the Miracles reported to have been done by Vespasian were true or false by a Divine or a Diabolical Power they are of no Consequence to us he establish'd no new Doctrine and pretended to no Divine Authority but doubted the Possibility of his working them And supposing them true and by a Divine Power the most that can be said of them is that as God mention'd Cyrus by Name to be the Deliverer of the Jews so he might by Miracle signalize this Prince who was to destroy them But the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles were wrought with this declar'd Purpose and Design That they were to give Evidence to the Religion which they were sent from God to introduce as necessary to the Salvation of Mankind Having premis'd this I must resume what was before observ'd concerning the Means by which false Prophecies might be detected It has been already prov'd from the Notion of a God that there must be some Divine Revelation and it has been shewn That Prophecies and Miracles are the most fit and proper way of Revelation and that way which Men have ever expected to receive Revelations by If then there have been False Prophecies and Miracles they must be suppos'd to have been either before or at the same time or after those Prophecies and Miracles by which the True Religion was deliver'd if before or at the same time then the same Divine Wisdom and Goodness which obliges God to reveal his Will to Mankind must oblige him to take care that the Impostures of those false Prophecies and Miracles by some Means might have been discover'd But there is great Reason to believe that true Revelations should be first made to Men before God would suffer them to be tempted with false ones and if the false were after the true Revelations then the true Revelations themselves are that by which we ought to judge of all others But to speak more particularly of Miracles which are the present Subject It is inconsistent with the Infinite Truth and Honour and Goodness and Mercy of God to suffer Man to be deluded by false Miracles wrought under a Pretence of his own Authority without any possibility of discovering the Imposture And therefore if we should suppose there had past any time before the Discovery of his Will to Mankind he could not suffer Men but through their own Fault to be impos'd upon by such Miracles but either by the false and wicked Doctrines which they were brought to promote and establish as Idolatry Uncleanness Murders c. or by some other Token of Imposture they might have been undeceiv'd and both in the Old and New Testament God has given us Warning against false Miracles Deut. xiii 1. Mat. xxiv 24. Gal. i. 8. so that we may be assur'd that we are to give no Credit to any Miracle that can be wrought to confirm any other Doctrine than what we find in the Scriptures and if we can but be certify'd that they were true Miracles which gave Testimony and Evidence to them we need concern our selves about no other And the Miracles by which the Scriptures are confirm'd and authoriz'd must be true because there is no precedent Divine Revelation which they contradict nor any immoral or false Doctrine which they deliver nor any thing else contain'd in them whereby they can be prov'd to be false And in this Case that which all the Wit and Understanding of Men cannot prove to be false must be true or else God would suffer his own Name and Authority to be usurp'd and abus'd and Mankind to be impos'd upon in a thing of infinite Consequence without any Possibility of discovering the Imposture which it is contrary to the Divine Attributes for him to permit but either by the Works themselves or by the End and Design of them or by some Means or other the Honour and Wisdom and Mercy of God is concern'd to detect all such Impostures If Miracles be wrought to introduce the Worship of other Gods besides him whom Reason as well as Scripture assures us to be the only True God if they be done to seduce Men to immoral Doctrines and Practices if they be perform'd to contradict the Religion already confirm'd by Miracles in which nothing of this Nature could possibly be discover'd if never so astonishing Miracles be wrought for such ill Designs as these they are not to be regarded but rejected with that Constancy which becomes a Man who will act according to the
recourse to the History of the Bible since it is acknowledged by all learned Men to be so much the ancientest Book which can give us an Account of Religion in the World For unless we will reject all History and believe nothing related of Ancient Times we must take our Accounts from such Books as treat of them And till by the Method proposed I have proved the Bible to be of Divine Authority I shall alledge it only as an Historical Relation of Things past in which respect it would be unreasonable to deny it that credit which is allowed to other Books of that nature And this is all that is now desired in order to the clearing of what I am at present upon which is to shew That nothing requisite to a true Revelation is wanting to the Scriptures and therefore that they have been sufficiently promulged and made known to the World In the Beginning of the World God was pleased to create but one Man and one Woman and to People the Earth from them which must exceedingly tend both to the preservation of Order and Obedience amongst Men and to the retaining of the Knowledge of God and of his Ways and Dealings with the first Parents of Mankind But if Multitudes had been created and the Earth had been peopled at once the natural effect of this had been Ambition and Strife Confusion and Ignorance For as the Inhabitants of the World multiplied so did all Sin and Wickedness encrease though all descended from the same Parents and these Parents lived to see many Generations of their Off-spring and to instruct and admonish them which if any thing could have done it must have kept up a sense of God and Religion amongst Men. Adam himself performed the Office of a Father a Priest and a King to his Children and the Office and Authority of these three descended upon the Heads of Families in the several Generations and Successions of Kingdoms amongst his Posterity For that the same Person was both King and Priest in the earlier Ages of the World we learn from the best Antiquities of other Nations and it was so likewise amongst the Jews till God had appointed an Order and Succession of the Priesthood in one Tribe and therefore Esau is stiled a profane Person for selling his Birth-right Omnesque primogenitos Noe donec sacerdotio fungeretur Aaron fuisse Pontifices Hebraei tradunt Hieronym Quaestion seu Tradit Hebraic in Genes because the Priesthood went along with it Heb. xii 16. By all the Accounts we have of the World before the Flood we are assured that God was pleased at first to afford frequent Communications of himself to Mankind and even to the Wicked as to Cain whose Punishment it afterwards was to be hid from the face of the Lord and driven out from his presence Gen. iv 14 16. And when the Wickedness of Men had provoked God to drown the World he revealed this to Noah and respited the execution of this Judgment an Hundred Years and Noah in the mean time both by his Preaching and by preparing an Ark warned them of it and exhorted them to Repentance by preparing of an ark to the saving of his house he condemned the world Heb. xi 7. and he was a preacher of righteousness to the old world 2 Pet. ii 5. He made it his business for above an Hundred Years together to forewarn the wicked World of their approaching Ruine which he did by all the Ways and Means that a Wise and Great Man could contrive proper for that End Noah lived after the Flood Three hundred and fifty Years Gen. ix 28. and it was between One and Two hundred Years before the Division of Tongues and the Dispersion of the Sons of Noah And when all the Inhabitants of the Earth were of one Language and lived not far asunder Noah himself living amongst them the Judgment of God upon the wicked World in overwhelming them with the Flood his Mercies to Noah and his Family in their preservation when all the rest of the World perished and the Commandments which God gave to Noah at his coming out of the Ark with his Promises and Threatnings respectively to the performance or trangression of them must be well known and the sin in building the Tower of Babel for which the Universal Language was confounded and the Race of Mankind dispersed could proceed from nothing but the heigth of Presumption and Perverseness After the Confusion of Languages and the Dispersion of Mankind they could not on the sudden remove to very distant and remote Places by reason of the unpassable Woods and Desarts and Marshes which after so vast an Inundation must be every where to be met with to obstruct their passage in those hot and fruitful Countreys when they had lain uninhabited for so many Years This we may the better understand from the slow progress which was made in the Discoveries of the West-Indies For the Spaniards in those places where they found neither Guide nor Path did not enter the Country ten Miles (f) See Sir W. Rauleigh l. 1. c. 8. §. 3. in ten Years And in those Ages they could not but be ill provided either by their own Skill or by convenient Tools and Instruments with fit means to clear the Countrey which they were to pass and they were likewise unprovided of Vessels to transport any great numbers of Men with their Families and Herds of Cattle which were for many Ages their only Riches and absolutely necessary for their Sustenance for Navigation had never had so slow an Improvement in the World if it had so soon been in that Perfection as to enable them for such Transportation And as for these Reasons the Dispersion of Noah's Posterity over the Earth must be gradual and many Generations must pass before the remoter Parts of it could be inhabited so the several Plantations must be supposed to hold Correspondence with those to whom they were nearest allyed and from whom they went out they must be supposed to own some sort of Dependance upon them and pay them such Acknowledgments as Colonies have ever done to their Mother-Cities It is natural to suppose that they first spread themselves into the neighbouring Countries and as Sir Walter Rauleigh has observed the first Plantations were generally by the Banks of Rivers whereby they might hold Intelligence one with another which they could not do by Land that being overspread with Woods and altogether unfit for travelling And the great affinity which is observable between the Eastern Languages proves that there was a continual Correspondence and Commerce maintained between the several Nations after the Dispersion All which considering the great Age that Men lived in those times must without a very gross Neglect and Contempt of God preserve a true Notion of Religion in the several Parts of the World For Noah himself lived Three hundred and Fifty Years after the Flood his Sons were not soon dispersed their Dispersion was gradual and
Nations to report that after so many loathsome and grievous Plagues inflicted upon Pharaoh and his People they came out of Aegypt and at last by the destruction of him and his whole Army in the Red-Sea made their escape and that they forced their way thro' all the other Nations that withstood their passage into Canaan and vanquished and destroyed them as they went and then to proclaim a sacred War against all the Nations whose Land they were to possess and many of whose Posterity were remaining in Solomon's time and probably long after and might have been able to confute great part of what the Israelites affirmed of themselves if it had been false and of a late invention for any People I say to invent such Accounts of Themselves and their Ancestors and then to make such Laws and to have the one believed and the other obeyed is altogether incredible When they had enraged all the neighbouring Nations to their destruction they obliged themselves by their Laws to leave all their Borders naked thrice every year and to give them an opportunity to destroy them and no People could have lived half an Age in such a condition under such Laws unless they had been protected by God himself the Author of them It appears therefore that as neither Moses himself nor any Party of Men either in his time or after it could either invent or change and falsified the Books which are under his Name so it is still more extravagant if possible to conceit that the whole People of Israel should either in Moses's time or afterwards be conscious to such an Imposture and yet that no man should ever discover it but it should to this day be concealed from all other Nations and that neither at the time of the Division of the Ten Tribes when Jeroboam was forced to set up Altars in other Places to keep the People from going up to Jerusalem to worship nor upon any other occasion this Secret if that may be called so which must be known to so many thousands should ever come to light Besides that they could never have invented those Laws by unanimous consent amongst themselves which they were so hardly brought to obey and if they had not been disobedient they would never have pretended they were and have invented Miracles to make it believed and if they had been never so forward in their obedience they could not have lived in the observation of the Law without a perpetual Miracle If then the Miracles of Moses and consequently the Divine Authority by which he gave his Law to the Israelites be sufficiently attested supposing the Matters of Fact to be true which are contained in the Pentateuch and if neither Moses himself could feign the Matters of Fact nor any other Person or Persons either in his time or afterwards could insert them or change the Law and the whole Jewish Nation could not at any time conspire in such a Fiction and Imposture We have all the Assurance that it is possible to have and all that any sober Man can desire both of the Truth of the Miracles wrought by Moses and of the Divine Authority of the Books penn'd by him And it will be found that after all the Reflections made by Infidels upon the Credulity as they esteem it of others there are none so credulous as they for they reject the most certain to believe the most incredible things in the World The Divine Mission and Authority of Moses being sully proved from thence it will follow 1. That God having instituted the Jewish Government was in point both of Wisdom and Honour concerned in the administration of it and that a more especial and peculiar Care and Providence must he watchful over this holy Nation and peculiar People 2 That whatever befell them either by Prophesies or by Miracles and the extraordinary Appointments of God according to the Revelations made in the Law of Moses has besides its own proper and intrinsick Evâ—dence the additional Proof of all the Miracles and Prophesies of Moses So that the Proof of the Divine Authority of Moses his Books is at the same time a Proof of all the other Books of Scripture so far as they are in the Matter and Subject of them consequent to these 3. That the Pentateuch and the other Parts of the Old Testament not to mention the New Testament in this place reciprocally prove each other like the Cause and the Effect the Pentateuch being the Cause and Foundation of These and these the Effect and the Consequence of the Pentateuch and the fulfilling the several Predictions of it CHAP. VII Of Joshua and the Judges and of the Miracles and Prophecies under their Government IT is generally agreed that Joshua himself was the Author of the Book under his Name and some who are of another opinion yet acknowledge that it must be written by his particular Order in his life-time or soon after his death The nature of the thing it self required that the Division of the Land of Canaan amongst the several Tribes should forthwith be committed to Writing for no People can be named who had the use of Letters that trusted the Boundaries of their Lands to Memory and there is no delay to be used in such cases Joshua therefore who did by Lot set out the Bounds of the Tribes at the same time put them down in Writing which he lest upon Record to Posterity to prevent Disputes and to be appealed to in case any Controversie should arise But the bare Distribution of the Land was not to be transmitted without an Account of the miraculous Conquests of it which might dispose them to be conâ—ented with their several Lots and remind them of their Duty in the possesssion and enjoyment of a Land which they were settled in thy the immediate Hand of God The Book of Joshua appears to have been written during the life-time of Rahab Jos vi 25. and to have been written in part at least by Joshua himself and annexed to the Law of Moses chap. xxiv 26. But the five last Verses giving an Account of the Death of Joshua and of what followed after it were added by some of the Prophets probably by Samuel who according to the Jewish Tradition is the Author of the Book of Judges where we find the same things repeated concerning the Death of Joshua Judg. ii 7. The Book of Judges is reckon'd among the Books of the Prophets Mat. ii 23. Judg. xiii 5. and It seems to be entitl'd to Samuel Act. iii. 24. where Samuel is mention'd as the first of the Prophets that is the first Author of the Books written by them That the Book of Judges was peâ—n'd before the Taking of Jerusalâ—â—â— by David we may learn from Judg. i. 22. After the death of Moses Joshua undertakes the Government and Conduct of the People of Israel according to God's Appointment and his Investiture to it by Moses Num. xxvii 22. who also foretold the great Success that
Divine Inspiration and Authority that they wholly depended and relyed upon them and lived in an uncomfortable Exile upon the sole Hopes and Expectations of seeing the rest of their Prophecies fulfilled And theirfore the Posterity of those who had slain the Prophets had the Highest veneration for the Memory of these Prophets whom their Forefathers had killed they built and adorned their Sepulchres and chose to die any Death rather than renounce the Authority of their Books or part with them even when they had forsaken their Doctrine and changed their Religion for vain Traditions and superstitious Observances and when it was so reproachful to them to erect Monuments of perpetual acknowledgment That they were the the Children of them which killed the Prophets Matth. xxiii 31. they referred themselves to these Prophets for the Authority of their Religion and acknowledged that they had neither Prophecies nor Miracles after the Captivity CHAP. XI Of the Dependance of the several Parts of the Scriptures upon each other and that the Old Testament prove the New and the New again proves the Old as the Cause and the Effect IT is a thing altogether incredible that the Inhabitants of so small a part of the World as Judaea is should lay a Design of imposing upon the rest of Mankind which could prove so successful for so many thousand Years together and that they should be such Masters of Deceit and the World so fond of receiving Revelations from them that at last though the greatest part of that People disclaimed the Books which some few and those the most unlearned among them would impose for Inspired Writings yet the Authority of these Books should be more acknowledged in all Parts of the World than those had ever been in which they all unanimously agreed and the rest should be received for the sake of these more than ever they had been upon their own account which is the case of the Books of the Old and New Testament If the Jews even the meanest and most ignorant of them could do this merely by their own Wit and Device they must have a Genius superiour to that of all Mankind besides For what imaginable Reason is there why the Oracles of all the Heathen Nations should never be much regarded and now in a manner utterly lost and that the Books of the Jews should still be preserved in their full Authority but the power and Advantage of Truth in these and the want of it in them And the Evidence of this Truth is most observable in the mutual Dependence which all the Parts of the Scriptures have one upon another They were penn'd by Men of different Countreys different Ages different Conditions and Callings and Interests from the King to the poor Fisherman and yet all carry on the same Design They are not like the Oracles of the Heathen Gods which must stand or fall by themselves but there is an admirable Series and Connexion between all the Writings of the Holy Scriptures by which the several Parts of them give a mutual support and attestation to each other The Pentateuch and Moses contains the first Lineaments and evident Types and Prophecies of all that is contained in the rest He foretold That a succession of Prophets should arise and that at last the Great Prophet should be sent who is Christ and he foretold all that was to befall the Jews from his own time to the Destruction of Jerusalem And as Moses has given us the general State of the Jews for all Generations so the several Prophets who were sent from time to time according to his Predictions foretold particular Events and more-especially they foretold and described the Times of the Gospel This was the great Design of all Prophecies and the thing that God had spoken by the Prophets which have been since the world bigan Luk. i. 70. For in Christ was the Accomplishment of all the Types and Prophecies in the Old Testament And this Dependance and Coherence between all the Parts of the Scriptures in the Matter and Design of them which is as great as the dependance of one part of any Book written by the same Author can be upon another gives great strength and confirmation to the whole since it is an Evidence that it was all Inspired by the same Infallible Spirit and if one part of Scripture be proved to be true all must be so for besides the particular Evidence which may be brought for any part separately we must consider the Connexion which it has with the rest and the Evidence which is derived upon it by this Connexion if the Pentateuch be once proved to be of Divine Authority than the Prophets who succeeded Moses must be Divinely Inspired because he foretold the succession of such Prophets And if the Prophecies and Miracles of the Prophets were Divine the Pentateuch must be so because they all along acknowledged and appealed to it as containing God's Covenant with his People the Jews and being therefore the ground and foundation of their own Mission if Moses and the Prophets be from God the Gospel must be from him if that be foretold by them And if the Prophecies and Miracles of our Saviour and his Disciples prove their Divine Authority the Writings of Moses and the Prophets must be likewise of the same Authority because they acknowledge them for such and prove their own Authority from them as well as from the Miracles that they themselves wrought And if the Prophecies and Miracles either of Moses or of the Prophets or of our Saviour and his Apostles taken by themselves and apart from the rest be sufficient they must needs be more convincing when they are considered together in their united Force and Light I might further observe That Miracles without Prophecies or Prophecies without Miracles or that one evident Miracle or one evident Prophecy at least That either the Miracles or prophecies of some one Person in the several Ages in which so many Prophets lived would have been a sufficient ground of Faith and that therefore they must all be much rather so in conjunction But I shall only desire it may be remembred That whatever Evidence has been brought in proof of the Divine Authority of the Books of Moses and of the Prophets doth reciprocally prove both the one and the other and that therefore whatever is brought from either of them in Proof of the Gospel has the Evidence of the whole and that the Gospel in different respects doth prove them and is proved by them both deriving Authority from the Books of the Old Testament and communicating its own Authority to them For as the Cause may be proved by its Effect and the Effect by its Cause so both Predictions prove the Things foretold and the accomplishment of the Things foretold verifie the Predictions and Miracles wrought in consequence of Prophecies concerning them have doubly the Divine Seal and Attestation Now the Messias is the Scope and Centre of the whole Old Testament
he saw that he was condemned repented himself and brought again the thirty pieces of Silver to the Chief Priests and Elders saying I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood And they said What is that to us see thou to that And he cast down the pieces of Silver in the Temple and went and hanged himself Matt. xxvii 3 4. How could the Chief Priests themselves have contrived a better way to vindicate our Saviour's Innocence if they had never so much endeavour'd it than for one of his own Disciples after he had betrayed him instead of witnessing against him which it was natural to suppose he would have done to be so far from that as to come before them all and fling down the Money in the Temple which they had given him as the hire of his Treachery and declare publickly that he had betrayed the Innocent Blood and then to give a further proof of all this out of meer anguish and horror of Mind to go immediately from them and hang himself If our Saviour had done any thing whereby he could deserve to be put to Death Judas must needs have known it and when he had once betray'd him it cannot be supposed he would forbear to discover any thing he knew of him But when on the contrary he was so far from accusing him that as soon as he saw him condemned at the Accusation of other false Witnesses he could not bear the Agonies of his own mind but went and made away with himself this is as evident a proof of Christ's Innocence as any of the other Apostles themselves could ever give and Judas is so far an Apostle still as to proclaim his Master's Innocence in the face of the Sanedrim and then to Seal that Testimony with his Blood It has been thought by some that Judas as wicked as he was had never any design to cause his Master to be put to Death or to be any way instrumental towards it but he supposed that Christ would be secure enough against the Chief Priests in his own Innocence and Holiness or that they would not dare to hurt him for fear of the People which had been a restraint upon them in their former attempts or that he could easily make his escape from them as he had formerly done and therefore his Covetousness tempted him to believe that though he should betray his Master yet he would come to no harm by it However it is certain that Judas himself cleared our Saviour's snnocence by betraying him more than any other man could have done who had not been his Dlsciple and his making that confession and then his dying upon that account and in that manner may afford us that evidence which we must have wanted to certify us in the Truth of the Christian Religion if Christ had not been betray'd or had been betrayed by any but one of his own Disciples When he was condemned and crucify'd one of the Thieves who was crucified with him made an open Profession of him when there could be no Temptation of flattery nor leisure or patience for a man in that condition to speak in that manner but by the special Providence and Grace of God and to give an early instance of the great efficacy of his Cross and of the Mercy which it reacheth forth to all repenting Sinners our Saviour assures him that that very day he should be with him in Paradise A strange discourse upon the Cross To speak of Kingdoms and promise Paradise under so much infamy and torment That one should have the Faith to ask and the other the Power to promise so great things in that condition Who could have had the courage to promise so much upon the Cross but he who was able to perform it And as no ill could ever be proved against him but all circumstances concurred to confirm his Innocence as Herod dismissed him and Pilate often declared him to have committed nothing worthy of Death so the Devils themselves during his Life here upon Earth confessed him to be the Son of God and after his Death (b) Porphyr apud Euscb Demonstr Evang. lib. 3. c. 6. by their Oracles acknowledged him to have been an holy person whose Soul was translated into Heaven And this person thus Innocent and Holy both in his Life and Doctrine was prophesied of many Ages before his Birth and all the Prophecies concerning the Messias were exactly and in a wonderful manner fulfilled in him These Prophecies concern either his Birth or his Life or his Death or his Resurrection and Ascension 1. The Prophecies concerning the Birth of the Messias were fulfilled in our Saviour For his Birth was prophesied of in all the circumstances of the Time and the Place of it and the Person of whom he was born 1. As for the Time by Jacob's Prophecy Gen. xlix 10. The Messias was to come about the time of the Dissolution of the Jewish Government The Scepter was not to depart from Judah that is the Power and Authority of the Jewish Government was not to cease until Shilo came which the ancient (c) See Bp. Pearson on the Creed Jewish Interpreters expounded of the coming of their Messias To (d) Lightfoot's Prospect of the Temple c. 21. which purpose it is held by the Jews that the great Sanhedrim sat in the Tribe of Judah tho' but part of the Court in which they sat was of that Tribe and the rest in the Tribe of Benjamin And the Jews among all their objections never objected against the time in which our Saviour came into the World but many of them have confessed that the Messias was born at that time but say that because of their sins he has (e) Munster de Messiâ concealed himself ever since And the latter Jews have by a great many stories endeavoured to make it believed that there is a Kingdom still of their Nation in some unknown part of the world tho' if this were true it could prove nothing to their purpose the prophecy being concerning their Power and Authority in the promised Land It is certain that soon after our Saviour's coming Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews dispersed and upon severe Penalties forbidden to come to their desolate and ruined City or so much as to look upon Zion the City of their Solemnities unless it were once every year to lament their calamity and they have ever since been a wandring and despicable People And several times when they have at tempted to re-build their Temple they have not been suffered to do it particularly when they had the favour and encouragement of Julian the Apostate who out of malice to the Christian Name and Doctrine was forward to promote the work they were hindred by an Earthquake and a miraculous eruption of Fire bursting out from under the foundation which burnt down what they had erected and destroyed those that were employed in it and this we have attested not only from Christian writers
of Nature or that their superstition had made it customary to register all the Eclipses which happened The dumbness of Zacharias till the Circumciston of his Son John the Baptist was a notorious publick thing and the people who waited for him and marvelled that he tarried so long in the Temple perceived at his coming out that he had seen a Vision and all things relating to that History were noised abroad through all the hill country of Judea Luke i. 21. That the wise men came from the East at the sight of the Star that Herod heard of this and was troubled at it and all Jerusalem with him That he gathered all the Chief Priests and Scribes together and demanded of them where Christ should be born and that they answered At Bethlehem of Judea citing the Prophecy of Micah That Herod when he had enquired of the wise men concerning the Star and enjoyned them to bring him word where the young child was being disappointed by their returning home another way slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof from two years old and under these are things of that publick nature that it was impossible they should be feigned when St. Matthew's Gospel was first published If they had not been true thousands must have been able to contradict them and discover the salsehood of them When matters of fact are related with so many manifest and publick circumstances it is an appeal to the world for the Truth of what is written and no man of common sense would contrive a false story with such publick circumstances as that every Reader may be able to disprove it If any man should affirm that in such a City or Village in England at the command of such a King and at such a time within our memory all the Infants from two years old and under were murthered he must scarce expect to be believed or to confirm any thing else he has to deliver by such a Fiction to introduce it The Triumphant shouts and Hosanna's of the multitude at Christ's entrance into Jerusalem whereby all the City was moved Matt. xxi 10 11. immediately before the Passover when there was the greatest concourse of people was a thing that could not soon be forgotten at the same time he drove out all that sold and bought in the Temple and overthrew the Tables of the Money changers and when he was in the Temple the blind and the lame came to him and he healed them and the chief Priests and Scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the Children crying in the Temple Hosannah to the Son of David and they were sore displeased at it The Evangelists would never have brought in the Chief Priests and Scribes themselves with the whole people of Jerusalem and the vast numbers of Jews and Proselytes out of all Nations assembled at the Passover as spectators and witnesses of these things if they had not been so certain of them as to appeal to them all for the truth of what they relate so lately and so solemnly and publickly done The darkness of the whole earth for three hours together in the midst of the day the veil of the Temple 's being rent from the top to the bottom the Earthquake and the rending of the Rocks and the opening of the Graves are things that must have been generally known and could not be feigned or if any man can be so vain as to imagine they might let him but consider whether such things could now be imposed upon any people by the writings of a few men as done in the Metropolis of a Nation at a solemn time within the memory of thousands yet living who are able to contradict them from their own certain knowledge If a man should pretend that but a few years ago in the chief City of any Kingdom or Nation one part of the principal Church was rent from the bottom to the top by an Earthquake which tore asunder the Rocks and opened the Graves of the dead and that at the same time the Moon being in that position that the Sun could fuffer no Eclipe the Sun was darkned from twelve at Noon to three in the Afternoon could he hope to gain any credit or belief to any Doctrine he had to propagate by feigning such circumstances as would put it into the power of every man that heard of them to disprove him Would not this be the readiest and the most effectual way he could possibly invent to expose himself and his Cause The Death of Judas and the cause and manner of it which is so clear a vindication of our Saviour and so plain a proof that he is the Christ was known unto all the dwellers of Jerusalem insomuch as that field was called in their proper tongue Aceldama that is to say the field of Blood Acts i. 19. Matt. xxvii 8. If this field had not been so called and this had not been well known at Jerusalem would any man have written in this manner And besides the XII Apostles and the LXX Disciples who all believed and attested the truths contained in the Evangelists many persons of Authority and Note among the Jews are mentioned who would have found themselves concerned to disprove what is related if it had been false Nicodemus is said to have come to Christ by night who was a Pharisee and a Ruler of the Jews John iii. 2. vii 50. xix 39. and to put this mark upon him three several Times That he came to Jesus by night and durst not own his coming to him was no flattering character or such as might engage Nicademus or his friends to dissemble the injury if it had not been true that Nicodemus was his Disciple The like is said of Joseph of Arimathea a rich man and an honourable Counsellour Matt. xxvii 57. Mark xv 43. that he was Disciple of Jesus but sâ—retly for fear of the Jews John xix 38. Herod and Pontius Pilate Annas and Caiaphas and several other persons particularly named and most of them with no commendation but with that Character which the Truth of the History required would be concerned themselves or their Friends and Relations for them after their decease to expose any falshood that could have been discovered in the History of our Saviour The other Books of the New Testament are explicatory and consequential to the Gospel or History of Christ and besides they contain many memorable and publick Facts as the speaking of all sorts of Languages and working all kinds of Miracles at the solemn Feast of Pentecost and the conversion of many thousands thereby the frequent examination of the Apostles before the Council at Jerusalem their Preachings and Miracles in the most publick places as in the Temple in the Streets c. these are things that could not be imposed upon the world in that very place and in defiance of that very people before whom they are said to have been done Gamaliel Dionysius the
the most implacable enemies of Christianity and brought Christians into contempt among the Heathen for nothing could make the Gospel of less account in their esteem than to deduce its Authority from the Books of the â—ews who soon after the Crucifixion of Christ became vile and contemptible in the eyes of all the World It can be no great wonder to see men drawn into those vices under the pretence of Religion which no Laws nor Punishments can restrain them from but for a Religion that forbids all vice under the severest penalties to prevail in a vicious world is truly miraculous Besides it is Death by the Law of Mahomet to contradict the Alcoran men are forbid all disputation and discourse about Religion they are charged to believe none but Mahometans and to look upon all others as unworthy of all manner of conversation So that the Sword in the hands of furious and ignorant Zealots is the only way by which that Religion was designed to be propagated But nothwithstanding all these compliances with the Lusts and Passions of men if we take in all Ages since the Incarnation of Christ the Christian Religion not to mention the Jewish has had a much larger propagation than ever Mahometanism has had and has at all times been taught in more parts of the world and even amongst Mahometans themselves And the Alcoran it self asserting the Divine Authority and Mission both of Moses and Christ serves in some measure to propagate the Faith of the Old and New Testament so far I mean as to give an advantage and opportunity for men to make enquiry into them and become acquainted with them CHAP. VII The want both of Prophecies and Miracles in the Mahometan Religion MAhometanism is grounded neither upon Prophecies nor Miracles Mahomet indeed calls himself Prophet very solemnly but we have but this one instance of his Prophetick Spirit (a) Alcoran c. 66. When the Prophet went to visit one of his Wives God revealed to him what she desired to say to him he approved one part and rejected the other when he told his Wife what was in her will to speak to him she demanded of him who had revealed it to him He that knoweth all things hath revealed it to me that ye may be converted your hearts are inclined to do what is forbidden if ye act any thing against the Prophet know that God is his Protector Here is not one circumstance to make the story credible Mahomet pretended to no Miracles but when he has raised that objection as he often doth that the world would not believe in him unless they saw some Miracle he answers (b) Meor c. 13. I am not sent but to Preach the Word of God Tho afterwards he mentions that ridiculous story of the Moons being divided in these words (c) Ib. c. 54. The Day of Judgment approacheth the Moon was divided into two parts nevertheless Infidels believe not Miracles when they see them they say that this is Magick they lye and follow but their Passion but all is written Here is no proof nor any pretence to it but only a confident assertion of a thing ridiculous And yet unless we will believe this Prophecy and this Miracle there is nothing in the whole Alcoran either of Miracle or Prophecy to give it any Authority except that must be accounted one which he so often boasts of viz. It s wonderful Doctrine and Eloquence for (d) Ib. c. x xi xvi he challenges all the world to produce any thing like it protesting (e) C. vii that he could neither write nor read and therefore must needs have it by Revelation And he introduceth God swearing to the Truth of it almost in every Chapter and this is all he offers in answer to the suspicions which he so frequently suggests men then had of his being an Impostor CHAP. VIII The Alcoran is false absurd and immoral I. THE Alcoran is false as when it makes (a) Ib. c. xix the Virgin Mary Sister to Aaron when it asserts that (b) Ib. c. iv Christ was not Crucified but one like him in Contradiction to the Testimony of Jews Christians and Heathens and that Christ (c) Ib. c. lxi Prophesied of him by Name without the least proof or ground for it but against all the evidence that can be to the contrary II. The Alcoran contains things absurd and ridiculous as in that story of the sleepers (d) C. xviii the Infidels say they were five and that their Dog was the sixth they sâ—eak by opinion but the true Believers affirm them to be seven and their Dog to be the eighth And (e) Ib. c. xxvii in the story of Solomon's Army composed of Men Devils and Birds of the Queen of the Pismires and Solomon's discourse with the Bird called the Whoop who brought him tydings of the Queen of Sheba III. The Doctrines of the Alcoran are impious and immoral Mahomet makes all the Angels worship Adam in several parts of his Alcoran and his sensual Paradice is well known and his allowance of many Wives but perhaps his injustice is not so generally taken notice of (f) Ib. c. iv xxiii in permitting the professors of his Religion to take away their Slaves Wives from them The Law of Mahomet proceeds from a savage and cruel spirit obliging those that embrace it to destroy all that are not of it however the Mahometans have not always acted according to the cruelty of their Religion humane Nature not being always able to act so much contrary to it self But this is Mahomet's Doctrine (g) Ib. c. iii. God loveth not the unjust he forgiveth sins to those that believe and extirpate Infidels (h) Ib. c. iv If they forsake it the Law of God pretended to be set down in the Alcoran kill them where you find them Be not negligent to pursue the Infidels And this the (i) Tavern Voyage de Ind. lib. iii. c. 24. Faquirs at their return from Mecha are very mindful of with a furious zeal killing all they can that they meet who are not Mahometans till they are killed themselves and then they are reputed Saints and Prayers are made at their Graves Such is the Alcoran as we now have it and yet it is not now as it was at first written by Mahomet (k) Sandys Trav. lib. i. p. 54. many alterations have been made in it by inserting some things and striking out others and taking some of the absurdities away Mahomet the Second particularly is said to have made great alterations and additions (l) Ricauts Hist of the Ottom Empire lib. ii c. 10. But the Persians the followers of Haly charge Abu-Beker Omar and Ozman whom the Turks follow with falsifying the Alcoran CHAP. IX Of Mahomet AFter this account of Mahomet's Alcoran there will be no need to say much of his Person the general Doctrines of the Alcoran shew him to have been lustful proud fierce and cruel
whatever defect there might be in the Vowels it was supplied by constant use and practice and by some general Rules which they observed in the Reading The Bible being a Book which by Divine Commandment was so often and carefully read both in publick and private the Hebrew Text might be exactly read and the true sense certainly retain'd and known and it is no wonder that by constant use and continual practice and custom from their infancy the Jews could read it with ease and readiness without Points which is no more than is ordinarily done now by men who are skilful in that Language and divers have attain'd to it by their own observation and industry If there were the more difficulty in the Hebrew Tongue before the invention of Points there was the more care and study used about it the Jews having times purposely set apart for the reading of the Law studied it with that diligence and exactness that they knew it as well as they did their own Names or better * Joseph contr Ap. lib. ii Josephus expresses it if that were possible and they used so great accuracy both in their Pronouncing and Writing that there could be no danger that any considerable mistake should be occasioned by any defect in the Vowels before the Points were found out This was a great part of the Jewish Learning as †Considerat considere c. x. S. 8. Bishop Walton observes the true Reading of the Text and they who were most accurate and exact therein were honoured most amongst 'em and had their Schools and their Scholars and Disciples whom they instructed from time to time till at length in regard of their many dispersions and banishments that the true reading might not be lost with the Language they began to affix Points to the Text as well to facilitate the reading as to preserve it the better from any alteration or change But this is an objection which never could have been made but in the Western parts of the world for in the East they commonly write yet without points as the Jews likewise write the Western Languages where they live without points in the Hebrew Character * Walt. Prolegom iii. s 40. Morin-Epist 15. 70. inter Antiquit Eccl. Orient The Samaritans still have no points And †Joseph Scalig. Epist 243. the Children of the Turks Arabians and Persians and generally of all the Mahometans learn to read without them * Voss de Sibyll Orac. Isaac Vossius says the Asiaticks laugh at the Europeans because they cannot read as they do without Vowels †Walt. Prolegom iii. s 50. Schickard confest that he had known Children of seven years of age read the Pentateuch meerly by use * Lud. Capel de Punct Hebr. Antiqu lib. ii c. 27. s 4 5 6. Clenard and Erpenius himself who was so famous for the Arabick and other Eastern Languages both of them declared that they learned the Arabick only by their own study and diligence from Books without points and Arpenius had attained to such accuracy in that Language before he had read any Book with the points that Isaac Casaubon so far approved of the Translation which he had then made of the Arabick Nubian Geography into Latin that he was very earnest with him to publish it Ludovicus Capellus besides gives an instance from his own knowledge of one who when he had scarce been taught the Arabick Alphabet made a great progress in that Tongue in four months only by his own industry and without the help of points All these things considered it would be a strange Paradox to pretend that there is no certainty in the Ancient Eastern way of writing and that no body can certainly know what their Authors meant nay that they did not know one anothers meaning as well as we do now in our manner of writing before some certain time when the points are supposed to be first found out II. The change of the Old Hebrew Character into that now in use is no prejudice to the Authority of the Hebrew Text. Because this was but the writing over that which was before in one Alphabet into another the Language being still the same and this if it were done with sufficient care as we have all the reason in the world to believe it was could make no material mistakes and we find it hath not by the agreement between the Hebrew and the Samaritan Pentateuch still extant III. The Keri and the Kelib or the difference in some places between the Text and the Marginal Reading is no prejudice to the Authority of the Scripture For as the various Lections of the Bible are much fewer considering the Antiquity of it and the vast numbers of Copies which have been transcribed in all Ages and Countreys than those of any other Book so many of them may be easily reconciled and the occasion of them as easily discovered Some of them were occasioned by the likeness of several of the Hebrew Letters which were not easily to be distinguisht in Books written in such small Characters * Hieron Proaem in Ezech. Comment lib. 8. as St Jerome complains were used in writing the Hebrew Bibles of his time Others happen'd from Abbreviations and some might proceed from Marginal Glosses It must likewise be observ'd that all the words we meet with in the Margin of the Hebrew Bibles are not to be look'd upon as various Lections for divers of them were placed there by the Jews out of superstition because they scrupled to pronounce certain words and therefore appointed others to be read in their stead But when the Jews were dispersed into divers Countreys their Dialect or manner of Pronunciation must needs be different and as the same words were pronounced differently so they would in time be differently written which gave one chief occasion to the various Lections in the old Testament for from the emulation between the Schools of the Jews at Babylon and those at Jerusalem there arose a set of various Lections under the Title of of the Eastern and the Western Readings but it is acknowledged that they †Vid. Walt. Proleg 8. S. 28. are of no moment and that as to the sense it is much at one which reading is admitted for they concern matters of Orthography rather then of Orthodoxy as Buxtorf speaks and the Jews of Palestine and of Europe who follow the Western Readings yet do not altogether reject the Eastern but in some editions have printed them both * Id. Proleg iv s 9. The different readings of Ben Ascher and Ben Naphtali had the same original the Eastern Jews following the one and the Western observing the other but these concern the Points and Accents only and not either the Words or Letters There is no Antient Book in the World of which we can be certain that we rightly understand it if it be necessary to the right understanding of a Book that it be without various Lections
Caeterum non tanti momenti sunt ejusmodi errores ut in iis quae ad sidem bonos more 's pertinent Scripturae Sacrae integritas desideretur Plerumque enim tota discrepantia variarum Lectionum in Dictionibus quibusdam posita est quae sensum aut parum aut nihil mutant Bellarmin De Verbo Dei lib. ii c. 2. Bellarmin himself and the best Criticks amongst the Papists have acknowledged that all things relating to Articles of Faith and Rules of Life are delivered intire and uncorrupted in the Scriptures notwithstanding the various Lections And tho some of the Roman Communion have endeavoured to prove the necessity of an infallible Church by Arguments drawn from hence yet says * Considerator considered ch 12. s 4. Bishop Walton I do not remember that in any particular controversy between them and us they urge any one place of Scripture for their cause upon the uncertainty of the Reading without Points which plainly shews that there is no such uncertainty in the Text unpointed as is pretended F. †Hist Crit. V. T. lib. 3. c. 23. Simon complains that the Catalogues of various Lections are much larger than they ought to be and that for the most part they are of no moment and he charges Cappellus more than once with multiplying 'em without Reason Morinus indeed made it his endeavour to lessen the authority of the Hebrew Text in favour of the Septuagint and the Vulgar Latin but his Authority is very inconsiderable when compared with those of the same Communion who have declared themselves against his opinion In * Joh. Morin Vita the life of Morinus written by F. Simon there is this Character of Cappellus and Morinus that if they be compared as to what they have both written concerning the Bible Morinus shews more learning in his Books but it is very often not to the purpose whereas Cappellus has more sagacity and judgment and never wanders from his subject but proves what he is upon by the strongest Arguments And as severe as this Censure may seem to be yet it is justified in effect by the confession of Morinus himself For he †Epist 70. inter Antiqu. Eccl. Orient acknowledgeth to Buxtorf that he never throughly applied himself to the study of the Hebrey Tongue that he had read nothing in Hebrew for 7 years together and that therefore he did not question but he had made many mistakes especially in his Samaritan Exercitations great part of which were written in hast and he was forc'd to use such a variety of Authors that he believes it impossible but that he must have been often mistaken The Authority of Morinus then signifies nothing in prejudice to the Hebrew Text And * Hoc certo affirmare possum me nullam animadvertisse menâ—â—m nec Lectionum varietatem circa moralia documenta quae ipâ—â— obscura aut dubia reddere possunt Tractat. Theolog. Polit. c. 9. Spinoza himself has owned that he could for certain affirm that he had observed no fault nor various reading which concerned the Moral Precepts that cou'd render them obscure or doubtful Bishop Walton has with great learning and judgment summed up the Arguments on alâ— sides and as †Crit. Hist V. T. lib. 3. c. 21. F. Simon acknowledgeth haâ— examined this matter with more exactness than all that had gone before him His Polyglot Bibles give an ocular demonstration to the truth of what he maintains that there is nothing of consequence either as to Faith or Practice concerned in the difference of the several Copies of the Hebrew Text or of the several Versions And as many Sects and Divisions as there are amongst Christians and as many different Translations as they make use of they all acknowledge the Authority of the originals and their Translations in the main are the same however they disagree in rendring some particular passages which concern the different opinions of the several parties and upon that account maintain their own Translation to be more correct than others If we allow of Mr * Table-Talk Selden's Judgment who was very able to make a true one and far enough from being prejudiced in the case he says the English Translation of the Bible is the best Translation in the world and renders the sense of the Original best taking in for the English Translation the Bishop's Bible as well as King James ' s. However by different Translations and by comparing divers Copies and Versions to make out the true Reading many Texts become better understood and more fully explained than if there had been but one Reading and no difference in the Translations VI. And no less may be said in behalf of the New Testament than of the Old for the Books of it were kept from the beginning as a Sacred Treasure with great care and reverence and were constantly read in the Christian Assemblies and soon translated into all Languages The Primitive Christians chose to undergo any Torments rather than they would deliver up the Books of Scripture to their Persecutors to be destroyed and they were no less careful to preserve them uncorrupted by Hereticks Besides when Hereticks attempted to corrupt any Text of Scripture to serve their particular Heresies they were declared against not only by the Orthodox but by other Hereticks who were not concerned for those opinions in behalf whereof the corruption was intended So that it was impossible for any corruptions to be imposed upon the Church or to pass undiscovered even by some of the Hereticks themselves They must be designed for some end and to authorize some particular Doctrines and then all who were not for those Doctrines and more especially those who were against them would certainly oppose such corruptions The agreement likewise of the Greek Text of the New Testament with the several ancient Versions and with the quotations found in the Writings of the Fathers who cited and alledged them from the times of the Apostles proves that there have been no alterations of any such consequence as to make the Scriptures insufficient for the ends of a Divine Revelation If any man be of another opinion let him instance in any one Article of Faith or Rule of Life which cannot be proved from the Scriptures It is not enough for him to shew that some one or more Texts which have been brought in proof of it are disputed but he must shew that it can be proved by no Text which is clear and undisputed The various Lections of the Holy Scriptures are so far from being an Argument against their Authority that they rather help to prove it since they are comparatively so few in a Book of so great Antiquity For no care and regard inferiour to that which we must suppose men to have of a Book which they are convinced is of Divine Authority could have produced a less variety of Readings in a Book of much less Antiquity They are all of no consequence to the
we can know nothing of the manner of it We know the Proposition which is to be believed tho we cannot make good the Proof of it in the way of natural Reasoning but only from the Authority of the Revealer which is of it self sufficient and ought to be instead of all other Reasons to us 2. Some parts of the Scriptures were fitted and accommodated to former Ages and were more proper and useful for them than if they had been written in such a manner as to be less obscure and difficult We may well imagin that many parts of the Scriptures must have been more peculiarly adapted to their use and advantage for whom they were immediately designed and the Learning and Wisdom of ancient Times consisted in Parables and Proverbs and obscure Forms of Speech in Prophecies in Subtil and Dark Parables and in the secrets of grave Sentences Eccl. xxxix 1 2 3. And it was foretold of the Messias in particular that he should speak in Parables as a matter of great excellency I will open my mouth in a Parable I will utter dark sayings of old Ps lxxviii 2. Matt. xiii 35. This was in Ancient Times the Language of Courts and the properest way of Address to Kings Nathan the Prophet and the woman of Tekoa came to David with a Parable 2 Sam. xii 1. xiv 4. And Jehoash King of Israel sent a Message of the same nature to Amaziah King of Judah 2 Kings xiv 9. and Cyrus * â—eâ—odot lib. i. c. 141. answers the petition of two Nations at once to him in a short Parable To understand a Proverb and the Interpretation the words of the wise and their dark sayings was the best description that Solomon himself could give of Wisdom Prov. i. 6. And * Joseph Antiqu. lib. viii c. 2. â— Solomon and Hiram are related by Josephus to have propounded Problems and Riddles or Parables to each other upon condition of a forfeiture to be paid by him who could not explain the Riddle sent him This would be looked upon now as a strange correspondence between Kings but then it was otherwise thought of many of their Epâ—â—â—â—s were preserved as he tells us to his time at Tyre and the Heathen Historians whose Testimonies he produceth thought it deserved their particular observation This custom of propounding Riddles was as old as Sampson's time Judg. xiv 12. and examples of the same nature are to be seen in Herodotus †Vid. Athenae lib. x. c 15. c. and other Authors Whether it be true or false that Homer died of grief because he could not explain the Riddle of the Fishers it shews that Riddles were in great request amongst the Ancient Greeks for otherwise there could have been no ground either for the Truth or Fiction of such a story Plutarch relates it as the true cause of Homer's death and when * Herod Plut. in Vit. Homer Herodotus denies this he owns the Report and by the Verses which he says Homer spoke upon this occasion it appears what opinion Homer had of this sort of Wit Hesiod is by †Quintil. institut lib. v. c. xi Quintilian thought the Author of the Fables which pass under the name of Aesop however this makes it probable that he did write Fables and perhaps there were few men of Learning and note in those times who did not Mythology was in the highest esteem amongst the Ancients and indeed all the Ancient Learning was of this kind The Aegyptians who were in great Reputation for Learning delivered their Notions in Hieroglyphicks as if they had resolved not to be understood And the Philosophers of old Pythagoras Heraclitus c. greatly affected obscurity Socrates himself and Plato and Aristotle purposely concealed their meaning in many cases from vulgar capacities and Thucydides took the same course in â—is History and was obscure out of design as Marcellinus has observed in his life The Books of the Old Testament for the most part seem to have been the most plain and the most easily intelligible of any Writings of ancient times and they could not have been more obvious but they must have been contemptible and useless to those for whom they were immediately designed The precepts and exhortations are always plain and obvious and the obscurity of other things is so far from being an exception to the Books of Scripture that it was necessary according to the Learning and Customs of ancient times The Parables of our Blessed Saviour are explained to us and there can now be no pretence of obscurity in them and in his Discourses with the Jews to whom they were not explained he alluded to those Proverbs and Customs which were best known and most in use among them to whom upon any occasion he spoke that thereby all who had ears to hear and were not by their sins hindred from attending to what they heard might be the more affected with them and the better inclined to give themselves up to his Instructions when they heard him make use of such Allusions as they knew according to the way of teaching amongst them had some excellent hidden meaning which they would be very desirous to become acquainted withal 3. Many places of Scripture which are obscure to us were not obscure in the ages in which they were written 1. Because the obscurity for the most part is rather in the form and manner of Speech than in the notions themselves so that that might be clear at first which is obscure to us who are but little acquainted with the Phrases and Idioms of the Language and the Eloquence of those Times and Countries For the Fashions of Speech vary as much as those of the Garb and Habit and the Eloquence and ways of Expression are as different as the Dialects and Languages of divers Ages and Nations 2. The names of Animals of Flowers and Plants and Minerals are very liable to be mistaken and especially whatever is peculiar to any Country must needs be difficult to be understood by Foreigners who have no such things among them and perhaps want words to express their Nature and can scarce have a true and exact notion of them The precise value of Coins and proportion of Weights and Measures used so long ago and in Countreys so far from ours can hardly now be known and must necessarily admit of great variety of opinions there is much uncertainty about these in all ancient History but the great Antiquity of the Jewish History above others may make us reasonably expect to find many more such difficulties in it and the different Names of the same Persons and of the same Places in the Scriptures is another occasion of obscurity The Names Coins Weights and Measures and Habits of ancient times afford the greatest work for Criticks which were so well known when the Authors who mention them wrote that it had been ridiculous for them to explain them These are difficulties of that Nature that they could not
sign we are resolved to find fault and never to be satisfied with what we have unless we be humoured in every thing But we should do well first to consider how we can expect this at God's Hands or how well we have deserved it of Him The Secret of the Lord is with them that Fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Psal xxv 14. For the froward is an Abomination to the Lord but his Secret is with the Righteous Prov. iii. 32. There are Secrets and Mysteries in Religion which cannot be supposed to be known to any but those who are thro'ly acquainted with the plainer Doctrines both in the Study and the Practice of them and therefore if no such Reasons as have been now offered could be given for the obscurity of the Scriptures in some places it would be unreasonable however for such Men as make this an Objection to urge it they have no Right to object whatever others may have because they have never used the Means to know whether the Scriptures are so obscure as they pretend or or not But they will never be able to prove that if things necessary both in Faith and Practice be clearly set down there may not be other things deliverd which are hard to be understood and which those may wrest to their own Destruction who are unlearned and unstable that is who have neither Learning and Skill enough to judge of such Matters nor yet Constancy and Stedfastness enough in the Faith to adhere to what they do understand and not to perplex themselves and suffer themselves to be perverted by judging rashly of things above their Capacity The unlearned and unstable only are said to wrest the Scriptures to their own Destruction And tho' it is not in the Power and Capacity of every Man to be Wise and Learned yet it is in every ones Power not to be unstable but constant and stedfast to what he understands and never to depart from it for any By-ends or Respects Let us learn what is easy to be known and Practice what we know before we complain that the Scriptures are obscure Let us study and practise the Scriptures more and this Objection will not appear so formidable But the Truth is those that most use it neither study nor practise them And yet after all their Pretences of Obscurity they have a greater quarrel against the plain parts of Scripture than against the obscure ones they know many places of Scripture which are plainly against them and this makes them set themselves against all the rest What has been here said in general I hope may be in some Measure useful to those who desire to read the Scriptures for their Instruction and Edification and in particular Difficulties Books must be consulted or such Men as may be supposed to understand them But as for all that are fond of Objections and read the Scriptures only in search of thâ—m it cannot be expected that Discourses of this Nature should signify much with 〈◊〉 Teach us O Lord the way of thy Statutes and we shall keep it unto the End Give us understanding and we shall keep thy Law Yea we shall keep it with our whole Heart Great is the Peace that they have who love thy Law and they are not offended at it Psal Cxix 33 34 165. CHAP. VIII Of Places of Scripture which seems to contradict each other I. THough the sacred Writers no where contradict themselves or one another yet they were not solicitous to prevent the being suspected to do so by injudicious and rash Men as they would have been very cautious of giving any pretence for such a Suspicion if they had written any thing but Truth It could not be agreeable to the Sovereign Wisdom and Majesty of God to comply with the Humours and Fancies of Men but rather when he had by an infallible Guidance and Direction prevented the Pen-Men of the Holy Scriptures from writing any thing but Truth to suffer them to write so as that they might be liable to the Exceptions of the wilful and perverse Because it is more (x) Multum enim refert ut est in Epistola Adriani quam recitatcallistratus L. Testâ—uâ— D. De Teâ—tibus qui. simpliciter visi sunt dicere utrâ—m unum eundâ—â—â—qâ—â— meâ—tiatum sermo em attulerint an ad ea quae interrogati sunt ex tempore veriâ—milia respoâ—deriâ—t Grot. in Adject ad Dan. c. xiii 51. suitable to the simplicity of Truth not to be over-nice and solicitous about every Punctilio and smaller Circumstance but to speak fully and intelligibly and then to leave it to Men whether they will believe or not especially in what is told them for their own Advantage the Relators having no end or design to serve by it but only to do them the greatest Good they can and bringing all the evidence for their Conviction that Miracles and Prophecies can afford which are the only Means of God's revealing Himself to Mankind and then suffering in Testimony of what they have delivered Thus our Saviour when notwithstanding all his Mighty works many would not believe in Him but questioned His Authority and reviled His Person and blasphemed the Holy Spirit by which they were wrought was not concerned to work more Miracles merely for the Satisfaction or rather at the captious Demands of these Men when they required him to do it For if they would be convinced by any reasonable Means he had given it them if they would not it would be to their own Prejudice he was not solicitous what they thought of him And thus it is likewise in the Government of the World God has given Men sufficient Evidence of His Being and Providence but if Men will disâ— believe His Providence and deny His Being he doth not vouchsafe by any immediate 〈◊〉 particular Act of His Power to conâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 Pretences And if because of some places that are difficult in the Scriptures Men will reject the whole rather than be at the pains to search out the true Meaning of these places or than be so modest and humble as to suppose that there may be ways of Reconciling those which appear to them contradictions tho' they have not yet found them out they must fall under the same Condemnation with those who will deny the Being of God if they cannot satisfy themselves how he made and governs the world or with those that would believe none of our Saviour's Miracles unless he would work them when and where and just in what manner they pleased But the wisdom of God sees that nothing would satisfy these Men and that they only tempt God and design no real Satisfaction to themselves and therefore he cannot be obliged to new model the World and alter the Scriptures for their sakes since there is enough in them for the Satisfaction of all that are sincere in their Enquiries after Truth II. The only way to judge rightly of the particular places of any Book is to consider
thus for it is ever supposed and agreed in all Cases that no Man is bound to any thing impossible and that God requires nothing of any Man either in Faith or Practice beyond his Power and Capacity Whosoever will be Saved before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly But this supposes that he has already attained or is able to attain to the Knowledge which is necessary to Faith for no Man can hold that Faith the general Knowledge whereof he cannot attain We must with an implicit Faith believe all that God says to be true tho' it be never so much above our Understanding but no Man is bound to believe explicitly any more than he can understand so far as is necessary to such a Belief He is able to understand so much of it as to know in general what he is required to believe tho' he can have no such compleat and comprehensive Notion of it as to give a particular and full Account of the Nature and Manner of Existence of that which is to be believed by him And let the Articles of Faith supposed necessary to Salvation according to Natural Religion be never so few and plain yet there will still be some Men who are uncapable of understanding them in any way or measure and then there will lie the same Objections against those Articles of Natural Religion which are upon this Account urged against their Faith in the Trinity it self which so far as it is required to be known and believed is not above the Capacity of the Generality of Mankind and no more is required to be believed explicitely of any than they are capable of knowing in such a Degree as is necessary in order to such a Belief whatever Articles of Faith be assigned in Natural or Revealed Religion they will be above the Capacity of many Adult Persons and of all Infants to apprehend them who therefore according to all Religions may be Saved without the actual Knowledge of those Articles which are never so necessary to others And what may be objected against all Religions Natural as well as Revealed ought in Reason to be objected against none for there can be no force in it III. This Doctrine exceedingly tends to the advancement of Vertue and Holiness and has a great influence upon the Lives and Conversations of Men. That God the Father should send his Son his only Begotten and only beloved Son to be Born and to Die for us is an endearing and amazing Act of the Divine Goodness The Death not of a meer Man but of the Son of God Blessed for ever in our stead must needs heighten our Love of God and our Faith and Dependance on him our Hatred of Sin and our Assurance of Pardon upon Repentance This I have proved at large in Discoursing of the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God for us and therefore shall not insist upon it here In like manner whatever the Holy Ghost hath done and is continually doing for us must needs be of more weight with us and give us quite another Notion and Apprehension of his Goodness and our own Duty than we could have had if we believed him to be a Creature For unless we believe him to be God we cannot have that devout Love and Faith and Dependance upon him which we ought we cannot have that Esteem and Reverence for his Communion and Presence which is required of us nor that sense of the heinousness of Sin whereby we resist and grieve and do despight to him That Argument of St. Paul what know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost and many other to the like purpose would be lost but on supposition that the Holy Ghost is God We can never have that Sense which it behoves us to have of our Sins committed in opposition to the Gifts and Influences of his Grace without an acknowledgment of his Godhead So that our Faith and Hope and Fear and Love is more excited and enlarged and all the Powers and Faculties of our Souls are more disposed to the obedience of the Gospel thro' the belief of this Doctrine of the Trinity than they could be without it And therefore as there is nothing absurd or impossible to be believed in this Doctrine so it was very reasonable and expedient that it should be revealed CHAP. XXV Of the RESURRECTION of the Dead THE Resurrection of our Saviour from the Dead was that which the Apostles chiefly insisted upon in all their Discourses For if once they could convince Men that Christ was Risen from the Dead they could not fail of perswading them into a Belief of all that they Taught besides There was no other Part of their Doctrine which could seem more strange and incredible than this and when that which they could with so much Difficulty be brought to believe and which could not come to pass but by the Almighty Power of God himself was evidently and undeniably proved to them this must give that Credit and Authority to all their other Doctrine that it could be no longer withstood or gain-said This therefore is the Point which the Apostles most of all urged knowing that if they could gain this all the rest would follow of Course and that every Man must of necessity be Converted to the belief of the whole Gospel of Christ who was once convinced of his Resurrection And St. Paul in his Defence before King Agrippa puts the Question Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the Dead Acts xxvi 8. which implies that it is a very unreasonable thing to think that God cannot Raise the Dead and that therefore there was all the Reasons in the World to believe that he had raised Christ For there was so great Evidence of his Resurrection and so many Men daily Witnessed it at the peril of their Lives that if their Adversaries would but allow the thing to be possible there could be no Doubt remaining but that Christ was indeed raised from the Dead The Apostle Argues that it is a very absurd thing to say that God cannot raise the Dead What Reason could any Man give why God cannot do it Or how durst any Man so limit and confine the Infinite Power of God by his own Notions and Conceptions of things as to say that the Resurrection of the Dead cannot be effected by him This is unreasonable and absurd in the highest Degree and therefore it is manifest that Christ is Risen and that there is to be a General Resurrection of the Dead since there is no other Objection that can lie against it but the Impossibility of the thing it self For our Resurrection is asserted in the Scriptures as a necessary Consequence of Christ's Resurrection 1 Cor. xv 20. and his Resurrection was so well attested that the greatest Enemies to Christianity
who was not as singular in other things and in his Notions of Religion but he has firmly believed the Divine Authority of the Scriptures It concerns all who have any Doubts about these things to weigh the Objections with the Answers that have been given to them by divers Authors and withal to observe the importance of the Objections and how far they affect the main Cause and still to remember that it is at every Man 's own Peril if he make a rash and partial Judgment If our Faith could be of no Benefit or Advantage to us nor Infidelity any Prejudice we might take the same Liberty to give Credit or no Credit to what we read in the Bible that we use in the Reading all other Books and to receive or reject it as we think fit or to believe only just so much as lies even with our own Understandings and Notions of Things and at the worst this would be but Folly in us But it is madness to reject our own Happiness and make our selves miserable because we do not perceive the Reasons of all the Means and Methods which God has been pleased to use to make us happy or are not able to understand every Word of that Book which contains the Terms of our Salvation This is as if a Son should chuse to live miserably rather than to enjoy a large Estate left him by his Father because he doth not perceive the design and full meaning of every particular in his Will he searches out for all Ways and Arts for cavilling at it and is fond of any pretence to cast it aside as Counterfeit being resolved never to believe it to be his Father's For his Father was a wise Man and if it were his such and such Clauses would not be in it since there is no reason that he can see why they should be inserted several things mentioned in it he believes are mis-timed the Bounds of the Lands are not described by fit Names besides it is interlined and he never will accept of such an Estate conveyed to him by such a Will but chuses rather to be miserable all the Days of his Life This would be such peevishness and perversness as is not to be met withal where our Temporal Interest is concerned But too many are too forward to reject the Tenders and despise the Terms of an everlasting Inheritance in Heaven tho' at the same time they become obnoxious to all the Curses threatned to Unbelievers because the Old and New Testament contain some things which may afford matter of Exception and Cavil to captious Men. God has sent his Prophets to call and admonish us and his Son to reconcile us to himself by his Death and to offer us Eternal Peace and Happiness and he has given us all the Evidence of it that the nature of the things would admit The Jews have asserted the Authority of the Old Testament from the times of Moses and the Prophets and the Christians asserted the Truth of the Gospel when it was impossible for them not to know whether it were true or not without any prospect of Advantage by it in this World but with a certain expectation of all manner of Torments and Deaths and the greatest part of the Known World was converted to the Belief of it and became Christians when in this World Christians were of all Men the most miserable and were supported only by the stedfast hope and expectation of that Happiness which is promised to us in the Scriptures after this Life And all things considered we have as sufficient Grounds for the Authority of the Scriptures as we have not only that any other Book was composed by the Author whose Name it bears but as we have to believe any thing else in the World Now what do these Men How do they receive so great a Blessing Why they overlook all the Evidence that can be brought to prove the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and search up and down for doubtful and obscure Passages to disprove it by not considering in the mean time that nothing can overthrow their Authority but that which can invalidate the Evidence by which it is establish'd It would be the highest Folly and Ingratitude thus to despise God's Mercy and Care over us if there were no danger in it but it being a thing of infinite Danger it is no less than Madness For what milder Term can be found to express the desperate Folly of them who reject a Book which sets before us the means of Salvation but at the same time forewarns us upon pain of the severest effects of God's Displeasure not to neglect them It is madness I say if we rightly consider it to reject such a Book and at once both to affront the Mercy and despise the Threatnings of the infinitely Merciful and the infinitely Great and Powerful God It is a good Caution to the Atheist to forbear his Blasphemies and Contempt of the Divine Majesty for fear it should prove true that there is a God at last and then it will be a dismal thing after all his profane Talking and Arguing to be called before that God whom he has so often denied And it is as good Advice to those who make it their business to find Fault with the Scriptures to consider seriously whether they are sure that these are not God's Word after all that can be said against them and if they be not absolutely certain of this the Name and Title which they bear and which Men as wise and as Judicious as themselves thought to belong to them should methinks keep Men within some bounds of Modesty and Discretion For if they be indeed the Word of God and nothing is capable of being made more evident than how dearly must they pay for a little cavilling Wit and Subtilty The best and most Divine things may be despised and affronted by a bold and Scurrilous Wit but can Men think it a safe or a prudent thing to ridicule and Scoff at those Books which for ought they know may be of Divine Revelation when all the Reason of which they fansie themselves so great Masters can never be able to confute the Arguments brought in Vindication of them Can they value the contemptible Reputation of a little Satyr and Drollery at that mighty Rate as to run the hazard of being damned for it If Men have any real Doubts or Scruples they must needs grant that it is too serious a thing to jest and trifle withal when no less than the Terms of our everlasting Happiness or everlasting Misery is the thing in Controversy And what Wit there may be in it I cannot tell but I am sure it is no sign of a very Wise Man to speak contemptibly of a Book by which he can never prove but that he must be judged at the last Day As a Mad-Man says Solomon who casteth Fire-brands Arrows and Death so is the Man that deceiveth his Neighbour and saith Am not I
Prophecy be misapply'd to a wrong Person The Fourth Eclogue of Virgil contains the Sense of the Sibyl and however it were design'd by him is in most things much more applicable to our Saviour than to the Person whom he describes In Cataline's Conspiracy Lentulus flatter'd himself with the hopes of being a King from (y) Tull. in Catalin Orat. 3. Salust Bell. Catilin the Sibylline Oracles And from the same Oracles as well as from the Scriptures it is probable the Expectation of a King who should arise out of Judaea which both Suetonius and Tacitus mention (z) Tacit. Hist l. 5. Sueton. in Vespas c. 4. was spread throughout the East What Tully says lib. 2. de Divin in Disparagement of this Oracle is not much considerable in the Case because that whole Book is written with a Design to disparage all Divination in general For being an Academic as he professes throughout his Books of Philosophy he acknowledg'd no more of any Part of their Religion than was just necessary to comply with the Laws as he owns himself in divers Places However from him it appears that a Sybylline Oracle was alledg'd to the Purpose there mentioned and that being in Favour of Caesar and of Monarchy if there had been no other was Cause enough for Tully to reject it and turn it to ridicule 2. Tho' the Verses of the Sibyl of Cuma were burnt with the Capitol A. V. C. DCLXXI yet Virgil expresly naming Cuma this Sibyl's Verses must be still remaining or suppos'd to be so unless what he writes became some way or other known before the Burning of the Capitol and was deliver'd afterwards down by Tradition Tully quotes Sibylla Erythraea lib. 1. de Divin and if he means the same Sibyl in the 2d Book Martianus Capella says (a) Martian Capel Nupt Philolog l. 2. that Sibylla Erythraea and Cumana were the same And in the Search which was made for the Sibylline Oracles in Italy and in all other Places where there was any Probability of finding any Remains of them after the Burning of the Capitol it is likely her Verses might be recover'd For (b) Valer. Maximus l. 1. c. 1. Valerius Maximus says that M. Tullius as he calls him not Attilius was put to Death by Tarquinius for suffering Petronius Sabinus to transcribe the Sybil's Verses and whether they were dispers'd in divers Copies before it was discover'd so as not to be suppress'd it is not known But if they were the Verses of some other Sibyl which went under the Name of the Sibyl of Cuma after her's were burnt with the Capitol it is not much material however the Romans certainly thought they had the Oracles of the Cuman Sibyl For as Lactantius says (c) Lactan. de Falsa Relig c. 6. they allow'd the Verses of all the other Sibyls to be copy'd out and publish'd though they would not suffer those of Cuma to be read but by Order of the Senate Notwithstanding all this Care they could not keep them conceal'd for we meet them often quoted Indeed the Oracles in the Capitol (c) Diouys Halicar l. 4. were only Copies taken from Originals which were left in those Places from whence the Romans had their own Copies transcrib'd and the Originals might be read and other Copies taken how carefully soever the Romans kept their own 3. It being known that the Sibylline Oracles contain'd things which concern'd the Kingdom of the Messias and the Verses themselves being in divers Hands this gave Occasion to some to make many more Verses under the Name of the Sybil's relating the whole History of our Saviour c. But if the Sibyl's Verses had been all burnt or lost or if they had been kept so close that no Body could possibly come to to the Knowledge of them without Leave from the Senate there could have been no Pretence for any Imposture nor would the Christians ever have alledg'd them as genuine Celsus objects only (e) Origen contra Cels l. 7. That many things were added to the Verses of the Sibyls Not that they were all Counterfeit or that the Christians had no Means of coming by the True Which was an Advantage that an Adversary much less subtile than Celsus would not have omitted if there had been any Ground for it Origen replies That it was a malicious Accusation and that he was able to bring no Proof of it by producing Ancient Copies more genuine than those which the Christians made use of And if the Sibyls had deliver'd nothing relating to these Matters why should any one counterfeit Verses in their Name rather than under the Title of any other Oracle There must be some Ground and Foundation of Truth to give any Opportunity or Pretence to the Counterfeiting of it And the Prophecies of the Sibyls concerning Christ must be the Occasion of all the additional ones which were falsly ascrib'd to them 4. Isaac Vossius thought that great Part of these Oracles were compos'd by the Jews And indeed Pausanias says (f) Pausan in Phocic p. 328. one of the Sibyls was by the Jews call'd Sabba the same I suppose who is mention'd by * Aelian l. 2. c. 35. Aelian and by Suidas said to be descended from Noah and nam'd Sambethe call'd the Chaldaean and by some the Hebrew and also the Persian Sibyl whom †Alexand. ab Alex. l. 3. c. 16. Alexander ab Alexandro calls Sibylla Judaea But if these were only Heathen Oracles yet there is Reason to believe that the Predictions concerning Christ were very plain though not so particular as those now set down in the Sibylline Books both because the Heathen having but few Oracles of this Nature and so many of a quite contrary Nature it was the more necessary that these should be plain and because we find that when God in his Infinite Wisdom saw it fitting to reveal himself to others he did it in as plain a Manner and sometimes in a plainer than he did to his own People in any one Prophecy Thus Balaam's Prophecy is as plain as any Prophecy of that time at least and our Saviour discover'd himself more plainly to the Woman of Samaria than he had yet done to any of his Disciples John iv 26. Not to mention the Dreams of Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar or the Message of Jonah to the Ninevites And as Balaam an Inchanter or Sorcerer deliver'd a true and famous Prophecy of Christ and the Devils were forc'd to confess him to be the Son of God so it is reasonable to believe that God might ordain that these Celebrated Prophetesses whose Oracles were otherwise the Devil's Instruments to promote his Ends should foretell our Saviour's Coming And yet St. Augustine assures us (g) August Civ Dei l. 18. c. 23. that the Sibylla Erythraea or Cumana had nothing of Idolatry in her Verses but spoke so much against it that he believ'd her to belong to the City of God 5. The Difference which there is
between Virgil's Fourth Eclogue and the Translation of it into Greek in Constantine's Oration is rather an Argument for the Authority of the Sibylline Oracles than against it For Constantine was wont to compose his Orations and Epistles in Latin and they were Translated into Greek by some whom be employ'd in that Service And the Author of the Translation Translated only what was properly Virgil's but when he came to what was by Virgil borrow'd from the Sibyl he wrote down the Original Greek not translating the Variations which Virgil had made from it to apply the Prophecy to his own Subject It is well known that the Ancients took as great a Liberty as this in their Translations and it was the more allowable when there could be no Design or Likelihood of Deceit in the Translation of so Famous a Poem as that Eclogue of Virgil. This was but to point out the Alterations which Virgil had made and to shew how easily these Parts of his Poem might be supply'd from the Original Greek And perhaps this was a known Translation of that Eclogue which had been made with this Design It were no difficult Matter to answer all the other Objections which are wont to be brought against the Sybilline Oracles so far as the Notion here propos'd is concern'd in them For though the Books which we have now contain manifest Falsifications and Forgeries yet there must have been something real to give a Pretence and Countenance to so many elaborate Forgeries of this Nature and that was the Sibylline Oracles mention'd in Tully Sallust Virgil c. We may therefore conclude That the True Religion receiv'd a considerable Promulgation from these Oracles which serv'd to awaken in the Gentiles an Expectation of a King to be born in Judaea As soon as the Gospel appear'd in the World like the Rising Sun it diffus'd its Divine Light and Influence into all Parts of the Earth its Propagation was it self a Miracle and answerable to that Miraculous Power of Languages and other Means by which it was accomplish'd Tertullian acquaints us (h) Tertull. adv Judoees c. 7. that it was soon propagated beyond the Bounds of the Roman Empire he speaks of the Northern Parts of Britain and we know it received as early a Propagation in other Places more remote being preached by St. Bartholomew (i) Euseb Hist l. 3. c. 1. l. 5. c. 10. to the Indians by St. Thomas to the Parthians and to the Scythians by St. Andrew In St. Augustine's time (k) St. Aug. de Vtilit Credendi c. 7. the Christians were more numerous in all the known Parts of the World than the Jews and Heathens together And we have reason to believe that the Zeal of the Apostles and their immediate Disciples and Followers had carried the glad Tidings of the Gospel farther than either Ambition or Avarice it self till of late years had made any Discovery which Tertullian likewise sufficiently intimates The Cross was found to be in use among the Chineses by those who first went from Europe (l) Trigaut de Christ Expedit apud Sinus l. 1. c. 11. Alvar. Semedo Hist of China part 1. c. 31. into China and a Bell was seen there which had Greek Characters engraven on it And those who honour'd the Cross were in so great numbers in the Northern Provinces that they gave Jealousie to the Infidels The Christians there were call'd Isai from the Name Jesus And from the Chaldee Books which were found upon the Coasts of Malabar it appears that St. Thomas preach'd the Gospel in China and founded many Churches there The Passages which prove this may be seen in Trigautius and Semedo translated out of those Books Nicolas de Conti (m) Purch part 1. l. 4. c. 16. saith of the Chinese that when they rise in the Morning they turn their Faces to the East and with their Hands joined say God in Trinity keep us in this Law The Gospel was preach'd in China (n) Le Compte's Memoirs p. 348. Semedo ib. by some who came from Judaea and seem to have been Monks A. D. DCXXXVI as it appears by a Marble Table erected A. D. DCCLXXXII and found A. D. MDCXXV This Monument contains the principal Articles of the Christian Faith the substance of the Inscription may be seen in Le Compte's Memoirs and the whole is translated by Semedo Hornius (o) Horn. de Orig. American l. 4 c. 15. indeed rejects this Inscription which was likewise produced by Kircher as counterfeit but without any cause that I can perceive For if it were a Fraud there is no reason to think that we should not find all the Points of Popery inserted in it Osorius writes (p) Hierom. Oâ—r de Rebus Eman Lusitan Regis l. 2. that the Brachmans believed a Trinity in the Divine Nature and a God Incarnate to procure the Salvation of Mankind and that the Church of St. Thomas was esteemed most Holy among the Saracens and other Nations for the report of Miracles wrought there The Gentiles of Indostan (q) Continuat of the History of M. Bernier Tom. 4. retain some Notion of the Trinity and of the Incarnation of the Second Person though corrupted with fabulous Stories The People of Ceylon (r) Capt. Knox his Hist of Ceylon part 3. c. 5. do firmly believe the Resurrection of the Body The Indians in America (s) Jos Acost Hist l. 5. c. 28. worshipped a God who they said was One in Three and Three in One. They Baptized (t) Pet. Mart. Decad 4. c. 8. Decad. 8. c. 9. their Children and used the Cross in Baptism having a great veneration for the Cross and thinking it a preservative against Evil Spirits they believed the (u) Lerii Navigat in Bras c. 16. Resurrection of the Body they had Monasteries Nunneries Confessors and Sacraments And the Mexicans (x) Acost l. 5. c. 14 23 24 25. in their ancient Tongue called their High-Priests Papae's or Sovereign Bishops as it appears by their Histories It is a remarkable Relation which Lerius gives (y) Lerius Navigat ibid. of the People of Brasil That when he had discoursed to them concerning Religion and endeavoured to persuade them to become Christians one of their ancient Men answer'd That he had declared excellent and wonderful things to them which put him in mind of what they had often heard from their Fore-fathers That a long while ago many Ages before their time there came a Stranger into their Countrey in such an Habit and with a Beard as they saw the French wear for these Americans wear none who preached to them in the same manner and to the same effect as they had now heard him do but that the People would not hearken to him Upon which Lerius observes that Nicephorus writes That St. Matthew preached the Gospel to Cannibals and he thinks it not improbable that some of the Apostles might pass into America that the Sound of
character of a Book of the Scriptures The modern Jews in like manner never dared to pretend to new Books of Revelation but have constantly adhered to the old And what inducement could the Jews have to receive these Books into their Canon of which it consists rather than the Apocryphal Books but the evidence of their Divine Authority which is a thing more especially remarkable in some Books Why should they receive certain Books under the Names of Solomon Esther Daniel and Ezra but not admit into the Canon others going under the same names but because of the difference in their Authority Why should they receive the Books of those whom their fore-fathers had slain and those very Books for which they slew them but upon the clearest evidence It is certain they could be possest with no prejudice in their favour but with very many against the Books of such Authors To give another instance The Book of Ruth contains the affairs and transactions of a particular Family of no great consequence as one might imagine at first view and yet it has been preserved with as much â—are and as constantly received as the rest There is little reason upon human considerations why a relation concerning that Family should be inserted into the Canon of Scripture rather than one concerning any other But the lineage of the Messias is set forth in it and that was a sufficient reason why it should be inserted and therefore by the Divine Wisdom and Providence neither the emulation and envy of other Families nor any other cause or accident hindred its reception and preservation amongst the other inspired Books And in that History there is an account not very honourable for David's Family in deriving his descent from Phares of Thamar and shewing that his Great Grandmother was a Moabitess the Moabites being a people who had an indelible mark of intamy sixt upon them by the Law of Moses Dentr xxiii 3. II. As the Pentateuch was ever acknowledged by the People of Israel after their separation from the Tribe Judah so if they rejected the writings of the Prophets it must have been because all or most of them were written by Prophets who were of the two Tribes and all the Prophets of Israel owning the Temple of Jerasalem to be the true place of Worship the Isâ—aelites and Samaritans must have great prejudices against them upon that account and it cannot be expected that they should receive the Books of any of the Prophets in the same manner as they did those of Moses The Books of Samuel David and Solomon had less regard paid to them upon Reasons of State by the Tribes who followed the Revolt of Jeroboam yet when * Antiqu. Orient Eccl. pist 1. Joseph Scaliger sent to the Samaritans for the Canticles of the Book of Psalms in their Language as well as for the Book of the Law and of Joshua they promised to send him them And it is proved sufficiently by Dr †Hebr. Talmud exercit on Joh. iv 25. Lightfoot that neither the Samaritans nor the Sadducees rejected the Books of the Old Testament tho they did not admit the rest into the same veneration and authority with the Books of Moses nor read them in their Synagogues This is also proved by F. Simon * Crit. Hist V. T. lib. 1. c. 16. 29. Disquisit Crit c. 12. both of the Sadducees and the Karaei and †Epist 70. inter Antiqu Eccl. Orient Morinus likewise proves it of the Karaei who are generally taken for Sadducees F. Simon maintains the contrary and that they have wrong done them in being charged with the opinions of the Sadducces However this is not material to our present purpose since he shews that both the Sadducees and the Karaei or Caraites and all the Jews besides received the entire Volume of the Scriptures without any contradiction * Praefat. de Lipmanno Hackspan likewise has shewed that the Sadducees denied not the Authority of the Books of the Prophets III Concerning the Books whereof we we find mention made in the Old Testament either 1. They are not different from those which are now in the Canon but the same Books under divers Names Or 2. They were not written by Inspiration tho written by Prophets For we are not to suppose that the Prophets were inspired in every thing that they wrote any more than in all they spoke And this shews the care and integrity of the Jews in compiling their Canon that they would not take into it all the Writings even of the Prophets themselves but only such as they knew to be written by them as Prophets that is by Inspiration the Prophets themselves no doubt making a distinction as we find St Paul did between what they had written by the Spirit of God and that in which they had not his immediate and extraordinary direction and infallible assistance Or 3. They might not be written by Prophets For the office of Recorder or Remembrancer or Writer of Chronicles as it is explained in the Margin is mentioned as â—n office of great Honour and Trust and was distinct from that of the Prophets 2 Sam. viii â—6 2 Kings xviii 18. 2 Chron. xxxiv 8. Isaiah xxxvi 3 22. Besides the Hebrews called every small Writing a Book Thus Deut. xxiv 1. â—hat which we render a Bill of Divorcement â—s in the Original a Book of Divorcement the word being the same which Josh x. 13. and 〈◊〉 Sam. i. 18. is translated the Book of Jasher â—o Matt. xix 7. and Mark x. 4. it is in the Greek a Book of Divorcement the word is the same which the Septuagint had used it indeed may signifie a little Book but it often signifies a Book without that distinction and so it is rendered 2 Tim. iv 13. David's Letter to Joab is a Book in the Hebrew and in the Greek 2 Sam. xi 14 15. and Lettets are stiled Books by * Herod lib. 1. c. 124. lib. 6. c. 4. Herodotus Or 4. Tho it should be granted that some Books which were written by Inspiration are now lost it is no absurdity to suppose that God should suffer Writings to be lost thro the fault and negligence of men which were dictated by his Spirit Several things might by the Prophets be delivered by Revelation to the persons whom they concerned which were never committed to writing and others which were written but which were not necessary to the ends of Revelation in general but rather concerned particular times and places and the substance whereof as far as the world in general is concerned is to be found in the other Scriptures might by the carelesness of men never come to the sight and knowledge of Posterity And here I shall observe that the Books of Prophecy have always the Names of the Authors exprest and commonly they are often repeated in the Books themselves but in the Historical Books there was not the same reason for it because in matters