when they are quoted as such by those Persons that lived next and immediately after them and have passed from the very first Age through all Ages downward with an unquestionable Authority there is no possible account to be given how they should first come by it and then for ever after retain it unless they were for certain the Works of those Men whose names they bear Thus particularly Saint Matthew's Gospel is quoted by Clemens of Rome a Familiar of Saint Paul by Ignatius by Policarp by Papias the Disciples of Saint John not to mention Justin Martyr Athenagoras Irenaeus and all the other Writers of the Age next after the Apostles Now if this be so Then first Either this Gospel was written in the Apostles time or it was not If not how could it be cited by those that were their Contemporaries Secondly The things reported in it were either true or false if true then so is the Gospel too if false then it had destroyed its own credit by publishing known falshoods For though it is easie to forge a Story acted in former times without discovery and contradiction yet to make a Forgery of so wonderfull a transaction as was the History of Jesus of Nazareth so near the time in which it was pretended to have been acted and that without controll or contradiction nay with full credit and undoubted Authority as appears by these Apostolical Mens unanimous Testimony is if any thing in the World absurd and incredible enough to make up another Article of Infidelity Thirdly Either this Book was written by Saint Matthew or it was not If it was then it was the Testimony of an eye Witness that converst with our Saviour both before and after his Resurrection If it was not then how could it be thrust upon him in his own Age and gain so unquestionable an Authority with those Men that conversed either with him or with his Companions And now if we gain the Authority of this one Gospel that alone is a sufficient proof of the Divine Authority of the Christian Faith in that the main Foundations of it are here recorded viz. The Life Death and Resurrection of our Saviour which being believed as they are here recorded are an infallible demonstration of his Divinity The same account I might give of almost all the other Books of the New Testament in that they were received from the beginning as the most unquestionable Records of the Apostles But that were onely to repeat the same Argument so many times over and therefore supposing the same ancient Testimony concerning them as we have concerning Saint Matthew I shall leave the Reader to apply the same Argument that I have urged concerning him Neither do I this onely to avoid needless Repetition but because it has been often done by other hands particularly by Eusebius of old and Huetius of late who have vouched every Book by it self from the Testimony of the earliest Antiquity And therefore as for the truth of the matter of Fact I had rather refer to them than transcribe them though that being supposed the Argument is of the same force in every one as it is in Saint Matthew's Gospel § IX It is true that some few Books were for a good time doubted of as the Epistle to the Hebrews the Second of Saint Peter the Second and Third of Saint John and the Apocalypse But then first Suppose their Authority was still questionable the Christian Faith can subsist very well without them by the remaining Authority of those that were never questioned And though they are very usefull and excellent Discourses yet have they little peculiar in them that is not to be found in the other Apostolical Writings And if we understand the matter aright though they are written by Divine Inspiration yet are they not of the Foundation of the Christian Faith but onely pious Discourses proceeding upon the supposition of it Being written occasionally either to exhort us to an effectual belief of those things that are recorded in the Gospels or to encourage us against Tryals and Persecutions or to allay Schisms and Contentions or to confute Errours and Heresies or to reform Abuses and Corruptions so that though they had never been written the Foundations of our Faith were before firmly laid in the History of our Saviour's Life Doctrine Passion and Resurrection And therefore the Authority of all the rest is at last resolved into that of the historical Books that is the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles which being supposed true they warrant both the Reason and Authority of the Apostolical Epistles that onely deduce those proper and natural Conclusions that flow from their Premises Nay farther 't is not primarily necessary to Christianity to believe that the Books of the New Testament were dictated by an infallible Spirit but it is sufficient that the historical Books are good and authentick Records of the Life of our Saviour and the design of his Errand into the World and that the Writings of the Apostles are pious Discourses consonant with and conducing to the Ends of Christianity The Foundation whereof seems to lie in this one thing that Jesus Christ was sent into the World for the Work he pretended to come about by Divine Commission For God having set several Hypotheses of Providence on work in the World to bring all things to their end and perfection at last design'd this as the most compleat model of all Vertue Goodness and Morality So that if the History of those things which Jesus both did and taught be truly recorded by the Evangelists that is a sufficient evidence of his own Divine Authority But as for his Historians that comes in upon another score in that we know that the Authours of all those Writings were inspired and directed by the Holy Ghost but then that we know onely from the Writings themselves and therefore their Truth must be supposed antecedent to their Divine Authority and that being supposed our Saviour's Divine Authority is thereby proved and that being proved that alone is a full demonstration of the Divinity of the Christian Religion But secondly If those few Books were so long debated before they were admitted into the Canon that is an Argument of the great care and caution of the Church in its belief in that it would not lightly receive any Book till it was fully satisfied of its being Authentick and therefore its long doubtfulness and disputation about these Books clears it from all suspicion of rashness and credulity as to those that she always own'd with a full and unanimous Approbation Thirdly The Controversie concerning the disputed Books relates not so much to their Antiquity as their Authour and they are not brought in question because they were not written in the Apostolical Age but because it seemed uncertain by whom they were then written Thus the Epistle to the Hebrews some attribute to Saint Paul some to Saint Luke some to Barnabas some to Clemens but if it
were written by any of them it is not much material so it were written by some of them and that it was so is very evident from Clemens his Epistle who has borrowed divers passages out of it word for word And to the same purpose is the Controversie concerning the Revelations all allowing it to have been of Apostolical Antiquity onely some will have it to have been written by Saint John the Apostle others by Saint Mark sirnamed John others by Saint John call'd the Elder but whosoever it was that wrote it it was written in the Apostolical Age and that is enough Though it is moreover sufficiently attested that Saint John the Apostle was the Authour of it both by the Testimony of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus who lived very near the time of its writing Lastly Those that were at first doubted of were not afterwards rashly admitted into the Canon but were admitted upon carefull enquiry mature deliberation and unexceptionable Testimony For as they were at first own'd by some and disputed by others this became a matter of debate in the Church and that obliged them to make farther enquiry after the evidence of their Authority and by that means the whole Church was at last satisfied of that which at first onely a part of it was able to prove And this might come to pass after this manner the Apostles directed many of their Epistles to particular Churches so that it is possible that some of them might be known to some Churches and not to others who therefore doubting of them put those who asserted them to have been true Apostolical Writings to prove their Assertion and they it seems brought such evident proof of their Tradition as gain'd the consent of the whole Church to their Authority And this probably they did by producing the Originals written under the Apostles own hands and reserved in the Archives of the several Churches For that many such there were Tertullian informs us even in his time and to them refers the Men of his own Age for their full satisfaction § X. And therefore it is but a very slender Witticism of Mr. Hobbs in derogation of the Authority of the holy Scripture when he has acknowledg'd that the Writers of the New Testament lived all in less than an Age after Christ's Ascension and had all of them seen our Saviour or been his Disciples except Saint Paul and Saint Luke and consequently that whatsoever was written by them is as ancient as the time of the Apostles yet were they made canonical Scripture onely by the Authority of the Church that is the Council of Laodicea which first collected the Canon of the Scriptures and recommended them to us as the Writings of those Apostles and Disciples under whose Names they go hereby wittily intimating or rather broadly asserting that these Writings were not canonical Scripture till that Council that is till the year 364. But first Supposing that it is not the Authour but the Authority of the Church that makes a Book Canonical then were the Books of the New Testament made so long before the Council of Laodicea in that we find them enumerated in the Apostolical Canons which though they were not compil'd by Clement as was vulgarly supposed yet were they the Decrees of Councils in the first and second Ages succeeding the Apostles So that upon this account they were stamp't Canonical almost as soon as they were written Secondly The Testimony of the Church neither is nor can be any more than a proof or an argument of the Original and Divine Authority of the canonical Books as any other Testimony is or may be Thus when we cite Clement of Rome Ignatius Policarp Justin Martyr Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus yes and Celsus himself that lived either in or near the Apostles times as giving in Testimony to their Writings no Man can without very wilfull impertinence thence infer that it is they that give the Books their Divine Authority when it is so evident that they are onely made use of as competent Witnesses to attest that they were no forged Writings but were pen'd by those very Persons under whose Names they go and if they are then they themselves make good their own Authority For Authority is nothing else but the right or power of binding our Assent which unless it be done by the Authour himself it is impossible to be done by any other and all the Councils in the World can never give Divine Authority to any Book if it had it not before All their Office is to bear testimony to their Authenticalness and it is no inconsiderable Evidence of it when so many grave and learned Men of the first Ages of Christianity upon mature deliberation of the whole matter in Council declare that upon the strictest enquiry they are fully satisfied that those Books were written by those very Authours whose Names they bear But from hence to infer as the Leviathan does that their canonical Authority that is their being the Law of God depends entirely upon the Decree of the Church as if it could give or take it away at pleasure onely becomes Mr. Hobbs's Logick and Modesty and them it becomes equally for it is very hard to determine whether the Conclusion be more impudent or more impertinent § XI And now beside this direct demonstrative proof of the Apostolical Antiquity and Authority of the holy Scriptures which alone is a full demonstration of the Divinity of the Christian Institution there is another more remote way of proving the truth of the History insisted upon by learned Men that is by the concurrent Testimony of foreign Writers Jews or Heathens who lived in or about the same time but this Evidence is so weak in comparison of that which I have already produced that I shall not prosecute it as an Argument in my Cause but rather consider it as an Objection against it viz. That if the History of our Saviour were so known and notorious as is pretended how comes it to pass that so little notice is taken of it by any Authours but onely such as were his own Disciples There were many other excellent Writers especially Historians about that time so that if his Actions had been so great and remarkable as his Disciples tell us they were it is scarce credible that they should pass him over with so slender a regard and scarce any mention of him In answer to this I shall in the sequel of this Discourse give a satisfactory and rational account of the Infidelity both of Jews and Heathens notwithstanding Christianity brought along with it all that Evidence that we pretend it did But beside this I shall here shew that the best Writers of that time concur with and so confirm the main strokes of our Saviour's History and by consequence all the rest that is interwoven with them especially when what they write is purely to deliver matter of Fact without any design to serve the cause of Christianity For when all things
claps one or both of these upon them to make up the Objection And yet beside that they are a confession of the matter of Fact it self they are things of which he was obliged by his Principles to entertain as little belief as of the Christian Faith For the power of Magick supposes some Spirits or Beings distinct from Matter and Motion and the Resurrection of Men from the Grave supposes Souls distinct from Bloud and Brains both which are meer contradictions to the Epicurean Philosophy And therefore he could not design to oppose them to the cause of Christianity for any truth that he supposed in them but onely thereby to intimate that as they were Fables so might that too Which is such a slender way of arguing as onely betrays its own weakness for when I have demonstrated the truth of a thing with all the Evidence that any matter of Fact is capable of is it not a poor come off onely to reply That yet there are the same kind of Stories that neither I nor perhaps any Man else believes There are so but then the difference is this that the Story that I believe is vouched with all the Testimony in the World and that is the reason of my belief but the Stories that I do not believe are on the contrary destitute of all manner of Attestation and that is the reason of my disbelief so childish is this great and shrewd reflection of this witty Philosopher But beside these there are several other passages that we have already consider'd and therefore shall not here repeat neither is it fit to pursue every bubble that he has blown up but whatsoever is any way pertinent to the matter of Fact that is indeed to the Argument though never so remotely I shall give it as much confutation as and perhaps more than it deserves And when I have done that will make up a new demonstration of the truth of Christianity for thereby we shall see how little its greatest Enemies were able to object against it The Cavils of his first Book then are such as these viz. Their clancular Meetings against the Laws their being a barbarous Sect as springing from the Jews and not the Grecians Moses not being so ancient as is pretended the World not being created as he relates because eternal and his teaching the Jews to worship Angels our Saviour's being a Magician himself being poor and his Disciples ignorant First then they kept clancular Meetings against the Laws Against what Laws Why against such as forbid the Worship of the onely true God and in its stead injoin the Worship of Idols and dead Men. But as for the publick Laws against the Christians I have already given a sufficient account of their Iniquity Though as Celsus has managed the Cavil it needs no reply because it is a vain thing meerly to urge the Laws unless he had vindicated their goodness and justice in that there may be bad as well as good Laws And therefore unless he would have undertaken to make good the piety of those Laws that command the Worship of their Heathen Gods that himself knew to be no better than very bad Men he had much better have let the Laws alone But in the next place the Christians are a Barbarous Sect that had their beginning among the Jews not the Grecians But 't is no matter whence they sprang so they bring a good evidence of the truth of their cause and of this Origen tells him they had from the very beginning to that very day a demonstration that exceeds all their pretended Learning and that is the demonstration of power or the power of Miracles But alas this objection of Barbarity is nothing more than meerly an Instance of the Pedantick pride of the Greeks who valued themselves above the common rate of Mankind and looked down with intolerable scorn and contempt upon all the World beside But as for their great improvements in learning above other Nations of which they so much boasted among themselves I need here say nothing though I must confess I find nothing so valuable among their choicest Philosophers but when I lookt for the reasoning of Men I could find little better in any of them than Childish tricks and sports of Sophistry But however to pass that by I am sure no Nation in the World ever equall'd the Greeks in the Barbarity of their Religion and though with this Celsus and his Companions were at that time sufficiently upbraided yet it is too well known that they could never be prevail'd with so much as to undertake its defence But in the next place Christianity he sayes gives no Laws of Morality but such as the Philosophers taught and were common to Mankind before To this Origen replyes 't is very true in that there could be no exercise for the Justice and Providence of God or obligation of the duty of Men without a sense and knowledge of the Laws of good and evil And therefore it was requisite to have the Seeds of those Moral Notions which God taught by his Prophets and his Son planted in the hearts and consciences of all Mankind that in the final judgment every Man might be justly call'd to an account for the faithful discharge of his duty But beside is not this a fit objection to follow that of Barbarity or their Ignorance in the Grecian Philosophy that the Christian Church agreed in all their main points and Doctrines with the Schools of the Philosophers The next thing objected is credulity and contempt of humane Learning But the charge of credulity is already answer'd by those undenyable proofs that are produced for the Divine Authority of the Christian Faith And as for the humane learning that they despised it was nothing but the Pedantry of the Grecian Philosophers who whilst they pretended to the height and perfection of all Wisdom fell into the extreamest ignorance and folly And to mention no more what thinks he of the celebrated Founder of his own Séct who with abundance of pride and arrogance boasted that he had rid the World of a God and a Providence but with such trifling reasonings as are below the Bablings and Follies of Children Let them therefore cease to upbraid the Christians with the neglect of their Learning when there cannot be a greater Argument of true wisdom and a right understanding of things than to see through its folly And in the next place as for the Antiquity of Moses he had as good have let that alone too when Porphyrie or any other Learned Man conversant in Histories of Ancient times could have told him that nothing is more evident or undenyable than that Moses lived many Ages before Linus or Orpheus or any other the most Ancient Writers among the Grecians But it is the custome of Epicureans to be confident upon the slightest Enquiries Otherwise if he had taken never so little pains in searching and comparing Ancient Records he could never have put such a
in the Gospel that other Historians are concern'd to record as well as the Christians are exactly true that is at least a very fair probability that the Christian Writers were faithfull in those other Relations that are peculiar to their own History And this is all that can be expected from foreign Testimony for if such Writers had been exact in the Records of our Saviour's Actions they had then been Christians and not Jews or Heathens Supposing them therefore as they were no Friends to Christianity they have given in all that suffrage to it that can be reasonably demanded from them And now as for the proof hereof it had been much more easie than it is had it not been for the pride and vanity of some of our modern Criticks who care very little what becomes of the truth or falshood of things so they can shew their censuring Faculty upon words and particularly they have in this case set themselves with their utmost critical Severity to disparage or destroy the most eminent Testimonies cited by the Ancients out of foreign Writers in behalf of Christianity Scaliger the Father of them all led the Dance upon what motive I cannot imagine unless it were out of Envy to the Fame and Glory of Eusebius against whom he particularly set himself and his endeavours but however the design looking like a Novelty and carrying in it an ostentation of Learning for that reason alone he could not want a great number of Followers among that sort of Men. But to what little purpose they have spent all their pains and peevishness I now come to represent And here first Josephus the Jew who was contemporary with the Apostles agrees all along with the Evangelists in the History of that time He gives the same account and description of John the Baptist as we reade in the Gospels He gives us the same narration of Herod the Tetrarch and particularly of his marrying his Brother's Wife He mentions the Tax of Cyrenius He records the Acts of the several Governours of Judaea Pontius Pilate Felix and Portius Festus and describes the succession of the several High priests Caiaphas Joha and Alexander the death of Herod Agrippa and of Saint James the Brother of our Lord nay he gives not onely a just History but an high Character of our Lord himself All which our learned Men are willing enough to pass as certain and warrantable History excepting onely that passage concerning our Saviour Onely there is one difficulty in the Tax of Cyrenius which Saint Luke says was about the time of our Saviour's Nativity but Josephus not till after the Banishment of Archelaus which hapned at least nine years after the Death of Herod so that which way to reconcile this difference learned Men have been much puzled and towards its solution have started variety of Conjectures And therefore though it is of no very great concernment I shall give some account of it before I proceed to the Testimony concerning Jesus § XII And first of all Baronius tells us plainly that Josephus is mistaken but then this is to cut the Knot not to untie it for our business is to reconcile him and the sacred History but if we utterly reject him instead of answering the Objection we grant it viz. that there are irreconcileable differences between him and the Evangelists Though here I cannot but wonder at the unusual disingenuity of Casaubon who whereas Baronius affirms that Josephus does in many things of Chronology contradict Saint Luke and therefore if we must stand to his Authority that will enforce us to reject the Evangelist he I say inveighs and declaims upon this as if it were Baronius his Assertion and not his Argument and rates him severely as if he had positively affirm'd that the Testimony of Josephus was sufficient to oblige us to quit that of the Evangelist Whereas he onely makes use of it as a forcible Objection against appealing to Josephus in any matters wherein he contradicts the Scriptures for in such cases says he we cannot admit him without rejecting them Now I say from hence to infer that Baronius affirm'd that we were obliged so to doe became not the ingenuity of a learned Man But the truth of it is to observe once for all Casaubon was little less partial towards one Extreme than Baronius towards the other For as it was the custom of that learned Cardinal and the Writers of the Church of Rome to rake together every thing that might serve their Cause embracing the forged and spurious as well as the true and undoubted records of Antiquity So Casaubon and the learned Men of his way have been as diligent to weaken the Authority of all the most ancient and most authentick Writers so that there is not the least slip in any of the Ancients that they have not observed in their critical Notes upon them and beside that they reject whole Books of the best and earliest Antiquity But by this means they have between them both done this great service to the Christian Church that as they have discover'd the fraud of supposititious Books so they have confirm'd the Authority of the true and genuine And it is by occasion of their disputes that we are come to a certain knowledge of all the sincere records of Antiquity So that at last the Epistles of Ignatius and the Apostolical Canons that have been most of all opposed have by those great endeavours that have been employed to destroy their Authority gain'd and will for ever keep as undoubted a credit as the most unquestion'd pieces of Justin Martyr or Irenaeus The next guess is that of Beza which is followed and variously emproved by Scaliger Casaubon Grotius and others viz. That Cyrenius was employed by Augustus to take two several Musters of the People one with a Tax and the other without it and that was it that was made at the time of our Saviour's Birth For Augustus designing that compendious Account of the Roman Empire which Historians so often speak of and which he left as a guide and direction to his Successours in the Empire sent several Officers through the several Provinces to take an exact account of the number and condition of the Inhabitants and for this purpose though Quintilius Varus were then Prefect of Syria Cyrenius was join'd in Commission with him as a Person that was by reason of his residence in Syria and his Wars in Cilicia exactly acquainted with the Affairs of the East as afterwards he was sent with C. Caesar on the same Errand and when Judaea was reduced into the form of a Province after the Banishment of Archelaus and the first Tax to be imposed immediately by the Romans upon the People he was particularly singled out as the Person most able to manage it So that it is not unlikely that he might be employed in this business though not himself but Quintilius Varus was then Prefect of Syria And if this be so then
so near and yet so prodigious And when they had as it was an easie matter assured themselves of its truth and reality this could not but provoke them to an eager enquiry after the meaning of so strange a thing And when they were assured that the Miracle was wrought by the Followers of that Jesus who was lately crucified and that they declared themselves Eye witnesses of his Resurrection from the dead and withall professed that they were endued with this power of Miracles from Heaven onely for an undoubted evidence and confirmation of the truth of their Testimony they had not power to withstand the force of such a mighty and astonishing demonstration And it was this demonstration of the Spirit and of Power as Saint Paul styles it rather than the strength of their Arguments as cogent as they were that first baffled the unbelieving World into Christianity and forced in the assents of Men to the truth and Divine Authority of its Doctrine They did not put their Auditours to the trouble of examining the validity of their Testimony but prevented all enquiries by this infallible confirmation The evidence of their Miracles was such an irrefragable Argument of the truth of their Testimony as surmounted the power of all other demonstration And what rational Man would stay to expect any other proof of a Divine Testimony that has seen it unquestionably attested by a Divine Power Or who could doubt and dispute after he had seen Devils dispossest the Sick healed and the dead raised This was such an almighty attestation to their preaching that it upbraided away their Scruples and bore away their Understandings And by this means it was that the Gospel prevail'd so easily and so speedily over all the World Its first preachers converted whole Cities and Nations in a moment and founded new Churches upon one undeniable Miracle and nothing less considering all circumstances of things and all the disadvantages under which it laboured could so soon have propagated the Gospel over all the World And thus if we trace the Apostolical History we scarce find any thing transacted without a Miracle insomuch that the People at length familiarly resorted to them for the cure of all kind of Diseases Acts 5. 12. And this power was so vulgarly known at that time that Saint Paul insists upon it as the proof of his true Apostleship Rom. 15. 18 18. 2 Cor. 12. 12. which had been too absurd a thing to alledge to his Followers in confutation of his Enemies if it had been a meer Fiction for if it were they knew it to be so when he appeals to the Signs and Wonders he had already wrought among them and if he had wrought none they could not but convict him of falshood But though I have already proved the certainty of the Records of the New Testament and so might from thence rationally enough make out the truth of these Apostolical Miracles and though I have in part proved the sufficiency of the Tradition of the Church to attest both them and all things contained in them and shall anon more distinctly shew the undoubted and uninterrupted conveyance of it from the very Apostles themselves so that if they had not been true they could never have gain'd belief yet in this present Argument I will not build upon these or any other suppositions and indeed if I suppose them this Argument would be needless for once granting the Scriptures to be true and authentick Records of the Apostles actions to what purpose is it to go about to prove that they were endued with a power of Miracles when the Record alone is an undoubted proof of it And therefore I onely argue from the nature of the thing it self viz. That it is impossible the Christian Faith lying under all those disadvantages above represented could ever have been propagated with that speed and facility that it was all the World over any other way than by this power of working Miracles and on the contrary that supposing this evidence that they gave the World by their Miracles that then it was natural and almost necessary that they should meet with the success they did Here then lies the force of my present Argument that when it was impossible they should compass their design any other way and when it was natural if they took this course to succeed in it and when it is certain that they had such wonderfull success that is a manifest Argument that they were endued with such a power of Miracles as is reported of them And therefore I did not produce those Testimonies of Scripture but now alledged as proofs to justifie the truth of the Argument but onely as instances to exemplifie the practice of it v. g. how incredible it is that 3000 People when they heard the Apostles affirm at Whitsontide that the same Jesus whom they had seen so shamefully executed at Easter was risen from the Grave and ascended into Heaven should so immediately believe them upon their bare Report but when they beheld that miraculous effect of the Holy Ghost in them whereby such illiterate Persons were enabled to speak all manner of Languages that alone could not but satisfie them of the truth of their Testimony So that I argue not from the truth of the Record but from the nature of the thing it self which could not have been done any other way than as it is recorded to have been done I might here also confirm the truth of their Miracles by the confession of their greatest Enemies in that I do not find that ever any of them denied them to have been done but instead of that ascribe them to the power of Magick though how foolish that evasion is I shall shew when I come to consider their evasions to this Argument at present this very surmise is a plain confession of the reality of the thing it self and that goes a great way as to evidence when coming out of the mouth of an Adversary but this having suggested I shall not farther insist upon it § XXIV Onely there is one thing remaining that adds great force to the strength of this Argument viz. That this power was not meerly confined to the Apostolical Age but was continued down to the next Ages of the Church which if true it is an undeniable Evidence of the truth of the Apostolical Miracles in particular and of the Divinity of the Christian Religion in general And yet of the truth of these we have no one thing for which we have better Records It is unanimously attested by all Writers of those times and that in such a publick and extraordinary way as raises their Testimony up to certain demonstration for they do not barely report it but they upbraid it to all their Adversaries as a thing undeniable they challenge Emperours Proconsuls the whole Senate in their Apologies and publick Writings to convince them by experiment they urge it in their Disputes with learned Men and dare them to contradict it
this way of conveyance is insisted upon by the Ancients themselves in justification of the Catholick Truth both against Hereticks and Insidels Thus the Apostolical Tradition says Irenaeus is spread all the World over and this every Man that pleases may find in every Church and we are able to reckon up all those that were appointed by the Apostles to be their Successours and Bishops in the Churches of Christ down to our own time But because it would be too tedious in such a Discourse as this to enumerate the Succession of all Churches I shall onely instance in those great ancient and famous Churches that were founded at Rome by those two glorious Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul hereby to shew the Tradition of that Faith that was preached by the Apostles to have been safely conveyed by the Succession of Bishops down to our own time And I choose to exemplifie this thing in this Church rather than any other because of its great preheminence and resort from all parts of the World upon which account its Tradition must needs be more publick and better known The blessed Apostles therefore having laid the Foundations of the Church delivered the oversight of it to Linus of whom Saint Paul makes mention in his Epistle to Timothy to him succeeds Anacletus then Clemens who familiarly conversed with the Apostles and had their Preaching still sounding in his Ears and their Tradition before his Eyes In whose time there hapned a great Schism in the Church of Corinth to allay which the Church of Rome directed an excellent Epistle to them in which she exhorts them to Peace and Unity rubs up their memory of the primitive Faith and sets before them the fresh Tradition of the Apostles themselves To him succeeds Evaristus to Evaristus Alexander and then Sixtus Telesphorus Higinus Pius Anicetus Soter and now Eleutherius in the twelfth place from the Apostles This is a clear and an accurate account of the Apostolical Succession of that Church so that it is impossible to understand how there should ever have been a Bishop in it unless we begin the Succession from the Apostles and then this is an undeniable proof of the certainty of their Tradition as in all other places so particularly in that great and populous City And this very Argument Epiphanius insists upon against the Carpocratians And let no Man wonder says he that I so accurately and carefully set down every single Person in the Succession because hereby the undoubted truth that has been from the beginning will evidently appear And the truth is granting the Succession it would be a pretty hard task to avoid the Tradition and yet against that there lies onely one poor exception viz. That some ancient Writers place Clement in the first place who here stands in the third but that to pass by many other conjectures and especially a very probable one of Epiphanius is clear'd by one that is more than probable and founded upon the Authority of the Ancients themselves that there were at first two Churches at Rome one of the Circumcision over which Saint Peter presided another of the Uncircumcision founded and govern'd by Saint Paul who as we reade in the last Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles left the obstinate Jews to preach to the Gentiles neither is this conjecture a little confirm'd by this very passage of Irenaeus who speaks not of the Church of Rome as a single Church but as two distinct and those eminent Churches from the beginning so that though Clement were immediate Successour in one of them yet he might be the third in the other in that surviving Linus and Cletus and the difference between Jew and Gentile being in a great measure worn away both Churches might naturally unite into one Body under his Jurisdiction Others object to mudd the succession that some Writers place both Cletus and Anacletus before Clemens as if they were distinct Persons But this is a mistake of later Writers who sometimes finding these different names in the Copies of the ancient Books concluded them different Persons but herein they go against the Authority of all the ancient Writers themselves and particularly of Eusebius whose account ought to be valued beyond all others because he collected the succession of Bishops out of the Archives and Diptychs of the Churches themselves to which he particularly refers in the succession of the Church of Jerusalem So that here is no real difficulty or labyrinth as to the succession and all that seems to be is onely occasion'd by an easie and obvious mistake of some later Writers against the more ancient and unquestionable Authority After the same manner does Tertullian triumph over the Hereticks by challenging them to prescribe for their Opinions from the beginning as the Catholicks were able to doe for theirs The truth says he will appear from its Antiquity that is true and delivered by the Lord himself that we find most ancient but that is foreign and false that was brought in afterwards and if they shall dare to pretend to the Apostolical Age let them produce the Originals of the Churches let them describe the succession of their Bishops and so derive it from the beginning as that the first Bishop should have succeeded to some Apostle or some Apostolical Man that conversed with the Apostles For in this way it is that the Apostolical Churches prove their Original as the Church of Smyrna will produce Policarp placed there by Saint John the Church of Rome Clement ordain'd by Saint Peter and so for all other Churches they shew you the Men that were settled in their Episcopal Office by the Apostles themselves and conveyed down their Doctrine to Posterity And again this is the onely Testimony of the truth its possession from the beginning and for this you that are concern'd to enquire more diligently after your Salvation may travel over the Apostolical Churches where the very seats in which the Apostles presided are still remaining where their own authentick Letters are still extant Do you live in or near to Achaia go to Corinth In Macedonia to Philippi or Thessalonica In Asia to Ephesus In Italy to Rome And this certainly as it was sufficient to prescribe to all the Innovations of the Hereticks so was it to demonstrate the undoubted truth and certainty of the Christian Religion when it was so clearly and so uninterruptedly deliver'd down from the first Founders of it And the truth is the succession of Bishops in the principal Churches was so accurately recorded by the Ancients that it had never been so much as call'd in question had not some Men been forced to it onely to justifie themselves in their departing from it it having been the custom of all but especially the most famous Churches to keep an exact Register of the Names and the Deaths of their Bishops which they call'd Diptychs and though it is objected that these Records are now lost and so are
same time and laid down their Lives out of that undoubted assurance they had of its truth and certainty We may now with much more reason doubt of what was done to his late Majesty in January 1648. than they could at that time of the Testimony of the Apostles concerning the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Neither did the current of this Tradition stop here in the Corinthian Church but as it came down from the first Witnesses so it descended in the same chanel to after-times for as the Apostolical Writings are own'd by this Epistle so is this Epistle by those who could not but be certain of its Authority especially Dionysius Bishop of that Church to whom it was written for as Saint Clement's Epistle was written not long after the time of the Apostles probably in the Reign of Domitian so was that of Dionysius written not at a greater distance from Saint Clemens for he flourished in the time of M. Aurelius and had full assurance of its being authentick from its having been constantly read in the Corinthian Church So that the Tradition of the Apostles Testimony was as certain in that Church in the time of that Emperour who began his Reign about the year 161. as it was in their own time so that if the Corinthians who lived in the time of Dionisius had been contemporary to the Apostles themselves they could not have had a more satisfactory and unquestionable information of the truth of those things that they preached than was given them from so clear and uninterrupted a Tradition for that being so entirely free from all manner of doubt and suspicion the distance of time made no alteration as to the certainty of the thing § XXX To the Testimony of this Apostolical Man we may joyn that of Ignatius Policarp Papias and Quadratus as having all conversed with the followers and familiars of our Saviour And first as for Ignatius he was educated under the Apostles themselves and by them constituted Bishop of the great City of Antioch where he sate many years and govern'd his charge with extraordinary zeal and prudence and at last with infinite courage and alacrity suffer'd Martyrdom for the Testimony of his Faith There have been great Controversies of late in the Christian World concerning his Epistles though with how little reason on their side that oppose them I have accounted elsewhere and though I shall by and by make use of their Authority and make it good too yet our present Argument is not concern'd in that dispute for whether these Epistles that at this time pass under his name be genuine or counterfeit it is certain that there was such a Man and that he wrote such Epistles and if so then he is another competent Witness of the truth of the Apostolical Testimony and his great sense of Immortality and earnest desire of Martyrdom shew his great assurance of our Saviour's Resurrection upon which they were founded so that he is another undoubted Witness of the Apostolical Tradition viz. That the Christian Faith descended from the Apostles and that they gave that proof of their Testimony that is recorded of them in the holy Scriptures And by his Testimony of the truth of all that Christianity pretends to is the Tradition of the Apostles connected with the certain History of after-times so as to leave no dark and unknown Interval wherein the Story pretended to have been formerly acted by the Apostles might have been first obtruded upon the World but on the contrary to make it undeniably evident that there could never have been any such Story had it not first descended from the Apostles But though this be enough to my purpose for attesting the truth of the Apostolical History by such a near and immediate Witness to make the Tradition of the Church certain and uninterrupted yet I will not wave that advantage that I have from this glorious Martyr's Epistles because they breathe so much the genuine spirit of the ancient Christianity especially as to the undoubted assurance of a future Immortality which shews what mighty satisfaction they had of the reality of the thing that they so firmly believed and so vehemently desired And as for the Epistles themselves they are so strongly and unanimously attested by the Records of the ancient Church that they had never been so much as question'd but for their resolute Opposition to some Mens Prejudices for they being resolved in their own Innovation of Church-government contrary to that of the Apostolical and primitive Constitution which these Epistles so zealously assert and that as establisht by the command of God and thereby made necessary to the peace of the Christian Church they had no way left but stubbornly I ought to have said impudently to reject their Authority But alas that is so admirably vouched as if the Providence of God had purposely design'd to secure their credit for ever And particularly in the first place by his Friend Policarp who sent a Copy of them to the Church of Philippi with a Letter of his own now Policarp's Epistle was never question'd nay it was for some hundred years after publickly read in the Churches of Asia how then is it possible to avoid so clear and certain a Testimony as this they have no other way but onely by saying that this particular passage was foisted in without any shadow of ground for the surmise nay contrary to the common sense of Mankind that an Epistle so universally known to the learned and the unlearned should be so easily corrupted and the corruption never taken notice of and when this counterfeit passage was thrust into it contrary to the faith of all the publick Books it should pass down uncontroul'd and unquestion'd to all after-ages Nay farther if it were forged it must have been before the time of Eusebius who gives an account of it and believes it genuine and yet himself affirms that it was at his time publickly read in Churches as Saint Jerome afterwards that it was in his now it is a very probable thing that Eusebius would be imposed upon by one private Copy contrary to the faith of all the publick Books or that he should impose the mistake upon all that followed him when the same Books were preserved in the same publick manner till the time of Saint Jerome But beside this they have another shift altogether as groundless and not less bold viz. That it is true that there had been such Epistles of Ignatius that Policarp speaks of but that a little before Eusebius his time the true ones were lost and a counterfeit Copy put upon the World which as it is nothing but meer conjecture for the sake of a desperate cause and void of all pretence of probability so it is incredible in it self and not possible in the course of humane Affairs that such a famous Writing of such an ancient and apostolical Bishop of such an eminent and glorious Martyr written at such a time at the
very point of his dissolution as his Legacy to the Christian Church communicated to several Churches publickly and vulgarly known attested by Saint Policarp Irenaeus Clemens of Alexandria and not long since by Origen 't is not possible that all the Copies of such a Writing as this should be lost about one and the same time and that a false one should immediately rise up in their stead and that Eusebius a Man so familiarly acquainted with the choicest Libraries of that part of the World should embrace so late and so gross a Forgery and put the mistake upon all learned Men that followed after him The Man that can satisfie himself with such wild surmises and suppositions as these there is nothing so absurd but he may easily swallow its belief nor so demonstratively proved but he may withstand its evidence Now the Authority of these Epistles being vindicated and I am apt to think that they will never more be call'd in question they are a brave and generous Assertion of the truth of the Christian Faith being written with that mighty assurance of Mind that shews the Authour of them to have had an absolute certainty or a kind of an infallible knowledge of the things that he believed In every Epistle his Faith is resolved into that undoubted evidence that he had of our Saviour's Death and Resurrection and particularly in that to the Church of Smyrna he protests that he could no more doubt of its reality than of his own chains and again positively affirms that he knew it to be true And yet not withstanding that all the ancient Copies and all the quotations of the Ancients out of him agree in this sense that he knew Jesus to be in the flesh after his death because in Saint Jerom's Translation who excuses himself for the haste and carelesness of the work it is rendred that he saw Jesus in the flesh this is made use of by the learned Men of our new Church of Geneva as a sufficient Objection to overthrow the Authority of all these Epistles It is possible indeed he might have seen Jesus in the flesh but it is not probable neither is it his design to affirm it in this place seeing he proves its truth from the Testimony of the Apostles as Eye-witnesses and not from his own immediate knowledge but when he onely says that from them he knew it to be true to put this assertion upon him that he saw it with his own eyes against the reading of all the ancient Books from a careless Translation proves nothing but the invincible stubbornness of prejudice and partiality But the truth is these Men have been so zealous for their Faction as not to care how in pursuit of it they endanger'd nay destroyed their Religion For whereas one of the greatest Pillars of the Christian Faith is the Testimony of the Ancients in the Age next to the Apostles in that it is hereby particularly proved that it is no figment of an unknown time and that the Records of it were of that Antiquity that they pretend to be yet because they do as positively assert the original Constitution of the Christian Church which this faction of Men have hapned to renounce they have labour'd with indefatigable industry utterly to overthrow all their Authority but thanks be to God with that ill success that by their endeavour to shake our Faith they have onely made it to take the better root for by this occasion the most ancient Tradition of the primitive Church has been much more inquired into and better clear'd than if it had passed without any dispute or contradictition But to keep close to our Ignatius what has been the bottom of all the zeal and fury against his Epistles but his earnest pressing all good Christians to submit to the government of the Church as to the Ordinance of God or rather because he describes the Constitution of the primitive Platform so accurately as to condemn their Discipline of folly and rashness in departing from the prescription of God himself And yet all the ancient Doctours of the Church have done the same thing laying as great a stress as he has done upon the duty of Obedience to their Ecclesiastical Governours as set over them by Divine Institution For as there was nothing of which they were then more tender than the Peace and Unity of the Church so they thought it could be no other way preserved than by submission to those Guides and Governours that Christ had set over it This it were easie to make evident out of their Writings especially Saint Cyprian's who as he was a Person of very great prudence and discretion so is he full as peremptory in this point as Ignatius But I shall onely instance in the Epistle of Saint Clement because of its greater Antiquity For if that assert a certain form of Church government establisht by our Saviour and observed by the Apostles that prevents and confutes the groundless conjecture of an unknown time immediately after the Apostles in which the whole power of the Church devolved upon the Presbyters because they had appointed no one particular and perpetual form of Government And this Saint Clement asserts in these positive words The Apostles were appointed to preach the Gospel to us from our Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ from God himself Christ being sent by God and the Apostles by him the sending of both was in an orderly manner after the will of God For the Apostles receiving their command and having a full confidence through the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and faith in the word of God with an assurance of the Holy Spirit went forth publishing the Gospel of the Kingdom of God which was erecting They therefore preached the Word through divers Countries and Cities ordaining every where the first fruits of such as believed having made proof and trial of them by the Spirit to be Overfeers and Deacons to minister unto them that should afterwards believe So that it seems they were so far from neglecting to provide Governours for the future state of the Church that they were carefull beforehand to provide Governours for future Churches And this he affirms the Apostles did because they understood by our Lord Jesus Christ that strife and contention would arise about the Title of Episcopacy for this cause therefore having absolute knowledge beforehand thereof they ordained the forenamed Officers and for the future gave them moreover in command that whensoever they should dye others well approved of should succeed into their Office and Ministery So that it is evident that the Apostles themselves by virtue of our Saviour's order observed and prescribed a particular form of Government to be continued down to future Ages And though our Authour does not express the several distinct Orders by the common names of Bishop Priest and Deacon yet he describes them as expresly by allusion to the Jewish Hierarchy under the names of High-priest Priest and Levite
Into which number grant I may be received this day being found in thy sight as a fair and acceptable Sacrifice such an one as Thou thy self hast prepared that so Thou mayest accomplish what Thou O true and faithfull God hast foreshewn Wherefore I praise Thee for all thy Mercies I bless Thee I glorifie Thee through the eternal high Priest thy beloved Son Jesus Christ with whom to thy self and the Holy Ghost be glory both now and for ever Amen To this eminent Martyrdom of Saint Policarp and the Asiaticks I cannot but subjoin that of Pothinus Bishop of Lyons and his Companions in that they suffer'd under the same Prince with the same Christian Courage and Resolution especially because Pothinus also was of a very great Age and almost as near the Apostolical times as Policarp and probably sent by him into these Western parts and lastly because it is attested by publick and undoubted Epistles sent from the Church of Lyons by Irenaeus to the Bishop of Rome and the Churches of Asia of both which Epistles Scaliger himself has given this just and deserved Encomium that as they are of the most ancient Martyrdoms in the Church so the reading of them cannot but so affect every pious and devout Mind as never to be satiated with it and as for my own part says he I do protest that I never met with any thing in all the History of the Church by the reading whereof I have been so much transported as scarce to be my self and particularly of the Acts of the Martyrs of Lyons what can be read more brave or more venerable in all the Monuments of Christian Antiquity And the truth is it is a very amazing Story and one of the greatest examples both of the Modesty and the Courage of the primitive Christians for as they were treated with new and unheard of Cruelties so their behaviour under all their Torments was decent and free from all appearance either of Vanity or Passion Now what can be the meaning of these things that such Men as Policarp and Pothinus to whom I should have added Pionius that suffer'd gallantly about the same time who lived so near the time of our Saviour who had such opportunity to search into the truth of those things that were reported of him should thus frankly resign their Lives upon any less account than the full assurance of the truth of those things that they believed But though this be sufficient to make good the Evidence of the first and apostolical Tradition of the Church from the Testimony of these two eminent Martyrs yet before I quit it it will be convenient to clear off one Objection in which as the ancient Church in general so Policarp in particular is concern'd and that is the contradictory Tradition about the observation of Easter both Parties pretending to derive their different Customs from the Apostles Policarp and the Churches of the lesser Asia from Saint John the Church of Rome from Saint Peter Now if this be so why should it not destroy the credit of their Tradition when they make so little Conscience as to fasten contradictions upon the Apostles themselves Great use has of late been made of this Objection by all the Enemies of the primitive Church Mr. Hales in the time of his peevishness and before he was reconciled to the Church of England has with great scorn upbraided its grossness and folly And it is one of Daille's Topicks against the use and authority of the Fathers and how often it has been since objected by others it is needless here to repeat And yet when all is done it proves nothing but that some Men have a very great Itch to be finding fault for otherwise this grossness and folly this phantastick hurry in which all the World were Schismaticks as Mr. Hales is pleased to speak of it with a great many other good words is a very remarkable instance both of the faithfulness the wisedom and the temper of the primitive Christians For that the custom of the Eastern and Western Church in this thing was different from the beginning is evident from their different practice and so must have descended from the Apostles themselves who might in this as well as other things casually and without design prescribe different Usages Saint John in those parts of Asia where he resided continuing Easter after the manner of the Jewish Passover Saint Peter and Saint Paul in other places to prevent too much Judaising in its observation making the same little alteration in its time as was made in the Sabbath and in this matter of complying with or changing Jewish Customs the Apostles varied their Orders according to circumstances of time and place sometime coming up closer to them sometime keeping at a greater distance according to the judgment of their own discretion Now these different Customs about Easter being once casually settled in the Church in process of time they began to be matter of contention among the People as we know the common People are always zealous for their own Customs whatever they are And therefore to stifle this fire that was broke out among them Policarp a Man of the greatest Authority in Asia undertakes a Journey to Rome if possible to allay and compose the Controversie where upon debate between him and Anicetus they conclude it the most proper course that could be taken for the peace of the Church that both Parties should retain their own Customs without any breach of Charity or Communion and to declare this to the World they communicate together at the holy Sacrament Policarp consecrating the Eucharist in the Church of Anicetus and so they parted lovingly and continued ever after good Friends This is all the grossness and folly that I know of that these good Men were guilty of in their management of this Controversie Though it seems it was afterward revived by the indiscretion of one Man Victor Bishop of Rome who would needs take upon him to command the Asiaticks to conform to the practice of his and all other Churches under the penalty of Excommunication To this they return him a sober Answer represent the inconvenience of changing so ancient a Custom disclaim his Power and Jurisdiction over them and advise him rather to consult the Peace and Unity of the Catholick Church than to impose upon them particular Customs contrary to the practice of their Ancestours Neither was this done by them alone but by almost all the Bishops of the Christian World though they were of his own way unanimously condemning his heat and rashness in so trivial a thing and among the rest Irenaeus having convened a Synod in France writes him a Synodical Epistle to this purpose That he agreed with him in his Observation of Easter but not in the Necessity of it that it was a very unadvised thing to think of excommunicating whole Churches for observing the ancient Customs derived down to them from their Ancestours that there was as
met with many Bishops and found them all of one Mind and teaching the same Doctrine and having given some account of Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians he adds that the Church remain'd after that in the pure and right Doctrine untill the time of Primus Bishop there with whom sayling to Rome I conferred and abode many days being come to Rome I stayed there till the time of Anicetus whose Deacon was Eleutherius whom Soter succeeded and after him Eleutherius In all their Succession and in every one of their Cities it is no otherways taught than as the Law and the Prophets and the Lord himself preached This is a singular Testimony of the sincere Tradition not onely of one or two or a few Churches but of the Catholick Church And as he described the Ecclesiastical Succession every where so has he the rise and birth of Heresies and particularly in the Church of Jerusalem After that James sirnamed the Just had suffer'd Martyrdom his Uncle Simeon the Son of Cleophas was chosen Bishop being preferred by the unanimous Vote of all because he was the Lord's Kinsman And hitherto that Church was call'd a pure Virgin because as yet it had not been deflour'd with any false Doctrines But Thebalis being displeased that he was not chosen Bishop secretly endeavour'd to debauch it from whom sprang those many Heresies that he afterward reckons up and so having elsewhere described the Martyrdom of Saint Simeon he adds untill those times the Church of God remain'd a pure and undefiled Virgin For such as endeavour'd to corrupt the perfect Rule and the sincere delivery of the Faith hid themselves till that time in secret and obscure places but after that the sacred Company of the Apostles was worn out and that generation was wholly spent that by special favour had heard with their Ears the heavenly Wisedom of the Son of God then the conspiracy of wicked and detestable Heresies through the fraud and imposture of such as affected to be masters of new and strange Doctrines took rooting And because none of the Apostles were then surviving they published with all imaginable confidence and boldness their false conceits and impugned the old plain certain and known truth At these passages I must stop a little because though they are a great Testimony of the purity of the primitive Church yet I find them very confidently made use of by Innovatours as unanswerable Arguments for rejecting its Authority Thus Gittichius an eager Socinian contending with Ruarus both concerning Grotius his way of writing in making so much use of citations out of the ancient Fathers in his Commentaries and withall concerning the primitive Fasts of the Church which Schliclingius and some of that party began to imitate condemns it not onely as altogether useless but dangerous De antiquitate in Religionis negotio statuo extra ipsas sacras novi foederis literas in iis exempla Apostolorum nullius omnino antiquitatis habendam cuiquam Christiano ullam rationem And then proves his Assertion from this passage of Hegesippus and the more ancient he says the Tradition is after the time of the Apostles so much the worse it is because from the very time of their dissolution the Church was overrun with Heresie and Superstition So peevish are Men against the honour and authority of the ancient Church when they are sensible of their own Apostasie from it And the truth is all our Innovatours agree in this one principle and that for this one very good reason because the ancient Church if it were permitted to give judgment upon them condemns them all For these Men finding errours and corruptions in the Church of Rome instead of reforming them as they ought to have done according to the Constitution of the primitive Church they fall to contriving new Models and Bodies of Divinity out of their own brains And among others Socinus disliking the Calvinian Theology as contrary not onely to the holy Scriptures but to the first principles of natural Religion sets up a new Divinity of his own contrivance without ever enquiring into the Doctrine and Discipline of the ancient Church and being advised of his flying so wide of it he together with his followers rather than part with their own fine new Notions of which they had the honour to be the first Authours and Abettours will by no means allow of any such thing as a true and uncorrupted Church ever since the time of the Apostles But with what vanity and arrogance it is none of my present task to enquire onely in answer to this Objection I must reply that it is a very wide and I am sure very far from a civil Inference to conclude that because there were Heresies in the primitive Church there was nothing else And they might with as much reason have applied the Objection against the Apostolical Church it self because then as the Apostles themselves complain the Tares were sowing though it seems not so openly and so impudently as afterwards Nay upon these terms it is impossible their should ever be any such thing as a true Church in the World for as long as there are such things as Pride and Vanity among Mankind there will be such Men in all Societies as will be tainted with their own idle dreams and conceits and then rub their itch upon the common People But though there were Heresies in the primitive Church which I say was not to be avoided as long as it consisted of Men yet they were never able to prevail but after some struggling for admittance were sooner or later utterly stifled And we have as certain a Tradition of the Birth Growth and Death of Heresies as we have of the true Doctrines of the Church and it is very considerable that all the ancient Doctours of the Church overwhelm the Hereticks with this one Argument by convicting them of apparent Innovation and deriving down their own Doctrines from the Apostles themselves So that though there were Heresies in the primitive Church yet its Apostolical Tradition was never mixt or tainted with them but run down in a pure and clear chanel by it self And therefore it is a very childish as well as disingenuous Objection against its Authority that there were some Men in it that would have been corrupting the purity of its Doctrine but were never able to compass their design especially when they were so far from passing undiscover'd or uncontroul'd that we have as certain an account both of the Men and of their Opinions and their inconsistency with the Apostolical Tradition as we have of the new fangled conceits of our own present Innovatours And therefore there is no more danger of our swallowing down old Heresies together with the Tradition of the Church than there is of sucking in their new ones whilst we adhere faithfully to that And thus having upon occasion of this particular passage of this ancient Authour cleared the Authority of the ancient Church in
upon such appeals and challenges as these that is an evident Demonstration of their undoubted truth and reality And this may suffice for the proof of the truth of Scripture-history supposing the Books of it were written by those Persons whose Names they bear Though beside this it is no inconsiderable proof of their Integrity that Eusebius has observed in their impartial way of writing Thus onely Saint Matthew himself of all the Evangelists takes notice of his own dishonourable Employment before his Conversion and Saint Mark who wrote his Gospel from the information of Saint Peter is observably sparing in those things that might tend to the praise of that Apostle and so could not with decent modesty be reported by himself but more exact than any other of the Evangelists in the description of his shamefull Fall Thus when Saint Peter had so frankly own'd our Saviour for the Messias Saint Matthew relates our Saviour's Answer with a high Commendation of him Blessed art thou Simon Bar Jona for Flesh and Bloud hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven Then charged he his Disciples that they should tell no Man that he was Jesus the Christ. Whereas in Saint Mark all these magnificent Expressions of our Saviour to Saint Peter are modestly omitted and all the Answer that is there made is no more than this And he charged them that they should tell no Man And so again though Saint Mark in all his other Relations is more compendious than any of the other Evangelists yet in the Story of Saint Peter's denial of his Saviour he is most of all circumstantial And whereas Saint Matthew and Saint Luke set off the greatness of his Repentance afterwards by saying that he wept bitterly Saint Mark expresses it more modestly onely that he wept Now when Writers pass by such things as make for their own praise and record their own Faults and Miscarriages that without their own discovery might never have been known to Posterity they are of all Men least to be suspected of falsehood and give the strongest proof in the World of their love to Truth and Sincerity So again granting that they would not stick at any falsehood to advance their Master's Honour and Reputation yet to what purpose should they forge Lyes of his Disgraces and Sufferings especially all those shamefull Circumstances that they have recorded of his Condemnation and Execution Now if we believe them in the black and tragical part of the Story why not in all For if they onely design'd to set off their Master's Greatness why do they so carefully acquaint the World with the History of his Misfortunes Why do they tell us of his great Agony before his Passion of his scourgings and Mockings of his purple Robe and reeden Scepter of the Contumelies and Reproaches that were thrown at him whilst he was hanging on the Gibbet of his being forsaken by all his Followers of his being abjured by the most zealous of them all and that without the application of Racks or Torments These things if not true to what purpose should they invent them nay if true why should they not doe what they were able to stiflle them if the onely design of their Romance had been to gain Honour to their Master So that if they were honest and faithfull in those sad Relations concerning him why not in those that carry Triumph and Reputation in them For if they had design'd to lye for his Glory they must have baulk't every thing that might any way offend the Reader And if they had design'd a Romance instead of that plain Story that they have recorded to Posterity they would have told us that Judas had no sooner given the treacherous Kiss but he was turn'd into a Stone that the Hand that struck him was immediately wither'd that Caiphas and his Accusers were struck blind that the Souldiers who supposed they had apprehended him had onely seised a Phantasm whilst he vanisht away that his Judges were befoold in all their phantastick Process against him whilst he stood invisible among them despising their Mock-solemnity In short was it in all humane Accounts much more becoming the grandeur and dignity of that Person that he pretended to be that he should not have been obnoxious to the common Miseries and Calamities of humane Life but that when by his Divine Power he had establisht his Kingdom in the World he should have return'd back to Heaven without any suffering and with all the Ornaments of Glory and Triumph This certainly had been much more proper matter for a Romance if they had design'd nothing but their Master's Greatness than to have fain'd those mixt Actions that are recorded of him in the Gospels and those that would have believed their other Reports would not have disbelieved these And therefore seeing they would not corrupt or suppress the Truth in the unpleasant part of the Story we have no ground to suspect them of the least falsehood in any other part of it howsoever in it self strange and miraculous when it is so evident that their design was real Truth and not their Master's Greatness § VIII But if we believe the Books of Scripture were not written by those Authours whose Names they bear then we must believe that either they were forged in their days or afterwards If in their days then they either own'd them as true or not If they vouched them they gave them the same Authority as if they had been indited by themselves If they disown'd them as containing Reports that they knew to be false then they themselves were obliged to discover the Imposture which having never done that is an undeniable evidence that if they were written in their time either they themselves writ them or at least approved of them But if they were written afterwards how came they to meet with such an early and universal reception in the Christian Churches We find them always own'd as the undoubted records of the Evangelists and Apostles in the most ancient Writers that lived after them nay some with them Now how is it possible that Books that contain in them matters so strange and wonderfull if they had been counterfeit and spurious and thrust upon the World after the death of those Persons whose names they pretend to bear should command such a catholick and unquestionable reputation If indeed they had pretended to have lain obscure for some time and to have been afterwards retrieved there might have been some ground of suspicion But when they are own'd as the most ancient and undoubted records of the Church