according to the Law of Moses which we cannot conceive after seventy years they could so exactly have done or would ever have attempted to have done it had not they had the Law with them while Esdras himself was yâ—tâ—n Babylon and when Esdras did come to Jerusalem we find in the 8th of Nehemiah the people were so far from wanting the Law or staying for any such Restoration or Re-penning of it by him as is pretended that they desired him only to read the Law openly to them which he immediately did as a thing they were then possessed of and which was notorious amongst them Fifthly 'T is no way probable that Esdras should so Re-pen the Bible because we find his own writings full of Caldee words as also the Prophecie of Daniel but all that part of the Bible written before the Captivity is in pure Hebrew and 't is no way conceiveable but that if he had Re-penn'd the whole he would have written it in the same way he wrote his own Books and according to the Idiome that was then in use amongst the Jews either wholly in Caldee or else with some mixture of Caldee and Hebrew together The whole of this Story does evidently appear to be a Romantick fable taken out of a Book sâ—ust with many vain and ridiculous follies and is contradicted by another Apecryphal Book of much better credit 〈◊〉 wee 'l depend upon such Evidence for in the second Book of the Maccabees we are there told that the Tabernacle and the Ark in the sides of which the Law we know was placed were sâ—cured by the Prophet Jeremie and hid in a Cave at Mount Nebo when Jerusalem and the Temple were burnt And if any such thing were though the Law be not particularly mentioned yet being always kept in the Ark â—â—s not to be doubted but Jeremie preserved it with the Ark and had an especial reference to the securing of it in what he then did This we affirm as a truth to which both Jews and Christians have assented that at the return of the people out of Babylon the care of Esdras about the Bible and that great Synagogue that was then according to Moses his first institution assembled in which were present Haggai Zacharie Malachy Nehemias and Zerubbabel was very eminent and great and to this day we derive singular advantages from it For first with great diligence they made an exact seperation between such Writings as were of Divine Inspiration dictated by the Holy Ghost and were to be a standing Rule to the Church in all Ages and all other Writings whatsoever whether written by true Prophets or false for even true Prophets and such as were most eminent might and without doubt many of them did write diverse things without any immediate assistance or direction from God and consequently which were nor of Divine Authority they collected all the sacred parts of the Old Testament together which during the Captivity lay dispersed in private hands no publick use being made of them Incorporated the whole into one intire Volumn an admirable work in the order we now have it which before was not possible to be for several Psalms several of the Prophecies and some other Books were written after the coming of the people into Babylon and it does no where appear that those parts written before were conjoyned in one intire Volumn more of them then the five Books of Moses the Original Copy whereof Moses himself delivered in a publick assembly to the Levites to be layed up in the sides of the Ark the peculiar Archive God had by his special command appointed for it the whole of the Old Testament so united they ranked under three Classes and divided into three parts which division was continued amongst the Jews till the times of our Saviour who in the 24th of St. Luke refers to it when he sayes All things ought to be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms Secondly Their care in securing the Original Text of the Scripture was eminently great and most highly is it to be applauded in adding points to the Hebrew Letters to preserve the Knowledge of the Tongue and facilitate the reading and Learning of it dividing the sacred Writings into Verses with many other things of that kind most probably first begun by them of which the Jewish Writers give us a large account The whole of their indeavours this way and of those amongst the Jews that succeeded them therein was called the Massora which God wonderfully blessed to preserve the purity of the Hebrew Text and to deliver the Old Testament safely and intirely over to us What a useful and most laborious enterprize this Massora was we may know by the description Buxtorffe gives of it in the second Chapter of his most excellent Commentarius Massorethicus Massora sayes he est Doctrina critica a priscis Hebraeorum sapientibus circa Textum Hebraeum Sacrae Scripturae ingeniosâ— inventa quâ— Versas Voces Literae ejus nâ—meratae omnisque ipsarum variet as notata suis locis cum singulorum versuum recitatione indicata est ut sic constans genuina ejus lectio conservetur ab omni mutatione aut corruptio e aeternum preservetur valide premuniatur The Massora is a critical Learning about the Hebrew Text of the Sacred Scripture ingeniosly invented by the Ancient wise men amongst the Jews in which the Verses words and Letters are all numbred and all their variations particularly noted and set down in their proper places with a recital of the particular Verses that so the constant and genuine reading of the Scripture may be preserved and for ever secured against all change or corruption And that Ezra and this great Synagogue were most probably the first Authors and Contrivers of the Massâ—ra however augmented by others in after Ages and not some learned Jews at Tiberias that long lived after ouâ— Saviour as some have supposed Buxtorffe in the Eleventh Chap. of the samebook hath largely and learnedly proved from the best and most Ancient Writers amongst the Jews and thus concludes upon the whole Haec communis est Hebraeorum sententia Massoram a viris Synagogae magnae prosectam esse This is the common opinion amongst the Jews that the Massora came from the men of the great Synagogue Thirdly That Ezra and that great Synagogue to render the sacred Text more intelligible and make the truth of some Historical Relations more evident did make some small additions and some verbal alterations in some places is greatly probable and it might easily be done but no Re-penning the Bible nor the least violation offered to the sacred Record nor to the credit of its Authority nor can the least Objection though many have indeavoured it be raised from hence to that purpose when so many Persons of an infallible Spirit were present in that Assembly and who were without doubt Divinely directed about what they did in that matter In
of those who have themselves Universally proclaimed the Bible in all Ages to be the great and infallible Rule of the Christian Religion So that if Christian-tradition be credited the Authority of the Bible is thereby established And if it be dis-believed in thaâ— there can be then no good reason to receivâ— any other matter touching the Christian Religion upon the credit of that conveyance To retain therefore the name of a Christian and yet disown the Bible is to become a perfect Problem No such man can produce anâ— Laws or Rules of his Religion nor give anâ— account wherein they are contained or bâ— whom or by what Church with an exclusion of the Bible they have been at any timâ— Received Nor can any man rationally make a Partiaâ— rejection of the Bible and retain a Christian Profession from thence in a Limited sensâ— of his own For a man to say he receive the Bible as he receives other credible writings as a book generally True and written by men that meant honestly and well but believes it not written with an Infallible Spirit nor to carry a Divine Authority along with it nor submits to it as such is to say a thing extreamly incongruous to all good sense and to indulge himself in a perfect Absurdity For the Bible comes to us with a claim oâ— God's Authority attending it speaks to us in his Name is a Book that disowns all humane contrivement proposeth it self as written by Divine Inspiration and Immediate Direction from God admits of no Composition for its Reception In such a case there can be no Middle-way but either we must receive this Book and submit to it as such or else reject it with the justest contempt imaginable It is in nothing to be credited if it be not in Truth what it pretends to be For there cannot be a more vile and pernitious falshood imposed upon the world then to counterfeit a Divine Law and to pretend that to come from Heaven and to be sent us from God which is nothing but the product of Men. Whoever will admit these premisses that the Scriptures were not written in every part of them by the infallible direction of the Holy Ghost when they themselves tell us that they were so must needs descend to this conclusion that they then contain the most impudent falshood and were composed by the worst designers against mankind The Christian Religion and the Scriptures being so related and standing in so near a conjunction as they do The being of the one having so necessary a dependance upon the Truth and Authority of the other 'T will be easily granted to be the great concern of the Christian Church in all ages to assert their Divine Authority and to justify that Book to be written by men that were indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinely inspired and to be sent us from God as that supreme Law by which he would inform Rule and Judge the World He that undertakes this Province and designs to himself such a service is obliged First To consider with whom he is like to encounter And to proportion his defence to those various assaults the Scripture are usually exposed to This being admitted which it ought to be that no man can with any good Reason close with the Christian Religion and at the same time Renounce the Bible That Maxime of St. Austin being undeniable that Contra Scripturas nemo Christianus There are but three sorts of men by whom the Scriptures can at any time be generally Attact and from whose principles their sacred Authority can receive an Universal Invasion First Such who wholly deny the being of God and consequently of all Religion for God and Religion are Relatives such who wallow in the mire of an Atheistical profession Secondly Such who admit the Being of God and a supreme and first cause but deny his providence and believe he is no way concer'd about the World nor troubles himself to exercise any Rule or Dominion at all over it Thirdly Such who admit the Being of God and the existence of Religion and providence but reject the Christian Religion as not True and embrace some other in opposition to it Of those first-born Monsters of Mankind that Anomalous off-spring who deny the Being of God whose principles contain in them the utmost dreggs of all humane Apostacy and are of all others the most wild and absurd for as Cicero sayes Deos esse ita perspicuum est ut is qui negat vix eum sanae mentis existimem The Being of the Gods is so evident that no man can be thought well in his wits that denies it A previous consideration is necessary to whatever is said upon this or any other Divine subject and therefore I have already contested with such and dispatcht all my concernes with them in order to this matter and the last converse I mean to have with that evil generation of whom it may most truely be said They are not only the avowed opposers of all Religion but indeed they are Hostes Humani generis The common enemies of all mankind Who by denying a Supreme Being above demolish the great support of all well-being here below Of this belief they were heretofore at Athens in those primitive times of Atheism and first dawnings of â—speculative Irreligion upon the World and therefore Cotta tells us in Cicero that when Protagoras began his Books with this Introduction to Atheism De Diis neque ut sint neque ut non sint habeo dicere Atheniensum jussu Urbe atque Agro est exterminatus Librique ejus in concione combusti And he adds Ex quo equidem existimo tardiores ad hanc sententiam profitendam multos esse factos quippe cum poenam ne dubitatio quidem effugere potuisset For those secundary Enemies to the Bible and together with that of all Religion such who admit the Being of God but deny all Providence and Divine Rule over the World such who out of shame disown the grand principle of Atheism but yet by this Method secure all the effects of it to themselves Of those a preliminary consideration on ought to be had A previous confutation of such principles being of absolute necessity to make way for the discourse in hand For it must needs be a vain and impracticable project to indeavour to prove any Book to be Divine and a Law given forth from God if there be no such Law any where in Being which we are sure there never can be if God no way concernes himself with what men do nor exercises any Dominion at all over them 'T is plain such principles do uno ictu dispatch all Religion out of the World put a perfect period to all Divinity and render it a thing very absurd to submit either in our belief or practice to any thing as Divine To this purpose Cicero concludes in his first Book De nat Deor. Sin autem Dii says he neque possunt nos juvare nec volunt
they foretold things that came not to pass they were no way to credit them So we find it in the eighteenth of Deuteronomy 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 The certain predicting of future events was an unquestionable evidence of a Divine Commission And this way many of the Prophets were justifyed in those Ages wherein they lived As particularly the Prophet Hosea who with the Prophet Amos was sent to the Ten Tribes at the same time that Isaiah and Micah were to Judah And in the sixth year of Hezekiah to which time it appears Hosea himself survived his Prophesie long before against the Ten Tribes was actually fulfilled and the destruction he prophesied of came actually and visibly upon the Ten Tribes at that time by the Hand of the King of Assyâ—â—a And others of them had the like Justification though sometimes it fell out to be later and the events of their Prophesies could not be known till after-ages Nor did any one Pen-Man of the Scriptures or any Prophet of God ever mistake in a tittle in this kind For although sometimes the judgements they prophetically threatned were not actually inflicted at those times they were threatned so to be yet that could not be the least derogation from the truth of their Prophesies because God still reserved a supream and sovereign power of Pardon and Forgiveness to himself in such cases And all such prophetical Threatnings were still denounced with a reserve in case of repentance And God himself to justifie his own Prophets did publickly declare thus much At what Instant I shall speak concerning a Nation or concerning a Kingdom to plâ—ck up and to pull down and destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from the evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them c. But the total and final decision of all Questions that could arise among the Jews touching the several parts of the Old Testament God was pleased to make in the times of Ezra and that famous Synagogue That after so long and sad a captivity assembled to reform what was amiss and to revive the glory of that decayed Church and State which God had promised to restore and continue amongst those two Tribes of Judah and Benjamin until the Messiah should come several of the last Prophets being personally present They by a divine direction collected all the Parts of the Old Testament together some of which as the Prophesies of Jeremiah and Amos and other Prophesies sent from God and which came by Divine Inspiration were wholly rejected by the corrupt ruling part of the Judaical Church in those times wherein they were first uttered made a perfect separation not only between the Works of True Prophets and False and such Writings as came by Divine Inspiration and such as were only of Humane Extraction but between such as were to be of a perpetual continuance and a standing Rule to the Church and such as related onely to particular Cases and were not so They by God's direction punctually setled the Canon of the Old Testament put a perfect period to all Doubts in those times about this whole business and in that settlement of the Scripture then made the Jewish Church fully acquiesced and to it firmly adhered till the times of Christ and the Apostles From whose Divine Authority we have aâ— re-establishment of all that was then done For the New Testament as God was pleased to establish the first Foundation of all Written Revelation in Moses his time upon evidence from Heaven beyond all compass of Question so the compleating and finishing what God intended that way the laying the Top-stone of that Fabrick which was done in the writing of the New Testament was accompanyed with such manifest Effects of a Divine and Almighty Power that no man that lived in those times could make any reasonable doubt about it There were in this case the greatest Miracles to confirm the most excellent Doctrine and 't is not possible to be upon surer grounds in point of Revelation The Miracles were then apparent and visible And the excellency of the Doctrine appeared these two wayes First That in it self simply considered it introduced a Religion wherein all the great and desireable ends both of God and Man in the judgment of all unprejudiced Reason were to the utmost attained and wherein all that the World had in that kind at any time before arrived at was far out-done and exceeded And secondly In a relative way in that it evidently appeared and that in a very singular and extraordinary manner to be the great accomplishment of all that God had before promised and foretold The natural Off-spring of the Old Testament and that which the Scriptures before written throughout travelled withal Indeed the Genuine Issue of all former Revelation and so was incireled with all that Divine Justification that any former Revelation had been at any time accompanied with And in the distinct publication of all the particular Parts of the New Testament men had these two grounds of satisfaction in those times First If we admit that Epistle to the Hebrews to come either from St. Paul or some other Apostolical Hand of the latter of which the Epistle it self sufficiently assures us And for the former there seems to be good evidence from some passages in St. Peter And no man can be so reasonably supposed to write a Determination of that grand Question then on foot about the abolition of the whole Judaical Policy as the great Apostle of the Gentiles I say If we admit this Epistle to come from an Apostolical Hand Every Part of it was then written by Apostles and Evangelists men not onely perfectly knowing in all the Transactions of our Saviour but every one of them then known to be men of extraordinary Endowments in Office under Him and with the highest Delegation of his own Power entrusted by Him And as the Writing of the Old Testament ended with the Prophets so the writing of the New had its period in the Apostles Secondly All the several Parts at several times and by several hands written appear so to promote one and the same Design are so much the same in Doctrine do so harmonize in the same Tendency and End and have such a relation each to other that whatever Reasons there were in the general to satisfie men in those times about the Truth of our Saviour and the Religion by him established and there was all that could be expected from Heaven in that case the same would go very far to resolve all such Doubts as could be made about any particular Parts of the New Testament then written Secondly How can we now come certainly to know the true Compass and Extent of Holy Writ How can we know
a Word that famous and venerable Senate in which the last of the Prophets were present all parts of the Old Testament being compleated and the whole Prophecy that God vouchsafed till the coming of the Messiah delivered applied themselves to the punctual Collection of the several parts together and securing the Original text against any corruption or alteration exactly setled the Canon of the Old Testament which the Jews kept punctually to till the times of our Saviour who fully approved the Scriptures as he then found the Jews in possession of them Secondly That any parts of the Bible or any Books dictated by the Holy Ghost are wholly Lost we utterly deny The affirmation of it is neither consisting with the notion of Divine providence in General nor can any particular proof be brought to make it good Those who insist upon this as Bellarmine and some of the Papists do thereby to gain an advantage to the Church when 't is put in ballance with the Bible And others with design by proving the Loss of any Part to invalidate the Authority of the Whole instance in the three thousand parables or proverbs of Solomon and a thousand and five songs spoken of 1 King 4.32 The Books of Nathan the Prophet and Gad the Seer mentioned in the second of Chronicles The Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite and the visions of Iddo or Addo the Seer spoken of in the 2 Chron. 9. and some others And under the New Testament an Epistle of St. Paul written as they suppose to the Laodicaeans mentioned Colos 4.16 Although very many of these Writings mentioned in the Old Testament seem to refer to other parts of Scripture contained in the Bible In particular 't is probable that Nathan and Gad wrote some parts of the Books of Samâ—â— and the Kings so much at least as concern's the Actions of David of which they were exactly knowing if they wrote not the whole Second Book of Samuel and the first of the Kings which some upon probable grounds supposes yet Admit all these were other writings then are now contained in any part of the Bible it will no way follow they were ever any part of Canonical Scripture When the Scripture mention's Books written by these or any other Men and relates historically to the matter oâ— them as St Paul sometimes quoted Heathâ— Authors Will that Infer They are parts of the Bible By no means Nay the very Writers of the Bible themselves such as David Solâ—mon and others of the Prophets might and without all doubt some of them did Write many things in an ordinary way that were True without any Divine or Infallible direction and which were never incorporated with the Bible and so says St. Austin in his 18th Book De civ Dei says be Those Prophet whom it pleased the Holy Spirit to inspire wrote some things as Men And those works we have 〈◊〉 in our Canon nor had the Jews in theirs and other things as from the mouth of God and these works are really Distinct Some being held their own as Men and some the Lords as speaking by them And therefore He that will prove from hence that any parts of the Bible are Lost must first be well assured that These are no parts of the Scriptures we are now possessed of and Secondly that admitting they are not That they were written by an Infallible Spirit and ence within the Canon Of which Latter we are well assâ—red the least proof cannot be made For the Jews were most faithful Preservers of those Oracles of God committed unto their change Nor were they ever so much as once blamed by Christ or the Apostles for any Miscarriage that way As for an Epistle supposed to be written by St. Paul under the New Testament to the Laodicaeons which is since Lost The supposition is frivolous and groundless For the words in the Greck are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that from Laodicaea Which cannot be understood of an Epistle written by St. Paul to Laodicae but of one written from Laodicaea either to the Colossians themselves which they then had by them or else to St. Paul which he sent them and required them to read it as containing something expedient for them to know The mistaken opinion from this place of an Epistle from St. Paul to the Laodicâ—ans hath most probably arisen from the ill rendition in the Vulgar Latin where the words are rendered illa quae est Laodicentium But without any ground from the Original Catherinus confesseth that according to the opinion of Chrisostome and Oecumenius Non hic nominari Epistolam a Paulo scriptam ad Laodicenses sed ex co loco scriptam That here 's no mention of any Epistle written by St. Paul to the Laodicaeans but of some Epistle written from Laodicaea That there was anciently a Counterfeit Epistle that pretended to be written by St. Paul to the Laodicaeans which is since lost is most true But in those times wherein 't was extant it was universally Rejected as Spurious and known so to be St. Jerome speaks of it but says Abomnibus exploditur The second Councel of Nice in their sixth Canon say thus of it Inter Epistolas Pauli Apostoli quaedam fertur ad Laodicenses quam Patres nostri tanquam Alienam reprobaverunt Tertullian against Marcion and Theophilact both reject it with great contempt and say 't is Apostolico nomine planâ— indigna And Bellarmine himself though he had formerly affirmed there was such an Epistle which was certainly Lost Yet in the first Chapter of his Book which he calls his Recognition or After-view of his works Retracts it says he was mistaken and that there never was any such thing as such an Epistle written by St. Paul So that all the Insinuations of this kind that any parts of the Bible any Books written by a Divine inspiration have been at any time Lost out of the world appear to be very weakly and ill Grounded And in truth the foot steps of Divine providence have been eminently visible in Securing those Holy writings upon this threefold account From Destruction Addition and Alteration First No accidents of Time nor Designs of its worst Enemies have Totally obliterated the Whole or any Part. Secondly Though many have attempted to piece in and add to it false and counterfeit Fragments and some whole Gospels yet in defiance to all those Essays the Scriptures have remained intire and stood like a Rock Impenetrable No Spurious Writings have been able to incorporate with this holy Book Such who have gone about to forge Scripture have but made the Lustre of the Bible more Eminent and more evidently shewed us the difference of Gods reâ—ealing from Heaven and Mens counterfeiting upon Earth Mens writing by the strength of humane abilities and mens writing as they were moved thereunto by the Holy Ghost Thirdly From Alteration No man has been suffer'd notwithstanding all the attempts of Hereticks to that purpose to pollute or corrupt it All
themselves were very long Preserved as most pretious Jewels in the Church Tertullian sayes some of them were extant in his time and we are told by some Authors of Credit that s Johns Gospel Written with his own Hand was preserved by the Church of Ephesus till the time of Honorius the Emperour Now let any reasonable man judge what a vast number of Copies were likely to be taken before the Originals perished and how highly improbable if not morally Impossible it was to impose a publick and general abuse upon the world by a false Transcription of such Writings while the Originals themselves lasted it could not be done Nor can we conceive the Christian Church so intollerable sottish and so universally Negligent as to take up with false Transcripts while the Originals were to be had to compare them withal and correct them by And before the Originals themselves perished such a vast multitude of True Copies generally known from the Originals so to be must needs be extant and we are historically assured actually were so that the scriptures were for ever thereby secured against any attempts that could possibly be made that way secondly If we consider how much this Book upon its first publication filled the world with Discourse what various Disputes there arose relating to all Parts of it wherein an Appeal on all sides was still made to the Letter of the Text and the Book it self how throughly all Passages in it were Discussed and Examined both by Jews Christians and Heathens urged and made use of in the warmest controversies in the pursuit of which by men of different Perswasions the mis-reciting or corrupting a Text would soon have been openly published If we consider by how many Authors in those times it was quoted and that it was then the continual and general study of the Christian-parts of the world and the constant and daily Work and Imployment of many amongst them to Preach and instruct the People out of it all this Considered it is most absurd to imagine that the least considerable Alteration could ever be made in such a Book without some notorious and universal discovery Nor could it ever possibly happen unless we 'l suppose that all men in some One Age of all Opinions that were possessed of the Bible should at once agree together to deface their Grand Charter their Magna Charta by which they held all to corrupt that sacred Depositum on which they wholly relyed for their present and eternal welfare to no other end but their own utmost ruine and to abuse all succeeding Generations secondly If we consider the New Testament it self as we now find it First ' t is in the Bulk of it so composed as does much secure us especially in all material things against all danger this way Either it must have been Generally attempted or in some Particulars To imagine any General attempt should that way be made is riâ—iculous nor do we hear one word that there was ever a Thought to endeavour any such thing And to effect an Altetation about any One Particular point is a thing could not easily be done because no little alteration would do it No considerable Truths could be Inverted without many alterations made because they are all generally grounded upon very many Texts witnessed unto from several places and indeed all the Eminent Truths of the New Testament are so interwoven together and have such a Dependency each upon other that it would be found a very hard Task to Deface the beauty of any One without giving a considerable Wound to the Wholes Nor in truth do we find any one Part of the New Testament that looks like a Patch set upon the rest nor any one Doctrine that savours in the least of any such sophistication This Book does not appear to be partly from God and partly from Men but there is One Divine spirit breathed visibly through the Whole ' T is all of a Piece Nor could any wicked design to Corrupt any one Part of it have taken effect but in all probability the rest would some way or other have made an opon Discovery of it Thirdly The various Readings we meet with in several copies of the New Testament are in themselves if duely considered a great evidence that the Originals have not been corrupted for such various readings of any place cannot be reasonably thought to arise from any design to vitiate and falsify the Text because such various Readings do rather accidentally tend to discover anything of that nature and secure against any Total and General Alteration and amongst them all to contain and preserve the Integrity and native sense of the Text and enable a diligent Reader by a through search and Examination of them to find it out Nor do we ever suppose that any Book that has passed through many hands and been often Transcribed to be totally Cortrupted or Changed because in some places of it we find various Lections but are thereby much secured that such Books have not been Designedly Altered And with good reason do judge that such various Lections are barely the effects of casual mistakes and that the Original sense of the Authour is still preserved and may by a careful and diligent inspection be found out amongst them And indeed those we find of some Texts in the New Testament are of such a nature that they all evidently appear the effects of humane frailty and onely such variations as might considering how vast a number of Copies were at first taken escape the best scribes and the greatest diligence Nor is there the least appearance of any Design or Contrivance to Vitiate the Original Text or any thing to be found that in the least degree looks that way in all those Various Readings that we find amongst such Copies as have been most anciently most generally and most publickly used in the Church by which we are to take out Measure in this matter 'T is in this case of great Consideration That no Particular designs of any bad men have been gratified nor any corrupt Ends attained nor indeed any Distinct Ends at all of any sort by any such diversity of readings which sufficiently shews they came not originally from Contrivement nor were Intended as the Foundation of any particular Notions but are the bare and single effects of Accident That the New Testament therefore has been in any Part of it wholly changed and corrupted there appeareth neither Certain not Probable ground to believe Nor indeed is there any good ground to believe that these Sacred Records have suffered the least violation in this kind First no man can prove that the Scriptures were ever Corrupted nor tell us by whom or When or the manner How which yet ought to be done if men will Reasonably Object in this case For no such Presumption as this that renders God in his Providence so Regardless of his Word and his Church and so Reproches the Christian Profession that has been
in such a Succession Established upon the Authority of this Book ought ever to be admitted without very positive Proof Especially when we have such apparent Reasons to believe the contrary By Whom is it I ask that the Bible could be corrupted It must have been either by Jews Pagans or Hereticks 'T is plain the Jews have not done it for we find multitudes of Texts that give in a daily witness against them which doubtless had they attempted the Bible in such a way they would never have suffered so to remain upon Record against them No part of the Pagan World can be reasonably thought to have done it for the Scriptures contain such an eminent Revelation of the One true God and his Worship as puts an end to all Heathenish vanities and at once dispatches all False gods out of the world Nor have Hereticks done it for 't is this Sword of the Spirit the Written Word of God that upon all occasions mortally wounds them the Scriptures have slain their thousands and their ten thousands in this kind 'T is the purity of the Scriptures in asserting the Orthodox Truths of Religion that has in all Ages kept up the Christian Verity and still brought all sorts of Hereticks to an open shame It has been the Wresting or Perverting not the Corrupting of Scripture from whence all Heresies have chiefly arisen and the native and genuine Sense of the Bible has still proved their Ruine Nor is there upon the whole of this matter any tolerable Reason to Doubt but that as God was pleased by his special Providence to Secure the Old Testament which we are sure he did and preserve it intire till the time of our Saviour so by the same Providence he has secured the Old and the New since and delivered them over to the Church in these latter Ages without any considerable variation from what they were when they were first written And this ought to be duely considered as an eminent help towards a rational Satisfaction in this point That the very same Objections which some men now please themselves with against the New Testament the Old Testament was equally lyable to in the times of our Saviour and the Apostles For after Esdras's time the Old Testament came into no Infallible bands till the times of the Gospel was conveyed by fallible means through many Ages down to those times had the same possibilities of Alteration then that the New Testament has now Various Lections also in the Hebrew copies were then extant And yet for all this the Scriptures of the Old Testament were then pure and intire Nor does our Saviour or the Apostoles mention the least defect that was then in them Nor was there in those eminent times of Reformation the least Question or doubt ever raised upon any such account One grand Objection is usually made upon the whole of this matter and 't is thus framed All these Arguments brought either to prove the Bible in general or to answer such particolar doubts as arise about it are built say some upon no better foundation then Huâ—anâ— and in themselves fallible grounds And if so we still embrace our Religion but upon uncertain terms can never from chance arrive at any positive and absolute assurance nor come to such a Divine and Infallible faith as we ought to have in this case In answering to this Objection this must be acknowledged that although the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament were at first Penned by the infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost yet the manner of their Conveyance to future Ages has been by Humane and in themselves fallible means The Grounds and Reasons of which disposal of God though we cannot pretend fully to reach yet we are thus far informed First the Scriptures could not have been by means in themselves absolutely infallible handed down to all Places and Ages without the visible continuance and constant exertion of such a supernatural and extraordinary Power as would have wholly inverted that course we find God most generally takes in his Rule and dispose of the World Secondly it would have prevented all that case and industry God intended to exercise his Church withall to their great advantage in the exact preservation of these sacred Records Thirdly there had been no room for a belief of not occasion for a dependance upon that Wisdom and Power God has expressed and wherein he has greatly honoured himself in an over-ruling disposal of ordinary means to such extraordinary Ends who has providentially secured this Book through all the several Channels of Humane conveyance This Objection is much urged First by those of the Roman Church on the one hand to convince us of the great uncertainty of our own profession and the stability of theirs And Secondly by men of Sceptical Principles on the other hand either to fright or perswade us or both out of all Religion by telling us There is no positive or absolute certainty in the grounds of any How serviceable this Objection though it has filled the World with great noise and clamour as it has been pressed both ways will prove to either of these designs and indeed with how great absurdity t is managed in order to both will be soon made to appear All belief of things Divine in an ordinary way I speak not of such Divine illumination as God may particularly vouchsafe to any â—ust of necessity be ultimately resolved into that we call Rational and Moral assurance for when we speak most properly of Divine faith we mean such a faith as is built upon a Divine Testimony not denominating it from the Object of it nor from the Effect of it which is less proper but from the Foundation and Ground of it Now Divine faith in that best and truest sense of it will be reduced into no more then a Moral a ssurance at last for if I say my faith is Divine because built upon a Divine Testimony 't is in some sense true But if I am asked by what means I came to know that Testimony to be Divine That question must needs bring me back to a Moral assurance as the ground of all my previous belief about that Divine Testimony it self that it really is so Whatsoever Revelation God makes of his mind to me I must needs without Divine assistance receive it upon Humane and in themselves fallible terms and so judge of it as I judg of all other things No man can receive my Revelation from God with a faith a Divine and infallible as the Revelation is in it self unless there be an equal inspiration in both cases and God make men as infallible in Judging of Revelation when proposed as he made the Instruments of it in the Act of its Conveyance The plain Question in this Case is how I come to receive all other things into my belief that are Objects of belief It must be confessed upon the grounds of Rational credibility and Moral assurance and therefore upon the