Phenomenon it would be also contrary to Sense since all unanimously testify there is such a thing But Sense certifies the Existence of that Phenomenon and Reason is truly perswaded that it is so Reason thinks it a very hard matter to understand and Sense affirms not the contrary Reason therefore and Sense perfectly well agree together and such is likewise the joint Agreement of Faith and Reason in the greatest Mysteries of Religion Those are Difficulties indeed worthy to be admired which Philosophy so confidently starts up in matters of Divinity There are many things in Nature whose Existence we readily own but nothing tho inconsiderable in it self the manner of which we can comprehend and yet it never came into any Man's Mind that had but common Sense to call them in question If then we shew our selves so very reasonable in Natural things why should we prove so senseless in matters of Religion In common things our Understanding acts naturally but in Religion 't is deluded by the Passions which continually seek how to suggest to it new occasions of Doubting We may pass the same Judgment upon matters of Grace Do but distinguish Philosophy from Divinity and you will avoid thereby an infinite number of Difficulties it being certain that for the most part they proceed either from the eager desire we have to understand what is altogether incomprehensible or from the Speculations we have already made upon that we could not comprehend Now to know the Injustice of Men in this we need but observe that most of them being fully perswaded that God preserves us nourishes and supports us by his perpetual Concurrence without which the Meat we eat and the Care we have of our Preservation would stand us in no stead and by which we immediately Subsist yet we never heard that any one did seriously conclude from thence that we ought wholly to lay aside the Care of our own Preservation and solely rely on the Concurrence of God We never saw any one so sensless as to perplex himself with these sorts of needless Questions If it can be said that I nourish my self by taking those Aliments as are absolutely requisite for my Preservation how can it be reasonably affirmed that God nourishes or preserves me Or if it be God as nourishes me how do I lie under an Obligation of doing it my self I say we never heard any of those Difficulties objected against Natural things whereas it appears they are continually started in matters of Religion However there are as good Grounds for them in the one as the other because they consist in the Dependence we have upon the Deity either in our being Creatures already or being born again or becoming new Creatures In Nature we all know we subsist only by the Concurrence of God without inquiring into the manner of it But in Religion we are not content to know that we are Regenerated by Grace we further desire to search into the manner of that Operation and our principal care is how to find it out so that those very Difficulties which could not perplex Men in matters of Eating and Drinking seem terrible and frightful to them when 't is requisite they should lead a good Life If you would know the reason of it you must consult the Heart of Man 'T will be sufficient for us if we Act with as much reason in Religion as we do in civil Life If we consult the purest Lights of Reason it will inform us that 't is as necessary the New Creature should have its Dependence upon God as that the Creature should depend upon him because God himself is as well the Author of the one as of the other and as our Bodies have neither Life Motion nor Being but from him so our Souls have no Faculties Knowledge or Affections but what they derive from thence Every Being comes from him and nothing but what is defective can have any other Principle The thing it self then is very certain I mean that there is such a Grace to which we must necessarily refer all the good that is within us and that belongs to Divinity But the manner of its operation that is the degree of virtue it displays over us the manner in which it determines our Free-will its minutest Conjunctures c. may be hidden Mysteries belonging to the consideration of Philosophy but not in the least prejudicial to our Faith which consists in an humble Submission as well as in Knowledg and can as readily profess its utter Ignorance of a hidden Mystery as it gladly perceives it when revealed I question whether Divines have observed that when the Apostles are pleased to point out to us what is most eminent in Mysteries they neither examine the Order of the Decrees of God nor the inconceivable Transmission of Original Sin whereby the Wickedness of the First Man was conveyed down to us nor why Grace seems incompatible with Free-will Whence proceeds this if not from their Ignorance of Philosophy and want of vain Curiosity which by their own Example they designed to teach us to avoid What is then according to them the great Mystery of Godliness This is it God was manifest in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels believed on in the World preached unto the Gentiles received up into Glory Tim. 3. 16. The Incarnation which is expressed in these Words God was manifest in the Flesh is a great and sublime Mystery but if we lay aside our Prejudices we shall find it conformable to our Reason 1. For it must be first of all granted that in this Covenant the Almighty debases not himself in favour of those with whom he makes it as we see in dishonourable Treaties where a King is upon equal terms with his Subjects This is a Covenant wherein God unites himself to the Creature without diminishing his Greatness and Glory and where the Creature unites it self to God without losing its due sense of Humility The Sun unites himself with the Cloud where it imprints its Brightness without an Eclipse and why should not God unite himself with an innocent Nature without lessening his real Worth and Dignity 2. We have an excellent Representation of this Truth in the Union of our Soul and Body where two Substances distinct in the highest degree are united together without having any natural proportion betwixt them What has the Soul to do with the Body And how can there be any Affinity betwixt things of so different a Nature It may perhaps be answered that there is a greater Disparity betwixt the Humane and Divine Nature than the Soul and the Body I agree that the Disparity is infinitely greater but the Diversity is still the same and there is a great deal of difference betwixt an Union which carries a mutual dependence along with it such as that of our Soul and Body and an Union which contains the dependence only on the one part such as that which is betwixt the Divine and Humane
Nature And what is most surprising in the former of those two Unions is to see that the Soul which is so noble a Being should be so closely fastened and united to Matter and even depend upon it in all its Operations Now 't is not so with the Incarnation of Christ And it can never be said that the Divine Nature depends on the Humane but contrariwise 't is the Humane Nature which depends on the Divine In this Union God remains the same as before All-perfect All-mighty All-full Eternal and Immutable but Man is changed and sanctified and exalted by it What Inconveniency then can there result from it As it is surprising to see a most noble Being subject to a less perfect Being so it is natural for a less perfect Being to be subject to one more Noble Now the latter of these the Mystery of the Incarnation evidently demonstrates and the Union of the Soul with the Body discovers the former It follows hence therefore that the Union of the Soul with the Body is in some sense very extraordinary and far more surprising than the Mystery of the Incarnation 3. If still you require another Representation of this Object that might further give you a clearer Notion of the same Conceive a false Sun composed of two different things so closely united together that they seem as it were confounded together viz. A Cloud and the Light of the Sun The Cloud is not the Sun nor is the Sun the Cloud And thus the Humane Nature of Christ is not the Divine Nature the same with the Humane This false Sun is a Sun and yet a Cloud so likewise Christ is God and Christ is Man This false Sun is formed of the Substance of the Earth because it is composed of a Cloud which is nothing else but the Vapours of it and of the Sun himself being formed out of those Beams in which the Body of that Planet consists so in like-manner Christ is taken from the Earth and is a part of the common Lump of Mankind because he is Man which does not hinder him from being the Substance of the Father since he is the Brightness of his Glory This is a very just Representation of that great Mystery but not perfect But we hope every just and equitable Reader will easily forgive the Defects of this Comparison in a Subject that is so far exalted above our weak Imagination 4. Moreover of all those who pretended to treat of the Nature of the Deity none but the Epicureans who thought it was idle and lazy divided it entirely from its Creatures and all other Men besides looked upon it as united to its Works The Heathens for instance imagined it was affixed to their Temples and Statues to which they supposed it constantly united But the Jews more properly looked upon God as being united in a more partilar manner to a Bush or a Cloud or the Ark. And several of the Incredulous now adays represent the Deity to themselves as an Vniversal Soul affixed to universal Matter just as our Soul is united to our Body If then it be so common to Men to conceive God as being united to his Works why should it seem so strange to them to represent him as closely united to the Humane Nature of Christ and that too in a more particular manner than to any of his other Creatures For if there be any Creature which the Deity may be united to it must necessarily be such an holy and innocent Creature as that is And if it be possible for God to unite himself to any living Body it is much more likely he should impart himself to the Soul of Jesus Christ. If an Ark was capable to be filled with the Presence of God there is not the least Difficulty in conceiving that Humane Nature being pure and holy and far perfecter than all the Arks in the World should have been thus honoured in a more particular manner And if Men in short stick not to make the Vniversal Soul as it were depending upon Matter by its Union to it why should we refuse to admit of an Union which leaves to God his intire Independence and Liberty and aims at nothing else but the bringing the Body and Soul of Christ in a greater subjection to Him We no sooner embrace the Mystery of the Incarnation but every thing that seems offensive in the Doctrin of Christian Religion will presently vanish We shall then easily comprehend that 't was possible for Christ to die since he was Man and that his Death is infinitely valuable since he was God And so great is the Dignity which proceeds from the Union of those two Natures that it makes the Death of Christ equivalent to the Punishments our Sins had so justly deserved We shall not then think it difficult to be fully convinced of the Truth of the Resurrection of our Lord for it would be unreasonable to suppose that a Nature as had been honoured with so particular an Union to the Deity should yet have been for ever dissolv'd and remain'd to all Eternity under the Power of Death But we shall think it very reasonable to imagin that it could not but have risen from the Grave into which it had been pleased to descend If then Christ be truly risen from the Dead can our Incredulous Reason still refuse to believe that we shall also rise again But how can that Reason contradict a Truth which the Disciples saw They beheld the Glory of Christ both in the Miracles which he performed and in his Holiness of life They saw God manifested in the Flesh and were Witnesses of the Resurrection of our Lord They perceived Angels coming down towards him The Gospel was preached to the Gentiles by their Ministry The World believed on their Preaching and Lastly they saw Christ ascending into Heaven all which were very sensible and evident matters of Fact The Mystery then of the Incarnation tho the hardest to comprehend of all those of Christian Religion implies however nothing contrary to Reason But we must except the most Holy and ever-blessed Trinity another Mystery which being infinitely exalted above the reach of our shallow Capacity is not easily reconcilable to it Nevertheless 't is most certain that the Sublimity of its Nature renders it not any ways repugnant to Reason 1 st Because the word Person is not to be taken in the same sense with that of Essence I grant that three Persons and one Person one Essence and three Essences implie a Contradiction but the Notion of one Essence and three Persons is not liable to any after you know the Signification of those two Terms 2 ly Because the Deity is so great and so sublime a Subject that we ought not to wonder if we can't reach to the Greatness of it by our weak Imagination 3 dly Because for ought we know the most considerable Difficulties of this Mystery proceed from a Defect of Revelation or the silence which holy Writ observes on that
account Perhaps we should not think it at all hard to conceive if the Holy Ghost had been pleased to reveal its Nature a little more clearly to us But such is the wonderful Conduct of God who is resolved to humble us and not to satisfy our vain Curiosity nor indulge the Pride of our Understanding which is too greedy of Knowledge 4 thly Because we are not wholly destitute of Images there being several capable to illustrate that Object tho never so incomprehensible in it self Thus for instance the same Soul is an Vnderstanding as it perceives a Will as it has a desire and a Memory as it recalls the things past to the Mind all which three Faculties are comprehended in one and the same Understanding In like manner also the same Light is in the Heavens a Sun in the Air Brightness and in the Cloud a false Sun 5 thly To all this we may yet further add that the greatest Difficulties of this Mystery proceed from those Speculations in which School Divinity has involved it to the great Scandal of our Faith and eternal Confusion of our Reason For who can endure the Liberty those Metaphysical Divines have taken in pretending to form and decide ridiculous rash and impious Questions concerning that greatest Mystery of our Religion Can we think any reasonable Man could read all their impertinent Questions without Indignation As whether several Divine Persons could take but one and the same Person Whether the Word could have taken upon him in an Hypostatical Union the Form of an Angel of a Beast of a Woman of an insensible Being of an Accident of an Act of Sin of a Devil so that if these Propositions were true God is a Sin a c. Whether the Word has taken the Soul in an Hypostatical Union rather than the Body or the Body rather than the Soul Whether if Man had not Sinned the Word would not have taken our Flesh upon him Whether Humane Nature was first united to the Essence or the Person Whether the Humane Nature was united to the Divine by several Unions Whether a Divine Person may take upon it self the Form of a created Person Whether Humanity was united to the Person of Christ by way of Accident or of Substance Whether the Humane and the Divine Nature are a part of Christ and whether Christ be two several things Whether Christ be of a create or uncreate Unity How it came to pass he did not take upon him the very individual Nature of Adam Whether this Proposition Christ is Man was true during those three Days he remained in the Grave Lastly Whether Christ should have died of old Age had he not been crucified in his Youth c. These are the only Difficulties that occur in the Christian Religion As for the rest 't is so essentially so visibly and so necessarily agreeable to Reason that we cannot but wonder that our Incredulous Adversaries have not yet perceived it This we have already sufficiently proved in several places of this Work and we cannot well insist further upon it without repeating again what has been already said It is sufficient therefore to observe that Christ is as it were the Reason of Nature Society and Religion He is the Light enlightening every thing without which we should fall into infinite Troubles and Perplexities Christ is the Center of all Events which seemingly relate to his coming he is the Center of Truths which are the more clearly revealed the nearer we approach him the Center of all the Mosaical Ceremonies which are meer Extravagance in themselves if they relate not to him the Center of all Virtues which have no sufficient Force or Motives able to induce us to practise them but by the consideration of Life and Immortality revealed to us in Christ the Center and Foundation of the inviolable Rule of Conscience which would be nothing else but Errour and Illusion if the Christian Faith were a Fable The Center of all those Characters of Wisdom visibly diplay'd in all the Works of God since nothing but the Christian Religion can lead Man to the true End of his Creation none but that can justify the Wisdom of God the Center of all the Hopes of Man for what is there that he could hope for if Christianity were a Lye The Center of all the Evidence and Certainty that is in our Knowledge for what is there that we could be certain of if our Soul were only a Disposition of Atoms and had no such Spirituality and Immortality as that imputed to it by the Christian Religion There need have been only a different Configuration of Parts to form first Notions quite contrary to those we now have Let any one therefore closely consider the Matter and it will appear to him that if we deny Christ who teaches to know our own selves in revealing to us Life and Immortality no Salvation can be expected either for Reason or Conscience X Portraiture of the Christian Religion Or the Proportion it bears to the Jewish Religion THere is nothing truer than that the Jewish Religion is great noble and divine and we cannot reflect on the Greatness of its Miracles the Sublimity of its Morality the Purity of its Doctrin the Holiness of its Precepts and the Completion of its Prophecies without immediately acknowledging it to be stampt with Divine Characters But yet we shall find it altogether defective if we separate it from Christianity since its Essence consists in its relation to that We cannot conceive without it how God can be the God of one Nation and yet not be that too of other Nations also that the Deity should be contained in a material Ark and being the Father of Spirits should so carefully seek after an external and corporeal Purity that unwilling to satisfy his Justice he should require Sacrifices of Men or if willing to be appeased by Offerings and Oblations he should demand such mean ones of them which were unworthy the Majesty of his God-head that God who made Heaven and Earth should dwell in a Temple made with Hands or that he who created all things visible and invisible should take pleasure in an external Pomp that he who made the Smelling which he wants not himself should delight in the smell of Incense or that his Voice properly so called should be heard to which Thunder it self scarce bears the Resemblance of an Echo I say we can never conceive any of these things without the help of Christian Religion For who can reconcile the Wisdom seen in the Religion of Moses with the Imperfections discoverable in it How could that Lawgiver prove so contrary to himself And how could so many Characters of Divinity be attended with so many seemingly superstitious Customs and trivial Ceremonies Consult but the Christian Religion and you 'll then no longer wonder at it there you will find both the Reason and Wisdom of every thing that surpris'd you in the Old Covenant All the Customs contained in the
this Necessity and it is to no purpose to alledge his Meanness and Wretchedness for that Circumstance rather aggravates the Crime than excuses it it being impudent beyond all pardon for a Traytour to plead Innocence because he is a Peasant and not a Lord. It will be also in vain to lay the Fault upon the evil Temperament of Body and Mind For if either submits to those Reasons which you have for committing no indecent action before a Sovereign and if that and all its Passions are calm when you fall into any Danger or expect Sentence of Death there is the same Reason that the Presence the Will and Judgments of God should have the same effect upon it Nor will Ignorance be any Excuse It would indeed justifie you if it were not only a bare pretence as it does Brutes Children and Ideots But what Man knows not his Duty 'T is also in vain to rely on the Mercy of God for that extends not to impenitent Sinners and the Almighty saves only those that desire and endeavour to be saved Lastly 'T is meer folly to assert that eternal Punishments are disproportionable to the weakness of our Nature For is not God himself eternal whom you have offended And is not your Soul also eternal that has Sinned against him Self-love however blinded thinks not life eternal a thing disagreeable and imagins nothing in it disproportionable to our Condition But 't is shock'd at the Thoughts of everlasting Pains and therefore willing to believe them improbable Dreams and Whimsies But why it does so is hard to be imagin'd unless we suppose its design to be at any rate to impose upon it self In the mean while since you can neither destroy the Eternity of God or the Soul which Reason it self forces you to acknowledge you must either suppose that the Soul is to dwell eternally with God or that it must be eternally banished from his Presence that is that it must live or die eternally For to live with God is to enjoy the greatest Perfection of Happiness and to be banished his Presence is certainly the greatest Misery that can be thought of As soon as we know the Existence of God that the Soul has no Parts and that 't is incapable of any Dissolution that its Nature altogether distinct from that of Matter cannot be buried under the Ruins of the Body it is then very hard for us to oppose the Doctrin which the Gospel teaches us concerning the State of the Soul after Death Nay we are so far from impugning of it that there is even a Necessity incumbent upon us readily to embrace the same For if the Souls of the Wicked together with those of the Good are equally to be banished the Presence of God then Reason Nature and all our other Knowledge impose upon us in giving us Hope of a future Reward And if the Souls both of the Wicked and the Good are to enjoy alike the Presence of Almighty God then too those very Principles delude us in making us dread his pretended Judgments and so Gods Justice and Veracity together with all our other Knowledge are at an end To avoid therefore falling into such an impious Assertion we must own that the Souls of the Good are to dwell for ever with God but that contrariwise those of the Wicked are to be banished his Presence and in owning this we affirmthe only thing in the World that is most agreeable to all our Knowledge and most visibly flows from the nature of things themselves The Blessings of God excellently answer his liberal Promises and the formidable Severity of his Punishments All the Creatures of this visible World conspire together to do us good And besides all the temporal Blessings daily conferr'd upon us besides the whole Earths being replenished with the Knowledge of the true God the Hearts of Men are sanctified their Souls comforted the Gospel preached throughout the whole World the Son of God died for our Offences and was raised for our Justification our crucified Saviour came out of the Grave to bring us Peace from God and seal the Truth of his Gospel by his frequent Apparitions after his Death there was a visible and frequent Effusion of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost upon Men a multitude of Martyrs sent from God to reclaim the World by their Examples and Conversation from Vice and Idolatrous Superstition all these things I say are such Blessings as are wonderfully suitable to the Promises and Threatnings of God and fully convince us that the Christian Morality has as many Objects to exalt and comfort Men's Souls as it has to excite and terrify their Minds to the performance of their Duty X. But to prove that this Morality is not a meer Idea of Perfection God in is Wisdom was pleased not only to have it set down in the Book of the New Testament but also to have it lively Painted first in the Life of Christ and afterwards in the daily practice of the Primitive Christians These Men are not such Teachers as might deservedly be accused of speaking well but doing ill as it was objected formerly to Seneca who composed very excellent Discourses concerning Poverty and the contempt of the Goods of Fortune when he himself was richer than the wealthiest Citizen of Rome These on the contrary confirm'd by their practice what they taught And by extirpating their evil Desires form'd such a Society as is conformable to that we have had above but a faint Prospect of when we laid down the Idea of Man's Duty They utterly renounced those Passions which put a Distinction betwixt them and other Men. They forgot their Quality and Condition the better to use one another like Brethren The same Interests were common to them all They sold their Possessions to ease the Wants and Necessities of those that suffered Adversity They rejoyced for having been thought worthy to suffer for the Name of God Every thing conduced to their Happiness even Afflictions themselves They prayed for those that despitefully us'd them and as Charity and not Selflove was the Rule of their Affections so all the Motions of their Heart tended to one as to the same Center to the Glory of God and the good of their Neighbours which gave the Scripture occasion to say that they were but one Heart and one Soul I confess that State could not always continue in the Church but the Wisdom of God permitted it should last for some time to give us a lively Image and Idea of Heaven here on Earth and so to confirm by the excellence of such an Example a Morality already supported by so many great and powerful Motives VIII Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is consider'd in its Mysteries THe Mysteries God has revealed unto us in his Word are like the cloudy Pillar which led the Children of Israel through the Wilderness For like that they are clear on one side but dark and obscure on the other If we contemplate
the Ruins of the Body you must be much more surprised to see it so closely united to a subject so different from its Perfection 'T is the Union of the Soul with the Body and not its Dissolution we ought to admire Endeavour to comprehend if you can the strict Alliance there is between a thing that is extended that takes up Space that is confined to certain Limits that acts upon Subjects present only and nearest to it and a thing that has neither figure nor extension colour fluidity or solidity which in some sense is every where and yet has no Parts to take up any Space which reflects upon the Time past and the future upon it self and its manner of acting in such a wonderful way as must necessarily perswade us maugre all our Reluctancies and Doubts that we have a Spiritual and Immaterial Substance within us If you are amazed when you are taught that there is a Maker and Preserver of all things you ought rather to be surprised to think you have lived so long in the World without putting these Questions to your self To what End was I made Whence have I my Being What will at last become of me And who was thâ— Authour of all that I behold The Thoughts of a future Judgment whatsoever notion you may have of its Accomplishment ought not in the least to startle you who ought rather to wonder at the long Forbearance of God who permits all things that he may one day judge all things That Confusion and Disorder that appears in publick Society might raise Scruples in you were it not bounded by such an Event as will clearly justify the Justice and Wisdom of God To follow the Opinion of Incredulous Men one would say that there is nothing extraordinary oâ— surprising in the World whereas we cannot behold any thing that is not so III. But all our Incredulity arises principally from our Passions and it is their greatest Interest to create in us an Aversion for Religion and in order to that make us inclinable to receive those Doubts which favour their Pretences And this is that which gives rise to all sorts of Difficulties Men are incredulous meerly because they will be so and they will be so because it concerns their Passions to have it so Hence it is that every thing concurrs by accident towards the producing so miserable an End so Sciences Eloquence Policy c. create Doubts and Difficulties in us not of themselves but through our ill management of them IV. Pride of all the Passions the most dangerous and most inveterate suffers us not to remain in such a due disposition of Mind as God requires we should have in order to receive his Revelation Now this Disposition is twofold 1 st It consists in our readily receiving all revealed Truths and 2 ly in receiving them altho they are far above our Capacity to comprehend without endeavouring to dive too far into the Depth of the Council of God To have then a right Belief we must not only be perswaded of the Certainty of all revealed Truths we must also learn how to be satisfied with the Ignorance of those things it has pleased God to conceal from us We must be always ready to acknowledge our Ignorance and that we do not clearly understand what yet we sincerely believe We must humbly close our Eyes before the dark side of Mysteries as well as gladly open them to behold the bright one 'T is our Incredulity which makes us reject those Truths we ought to acknowledge at first sight and the irregular Curiosity of the Mind prevents our paying our profound Reverence to those sacred Obscurities wherein they are involved Now from this Principle we may very reasonably conclude 1 st That nothing could argue more Extravagance and Impiety than the project of several Doctors who tho famous upon other Accounts for their Learning and great Insight into things yet have endeavoured to make as it were a New System of Religion by removing all the Difficulties of it and oftentimes cutting those Knots asunder which they were not able to untie And this shews that they were ignorant how that the dark Mysteries of Religion either follow the Nature of things or else proceed from the external Wisdom and Council of God in designing to give us such a Religion as should not be free from such dark Mysteries as the Apostles themselves give us to understand when they tell us that the Will of God was to bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent and when they cry out O the Depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out Rom. 11. 33. Secondly We may infer from thence That humane Curiosity that has so much increased the number of Theological Questions is one of the greatest Obstacles which Faith is with much strugling to overcome For we are not content to have a bare Knowledge of things we yet endeavour to search into the Manner how things are done whereas 't is the Manner how they are done which God is pleased to conceal from us and 't is the dark side we ought to look upon with profound Reverence It was sufficient for us to know that we were very corrupt from our Cradles and that nothing but the Grace of God is capable to deliver us from that wretched State we are in But we were not wife enough to fix our Enquiries there We further had a mind to know how Sin entred into the World what Springs of our Soul were first of all put out of order by it and how it was transmitted to Posterity The Holy Ghost is as the Wind the Sound whereof we hear but cannot tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth Nevertheless so impertinent is the Curiosity of Men as to attempt diving into his manner of acting They pretend by such and such Decisions to limit the Degrees of his operation and retrench whatsoever they please They continually use such Distinctions as are altogether obscure and barbarous in comparison of the Scripture as Antecedent Grace Consequent Sufficient Efficacious Vniversal Particular mediate and immediate Grace all which Distinctions they seem indeed to have contrived as so many deviations and shifts on purpose to be exempted from owning that notwithstanding all our Endeavours it is God which worketh in us both to will and to do of his good Pleasure Phil. 2. 13. And tho 't is certain we are altogether ignorant of the manner of his Operation yet can any thing be more just and reasonable than such a free and ingenuous Confession And does it not very far exceed all the Speculations of School-men who are themselves confounded and fall from one Depth into another whilst they pretend to search into those Mysteries God has concealed from them But the Misfortune which results from all this is that the Christians having prodigiously swell'd up their System of Divinity by these and other
at any rate whatever out of meer Complaisance to him Such is the Nature of Mankind such the Frame and Temper of their Hearts that they will admit of no Falsity unless covered with a specious shew of Truth So that when any thing is so evidently false that every Body must necessarily be sensible of it we have no Thoughts of attempting to make others believe it as for instance it will never come into my Head to make other Men believe that I have Wings and that I fly c. We might here repeat what has been said concerning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ either the Disciples looked upon Jesus Christ before his Death as the promised Messias or else they did not look upon him as such If they considered him as the promised Messias they then believed his Words and thought that he would truly rise again and if they did expect that he would truly rise again they consequently believed he would come himself out of his Grave and so it was not at all necessary they should steal his Body away And if they did not consider him as the promised Messias whilst he was alive it must follow from thence that they were Seducers and Impostors even before the Death of Christ Now how can any one conceive that those Seducers should not have been terrified at the Punishment inflicted on their Master or that such a terrible Example of the most rigorous Justice design'd too for them should not put an end to their frontless Impudence Above all How can it be supposed that those wicked and perfidious Disciples durst have proposed to the other Disciples who were really Sincere and True to joyn with them and so testify that they had seen Jesus Christ ascending into Heaven Truly I don't see what any Man can alledge except one of these two things either that they were all sincere and honest Men or that some of them were honest and the rest Cheats If they were all sincere and honest Men as their Manners their Discourse their Conduct and a thousand other Characters of them evidently shew then is it absolutely impossible that any such Cheat could have been carried on amongst them But if they were all a pack of cheating treacherous Impostors then it was the first time that ever a Society of cheating perfidious Rogues was erected who seemed to have had no other Design than to sanctify Mankind But what Man be his Thoughts never so confus'd and irregular be his Reason never so corrupt can yet imagin that so many mean-spirited simple and humble Men as the Disciples were should immediately become the most Lying notorious Cheats out of no other Design then to involve themselves in ruin If some of them were false and others sincere and if the latter were at all imposed upon by the former which is the most our Incredulous Adversaries can imagin yet even then I assert that such a Cheat could not have been carried on by them For supposing Peter never so smooth and Eloquent never so adroit at Dissembling and Insinuation yet how could he possibly perswade so great a number of Persons to believe against their Senses that they had seen that which they really never saw or handled that which they had never handled that Jesus Christ after having given them many Precepts and large Instructions which he left very deeply imprinted in their Minds ascended into Heaven in their sight But should I grant he might have perswaded them of the Truth of his Resurrection yet how is it possible he could perswade them of the Truth of his Ascension Had St. Peter but so much as proposed it to them whom he designed to delude it would have been for that very Reason impossible but that they should have found out his Design to cheat them But he would not sure presume to propose to them the joint Contrivance of such a fabulous Story nor would he have found tho he had been bold enough to have proposed it any that would have assisted him in so sensless a Design much less maintain'd his Extravagance and least of all exposed themselves to a thousand Torments on purpose to maintain it 2. But secondly I observed that such an Imposture would have been of no manner of use to them It is enough to have proved that it was impossible to be put in Execution to satisfie any reasonable Man how needless and useless it would be to advance it 'T is true there have been in all Ages and Countries such Men as would have been very willing for their own Advantage to make others believe improbable Stories and Fictions had the thing been but practicable but because they could not effect it without such a mutual Concert among several Persons to maintain it as is altogether impossible for that very Reason it never came into their Minds upon serious and cooler Thoughts It would no doubt be of very singular Advantage to those Princes who so earnestly desire to procure themselves an extraordinary Respect and Veneration from their Subjects and for that Reason very seldom appear in publick and hardly ever shew themselves to their Poople I say it would be of great Advantage to them if they could but once perswade their People that they were of a Divine Race and came down from Heaven but because they judge such a Design impracticable they reckon it a thing altogether useless and needless ever to undertake it Certainly we may as well affirm that the Design of making other Men believe the Ascension of Jesus Christ against the real truth of the thing and inward sense of their own Consciences would have been altogether as useless and needless because it does not in the least appear that the Disciples could propose to themselves any reasonable Design in maintaining such an incredible Story 3. Nay it was a thing not only wholly useless but as we observ'd in the third place such a one as Men dont usually Design or contrive It could not enter into any one Man's mind much less into that of so many different men at once to fancy that they could perswade other Men to credit such an impudent Lye as that must have been or to dare undertake to make others believe it to think in the least that they could succeed in so strange a Design or that others would have acted in it jointly with them to imagin that they could be able to endure the most rigorous Torments and the severest and most cruel Afflictions or that the Cheat which they unanimously had agreed on would have been both believed and approved of throughout the World nay what is more that Men should repent and become Holy and Righteous out of a Respect and Reverence they boâ—e to an Impostor and that Vertue and Piety should have been established in all the Parts of the World by the means of an extraordinary Cheat. To this we may add that considering this Design of theirs another way it is not cannot be such a one as any
search no great sagacity or penetration of Mind to discover this Truth For it is manifest that the Christian Religion is not design'd for the satisfaction of the carnal and worldly Appetites of Men as that of the present Jews who aspire only after temporal Prosperity and worldy Pomps Nor is it a Monstrous medly like that of the Samaritans made up of a ridiculous mixture of the Pagan and Jewish Religion Nor is it impious and cruel like that of the Gnosticks nor has it any of the Faults or extravagant Superstitions of the Pagan Religion But since we have not leisure to oppose it particularly to all the Errors of other Religions we must be contented to shew in this Comparison the advantages the Christian Religion has above all the rest by laying down the following Rules I. Other Religions as being principally of human Invention and Institution were formed by degrees from the different Imaginations of several Persons who successively made such Additions or Alterations as they thought convenient The Greeks for Example added several things to that Religion they received from the Egyptians and the Romans to that they had received from the Greeks Menander sâ—â—ll improved the â—ottish Impieties of Simon Magus and Saturninus and Basilides added to those of Menander And the reason is because Men are never weary of inventing nor the People of believing Novelties But it is not so with the Christian Religion which was wholly deliver'd by Christ is entirely contain'd in every one of the Gospels and ev'n in each Epistle of the Apostles What ever alterations Men have thought fit to make in the Doctrine Christ brought into the World did only corrupt the Purity and Spirituality of it as appears by the great disproportion there is betwixt the Apostolical Doctrine and the ordinary speculations of Men. II. Other Religions durst not shew themselves openly in full light and therefore were veiled over with a mysterious Silence and affected Darkness The Gnosticks chose the Night to cover the Impurity of their abominable Mysteries And the Romans exposed themselves to the satyrical Railery of their Poets 〈◊〉 being so careful to conceal the Worship they paid to their Goddess Bona Julian and Porphyrius set all their Wits to work either to set off the ridiculous and offensive Ceremonies of Paganism or to palliate their Superstition by several various explanations of it as when they so stâ—ffly affirmed that they worshipped one only supreme God tho they acknowledged at the same time other Subordinate Deities depending one upon another and when they endeavour'd to justify the Worship they paid to their Idols by using many subtile and nice Distinctions It is certain there is a Principle of Pride implanted in the Hearts of Men which is the Reason they cannot endure to be accused of entertaining any absurd and extravagant Opinions so that when ever their Passions have made them embrace a Religion which seems not very reasonable they employ all heir Wit to make it at least appear consonant to Reason But the Christian Religion requires no Veil to cover it no mysterious Silence no dark Dissimulation or close Disguise altho it proposes such kinds of Objects to us as are vastly contrary to all our Prejudices and receiv'd Opinions The Apostles freely confess that the Preaching of the Gospel is as it were an apparent Folly but yet they assure us God was resolved to save the World by that seeming Folly They knew that the Death of Christ became a scandal to the Jew and a folly to the Greek yet they publickly declared that they were determined not to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him crucified And how comes it then that they did not in the least mince or endeavour to soften the sense of that seeming Paradox so far were they from concealing it but that they were strongly and fully persuaded of the Truth of that adorable Mystery and that the abundance of their Understanding serv'd only to make them more fully comprehend the efficacy of the Cross III. Should we strictly consider some Religions we should find they were first for the most part institued either by Poets or Philosophers and that they generally spring from the sportive Conceits or witty Speculations of the Understanding which is the reason they were not so universally approved The Philosophers always derided the Religion of the Vulgar and the Vulgar understood nothing of the Religion of the Philosophers Socrates ridiculed the Religion of the Athenians and the Athenians accused Socrates of Impiety and Atheism and condemned him to death The Christian Religion alone is approved of as well by the Philosophers as the vulgar People as neither depending upon the Ignorance of the latter nor proceeding from the Learning of the former It has a divine Efficacy and agreeable Power suitable to all Hearts It is adapted to the Capacity of the most simple and ignorant tho infinitely raised above the Philosophy of the Wise It is sublime without being nicely speculative and simple without being mean in its Sublimity preserving its Clearness and in it's Simplicity preserving it's Dignity In a word there is nothing so great nor so inconsiderable in human Society but what may some way fall under it's consideration and it is equally approved of and admired by all IV. Other Religions brought Men from Spiritual Objects to those that were Corporeal and Earthly The Christian Religion brings them from the Objects of Sense to those of the Vnderstanding We all know that the Heathens when they Deified Men or worship'd a Deity under an human Shape they were so far paying that Deity a Worship due to a Spiritual Nature that their Adoration consisted in several Games Shews and divers Exercises of the Body The Jews and Samaritans by their eager Disputes whether God was to be worshipped in Jerusalem or in Mount Gerazim extinguished Charity the true Spirit of Religion in their too hot defence of the external part of it Nay the Prophets complained formerly that the Jews made 〈…〉 to consist in bowing down their Heads as a â—â—â—rush and putting on Sackcloth and Ashes And the holy Scripture observes that the Priests of Baal were wont to cut themselves with Knives and Lances when they sacrificed to him as if there were no other way to make their God hear their Prayers but by inflicting such Punishments on their own Bodies The modern Jews can't be persuaded that we have been called to the knowledge of the true God tho they find we all profess to put our trust and confidence in him because they perceive not that we use any Corporeal Ceremonies And the Mahumetans more irreligious than superstitious make their Religion and its Happiness depend chiefly on their Senses when they Worship they turn themselves towards Mecha as the Jews did towards Jerusalem and earnestly desire of God that he would gratify their Senses and tho they have a sort of a Religious Respect for the Letters that compose the Name of God and
distinguish the Object from the manner after which it is represented to us The first indeed is very reasonable great and sublime worthy to take up our Thoughts and able to move our Hearts And we have already sufficiently evinced its Conformity to our Reason in shewing that we either must deny any Evidence to be in the light of Reason and Nature of things themselves or else acknowledge a future Judgment And what can be greater than an Object which justifies the Wisdom of God his Justice and all his other Attributes and brings all Men under his strict Examination all their Actions all the Thoughts of the Understanding and all the Motions of the Heart And this Object is that alone as is real and immutable As for the manner that is proposed to us of its Accomplishment 't would never suit with our weak Knowledge were it altogether as sublime as the Object it self and we should be so far from comprehending any thing in the nature of it that it would certainly dazzle our shallow Reason if God did exactly represent it to us as it is in it self But Christ has sufficiently shewed us we must not push too far the signification of any of those expressive Images in that he uses such a multitude and variety of others to represent that Judgment to us For sometimes he describes it by the Parable of the groom and the Virgins then again by the just Judgment a Lord past upon all his Servants whom he had in his absence intrusted with his Talents One while he represents the Judge of all the World as a Shepherd selecting his Sheep from the He-goats another time he describes him under the Image of an Housholder plucking up the Tares and dividing it from the Wheat that he might burn the former but gather the latter into his Barn In a word he compares him to a glorious and triumphant Monarch who is preceeded by several Legions of Angels or Messengers sounding the Trumpet before him Now all these Descriptions would certainly be of no use were they to be taken in a strict and literal Sense The same Judgment must necessarily be made of the History of Dives and Lazarus which tho it appears never so reasonable and circumstantially told yet for all that is but a Parable in the Opinion of all the sensible part of the World and would seem absurd if it were understood in a literal Sense Let not then Philosophy any longer be offended at any of the Scripture Phrases or its figurative Expressions Let it not object that a material Fire properly so called cannot burn up our Souls that Angels have no Mouths to sound Trumpets that the Valley of Josaphat is too little to contain all Mankind c. These are such trivial Difficulties as can't puzzle those who are never so little acquainted with the Language of Canaan Besides it is certain that the Mixture Men have made of Philosophy and Religion has been considerably prejudicial to our Faith For first Philosophy as it were heaping up one Speculation upon another tells us that there is an infinite Extension of Matter that there are other Globes inhabited and peopled other World 's framed of the Concourse of Atoms that there are certain invio Iable Laws of Nature that there is an Eternity of Matter and several other Imaginations of this kind as have not the least relation with the Principles of Religion And thereupon the Passions which are upon the watch to catch and embrace every thing that favours their several pretences in resisting Faith authorise the smallest Conjectures and give such weight and credit to those things which otherwise would certainly pass for meer Extravagancies And thus it happens that the Scruples of Philosophy are changed into Certainties through our unreasonable desire of changing Certainties of Religion into Doubts Secondly Philosophy creates in us an Habit of endeavouring to judge of every thing by our selves only a Disposition indeed absolutely contrary to the Nature of Faith which requires of us a Belief purely grounded on the Testimony of God But Men are so far from relying upon it that they are continually asking Demonstrations of us and those too they would have to be Geometrical ones that is so clear and evident as to be free from all perplexing Obscurity These Men make large Pretensions and Demands and sure it is that we have sufficient Demonstrations but they are all Demonstrations of Faith and there can be no Faith but what has some Obscurity as well as Light Thirdly Another very dangerous Effect of Philosophy is that it changes Religion from Practice into Speculation For the nicer and sublimer our Inquiries are into the Nature of Mysteries the more we neglect the Body of Religion which is essentially practical Religion appears not then to us in its usual Brightness and Majesty And the more we pursue it by nice Speculations the farther it gets out of our reach Experience teaches us that the Progress we make in reasoning sets us at a greater Distance from the true Center of Religion which is Piety and that the more Metaphysical it is the less able it is to satisfy our Mind but rather raises Scruples in the Understanding Whereas on the contrary the more we practise Religion the better we are acquainted with it because we grow then sensible of its divine Efficacy by our own Experience and are made to believe the true value of it by the Impressions it leaves in our Hearts Had Religion indeed been purely design'd to teach us how to Philosophize and argue about the Nature of things it would have been sufficient to take the Measure of it from a Speculative Knowledge of the Understanding But since it was given us to sanctify our Hearts it is but reasonable that Contemplation should yield to Practice and the inward sense we have of its Divine Efficacy VIII Policy is yet a far greater Enemy to Religion than Philosophy Not but that it often happily makes use of Religion to keep Men within the Bounds of their Duty but it pretends to have a Right of Superiority over it It would have Religion submit to its Orders whereas Religion submits only to the Orders of God Policy generally looks upon the greatest part of Men as no better than Slaves to those that are in power but Religion in spite of Policy makes all Men equal and effectually removes all those Distinctions which humane Passions had put between them Policy according to the Prejudices of Pride and Ambition acts as if the Lives of the meaner sort of People were of no more value than those of Brutes But Religion assures us that the Soul of a Peasant is as dear and precious to God as that of a Monarch What! Says the Ambitious Man must all People become my Equals and Companions Yes certainly replies Religion and far happier than thou art like to be unless thou repentest A great and mighty Character indeed which truly convinces us that it solely springs from God