Thus is there one way in Mathematicks another in Physicks a third in matters of advice and counsel and lastly another kind when a matter of fact is in question wherein verily we must rest content when the testimonies are free from all suspicion of untruth Otherwise down goes not only all the use of history and a great part of the art of Physick but all the piety also that ought to be between Parents and Children which cannot be known other ways And indeed it is the pleasure of Almighty God that those things which he would have us to believe so that the very belief thereof may be imputed to us for obedience should not so evidently appear as those things which are apprehended by sense and plain demonstration but only be so far forth revealed as may beget faith and a perswasion thereof in the hearts and minds of such as are not obstinate That so the Word of the Gospel may be as a touchstone whereby Mens dispositions may be tried whether they be curable or not For seeing these arguments whereof we have spoken have induced so many honest godly and wise Men to approve of this Religion it is thereby plain enough that the fault of other Mens infidelity is not for want of sufficient testimony but because they would not have that to be had and embraced for truth which is contrary to their affections and desires It being that is an hard matter for them to make no great account of honours and other worldly advantages which they must do if they receive what Christ hath taught and so become ingaged to observe his Precepts Which is discovered to be true by this very thing that they take many other Historical Narrations to be true which notwithstanding appear to be so meerly by authority and not by any such foot-steps of them remaining at this day as the History of Christ hath partly in the confession of the Jews who are now in being and partly in those things which are every where found in the Assemblies of Christian People of which it must needs be granted there was some cause Lastly seeing the long duration or continuance of Christian Religion and the large extent thereof can be ascribed to no humane power therefore it must be attributed to miracles or if any deny that it came to pass through a miraculous manner this very getting so great strength and power without a miracle may be justly thought to surpass any miracle The THIRD Book OF THE TRUTH OF Christian Religion SECT I. To prove the authority of the Books of the New Covenant AFTER that a Man is once perswaded by the reasons abovesaid or is induced by any other arguments to believe that this Religion which Christians profess is the truest and absolutely the best if he desire to learn all the parts thereof then must he have recourse unto the most ancient writings that contain the same Religion which commonly we call the Books of the New Testament or rather new covenant For he is very unreasonable who denies this Religion to be contained in those Books as all Christians affirm Since it is but equity to believe every Sect be it good or be it bad when it says its opinions are to be found in such or such a Book as we believe the Mahometans that the Religion of Mahomet is contained in the Alcoran Forasmuch then as we have before proved that the Christian Religion is most true and it is manifest withal that it is contained in these Books if there were no other ground yet this alone is sufficient to prove and avouch the authority of those Books But if any body requires a more particular demonstration of it I must first lay down this Rule which all indifferent Judges will allow that it is incumbent upon him who will impugne the authority of any writing received for many Ages to produce Arguments which prove that Writing to be false which if he cannot do that Book is to be defended as in possession of its Authority SECT II. Here is shown that such Books were written by the Authors whose names they have prefixed WE say then that those Books which are not in question amongst Christians and carry before them a certain Name are the very Works of those Authors whose names they bear Because those primitive Fathers Justin Irenaeus Clemens and others after them do quote those Books under these very names As also because Tertullian witnesseth that there were Original Copies of some of those Books extant in his time And besides all the Churches received those Books for authentical before there were any common publick Meetings Neither did ever the Pagans or Jews raise any controversie about this as if these were not the works of those Men whose they were said to be but Julian himself plainly confesseth that those were the writings of Peter and Paul Matthew Mark and Luke which Christians under those names have read and received For as no Man in his wits can doubt that those Writings which go under the names of Homer and Virgil are truly theirs because the one hath been so long time received among the Latine and the other among the Greek Authors in like manner it were more absurd to bring the Authors of those Books in question which are granted almost by all the Nations in the World SECT III. Some Books were anciently doubted of IN the Volume of the new Covenant there are some Books indeed now received which were not so received from the beginning as the second Epistle of St. Peter that of St. James and Jude two of St. John the Elder the Revelation and the Epistle to the Hebrews Yet this is certain that they were acknowledged by many Churches which appears sufficiently from hence that the ancient Christians use their Testimonies as Sacred Which makes it credible that such Churches as from the beginning had not those Books either were ignorant of them or doubtful Yet afterward when they were better informed touching the same they admitted them into the Canon as we now see according to the example of other Churches Neither can any good reason be given why any Man should counterfeit those Books since there is nothing comprised in them neither can ought thence be collected which is not abundantly expressed in other Books unquestioned SECT IV. The Authority of such Books as have no Titles is proved from the quality of the Writers AND here let no Man mistrust the verity of the Epistle to the Hebrews because the Writer of it is unknown nor doubt of the two Epistles of St. John and the Revelation because some Men do question whether the Author of them was John the Apostle or some other of that name For the name is not so much to be regarded as the quality or condition of Writers Hence it is that we receive many Books of History whose Authors are to us unknown As that concerning the Alexandrian War by Caesar because we may perceive that whosoever writ the same
out or added But it is an unjust thing to bring in question the truth of such a Book or evidence only because in so many ages there could not but be great variety of Copies since both custome and reason requires that what appears in the most and most ancient Copies be preferred to the rest But that either by fraud or any other way all the Copies were corrupted and that in point of doctrine or some remarkable piece of history will never be proved for there are neither any evidences nor any witnesses of those times which attest it But if as was said before there be any thing urged in much later times by those who bare an implacable hatred to the Disciples of these Books that ought to be lookt upon as a Reproach not as a Testimony And this truly which we have said may be well thought a sufficient Answer to those who object a change in the Scripture for he who affirms that especially against a writing which hath been long and in abundance of places received ought himself to prove his charge But to make the vanity of this Objection more fully appear we will show that what they feign neither was nor could be done We have proved before that the Books were written by the Authors whose Names they bear which being granted it follows that other Books were not foisted into their room nor was any notable part of them changed For since that change must needs have some design that part would notoriously differ from the other parts and Books which were not changed which cannot now any where be discerned nay there is an admirable agreement as we said in their Senses Besides as soon as any of the Apostles or Apostolical Men published any thing there is no doubt to be made but Christians with great diligence as became their piety and care to preserve and propagate truth to Posterity took from thence many Copies for their use Which therefore were dispersed as far as the Christian Name through Europe Asia and Egypt in which Places the Greek Language was spoken And more than this the Original Copies also as we said before were preserved till Two Hundred Years after Christ Now it was not possible that any Book diffused into so many Copies and kept not only by the private diligence of particular Persons but the common care of the Churches should be altered by the hand of any falsifier Add further that these Books in the following ages were translated into the Syriac Ethiopick Arabick and Latine Tongues which translations are yet extant and do not differ in any thing of moment from the Greek Copies themselves Besides we have the Writings of those Men who were taught by the Apostles themselves or by their Disciples wherein many places are cited out of these Books to the same sense and meaning which now we read them Neither was there any in the Church of so great authority in those times as to have met with obedience if he would have changed any thing As is plain enough by the free and open dissent of Irenaeus Tertullian and Cyprian from those that were most eminent in the Church After which times there succeeded many other men of great Learning and Judgment who having first made diligent inquiry thereof received these Books as retaining their original purity Hitherto also may be referred what but now we said of divers sects of Christians all which at least such as acknowledged God to be the Maker of the World and Christ to be the Author of a new Law did receive and use these Books accordingly as we do the same And if any had attempted to alter or put any thing new into any part thereof they should have been accused by the rest for forgery and false-dealing therein Neither was there ever any Sect that had the liberty at their pleasure to alter any of these Books for their own turns For it is manifest that all of them did draw their arguments one against another out of the same And as for that which we touched concerning divine providence it belongs no less unto the chiefest parts than unto the whole Books namely that it is not agreeable to it that GOD should suffer so many Thousand Men which sincerely desired to be godly and earnestly sought after eternal life to be led headlong into that error which they could no way avoid And thus much shall suffice to be spoken for the authority of the Books of the new covenant whence alone if there were no other helps we might be sufficiently instructed concerning the true Religion SECT XVI For the Authority of the Books of the Old Testament NOW forasmuch as it hath pleased God to leave us also the writings and evidences of the Jewish Religion which was anciently the true and affords no small testimonies for Christianity Therefore it will not be amiss in the next place to justifie the authority of the same First then that these Books were written by the same Men whose Names they bear is manifest in like manner as we have proved of ours before of the new covenant These Authors were either Prophets or other very faithful and credible men such as was Esdras who is thought to have collected the Books of the Old Testament into one Volume during the life time of the Prophet Haggai Malachy and Zachary I will not here repeat again what is said before in the commendation of Moses Both that part of history which at first was delivered by him as we have shown in the first Book and that also which was collected after his time is witnessed even by many of the Heathen Thus the Annals of the Phoenicians have recorded the names of David and Solomon and their Leagues with the Men of Tyre Aswel Berosus as the Hebrew Writers makes mention of Nobuchadonosor and of other Chaldean Kings He whom Jeremy calls Vaphres King of Aegypt is termed Apries by Herodotus In like manner the Books of the Grecians are replenished with Narrations concerning Cyrus and his Successors until the times of Darius And many other things concerning the Nation of the Jews are related by Josephus in his Books against Appion whereunto we may add what before we have touched out of Strabo and Trogus But as for us Christians we cannot in the least doubt of the truth of these Books out of every one of which almost there are testimonies extant in our Books which are found likewise in the Hebrew Neither do we find when Christ reprehended many things in the Doctors of the Law and Pharisees of his time that ever he accused them of forgery committed against the Writings of Moses or the Prophets or that they used counterfeit Books or such as were changed Then after Christ's time it cannot be proved neither is it credible that the Scripture was corrupted in matters of any moment if we consider rightly how far and wide over the face of the earth the Nation of the Jews was spread who every where were
from hence also that in the Conclusion of this Work of the Truth of Christian Religion he doth not interpret those words i. Hebr. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present tense making a purgation or expiating our sins as Socinus doth but in the past time expiatis peccatis nostris having expiated or purged away our sins How they come to be otherwise Translated in his Annotations on that place put forth since his death I can give no Account And in like manner I suppose he satisfied another doubt about a passage in this Book which Sarravius desired him to resolve though I cannot find his Answer to it For he gives a punctual Answer afterward to a Question propounded by a Minister of Rouen who askt him where he had that of Rabbi Nechumias who made that publick Declaration mentioned in the Fifth Book Sect. 14. concerning the appearing of Christ 50. Years before our Saviour to this effect That the time which Daniel had prefixed for the coming of the Messiah could not be prolonged above those Fifty Years Which he tells Sarravius * Epist Claud. Sarrav p. 52. is to be found in the Talmud in the Title Sanhedrin as he remembred and he thought also in Abenada upon Daniel This was in the Year 1640. when he first put out this Book with Annotations containing the Testimonies of those Authors in words at length whom he had alledged but had forgotten it seems to set down where he had this passage of Rabbi Nechumias Nor is it now to be found among the Annotations and therefore they that next Print the Book so inlarged will do well to supply it from hence out of Sarravius Who was the first Person * Epist ad Gallos p. 460. to whom he made a present of it after it came out with the Addition of Testimonies desiring to be admonished by him if in the midst of much business any thing had escaped him which was less exactly spoken while he studied to serve the Christian cause To which He replies immediately That as he could not but esteem it a very great honour to be acknowledged and beloved by the Coryphaeus of all Learning both Sacred and profane so he esteemed this as a Golden Book wherein Grotius had joyned Learning together with Piety consulting that is the Disease of the Age to whose Palate Piety of it self had little savour And as for the immense collection of Testimonies then added he made it appear by them that in all his studies the glory of Christ had alway been before his eyes his holy diligence and industry having discovered so many and such things which had escaped the sagacious eyes of others And not long after he propounded some doubts according to his own desire and mentioned some exceptions as was noted before which some who had no good will to him took at this Golden Book as he again calls it and notwithstanding the harsh censures of some Learned Men this excellent Person still persisted in his high esteem of the worth of this Author and believed all unprejudiced Men would ever look upon him with great Veneration So he tells Salmasius Five Years after * Epist Claud. Sarrav p. 146. 1645 Whether they will or no Grotius will alway be accounted a great Man by you and me and by all that love Equity and Goodness for he is full of envy who denies due praises to such a Hero And a little while after hearing of the news of his death he most sadly bewails it * Ib. p. 171. as the extinction of the bright Star of that Age whose Name would be great as long as either Books or Learning were in honour And while he had breath he saith he would glory in this that he once had familiar acquaintance with a Man who was re nomine Magnus no less great indeed than his Name imported This affection he seems to have carried with him to his Grave and honoured his Memory at such a rate that in the Year 1648. he still says he was proud of the Friendship of that Man by whom to have been known was glorious and who would be reverenced in all future Ages In conclusion he calls him that Blessed Soul even after he himself had pronounced this sentence against Grotius * Ib. p. 196. that he favoured the Papists and not only yielded too much to them in his later Writings but expressed too much disaffection to the reformed in those Countries All this he candidly passed over with this censure * Ib. p. 146. He is the best Man who hath fewest faults for there is no body to be found without some And the same favourable judgment I suppose all serious and considering men will pass upon him now and not be hindred by any prejudices which may have been taken up against him among our selves from reaping that benefit which they may receive by reading this excellent Book Which I present again to the view of the English World and have in a manner made a new Translation of it the former which came out near 50. Years ago being so defective that there were few Paragraphs in it which stood not in need of some amendment and in a great number the sense was quite mistaken Who the Translator was I am ignorant but it is certain he either did not understand the Latine Tongue or did not attend to what he was about as appears by innumerable Instances But one may suffice in the Third Book Sect. 3. where he Translates altera Petri the one Epistle of Peter Besides there is plain Arianism in his Translation Book V. Sect. 21. for he says the Son was not uncreate as the Father is when in Grotius the words are the Son is not ingenitus unbegotten as the Father is Yet where the Translation was passable I have let it go as it was that I might not seem to be too curious a Censurer of other Mens labours And I have added such passages as were not there the Book it self having been inlarged by Grotius since that old English Translation I know not how necessary it might be at that time when it was first put into our Language but now I think nothing can be more And to make it of larger use I have added also a Seventh Book of my own In which out of those Principles chiefly which Grotius builds upon in his Six Books I have shown that Christian Religion hath suffered very much by the Church of Rome and that we need not go thither to be assured of the Truth of that Religion but shall be better informed in our own Church by the Holy Scriptures and such works as these I have not quoted all my Authors no more than Grotius did in the first Editions of his Book And it would have made the Work also too long I thought to Translate his Testimonies and add the like of my own Nor would it have been so useful to common Readers who do but perplex themselves
Ministers Which as it is against the practice of the whole Church for many Ages from the beginning So directly opposes the Institution of Christ who set his Apostles in a superiority to the LXX as his Apostles set such Men as Timothy and Titus in a superiority over the Presbyteries of those Churches which they could no longer attend themselves SECT X. Arguments enough in the foregoing Books to prove the true Christian Religion not to be sincerely preserved in the Roman Church one is their way of worship IT would be easie to show how much the Roman Church hath deviated from the Rule of Faith by considering particularly the falsity of every one of those Doctrines which they have added to the ancient Creeds But it will be more proper in so short a Treatise as this only to bring to the Readers mind some Principles in the foregoing Books which direct us as plainly to reject Popery and upon the very same ground as those false Religions for whose confutation he alledges them And First let the Reader again weigh his Arguments against the worship of the Pagans and he will find them in several things as strong against the worship of the Roman Church whose practices it will hereby appear are no less faulty than their Faith As for example in the worship of Angels and Saints For the former They should not only as he discourses there Book IV. in their very worship make an evident difference between the most high God and those Angels to whom they commend themselves which they do not do in the Roman Church but quite contrary in the external acts of adoration have none that are appropriated to God alone but are all common to him with others as adoration invocation burning incense nay offering the Sacrifice of the Mass in their honour and making vows to them but be satisfied also what order there is among the Angels what good may be expected from each of them and what honour the most high God is willing should be bestowed upon every one of them All which being wanting for there is nothing revealed about such matters it is plain from thence how uncertain that Religion is and how much safer it would be for them to betake themselves as we do to the worship of Almighty God alone Especially for that to whomsoever He is favourable to them the holy Angels must needs be kind and serviceable though no Petitions be made to them being the Ministers and Servants of the most High who hath revealed this to us that He hath made them all subject to Jesus Christ to be sent forth by Him for the good of those who shall be heirs of Salvation In the number of which they above all others have reason to hope to be who have so great a respect to His Majesty and confidence in his Goodness that for fear of offending Him they dare worship none but Himself alone resting assured He will deal well with them even for this reason because they have such a regard to Him as not to presume without his warrant and authority so much as to recommend themselves to Him by any Angel in Heaven though never so great but by his only begotten Son Jesus Christ alone who is the Head of them all and whom He hath consecreated to be our perpetual Intercessor with Him The like we may say of the Worship of Saints to whom all Prayers are fruitless and vain unless they be able to do something for their Supplicants Of which they have no certainty nor is there more ground to say that they can than that they cannot but rather less ground since it is inconceivable how they should be able to hear and assist so many as address themselves to the same Saint in several far distant parts of the World without supposing them to be equal to our blessed Saviour for they have as many if not more Supplicants as He by such an union as He hath with the Divinity They worship also which is still worse such for Saints as never were in being and others whose Saintship there is too much reason to question being apparently guilty of such crimes as are inconsistent with it For instance our Thomas à Becket by whose bloud they have prayed our Lord Christ that they may ascend into Heaven and do still pray upon Decemb. 29. that they who implore his help may have the saving effect of his petitions whom our Forefathers even in the time of Popery lookt upon as a perjured Person and as a Traitor being not only called so by the King but in Parliament accused of Treason the Bishops as well as others being present and the Bishop of Winchester pronouncing the sentence against him In short the Devotions of the Roman Church are so like the ancient Idolatry that the cunningest Man in the World cannot find any difference without a great many nice and subtil distinctions which in practice make no difference at all SECT XI Another is the way of promoting their Religion THERE is this Argument also against it as Grotius speaks of Paganism Book 4. Sect. 10. taken from the Religion it self that if it be not supported by humane power or policy immediately it falls to the ground For as the Church of Rome it hath been observed by wise Men of our own got and increased its absolute Authority over Mens consciences by obtruding on the World supposititious Writings and corrupting the Monuments of former times by false Miracles and forging false stories by Wars also and Persecutions by Massacres Treasons and Rebellions in short by all manner of carnal means whether violent or fraudulent so take away these supports and that Religion cannot stand by its own strength And truly his reason in the Third Section of the same Book against the Paganish worship that it was from evil Spirits because they instigated their Worshippers to destroy them that worshipped one God holds good still if there be any force in it to prove the Roman Church not to be acted by the good Spirit of God because they would not let those live had they sufficient power who worship only one God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and content themselves with the Belief before mentioned into which they were Baptized not presuming to superadd any thing else as necessary to Salvation And which is worse while they have been most cruel to those who for fear of offending God dare not allow the worship they give to Saints which they think belongs to him alone nor fall down before the Sacrament and adore it as very God Himself They have tolerated such without any censure who have raised St. Francis into an equality with if not superiority unto our blessed Saviour and made the blessed Virgin a kind of Goddess nay called the Pope the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords giving him such a power over all Kings and Kingdoms as sober Men among themselves are ashamed to own Which is just after the example of the
in abundance of quotations and must after all believe that we report them truly and therefore may as well believe us when we say that they are ready at hand to attest every thing which is here affirmed from their Authority Since the finishing of this little Labour I was informed by a Friend that Mr. Clement Barksdale had translated part of this Work into English and upon search I found the three first Books among some other Discourses Printed 1669. And I am told further by another Friend that he hath lately added though I have not seen it the three last Books Which if I had known sooner it might have saved me I believe most if not all of the pains I have taken But I was perfectly ignorant of it as I perceive he was of any former Translation before his For in that Edition of his Discourses where he hath added the Third Book of this Work concerning the Authority of the Scriptures he saith it had not been till then in English But it will do no hurt though the same good thing be reached out to us by more hands than one and so I leave it to Gods Blessing upon the Readers serious perusal S. P. A CHRISTIAN PRAYER FOR THE Adversaries of true Religion O Merciful God who hast made all Men and hatest nothing that thou hast made nor wouldest the death of a sinner but rather that he should be converted and live Have mercy upon all Jews Turks Infidels and Hereticks and take from them all ignorance hardness of heart and contempt of thy Word And so fetch them home blessed Lord to thy Flock that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites and be made one Fold under one Shepherd Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Spirit one God World without end Amen To the Honourable Hieronymus Bignonius The KING'S Advocate in the Supreme Court of PARIS Sir YOU are wont very often to ask me who am sensible how highly you have deserved of your Country of learning and if you will permit me to add that of me also what the Argument of those Books is which I wrote in my own Country Language in the behalf of Christian Religion Nor do I wonder you should make such a question for you who have read and that with so great judgment all that is worth the reading cannot be ignorant what pains hath been already taken in this matter by Raymundus Sebundus with Philosophical subtilty by Ludovicus Vices with variety of Dialogues but especially by your Mornay with no less Learning than Eloquence For which cause it may seem more profitable to translate some of them into the vulgar Tongue than to begin a new Work upon this subject But what other men will judg of this matter I know not my hope is that before you Sir who are so fair and easie a Judge I may be absolved if I say that having read not only those Authors but what the Jews have written for the old Judaical and Christians for our Religion I thought good also to use my own judgment such as it is and to allow that freedom to my mind which when I wrote it was denied to my body For I thought that Truth was not to be contended for but only with truth and with such truth also as I approved in my own mind knowing it would be but a vain labour to go about to perswade others of that which I had not first perswaded my self to believe Omitting therefore such arguments as seem'd to me to have little weight in them and the authority of such Books as I either knew or suspected to be counterfeit I selected those both out of the ancient and modern times which appeared to me to have the greatest force in them And what things I fully assented unto those I both cast into an orderly method and expressed in as popular a manner as I could invent and likewise included in verse that they might be the better committed to memory For my intention was to do some good service hereby to all my Country-men especially to sea-faring men that in their long Voyages wherein they have nothing to do they might lay out their time and imploy it rather than as too many do lose and mispend it Wherefore taking my rise from the commendation of our Nation which for diligent skill in Navigation much excels the rest I stirr'd them up to use this Art as a Divine benefit not meerly for their own gain but for the propagation of the true that is the Christian Religion For they would neither want matter for such endeavours when in their long Voyages they commonly met either with Pagans as in China and Guinea or with Mahometans as under the Turkish Empire the Persian and the Africans or with Jews who as they are now profest enemies of Christians so are dispersed through the greatest part of the World and there would always be store of impious men who are ready upon occasion to vent the Poison which for fear they keep concealed Against which mischiefs I wisht that our Country-men might be sufficiently armed and that they who are more ingenious than others would use their utmost endeavours to confute Errours and the rest would at least be so cautious as not to be overcome by them And that I might show Religion is no frivolous thing I begin in the first Book at the ground or foundation thereof which is that there is a God Now that I attempt to prove after this manner The First Book OF THE TRUTH OF Christian Religion SECT I. That there is a GOD. THat there are some things which had a beginning is clear to common sense and by the confession of all howbeit those things were not causes to themselves of their own being For that which is not cannot produce any thing neither had it power to be before it was therefore it follows that the said things had their beginning from some other thing different from themselves Which may be averred not only of such things as now we see or ever have beheld but of such also as gave original unto these and so upward until we come to some prime cause which never began to be and which as we say hath its existence by necessity and not after any contingent manner And this what ever it be whereof by and by we shall speak is that which is meant by Divine Power or God head Another reason to prove that there is some such divine Majestie is taken from the most manifest consent of all Nations such I mean as have not utterly lost the light of reason and good manners and become altogether wild and savage For since those things which proceed from Mans pleasure and appointment are neither the same among all Men and are often subject to change and yet there is no place where this notion is not found and it is not changed by the alterations of times as Aristotle himself notes who was
old fashions and customs do number their particular times by nights not by days It was the opinion of Athenagoras that all things were ordered and disposed by the highest intelligence of Aratus that the Stars were made by God and after the Grecians of Virgil that life was infused into things by the Spirit of God and that Man was formed of Clay is delivered by Hesiod Homer and Callimachus Lastly Maximus Tyrius asfirms that by the common consent of Nations it is agreed there is but one Supreme God which is the cause of all things And the memory of the finishing the Creation in seven days space was preserved not only among the Greeks and Italians by the honour they gave to the Seventh day as we learn out of Josephus Philo Tibullus Clemens Alexandrinus and Lucian but among the Gauls and Indians who all distinguished their time by Weeks i. e. seven days as we are taught by Philostratus Dion Cassius Justin Martyr and the most ancient Names of the days of the Week Moreover the Aegyptians taught that Man at the beginning led his life in all simplicity being naked in his body and not ashamed whence came the Poets fiction of the golden age which was famous even amongst the Indians as Strabo relates The History of Adam and Eve the Tree the Serpent was extant as Maimonides tells us among the Idolatrous Indians in his time And that the same is found among the Pagans of Pegu and the Philippin Islands People of the same India the name of Adam also among the Brachmans and the account of 6000. Years being passed since the World was made among those of Siam we have witnesses of our own age which assure us AND that the lives of those who succeeded the first Men were prolonged to near a Thousand Years is reported by Berosus in his Chaldaicks Manethos in his Aegypticks Hiromus in his Phoenician records Hestiaeus Hecataeus Hellanicus in the account they have left of the Graecian affairs and among the Poets by Hesiod Which is the less incredible when we consider what is reported in the Histories of very many Nations particularly by Pausanius and Philostratus among the Greeks and Pliny among the Romans the bodies of Men were anciently far larger than they are now as was found upon the opening of some of their Sepulchres Catullus also after very many Greeks reports that heavenly visions appeared unto Men before such time as they by the multitude and heinousness of their crimes did deprive themselves of that sacred acquaintance and familiarity with God and his ministring Spirits The wild life of the Gyants which Moses mentions may be read almost every where in the Greek and in some Latine Authors 'T is to be noted of Noah's Flood that in its History the memory of almost all Nations ends even of such Nations as were unknown till of late Years whereupon Varro called all the space before the hid or unknown time But those things we find wrapt up in the licentious fables of the Poets are truly that is agreeable to Moses delivered by most ancient Writers such are Berosus of the Chaldees Abydenus of the Assyrians who mentions the sending out of a Dove as also Plutarch of the Grecians and Lucian who saith that at Hieropolis in Syria there is to be seen a most ancient History both of Noah's Ark and of those that were saved therein both Men and Beasts The same History was extant also in Molo and in Nicolaus Damascenus the latter of which had also the Name of the Ark which is found likewise in Deucalion's History in Apollodorus To which we may add that in several parts of America as in Cuba Mechoacana Nicuraga there hath been preserved the memory of the Flood of the Creatures saved from perishing in it yea of the Raven and the Dove and the memory of the Flood it self even in that part now called the Golden Castile is witnessed by very many of the Spanish Nation In what part of the World men lived before the Flood that note in Pliny of the building of Joppe before the same Flood doth testifie That the place whereon Noah's Ark rested after the Flood was in the Gordien Mountains it is manifest by the constant remembrance thereof with the Armenians from all Ages until this time Japhet the Father of the Europeans whence came Ion or as anciently they pronounced the word Iavon of the Grecians and Hammo of the Africans and such like are names which are found in Moses his writings as there are also foot-steps of the rest in the names of Nations and Countreys observed by Josephus and others And then the endeavour of climbing up to Heaven which of the Poets doth not mention The burning of Sodom is spoken of by Diodorus Siculus Strabo Tacitus Pliny and Solinus The most ancient use of Circumcision hath been related by Herodotus Diodorus Strabo Philo Biblius and now is retained by the posterity of Abraham to wit not only the Hebrews but also the Idumaeans Ismaëlites and others A certain History of Abraham Isaac Jacob and Joseph agreeing with that of Moses was anciently extant in Philo Biblius out of Sanchuniath in Berosus Hecataeus Damascenus Atrapanus Epolemus Demetrius and partly in that old Author of the aforesaid Orphean verses and now also there are some remainders thereof in Justin out of Trogus Pompaeus And almost in every one of these Authors aforenamed there is some mention made of Moses and his Acts more particularly how he was taken out of the Waters and how the two Tables was given unto him of God is plainly set down in those Orphean verses aforesaid Add unto these the testimony of Polemon also what some of the Egyptians themselves have recorded to wit Manethon Lisimachus and Chaerimon concerning the departing out of Egypt NEITHER will it enter into the heart of any wise Man to think that Moses having so many enemies both of the Aegyptians and of other Nations as the Idumaeans Arabians and Phoenicians would dare to divulge ought concerning the beginning of the World and other ancient things which either could be confuted by other more ancient Writings or were repugnant to the common received opinion in those times neither doubtless would he publish any thing touching the affairs in that Age which could be justly gainsaid or disproved by the testimonies of any then living Of this Moses there is mention made by Diodorus Siculus Strabo and Pliny by Tacitus also and after all them by Dionysius Longinus in his Book concerning sublimity of speech Likewise Jamnes and Mambres that resisted Moses in Aegypt are mentioned not only by the Authors of the Talmud but by Pliny and Apuleius Amongst others the Pythagoreans speak much of the Law it self which was given by Moses and of the Legal Rites Both Strabo and Justin out of Trogus give an excellent testimony of the ancient Jewish Religion and Justice insomuch that here me thinks 't is needless to produce any further testimony of such things as are
it very easily But there were such multitude of Miracles wrought at the Sepulchres I spoke of and so many Witnesses of them that they extorted even from Porphyry a confession of it SECT VIII The Truth of the Writings confirmed from hence that many things are found there which the event hath proved to be divinely revealed THESE things ought to suffice but there are other Arguments which we may heap upon these to prove the truth and fidelity of these Authors Writings For many things are therein foretold which were impossible for Men by their own power to know or bring to pass yet we see the truth thereof wonderfully confirmed by the event Thus it was foretold that this Religion should upon a sudden have a large and ample increase that it should continue for ever and though it were rejected by most of the Jews yet should it be imbraced by the Gentiles Thus likewise was foretold what hatred and spight the Jews would bear against them that professed this Religion and what grievous Persecutions they should undergo The siege also and destruction both of Hierusalem and of the Temple together with the miserable Calamities of the Jewish Nation SECT IX As also from God's care in preserving his People from false writings BESIDES this if it be granted that God out of his providence takes care of humane affairs specially such as belong to his honour and worship then it cannot be that he should suffer so great a multitude of Men who had no other design but to worship God after a holy manner to be cheated with lying Books And forasmuch as since the time that so many Sects have sprung up in Christianity there hath not been one that received not either all or the most of those Books excepting some few that contain no singular matter differing from the rest it is a great argument that no material thing could be objected against these writings specially since the said Sects were so partial and spitefully bent against each other that what one approved others rejected even for this reason because it was there approved SECT X. Answer to the Objection that divers Books were not received by all THERE were some indeed though very few among those that would be called Christians who rejected all those Books which they saw contradicted their peculiar Opinions Such for instance as out of hatred of the Jews reviled their God the Maker of the World and the Law which he had given them or on the other side such as for fear of the evils which Christians were to undergo chose to lurk and lye hid under the name of Jews who had liberty without any danger to profess their Religion But these very Men were renounced in those times by all other Christians throughout the World when as yet all that differed in their opinions with the safety of piety were tolerated by the order of the Apostles with great patience As for the former kind of these adulterate Christians I think they have been sufficiently confuted both by that which we have said before when we proved that there was but one only true God the sole framer of the whole World As also by those very Books which that they might have some semblance of Christians they did admit of specially the Gospel of Luke wherein is evidently shown that the same God whom Moses and the Hebrews worshipped was preached by Christ And the other sort we shall more fitly confute when we come to oppugne those that both are and would be called Jews For the present only this I say that their impudence is wonderful great who slight and extenuate the authority of Paul seeing there was not one of all the Apostles that founded and taught more Churches than he did and his Miracles were at that time reported to be exceeding numerous when as e're while we said there might easily have been trial and inquiry made of the truth of the matter If then it be true that he wrought wonders why may we not believe him concerning his Heavenly Visions and instruction received from Christ himself to whom if he was so dear it cannot be that he should teach any thing inglorious or ingrateful unto Christ as falsities or untruths would have been And as touching that particular which is the only thing whereof they accuse him namely his doctrine of the liberty and freedom which was purchased for the Hebrews from those Rites and Ceremonies that were formerly commanded them by MOSES He had no reason at all to teach it but only the truth of the thing which he asserted For he himself was both circumcised and did also of his own accord observe very many things which the Law enjoyned And then for the sake of the Christian Religion he both did more difficult and suffered harder things than the Law required or could be expected upon the account of the Law and taught also his Disciples to do and suffer the like Whence it appears that he uttered no flattering or enticing speeches unto his auditors who were taught in stead of the Sabbath to keep every day holy for divine worship and in stead of the little expences which the Law required to suffer the loss of all their goods and in stead of the bloud of Beasts to consecrate their own bloud unto God And further Paul himself plainly affirms that Peter John and James in token of their consent with him gave him the right hands of fellowship which he never durst have spoken if it had not been true because the same Men being then alive might have convicted him for a lyar These therefore of whom I have now spoken being excluded as scarce deserving the name of Christians the most manifest consent of so many Congregations of Christians who received these Books added to what hath been spoken of the Miracles which the Writers of them wrought and the singular care which God takes about matters of this kind ought to be sufficient to induce any indifferent Men to give credit thereunto specially considering that they are wont commonly to credit any other Books of History which have no such testimonies unless they see some plain reason to the contrary which cannot be said of any of those Books whereof we have spoken SECT XI Answer to an Objection that these Books seem to contain things impossible FOR if any body say that some things are related in these Books which are impossible to be done the Objection vanishes when we consider what hath been before discoursed that there are things which cannot indeed be done by Men but are possible with God such that is as include in themselves no repugnancy or contradiction as we speak and that in the number of such things are even those Miraculous Powers which we most of all admire and the recalling of the Dead to Life again SECT XII Or things contrary to Reason NEITHER are they to be more regarded who say that some doctrines are comprised in these Books which are disagreeing to right reason
For this is confuted first by such a vast multitude of Men who wanted no wit learning or wisdom as have followed the authority of these Books ever since the first times And then all those things which were shown in the first Book to be consonant to right reason for instance that there is one God who alone is absolutely perfect infinite in virtue life wisdom and goodness of whom all things that have any being were made whose care and providence reacheth over all his works especially unto Men and who can after this life bountifully reward all them that obey him and that we ought to bridle our sensual appetites that amongst Men there is kinred and alliance and therefore they ought to love one another with sincere affection All these you shall find most plainly delivered in these Books But to assert any thing for certain beyond these either about the nature of God or about his will by the mere conduct of humane reason the contrary resolutions not only of the Schools among themselves but of particular Philosophers may teach us how unsafe and fallacious it is And it is no marvel for if Men do so far disagree in their opinions when they dispute about the nature of their own Soul then they must needs much more dissent when they go about to determine any thing not revealed concerning the highest mind and the most supreme Spirit which so far transcends our weak apprehension If as prudent Men are wont to say to enquire into the Counsels of Kings be dangerous and not to be attempted or attained by us who then is there so sagacious that he should hope to be able by his own conjecture to find out what God's will is in those things which he may will freely as he pleases Wherefore Plato said very well that none of these hidden mysteries could be known without an Oracle Now there can no Oracle be proved to be an Oracle indeed by any clearer testimonies than those that are contained in the said Books of the new covenant It is so far from being proved that it is not so much as asserted that God did ever reveal any thing to Men concerning his nature which was repugnant to these Books nor can there any later signification of his will which is credible be produced For if there was any thing otherwise commanded or permitted before the times of Christ in such matters as are either plainly indifferent or not at all in themselves due nor plainly dishonest it makes nothing against these Books since that in such matters the later Laws annul the former SECT XIII Answer to an Objection that some of these Books are repugnant to the other THERE are those who are wont further to object against these Books that there is sometime a certain disagreement in their sense But quite contrary whosoever will judge of this matter with an indifferent mind shall find this also may be added to the arguments for the authority of these Books that they do most manifestly and apparently agree about such things as concern any weighty point of doctrine or history Which consent and accord cannot else-where be found among any other Writers that are of one and the same sect or profession whether we consider the Jews or the Greek Philosophers the Physicians or the Roman Lawyers All which do not only differ much among themselves yea even those that are of the same sect as Plato and Xenophon but oftentimes one shall find the same Writer to affirm now one thing then another as if he were forgetful of himself or knew not what to resolve upon But these Writers of whom we speak do inculcate and express the same points of faith they deliver the same Commandments and as for their narration of the life and death and resurrection of Christ the Sum and substance in them all is the very same As touching some small circumstances which make nothing to the main matter they might happily have admitted a very easie reconciliation though we now do not know it because of the likeness of things done at divers times the ambiguity of names or more names than one of the same Man or place and such like things Nay this very thing ought to vindicate and free these Writers from all suspicion of falshood it being usual with those that would have lies and untruths credited to relate all circumstances by compact and agreement so as there shall not appear any colour or shew of difference Or if it be so that for any small difference which cannot so exactly be reconciled a whole Book shall lose its credit then we must believe no Books at all specially those of history yet we see that Polybius Halicarnassensis Livy and Plutarch for the substance of them are esteemed authentical and true though in some circumstances they do not agree Which makes it the more equal and just that no such thing should destroy their credit who we see by their very Writings were always most studious of Piety and Truth SECT XIV Answer to an Objection taken from outward Testimonies which make more for these Books THERE remains another way of overthrowing a Testimony which is by producing contrary Testimonies out of other Authors But I dare boldly say that there are no such testimonies to be found unless a Man will produce the sayings of them that were born a long time after and of such also as did so openly profess enmity against Christianity that they could be no fit Witnesses in this matter Nay on the contrary if need were we could alledge many testimonies to confirm divers parts of the history which is delivered in the said Books Thus both Hebrews and Pagans report that Jesus was crucified and that sundry miracles were done by him and his Disciples Those most famous Books of Josephus which were set forth about Forty Years after Christ's Ascension do make mention of Herod Pilat Festus Felix John the Baptist Gamaliel and of the destruction of Hierusalem at large Herewithal agree that which the Authors of the Talmud have recorded concerning those times Tacitus relates how cruelly Nero used the Christians And anciently there were certain Books extant not only of private Men as of Phlegon and others but also some publick Acts whereunto the Christians appealed for that in them there was mention made of the Star that appeared at Christ's Nativity and also of the Earthquake and Eclipse of the Sun against the course of Nature it being then full Moon at the time of Christ's Passion upon the Cross SECT XV. Answer to the Objection that the Scriptures were changed NOW what can be farther objected against these Books I see not unless it be said that they remained not altogether the same that they were from the beginning And indeed it must be granted that what is common to other Books might happen nay did happen to those namely that by the carelesness or the perverse care of the Transcribers some Letters syllables or words might be changed left
the keepers of these Books For first of all the Ten Tribes were led away captive by the Assyrians into Media then afterward the two other Tribes And many of these also after Cyrus granted them liberty to return setled themselves in foreign Countries The Macedonians invited them with great promises to come into Alexandria The cruelty of Antiochus the civil Wars of the Maccabees together with those of Pompey and Sossius from without did disperse and scatter abroad many of them The parts of Africa about Cyrene were full of the Jews so were the Cities of Asia Macedonia Lycaonia and likewise the Isles of Cyprus Crete and others Also what a number of them there was at Rome may be learned out of Horace Juvenal and Martial Now it is not possible that such Multitudes so far distant one from another should be cozened in this kind neither could they ever accord all in the coining of an untruth Add moreover that almost Three Hundred Years before Christ at the appointment and care of the Kings of Egypt those Books of the Hebrews were translated into the Greek Tongue by those that are called the Seventy Interpreters So as then the Grecians had the sense and substance of them though in another Language whereby they were the less liable to be changed Nay more these Books were translated both into the Chaldee Tongue and into that of Jerusalem that is the half Syriac a little before and a little after the time of Christ Other Greek translations afterward there were as namely by Aquila Symmachus and Theodotion all which Origen compared with that of the Seventy Interpreters and after him others also who could find no diversity of history or of any matter worth speaking of Philo lived in the Reign of Caligula and Josephus survived the times of both the Vespasians which two Writers alledge out of the Hebrew Books the same things that we read at this day Now in these very times began Christian Religion to be more and more propagated being professed by many of the Hebrews and by sundry Persons that had learned the Hebrew Tongue who if the Jews had falsified in any notable part could have quickly discovered it by comparing more ancient Copies and so have made it publickly known But they are so far from doing this that on the other side they alledge many testimonies out of the old covenant to the same sense and meaning that they are used by the Hebrews which Hebrews may sooner be accused of any other fault than I will not say falshood but of so much as negligence about these Books which they have so religiously and exactly described and compared that they know how often any one Letter is found therein The last though not the least argument to prove that the Jews did not purposely corrupt or alter the Scripture may be because the Christians out of the very Books which are read by the Jews do evince and as they trust very strongly that their Lord and Master Jesus is that same very Messias which was anciently promised to the Jews their Forefathers Which above all things the Jews would have taken care should not have been done when the controversie arose between them and the Christians if ever it had been in their power to have changed what they listed The Fourth Book OF THE TRUTH OF Christian Religion SECT I. A particular Confutation of the Religions opposite to Christianity THE Fourth Book beginning with that pleasure which many Men are wont to take in beholding the danger wherein others are while they are in none themselves shows that it ought to be the greatest pleasure of a Christian Man in this life not only to rejoyce and bless himself that he hath found out the Truth but to lend his help also to others that wander up and down in the Labyrinths of Errour and to make them partakers of so great a benefit Which we in some measure have indeavoured to do in the former Books the demonstration of that which is true containing in it self the confutation of what is false yet in regard that all kinds of Religions which oppose themselves to the Christian Viz. Paganism Judaism and Mahometism besides that which is common to all have certain errours proper to every one of them and their peculiar Arguments which they are wont to oppose us withal it will not be amiss to make a particular Disputation against every one of these First beseeching the Readers to free their judgments from leaning to a Party and from long custome and prejudice as impediments of a good mind that with the greater indifferency they may take cognizance of what shall be said SECT II. And first of Paganisme that there is but one God Created Spirits are good or bad the good not to be honoured but as the most high God directs TO begin then against Pagans If they say that there are divers eternal and coequal Gods we have confuted this Opinion before in the first Book where we taught that there is but only one God who is the cause of all things Or if they by the name of Gods do understand the created Spirits which are superior to Men they then either mean the good or the bad if they say the good first they ought to be well assured that such are so indeed otherwise they commit a dangerous error in receiving enemies in stead of friends and Traytors for Ambassadors Then it were but reason that they should in their very worship make an evident difference between the most high God and those Spirits And likewise be satisfied what order there is among them what good may be expected from each of them and what honour the most High is willing should be bestowed on every one of them All which being wanting in their Religion it is plain from thence how uncertain that Religion is and how it were a safer course for them to betake themselves to the worship of one Almighty God which even Plato confessed was the duty of every wise Man specially for that to whomsoever God is propitious and favourable to them these good Angels must needs be serviceable and gracious being the Ministers and Servants of the most High SECT III. Evil Spirits adored by Pagans and how impious a thing it is BUT it was the bad not the good Spirits which the Pagans did worship as may be proved by weighty reasons first because these adored Angels did not throw off their worshippers unto the service of the true God but as much as in them lay laboured to abolish the same or at least in every respect required equal honour with the Almighty Secondly because they procured all the mischief they could to the worshippers of the one most High God by provoking both Magistrates and People to inflict punishments upon them For when it was lawful for Poets to sing of the murders and adulteries committed by the Gods and for the Epicures to take away all divine Providence and any other Religion though never
he ought to be acknowledg'd as King who should be our King indeed and that he was to come out of the East who should have dominion over all We read in Porphyry of the Oracle of Apollo which saith that other Gods are aerial Spirits but the God of the Hebrews is only to be worshipped which saying if the worshippers of Apollo obey then they must cease to worship him if they do not obey it then they make their God a Iyar Add further if those Spirits had respected or intended the good of Mankind above all things they would have prescribed a general Rule of life to Mankind and also given some certain assurance of a reward to them that lived accordingly neither of which was ever done by them On the other side oftentimes in their Verses we find some Kings commended which were wicked men some Champions extol'd and dignified with divine honour others allured to immodest and unlawful love or to the seeking after filthy lucre or committing of Murder as might be shown by many Examples SECT X. Paganisme decayed of its own accord so soon as humane aid ceased BESIDES all that hath hitherto been said Paganisme ministers to us a mighty argument against it self because that wheresoever it becomes destitute of humane force to support it there straightway it comes to ruine as if the foundation thereof were quite overthrown For if we take a view of all the Kingdoms and States that are among Christians or Mahumetans we shall find no memory of Paganisme but in Books Nay histories tell us that even in those times when the Emperors endeavoured to uphold the Pagan Religion either by violence and persecution as did the first of them or by learning and subtilty as did Julian it notwithstanding decayed daily not by any violent opposition nor by the brightness and splendor of lineage and descent for Jesus was accounted by the common sort only a Carpenters Son nor by the flourishes of learning which they that taught the Law of Christ used not in their Sermons nor by gifts and bribes for they were poor nor by any soothing and flattering speeches for on the contrary they taught that all worldly advantages must be despised and that all kind of adversity must be undergone for the Gospel's sake See then how weak and impotent Paganisme was which by such means came to ruine Neither did the doctrine of Christ only make the credulity of the Gentiles to vanish but even bad Spirits came out of divers bodies at the name of Christ they became dumb also and being demanded the reason of their silence they were compelled to say that they were able to do nothing where the name of Christ was called upon SECT XI Answer to the Opinion of some that think the beginning and decay of Religions depend upon the efficacy of the Stars THERE have been Philosophers that did ascribe the beginning and decay of every Religion unto the Stars But this star-gazeing Science which these Men profess to be skilled in is delivered under such different rules that one can be certain of nothing but only this that there is no certainty at all therein I do not here speak of such effects as follow from a natural necessity of causes but of those that proceed from the will of Man which of it self hath such liberty and freedom that no necessity or violence can be impressed upon it from without For if the consent of the will did necessarily follow any outward impression then the power in our soul which we may perceive it hath to consult deliberate and chuse would be given in vain Also the equity of all Laws of all rewards and punishments would be taken away seeing there can be neither fault nor merit in that which is altogether necessary and inevitable Again there are divers evil acts or effects of the will which if they proceeded of any necessity from the Heavens then the same Heavens and Celestial Bodies must needs receive such efficacy from God and so it would follow that God who is most perfectly good is the true cause of that which is morally evil And that when in his Law he professeth himself to abhor wickedness which a force inserted by him into things themselves will inevitably produce he doth will two things contrary one to the other that the same thing should be done and not be done and also that a Man offends in an action which he doth by divine instigation They speak more probably that say the influences of the Stars do first affect the Air then our Bodies with such qualities as oftentimes do excite and stir up in the mind some desires or affections answerable thereunto and the will being allured or inticed by these motions doth oftentimes yield unto them But if this should be granted it makes nothing for the question we have in hand For seeing that Christian Religion most of all withdraws Men from those things which are pleasing unto the body it cannot therefore have its beginning from the affections of the body and consequently not from the influence of the Stars which as but now we said have no power over the mind otherwise than by the mediation of those affections The most prudent among Astrologers exempt truly wise and good Men from the dominion of the Stars And such verily were they that first professed Christianity as their lives do shew Or if there be any efficacy in learning and knowledge against the infection of the body even among Christians there were ever some that were excellent in this particular Besides as the most learned do confess the effects of the Stars respect certain Climates of the World and are only for a season but this Religion hath now continued above the space of one thousand six hundred years and that not in one part only but in the most remote places of the World and such as are under a far different position of the Stars SECT XII The chief Points of Christianity are approved of by the Heathen and if there be any thing that is hard to be believed therein the like or worse is found among the Pagans BUT the Pagans have the less to object against Christian Religion because all the parts thereof are of such honesty and integrity that they convince Mens minds by their own light In so much that there have not been wanting Men among the Pagans also who have here and there said every one of those things which our Religion hath in a body all together As to give some instances true Religion consists not in Rites and Ceremonies but in the mind and Spirit he is an adulterer that hath but a desire to commit adultery we ought not to revenge injuries one Man should be the Husband of one Wife only the league or bond of Matrimony ought to be constant and perpetual Man is bound to do good unto all specially to them that are in want we must refrain from Swearing as much as may be And as for our Food
during the space of One Thousand Years and more but afterward stolen away by Jesus For there is no mention made of those Lyons though it be a thing most remarkable and wonderful either in the Books of Kings and Chronicles or by Josephus nor was there any such thing found by the Romans who accompanying Pompey entred into that Temple before the times of Jesus SECT V. The Miracles of Jesus were divine because he taught the worship of one God the Maker of the World IT being then granted as the Jews cannot deny that Wonders were wrought by Christ it will follow from the very Law of Moses that he must be believed For God saith Deuteron xviii 15 c. that other Prophets after the time of Moses should be raised up of God to whom the People should be obedient or otherwise become liable to grievous punishments Now miracles are the most infallible marks of the Prophets Nor can any more illustrious be so much as conceived But in Deuteron xiii it is said that if any professing himself to be a Prophet doth work wonders yet He must not be believed if he go about to entice the People to a new worship of the Gods For though such miracles be done yet this is only by God's permission for trial whether the People would persist constantly in the worship of the true God From which places compared together the Hebrew Interpreters do rightly collect that every one must be believed that worketh miracles unless thereby he intice Men from the worship of the true God and in that case only miracles are not to be credited though in shew most glorious Now Jesus did not only not teach the worshipping of false Gods but also expresly condemned it as a most grievous crime and taught us to reverence the writings both of Moses and the Prophets that succeeded him Wherefore there is nothing that can be objected against the miracles that were wrought by Christ SECT VI. Answer to the Objection taken from the difference between the Law of Moses and of Christ where is shown that a more perfect Law than that of Moses might be given AS touching that which some alledge concerning the difference between the law of Moses and the law of Christ it is but of small moment For the Hebrew Doctors themselves make this rule that by the authority of a Prophet who worketh miracles any precept whatsoever may be boldly violated and transgressed except that only which concerns the worship of the true God And surely that power of making laws which belonged unto God when he gave the commandments by the hand of Moses went not from him afterward Neither can any Man that of his own right makes laws be thereby hindred from making the contrary That which they object that God then would be mutable is nothing for we speak not here of Gods nature and essence but of his works Light is changed into darkness youth into old age summer into winter and all by the work of God Thus God at the beginning gave Adam leave in Paradise to eat of other apples but he forbad him to eat of the fruit of one tree Why even because it so pleased him Generally he prohibited Men to kill others yet he commanded Abraham to kill his Son One while he forbad to offer sacrifices apart from the Tabernacle another while he admitted of them Neither will it follow because the Law which was given by Moses was good therefore no better could be given Parents are wont to speak half words and stutter with Infants to wink at the vices of their childhood and entice them to learn with a piece of Cake But so soon as they come to riper age their speech is corrected the precepts of vertue are instilled into them by degrees and they are taught what is the beauty of vertue what its rewards Now it is plain that the precepts of that law of Moses were not exactly perfect because many holy Men of those times led a more excellent life than those commandments required Thus Moses who suffered the revenge of a wrong to be exacted partly by blowes and partly by sentence of the Judges himself being vexed with most bitter injuries became an Intercessor for his enemies So David willing to have his rebellious Son to be spared did patiently endure reproachful speeches cast upon himself We no where read that any good Men put away their Wives which notwithstanding was permitted by the law The reason of which is that Laws are accommodated to the greater part of a People therefore in the state and condition they were in it was meet something should be winked at to be reduced to a more perfect Rule when God by a greater efficacy of the Spirit was to chuse unto himself a new peculiar people out of all Nations Yea all the rewards which are expresly promised by the law of Moses belong only to this mortal life wherefore it must be granted that there might some better law be given whereby the reward of eternal happiness should be promised not under any shadows but in plain and express terms which we see is done by the law of Christ SECT VII The Law of Moses was observed by Jesus who abolished no Commandments that were essentially good AND here by the way for the conviction of the Jews iniquity it must be noted that they who lived in Christ's time used him most basely and punished him most unjustly when as there could no just accusation be laid against him for transgressing the Law He was circumcised he used the same food and apparel that the Jews used those that were healed of Leprosie he sent unto the Priests The Passeover and other Festival days he religiously observed Though he did cure some upon the Sabbath day yet he shewed both by the Law and by the common received opinions that such works were not forbidden to be done upon the Sabbath-day Then it was that he first began to publish the abrogation of some Laws when after his triumph over Death he ascended into Heaven adorning his Disciples upon Earth with illustrious gifts of the holy Spirit whereby he made it evident that he had obtained a regal power which includes in it the authority of making a Law And that according to Daniel's prophecie ch 3. 7. compared with chap. 8. 11. where he foretold how that a little after the destruction of the Kingdoms of Syria and Aegypt the latter whereof happened in the Reign of Augustus GOD would give the Kingdom to a man who should seem but a vulgar Person over all Nations and Languages which Kingdom should never have an end Now that part of the Law the necessity whereof was taken away by Christ contained nothing that was honest in its own nature but consisted of things that were indifferent in themselves and consequently not immutable For if those things had had in them any thing of themselves why they should be done then would God have prescribed them not to one
consists in an exact refraining from all kinds of other labour The former was given from the beginning which doubtless those godly men before the Law did obey to wit Enoch Noah Abraham Isaac and Jacob. The last of which though they travelled much as we read yet there is no where the least sign or remembrance of their intermitting their journey for the Sabbath which after they came out of Egypt you shall always meet with For after that the People were brought out of Aegypt and had happily passed over the red Sea the next day they celebrated a Sabbath of rest and safety wherein they sang a Song of triumph and rejoicing from which time that exact rest upon the Sabbath was commanded which is first mentioned upon occasion of gathering the Manna Exod. 16. 23. Exod. 35. 2. Levit. 23. 3. And in this sense the deliverance from Aegypt is made the reason for the Law of the Sabbath Deut. 5. 15. By which Law provision also was made for servants against the severity of those masters that would not grant them any rest or relaxation from daily labour as may be seen in the places aforesaid It is true indeed strangers were bound to observe this Law because it was meet there should be one form of rest among all the People but this Law of so exact resting upon the Sabbath was not given to other People as may appear by this that in many places it is called a sign and a special covenant also between God and the Israelites as in Exod. 31. 13. 16. Now we have proved before by the promise of far greater benefits that the ordinances which were instituted for a memorial of the coming out from Aegypt were not such as ought never to cease Add moreover if the Law concerning the rest upon the Sabbath had been given from the beginning and in that sense that it never might be abolished then surely that Law had prevailed over other laws when there was a clashing between them which we find was quite contrary by its yielding to them For it is evident that Infants were rightly circumcised upon the Sabbath like as during the time that the Temple stood there were Beasts killed for sacrifice as well upon the Sabbath as upon other days Yea the Hebrew Masters themselves shew the mutability of this law when they say that by a Prophet's appointment and command a work may be rightly done upon the Sabbath-day And this they prove by the taking of Jerico upon the Sabbath according to the commandment of Joshuah And some of them not unfitly shew that the distinction of days shall be taken away in the time of the Messias from that place in Isaiah lxvi 23. where it is prophesied It shall come to pass that the worship of God shall be perpetual from one new Moon to another from one Sabbath to another SECT XI Also of outward Circumcision IN the next place let us come to Circumcision which certainly is Elder than Moses For it was given in command to Abraham and his Posterity Howbeit the commandment thereof was the introduction or beginning of the covenant published by Moses For thus we read that God spake unto Abraham Gen. 17. saying I will give unto thee and to thy Seed after thee the Land wherein thou art a stranger all the Land of Canaan for an everlasting possession and I will be their God And God said unto Abraham Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore thou and thy Seed after thee every man-child among you shall be circumcised But now we know by what hath been already said that in the place of this covenant a new covenant was to succeed which should be common to all People For which cause the necessity of that note of distinction ought to cease Besides in the precept of circumcision there was a mystical and more excellent signification contained which the Prophets do plainly shew in that they command the circumcision of the heart which all the commandments of Jesus aim at Wherefore the promises also annexed to circumcision are in like manner to be referred to some greater thing As that of earthly possessions to the revelation of a possession truly eternal which was never made more manifest than by Jesus So that promise of making Abraham a Father of many Nations hath reference to that time when not a few but an infinite number of People dispersed thorowout the whole World should imitate Abraham's Faith and confidence in God which is so often mentioned in Scripture and this never came to pass but in the time of the Gospel Now it is no marvel if the shadows of an intended work be taken away when the matter it self is accomplisht Lastly that the grace of God was not tied to this sign we may easily discern because not only the more ancient but Abraham himself having not as yet received circumcision pleased God The Hebrews also during all the time of their journey through the Desarts of Arabia omitted circumcision and yet God found no fault with them for it SECT XII And yet the Apostles of Jesus were gentle in the toleration of these things NO doubt but the Hebrews had cause to yield many thanks to Jesus and his Ambassadors for that by Christ they might be freed from that heavy yoke of ceremonies and be assured of this their freedom both by gifts and miracles such as were not inferiour to those that were wrought by Moses And yet the first Publishers of our Christian doctrine did not exact so much of them as to acknowledge this their happiness But if they would admit of the Commandments of Christ which were full of all honesty they easily suffered them to follow what course of life they pleased in matters of indifferency Yet so that upon strangers to whom this law of rites was never given they should not impose a necessity of observing them Which one thing is sufficient to make it plainly appear that the Jews do unjustly reject the doctrine of Christ under that pretence of the ceremonial Law Having then answered this Objection which chiefly is alledged against the miracles of Jesus we will now come to other arguments which may fitly serve for the conviction of the Jews SECT XIII A Proof against the Jews from the promised Messias IT is agreed upon between us and the Jews that in the predictions of the Prophets above many other authors and donors of great good things to the Hebrews there was one man promised far more excellent than the rest whom they call by a Name common to others but in the highest sense of it belonging to him alone the MESSIAS This Messias we say is come long ago but they expect him as yet for to come It remains then that we seek for a decision of this controversie out of those Books the authority whereof we both do joyntly acknowledge SECT XIV Who is proved to be already come by the limited time of his coming which was foretold THE Prophet Daniel to whom
cannot wonder at the corruption of which we complain Let him but read First the censures which their own Authors have passed upon several Popes as meer Epicures and Men void of all Religion c. And then the bitter complaints which St. Bernard himself makes and that while he wrote to a Pope of the Vices which were then annexed even to the very Papacy and further the description which such Men as Marsilius of Padua make of the Church of Rome the whole Body of which he saith was so infected by the plenitude of power which is allowed to the Pope that it might be more truly called a shop of Traffique nay a Den of Thieves than a Church of Christ and to come nearer to our own times the forwardness of their People even since the Reformation to worship Men as Saints before they were canonized by the Pope and he will not think there hath been always such care and caution used about that and such like matters as they would have us believe We have a memorable instance of this thing last mentioned to meddle with no other in the Founder of the Jesuits Order Ignatius Loiola by whose merits People recommended themselves to God if we may believe the Pope himself before he was declared to be a Saint So Urban VIII informs us in his very Bull or Decretal Letters for his Canonization where several miraculous Works are said to have been done for those who fled to his help and religiously worshipped his Image and commended themselves to him as the words are with all their heart He was made indeed a Beato by the preceding Pope But the like stories are told of Xavier one of Ignatius his Companions unto whose intercession the People applied themselves and hoped in his merits as the Bull for his Sainting tells us even before he was made a Beato So exceeding prone they have been of late to run into Superstition as they were more long ago in the days of St. Martin who broke down an Altar which had been set up by former Bishops themselves in honour of a Martyr as the People called him who proved to be no better than a Highway-man as St. Martin discovered that had been executed for his Robberies and there buried SECT XVII Popery and Mahometism had the same Original WE may safely therefore affirm that the account which Grotius gives in the beginning of the VI. Book of the rise of Mahometism may serve as well for the Original of Popery Which took its rise from the great decay of true piety and the vain jangling that fell out among Christian People by imploying their time in curious Questions which made the vulgar at last not know what to believe and to lay the fault upon the Scriptures nay to avoid them as hurtful and dangerous And then it was easie to lead them any whither when they had for saken the Light which showed them their way and began also to place Religion not in purity of mind but in Rites and Ceremonies and to content themselves with such things as served rather to exercise the Body than to amend the Soul In short that false Prophet Mahomet and an Universal Bishop sprang up both together very near the same time as Treason and Idolatry setled themselves also together at the same time in the Age following For the Pope under the pretence of retaining Images which the Constantinopolitane Emperour destroyed revolted from him denyed him the tribute that was wont till then to be paid him even out of Rome it self as well as other places and denying him all obedience plainly thrust him out of Italy This account Zonaras and others give of Gregory the II.'s proceeding against Leo Isaurus and thus the Bishop of Rome by his Papal Authority became the first Author of defection from a lawful Prince upon the account of Religion SECT XVIII And supports its self by the same means IF we look further into what was said before about Mahometism we shall find that Popery stands and upholds it self by the very same shameful means which keep up the Religion of that false Prophet By force that is and violence compelling Men where they have any power to consent to what they say or rather to feign a consent to what they do not believe Which discovers the weakness of that Religion and of the reasons of those that profess it For he that extorts assent as was said in the Book foregoing by sense of pain or fear of punishment plainly confesses by that very proceeding that he distrusts his Arguments At the best they require belief of Men without all liberty of inquiring into Religion For the vulgar just as in Turky are prohibited to read the Books which are accounted holy which is a manifest sign of its iniquity as he there speaks of the Turkish Religion for justly may that merchandize be suspected which is obtruded upon this condition that it must not be lookt into not examined This is the way of the grossest deceivers who will not submit themselves to a trial and refuse to give any account but will have us submit to their Authority and take what such Men as they say upon trust Which is the Method of the Roman Church who are wont to put doubting of any part of their doctrine among mortal sins And so for fear what the issue may be will not suffer their People to try their Religion with indifference that is with true liberty of judgment and with a resolution to doubt of it if the grounds of it appear upon examination to be uncertain and to leave it if they prove apparently false It is true indeed as it there follows there is not in every Man the like capacity of knowledge and quicksightedness to discern between truth and falshood Many also are carried away into error by pride others by inordinate passions or affections and some by custome and imitation or by the weakness of their understandings and forwardness to judge without due consideration or advice with their proper Guides But those very Books which the Roman Church pretends may mislead Men and therefore will not let them use teach them in the first and principal place to purge themselves from all naughty affections and then to be sober-minded and not too forward to determine things on their own heads but to reverence their judgments who are over them in the Lord and not to pretend to Religion nor imagine they can judge a-right till they be humble and meek and without any other design than this alone of saving their Souls Now the Divine Goodness forbids us to think that such Men shall not be able to find the way to eternal Salvation who seek for it in God's own Word and in this manner without any by-respect to honour or worldly advantage and with intire submission of themselves and all they have to Him imploring his assistance that they may attain it Which are in effect the very words of Justin Martyr and Origen And
lived in those times and was present when the things were done In like manner it ought to suffice us that whosoever wrote the Books we speak of both lived in the primitive Age and were endued with Apostolical gifts For if any body will say that these qualities might be feigned as the very Names might be in other Writings he says that which is not credible viz. that they who every where press the study of truth and piety would for no cause at all make themselves guilty of the crime of forgery which is not only detestable among all good Men but by the Roman Laws was to be punished with death SECT V. These Pen-men writ the Truth because they had certain knowledge of what they writ THIS therefore must be allowed that the Books of the new covenant were written by those Authors whose Names they bear or by such as bear sufficient witness of themselves To which if we farther add that they were also well acquainted with the matters whereof they wrote and had no purpose to lye or dissemble it will follow that the things which they committed to writing were both certain and true because every untruth proceeds either from ignorance or from a wicked desire to deceive As touching Matthew John Peter and Jude they were all of the society and fellowship of those Twelve whom Jesus did chuse to be witnesses of his Life and Doctrine so that they could not want notice of those things which they did relate The same may be said of James who was either an Apostle or as some think the next a-kin to Jesus and by the Apostles consecrated Bishop of Hierusalem Paul also could not erre through lack of knowledge about those Points which he professeth were revealed to him by Jesus himself reigning in Heaven nor could he or Luke either who was an inseparable companion to him in his travels be deceived about those things which were done by himself This Luke might easily know the certainty of those things which he writ concerning the life and death of Jesus For he was born in the places next adjoyning to Palestina through which Countrey when he travelled he saith he spake with such persons as were eye-witnesses of the things that were done For doubtless besides the Apostles with whom he had familiarity there lived many others at that time who had been cured by Jesus and had seen him both before his Death and after his Resurrection If we will give credit to Tacitus and Suetonius in those things which happened a long time before they were born because we are confident that they diligently enquired into the truth thereof how much more ought we to believe this Writer who saith that he received all the things which he relates from them that had seen the same It is credibly reported of Mark that he was a constant companion with Peter so that whatsoever he writ are to be lookt upon as dictated by Peter who could not be ignorant thereof Besides the same things that he writes are almost all extant in the Writings of the Apostles Neither could the Author of the Apocalypse be deceived or deluded in those Visions which he saith were sent unto him from Heaven Nor he that writ the Epistle to the Hebrews erre in those things which he professeth either to be inspired into him by the Spirit of God or else taught him by the Apostles SECT VI. As also because they would not lye THE other reason we spake of to prove the truth of the said Holy Writers because they had no will to tell an untruth is twisted with that which we handled above when in general we proved the truth of Christian Religion and of the history of the Resurrection of Christ Those that will accuse any Witnesses for the pravity of their will must produce something by which it may be thought credible their will might be diverted from uttering the truth but this cannot be averred of the said Authors For if any do object and say that they acted in their own cause and did their own business we must see why this should be thought their cause and interest Not that they might get any thing by it in this World or thereby avoid any danger when for the sake of this profession they both lost all the goods of this World and ventured upon all manner of dangers This therefore was not their cause and interest but only out of reverence to God which sure doth not perswade Men to lye especially in such a business whereupon depends the everlasting Salvation of Mankind Such an impious piece of villany we cannot believe they could be guilty of if we consider either their Doctrines every where most full of piety or their life which was never yet accused of any wicked deed no not by their greatest Enemies who objected nothing to them but their want of learning and unskilfulness which did not qualifie them sure for inventing falshoods And indeed if there had been the least spice as we speak of fraud and cheating in them they would not themselves have recorded their own faults and preserved the memory of them as of their all forsaking their Master when he was in danger and Peter's denial of him three times SECT VII A Confirmation of the Fidelity of these Authors from the Miracles which they wrought ON the other side God himself gave illustrious testimonies of their Fidelity by working wonders which either they or their Disciples with great boldness publickly avouched adding also the names of the persons places and other circumstances So that the truth or falshood of their assertion might easily have been discovered by the inquisition of the Magistrate Amongst which it is worthy our observation which they have most constantly delivered both concerning the use of Tongues which they had never learned among many thousand Men and their curing the diseases of the body upon a suddain in the sight of the People Neither were they any whit dismayed with fear either of the Jewish Magistrates of those times whom they knew to be most maliciously set against them or of the Romans who were far from having any good will to them and they were sure would lay hold on any thing on which they might ground a charge of their being inventors of a new Religion And yet neither Jews nor Pagans in the times immediately following durst ever deny that wonders were wrought by those Men. Yea the Miracles of Peter are mentioned by Phlegon in his Annals who lived under Adrian the Emperor Moreover the Christians themselves in those Books that contain a reason of their faith which they exhibited to the Emperors to the Senate and to the Governors do relate these things as most manifest and unquestionable truths yea they openly report that there continued a wonderful vertue of working strange effects at their Sepulchers for some Ages after their Death which if it had been false they knew that to their shame and punishment the Magistrates could have confuted