it is beleeved because of his abilities to know and because it makes not things appear to be strained in his behalf because it might have been contradicted if it had been otherwise and because he is delivered to us in the complexion of Histories as a man of honour that would not write a lye That the Histories of Salust are true it is beleeved because he wrote of things done within the compasse of his time whereof he might well informe himself he was a man of knowledge and could not gain by any thing that he hath delivered if it were untrue That all of these Histories were written by those that bear the name of them there is hardly any man that doubts because there is no improbability in reason they have been constantly so received in the world and mentioned successively in Authors following one another from their severall generations down to ours We see the various degrees of qualifications some of them upon which we build an historicall beleif that this beleif comes short of the clearnesse of our assent to a Mathematicall demonstration is evident because there is an absolute impossibility that things should be otherwise there being a contradiction involved in the very tearms and in adjecto but here is no impossibility but only an exceeding difficulty which makes up not indeed a Mathematicall but a morall impossibility it is possible that all men may combine together to say that they have seen such things as they have not seen because every man is a lyar but how they should come to doe it or to what end is so invisible and inconceivable that the matter taken in the grosse is altogether incredible It is absolutely possibly that all those writings which we receive as delivered down from ancient times may have been of late devised by some men to abuse the world and put upon other names but to what end any men should ttke the pains and how they should fit them with circumstances and make them all depend upon each other in a constant succession agreeing in the mention of persons places and actions is a thing so difficult as that it would argue madnesse to beleeve and conclude him to want the use of reason that should reject the light of all antiquity SECT. IV. An Application of those generall grounds to the History of the New Testament and a proof of this Assertion ' That there is as great reason to beleeve the New Testament as to beleeve any other History in the world SUch madnesse then and no lesse it were to reject the Histories of the holy Scriptures no lesse madnesse nay it is much greater and that not only because they are of more concernment to us then the acts of men of former times but even because of the advantages of the delivery of those Histories We will beginne with those of the New Testament And here first The Books of the New Testament were written by those whose Names they bear that the four Gospels were written by the four Evangelists and that the Acts of the Apostles were written by Saint Luke c. Now that these Books were written by these men it is impossible affirmatively to demonstrate all that can be said is that there is as great evidence of it as of any other writing in the world that by whatsoever argument it can be made appear that any Books have been written by those who are reputed for their Authours in antiquity that the works of Homer or Plato or Aristotle or Tully are theirs by the same it may be made evident that these have proceeded from our Authours Have they been successively delivered so have these have they been continually mentioned under those names so have these have they been acknowledged by all parties so have these those that in the primitive times did oppose the doctrine of Christ yet did it not under the pretence that their Books were spurious neither Jews nor Pagans had the impudence to make that objection Julian the Apostate doth freely acknowledge Cyrill 10. Grot. 3. ver. that the Books which by the Christians were received under the names of Peter Paul Mathew Marke Luke they were the writings of those Authours It is true that there are some Book received of the Canon of the New Testament whose Authors are unknown as the Epistle to the Hebrews and some others but concerning them I hope to speake in answering those objections which are made against the Scripture In the mean time we may justly assume it for granted that those whereof no question hath been made in ancient times they are the writings of those to whom they are ascribed And now this being supposed which cannot with any pretence of reason be denied it follows clearly that the things they have related are to be beleeved for first the things which they have delivered they were matters easily to be known in respect of the things themselves they were matters of fact and speeches performed by our Saviour or by themselves Secondly the acts were acted publiquely in the face of the world and the speeches which they deliver as spoken by others they were for the most part spoken publiquely either in the Synagogue or in the Temple or to the multitude somewhere gathered together on a mountain by the sea-side in publique places so as they might have easily been contradicted if they should have delivered a falsehood Thirdly the parties which have delivered them had all the opportunities in the world to know the truth of things they were things done either by themselves or within their owne sight or hearing for the greatest part or at least wise in the times and places where the reporters lived Mathew and John the two Evangelists which wrote the History of Christ they were two of his Disciples two that were intimately acquainted with his actions and his words more familiar with him then the rest the one was the disciple that Jesus loved and used to lean in his bosome as they lay at meat the other was usually taken with him when most of the rest were left behinde and hence it follows that they themselves were present at almost all the acts and speeches which they have delivered Marke and Luke the other two Evangelists they lived in the same territories at the same time where and when our blessed Saviour bestowed his conversation and moreover Saint Marke was as 't is very probable first a Disciple of Saint Paul who was miraculously chosen to deliver the doctrine of Christ Afterwards he was undoubtedly a disciple and companion of Saint Peter who was an Apostle of our Saviour did live familiarly together with him was present at almost all things which Marke hath written and besides whatever is delivered by Saint Marke is to be found in the writings of the Apostles Luke was an individuall companion of Paul and so he might learne of him such things as he delivered besides that he saith that he spoke with those that were eye-witnesses of the
Ghost by the imposition of their hands unlesse they could have healed all manner of diseases the blinde the lame the deaf the dumb c. by words touch shaddow or could have spoke all sorts of Languages or rather at one speaking could have brought to passe that men of every language should perfectly have understood their speech as if it had been their own Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and Judea and Cappadocia Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphilia Egipt and the parts of Lybia about Cyrene strangers of Rome Jews and Proselytes Cretes and Arabians they all heard them speak in their own tongues Nor did it please the Lord of the spirits of all flesh here to stint the dispensations of his holy spirit to them he gave them not only the power of miracles but the spirit of prophecy he unfolded to them the everlasting rolls and admitted them into his decrees and would not hide from them the things which he meant to bring to passe in the generations to come he urged them by his holy Spirit and they foretold the fates of the world they foretold it and God brought it to passe I cannot stand to reckon up all their prophecies which they delivered and shortly after they were fulfilled of the spreading of that leaven of the growth of that grain of mustardseed of the mighty and wonderfull propagation of the faith and the perpetuall enduring of it of the rejection of it by the Jews and the receiving of it by the Gentiles of the hatred of the Jews and the torments which were to be undergone by the glorious Martyrs of the destruction of Ierusalem and the calamities of that faithlesse Nation all these make it evident that God was with them that there is infinitely more reason to beleeve the writers of the New Testament then any other writers That none can disbeleeve them without forfeiting his reason by asserting that God would give testimony to imposture SECT. VI That the Old Testament is the Word of God A Proposall of three severall assertions whereby it is concluded HAving demonstrated that the Books of the New Testament are all of them to be received under the authority and credit of the word of God that the dogmaticall parts are to be received upon the credit of the Histories and the Histories upon the common principles of reason and consequently that no man professing to be guided by reason and judgement can refuse them It remains that we demonstrate the same of the Old Testament and that we take off those colours and answer those Sophisms which by some men are urged against the Scripture and so conclude this argument Before I proceed to the former of these I must call to your remembrance that which in the beginning I did premise that under the title of the Books of the Old Testament I did comprehend those and those only which in the Church of England have been admitted under the name of the Books of the Canonicall Scripture and that I had no purpose at all to meddle with the controversies which are betwixt us and the Romane Church about the books which are Apocryphall the reason why the Church hath entertained them only into the Canon is because they onely were of the Canon of the Jews beleef before the coming of our Saviour they only being written in the Hebrew tongue and consigned by Esdras at the return of the Jews from the Babilonish captivity as is generally beleeved amongst the Jewish Rabbines whilest the Prophets Haggai Zachary and Malachy were yet alive Now although the way to demonstrate the truth of them considering the question apart and by ic self be the same with the way whereby we did demonstrate the truth of the New Testament by asserting the Authours of them to have been those men to whom they were evermore ascribed and from the qualities of the things delivered in matter of History and the characters of those persons who have delivered the severall parts of it to demonstrate that no reason can be imagined why such men as those are and must be supposed to be should deliver such impostures as those must be supposing them to be impostures that no end or motive can be discovered which they should propound to themselves for their reward but on the contrary that many reasons are visible why they should have held their peace if they durst have concealed those things from the world the reasons from safety gain glory and the like as might either jointly or severally be demonstrated of even all the books of the Law and of the Prophets which make up the greatest part Moses together with the Law having delivered likewise the shame of himself and Miriam and Aaron The Prophets having been all or most of them hardly used which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted Although I say this had been the naturall way to demonstrate the matter in question taken singly and apart by it selfe yet partly to avoid the similitude of matter which renders unpleasant even the most profitable discourses and partly to make a present dispatch of this Argument I shall content my self to have put you thus in minde that all those generall arguments for the truth and credit of those writers are common to these as well as to the others and that there needs no variation of them being to be applied to the question now in hand any other then the interchanging of their severall names their personall relations and qualities and other accidents In a word that the kindes of the Arguments are the same and the force of reason alike in both allowing only the difference of gradual and individuall circumstances This being premised the summe of what I shall further say is briefly this That 1. In the time of our Saviour and the Apostles these Bookes were true 2. That since that time they have not been changed From which two Propositions it will follow that still they are so and consequently that the Books of the Old Testament as well as of the New are the Word of God As touching these propositions the truth of them will be inferred by this ratiocination 1. The Books which we now receive are the same which the Jews do now receive 2. The Books which the Jews now receive are the same which they did formerly receive even up to the consignation of their Canon 3. The Books which then they did receive were true SECT. VII The first Assertion proved That the Books of the Old Testament which we now receive are the same which the Jews doe now receive THat those Canonicall Books which we receive are the self same with those which the Jews at the present do receive is a case so plain that it needs no manner of proof but only this that it is obvious to every man to compare our English or Latine Bibles with the Hebrew Bibles which are used amongst the Jews at present and daily put forth by the present
A Philosophicall ESSAY Towards an Eviction of The Being and Attributes of God Immortality of the souls of men Truth and Authority of Scripture TOGETHER With an Index of the Heads of every particular Part. OXFORD Printed by Leonard Lichfield and are to be sold by John Adams and Edward Forrest 1652. To the READER THE Author of this Book although he had never suffered it to be published had he not been assured that it is not for the main much liable to just exception and although he hath no further care of the reception entertainment of it then the consequence of it may deserve whereof the Reader and not himself must be the Judge And so he is not moved by the common passions of such as use to make Epistles and Prefaces to their Readers yet some thing although but for custome only he was willing to premise and to acquaint the Reader with thus much by way of Apology for himself That this was written divers years since without any purpose of ever letting it go abroad that the chief end of it was to cleer to himself who is a lover of rationall knowledge an account of the grounds of his own belief and to that end to lay in order his scattered notions concerning that subject and this he intends as an Apology for the homelinesse of the stile That at the same time when it was written it was also delivered in a private course of religious exercise and that will be the excuse for such repetitions as might otherwise seem ill-favoured in the severall Sections of it That at the time of his composing it he was destitute of the assistance of his Bookes which is one cause that it is not adorned with Testimonies and citations out of Authors but comes out naked being supported onely by the order and plainnesse of reason that it trusts to That since the composing of this he knows that divers Bookes of the same Argument have been written by men farre more knowing then himselfe but that he hath not yet read any of them nor knows whether he doe agree with them or not which abstinence hath been caused partly for that he is himselfe satisfied by what is here delivered and partly for that he had no leisure or minde to alter this which he had done though possibly it might be for the better That whereas he speakes of Epicures Machiavelians and the like he makes use of those names onely in a popular way as they are names of Characters well known amongst us and that he intends not to traduce those Authors or cast any contumely upon them Lastly He must needs acknowledge that before the edition of this he hath seen M. Hobs his Leviathan and other Bookes of his wherein that which is in this Treatise intended as the main Foundation whereon the second Discourse Of the Souls Immortality insists is said to imply a contradiction viz. That there are any such things as Immateriall or Incorporeall substances Upon which occasion he thought good onely to say That he hath a very great respect and a very high esteem for that worthy Gentleman but he must ingenuously acknowledge that a great proportion of it is founded upō a belief expectation concerning him a belief of much knowledge in him and an expectation of those Philosophicall and Mathematicall works which he hath undertaken and not so much upon what he hath yet published to the world and that he doth not see reason from thence to recede from any thing upon his Authority although he shall avouch his discourse to proceed Mathematically That he is sure he hath much injured the Mathematicks and the very name of Demonstration by bestowing it upon some of his discourses which are exceedingly short of that evidence and truth which is required to make a discourse able to bear that reputation That in this case M.H. is onely a negative witnesse and his meaning in denying incorporeall substances can rationally import no more but this that he himself hath not an apprehension of any such beings and that his cogitation as to the simple objects of it hath never risen beyond imagination or the first apprehension of bodies performed in the brain but to imagine that no man hath an apprehension of the God-head because he may not perhaps think of him so much as to strip off the corporeall circumstances wherewith he doth use to fancy him Or to conclude every man under the sentence of being non-sensicall whosoever have spoken or written of Incorporeall substances he doth conceive to be things not to be made good by the Authority of M. Hobs. That whereas very many men do professe an apprehension of such beings and he in the mean time professes this to be impossible this Author is hard put to it to excuse this from much incivility and conceives the import of it to amount to thus much that he conceives himself in the highest and utmost bound of humane apprehension and that his reason is the measure of truth and that what he sees not is invisible I conceive the case in this to be alike as if whilest two men are looking at Jupiter one with his naked eyes the other with a Telescope the former should avow that Jupiter had no attendants and that it were impossible he should have any the reason why M.H. denies those beings whilest other men apprehend them is for that he lookes at them with his Fancy they with their minde Many more things he had to say for himself but he understands not fully the use or benefit of Apologies The Contents PART I. SECT. I. Preface SECT. II. OF the designe ad definition of Religion the prejudices and pretences against the Christian the sum of what is in controversie deduced to three Questions 1. Of the Being of God Attributes 2. Of the Immortality of the Souls of men 3. Of the Authority of Scriptures SECT. III. Of the being of God evicted by way of Demonstration from the Creatures pag. 11. SECT. IV. Of the Attributes of God those likewise evicted from the Creatures pag. 17. PART II. SECT. I. A Proposall of the Argument for the Immortality of the Soule and a manifestation of the major proposition that incorporeall substances are immortall pap 33. SECT. II. A Proof of this Proposition that the Souls of men are incorporeall substances by comparing the affections of bodies with those of souls p. 38. SECT. III. A further proof of it by the generall way of apprehension p. 43 SECE IV. The same further demonstrated from the severall acts of the Soule from simple apprehensions p. 51. SECT. V. From Judgment and Discourse p. 58. SECT. VI An Application of the former Propositions to the inference of a Religion in generall and a proposall of the third in order to the Christian p. 67. PART III. Concerning the truth and Authority of our Scripture SECT. I. Petitions and Cautions premised to the Question p. 75. SECT. II. The Assertion resolved into two Propositions the former
he will beleeve if he shall beleeve that a little before his birth a company of Angels appeared to Shepherds and told them of it that presently after it a starre appeared to wise men in the East and conducted them to the place of his Nativity that in his life time he did such works as never man did how he turned water into wine commanded the windes and the sea how he cured all manner of diseases with his Word how he gave sight to such as were born blindeâ— which was never known since the world began how he cured most obstinate diseases of long continuance meerly by the touching of his garment how he cast out devils from such as were possessed how he raised up the dead to life and every way demonstrated the power and presence of the God-head how at the time of his crucifixion the frame of Nature seemed to be dissolved how the vail of the Temple rent and the graves opened and many bodies of the dead which slept arose and came into the holy city and appeared to many how there was darknesse over all the earth the Sunne eclipsed at the time of the Jewish passeover when the Moon was at the full and lastly how after three daies he arose again appeared severall times to his Apostles gave them power to perform the miracles which he had done and visibly ascended up into heaven Whosoever doth beleeve these matters of fact must of necessity beleeve the doctrines which he beleeved unlesse he will accuse God of bearing false witnesse or own some such other detestable and odious incongruity You see then how the matters of fact being cleared and the historicall narrations being asserted to be true the doctrinall parts will follow of their owne accord and that if we can clear such things to have been performed by Moses and Jesus of Nazareth and that such doctrines were delivered by them it follows that those doctrines are true and are the Word of God SECT. III. The kindes and degrees of the causes of Historicall Faith in generall IT remains therefore that we make it appear that the sacred Histories are true and that no man pretending to reason can justly refuse to admit that principle into his beleef there being 1. The same reason to beleeve those Histories that there are to beleeve any Histories 2. More reason to beleeve them then any other First then Whosoever doth deliberate with himself about that question whether or no he should give credit to any History propounded can possibly finde no other considerations to sway his judgement then such as either are taken from the thing it self that is delivered or from the persons which have delivered the relation and from such qualifications of them as upon the grounds of reason he can discover if the matter it self doe involve a clear and evident contradiction to some naturall principles it is not the asseveration of all the men of the world that can work a beleif in the understanding it not being in the power of man to entertain a beleif contrary to his knowledge although it may produce in him a doubting whether or no he have not suffered any fallacy to be imposed upon him and so be wrought to runne over the matter again unto himself and follow it with strict and wary attention backwards and forwards in reference to his principles But if the thing it self be not incredible however difficult or strange it be that which then he doth consider is the qualities of the relators and the manner of the relation and there is not any improbability proceeding from the difficulty or the rarity of the accidents which may not be outweighed by the known disposition and properties of the Relators Those things which men doe consider in the Relators of things in order to yeelding of their belief they relate either to the of the Relators Understanding or Will and concern either their Sufficiency or Integrity Men usually consider whether or no the things be such as may be certainly and evidently known and whether these parties had sufficient means to come to the certain knowledge of them and whether they contain themselves in their relations within the bounds of things liable to certain knowledge thus then those things which may be certainly known they are the outward events of things whereas the secret causes may lie concealed the former are such as are the objects of common sence and come within the cognizance of all the later are such as are indiscoverable by any man they being oftentimes made up of a complexion of actions and dispositions of multitudes of men or things perfectly to be known onely of him that sees all things in speculo aeternitatis If the History or Relation containe it selfe within the bounds of evidence and certainty the next thing to be considered is whether or no the party that is Author of the Relation had sufficient meanes of knowledge whether himself were an eye or eare-witnesse of the things which he relates or whether the things were so publikely acted and knowne that he might certainely and particularly informe himselfe without any danger of deceit If the party be of known ability both in himself and in reference to the things the next question will be of his Integrity and whether there be sufficient reason to beleeve that he would not voluntarily deliver a falshood in stead of truth and because it is not reason to beleeve that men will lye unlesse they either be known to be corrupt or some end be visible of gain to them from their lying Men use to consider these things likewise before they settle upon beleef These are the grounds and considerations and inward discourses whereupon men doe proceed to the receiving of historicall beleef even of any relations whatsoever and accordingly as all of these conditions be clear or obscure doubtfull or certain such is the strength of his belief if all of them concurre there remains no reason at all of doubting if some of them fail there will follow a debility answerable in the belief seeing that the belief of the conclusion can never exceed the force and evidence of the premisses That there is or lately hath been such a City as Rome or Hierusalem or Paris there are none of us that doubt although we have not seen them because they are things very easily known as being the objects of the eyes because the reporters have been there to see them and because no end or reason can be imagined why or how men should combine to abuse those that have not travelled That there have been formerly such Cities as Corinth and Philippi and Lacedemon c. we make even as little doubt as of the former because the things in their nature are evidently to be known and they have all of them been mentioned in the Books of Polybius or Plutarch or a multitude of Historians that knew them That the History of Caesars warre against the Gaules is true though written by himself
things which he delivered he was borne near hand he travelled through Palestina might converse with those very men upon whom Jesus had wrought his miracles such as had seen the life of Jesus his death and resurrection The Acts of the Apostles were likewise written by Saint Luke and that Book containes some things done by the rest of the Apostles but the most of it is concerning the actions of Paul after his miraculous conversion the former it was easie for him to know either from the Apostles themselves or others of the latter he could not be ignorant because he was continually with Paul in all his labours and his journeys even from the time of his conversion to his imprisonment at Rome As for the matters of fact which are delivered in the Epistles of Paul and Peter and James and John and Jude they are such as either were done by themselves and so they could not possibly be ignorant of them or by others with whom they held a correspondence or by our Saviour whose Apostles they were all but Paul or else they are things done by others publiquely and notoriously known Lastly As for the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Revelations though the authours of them be not certainly known in the Church yet thus much is plain that the Authour to the Hebrews saith that the Gospel of Iesus was preached at first by Christ and confirmed unto him Us by them that heard him 2. v. 3. and so that he could not be ignorant of that nor yet was it possible that the Authour of the Revelations should be ignorant whether or no he had those visions which he hath delivered Now these are all the Books of the New Testament and it appears that the Authours of them had as much opportunity to know the things which they delivered as is possible to be had wherefore the businesse is clear in respect of their Sufficiency of knowledge and all the Question which remains it must be in regard of their Integrity Whosoever challengeth or questions the Integrity of an Historian and upon that cause refuseth to receive his Testimony it is requisite that he produce the reasons of his suspition that he charge the Authours of corruption and prove the charge which he hath objected or that he discover and manifest the ends which he might propound to himself as the reward of his imposture that he shew the gain that might accrue or the losse or perill or ignominy that he might avoid and manifest that his accusation hath not proceeded from malice but from judgement from some grounds of reason and not from perversenesse or spight or any inhumanity Here then it is that we challenge men or Devils to produce the crimes to detect and prove the villanies of these Writers nay to assign the ends which they might have in relating falshood the gain the pleasure the glory the safety or whatsoever it is that prevails upon the appetites and lusts of men and let their infidelity and jealousie out-doe the malice of the grand Apostate Indeed I think scorn to stand upon this argument it was the contemplation of these things chiefly that gained from me that second assertion That there is greater reason to beleeve the Scripture then any other writings in the world the first Proposition being already demonstrated That we have as great SECT. V. That there is much greater reason to beleeve the History of the New Testament then any other History HAving already demonstrated that considering the qualifications of the persons who have recorded unto us the New Testament of our Saviour there is as great reason to give credence to their Histories as to any other ancient Histories in the world by reason of their means of knowledge and opportunities for discovery of the truth of those matters of fact which they have delivered It follows now that we make good that which in the second place we propounded concerning them which was That we have greater reason to beleeve them then to beleeve any Historians whatsoever and this now will be manifested to us by these Arguments following 1. Greater obligation 2. Their sufferings 3. Their Miracles 4. Their predictions First then They were more powerfully obliged to the delivery of the truth then others not that others were not obliged likewise to deliver nothing but the truth there is in the conscience of every soul setled a principle dictating unto him that he ought not not to recede from the truth in his relation but yet this principle is in the most of men very much overclouded and overborn as is manifest not only by the fabulous relations of ancient Histories even after the institution of the Olympiads but by that inclination which we finde almost in all men to make their relations handsome in order wherunto even the gravest of them Josephus Livy and the rest of those orders of Historians have often changed the form of Circumstances and varied from the truth to make a coherence of things according to their fancy such as might please their owne imaginations The truth is that which held in the Heathen so far as they were held within the boundaries of truth it can be conceived to be no other then a certain magnanimity and a morall generosity that was actuated and quickned in them by the conceit of a reputation thereby gained amongst the people of their own generation their hopes of perpetuating their owne fame together with the acts which they recorded and consecrating them to eternity and immortality I do not say that this was all the motive which they had but that upon the consideration of them in the whole complexion of their circumstances I cannot finde out any more powerfull motive nor any stronger obligation But besides all that these men had to move them the writers of the New Testament had likewise other motives as farre beyond these as the heaven is beyond the earth either in dignity or situation A most severe injunction of their Master such as they themselves have delivered such as they could not neither durst neglect their writings abound in precepts of truth and of veracity and that prescribed under far other conditions and setled upon a far surer foundation upon the foundation of truth it self the originall and the Ideall truth of the world and propounded to them under far other penalties they knew full well and taught to others that of every idle word which men shall speak an account must be given at the day of judgement how dreadfull an account then must they have expected if they should have delivered falshood in the place of truth if they should have told a lye for God or lyes of God or delivered impostures in the name of God nay verily the necessity which lay upon them compared to others doth as farre exceed it as the fear of a little disreputation is exceeded by the horrour of eternall torments and now their practise was also answerable to their obligation and what they delivered
Rabbines residing in the severall parts and dominions of the world upon such a comparison it will be found that we do own the self same Books which they do without any difference in the number or inscriptions chapters or verses of those Books such as do doubt of this they must take the pains to try and to resolve themselves by their own experience or else if they are not able or not willing to take the pains to make themselves their own resolvers they must of necessity beleeve the multitude of those that have already tried it and finding it to be generally granted and allowed of all men and all parties however differing otherwise amongst themselves they must upon that account either beleeve the Proposition or else devise some way how and for what end it should be brought to passe that the learned men of all Nations and Religions Jews Christians Papists Protestants Turks Pagans c. should agree together to impose upon that part of people that cannot or will not fit themselves to resolve a question so easie and of such concernment Now that all these sorts of men doe thus agree must likewise be beleeved untill some one instance can be produced to the contrary the truth is the thing being a matter liable to the triall of common sence and obvious to all the world there is no more controversie made of it among the learned then of a principle in Mathematicks It is true indeed that as concerning the interpretation of those books there is and almost ever was a great deal of controversie amongst the learned but none as to the number and to the parts of those that are delivered amongst the Jews and it is likewise true that the beleif of farre the greatest number of Christians doth in its kinde depend upon the questionable fidelity of translators and that fidelity of theirs if it be to be tried that must be done by means which are not exempt from question all therefore which can be said in this matter is that unlesse we can attain to skill sufficient for our own satisfaction in this question we take into thought the qualifications of Translators in respect of skill and of fidelity and impartially that we consider all those rationall heads and grounds whereon men use to settle their belief amongst which no greater evidence can be expected then there is in cases where all agree and such is the main body of ours and other translations likewise this that I have spoken of translations is indeed a digression from the proposition I should demonstrate seeing when we speak of the sacred authority of the holy Scriptures we mean it not of translations as they are such but primarily of the originals and of translations only so far as they are consonant to those originals And thus much is indeed sufficient both for the assertion and explication of that proposition that the books which we receive they are the same which the Jews receive SECT. VIII That the Bookes which the Iews do now receive are the same which they have received ever since the Consignation of their Canon BUt secondly the Bookes which the Jews do now receive they are the same which they did formerly receive upwards to the time of our Saviour and his Apostles nay beyond them to the very time of the consignation or sealing up the Canon of their beleif that is their Bookes were never changed nor corrupted It is not here my purpose to assert that never any letter or word hath been changed or formerly read otherwise then now it is in the Jewish Bibles I am not so far unacquainted with their Keri and Chetib or with the notes of the Massoreth but that there hath not been made any variation so considerable as to shake the authority of the present coppies Of these various readings I hope to speak in the answering objections In the interim I am to demonstrate that they have not received any considerable depravation And now this being a negative Proposition common reason doth presently offer it to every ones judgement that it cannot be positively proved the very nature of such propositions contradicting that manner of proof the arguments then which are producible are some of them taken from the causes why they could not morally be corrupted the other from signs that de facto they have not been so The first argument then is taken from the multitude of copies which it was impossible to combine together to corrupt upon design or that they should accidentally agree together in the same casuall corruptions It is certainly apparent out of the Histories of the Jews that after their first and second captivities they did store themselves with multitudes of copies of the sacred books and that both publikely and privately that which before they were dispersed either was not so necessary to them or else was not so apprehended by them so long as the first Temple was yet unrazed we reade but of very few if any Synagogues of the Jews in other Nations out of the bounds and terrirores of Iudea but after by their long and wofull captivity when their confidence in the protection of their Law and their Temple had by their sad experience and wofull suffering worn it self out of their mindes their Temple being utterly demolished the best of them began to think that it was possible that even the Law might fail Habbakuk and they now bethought themselves of making use of the rationall means of the preservation of it in the mindes of men and seeing there could not be any readier way thought upon then the erecting of Synagogues and writing many copies these were the courses which they took they had had experience of the inconvenience of having one only copy in the losse of that copy which being found again by Hilkiah the Priest made King Iosiah to rend his clothes at the hearing of those things written in the Law and accordingly we finde before the coming of our Saviour many Synagogues erected in forrain places and the books of the Law and the Prophets in every Synagogue reade every Sabbath day now every dispersion encreased the number of Synagogues and Books And besides the first captivity of the Tribes carried into Media by the Assyrians we shall finde them even after they had licence from Cyrus to return continuing still abroad and upon many new occasions again dispersed those that reade over sacred Histories and prophane shall finde them seated in most of the Eastern Countries adjacent Iudea or not farre distant from thence the Macedonians invited them to Alexandria the cruelties of Antiochus the civill warres of the Asmonaei the armies of Pompey and Lossius drove many of them from their habitations the cities of Cyrene of Asia Macedonia and Lycaonia the Islands of Cyprus and Crete and divers others even Rome it self they were all of them furnished with Temples and Synagogues of the Jews now so it is that the Books of all these did agree together amongst themselves
which they could not have done if any and not all of them should have been corrupted and that all of them should either casually or by design be corrupted besides that no end can appear to encourage such a designe the thing it self makes it impossible Besides had any such thing been they must to make a correspondence have corrupted likewise the Septuagint translation which for almost three hundred years before our Saviour was extant in Egipt that I speak nothing of the Chaldee Paraphrase extant before the time of our blessed Saviour so then as far as the nature of a morall subject will admit we have shewed as from the causes that the Scriptures of the Old Testament could not be corrupted Now as from the signes we have likewise powerfull arguments that to our Saviours time they were uncorrupted because our Saviour never discovers any corruption of the Text which certainly he would not have spared at such times as he taxes the Scribes and Pharisees of making the Law of God of none effect by their traditions Now that the Hebrew Canon hath not been corrupted since our Saviours time we have this sign likewise that never any of the ancient Fathers have in their greatest heat of zeal against the Jews accused them of such corruption though Justin Martyr complain of wronging the Septuagints Translation and certainly if they should have corrupted them upon design either before or since it would have been in all those places which conclude against them for Christ the true Messiah that stumbling stone upon which they stumbled and fell but those do remain unaltered The truth is to them were committed the Oracles of God and they have by the visible ordination of the providence of God discovered so much care and diligence that way as is not to be found to have been bestowed upon any other writings under heaven witnesse the Criticall notes of their Massoreth which gives an account of the numbers of of letters in every Book almost and almost if not altogether of every various lection I conclude then that they have never been corrupted SECT. IX That in our Saviours time these bookes were true and consequently were the Word of God BUt we in our Saviours time they were true and the Word of God as appears by our Saviours testimony and the testimony of the Apostles who still referre to them as being of divine inspiration as being the truth and Word of God their using the testimony almost of every particular Book as anthenticall their disputations founded upon their Authority Particulars in this kinde are so many and so plain that without any more speaking I will conclude that we are to receive the Old Testament upon the credit of the New and the New Testament as I have formerly demonstrated upon greater reason far then any other writings in the world and consequently that we must receive the Books of the Old Testament upon the same Authority We have already discovered some of those many reasons whereupon we are to receive the Books of the Old Testament and the New under the credit and authority of the Word of God Besides those whereupon I have insisted there are many more some of them taken from the quality of the writers some from the manner of the writings the former shewing that those men from whom they proceeded were not fit persons to devise such things they being many if not most of them simple and unlearned men the latter manifesting that such things are not of their nature obvious to be devised because they transcend the wit and invention of man the Majesty and simplicity of the stile the concord and harmony the end and scope the power and efficacy the antiquity besides the Testimony of the Spirit in the hearts of men But the evidence of truth no way depending upon the multitude of arguments or reasons and all of these being insisted on in some or other of those Authours which are obvious I shall at this time finish what remains of that which at the first I propounded which was to shew That as there are many and important reasons moving wise men to receive them so there neither are nor can be any sufficient arguments on the contrary to make men to refuse them SECT. X. That there is no reason to disbeleeve the Scriptures Objections briefly proposed and answered first generall Objections against the whole 'T is true indeed that many both of old and later times have refused either all or severall parts of the holy Canon and it is not to be hoped or expected that they should ever be generally received by all the world there must be heresies and amongst the rest there alwaies have been and sure there ever will be Antiscripturians the greatest part of the world have ever lived according to sence and appetite and to prove that de facto it is denyed is not to manifest that there is reason why it is so yet seeing there are of those disputing and theoreticall hereticks as well as practicall to conceal or dissemble the arguments which are alleadged against the truth it would be to betray the cause that we have undertaken and give occasion for some Jealousie that their Objections are unanswerable To come then to an issue some have rejected All by reason of  Impossibilities    Repugnances    Mutations  Parts accusing them as Sine nomine Authoris    Dubitati    Ab intrinseco matter Those who refuse the whole Scriptures they are some of them Atheists others professe themselves Christians and yet doe deny the authority of the written word pretending to private and secret illuminations as the last rule of their actions the design of my discourse being against the former I shall only intimate the frenzy of the later They pretend that that which we call the written word is not the Word of God because 1. The Word of God is God himselfe 2. Christ is the Word of God 3. The Letter kils 4. The Word of God is spirit and life These are the arguments which by some Enthusiasts are used against the written Letter And for answer to them we may only observe how by arguing against the authority of the Scriptures these men do tacitely assert it for taking their arguments out of it and proceeding no further either by reason or revelation to the discovery of their antecedents but barely resting in the recitall of those words which are there written they do resolve all the power and force of their argument into the authority of those very writings which they would impugne and consequently they do at once deny and grant the authority of the Scripture which is to deserue the Epithete which is given them of fanaticall Enthusiasts That the Word of God is God himself taking the Word of God for the immanent act of the diuine understanding is indeed a truth attainable by other principles by those I mean from whence the absolute simplicity