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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62613	A sermon preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, the aldermen, and governours of the several hospitals of the city of London, at St. Bridget's Church on Easter-Monday, 1700 by ... William, Lord Bishop of Oxford.	Talbot, William, 1658 or 9-1730.	1700 (1700)	Wing T125; ESTC R23464	21,314	34

promised for himself as the great proof of his Authority and Religion that in three Days he would raise again the Temple of his Body Then if after three Days he was not risen what should move them to try with so much hazard to themselves to make Men believe he was risen Whereas if he had fail'd them in this they had all the reason in the World to look upon him as an Impostor and themselves as Cheated by him who had avouched himself to be the Messias and yet had not Answered the Characters given by the Prophets of the Messias who had made himself the Antitype of Jonas who lay three Days and Nights in the Whale's Belly and declared that in conformity to the Type he would lie three Days and Nights in the Belly of the Earth and rise again the third and yet was so far from making this good that after many three days he still lay Captivated under the Power of Death When they were once convinced of this it had been surely the greatest madness in the World for them to expose themselves to Dangers and Miseries to attest so monstrous a lie either for the sake of such a deceiver or of a Religion which such an Impostor was the Author of But I need not insist upon this for the Sepulchre was not only found empty but he frequently appear'd and shew'd himself alive to several the very Day of his Resurrection that it might appear that the Circumstance of time which he foretold was fullfilled And when his Disciples upon his first appearance among them he shew'd himself three several times to them when they were Assembled together were affrighted supposing they had seen a Spirit without any real Body he calls for Meat and eats before them he appeals to their Sences bids them Handle him and Feel that he had a true Body consisting of Flesh and Bone and to convince them that 't was the same Body that suffered he shews them the Prints of the Nails in his Hands and Feet and afterwards made Thomas who it seems was resolved to submit to no less Conviction to thrust his hands into the Wound made by the Spear in his Side and to support the Testimony which these should give of his Resurrection and to put it beyond all Contradiction he appear'd to more than Five hundred at once and last of all to St. Paul who appeal'd to the greatest part of that Five hundred as then living for the proof of this 1 Cor. 15. So that this matter as it is laid in these Books is so attested that no one former thing in the whole World ever had that evidence of Fact The sum of what I have said is this The evidence of these Facts is so strong that whoever can disbelieve them can never believe any thing that happen'd before his own time or out of his own sight The Facts are such that whoever believes they were done cannot disbelieve that Doctrine for the proof of which they were done without believing that God who can no more deceive than be deceived has misled Men into the belief of a falshood in a matter wherein it is of the greatest consequence to them not to be mistaken by the greatest and most irresistible External Evidence that can be had of the Truth of any thing And consequently those to whom these Facts are thus made out can have no good reason to deny or suspend their Assents to that Religion for the confirmation whereof these Works were wrought What cloake they have for their Infidelity what pretences they would cover it with we shall see in the third and next particular And here First 'T is said that the Christian Religion has not been generally Reveal'd and therefore cannot be necessary to future Happiness because if it were those who could not know it are out of a Possibility of a future State of Blessedness which seems Inconsistent with God's Infinite goodness who provides for all his Creatures the means of attaining that Happiness whereof their Natures are capable Orac. of Reas p. 198 c. The force of which objection depends upon a false supposition they take it for granted that we teach that those who could not have any knowledge of the Christian Religion are out of a capacity of being saved Thus they would have it believ'd that we say because otherwise they have no ground for this Argument But for our parts we deny that our Church teaches any such Doctrine We do not determine Peremptorily of the Eternal State of the Heathens we do not pretend to Judge those that are without to their own Master they stand or fall We say indeed Infidelity is a damning Sin but we mean not a Negative but a Privative Infidelity a want of Faith in a subject capable of it We say there is no Salvation but through the Merits of Jesus Christ but say not whether or how far God may extend the benefit of those Merits to such as live according to the best light they have and whose unhappiness and not fault it is that they want the light of Revelation To be sure they shall not be Judged by or Condemned for not obeying the Revealed Law which being not made known could not be a Rule to them but shall be tryed by the Law written in their Hearts So St. Paul expresly says Rom. 2.14 The Gentiles having not the Law are a Law to themselves which shew the Work of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their Thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another in the Day when God shall Judge the secrets of Men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel But if we are so Charitable to the Gentiles why should not we Judge as favourably of our Modern Deists Their cases are widely different The former never heard of Christ or his Religion These have heard of and yet oppose and revile both And our Saviour has plainly determined in favour of the former rather than these in my Text If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had Sin but now they have no Cloke for their Sin Secondly It may be objected against the Authority of the Scriptures that there have several Books gone abroad in the World under the Names of the Sacred Writers which are discover'd to be Forgerles But surely 't is no new discovery that there have been such Books or that they are Forgeries The cheats have been long since detected and the Books rejected by the Christians But what can be inferred from hence Any thing to the prejudice of the Books which the Christians own Not in reason For if another man should write a Book in the name of a celebrated Author or under the Title which his Works bear and that Book should afterwards appear to be Spurious 't would be very hard that this should affect the credit of that Author 's genuine Works I think the consequence turns the other way and the Books falsly

capable of and such as we could not have had better supposing it true 3. I will enquire what Cloke the Unbeliever has for his Sin what Plea he can offer what excuse he can pretend for his infidelity And 4. I shall conclude with some practical Application with regard to the particular occasion of our meeting 1. The Works which we say were wrought for the proof of the Christian Religion were such as no Person unassisted with a Divine Power could have done They were commanding the Winds and Seas stilling Tempests casting out Devils cleansing Lepers healing the most inveterate Diseases restoring the Deaf to their Hearing and giving Sight and use of Limbs to those who were born Blind and Lame c. and all these were done in so many Moments without the Application of any or any competent means for the effecting of them by a bare Touch or but Speaking a Word and yet the effects were real and lasting the Blind Deaf and Lame immediately Seeing Hearing Walking and continuing so to do Now by what Power less than Divine could these things have been done As for Nature if these things are within the compass of her Working not beyond the Laws prescribed her but such as might be done by some secret and unknown Power in her 'T is very strange that she never exerted that Power before nor since But I shall only ask how the Author and first Planters of the Christian Religion came to be upon the secret at that time privy to that design of hers of putting herself forth in such an extraordinary manner then that they could exactly know the minute when the object about which and the instance wherein she would exercise that Power which till that time had lain Dormant in her and that so certainly that they could confidently appeal thereto for the Truth of what they taught and let the Credit of their Doctrine depend thereupon Men that have Curiously enquired into Nature may from Observations which they have made upon their own or others Experience that such and such things have happened upon such and such Conjunctures when they see the like Conjunctures foretell that probably the same effects will follow But if Men shall certainly foreknow that strange things beyond the Ordinary course of Nature will happen at such a time which never happened before and of which therefore they could have no Experience to ground an Observation upon if the Work it self were not above Nature yet the foreknowledge of it must be Supernatural and from God alone And the Revealing of things of this kind to a Person whereby he is enabled to appeal to them for the truth of what he Teaches will as effectually bring in God for a Voucher of his Doctrine as if the Works themselves had been done by his immediate Assistance But whatever may be pretended of others some at least of those Works which we say were wrought by the Author for the Proof of our Religion are such as are confessedly beyond the Power of Nature or any Created Being And those are his raising of several and Himself at the last from the Dead Those that deny all Miracles own that these would be Miracles if they ever were or should be done These things then being granted to be beyond the reach of any Power less than Infinite the Evidence of Fact that they have been done and that for the attestation of the truth of the Christian Religion shall be made out in my next 2. Proposition and that by the best proof a thing of this Nature is capable of I say the best proof it is capable of for all things are not capable of Mathematical or Metaphysical Evidence Matters of Fact which happened before our time or in distant places from us are capable of no other than that which we call Moral proof but if they are proved by the best Evidence of that sort they are as well proved in their kind as Propositions in either of those Sciences which are Demonstrated Now as to the Moral Evidence that the above mention'd F●cts were done for the proof of the Christian Religion we have them recorded in a Venerable History against which none of those Objections can be Justly made which can render the Authority of any History suspected For if there be reason to suspect the truth of any History it must be upon the account of either the Book or the Author If upon the account of the Book it is either because the Book is in the whole Spurious not written by the pretended Author but the Work of some later Impostor or else because it is faulty in part having been Interpolated or Corrupted If upon the account of the Author it must be because he had not either sufficient Opportunity of knowing himself the matters he relates or honesty enough to relate truly what he did know Either he was imposed upon believing those things to fall out which did not or else he had a design to impose upon others But where none of these things can be reasonably suspected where we have good grounds to believe a Book to be genuine intire and pure and the Author both knowing and honest well acquainted himself with what he relates and without any design to lead others into Error in such a case there can be no cause nor pretence of a cause to doubt of the truth of a History Now that the Books wherein these Miracles are recorded the Books of the New Testament are genuine we have certain information from the very Men Clem. Roman Ignat. Polycarp that knew and conversed with the Writers of them Those that lived in the time of the Authors and conversed with them had certainly opportunities of knowing whether the Books were genuine or not and it mightily concern'd them to enquire nicely and be well satisfyed that they were so and no doubt they were upon inquiry so satisfyed when they asserted the truth of them with the utmost hazard of what was dearest to them in this World and ventured likewise thereupon their Eternal Salvation in the next We find these Books transmitted as Authentick to the next Generation and receiv'd as such by them Justin M. Ir●n●…us and the Apologists Tertull. nay the very Originals appeal'd to as remaining at the end of the Second Age. Of the truth of these Books they were so unquestionably satisfyed in the next that rather than deliver up these Books to their Persecutors they chose to give up themselves to the severest Torments and Deaths And from thence we have an uninterrupted Tradition of the truth and genuiness of them continued down to our times And as they are genuine so that they are pure and uncorrupted the early dispersing them into distant places and translating them into several Languages will not suffer any one to doubt For since in all the Copies and Translations now Extant there is such a perfect agreement in the main that they hardly differ in any thing of great Moment how

ascribed to the Apostles the counterfeit Gospels and Epistles prove that there were such Men as the Apostles that they were Authors that there were true Gospels and Epistles for if there had never been such Men if they had not written if there had been no true Gospels and Epistles we should never have heard of Spurious Works under their Names there would have been no such counterfeit Gospels and Epistles Thirdly It may be said farther to the prejudice of our Books that some of those which we do now receive were for some time Question'd by Christians But those Question'd Books contain'd nothing different from what was contain'd in those that were never doubted of And what can be the just inference from hence but that Christians were not easie credulous Persons in these matters but examined the Books well and would be thoroughly convinced of the truth of them before they would receive them But to silence this Cavil a Person whose Authority I suppose will pass with our Deists who was one of the violentest Enemies to Christianity and Master of more Wit than his modern Followers Julian the Apostate Emperor I mean owns those Books to be the Writings of the Evangelists and of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul which the Christians read under their names Cyril Contr. Julian p. 327. Fourthly It may be objected against the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles that the World has been much abused with accounts of false Miracles Nay that Christians they that pretend to be the only Society of Christians have received many Miracles as strange for quality as those of Christ's and with equal Faith some of which they themselves have since own'd to be false and from hence it may be argued to the prejudice of Christ's Miracles that if the Credulity of some later Ages has been thus imposed upon by cunning and designing Men why may not the same or like Artifices have prevail'd in the first Christian times But this Objection will be easily answered by observing these differences between the Miracles of our Saviour and the pretended ones of the Church of Rome The Romish Miracles have either no Witnesses or such as are made choice of for their known weakness or partiality none of them was ever attested by any Authors of known repute whereas those of Christ were wrought in the face of the World and that a Knowing and Learned World that resisted the Conviction to the utmost but were forced by the Power of it to submit And of this we have such assurance that no matter of Fact was ever so attested to succeeding Ages Again the Romish Miracles were not done as signs to those that believe not but to those that already believed not before Sceptical Infidels or obstinate Hereticks but before Proselytes already made and prepared for the strong delusion that had put out their own Eyes and renounced their own reason and senses and resigned themselves intirely to be governed by those of their designing Leaders and such indeed might very easily be imposed upon But the case was very different with our Saviour's Miracles where Men came with their Eyes as wide open as prejudice and interest could make them to examine Facts which they would not have had to be true and yet could not withstand the Evidence but were forced to acknowledge the truth of them and many of them that came with these prejudices were nevertheless by the Conviction of these Miracles brought over from a Religion they had suckt in with their Milk that was supported by the suffrages of the Wise and the Power and Countenance of the Great to a New Religion laught at by the one and Persecuted by the other This was truly the case of the Christian Religion at its first coming into the World it appear'd with all the disadvantages imaginable was proposed by the meanest and most contemptible Instruments was opposed and ridiculed by the Learned of the Age was threatned and most severely persecuted by the Emperors and Potentates And what Allurements did this Religion offer to draw Men through all these difficulties to it Was there Honour or Reputation to be got by owning it No alas Our Saviour told his Disciples ye shall be hated of all Men for my Name sake They were call'd a Sect that is every where spoke against They were counted as the Dung and off-scouring of the World Did it propose Riches or Wealth No Blessed are the Poor but wo unto you Rich sell what thou hast and give alms and how hardly shall a Rich man enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Did it offer ease and Pleasures No In the World ye shall have Tribulation ye shall be persecuted and driven from this City to that brought and accused before Kings and Governors And whoever kills you will think he does God service Alas this Religion lay'd no other Baits to allure Men to it if it were not true but Persecution Poverty Imprisonment and Death The conditions of Discipleship proposed by our Lord are If any Man will be my Disciple let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me He must hate his dear Relations his dear Possessions and his dearer Life too Now certainly here was nothing in all this that could Prepossess Men in favour of this Religion or dispose them to be easily wrought upon by the methods used for its Propagation without a just enquiry into the truth and validity of them that could make men despise all the difficulties that opposed them and willingly run through all the dangers that threatned them into it without being fully satisfyed that God did really bear witness to it by signs and wonders and mighty works In short when the Christian Religion first appear'd in the World the Teachers of it used none of those methods of Policy Force or Flattery which Impostors make use of to inveigle or affright men into it rather all things conspired to discourage and affright them from it The only Motive was this that it was the way now proposed by God to attain Eternal Life and the great Evidences and Demonstrations of this were the Miracles wrought and appeal'd to by the Author and first Planters of it which were openly done in the face of the Sun and sight of Men who had liberty to examine them as nicely as they pleased And it cannot be doubted by any one that considers their prejudice of Education in a former Religion more agreeable to Flesh and Blood the Severities of this new one and the Dangers from without which attended the embracers of it but that as these things made them very curious inquirers into the Truth of it so that Truth was very apparent when so many thousands of all Ages Sexes and Conditions ran thro' Fire and Sword Deaths of all kinds into this New Religion How speedy and vast a Progress it made in the times of the Apostles their Acts and Epistles to the several Churche founded by them will inform us and profane