a Word that famous and venerable Senate in which the last of the Prophets were present all parts of the Old Testament being compleated and the whole Prophecy that God vouchsafed till the coming of the Messiah delivered applied themselves to the punctual Collection of the several parts together and securing the Original text against any corruption or alteration exactly setled the Canon of the Old Testament which the Jews kept punctually to till the times of our Saviour who fully approved the Scriptures as he then found the Jews in possession of them Secondly That any parts of the Bible or any Books dictated by the Holy Ghost are wholly Lost we utterly deny The affirmation of it is neither consisting with the notion of Divine providence in General nor can any particular proof be brought to make it good Those who insist upon this as Bellarmine and some of the Papists do thereby to gain an advantage to the Church when 't is put in ballance with the Bible And others with design by proving the Loss of any Part to invalidate the Authority of the Whole instance in the three thousand parables or proverbs of Solomon and a thousand and five songs spoken of 1 King 4.32 The Books of Nathan the Prophet and Gad the Seer mentioned in the second of Chronicles The Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite and the visions of Iddo or Addo the Seer spoken of in the 2 Chron. 9. and some others And under the New Testament an Epistle of St. Paul written as they suppose to the Laodicaeans mentioned Colos 4.16 Although very many of these Writings mentioned in the Old Testament seem to refer to other parts of Scripture contained in the Bible In particular 't is probable that Nathan and Gad wrote some parts of the Books of Samâ—â— and the Kings so much at least as concern's the Actions of David of which they were exactly knowing if they wrote not the whole Second Book of Samuel and the first of the Kings which some upon probable grounds supposes yet Admit all these were other writings then are now contained in any part of the Bible it will no way follow they were ever any part of Canonical Scripture When the Scripture mention's Books written by these or any other Men and relates historically to the matter oâ— them as St Paul sometimes quoted Heathâ— Authors Will that Infer They are parts of the Bible By no means Nay the very Writers of the Bible themselves such as David Solâ—mon and others of the Prophets might and without all doubt some of them did Write many things in an ordinary way that were True without any Divine or Infallible direction and which were never incorporated with the Bible and so says St. Austin in his 18th Book De civ Dei says be Those Prophet whom it pleased the Holy Spirit to inspire wrote some things as Men And those works we have 〈◊〉 in our Canon nor had the Jews in theirs and other things as from the mouth of God and these works are really Distinct Some being held their own as Men and some the Lords as speaking by them And therefore He that will prove from hence that any parts of the Bible are Lost must first be well assured that These are no parts of the Scriptures we are now possessed of and Secondly that admitting they are not That they were written by an Infallible Spirit and ence within the Canon Of which Latter we are well assâ—red the least proof cannot be made For the Jews were most faithful Preservers of those Oracles of God committed unto their change Nor were they ever so much as once blamed by Christ or the Apostles for any Miscarriage that way As for an Epistle supposed to be written by St. Paul under the New Testament to the Laodicaeons which is since Lost The supposition is frivolous and groundless For the words in the Greck are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that from Laodicaea Which cannot be understood of an Epistle written by St. Paul to Laodicae but of one written from Laodicaea either to the Colossians themselves which they then had by them or else to St. Paul which he sent them and required them to read it as containing something expedient for them to know The mistaken opinion from this place of an Epistle from St. Paul to the Laodicâ—ans hath most probably arisen from the ill rendition in the Vulgar Latin where the words are rendered illa quae est Laodicentium But without any ground from the Original Catherinus confesseth that according to the opinion of Chrisostome and Oecumenius Non hic nominari Epistolam a Paulo scriptam ad Laodicenses sed ex co loco scriptam That here 's no mention of any Epistle written by St. Paul to the Laodicaeans but of some Epistle written from Laodicaea That there was anciently a Counterfeit Epistle that pretended to be written by St. Paul to the Laodicaeans which is since lost is most true But in those times wherein 't was extant it was universally Rejected as Spurious and known so to be St. Jerome speaks of it but says Abomnibus exploditur The second Councel of Nice in their sixth Canon say thus of it Inter Epistolas Pauli Apostoli quaedam fertur ad Laodicenses quam Patres nostri tanquam Alienam reprobaverunt Tertullian against Marcion and Theophilact both reject it with great contempt and say 't is Apostolico nomine planâ— indigna And Bellarmine himself though he had formerly affirmed there was such an Epistle which was certainly Lost Yet in the first Chapter of his Book which he calls his Recognition or After-view of his works Retracts it says he was mistaken and that there never was any such thing as such an Epistle written by St. Paul So that all the Insinuations of this kind that any parts of the Bible any Books written by a Divine inspiration have been at any time Lost out of the world appear to be very weakly and ill Grounded And in truth the foot steps of Divine providence have been eminently visible in Securing those Holy writings upon this threefold account From Destruction Addition and Alteration First No accidents of Time nor Designs of its worst Enemies have Totally obliterated the Whole or any Part. Secondly Though many have attempted to piece in and add to it false and counterfeit Fragments and some whole Gospels yet in defiance to all those Essays the Scriptures have remained intire and stood like a Rock Impenetrable No Spurious Writings have been able to incorporate with this holy Book Such who have gone about to forge Scripture have but made the Lustre of the Bible more Eminent and more evidently shewed us the difference of Gods reâ—ealing from Heaven and Mens counterfeiting upon Earth Mens writing by the strength of humane abilities and mens writing as they were moved thereunto by the Holy Ghost Thirdly From Alteration No man has been suffer'd notwithstanding all the attempts of Hereticks to that purpose to pollute or corrupt it All
Old Testament to be the very same and no other then those we now receive Nor were these Apocryphal Books ever otherwise reckoned either in the Jewish or Christian Church than as humane and fallible Writings till the late Assembly at Trent were pleased to declare them otherwise These things must needs seem sufficient to any reasonable man to clear up that doubt on the one hand Whether we have not less in our Bibles than we indeed ought to have Because that besides what the Roman Church hath of late done to Canonize these Apochryphal Writings no other addition to the Bible has been at any time attempted that merits the least consideration I proceed to the doubt on the other hand And that is How we may be reasonably secured that our Bibles contains in them no more then they should That is upon what ground we receive some Books in the New Testament The Epistle to the Hebrews the Epistle of St. James the second Epistle of St. Peter the Epistle of Jude the 2 and 3 Epistles of John and the Apocalyps Of all which there has formerly been some doubt made In the solution of which I shall endeavour these two things First To shew what were most probably the first and original grounds of such Doubts And secondly To shew that those doubts then ought to be of no prevalency with us now And that there is at this time no good reason to make the least doubt of any part of the New Testament as we are now in possession of it All the Doubts that have arisen about any parts of the New Testament were most probably these two wayes occasioned First 'T is obvious that the New Testament was writ in several parts at several times and not all composed together The Whole became not publick but by many steps and degrees Had several former and latter Editions That is some parts that were first writ were copyed out by those that had the Originals and con-joyn'd and so dispers'd And other parts still added as they were written and became publick Now 't is easie to conceive that some parts that were after added to such Bibles as first came out might be at first questioned and doubted of by such who had the former Editions and were not fully informed about the after Addition of other parts And so it has fallen out in the publication of most Systemes of Humane Laws that have come out gradually and by parts and not in a full and intire Body at once Secondly 'T is very probable that many Christians that lived in those first Times by reason of their distance from those places where some parts of the New Testament first became publick might be for a considerable time it may be till after the deaths of their Authors without any notice of them And upon that account some doubts about such parts might arise because they â—ad come to their knowledge no sooner especially if any such parts seemed to â—avour or countenance any particular Sect or Opinion as the Epistle to the Hebrews did that of the Novations and the Apoâ—alyps that of the Chiliasts And this is most likely to be the true reason why some of the Epistles and we know 't was about the Epistles that the doubts chiefly were were at any time questioned especially such as were more remotely and uncertainly directed to the scattered Jews as that of St. James that to the Hebrews and that of St. Peter which were no way likely to be so soon or so commonly known to the generality of Christians Nor could they be so easie to come by as those Epistles sent to Rome Corinth and Ephesus and those great and publick Cities from whence the fame of them would soon spread and Copies were upon much easier terms to be had because 't was certainly known where the Originals were Secondly There is no good Reason from any Question that was made heretofore to raise any Doubts now about any Parts of the New-Testament And that for these three Reasons First Because these Books in question were most generally received at first and doubted of only by some and those such who had least information about them And this is very evident Because we find them frequently quoted as Canonical Scripture by many of the most ancient Christian-Writers in those Ages next the Apostles Tertullian except the second Epistle of St. Peter hath in his Works quoted as Canonical Scripture every Book of the new-New-Testament we now receive And St. Ierome speaking in his Epistle ad Dardanâ—m of the Epistle to the Hebâ—ews and some other of those Books about which we now discourse sayes We receive them not from the Custom of this Time but from the Authority of the most Primitive Writers Secondly They contain nothing in them but what does plainly harmonize with the rest of the Bible and is generally witnessed unto by other Books about which no question hath been at any time made And of this there can be no doubt unless it be concerning the Revelation which yet contains a most Admirable though Mysterious Agreement with the Books of Moses the Prophecies of Ezekiel and Daniel and divers other parts of the Bible And to this Book besides that the suitableness of Events thereunto and the notorious fulfilling of many Prophetical passages in it has put its Divine Authority out of all question we have as great a Testimony from Antiquity as can in such a case well be expected Justin Martyr who lived very near the Apostle John himself in his Dialogue with Tryphon cites it as the Writing of St. Iohn and without the least question ascribes it to him Irenaeus who lived some small time after Justin and was the Scholar of Polycarp who was the Scholar of St. Iohn sayes positively 'T was written by St. Iohn the Apostle And that he was well assured thereof from some most probably Polycarp that had seen the Apostle Iohn himself and personally conversed with him Lib. 4. cap. 37. and Lib. 5. And â—ertullian in his 4th Book against Marcion sayes Though Marcion did reject the Apocalyps as none of St. John 's yet sayes he the succession of Bishops tracod to the beginning will establish Him as the certain and undoubted Author of it Thirdly God has in a providential way determined this matter For those that at first questioned those Books when the heat of primitive Persecutions were somewhat abated the Church had free intercourse and communication together and came to be better informed received them All doubts about them are now vanished Luthur and some with him in Germany who were the last that revived any doubts of that kind upon second and more deliberate thoughts recanted their Error All Christians are now at an Agreement about them the Supreamest Establishment that can be of canonical-Canonical-Authority even the Roman Church themselves receive the Apocalyps into their Canon although many passages in it seem very particularly directed against them Indeed the heavenly lustre of these Books is
broke forth like the Sun in his strength has over-spred the whole Horizon of the Christian Church And where ever the Gospel is owned these Books are received with that Veneration that becomes due to such Sacred Writings The Church of England Judges the doubts that have been at any time made about any parts of the New Testament not worthy of our Notice And therefore in the sixth Article it is thus expressed In the Name of the holy Scriptures we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament of whose Authority was never any doubt in the Church That is no considerable doubt no general doubt in the Whole Church Nor indeed any such doubt as ought to disturb either the Churches determination or any particular mans judgment about this matter For it cannot be shewed that any One intire Church or that any National or Provincial Council or indeed that any Considerable part of the Christian World in any Publick Confessions Catechisms or otherwise have rejected any of those Books we now reckon within the Canon The most Considerable Doubt that we find made about any one of them was about the Epistle to the Hebrews which for some time was doubted of in the Roman Church And yet Eusebius says onely It was doubted of a quibusdam in Ecclesia Romana by some in the Roman Church and 't is certain much of that doubt was whether St. Paul were the Authour of it or no But to conclude an Answer to this Question let these two things be Considered First under the Old Testament so soon as all the Parts of it were finished the Canon of That was exactly settled by men of an infallible Spirit in the times of Esdras and those last Prophets contemporary with him and so no further Doubt was or could reasonably be made about that Secondly under the New Testament it pleased God so to order it that he that closed up the whole Bible and wrote the Conclusion of it so far out-lived all the other Pen-men that he himself might very well see the Whole conjoyned and deliver it over to the Church intire as we now have it The Apostle St. John not onely survived Titus and that famous Destruction of the Temple and the Jews in his time but he lived through Domitian's time and Cocceius Nerva's time to the Reign of the Emperour Trajan which was somewhat above a Hundred years after our Saviours Birth and sixty and odd after his Crucifixion so Irenaeus tells us lib. 2. p. 192. And some other of the Apostles it should seem lived long for the same Author says that there were in his time Saniores qui non solum Johannem viderint sed alios Apostolos Elders that had not onely seen S. John but others of the Apostles That the Canon of the New Testament was established and setled by Apostolical Authority seems very probable S. Austin contra Faust Man lib. 11. cap. 5. and in his 19. Epist positively affirms it Distincta est says he à posteriorum libris excellentia Canonica authoritatis veteris Novi Testamenti quae Apostolorum confirmata temporibus Saint Jerome sayes Johannem omnium longissimè vixisse videre libros omnes confirmare pâ—sset si qui fictitij liberi ederentur eos à sâ—cris verè Canonicis distinguere That the Apostle John out-lived all the rest of the Apostles that he might perâ—se and confirm all the Parts of the New Testament and distinguish them from all counterfeit Writings if any such came abroad And he further adds That some Spurious Writings concerning the actions of S. Paul were brought to him and that he by his Apostolical Authirity condemned them Tertullian de Prescript says expresly The Canon of the Bible is founded upon Apostolical Authority And Eusebius gives this plain testimony to it Narrant veteres Johannem Asiaticarum Ecclesiarum rogatu Germanum Scripturae Canonem constituisse The antients tell us says he that St. John upon the request of the Asiatick Churches settled the true Canon of Scripture 'T is certain that S. John before his death made his abode much at Sardis and Ephesus and amongst those Asiatick Churches For after the death of Domitian he was restored from his Banishment by the Emperour Nerva and returned from Patmos into Asia and there governed the Churches until his death And 't is extreamly probable that upon their desire he then fully settled the Canon of the New Testament for that there was then occasion for the doing of it we sind by Enseâ—ius his History of those times And it is evident from S. John himself that the Church of Ephesus had been attempted by false Apostles in those days and whatever Doubts of that kind were then extant we cannot otherwise suppose but that they would be proposed to him and End in his Apostolical determination So that if we lay all these things together St. Johns living so long after all â—he Parts of the New Testament but the Revelation were Written And his surviving some very considerable time after the Writing of that for it is most probable that he received those Visions and wrote them in the end of the Reign of Domitian his closing the whole with that Book after which he declares as many think by pronouncing a Curse to him that should add to it or diminish from it that there was to be no further Revelation expected having therein given a full account of the State of the Church to the end of the world Considering the Doubts that were then extant about some Parts amongst such as had not a thorough Information about them and that False apostles did then appear considering of how great a Concern it was then and would be to all future Ages to have the Canon of the whole Bible settled by an Infallible judgment and considering the material Evidence we have from many Primative Writers That indeed it was so All these things considered there seemes very probable Ground to believe that the Apostle John before he left the world did fully Determine this matter and 't is most likely that as the Knowledge of what he had done came to be published abroad the Doubts that were then made dis-appeared And we that live in these latter Ages see that all the Questions and Doubts that have at any time been are perfectly vanished and the whole bopy of the New Testament hath now gained an Universal reception Thirdly How can we that have not the Originals of the Scriptures not the Outographa 's of those that Wrote them but onely the Copies of them and most but the Translations of those Copies rest assured we have Gods Mind as it was first delivered In Answering to this Question it must be acknowledged that the Original Records of every Part of the Bible did at first consist of Perishable matter and have undergone the common Fate of all othâ—r Writings 'T is evident it was not the pleasure of God that the Authority of the Scriptures
the Sun upon the Crucifixion of our Saviour which considering the Position of the Moon at that time it being the time of the Jews Passeover must needs be judged to be prodigiously supernatural was mentioned in many Heathen Writers which Eusebius sayes he himself had read Both Eusebius in his Chronology and Origen in his second Book against Celsus tell us That Phlegon Trallianus who lived in the time of Adrian in the thirteenth Book of his Chronicles wrote of this Eclipse and sayes That in the fourth year of the two hundred and tenth Olympiâ—d there was the greatest Eclipse of thâ—â—an that ever was beheld and withal a strange Earth-quake And that year was exactly the eighteenth year of Tiberius in which our Saviour suffered And 't is certain by what we find in Tertullians â—â—â—loâ—y and other of the Christian Writâ—rs in those first Ages that this and divers other Passages that relate to the Stoâ—â— of the Gospel were in those times Reâ—â—red amongst the Romans For they ofâ—en appeal to their own Records to â—â—ove the truth of this and many other particulars Justin Martyr in his Apology to the Emperor Antoninus which â—e wrote but fifty years after the death of St. John perswading the Emperor to the belief of our Saviours Miracles refers him to the Acts of Pontius Pilate then Registred at Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That our Saviour says he did these things you may learn from the Registers of the Acts done under Pontius Pilate Josephus who was born about five or six years after our Saviours suffering and survived the Reigns of both the Vâ—spatians relates much of the New Testament Story of John the Baptist of his Holy Life and also of his Death Tells us of Herod and gives a large and particular account of his strange and remarkable Death of Pilate of Festus Foelix Gamaliel and others Indeed neither Jews nor Heathens did ever in those times contradict or deny any matter of Fact that relates to the New Testament Story judging it certain beyond all denial Julian himself admits the Fact of Christ and his Miracles and plainly acknowledges the Books of the New Testament were written in those Times and by those very Men whose names they bear That we have no fuller and exacter an Account of Christ and the Affairs of Judea in his time in the Roman Story is not to be much wonder'd at if we consider the peaceable Posture that Country was then in News which best pleased the Romans from any of their Provinces and wherein they were mostly concern'd Tacitus observes that Judea was most quiet in the Reign of Tâ—berius as well it might All that our Saviour and his Followers did tending highly to Peace and Subjection Now We find that the Roman-Writers chiefly applyed themselves to write of some famous Wars the suppression of some eminent Mutinies or some such Accidents as in their Issue redounded much to the Roman-glory The peaceable condition of any Province usually shortned their Relation of it and therefore neither of the Jews not of the Christians in that Age have they vouchsafed to say much Nor did the Christians at any time such was their peaceable and submissive behaviour give Historians occasion to mention much more of them than their patient sufferings But in the after-times of Vâ—spatian Trajan Adrian when the Roman-Sword was drawn against the Jews and there were great Mutinies Rebellions and Wars amongst them the Roman-Historians have left us an ample Relation of all those Affairs Two things there are of great eminency in themselves and of most publick Nature contained in the Bible the Fact of which have had such signal justification as does greatly establish the Truth of the Whole and to which a very peculiar Remark is due The one is the History of the Flood in the Old Testament and and the re-peopling of the World after it by the Posterity of Noah The other is those Prophetical Predictions of the Destruction of Jerusalem of the ruine of the Temple and the Afflictions and Sufferings of the Jews uttered by our Saviour in the New For the first That there was such a Flood Nothing I have shewed has had a more universal Belief That the Earth according to the History of Moses was again re-peopled by the Posterity of Noah and that the Nations were divided in the Earth from his three Sons and their Issue as Moses tells us we have from the Records of all Nations and the consent of all History abundant cause to believe And that upon this three-fold account First We find that in those Eastern Parts where Noah and his Family are said first to land and settle themselves after the Deluge the Grandure of the World first began of which the Greatness and Splendor of the Assyrian-Empire is a sufficient Instance Those Eastern Countries arriving to much state and pomp and to much greatness in Dominion and Government long before either in Greece Italy or any of the Western Parts any such thing was attained to or known Which evidently shews that the Inhabitants of those Countries were the First-born and Heirs of the World who had the great Court and Metropolis amongst them and that other Nations were of the Younger House and Colonies of a Latter Edition Secondly The earliness of Learning of Art Sciences and Inventions amongst â—he Assyrians Chaldaeâ—ns and Egyptians before they so much as budded forth or appeated in other Conntries does argue That those parts were first inhabited That they were the eldest Possessors oâ— the World had been longest in it werâ— of greatest Experience and that otheâ— Nations People were gradually deriveâ— and planted from those Countries anâ— the Inhabitants of that part of the World Thirdly We find that those in honour of whom the Nations received their first Names were the Posterity of Noah that Moses tells us of From Japhet most probably the Eldest Son of Noaâ— called by Hesiod and others of the most anâ—ient Writers Japitos and his Posterito Japeâ—â—onides came the Gomerians or â—ymbrians from his Son Gomer the Magogims from Magog the Medes or Madians from Madus the Jones after called Graeâ—â—ns from Javan in Greek Jovan and so from the Posterity of the other two The Canaanites from Canaan the Sabaeâ—ns from Seba which the Grecians write Saba the Philistims from Palesthim the Thracians from Thyras the Sidonâ—ans from Sidon the Egyptians from the Posterity of Cham Egypt being called Mizraim from Mizraim one of his Sons Mizraim in Hebrew being the name of Egypt and antiently even to the time of Josephus the Egyptians he sayes were called Chuseans from Cush or Chus the eldest Son of Cham And so throughout all the chiefest parts of the Earth we find the several Nations by their antient denominations to be originally descended from that Posterity of Noab set down in the tenth of Genesis Sems Posterity appear to have been the Planters of Asia Chams of Africa and Japhets of most part of Europe with Asia the Less
we have now contained in our Bables all that was written by a Divine Inspiration and intended as a Rule to the Church and no more That is How can we now be safely assured about the Canon of the Scripture and be able upon good grounds to say what is Canonical and what is not 'T is too apparent a Truth that nothing by the power of its own worth and excellency has ever been able to scape contempt and reproach from the unruly wills and debauched minds of corrupt and unreasonable men The Bible has met with its share in this kind Some upon Fanatical Pretences have despised and rejected the Whole Others have mangled and severed it as themselves thought good receiving some part only as Divine and rejecting the rest as they pleased Of this Iraeneus Tertullian Epiphanius St. Austin and many of the Christian Writers have given us a large account The Manichees rejected the whole body of the Old Testament as coming from an Evil God The Ptolemaites as Epiphamus tells us rejected all the Books of Moses The Gnosticks with some other Hereticks rejected the whole Book of Psalms Cerdon and after him Marcion rejected all the Gospels but that of St. Luke the Acts of the Apostles and divers other parts of the New Testament as we find by Tertullian The Valentimans rejected all the Gospels but that of St. John as we see in Irenaeus Others rejected all that St. John wrote The Ebionites received no Gospel but that of St. Matthen and rejected in gross all the Epistles of St. Paul In a word There is not one Part of the Bible from the first to the last that has scap'd the reprobation of some bad Men. But all such attempts were soon blown away expired in the Birth bore about them their own shame and reproach made no considerable battery upon the Truth in any Age Nor did they reach further than the vitiated Minds and corrupt Breasts of such Profligate Hereticks as were the first Authors of them In answering to this Question How we come to be well assured about the Canon of the Bible and that those Books now received by the Church of England and other Protestant Churches as such are all Canonical and no other Two things only will occur that are of any seeming moment In the due consideration of which all will be said that is needful about this Matter First How we come to reject out of our Canon those Books commonly called Apocryphal which were written at least all but one of them during the times of the Old Testament And secondly Upon what grounds we now receive some particular parts of the New Testament which have sometimes layen under question If we mistake in the first we have less in our Bibles than we ought If in the latter we have much more than we should About the first concerning the several parts of the Old Testament there is amongst Christians themselves a present Disagreement But concerning the other the whole Christian World is at this day of the same opinion For the First That there is good Reason to reject those Books commonly called the Apocrypha that they were not written by any Divine Inspiration nor sent us from GOD as any part of those Supream Laws by which he intended to rule and judge the World and so ought not to be reckoned within the Canon will be made very evident to any reasonable Judge upon these Considerations following First After the time of Esdras and the erection of the second Temple 't is universally agreed by all the most Antient Jews and Christians that the Jews had no Prophet amongst them Nor did GOD raise up any Man with an Extraordinary Spirit from the time of Malachi who is agreed to be the last Prophet till John the Baptist Which was for the space of four hundred and odde years Now 't is sufficiently evident that these Apocryphal Books were all written after the time of Malachi and so can be of no extraordinary Mission And if any of them had been written before and had been extant in Ezra's time which they were not it had been an unanswerable Reason for their Rejection now Because they were not received then For 't is well known that none of these Books now in question were by Him incorporated with the rest of the Bible nor were within the Canon at that time setled That the Jews had no Prophets by whom all parts of the old-Old-Testament were written For the Church is built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles And the whole of the Old-Testament is called Prophecy nor any Men of an Extraordinary Spirit amongst them after the Captivity both Jews and Christians generally agree Josephus is express in it in his first Book against Appion he tells us that from the time of Artaxerxes though certain Books had been written yet they deserved not the same Credit and Belief that the Sacred Scriptures did because there was no succession of Prophers amongst them Saint Austine in the 45th Chapter of his 18th Book De Civitate Dei sheweth at large that the Jews had no Prophecy after Ezra's time And the same Eusebius affirmeth in his Demonstrationes Evangelicae Post Zachartam Malachiam non fuâ—sse amplius apud Judaeos Prophetam Et a reditu ex Captivitate ad tempora Servatoris nullum babucrint Judaei sacrum Volumen The Jews had no Prophets after Zachary and Malachi nor any Sacred Writings after the Captivity till our Saviour's time And some of these very Books tell us as much themselves For in the first Book of the Maccabees Chap. 9. 't is there said That there was then great Tribulation in Israel such as had not been since the dayes that there had been no Prophet in Israel relating to Ezra's time And indeed it appears very plain from the Scripture it self that there were no Divine Writings published between the Prophecy of Malachi and the writing of the Gospels For the Evangelists take things up just where he left them and begin the Gospel from the end of Malachi's Prophecy For he ending his Prophecy at John the Baptist under the Type and Title of Elias and the Evangelists beginning the Gospel with Him for St. Mark expresly declares the ending of that Prophecy to be the beginning of the Gospel There is a visible combination from thence from that period of Prophesie of the Old and New Testament together Secondly All the Writers of the Old Testament were Prophets to the House of Israel and to the Church of the Jews and their Writings and Prophesies were directed chiefly to them And so they were all writ except some Passages in Daniel and Ezra that were written in the Chaldee Dialect to which the Jews had in their Captivity been much accustomed in their own Native Language the Language of Canaan which was the Hebrew But these Books were confessedly most of them first written in Greek and could be of no use at all to the Jews at Jerusalem and
and by which were we possessed of them they would much more easily have been reconciled and understood The Jews were very curious and exact in the preservation of things of that Nature and good Reason they had so to be for amongst the Heathens want of Posterity might be supplied by Adoption but the Jews were obliged to a strict succession in Alliance and Kindred The whole of this matter is most judiciously discoursed of by the learned Grotius in his Annotatious upon these two Evangelists to which the exact disquisition of all the particulars being too large a task for this undertaking I fear not to refer any impartial Reader for a sufficient Answer to all that can be reasonably objected against the Bible from hence there being nothing contained in either of these two Genealogies that of St. Matthew and that of St. Luke that in the least implies any direct contradiction nor is there any such difference between them or between them and any other part of the Bible one of which must be punctually made good or else this Objection is of no force as appears wholly uncapable of any Reconciliation But on the contrary 'T is evident the Evangelists do after an admirable manner consist and agree with themselves Although in order to many excellent ends and to clear us all Doubts about our Saviours descent they differently account Which upon the forementioned Grounds can seem hard to none to conceive Fourthly They tell us There is much contained in the Bible that seems of too Mean and Low a nature to come from such a wise and Excellent Being as God and by no means fit to be Ascribed to Him Such are many Stories and many Similitudes and divers Expressions we find there On the one hand they reproch this Book for containing things too High to be Credited And on the other hand they object against it as containing many things too Mean to be Regarded In the one they impeach Gods Power and imply some things are too Great for him to Effect And by the other cast a contempt upon the highest effects of his Condescention and Goodness for nothing can more Savour of it then such a familiar way of conversing with Men 'T is true that the Scriptures have by divers Similitudes Resemblances and Allegories made the whole World and all we converse with some way or other Hieroglyphical to us of Divinity Have expressed somewhat of Religion to us by all Parts of the Creation and by the most common imployments of Humane life Then which nothing could make Religion look with a more Familiar aspect upon us nor render the Mysteries of it more easy to be embraced by all capacities Nor is any thing more likely to preserve the memory of things Supernatural and Divine in the minds of men then when they are expressed to them by such things with which they are sure to have a constant converse while they stay in this World Whatsoever we find in the Bible of this Kind stands sufficiently discharged from all Reasonable exception because 't is visibly but adjusting the Notions of Religion to the impotency of many capacities And of the meanest expressions either in Similitudes Allegories Metaphors or otherwise that we find in the Scriptures These two things must be acknowledged by which they are enough secured against all just and rational Contempt First That they are such as in their own nature are proper and apt to informe in all those Cases in which they are made use of And Secondly They all appear to have a direct tendency to instruct men in the Noblest and Sublimest Truths And are evidently Conducing to the Highest and most Excellent Attainments that Mankind are Capable of These and such like Objections have often faced the Bible But have given very little stop to its Progress Indeed all occasions given though by its worst Enemies for the Discussion of it have turn'd greatly to its Advantage and still made it appear less capable of any Just and Solid Exception The Bible is a Book that will endure Discourse The Deeper we search into all parts of it still the surer we are to find a Divine bottome 'T is true that the manner of its composure is suitable to its nature and end Savours altogether of the wisdome of another world 'T is evidently design'd to subvert all corrupt Interests and debase mens proud opinions of their own knowledge 'T is writ after a sort that seems peculiar to God and in no such way as Mankind use to treat one with another And therefore 't is no wonder if Some men both Object against it and Reproch it Divers things there are which in the Reading of this Book we are rationally obliged to Consider and by the due consideration whereof the Grounds of most mens exceptions would be removed First the Scriptures appear to be Designed as a General Store-house of Instruction and Satisfaction to all sorts of Capacities and Conditions to the end of the world And therefore it can be no very easie task upon good Grounds to condemn any Part either as Useless or Improper Secondly Many passages in the Scripture relate to things past and long since transacted of the circumstances of which we are not fully informed And many passages were accomodated to things then well known which we in these After-ages are ignorant of Others relate much to things future and to come The Wisdome and Excellency of which will not so fully appear till Hereafter And so we see it was in the Old Testament The use and Reason of many things then could not be so fully discern'd till explain'd and interpreted by the Gospel The Book of Ruth might then happly have been judged by some as an Impertinent Addition to the rest of the Bible But since the writing of the New we see what an excellent use there was of it to make good our Saviours natural discent in the flesh according to the promise He that saw no more then the Old Testament might have thought that Historical discourse of Melchisedâ—c that we find in Moses to be very defective mentioning so considerable a Transaction of so Great a Man in those early times of the world without giving any further account of him But now under the New we are informed how Eminent a Projection of Divine Wisdome was wrapt up in the seeming Imperfection of that Story and that the Eternal Generation of our Saviour in his Divinity in a strange and unthought off way was Represented and Figured thereby Thirdly Many parts of the Bible relate to the Customes and Laws of particular Places and Countreys Without the knowledg of which No man can be a Competent Judge of them In the Books of Esther Ezra and Nehemiah many things relate to the Customes and Laws of the Persians In the Prophets divers things are not to be understood without a reference to the Histories of several Countries to which they Relate In the New Testament many passages refer to the Laws and Customes
all the certain notions we have of another and a farther World and the great account of all invisible things and Secondly because 't is the highest Motive we have to all good living 't is from hence from the authority of this Book that we are chiefly obliged to all that is holy and good and engaged against all the corrupt prastises of humane Life when we consider with what difficulty we attain in the first Case to a fixed and unshaken belief of such things as we do not actually see and how apt we are in the latter to decline from the strict Rules of a good life nothing can seem more necessary then a rational insurance about the great Foundation of all Belief and Practice in both That with a perfect security to our present and future welfare we may rely upon this Book as that great and only Revelation by which God will inform rule and judge the world I have hereby attempted to make evident not only from its own excellent nature and composure and such visible and open effects of a supreme and almighty power as accompanyed its first Publication and lasted till the Church was so far built that the Scaffolding might be safely taken down but also from many other considerations from whence an abundant testimony to its Divinity will appear to result And this task if sufficiently perform'd as 't will give answer to all reasonable doubts and cast a just contempt upon all prophane reproaches so it will also reflect much upon those who though they acknowledge this Book to come from God yet not acquiessing singly in the conduct thereof declare it thereby insufficient to those great ends for which it appears to be intended and such are those of the Roman Church on the one hand and all sorts of Enthusiasts on the other who by a twofold superfoetation that of endless Traditions and that of new and continued Revelations have rendred the whole Scriptures if not useless Yet as to their great end and design altogether deficient and imperfect My Lord I seek not by this Dedication to countenance a defence of the Bible nor any way to secure my self against the just reproach of an ill performance the first would engage me in an open affront to a Christian State and the other oblige me to be too injurious to You and that Candor and love to Truth you possess 'T is alone that great Honour and that entire affection I have for Your Lordship that Interests Your Name in this matter though there is nothing less needed by You than discourses of this nature Yet there is nothing more due from me then an open and publick profession that my self and what ever I do is devoted to Your Service I know my Lord into what hands I commit these Papers when I present them to You that great hazard to which they are exposed by your first view will sufficiently inure them to all future dangers I consider that Judgement with which they are put to encounter and want not a due sense what the success must needs be I know also your remedying kindness and am enough secur'd thereby am in this case upon the same terms of relief that he was that discoursed before Caesar who thus address'd to him Qui apud te Caesar audent dicere magnitudinem tuam ignorant qui non audent humanitatem My Lord as You were pleased before to allow that Method I used in discovering the Unreasonableness of Atheism So I promise my self some acceptance in the account I now give You of the Reasonableness of Scripture Belief as I know no better Property can be convey'd to the World then a Rational Possession of God and his Word So I am also much pleased that I have spent some part of my time in doing what You required To whom I owe all that is due to the most Generous and most lasting Friendship and shall ever be as much as I can be which is but what I ought to be My Lord Your Lordships most true Friend And most Humble Faithful Servant CHARLES WOLSELEY THE REASONABLENESS OF Scripture-Belief THat the being of the Christian Religion depends much upon the Credit and Authority of that Book we call the BIBLE there needs little to be said to prove it The instance were as hard to find as 't is unreasonable in it self to suppose that any man should at the same time reject the Bible as Fictitious and yet embrace the Christian Religion as True For it must either be granted there are No Laws any where extant that do formally constitute this Religion which is absurd to suppose of any Religion or they must needs be admitted here No man can be a Jew and renounce the Olâ— Testament nor he a Mahumetan that disclaimâ— the Alchoran Because to deny the Authority of those Books is visibly to rase the great foundation of all profession and practice in those two Religions Although the fact of Christs being in the World and many other things relating to the Christian Religion be attested to by other writings yet the Scriptures are the onely means by which we come to a sufficient knowledge of a Religion established upon that foundation and which alone contain the Laws and Constitutions of such Religion No considerable attempt has been at any time made to set the Christian Religion upon any other Bottom then the Bible to promulge any other edition of Christian Laws to write any Counter-Story of Christ and the Apostles or is there extant in the World any different account of their Doctrines from whence might be deduced a Contrary or other systeme of the Christian Profession from what is recorded in this Book Nor is it reasonable to believe there can be any foundation lay'd whereon to erect Christianity where the Bible is excluded For whatsoever has otherwise then by the Bible by writing or tradition descended down to the World touching the Christian Religion has been either by its Friends or its Enemies For the Latter no mention is made in any Heathen Writer of any Christian Laws nor indeed of any considerable matter at all relating to the Christian Religion farther then what we find in the Bible it self And so amounts to no more then a Cumulative help to its Credibility And 't is evident those of the Heathen who have at any time opposed the Christian Profession and disputed most against it have opposed it as contained there That Book being granted on all hands to comprise its Doctrine and to be the stated rule of that Religion For the former whatever has been by the writings or Traditions of such who embraced the Christian Religion and gave their Assent to it conveyed down to us can never induce any other Rule of that Religion then the Bible For besides that all such Collateral traditions are in their own nature relative to the Bible dependant upon it and such as must necessarily stand and fall together with it they have also come from the hands
of those who have themselves Universally proclaimed the Bible in all Ages to be the great and infallible Rule of the Christian Religion So that if Christian-tradition be credited the Authority of the Bible is thereby established And if it be dis-believed in thaâ— there can be then no good reason to receivâ— any other matter touching the Christian Religion upon the credit of that conveyance To retain therefore the name of a Christian and yet disown the Bible is to become a perfect Problem No such man can produce anâ— Laws or Rules of his Religion nor give anâ— account wherein they are contained or bâ— whom or by what Church with an exclusion of the Bible they have been at any timâ— Received Nor can any man rationally make a Partiaâ— rejection of the Bible and retain a Christian Profession from thence in a Limited sensâ— of his own For a man to say he receive the Bible as he receives other credible writings as a book generally True and written by men that meant honestly and well but believes it not written with an Infallible Spirit nor to carry a Divine Authority along with it nor submits to it as such is to say a thing extreamly incongruous to all good sense and to indulge himself in a perfect Absurdity For the Bible comes to us with a claim oâ— God's Authority attending it speaks to us in his Name is a Book that disowns all humane contrivement proposeth it self as written by Divine Inspiration and Immediate Direction from God admits of no Composition for its Reception In such a case there can be no Middle-way but either we must receive this Book and submit to it as such or else reject it with the justest contempt imaginable It is in nothing to be credited if it be not in Truth what it pretends to be For there cannot be a more vile and pernitious falshood imposed upon the world then to counterfeit a Divine Law and to pretend that to come from Heaven and to be sent us from God which is nothing but the product of Men. Whoever will admit these premisses that the Scriptures were not written in every part of them by the infallible direction of the Holy Ghost when they themselves tell us that they were so must needs descend to this conclusion that they then contain the most impudent falshood and were composed by the worst designers against mankind The Christian Religion and the Scriptures being so related and standing in so near a conjunction as they do The being of the one having so necessary a dependance upon the Truth and Authority of the other 'T will be easily granted to be the great concern of the Christian Church in all ages to assert their Divine Authority and to justify that Book to be written by men that were indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinely inspired and to be sent us from God as that supreme Law by which he would inform Rule and Judge the World He that undertakes this Province and designs to himself such a service is obliged First To consider with whom he is like to encounter And to proportion his defence to those various assaults the Scripture are usually exposed to This being admitted which it ought to be that no man can with any good Reason close with the Christian Religion and at the same time Renounce the Bible That Maxime of St. Austin being undeniable that Contra Scripturas nemo Christianus There are but three sorts of men by whom the Scriptures can at any time be generally Attact and from whose principles their sacred Authority can receive an Universal Invasion First Such who wholly deny the being of God and consequently of all Religion for God and Religion are Relatives such who wallow in the mire of an Atheistical profession Secondly Such who admit the Being of God and a supreme and first cause but deny his providence and believe he is no way concer'd about the World nor troubles himself to exercise any Rule or Dominion at all over it Thirdly Such who admit the Being of God and the existence of Religion and providence but reject the Christian Religion as not True and embrace some other in opposition to it Of those first-born Monsters of Mankind that Anomalous off-spring who deny the Being of God whose principles contain in them the utmost dreggs of all humane Apostacy and are of all others the most wild and absurd for as Cicero sayes Deos esse ita perspicuum est ut is qui negat vix eum sanae mentis existimem The Being of the Gods is so evident that no man can be thought well in his wits that denies it A previous consideration is necessary to whatever is said upon this or any other Divine subject and therefore I have already contested with such and dispatcht all my concernes with them in order to this matter and the last converse I mean to have with that evil generation of whom it may most truely be said They are not only the avowed opposers of all Religion but indeed they are Hostes Humani generis The common enemies of all mankind Who by denying a Supreme Being above demolish the great support of all well-being here below Of this belief they were heretofore at Athens in those primitive times of Atheism and first dawnings of â—speculative Irreligion upon the World and therefore Cotta tells us in Cicero that when Protagoras began his Books with this Introduction to Atheism De Diis neque ut sint neque ut non sint habeo dicere Atheniensum jussu Urbe atque Agro est exterminatus Librique ejus in concione combusti And he adds Ex quo equidem existimo tardiores ad hanc sententiam profitendam multos esse factos quippe cum poenam ne dubitatio quidem effugere potuisset For those secundary Enemies to the Bible and together with that of all Religion such who admit the Being of God but deny all Providence and Divine Rule over the World such who out of shame disown the grand principle of Atheism but yet by this Method secure all the effects of it to themselves Of those a preliminary consideration on ought to be had A previous confutation of such principles being of absolute necessity to make way for the discourse in hand For it must needs be a vain and impracticable project to indeavour to prove any Book to be Divine and a Law given forth from God if there be no such Law any where in Being which we are sure there never can be if God no way concernes himself with what men do nor exercises any Dominion at all over them 'T is plain such principles do uno ictu dispatch all Religion out of the World put a perfect period to all Divinity and render it a thing very absurd to submit either in our belief or practice to any thing as Divine To this purpose Cicero concludes in his first Book De nat Deor. Sin autem Dii says he neque possunt nos juvare nec volunt
whether the Daemons that first caused them were not Mortal and Perishable Or whether they removed not their Places and changed their abode and many things of that Nature At last concludes with this excellent Philosophy That the true Cause of those Oracles was that the Earth in some places was enduâ—d with certain Prophetick Virtues which came by Exhalations to be mingled with and insinuated into Souls fitted to receive those inspirations and so cause in them Enthusiasms and predictions of future things And at last that Virtue in the Subterranean Caverns is spent and evaporates and so the Oracular Spirit ceaseth What ground had the Heathen for all that Religion they took from their Poets but their own Words that they were Inspired What other Evidence had the Romans at first for their Religion but that Numa Pompilius told them hâ— conversed with a Goddess and received it from Her What have the Turks to this day to assure them that Mahomet was a Prophet 〈◊〉 and conversed with God and the Anâ—◠〈…〉 besides his own bare â—ord He 〈…〉 claimed working of mâ—â—acles anâ— aâ—â—â—â— hâ—mself sent from Heâ—â—â—â— to conveâ—â—◠〈…〉 with his Sword A Reâ—â—â—â—tion from 〈…〉 to be accompanied and â—â—nnot 〈…〉 to be otherwâ—â—eâ— with such plan and 〈◊〉 evidence as is â—â—ed to all reasonable satisfaction though 〈◊〉 pâ—evail nâ—t to a universal câ—â—viction such as will abundantly jusâ—â—fie it 〈◊〉 to the strictest â—crutiny or all wise and good men however it be judged or by perverse and corrupt men The Biâ—le is not only sâ—â—h for the matter out as that we make appeal to the most genuine issues of every â—â—ns Reason whether the Justice Helmess and Gâ—oâ—â—s of God be not very transparent in it but in its gradual Conveyance to the World at â—â—veâ—â—al times and in dâ—stant Ages and places has been visibly accompanied with open and apparent Evidences of Gods Infinite and Almighty power such and in such a manner visible as no one thing in the world besides it self can make a pretence to And such as the fact of them its worst Enemies not a Celsus nor a Julian did ever assume impudence enough to deny And indeed is eminently and singularly justified to us as in particulars shall be shewed hereafter by a concurrence of all those Evidences from whence a rational satisfaction about a Law Supernatural and Divine ought finally to result Fifthly A Revelation from God my Reason will tell me must be without any visible defect 'T is unreasonable to father that upon God which we our selves upon good grounds are able to charge with failing and Imperfection Whatever claims from Him and speaks to us in his Name must have nothing in it unlike him or unworthy of him A pretence to Revelation must be above any just and reasonable Exception or it naturally becomes its own Executioner If in the judgment of right Reâ—son it be found guilty of Corruption in Doctrine or of any falshood in matter of fact t is but equal to reject it as a Spurious and fictitious Delusion And therefore 't was rightly said of St. Austin to St. Jerome Si mendacium aliquod in Scripturis vel levissimum admittatur Scripturâ—â— Authoritatem omnem moâ— labefactari ac convelli If we admit the least falshhod in any part of the Bible we ruine the Authority of the whole All the Counterfeits of Revelation have upon this account visibly betrayed themselves and revealed to us their own original No one but the Bible can the world produce that will not some way or other disclose its own shame and that falls not under some nay many just and reasonable exceptions 'T is this Book alone in which there is not a flaw to be found 'T is only this Divine Law that is Perfect The Bible consists of three parts the Doctrinal the Historical and the Prophetical Let the most accute Anti scripturist living produce any one Doctrine out of the Bible that to the judgment of right Reason seems corrupt and unsound Let him shew any one Prophesie relating to things past not duly fulfilled Let him upon good and sufficient Historical Authority palpably disprove any one matter of fact in the History of the Bible and wee I yield him the cause And if this be not to be done as in fact it never has been and we are well assured never can be If a Book containing so much variety of History far beyond any other Book extant for so many thousands of years It a Book pronouncing with that positive certainty about such a multitude of future events in so many several Ages and relating to so many several persons and places containing in the Doctrinal part of it Directions and Rules for the whoâ—â— business of â—ens Duty â—o God and toward each other Iâ— this Book have not a â—â—â—un to be sound in it If it be proof against all exception If there be nothing but Truth in it in all these respects what more invinâ—â—ble Evidence can there be given to its Divinity Who but God himself could have indited in hâ—a â—ock 〈◊〉 who but a man wilfull and absurd can withstand such a Conviction 'T is the Bâ—â—le and 't is that Book alone upon every Page of which that Image and Superscriptiâ—n of God is engâ—aven Truâ— it self 'T is a â—oâ—◠〈◊〉 in its â—niverâ—â—â— Triumph over all 〈◊〉 Where is 〈◊〉 a Book to be â—ound 〈◊〉 of any considerable subject much 〈…〉 a â—auâ—â—â—â— this â—â—â—t câ—â—â—â—◠〈…〉 â—â—â—â—tonâ—â— Judgment of Mankind 〈…〉 worst enemy to find 〈…〉 pâ—oâ—ucts are brought forth in 〈…〉 failing and Impeâ—â—ect Nâ—â—â—â—â—◠〈…〉 the wisest or mâ—n 〈…〉 bound Of this we are experimeâ—â—â—â—ly â—â—â—â—ed by all History Philosophy and all 〈…〉 This Holy 〈…〉 legitimate Off spring of God and thâ—t which only contains his mind Authoritaâ—â—vely revealed and made known to the world so it has singly appurtenant to it all those requisites necessary to a Divine Revelation And without which no such thing can rationally be supposed These things being so He that rejects the Bible will find he is unâ—voidably obâ—â—â—ed either to deny that there is any Revelation aâ— all and consequently to give some good answer to what has been urged for the reasonable supposal of it and some tolleâ—â—â—â—â— account hâ—w Mankind when we consider Gods goodness and our own necessities can be suppoâ—â—d to be left without it or else to proâ—â—â—ce somewhat that with more Justâ—â—â— and better Evidence can put in a claim to it is Mâ—â—â—l more becoming the greatness and goâ—dness of God and more suitable and use â—l to men The first I dare say will be found a task utterly impracticable if unprejudiced reason may be Judg and with what success the latter iâ— like 〈◊〉 pâ—â—ceed and how visibly absurd 't will renâ—eâ— its undertaker will soon be determined by every sober mind when it plaâ—nly appâ—â—â—s by what has been said that so many things which my Reason tells me must all necessarily accompany a Divine Revelation and without which it
the Jews in the time of our Saviour and the Apostles nor before and 't is certain if there had been any Books then extant in truth written by him they would have been in great esteem and veneration in the Jewish Church though they had not been within their Canon which we are sure they were not and Philo or Josephus most diligent searchers of their Antiquities would have made some eminent mention of them in whose Works we find altum silentium about any such Books and therefore 't is not to be supposed they believed there were any such real Books then extant But 't is most probable that after the Apostle Jude had in his Epistle quoted a Prophecie of Enoch which Prophecie without doubt he came to the knowledge of either purely by Revelation which I rather believe or else by a Tradition the truth of which was ascertained to him by Revelation by which means came others also of the Sacred Writers in after-times to be ascertained of what they writ about divers things that relate to the History of Moses that were not to be found in his Books for in the Psalms we find mention of some things done in Moses his time that are not recorded in his Books St. Paul in the 9 to the Hebrews sayes that when Moses had spoken every precept according to the Law he took the blood of Calves and Goats with Water and Scarlet Wool and Hyssop and sprinkled bâ—th the Book and all the People saying this is the Blood of the Testament c. In which the Apostle has added several things that are not inserted by Moses in the selation of this passage in the 24 of Exodus So Stephens Speech set down in the 7 of the Acts tells us that Moses in killing the Egyptian supposed that his brethren would have understood how that God by his Hand would deliver them but they understood not By which we have a Reason given for Moses killing the Egyptian that he himself has no where set down and by which we come to understand that before Moses went into the Land of Midian God revealed to him that he was to be the deliverer of that people which Moses himself has not any where told us I say 't is probable that some Hereticks in the Church most likely the Gnosticks who much cryed up those Spurious Writings to promote their own corrupt Opinions and Interests took occasion from thence to frame certain counterfeit Books just as some others did under the names of Jaâ—nes and Jambres after St. Pauls mention of them as written by Enoch before the Flood which Books have sufficiently betrayed themselves for those that were published under his name were stuft as St. Austin sayes with such absurd and fabulous Stories of Angels and such ridiculous relations of Gyants whose Fathers were Angels and no men that they are to be justly rejected as pâ—lpably counterfeit and fictitious Of the same mind is Jerom Chrysostom and Epiphanius and when Celsus alledged some absurd Stories out of those writings in reproch to the Christians Origen in his fifth Book answers him by shewing what a mean esteem the Jews as well as the Christians then had of them For the second those Pillars of the Sons of Seth 't is beyond all compass of credit that any such Pillars should be set up with an intention to outlast the Deluge or that they should so do or that any Engravings upon them should be visible some thousands of years after especially upon one of Brick for Josephus tells us there were two at first erected one of Brick and another of Stone and that of Stone they made on purpose to last if the other should decay how he came to such an exact account of their minds the Reader may guess and yet he sayes 't was that of Brick that then remained upon which he does not absolutely say there was any thing written in Letters but that the Sons of Seth Engraved upon them such things as they had invented which might be by many other representations and other ways then by Letters for I doubt not but that a Symbolical representation of mens thoughts one to another was extream early in the World though they wanted Alphabetical Letters Nor does Josephus say that He saw it it himself or give any punctual account what it was that was engraven upon it or any certain Place where the Pillar was to be seen but only in general that it was then in the Countrey of Syria where he left men of leisure to enquire after it The truth is there are so very many improbable and unlikely if not impossible Circumstances do attend this vain Story that 't is plain Josephus though in the general a Historian of deserved credit took it upon bare report from others some late Authors think and perhâ—ps not amiss from the fabulous relation of Manetho who sayes he took his History from some Pillars set up before the Flood and was marvailously abused in that Countenance he seems to give to it nor ought it to seem strange that he should be so for we sind many of the best Historians have taken up things upon trust and fallen thereby into very great mistakes Suetonius and Tacitus are both eminent Historians amongst the Romans yet both guilty of strange mistakes Tacitus tells us in his History That the Jews worshipped an Asses Head with the highest veneration then which nothing could be more untruly and upon less ground affirmed and Suetonius so mistook that he thought Christ lived in the time of Claudius for he sayes In the time of Claudius Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes civitate expulit That Claudius expelled the Jews out of Rome who were continually making uproars being stirred up thereunto by Christ Then which there could not be an absurder mistake nor a greater falshood well uttered For the third The mention that Moses makes in the 21 of Numbers and the 14 of the book of the wars of the Lord as a Book then extant his words are wherefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord what he didin the red Sea and in the brooks of Arnon First divers probable senses are given of the place that render it no Objection in this case The Geneva Translation not much differing from some others renders it thus Wherefore it shall be spoken in the book of the Battles of the Lord c. If so then 't is Prophetical and may relate to Joshuah who is said to sight the Battles of the Lord and to the Relations in the books of Joshuah or Judges that were to be after Junius reads the words thus Idcirco dici solet in recensione bellorum Jehovae c. Wherefore it is wont to be said in the rehearsal of the Wars of the Lord c. And so understands it not of any particular book but that amongst the Wars that God disposed for the good of the Israelites there was in those times a famous mention in the
at large in the 12th Book of his Jewish Antiquities Some will needs imagine that Antiochus so far prevailed in this undertaking that the Scriptures then Extant were wholly Destroyed But the contrary is most evident and a special providence in their preservation sufficiently visible For no sooner was that storme over but the Bible was every where publickly extant having been particularly preserved by Matthias the Son of Asmonaeus and his sons who as Josephus says resolutely ventured their Lives in the doing it and also by other good men and was universally known in that Age amongst the Jews to be so Calvin in the first book of his Institutes observes That though the Jews had undergone the malice of manifold Enemies on all hands yet neither the Loss nor the Change nor the Corruption of their Law was ever by their worst Enemies objected against them And indeed how great soever their enmity was against their Religion yet they never denied but that Moses was the Author of it and that the Law they had was the Same He deliâ—cred at first Under the New Testament since the closure and completion of the Whole What a fâ—â—ious Persecution did the Bible esâ—ape in the time of Dioclesian Who after the grievous sufferings of the Christians in Mine fore Persecutions assaults them about the year 302 with the sorest and most cruel of all and with a full purpose to root Christianity utterly out of the world and destroy its very Name from the face of the Earth Euselius tells us that in the Nineteenth year of his Reign He publisht an Edict against the Christians and Christianity it self In which he so much Gloried that he caused a Pillar to be erected as his Memorial to all posterity with this Inscription Dioclesiano Casari Augusto superstitione Christi ubique deleta To Dioclesian the Emperour having abolished the superstition of Christ all the world over By that Edict he commands that the Christian-Churches should every where be demolished the Christians all Seized and Imprisoned Et quibuâ—cunque adhiâ—itis Machinis victimas Idolis immolare cogerentur That by all sorts of means fair and foul they should be brought to sacrifice unto his Idoâ—s And that the Scriptures should be every where sought for burnt and destroyed And whoever Retained them should be most sharply Tormented Dioclesian at this time had the command of the greatest part of the Habitable world For as one of the Roman Writers said Romanâ— spatium est Vrbis Orbis idem The Scriptures were then but in Written hand Men generally Quak'd with the fear of that Raging Tyrant Very many Apostatized and delivered up the Bible to his wrath and were thereupon branded with the name of Traditores of which and of the whole business we might perhaps have had a larger account had not The Life of Deoclesian written by Eusthenius his Secretary been since lost For As Baronius has rightly observed in his Annalls We have now no Writer who did at that time Historically set down the Actions of that Emperour Yet God by his Providence delivered this Book out of his hand Disappointed his fury and suffered him not to quench the Light of these Divine Laws The Christians at that time Tired out the Inventions of their Enemies in finding out ways to torment them and by their constant and patient suffering the utmost of humane misery even wearied out their Executioners One remarkable passage we have in Euseblus that happened upon this occasion A noble man in Nicomedia of eminent Quality hearing this Edict against the Christians and the Bible published at Nicemedâ—a After it was Read and openly fixed to a publick Pillar in the presence of Dioclesian himself Maximinius Galerius Constantius and other the Chiefest persons in the Empire for 't was usual with the Emperors to come themselves in Person with their chiefest Attendanâ—s to hear their own Edicts against the Christians proclaimed to see the Christians tormented and to make themselves sport with their miseries this Noble man had such a zeal for the Bible and the Christian Religion that before the Emperors face he took down that prophane and impious Edict and with a Holy indignation openly tore it to pieces and and thereby willingly exposed himself to the utmost suffering the fury and rage of the Emperour could any way make him the subject of Two things are usually urged in diminution of the â—â—ble and its Authority upon a quite contrary account We are told by some The Bible has been so far from being preserved intire in the whole or in its parts that first all that part of the Bible that was then extant when the people of Israel were carryed into Babylon periâ—â—ed in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and that Esdras wrote it himself all over again upon their return and that we have now so much of the Bible only from Him and as he Re-pâ—â—ned it In this Mr. Hobs in the 33 Chapter of his Leviathan where he has not failed to insinuate all such things as might gratifie men of Sceptical notions about the Bible is very positive and tells us The Books of the Old Testament are derived to us from no other time then that of Esdras and were retrived by him when they were lost And Secondly we are told that many particular Books and Writings penned by Divine inspiration and once part of the Bible have been since consumed by Time and are now wholly lost out of the World The first That so much of the Old Testament as was then extant which was the whole as we have it save some part of the Psalms the Prophecies of Ezeâ—iel Daniel Haggai Zachary and Masachai and the Books of Esther Ezra and Nehemiah was totally lost and all the Copies destroyed in the ruine of Jerusalem and the Temple is an assertion very weakly grounded And there are very sufficient Reasons to perswade us to believe the contrary First Weakly grounded for there is no other ground for it but that in an Apocryphal Book that goes under the Title of the fourth Book of Esdras a Book every where stuffed with Childish and fabulous Stoties There we find this absurd fiction that Esdras should speak unto God and tell him Thy Law is burnt and no man knoweth the things that thou hast done and therefore desired to be inspired to write it all over again and to wrire all that had been done in the World from the beginning And that after he had been forty days and nights with God in an apish foolish imitation of Moses and had taken a Potion God had prepared for him he dictated all the Bible over again to five men Now of how little credit this Relation being no where found but in this Book ought to be with any considering man will appear if we consider that this Book was not only constantly rejected as Apocryphal by the Jewish Church as a counterfeit under Esdras his name and none of his but has been so by all
according to the Law of Moses which we cannot conceive after seventy years they could so exactly have done or would ever have attempted to have done it had not they had the Law with them while Esdras himself was yâ—tâ—n Babylon and when Esdras did come to Jerusalem we find in the 8th of Nehemiah the people were so far from wanting the Law or staying for any such Restoration or Re-penning of it by him as is pretended that they desired him only to read the Law openly to them which he immediately did as a thing they were then possessed of and which was notorious amongst them Fifthly 'T is no way probable that Esdras should so Re-pen the Bible because we find his own writings full of Caldee words as also the Prophecie of Daniel but all that part of the Bible written before the Captivity is in pure Hebrew and 't is no way conceiveable but that if he had Re-penn'd the whole he would have written it in the same way he wrote his own Books and according to the Idiome that was then in use amongst the Jews either wholly in Caldee or else with some mixture of Caldee and Hebrew together The whole of this Story does evidently appear to be a Romantick fable taken out of a Book sâ—ust with many vain and ridiculous follies and is contradicted by another Apecryphal Book of much better credit 〈◊〉 wee 'l depend upon such Evidence for in the second Book of the Maccabees we are there told that the Tabernacle and the Ark in the sides of which the Law we know was placed were sâ—cured by the Prophet Jeremie and hid in a Cave at Mount Nebo when Jerusalem and the Temple were burnt And if any such thing were though the Law be not particularly mentioned yet being always kept in the Ark â—â—s not to be doubted but Jeremie preserved it with the Ark and had an especial reference to the securing of it in what he then did This we affirm as a truth to which both Jews and Christians have assented that at the return of the people out of Babylon the care of Esdras about the Bible and that great Synagogue that was then according to Moses his first institution assembled in which were present Haggai Zacharie Malachy Nehemias and Zerubbabel was very eminent and great and to this day we derive singular advantages from it For first with great diligence they made an exact seperation between such Writings as were of Divine Inspiration dictated by the Holy Ghost and were to be a standing Rule to the Church in all Ages and all other Writings whatsoever whether written by true Prophets or false for even true Prophets and such as were most eminent might and without doubt many of them did write diverse things without any immediate assistance or direction from God and consequently which were nor of Divine Authority they collected all the sacred parts of the Old Testament together which during the Captivity lay dispersed in private hands no publick use being made of them Incorporated the whole into one intire Volumn an admirable work in the order we now have it which before was not possible to be for several Psalms several of the Prophecies and some other Books were written after the coming of the people into Babylon and it does no where appear that those parts written before were conjoyned in one intire Volumn more of them then the five Books of Moses the Original Copy whereof Moses himself delivered in a publick assembly to the Levites to be layed up in the sides of the Ark the peculiar Archive God had by his special command appointed for it the whole of the Old Testament so united they ranked under three Classes and divided into three parts which division was continued amongst the Jews till the times of our Saviour who in the 24th of St. Luke refers to it when he sayes All things ought to be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms Secondly Their care in securing the Original Text of the Scripture was eminently great and most highly is it to be applauded in adding points to the Hebrew Letters to preserve the Knowledge of the Tongue and facilitate the reading and Learning of it dividing the sacred Writings into Verses with many other things of that kind most probably first begun by them of which the Jewish Writers give us a large account The whole of their indeavours this way and of those amongst the Jews that succeeded them therein was called the Massora which God wonderfully blessed to preserve the purity of the Hebrew Text and to deliver the Old Testament safely and intirely over to us What a useful and most laborious enterprize this Massora was we may know by the description Buxtorffe gives of it in the second Chapter of his most excellent Commentarius Massorethicus Massora sayes he est Doctrina critica a priscis Hebraeorum sapientibus circa Textum Hebraeum Sacrae Scripturae ingeniosâ— inventa quâ— Versas Voces Literae ejus nâ—meratae omnisque ipsarum variet as notata suis locis cum singulorum versuum recitatione indicata est ut sic constans genuina ejus lectio conservetur ab omni mutatione aut corruptio e aeternum preservetur valide premuniatur The Massora is a critical Learning about the Hebrew Text of the Sacred Scripture ingeniosly invented by the Ancient wise men amongst the Jews in which the Verses words and Letters are all numbred and all their variations particularly noted and set down in their proper places with a recital of the particular Verses that so the constant and genuine reading of the Scripture may be preserved and for ever secured against all change or corruption And that Ezra and this great Synagogue were most probably the first Authors and Contrivers of the Massâ—ra however augmented by others in after Ages and not some learned Jews at Tiberias that long lived after ouâ— Saviour as some have supposed Buxtorffe in the Eleventh Chap. of the samebook hath largely and learnedly proved from the best and most Ancient Writers amongst the Jews and thus concludes upon the whole Haec communis est Hebraeorum sententia Massoram a viris Synagogae magnae prosectam esse This is the common opinion amongst the Jews that the Massora came from the men of the great Synagogue Thirdly That Ezra and that great Synagogue to render the sacred Text more intelligible and make the truth of some Historical Relations more evident did make some small additions and some verbal alterations in some places is greatly probable and it might easily be done but no Re-penning the Bible nor the least violation offered to the sacred Record nor to the credit of its Authority nor can the least Objection though many have indeavoured it be raised from hence to that purpose when so many Persons of an infallible Spirit were present in that Assembly and who were without doubt Divinely directed about what they did in that matter In
order to the great end of the whole But at last the Positive and absolute Proof to one that denies it must needs depend upon somewhat Collateral to the Book it self Secondly No External proof of the Bible would be sufficient to any reasonable enquiry were there not likewise an Internal Evidence resulting from it to its Divinity that is 'T were to no purpose to urge any Arguments from External Evidences be they Miracles or what they will to prove a Book to be Divine and sent us from God did not the Book approve it self to the judgment of right Reason likely so to be 'T were a vain attempt to endeavour to make a reasonable man upon any collateral considerations submit to the Bible as a Law Divine did not the Bible upon a due Search into the matter of it appear worthy of such a Denomination I much applaud that saying of Mr. Chillingworth upon this occasion For my part sayes he I profess if the Doctrine of the Scripture did not appear as good and as sit to come from God the Fountain of goodness as the Miracles by which it was confirmed were great I should want one main Pillar of my Faith and for want of it I fear I should be much stagger'd Nay 't is that Innate and satisfactory Testimony the Scriptures give at last of themselves and their own Divinity to our Reasons that finally determins all rational assent establishes the truth of all other Testimonies and upon which our belief of them as Sacred and Divine is ultimately founded and established So that as on the one hand we ought not to insist upon any Internal Evidence as simply sufficient to Evidence the truth of the Scriptures exclusively to the External justification God has incircled them withal and upon which the full and absolute proof of divers parts must necessarily depend and also because 't is upon all the reason God has given us to believe the Bible that be requires our assent to it So on the other hand we must not deny an Internal evidence to result from the Innate worth of the Bible it self whereby it appears to our reasons at last to be what other External Arguments perswade us to believe it is When we tast the Excellency of the Doctrine and when we perceive how all the matters of Fact stand justified to us a Divinity appears in the Whole We finde this Book to be a rare Composure of Divine Wisdom are convinced upon the whole matter 't is from above and bow to the Authority of God as the formal Reason of our Obedience whom we evidently perceive speaking to us in it This being premised I proceed to consider this Book in it self in the Matter of it as it now lies before us And herein I shall endeavour these two things First To shew that this Book so far as 't is capable of being compleatly judged of by what ariseth from it self without any Collateral Supplement so far as every Man's Reason becomes a competent Judge of it in its bare proposal appears to a reasonable enquiery most likely to come from God and to be Divine And by that internal Evidence arising from its own excellent Nature reflects back also a justification to all those External Arguments brought to prove it Secondly That in all such things as relate to Matters of Fact and wherein an External Justification is necessary to ascertain us fully about it we find this Book so witnessed unto so inviron'd with a concurrence of Humane Testimonies as leaves no room for any reasonable Doubts to be made about this Matter For the first That this Book so far as we can competently judge of it from it self appears to be Divine and that there are many Internal Reasons of great force resulting from the Matter of this Book it self to perswade us that it is from God and written by his special Command will be sufficiently manifest in the consideration of these following Particulars First We find contained in this Book some things that exceed the bounds of all Natural Abilities ever to have found out Such as could not in the judgment of right Reason be the product of any Humane Invention Not only such things as no man did think of before for that every Book contains that gives birth to a New Notion but such things as no man could ever have thought of Such as could not have been known amongst Man-kind any other way than by Revelation And therefore though written by Men must needs be revealed from Above The Instances of this shall be these two First This Book tells us such things of God of his Nature of his Eternal Counsels of the manner of his Existence as were utterly beyond the confines of all Natural Discovery and could not be minted in any Humane Brain No fimie Intellect could ever have travelled into such Depths and Heights as by this Book we are acquainted with and appear to us to be in the Counsels of God in order to the glorifying of himself by the Works that he has made No man could ever have imagined a Trinity in the Deity or such an existence of one Simple Essence as this Book acquaints us withall These are such things as could never be hammer'd out in any Humane Shop Such as without Revelation could never have enter'd into any created Mind to conceive of Secondly That contrivement we find in this Book of Saving the World and rebuilding the fallen Tabernacle of Humane Nature is evidently a reproach to the best abilities of Man-kind and an undenyable instance of this kind 'T is not onely what was unthought of before but what lay infinitely distant and wide from what could be thought either by Angels or Men and directly fathers it self upon that Supream Wisdom that is Above And that first in respect of the thing in it self considered And secondly In respect of the Manner and Method of its Accomplishment First In respect of the Thing it self and that on two accounts The height of stupendiousness that is in it and the transcendent degree of excellency that is in it First The Stupendiousness of it What a hidden and amazing Mystery how far removed from any mortal view or imagination was this That the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity should descend from Heaven and assume Humane Nature into a conjunction with the Divine and in that conjunction become the Saviour of the World That He should take upon Himself in His own Person the Sin and Guilt of Man-kind Die for the World Make thereby a Satisfaction proportionate to Infinite Justice and prepare a way for God to express himself in the utmost act of Mercy in a conjunction with the highest exercise of Justice No less than an Infinite Understanding could have shaped such a Design or been the Author of such a Projection Nor could any but God himself with whom all things are possible that are in themselves possible have found out an expedient to have reconciled those two Infinite Attributes in
his dealings with an Apostate Creature Secondly Such a strange prodigious Excellency appears in the whole business of our Redemption such a floodgate of Divine and Supernatural Truth is let open by it that not only the wisest Men but the Angels themselves look with the highest admiration upon it Indeed all the Ends of God and Men are so attained by it and in a way so sutable to the Nature of Both that nothing but the Boundless Wisdom of God could have contrived it In what a stupendious and unthought-of way is God in all his Attributes Manifested Exalted and Glorified After how excellent a manner is the Evil of the World both in respect of the Guilt and Dominion of it obliterated and expunged To how astonishing a degree is the whole Interest of Man-kind provided for And to how great a Happiness here and hereafter is the World recovered And this in a Way and by Means far out of the reach of the wisest Thoughts by the Faith and Obedience of the Gospel In which there are three things of singular remark First That a Man is brought thereby to as near a converse with God in the truest exercise of his Rational Faculties as our Nature will bear and as can be had in this World considering that infinite distance there is between the Nature of God and our present composure Secondly The greatest present and future happiness is proposed to Man-kind upon such qualified Terms and with such regard to the Impotency of Humane Nature as is admirable to consider 'T is not made ultimately to depend upon Perfection of Action but Sincerity of Intention Thirdly Provision is made for the greatest and noblest Homage that Man-kind can pay unto God Man is brought to do the Most he can in a way most sutable to his Being as a Free and Rational Agent and yet to the highest Self-resignation and God has the Glory of all his Actings Never such Sanctity and Conformity to the Divine Nature Never such willing and chosen Obedience Never such inward integrity and love to God nor such self-denyal for God as the Gospel produceth And yet men still depending upon Divine Assistance for all this The glory of the Whole redounds to God His goodness alone is magnified Man is so debased and God so exalted Man becomes so Happy in that Debasement and God so Glorious and both in a way so suitable to the Creator of all things and a Creature Indeed the Righteousness of Man is introduced in such a Subordination to the Righteousness of God as fills us with the highest Admiration and could never have been the effect of any Human Projection The manner also by which the Scriptures have introduced the full and perfect discovery of Christ from the beginning is such the design of it appears so to be laid as evidently points us to God The whole Scriptures even the difficultest parts of them seem in a wonderful way to issue and unravel themselves into Christ as their great and common End If we dissect the Bible and rip up the Entrails of both Testaments after how excellent a manner does Christ appear to be the great Soul of the Whole And how strange and prodigious a vein of Divine Wisdom do we perceive running throughout all the Parts relating to Him What a curious piece of Divine Skill to any considering Mind is the Scripture-Method of revealing our Saviour In what peculiar unthought-of yet strangely proper and agreeable Expressions is he promised In what deeply Mysterious yet fully significant Types and Shadows represented What a dark and obscure yet lively and compleat Image was drawn of him under the Law With what un-imaginable variety of Predictions and Prophesies was he foretold And with what a strange concurrence of all parts of the Old Testament was Christ brought forth in the New The New Testament is such a Counterpart of the Old and the Old such a Justification of the New and between both there appears such a harmony resulting from such a strange variety about this Matter as none but God himself could ever have tun'd them into And indeed the whole of this business both for Matter and Manner appears an eminent effect of divine Wisdom and cannot be ascribed to any other cause Secondly We find the Laws contained in this Book to be of such a nature that they reach the Inside as well as the Outside of all Man-kind Pierce into the Secrets of every Man 's own Breast govern a Man 's most retired Thoughts speak with absolute Authority to the Grounds and Principles the Design and Tendency of all mens Actions And this seems much to evidence their Divinity Who but God himself can exercise a Dominion over the Mind speak to the Heart and judge of the first and invisible risings of disobedience there Two things upon this account are very considerable from what we find in this Book First That 't is throughout equally directed to the mind and to the thoughts of men as well as their outward Actings Forbids inward coveting and lusting upon the same penalty that it does the grossest Practice of evil This as 't was never done in any Heathen Laws so 't were absurd for any Humane Authority to attempt it because things of that nature are onely connizable by an Infinite Knowledge Secondly This Book does not only pretend to an invisible dominion in that kind But it makes such a discovery to us of the inside of the World speaks so exactly to what we find within our selves does so effectually command us has such a justification from every man 's own Breast that we cannot but reasonably suppose that God himself was the Author of it Who but He that perfectly knows what is in Man could have encompassed him round with such a Law A Law that divides between the Soul and the Spirit and is a discerner of the Thoughts of the Heart Who but He could have given such an exact Rule to the manifold Thoughts and Inventions of Men There 's not a private Closet in any Man's Soul into which the force of this Law does not some way or other extend it self There 's not a Mental Case can happen that 's left undetermined but falls under some Regulation or other from this Book In short Here 's a Book that tells us the Good and Evil of all our Thoughts becomes a perfect Law to our Inward parts punctually speaks to all that 's in our Hearts Nay tells us more than we before knew of our selves and yet find to be true Is not this likely to be the Voice of God None but he that made us that sees within us and from a Supream Soveraignty over us judges upon the Whole that belongs to us can we reasonably imagine could have promulg'd such a Law Thirdly The design and tendency of this Book and the influence it hath upon Humane Life does greatly perswade us that 't is from God and can have no other Author The evident tendency of it is to
us as appear evidently sitted and suited to supply all the defects of our natural Knowledge and after an admirable manner harmonize with the rational Nature in which things from Above are so interwoven with things below and every way so proportioned to them as that Truths Supernatural which we cannot fully comprehend appear justified to us by Truths natural that we are perfectly judges of and between both there appears a wonderful concord If we find a Book written in God's own Name commanding the World upon that single account to bow before it and in a way peculiarly proper to his own Soveraignty and Greatness with a positive claim to his immediate Authority and the truth of this claim established to the World by a multitude of the greatest and most eminent Miracles at several times openly wrought that ever were extant and the Fact of which was never by any deny'd A Book the Doctrine whereof by the power and reputation of those Miracles it s own innate Worth and the Divine Assistance that accompanyed it without the least humane help nay against all Humane-Opposition all earthly Policy and Force withstanding it has gain'd so great an acceptance as we see â—his to have done subdued in its first enâ—rance that great Empire of Rome subâ—erted the whole Judaical Fabrick and â—as made both Heathenism and Judaism â—inaly fall before it If we find a Book that gives us the â—est and most satisfying account of the â—hole affair of this World and all the Vicissitudes of it and of God's providential Rule and Dispose of all Humane Affairs A Book in which the whole business of the World is fully and strangely epitomized and we see nothing happen or come to pass contradictive of but according to what is there written and of which we find there some general notice If we find a Book the Doctrine whereof totally subverts the whole interest of the Devil and all the corrupt interests of Men in a way far superior to what ever was or can rationally be supposed ever could be attempted in that kind by the wisest and best of men and introduces much nobler and elevated Notions oâ— Piety and Vertâ—e than the World werâ— any other way ever possessed of If we find a Book that has plainly anâ— directly foretold most of the great thing that have come to pass in all Ages thaâ— has many hundreds of years beforâ— some of them happened pronounced with an absolute prophetick certainty about thâ—m and has never been found tâ— mistake in a tittle though it has somâ—times descended so to Particulars as 〈◊〉 name even the Persons of men long before they were born cannot once be impeached for giving a wrong Divination about the least Circumstance relating either to Persons or Things If we find a Book that has been signally preserved from the greatest rage of many powerful Adversaries and from the most Violent and Potent Attempts for its total Suppression and Ruine of such who were in highest Authority and furnished with greatest advantages to effect it A Book that has scap'd all sorts of Contrivance against it and safely descended through the Channel of so many Ages and been to this day providentially secured and unmaimed and intirely delivered over to us If we find a Book that evidently in the judgment of all right Reason improves Mankind to the highest pitch in all worthy and excellent Attainments boâ—h Moral and Divine Brings the World into the best posture 't is capable of Makes men Wiser Better and Happier than they ever were or could themselves find out how to be If we find a Book that by means utterly unthought of and far out of all humane-reach and yet of a most holy and excellent Nature sweetly and safely even to our greatest admiration reconciles us to God Fills up that vast Gulph that was between Heaven and Earth and makes way for a free and perpetual intercourse between God and Man Exposes to the view of the World thereby a Beatitude infinitely transcending whatever the Wisdom of Man could contrive or invent which the rational Soul the more it considers still the more it adores and admires and in which to the utmost 't is delighted and satisfied In short If we find a Book that has all those things if we respect both the Matter of it and the Manner of its conveyance to us appurtenant to it that we can rationally expect should accompany a Revelation from Heaven and such a supernatural Law by which we may suppose God would enlighten and rule the World A Book that every way answers all the great ends of Revelation proposeth most suitable Remedies to all our natural Defects leaves not a Disease in Humane Nature uncured nor a Breach that mans fall hath occasioned un-made up If there be not one thing we can imagine God should reveal to us in order to our present or future Welfare about things visible or invisible about This World or the Next that we are not here told of If we have here such discoveries made of things supernatural and unseen as have evidently set bounds to the restless and inquisitive minds of Men about those Matters And such as we cannot reasonably judge could be the product of any humane thoughts nor of any thing lesse than the infinite and boundless Wisdom and Knowledge of GOD himself If we have found such a Book If the Bible be thus qualified What can be otherwise judged upon such Premises but that this Book is indeed that sacred Instrument wherein God has recorded his Sovereign Pleasure This is in truth that Revelation from Heaven the World in all Ages have so much expected and to which so many false pretensions have in all Ages been made Here is indeed contained that System of Laws supernatural by the publication whereof God has abounded in all the effects of his Bounty and even out-done the furthest Conceptions the World has at any time had of his Goodness How strangely unreasonable were it to derive such a Book from the highest degree of imposture How heterodox is it to all good sense to suppose that the worst and most pernitious delusion by which the World has been ever abused which we must needs reckon this Book to be if it be not from God should have in point of time the precedency of all true Religion and be of an antienter date than any divine Truth the World can pretend to Who that believes the supream Existence of God can imagine that the best documents in the judgment of all unprejudiced reason that ever mankind were disciplin'd by should have the Devil or the vilest of men for their Authors That such should contrive and publish a Doctrine that brings men to the best method of living That such should reduce mankind to the happyest and best condition and out do the Divine goodness in that particular Who can imagine that the Devil or any ill men in promoting the highest Treason against God counterfeting his Name and Authority and
the greatest ruine to mankind deluding them with false informations about their chiefest concerns should be able to produce in their justification the most eminent Miracles and all the greatst Evidences that rationally can be expected to ascertain the World in the publication of the highest supernatural Truths In a word who can beleive a Book so circumstanced as we find the Bible to be should be composed by the worst Instruments and with the worst of designs No such thing can ever be credited while we suppose there is a God ruling above and men live in the exercise of Reason below 'T were most absurd to suppose that any Book falsely pretending to Gods Name and Authority designing his dishonour and mans destruction should be capable of such a proof as has been brought in defence of the Bible And yet so must the Tables be turn'd the whole proof must so be inverted of all that hath been said a contrary application must of necessity be made if this Book comes not from God and be not in truth what it self openly claims to be The Divine Authority of this Book we call the Bible being thus upon the forementioned grounds established I come in the last place to a Consideration of such Doubts and Objections as are usually made about it All the Material Difficulties that can be proposed will be reduceable to these four Questions I. First How could men come to be assured in those times wherein the several parts of the Bible were first writen that they were written by an Infallible Spirit and upon sure grounds distinguish them from all other Writings II. Secondly How come we certainly to know the true Compass and Extent of Holy Writ How can we know that we have now contained in our Bibles all that was writen by a Divine Inspiration and intended as a standing Rule to the Church and no more That is How can we be now safely assured about the Canon of the Scripture And be able upon good grounds to say What is Canonical and what is Not III. Thirdly How can we that have not the Originals of the Scripture not the Autographa's of those that wrote it but onely the Copies of them and most but the Translations of those Copies rest assured we have God's Mind as it was first delivered IV. Fourthly How can we believe this Book say some to be from God when we find contained in it divers Contradictions several strange and incredible Stories and other things greatly lyable to exception In answering the first Question This ought to be previously considered That there were Advantages peculiar to the belief of those who first received the Bible or any parts of it and lived in those Times wherein it was first delivered that we have not And we have likewise some Advantages and those very considerable to our belief which they had not They conversed with the Pen-Men themselves the Names of many of whom are to us wholly unknown the Holy Ghost not judging it necessary to record them foreseeing the Scriptures would descend to us upon other sufficient Evidence They were able to judge of their personal Integrity and the account they gave of their Divine Commission were Eye-witnesses of the Miracles saw the Original Writings And in the Apostles times many knew some of their Hands These we have not but we see the progress and success of this Book which they saw not We see this Book translated into all Languages whole Nations converted by it The Gospel spread all the World over and the fulfilling of many Predictions since which they could not then be Witnesses of With many other great Effects of it We see the Whole conjoyn'd and the excellent Harmony of it and the relation each part has to compleat the Design of the Whole Are in divers respects upon different terms of judging now upon the Whole from what men were in judging at first upon any particular parts But to come to a direct Answer to this Question There could be but two wayes to ascertain men in their reception of any part of the Bible when it first became publick First By some outward visible Justification of the Persons imployed in that Service to assure us that they were sent and commissionated from God Or secondly From the Matter and the Nature of such Writings themselves And herein a due consideration of those Times and Seasons in which the several parts of the Bible were written and the then present state of things and the order of writing it will much inform us Moses who layed the first and great Foundation of the whole Fabrick in the five Books that he wrote He had a justification Personal beyond all question His Commission and Authority to do what he did was sufficiently evident to all that conversed with him There was all that could be expected to assure those that then lived that God had imployed him For God admitted him openly to a personal converse with himself We read in the nineteenth of Exodus that the Lord said unto Moses Loe I come to thee in a thick Cloud that the People may bear when I speak with thee and believe thee for ever c. He impowered him upon many occasions to work the greatest Miracles that since the World had a being had ever been wrought and openly to shame and out-doe all his Opposers and all Pretenders that way And whensoever there was a doubt made about this Divine Authority or any contest with him upon that account as in the case of Korah and at other times God plainly and openly from Heaven in the sight of all the People decided the Matter to assure them and all Generations to come that Moses was no Impostor but acted by a Divine Commission in what he then did And indeed It being the first time that God revealed himself to the World in a written way and published those Laws which were to be a Standard to all that succeeded and the great Corner-stone of all that Revelation that he would at any time after make to Man-kind 't was but necessary it should be fixed and established upon certain and unquestionable grounds So that such who lived in Moses his time could have no good reason at all to doubt in the least of his sincerity for all was done that could be done to put that matter out of question And God visibly shewed himself as we find in the four and twentieth of Exodus and his own glory amongst them For 't is said They saw the Lord God of Israel and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a Saphire-stone and as it were the Body of Heaven in its clearness Nor could there be any doubt raised Whether the Laws and Precepts of Moses were rightly recorded and as he intended they should For before his Death he himself by God's special command in a publick Assembly delivered over his Five Books to the Levites to be layed up in the sides of the Ark. After Moses his time
till our Saviours coming and the writing of the New Testament when there was again a Flood-gate of Divine Power let open in Mighty and Miraculous Operations all the parts of the Old Testament that were at any time written and they were not all Written till the time of Ezra after whom and the erection of the second Temple God made no further Addition all the other parts I say of the Old Testament were principally to be judged of by what Moses at first established Working of Miracles after his time was not to be the great and onely Rule of Prophesie and Revelation God had declared and commanded the contrary Nor indeed has the Holy Ghost thought fit to record to us whatever might be done in that kind that any one Pen-Man of the Old Testament wrought any Miracles after Moses his time 'T is a truth that there was among the Jews a Succession of the Office of Prophets after Moses and certain Schools of them which first began and were continued in the Cities of the Levites who dwelt dispersed amongst all the other Tribes And of many that were probably trayn'd up in those Schools we read in Scripture as of God and Nathan and other Seers and Prophets That some of them wrote no part of the Bible nor that we read of were any way extraordinarily imploy'd but most likely were so stiled because they had their education there were bred up and devoted to that Office and Employment That God did often make use of those that were of that Prophetical Society in extraordinary Matters I doubt not But in dictating the Bible God was pleased arbitrarily to chuse out what Instruments of conveyance he pleased and confin'd not himself to any one sort of Men nor to any Prophetical Office to give us any assurance from thence in this case For he sometimes chose men out of the Court as he did Isaiah the Kings Nephew And sometimes from the Herd as he did Amoz the Shepherd who sayes himself He was neither a Prophet nor the Son of a Prophet And God in an extraordinary way by the Word and the Prophesie that he gave such to utter created them Prophets And the greatest evidence of such mens Prophetical Authority arose if no Miracles were wrought by them from the Word they uttered And if any were of which we cannot be certain the Holy Ghost being silent about it from a conjunction of both A Miracle wrought in confirmation of any Doctrine correspending to what God by Moses had at first established was the greatest assurance that the Judaical Church after Moses was capable of No false Prophet in those dayes ever arrived so far That is They never had the concurrence of a Personal and a Doctrinal Justification together If any such wrought a Miracle to gain them a personal credit yet their Doctrine was still faulty And being to lead men from God and to subvert those Laws of his by Moses so solemnly setled That was an intimation sufficient from God's own direction to discover and shame them But supposing the several Pen-Men of the Old Testament after Moses wrought no Miracles at all and that God made most of them Prophets by that very Employment which 't is certain he did and that they were not previously in any such Office so that nothing of that kind could give men any assurance Yet by these three wayes men might be then much secured in that case in the first Edition of every distinct part of the Old Testament First From the known personal Sanctity and Integrity of the Writers themselves God never made use of any ill men or such as could come under any reasonable suspition of Imposture to write any part of the Bible nor of any but such whom men in that Age wherein they lived had very good reason to credit This being a certain and revealed Truth that in writing all the parts of the Bible 't was Holy Men still that Spoke and Wrote Now there could not be a more superlative imposture and wickedness than to ascend the Throne of God to speak in his Name and pretend his Authority without his Order No Man not wholly forsaken of all fear of God and respect to men could be supposed to make such an attempt Nor could any Man of known Piety and Honesty be reasonably suspected of it Secondly and chiefly From the conformity of what was then writen to the Laws and Precepts of Moses setled upon such unquestionable evidence for whatever was superstructed upon that Foundation came under the same Justification So that if any Writings were published in God's Name that appeared to be as all the other parts of the Old Testament did but a further discovery and promise of the Messiah a renewal of those Threatnings and Promises in Moses to that People and a further promotion of those Holy Laws and that Religion and Worship by him established there was no absolute necessity of Miracles in such cases If any man will suppose there might be in those times Books piously written and grounded upon the Doctrine of Moses that came not from any Divine Inspiration in judging of which Men might be possibly deceived and mistaken I answer Either such Books pretended to a Divine Mission from God or they did not If they did not no man could be indangered by them If they did They must either be written by true Prophets or False No true Prophets would do it And 't is not reasonable to think any false prophets should because they could serve no Design by it Nor could the Devil or any ill Instruments any way promote their own Interests by perswading men to serve the true God in the right way Nor do we find that in Fact any such thing ever was Thirdly There appeared in most if not all the parts of a Bible a peculiar Majesty a savour of Divine Authority in a more than ordinary way A great and eminent difference as the Prophet Jeremiah sayes between the Chaff and the Wheat Nor is it fit to suppose but that whâ—â— came by an immediate Inspiration from God should carry some Impressions of his Wisdom Power and be some way differenced from the common Writings of weak and fallible men Besides from many other Circumstances attending the first Edition of the several parts of the Bible relating to the Matter written and the Authors that wrote might God give a further evidence to their Divine Authority of which we are now wholly ignorant And it would be perhaps somewhat of curiosity and of little use to enquire after And some of them are recorded to us in the Scripture it self As particularly the foretelling of future Events that accordingly came to pass Two wayes God himself had previously appointed by Moses for the discovery of all false pretentions to Revelation First If any Pretenders that way came to seduce men from the true God and that Divine Worship of his then established God commands They should be rejected And secondly If
in Palestine nor understood by any but the dispersed Hellenists And so were no way likely to be sent from the Holy Ghost to that Church who never owned any Scripture for Canonical but what was in Hebrew a Language peculiar to them And the Bibles they constantly used till our Saviours time in their Synagogues were all in Hebrew Thirdly There is in most of these Books some eminent discovery of their own Humane Extraction As in the second of Macc. 2.24 The Author of that Book whoever he were tells us that he had borrowed what he wrote out of Jason of Cyrene and contracted five Books of his into one Volumn And so what he there wrote he is so far from fathering it on the Holy Ghost or any Dictates of his that he plainly confesseth 't was none of his own but the bare Epitomy of another mans Writings and desires to be excused if he had not done it well And 't is most notoriously evident to every common Reader that many of these Books contain such ridiculous Stories and gross Absurdities that without high impiety and great contradiction to all those Natural Notions we have of God they cannot be imputed to the Holy Ghost as their Author Fourthly These Books were never received by the Church of the Jews into their Canon nor are to this day And so during the times of the Old Testament were never received by any Church for there was then no other which is most absurd to conceive of any parts of God's Written and Supream Laws As also that the Jews to whom in a most peculiar way the Oracles of God were committed and who had the custody of all God's Sacred Records and were as St. Austin calls them God's the Churches great Library-Keepers should so notoriously err as to reject for not to receive into their Canon is to reject so great a part of the Bible 'T is somewhat strange that those of the Roman Church with whom chiefly we contest in this Matter and who annex to the Church an infallible Judgement should imagine the Church of the Jews to fall into so great and gross a mistake in so fundamental a matter That the Jewish Church never heretofore received these Apocryphal Books into their Canon nor do to this day is a thing that with the least colour of Reason cannot be denyed That they do not to this day is known all the World over wheresoever the Jews are And their Bibles are to be seen That the Ancient Church of the Jews before the times of our Saviour had no other Books within their Canon than those we now have is evident from the testimony of Josephus in his first Book against Appion who there tâ—lls us what Books the Jews reckoned Canonical and sayes They are onely twenty two in number according to the number of Letters in their Alphabet and reckons those very Books we now receive as onely Canonical Other Books he sayes there were written after the Captivity but they were never numbred with the Sacred Records Origen St. Jerome and many other of the Christian Writers have largely proved the same Those of the Roman Church who have turn'd every Stone to ease themselves from the dint of this Argument have found no other countenance that ever these Books received from the Jews to make us suppose they received them into their Canon but that in some places some few of the Hellenist Jews that lived remote from Palestine had annexed some of these Books to their Septuagint Bibles But such Hellenists themselves had any esteem of them as Canonical Writings Nor can it any more be proved from thence that they had than it can That we in England receive them into our Canon because they are bound up with some of our Bibles And never were any of these Books annexed to the Hobrew-Bibles used at Jerusalem and in Palestine nor were any of them ever read or admitted into their Synagogues there In truth This matter in point of Fact is so notorious and evident that Bellarmine himself makes an ingenuous confession of it and sayes plainly Hos omnes Libros speaking of these Apocryphal Books ad unum rejici ab Hebraeis That every one of these Books were rected by the Church of the Jews Contr. 1. lib. 1. ch 10. And confirms the same out of St. Jerome And if so we have then not only the judgment of the Judaical Church in this case which is singly sufficient For 't were a ridiculous contradiction to make any Books part of the Old Testament now which were not so received then But we have also a more infallible determination For our Saviour and the Apostles fully and constantly approved the Old Testament as the Jews were then possessed of it 'T were absurd to suppose that our Saviour should with so much exactness reduce all to the Rule of the Scripture and yet tacitly approve and silently pass over so great a mistake about the Rule it self Our Saviour directs the Jews to search the Scriptures as they then had them as being perfect and compleat Appeals to their own Bibles upon all occasions in his own defence Expounded Moses the Psalms and the Prophets as those to whom he spake were acquainted with them and as they were then extant Nay he himself read and preached in their Synagogues out of the Scriptures as he there found them and as they were there publickly used And no man can soberly imagine that our Saviour would go about to instruct the People out of any false and imperfect Rule The Apostles likewise upon all occasions made use of the Old Testament as they found the Jews possessed of it Nor have we the least intimation that the Jews were either mistaken in the number of those Books they received or that the least alteration had been made in those Books since the times wherein they were first written And 't is as evident that the Old Tement as the Jews then had it and as our Saviour and the Apostles approved it descended down to the Christian Church and was constantly so received The Primitive Writers agree universally in it Cyprian Epiphanius Athanasius Nazianzen all bear witness to it Cyril Bishop of Jerusalem after he has reckoned up to his Catechumini the 22 Books of the Old Testament we now receive adds Hos lege viginti duos Cum Apocryphis nil habe negotii Catechis 4. Read these two and twenty Books But meddle not with the Apocrypha Origen quoted for it at large by Eusebius in his History reckons up the very same twenty two Books for the Canonical parts of the Old Testament And so does St. Jerome and expresly reckons the other Apocryphal The same we find in Russinus who sayes The Apocryphal Books they never antiently called Libros Canonicos but Ecclesiasticos And the first Council we read of that entred into a consideration of this Matter which was that of Laodicea about the year 364. in their 59 Canon declare the Canonical Books of the
in such a Succession Established upon the Authority of this Book ought ever to be admitted without very positive Proof Especially when we have such apparent Reasons to believe the contrary By Whom is it I ask that the Bible could be corrupted It must have been either by Jews Pagans or Hereticks 'T is plain the Jews have not done it for we find multitudes of Texts that give in a daily witness against them which doubtless had they attempted the Bible in such a way they would never have suffered so to remain upon Record against them No part of the Pagan World can be reasonably thought to have done it for the Scriptures contain such an eminent Revelation of the One true God and his Worship as puts an end to all Heathenish vanities and at once dispatches all False gods out of the world Nor have Hereticks done it for 't is this Sword of the Spirit the Written Word of God that upon all occasions mortally wounds them the Scriptures have slain their thousands and their ten thousands in this kind 'T is the purity of the Scriptures in asserting the Orthodox Truths of Religion that has in all Ages kept up the Christian Verity and still brought all sorts of Hereticks to an open shame It has been the Wresting or Perverting not the Corrupting of Scripture from whence all Heresies have chiefly arisen and the native and genuine Sense of the Bible has still proved their Ruine Nor is there upon the whole of this matter any tolerable Reason to Doubt but that as God was pleased by his special Providence to Secure the Old Testament which we are sure he did and preserve it intire till the time of our Saviour so by the same Providence he has secured the Old and the New since and delivered them over to the Church in these latter Ages without any considerable variation from what they were when they were first written And this ought to be duely considered as an eminent help towards a rational Satisfaction in this point That the very same Objections which some men now please themselves with against the New Testament the Old Testament was equally lyable to in the times of our Saviour and the Apostles For after Esdras's time the Old Testament came into no Infallible bands till the times of the Gospel was conveyed by fallible means through many Ages down to those times had the same possibilities of Alteration then that the New Testament has now Various Lections also in the Hebrew copies were then extant And yet for all this the Scriptures of the Old Testament were then pure and intire Nor does our Saviour or the Apostoles mention the least defect that was then in them Nor was there in those eminent times of Reformation the least Question or doubt ever raised upon any such account One grand Objection is usually made upon the whole of this matter and 't is thus framed All these Arguments brought either to prove the Bible in general or to answer such particolar doubts as arise about it are built say some upon no better foundation then Huâ—anâ— and in themselves fallible grounds And if so we still embrace our Religion but upon uncertain terms can never from chance arrive at any positive and absolute assurance nor come to such a Divine and Infallible faith as we ought to have in this case In answering to this Objection this must be acknowledged that although the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament were at first Penned by the infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost yet the manner of their Conveyance to future Ages has been by Humane and in themselves fallible means The Grounds and Reasons of which disposal of God though we cannot pretend fully to reach yet we are thus far informed First the Scriptures could not have been by means in themselves absolutely infallible handed down to all Places and Ages without the visible continuance and constant exertion of such a supernatural and extraordinary Power as would have wholly inverted that course we find God most generally takes in his Rule and dispose of the World Secondly it would have prevented all that case and industry God intended to exercise his Church withall to their great advantage in the exact preservation of these sacred Records Thirdly there had been no room for a belief of not occasion for a dependance upon that Wisdom and Power God has expressed and wherein he has greatly honoured himself in an over-ruling disposal of ordinary means to such extraordinary Ends who has providentially secured this Book through all the several Channels of Humane conveyance This Objection is much urged First by those of the Roman Church on the one hand to convince us of the great uncertainty of our own profession and the stability of theirs And Secondly by men of Sceptical Principles on the other hand either to fright or perswade us or both out of all Religion by telling us There is no positive or absolute certainty in the grounds of any How serviceable this Objection though it has filled the World with great noise and clamour as it has been pressed both ways will prove to either of these designs and indeed with how great absurdity t is managed in order to both will be soon made to appear All belief of things Divine in an ordinary way I speak not of such Divine illumination as God may particularly vouchsafe to any â—ust of necessity be ultimately resolved into that we call Rational and Moral assurance for when we speak most properly of Divine faith we mean such a faith as is built upon a Divine Testimony not denominating it from the Object of it nor from the Effect of it which is less proper but from the Foundation and Ground of it Now Divine faith in that best and truest sense of it will be reduced into no more then a Moral a ssurance at last for if I say my faith is Divine because built upon a Divine Testimony 't is in some sense true But if I am asked by what means I came to know that Testimony to be Divine That question must needs bring me back to a Moral assurance as the ground of all my previous belief about that Divine Testimony it self that it really is so Whatsoever Revelation God makes of his mind to me I must needs without Divine assistance receive it upon Humane and in themselves fallible terms and so judge of it as I judg of all other things No man can receive my Revelation from God with a faith a Divine and infallible as the Revelation is in it self unless there be an equal inspiration in both cases and God make men as infallible in Judging of Revelation when proposed as he made the Instruments of it in the Act of its Conveyance The plain Question in this Case is how I come to receive all other things into my belief that are Objects of belief It must be confessed upon the grounds of Rational credibility and Moral assurance and therefore upon the
may serve in some measure to manifest the vanity of all pretensions to an Infalible belief without a Divine and Infalible assistance of revealed and supernatural Truths and the Mistakes of such who suppose we can never be settled in any Points of Religion without it And may sufficiently justify an indeavour to make a Rational proof of the Scriptures without a pretence to any such Divine and Infalible Judgment about them If so much be urged for the Proof of the Bible in general and in Answer to particular Doubts relating to the manner of its conveyance as will amount to a rational assurance and satisfaction 'T is all we can have without Inspiration and all we ought to Expect in this case All we pretend to from attempts of this nature is but a Moral assurance that this Book was at first written by Gods direction and that those Copies we now have of it are without any designed corruption or other variation from the first Originals then what humane frailty in the Transcribing of them has occasioned descended down to us and that in all such places where we find various readings the true Sense of the place and the original Dictates of the Holy Ghost are amongst them all safely preserved and by a diligent search may be discovered And upon the same Grounds of Moral Assurance are men in point of Translations and all such who are Illiterate For as we can be without extraordinary assistance but Morally certain that the Bible was Originally Written by a divine direction and that those Copies we now have of it in the Original Languages were at first Rightly transcribed and have not been since corrupted or changed so men may be also Morally Certain about a Translation For 't is in it self a thing very possible to be that the Scriptures may out of their own Languages be truely and rightly translated and being so are of the same Divine Authority that they were before and upon circumstantial considerations men may come rationally and safety to conclude that they are so And indeed unless all men in an Age that understand the Original tongues should agree which is absurd to conceive and morally impossible to be to deceive and abuse those that do not no Designed abuse nor any palpable falshood can be imposed upon men that way And in like manner persons Illiterate may be Morally Certain that they are no way deceived when the Scriptures are Preached or Read to them The Ground of Assurance in all these cases is still the same the Difference is onely Gradual Those who understand the Original Languages are upon easier and nearer terms of Moral Assurance about them but in the other cases it may be also attained And in all cases God has providentially afforded means sufficient to secure any reasonable man about the Truth and Authority of his Word Fourthly How can we believe this Book say some to be from God when we find contained in it divers Contradictions Several strange and Incredible Stories and other things greatly liable to Exception This Objection though it looks with the most Threatning aspect has yet the least prevailing Influence is of all others the most Impotent has the least rational Vigour and when duely examined will prove least effectual to those bad Ends for which it is by any intended When men tell us in general of Contradictions they find in the Bible but come to no Distinct and positive Proof they do not in that case Object but Revile He that will give an Edge to such kind of Discourse must punctually Instance Wherein this book has asserted any One such thing as implies a direct Contradiction and is in its own Nature utterly Impossible to be or where any two things are affirmed and denyed so directly contrary to each other that they are wholly uncapable of any Reconciliation This task with some degree of Contempt we impose upon all Antiscriptural men And are very secure that all those seeming Contradictions that are to be found in the Bible do at last prove an eminent Testimony to its Divinity For first they are in their appearance so to be a great Instance that in the Writing of this Book there was no corrupt Design to Cajole or engage the opinions of men to it And Secondly upon a thorough 〈◊〉 due there appears in them all such a deep unthought of and admirable Concord without the least shew of any Designed Agreement and such a unanimous tendency towards the great End of the whole as greatly savours of Divine Council and such a Contrivance as we may reasonably expect to come from Above In the management of these kind of Weapons against the Bible we find none that have been at any time since more dexterous then heretofore were Celsus Juliâ—n Porphiry and Faustus the Manichee How mean their attempts were and how little Impression they made will appear by the Instance of some of their chiefest Objections in this kind First they Object against the Bible because we are told therein of divers Incredible things As that a Serpent should speak to Eve an Ass reprove his Master that the Sun should stand stâ—â—â— and a Woman be turned into Salt with many other things of the like nature That the Devil should speak in a Serpent or that God should open the mouth of an Ass can seem Impossible and so incredible to none that acknowledge such Superiour and Invisible Powers especially 't was absurd in Celsus and Julian and others of the Heathens so to Object because nothing was more commonly believed amongst them then Stories of this nature and 't is well known the Devil spake daily to them through Images Philostratus gives a large account how an Elm-tree spake to Apollonius Porphyrie tells us that a River saluted Pythagoras Julian himself and his Philosopher Maximus had oft heard the Devil speak with divers kinds of voices and therefore no such things could seem Impossible to them Nay Julian acknowledged a Possibility of the highest point in the Bible which is the Incarnation of the Deity and himself gave an instance of it in Esculapius whom he supposed to descend from Heaven and assume Humane Nature that he might instruct the World in the art of Physick 'T is in truth in it self a thing Childish and absurd to Object against the Bible for the relation of any such passages if the Being of God be once acknowledged 'T is true that no humane power can make the Sun stand still turn a Woman â—â—â—o Salt or effect any thing of such a nature and should the Scriptures ascribe any such things to any Humane Ability the Objection were well grounded but they are things possible and easy with God to effect and the fact of them when ascribed to Him of an easie belief Nor can any man reasonably Object against the Scriptures upon any such account that does not first deny the Actual Existence of God Secondly They tell us there are some things contained in the Scriptures