but that which is opposed to the Private Tradition of the Romanists and hath a certain Moral Universality and is built as to the Certainty upon Common natural and rational Grounds and not on the Romish pretended Authority or Infallibility See Mr. Baxter Pref. to his Book of Infidelity Argument the II. 2. THat Doctrine or those Writings that have been allways owned and countenanced by God ever since they were written must needs be Divine at least if they pretend so to be But the Doctrine contained in the Old and New Testament or the writings commonly called the Scriptures by way of Excellency are such therefore as God did own them in their very Conception and Birth by the many Miracles that did attest them so he hath owned them ever since they were conceived and brought forth in making them instrumental to so great a Change and Reformation in the world The hand of God doth appear most signally 1. In the Plantation 2. In the Propagation of this Doctrine The power and special Providence of God is observable First In the Plantation of this Doctrine if it be seriously considered 1. What instruments he made use of 2. What course they took to plant it 3. The Quality of the Doctrine they were to infuse and plant 4. The Mighty Enemies it had and yet 5. It took Root and prospered in despight of all And for the First viz. The instruments that God made use of that the effect might be acknowledged from him alone It was two or three poor despicable Fishermen and Mechanicks that first broached and planted this Doctrine which God so wonderfully watered and prepared room before it and did cause it to take deep root and it quickly filled the Earth The Hills were covered with the Shadow of it and the Boughs thereof were like the Goodly Cedars So that this Plant sent out her Boughs unto the Sea and her Branches unto the River Psal 80.9 10 11. Who can but ascribe the wonderful effect to God when the Planters of this Doctrine had neither first Learning 2ly Nor parts to carry on such a work 3ly Neither had they any worldly Interest or Authority Si fuerunt Homines rudes imperiti rerum quorum operâ deus est usus in tradendo verbo si non fuerunt summo loco nati si nullis humanis instructi praesidiis hanc rem aggressi sunt profecto oportet doctrinam ab ijs profectam esse plané divinam saith Camero Praelect de verb. dei p. 455. And for the 2d 1 The course that they took It was the certain way to ruin themselves and all their hopes in this world Before they undertook this work they were told by Christ their Master that they must be his Martyrs and bear witness to the Doctrine they were to preach by the Loss of their Credit Liberty and Lives And is it likely they would ever venture upon such a design if they had not good Security that they should be no losers in the End and that the Cause they managed was Gods who would infallibly succeed and reward them And for the 3d. 1 The Doctrine they were to infuse and plant It was perfectly contrary to the Nature and Inclination of those that were to receive it and would certainly expose them to sufferings in the world and make them the scorn and reproach of all Unbelievers which at this time was all the world except a few inconsiderable Idiots The very First Elements of this Doctrine were so cross and displeasing to flesh and Blood which before this Doctrine was received ruled all the world that without the concurring mighty power of God It was plainly impossible that it should be entertained For Men to deny themselves and to take up their Cross and follow Christ and boldly to profess themselves his disciples and glory in his Name who was so despised and hated of all Men To renounce the flesh with its Affections and Lusts To love their enemies and heartily to seek the wellfare of those that seek their hurt and rejoyce in their Calamity To live as strangers and Pilgrims in the world having their only delight and treasure above And to despise the world and all its glory as it draws away the Heart from God To prefer reproach and affliction with the people of God before the pleasures of sin which are but for a season And to chuse heartily to be a door-keeper in the House of God and to have the meanest Office in his Service before the most stately Palaces of vanity and wickedness and the highest Honour in any other Service To lay all down at the Feet of his Maker and Redeemer with the most humble submission being ready to part with the dearest and nearest Comforts when the Lord would have it so In a word to be wholly at his beck in an Active and Passive Obedience These are Doctrins plain and easie to be understood but hard of digestion that grate hard upon the Flesh And yet these were the very Essentials of Christianity which they were to proclaim and command Men in the Name of God with all Authority to receive And to threaten destruction from the Lord to all Refusers How unlikely was this Doctrin to take with Flesh and Blood unless it were accompanied with power from above And for the fourth viz. The mighty opposition that it met with even all the Potentates on Earth the Kings and great Men the wise Men and Philophers the Statists and Polititians counted this wisdom of God meer foolishness And therefore it was the great objection that the Infidels and Heathens assaulted the Doctrin of Christ with that none but the rude Multitude became his Disciples and Followers though afterwards Dionysius the Areopagite Polycarp Justin Irenaeus and learned Origen quite spoiled the Heathenish Hopes and undid this foolish Objection For they saw that it was not want of Learning that made them Christians For Origen had so much that the most learned Plotinus seeing him amongst his Auditors blush'd and after a few words abruptly brake off his Lecture And you know it was the Pharisaical Objection against Christ Have any of the Rulers believed on him But these People that know not the Law meaning those that embraced Christs Doctrin are accused John 7.48 49. Yea the Jews themselves whom God had so much obliged to himself by so many remarkable Favours were filled with bitter Indignation and Malice and did fiercely persecute all that entertained this Doctrin and wanted neither Spight nor Zeal nor Opportunity to crush all that went this way and to bring heavy sufferings upon them Moreover which was the grand Impediment of all to the Christian Faith there were then such swarms of Hereticks 1. Such as professed Christianity but hated it in their hearts and did their utmost to root it up And yet it prospered before their Faces whilst they stood and looked on gnashing their Teeth and fretting That naked simple and illiterate Men should prevail against all manner of
of no other Argument though I could produce several if he died for such as deny him and crucifie him to themselves afresh and finally perish then he died no question for the rest but that he tasted Death for such is plain Heb. 10.29 Having in the verse before shewed the miserable end of those that despised Moses's Law he infers by way of interrogation Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy of that hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despight to the Spirit of Grace and yet plainer 2 Pet. 2.1 There shall be false Teachers as the Apostle gives them warning that shall bring in damnable Heresie denying the Lord that bought them So that hence it is evident that Christ laid down his Blood as a price to redeem them that ungratefully deny him And if Christ had not died for all it could not be the duty of every man to believe in him But there is nothing more unquestionable than that every one is bound to believe and such as refuse are threatned with a more fearful destruction because they wickedly frustrate as much as in them lies such a wonderful Grace of God and withstand the highest motive to Repentance and a new life 1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie him in your Body and in your Spirit which are his The Apostle speaketh to the Corinthians in general among whom there were many unbelievers And what 's the Argument he useth to perswade them to Faith and newness of Life but because Christ hath shewed such love to them as to die for them Since he hath offered up his Body upon the Cross for you do you offer up your Souls and Bodies unto him to be instruments of Righteousness to do him service is the force of the Apostles Argument We see then that the Death of Christ and the Gift of the Spirit are obligations upon all that hear the Gospel at least to a thankful Commemoration of the love of God and a Remembrance of him There are none that live under the sound and influence of the Gospel but have the love of Christ expressed in his Incarnation Life and Death for them to move them externally by way of Argument and the powerful Spirit inwardly to check their Corruptions and prompt them to obedience in some degree and measure and if they will not think upon the one nor submit to the other but slightly regard the one and stubbornly resist the other and stiffle every good motion which they feel and keep off from any serious thoughts of the death of Christ and will not be perswaded to consider the Blood that was shed for them nor suffer his love to be shed abroad into their hearts by the Holy Spirit Let such know that their forgetfulness of God is the more heynous because it hath so fast an obligation as this to the most necessary duty of remembrance the Word also as well as the Spirit What are all the passages of Scripture but such as prepare for or directly stir up to such a Remembrance You may observe some parts of Scripture more remotely conduce to this grand duty of remembring God other parts do more immediately serve to produce it where it is wanting others to reduce and recover it when 't is lost So that one of these three ways either by conducing to it or producing or reducing of it all the parts of Gods Word conspire io this principal duty The main division of the Scripture is into the Old and New Testament But what is the design and drift of both these but to rescue or preserve a Memory of God in the World Our Saviour sums up the Old Testament in these two heads the Law and the Prophets Now what doth the Law serve for if not to mind us of the great Law-giver and to beget an awe of his Soveraignty upon the World And the main end of the Prophets and their Prophesies was to reproduce this Remembrance of God when the ungrateful People had forgot him And what can be the end of that Light that hath shined to us in the Gospel but to teach us to deny all ungodliness 〈◊〉 Forgetfulness of God and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present evil World which we can never do without frequent and effectual Remembrance of God and our Lord Jesus Christ I might more particularly insist here and shew how all the Precepts Promises and Threatnings which are the three essential parts of Gods Word are intended to this end and will leave the Soul inexcusable that forgets him or how the several Books of the Old and New Testament which are the integral parts of God's Word oblige to this Remembrance But I think the case is so plain and clear that none of these ways of demonstration is needful to convince us That the whole Word of God is no little impulsive but presseth earnestly to this Remembrance and is therefore another great Aggravation of the sin of Forgetfulness I shall only chuse to set some of those Texts of Scripture before you that are fullest of Affection and most Pathetical and that shew how unwilling God is to forget poor sinners or that they should perish as they must needs do in their Forgetfulness of him Esay 48.18 19. With what passion doth the Lord mourn over the poor forgetful Israelites that had even now brought utter ruine upon themselves O that thou hadst hearkened to my Commandments then had thy Peace been as a River and thy Righteousness as the Waves of the Sea Thy Seed also had been as the Sand and the off-spring of thy Bowels as the Gravel thereof and Hos 11.8 When the ten Tribes were got to such a degree of wickedness that God was not remembred by them any longer but they had divorced him from them by their Idolatries and could bear no longer without disparagement to the Truth and Justice of God with what unwillingness doth he throw them off How shall I give thee up O Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim My Heart is turned within me my Repentings are kindled together What heart that is not desperately sick of stupidity can hear this sound and not return and recover the remembrance of him whom before he had forgot O that my People had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my ways I should soon have subdued their Enemies and turned my Hand against their Adversaries The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured for ever He should have fed them also with the finest of the Wheat and with Honey out of the Rock should I have satisfied thee Ps 81.13 14 15. Thus you see how these and such like Scriptures Numbers of which might be gathered together and as the parts of
weapons that were in their hands to ruin and destroy it All which laid together is no less than a demonstration of a Divine and Almighty Power in succeeding such an unlikely Work Secondly And as it was at first planted by no less than a Divine Power so the same mighty Assistance was necessary and therefore observable in its Propagation It was impossible that such a Doctrin should spread and subdue the World to its obedience as it quickly did unless infinite wisdom and power had made way and blessed it How could it have got so much ground and have run so swiftly thorough the World if he that rideth upon a Cherub and flyeth upon the wings of the wind Psal 18.10 had not carried it In the space of Thirty Years or thereabouts as appears by uncontrouled History it spread it self far and near not only in Judea and all Asia yea thorough the whole Roman Empire but beyond it also It sounded in the Ears of Parthians and Indians It shot it self like Lightning thorough the places where it made its progress and melted Mens Hearts whilst their Bodies were untouched Though it was such an Enemy to the Pride Pomp and Glory of the World which it was purposely intended to disparage that it might make way for a despised crucified Christ to reign in the Earth yet it soon got into the Courts of Princes and into the Consistories of Sage and Wise Counsellours and into the Academies of Learning and prevailed over all opposing power yea the more it was cut and wounded the more it grew up and shot forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianz. Orat. Duris ut Ilex tonsa bipennibus Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido Per damna per caedes ab ipso Ducit opes animumque ferro Object And though bare Success be no Argument of Truth or a good Cause because we see that Lyes and Falsehood have succeeded and perverted very considerable Numbers of Men. Thus Mahumetism doth prevail over a great part of the World to this day Answer Yet in the Case of the Christian Religion a Doctrin so contrary to the World which hath been propagated not by Fire and Sword but by Argument and Perswasion by Sufferings and Persecution here Success is both a demonstration of Truth and of the Power of God when like Lightning as I said before it shall melt Mens Hearts and not touch their Bodies with any force As for the Religion of Mahomet it 's no wonder that such a carnal Flesh-pleasing Doctrin that doth so highly gratifie the Lusts of Men should so take with them and quickly spread it self especially when it had so many Advantages of Power and Policy to diffuse it Fire and Sword were the Arguments that Mahomet used to support his Cause and to encrease his Followers But Christ took a quite contrary course and very unlikely to succeed but that it had the Countenance and Approbation of Him who knew well enough how to prosper it with a mighty success With which since the Christian Cause hath been so miraculously blessed it 's a Proof beyond exception that God hath owned it and consequently the Scriptures that contain this Doctrin were inspired by God because they lay claim to such inspiration and pretend to be the Word of Almighty God This is more than sufficient to prove in the General God's Approbation of the whole Scripture But yet more particularly Consider how exactly the Promises and Threatnings of this Word have been fulfilled and made good in all Ages and Successions of the Church And this will manifest that God hath owned this Doctrin ex superabundanti After his Predictions concerning his own Death and Suffering and the Manner together with the Means and Instruments of it were accomplished and that he was Crucified by his own Country-men and mocked and spit upon and numbred amongst Transgressors his Garments parted his side pierced and such like circumstances punctually fulfilled according as he had foretold and that he was risen the Third Day and had shewed himself openly to his Disciples for their encouragement and the strengthning of their Faith and that he had ascended to Heaven in their sight He promised that he would send the Holy Ghost and endue them with power from above to work Miracles and to speak with Tongues which Promise was accordingly fulfilled For on the day of Pentecost when they were assembled at Jerusalem which other Histories as well as the Sacred affirm and none contradict He promised also his extraordinary Power and Presence with them and wonderful success and all came to pass in like manner He threatneth the hardning of the Jews and the conversion of the Gentiles And were they not accordingly affected Moreover he promised Blessing and Peace to the diligent observers of his Statutes And have not many remarkable Providences made good this Word of Promise With what joy and inward comfort unutterable have the faithful Servants of Christ triumphed in their very sufferings Many of the Martyrs that have sealed the Truth of Christ with their very Blood have sung at the Stake and have professed an inward ravishment of Spirit I and that Men of a grave and discreet and no Fanatical credulous Spirit Instances might be produced in great number Let Mahomet now or any other Religion whatsoever produce as good Testimony for the Truth of their Religion if they can as what is here produced to declare the Approbation Countenance and Favour of God to this Religion which Christ taught and his Followers embraced and maintained to the death And although God doth not daily shew forth these confirming Signs and Tokens of Christianity or that Religion which Christ in the New Testament hath taught both by his Mouth and Example yet sometimes he is pleased to give such clear and convincing Testimonies and Tokens of his Approbation not liable to any exception that they might be for standing Monuments to others ever after And such as will not acknowledge them but either take them for Fables or ascribe them to Chance or Fortune and act their wickedness in defiance of such Examples such Persons God meets with now and then even still to vindicate the Credit of those former Stories and to reinforce their Authority I could run over the Decalogue which is the sum and substance of the Divine Laws contained in the Scripture and shew you how God hath remarkably punished the more notable and famous Transgressours of all these Laws and the contempt of the Book in which these Laws are contained and the derision of his Messengers which he hath ordained to proclame and expound these Laws and to provoke and perswade Men to the hearty observance of them It would be an endless labour to produce all the Instances that are to be found in credible Authors of this kind So much in Confirmation of the Second Argument Argument III. 3. THose Writings that contain peremptory Predictions of Future Things purely contingent which no eye but God's could possibly foresee
may find in Parsons Resolut Part 2. Yet to conclude this Argument Let it be considered how punctually Christ foretold what should befall himself from his own Countrey-Men and some of his Disciples How he should be denyed betrayed and put to death yea the death of the Cross and that he should rise again the third day That the Holy Ghost should be poured forth on his Disciples at the Day of Pentecost and often told those that discoursed with him the Thoughts of their Hearts and what they would do and did exactly predict the Destruction of the Jews their City and Temple which accordingly fell out And then let it be considered what God saith in 41 Esai 22. wherein God provoketh the Idols of the Gentiles to make proof of their Divinity saying Let them shew unto us what shall happen Let them shew the former things what they be that we may consider them and know the latter end of them or declare us things for to come shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods Intimating that it is a sufficient proof of a Deity to foreshew what is to come when the thing is meerly contingent Other Proofs of the Divine Authority of Scripture may be drawn FIrst From the Antiquity of these Books Josephus tells us in his Second Book against Appion That their Law-giver he means Moses was more Antient than all the Law-givers that are mentioned in Antiquity And that Lycurgus and all those that Greece wonders at are but Novices and of much later standing compared unto him and St. Austin De Civit. Dei l. 18. c. 37. In the days of some of our Prophets the Gentile Philosophers were not in being yea the Seven wise Men of Greece and those Secretists of Nature that were of a higher date Anaximander Anaximenes and Anaxagoras neither were they so antient as some of our Prophets They were far more antient than the oldest Historiographers among the Heathen viz. Helanicus Herodotus Pherecydes Thucydides Xenophon And albeit the Gentiles had some Poets before as Orpheus Homer Hesiod yet the eldest of these arrived no higher than the days of King Solomon who was 500 years after Moses the first Pen-Man of the Bible Along time after this most of the Heathen Gods were unborn as the Gentiles themselves in their Genealogies of them do confess And as for Abraham he was Elder than Jupiter Neptune and Plato And yet before Abraham do the Scriptures contain the History of 2000 years The oldest Histories extant beside the Histories of the Bible are about the Theban Wars and the Funerals of Troy as Lucretius intimates in these Verses Cur supra bellum Thebanum Funera Troiae Non alias alii quoque res cecinere Poetae But these are of far later Date than the History of the Creation and Flood Another Argument may be drawn from the particular Men that wrote them who were such as in no reason can be suspected of Deceit or Falsehood They were plain simple honest Men and such as had the Approbation of their Enemies for their innocent Life and Conversation They were never accused of any Fault charged with any Crime except that they taught a Doctrin quite contrary to the Manners and Practices both of Jews and Gentiles And this stirred up their Rage and Malice against them and being so provoked you may be sure they spake the worst they could of them And if they could have found any thing to alledge against them you should have heard it again and again They had Enemies enough that lay at watch to discredit their Testimony if they had been able that so they might have hindred the further growth of that Religion that so much crossed their worldly ends They could not hope to compass any worldly Interest or get any temporal Advantage by such a Course as this Nay rather they were sure to bring all the World about their Ears and to undo themselves thereby And they expected no less but were ready to venture their Lives upon the Credit of this Word which they proclaimed openly to the World and preached boldly to the Faces of their Enemies that threatned them with the greatest Cruelties The Testimony they gave to our Saviour's Divinity and miraculous Acts they stood to and boldly defended to the very Face of the bloody Sanedrim that murthered him whilst they had spight enough in their hearts and power in their hands to put them to death and gnashed upon them with their Teeth Had they intended by Forgery to advance themselves in the World they would have taken a more likely Course and curried Favour with the great Ones of the World that had it in their power to gratifie their desires and they would have invented a lye more to their own advantage It 's the manner of Impostors and those that love lying to contrive nothing sooner than that which they think will be most grateful to their Hearers True some of them were Fishermen and if indeed they had fish'd for themselves they would have baited their Hooks with such things as they knew the Fishes lik'd and not with such things as would drive the Fish away They would have accommodated their Words to the tickling of their Ears and the satisfying of their Lusts But they knew it was not their own Word which they preached but the Word of God and therefore it must not be falsified for any Mens pleasure And therefore they despised Pleasures and contemned both the Hatred and Kindness of Men and exposed themselves to the bitterest Sufferings rather than conceal it from the World What place is here for the least suspition of untruth Now in Matter of Fact as Grotius tells us we ought verily to stand to unsuspected Testimonies And if as Ovid affirms Vbi praemia Falsi Nulla ratam Testis debet habere fidem How much more authentick is the Testimony when it hath no Reward but the bitterest usage that enraged Malice can bring about Another Argument may be taken from the Harmony Consent and perpetual unison Agreement of all the Writers of these Sacred Doctrins The witness of Lyers would vary and never come up to a perfect unison and Agreement But now there is one even Thread runs thorough all the Parts of Scripture not at all divided or entangled or rather one and the same Spirit animates the whole and quickens every the least part thereof Though to unstudied Men that have not made exact and diligent search into them there may seem to be some Contradiction yet Men that have div'd into them and have made the deepest search have fairly reconciled all these seeming Repugnancies and have put to silence all Gain-sayers and it is no more than all Writings are liable to though they be never so conform and agreeable to themselves yet they may seem to clash to an injudicious Reader Another Argument may be taken from the Duration and Continuance of these Writings in despight of all that have