of fact which are past an Author may easily be disproved if he relates what is false of his own times or of times whereof there are memorials still extant But the Credit of Prophecies concerning things to come a long time after to pass must depend upon the Mission and Authority of the Prophet only and therefore it was necessary that the Names of the Prophets should be annext that their Predictions might be depended upon when they were known to be delivered by men who by other Predictions already fulfilled had proved themselves to be true Prophets IV. The very preservation of Books of so great Antiquity thro so many changes and revolutions against all the injuries of Time and Ignorance against the violence of War and the malice of Adversaries and so many other Accidents which have destroyed most other Books of any considerable Antiquity is a certain indication of a wonderful Providence concerned for them and of that evidence whereby they were at first attested The Laws of the wisest Law-givers of the most flourishing and powerful Nations have been so little regarded by the people to whom they were given that they soon forsook the practice of them and readily delivered up themselves to be governed by other Laws upon any Revolution and all the pretences to Revelation which most of the Ancient Law-givers assumed to themselves could make them no longer adhered to nor so much valued as to outlive the fate of the particular Kingdoms and States for which they were contrived but most of them were changed or laid aside before and the rest given up and abandoned as out of date and of little use or esteem afterwards and all of them were so little able to withstand the destruction of time that we know not much more of them than that the best and most ancient were in great measure taken out of the Laws of Moses But the Books of Moses and the Prophets have continued entire and unchanged under all accidents and revolutions of affairs bearing this character as well as others of him who is immutable they have been still asserted against all the malice and opposition of Enemies by a captived and dispersed people who by the signal providence of God tho they reject their Messias yet still acknowledge those prophesies which foretold his coming and after their dispersion for so many hundred years are so far from renouncing them that they assert and maintain them and are zealous even to superstition for those Books which command that worship and appoint those Solemnities which they have so long been out of all possibility to observe as if those Laws which were once so uneasy to their Fore-fathers were now become natural to their Posterity or rather because they were revealed by him whose word shall never pass away till all be fulfilled V. The New Testament gives evidence and confirmation to the Books of the Old which are so often cited in it VI. The Christians were religiously cautious and circumspect in admitting Books into the Canon of the New Testament The * Hieron Catalog Eccl. Script Epistle to the Hebrews and the second Epistle of St Peter were at first scrupled only or chiefly upon the account of the style the style of the former being thought different from that of St Paul and the Style of the latter from that of St Peter The Epistle of St Jude was likewise doubted of for this reason because the Apocryphal Book of Enoch is cited in it Writings which went under the names of several of the Apostles were rejected and by general consent laid aside The genuine Epistle of St Barnabas who is stiled an Apostle Acts xiii 2. xiv 14. was never received but as Apocryphal and the First Epistle of St Clement of whom St Paul gives as high a character Phil. iv 3. as he doth of St Luke or as St Peter ever gave of St Mark was never admitted among the Canonical Books tho it was wont to be read in Churches But the Gospel according to St Mark and the Gospel and Acts of the Apostles written by St Luke have ever been received for canonical For which no reason can be given but that St Mark and St Luke were known to have written by inspiration since upon all personal and humane Accounts an Epistle of St Barnabas or St Clement must have carried as much Authority with it as any thing under the name of St Mark or St Luke †Unam ad aedisicationem Ecclesiae pertinentem Epistolam composuit quae inter Apochryphas scripturâ—s legitur Id. ib. St Jerom says that St Barnabas was the Author of one Epistle written for the edification of the Church which is read among the Apocryphal Books so that Books were styled Apocryphal not because it was uncertain who were the Authors of them but because it was doubtful whether they were written by inspiration or no. So careful was the Primitive Church to receive none into the Canon but Books certainly inspired It is well observed * Crit Hist of the N. T. Part. 1. c. 1. by F. Simon to this purpose that if we compare the Gospels and the other Books of the New Testament with the Liturgies that we have under the names of several Apostles to whom the most part of the Eastern Christians do attribute them we shall be convinced that the Gospels are truly the Apostles For all the Churches have preserved them in their Ancient Purity whereas every particular Nation hath added to their Liturgies and hath taken the liberty often to revise them The respect that hath been always had to the Writings of the New Testament without in serting any considerable additions therein is an evident proof that all people have looked upon them as Divine Books which it is not lawful for any to alter On the contrary they have been perswaded that the Liturgies tho they bear the Names of the Apostles or of some Disciples of Jesus Christ were not originally written by them to whom they were attributed And therefore it hath been left free to the Churches to add to them or to diminish from them according as occasion requires VII As the Primitive Christians were very jealous and cautious in admitting Books into the Canon so they had sufficient means and opportunities to examine and distinguish the genuine and inspired Writings from the Apocryphal or spurious The way of Writing and the hands of the Apostles were well known to those to whom they wrote as St Paul intimates of his own hand and manner of Salutation for when he used an Amanuensis yet he wrote the Salutation with his own Hand as his token in every Epistle 2 Thess iii. 17. They generally wrote to whole Churches but particular men are frequently named in their Epistles which was a great means to ascertain the Authority of them * Ago jam qui voles curiofitatem melius exercere in negotio salutis tuae percurre Ecclesias Apostolicas apud quas ipsae adhue Cathedrae
of Nice inasmuch as they are referred to by that Council and that they are styl'd Apostolical because they were made by Apostolical Men or such as lived next to the Apostles times and delivered in these Canons what they had received from the Apostles Dr Beverege thinks they * Bever Annot. ad Pandect Can. Cod. Can. Eccl. Primit vind Cave Histor Liter in clem Roman were collected into one Body by Clemens Alexandrinus and Dr Cave seemed inclined to be of the same judgment As to the Authority of the particular Apostolical Canon which contains the Canon of Scripture of the Council of Laodicea gives a sufficient Testimony to it so far as it concerns the Books of the New Testament and shews wherein it has been corrupted since All which very well agrees with that which I observed from Tertullian that frequent Councils were called in the first Ages and that they had the Canon of Scripture among other things under consideration which we find set down in the last of the Apostles Canons and from thence in the Canons of the Council of Laodicea no Book being omitted but the Revelation of St John which yet had been acknowledged and received as Authentick from the beginning of those who had most reason to know of what Authority it was but none were inserted into the Canon but such Books as were appointed to be constantly read in the Assemblies of Christians It appears then that the Canon of Scripture was finished by St John and that such Books as were not of Divine Authority were rejected by Councils held when there were living Witnesses to certify St John's Approbation of the Canon or at least those who had received it from such Witnesses the Gospels of the other Evangelists were translated into divers Languages in St John's Life time and we must in reason suppose the same of the other Books of Scripture this is certain that they were all very early translated into many Tongues and dispersed into so many Hands in so many Countries that it was impossible they should be either lost or falsifyed espeble cially since the several sects of Christians were never more jealous and watchful over each other in any thing than in this particular the several Interests and Pretensions of all parties being chiefly concerned in it and no Catalogue of Books could have been received exclusively to all others but upon the clearest evidence XII When it once appeared that the Books which had been doubted of belonged to the Canon of Scripture they were afterwards generally acknowledged and constantly received in all Churches every Sect has since used all Arts and Endeavours to reconcile the Scriptures to their own Doctrines few or none presuming to reject the Authority of any of these Books which they would never scruple to do if they suppos'd they could make out any plausible pretence for it Protestants have refused to admit of the Apocryphal Books as inspired but whoever have gone about to reject any part of the Canonical Scriptures have been universally declared against for it whereof no other reason can be given but the Evidence that is for the Authority of the Canonical Books of Scripture which is wanting for the Authority of the Apocryphal Books Papists own the Authority of the first Epistle to the Corinthians and of the fourteenth Chapter of that Epistle which is directly against praying in an unknown Tongue and they acknowledge the Epistle to the Galatians to be genuine tho the second Chapter be so clearly against the pretensions of the Church of Rome These Espistles indeed were never controverted but the Epistle to the Hebrews likewise is not rejected by the Socinians the Divine Nature of Christ and the Merit and Satisfaction of his sufferings are so plainly asserted in it and they dare not deny the Authority of the Gospel and Epistles of St John tho they are so hard put to it to expound them to their own sense that Socinus was forc'd to pretend to I know not what Revelation to help out one of his explications which he would not have done if he could have found out any colour for not admitting the Authority of a Text so directly contrary to his own Tenents that he could not expect that any thing less than a Revelation should procure any credit to his Interpretation And generally the case is the same with other Sects those that differ never so much one from another in the Interpretation of particular Texts yet agree in the acknowledgment of the Authority of the Canon of Scripture itself or can find out no sufficient pretence to disown it CHAP. V. Of the various Readings in the Old and New Testament IT is to be observ'd that an extrardinary Providence has in a great measure secur'd the Holy Scriptures from those Casualties which are incident to humane Writings For the great Antiquity of many Books of the Scriptures beyond that of any other Books in the World the multitude of Copies which have been taken in all Ages and Nations the difficulty to avoid mistakes in transcribing Books in a Language which has so many of its Letters and of its Words themselves so like one another the defect of the Hebrew Vowels and the late invention as it is generally now acknowledged of the Points the change of the Samaritan or ancient Hebrew for the present Hebrew Character the captivity of the whole Nation of the Jews for seventy years and the mixtures and changes which were during that time brought into their Language in short all the accidents which have ever happened to occasion errors or mistakes in any Book have concurred to cause them in the Old Testament and yet the different Readings are much fewer and make much less alteration in the sense than those of any other Book of the same bigness and of any Note and Antiquity if all the Copies should be carefully examined and every little variation as punctually set down as those of the Scriptures have been But tho from hence it may appear that a peculiar providence has been concerned in the preservation of the Books of the Scriptures yet from humane considerations and arguments we may likewise be assured that nothing prejudicial to the Authority of the Scriptures has happened by any of these means 1. The defect in the Hebrew Vowels and the late Invention of the Points is no prejuduce to the Authority of the Bible as we now have it Tho the Points which crititically determine the exact Reading of the Hebrew Tongue be of a later invention yet that Tongue was never without its Vowels For Aleph Vau and Jod and which some add He and Gnajm before the invention of the Points were used as Vowels as it is evidently proved from Josephus Vid. Walton Prolegom iii. s 49. Origen and St Jerom by the best Criticks in that Language It must indeed be confest that these Vowels could not be so effectual to ascertain the true Reading as the Points have since been but
not distinguished in the same manner as the two Books of Kings and of Chronicles are and it is no wonder that a Book begun by Samuel and continued by other Prophets should bear the Name only of Samuel From 1 Chron. xxix 29. we may likewise learn that the beginning of the First Book of Kings must be written by one of these Prophets Both the Books of Kings as far as Hezekiah's Reign were written before Josiah's time for 2 Kin. 18.5 it is said of Hezekiah That he trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him was none like him of all the kings of Judah nor any that were before him And of Josiah it is said 2 King xxiii 25. That like unto him was there no king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart c. For it is evident that Josiah in his Reformation exceeded Hezekiah and from hence it appears that the History of Hezekiah must be written before Josiah's time or else it could not have been with truth said of Hezekiah That there was no King after him who was like him or equalled him of all the Kings of Judah From 1 Chron. iv 43. it appears that it was written before the Captivity though the Genealogies were transcribed afterwards out of the Records as we learn from 1 Chron. ix 1. That the Second Book of Chronicles as well as the First Book of Kings was written before the Captivity we may conclude from 2 Chron. v. 9. 1 King viii 8. for the Ark was not remaining after the Captivity The last Chapter of the Second Book of Kings gives so particular an account of the manner of carrying them away Captive in every material circumstance that it seems to have been written at that very time and is an argument that Memorirs were constantly taken and preserved of all that happened The Second Book of Chronicles concludes with the First Year of Cyrus in the same words with which the Book of Ezra begins being added by him at the time when Cyrus gave out his Proclamation for the Prophets from time to time made Continuations to the Histories of their Predecessors by inserting what related to their own Times and it was no unusual thing among the Ancients as Grotius observes to begin one Book with the Conclusion of another The Psalms are quoted under the Title of the Prophets Mat. xiii 35 xxvii 35. and from the first penning they were used in the Publick Service of God 1 Chron. xvi 7. 2 Chron. v. 13. vii 6. xx 21. Jer. xxxiii 11. Ezra iii. 10 11. This was known even to their Enemies in their Captivity Psal cxxxvii 3. and some of them were written by the Prophets under it And Lessons out of the Law and the Prophets with Hymns out of the Psalms and Prayers made up the Jewish Form of Worship Moses and the Prophets are put for the whole Old Testament Luke xvi 29. Acts xiii 15. And if both the Law and the Prophets comprehending all the Books of Scripture written before the Captivity were still extant and well known and made use of by Pious Men during all that time and the People had Copies of them or had means and opportunities of being acquainted with them as the Prophet Zechariah supposes Zech. vii 7. there is no reason to imagine that they had not sufficient knowledge of the Hebrew Tongue at their Restoration many being still alive who were first carried away Captive and the Writings of the Prophets during the Captivity shew that the People did understand it for they all wrote in the Hebrew Language except upon some particular occasions where their Prophecies more immediately concerned the Babylonian Affairs Both Men and Women could understand Ezra when he read the Law And the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law Neh. viii 3. And it was not the Language unless in some Particulars which in all Languages will want explication to the Vulgar who are Natives but the Sence and Meaning that was interpreted ver 7 8. And in the same manner the Letter of Artaxerxes was both written in the Syrian tongue and interpreted in the Syrian tongue Ezra iv 7. Nehemiah particularly complains that the Children of those who had married strange Wives could not speak in the Jews language which supposes that the Children of other Parents as well as the Parents themselves were taught to speak the Hebrew Tongue Neh. xiii 24. And the Decree of Ahasuerus in favour of the Jews was written unto every province according unto the writing thereof and unto every people after their language and unto the Jews according to their writing and according to their language Est viii 9. which seems to imply that the Jews still retained not only their Language but their manner of Writing it or the form and fashion of their Letters under the Captivity Not long after the Captivity the Scriptures were translated into the Greek Tongue and were dispersed into so many hands among the Jews and Proselytes that the Copies could not be destroyed either in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes or at any other time by the malice of Perscutors or any other accident And though the Jews were so fond of their Traditions as to make the Word of God of none effect by them yet they never added any Books to the Canon of Scripture in favour of those Traditions which they were so zealous for but when they had no longer any Prophets among them they durst not place any other Books in the same Rank and Authority with those which the Prophets had left behind them All the Canonical Books were written by Inspired Authors and have been in constant use among the People of the Jews in their private Houses and publick Assemblies even from the first writing them for they were preserved during the Captivity and both understood and used by the People but their other Books written under the Second Temple though never so useful and pious were never received with the like esteem and veneration they pretended to no more than Humane Composition and were never ranked with those of Divine Authority CHAP. X. Of the Prophecies and Miracles of the Prophets THe False Prophets prophesied in the Name of Jehovah 1 King xxii which supposes that True Prophecies were wont to be deliver'd in his Name or else they could never have hoped to deceive by it And in the Historical Books of the Old Testament in which the Prophecies and Miracles of the Prophets are related reference is frequently made to the Records then extant in the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah and Israel most of the Prophecies and Miracles being of that Publick Nature and so intermix'd with the Affairs of State that they must be recorded together with them Josiah (a) Joseph Antiquit. l. 10. c. 5. was prophesied of by Name Three hundred sixty one Years before he was born Behold a child shall be born unto the house of David Josiah by name
Areopagite Sergius Paulus Simon Magus Felix King Agrippa Tertullus Gallio and others were Names of too great Note and Fame to be used in a false story in which they are so much concerned And all their Proceedings in the Courts of Judicature were kept upon record and therefore could not be pretended without being discovered by those who always had so many Adversaries The Miraculous power bestowed upon the Apostles was chiefly employed in curing Diseases and for the health and preservation of Mankind but they had a power of inflicting Diseases likewise and death it self upon just occasions as in the case of Ananias and Saphira Act. v. of Elymas the Sorcerer Acts xiii and the incestuous Corinthian 1 Cor. v. And when this was done by private men and divulged to the world with the names of the persons who inflicted diseases and death it self and of those on whom they were inflicted this is an evidence both of the truth of the matter of Fact and of the power by which it was done for no Author could think to serve his Friend or his Cause by relating things of this nature unless they had been evidently done in a miraculous manner and by a Divine Commission and Authority The Conversion of St. Paul was a thing so memorable both for the manner of it and for the business he was going about and the persons that employed him and for his known zeal at other times in persecuting the Church that St. Paul appeals to King Agrippa as one who could not be ignorant of a thing so notorious Acts xxvi 26. and it was the great providence and wisdom of God that a man so well known and esteemed by the Pharisees and Chief Priests before his conversion should be the greatest instrument both by his Preaching and writings for the propagation of the Gospel and both his Epistles and the other Books of Holy Scripture have the same proof from the observations already mentioned concerning the names and characters of persons and other circumstances And they were always read in the Assemblies of Christians and were appointed to be read in them Coloss iv 16.1 Thess v. 27. And the writings both of him and of the Evangelists and the other Apostles are cited by Authors contemporary with the Apostles by Barnabas an Apostle himself and by Clemens Romanus Ignatius Polycarp c. and they have been acknowledged to be the genuine works of those whose names they bear both by Jews and Heathens and particularly by Tryphon the Jew in his Dialogue with Justin Martyr and by Julian (e) Apud Cyril lib. x. the Apostate It is enough in this place to observe that excepting some very few Books of which an account shall elsewhere be given the Books of the Scriptures of the New Testament have been received as genuine from their first appearance in the world during the Lives of their several Authors and have been delivered down for such through the several Ages of the Church In the main they have been so unanimously received and so fully attested by Christians that the Jews and Heathens themselves never denied them to be genuine nor ever pretended the principal matters of Fact to be false or doubtful Euseb lib. iii. c. 29. Many of the Eye-witnesses to the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles lived to a great Age St. John himself above an hundred years and he Preached the Gospel above seventy years Simeon the Son of Cleopas lived to an hundred and twenty years and Polycarp the Disciple of St. John to fourscore and six of whom (f) Id. lib. v. c. 20. Iraenaeus in his Epistle to Florinus a Marcionite declared that he remembred exactly what he had heard Polycarp discourse concerning the account of the Miracles and Doctrine of our Saviour which he had received from St. John and others who had conversed with Christ and that it differed in nothing from the Scriptures And besides the inspired Writings the chief points of the Christian Religion were testified in Apologies written from time to time to the Heathen Emperors themselves (g) Euseb Hist lib. iv c. 3. vid. Irenae lib. ii c. 56 57. Qudaratus Bishop of Athens in his Apology to Adrian declared that persons who had been healed by our Saviour and others that had been raised from the dead by him were still living in his time Aristides presented an Apology to the same Emperor Justin Martyr wrote two Apologies the first dedicated to Antoninus Pius and his two Sons and the Roman Senate the latter to M. Antoninus and the Senate (h) Euseb lib. iv c. 26. Melito Bishop of Sardis and Apollinaris Bishop of Hierapolis likewise wrote a Vindication of the Christian Religion to M. Antoninus Athenagoras offered his Apology to M. Aurelius and Commodus (i) Euseb lib. v. c. 17. Meltiades to Commodus or to the Deputies of the Provinces (k) Hier. Catai Euseb lib. v. c. 21. Apollonius a Roman Senator made a publick defence of the Christian Religion in the Senate of Rome and Tertullian presented his Apology to the Senate or to the Governors of the Provinces And the Apologists did not dwell only upon generals but descended to such particulars as to appeal to the publick Records for the truth of what they delivered concerning the place of our Saviour's Birth and the manner of his Death and his Resurrection so that the principles and foundations of the Christian Religion were from the beginning asserted in publick Writings dedicated and presented to the Heathen themselves who were most concerned and most capable of disproving it if it had been false (l) Euseb lib. ix c. 5. 10. And though the Acts which were forged under the Emperor Maximin and pretended to be Pilate's were by his command sent into all the Provinces of his Empire and published in all places and ordered to be taught Children and to be learnt by heart by them yet all this malicious care and contrivance was ineffectual to the suppressing the Truth of the History of our Saviour which waâ— so well attested and so fully published amongst all sorts of men that it was impossible to extirpate the belief of it And this Emperor himself as I before shewed was by miraculous Diseases inflicted on him forced to retract by a publick Edict his practices against Christianity and to acknowledge that his sins and blasphemies against Christ were the just cause of his Punishment CHAP. XVIII Of the Doctrines contained in the Holy Scriptures THE Scriptures must be acknowledged by all considerate men to contain excellent Rules and Precepts for the Government of our Lives and it cannot be denied that it is to these we owe the Peace and Happiness we enjoy even in this world It is therefore the interest of every good and prudent man to wish the Christian Religion true though it were not so and there can be no cause to wish it false but our own sin and folly And this of it self is a good argument that
Eloquence as well as the Power and Prejudices and Vices of Mankind were combined against it and yet less elegancy and accuracy of style was employed by the Apostles and Evangelists than had been before used by Moses and th◠Prophets who yet had nothing which seemed so strange and wonderful to deliver Which is one great argument of the Power and Efficacy of the Gospel that it could prevail so much against all the opposition in the world only by telling a plain Truth and in the plainest manner For where the thing is evident the fewest and plainest words are best as in Mathematical Demonstrations it is enough if men make themselves to be understood this likewise was all that the Apostles aimed at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist lib. iii. c. 24. their Cause and Doctrine was so certain and demonstrable that any words which did but fully and clearly express their meaning were sufficient for their purpose their Rhetorick lay in the things themselves not in words there is no great Art required to prove that to any man which he sees with his eyes and therefore as the power of Miracles was greater under the Gospel than under the Law so there was less need of Eloquence in the New Testament than in the Old Yet it cannot be denied as a †Mer Casaub of Enthus c. 4. Learned Critick has declared that St Paul in some kind and upon some subjects is as eloquent as ever man was not inferiour to Demosthenes in whose writings he believes that Apostle had been much conversant or Aeschines or any other anciently most admired 3. It is reasonable to believe that the Scriptures may be written in the Words and Phrases of the Penmen of the several parts of them and that the Holy Ghost might permit them to use their own style so directing them still and over-ruling them in every word and sentence that it should infallibly express his own full sense and meaning and speak the Truth which he inspired And therefore tho there be divers styles in the Scriptures yet this is no prejudice to the Authority and Certainty of them Isaiah for instance being of the Blood Royal and educated at Court may write in a more refined and lofty style and Amos who was brought up among the Herdsmen of Tekoa may speak in a more humble strain and fetch his Metaphors from lower and meaner things and yet the sense and substance of both may be from the Holy Ghost and as exactly true and infallible as if every word and syllable were dictated by him But this has been already considered under its proper head CHAP. IV. Of the Canon of the Holy Scriptures WHatever uncertainty there can be supposed to be concerning the Canon of the Holy Scriptures or the Catalogue and Number of Books of Divine Revelation this ought to be made no objection against the certainty of Divine Revelation itself or against the authority of those Books of Scripture which are universally acknowledged and received by all Churches For if this be a true way of arguing then whatever we are ignorant of must be an argument against the certainty of what we know and by consequence no man can be certain of any thing since the wisest man is ignorant of so many things that he knows very little in comparison of what he is ignorant of And as to the matter in hand there is scarce any Author of great note and fame but that Criticks have had Disputes concerning the number of his genuine Works and yet this has never been thought any prejudice to such as are allowed by all to be genuine Would not that man make himself ridiculous who should reject the Philippicks of Tully or Virgil's Aeneis as spurious because other Books either doubtful or counterfeit have past under the names of these two Authors If some Books have been disputed the rest certainly are genuine beyond all dispute because they have never been called into question or doubt Now if these Books only were of Divine Revelation concerning which there has never been any Dispute they contain all things necessary to be believed and practised and as to the rest concerning which there has been any controversy tho they be exceeding useful to explain divers things which we find in these and perhaps to teach us some things not essential to our Religion nor necessary to Salvation which are not to be found elsewhere yet they are not absolutely necessary to be received because whatever Doctrines are absolutely necessary they are to be found fully and plainly delivered in those Books of Scripture which have ever been received without contradiction or dispute Many men were undoubtedly saved before the writing of these controverted Books nay before the writing of any Books at all Writings being no further necessary than as they are necessary to convey the knowledge of what is written when the things now written could be as well known without writing Books were not necessary and tho for after ages it became necessary that the Prophets and Apostles and Evangelists should consign their Doctrine to writing yet no more of their writings can be absolutely necessary to be known by us than what may be sufficient to instruct us in the ways of salvation It is the infinite Goodness and Mercy of God to afford us more than is absolutely necessary for our spiritual and eternal Life as he has done for our Natural and it is a great sin in any man to reject any means of Salvation or Instruction which God has been pleased to allow but still that man would sustain his Natural Life and Health who should think all that is not necessary to the support of it common or unclean and not fit to be used for food And if a man without any of his own fault or neglect should come to the knowledge only of the uncontrroverted Books he would find them abundantly sufficient to answer all the ends of Revelation and to procure his Salvation It cannot be denied but that one infallible Authority is as great a Security as never so many could be but the same Doctrines are taught in several places of Scripture and we ought to be thankful to God for it that he has been pleased to furnish us with so much more than is absolutely necessary and to repeat the same things in sundry places and in divers manners for our further instruction and confirmation in the Faith tho it would be absurd and wicked to say that he who believes all the points of necessary Faith upon the authority of any one Book of Scripture has no sufficient means of Salvation unless he likewise believe them upon the Authority of all the rest Not that I suppose any wise and good man can now find any cause to doubt of any Book in the Old or New Testament whether it be genuine or no but to suppose the most and the worst that can be supposed if those Books which at any time have been called in
Hereticks viz. the Marcionists and Valentinians and perhaps the Disciples of Lucanus or Lucianus for in this he could not be positive tho this Lucanus was a follower of Marcion IX There are still extant Copies of great Antiquity The Cambridge Copy in Greek and Latin containing the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles and that which is supposed to be the second part of it containing St Paul's Epistles in the French Kings Library and another the like Copy which is in the Library of th Benedictines of St Germains * F. Simon Crâ—t Hist of the N. Test Part 1. c. 31. Mabil de Re Diplom lib. 5. Tabell 1. are concluded to be a thousand years old at least Morinus thought them to be ancienter than St Jerom's time The Alexandrian Copy is believed to have been written by Thecla above one thousand three hundred years ago Morinus †Epist 54. inter Antiquâ— Eccl. Orient acknowledgeth it to be of above twelve hundred years date Bishop * Prolegom ix 34. Walton supposes the Alexandrian MS. to be at least as old as that in the Vatican which is allowed to be twelve hundred years old There is †F. Sim. Crit. Hist of the N. T. part 2. c. 4. one Syriack MS. of the Gospels in the Library of the Duke of Florence of above a thousand years Antiquity and another not much less ancient A * Gruter Inscript p. 146. Gothick Translation of the Four Evangelists in the Abbey of Werdin is likewise of above a thousand years Antiquity And what ancient Books are there of which the Originals are still extant or of which there are so ancient Copies as of the Scriptures X. Sufficient reasons may be given to shew how it came to pass that the Authority of some Books was at first doubted of 1. The Epistle to the Hebrews had no name prefixt either because the Jews were prejudiced against St Paul or because the Gentiles were his more peculiar care or for some other reason unknown and in this it differs from the rest of St Paul's Epistles and the †Hieroâ— Catal. i Petr. Paul style is different which occasioned the first doubts about it as it happend likewise to St Peter's second Epistle upon the account of its style and then the Novatians alledging some Texts in the Epistle to the Hebrews in favour of their opinion this made the Orthodox the less inclined to receive a Book which before had been disputed and therefore tho it was received in the East it was questioned at Rome where Novatian begun his Schisms The second Epistle of St Peter might be scrupled on the same account and both that and the Revelation of St John being alledged for the Millennium by such as undestood it in a gross sense this caused the Authority of those Books to be called in question which is said * Euseb Hist lib. vi c. 25. expresly of the Revelation 2. Some Epistles were written to particular persons or directed to such as lived at a great distance and by reason of Persecutions arising the Authentick Epistles might not readily be produced 3. Some Books were not usually read in the Churches as the rest were All the Books of Scripture except the Revelation of St John are inserted in the Catalogue of the Council of Laodicea and this was omitted because by reason of the abstruse Mysteries contained in it it was not publickly read in Churches for that Catalogue was designed to shew what Books ought to be read in the publick Assemblies But the Revelation was long before acknowledged to be genuine by †Justin Mart. Dialog Tertull. de Resur c. 27 38. Adv. Marcion lib. ii c. 5. iii. c. 14. Euseb Hist lib. iv c. 18. v. c. 8. Hierom. Catal. in Johannum Justin Martyr by Irenaeus and by Tertullian and others both Justin Martyr and Irenaeas wrote a comment upon the Revelation of St John The Epistle to the Hebrews the Epistle of St James and the the second Epistle of St Peter are cited by Clemens Romanus in his first Epistle which was itself wont to be read in Churches 4. The Hereticks would use all their endeavours and subtilty to hinder the reception of those Books by which their Heresies were disproved and they might so far have effect as to make some doubt for a while of their Authority For instance Diotrephes an ambitious aspiring man who prated against St John with malicious words and had so much power as to cast the Brethren out of the Church would forbid the receiving of St John's Epistles as well as the receiving the Brethren of that Apostles Communion and that he did this St John himself intimates when he says I wrote unto the Church but Diotrephes who loveth to have the Pre-eminence among them receiveth us not Joh. Epist iii. 9. that is he received not St John's Epistle for that would have been to receive him as an Apostle or to acknowledge his Authority XI Tho the Authority of some Books hath been questioned by private men yet those Books were never rejected by any Council of the Church tho frequent Councils were called in the first Ages of Christianity and had this very thing under consideration * Tertull. de Pudicit c. 10. Tertullian after he had turned Montanist rejecting the authority of Hermas's Pastor as not being received into the Canon of Scripture says that it was reckoned amongst the Apocryphal Books by all the Councils of his Adversaries the Orthodox From whence it is evident that in Tertullian's time divers Councils had past their Censure upon the Apocryphal Books and that the Canon of Scripture had been fixt long before So that the time in which some of these Councils were held must probably be whilst St Polycarp a Disciple of St John was yet living whose Martyrdom by the earliest computation was not till A. D. cxlvii at least they must be held in Irenaeus life time who conversed with St Polycarp and lived at the same time with Tertullian Thus was the Canon of Scripture vouched by those who had received it from St John and Councils upon occasion were called which †Tertull. de Jejun c. 13. Tertullian elsewhere mentions as very numerous and frequent in Greece to give testimony to the Genuine Canon and censure Apocryphal Books It is manifest that the Canon of Scripture was settled before the Council of Laodicea which in the lixth Canon appoints that no Books * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. Laod can lix which are extra Canonem but only Canonical Books should be read in the Christian Assemblies and then subjoyns the Titles of the Canonical Books which Title they had as Zonaras and Balsamon observe because they were inserted into the Apostles Canons and all others were styl'd uncanonical And it is concluded after the strictest examination by the best Criticks that those which go under the Name of the Apostles Canons are the Canons of Councils assembled before the Council
because it is the easiest way of Wit flowing so naturally from the very Temper and Inclination of corrupted Minds and any smart Reflection may easily be taken from another Subject and applied here with advantage because it looks more extravagant and daring and surpriseth for no other reason but for the bold irreverent use of it What is there in Religion if it were untrue that can seem ridiculous What in the aweful Majesty of the Lord of Heaven and Earth that can provoÌ„ke the Laughter and Mockery of any but Fools and Mad-men It is not obvious to conceive why it should be thought a greater argument of a Man's Parts to revile his God than his Prince to speak Blasphemy than it is to speak Treason or why the Wit should atone for the Crime more in the one case than in the other But the truth is a very moderate share of that will serve the turn in both cases Produce your cause saith the Lord bring forth your strong reasons saith the God of Jacob. 7. And indeed from the Wit and Drollery of some others have taken the confidence to proceed to Arguments but they are very far from being either strong or plausible for I never in my life observed so much Disingenuity so vain an affectation of Learning and so groundless a pretence to Reason as in these Men. The Extravagancies of Cardan are known to all that ever heard of him The Lust and Pride and base Flattery of Vaninus is every where visible Aut Deus est aut Vaninus is such an expression as no Man besides ever used in a Dialoguâ— of himself And Mr. Hobb's love of Singularity and Spirit of Contradiction is evident from his own Confession and my late Lord Clarendon who knew him well has acquainted the World both with the Temper and Design of the Man and with the Errors of his Writings But I shall come down lower and examine a little the Arguments of later Writers who would take it ill if it should be thought that they have not retained and improved all the profound Reasonings of their Predecessâ—rs in Irreligion which we may expect to find abridged in a Book bearing the Title of The Oracles of Reason a Rhapsody of Letters and some small Tracts of divers Men. But here I need not much concern my self with what is taken out of the Authors of Religio Medici and of the Archaeologiae Philosophicae because these Authors notwithstanding those Objections profess an unfeinged Belief of Revealed Religion in these very Books though the Transcriber did not think fit to acquaint his Reader with such Professions for fear of bringing an Antidote with his Poyson But since those Objections were so far from having that effect upon the Authors themselves all that they can serve for is to shew that they can make a Deist of none but a weak or an ill Man I referr the Reader to the Preface of Religio Medici to see how disingenuous it is to quote any thing from that Book as the fix'd and mature Thoughts of Sir Thomas Brown But as if this had not been Disingenuity enough we have him brought in saying the quite contrary to what we find in his Book (a) Relig. Med. par 1. §. 22. How all the Kinds of Creatures says Sir Thomas not only in their own Bulks but with a competency of Food and Sustenance might be preserved in one Ark and within the extent of Three hundred Cubits to a Reason that rightly examines it will appear very feasible Thus it is both in the Book it self and in the Annotations upon it but our (b) Oracles of Reason p. 5. Transcriber has made the Author say quite contrary that this will not appear very feasible What is transcribed likewise from the same Author's Book (c) Ibid. p. 9. of Vulgar Errors is not fairly cited and no notice is taken that this learned Author has a whole Chapter in that very Work concerning (d) Vulg. Errors l. 5. c. 4. the Temptation of Eve by the Serpent where that is clear'd which was (e) Ibid. l. 1. c. 1. before brought only as an Objection and transcribed by Mr. Blount How the Translator has dealt with the Author of Archaeologiae Philosophicae I have not his Book by me to examine he is living to vindicate himself One thing I have observ'd That Mr. Blount assures us that (f) Oracles of Reason p. 3. this Learned Author doth as strenuously affirm as 't is possible That the World had a Beginning about Six Thousand Years since whereas the Translation which this Gentleman sends Mr. Gildon with his Letter says (g) Ibid. p. 73. That to prescribe the Divine Creation so short an Epocha as the Limits of Six Thousand Years 't is what he never durst Now either Mr. Blount or the Translator are mistaken in their Author and I rather think the latter must mistake him For whenever the World had been created there must have been a time when it had existed but Six Thousand Years and then the shortness of the Epocha might have been objected as well as now So that there was no Possibility of preventing this Objection unless the World could have been Eternal which was likewise impossible from the Nature of Time which being successive necessarily implies a Beginning and as this Author by his Translator speaks in that Place We cannot form to our selves any Idaea of a Thing created from Eternity But what is cited out of either of these Authors will fall under some of the Heads which are to be treated of in another Book which I design upon this Subject I shall therefore here only single out such Particulars as are the proper Notions and Conceits of our Deists and of which I had no Thought or Occasion to speak elsewhere Mr. Blount (h) Ibid. p. 160. will have the Prophecy of Jacob concerning the Scepter 's not being to depart from Judah till the Coming of Shiloh to have been first apply'd to the Messiah by the Cabbalists in the time of the Maccabees and not to have been expounded of David's Line till the Reign of Herod at least not generally for here he is not so positive as a Man might have been in a thing purely of his own Invention But doth he bring any Proof or Probability for what he says No it is meer Conjecture contrary to all the most Ancient Expositions of the Jewish Writers But the Jews had a Cabbala and the Pharisees hated Herod and the Herodians flatter'd him and Josephus flatter'd Vespasian and therefore from some Circumstances superficially fram'd and put together he will needs gather the Vncertainty of this Prophecy and conclude that it is contradicted by others without any Consideration had to what so many have said to reconcile them In the same Place he says that the Jews reckon the Book of Daniel among their Hagiographa or Sacred but not Canonical Books Father Simon to whose Writings I suppose this Gentleman was no Stranger might
the Pentateuch for Antiquity And the Antiquity of these Books is one considerable Circumstance whereby we may be convinc'd that they are of Divine Revelation For if God would not suffer the World to continue long in a state of Ignorance and Wickedness without a Revelation we may conclude that he would not suffer the Memory of it to be lost and therefore a Book of this Nature which is so much the ancientest in the World being constantly received as a Divine Revelation carries great Evidence with it that it is Authentick For the first Revelation as hath been proved is to be the Criterion of all that follow and God would not suffer the ancientest Book of Religion in the World to pass all along under the Notion and Title of a Revelation without causing some Discovery to be made of the Imposture if there were any in it much less would he preserve it by a particular and signal Providence for so many Ages It is a great Argument for the Truth of the Scriptures that they have stood the Test and received the Approbation of so many Ages and still retain their Authority though so many ill Men in all Ages have made it their endeavour to disprove them but it is still a further Evidence in behalf of them that God has been pleased to shew so remarkable a Providence in their preservation The Account we have of Divine Revelation in the Writings of Moses is from the Creation of the World for he relates the Intercourse which from the Beginning past between God and Man and this might be delivered down either by Writing or by Tradition till Moses's time For Methuselah living with Adam and Shem with Methuselah Isaac with Shem and Amram the Father of Moses living with the Patriarchs the Sons of Jacob the History of the Creation and of the Manifestations which God had been pleas'd to make of himself to their Fore-fathers could not be unknown to that Age Such a Posterity could not but be zealous to preserve the Memory of so great Honours and Blessings and their living in Goshen separate from the Aegyptians did much contribute to the Preservation of their Antiquities for there they liv'd in Expectation of a Deliverance and of seeing the Prophecies fulfill'd that were made to their Fore-fathers concerning it The famous Prediction made to Abraham Gen. xv 13. could not be forgotten in so few Generations for the coming out of Aegypt was as it was there foretold it should be in the Fourth Generation reckoning from Isaac the first of the promised Seed to Moses exclusively Exod. vi 16. Moses seems to referr to some things that happened near the Beginning of the World as well known in his own time as Gen. iv 22. where he says the sister of Tubal Cain was Naamah For no probable account can be given why Naamah should be mention'd but because her Name was then well known among the Israelites for some reason which it doth not concern us to be acquainted with but which served to confirm to them the rest of the Relation Some have delivered that Naamah by her Beauty enticed the Sons of God or the Posterity of Seth to commit Idolatry Gen. vi 2. And so Gen. xi 29. we read that Haran was the Father of Ischa as well as of Milcah and Gen. xxxvi 24. this was that Anah that found the Mules or the Hot-Baths or that fell upon the Emims or Giants mention'd Deut. ii 10 11. however the word be understood in the wilderness as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father These and such like Particulars must have been preserved and commonly known among the Israelites and were therefore inserted to serve as Epocha's and notes of Remembrance for the better understanding the rest of the History The Story and manner of Life of Nimrod was conveyed in a Proverb Wherefore it is said Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord Gen. x. 9. And the Remembrance of Abraham's offering up his Son was retained both by the Name of the Place and by a Proverbial Saying And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh as it is said to this day In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen Gen. xxii 14. And there is no doubt to be made but that there were other the like Remembrances of the most remarkable Transactions Josephus has proved that Authors of all Nations agree that in ancient Times Men lived to the Age of about a Thousand Years and some are known to have lived to a very great Age in latter Times But however it had been more serviceable to Moses's purpose if he had had any other design but Truth that Men should not have been so long lived For when he had so much scope for his Invention if it had been an Invention of his own he would never have fix'd the Creation of the World at the distance of so few Generations from the time in which he wrote but would rather have made the Generations of Men more and their Lives shorter that so he might the better have concealed his Fictions in obscure and uncertain Relations which must be supposed to be delivered through so many hands down to that Age. The distance of Time from the Flood to Moses was more than it is from the Conqust to the present Age but half of this time Noah himself was living and therefore allowing for the greater length of Mens Lives in those Ages than in ours the time when Moses wrote cannot be computed at so great a distance from the Flood as we are at from the Reformation But is it possible to make any Man of tolerable Sense amongst us believe that Henry VIII was the first King of England that he lived above Seven hundred Years ago that there was a Deluge since his time which swept all the Inhabitants away of this Island and of the whole World besides but some seven or eight Persons and that all whom we now see were born of them And yet this as ridiculous as it seems is not more absurd than Moses's Account of the Creation and the Flood must have been to those of his own Time if it were false For it is very reasonable to think as Josephus informs us that Writing was in use before the Flood And it is not improbable as some have conjectured that the History of the Creation and the rest of the Book of Genesis was for the substance of it delivered down to Moses's time in Verse which was the most easie to be remembred and the most ancient of all sorts of Writing and was at first chiefly used for Matters of History and consisted of plain Narration without much of Art or Ornament We read of Instrumental Musick Gen. iv 21. before the Flood and Vocal Musick being so much more natural than Instrumental it is likely that Poetry was of as great Antiquity both in their Hymns and Praises of God and as a help to their Memories which are the two Ends to which Moses
to lose so many Talents and to want their help in the War and to venture the ravage that such an Army who looked upon themselves as affronted made in his Country upon the Prophets assuring him that God would give him the Victory if he would dismiss them but not otherwise and telling him The Lord is able to give thee much more than this and the Event proved the Truth of the Prediction 2 Chron. xxv The Children of Israel likewise at the word of Oded the Prophet sent back Two hundred thousand Persons of the Kingdom of Judah with great spoil which they had taken 2 Chron. xxviii So ready and so general a Compliance in such cases could arise from nothing but a certain Belief and Experience of the Truth of what the Prophets delivered but at other times they were despised and persecuted And the Truth of their Prophecies was not only attested by Miracles and justified by the Event and confessed by the Deference and Respect both of the Kings and People but it was asserted by their Sufferings and sealed by the Blood of the Prophets and was at last acknowledged by the Posterity of those who had slain them they being most forward and zealous to adorn the Tombs of the Prophets whom their Fore-fathers had killed and to die in vindication of those Prophecies for which they had been slain There was a constant succession of Prophets from the time of Moses till the return of the Jews from their Captivity in Babylon some prophesied for many Years Jeremiah for above One and forty Years Ezekâ—el about Twenty Years the least time assigned to Hosea's Prophesying is Forty three Years Amos prophesied about Six and twenty Years Micah about Fifty Isaiah Jonah and Daniel a much longer time so that they lived to see divers of their own Prophecies fulfilled and to have suffered as False Prophets if they had not come to pass And though many Prophecies were not to be fulfilled till long after the death of the Prophets who deliver'd them yet they wrought Miracles or they foretold some things which came to pass soon after according to their Predictions to give evidence to their Authority and confirm their Divine Miâ—â—ion The Prophets committed their Prophecies to writing and left them to Posterity Isa xxx 8. Per. xxx 2. xxxvi 32. Hab. ii 1 2. And the writing of the Histories of the Jews belong'd to the Prophets 1 Chron. xxix 29. 2 Chron. xii 15. xiii 22. xx 34. xxvi 22. xxxii 32. And both in their Prophetical and Historical Books they deal with the greatest plainness and sincerity they record the Idolatries of the Nation and foretell the Judgments of God which were to befall it upon that account and they leave to Posterity a Relation of the Miscarriages and Crimes of their best Princes David Solomon and others who were Types of the Messias and from whose Race they expected Him and looked upon the Glories of their several Reigns to be presages of His are yet described not only without flattery but without any reserve or extenuation They write as Men who had no regard to any thing but Truth and the Glory of God in telling it The Prophets were sometimes commanded to seal and shut up their Prophecies that the Originals might be preserved till the fulfilling of them and then compared with the Event Isai viii 16. Jer. xxxii 14. Dan. viii 26. xii 4. For when the Prophecies were not to be fulfill'd till many Years and in some cases not till several Ages afterwards it was requisite that the Original Writings should be kept with all care but when the time was so near at hand that the Prophecies must be in every one's memory or that the Originals could not be suspected or supposed to be lost there was not the same care required Rev. xxii 10. It seems to have been customary (y) 〈◊〉 Anâ—â—quit l. 11. c. 1. 〈◊〉 l. 6. c. 5 for the Prophers to put their Writings into the Tabernacle or lay them up before the Lord 1 Sam. x. 25. And there is a Tradition (z) Epiphan de Ponderib Measâ—â— c. 4. That all the Canonical Books as well as the Law were put into the side of the Ark. It is certain that the Books of the Law and the Writings of the ancient Prophets were carefully preserved during the Captivity and are frequently referr'd to and cited by the latter Prophets The Pentateuch has been already spoken of and this is as evident of the Books of the Prophets The Prophecy of Micah is quoted Jer. xxvi 18. a little before the Captivity and under it the Prophecy of Jeremiah is cited Dan. ix 2. and all the Prophets v. 6. and so the Prophets in general are mention'd Neh. ix 26 30. And Zechariah not only cites the former Prophets Zech. i. 4. but supposes their Writings well known to the People Should you not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity chap. vii 7. The Prophet Amos is likewise cited Tob. ii 6. and Jonas and the Prophets in general chap. xiv 4 5 8. There can then be no reason to question but that Ezra Nehemiah Daniel Zechariah and the other Prophets in the time of the Captivity were very careful to keep the Books of the former Prophets for they frequently cite them and appeal to them and expected Deliverance out of their Captivity by the accomplishment of them And perhaps from the Originals themselves or however from Copies taken by Ezra the Scribe or by some of the latter Prophets or at least acknowledged for genuine and approved of by them the ancient Prophecies and other Inspired Writings were preserved and those of the latter Prophets were added to them and all together make up the Book of the Prophets mention'd Act. vii 42. which was read as well as the Law every Sabbath-day Act. xiii 27. The Books of Joshua Judges Samuel and Kings have the Title of the former Prophets in the Hebrew Bibles to distinguish them from the Books which they set out under the Title of the latter Prophets Isaiah Jeremiah c. The Books of Joshua and Judges have been already spoken of The Books of Samuel were written by Samuel Nathan and Gad 1 Chron. xxix 29. from whence we may conclude that the first Book of Samuel to the 25th Chapter was written by Samuel himself and the rest of that and the whole Second Book by Nathan and Gad but Samuel being a Person so much concerned in the former part of the History and having written so much of it out of respect to him the whole Two Books go under his Name though indeed the Jews anciently reckon'd both the Books of Samuel as one Book and Aquila as Theodorit has observed made no distinction between the First and Second Books of Samuel following the Hebrew Copies of his time and in our Hebrew Bibles though they are distinguished yet they are
of Babylon and be carried to Babylon Ezekiel That he should not see Babylon Jeremiah That he should die in peace and be buried after the manner of his Ancestors Ezekiel That he should die at Babylon and if we compare all this with the History nothing ever was more punctually fulfilled For Zedekiah saw the King of Babylon who commanded his Eyes to be put out before he was brought to Babylon and he died there but died peaceably and was suffered to have the usual Funeral Solemnities 2 King xxv 6 7. And therefore both Prophecies proved true in the Event which seemed before to be inconsistent And so critical an Exactness in every minute Circumstance in Prophecies delivered by two Persons who were before thought to contradict each other was such a conviction to the Jews after they had seen them so punctually fulfilled in their Captivity that they could no longer doubt but that both were from God Jeremiah foretold also That the Kingdom of the Chaldaeans should be destroyed and that the Jews should be restored after a Captivity of Seventy Years these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years And it shall come to pass when seventy years are accomplished that I will punish the King of Babylon and that nation saith the Lord for their iniquity and the land of the Chaldaeans Jer. xxv 11 12. For thus saith the Lord That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return to this place Jer. xxix 10. And this Prophecy of Jeremiah the Jews depended upon under the Captivity Dan. ix 2. Zech. i. 12. and it was exactly fulfilled to them The Generations of Nebuchadnezzar's Posterity that should succeed him till the Destruction of that Monarchy are foretold Jer. xxvii 7. The Destruction of Babylon with the manner of Taking the City as it was foretold and described by the Prophet agrees punctually with the Account of it by (l) 〈◊〉 â—odo◠〈◊〉 c. 191. Herodotus One post shall run to meet another and one messenger to meet another to shew the king of Babylon that his City is taken at one end and that the passages are stopped and the reeds they have burned with sire and the men of war are affrighted And this was declared in a memorable and solemn manner by writing it down and by casting the Book into Euphrates Jer. li. 31 32 62 63. The Destruction of Tyre and Zidon and of Aegypt was foretold by the Prophet Ezekiel and the Restoration of the Aegyptians after Forty Years Ezek. xxviii 19. xxix 12 13. The Prophanation of the Temple and of the Sanctuary by Antiochus Epiphanes with the Death of Antiochus and a Description of his Temper and of his very Countenance was clearly delivered by Daniel Four hundred and eight Years (m) Joseph Antiquit. l. 11. c. 11. before the accomplishment Dan. viii Daniel likewise described the Fate of the Four Monarchies the Restoration of the Jews and the Rebuilding of their City and the Birth of the Messias with the precise Time of it And Alexander the great is said (n) Ibid. l. 11. c. 8. to have been encouraged by Daniel's Prophecy in his Expedition Indeed his Prophecy and the History of the Four Monarchies are so exactly parallel that Porphyry could find no other evasion but to say That the Book of Daniel was writen after the Events which as Grotius observes is as absurd as if a Man should maintain that the Works of Virgil were not written under Augustus but after his time For the Book of Daniel was as publick and as much dispersed and as universally received as ever any Book could be Lastly Haggai and Malachi prophesied That Christ should come before the Destruction of the Second Temple Hag. ii 7 9. Mal. iii. 1. And Hosea foretold the present state of the People of Israel in those remarkable words They shall be wanderers among the nations Hos ix 17. Not to insist therefore upon other Miracles and Prophecies which were concerning things of lesser moment or less remarkable in the eyes of the World these may suffice which were of that Publick nature that there could be no deceit or mistake in them multitudes of Men whom Prejudice or Malice had prepared to make the utmost Discoveries were Witnesses to the Miracles and both the Prophecies themselves and the Fulfilling of them were notorious to other Nations as well as to the Jews to whom they were delivered and in whose hands they have ever since been being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day The Jews had as good Evidence for Instance that Elijah wrought his Miracles as they could have that there was such a Man in the World And when the publick Transactions and Councils of Princes the Fate and Revolution of Empires with the Prefix'd Time and Place and the very Names of the Persons were so particularly foretold Two or Three hundred Years before the Things came to pass we may as well question the Truth of all History as the Certainty of these Revelations For indeed they are the History of Things that were to come set down in the very Circumstances in which they afterwards were brought to pass And yet if a Man should dispute whether there ever were such a Man as Elijah or such a Prince as Josiah or Cyrus he would but make himself ridiculous but if he deny that Elijah wrought such Miracles or that Isaiah spoke of Cyrus and another Prophet of Josiah by Inspiration perhaps he may be thought to have made some great Discovery and to know something above the rest of Mankind and shall be likely to meet with Applause instead of that Contempt which such Pretences deserve so strangely partial are Men for any thing which is but against the Authority of the Scriptures For I think it will be hard for Men to bring better Proof that there were such Men as Elijah and Josiah and Cyrus than may be brought to shew that the latter were by Name prophesied of long before their Birth and that the first wrought all the Miracles related of him or to produce clearer Evidence that there was such a City as Jerusalem before the Reign of Cyrus than we have that the Destruction of the City and Temple and the Captivity of the people with their Restoration after Seventy Years was foretold by Jeremiah The prophets did their Miracles in the most publick manner and their Prophecies were delivered not in corners but openly before all the People not in obscure and ambiguous Words but in plain Terms with a particular Account of Persons and Time and Place they were kept they were read and studied by that very People who at first as little regarded them as any Man now amongst us can do but slew the prophets themselves and rejected their Prophecies with rage and indignation but were afterwards by the Event of Things so fully convinced which was likewise foretold Ezek. xxxiii 33. of their
Divine Inspiration and Authority that they wholly depended and relyed upon them and lived in an uncomfortable Exile upon the sole Hopes and Expectations of seeing the rest of their Prophecies fulfilled And theirfore the Posterity of those who had slain the Prophets had the Highest veneration for the Memory of these Prophets whom their Forefathers had killed they built and adorned their Sepulchres and chose to die any Death rather than renounce the Authority of their Books or part with them even when they had forsaken their Doctrine and changed their Religion for vain Traditions and superstitious Observances and when it was so reproachful to them to erect Monuments of perpetual acknowledgment That they were the the Children of them which killed the Prophets Matth. xxiii 31. they referred themselves to these Prophets for the Authority of their Religion and acknowledged that they had neither Prophecies nor Miracles after the Captivity CHAP. XI Of the Dependance of the several Parts of the Scriptures upon each other and that the Old Testament prove the New and the New again proves the Old as the Cause and the Effect IT is a thing altogether incredible that the Inhabitants of so small a part of the World as Judaea is should lay a Design of imposing upon the rest of Mankind which could prove so successful for so many thousand Years together and that they should be such Masters of Deceit and the World so fond of receiving Revelations from them that at last though the greatest part of that People disclaimed the Books which some few and those the most unlearned among them would impose for Inspired Writings yet the Authority of these Books should be more acknowledged in all Parts of the World than those had ever been in which they all unanimously agreed and the rest should be received for the sake of these more than ever they had been upon their own account which is the case of the Books of the Old and New Testament If the Jews even the meanest and most ignorant of them could do this merely by their own Wit and Device they must have a Genius superiour to that of all Mankind besides For what imaginable Reason is there why the Oracles of all the Heathen Nations should never be much regarded and now in a manner utterly lost and that the Books of the Jews should still be preserved in their full Authority but the power and Advantage of Truth in these and the want of it in them And the Evidence of this Truth is most observable in the mutual Dependence which all the Parts of the Scriptures have one upon another They were penn'd by Men of different Countreys different Ages different Conditions and Callings and Interests from the King to the poor Fisherman and yet all carry on the same Design They are not like the Oracles of the Heathen Gods which must stand or fall by themselves but there is an admirable Series and Connexion between all the Writings of the Holy Scriptures by which the several Parts of them give a mutual support and attestation to each other The Pentateuch and Moses contains the first Lineaments and evident Types and Prophecies of all that is contained in the rest He foretold That a succession of Prophets should arise and that at last the Great Prophet should be sent who is Christ and he foretold all that was to befall the Jews from his own time to the Destruction of Jerusalem And as Moses has given us the general State of the Jews for all Generations so the several Prophets who were sent from time to time according to his Predictions foretold particular Events and more-especially they foretold and described the Times of the Gospel This was the great Design of all Prophecies and the thing that God had spoken by the Prophets which have been since the world bigan Luk. i. 70. For in Christ was the Accomplishment of all the Types and Prophecies in the Old Testament And this Dependance and Coherence between all the Parts of the Scriptures in the Matter and Design of them which is as great as the dependance of one part of any Book written by the same Author can be upon another gives great strength and confirmation to the whole since it is an Evidence that it was all Inspired by the same Infallible Spirit and if one part of Scripture be proved to be true all must be so for besides the particular Evidence which may be brought for any part separately we must consider the Connexion which it has with the rest and the Evidence which is derived upon it by this Connexion if the Pentateuch be once proved to be of Divine Authority than the Prophets who succeeded Moses must be Divinely Inspired because he foretold the succession of such Prophets And if the Prophecies and Miracles of the Prophets were Divine the Pentateuch must be so because they all along acknowledged and appealed to it as containing God's Covenant with his People the Jews and being therefore the ground and foundation of their own Mission if Moses and the Prophets be from God the Gospel must be from him if that be foretold by them And if the Prophecies and Miracles of our Saviour and his Disciples prove their Divine Authority the Writings of Moses and the Prophets must be likewise of the same Authority because they acknowledge them for such and prove their own Authority from them as well as from the Miracles that they themselves wrought And if the Prophecies and Miracles either of Moses or of the Prophets or of our Saviour and his Apostles taken by themselves and apart from the rest be sufficient they must needs be more convincing when they are considered together in their united Force and Light I might further observe That Miracles without Prophecies or Prophecies without Miracles or that one evident Miracle or one evident Prophecy at least That either the Miracles or prophecies of some one Person in the several Ages in which so many Prophets lived would have been a sufficient ground of Faith and that therefore they must all be much rather so in conjunction But I shall only desire it may be remembred That whatever Evidence has been brought in proof of the Divine Authority of the Books of Moses and of the Prophets doth reciprocally prove both the one and the other and that therefore whatever is brought from either of them in Proof of the Gospel has the Evidence of the whole and that the Gospel in different respects doth prove them and is proved by them both deriving Authority from the Books of the Old Testament and communicating its own Authority to them For as the Cause may be proved by its Effect and the Effect by its Cause so both Predictions prove the Things foretold and the accomplishment of the Things foretold verifie the Predictions and Miracles wrought in consequence of Prophecies concerning them have doubly the Divine Seal and Attestation Now the Messias is the Scope and Centre of the whole Old Testament
that their most ancient Books were in Hieroglyphicks which are not expounded by any who lived nearer than MDCC years to the first Author of them that the numbers in computation are sometimes mistaken or that Months are put for Years But of what Antiquity or Authority soever their first Writers were there is little or no credit to be given to the books now remaining since that general destruction of all ancient Books by the Emperor Xi Hoam ti who lived but about two hundred years before Christ he commanded upon pain of death all the Monuments of Antiquity to be destroyed relating either to History or Philosophy especially the Books of Confucius and killed many of their Learned men so that from his time they have only some fragments of old Authors left The Chinese are a people vain enough and love to magnify themselves to the Europeans which makes them endeavour to have it believed that their Antiquities are sufficiently entire notwithstanding this destruction of their Books and for the same reason they described the Emperor's Observatory as the most compleat and the best fitted for the uses of Astronomy that could be imagined but upon the view it appeared very inconsiderable and the Instruments were found useless and new ones were placed in their room made by the direction of Father Verbiest This people after all their boasts of skill in Astronomy were not able to make an exact Calendar and their Table of Eclipses were so uncorrect that they could scarce foretel about what time that of the Sun should happen And in a Petition which the Emperor of China in favour it seems to the Missionaries had privately drawn up to be presented by them to himself in publick it is said that Father Adam Schaal made it known to all the Court that the Rules of the Coelestial Motions established by the ancient Astronomers of China were all false And not only the common people of China but the chief Mandarines are so ignorant and superstitious that when they see the Sun or Moon under an Eclipse with Sacrifices and other Rites and with great noise and clamor they apply themselves to rescue them from the Dog or Dragon which they imagine is like to devour them So little credit is to be given to the pretences which the several Nations among the Heathens have made to Antiquity without any ground from History but upon wandring discourses of observations in Astronomy which they had little or no skill in And it has been made evident by divers learned men that the most ancient and the very best of the Heathen Gods were but Men whom the Scriptures mention as worshippers of the True God such as Noâ—h Joseph Moses c. CHAP. II. Of the Defect in the Promulgation of the Heathen Religions THe Propagation of the several Religions profest among the Heathens has been very inconsiderable For they were never extant in Books to be publickly read and examined but their Mysteries were kept secret and concealed from the world and all the knowledge the people had of them was from the Priests Every Country had its peculiar Deities and ways of Worship which were seldom received or known but in those places where they were first set up The (a) Valer-Max de Peregrina Relig. rejecta lib. 1. c. 3. Romans rejected many foreign Religions as abominable and none of their Religions ever prevailed but where they had the temporal Power to uphold them And they lost ground daily by the propagation of the Gospel whilst the greatest part of the Empire made it their business to oppress it and to maintain the Heathen Religions against it It is to be observed that the Christian Religion is at this day Preached in all parts of the Heathen world and has been ever since its first propagation as the Jewish Religion was before but where Christianity has prevailed Heathenism has been never able to maintain its ground and there are hardly any but Christians excepting some few Jews to be found in Christian Countries which makes a great abatement in the disproportion that Heathenism in general may seem to have in its numbers above Christianity But if we examine the particular Religions of the Heathens there is no comparison and the only thing here to be enquired into is whether any particular Religion of the Heathens exceed or equal the Christian Religion in point of Promulgation for who ever can imagine that all or any great number of the Heathen Religions are of Divine Revelation must suppose God to reveal contradictions The Question before us is not whether Heathens are more numerous than Christians but whether any of their Religions has been as fully promulged as the Christian One Herald is enough to promulge a Law to many thousands the City of Nineve was converted by one Prophet and there is perhaps no Nation in the world but has more Christians in it than the first Preachers of the Gospel were CHAP. III. The Defect of the Prophecies and Miracles of the Heathen Religions IT cannot be denied by any man who is not resolved to reject the Authority of all History but that many wonders have been done by Magicians and that many things have been foreshown and foretold among Heathens by Dreams and Prodigies and Oracles which did actually come to pass but then all that can be gathered from hence is that there are invisible Powers and that Devils and wicked Spirits are able to do more than men can do and to know more than men can know for which reason in former Ages there was no more doubt made whether there be Spirits than whether there be men in the world for they were continually sensible of the Operations and Effects of invisible Beings which made them exceedingly prone to Idolatry but not enclined to Atheism And the case is the same now in Heathen Countries where Apparitions and Delusions of evil Spirits are affirmed by all Writers to be very frequent But if at any time evil Spirits by their subtilty and experience and knowledge of affairs in the World did foretel things which accordingly came to pass they were things that happened not long after and commonly such as themselves did excite and prompt Men to Thus when the conspiracy against Caesar was come just to be put in Execution and the Devil had his Agents concerned in it he could foretel the time and place of his Death But it had been foretold to Pompey Crassus and Caesar himself before as (a) Tull. de Divin lib. ii Tully informs us from his own knowledge that they should all die in their Beds and in an honourable old Age. Some Oracles might possibly take their Answers from the Scriptures as that of Jupiter Hammon concerning Alexander's Victories if it were not meerly a piece of flattery which proved true by chance Evil Spirits might likewise be able to inform Men at a great distance of Victories the same day they were won as it is related (b) Ib. of several and in
upon any Subject and then they trample with wonderful Scorn and Triumph upon that which they conceive is so miserably overcome but alass the Victory is over themselves nothing is either the more or the less true for their believing or disbelieving it and Religion is always the same how profanely soever it may be spoken of We have no design to impose upon any Man's Faith but if there be Reason in what we say it may well be expected from Reasonable Men that they should hearken to Reason Religion is Reason and Philosophy as the Fathers often speak the best and truest Philosophy And I am persuaded how much soever I may have failed in the performance that the Christian Religion is capable of being proved with such clear and full Evidence even to ordinary Understandings as to make all Pretences of Arguing against it appear to be as ridiculous as they are impious THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. Of Humane Reason THE Divine Authority of the Scriptures being proved in the First Book such Points are cleared in the Second as are thought most liable to exception in the Christian Religion But before Men venture upon Objections against the Scripture it is fit for them to consider the strength and compass of their own Faculties and the manifold Defects of Humane Reason p. 1. In some things each side of a Contradiction seems to be demonstrable p. 4. Every Man believes and has the Experience of several things which in the Theory and Speculative Notion of them would seem as incredible as any thing in the Scriptures can be supposed to be p. 12. Those who disbelieve and reject the Misteries of Religion must believe things much more incredible p. 24. CHAP. II. Of Inspiration ALL motion of Material things is derived from God and it is at least as conceiveable by us that God doth Act upon the Immaterial as that He Acts upon the Material part of the World and that He may act more powerfully upon the Wills and Understandings of some Men than of others p. 28. Wherein the inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did consist and how far it extended p. 31. Such Inferences from thence as may afford a sufficient Answer to the Objections alleged upon this Subject p. 41. The Inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did not exclude Humane Means as information in Matters of Fact c. p. 42. It did not exclude the use of their own Words and Style ibid. Tho' somethings are set down in the Scripture indefinitely and without any positive Assertion or Determination this is no proof against their being Written by Divine Inspiration p. 43. In things which might fall under Humane Prudence and Observation the Spirit of God seems to have used only a directive Power and Influence p. 46. This infallible Assistance was not permanent and Habitual P. 49. It did not prevent Personal failings p. 50. No Passage or Circumstance in the Scripture Erroneous p. 51. CHAP. III. Of the 〈◊〉 of the Holy Scriptures THE Grammatical Construction and Propriety of Speech p. 53. Those whch are look'd upon as Defects in the Scripture-Style were usual in the most approved Heathen Authors p. ib. Metaphors and Rhetorical Schemes and Figures p. 57. The Style different of different Nations p. 58. The Titles of Kings p. 59. What Arts were used by Orators to raise the Passions p. 60. That they sometimes Read their Speeches p. 62. The Figurative Expressions of the Prophets and their Types and Parables were Suitable to the Customs of the Places and Times wherein they Liv'd ibid. Several things related as Matter of Fact are only Parabolical Descriptions or Representations p. 64. The Prophetick Schemes of Speech usual with the Eastern Nations p. 66. The want of Distinguishing the Persons speaking has been a great cause of misunderstanding the Scriptures p. 68. The Antiquity and various ways of Poetry p. 69. The Metaphorical and Figurative use of Words in Speaking of the Works and attributes of God p. 71. The Decorum or Suitableness of the matter in the Style of Scripture p. 79. The Method p. 86. Some Books of Scripture admirable for their Style p. 89. Why the Style not alike excellent in all the Books of Scripture p. 93. CHAP. IV. Of the Canon of the Holy Scriptures ANy Controversy concerning the Authority of some Books of Holy Scripture no prejudice to the rest p. 96. The uncontroverted Books contain all things necessary to Salvation p. 97. The Dispute concerning the Apochrypha falls not here under consideration p. 99 No Suppression or Alteration of the Books of the Old Testament by Idolatrous Kings c. p. 100. The Book of the Law in the Hand-Writing of Moses found in the Reign of Josiah p. 102. No Books but those which were Written by Inspiration received by the Jews into their Canon p. 103. What opinion the Ten Tribes had of the Books of the Prophets c. p. 105. Neither the Samaritans nor the Sadduces rejected any of the Books of the Old Testament p. 106. Of the Books whereof mention is made in the O. T. p. 106. Why the Books of the Prophets have the Names of the Authors exprest and that there was not the same Reason that the Names of the Authors of the Historical Books should be exprest p. 108. A wonderful Providence manifest in the Preservation of the Books of the O. T. for so many Ages p. 109. The New Testament confirms the Old p. 111. The Caution of the Christian Church in admitting Books into the Canon ib. The Primitive Christians had sufficient means to examine and distinguish the Genuine and inspired Writings from the Apochryphal or Spurious p. 113. The Gospel of St. Matt. in Hebrew how long preserved p. 115. The Greek Version of it p. 116. The Canon of Scripture finished by St. John and the Books of the other Evangelists c. reviewed by him p. 117. The Testimony of the Adversaries of our Religion ib. Copies of great Antiquity still extant p. 118. How it came to pass that the Authority of some Books was at first doubted of p. 119. The Canon had been fix'd and confirmed in Councils in Tertullian's time p. 121. The Canon of Scripture generally received by Christians of all Sects and Parties p. 124. CHAP. V. Of the various Readings in the Old and New Testament AN extraordinary Providence manifest in the preservation of the Scriptures from such Casualties as have befaln other Books p. 126. The Defect in the Hebrew Vowels and the late invention of the Points no prejudice to the Authority of the Bible p. 127. The change of the old Hebrew Characters into that now in use is no prejudice to the Authority of the Hebrew Text p. 130. The Keri and the Ketib no prejudice to it ib. The Difference between the Hebrew Text and the Septuagint and other Versions or between the Versions themselves no way prejudicial to the Authority of the Scriptures p. 132. It is confessed by the greatest Criticks both Protestants and
character of a Book of the Scriptures The modern Jews in like manner never dared to pretend to new Books of Revelation but have constantly adhered to the old And what inducement could the Jews have to receive these Books into their Canon of which it consists rather than the Apocryphal Books but the evidence of their Divine Authority which is a thing more especially remarkable in some Books Why should they receive certain Books under the Names of Solomon Esther Daniel and Ezra but not admit into the Canon others going under the same names but because of the difference in their Authority Why should they receive the Books of those whom their fore-fathers had slain and those very Books for which they slew them but upon the clearest evidence It is certain they could be possest with no prejudice in their favour but with very many against the Books of such Authors To give another instance The Book of Ruth contains the affairs and transactions of a particular Family of no great consequence as one might imagine at first view and yet it has been preserved with as much â—are and as constantly received as the rest There is little reason upon human considerations why a relation concerning that Family should be inserted into the Canon of Scripture rather than one concerning any other But the lineage of the Messias is set forth in it and that was a sufficient reason why it should be inserted and therefore by the Divine Wisdom and Providence neither the emulation and envy of other Families nor any other cause or accident hindred its reception and preservation amongst the other inspired Books And in that History there is an account not very honourable for David's Family in deriving his descent from Phares of Thamar and shewing that his Great Grandmother was a Moabitess the Moabites being a people who had an indelible mark of intamy sixt upon them by the Law of Moses Dentr xxiii 3. II. As the Pentateuch was ever acknowledged by the People of Israel after their separation from the Tribe Judah so if they rejected the writings of the Prophets it must have been because all or most of them were written by Prophets who were of the two Tribes and all the Prophets of Israel owning the Temple of Jerasalem to be the true place of Worship the Isâ—aelites and Samaritans must have great prejudices against them upon that account and it cannot be expected that they should receive the Books of any of the Prophets in the same manner as they did those of Moses The Books of Samuel David and Solomon had less regard paid to them upon Reasons of State by the Tribes who followed the Revolt of Jeroboam yet when * Antiqu. Orient Eccl. pist 1. Joseph Scaliger sent to the Samaritans for the Canticles of the Book of Psalms in their Language as well as for the Book of the Law and of Joshua they promised to send him them And it is proved sufficiently by Dr †Hebr. Talmud exercit on Joh. iv 25. Lightfoot that neither the Samaritans nor the Sadducees rejected the Books of the Old Testament tho they did not admit the rest into the same veneration and authority with the Books of Moses nor read them in their Synagogues This is also proved by F. Simon * Crit. Hist V. T. lib. 1. c. 16. 29. Disquisit Crit c. 12. both of the Sadducees and the Karaei and †Epist 70. inter Antiqu Eccl. Orient Morinus likewise proves it of the Karaei who are generally taken for Sadducees F. Simon maintains the contrary and that they have wrong done them in being charged with the opinions of the Sadducces However this is not material to our present purpose since he shews that both the Sadducees and the Karaei or Caraites and all the Jews besides received the entire Volume of the Scriptures without any contradiction * Praefat. de Lipmanno Hackspan likewise has shewed that the Sadducees denied not the Authority of the Books of the Prophets III Concerning the Books whereof we we find mention made in the Old Testament either 1. They are not different from those which are now in the Canon but the same Books under divers Names Or 2. They were not written by Inspiration tho written by Prophets For we are not to suppose that the Prophets were inspired in every thing that they wrote any more than in all they spoke And this shews the care and integrity of the Jews in compiling their Canon that they would not take into it all the Writings even of the Prophets themselves but only such as they knew to be written by them as Prophets that is by Inspiration the Prophets themselves no doubt making a distinction as we find St Paul did between what they had written by the Spirit of God and that in which they had not his immediate and extraordinary direction and infallible assistance Or 3. They might not be written by Prophets For the office of Recorder or Remembrancer or Writer of Chronicles as it is explained in the Margin is mentioned as â—n office of great Honour and Trust and was distinct from that of the Prophets 2 Sam. viii â—6 2 Kings xviii 18. 2 Chron. xxxiv 8. Isaiah xxxvi 3 22. Besides the Hebrews called every small Writing a Book Thus Deut. xxiv 1. â—hat which we render a Bill of Divorcement â—s in the Original a Book of Divorcement the word being the same which Josh x. 13. and 〈◊〉 Sam. i. 18. is translated the Book of Jasher â—o Matt. xix 7. and Mark x. 4. it is in the Greek a Book of Divorcement the word is the same which the Septuagint had used it indeed may signifie a little Book but it often signifies a Book without that distinction and so it is rendered 2 Tim. iv 13. David's Letter to Joab is a Book in the Hebrew and in the Greek 2 Sam. xi 14 15. and Lettets are stiled Books by * Herod lib. 1. c. 124. lib. 6. c. 4. Herodotus Or 4. Tho it should be granted that some Books which were written by Inspiration are now lost it is no absurdity to suppose that God should suffer Writings to be lost thro the fault and negligence of men which were dictated by his Spirit Several things might by the Prophets be delivered by Revelation to the persons whom they concerned which were never committed to writing and others which were written but which were not necessary to the ends of Revelation in general but rather concerned particular times and places and the substance whereof as far as the world in general is concerned is to be found in the other Scriptures might by the carelesness of men never come to the sight and knowledge of Posterity And here I shall observe that the Books of Prophecy have always the Names of the Authors exprest and commonly they are often repeated in the Books themselves but in the Historical Books there was not the same reason for it because in matters
instructed in the Rewards and Punishments of the Life to come and Temporal Rewards and Punishments were appointed by Moses as Pledges and Types to represent and prefigure to them those of a Future State For that Abraham and the Patriarchs before him had a true and full Notion of a Life after this we are certain from Heb. xi 10 13. And we have as great Certainty that Abraham did instruct his Children and his Houshold after him Gen. xviii 19. and Moses wrote of Christ Jo. v. 46. Gen. iii. 15. xii 3. xlix 10. Deut. xviii 15 18. These things were delivered in the Books of Moses and well understood by the Generality of the Jews in all Ages the Sadducees were singular in denying the Resurrection of the Dead and some other Doctrines in which all the rest were agreed But if there were any Obscurity or Difficulty in the Books of Moses they had besides the Priests a constant Succession of Prophets for many Ages to Interpret them and to maintain and inculcate those Fundamental Doctrines of Religionâ— The Rewards of Heaven are declared Psal xvi 11. xvii 15. Prov. xv 24. Eccles xii 14. Dan. xii 2 3. The Torments of Hell are asserted Psal xvi 10. Eccles xi 9. xii 14. Isai xxxiii 14. Dan. xii 2. The Resurrection of the Dead Psal xvii 15. Isai xxvi 19. Ezek. xxxvii 1. Dan. xii 2. Hos xiii 14. And in the Book of Job which is of the greatest Antiquity Job xiv 12. xix 26.27 In that Expression that David and others Slept with their Fathers is implyed not only the Imortality of the Soul but the Resurrection of the Body For it implies that there was not a total end of them but as they Slept so must they awake and rise again Psal xvii 15. And this Expression is taken from the Old Testament and applied to the same Sense in the New Our Saviour speaking of Regeneration says to Nicodemus art thou a Master in Israel and knowest not these things Joh. iii. 10. and he bids the Jâ—ws search the Scriptures of the Old Testament for in them says he ye think ye have Eternal Life and they are they which testify of me Joh v. 39. it was in them fore-told that a much clearer Revelation was to be made by the Gospel Jer. xxxi 31. When our Saviour by his Resurrection gave a fuller Manifestation of a future Immortal State than could be given by any other Means and brought Life and Immortality to Light thro' the Gospel 2 Tim. i. 10. Yet this it self was Typifyed in the Old Testament by raising Dead Men to Life again and the Translation of Enoch and Elijah into Heaven was for a Testimony and Assurance of a Future State both of Body and Soul The Doctrin deliverd by Moses and the Prophets was as effectual a Caution and warning to Men to keep them from the place of Torments as a Message from the Dead could have been Luke xvi 31. The Old Testament therefore is not deficient in any necessary Point of Salvation but the Ceremonial Law was enjoyned as a suitable Help and Expedient for the retaining those Truths which had been revealed before Which was so well known (x) Origen contra Cels lib. 2 that Celsus puts this as an Objection into the Mouth of the Jews whom he brings in Arguing against the Christian Religion that it taught them nothing but what they knew before concerning the Resurrection of the Dead and a future Judgment and a State of Rewards and Punishments in another World And it cannot be denied that the Apocryphal as well as the Canonical ' Books teach these things The Honour and Authority of our Religion amongst Men depends very much upon a right Knowledge and a due consideration of this Subject And those who profess never so great Veneration for the New Testament but have little esteem for any part of the Old understand neither the one nor the other as they ought They refer all along to each other and must stand or fall together for the one is but a Draught as it were or Model of the other all things being though obscurely yet sufficiently taught in the Old Testament which are fully and lively exprest in the New The Sum of all is this The Faith in the Messias to come and the Principles of Religion and Morality had been delivered down from the Beginning by Adam and Noah to their Posterity And when Moses by God's Direction and Appointment gave Laws to the Children of Israel the End and Design of these Laws was the preservation of this Faith and Practice amongst them And this was effected by visible Objects and sensible Remembrances the Jewish Dispensation was ordain'd in condescension to the Circumstances and Capacities of those Ages and that Nation in such a manner as was most suitable to their Condition and most Worthy of God the rest of the World had wholly given up and abandoned themselves to Carnal Ordinances and Superstitions and God who produceth Good out of Evil made use of this Fondness and Dotage of Mankind to the Preservation and Advancement of Truth and Holiness amongst Men. The Ceremonial Worship was no farther acceptable to God and no otherwise design'd by Him than to keep his People from running into Idolatry to which they had so great a Proneness to put them in mind of their own Sinfulness and Unworthiness to preserve a Sense of Moral Duties and of an inward and spiritual Service and to retain a Remembrance and Expectation of that Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction which had been foretold and was in the Fulness of time to be offered upon the Cross for the Sins of the World Thanks be to God that we are instructed to worship him in Spirit and in Truth without so many burthensome Ceremonies but in those Ages of the World nothing would have seem'd more strange and absurd than a Religion without some Pomp and Solemnity of Ceremonies And God appointed for his People those which were innocent to restrain them from all that were wicked and hurtful He appointed the Sacrifices of Beasts to be Types of Christ's Sacrifice and to withhold them from Humane Sacrifices which were practised in other Nations and enjoyn'd by other Religions he commanded them to abstain from certain Meats that they might not eat of Things offer'd to Idols and these innocent Ceremonies he made useful and serviceable to the Great Ends of Faith and Righteousness Nothing impracticable can be supposed to be prescrib'd by God to any People nothing which is above their Abilities and present Attainments and therefore would be of no use and benefit to them But rather the Divine Goodness would condescend to their Infirmities and comply with them in giving them such Laws as may be agreeable and convenient for them in their present State and may fit them for an higher and more excellent Dispensation Whatsoever we may think of it now nothing at the time when the Law was given would have look'd like Religion that had
who was not as singular in other things and in his Notions of Religion but he has firmly believed the Divine Authority of the Scriptures It concerns all who have any Doubts about these things to weigh the Objections with the Answers that have been given to them by divers Authors and withal to observe the importance of the Objections and how far they affect the main Cause and still to remember that it is at every Man 's own Peril if he make a rash and partial Judgment If our Faith could be of no Benefit or Advantage to us nor Infidelity any Prejudice we might take the same Liberty to give Credit or no Credit to what we read in the Bible that we use in the Reading all other Books and to receive or reject it as we think fit or to believe only just so much as lies even with our own Understandings and Notions of Things and at the worst this would be but Folly in us But it is madness to reject our own Happiness and make our selves miserable because we do not perceive the Reasons of all the Means and Methods which God has been pleased to use to make us happy or are not able to understand every Word of that Book which contains the Terms of our Salvation This is as if a Son should chuse to live miserably rather than to enjoy a large Estate left him by his Father because he doth not perceive the design and full meaning of every particular in his Will he searches out for all Ways and Arts for cavilling at it and is fond of any pretence to cast it aside as Counterfeit being resolved never to believe it to be his Father's For his Father was a wise Man and if it were his such and such Clauses would not be in it since there is no reason that he can see why they should be inserted several things mentioned in it he believes are mis-timed the Bounds of the Lands are not described by fit Names besides it is interlined and he never will accept of such an Estate conveyed to him by such a Will but chuses rather to be miserable all the Days of his Life This would be such peevishness and perversness as is not to be met withal where our Temporal Interest is concerned But too many are too forward to reject the Tenders and despise the Terms of an everlasting Inheritance in Heaven tho' at the same time they become obnoxious to all the Curses threatned to Unbelievers because the Old and New Testament contain some things which may afford matter of Exception and Cavil to captious Men. God has sent his Prophets to call and admonish us and his Son to reconcile us to himself by his Death and to offer us Eternal Peace and Happiness and he has given us all the Evidence of it that the nature of the things would admit The Jews have asserted the Authority of the Old Testament from the times of Moses and the Prophets and the Christians asserted the Truth of the Gospel when it was impossible for them not to know whether it were true or not without any prospect of Advantage by it in this World but with a certain expectation of all manner of Torments and Deaths and the greatest part of the Known World was converted to the Belief of it and became Christians when in this World Christians were of all Men the most miserable and were supported only by the stedfast hope and expectation of that Happiness which is promised to us in the Scriptures after this Life And all things considered we have as sufficient Grounds for the Authority of the Scriptures as we have not only that any other Book was composed by the Author whose Name it bears but as we have to believe any thing else in the World Now what do these Men How do they receive so great a Blessing Why they overlook all the Evidence that can be brought to prove the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and search up and down for doubtful and obscure Passages to disprove it by not considering in the mean time that nothing can overthrow their Authority but that which can invalidate the Evidence by which it is establish'd It would be the highest Folly and Ingratitude thus to despise God's Mercy and Care over us if there were no danger in it but it being a thing of infinite Danger it is no less than Madness For what milder Term can be found to express the desperate Folly of them who reject a Book which sets before us the means of Salvation but at the same time forewarns us upon pain of the severest effects of God's Displeasure not to neglect them It is madness I say if we rightly consider it to reject such a Book and at once both to affront the Mercy and despise the Threatnings of the infinitely Merciful and the infinitely Great and Powerful God It is a good Caution to the Atheist to forbear his Blasphemies and Contempt of the Divine Majesty for fear it should prove true that there is a God at last and then it will be a dismal thing after all his profane Talking and Arguing to be called before that God whom he has so often denied And it is as good Advice to those who make it their business to find Fault with the Scriptures to consider seriously whether they are sure that these are not God's Word after all that can be said against them and if they be not absolutely certain of this the Name and Title which they bear and which Men as wise and as Judicious as themselves thought to belong to them should methinks keep Men within some bounds of Modesty and Discretion For if they be indeed the Word of God and nothing is capable of being made more evident than how dearly must they pay for a little cavilling Wit and Subtilty The best and most Divine things may be despised and affronted by a bold and Scurrilous Wit but can Men think it a safe or a prudent thing to ridicule and Scoff at those Books which for ought they know may be of Divine Revelation when all the Reason of which they fansie themselves so great Masters can never be able to confute the Arguments brought in Vindication of them Can they value the contemptible Reputation of a little Satyr and Drollery at that mighty Rate as to run the hazard of being damned for it If Men have any real Doubts or Scruples they must needs grant that it is too serious a thing to jest and trifle withal when no less than the Terms of our everlasting Happiness or everlasting Misery is the thing in Controversy And what Wit there may be in it I cannot tell but I am sure it is no sign of a very Wise Man to speak contemptibly of a Book by which he can never prove but that he must be judged at the last Day As a Mad-Man says Solomon who casteth Fire-brands Arrows and Death so is the Man that deceiveth his Neighbour and saith Am not I
time as not only to endure but often to humour their Insolence and Vanity and from them he had his Notions of Philosophy which agree with the Christian Doctrine and not from the Scriptures For he owns in his Book from whom he had received his Precepts but if he had Read and considered the Scriptures he could never have looked upon the Zeal and Fortitude of the Christian Martyrs as Lib. 1◠§ 3. Obstinacy But the Sophists who made it their business to oppose the Gospel knew they could not better recommend themselves to him than by Teaching its Moral Doctrines and preventing that esteem which he must needs have had of the Christian Religion if he had â—nown that to this those Doctrines which he so much admired owed either their Original or Improvement Whatever opinion he had of the Christians he was wont to attribute too much to his own Vulcat in Cassio Virtue and Piety to ascribe his deliverance wholly to their Prayers And after all the Praises which have been justly given to M. Antonius it must be acknowledged that he valued himself extreamly upon Two Things which were very great hinderances to his Reception of the Gospel viz. The Capitolin Study of Philosophy and the Love and esteem of his People For it is no Wonder that an Emperour who made the Philosophy of those times his Study the Sophists his chief Favourites and Popularity his Aim should not be Converted to a Religion so unpopular and so opposite in some of its Principal Articles to that which the World called Wisdom It is unconceiveable upon what Principles of Religion or Philosophy this Emperour could Deify id Lucius Verus and Faustina but it was impossible that he could do this and be at the same time a Christian that the same Man who Deisied Notorious Wickedness because it had been Cloathed in Purple and shined in Emperial Robes should believe in the Son of God Crucified is utterly inconsistent 〈◊〉 p. 527. l. 3. after at all add 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man of very great Learning and who upon that account had his Statue erâ—â—ted in the Forum at Rome often acknowledged himself convinced of the Truth of Christianity before he could be persuaded openly to profess it for fear of displeasing his Friends that were Gentiles He pretended he might be a Christian as well in Secret and this no doubt might be the case of many others who never made open Profession of it IB p. 530. l. 7. after with them add The Doctrines of the Epicureans and the Stoicks he speaks of such as were peculiar to either Sect were little regarded in St. Austin's time and none durst maintain them but under the Denomination of some Heresy or other these Two Sects then were in so little esteem that they had not Authority enough to give those errors any countenance which they before had so long with great subtilty and success defended against the Platonists but they who would gain any Reception to their errors were at last forced to assume the Name of Christians and betake themselves to some Heresy Of Plotinus's School some became Christians and others applyed themselves to Magick as Plotinus himself must have done if we believe all that Porphyry Writes of him The Relation of the Serpent which was seen under the Bed and then was observed creeping into a hole of the Wall as he gave up the Ghost is an odd Story FINIS BOOKS Printed for and Sold by Peter Buck. THE Reasonableness and Certainty of the Christian Religion Book I. By Robert Jenkin c. Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning By William Wotton B. D. Chaplain to the Right Honorable the Earl of Nottingham The Second Edition with large Additions The Characters or Manners of the Age. Written Originally in French by Monsieur de la Bruyere to which is added a Key in the Margent made English by several Hands with the Characters of Theophrastus Translated from the Greek The Second Edition Corrected throughout and inlarg'd A Dictionary of the Greek and Roman Antiquities explaining the Religion Mythology History Antient Chronology Geography Sacred and Profane Rites and Customs Laws Policy Art and Engines of War Opinions of their Philosophers Lives of Inventers of Arts and Sciences and others famous for them or Arms containing whatsoever is necessary for Elucidating the abstruse passage which Occur in the Clastical Authors and Historians Compiled Originally in French by the Command of the King of France for the Use of the Dauphin D. of Bourgundy Anjou and Berry by Mr. Danet and now made English with the Addition of Useful Maps ERRATA IN the Preface p. 6. Marg. r. Populo p. 7. Marg. r. Cic. Brut. p. 9. l. 7. r. those p. 11. l. 13. r. Pleraque l. 3. r. intus p. 18. l. 12. r. Author l. 14. r. Superstitious p. 20. Marg. r. lib. 1. p. 22. Marg. r. Greg. Nazianz. ib. r. Cic. Topic. p. 27. l. 24. r. to expose them for being ill Disputants than for being Teachers of ill Doctrins p. 29. l. 2. r. Solon who was p. 32. Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 38. l. 13. r. joins p. 41. l. 9. r. at all p. 42. l. 22. r. Pharadox p. 44. l. ult r. and early p. 45. Marg. r. Buteo de Arcâ p. 46. l. 3. r. considerations In the BOOK p. 3. l. ult r. every p. 4. l. 22. r. it s own p. 5. l. 18 r. whether p 6. l. 16. dele be p. 7. l. 12. dele the p. 8. l. 26. r. Demonstration p. 9. l. 14. r. of the. p. 14. l. 3. r. persuaded l. penult r. to be True p. 21. l. 14. r. Philosopher Mr. Boyle p. 27. Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 29. l. 13. r. another p. 30. l. 19. r. Wind l. 29. r. of themselves p. 35. l. 18. r 1 Joh. 11.20 p. 44. l. 22. r. with the Ancient ib. Marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 59. l. 13. r. Regum ib. Marg. r. Aâ—mian Marcellâ—n lib. 17. c. 5. ib. r. Cic. de Orat. p. 61. Marg. r. contr Ctesiph ib. l. 27. r. Judges and. p. 62. Marg. r. Sermo omnis utitur r. laetas esse segetes r. paâ—am audacter p. 65. Marg. r. nec culpandus Propheta p. 67. Marg. r. de Servii Matre. p. 69. l 23. r. without Example p. 70. l. 17. r. Rhepaliâ—k p. 71. l. 19. r. from things p. 72. l. 6. r. Isa XLIV 8. p. 73. l r. may p. 81. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 86. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. r. Scipionem p. 88. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 90. l. 12. r. as p. 95. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 106. l. 9. r. and the Book p. 67 marg r. Sen. â—pist 108. p. 113. l. ult r. time p. 114. l. 10. r. hand ib. l. 19. r. Bishop by St. John p. 115. l. 15. r. mâ—st entire ib. marg 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 119. l. 28. r. Schâ—sm p. 123. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 122. l. 8. after Scripture dele of l. 22. r. by those p. 125. l. 12. r. tho' the Divine p. 128. l. 20. r. as Josephus ib. marg r. considered p. 129. l. 26. r. Eâ—penius p. 130. l. 28. r. Ketib p. 134. l. 6. r. Theadetion p. 135. l. 24. dele ever p. 138. l. 12. r. Hâ—brew p. 142. l. 〈◊〉 r. had p. 145. l. 1. r. Diogenes p. 166. marg r. Sex p. 168. l. 30 r. confuted p. 179. l. 25. dele just before Affront and place it before very p. 180. marg r. habet pro merito inferior multiplices latent p. 181. l. 5. r. be so p 192. l. 8. dele as p. 201. l. 28. r. love and adore p. 120. marg r. in Johan p. 209. l. 14. r. contact l. 20. r. Forms l. 27. r. Gravitation's being p. 210. l. 1. r. Mass p. 213 l. 2. r. Monstrous p. 215. l. 13. after of dele the. l. 24. after as dele te p. 219. l. 19. r. Microscopes p. 220. for or r. of 221. l. 17. r. they have p. 223. l. 22. r. as hard p. 229. l. 9. r. there are Cities l. 28. r. By the. p. 230. l. 18. r. exactly exprest p. 238. l. penult r. in which p. 239. l. 2. r. Ransom p. 380. l. 19. r. the means p. 385. l. 4. r. spared him l. 27. r. Born in Sin p. 386. marg r. Lerii Hist r. Celso apud ib. l. 13. r. Words p. 357. l. 12. r. to this p. 346. l. 5. r. was designed p. 354. l. 20. r. please p. 339. l. 3. r. Laws p. 321. l. 29. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 339. l. 8. r. Proselytes p. 342. marg r Judaic p. 343. l. 12. r. Calcare l. 13. r. Sententâ—is p. 363. l. 5. r. Man p. 393. l. 8. r. whom p. 394. l. 26. r. requires p. 395. l. 8. r. Sun p. 400. l. 26. r. Counsel p. 481. l. 11. r. theirs p. 485. l. 16. r. that they l. 24. r. was denied p. 492. l. ult r. all p. 497. l. 10. r. to them p. 511. l. 14. r. themselves p. 512. l. 2. r. themselves p. 517. l. 19. dele a p. 520. l. 15. r. with the rest p. 540. l. 5. r. Offences come or p. 527. marg Lib. 1. c. 15. p. 548. l. 19. r. it tends p. 549. l. 25. r. to which p. 551. l. 14. r. aâ—l Ages l. 26. he does p. 556. l. 1. r. disputed about l. 3. r. that this p. 558. l. 11. r. which Enemies l. 13. dele and. r. approved it self p. 559. l. 14. r. affect p. 562. l. 12. r. Rites l. 14. r. be able l. 25. r. way to be p. 566. l. 20. r. to our p. 570. l. 19. r as in p. 571. l. 20. r. Arts of p. 574. l. 14. r. have thought