eternity So then whatsoever befals us here we shall conclude it requisite to provide that we be not miserable hereafter and consequently that we make our selves a friend of him that hath the issues of death in his power and moderates and dispenses the rewards of Eternity but there is no way to have him propitious to us but by obedience no reason to expect that he should satisfie our longing or fulfill our will to all Eternity unlesse we fulfill his will for our time of triall in this life and that is by the exercise of Religion only attainable So that the consideration of the Souls Immortality will likewise enforce us to a necessity of Religion Thus farre the common principles of naturall reason will force us even the first and most common principles of intelligence such as are grounds of clear evident and perfect demonstration so that it must be the Fool alone as the Psalmist speaks which can be an Atheist so that they are without excuse whoever glorifie him not as God thus farre those poor remains of sight which yet is left to the corrupted off-spring of our degenerate Parent will serve to leade us to the generall necessity of Religion but here indeed it Jeaves us destitute of the certain waies of pleasing God and consequently destitute of clear and solid grounds of hope of attaining to eternall happinesse And here it is that the Scoffers and irreligious men take occasion to reason themselves and others to destruction seeing that nature hath here deserted us and left us no infallible Rules of particular waies of devotion they contend that ther are none such and consequently that our Religion is vain and uncertain uncertain in the issue because uncertain in the grounds and principles And here now against them we pretend that wherein our naturall light hath failed us the mercy of God hath been pleased to supply us that God hath not left us without a certain rule and Canon of Religion not without a light shining to us in this dark place particularly that he hath given to us his holy Word to be a Light to our feet and a Lanthorn to our paths and that the books of the holy Scriptures are that Word of God PART III. Concerning the truth and Authority of our Scripture SECT. I. Petitions and Cautions premised to the question YOu will doe me the favour to consider that our present controversie is against those that deny the Authority of the holy Scriptures so that we cannot have the advantage of those Arguments which in every other controversie of Religion are the most valid I mean Arguments drawn from the Authority of the Scriptures themselves which is the best if not the only authentike rule of decision of such differences as doe arise such as doe indeed arise in the Church of God who all doe agree in a profession of that faith which is delivered in these holy Books this I say they agree upon in these generall tearms however with wonderfull heat and distance they vary in their judgements whether or no some particulars be of the recommendation of the Scripture It is then the common principle of Christians and the ultimate rule for the judgement of those that are within but as for them that are without the Church they ae likewise out of the jurisdiction of this Canon or Judge and to give over their incredulity or rather infidelity as some of our Divines have done with this ill-interpreted axiome for rejection that they deny our principles and so are not worthy to be disputed with or to referre them only to the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of the Scriptures and to the spirit working with the reading and hearing of them it might be to prove a scandall to them without and to such as are weak and wavering within it were tacitely to imply that we have no way to gain the question unlesse our of courtesie the adversary be pleased to yeild it to us to resolve the motives of our Catholique Faith into private impulses and particular dictates of the Spirit arguments of very great credit and reputation due to our selves as particular favorites of the holy Spirit but such as being deserted by the tenor and regiment of our lives render us dishonourable to that holy Spirit whereto we pretend whilest in the apprehension of men we doe at least obliquely entitle it to such actions as are inconsistent with it professing we hold our faith by private revelation and consequently have our understandings taken up by the holy Ghost at such time as our wils are guilty of enormous sinnes A fancy that is the mother of diverse prodigies lately broken into the Church as that either God sees no sinne in beleevers that Murther Adultery Incest Sacrilege any thing may be committed and that these are no sinnes in beleevers arguing thus that they which have the holy Spirit are free from sinne such as do beleeve the Gospel they have the holy Spirit because there is no other motive sufficient besides a private illumination so then they cannot be guilty of sinne but yet they may and doe commit such things as those we mentioned wherefore those are no sinnes Thus doth Satan transform himself into an Angel of light and act his Tragedies in the likenesse of the holy Spirit Nay we say and doe beleeve that the Devils also beleeve and tremble that the Kingdome of Heaven is like a Net which drew to shore fishes of all sorts some to be put into vessels and others to be thrown away We say and doe acknowledge to the glory of God that the internall light of the holy Scriptures is sufficient to make the man of God perfect to salvation and that in some it is the means of generating faith in men but that the most of those beleevers who have the happinesse to be trained up from their infancy in any part of the Christian Church by observing the esteem which in their Church is had of those holy Bookes they doe betimes upon the reputation of their Church receive them with a kinde of veneration that upon this motive they receive the faith and that others doe upon other inducements entertain it and once for all we say that besides the secret and free illuminations of the holy Spirit these want not Arguments to enforce the reason of unbvassed men to entertain the Scripture as the Word of God and that all such as without the engagement of perverse affections shall admit those Arguments in their apprehensions must necessarily be of that belief Before I betake my self to the proof of this assertion I must premise that by the books of the holy Scripture I mean such books of the old and new Testament as in the Church of England have been accounted Canonicall and that I intend not here to take up the controversie which is betwixt the Church of Rome and us concerning the books which are Apocryphall the drift of my discourse being against those who beleeve
Ghost by the imposition of their hands unlesse they could have healed all manner of diseases the blinde the lame the deaf the dumb c. by words touch shaddow or could have spoke all sorts of Languages or rather at one speaking could have brought to passe that men of every language should perfectly have understood their speech as if it had been their own Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and Judea and Cappadocia Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphilia Egipt and the parts of Lybia about Cyrene strangers of Rome Jews and Proselytes Cretes and Arabians they all heard them speak in their own tongues Nor did it please the Lord of the spirits of all flesh here to stint the dispensations of his holy spirit to them he gave them not only the power of miracles but the spirit of prophecy he unfolded to them the everlasting rolls and admitted them into his decrees and would not hide from them the things which he meant to bring to passe in the generations to come he urged them by his holy Spirit and they foretold the fates of the world they foretold it and God brought it to passe I cannot stand to reckon up all their prophecies which they delivered and shortly after they were fulfilled of the spreading of that leaven of the growth of that grain of mustardseed of the mighty and wonderfull propagation of the faith and the perpetuall enduring of it of the rejection of it by the Jews and the receiving of it by the Gentiles of the hatred of the Jews and the torments which were to be undergone by the glorious Martyrs of the destruction of Ierusalem and the calamities of that faithlesse Nation all these make it evident that God was with them that there is infinitely more reason to beleeve the writers of the New Testament then any other writers That none can disbeleeve them without forfeiting his reason by asserting that God would give testimony to imposture SECT. VI That the Old Testament is the Word of God A Proposall of three severall assertions whereby it is concluded HAving demonstrated that the Books of the New Testament are all of them to be received under the authority and credit of the word of God that the dogmaticall parts are to be received upon the credit of the Histories and the Histories upon the common principles of reason and consequently that no man professing to be guided by reason and judgement can refuse them It remains that we demonstrate the same of the Old Testament and that we take off those colours and answer those Sophisms which by some men are urged against the Scripture and so conclude this argument Before I proceed to the former of these I must call to your remembrance that which in the beginning I did premise that under the title of the Books of the Old Testament I did comprehend those and those only which in the Church of England have been admitted under the name of the Books of the Canonicall Scripture and that I had no purpose at all to meddle with the controversies which are betwixt us and the Romane Church about the books which are Apocryphall the reason why the Church hath entertained them only into the Canon is because they onely were of the Canon of the Jews beleef before the coming of our Saviour they only being written in the Hebrew tongue and consigned by Esdras at the return of the Jews from the Babilonish captivity as is generally beleeved amongst the Jewish Rabbines whilest the Prophets Haggai Zachary and Malachy were yet alive Now although the way to demonstrate the truth of them considering the question apart and by ic self be the same with the way whereby we did demonstrate the truth of the New Testament by asserting the Authours of them to have been those men to whom they were evermore ascribed and from the qualities of the things delivered in matter of History and the characters of those persons who have delivered the severall parts of it to demonstrate that no reason can be imagined why such men as those are and must be supposed to be should deliver such impostures as those must be supposing them to be impostures that no end or motive can be discovered which they should propound to themselves for their reward but on the contrary that many reasons are visible why they should have held their peace if they durst have concealed those things from the world the reasons from safety gain glory and the like as might either jointly or severally be demonstrated of even all the books of the Law and of the Prophets which make up the greatest part Moses together with the Law having delivered likewise the shame of himself and Miriam and Aaron The Prophets having been all or most of them hardly used which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted Although I say this had been the naturall way to demonstrate the matter in question taken singly and apart by it selfe yet partly to avoid the similitude of matter which renders unpleasant even the most profitable discourses and partly to make a present dispatch of this Argument I shall content my self to have put you thus in minde that all those generall arguments for the truth and credit of those writers are common to these as well as to the others and that there needs no variation of them being to be applied to the question now in hand any other then the interchanging of their severall names their personall relations and qualities and other accidents In a word that the kindes of the Arguments are the same and the force of reason alike in both allowing only the difference of gradual and individuall circumstances This being premised the summe of what I shall further say is briefly this That 1. In the time of our Saviour and the Apostles these Bookes were true 2. That since that time they have not been changed From which two Propositions it will follow that still they are so and consequently that the Books of the Old Testament as well as of the New are the Word of God As touching these propositions the truth of them will be inferred by this ratiocination 1. The Books which we now receive are the same which the Jews do now receive 2. The Books which the Jews now receive are the same which they did formerly receive even up to the consignation of their Canon 3. The Books which then they did receive were true SECT. VII The first Assertion proved That the Books of the Old Testament which we now receive are the same which the Jews doe now receive THat those Canonicall Books which we receive are the self same with those which the Jews at the present do receive is a case so plain that it needs no manner of proof but only this that it is obvious to every man to compare our English or Latine Bibles with the Hebrew Bibles which are used amongst the Jews at present and daily put forth by the present
upon design seeing the differences that are do no way inferre any difference either in the Doctrine or History of the Testament it was of the favour and mercy of God to preserve to his Church those various readings that by comparing them together and likewise with the rest of the holy Scriptures both the true sence and the true reading of them might at once be manifested SECT. XI Objections against particular parts briefly proposed and answered NOw Objections against particular books of either Testament will be found likewise inconsiderable 't is true that many of them have been either doubted of or rejected by some men but those who have pertinaciously refused them have done it rather out of the interest of their passions and corrupt affections then out of judgement Briefly Ecclesiastes hath been rejected by some as Written by Solomon in his dotage Placing felicity in sences But the first of these can no way be proved nay the contrary appears by the whole tenour of it well considered and the latter is evidently confuted by the conclusion Fear Cod c. for God shall bring c. The Canticles have been taken for a Love-song compiled in a complement to Pharaohs daughter but it had been but a slender complement to tell her that her eyes were like fish-pools and her nose like the tower of Lebanon that looketh toward Damascus The Prophecy of Daniel hath been charged by Porphyrius to have been a History written after the things were done written in the time of Antiochus and imposed upon the world under the credit of the name of Daniel but beside the testimony of our Saviour it appears out of History that that Prophecy was shewed to Alexander the great in his advance towards Jerusalem 150. years before Antiochus New Testament Hebrews was rejected by the Latine Church because the Authour was unknown and because of some passages especially seeming to favour the Novatian herefie I answer 1. It is not the name of an authour which gives credit to his Writings but that character of his person which is drawn from his abilities and integrity Now these were never doubted of in that Authour 2. Those passages are very well to be understood otherwise then in favour of the Novatians 3. It was ever received in the Greek Church and recited amongst the Canonicall Books by the Councels of Nice Laodicea and Carthage 4. If we are to beleeve the Western Church had grounds to doubt of the credit of it at such time as it did not admit it we may as well beleeve that that Church had reasons which satisfied them of the authority of it at such time as they did receive it The Epistles of Saint James 2d of St Peter the second and third of St John Jude Revelations have all of them been doubted of for some time by some parties whether or no they were indeed written by those authours under whose names they are now received but though they were some time doubted by some they were alwaies received by others and those Churches which did refuse them so long as they were unsatisfied are to be supposed to have been satisfied when they did receive them and so we ought to give as great if not greater cedit to them then to such others as had not been questioned inasmuch as that which hath been deliberated and debated and then decided is to be credited as well as that which silently hath passed on unquestioned And now I have with brevity as I suppose congruous to such an Essay as I intended made evident the last assertion which I undertook That to disbeleeve either the whole body of Scripture or any part of it there is no reason or not any sufficient reason {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Eternity Necessity Simplicity Independency Incorporeality Immensity Unity Omnipotence Omniscience
undertaken that whosoever beleeves the Historicall part of the Scripture must beleeve the Doctrinall p. 81. SECT. III. The kinds and degrees of the causes of Historicall Faith in generall p. 89. SECT. IV. An Application of those generall grounds to the History of the New Testament and a proof of this Assertion That there is as great reason to beleeve the New Testament as to beleeve any other History in the World p. 97. SECT. V. That there is much greater reason to beleeve the History of the New Testament then any other History p. 206. SECT. VI That the Old Testament is the Word of God A Proposall of three severall assertions whereby it is concluded p. 119. SECT. VII The first Assertion proved That the Books of the Old Testament which we now receive are the same which the Jews doe now receive p. 124. SECT. VIII That the Books which the Jews doe now receive are the same which they have received ever since the Consignation of their Canon p. 128. SECT. IX That in our Saviours time these Books were true and consequently were the Word of God p. 135. SECT. X. That there is no reason to disbeleeve the Scriptures Objections briefly proposed and answered first generall Objections against the whole p. 138. SECT. XI Objections against particular parts briefly proposed and answered p. 149. PART I. Preface SECT. I. ALthough I am not without apprehension that the discourse which I design may be prejudged unprofitable as pretending to lay again that foundation which hath long since been layed in the mindes of all that will be readers of it yet when I consider those scandals which the loosenesse of our times have offered even to the religious and the bold and horrid pride and presumption of Atheists and Epicures which by a prophane and confident asserting the uncertainty of all things undervaluing the abilities of our Natures to raise an opinion of their personall excellencies have laboured to introduce into the world a generall Athiesm or at least a doubtfull Scepticism in matters of Religion And when we consider the nature of our mindes which is upon any ill suggestions apt still to receive some impression those things being of like operation with Calumny which if it be confidently and boldly charged will be sure to leave some scarre behinde it When we observe this use and inclination in our selves which is in things where we have not a belief of what is spoken or do not give perfect credit to an accusation yet to admit of a suspicion that things may be as they are spoken and although the strength of our contrary beleef do keep us from a full assenting to the thing in question yet if it happen that the things concern our selves and we have happened to crosse our opinions or our beleef in our way of practise such is the perversenesse of our hearts that in such cases they will make use of the beleef of others especially if they have the reputation of knowing men to oppose against their own belief and interpose betwixt the lashes of their consciences and themselves I say the present condition of Religion and the corrupted nature of our hearts being such I cannot think it uselesse nay not unnecessary to raise a discourse of Religion even from the common Elements and Fundamentals and for a while neglecting the more knowing party of men to undertake so far as the argument will bear to follow the way of demonstration and leade on the weakest from such things as they themselves cannot deny to the acknowledgement of the mysteries of our faith and to the practice of the laws and injunctions of our Religion SECT. II. Of the designe and definition of Religion the prejudices and pretences against the Christian the sum of what is in controversie deduced to three Questions 1. Of the Being of God Attributes 2. Of the Immortality of the souls of men 3. Of the Authority of Scriptures WE may begin with the consideration of the definition and the design of our selves in the matter of Religion however the practise of the world may contradict it I hope we may take this definition of Religion as one that is agreeable to the apprehension which all of us have of it Religion is a resignation of our selves to God with an expectation of reward The designe indeed of Religion however it ought to be meerly obedience to the pleasure and the will of God and height of it is barely terminated in his glory so that the highest act of it is Adoration yet I say the designe of mens Religion is that it may be well unto themselves and to bring them to an estate of happinesse The very definition of Religion supposeth a Godhead according to that of the Apostle He that cometh to God must believe that God is The very designe of it supposeth that both the party worshipping is capable of rewards and that God likewise doth not neglect his services in the following words of the Apostle that he is the rewarder of those that diligently seek him Again the resignation of our selves supposeth the resignation of our supreme faculties those are our understandings and our wils viz. our wils to an obedience to his will to a performance of his injunctions to a submission to his providence and a resignation likewise of our understandings to his truth Now it is agreeable to reason as well as to the Apostle that we cannot practise the will of God unlesse we know it and that we cannot know it unlesse it be discovered to us So then in our profession of Religion there are these supposals That there is a God and That he is a rewarder of those that seek him and that supposeth that they are capable of his way of rewarding That the diligence of our seeking must be exercised in a way conformable to his will and That to this purpose we want not rules for this conformity These are I say the generall suppositions of every Religion under Heaven You see that the being of Religion is in self-resignation but the end of that resignation it is reward still retaining in minde that caution that mercenarily to labour for reward is not the supream exaltation of Religious acts but that it is the ordinary degree of mens Religion and an allowable and commendable step and a degree unto the other it being the strong powerfull motive to Moses to neglect the momentany pleasures of Pharaohs Court because he had respect unto the recompense of reward I say it is the naturall way of reason in every act to look at some or other end and to undertake no labour without an eye upon reward Now so it is that some men who account themselves the wisest observing as they think the design and issue of Religion and comparing the labour and the wages they with much wisedome as they think conclude that all the businesse of gain which comes by Religion is no way worth the pain and labour They see that all things come
it is beleeved because of his abilities to know and because it makes not things appear to be strained in his behalf because it might have been contradicted if it had been otherwise and because he is delivered to us in the complexion of Histories as a man of honour that would not write a lye That the Histories of Salust are true it is beleeved because he wrote of things done within the compasse of his time whereof he might well informe himself he was a man of knowledge and could not gain by any thing that he hath delivered if it were untrue That all of these Histories were written by those that bear the name of them there is hardly any man that doubts because there is no improbability in reason they have been constantly so received in the world and mentioned successively in Authors following one another from their severall generations down to ours We see the various degrees of qualifications some of them upon which we build an historicall beleif that this beleif comes short of the clearnesse of our assent to a Mathematicall demonstration is evident because there is an absolute impossibility that things should be otherwise there being a contradiction involved in the very tearms and in adjecto but here is no impossibility but only an exceeding difficulty which makes up not indeed a Mathematicall but a morall impossibility it is possible that all men may combine together to say that they have seen such things as they have not seen because every man is a lyar but how they should come to doe it or to what end is so invisible and inconceivable that the matter taken in the grosse is altogether incredible It is absolutely possibly that all those writings which we receive as delivered down from ancient times may have been of late devised by some men to abuse the world and put upon other names but to what end any men should ttke the pains and how they should fit them with circumstances and make them all depend upon each other in a constant succession agreeing in the mention of persons places and actions is a thing so difficult as that it would argue madnesse to beleeve and conclude him to want the use of reason that should reject the light of all antiquity SECT. IV. An Application of those generall grounds to the History of the New Testament and a proof of this Assertion ' That there is as great reason to beleeve the New Testament as to beleeve any other History in the world SUch madnesse then and no lesse it were to reject the Histories of the holy Scriptures no lesse madnesse nay it is much greater and that not only because they are of more concernment to us then the acts of men of former times but even because of the advantages of the delivery of those Histories We will beginne with those of the New Testament And here first The Books of the New Testament were written by those whose Names they bear that the four Gospels were written by the four Evangelists and that the Acts of the Apostles were written by Saint Luke c. Now that these Books were written by these men it is impossible affirmatively to demonstrate all that can be said is that there is as great evidence of it as of any other writing in the world that by whatsoever argument it can be made appear that any Books have been written by those who are reputed for their Authours in antiquity that the works of Homer or Plato or Aristotle or Tully are theirs by the same it may be made evident that these have proceeded from our Authours Have they been successively delivered so have these have they been continually mentioned under those names so have these have they been acknowledged by all parties so have these those that in the primitive times did oppose the doctrine of Christ yet did it not under the pretence that their Books were spurious neither Jews nor Pagans had the impudence to make that objection Julian the Apostate doth freely acknowledge Cyrill 10. Grot. 3. ver. that the Books which by the Christians were received under the names of Peter Paul Mathew Marke Luke they were the writings of those Authours It is true that there are some Book received of the Canon of the New Testament whose Authors are unknown as the Epistle to the Hebrews and some others but concerning them I hope to speake in answering those objections which are made against the Scripture In the mean time we may justly assume it for granted that those whereof no question hath been made in ancient times they are the writings of those to whom they are ascribed And now this being supposed which cannot with any pretence of reason be denied it follows clearly that the things they have related are to be beleeved for first the things which they have delivered they were matters easily to be known in respect of the things themselves they were matters of fact and speeches performed by our Saviour or by themselves Secondly the acts were acted publiquely in the face of the world and the speeches which they deliver as spoken by others they were for the most part spoken publiquely either in the Synagogue or in the Temple or to the multitude somewhere gathered together on a mountain by the sea-side in publique places so as they might have easily been contradicted if they should have delivered a falsehood Thirdly the parties which have delivered them had all the opportunities in the world to know the truth of things they were things done either by themselves or within their owne sight or hearing for the greatest part or at least wise in the times and places where the reporters lived Mathew and John the two Evangelists which wrote the History of Christ they were two of his Disciples two that were intimately acquainted with his actions and his words more familiar with him then the rest the one was the disciple that Jesus loved and used to lean in his bosome as they lay at meat the other was usually taken with him when most of the rest were left behinde and hence it follows that they themselves were present at almost all the acts and speeches which they have delivered Marke and Luke the other two Evangelists they lived in the same territories at the same time where and when our blessed Saviour bestowed his conversation and moreover Saint Marke was as 't is very probable first a Disciple of Saint Paul who was miraculously chosen to deliver the doctrine of Christ Afterwards he was undoubtedly a disciple and companion of Saint Peter who was an Apostle of our Saviour did live familiarly together with him was present at almost all things which Marke hath written and besides whatever is delivered by Saint Marke is to be found in the writings of the Apostles Luke was an individuall companion of Paul and so he might learne of him such things as he delivered besides that he saith that he spoke with those that were eye-witnesses of the
Rabbines residing in the severall parts and dominions of the world upon such a comparison it will be found that we do own the self same Books which they do without any difference in the number or inscriptions chapters or verses of those Books such as do doubt of this they must take the pains to try and to resolve themselves by their own experience or else if they are not able or not willing to take the pains to make themselves their own resolvers they must of necessity beleeve the multitude of those that have already tried it and finding it to be generally granted and allowed of all men and all parties however differing otherwise amongst themselves they must upon that account either beleeve the Proposition or else devise some way how and for what end it should be brought to passe that the learned men of all Nations and Religions Jews Christians Papists Protestants Turks Pagans c. should agree together to impose upon that part of people that cannot or will not fit themselves to resolve a question so easie and of such concernment Now that all these sorts of men doe thus agree must likewise be beleeved untill some one instance can be produced to the contrary the truth is the thing being a matter liable to the triall of common sence and obvious to all the world there is no more controversie made of it among the learned then of a principle in Mathematicks It is true indeed that as concerning the interpretation of those books there is and almost ever was a great deal of controversie amongst the learned but none as to the number and to the parts of those that are delivered amongst the Jews and it is likewise true that the beleif of farre the greatest number of Christians doth in its kinde depend upon the questionable fidelity of translators and that fidelity of theirs if it be to be tried that must be done by means which are not exempt from question all therefore which can be said in this matter is that unlesse we can attain to skill sufficient for our own satisfaction in this question we take into thought the qualifications of Translators in respect of skill and of fidelity and impartially that we consider all those rationall heads and grounds whereon men use to settle their belief amongst which no greater evidence can be expected then there is in cases where all agree and such is the main body of ours and other translations likewise this that I have spoken of translations is indeed a digression from the proposition I should demonstrate seeing when we speak of the sacred authority of the holy Scriptures we mean it not of translations as they are such but primarily of the originals and of translations only so far as they are consonant to those originals And thus much is indeed sufficient both for the assertion and explication of that proposition that the books which we receive they are the same which the Jews receive SECT. VIII That the Bookes which the Iews do now receive are the same which they have received ever since the Consignation of their Canon BUt secondly the Bookes which the Jews do now receive they are the same which they did formerly receive upwards to the time of our Saviour and his Apostles nay beyond them to the very time of the consignation or sealing up the Canon of their beleif that is their Bookes were never changed nor corrupted It is not here my purpose to assert that never any letter or word hath been changed or formerly read otherwise then now it is in the Jewish Bibles I am not so far unacquainted with their Keri and Chetib or with the notes of the Massoreth but that there hath not been made any variation so considerable as to shake the authority of the present coppies Of these various readings I hope to speak in the answering objections In the interim I am to demonstrate that they have not received any considerable depravation And now this being a negative Proposition common reason doth presently offer it to every ones judgement that it cannot be positively proved the very nature of such propositions contradicting that manner of proof the arguments then which are producible are some of them taken from the causes why they could not morally be corrupted the other from signs that de facto they have not been so The first argument then is taken from the multitude of copies which it was impossible to combine together to corrupt upon design or that they should accidentally agree together in the same casuall corruptions It is certainly apparent out of the Histories of the Jews that after their first and second captivities they did store themselves with multitudes of copies of the sacred books and that both publikely and privately that which before they were dispersed either was not so necessary to them or else was not so apprehended by them so long as the first Temple was yet unrazed we reade but of very few if any Synagogues of the Jews in other Nations out of the bounds and terrirores of Iudea but after by their long and wofull captivity when their confidence in the protection of their Law and their Temple had by their sad experience and wofull suffering worn it self out of their mindes their Temple being utterly demolished the best of them began to think that it was possible that even the Law might fail Habbakuk and they now bethought themselves of making use of the rationall means of the preservation of it in the mindes of men and seeing there could not be any readier way thought upon then the erecting of Synagogues and writing many copies these were the courses which they took they had had experience of the inconvenience of having one only copy in the losse of that copy which being found again by Hilkiah the Priest made King Iosiah to rend his clothes at the hearing of those things written in the Law and accordingly we finde before the coming of our Saviour many Synagogues erected in forrain places and the books of the Law and the Prophets in every Synagogue reade every Sabbath day now every dispersion encreased the number of Synagogues and Books And besides the first captivity of the Tribes carried into Media by the Assyrians we shall finde them even after they had licence from Cyrus to return continuing still abroad and upon many new occasions again dispersed those that reade over sacred Histories and prophane shall finde them seated in most of the Eastern Countries adjacent Iudea or not farre distant from thence the Macedonians invited them to Alexandria the cruelties of Antiochus the civill warres of the Asmonaei the armies of Pompey and Lossius drove many of them from their habitations the cities of Cyrene of Asia Macedonia and Lycaonia the Islands of Cyprus and Crete and divers others even Rome it self they were all of them furnished with Temples and Synagogues of the Jews now so it is that the Books of all these did agree together amongst themselves
which they could not have done if any and not all of them should have been corrupted and that all of them should either casually or by design be corrupted besides that no end can appear to encourage such a designe the thing it self makes it impossible Besides had any such thing been they must to make a correspondence have corrupted likewise the Septuagint translation which for almost three hundred years before our Saviour was extant in Egipt that I speak nothing of the Chaldee Paraphrase extant before the time of our blessed Saviour so then as far as the nature of a morall subject will admit we have shewed as from the causes that the Scriptures of the Old Testament could not be corrupted Now as from the signes we have likewise powerfull arguments that to our Saviours time they were uncorrupted because our Saviour never discovers any corruption of the Text which certainly he would not have spared at such times as he taxes the Scribes and Pharisees of making the Law of God of none effect by their traditions Now that the Hebrew Canon hath not been corrupted since our Saviours time we have this sign likewise that never any of the ancient Fathers have in their greatest heat of zeal against the Jews accused them of such corruption though Justin Martyr complain of wronging the Septuagints Translation and certainly if they should have corrupted them upon design either before or since it would have been in all those places which conclude against them for Christ the true Messiah that stumbling stone upon which they stumbled and fell but those do remain unaltered The truth is to them were committed the Oracles of God and they have by the visible ordination of the providence of God discovered so much care and diligence that way as is not to be found to have been bestowed upon any other writings under heaven witnesse the Criticall notes of their Massoreth which gives an account of the numbers of of letters in every Book almost and almost if not altogether of every various lection I conclude then that they have never been corrupted SECT. IX That in our Saviours time these bookes were true and consequently were the Word of God BUt we in our Saviours time they were true and the Word of God as appears by our Saviours testimony and the testimony of the Apostles who still referre to them as being of divine inspiration as being the truth and Word of God their using the testimony almost of every particular Book as anthenticall their disputations founded upon their Authority Particulars in this kinde are so many and so plain that without any more speaking I will conclude that we are to receive the Old Testament upon the credit of the New and the New Testament as I have formerly demonstrated upon greater reason far then any other writings in the world and consequently that we must receive the Books of the Old Testament upon the same Authority We have already discovered some of those many reasons whereupon we are to receive the Books of the Old Testament and the New under the credit and authority of the Word of God Besides those whereupon I have insisted there are many more some of them taken from the quality of the writers some from the manner of the writings the former shewing that those men from whom they proceeded were not fit persons to devise such things they being many if not most of them simple and unlearned men the latter manifesting that such things are not of their nature obvious to be devised because they transcend the wit and invention of man the Majesty and simplicity of the stile the concord and harmony the end and scope the power and efficacy the antiquity besides the Testimony of the Spirit in the hearts of men But the evidence of truth no way depending upon the multitude of arguments or reasons and all of these being insisted on in some or other of those Authours which are obvious I shall at this time finish what remains of that which at the first I propounded which was to shew That as there are many and important reasons moving wise men to receive them so there neither are nor can be any sufficient arguments on the contrary to make men to refuse them SECT. X. That there is no reason to disbeleeve the Scriptures Objections briefly proposed and answered first generall Objections against the whole 'T is true indeed that many both of old and later times have refused either all or severall parts of the holy Canon and it is not to be hoped or expected that they should ever be generally received by all the world there must be heresies and amongst the rest there alwaies have been and sure there ever will be Antiscripturians the greatest part of the world have ever lived according to sence and appetite and to prove that de facto it is denyed is not to manifest that there is reason why it is so yet seeing there are of those disputing and theoreticall hereticks as well as practicall to conceal or dissemble the arguments which are alleadged against the truth it would be to betray the cause that we have undertaken and give occasion for some Jealousie that their Objections are unanswerable To come then to an issue some have rejected All by reason of  Impossibilities    Repugnances    Mutations  Parts accusing them as Sine nomine Authoris    Dubitati    Ab intrinseco matter Those who refuse the whole Scriptures they are some of them Atheists others professe themselves Christians and yet doe deny the authority of the written word pretending to private and secret illuminations as the last rule of their actions the design of my discourse being against the former I shall only intimate the frenzy of the later They pretend that that which we call the written word is not the Word of God because 1. The Word of God is God himselfe 2. Christ is the Word of God 3. The Letter kils 4. The Word of God is spirit and life These are the arguments which by some Enthusiasts are used against the written Letter And for answer to them we may only observe how by arguing against the authority of the Scriptures these men do tacitely assert it for taking their arguments out of it and proceeding no further either by reason or revelation to the discovery of their antecedents but barely resting in the recitall of those words which are there written they do resolve all the power and force of their argument into the authority of those very writings which they would impugne and consequently they do at once deny and grant the authority of the Scripture which is to deserue the Epithete which is given them of fanaticall Enthusiasts That the Word of God is God himself taking the Word of God for the immanent act of the diuine understanding is indeed a truth attainable by other principles by those I mean from whence the absolute simplicity