hope of Immortality The vanity of Epicurus his great Antidote against the fear of Death viz. That Death cannot hurt us because when that is we are not p. 106. § XXII All the other Receits prescribed by the Philosophers against the fear of Death represented and exploded p. 113. § XXIII Without a future State no sufficient foundation for Vertue First Not for Temperance p. 120. § XXIV Secondly Not for Justice nor Magnanimity p. 124. § XXV The vanity of the stoical Philosophy represented upon its Principles neither Happiness nor Vertue without a future State p. 131. § XXVI An account of the Platonick and Peripatetick Morality out of Tully And first his consolatory Discourses in his first Book of Tusculane Questions against the fear of Death proved vain and ineffectual p. 139. § XXVII The same shewn of the Remedies prescribed in his second Book for the alleviating of Pain p. 147. § XXVIII The same shewn of the Prescriptions of the third and fourth Books against Grief and Trouble under the calamities of Life and all other perturbations of the Mind p. 151. § XXIX An account of the fifth Book where he forsakes the Peripatetick Philosophy as insufficient to his purpose and what good reasons he had so to doe p. 157. § XXX The defect of his own new way of philosophising proved in general p. 162. § XXXI That great and glorious Maxime of his Friend Brutus That Vertue is sufficient to its own Happiness proved to be a vain and empty saying without Immortality The Argument concluded p. 167. PART II. A Demonstration of the Divine Authority of the Christian Religion from the undoubted Certainty of the Matter of Fact and the uninterrupted Tradition of the Church § I. THE great advantage of the Gospel above the Law of Nature pag. 175. § II. The Evidence and Certainty of the Christian Faith demonstrated from the infinite and intolerable Absurdities of Unbelief p. 179. § III. This particularly proved according to our Saviour's own Advice in the Article of his Resurrection p. 182. § IV. The impossibility of the Apostles being false in their Testimony of it demonstrated from the first Instinct of humane Nature love of Life and desire of Self-preservation p. 184. § V. The same proved from its contradiction to all the principles of Prudence and common Understanding p. 190. § VI. The same proved from its inconsistency with and contrariety to their own design in publishing Christianity to the World p. 193. § VII The undoubted Truth of the Scripture History if written by those Persons whose names it bears p. 199. § VIII That it could not be written by any other demonstratively proved p. 204. § IX The Books of the New Testament whose Authority was sometime disputed proved to be of Apostolical Antiquity p. 207. § X. Mr. Hobbs's Witticism against the Divine Authority of the Scriptures that the Canon was first compiled by the Council of Laodicea confuted p. 210. § XI The concurrence of Jews and Heathens with the Testimony of Christian Writers p. 112. § XII Josephus and Saint Luke reconciled about the Tax of Cyrenius and the Death of Herod Agrippa p. 215. § XIII The famous Testimony of Josephus concerning our Saviour vindicated from the exceptions of Tanaquil Faber and other Criticks p. 222. § XIV The Testimony of Phlegon concerning the Eclipse at the Passion asserted p. 229. § XV. Pontius Pilate his Narrative concerning our Saviour to Tiberius and Tiberius his Opinion of it cleared p. 230. § XVI The Story of Agbarus proved genuine p. 235. § XVII The impossibility of the Apostles prevailing upon the Faith of Mankind if their Story had been false p. 239. § XVIII The speedy propagation of Christianity in all parts of the World described Philo's Therapeutae proved to have been Christians p. 241. § XIX The first disadvantage of Christianity if it had been false its being a late matter of Fact p. 251. § XX. The second disadvantage of Christianity was its contrariety to the Atheism and the Luxury of the Age in which it was published p. 256. § XXI The third disadvantage of Christianity was its defiance to the establisht and inveterate Religions of the World both Jewish and Heathen p. 259. § XXII The wonderfull success of Christianity notwithstanding all other disadvantages not to be ascribed to any thing but the greatness of that rational Evidence that it gave of its Truth p. 263. § XXIII That the Apostles planted the Christian Faith with so much speed by the power of Miracles and that it was not possible to have done it any other way p. 266. § XXIV The continuance of the same power to the next following Ages asserted and with the greatest Assurance appeal'd to by all the Advocates of Christianity in their publick Writings p. 275. § XXV The vanity of the Objection of the Ancients against the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles that they were wrought by Magick p. 283. § XXVI The vanity of the Miracles opposed by the Heathens to our Saviour particularly that of Vespasian in curing the Lame and the Blind p. 287. § XXVII An account of the evident Imposture of Apollonius Tyanaeus from his own Historian Philostratus p. 293. § XXVIII The Evidence of the Christian Faith from meer humane Tradition and that first publick by the uninterrupted succession of Bishops in the chief Churches from the Apostles p. 300. § XXIX The same proved by private Tradition and first of Saint Clement Bishop of Rome p. 308. § XXX Secondly of Saint Ignatius with an account of himself and his Epistles p. 311. § XXXI Thirdly of Saint Policarp Pothinus and Papias The wisedom of the Ancients vindicated as to the Paschal Controversie p. 320. § XXXII Of Hegesippus The purity of the primitive Church vindicated against all Innovators And Hegesippus his History against the cavils of Scaliger p. 328. § XXXIII Of Justin Martyr Irenaeus and a great number more p. 338. § XXXIV The Objection from the Infidelity of great numbers of Men in that Age answered the first ground of the Infidelity of the Jews was their invincible Prejudice in honour of Moses p. 343. § XXXV Their second great Prejudice was their expectation of a great Temporal Prince for their Messias and how they were crossed in it by our Saviour p. 349. § XXXVI Atheism the ground of the Sadducees opposing Christianity and fanatick Pride and Arrogance of the Pharisees p. 357. § XXXVII The Heathens opposed Christianity for the sake of Idolatry The Neronian Persecution onely a trick of State to secure himself from the fury of the Multitude by delivering up the Christians to it p. 363. § XXXVIII Domitian's Persecution founded upon jealousie of State against the Line of David Hegesippus vindicated in his account of it against Scaliger The jealousie both of the Emperours and the Senate about the Messias p. 370. § XXXIX An account of the following Persecutions and of the injustice and unreasonableness of their several Proceedings against
when they are quoted as such by those Persons that lived next and immediately after them and have passed from the very first Age through all Ages downward with an unquestionable Authority there is no possible account to be given how they should first come by it and then for ever after retain it unless they were for certain the Works of those Men whose names they bear Thus particularly Saint Matthew's Gospel is quoted by Clemens of Rome a Familiar of Saint Paul by Ignatius by Policarp by Papias the Disciples of Saint John not to mention Justin Martyr Athenagoras Irenaeus and all the other Writers of the Age next after the Apostles Now if this be so Then first Either this Gospel was written in the Apostles time or it was not If not how could it be cited by those that were their Contemporaries Secondly The things reported in it were either true or false if true then so is the Gospel too if false then it had destroyed its own credit by publishing known falshoods For though it is easie to forge a Story acted in former times without discovery and contradiction yet to make a Forgery of so wonderfull a transaction as was the History of Jesus of Nazareth so near the time in which it was pretended to have been acted and that without controll or contradiction nay with full credit and undoubted Authority as appears by these Apostolical Mens unanimous Testimony is if any thing in the World absurd and incredible enough to make up another Article of Infidelity Thirdly Either this Book was written by Saint Matthew or it was not If it was then it was the Testimony of an eye Witness that converst with our Saviour both before and after his Resurrection If it was not then how could it be thrust upon him in his own Age and gain so unquestionable an Authority with those Men that conversed either with him or with his Companions And now if we gain the Authority of this one Gospel that alone is a sufficient proof of the Divine Authority of the Christian Faith in that the main Foundations of it are here recorded viz. The Life Death and Resurrection of our Saviour which being believed as they are here recorded are an infallible demonstration of his Divinity The same account I might give of almost all the other Books of the New Testament in that they were received from the beginning as the most unquestionable Records of the Apostles But that were onely to repeat the same Argument so many times over and therefore supposing the same ancient Testimony concerning them as we have concerning Saint Matthew I shall leave the Reader to apply the same Argument that I have urged concerning him Neither do I this onely to avoid needless Repetition but because it has been often done by other hands particularly by Eusebius of old and Huetius of late who have vouched every Book by it self from the Testimony of the earliest Antiquity And therefore as for the truth of the matter of Fact I had rather refer to them than transcribe them though that being supposed the Argument is of the same force in every one as it is in Saint Matthew's Gospel § IX It is true that some few Books were for a good time doubted of as the Epistle to the Hebrews the Second of Saint Peter the Second and Third of Saint John and the Apocalypse But then first Suppose their Authority was still questionable the Christian Faith can subsist very well without them by the remaining Authority of those that were never questioned And though they are very usefull and excellent Discourses yet have they little peculiar in them that is not to be found in the other Apostolical Writings And if we understand the matter aright though they are written by Divine Inspiration yet are they not of the Foundation of the Christian Faith but onely pious Discourses proceeding upon the supposition of it Being written occasionally either to exhort us to an effectual belief of those things that are recorded in the Gospels or to encourage us against Tryals and Persecutions or to allay Schisms and Contentions or to confute Errours and Heresies or to reform Abuses and Corruptions so that though they had never been written the Foundations of our Faith were before firmly laid in the History of our Saviour's Life Doctrine Passion and Resurrection And therefore the Authority of all the rest is at last resolved into that of the historical Books that is the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles which being supposed true they warrant both the Reason and Authority of the Apostolical Epistles that onely deduce those proper and natural Conclusions that flow from their Premises Nay farther 't is not primarily necessary to Christianity to believe that the Books of the New Testament were dictated by an infallible Spirit but it is sufficient that the historical Books are good and authentick Records of the Life of our Saviour and the design of his Errand into the World and that the Writings of the Apostles are pious Discourses consonant with and conducing to the Ends of Christianity The Foundation whereof seems to lie in this one thing that Jesus Christ was sent into the World for the Work he pretended to come about by Divine Commission For God having set several Hypotheses of Providence on work in the World to bring all things to their end and perfection at last design'd this as the most compleat model of all Vertue Goodness and Morality So that if the History of those things which Jesus both did and taught be truly recorded by the Evangelists that is a sufficient evidence of his own Divine Authority But as for his Historians that comes in upon another score in that we know that the Authours of all those Writings were inspired and directed by the Holy Ghost but then that we know onely from the Writings themselves and therefore their Truth must be supposed antecedent to their Divine Authority and that being supposed our Saviour's Divine Authority is thereby proved and that being proved that alone is a full demonstration of the Divinity of the Christian Religion But secondly If those few Books were so long debated before they were admitted into the Canon that is an Argument of the great care and caution of the Church in its belief in that it would not lightly receive any Book till it was fully satisfied of its being Authentick and therefore its long doubtfulness and disputation about these Books clears it from all suspicion of rashness and credulity as to those that she always own'd with a full and unanimous Approbation Thirdly The Controversie concerning the disputed Books relates not so much to their Antiquity as their Authour and they are not brought in question because they were not written in the Apostolical Age but because it seemed uncertain by whom they were then written Thus the Epistle to the Hebrews some attribute to Saint Paul some to Saint Luke some to Barnabas some to Clemens but if it
the World both of the Sufficiency and Sincerity of the Witnesses Of their Sufficiency in that they were Eye-witnesses of his Miracles and Companions of his Conversation and were themselves sufficiently suspicious and incredulous and refused to be convinced till their distrustfull Minds were overborn by evidence of Fact Of their Sincerity not onely from the agreement of so great a number of honest and upright Men in the same Report but from their readiness to seal the truth of their Testimony with their Bloud And what greater Assurances was it possible for them to have of the truth of their Testimony than to be Eye-witnesses of what they reported And what greater Evidence is it possible for us to desire of the certainty of their Report than they have given us of their Fidelity So that here to withhold or deny our Assent is first a direct affront to the Faith and Reason of Mankind 't is to give the Lye to all the World and suppose none worthy of any Belief beside our selves For unless we will distrust the truth of all manner of Testimony and believe nothing but by the immediate information of our own Senses there is no remedy but we must of necessity quit all degrees of diffidence and suspicion in this Affair Secondly We must believe that Men endued with the first Principle of humane Nature love of Life should conspire to throw away their Lives onely to gain credit to an impudent Lye Thirdly We must either believe that Men endued with the Principles of common Sense would lose their Lives for a ridiculous Fable or that a company of Fools and Madmen could so easily perswade the World to believe such a wild Story meerly by virtue of their Report Lastly We must believe that Men who made it their onely employment to advance Truth and Vertue in the World should yet dye Martyrs to Falsehood and Villany and that when they layed down their Lives for the sake of Jesus they were not in good earnest Now laying all these things together and onely supposing that there was at that time such a Person as Jesus of Nazareth in the World I will appeal to the common Sense of Mankind whether 't is possible for any History or Report to come attested with more various more pregnant more unquestionable motives of Credibility than his Actions particularly his Resurrection as publisht to the World by his Apostles And thus having considered the evidence of their Testimony as given in by word of Mouth I come in the next place to consider their Testimony as recorded in their Writings and to shew into what wild Absurdities we must again run our selves if we will not believe the truth of the Scripture-history § VII First then We must believe either that the Gospels were written by those Persons whose Names they bear or that they were not If they were then we must believe that the things that they relate of their own knowledge were either true or false If true then we believe the truth of the Christian Faith If false then either for want of sufficient knowledge or sincerity Not for want of knowledge for two of the Evangelists Saint Matthew and Saint John were immediate Disciples and constant Companions of the Person whose History they wrote and so were present at his Works and Miracles and Eye-witnesses of his Resurrection Saint Mark and Saint Luke if they were not Disciples during our Saviour's abode upon the Earth they were intimate Associates with the chief Apostles that were So that if they wrote not from their own immediate knowledge yet however they wrote from the information of Eye-witnesses And as for the Acts of the Apostles written by Saint Luke Saint Luke himself was interested in the greatest part of if not all the History And so for the Epistles pretended to be written by the Apostles either they were or they were not if they were then their case is the same with that of the Gospel's that they had sufficient knowledge of the things they wrote of So plain is it that if those Persons wrote the Books of the New Testament who go for their Authours that we have no ground to suspect the truth and certainty of their Reports for want of sufficient knowledge and information And then as for their sincerity the case of their writing is the same with that of their preaching and so labours under all the foremention'd Difficulties and one more peculiar to it self viz. that when they had been so wicked as to contrive a wilfull Lye and so foolish as to publish it to all the World they should meet with no contradiction in so gross and manifest a Forgery These things were written in a very short time after they were done and therefore if they were false it is not possible that they should escape discovery or obtain any the least belief For example When Saint Luke reports that a Person born lame and known to all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem by his having beg'd daily for many years at the chief Gate of the Temple was cured by Saint Peter onely with invocating the Name of Jesus and that this Miracle was so very well known at Jerusalem that it immediately converted no less than five thousand Persons to the Christian Faith If all this had been a Fable the meer publication of it had provoked thousands of People nay the whole Nation of the Jews and especially the Citizens of Jerusalem to discover the falsehood and it could not but have met with so much Opposition as utterly and for ever to disgrace and destroy it self And so again When Saint Paul tells the Corinthians that our Saviour after his Resurrection was seen not onely by the Apostles and himself but by above five hundred Persons at once most of whom were then surviving If this had been a Lye it had been a very foolish and impudent one and too bold for any Man to vent that was not lost not onely to all modesty but all discretion and if any Man could have been so rash as to venture upon so lewd a falsehood it is impossible that he could ever have escaped the shame of discovery Especially when it was written to baffle some Fanatick Persons who denied that there was any such thing as a Resurrection for as all others would be eager to enquire into the truth of it for the satisfaction of their Curiosity so would those Men especially be concern'd to examine it more strictly if it were possible to confute their Adversary So that it is equally incredible that Saint Paul should be so weak as to vent so great a Lye that might be so easily contradicted and that when he had vented it he should be so lucky as to escape all manner of Contradiction from those who were concern'd to oppose him For if he had been convicted of falsehood in it all the Corinthians must immediately have turn'd back to their Infidelity and therefore when we find the Christian Faith prevailing every where
were written by any of them it is not much material so it were written by some of them and that it was so is very evident from Clemens his Epistle who has borrowed divers passages out of it word for word And to the same purpose is the Controversie concerning the Revelations all allowing it to have been of Apostolical Antiquity onely some will have it to have been written by Saint John the Apostle others by Saint Mark sirnamed John others by Saint John call'd the Elder but whosoever it was that wrote it it was written in the Apostolical Age and that is enough Though it is moreover sufficiently attested that Saint John the Apostle was the Authour of it both by the Testimony of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus who lived very near the time of its writing Lastly Those that were at first doubted of were not afterwards rashly admitted into the Canon but were admitted upon carefull enquiry mature deliberation and unexceptionable Testimony For as they were at first own'd by some and disputed by others this became a matter of debate in the Church and that obliged them to make farther enquiry after the evidence of their Authority and by that means the whole Church was at last satisfied of that which at first onely a part of it was able to prove And this might come to pass after this manner the Apostles directed many of their Epistles to particular Churches so that it is possible that some of them might be known to some Churches and not to others who therefore doubting of them put those who asserted them to have been true Apostolical Writings to prove their Assertion and they it seems brought such evident proof of their Tradition as gain'd the consent of the whole Church to their Authority And this probably they did by producing the Originals written under the Apostles own hands and reserved in the Archives of the several Churches For that many such there were Tertullian informs us even in his time and to them refers the Men of his own Age for their full satisfaction § X. And therefore it is but a very slender Witticism of Mr. Hobbs in derogation of the Authority of the holy Scripture when he has acknowledg'd that the Writers of the New Testament lived all in less than an Age after Christ's Ascension and had all of them seen our Saviour or been his Disciples except Saint Paul and Saint Luke and consequently that whatsoever was written by them is as ancient as the time of the Apostles yet were they made canonical Scripture onely by the Authority of the Church that is the Council of Laodicea which first collected the Canon of the Scriptures and recommended them to us as the Writings of those Apostles and Disciples under whose Names they go hereby wittily intimating or rather broadly asserting that these Writings were not canonical Scripture till that Council that is till the year 364. But first Supposing that it is not the Authour but the Authority of the Church that makes a Book Canonical then were the Books of the New Testament made so long before the Council of Laodicea in that we find them enumerated in the Apostolical Canons which though they were not compil'd by Clement as was vulgarly supposed yet were they the Decrees of Councils in the first and second Ages succeeding the Apostles So that upon this account they were stamp't Canonical almost as soon as they were written Secondly The Testimony of the Church neither is nor can be any more than a proof or an argument of the Original and Divine Authority of the canonical Books as any other Testimony is or may be Thus when we cite Clement of Rome Ignatius Policarp Justin Martyr Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus yes and Celsus himself that lived either in or near the Apostles times as giving in Testimony to their Writings no Man can without very wilfull impertinence thence infer that it is they that give the Books their Divine Authority when it is so evident that they are onely made use of as competent Witnesses to attest that they were no forged Writings but were pen'd by those very Persons under whose Names they go and if they are then they themselves make good their own Authority For Authority is nothing else but the right or power of binding our Assent which unless it be done by the Authour himself it is impossible to be done by any other and all the Councils in the World can never give Divine Authority to any Book if it had it not before All their Office is to bear testimony to their Authenticalness and it is no inconsiderable Evidence of it when so many grave and learned Men of the first Ages of Christianity upon mature deliberation of the whole matter in Council declare that upon the strictest enquiry they are fully satisfied that those Books were written by those very Authours whose Names they bear But from hence to infer as the Leviathan does that their canonical Authority that is their being the Law of God depends entirely upon the Decree of the Church as if it could give or take it away at pleasure onely becomes Mr. Hobbs's Logick and Modesty and them it becomes equally for it is very hard to determine whether the Conclusion be more impudent or more impertinent § XI And now beside this direct demonstrative proof of the Apostolical Antiquity and Authority of the holy Scriptures which alone is a full demonstration of the Divinity of the Christian Institution there is another more remote way of proving the truth of the History insisted upon by learned Men that is by the concurrent Testimony of foreign Writers Jews or Heathens who lived in or about the same time but this Evidence is so weak in comparison of that which I have already produced that I shall not prosecute it as an Argument in my Cause but rather consider it as an Objection against it viz. That if the History of our Saviour were so known and notorious as is pretended how comes it to pass that so little notice is taken of it by any Authours but onely such as were his own Disciples There were many other excellent Writers especially Historians about that time so that if his Actions had been so great and remarkable as his Disciples tell us they were it is scarce credible that they should pass him over with so slender a regard and scarce any mention of him In answer to this I shall in the sequel of this Discourse give a satisfactory and rational account of the Infidelity both of Jews and Heathens notwithstanding Christianity brought along with it all that Evidence that we pretend it did But beside this I shall here shew that the best Writers of that time concur with and so confirm the main strokes of our Saviour's History and by consequence all the rest that is interwoven with them especially when what they write is purely to deliver matter of Fact without any design to serve the cause of Christianity For when all things
were written by the first Authours of the Sect and that they could be none other is plain enough because there were no other Books beside those of the Old Testament peculiar to any Sect among the Jews But in the next place it is objected That Philo affirms that his Therapeutick Sect prayed onely twice a day whereas it is very well known that the primitive Christians had their several other hours of Prayer Yes and so they might have and Philo not know it However their most solemn seasons were Morning and Evening Prayer when as Philo tells us they resorted to their consecrated Chapels and that being their publick Devotion he therefore takes notice of that alone whereas their other hours of Prayer were rather set apart for private Devotion which was more or less frequent according to the zeal of the Votaries But Philo says he affirms that this Sect composed Hymns and those in various Measures and yet this custom is very well known not to have been used in the Christian Church till after the Reign of the Antonines It may be so in the Greek and Latin Churches but in a Church purely Jewish as it is certain this was and is so agreed to have been by all hands this custom was used from the beginning Neither was it any new Invention of the Christians but continued by them in imitation of the ancient Jewish Church But lastly says he The Men of this Sect according to Philo's description were very numerous and scatter'd all the World over whereas at that time there was but a very small number of Christians And it must be confessed that so they were if compared either to the rest of Mankind at that time or to their own multitude in after-ages And yet their numbers were very great if consider'd as they were by Philo as a philosophick Sect and so at that time Christianity was more observable than any other Sect spreading every where so fast and whereever it came prevailing so much But if this great and famous Sect that Philo speaks of were not Christians our learned Authour would have done very well to consider how it is possible that such a peculiar Sect of Men should at that time have been disperst through all parts of the habitable World and never be so much as taken notice of by any Writer of that Age but onely in this little Pamphlet of Philo. At least considering the exact agreement of the description it self to the Christians and the utter silence about any other Sect to which it might agree that seems to me no less than a demonstrative proof that it must be intended of them and of them alone And beside the evidence of the thing it self the reason of the Name is obvious enough for though as Eusebius says it is not much material to enquire whether Philo himself coind this Name as most agreeing with the manners of the Persons that he describes or whether the Christians might not have that Name given them in that place from the beginning the Name of Christians not being then used in all places yet it is but a synonymous word with that of Christians especially when turn'd out of the Hebrew into Greek for the word Jesus indifferently signifies either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saviour or Healer and therefore it was easie for Philo who was an Hebrew-Greek to interpret it by the Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Healer especially considering its near affinity both in sound and signification to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to heal so that the meaning of the Appellation is that they were the followers of Jesus i. e. the Healer And thus having recover'd this ancient Church from the perverseness of learned Men I shall conclude this Argument with an excellent passage of Irenaeus a very early Writer in these Western parts of the World Though says he there is a vast variety of Languages in the World yet the Tradition of the Christian Faith is one and the same in all places in Germany in Spain in France in the East in Egypt in Lybia in the remote as well as in the middle parts of the World and as there is but one Sun in the Universe so are all Men every where that are disposed enlightned by the same Truth Of the Unity of this Tradition I shall discourse in its proper place at present it is enough to our purpose that we have from hence a very early Testimony of its Universality § XIX This then being so that the Christian Religion prevailed as never Doctrine did let us a little consider what extraordinary advantages it had to recommend it self to the good Opinion of Mankind and here it is at first view apparent that it laboured under all the possible disadvantages in the World excepting onely its own naked and unassisted Truth so that had it not been for that undeniable evidence of proof that it brought along with it of its Divine Authority it was impossible it should ever have gain'd one proselyte over to its belief And here the first thing to be consider'd is that the whole frame of the Christian Faith is built upon a matter of Fact and that in it self so incredible that it could not have been believed had it not been vouched by some Testimony so unquestionable as to surmount its own incredibility For the Story was plainly this That under the Prefectship of Pontius Pilate there was a poor young Man in Judaea of mean Birth and no Education who pretended to be sent from God to cancel that Law which God himself had establisht by Moses to reform all the World to bring in a more perfect rule of Life and a more excellent way of Worship and that for a proof of his Commission he pretended to a power of working Miracles and often cured the Blind the Lame the Leprous and sometimes raised the Dead but by this means drawing great multitudes after him the Governours of the Jewish State grew jealous of his designs and so apprehended him as a disturber of the publick Peace and an enemy to the establisht Religion and for those crimes condemn'd him to the ignominious death of the Cross and that they took care that he should suffer with all the aggravations of shame and disgrace in sight of all the People of Jerusalem and yet notwithstanding that his heart-bloud was let out with a Spear whilst he was hanging upon the Cross he rose again the third day conversed familiarly with his Disciples and at last in the presence of great numbers of them ascended up into Heaven Now this Story was in it self so strange and prodigious so without precedent so full of appearing inconsistencies so contrary to the prejudices of the Jews and the opinions of the Greeks and withall so publick and so notorious that if it had not been certainly true it could never have been believed and if it had been false must have been demonstratively confuted For the passages
the Tables of the Consuls yet they were very carefully preserved in those times and as easily consulted by any inquisitive Person as any other publick Record and were so by all learned Men who made it their business to enquire into them or to convey the account of them to after-ages and particularly Eusebius who as he made use of many other helps and had all the other advantages of information would not want this that was so easie and so satisfactory as himself particularly informs us concerning the succession of Jerusalem that he transcribed it out of their own Archives Though setting aside the information that he received thence the History of the succession is sufficiently preserved by other Writers That of Rome is already cleared that of Antioch is as clear onely some Men are willing to raise a dispute about the immediate Successour to the Apostles whether it were Euodius or Ignatius probably it might be both as it was at Rome but if Euodius were the first it is enough that his Successour Ignatius was an Apostolical Man and familiarly acquainted with the Apostles and that from him the succession runs clear and undisputed down to the Council of Nice to which Eustathius its then present Bishop was summon'd and as he was a Man of eminent learning so he bore a considerable sway in it As for Alexandria the succession runs so clear there that I do not find that the most sceptical Adversaries in this point dare so much as question it and indeed the succession of learned Men in that Church was so early and so uninterrupted that it was no more possible for them to be ignorant of the succession of their Bishops than it is for any learned Man now not to know the succession in the See of Canterbury from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth To these it were easie to add many more if it were not too tedious but though I do not meet with any reasonable suspicion of an interrupted succession in any eminent Church yet I shall instance onely in two that next to those already mention'd most deserve our notice that is the Churches of Corinth and Athens an account of whose succession we have from Dionysius a learned Man and Bishop of Corinth in the time of M. Antoninus as indeed we have of many other Churches in his Epistles to them as for his own Church it were a vain thing to demand a particular account of its succession when himself was so near the fountain head and has withall accidentally let us understand his knowledge of what was transacted there before his own time and particularly by his account of Saint Clement's Epistle As for the Church of Athens he expresly affirms that Dionysius the Areopagite was their first Bishop and after him mentions Publius and Quadratus so that it was not possible there should be any unknown interruption in so short an interval This may suffice for a brief specimen of the certain succession in the most eminent Churches from the Apostles and by consequence of their undoubted Tradition § XXIX The next part of the Argument is to prove its more particular conveyance down from the very time of the Apostles through the hands of a great many wise and learned Men And for this reason it was that Clemens Alexandrinus after he had passed through the Discipline of several Masters and several Sects acquiesced at last without any farther search in the Christian Institution because they that preserved the Tradition of this heavenly Doctrine received it immediately from Peter James and John and Paul the holy Apostles as a Son succeeds a Father and by the Providence of God have brought it down to us planting those seeds of Doctrine which they derived from their Ancestours and the Apostles And it is a very good reason and becoming the wisedom of that learned Man supposing the matter of Fact to be true and that it is is evident from the succession it self in that the first Witnesses of Christianity next to the Apostles familiarly conversed with the Apostles themselves or with Apostolical Men. As Saint Clemens Bishop of Rome who wrote an excellent Epistle to the Church of Corinth received with great veneration in the Christian Church valued next to the holy Scriptures and therefore read with them in several Churches but especially the Church of Corinth And as it was the most ancient next to the Apostolical Books so was it the most undoubted Writing of the Christian Church it was says Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 received without controversie And it is cited by Dionysius Bishop of Corinth a short time after who affirms that it was then read in that Church every Lord's Day It is magnified by Irenaeus not onely for its own strength and piety but for the primitive Antiquity of its Authour who he says was conversant with the Apostles received his Christianity from them had their preaching still fresh in his memory and their customs and traditions in his eye as divers others there were then living that were taught by the Apostles themselves And Clemens Alexandrinus quoting this Epistle as he often does gives him the Title of Apostle for his primitive Antiquity But beside that it was unanimously attested by the Ancients it was never call'd in question by any of our modern Criticks who though they have taken infinite pains to destroy or impair as much as in them lay the credit of all the ancient monuments of the Church yet have passed this Epistle as undoubtedly genuine with an unanimous approbation Now this supposes the owning and the settlement of the Christian Religion in the World it asserts particularly the truth and certainty of our Saviour's Resurrection and beside several other Books of the New Testament quotes the first Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians in which the Apostle proves its undoubted certainty by the Testimony not onely of himself and the Apostles but of above five hundred Witnesses beside most whereof were then alive Beside this he tells us of the great labours and martyrdoms of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in asserting the Christian Faith and the great patience and constancy of vast numbers more for the same cause and this he speaks of as a thing present Let us says he consider the generous and worthy Examples of our own Age through emulation and envy the faithfull Pillars of the Church were persecuted even unto a most grievous Death Let us place before our Eyes our holy Apostles and so he proceeds to the acts and sufferings of Saint Peter and Saint Paul Now how could this have been done at that time if Christianity had been a meer Fable or what more unquestionable Tradition can we have of its truth especially of the Resurrection when he quotes the Gospels in which it is recorded the Epistle of Saint Paul in which it is proved by such a number of Eye-witnesses the Testimony of the Apostles and innumerable others that lived at the
claps one or both of these upon them to make up the Objection And yet beside that they are a confession of the matter of Fact it self they are things of which he was obliged by his Principles to entertain as little belief as of the Christian Faith For the power of Magick supposes some Spirits or Beings distinct from Matter and Motion and the Resurrection of Men from the Grave supposes Souls distinct from Bloud and Brains both which are meer contradictions to the Epicurean Philosophy And therefore he could not design to oppose them to the cause of Christianity for any truth that he supposed in them but onely thereby to intimate that as they were Fables so might that too Which is such a slender way of arguing as onely betrays its own weakness for when I have demonstrated the truth of a thing with all the Evidence that any matter of Fact is capable of is it not a poor come off onely to reply That yet there are the same kind of Stories that neither I nor perhaps any Man else believes There are so but then the difference is this that the Story that I believe is vouched with all the Testimony in the World and that is the reason of my belief but the Stories that I do not believe are on the contrary destitute of all manner of Attestation and that is the reason of my disbelief so childish is this great and shrewd reflection of this witty Philosopher But beside these there are several other passages that we have already consider'd and therefore shall not here repeat neither is it fit to pursue every bubble that he has blown up but whatsoever is any way pertinent to the matter of Fact that is indeed to the Argument though never so remotely I shall give it as much confutation as and perhaps more than it deserves And when I have done that will make up a new demonstration of the truth of Christianity for thereby we shall see how little its greatest Enemies were able to object against it The Cavils of his first Book then are such as these viz. Their clancular Meetings against the Laws their being a barbarous Sect as springing from the Jews and not the Grecians Moses not being so ancient as is pretended the World not being created as he relates because eternal and his teaching the Jews to worship Angels our Saviour's being a Magician himself being poor and his Disciples ignorant First then they kept clancular Meetings against the Laws Against what Laws Why against such as forbid the Worship of the onely true God and in its stead injoin the Worship of Idols and dead Men. But as for the publick Laws against the Christians I have already given a sufficient account of their Iniquity Though as Celsus has managed the Cavil it needs no reply because it is a vain thing meerly to urge the Laws unless he had vindicated their goodness and justice in that there may be bad as well as good Laws And therefore unless he would have undertaken to make good the piety of those Laws that command the Worship of their Heathen Gods that himself knew to be no better than very bad Men he had much better have let the Laws alone But in the next place the Christians are a Barbarous Sect that had their beginning among the Jews not the Grecians But 't is no matter whence they sprang so they bring a good evidence of the truth of their cause and of this Origen tells him they had from the very beginning to that very day a demonstration that exceeds all their pretended Learning and that is the demonstration of power or the power of Miracles But alas this objection of Barbarity is nothing more than meerly an Instance of the Pedantick pride of the Greeks who valued themselves above the common rate of Mankind and looked down with intolerable scorn and contempt upon all the World beside But as for their great improvements in learning above other Nations of which they so much boasted among themselves I need here say nothing though I must confess I find nothing so valuable among their choicest Philosophers but when I lookt for the reasoning of Men I could find little better in any of them than Childish tricks and sports of Sophistry But however to pass that by I am sure no Nation in the World ever equall'd the Greeks in the Barbarity of their Religion and though with this Celsus and his Companions were at that time sufficiently upbraided yet it is too well known that they could never be prevail'd with so much as to undertake its defence But in the next place Christianity he sayes gives no Laws of Morality but such as the Philosophers taught and were common to Mankind before To this Origen replyes 't is very true in that there could be no exercise for the Justice and Providence of God or obligation of the duty of Men without a sense and knowledge of the Laws of good and evil And therefore it was requisite to have the Seeds of those Moral Notions which God taught by his Prophets and his Son planted in the hearts and consciences of all Mankind that in the final judgment every Man might be justly call'd to an account for the faithful discharge of his duty But beside is not this a fit objection to follow that of Barbarity or their Ignorance in the Grecian Philosophy that the Christian Church agreed in all their main points and Doctrines with the Schools of the Philosophers The next thing objected is credulity and contempt of humane Learning But the charge of credulity is already answer'd by those undenyable proofs that are produced for the Divine Authority of the Christian Faith And as for the humane learning that they despised it was nothing but the Pedantry of the Grecian Philosophers who whilst they pretended to the height and perfection of all Wisdom fell into the extreamest ignorance and folly And to mention no more what thinks he of the celebrated Founder of his own Séct who with abundance of pride and arrogance boasted that he had rid the World of a God and a Providence but with such trifling reasonings as are below the Bablings and Follies of Children Let them therefore cease to upbraid the Christians with the neglect of their Learning when there cannot be a greater Argument of true wisdom and a right understanding of things than to see through its folly And in the next place as for the Antiquity of Moses he had as good have let that alone too when Porphyrie or any other Learned Man conversant in Histories of Ancient times could have told him that nothing is more evident or undenyable than that Moses lived many Ages before Linus or Orpheus or any other the most Ancient Writers among the Grecians But it is the custome of Epicureans to be confident upon the slightest Enquiries Otherwise if he had taken never so little pains in searching and comparing Ancient Records he could never have put such a
't is aggravated with all the circumstances that can heighten its baseness 't is without all plea of excuse or palliation And this certainly is the true account of the unexemplified severity of the Divine Justice against Christendom For never was any part of the World harass't with such remarkable Plagues and Judgments as this has been in that their biggest Impieties were but ordinary things if compared to the vileness of our Apostasie The times of their ignorance as the Apostle discourses God winked at but now that his wrath is so clearly revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men if they shall at any time persevere in hardness and impenitence they cannot but treasure up to themselves anguish and tribulation and wrath against the day of wrath and be still heaping up stores of vengeance till some time or other the flood-gates shall be opened upon them and overwhelm them in irrecoverable ruine and destruction At least to conclude with my believing Reader for if he be an Infidel I turn him back to the premises of this Discourse our Saviour has a second coming when he shall as he has said he will once more rise up from his Throne of Majesty shall put on the Robes of Justice and return accompanied with an innumerable Army of blest Spirits to destroy the wicked and disobedient and take vengeance of his open Enemies but much more of his disloyal and treacherous Friends And if so I shall onely desire him to consider what horrour and anguish must then seize all guilty Souls with what trembling and infinite amazement must every careless and disobedient Christian appear before all this dreadfull Glory And how will even their spirits dye away under an intolerable fear and confusion of Conscience Who can conceive the bitterness and the agonies of guilty Minds whilst they receive their last Sentence What a wild and stupid thing is Man that can believe and yet forget these things and sleep careless under the expectations of a day of Doom For 't is as certain that our Saviour will once come to condemn the World as he once came to redeem it and if he be the true Messias 't is then past question that he shall be our Judge and yet after all this how do Men who seriously think that they seriously believe these things live as if they were secure that they should never be call'd to any future account careless and forgetfull of all things but a few vanishing pleasures and trifles here below with slender regard or total neglect of their eternal Condition In brief the terrours of a future Judgment and the different portion of woe or bliss hereafter are so evidently declared in the Gospel that for any Man who believes it to live careless of them is in truth a sottishness that I can neither conceive nor express much less load or upbraid with any higher aggravation than barely its own folly and therefore I shall onely leave this great Meditation upon the Minds of my Christian Readers and conjure them all to a serious and habitual practice of Vertue and Piety as they hope for any benefit from our Saviour's first coming and desire to escape the terrour of the second THE END ERRATA PAge 1. line 4. from the end in the Preface for Vice 1. in Vice p. 127. l. 1. for Sextus r. 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