that being but 150 Years before the Council of Nice the same it was then And if the Christian Religion was as far spread in the time of Trajan as it was Sixty Years afterwards the same will hold as to all the Roman Empire and if it was not it must be derived to those Provinces that wanted it from those where it was profess'd which amounts to the same thing for if the Christian Religion in the time of Trajan was not the same it was Sixty Years afterwards no account can be given of so general and wide an Agreement then in so many different Provinces as has already been prov'd the same Christian Religion was profess'd in at that time in all which the Religion then profess'd must be supposed different from the Original it was derived from Sixty Years before even in those very Provinces where it had been so long ago established as well as in those where it was later entertain'd which is absurd to imagine And further since by the account we have of these Times it plainly appears that the Christian Religion was very far spread under the Reign of Trajan and consequently published long before and since as far as it was then spread it was the same it was Sixty Years afterwards when as we have already proved the greatest part of the Roman Empire agreed in the same general Form or Scheme of Religion which was profess'd at the Council of Nice and in the same Religious Institutions and Practices as were then in use it follows from hence and from what has been before advanced that the Christians we find in Nero's Time were of the same Religion and Faith with those that lived at the time of the Council of Nice and consequently that all the common Historical Matters of Fact mention'd in the New Testament respecting the Original of the Christian Religion the Place where it first appeared the Time and Manner of Publishing and Propagating it the Characters of those concern'd in the Work and the Fortune that attended both them and their Doctrine must necessarily be true as I shall endeavour to shew more particularly by summing up the whole Argument in this manner It has been proved before That the generality of Christians at the time of the Council of Nice acknowledg'd all the same Scriptures that we do now and that most of the Books of the New Testament were universally received then and believed by all Christians of that Time to have been so from their first appearance in the World The Books which were thus universally received were as universally thought to have been written by those Authors to whom they are ascribed and to have been all written by their several Authors at several times between the end of Caligula 's Reign and the beginning of Trajan's And indeed if they believ'd the Scripture-History as 't is plain the Christians who received these Books did they must have believed likewise that all the Books of the New Testament being written by such Authors whose Names they bear were writ within the compass of Time assigned for them for from the Time and Manner of the Publication of the Christian Religion it appears that they could not have been any of them written sooner and from the Age of the Authors it is plain that they could not have been Works of a later Date This being the general Faith of all Christians at the Time of the Council of Nice must likewise according to what has been already proved the universal Belief of Christians 150 Years before this Council sat and if the same Scriptures were in the same Manner received and acknowledg'd in the greatest part of the Roman Empire 150 Years before this Council of Nice they must have been generally known and received in the Time of Trajan as far as the Christian Name then reach'd they could not otherwise have been propagated so far and wide in less than Threescore Years time And if the Christians in Trajan's Time knew and believ'd these Scriptures then was the Christian Religion under Trajan the same it was under Nero For in every Book of the New Testament the Author plainly supposes the Christian Religion established and all the principal Matters of Fact and Doctrines there recorded believed before he wrote and therefore if all or any of these Books were received at Rome in the Time of Trajan as the Epistle to the Romans must have been when Sixty Years afterwards it was believed by the greatest part of the Roman Empire to have been sent to them then does it follow that all the Christians that received them must have certainly known that they believed the same Facts and Doctrines which they found in those Books ever since they profess'd the Christian Religion and that all others who were of the same Name must have profess'd to believe the same things too the Nature of that Religion so requiring and consequently that the Christian Religion at Rome was the same in the Time of Nero it was then the Neronian Persecution being not above Thirty five Years before the Reign of Trajan which is so short a Period that several Christians of Trajan's Time might have been Christians under Nero too and must have known whether Christianity then Preach'd to them was the same with what they found written supposing they were converted before they had seen any of the Books of the New Testament and if they were not they might as easily have inform'd themselves whether that part of the Christian History they found in these Books respecting Rome and particularly Nero's Time were true or not And their Conversion to Christianity by the means of these Books necessarily proves them satisfied of the truth of the Relations there given Now if most of the Books of the New Testament were received in Trajan's Time and if Christianity was the same under Nero as under Trajan and the same Preach'd as Written then does it necessarily follow not only that these Books were written by those Authors whose Names they bear some time between the Death of Tiberius and beginning of Trajan's Reign but that all the common Historical Facts mention'd in the New Testament and which I have undertaken to prove under this Head are certainly true otherwise they could not have been so generally and firmly believed so near the Time they are there reported to have happen'd in For the Christians that lived in Trajan's Time and received these Books as written by such Authors must consequently believe that the first Promulgation of the Gospel or Christian Religion by Jesus Christ happen'd but Seventy Years before and that during that space it was Preach'd throughout the Roman Empire by such Persons and in such a Manner as is there related that it was embraced by great numbers of People in all the considerable Provinces and Cities of it established by the Vnion of large Societies and Congregations under the same common Form of Discipline and Witness'd and Confirm'd by the various Sufferings of the first
Teachers and multitudes of their Disciples and the Christians that lived in Nero's Time must have believed most of this to have happen'd in half that space Thus by the help of meer Tradition only does it plainly appear that the Christian Religion was the same at the Time of the Council of Nice as it was when it was first Publish'd and Preach'd to the World and consequently that all the principal Matters of Fact in the New Testament such as I have before given an account of were all along believed by those who Styled themselves Christians and therefore all those common Historical Facts the certainty of which 't was my present business to shew must be true All the Authority I have made use of to strengthen this Tradition is the Testimony of some Heathen Authors of unquestionable Credit for the proof of this one point only that there were a great many Persons Styled Christians who were persecuted for what they believed and did as such at Rome by Nero and in other remote Provinces of the Roman Empire by Trajan Which two Matters of Fact happening at such particular distances from the supposed Original of the Christian Religion I chose to mention rather for the better Illustration of the Matter I was to prove than for any distinct proof of it For taking it for granted that the Matters of Fact concerning the Council of Nice and the State of the Christian Religion at that time were such as I have represented and allowing further what I think I have proved that the Christian Religion was professed in most if not all the same Places from whence the Nicene Bishops came and in the same manner as to the Belief of the Scriptures and use of those Religious Customs and Institutions I have before instanced in 150 Years before as it was then it follows from hence that without the help of any particular Testimony of Heathen or other Writers or any other Ancient Monuments of History that all those common Matters of Fact which I have mention'd at the beginning of this Head must needs be true For according to this Supposition the greatest part of the Roman Empire believing the Books of the New Testament 150 Years before the Council of Nice must consequently believe that in less than 150 Years before that Time the Christian Religion was first published to the World at Jerusalem there being no such Thing as a Christian before and that within that space of Time down from the first Publication of the Gospel to their present Belief of it it must have been Preached and Propagated through the greatest part of the known World in the Way and Manner recorded in the Books of the New Testament and that the same Persons who Preach'd it were the Authors of those Books Copies of which had been dispers'd so far and multiplied to so great great a variety that most of the People that profess'd the Christian Religion in every Country had them in their Hands which Matters of Fact and other Particulars depending upon them if they had not been true could never have been so generally believed at a Time so near that in which they were supposed to happen that the first and remotest of all was not 150 Years past and the others must fall out much later But further besides this proof that I have brought from Tradition there are a great many other concurrent Authorities which do not only confirm the Certainty of the Tradition but are of themselves a distinct and sufficient Evidence of the same Truths which we have already proved that way For at the same Period of Time wherein we have chosen to consider the State of the Christian Religion and from whence we have traced it up to its first Original and shewed the Constancy and Integrity of the Conveyance viz. At the Meeting of the first General Council of Nice we find a great many fixt and standing Monuments of several Ages and different Places that every body might have recourse to and examin when they pleased all which did very exactly and fully prove the Antiquity and uninterrupted continuance of the Christian Faith as to all the principal Matters of Fact related in the New Testament Eusebius one of the Bishops of the Nicene Council before mention'd has writ a History of the Christian Religion from its first appearance in the World down to his own Time and the Book is now extant warranted to be his by the Testimony of abundance of succeeding Writers and question'd by none Now in this History he gives us a very large and particular account of the State and Condition of Christianity in all the several Places of the World wherever he could learn it had been entertain'd which Account consists of a vast variety of Matters of Fact beside those already instanced in as preserved by Tradition the Memory of most of which was not only preserved the same way but was further secured by lasting Monuments and Records The most remarkable Matters in him which I think sufficient to my present purpose to mention for the further Confirmation of those Truths I have already proved may be referred to these three Heads Customs and Vsages Relicks Buildings and other such like Monuments Books and written Words And first it is to be observed that at the time of the Council of Nice besides those Religious Customs and Institutions before instanced in which were general and constant in all Ages and Countries since the first Original of Christianity there were several other Customs and Vsages then Practised some of which obtained as generally as the former did and others were confined to some particular Places such were the Annual Feasts of Christmas Easter and Pentecost stated times of the Year and Week for Fasting Anniversary Commemoration of the Sufferings of Martyrs and often Meeting at the Places where they Suffered using the Sign of the Cross upon several occasions calling Children by the Names of the first Apostles and Saints c. These and many other such like Customs as these are plainly founded upon and suppose an antecedent Belief of Christianity and particularly those principal Facts Recorded in the New Testament upon which the whole Christian Religion turns These therefore are both fresh proofs of the Truth of those Facts we have undertaken to prove and do also strengthen and confirm the Tradition of those other Customs and Institutions we have before instanced in especially if we consider what the same History that gives us this account informs us of viz. that the Christian Customs now mention'd were not look'd upon as such necessary parts of that Religion nor of so early an Original as the other and that both these and the former were in several Places and Ages practised after several Manners with different additional Rites and Ceremonies which general Reception of some Customs and general distinctions betwixt Necessary and Vnnecessary Substance and Manner in all that were received are certain Arguments of a sincere and well-examin'd
themselves in Christ their whole lives are taken up in Travelling and Preaching and labouring with their hands to maintain themselves their whole Business and Design is to persuade People to embrace the Gospel of Christ many are their Troubles and Sufferings upon this account all which they undergo very chearfully and never shew the least sign of fear or regret for any thing that happens to them they never decline an opportunity of Preaching the Gospel or converting People to the Belief of it upon any prospect of danger whatsoever and no Power or Authority of Rulers and Governors no severity of Persecutors can discourage them in their Work The other Persons concern'd in the Ministry and Propagation of the Gospel of Christ by whatever Names and Offices distinguished whether Apostles Disciples Deacons Pastors Teachers Prophets Evangelists and Presbyters Bishops or Rulers so far as we know any thing of them by the Scriptures were all of them very near of the same Character with the Twelve for meanness of Birth and Education simplicity of Manners Steadiness of Faith and adherence to the Doctrines they taught Piety and Devotion Self-denial and Disinterestedness Constancy and Resolution under continual Sufferings and a chearful preference of a future expectation in another Life to all considerations whatsoever which this World could afford But one of them named Paul is represented to us under some particular Circumstances which make his Character very different from that of the rest He was Educated in all the Learning of the Jews at the feet of one of their greatest Doctors and by some passages we find in the Epistles ascribed to him we collect that he was acquainted with the Heathen Greek Authors he was at first a zealous Enemy of the Christian Doctrine and a fierce Persecutor of all that called upon the Name of Christ but being in an extraordinary manner call'd by God and by several wonderful Signs and Appearances converted to the Faith of Christ he became a zealous Preacher of the Gospel had a larger and fuller Commission of Apostleship granted to him than any of the Twelve was exercised with a greater variety of Afflictions for the sake of the Gospel laboured more abundantly in the establishment of the Christian Religion in the World and writ more for the Confirmation of those in the Faith whom he had converted The generality of the first Common Believers who were not call'd to the Ministry were of the lowest sort of the People and several of them scandalous and notorious Sinners before their Conversion but some there were of the better and richer sort and some Rulers and Priests that believed in Christ though but a very few that we read of The Character of which Believers after the Ascension of Christ and first Sermons of the Apostles was this That the Multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own but they had all things common neither was there any among them that lack'd for as many as were Possessors of Lands or Houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them at the Apostles feet and distribution was made to every Man according as he had need In other places it is said of them that believed That before they were Servants of Sin but after they had obeyed from the heart that Form of Doctrine that was delivered them they were made free from sin and became the Servants of Righteousness that in times past they walked according to the course of this World fulfilling the desires of the flesh and mind but now being created in Christ Jesus unto good Works did walk in them that some of them who were before Fornicators Idolators Adulterers Abusers of themselves with Mankind Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers and Extortioners were washed and sanctified by the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God many of them that believed came and confess'd and shewed their Deeds many also of them which used curious Arts brought their Books together and burnt them before all Men. But in process of time when the number of Believers encreased tho' the greatest part of them manifested their Faith by their Works turn'd from the Vanity of Idols to the Living God renounced all the hidden Works of Sin and Darkness and were ashamed of those things in which before they took pleasure yet Offences and Heresies did spring up among Christians notwithstanding all the care of those that first planted the Churches and those that afterwards presided over them and some there were that walked disorderly that Preached Christ out of Envy that taught other Doctrines than what they had received that turn'd after Satan that loved this present World that put away Faith and made Shipwrack of a good Conscience but these bore no proportion to the numbers of the Faithful whose Faith and good Works were spoken of throughout the World Such were the first Publishers and Believers of the Gospel of Christ And the Persons who endeavoured to discourage the Belief and oppose the Establishment of it by all the means they could but especially by Contemning Disgracing Reviling and Persecuting those who were any ways concern'd in maintaining or propagating this new Religion were among the Jews their Kings Governors Chief Priests Elders and Chief of the Jews as also the Scribes Pharisees and Saducees who were the Men of greatest Learning and Authority in the Jewish Nation some of which are represented as very wicked Men and notorious Hypocrites and others as disbelievers of a Future State And among the Gentiles the Magistrates Rulers and Chief of the Cities Philosophers Sorcerers Craftsmen for Idolatrous Shrines and certain lewd Fellows of the baser sort most of which were stirred up and moved to what they did by the Jews that lived among them This is the shortest and plainest account I could give of the Subject of the New Testament or the Matters contained in that Book which are such as every Body that reads it will find there and consequently must subscribe to the truth of the Representation however he may doubt of the reality of the Original The next thing to be considered in the New Testament is the Way and Manner in which the several Matters before mention'd are there related with such other circumstances as referr to the Form or Composition of the whole Book and the several parts of which it consists Now 't is plain to any Man that reads over the New Testament with the same care attention and impartiality as he does another Book that it was not all writ by the same Person at one continued time but by several Persons at different times and upon different occasions and that in general 't is writ with great plainness and simplicity of Stile without Art or Affection and with many extraordinary Marks of Sincerity and Truth But to be more particular the four first Books called Gospels
of the New Testament were acknowledg'd by the greatest part of the Nicene Fathers and most of them by all 'T is plain from all the publick Decisions and Orders of the Council That they are grounded upon some or other of the Books of Scripture now in our Hands if they may be supposed to have been written before that Time And that they were Eusebius one of the Bishops of this Council is a sufficient Witness who in a History he has left us gives us an Account of the Time when they were all writ and the Authors they were writ by which is another very good Argument That most of the Nicene Bishops had the same Bible For Eusebius being not only present amongst and conversing with several of them but having a great Share in the Management of the Controversy they came to decide and being of a doubtful Faith in the main Point determined by them or as some suspect a Favourer of the Side condemned must have had occasion either in publick Debate or private Conversation to have cited most of the Books he acknowledg'd for Scripture and had any doubt arisen concerning the Authority of them such a considerable and important Controversy as would have sprung from thence would have produced a Determination of the Council upon it or to be sure have been as much taken Notice of and as faithfully Recorded as any Thing else that was done there Besides 't is plain from the History we have of this Council by Cotemporaries and others of the Age immediately following That some Scriptures were appeal'd to their Authority acknowledg'd Forms of Expression drawn from thence a Difficulty made of departing from Scripture-Terms till other equivalent Expressions were found necessary to distinguish those who believ'd Scripture in a right Sence from those who interpreted it wrong And therefore if Eusebius or Athanasius who were present at the Council or any other Writer cotemporary or near in Time to it says any Thing of this Nature he must be judg'd to mean That the same Scriptures were acknowledg'd by the Nicene Council which he himself owns So that if Eusebius or Athanasius own'd all the Books of the New Testament which we do 't is manifest That when he talks of the Scriptures in the Account he gives of the Nicene Council he must mean the same that he does when he mentions them upon any other Occasion And the like will hold of other Writers But further to put this Matter past all doubt 't is certain That the Canon of Scripture was some time or other afterwards fixed as we find it now with all the same Books in the New Testament that we have at present The Occasion of making such a Canon was because it was doubted of some of the Books Whether they were the genuine Works of those whose Names they bore and if they were not Whether they were of equal Authority with the rest Now the way that was taken to remove all Objections and fix the Authority of those Scriptures which were to be the unalterable Standard of the Christian Religion was by examining the general Tradition of all the different Churches where Christianity was professed upon which Examination when it was certainly known That such and such Books which were doubted of by some because they had been but lately received among the Christians of those Provinces and Churches to which they belong'd had been constantly acknowledg'd under the same Style and Character with the rest by the Generality of the other Churches of Christians these were likewise as universally receiv'd as the other and their Authority in the same manner allow'd The Consent of so many different Churches in the same Opinion concerning certain Books and agreeably to their Opinion in the same careful Preservation of them unalter'd most of which Churches had continued separate and independent one of another ever since the Date they ascribed to those Writings and several of them at such a Distance as to have had no communication with one another since that Time such a Consent I say as this whensoever the Canon of Scripture was first determined in a general Meeting was thought sufficient to establish the Authority of any Book that was doubted of and accordingly the whole Canon we now have was afterwards universally acknowledg'd Since therefore we find That all the Scriptures of the New Testament were universally received some time after the Nicene Council and since the Establishment of the Canon and universal Submission to it were founded upon a general Tradition so faithfully preserved in the far greatest part of Christian Churches that all other Christians were fully satisfied of it From hence it follows That the greatest part of the Nicene Bishops must own the same Scriptures we do now because the greatest part of the Churches from whence they came did But not to insist upon this we will consider only those Scriptures which were never doubted of by any Christians and consequently must have been received by the whole Council of Nice These were according to Eusebius who in his History gives us a Catalogue of them the Four Gospels Acts of the Apostles the Thirteen Epistles of St. Paul which have his Name to them the First Epistle of Peter and the First Epistle of John And Eusebius could not say this had he known of any of his Fellow-Bishops of the Council who denied either the Authority or general Reception of any of these Books Supposing therefore That these were the only Scriptures acknowledg'd by all the Nicene Bishops then what was said before concerning several Religious Customs and Practices there mention'd will hold in like manner of those Books of Scripture and such or such a particular Bishop that was present at this Council might himself by a short easy and unquestionable way of conveyance be assured That for 150 Years last past the same Scriptures had been acknowledg'd as well as the same Religious Customs practised in that Church and Province from whence he came and consequently That the main Scheme of Christian Doctrine and the publick Profession of it had been all that Time the same Now if we apply the foregoing Observations to all the several Bishops of this Council and suppose them all satisfied of the constant Tradition of the same Scriptures Customs as are before specified in the several Churches and Provinces from whence they came as the History of these Times relates the Matter of Fact to have been then is the unanimous consent of all these Bishops an infallible Argument of the truth of what they testifie And if there had not been such a constant Tradition in any of these Churches or Provinces as we suppose then the Original Introduction or Intermission of any of those Scriptures or Customs within the same compass of Time would have been in the same Way and Manner and with the same Certainty known to the Bishops of those Churches and Provinces where such Introduction or Intermission happen'd and what was first introduced
Tradition Another Set of Testimonies which Eusebius furnishes us with in behalf of the Christian Tradition are Relicks Buildings and other such like Monuments several of which were remaining in his Time and seen by him himself such were Christian Burying-Places and Sepulchres with the Names of Christians upon them particularly those of Peter and Paul Statues and Pictures particularly the Statue of the Woman cured by Christ of the Bloody Flux Pictures of Christ Peter and Paul in colours These were all seen by Eusebius himself as was likewise the Episcopal Chair of James at Jerusalem several Christian Libraries and several Christian Temples before they were pull'd down and destroyed by the Order of Dieclesian These and many other such like Monuments remaining in Eusebius's Time whether all the Particular Traditional Reports concerning them were true or false might easily be perceived upon view or divers other ways be known to be Ancient and whatever Age they were of they must be good proofs of the Belief of the Men of those Times and consequently of the truth of Christianity so far as we are now concern'd to prove it But the Tradition of Christianity from its first Original down to the Council of Nice with all the principal Matters of Fact upon which it is built is further and more especially secured to us and the truth of all the foregoing Testimonies confirm'd by Books and written Records vast Numbers of which of different Kinds and different Ages written by several Men of different Countries Characters Designs and Religious Persuasions were extant in Eusebius's Time a great many of which were generally known multitudes of Copies of them being dispersed throughout the World and several of these Writings were carefully preserved in particular places and either never communicated further by any Transcripts or Copies to remaining there to be seen in their Primitive State after Transcription Now all these Writings of what kind soever they are whose Authority is made use of for the establishing the Christian Faith I shall rank under certain distinct Heads in order to shew what sense and weight they have in the proof of what they are brought to maintain The several Books and Writings then to be considered are Copies of the Holy Scriptures viz. of the Books of the Old and New Testament Publick Acts and Records belonging properly to Societies and not to particular Authors Genuine Writings of profess'd Christians who by reason of their common Agreement in some certain Doctrines of Christianity are Styl'd Orthodox Books writ by Hereticks who were Men of particular Opinions different from those commonly received by other Christians Jewish and Pagan Books containing such Things as have Relation to Christianity Forged and Supposititious Writings of uncertain Authors which do some way or other concern the Christian Religion As to Copies of the Scriptures found in the hands of Christians in Eusebius's Time I have these Things to observe that they were then multiplyed to so great a Variety that hardly a Christian Family was without some of the Books That they were Translated into several different Languages That in those Countries where the Translations were of common use a great many Copies in the Original Language were preserv'd That in most of the great Cities and Episcopal Churches there was a Copy in the Original Language more ancient than the rest from whence the other Copies were taken and Translations made That such Copies as these might not only by Tradition but by several intrinsick Marks be known to be ancient and their Age pretty nearly determined That upon comparison there was a very great Agreement betwixt these ancient Copies preserved in several very distant and remote Churches That such care had been taken in Transcribing and Translating from them that the differences found between any Copies either of the Originals or Translations were very inconsiderable That all Christians thought themselves concern'd to preserve the Jewish Canon of Scripture as well as the New Testament and therefore Copies of the Old Testament in the Original Tongue and Translations of it into several Vulgar Languages were multiplied carefully Transcribed and kept together with those of the New That upon a diligent search into the Matter it was found that besides those Copies of the greatest part of the Books of the New Testament which were alike to be met with in all Christian Churches there were others received in some Churches and by a constant Tradition then vouch'd to be as early and of as great Authority as the rest From all which I think I may safely inferr That the Writings of the New Testament were as early as they are pretended to be and that the Christian Religion had its Original in Judea at the time assigned it which being less than 300 Years before Eusebius and the Books of the New Testament which give an account of the Christian Religion and plainly suppose an antecedent Propagation and Establishment of it in a great part of the World being writ some time after the first Publication Eusebius or any other Person of his Age who throughly examined the Matter concerning the Copies of the Scriptures then received must needs be satisfied from this Consideration only that the Books of the New Testament had as early a Publication in the World as is now ascribed to them and consequently that the Christian Faith was somewhat earlier and the same then as it is in these Books represented to have been This will further be made out from the next sort of Writings to be considered viz. Publick Acts and Records belonging properly to Societies and not to particular Authors such were Catalogues of Bishops Decrees of Synods Letters from Churches and Societies of Men general Records of remarkable Matters particular Acts and Monuments of Martyrs Psalms Hymns Creeds and Forms of Prayer The most famous Churches especially those constituted by Apostles kept the Succession of their Bishops with great care laid up in their Archives recording their Names and days of their Death in a pair of writing Tables This Eusebius tells us was the Custom of the Primitive Christians and these Tables he assures us he diligently examined and he was very exact in the Account he took of them as particularly appears from what he says concerning the Church of Jerusalem viz. That he found from Old Records fifteen Bishops with their Names who had succeeded in that Church from the Apostles to the Siege of the Jews in Adrian 's Time but could not find preserved in Writing the space of Time each Bishop spent in his Presidency over that See The like diligence and exactness are observable in the Account he gives of the Succession of Bishops in several other Churches most of their Names being set down and the times of their several Succession Presidency and Death punctually determined and Reasons given why he could not speak with the same certainty of the rest omitted There were likewise extant in his Time a great many Canons and Decrees made by several Councils and
account in a great measure may be given of the Heathens whose Writings do any ways concern Christianity For neither those of them that were Instrumental in the Persecution of Christians nor those who endeavour to overthrow the truth of their Religion by Arguments do deny any of those matters of Fact related in the New Testament which we have distinguished by the Title of Common Historical Facts and a great many of them are confirm'd by other Heathen Writers who treat of their own affairs only or mention Christian Matters occasionally as they happen'd to be intermixt with those Things they designedly writ about Nay some of those that writ expresly against the Christian Religion do not only allow that Christ pretended to Miracles and that he did those Things Recorded of him in appearance as was the Opinion of several of them but that he did really work those very Miracles he pretended to But then they endeavour to lessen the Credit of them and destroy the Doctrines built upon them either by ascribing them as many of the Jews likewise did to Magick and Evil Spirits or shewing that several of their own Religion had done as extraordinary Things as any that were attributed to Christ and his Apostles A great many of these Heathen Writings are quoted some of them particularly Answer'd and Confuted and several large Pieces of them inserted in the Books of Christian Authors There we find besides a great many Passages out of Private Authors and Common Traditions several Rescripts Edicts and Letters of Roman Emperors either mentioned or transcribed and several Publick Acts and Records compiled by the Authority of Heathens and in their keeping appeal'd to with the greatest Confidence and Assurance imaginable as extant in the Writers Time that Cites them and generally known Particularly we meet with divers of these Heathen Monuments in the Christian Apologies which were at several times by different Writers Dedicated to Roman Emperors the Senate of Rome and Governors of Provinces Many such Proofs and Evidences as these of the Christian Faith and History are still to be found in the Christian Books which were writ before Eusebius and are now extant But there were also extant in his Time several of the same Heathen Books out of which those Testimonies were taken and others which gave the same Account of Christian Affairs which was look'd upon by Eusebius to be so notorious a Truth that when he talks of the State of Christianity under Domitian he confirms what he says by the Authority of Heathen Writers without thinking it necessary to name any particular Author Eus E. H. l. 3. c. 18. So mightily says he did the Doctrine of our Faith flourish in those forementioned Times that even those Writers who are wholly estranged from our Religion by which he plainly means Heathens have not thought it troublesome to set forth in their Histories both this Persecution and also the Martyrdoms suffered therein and they have also accurately shewn the very Time relating that in the Fifteenth Year of Domitian Flavia Domitilla Daughter of the Sister of Fabius Clemens at that time one of the Consuls of Rome was together with many others banished into the Island of Pontia for the Testimony of Christ There are likewise several Heathen Authors still separately extant out of which may be Collected a great many Passages which give a concurrent Evidence of the Truth of the Christian History as Tacitus and Pliny before quoted and divers others and there is nothing to be found in any of them that does in the least contradict any of the principal Matters Fact now to be proved But besides these Writings which are acknowledged to be Genuine and the true and proper Works of those Persons whose Names they bear whether Orthodox Christians Hereticks Jews or Heathens there were a great many other in the Primitive Times of Christianity written by uncertain Authors and either purposely Published under false Names and Titles with a design to promote the Belief of the Christian Religion in general or to advance and defend some particular Notions and Practices which the Authors of them approved and had a mind to recommend to the World or else by some mistake ascribed to those Persons to whom they did not really belong Such were a great many false Gospels Acts Epistles and Revelations and several other Historical and Doctrinal Discourses Published under the Names of Christ the Virgin Mary the Apostles and Eminent Christians of the succeeding Ages such were also several Letters said to be Writ by Pilate Seneca and Lentulus the Oracles of the Sybils and several other Writings attributed to some considerable Heathens a Passage in Josephus relating to Christ c. All which supposing them all Forged or only some of them so some accidentally mistaken and others doubtful whoever were the Authors of them so long as it plainly appears they were of such and such Antiquity they are certain proofs of the general Faith of Christians at the respective Times when any of them were Published and consequently of the Truth of those Facts in question forasmuch as they all evidently suppose an antecedent Belief of the Christian Religion founded upon those Facts as is visible by all the Remains we have left of them and therefore are as good Arguments of the Truth of what I am proving as the most Genuine unquestionable Writings of any other Author whatsoever viz. That the common Historical Facts related in the New Testament are true Which Point I think is proved by such a multitude and variety of Evidence that I may take it for granted That Jesus Christ who lived and was Crucified at Jerusalem in the Reign of Tiberius Cesar was the first Author of the Christian Religion That the Characters Sufferings and Pretences of Christ and his Apostles and the Doctrines taught by them were the same we find represented in the Books of the New Testament and that the Christian Religion there delivered was propagated through the World and those Books writ according to the Time Manner and Circumstances there mentioned between the middle of Tiberius and the beginning of Trajan's Reign and consequently that the Christian Faith as to the principal Facts and Doctrines contain'd in the New Testament was always the same from the Time of Tiberius to the Council of Nice and from thence to the present Age the greatest part of the Scriptures having been always acknowledged to be the Genuine Works of those whose Names they bore and to contain the unalterable grounds of the Christian Religion and the Sum of what Christians were obliged to believe 2. In the next place then I am to prove that those extraordinary Facts Recorded in the New Testament which we call Miracles and Prophecies were really true according the Relation there given of them That they were constantly believed to be true by all Christians ever since the Time in which they are first said to happen has already been proved but whether their Faith was well
that were done by the Hands of his Apostles and Disciples the truth of which was likewise owned and acknowledged by avast Multitude more both of such as believed the Gospel and of such as rejected and opposed it and violently Persecuted the Teachers of it To omit the Testimony of true Believers thus it is Recorded concerning those upon whom the Gospel of Christ had no Power nor Influence The Rulers Elders Scribes and High Priests among the Jews when they summoned Peter and John before them for curing a Lame Man could not deny but that a notable Miracle had been done by them which was manifest to all them that dwelt at Jerusalem They were afterwards filled with Indignation and took Counsel to slay them because they could not restrain them from doing more Miracles in the Name of Christ but they never questioned the Truth of the Facts Stephen full of Faith and Power did great Wonders and Miracles among the people but he was accused and condemned by the Council of the Jews not for deceiving the People with false Miracles but for speaking things against the Holy Place and the Law for saying that Jesus should destroy that Place and change the Customs which Moses delivered them when at the same time it is said that all that sat in the Council looking stedfastly on him saw his Face as it had been the Face of an Angel Neither had they any Thing to object against his Life or his Works Simon the Sorcerer to whom all the people in Samaria gave heed from the least to the greatest looking upon him to be the great Power of God was himself as well as those that were bewitched by him Baptized by Philip and believed when he beheld the Miracles and Signs that were done But afterwards we find by the wickedness of his heart which he discovered to Peter that he was an Enemy to the true Doctrine of the Gospel Elymas the Sorcerer who was struck Blind by Paul and yet not converted to the Faith is another unwilling Witness of the Power of the Apostles The People of Lystra confirm the same Truth who took Paul and Barnabas for Gods in the likeness of Men by reason of the Miracles they saw performed by them and afterwards by the Instigation of the Jews stoned Paul The Damsel possess'd with a Spirit of Divination and her Masters who saw the hope of their gains gone by Paul's commanding the Spirit to come out of her several Vagabond Jews Exorcists who took upon them to cast out Evil Spirits in the Name of Jesus but suffered very much for the Impudence of their Pretences and a great many other such like were Witnesses of the Miracles of the Apostles who by reason of some wicked or dishonourable Motives rejected the Doctrine they taught or profess'd to imbrace it upon ill Designs or after they had received it made Shipwrack of the Faith Great Complaints of all which sort of Men we find in the Epistles Thus are the Miracles of the first Apostles and Disciples of Christ declared and attested But moreover it is Recorded of them that they had not only a Power of working Miracles themselves but that they were Authorized and Enabled by Christ and his Spirit to convey the like Power to others And accordingly we find a great many Instances in the New Testament where Miracles were wrought by private Christians by Virtue of a Power they had received from the Apostles which was conferred upon them by Prayer and Imposition of Hands After which Actions of the Apostles they are immediately said to be filled with the Holy Ghost and to have received the Gifts of the Spirit which according to the different exigencies of the Church and the different qualifications of the Persons indued with them were divers And among these are reckoned the Gifts of Tongues and of Interpretation the Gifts of Healing and of Miracles which Gifts are said to be very common among the first Converts to Christianity in all places where the Gospel was Preach'd and the same is plainly implied by the frequent Rules and Cautions that are given by the Apostles concerning the due Exercise of them and the fear and apprehension they often express lest the Christians thus impowered should by coveting one anothers Gifts or being puft up with those they were severally possessed of neglect to apply themselves as they ought to do to the Edification of the Church of Christ This is the Scripture-Account of Miracles and these were those wonderful Facts believed by the first Christians their full assurance of the Truth of which was the chief Ground and Motive of their imbracing the Gospel or Doctrine of Christ There were likewise other strange Matters of Fact called Prophecies which were most surely believed among them and which contributed very much to their receiving the Gospel and continuing in the Profession of Christianity without wavering and these I shall consider in the same Way and Method I did Miracles For there are several Prophecies Recorded in the New Testament as uttered by our Saviour himself together with several other spoken with relation to him and fulfilled by him others there are mentioned as spoken by the Apostles and Disciples of Christ who had received the Power of Prophecy immediately from him 'T is plain also from several Instances and Passages in the Sacred Writings that the Spirit of Prophecy was conveyed by the first Apostles and Disciples to private Christians and was very common among them The Prophecies spoken by our Saviour were most of them delivered in private to his Disciples some of which were not written till after the things happened and the truth of these the Disciples are wholly answerable for and some of them were Published in Writing before the things happened and these might then and may still be examined by the Circumstances of them others of them were spoken publickly and frequently before great Multitudes of People as those about his Suffering and Resurrection c. and several besides their being spoken openly in the presence of many were also spread abroad in Writing long before the Events actually happened as particularly that remarkable one concerning the Destruction of Jerusalem Prophecies spoken of Christ in former times with relation to his Person Actions Sufferings and Doctrine with the several Circumstances belonging to the whole Dispensation of his Gospel are to be found written in the Books of the Old Testament which were manifestly wrote long before his coming into the World and are now Extant and might then and may still be compared with those Events related in the New which are pretended to be completions of them And some Prophecies there are concerning our Saviour spoken by Holy Persons a little before and after his Birth and at his Presentation in the Temple as also others concerning John his Forerunner and all the Preaching of John was Prophetical of Christ The truth of all which Matters of Fact does not depend wholly upon the Credit of the Prophets themselves
of the World that most of the Books of the New Testament were written by those very Persons whom we that are now called Christians pretend they were Written by and that all of them were writ about the same time we now believe and affirm they were and therefore there is the same reason to believe these Books to be true and genuine as any other of the same Standing and Antiquity and if we consider the importance of the Books much greater In the next place 't is certain that in all the Accounts we have left us of the History of Christianity it no where appears that any of the Ancient Adversaries of this Religion either Jews or Heathens Prophane or Revolting Christians ever Objected to the true Christian Believers that the Books in which they pretended their Religion was contained were Forg'd and Supposititious and consequently that their Faith was Vain and Ill-grounded And if those who lived at and near the first rise of Christianity never made use of this Objection against it then what strength can it have now when urged by those who cannot well be more industrious Enemies of the Christian Religion than their Unbelieving Predecessors were and cannot possibly at this distance make out such a discovery as they pretend to could we suppose the thing true and never detected before by such as sought all occasions to lessen the Credit and stop the growth of Christianity in every Age which to me seems utterly inconceivable I am likewise perswaded that no meer Man by the strength of his own unassisted Capacities could have framed and contrived such a Book as the New Testament is I cannot possibly prevail upon my self to believe that such Facts as are there Recorded such a Contexture of History such a Scheme of Doctrines such Characters of Men and such a manner of Writing as we find throughout that Book could be altogether the Issue and Result of Humane Sagacity alone But supposing it to be possible that all these things might have enter'd into a Man's Mind supposing likewise that notwithstanding the present appearance of Vniversal uncontradicted Tradition to the contrary a Book now believed to be true might some time or other have been invented without any ground for such a Work in the reality of things allowing I say the possibility of these things 't is still upon many other Accounts manifestly absurd to imagine that the Writings of the New Testament were the Work and Contrivance of Men without a sufficient Foundation of true real Facts to support them This will more paticularly appear from these two Considerations 1. That there is no End or Design imaginable sufficient to have determined the supposed Author of the New Testament to undertake such a Work 2. That if the Principal Matters of Fact contained in the New Testament both Common and Extraordinary had not been true 't would have been utterly impossible that the Christian Religion should ever have been believed and propagated in the World in the manner we find it is at present First then I am to prove that there is no End or Design imaginable sufficient to have determined the supposed Author of the New Testament to undertake such a Work All the Ends we can imagine the Author of this Extraordinary Performance acted upon must be either the Good of Mankind his own particular Interest or Reputation in the World or purely the pleasure of deceiving but none of these could have Influence enough to produce such a Work and therefore we must account for its Original some other way For first it cannot be supposed that some Vertuous Good Man who endeavoured as far as he was able to live up to those Rules we find delivered in the New Testament should out of pure Zeal for the Welfare and Interest of Mankind Publish such a Scheme of Living as is there laid down under the grossest form of Imposture imaginable it could never enter into the thoughts of such a Man as this to recommend Simplicity Truth and Integrity by the most solemn variety of Lyes and Falshoods that ever were invented He that was concern'd to establish a Form of sound Words who represents all manner of Lying Deceit and Dissimulation as utterly inconsistent with that Model of Religion he was setting up and who strictly forbids all Men to do Evil that Good might come of it a Person I say of this Character who was in earnest and throughly perswaded of the truth of the Principles he recommended cannot be imagined to have acted directly contrary to them himself in order to have them Believed and Observed by others 'T is true indeed Fables and Parables have been often made use of as very proper and easie means of conveying good Instructions to Mankind but the History of the New Testament is too Particular and Circumstantial to be reckoned an Allegory and therefore there is no occasion to prove it none so that if the Principal Matters of Fact Recorded in the New Testament are not true according to the first obvious literal meaning of them the whole Relation must be a downright Forgery and consequently could not be the Work of an Honest Man invented by him merely for the good of Mankind The possibility of which Supposition can no ways be accounted for by the many Forged and Supposititious Writings Published by some of the first Christians in favour of that Religion for considering only those which made for the Christian Religion in General and may seem to have been contrived purely for the Propagation of it among such whose Condition was lookt upon as very Miserable by reason of their Ignorance or Disbelief of Christianity whatever of this Nature was Forged by any Christians was not really done upon any good Motive but proceeded from too passionate a Concern for the Party they were of and the Opinions they had undertook to defend When the Enemies of their Religion stood out against all the true rational Proofs urged for it an eager desire of convincing those they Disputed with and doing Honour to their own Cause and Management of it put them upon inventing such things as by the Temper or Concessions of their Adversaries were likelier to prevail with them This I take to be the true Spring and Cause of most of those False and Spurious Writings which were designed for the advantage of the Christian Cause in General the Forgeries that were contrived for the defence of some Particular Doctrine proceeding most commonly from a worse Original But 't is very evident that the first Invention and Publication of the whole Christian Scheme could not be owing to the Influence of any such Principle or Motive as is before mentioned and if it had the Inventer and Publisher could not have been a Good Man that was so Influenced nor such a good Man as we suppose acted upon a pure disinterested Principle of Love to Mankind And if it should be further Objected that 't is very probable some honest well-meaning Christians were guilty
insist upon is this That 't is utterly inconceivable that the supposed Author and Contriver of that Book could have imagined that such a Scheme of Things as we there find delivered should ever come to be believed and established in the World and without such a Thought and Perswasion of this in the Author we can never account for either the first Contrivance or Publication of it Whatever it was that determined him to frame the Christian Scheme whatever End he proposed to himself from his Labour and Skill in making it he must certainly design that the whole Fiction should be believed by those it was communicated to otherwise it was impossible for him to compass the End he aimed at If therefore 't is certain That the first Author and Publisher of the Christian Religion did design and intend to have it believed and if he was a Wise Understanding Man of great Reach and Sagacity as the Enemies of his Religion allow and is very evident from that Rational Draught of Morality the World is obliged to him for then does it plainly follow That Christianity is no Imposture and that the Books of the New Testament are not Forged and Invented For how was 't possible for a Wise Man to think that such a Multitude of strange unheard of Facts as are Recorded in the New Testament and made the Foundation of the Christian Religion should be believed without any manner of Proof or Evidence of the Truth of them But if he did not distrust the credibility of the Facts themselves what could induce him to give such a particular circumstantial Relation of them as submitted them to every Bodies Enquiry and Examination and made the discovery of their Falshood easie and obvious How could he perswade himself that such New and Difficult Doctrines should be entertained which no former Notions of Learning or Religion prepared Men to receive and which no Discovery or Revelation could make them fully comprehend And how was it possible for him to imagine That such Doctrines and Facts as these should set off and recommend his Morality to the World which considered by it self is granted to be unexceptionable Had the principal Aim and Design of this supposed Impostor been to establish the Christian Morality he would rather have Published it alone in the Name of some admired Prince or Philosopher or have pretended by some secret way of conveyance to have received it from Heaven This any Man of common Sense would have judged a likelier Method of getting it believed than the mixing and blending so many strange Facts and Doctrines amongst it and laying the whole Work upon such a Foundation as he knew had no manner of Support from Reality And on the other side had it been his chief Intention to abuse the Credulity of Mankind by making them believe so many strange and unaccountable Lyes as are contained in the History and peculiar Doctrines of Christianity if they are all False he would have taken care to have made his Morality more easie and palatable and more suited to the common Prejudices and Inclinations of the generality of Mankind that so the other parts of the Scheme might have been taken down readily and without Examination for the sake of this But taking the Christian Religion altogether as we now find it 't is not to be imagined that a Wise Man should believe he was able to bring People over to imbrace it supposing it purely an Invention of his own which he knew had no Foundation in true Facts And therefore there could be no End or Motive sufficient to Influence him to contrive what he could not believe would ever be received so far as to answer any End proposed But supposing it possible that there should have been some Man who was Wise enough to invent the whole Christian Scheme as we now find it in the Scriptures of the New Testament and who was at the same time so absurdly foolish as to think it would be believed so far as to recompence him for the pains of making and the hazard of Publishing it Supposing I say all this which to me is perfectly unconceivable yet the Books of the New Testament could not be forged Because 2. If the Principal Matters of Fact contained in the New Testament both Common and Extraordinary had not been true 't would have been utterly impossible that the Christian Religion should ever have been believed and propagated in the World in the manner we find it is at present which I shall endeavour to prove in the following Method That the Christian Religion such as we find delivered in the Books of the New Testament is at present own'd and profess'd in a great part of the World and that where-ever this Religion is profess'd those Books are appeal'd to as the Rule and Standard of it as to every thing therein contained are Truths I shall take for granted It is likewise as evident that there was a Time when there were no such Books or Religion known or heard of The inquiry then will be when and how the Christian Religion came to be Establish'd in the World In answer to which it must be allowed that either the Books of the New Testament were written first and the Christian Religion Propagated from them or the Doctrines therein contained were spread first by Preaching and Conversation and afterwards committed to Writing But which soever of these Suppositions we take the Publication of the Christian History and the Doctrines built upon it cannot possibly be placed above the Times mentioned in the New Testament because there are abundance of Names and other Circumstances allowed to be true which could not be known before without a Spirit of Prophecy which Imposture has nothing to do with In the Account the New Testament gives of this Matter the first Scene of the Imposture if the Christian Religion be accounted such is laid at Jerusalem in the time of Tiberius Cesar and consequently the Period fix'd upon for first acquainting the World with what is pretended to have happen'd then at Jerusalem must be at or near that time or at some distance since Let us consider this great Event in all these different Periods and see what the Success will be In the first place then let us suppose the Christian Religion Invented and Published at Jerusalem in the Reign of Tiberius Cesar 'T is plain the way of Propagating the belief of it must have been by Writing or Preaching if the Work was begun by Writing it must be by some of the Gospels none of the other Books of the New Testament can be pretended to be then Written without Prophecy But whether it were by one or more of the Gospels or by Preaching the things contained in them 't was absolutely impossible such a Scheme of Falshood should be believed by those who by an Infallible Consciousness must know it to be so or be spread propagated and defended by those who did not believe it themselves in places
to see an Atheist telling Fortunes a Deist in quest of the Philosophers Stone and a Libertine venturing all his present Pleasures and Injoyments in a Rebellion for the good of his Posterity And yet such is generally the Conduct of the Irreligious and 't is a just Judgment from God upon them that they should be given up to believe Lyes and to act against their own Interest to throw off the Principles of Truth and not make the best of their Errours Vpon which account I think if the Enemies of God and his Christ are so far resolved upon the ways of Vnrighteousness that they will not consider the Proofs of their Duty in order to be reformed they would do well to betake themselves for Refuge to Ignorance and Amusement rather than Learning and Reasoning For all the Improvements of Knowledge do only furnish new Light and Strength to Religion and administer fresh occasions of Shame and Confusion to Unbelievers and therefore 't would be more advisable for them to keep up their Infidelity to themselves than to let it loose to the disturbance of others They had much better Intrench than Attack For besides that all attempts upon Virtue and Piety annoy the rest of the World without any Advantage to their Cause that make them 't would be more for their Ease to lie quiet For arguing and objecting against Religion and making Proselytes to Infidelity are not only certain Signs of present uneasiness but will very probably create them a great deal more If they will be continually disputing and pressing their Objections they will be sure to meet with something or other to puzzle and startle them and this may awaken their Fears and raise new Disquiets in their Mind which may at last end in a just Despair when they will be able to repent of nothing but this that they were not content to injoy the Fruits of Irreligion without offering to defend it I heartily wish such Advice as this to Vnbelivers were needless and that they were seriously disposed to imbrace a more reasonable and lasting Satisfaction by entering upon an humble and impartial Examination of the Proofs of the Christian Religion But this being to be lookt upon as an Effect of Extraordinary Grace all that can be expected from the Endeavours of those that undertake to set these Proofs in the best light they can is to stop the Mouths of Gainsayers and to prevent the mischief of Infidelity from spreading further than it has done And 't is my sincere Prayer to God that the following Discourse may have a share with many other upon the same Subject in contributing to so good an Effect All that I have to warn my Readers of is that if any of them should be inclined to judge that the Abstract I have given of the New Testament and the Proof of the Common Matters of Fact there Related either unnecessary or too long they would pass over these parts and leave them to be read by those for whom this Discourse was principally designed Most of which I believe will know more of the Christian Religion from that Abstract of it I have drawn up than they did before And I durst not presume so far upon them as to take the Common Matters of Fact for granted because if they are true I look upon all the other as demonstrable from them and therefore I was willing to lay the Foundation as firm and as broad as I could that it might bear the weight of what I was to build upon it and I perswade my self I have all along taken sufficient care not to overload it I have not been precise as to Time and some other Circumstances relating to the History of Christianity because what I was to prove is as fully made good within the Latitude allowed as if it had been more punctually determined ERRATA In the Book PAge 31. line 10. know read knows p. 39. l. 14 measure r. measures p 41. l. 27. him r. him p. 44. l. 5. Discourses r. Discoveries p. 53. l. 19. as r. a. p. 59. l. 10. too true r. to be true p. 62. l. 24. happen'd d. p. 67. l. 26. of r. as p. 76. l. 12. Year r. Years p. 79. l. 9. r. countrey p. 99. l. 13. r. must be p. 106. instanced in d. p. 107. l. 6. Words r. Records p. 109. l. 14. r. Diocletian p. 110. l. 24. sence r. force p. 112. l. last then r. there p. 115. l. 23. designs r. design p. 140. l. 22. r. according to p. 160. l. 22. Relation r. Relators p. 163. l. 26. r. Perceptions p. 174. l. 12. r. truth of p. 192. l. 2. execute r. excite p. 211. l. 14. r. some such p. 228. l. 3. ever r. never p. 240. l. 6. then r. than p. 287. l. 10. r. p. 293 l. last r. p. 298 l. 19. at r. of p. 304. l. 23. to be d. be p. 316. l. 10. Scheme r. Scene p. 337. l. 11. Motives r. Monuments p. 339. l. 5. were r. are p. 353. l. 2. r. frame of The Certainty of the Christian Revelation AND THE NECESSITY Of BELIEVING It. HAving in a former Discourse proved that there is a God That this God has appointed us a certain Rule and Order of Life That he has obliged us to Conform to his Will and Appointments by annexing Happiness to our Obedience and Misery to our Disobedience That the Rule he has given us to go by is whatever we can upon our own Enquiry or the Information of others discover to be agreeable to our purest and most unprejudiced Reason all which is comprehended under the Name of Religion Having likewise shewn that a general and exact Observance of all the Duties of such Religion would advance the Happiness of Mankind to the highest degree they are in this their Mortal Condition capable of and from these Principles together with the present Irregularity of things in the World having made it appear that there must be a Future State of Rewards and Punishments proportion'd to the different behaviour of Men in this I have now farther undertaken to prove that besides those Tokens and Indications God has given of himself his Will and Designs in the Nature and Constitution of things which are discoverable by right well-exercised Reason he has in a more extraordinary manner viz. by Immediate Revelation from himself made known his Mind to us by which means he has given us a clear and intire view of the forementioned rational Truths render'd our knowledge of them more certain plain and particular discovered a great many new Truths which the unassisted force of Human Faculties could not have found out and established new Rules and Measures of Duty over and above those our Reason was before by its utmost efforts able to inform us of All which extraordinary Discoveries I affirm to be contained in the Books which go under the Name of the Old and New Testament from whence I inferr that all the Doctrines Precepts and Directions
Doctrine and Miracles all which being told as happening in the life-time of Christ most of the things concerning him must be supposed by those who pretend to have written presently after his Death as 't is plain all the Evangelists do to be generally known and freshly remembred at the time of their Writing which Supposition further appears from the short and disorderly Relation of several Matters of Fact in each Gospel which in such cases where we are not assisted with a fuller Account from the other Gospels or following Books of the New Testament seem very obscure to us now who are not acquainted with the rest of the Circumstances omitted This is what I thought fit to remark concerning the Subject and Form of that Book which we call the New Testament And now that this Book does really contain such things as are before mention'd and is writ in such a way and manner as I have here represented I think may be taken for granted since whatever has been observed under this head must necessarily appear too true to any one that will read over the New Testament and is capable of making any Judgment of a Book II. Supposing then that I have given a just Account and Character of the New Testament and the several Books or Volumes it consists of I shall from hence advance to the main Design proposed which was to prove That all the principal Matters of Fact related in the New Testament are really true that is did really happen out at the Times and Places and in the Manner they are there recorded to have happen'd This I shall endeavour in the second place to make good by a direct Proof according to the distinction of the several Facts to be enquired into before laid down viz. common Historical Facts Prophesies and Miracles Divine Assistance and Revelation I. The first Step then I am to make in the proof of what I have before asserted is to shew that the common Historical Facts mention'd in the New Testament are true The principal of which are these following viz. That there was such a Person as Jesus Christ of such a Character who taught such Doctrines pretended to such mighty Works and was executed in such a manner as is represented in the New Testament That there were likewise certain Persons who were Followers and Adherents of Christ who after his Death profess'd to believe the Miracles we find now recorded of him and to do as great themselves who taught the same Doctrines he did in his life-time and many other things which they pretended to have received from him while he was alive and from the Spirit of God afterwards and who made is their business to propagate the Belief and Practice of what they taught throughout the World whose Characters and Sufferings were such as are before described That the Doctrine or Religion of Christ was accordingly propagated through all Judea and most Parts of the Roman Empire so that great Numbers of People every where own'd and profess'd it And that all this happen'd within that compass of Time included between the Death of Julius Caesar and the Destruction of Jerusalem Now these are such remarkable notorious Facts have been so well proved by multiplicity of Evidence and so little contested by the several Enemies of Christianity That I shall content my self by giving a summary Proof of them without entring upon that great Variety of particular Arguments every general Branch of Evidence contains in it Which Proof I shall cast into this Method First I shall take an Account of the Original of Christianity and shew That this Religion must have came first into the World at the time assign'd for this Event in the New Testament Afterwards I shall consider the state of Christianity at another Period of Time when it will certainly be allowed that all the principal Matters of Fact that stand now recorded in the New Testament were generally believed And then I shall prove That the same Matters of Fact were likewise believed at and immediately after the Times in which they are said to happen and so continually down to that particular Period fixed upon Which last Proposition I shall endeavour to make out From the constant Tradition of such a Belief together with many sensible infallible Effects of it And from many other extrinsick Signs and Monuments remaining at that Time From which constant and universal Belief among Christians of all the principal Facts in the New Testament both common and extraordinary continued down to such a Period from the very first Times in which they severally happen'd I conconclude That at least the common Matters of Fact such as I have just before instanced in must be true First then as to the Original of Christianity it is to be observ'd That there is no Age of the World no Portion of Time since the beginning of Things at any great Distance from us that we have a clearer fuller and more particular Account of than we have of that which past under the Twelve first Cesars or Emperors of Rome both Learning and Empire being then at the highest Pitch and furnishing abundance of Matter for the Pens of that and the succeeding Ages And as the History of that time is the truest and best known of any so no Matter of Fact could happen within that Time which was more remarkable or could more easily and certainly be conveyed down to Posterity than the first Rise and Propagation of the Christian Religion There 's nothing so easy to be known of any Countrey where we have the least Remains of History left us as what Religion was profess'd there and what considerable Alterations were made in it All the Laws Customs and Policy of a Nation are intermixt with their Religion most of the Actions Opinions and Characters of particular Men bear the Marks of it and if we examin Things more narrowly and trace them up to their Original we shall find that Religion puts a greater Distinction betwixt one Nation and another than any difference of Climate can do But not to pursue that Speculation any further 't is very plain from all History what the Religion of the Jews was and what Religion they had at Rome and in other Parts of the Roman Empire under the Reign of Augustus There were no such Persons then to he heard of as bore the Name of Christians no such Religion any where professed as that which is now call'd Christian the Plan and Model of which we find in the Books of the New Testament But in the Time of Nero we find a great many Persons at Rome Tacitus call'd Christians put to Death and several other ways persecuted and tormented for being so by that Emperor which Denomination and whatever they thought themselves obliged to believe or do upon that Account was then generally acknowledged by themselves and others to be derived to them from one Christ who was sometime before crucified at Jerusalem Now the Time when this
Council of Nice one of the most remarkable Events that ever happen'd in the World 3. The calling of this Council does plainly inferr that Constantine look'd upon the whole Roman Empire to have been at that time generally Christian The Persons summon'd the Places from whence they came the occasion of their Meeting do all prove this For the Persons of which the Council was compos'd were most of them Governors and Teachers of large Churches and Congregations they came out of all the greater and lesser Provinces and from the most Populous and Considerable Towns under the Roman Government and the reason of their coming was to give their Opinion concerning a particular Doctrine which did suppose an antecedent Belief of the whole Christian Scheme 4. The whole behaviour of this Council of Bishops while they sat together and the business they did there is a certain proof not only that they were Christians and that the Christian Religion was publickly and generally profest in the Places from whence they came but that they all agreed in some common Faith and that the Christian Religion profess'd in the several Places from whence they came was every where the same without any other variation than what was grounded upon the different Conception of some Articles by particular Persons which were allowed by all alike in some general Terms or different application of some general Rules about such Matters as Christians were by the whole tenour of their Religion left at liberty so to apply 5. The reason of this general Agreement of all Christians separated so far from one another in place and never before this time united under one common Head or Governor was as we find by what pass'd in this Council a firm and constant Belief that such and such Books which they all had amongst them were written by the immediate Followers and Disciples of Christ and contained a true Account of his Life and Doctrine and a full Scheme of their Religion What ever was in any of these Books they lookt upon as Obligatory and such they esteemed the Authority of these Writings That they were not upon any Account in the least Passage of them to receive any Addition Diminution or Alteration whatsoever In the Decision of the present Controversy before them these were appeal'd to on both Sides and the Authority of them allowed by all and the particular Canons they made were founded upon the general Rules and Orders of Discipline laid down in these Scriptures 6. As we find by what was done in this Council concerning the Matter of Faith they came to settle That all the Bishops there assembled were acquainted with several of the same Books of Scripture which we now have under the Name of the New Testament and that they were perswaded they were delivered down to them from the Apostles as a Rule of their Faith So by several of the Canons they made we are assur'd That in all the several Places from whence they were assembled the Customs of Baptism and the Communion were universally and constantly used That the First Day of the Week was observed as a Day set a-part for Religious Services which were chiefly Prayers and Reading the Scriptures That there were a great many Men in a particular Way and Manner appointed for the Performance of Religious Offices in the Name and Presence of the People And that some of these did in a more eminent Degree preside over all other both Religious Officers and common Christians in such a District under the Title and Style of Bishops Now the Truth of this Relation concerning the Council of Nice and the State of the Christian Religion at that Time being supposed in the next Place I shall undertake to prove That the Christians we find in Nero's Time were of the same Faith and Religion with those that lived under the Reign of Constantine and consequently That all the principal Matters of Fact now recorded in the New Testament were generally believed at and immediately after the Times in which they are said to happen and so continually down to the Council of Nice This I shall endeavour to make out First From the constant Tradition of such a Belief together with many sensible and infallible Effects of it From the Neronian Persecution to the Council of Nice is about 260 Years which is so short a Period That 't is hardly possible to imagine the Tradition of so important a Fact as the general Profession of the Christian Religion in any considerable Country or Nation should in the main Branches and Substance of it be defective or corrupted within that Time though there were no other remaining Monuments of it but what were obvious to every Man 's own Observation at the Meeting of this Famous Council And therefore since the Christians of this latter Period did look upon it as a certain Truth delivered down to them That the Christians who lived in Nero's Time professed the same Faith they did as 't is plain from the Account before given of their Religion they must we may very well conclude That the Matter of Fact was really so without further Proof But to remove all Doubts and Objections so general a Conclusion as this may be apt to create the Truth and Credibility of the Tradition shall be more clearly made out in the following Manner Several of those who were present at the Council of Nice might of their own certain knowledge be fully satisfied That for Fifty Year backward the Christian Religion had been the same it was then in the Countries from whence they came That all this Time they had had the same Scriptures among them That these Scriptures had constantly been read both in publick and private and as far as fell within humane Cognizance as constantly and in the same manner believed and esteemed as they appeared then to be That the Ceremonies of Baptizing and Communicating had been always universally used at such Times and upon such and such Occasions That these and several other Religious Performances as Reading the Scriptures Prayers Exhortations c. had been constantly practised in publick when Christians were assembled together That Meetings or Assemblies for these Purposes were very frequent That besides other occasional Times they always observed the First Day of the Week as a Portion of Time which they thought themselves obliged to set a-part for the Performance of Religious Duties and especially in Publick That there were a constant Succession of Men by certain Ceremonies peculiarly appropriated to the Discharge of some Religious Offices which they did not think it Lawful for others not so distinguished to be concern'd in That it was the particular Business of these Men to teach and instruct the rest in the Knowledge of the Christian Religion and exhort them to a steady and exact Submission to the Rules of it That there were some of these styled Bishops who were by some different Marks of Distinction known from the rest of their Brethren and presided
over all Christians both Clergy and Laity in such a District governing and directing them all in Religious Affairs and exercising certain Spiritual Powers of an extraordinary future Influence in order to the preserving and inforcing the Belief and Practice of the Christian Religion Such Customs and Actions as these in all which every Bishop must himself have bore a Share must needs be infallibly known to those Bishops assembled at Nice who were of Age enough to remember for so long together as Fifty Years which may easily be supposed of several of them And it may with as much reason be allowed That these very Bishops might have Fifty Years before their Meeting at Nice convers'd with those who could have as distinctly remembred what was done for Fifty Years further backward as they could remember what had happen'd since the Time we supposed they convers'd with them from whom they might have been certainly inform'd That all the foremention'd Matters of Fact had continued the same for Fifty Years before they could have an immediate Knowledge of them themselves And moreover those who gave them this Information could have assured them That they never saw or heard of any Body that lived since their Time who knew it otherwise and this with the same Allowance as in the former Case will carry the Thing Fifty Years higher still And so far I think however uncertain Tradition is justly accounted in the Conveyance of Doctrines and Opinions the Tradition of such notorious Matters of Fact as these so easily observed so constantly present so general and so concerning may be fully relied upon To make this plainer by a like Instance in our Country just about 150 Years ago Edward the Sixth is reported to have been King of England and the same History which tells us so which I will suppose to be but just now written acquaints us That in his Time the Christian Religion was generally professed through all this Nation and much after the same manner it is now But particularly that the same Scriptures were acknowledg'd and the same Religious Customs and Vsages obtained which are before mention'd in the other Case viz. Baptism and Communion Observation of the Lord's Day Ministration of Priests Government of Bishops c. just as they are at this present The Truth of all which we might be very well assured of if there were no History or other Monuments of what was done in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth extant down from his Time to this because by the former Supposition there have been a great many Persons who during the Course of their Lives computed at no uncommon length might have convers'd with those who liv'd in King Edward the Sixth's Time and also with those who are now Living and at such Ages of their several Lives in which they may well be suppos'd capable of remembring and judging of what they saw and heard From which intermediate Persons so many as are now Living and convers'd with them which I believe are a great many may have had sueh certain Information of the state of Religion in this Nation during the Reign of that King that they cannot possibly call in question And if all these agree in their several Reports without concerting with one another the Evidence of the same Matters of Fact they thus agree in will be as strong with respect to us who enquire these Things of them and much stronger than to any of them themselves in particular who have not made the same Observations concerning the Agreement of others before them 'T would be no unreasonable Supposition to imagine That there are some now Living who have immediately convers'd with those who lived in Edward the Sixth's Time but these are so few and of so unusual an Age that I shall not insist upon a Proof that might be made that way But the other Case I have mention'd is easy and common and lies open to every Body without a particular Computation of Time Upon which I shall further observe That those whose Testimony is allow'd sufficient for the Form and Kind of Religion professed in England under Edward the Sixth are so far as that Period reaches as good and capable Witnesses of the Condition of its Being with respect either to its Original then or any considerable Alterations or Intermissions in it at any time since Whether the Christian Religion was first introduced into this Country by Edward the Sixth or any Body else in his Time all the Inhabitants of it having immediately before been Jews Heathens or Mahometans or whether it had been receiv'd and professed here before he came to the Throne must have been equally known and in like manner conveyed down by those from whom we derive the other Matters of Fact with which this is supposed cotemporary And if any considerable Changes in the main Branches or general and publick Vsages of it such as are before instanced in or any Intermissions either of the whole Profession or of some of those publick Customs and Manners of Worship or Discipline should have happen'd at any Time since these being more remarkable Facts than the uninterrupted Continuance of the same state and form of Religion and falling later than the first Date of what we allow to be distinctly known and remembred must be granted to be as easily and surely delivered down to us as those Things which are acknowledg'd to fall earlier and yet came safe to our Hands Now to apply all this to the former Case These Bishops in the Council of Nice who came from such or such a particular Province of the Roman Empire might be as fully assured That the Christian Religion was professed 150 Years before in that Province in the same Manner founded upon the same Scriptures and attended with the same Customs as it was at the Time of their assembling at Nice as we of this Country can be assur'd That our Religion Scriptures and Religious Customs are the same now that they were in the Reign of Edward the Sixth King of England What particular Christian Customs I mean in both Instances has been sufficiently expressed already but what those Scriptures were which I suppose the Nicene Bishops unanimously acknowledg'd for the Word of God and Rule of their Faith and believed to have been written by the First Apostles and Disciples of Christ and consequently to have been the same 150 Years before they met in Council as they were then has not yet been declared and by what was done in the Council does not certainly appear But I think there is no manner of Reason to doubt but they were the very same which now go under the Name of the New Testament For whether the Council of Laodicea which was the first that made any Canon concerning the Books of Scripture was before this Council of Nice as some imagine or about Forty Years after as others more probably conclude we have Arguments and Authorities enough to convince us That all the Books
their Faith and Christian Resolution this way But the general Character of these Writers as well as the Authority of what they say will be further made out from the consideration of the Subjects they writ about the several kinds and sorts of their Writings and the Manner in which they are writ All which I shall endeavour to bring under one view and raise such Observations from them as will plainly confirm the main Conclusion I am to establish The common Subject of all the Books and Writings of the first Orthodox Authors was the Christian Religion though in several Ways and Methods discoursed of Most of these concern the History of Christian Affairs either expresly or occasionally For besides those Authors who purposely designed an Historical Relation either of the Church in general or of some particular Ecclesiastical Matter there 's hardly a Christian Writer within the Time of our present Enquiry but has some occasion or other to mention several Historical Passages in almost every Book that he wrote in order to some further end he proposed to himself in writing Now concerning the Writings of Christian Authors considered under this Character of Historians I have these Things to observe First That they do manifestly confirm the truth of all those Traditions and standing Monuments before mentioned For we have frequent Proofs of the Antiquity of the Scriptures and all those Religious Customs and Institutions in use amongst Christians in Eusebius's time and the General Tradition strengthen'd by abundance of New Circumstances such were the great Controversies and Quarrels about some Christian Usages particularly Baptism and the Feast of Easter together with the Canons and Decrees that were made and the Letters that were writ with relation to these Affairs Here is likewise mention made of the same Christian Relicks and Momonuments and the same publick Acts and Records which Eusebius saw and the Accounts and Extracts of them in several Authors agree with what Eusebius himself was witness of In the next place 't is very plain that they give us an account of several other Customs Monuments and publick Acts and abuudance of other particular Historical Passages besides those mention'd in Eusebius the Truth of which or the Antiquity of their Fiction being proved they are so many new Arguments in behalf of the Christian Tradition or the truth of those Facts we are now to prove Thirdly I observe that most of these Authors considered as Historians were very Competent Judges and Credible Reporters of the truth of the Facts they relate For either they were actual and immediate Witnesses of what they tell us themselves or they took a great deal of care to inform themselves right or the Facts were of that nature that they could not be deceived though they did not examine them very strictly and which way soever they came by them they were Faithsul and Sincere in their Relation Several things they tell us of their own Knowledge others they quote their Authors for and others they deliver only as Traditional Reports which they distinguish also into Probable and Fabulous according to the Evidence that then appeared to them upon a diligent Examination And several of them have given great Marks of their Diligence and Care in enquiring as well as Sincerity in reporting as particularly Hegesippus who gave an account of the Unity of Faith in several Cities after having travell'd through them and convers'd with the Bishops of them Clemens who used all the care he could to inform himself of the Truth and Sincerity of the Christian Tradition from several Eminent Persons of different Countries Irenoeus who carefully remember'd the Conversation he had with Eminent Christians in his Youth and was very much concern'd to have his own Writings deliver'd down faithfully to Posterity a proof of which first Remark concerning Irenaeus we have in an Epistle of his to Florinus quoted by Eusebus part of which I think worth the Transcribing when reproving Florinus for some ill Opinions he held he speaks to him in this manner Eus Ec. H. l. 5. c. 26. These Opinions the Presbyters who lived before our times who also were the Disciples of the Apostles did in no wise deliver unto thee For I saw thee when being yet a Child I was in the Lower Asia with Polycarp behaving thy self very well in the Palace and endeavouring to get thy self well esteemed of by him for I remember the things then done better then what has happen'd of late for what we learnt being Children increases together with the Mind it self and is closely united to it insomuch that I am able to tell where the Blessed Polycarp sate and Discoursed also his goings out and comings in his manner of Life the shape of his Body the Discourses he made to the Populace the familiar Converse which he said he had with John and with those who had seen the Lord and how he rehears'd their Sayings and what they were which he had heard from them concerning the Lord concerning his Miracles and his Doctrine according as Polycarp received them from those who with their own Eyes beheld the Word of Life so he related them agreeing in all things with the Scriptures These things by the Mercy of God bestowed upon me I then heard diligently and copied them out not in Paper but in my Heart and by the Grace of God I do continually and sincerely ruminate upon them And the same Irenaeus at the end of one of his Pieces says thus I adjure thee who shalt Transcribe this Book by our Lord Jesus and by his Glorious coming to Judge the Quick and the Dead that you compare what you shall Transcribe and correct it diligently according to that Copy whence you shall Transcribe and that in like manner you ascribe this Adjuration and annex it to your Copy Which concern of Irenaeus for the faithful conveyance of Truths contained in his own Writings to Posterity is a very good argument of his care in examining the Traditions and Writings that came down to him from elder times respecting the same Important Truths A great many other such like Instances as these may be given where the Primitive Christian Writers positively and expresly declare that they had seen and convers'd with the immediate Successors of the Apostles and with those upon whom several great Miracles had been wrought by them had themselves been Witnesses of a great many wonderful Gifts remaining in the Church in their time as likewise where they demonstrate by many sensible Marks and Signs the great Care and Diligence they had taken in examining the Informations they received from remoter Hands and all other concurring Presumptions arising from Circumstances of Fact and Rational Inferences And as they were competent Witnesses and careful Relators in General so are they more especially to be relied upon as to those two great and concerning Matters of Fact the Scriptures of the New Testament and Persecutions of Christians The Truth and Authority of the Scriptures
was with much enquiry and examination Established This every one made it his business to be well assur'd of and a free disquisition concerning the truth of some or other of the Books of Scripture is every where to be found among the Antient Writers Then as to the Persecutions they were so many they continued so long together were so widely spread were attended with so vast a number of very new and remarkalbe Facts and so many of the Writers lived in the heat of them and had so large a share and concern in them themselves that 't is impossible that the accounts they give of them should not be most of them at least very true The Fourth Observation I have to make upon the Historical part of the first Christian Writers is that there are so many Notes of time to be found in them such a particular Designation of Places and Persons and such a mixture of Jewish and Heathen Affairs with the Christian History as rendred any Errours or Mistakes so liable to a discovery at those times when the several Books that treat of these Matters were first Published to the World that by not being confuted they are as to the main substance of what they declare irrefragably confirm'd The other Writings of OrthodoxChristians of the first Ages which do not concern the History of Christianity are either Vindications and Defences of the Christian Religion against all the Objections and Calumnies raised by any of the Enemies of it or Explications of the Christian Doctrine Government and Discipline or Exhortations and Directions to Practise or Animadversions and Reproofs for Errours and Offences All which are written under the form of Orations or Apologies Letters Disputations Comments c. Now it 's plain from all these Writings that the several Authors of them were throughly convinced of the Truth of the Christian Religion This appears from the Zeal and Warmth with which many of them writ upon several occasions to one another and to Hereticks the readiness they testifie to quit all they have and to lay down their Lives rather than do any thing contrary to their Profession the concern they express for the continuance of their Fellow-Christians in the same Faith and the Conversion of others to Christianity the Boldness and Courage they shew to Persons of Power and Authority when the truth of their Religion or their own Innocence is call'd in question and from many other unquestionable marks of Honesty Sincerity and a through Perswasion visible almost in every Page 'T is manifest likewise that all these Authors believed the Scriptures of the New Testament and Founded their Religion upon them Several of them have writ Comments upon them all quote them and confirm the Doctrines they deliver and the Rules and Directions they give from them and all their Writings plainly declare they were very well vers'd in them and influenced by the same Spirit that governs there and distinguishes those Writings from any other and when ever any Controversy happen'd in matters of Christian Faith or Practiced the Appeal is constantly made to these Scriptures Several other Remarks and Observations might be drawn from the Writings of those Christians call'd Orthodox but these are sufficient for what I design to prove by them and so I pass on to consider what we have written by Heretieks Jews and Heathens with relation to Christianity A great many things were written by Persons of these several Denominations in the Three first Ages of the Christian Aera but very little of them that expressly concerns Christianity remains now and a great many of these Writings were lost in Eusebius's Time so that almost all we know of them is contained in the Orthodox Writers In many of which there are several considerable Fragments yet to be found and accounts of what is lost From all which we may collect that none of the Enemies of the Christian Religion neither Hereticks Jews nor Heathens did at any time offer to disprove or contradict those Christian Facts I have been now Establishing but did in several respects strengthen and confirm the truth of them We find by the Orthodox Writers that there were in the most Primitive Times and continually in all the after-Periods of Christianity a great many Hereticks of very different Characters and Opinions who troubled the Peace of the Church and endeavoured to corrupt the Christian Doctrine and Tradition Their Writings are full of the strange Opinions of Hereticks they are oftentimes very large in giving a History of the Men their vicious Lives and wicked Designs and in confuting their Absurd and for the most part Blasphemous Doctrines From hence we find that several of these Hereticks in order to justifie their Errors made use of all the Arts and Shifts they could and some denied one Book of Scripture and some another some took upon them to reform the Scriptures and added what they thought serv'd their turn or took away what they did not like Others made new Scriptures and put them out in the Names of the Apostles but none of them denied the principal matters of Fact contained in the New Testament neither Miraculous nor Common though their Character oftentimes allow'd and their Cause requir'd such a denial if the Evidence of those Facts had not appear'd to them so strong as to render all contradiction Vain and Ineffectual The Jews who writ against the Christian Religion allow'd most of the principal matters of Fact Recorded of Christ in the New Testament even his Miracles as well as the Common History of his Life and when they deny the Reality they grant the Pretence are wholly concern'd to shew that Christ was not the Messias promised them notwithstanding his extraordinary Character because as they thought several of the Prophecies in the Old Testament which were agreed on all hands to relate to the Messias could not be apply'd to Christ In this consisted wholly the Controversie betwixt them and the Christians and therefore are the Jews of these times censur'd by the Christian Writers as corrupting the Old Testament in such Passages of it as seem'd to them to make most for the Christian Religion Particularly Justin in his Dialogue with a Jew endeavors to evince That several Testimonies of the Prophets which he quoted was cut out of the Bible by the Jews which charge whether true or false proves thus much that the Jews had no other way of resisting the Evidence of the Christian Religion but by denying or in some manner evading the Arguments drawn from the Prophecies of the Old Testament Here they placed the chief strength of their Cause and not in the Confutation of the Christian History the greatest part of which is plainly granted in the Arguments they make use of to overthrow the Faith built upon it and the Inferences drawn from it Particularly Josephus does comfirm the truth of several of the Facts related in the New Testament and such as necessarily determine the Oririginal of Christianity The like
where every body was as capable and certain a Judge of the Cheat as they Was not there such a Man as Christ Did he not in all appearance maintain such a Character Did he not pretend to such Discoveries and Wonderful Works and did he not really Suffer such things upon account of his Pretences as we find Recorded in those Books call'd the Gospels All this must be granted in the present Supposition which fixes the real Publication of that Religion we now profess at the same date we find mentioned in the New Testament And if it be allowed that these Facts were true then does it certainly follow that all the Pretences of Christ were real for otherwise they could never have been believed as has been sufficiently proved already and will more fully appear under another Head where I shall shew the necessary Connexion betwixt the truth of the Common and the Extraordinary Facts mentioned in the New Testament But if these Common Matters of Fact just now instanced in were false as well as the other then must the whole Story be much more Ridiculous and Incredible If the Forgery be dated about Forty Years lower at some time near the Destruction of Jerusalem then must we take in the Acts of the Apostles and the other Books of the New Testament into our Account which will render the difficulty of believing the Christian Religion much greater For here we have abundance of New Matters of Fact to believe as strange as those in the Gospels and as easie to be known and disproved but vastly more Numerous and more Publick to the truth of which a great many more Cities and Nations are brought in as Witnesses all which are supposed false and consequently could never obtain Credit in the World at that time If the Christian Religion was not heard of any where till some time after the Destruction of Jerusalem how could it possibly be then believed when its chief Pretence was that it had been Published Believed and Establisted in many places long before which was palpably and notoriously false Now that this must be the Pretence upon which the Christian Religion was first Founded whatever Period we suppose this Event happen'd in after the Destruction of Jerusalem is very plain from the Nature of the Religion its self and the Manner of its Publication which are intirely built upon Matters of Fact so that if the History of Christianity or the Principal Matters of Fact contained in the New Testament are false the whole Religion must fall And the Nature of those Facts 't is built upon is such that 't is imposible for any body to believe them at any distance from the time in which they are affirmed to happen if they were then first invented when he is required to believe them For let us fix the Period when we will how can we imagine that the History contained in the Books of the New Testamen should be believed by those who are supposed to live after the Times of all the Transactions therein mention'd and yet who had never before heard or read of any of them Can it possibly be thought that any People would change their Laws and Religion upon such a Story as this without enquiring into the truth of it And how could they be satisfied upon enquiry when the supposition of an Imposture makes all other Information but that of the Publishers utterly impossible And what reason could there be to believe him who gives only a positive bare Relation of Matter of Fact done before his time which he delivers without any pretence to Revelation himself and without any Authority but his own to confirm the truth of what he endeavours to impose upon the World Would not these have been every Man's Questions Why was not the Religion now offered to us imbraced when it was first prescribed to Mankind with all those wonderful Evidences of its Divine Original we are told of Why were not those strange Facts believed by those that were the immediate Witnesses of them If they were and if the Christian Religion spread and increased upon the Credit of them as is affirmed and if the Miracles were true must needs be allow'd How came it to pass that neither We nor our Forefathers ever heard of these things and that we have no History or Monuments of them remaining How should such a New Religion as this Establish'd upon the evidence of Sense and Propagated by vast Multitudes of Professors be quite lost and worn out of the memory of Men already How came you that Publish it to be the only Person that could recover the Knowledge of it What reason have you now to believe what has been laid aside by those who by being nearer the Original were better Judges of the truth of it And what Authority have you to receive it and enjoyn Mankind the belief of it These were Questions which an Impostor could never give any Answer to and without satisfaction in these Matters so great and wise a part of Mankind as are now and were formerly throughly perswaded of the truth of the Christian Religion could not voluntarily lay aside all their ancient Prejudices and Ingagements and imbrace a New Religion with all the dangerous Consequences that they knew must attend such a change It is therefore manifestly absurd to suppose there ever were any Men Foolish and Impudent enough to Publish a false History of Matters of Fact pretended to be done just before the Publication and in the very Place where the Scene is laid within the immediate Cognizance of all the People to whom the Relation is directed and if there were any such Pretenders 't is impossible to think there should be any People so Stupid as to believe they themselves saw and heard such Things as were never said or done among them and this purely upon the Information of others without which they had remained intirely ignorant of them from whence it necessarily follows that the Christian Scheme could not be Published at the Time 't is dated at if it were meer Forgery and Invention It is likewise very ridiculous and irrational to imagine that a long series of Publick Notorious Facts said to be done in the presence of great Multitudes of all sorts of Persons in different Countries and Nations the Consequences of which are pretended to be very great and concerning to all Mankind and which by the Credit they had obtained and the Opposition that had been made to them had occasioned mighty Changes and Alterations in the World 'T is very absurd I say to maintain that such Facts as these which never happen'd at all should at any distance from the Time in which they are pretended to have happen'd ever come to be genenerally believed in or near those Places they are appropriated to barely upon the Authority of their Publication when those that were supposed to believe them can have no other Reason for their Faith but this That some body had the confidence to
to convince them that there are at present other strange Things which they do not see and which they believe their Senses as capable Judges of as of those which they do see But whether the Scriptures were believed in this Case by few or more those who had not been disposed to like them would have had greater and more unanswerable Objections to make to them from Reason and Philosophy than our present Unbelievers have How could a faithful Christian who lived before Copernicus and Des Cartes have defended the Philosophy of the Scriptures against such as rejected the forementioned Notions and exposed them as ridiculous and absurd The bare Authority of the Revelation without the Assistance of all our Modern Experiments and Observations would have been less effectual to convince Gainsayers then than it is now because the Opinions contrary to the Doctrines of Scripture then would have been more easie and popular than those contained in Scripture and therefore if the Scripture Notions were not true no Reason could be given why they should be there For it could not then be said as it is very justly and properly now in several Cases that the Expressions of Scripture were suited to the common Notions of the People who were to read them from whence it follows that the appearing Falshood of the Opinions above-mentioned if they had been found in Scripture would have been a more puzling Objection to the Christians of former Times than the allowed Falshood of the Common Vulgar Notions of Philosophy which the Scriptures are at present charg'd with can be to us And what we suppose of the Times before Copernicus would hold good of the present upon the like Tryal For it is not to be contested but there are a great many other true Notions in Philosophy hitherto unknown to us which upon the first discovery would appear as shocking and contrary to all our former Knowledge as the Motion of the Earth the Planetary Worlds c. did to our Predecessors and were these delivered in our Bibles as we have supposed the other to be they would furnish as much matter of Cavil to our Modern and all succeeding Scepticks as those would have done to the Philosophers of former Ages till further Experience had reconciled them to their Reason which could never be expected in all Points For had every Thing the Scripture has occasion to mention been expressed according to the true Philosophy of it the whole Race of Mankind could never make Experiments and Observations enough to satisfie themselves of the Truth of all the Scripture-Notions without the Authority of the Revelation as long as the World indures But beside this general Defence of the Philosophy of Scripture it may be said that several seeming Contradictions to Reason which the Enemies of our Religion have laid a great stress upon have been proved to be true and consistent by Learned Men and some of them that were capable of it Mathemaâ—ically demonstrated As particularly the Capacity of Noah's Ark. The same Thing may be answered to the next Objections made to Scripture viz. That several Places which seem'd to contradict one another have been plainly reconciled and several things which have been look'd upon as Mistakes as to the Authors of the Books Connexion of the Parts Chronology Geography c. have been clearly proved to be none by those who have particularly undertook the Examination of these Difficulties And as to those Places which do not admit of such a Solution all the Faults and Defects they are charged with are wholly owing to the Tradition and way of Conveyance which was purely Humane and were not in the Original Revelation which we say was Divine and have proved to be so by many incontestable Evidences Allowing therefore that the Text of the Scriptures like that of other Books hath received some alterations by Time and variety of Copies That some of the Rolls or Sheets of the Old Testament have been misplaced that some Things have been inserted afterwards Words and Sentences have been left out Letters have been changed and other Mistakes have been made by Transcribers That some of the Books or some parts of them are ascribed to wrong Authors and that it has been much controverted whether some of them should be admitted into the Canon Should we I say allow all this I do not see what use could be made of it to the prejudice either of the Truth or Divinity of the Jewish and Christian Revelations For variety of Copies from whence all the alterations of the Text proceed are a very great Argument of the Sincerity and Importance of the Original as being the best Preservative against all Corruption in the Substance and principal parts of it And the Controverted Books only shew what care and faithful Examination there was of every Book before it was admitted into the Canon But to give all the force and weight to these Objections which they can possibly have should we reject all Controverted Books and Passages whatsoever and should we establish any Reading we please where there is variety only letting the authentick undoubted Places be the Rule of Exposition to the doubtful than which nothing can be more reasonable in this Case I dare affirm that not one Article of Faith or Rule of Practice or any of the principal Facts our Religion is built upon would be cut off but might be as evidently proved from what remains uncontested as from the whole It does not therefore follow from those Changes and Alterations that have crept into the Scriptures since they were deposited in the hands of Men to keep or the Contests they have had about the Authority of some parts of them that what remains unaltered and uncontested is not true and of Divine Original because God has no where promised to exempt the Books in which his Revelations to Man are preserved from the accidents common to other Books Nay further should we allow what some have the confidence to assert That the Sacred Writers themselves were liable to the same Mistakes as other Men are in the Relation of Matters of Fact from 〈◊〉 own Memories or the Information of credible Witnesses it cannot be concluded from hence that any of the principal Facts which make a necessary part of our Religion are false Because these were all so very extraordinary and notorious and so impossible to be believed or pass'd by without Censure and Contradiction if they could have been denied that had the Authors of the Books of Scripture had no peculiar Assistance from God in the Composure of them we can have no manner of Reason to disbelieve or question the Truth of any Thing of the Substance and principal Parts either of the History or Doctrine there delivered For supposing those we call the Sacred Writers were not Divinely inspired as we believe they were yet were they capable and faithful Witnesses of what they writ and did not this appear to us from their Way and Manner of Writing
Senses or first obtain Credit among those who lived afterwards without any proof of their being done or believed before And if we suppose the Christian Morality Entertained and Established in the World without the present History we have of it the Forgery of that afterwards would have been wholly unnecessary and the difficulty of getting such a Forgery believed much greater From hence then it plainly follows that there could never have been such a state of things in the World as we now perceive if all the Principal Parts and Substance of the Christian History as it is at present generally believed were not true and had some time or other really happen'd out according to the Relation we find given of them This does likewise further appear from the way and manner in which those Books that contain this History are Written where we find so many extraordinary Marks and Characters of the Simplicity Integrity and undesigning Humility of the Writers their hearty Belief of what they wrote themselves and their great Zeal and Concern for the Good of Mankind as plainly shew them to have been Influenced not only by the force of well-attested Truth but by some extraordinary and more than Humane Impressions 3. These are in short the Reasons we have to believe the Truth of the Christian Religion The Validity and Force of which I shall endeavour to make out more fully under the Third Head where I am to shew the Sufficiency of the Proof that has been given of the Christian Matters of Fact from the Nature of Things upon which the certainty of all Matters of Fact as well as other Truths is ultimately founded Now the chief and immediate Reason of believing most Facts being taken from the Nature of Man and there being nothing we are so well acquainted with as the common Original Capacities and Powers Inclinations and Aversions of Mankind and consequently their Ends and Motives of acting it will be easie to shew from hence that the proof of the Christian Religion before given is not only sufficient to determine our assent to it but does in Evidence and Multiplicity of Conviction far exceed the Proof any other Matters of Fact are capable of In the first place then let us consider why we believe any Matter of Fact which never fell within our own particular and immediate Cognizance Why do we so firmly believe the Story of Julius Cesar and William the Conqueror that there is such a place as Italy or China c Now the reason of this upon examining our selves we shall find to be because a great many Men have acquainted us that there were formerly such Persons who did such and such Things and that there are now such Places in the World c. which Men were competent Judges of what they tell us had sufficient Opportunities of knowing the Truth themselves no Motives conceivable that could dispose them to lye to others and are contradicted by no body of equal Authority with them these are all the grounds of Credibility upon which Matters of Fact are generally believed and no further Characters of Truth are required by one that is satisfied of these But we have all these Reasons to believe the Common Matters of Fact related in the New Testament in the fullest Force and Extent of them and several other besides as the Incapacity of the Witnesses to deceive if they had been disposed to do it the greater Motives they had not to say what they did than to say it if it had been false and the greater Motives other Persons had to contradict them if they could have been disproved Let us examine all these Characters of Truth and see how far the Proof of the Christian History exceeds that of other Matters of Fact and how far the supposed Falshood of it notwithstanding these Characters is consistent with that certain Knowledge we have of Humane Nature As to the first Character required for the Proof of Matters of Fact the Number of the Witnesses there never was certainly so vast a Multitude of Persons all unanimously agreeing to assert the Truth of so great a variety of Matters of Fact as there is in the Case before us because the Progress of Christianity was so swift that we cannot suppose more Persons could have been acquainted with the History and Doctrines of it in so short a time and there never was such industrious Care taken to propagate the Belief of any other Facts and Opinions that we ever read of It is likewise as certain that the whole Multitude of the first Publishers and Professors of Christianity were as competent Judges of the Matters they bear witness of as 't is possible for any Man to be of any thing else whatsoever We will only suppose now that Christ and his Apostles and Disciples pretended to such Things as are Recorded of them in the Scriptures and consequently to believe their own Pretences and that all others who profess'd the Gospel of Christ did declare their Belief of all those Things which are related as said or done by Christ and his Apostles And surely a Man may infallibly know his own Thoughts and Imaginations he can tell whether he believes such or such a Thing or no or at least he can be certain that he thinks or fancies he believes it and if there be any Intercourse or Communication betwixt Men one Man may know that another pretends to believe or do a Thing whether he really believes or does it or no. If a Multitude of Men can be deceived in such Judgments as these concerning themselves and one another 't is evident that there is no such thing as Knowledge at all If therefore it must be allowed that a vast Multitude of Persons did pretend to believe all those things that they are said to believe in the New Testament it necessarily follows from hence that they did really and truly believe them or else they pretended to believe what they certainly knew to be false But that they did not pretend to believe what they knew to be false will evidently appear from these further Reflections upon Humane Nature First then 't is certain that every Man must act for some End or Motive and here is no End or Motive conceivable that could determine any of the first Publishers or Professors of Christianity to pretend to believe those Facts which they knew to be false All the Ends and Motives we can imagine any Man to act upon in such a Case we have reckoned up before and we find that if we put our selves into the same Circumstances with those first Witnesses of Christianity it would have been impossible for us to have been influenced by any of them to make the same pretences being infallibly assured at the same time that they were utterly false and groundless from whence we conclude that neither did they since all Men are so made and contrived as to be determined by the same general Motives though according to the difference of
made upon the course of things in the World it cannot be conceived or imagined that such Events as these should ever happen That there never was an Instance of any thing like the Christian Scheme which was proved or allowed by any body in the World to be an Imposture I shall take for granted since none of the Enemies of Christianity have ever produced one As for Mahometism which some have had the impudence to compare with Christianity so far as both they and we allow it to be an Imposture it can have no manner of place here as a Parallel Instance For it is on all hands granted that there was such a Man as Mahomet who lived at the Time and Place 't is pretended by his Followers he did 't is granted likewise that he wrote the Alcoran and pretended to the things there Recorded of him and that his Religion prevailed and was Propagated in the way and manner there related and described by him But in the present supposition of the whole Christian Scheme's being an Imposture it must be affirmed that call the Scriptures of the New Testament and the whole History therein contained are meer Forgery and Invention without any Foundation of Truth in the Common Matters of Fact there Recorded which makes the case of Christianity in all the important variety of Circumstances and Events possible unlike that of Mahometism And as no Instance of such an Imposture as is here pretended can be given out of the History of former times so likewise is it utterly impossible to imagine that such an Instance as this could ever happen at all To give our selves a fuller and more sensible Conviction of this let us take as exact and extensive a view as we can of the State of the World just before we affirm that Christianity was discovered or at the latest Period of Time mentioned in the New Testament Let us consider the General Temper Inclinations Opinions and Interests of the Jews at that time together with the highest Improvements in Learning and Religion then amongst them Let us make the same Reflections upon the Roman State and Government and the Principal Nations and Countries within that Empire Then let us carefully weigh and examine the Christian History and Religion contained in the Scriptures of the New Testament let us represent to our selves in one continued Prospect all the Principal Facts there Recorded drawn forth in all their variety of Circumstances the whole System of Doctrines and Rules in their just Dependance and Connexion the Characters of the Persons concerned in the Publishing and Establishing them together with the way and manner in which all these things are Written and when we have done this let us truly and impartially ask our selves whether we can possibly conceive how any Person could at that time Invent and Publish that whole Scheme of Things at Jerusalem Rome or any other part of the Roman Empire without any ground of truth to build upon and supposing it Published how it could be Believed so firmly and Propagated so far and wide that it should be fixt and continue in all this part of the World to this day without any Footsteps or Motives remaining whereby we might be able to detect the Imposture This I say appears to me as hard to conceive as that Rome should build it self and I am verily perswaded would appear so to any one else that had as fully and impartially considered the Matter as I have endeavoured to do If we date the Imposture later the same difficulty will attend the Invention and Propagation of it and we shall be further puzled to account for all the Signs and Monuments of Christianity which will appear to have been before the Period assigned for its Original wheresoever we place it But if we deal as fairly by Christianity as we do by Mahometism and allow the Common Matters of Fact Recorded of it to be true if we grant that there was such a Man as Christ who lived at the Time and Place 't is affirmed by Christians he did that he and his Disciples pretended to what is Recorded in the Scriptures of the New Testament of them that those Books were written by the Persons whose Names they bear and that the Christian Religion spread and prevail'd over the World in the way and manner and by the means of those Pretences we have there an account of Granting I say all these things as by the general acknowledgement of all sorts of Persons and the impossibility of their being false just before proved they must be granted From hence it necessarily follows that all the other Extraordinary Facts are true and consequently that the Christian Religion came from God and lays a necessary Obligation upon Mankind to believe it and conform themselves to it This is certain in the same way of Reasoning we used before because there never was an Instance and it cannot be conceived there ever should be one where such Marks and Indications of Truth as accompany these things should all belong to an Imposture Upon this account therefore it is that we affirm all these things to be impossible viz. That Persons of such Characters as Christ and his Disciples were represented to be should invent and contrive the Christian Doctrine and Institution or perform those things that are Recorded of them meerly by their own Skill and Power That Christ and his Disciples should pretend to have done such Extraordinary Facts as are attributed to them in the New Testament if they were not the true and immediate Instruments by whom they were done That such Multitudes of Persons as we there Read of should believe these Facts and imbrace Christianity upon the Credit of them if they were not true or should pretend to believe them if they were not really perswaded of their truth And if all the Principal Facts both Common and Extraordinary were certainly true as far as the Persons concerned in bearing Testimony to them were capable of perceiving their Truth It is likewise impossible but the whole Christian Religion and all the Conduct and Management in the Discovery and Propagation of it must come from God All these Propositions we are firmly assured of upon this ground viz. because if we suppose the contrary of any thing here alledged no Parallel Instance can be given to prove the truth of what we suppose and if we represent any of these Cases to our selves fairly in all its Circumstances we cannot possibly conceive it should ever happen 'T is true indeed there have been Persons of low Fortunes and mean Imployments in the World who have by the meer force of their Natural Genius spoke Wisely and acted Gallantly upon some Occasions but 't was never known and 't is impossible to conceive that Persons of no Learning or Education who knew nothing beyond the mean Affairs of their own Village and never Converst with any of higher Improvements than themselves it is impossible I say to imagine that such Persons
And now if we take a just view of them and consider them all together we shall be obliged to make the following Conclusions 1. That there never was any Thing discovered or so much as suspected to be an Imposture that had so many Marks and Characters of Truth upon it as the Christian Religion has 2. That there never were any true Matters of Fact so well attested or that were capable of such a Proof as the Christian Facts are There being no Ancient Facts which have so many sensible Monuments and Effects of them left and in the Proof of which Mankind was so nearly and necessarily concern'd 3. That it is impossible to conceive or frame any Notion how or in what manner the Christian Religion might possibly have been an Imposture notwithstanding all the present appearances of its being true And if all these Conclusions are right as I am throughly and irresistibly convinced they are and I think have proved them so to be there can be no room left to disbelieve the Christian Religion without distrusting all our Knowledge and renouncing all pretences to Reasoning But supposing these Conclusions were not any of them fully proved and it could be shewn That something else which had once all the appearance of Truth that the Christian Religion now has had afterwards been detected to be false that some other Ancient Matters of Fact are as well attested and proved to be true as the Christian seem to be and that 't is possible to imagine which way the Christian Religion might come to obtain its present Credit in the World notwithstanding it was at first an Imposture none of which I am sure can be proved Yet even in this Case the Proof that has now been given of the Christian Religion is sufficient to build our Faith upon because the most that can be inferr'd from all these Arguments is only this That there is a bare possibility in the Nature of Things that the Christian Religion may be false But he that from hence should conclude that it was really so without any other Reasons to support his Opinion and in opposition to all that multiplicity of Proof that has been offered for the Truth of it must not pretend Reason but only Resolution for his Infidelity Such therefore is the Sufficiency of the Proof before given whatever be the Nature or Kind of it or however it may be thought to differ from or fall short of the Demonstration used in other Matters that we are utterly inexcusable if we do not believe the Christian Religion upon it and God may justly Condemn us for our disbelief and that upon these two accounts 1. Because we believe other Matters of Fact upon less Evidence and 2. Because we are obliged to believe such Facts as have these appearances of Truth which the Christian Religion has though they should really be false 1. That we believe Matters of Fact upon less Evidence than the Christian Religion is received upon is manifest by what has been before proved that no Matters of Fact have or are capable of so great and therefore to confirm this Point I shall only bring that one Instance of Mahometism Now 't is certain that those who look upon the Christian Religion as an Imposture do at the same time profess to believe all the principal Parts of the History of Mahomet Such as his Pretences to Revelation his Writing the Alcoran and his Propagating the Belief of the things contained in it in the way and manner therein mentioned These I say they do not in the least question notwithstanding that the Mahometan Religion pretends to a Divine Original as well as the Christian and is in like manner addrest to Mankind under the Promises and Threatnings of Future Happiness and Misery though it is withal a very absurd Composition in it self and of very pernicious Consequence to the World to be Believed and Established It is therefore very unreasonable for Men that believe these things to deny the Common History of Christianity such as the Pretences of Christ and his Disciples to Revelations Prophecies and Miracles the Writing of the Scriptures of the New Testament by those whose Names they bear or at least by some of Christ's immediate Disciples and the Propagation of the Christian Religion according to the Times Places Ways and Methods Recorded in those Books 'T is very unreasonable I say for Men who believe the History of Mahometism to question the truth of these things because they are attested by a much greater variety of Books and other Monuments and a greater multiplicity of the Copies of the Scriptures all which Testimonies we are sure by a numerous succession of others were extant nearer the date of the several Facts attested and in an Age of Learning among People of much higher Improvements than the first Mahometans were and moreover because it is certain that the Pretences of Christ were more difficult to be Feigned by himself or Forged by others afterwards that the Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel are of more Concern and Importance to be enquired into and the Establishment of Christianity whether true or false in its Original would so certainly contribute to the Happiness of Mankind that 't is one very good Argument of its being true that it is impossible to make and contrive any other Scheme every way so suitable and agreeable to the truest Interests of Humane Nature From whence I conclude that we cannot question the Truth of the History of Christianity so far as concerns the Common Matters of Fact without distrusting all the Knowledge we have of every Thing that happen'd at any distance from us And if the Common Matters of Fact are true all the other are plainly demonstrable from them as far as we have any certain Knowledge of the Natures of Things as has already been proved We are therefore obliged either to believe the Christian Religion or to renounce our belief of all other Facts whatsoever because whatever of this kind we believe besides we believe upon less Evidence 2. But Secondly Whatever degree of Evidence other Matters of Fact may be supposed to have we are absolutely obliged to believe the Christian Religion upon that Evidence that is brought for it because we are obliged to believe such Facts as have those appearances of Truth the Christian Religion has though they should be really false We are to judge of Things by the Faculties God has given us according to those grounds and measures of Truth he has suited and proportion'd to them and therefore when we have the greatest assurance of a Thing that we are capable of according to the present frame our Nature and the State of Things in the World it would be highly unreasonable in us to deny it whatever it was barely upon a Suspicion it might be false though it should afterwards really prove to be so but if what we had this apparent Proof of was a Matter of concern and importance to us upon the