to him as his rational being calls for and he himself is capable of And to arrive at this there is no possibility without Revelation Natural Divinity if duely pursued points men directly to Supernatural from a sense of its own deficiency And our Natural light shews us the necessity of Revelation from its own imperfect discoveries and by directing us to many Daties in general which without Revelation we know not well how to perform My natural light tells me of a Sapreme and Perfect Being that made me but gives me no distinct or satisfying information about him My natural light enjoyns me to Worship him but cannot sufficienly direct me in the way of it My Natural light tells me I am upon Ill terms with God and bids me is my nearest concern indeavour a Reconciliation with him and assures me of the possiâ—ilit of it from the general notion I have of his Goodness but can give me no sure and certain Directions for the obtaining of it In short My natural light tells me Man is a Creature made for Supernatural enjoyments for Rewards and Punishments from God Superiour to this World but discovers not unto me sufficient and infallible means which in this case is of absolute necessity to my welfare for the obtaining the one or avoiding the other but bids me look upward and expect to be further taught from above So that to say there is no Revelation at all That God has left Mankind wholly to the conduct of Nature is plainly to say God has left Man under that unhappiness which no Creature is under besides himself that is not fully informed about those things he is most concerned to know nor sufficiently enabled to obtain the great End of his Being 'T is to say God has made a reasonable Creature with a direct tendency towards himself and the highest Supernatural good with great Hopes and sears of Rewards and Punishments from him and with inherent Obligations in his own Nature relating to both and vet hath left him with great uncertainty and obscurity to contemplate about these things and has given him no sufficient or to his own Reason satisfying directions about them then which no conception more vile and impious and in it self more contrary to all true notion of God can at any time infest the minds of men If it be acknowledged there is any where extant a Revelation from God to the World let it be produced Let the best â—ival to the Bible upon that account or all its Competitors together be brought foâ—th and let but the dictates of right and impartial Reason of Reason as much it self as we are able to conceive it as abstracted from all prejudice all Byass of Custom Education or any câ—llateral interest as we can suppose it be the Judge and we shall soon pat an end to the Contest Let men be but true to that Divinity they are born with and to the gennine issues of their own Reason which must be the Judge in this case and the Bible must needs be Predominant and prevail against all Competition And that will be thus made to appear There are somethings which by the Judgement of right Reason must necesiarily be appurtenant to a Revelation from God and such a Divine Law as we are in pursuit of and without which it cannot reasonably be supposed Now we find those things peculiarly to belong to the Bille and that they are no way applicable to any other Writings or Pretences to Revelation whatsoever And this being so as by the following particulars 't will undeniably appear to be where any Revelation in the general is admitted the Bible cannot with any colour of Reason be rejected And in truth its Divine Authority will against all opposition be established First There must be reasonably supposed in any Divine Laws God shall reveal to the world such a Legislative Authority expressed in Commanding in Promising in Threatning and throughout the whole of them as is by the judgement of our own Reason suitable to the Sovereignty of God and our natural subjection to him that is we must needs suppose God to give Laws in a way like himself In this respect the Bible is singular No Book under under Heaven contains such an assumption of Supremacy over the world nor speaks to us in such a manner with that Majesty and uncontrollable Authority in Gods own Name as this doth Requires indispensible obedience from from all Mankind to whatever it enjoyns as the Will and Pleasure of the Great God upon the highest Penalty That of Eternal destruction to Soul and Body How far any man could have gone in this respect in personating the Supreme Majesty of God and abusing the world with a Counterfeit of his Divine Authority needs not to be considered in this case though 't is certain the Bible has out gone all the possible contrivance of Men in such a way and none but God himself could have spoke to the world in words so becoming his own greatness and so suitable to those conceptions right Reason will give us of him because though many Books and Writings have made a claim to Revelation besides the Bible yet in fact no Book nor Writing has so much as attempted to Command the world in so Majestick a way nor indeed in any way becoming the Greatness and Sovereignty of God The Bible has a peculiarity in this respect above all other Writings that have been extant since the world began We find not an instance where any have so far usurped the Throne of God as with such an absolute superintendency to dictate to the world All pretended Revelations have in this visibly discovered their own nakedness and betrayed their own mean descent Not one of them having been clothed with such a Divine Majestick Authority as becomes a product of Infinite Wisdom and Power and most of them no way suitable to the common Prudence of men The Ancient Heathen pretences to Revelation were for the most part the meanest and most trifling part of those Ages wherein they were extant And that Alchoran which in later times Mabomet has father'd upon Revelation is a Systeme of Laws so prodigiously unsuitable to the Majesty of God that 't is much of it no way reconcileable to common Discretion or any way worthy an Edition from Wise or or Good men Secondly My Reason will tell me that a Revelation from God to the World must needs be supposed to give us an Account of all things necessary for us to know and to carry in it a Compleatness and Sufficiency of Instruction and Direction for all the great Ends of Mankind relating to this life and a future 'T is not imaginable that God should make a Revelation to the world and not make it proportionate and sufficient to all the Ends of Revelation The great End of Revelation is to supply the Desiciencies of Nature for if Nature were in it self perfect and without defect there needed then no Revelation and to
sorts of Christians under the Gospel St. Jerom calls it a Book full of Idle dreams The Papists themselves though they have admitted many other Books that we reckon Apochryphal into their Canon yet have still rejected this and Bellarmine himself in his Book de Script Eccles speaks with great contempt of this whole Book And calls the Author of it whoever he were a writer of Romances Secondly There are many very good and sufficient Reasons to induce us to believe the contrary First There is no where in any part of the Bible the least mention not by Esdras himself though he gives us a large and particular account of what he himself did of any such thing And 't is not conceiveable but so eminent a thing as God inspiring one man to write over again so great a part of the Bible which so many had been inspired to write before would have been some where or other Recorded nor is it credible but that so great a Judgment upon the Jews as the total loss of their Law would have been distinctly mentioned when the Holy Ghost is so very particular in giving us an account of all the lossâ—s the Jews underweâ—â— at that time of all the ruines made by the Babylonians at Jerusalem and of all the spoils they carryed into Babylon from thence Secondly 'T is not to be doubted but that there were multitudes of Copies in the hands of the Religious Jews especially the Priests of whom there were many hundreds who had a constant use of it And that the People also dâ—d generally possess themselves of it after that eminent danger it had undergone and the Recovery of â—â—â—n the Eighteenth year of Jâ—siah And 't is not to be supposed that all the Copiâ—s could be destroyed Those that probably were in the hands of Jeremiah Gedalich and many others who stayed behind and accepted their liberty to continue still in Judea and those in the hands of Daniel Ezekiel and those that were carryed away with them in the first Captivity to Babylon long before the City and Temple were burnt and all those which were probably kept by many of those that were carried into Babylon after especially if we consider that we no where find that the Babylonians made it any part of their business in particular to destroy and extirpate their Law And when Antiochus did afterward with all his might indeavour it by Reason of the many Copies that were extant in good mens hands he was no way able to effect it Thirdly It appears the Jews had the Scriptures with them during the time of their Captivity in Babylon both from Daniels Prophecie who Prophesied there and also from other Historical Evidence First From his Prophecie for we find him in the 9 Chapter of his Prophecie quoting several times particularly the Writings of Moses And in the beginning of that Chapter he sayes He understood by Books the number of years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the Prophet that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolation of Jerusalem And those Books could be no other but the Prophecie of Jeremiah it self with other parts of the Scripture and the Records of the Kings of Babylon wherein were to be found the times that the Jews were brought thither which Daniel compared together and so found out the End of Jâ—remies seventy years and of the Captivity the difficulty in the doing of which arose from hence that there had been four distinct Captivities and four several Kings of Judah carryed into Babylon at four several times first Manasses then Jehojakim and with him amongst others Daniel himself Thirdly Jeconias and with him Ezekiel and Mordecai and lastly Zedekias when the City and Temple were destroyed And 't was not a thing very easie to know from which of these Captivities to reckon the seventy â—aâ—s Ezekiel seems to begin it eleven years before the City was destroyed when Jeâ—â—onias was carryed away thither for he sayes In the five and twentieth year of our being in Captivity in the bâ—ginning of the year in the tenth day of the month in the fourteenth year after that the City was smitten And the Prophet Jeremie in comforting those that were carryed away with Jecenias used these words Thus saith the Lord after seventy years be accomplished in Babel I will visit you and cause you to return to this place by which he seems to begin the seventy years from thence but in other places is very express that the seventy years were to be accounted from the destruction of the City and Temple And so it appears the Captivity mentioned by Ezekiel was not that by which the seventy â—ears were to be reckoned Nor was the Prophecie uttered by Jeremie to comfort those that were captivated with Jeconias to commence when uttered nor till the destruction of the City and the last Captivity of Zedekiah All which Daniel considered and by comparing these Prophecies together found the exact time from whence the seventy years were to be accounted Secondly From Historical Evidence for Josephus sayes the Reason why Cyrus set on foot the rebuilding of the Temple and restoring of the Jews to their Countrey was his reading the Prophecie of Isaiah which was written â—10 years before his time wherein the Prophet foretells in Gods name that Cyrus should be raised up for that very purpose upon reading of which during the Captivity he save Cyrus was ravished with admiration of God and surprized with an ardent zeal to bring about what was so long before written And t is highly probâ—ble that God made use of the sight of that Prophecie to engage Cyrus to what he did for otherwise 't was a thing in it self most absurdly impolitick and against all ordinary Rules of discretion to restore such a people and rebuild such a place that had been so famous and so terrible to all the Nations round about Especially when as Josephus sayes there went out of Babilon at their return of those two Tribes of Judah and Benjamin there captivated Four Milions six hundred twenty and eight thousand Persons that were above twelve years old besids four thousand and seventy Levites and of their Wives and Children together forty thousand seven hundred forty and two besides also some hundreds of the Tribe of Levi that were Porters Singers and other sacred Servitors Fourthly 'T is not Imaginable that Zerubbabel Joshuah Haggai and so many others of them would have so laboured as they did to return out of Babylon toâ—e-build their Temple and restore their Ancient Worship if the Law of God the great Rule and Foundatioâ— of it had been wholly lâ—st and extinguished Nay it appears evidently in the Book of â—zra that those Jews that firstâ—etâ—â—â—ed into Judaea before Esdras came out of Babylon brought the Law out of Babylon with them for in the sixth of Esdras 't is there said They set the Prâ—ests in their divisions and the Levites in their coâ—ses and setled the Worship oâ—the Temple
to men of one perswasion Whenever men in order to the founding of any Science lay down positions and Principles upon which they proceed if such Principles be beyond the first and common rudiments of every mans Reason though in themselves never so true yet they ought to be subject to debate and admitted questionable in all Reasonings about that very Science Not to admit some universal Maxims is the way to make Mankind certain of nothing and to admit any particular mens Opinions as indisputable Principles is the way to inslave the World to every party The Scriptures are the first Principles of Christians but not of Men. The first of Christian Religion but not of all Science And therefore we ought to begin their Proof against all Antiscriptural opposition from the common Notions of every mans Religion and Reason and from thence induce an assent to their Divine and Sacred Authority which we shall find God has made sufficiently evident to a rational and impartial inquiry Secondly The Testimony given by the Holy Ghost in the Minds and Consciences of Men to the Truth of the Scriptures though it be the most convincing Evidence that can be given to them and that way God is pleased to reserve to himself of giving men an unquestionable satisfaction about that and all other Divine things yet 't is not to be urged in proof of the Scriptures against its professed Adversaries And that upon two accounts First Because the blessed Spirit it self is not a common demonstrable Principle amongst Mankind and so cannot be made use of against those that know no such Testimony nor admit the being of any such Principle Nothing but what a man does assent to can with any good Reason be urged upon him to prove what he does not assent to To go about to prove the Scriptures by any Evidence arising from the Holy Ghost must needs be visibly absurd because there is no other way to prove that there is any such thing in Being as the Holy Ghost but by the Scriptures themselves So that what I am about to prove must first be admitted before I can make good the existence of that Medium I take to prove it by Secondly Whatever Evidence the Holy Ghost gives to any man to assure him of the Truth of any proposition that Evidence as such can never go beyond his own Breast nor can I ever prove any thing by it as it is a Divine and infallible Evidence because such Evidence is no way Communicable to another but in an ordinary way Nothing is visible to another in such cases but the Reasons I can produce The Divine illumination I have within my self to convince me that such Reasons are Cogent and prevailing can never be so demonstrated as to convince another that has no such illumination The illuminations of the Holy Ghost in the Minds of Men are no other way to be conceived of then that he is pleased to propose the right Grounds and Reasons upon which things are to be believed and to convince and satisfie the understanding that they are so and to bring men to acquiesce in Conclusions by assertaining them of the Truth of the Premises 'T were Heterodox and false and one of the worst sorts of Enthusiasme to say That Divine illumination were not always accompanied with rational Evidence And that any thing were the product of the Holy Ghost in the Minds of Men for which no Reason could be given 't were most unsuitable to a reasonable being and most contrary to the manner of Gods dealing with Men all the intercourse between God and Man being maintained by the truest exercise of our rational faculties and no otherwise Whoever rests assured from a Divine Testimony of the Truth of the Scriptures as coming from God may deal with an Antiscripturist by those Grounds and Reasons upon which such Testimony is built But will vainly and to no purpose urge that satisfaction he receives of the validity of such Grounds and Reasons from such a Testimony when that Testimony can be no further made Evident then by such Reasons and Arguments as he is able to produce for it of the sufficiency of which every other Mans Reason in an ordinary way must necessarily be the Judge To this present undertaking there ought also to be this praeliminary Consideration that as there are divers Things of divers Natures true so there are various ways of rendring the Truth of them Evident and Mediums of proof proper and peculiar to each This is visible in Aethicks in Physicks in Mathematicks and in all other Sciences When we discourse of the Bible divers things will come in question the Truth of which by various Mediums of proof must be established First in the general whether it be reasonable to believe that there should be any such Supernatural Law as this sent from Heaven or no! This is to be cleared from the exercise of our own Reason and the common principles of such natural Religion as every man is born with Secondly whether this Book as 't is now proposed to us be in the Matter of it such as is likely to come from God and to be that Law by which the Supreme Maker of all things would Rule and Judge the World This must also be cleared from that Natural Divinity that lodges in every Man 's own Breast and those primary Notions of God and Religion which all unprejudiced Reason assents to and which are antecedently supposed to all discourses of Revelation and whatever is Supernatural Thirdly whether this Book was written by those Persons whose Names it bears and in those Times wherein it avows it self to be written Whether such Miracles were wrought such Praedictions fulfilled All things of that Nature being matters of fact must be proved to us by credible Testimonies and by such means as can ascertain us about a matter of fact and a thing long since past He that demands to be satisfied about a matter of fact long since past and yet denies to acquiesce in Historical Evidence is so absurd as at the same time to propose a Doubt and resolves against all way of Answer Fourthly whether this Book as now we have it be the same it was when it was first written and have not been since corrupted or changed The proof of this depends upon what may be rationally urged to make it credible That this Book should still be secured by a Divine care and to render the ways and means Historically Evident by which such a Divine care in all Times and Ages hath been exerted And so in all other things that may be in doubt about the Bible there are proper inducements to our belief as will appear hereafter and such as the Nature of such a subject requires And he that will not acquiesce in a belief of things upon the Evidence they are capable of though perhaps not so full and convincing as some other things will afford declares himself to be obstinately willful and absurd Nothing
the Jews in the time of our Saviour and the Apostles nor before and 't is certain if there had been any Books then extant in truth written by him they would have been in great esteem and veneration in the Jewish Church though they had not been within their Canon which we are sure they were not and Philo or Josephus most diligent searchers of their Antiquities would have made some eminent mention of them in whose Works we find altum silentium about any such Books and therefore 't is not to be supposed they believed there were any such real Books then extant But 't is most probable that after the Apostle Jude had in his Epistle quoted a Prophecie of Enoch which Prophecie without doubt he came to the knowledge of either purely by Revelation which I rather believe or else by a Tradition the truth of which was ascertained to him by Revelation by which means came others also of the Sacred Writers in after-times to be ascertained of what they writ about divers things that relate to the History of Moses that were not to be found in his Books for in the Psalms we find mention of some things done in Moses his time that are not recorded in his Books St. Paul in the 9 to the Hebrews sayes that when Moses had spoken every precept according to the Law he took the blood of Calves and Goats with Water and Scarlet Wool and Hyssop and sprinkled bâ—th the Book and all the People saying this is the Blood of the Testament c. In which the Apostle has added several things that are not inserted by Moses in the selation of this passage in the 24 of Exodus So Stephens Speech set down in the 7 of the Acts tells us that Moses in killing the Egyptian supposed that his brethren would have understood how that God by his Hand would deliver them but they understood not By which we have a Reason given for Moses killing the Egyptian that he himself has no where set down and by which we come to understand that before Moses went into the Land of Midian God revealed to him that he was to be the deliverer of that people which Moses himself has not any where told us I say 't is probable that some Hereticks in the Church most likely the Gnosticks who much cryed up those Spurious Writings to promote their own corrupt Opinions and Interests took occasion from thence to frame certain counterfeit Books just as some others did under the names of Jaâ—nes and Jambres after St. Pauls mention of them as written by Enoch before the Flood which Books have sufficiently betrayed themselves for those that were published under his name were stuft as St. Austin sayes with such absurd and fabulous Stories of Angels and such ridiculous relations of Gyants whose Fathers were Angels and no men that they are to be justly rejected as pâ—lpably counterfeit and fictitious Of the same mind is Jerom Chrysostom and Epiphanius and when Celsus alledged some absurd Stories out of those writings in reproch to the Christians Origen in his fifth Book answers him by shewing what a mean esteem the Jews as well as the Christians then had of them For the second those Pillars of the Sons of Seth 't is beyond all compass of credit that any such Pillars should be set up with an intention to outlast the Deluge or that they should so do or that any Engravings upon them should be visible some thousands of years after especially upon one of Brick for Josephus tells us there were two at first erected one of Brick and another of Stone and that of Stone they made on purpose to last if the other should decay how he came to such an exact account of their minds the Reader may guess and yet he sayes 't was that of Brick that then remained upon which he does not absolutely say there was any thing written in Letters but that the Sons of Seth Engraved upon them such things as they had invented which might be by many other representations and other ways then by Letters for I doubt not but that a Symbolical representation of mens thoughts one to another was extream early in the World though they wanted Alphabetical Letters Nor does Josephus say that He saw it it himself or give any punctual account what it was that was engraven upon it or any certain Place where the Pillar was to be seen but only in general that it was then in the Countrey of Syria where he left men of leisure to enquire after it The truth is there are so very many improbable and unlikely if not impossible Circumstances do attend this vain Story that 't is plain Josephus though in the general a Historian of deserved credit took it upon bare report from others some late Authors think and perhâ—ps not amiss from the fabulous relation of Manetho who sayes he took his History from some Pillars set up before the Flood and was marvailously abused in that Countenance he seems to give to it nor ought it to seem strange that he should be so for we sind many of the best Historians have taken up things upon trust and fallen thereby into very great mistakes Suetonius and Tacitus are both eminent Historians amongst the Romans yet both guilty of strange mistakes Tacitus tells us in his History That the Jews worshipped an Asses Head with the highest veneration then which nothing could be more untruly and upon less ground affirmed and Suetonius so mistook that he thought Christ lived in the time of Claudius for he sayes In the time of Claudius Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes civitate expulit That Claudius expelled the Jews out of Rome who were continually making uproars being stirred up thereunto by Christ Then which there could not be an absurder mistake nor a greater falshood well uttered For the third The mention that Moses makes in the 21 of Numbers and the 14 of the book of the wars of the Lord as a Book then extant his words are wherefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord what he didin the red Sea and in the brooks of Arnon First divers probable senses are given of the place that render it no Objection in this case The Geneva Translation not much differing from some others renders it thus Wherefore it shall be spoken in the book of the Battles of the Lord c. If so then 't is Prophetical and may relate to Joshuah who is said to sight the Battles of the Lord and to the Relations in the books of Joshuah or Judges that were to be after Junius reads the words thus Idcirco dici solet in recensione bellorum Jehovae c. Wherefore it is wont to be said in the rehearsal of the Wars of the Lord c. And so understands it not of any particular book but that amongst the Wars that God disposed for the good of the Israelites there was in those times a famous mention in the
mouths of most men concerning those passages there expressed Paulus Fagius who seems to give the rightest account of it differs not much from this of Junius only reads it in the futuretense and supposes it to intend a future relation his words are Ideo dicetur est enim verbum Hebraicum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 futuri temporis in commemoratione bellorum hoc est cum bella Deicommemorabuntur recensebuntur a posteris quae bella pro Israel in mari rubro gesscrit quae ad hos torrentes quasi dicat hi auo locitanquam memorabiles ab omni posteritate repetentur in quibus Deus pro Israel dimicavit ubi prodigia Coeleslia ostâ—nsa sunt that is In the relation that shall be hereafter of the Wars of the Lord there shall be a famous mention amongst all posterity of what God did for Israel in those two places wheresoever the Wars of the Lord are spoke of what God did in those two places shall have an eminent mention The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sepher signifies properly any rehearsal or enarration recensionem aut enarrationem quamcunâ— recensionem scriptam but per accidens If we understand it not to relate to any Book but only to a relation Verbal as it seems most probably to do because Moses speaks only of a rehearsal in generals but not directly of a written rehearsal it reaches not this matter and if it do I see no good reason can be given why by that Book of the Wars of the Lord should not be meant either some succeeding Book part of the Bible or else that very Book of Numbers it self But Secondly which way soever this Text be taken it can never be reasonably urged to prove there were Letters or Books before Moses because 't is said to be a Book relating a Story of things done in Moses his own Time for those Wars called the Wars of the Lord commenced but at the peoples coming out of â—gypt under his conduct And therefore 't was impossible there should be a written story of them before Moses himself was extant To the last Objection I Answer 'T is true that the Egyptians were a Learned people probably the most learned the world then had The continued clearness of their Skye and the constant overslows of Nile naturally tending to render them learned in those two Noble Sciences of Astrology and Geometry yet there is not the least ground to believe they had any use of Alphabetical Letters before Moses his time or any other way to express or communicate their learning but what was Symbolical and Hycroglyphycal nor is there the least Record any where extant to evince the contrary Aristotle sayes The ancient way of the Egyptians writing was per Hiâ—roglyphycas literas saxis incisas and he adds Conceptus aâ—imalium scrâ—bunt uti occulata side legimus in lapidibus per figuras idem in omnibus Scientijs Artibusque sacientes quos locabant in Templis tanquam Paginas perlegendas talesque illis pro libris extant Tacitus tells us Primi per siguras Animaâ—ium Egypti sensus mentis efsingebant antiqâ—â—ssima Monumenta memoriae humanae impressa saxis cernuntur Diodorus Sicalus long before in the fourth part of his History has given us a large account of this Symbolical way of writing amongst the Egyptians and Ethiopians which was reduced to these three heads Imitativa Tropica Enigmatica nor do we hear a word of any other writing amongst them till Moses his time who in all probability first discovered to them that way of transferring their minds one to another by Alphabetical Letters And this Artapanus a most ancient Historian tells us who speaking of Moses sayes Vt quasi Deas ab Egyptijs coleretur propter Literarum inventionem Mercurium appellatum That he was reverenced by the Egyptians as a God and for his first inventing of Letters called Mercury The Antiquity of the Bible in point of fact being thus cleared 't is in the second place to be considered what Testimony to the Divinity of the Bible does in truth result from thence And herein we shall find the one very remarkbly leading us to the other First in the general 't is a thing not to be denied that a reverence to Antiquity seems to have been universal All men in all Ages seem to have risen up and payed respect to the Hoary Head of Antiquity and that upon these two grounds First What is most Ancient has undergone the greatest Trial Every man is ready to venerate what has endured the Test of many Generations and lasted through most Ages because nothing corrects mistakes like Experience not distinguishes falshood and truth like Time Time we say and truly say is Index as well as Edax rerum Secondly Every mans Reason tells him all Secundary truth must needs lie nearest to the Eternal truth and so be of greatest Antiquity Error of every kind is of a later Edition then truth an Apostacy from it and a Corruption of some prime Principles Though Error and falshood may be very Ancient yet Truth is still the Elder Brother and has this still to say to all its opposers Non fuit sic ab initio And therefore the farther we wade into Antiquity the nearer still we come to Truth In Religion most especially that Maxim prevails antiquitate nihil verius veritate nihil antiquius In the present case the Antiquity of the Bible carries in it a very signal proof of its Divinity That which is the most ancient Religion is like to be the Truest greatest antiquity in Religion is an eminent mark of greatest Truth and that upon these two very forcable considerations First 't is reasonable to believe that there has been an intercourse between God and Man since the beginning and a Supernatural inter course since mans first defection that Gods Revelations were as early as mans necessities That there was no time wherein man stood in need of Supernatural Instruction and help but that God affords it to him If the supposal of Revelation in the general be reasonable as I have proved at large it is the other will follow and we shall find good ground to believe that there has been a Revelation from God since there was first Reason for it and such a constitution as Supernatural Religion in order to mans happiness and recovery that bears an equal Date with his first apostacy to think otherwise were to deny what the notion of Gods goodness very openly affirms to us And this being so no Religion can be True that is not clothed with great antiquity And that Religion that is most ancient and can derive it self from the beginning must needs be most True The Bible therefore giving us Historically an account of Gods first intercourse with man and of the constant continuation of it in all Ages and being it self the first account that ever was given of Religion in such a Written way upon all accounts the most Ancient the world
according to the Law of Moses which we cannot conceive after seventy years they could so exactly have done or would ever have attempted to have done it had not they had the Law with them while Esdras himself was yâ—tâ—n Babylon and when Esdras did come to Jerusalem we find in the 8th of Nehemiah the people were so far from wanting the Law or staying for any such Restoration or Re-penning of it by him as is pretended that they desired him only to read the Law openly to them which he immediately did as a thing they were then possessed of and which was notorious amongst them Fifthly 'T is no way probable that Esdras should so Re-pen the Bible because we find his own writings full of Caldee words as also the Prophecie of Daniel but all that part of the Bible written before the Captivity is in pure Hebrew and 't is no way conceiveable but that if he had Re-penn'd the whole he would have written it in the same way he wrote his own Books and according to the Idiome that was then in use amongst the Jews either wholly in Caldee or else with some mixture of Caldee and Hebrew together The whole of this Story does evidently appear to be a Romantick fable taken out of a Book sâ—ust with many vain and ridiculous follies and is contradicted by another Apecryphal Book of much better credit 〈◊〉 wee 'l depend upon such Evidence for in the second Book of the Maccabees we are there told that the Tabernacle and the Ark in the sides of which the Law we know was placed were sâ—cured by the Prophet Jeremie and hid in a Cave at Mount Nebo when Jerusalem and the Temple were burnt And if any such thing were though the Law be not particularly mentioned yet being always kept in the Ark â—â—s not to be doubted but Jeremie preserved it with the Ark and had an especial reference to the securing of it in what he then did This we affirm as a truth to which both Jews and Christians have assented that at the return of the people out of Babylon the care of Esdras about the Bible and that great Synagogue that was then according to Moses his first institution assembled in which were present Haggai Zacharie Malachy Nehemias and Zerubbabel was very eminent and great and to this day we derive singular advantages from it For first with great diligence they made an exact seperation between such Writings as were of Divine Inspiration dictated by the Holy Ghost and were to be a standing Rule to the Church in all Ages and all other Writings whatsoever whether written by true Prophets or false for even true Prophets and such as were most eminent might and without doubt many of them did write diverse things without any immediate assistance or direction from God and consequently which were nor of Divine Authority they collected all the sacred parts of the Old Testament together which during the Captivity lay dispersed in private hands no publick use being made of them Incorporated the whole into one intire Volumn an admirable work in the order we now have it which before was not possible to be for several Psalms several of the Prophecies and some other Books were written after the coming of the people into Babylon and it does no where appear that those parts written before were conjoyned in one intire Volumn more of them then the five Books of Moses the Original Copy whereof Moses himself delivered in a publick assembly to the Levites to be layed up in the sides of the Ark the peculiar Archive God had by his special command appointed for it the whole of the Old Testament so united they ranked under three Classes and divided into three parts which division was continued amongst the Jews till the times of our Saviour who in the 24th of St. Luke refers to it when he sayes All things ought to be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms Secondly Their care in securing the Original Text of the Scripture was eminently great and most highly is it to be applauded in adding points to the Hebrew Letters to preserve the Knowledge of the Tongue and facilitate the reading and Learning of it dividing the sacred Writings into Verses with many other things of that kind most probably first begun by them of which the Jewish Writers give us a large account The whole of their indeavours this way and of those amongst the Jews that succeeded them therein was called the Massora which God wonderfully blessed to preserve the purity of the Hebrew Text and to deliver the Old Testament safely and intirely over to us What a useful and most laborious enterprize this Massora was we may know by the description Buxtorffe gives of it in the second Chapter of his most excellent Commentarius Massorethicus Massora sayes he est Doctrina critica a priscis Hebraeorum sapientibus circa Textum Hebraeum Sacrae Scripturae ingeniosâ— inventa quâ— Versas Voces Literae ejus nâ—meratae omnisque ipsarum variet as notata suis locis cum singulorum versuum recitatione indicata est ut sic constans genuina ejus lectio conservetur ab omni mutatione aut corruptio e aeternum preservetur valide premuniatur The Massora is a critical Learning about the Hebrew Text of the Sacred Scripture ingeniosly invented by the Ancient wise men amongst the Jews in which the Verses words and Letters are all numbred and all their variations particularly noted and set down in their proper places with a recital of the particular Verses that so the constant and genuine reading of the Scripture may be preserved and for ever secured against all change or corruption And that Ezra and this great Synagogue were most probably the first Authors and Contrivers of the Massâ—ra however augmented by others in after Ages and not some learned Jews at Tiberias that long lived after ouâ— Saviour as some have supposed Buxtorffe in the Eleventh Chap. of the samebook hath largely and learnedly proved from the best and most Ancient Writers amongst the Jews and thus concludes upon the whole Haec communis est Hebraeorum sententia Massoram a viris Synagogae magnae prosectam esse This is the common opinion amongst the Jews that the Massora came from the men of the great Synagogue Thirdly That Ezra and that great Synagogue to render the sacred Text more intelligible and make the truth of some Historical Relations more evident did make some small additions and some verbal alterations in some places is greatly probable and it might easily be done but no Re-penning the Bible nor the least violation offered to the sacred Record nor to the credit of its Authority nor can the least Objection though many have indeavoured it be raised from hence to that purpose when so many Persons of an infallible Spirit were present in that Assembly and who were without doubt Divinely directed about what they did in that matter In
these latter Ages in whole streams of Blood that ran from its Primitive Martyrs God pleasing to introduce the Gospel at first without any thing Humane to befriend it that we might be for ever ascertained of its Author Who but God himself by a Power from above can we reasonably imagine could have enabled a few Mean Ignorant and Contemptible men so to confront the whole World and in the Evening of it when other Religions had so long lasted and were so fast rooted to erect a Religion destructive to all the rest and to break through all the Opposition that the Religion of the Jews and Heathens the Philosophy and Learning of all the knowing parts of the World the Laws and force of the Roman-Empire in its greatest splendor and strength could form against it And what Doctrine but one in its own Nature Diâ—â—â—â— and attended with the visible effects 〈◊〉 Almighty Power to own and juâ—â—â—â—â— can we conceive could have 〈◊〉 the World so to bow before it How ridiculous does it appear to suppose a company of mean Impostors that had neither God nor Men besides themselves to befriend them nor any other Foundadation but a Design in the highest manner to cheat and abuse the World could have effected all this and that they should finally so prevail and impose the grossest Delusion imaginable upon Mankind against all such Opposition Had I no other consideration to induce me to believe the Bible but what ariseth from hence this one seems singly sufficient to me to justifie its Divinity against all reasonable suspition of Imposture and for ever to silence all the doubts that can be at any time made about it What greater assurance can we have that a Doctrine is Divine and comes from above then when we see it has ventured it self upon its own Divine Evidence against all Humane Opposition and singly by that prevailed and spread it self all the World over Neither Arms nor Councils neither the Policy of Julian nor the Sword of Dioclesian could put a stop to its progress Had God disowned the Gospel at first Nay had he not Eminently and Visibly witnessed to it from Heaven we cannot possibly imagine how it could have taken one step forward It had doubtless as it was then circumstanced been stifled in its first birth and buried in perpetual silence We find all the Religion of the Heathens has still grown up under the shadow of Humane Power and Authority and has still decayed when Humane props have been removed I challenge any man to shew me any other Religion that ever prevailed in the World without Humane help and that ever stood out the brunt of Persecution All other Religions but what have been founded upon the Bible have still fallen before the Power of the Sword 'T is only the Religion of the Jews and the Christians founded at first upon the Bible and the Miracles wrought to confirm the Doctrine contain'd in it that has weather'd out all attempts for its eradication 'T is a marvelous evidence of that solemn and divine foundation upon which the Jewish Church and the Old Testament were at first established That notwithstanding all that the Jews have suffered and their very Being in a National way and their National Worship in which their Religion chiefly consisted be utterly extinguished yet still they retain their Profession submit to a Yoke of most burdensome Ceremonies remain dispersed in the World a Monument of Scripture-verity and so many standing Witnesses to the Truth of many eminent Predictions both in the Old and New Testament And thus from the success of this Book also since its first conveyance and all the circumstances that have attended the progress of it since its first publication have we as great an assurance as in such a Case we can well expect that God himself and no other is in truth the Author of it I come in the fourth and last place to consider this Book in it self in the Matter of it as at the present we find it and as it now lies before us In the doing of which I mean not to insist separately and abstractedly upon any Internal evidence that results from the matter of the Scripture it self but to take it as it ought to be in Conjunction with the former and all other Collateral proof 'T is neither Reasonable nor Warrantable to disjoyn the proof God has afforded us of his Word and lay the weight of its Justification upon any one single Evidence For when God commands us to believe and obey this Book as his Word and imposeth the highest penalty upon our not doing it he layes not the stress of his Command or the Penalty nor ought we upon any one particular sort of Evidence External or Internal but upon the whole intire proof he has made to us of it and all those means he has afforded for our Conviction and Satisfaction about it When we are upon a general proof of the Bible 't is not necessary to insist upon any Internal Evidence that results from the Bible it self as singly sufficient to prove it or enter into any debate whether it really be so or no because we have all the Cumulative advantage of an External justification And if all together be sufficient to prove the Bible to be what we that profess the Christian Religon take it to be 't is enough for our purpose And that the matter of the Bible it self with what ever Evidence will arise from thence is not to be abstractedly insisted on from other Collateral proof nor that any Collateral proof will prevail in this Case without there be also an Innate Evidence resulting from the matter of the Bible it self so that a Conjunction of the Evidence in both kinds is absolutely necessary to establish a general proof will be thus made to appear The Bible as hath been said consists of three parts Doctrinal Prophetical and Historical whatever Evidence we have from the Scripture it self to prove its own Divinity must needs chiefly arise from the Doctrinal part Because the Prophetical and Historical part can never be fully justified without Forraign proof we cannot know the History of the Bible to be certainly true from the Bible it self Nor can we sufficiently prove any Prophesies in any part of the Bible to have been actually fâ—llfilled because they are said in other places of that Book so to be For 't were to beg the Question and admit the Book to be true when we are debating whether it be so or no! This we may urge in proof of the Historical and Prophetical part from that Divine Evidence that comes from the Doctrinal that we find such History and such Prophesie in an admirable Conjunction with such a Doctrine subservient to it tending to the establishment of it and inviron'd with all probable Circumstances of being true both from the nature of the Prophesies and also from the excellent Manner of their fulfilling and from the rare Method of the History in
Truths are visibly concenter'd in it Here is indeed a perfect Rendesvouz of all such Truths as were any where scattered and the World imperfectly has had and all such as they were in need to have All such natural Truths both of a Moral and Divine Nature as the Reason of the World does acknowledge and a full discovery of all such supernatural Truths as the minds of men naturally pursue and are inquisitive after Whatever is written in mans heart or upon the Works that God has made is here after an excellent manner Transscribed Justified and Improved And many defects of natural Knowledge supernaturally supplyed by a most suitable Revelation So that if we'lâ— judge of this Book either by what we certainly do know or by what we need and desire to know and expect should be revealed to us concerning God our selves and this whole World We shall find great reason to derive this Book from Above and subscribe to it as Divine For the First Never any Book contained such a System of natural Truth since the World began nor ever so far interpreted to us what truly is so And of this every mans own Reason becomes a proper and competent Judge Secondly Never any Book has told us so much nor gone so far to fix the restless minds of men about all such supernatural things as they are most inquisitive after 'T is here we have a certain account of God's Nature and the manner of his Existence how and when he created the World With what Designs and to what Ends he disposes and governs it Whence all our disorder first came How 't is to be cured Sin removed and Man reconciled to God! 'T is here we are certainly assured of the Resurrection of our Bodies the Immortality of our Souls and the condition of our future being for ever 'T is here we know all we can know and all we need to know both of this World and the next From no other but God himself could such a Beam of Light have broke forth so to enlighten the World Nor will it seem any way tolerable to an unprejudiced Judgment to father such a Book upon the highest principle of Falshood and derive it from the worst design that ever the World was defiled with Secondly I shall endeavour to shew that this Book so far as it relates to matters of Fact wherein an Etxernal justification is necessary is so far witnessed unto that there can be no room left for any reasonable doubt to be made about it First That there was such a man as Moses and such a People as the Jews in Egypt in those times which the Scripture mentions That Moses was their Leader and that he led them out of Egypt wrote their Story and gave Laws to them we have attested to us by the most Ancient Records of the Egyptians the Phenicians the Caldeans and the Grecians By Sanchomathon the famous Phenician Antiquary Berosus a Caldean Ptolomeus and Manetho Writers of the Egyptian-Chronicles The latter of whom Manetho speaks very particularly both of the Jews coming into Egypt and their departure thence And amongst the Grecian Writers by Artapanus Polemo Eupolemus Diodorus Siculus with many others as is at large proved by Josephus in his first Book against Appoin And one of these Artapanus is so large in his Relation of the Story of Moses that he sets down much of the business of his whole life and many of his Miracles his contesting with the Magicians before the King of Egypt his carrying the Jewâ— thorow the Red Sea and the drowning of the Egyptians who pursued them his dwelling with the Jews after in the Wilderness Who were there says he fed with a certain Snow that God rained from Heaven And at last describes particularly the very Person of Moses and sets down his Stature his Countenance and his Complexion Many of the same things are Recorded by Eupolemus Demetrius and others Numemus a Pythogorean-Philosopher whom we find quoted in Origens's fourth Book against Celsus tells us he had read the Life of Moses in many good Histories And relates many particulars of him as his being taken out of the Water his being bred up in the Court that he wrought many Miracles and that certain Magicians called Jannes and Jambres attempted to do the like No one Story amongst the Heathen of any Nation has been so witnessed unto by Writers Forraign to that Nation as the History of the Jews has been who from their greatest enemies have received a sufficient Testimony in point of Fact to the truth of Moses and what he wrote And indeed considering how great and eminent a Common-wealth was at first first established by the Writings of Moses and what a notorious and visible conâ—mâ—â—nce and succession there was of it ' Tiâ— Morally impossible that the business of Moses and his Writing in those times in matter of Fact should be fictitious and false Of so much of the History written by Moses as relates to things transacted before the Flood we cannot expect to find any exact and punctual account in a Traditional way Because of the great disadvantage of Oral Tradition especially by the confusion of Babel And yet 't is very evident that some considerable Remainders of the Ancient Story of the first World about the Creation the long lives of men in those first times and divers other things were preserved amongst the several Nations after the dispersion at Babel And we find many things relating thereto in Hermes Orpheus Homer Hesiond and the most Primitive Writers Of which Vossius Bochartus and many others have given a very satisfying account Concerning the Flood that there was such a Deluge nothing has been more universally credited And because the Tradition of it was That it befel in the prime time of the World and men were generally ignorant of the right account of times Therefore they applyed it still to that time they thought most ancient So the Thebans to the times of Ogyges and the Thessalians to the time of Deucalion which Floods of Ogyges and Deucalion were not two other distinct Floods as some have supposed but the same Flood of Noah applyed to those times and called by those Names which they thought of greatest Antiquity One sayes well What Nation has not believed it Even amongst the remotest Indians we find the Tradition of it has remained And what Author has not spoken of it Amongst the Egyptians Phenicians Grecians and Romans nothing more common And well may we suppose it should be so For Those who attempted the rearing of that Structure at Babel had probably a particular respect in what they did to the Flood that was past resolving to prevent the danger of another which sprang from their own Infidelity For God by his Promise to Noah had secured them against all fears of that kind and therefore had sufficient occasion wheresoever they came to preserve and continue the memory of it Berosus one of the most antient Writers after
the greatest ruine to mankind deluding them with false informations about their chiefest concerns should be able to produce in their justification the most eminent Miracles and all the greatst Evidences that rationally can be expected to ascertain the World in the publication of the highest supernatural Truths In a word who can beleive a Book so circumstanced as we find the Bible to be should be composed by the worst Instruments and with the worst of designs No such thing can ever be credited while we suppose there is a God ruling above and men live in the exercise of Reason below 'T were most absurd to suppose that any Book falsely pretending to Gods Name and Authority designing his dishonour and mans destruction should be capable of such a proof as has been brought in defence of the Bible And yet so must the Tables be turn'd the whole proof must so be inverted of all that hath been said a contrary application must of necessity be made if this Book comes not from God and be not in truth what it self openly claims to be The Divine Authority of this Book we call the Bible being thus upon the forementioned grounds established I come in the last place to a Consideration of such Doubts and Objections as are usually made about it All the Material Difficulties that can be proposed will be reduceable to these four Questions I. First How could men come to be assured in those times wherein the several parts of the Bible were first writen that they were written by an Infallible Spirit and upon sure grounds distinguish them from all other Writings II. Secondly How come we certainly to know the true Compass and Extent of Holy Writ How can we know that we have now contained in our Bibles all that was writen by a Divine Inspiration and intended as a standing Rule to the Church and no more That is How can we be now safely assured about the Canon of the Scripture And be able upon good grounds to say What is Canonical and what is Not III. Thirdly How can we that have not the Originals of the Scripture not the Autographa's of those that wrote it but onely the Copies of them and most but the Translations of those Copies rest assured we have God's Mind as it was first delivered IV. Fourthly How can we believe this Book say some to be from God when we find contained in it divers Contradictions several strange and incredible Stories and other things greatly lyable to exception In answering the first Question This ought to be previously considered That there were Advantages peculiar to the belief of those who first received the Bible or any parts of it and lived in those Times wherein it was first delivered that we have not And we have likewise some Advantages and those very considerable to our belief which they had not They conversed with the Pen-Men themselves the Names of many of whom are to us wholly unknown the Holy Ghost not judging it necessary to record them foreseeing the Scriptures would descend to us upon other sufficient Evidence They were able to judge of their personal Integrity and the account they gave of their Divine Commission were Eye-witnesses of the Miracles saw the Original Writings And in the Apostles times many knew some of their Hands These we have not but we see the progress and success of this Book which they saw not We see this Book translated into all Languages whole Nations converted by it The Gospel spread all the World over and the fulfilling of many Predictions since which they could not then be Witnesses of With many other great Effects of it We see the Whole conjoyn'd and the excellent Harmony of it and the relation each part has to compleat the Design of the Whole Are in divers respects upon different terms of judging now upon the Whole from what men were in judging at first upon any particular parts But to come to a direct Answer to this Question There could be but two wayes to ascertain men in their reception of any part of the Bible when it first became publick First By some outward visible Justification of the Persons imployed in that Service to assure us that they were sent and commissionated from God Or secondly From the Matter and the Nature of such Writings themselves And herein a due consideration of those Times and Seasons in which the several parts of the Bible were written and the then present state of things and the order of writing it will much inform us Moses who layed the first and great Foundation of the whole Fabrick in the five Books that he wrote He had a justification Personal beyond all question His Commission and Authority to do what he did was sufficiently evident to all that conversed with him There was all that could be expected to assure those that then lived that God had imployed him For God admitted him openly to a personal converse with himself We read in the nineteenth of Exodus that the Lord said unto Moses Loe I come to thee in a thick Cloud that the People may bear when I speak with thee and believe thee for ever c. He impowered him upon many occasions to work the greatest Miracles that since the World had a being had ever been wrought and openly to shame and out-doe all his Opposers and all Pretenders that way And whensoever there was a doubt made about this Divine Authority or any contest with him upon that account as in the case of Korah and at other times God plainly and openly from Heaven in the sight of all the People decided the Matter to assure them and all Generations to come that Moses was no Impostor but acted by a Divine Commission in what he then did And indeed It being the first time that God revealed himself to the World in a written way and published those Laws which were to be a Standard to all that succeeded and the great Corner-stone of all that Revelation that he would at any time after make to Man-kind 't was but necessary it should be fixed and established upon certain and unquestionable grounds So that such who lived in Moses his time could have no good reason at all to doubt in the least of his sincerity for all was done that could be done to put that matter out of question And God visibly shewed himself as we find in the four and twentieth of Exodus and his own glory amongst them For 't is said They saw the Lord God of Israel and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a Saphire-stone and as it were the Body of Heaven in its clearness Nor could there be any doubt raised Whether the Laws and Precepts of Moses were rightly recorded and as he intended they should For before his Death he himself by God's special command in a publick Assembly delivered over his Five Books to the Levites to be layed up in the sides of the Ark. After Moses his time
may serve in some measure to manifest the vanity of all pretensions to an Infalible belief without a Divine and Infalible assistance of revealed and supernatural Truths and the Mistakes of such who suppose we can never be settled in any Points of Religion without it And may sufficiently justify an indeavour to make a Rational proof of the Scriptures without a pretence to any such Divine and Infalible Judgment about them If so much be urged for the Proof of the Bible in general and in Answer to particular Doubts relating to the manner of its conveyance as will amount to a rational assurance and satisfaction 'T is all we can have without Inspiration and all we ought to Expect in this case All we pretend to from attempts of this nature is but a Moral assurance that this Book was at first written by Gods direction and that those Copies we now have of it are without any designed corruption or other variation from the first Originals then what humane frailty in the Transcribing of them has occasioned descended down to us and that in all such places where we find various readings the true Sense of the place and the original Dictates of the Holy Ghost are amongst them all safely preserved and by a diligent search may be discovered And upon the same Grounds of Moral Assurance are men in point of Translations and all such who are Illiterate For as we can be without extraordinary assistance but Morally certain that the Bible was Originally Written by a divine direction and that those Copies we now have of it in the Original Languages were at first Rightly transcribed and have not been since corrupted or changed so men may be also Morally Certain about a Translation For 't is in it self a thing very possible to be that the Scriptures may out of their own Languages be truely and rightly translated and being so are of the same Divine Authority that they were before and upon circumstantial considerations men may come rationally and safety to conclude that they are so And indeed unless all men in an Age that understand the Original tongues should agree which is absurd to conceive and morally impossible to be to deceive and abuse those that do not no Designed abuse nor any palpable falshood can be imposed upon men that way And in like manner persons Illiterate may be Morally Certain that they are no way deceived when the Scriptures are Preached or Read to them The Ground of Assurance in all these cases is still the same the Difference is onely Gradual Those who understand the Original Languages are upon easier and nearer terms of Moral Assurance about them but in the other cases it may be also attained And in all cases God has providentially afforded means sufficient to secure any reasonable man about the Truth and Authority of his Word Fourthly How can we believe this Book say some to be from God when we find contained in it divers Contradictions Several strange and Incredible Stories and other things greatly liable to Exception This Objection though it looks with the most Threatning aspect has yet the least prevailing Influence is of all others the most Impotent has the least rational Vigour and when duely examined will prove least effectual to those bad Ends for which it is by any intended When men tell us in general of Contradictions they find in the Bible but come to no Distinct and positive Proof they do not in that case Object but Revile He that will give an Edge to such kind of Discourse must punctually Instance Wherein this book has asserted any One such thing as implies a direct Contradiction and is in its own Nature utterly Impossible to be or where any two things are affirmed and denyed so directly contrary to each other that they are wholly uncapable of any Reconciliation This task with some degree of Contempt we impose upon all Antiscriptural men And are very secure that all those seeming Contradictions that are to be found in the Bible do at last prove an eminent Testimony to its Divinity For first they are in their appearance so to be a great Instance that in the Writing of this Book there was no corrupt Design to Cajole or engage the opinions of men to it And Secondly upon a thorough 〈◊〉 due there appears in them all such a deep unthought of and admirable Concord without the least shew of any Designed Agreement and such a unanimous tendency towards the great End of the whole as greatly savours of Divine Council and such a Contrivance as we may reasonably expect to come from Above In the management of these kind of Weapons against the Bible we find none that have been at any time since more dexterous then heretofore were Celsus Juliâ—n Porphiry and Faustus the Manichee How mean their attempts were and how little Impression they made will appear by the Instance of some of their chiefest Objections in this kind First they Object against the Bible because we are told therein of divers Incredible things As that a Serpent should speak to Eve an Ass reprove his Master that the Sun should stand stâ—â—â— and a Woman be turned into Salt with many other things of the like nature That the Devil should speak in a Serpent or that God should open the mouth of an Ass can seem Impossible and so incredible to none that acknowledge such Superiour and Invisible Powers especially 't was absurd in Celsus and Julian and others of the Heathens so to Object because nothing was more commonly believed amongst them then Stories of this nature and 't is well known the Devil spake daily to them through Images Philostratus gives a large account how an Elm-tree spake to Apollonius Porphyrie tells us that a River saluted Pythagoras Julian himself and his Philosopher Maximus had oft heard the Devil speak with divers kinds of voices and therefore no such things could seem Impossible to them Nay Julian acknowledged a Possibility of the highest point in the Bible which is the Incarnation of the Deity and himself gave an instance of it in Esculapius whom he supposed to descend from Heaven and assume Humane Nature that he might instruct the World in the art of Physick 'T is in truth in it self a thing Childish and absurd to Object against the Bible for the relation of any such passages if the Being of God be once acknowledged 'T is true that no humane power can make the Sun stand still turn a Woman â—â—â—o Salt or effect any thing of such a nature and should the Scriptures ascribe any such things to any Humane Ability the Objection were well grounded but they are things possible and easy with God to effect and the fact of them when ascribed to Him of an easie belief Nor can any man reasonably Object against the Scriptures upon any such account that does not first deny the Actual Existence of God Secondly They tell us there are some things contained in the Scriptures
And indeed well might he tell them so for the Prophets Hosea and Isaiah were contemporary with the first Olympiad which began as Scaliger proves aut of Eusebius and others but in the Reign of King Ahaz whose Son Hezekiah lived at the same time with Numa in Rome and Eâ—dras himself and the latest Writers of the Old Testament wrote before Socrates Philosophized in Athens who taught not there till some time after the Captivity This Antiquity of Moses and his Writings and their precedency to all other written Religion or Learning is in fact so evident that 't is not capable of any tollerable denial And as Scaliger sayes in his discourse upon Eusebius the proof of it resulting so plainly from the universal Testimony of Heathen Authors themselves nihil superesse Paganis videtâ—r nisi aut ut ingeâ—ua confessio ab tis exprimcretur aut silentium pertinacâ—ae sinem faceret And he adds quod certe faeliciter câ—ssit ut hac in parte Porphrius manus daret 'T is not made out from any nice disputes between Chronologers comes not within any near compasses of time but from a general concurrence of all Histories and is so far beyond the â—each of all contradiction that the worst Enemies to our Religion have agreed it and given in their Testimony to it Of this Eusebius in the tenth book of his Praep. Evan. Chap. 3. takes special notice and tells us that Porphrie one of the most raging malicious Enemie that ever the Christians met with had in his fourth book which he writ against them given this Testimony to Moses and his Antiquity That he had written the History of the Jews truly which thing he had perceived by conferring it with Sanchoniathon the Berutian who rehearseth the very same Circumstances and Names and Places that Moses does the which he had learned out of the Registers of one Hierumbalus a Priest of the God of Levi and out of the Chronicles of the Cities and out of Holy Books dedicated to Temples and this Sanchoniathon sayes he was after Moses about the time of Semiramis By which it evidently appears he had such an Opinion of the Antiquity of Moses that he makes him to be much earlier in the World then we affirm him to be But 't is agreed on all hands he lived and writ in a time long before any other Authors of books or any other written Learning was known And this clear Evidence we have so clear that in such a case a clearer cannot be expected of the Antiquity of Moses in point of fact and the Preeminence of his Writings above all others in that respect gives us very probable ground to believe that he himself was the first introducer of Letters as well as the first Writer of Books whatever other Nations have fabulously boasted to the contrary and notwithstanding Plinies absurd supposition that Letters were Eternal because he imagined the World to have been so for 't is not reasonable to think if the World had enjoyed the use of Letters before but that there would have been some Monuments of it before his time remaining at the least to the next after Ages of which we should have had some credible account from them And therefore Diodorus Siculus gives this as the Reason why there were no more Antient Histories and that the Actions of Kings were not Recorded of old because the World wanted Letters Impossibile est sayes he primas Literas aeque ac primos Reges vetuslas extitisse And Josephus gives the very same Reason why we have no more Antient History then we have because the world antiently wanted the use of Letters but especially we cannot suppose but that those Revelations God made before of himself and his mind to some parts of the World would have been safely preserved in Writing and left upon Record to posterity long before Moses writ nor can we well imagine that those Holy men to whom at any time God pleased to reveal himself should not use their utmost diligence in the best way to secure and communicate so inestimable a Treasure of this we hear not the least upon any tollerable ground of credit nor of any other Writings before Moses but upon reports that appear grosly fictitious and fabulous 'T is a thing greatly probable that till Moses his time the World knew nothing of Letters for we neither find any Laws of God or of Men written before and 't is likewise most probable that we owe them not nor their use to Humane invention but to Divine Revelation and 't is likely Plato had learned so much from the Jews when he said in his Cratilus that the Original of Letters was from the Gods 'T is a thing offers its self very fairly to our belief that God himself when he gave the Ten Commandements written by his own singer to Moses introduced the first Alphabet and that Letters themselves and those Divine precepts are of an equal Date I insist not on this as capable of any certain and positive proof nor if it were is it to be urged as a convincing Evidence of the truth of the Bible But yet 't is a Circumstance of very considerable weight and has very good probabilities for its belief and that we shall find if we consult but what Chrysostome Theophilact and other of the Christian Writers have said in the justification of it Cyrill of Alexandria in his seventh Book against Julian insists much upon it Vives upon the thirty ninth Chapter of St. Austins 18 Book de Civ Dei sayes that 't is the most common opinion both of Jews and Christians that Moses first gave Letters to the Hebrew Language which doubtless has the Priority of all others and that Eupolemus Artapanus and many other profane Authors affirm it and that both the Egyptians and also the Phaenicians from whom the Graecians first learnt the use of Letters had their Letters from Him and that Moâ—es was that Mercury to whom the Egyptians ascribe the first invention of them The Objections that are usually made against this seem but of very little weight First we are told of certain Tractates of Enoch that were written before the Flood Secondly of two Pillars of the Sons of Seth with observations Astronomical engraven upon them which they set up to continue their Learning and that it might remain beyond the Flood which Adam had foretold them of The one of which remained in the Countrey of Syria till the time of Josephus as he himself sayes Thirdly that Moses in the 21 of Numbers makes mention of the Book of the Wars of the Lord as a Book extant before that time And fourthly that Moses himself is said to be Learned in all the Learning of the Egyptians which learning probably was written For the first That there were Books of Enochs Writing before the Flood which were preserved in the Ark for so they must be seems to be a story wholly fabulous we find not one word of them amongst
themselves were very long Preserved as most pretious Jewels in the Church Tertullian sayes some of them were extant in his time and we are told by some Authors of Credit that s Johns Gospel Written with his own Hand was preserved by the Church of Ephesus till the time of Honorius the Emperour Now let any reasonable man judge what a vast number of Copies were likely to be taken before the Originals perished and how highly improbable if not morally Impossible it was to impose a publick and general abuse upon the world by a false Transcription of such Writings while the Originals themselves lasted it could not be done Nor can we conceive the Christian Church so intollerable sottish and so universally Negligent as to take up with false Transcripts while the Originals were to be had to compare them withal and correct them by And before the Originals themselves perished such a vast multitude of True Copies generally known from the Originals so to be must needs be extant and we are historically assured actually were so that the scriptures were for ever thereby secured against any attempts that could possibly be made that way secondly If we consider how much this Book upon its first publication filled the world with Discourse what various Disputes there arose relating to all Parts of it wherein an Appeal on all sides was still made to the Letter of the Text and the Book it self how throughly all Passages in it were Discussed and Examined both by Jews Christians and Heathens urged and made use of in the warmest controversies in the pursuit of which by men of different Perswasions the mis-reciting or corrupting a Text would soon have been openly published If we consider by how many Authors in those times it was quoted and that it was then the continual and general study of the Christian-parts of the world and the constant and daily Work and Imployment of many amongst them to Preach and instruct the People out of it all this Considered it is most absurd to imagine that the least considerable Alteration could ever be made in such a Book without some notorious and universal discovery Nor could it ever possibly happen unless we 'l suppose that all men in some One Age of all Opinions that were possessed of the Bible should at once agree together to deface their Grand Charter their Magna Charta by which they held all to corrupt that sacred Depositum on which they wholly relyed for their present and eternal welfare to no other end but their own utmost ruine and to abuse all succeeding Generations secondly If we consider the New Testament it self as we now find it First ' t is in the Bulk of it so composed as does much secure us especially in all material things against all danger this way Either it must have been Generally attempted or in some Particulars To imagine any General attempt should that way be made is riâ—iculous nor do we hear one word that there was ever a Thought to endeavour any such thing And to effect an Altetation about any One Particular point is a thing could not easily be done because no little alteration would do it No considerable Truths could be Inverted without many alterations made because they are all generally grounded upon very many Texts witnessed unto from several places and indeed all the Eminent Truths of the New Testament are so interwoven together and have such a Dependency each upon other that it would be found a very hard Task to Deface the beauty of any One without giving a considerable Wound to the Wholes Nor in truth do we find any one Part of the New Testament that looks like a Patch set upon the rest nor any one Doctrine that savours in the least of any such sophistication This Book does not appear to be partly from God and partly from Men but there is One Divine spirit breathed visibly through the Whole ' T is all of a Piece Nor could any wicked design to Corrupt any one Part of it have taken effect but in all probability the rest would some way or other have made an opon Discovery of it Thirdly The various Readings we meet with in several copies of the New Testament are in themselves if duely considered a great evidence that the Originals have not been corrupted for such various readings of any place cannot be reasonably thought to arise from any design to vitiate and falsify the Text because such various Readings do rather accidentally tend to discover anything of that nature and secure against any Total and General Alteration and amongst them all to contain and preserve the Integrity and native sense of the Text and enable a diligent Reader by a through search and Examination of them to find it out Nor do we ever suppose that any Book that has passed through many hands and been often Transcribed to be totally Cortrupted or Changed because in some places of it we find various Lections but are thereby much secured that such Books have not been Designedly Altered And with good reason do judge that such various Lections are barely the effects of casual mistakes and that the Original sense of the Authour is still preserved and may by a careful and diligent inspection be found out amongst them And indeed those we find of some Texts in the New Testament are of such a nature that they all evidently appear the effects of humane frailty and onely such variations as might considering how vast a number of Copies were at first taken escape the best scribes and the greatest diligence Nor is there the least appearance of any Design or Contrivance to Vitiate the Original Text or any thing to be found that in the least degree looks that way in all those Various Readings that we find amongst such Copies as have been most anciently most generally and most publickly used in the Church by which we are to take out Measure in this matter 'T is in this case of great Consideration That no Particular designs of any bad men have been gratified nor any corrupt Ends attained nor indeed any Distinct Ends at all of any sort by any such diversity of readings which sufficiently shews they came not originally from Contrivement nor were Intended as the Foundation of any particular Notions but are the bare and single effects of Accident That the New Testament therefore has been in any Part of it wholly changed and corrupted there appeareth neither Certain not Probable ground to believe Nor indeed is there any good ground to believe that these Sacred Records have suffered the least violation in this kind First no man can prove that the Scriptures were ever Corrupted nor tell us by whom or When or the manner How which yet ought to be done if men will Reasonably Object in this case For no such Presumption as this that renders God in his Providence so Regardless of his Word and his Church and so Reproches the Christian Profession that has been
in such a Succession Established upon the Authority of this Book ought ever to be admitted without very positive Proof Especially when we have such apparent Reasons to believe the contrary By Whom is it I ask that the Bible could be corrupted It must have been either by Jews Pagans or Hereticks 'T is plain the Jews have not done it for we find multitudes of Texts that give in a daily witness against them which doubtless had they attempted the Bible in such a way they would never have suffered so to remain upon Record against them No part of the Pagan World can be reasonably thought to have done it for the Scriptures contain such an eminent Revelation of the One true God and his Worship as puts an end to all Heathenish vanities and at once dispatches all False gods out of the world Nor have Hereticks done it for 't is this Sword of the Spirit the Written Word of God that upon all occasions mortally wounds them the Scriptures have slain their thousands and their ten thousands in this kind 'T is the purity of the Scriptures in asserting the Orthodox Truths of Religion that has in all Ages kept up the Christian Verity and still brought all sorts of Hereticks to an open shame It has been the Wresting or Perverting not the Corrupting of Scripture from whence all Heresies have chiefly arisen and the native and genuine Sense of the Bible has still proved their Ruine Nor is there upon the whole of this matter any tolerable Reason to Doubt but that as God was pleased by his special Providence to Secure the Old Testament which we are sure he did and preserve it intire till the time of our Saviour so by the same Providence he has secured the Old and the New since and delivered them over to the Church in these latter Ages without any considerable variation from what they were when they were first written And this ought to be duely considered as an eminent help towards a rational Satisfaction in this point That the very same Objections which some men now please themselves with against the New Testament the Old Testament was equally lyable to in the times of our Saviour and the Apostles For after Esdras's time the Old Testament came into no Infallible bands till the times of the Gospel was conveyed by fallible means through many Ages down to those times had the same possibilities of Alteration then that the New Testament has now Various Lections also in the Hebrew copies were then extant And yet for all this the Scriptures of the Old Testament were then pure and intire Nor does our Saviour or the Apostoles mention the least defect that was then in them Nor was there in those eminent times of Reformation the least Question or doubt ever raised upon any such account One grand Objection is usually made upon the whole of this matter and 't is thus framed All these Arguments brought either to prove the Bible in general or to answer such particolar doubts as arise about it are built say some upon no better foundation then Huâ—anâ— and in themselves fallible grounds And if so we still embrace our Religion but upon uncertain terms can never from chance arrive at any positive and absolute assurance nor come to such a Divine and Infallible faith as we ought to have in this case In answering to this Objection this must be acknowledged that although the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament were at first Penned by the infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost yet the manner of their Conveyance to future Ages has been by Humane and in themselves fallible means The Grounds and Reasons of which disposal of God though we cannot pretend fully to reach yet we are thus far informed First the Scriptures could not have been by means in themselves absolutely infallible handed down to all Places and Ages without the visible continuance and constant exertion of such a supernatural and extraordinary Power as would have wholly inverted that course we find God most generally takes in his Rule and dispose of the World Secondly it would have prevented all that case and industry God intended to exercise his Church withall to their great advantage in the exact preservation of these sacred Records Thirdly there had been no room for a belief of not occasion for a dependance upon that Wisdom and Power God has expressed and wherein he has greatly honoured himself in an over-ruling disposal of ordinary means to such extraordinary Ends who has providentially secured this Book through all the several Channels of Humane conveyance This Objection is much urged First by those of the Roman Church on the one hand to convince us of the great uncertainty of our own profession and the stability of theirs And Secondly by men of Sceptical Principles on the other hand either to fright or perswade us or both out of all Religion by telling us There is no positive or absolute certainty in the grounds of any How serviceable this Objection though it has filled the World with great noise and clamour as it has been pressed both ways will prove to either of these designs and indeed with how great absurdity t is managed in order to both will be soon made to appear All belief of things Divine in an ordinary way I speak not of such Divine illumination as God may particularly vouchsafe to any â—ust of necessity be ultimately resolved into that we call Rational and Moral assurance for when we speak most properly of Divine faith we mean such a faith as is built upon a Divine Testimony not denominating it from the Object of it nor from the Effect of it which is less proper but from the Foundation and Ground of it Now Divine faith in that best and truest sense of it will be reduced into no more then a Moral a ssurance at last for if I say my faith is Divine because built upon a Divine Testimony 't is in some sense true But if I am asked by what means I came to know that Testimony to be Divine That question must needs bring me back to a Moral assurance as the ground of all my previous belief about that Divine Testimony it self that it really is so Whatsoever Revelation God makes of his mind to me I must needs without Divine assistance receive it upon Humane and in themselves fallible terms and so judge of it as I judg of all other things No man can receive my Revelation from God with a faith a Divine and infallible as the Revelation is in it self unless there be an equal inspiration in both cases and God make men as infallible in Judging of Revelation when proposed as he made the Instruments of it in the Act of its Conveyance The plain Question in this Case is how I come to receive all other things into my belief that are Objects of belief It must be confessed upon the grounds of Rational credibility and Moral assurance and therefore upon the