cannot be admitted as such are all 〈◊〉 them found peculiarly appurtenant to the â—iblâ— and cannot belong to any other Books or Writings or to any other Pretences to Revelation whatsoever Having thus established these two general points First that 't is a thing in it self reasonable and fit to believe that there should be some Revelation made from God to the world some Supernatural Laws promulged as the great Rule of mens lives here and Gods Judgment hereafter And that these Laws should be somewhere or other extant upon Record that Mankind might be fully assured and ascertained about them and that they might be visible to all that there should be some such Book as the Bible pretends to be and that 't is greatly unreasonable to believe the contrary And Secondly that in the Judgment of right Reason there are many general qualifications that must necessarily be appurtenant to such a Revelation wheresoever 't is extant and by which 't is but reasonable that Mankind should make a Judgment of every pretence to it and that all those qualifications are found punctually and peculiarly belonging to the Bible and cannot be applied to any other extant pretences to Revelation whatsoever I shall now proceed to the second thing proposed which was a more distinct and particular proof and endeavour to make it appear that this Book is indeed sent us from Heaven and is in truth that Revelation we have good cause to expect from above and that we have all those Reasons concurring to make us acquiesce in it as such from whence a Judgment in such a case ought finally to result That there is so much Evidence to be given in to prove its Divinity as no man ought to desire nor can reasonably expect more in a matter of such a Nature And so much that where mens corrupt Interests and prejudices are not Predominant will appear sufficient to every impartial enquiry And this shall be prosecuted in this Method I will these several ways consider this Book First In the time of its conveyance to the World Secondly In the way and manner of its conveyance Thirdly In the success and effects of it since its conveyance And lastly In it self in the matter of it as we now find it And from each of these considerations will a signal Testimony be given in to its Divinity and when we have taken a view of the whole we shall find that the Book both in the Matter of it and in all the Circumstances that have at any time attended it does eminently relate it self to God as its Author and cannot be reasonably judged the product of any Humane contrivement whatsoever For the first When we reslâ—ct upon the â—â—me of this Books conveyance we shall find two things of very great weight offering themselves to our consideration First the Antiquity of those things it relates to us and informs us of And Secondly the Antiquity of this 〈◊〉 iâ—â—â—lâ— since composed and delivered to us with such a relation The Contents of this Book â—â—ch aâ— far as the first foundations of the Earth and the Heavens and give us an account of Gods Revelations to Man since his first mâ—â—â— and Original and of an Orall and â—erâ—all intâ—â—â—â—â—â—se between God and the World for two thousand four hundred and old years before it was any where extant upon Râ—â—â—â—d or any part of it written Which no other Bâ—â—â— since the World began so much as makes 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—â—â—ce to If we consider the Revelation Histoâ—â—cally contained in this Book 't is what was 〈◊〉 the beginning and of the same 〈…〉 the World it self If we consider the Edition of it in this Book and the time 〈◊〉 this Books aâ—â—ual Publication with all the aâ—â—â—tional Revelations contained in it we shall find this Book to be the first born in its kind to pâ—ecede all other Writings whatsoever and in truth to be extant while Thales Mileâ—â—us Hamer Hâ—rmes and the most primative writers the world had were unborn and unthought of Moses wrote of the God of Abraham long before any of the Heathen Gods had a written mention made of them God pleasing so to order it that although the Revelations he made to the World were not written from the beginning yet they were written long before any other Writings were extant And his own Laws were first recorded and all other Writings are of a subsequent Date to this Holy Book First I will evidence this in point of fact and shew that it is so that to this Book is indeed due the right of Primogeniture and that all other Books are of a much after-edition And becondly examine what reasonably results from thence toward that proof of the Bible we are about To all which this must be premised that when we speak of the Bible as thus Ancient we intend actually no more of it then the Writings of Moses the whole Contents of the Bible being above four thousand years in a gradual publication and the Bible it self above a thousand and six hundred years in writing for so long it was from the time that Moses writ to St. John the revealer nor need we intend more to justifie the Antiquity of the whole because 't is all there virtually contained all the rest is superstructed upon that as its â—oâ—ndation and every several part of the Bible after Moses till the Top-stone was laid appears evidently to be writ in direct pursuance of what Moses at first delivered and so much St. Paul affirmed before Foelix that he taught nothing but what was long before extant in Moses and the Prophets For the first That the Books of Moses are in fact the most Ancient I find both Jews and Christians have been greatly concerned to make it manifest as judging it a point that did greatly credit their profession and highly justifie that Religion they adhered to Josephus and others of the Jewish writers have much insisted upon it and amongst the Christian Writers Justin Marter Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus Eusebius Cyrill of Alexandria in his Books against Julian St. Austin and others But most especially Justin Martyr and Eusebius Justin Martyr in his Parenaetick to the Graecians because they used with great Arrogance to boast of the Antiquity of their own Learning and Religion and upon that account to look with great contempt upon others proves against them out of Pagan Authors and those chiefly their own beyond all reasonable denial that the Books of Moses were of much greater Antiquity then the most Ancient Writers they could make a pretence to And that the Christian Religion being the natural issue of those Writings founded upon them and derived from them was no new or upstart invention but indeed the first and most Antient written and unwritten Truth the World was possessed of and the same thing is afterwards more largely and distinctly proved and made good by Eusebius in his Evangelical Preparation Who thus concludes Quare omnibus Diis ac Heroibus Graecorum multo Vetustior
Moses invenitur And indeed the most Ancient of the Graecian Gods as appears by their own Histories were not of a much Earlyer date then the Warrs and ruines of Troy which Moses preceded some hundreds of years Josephus says in his first Book against Appion That the Graecians had no Elder write then Homer who lived as Pliny says two hundred and fifty years after the Trojan Warr which War was about four hundred and seven years before the Olympiads began according to Solinus two hundred and seventy years as Herodotus thinks three hundred But 't is clear from his own Poems that he lived some very considerable time after at least one hundred years by the Lowest calculation Moses was so long before him and so much his Predecessor that 't is granted by all that make mention of him That he lived some hundreds of years at least four hundred and odd before the Battle of Troy before the beginning of the Olympiads not less then eight hundred and forty years Till which time the Graecian History is generally Confused and Impâ—râ—â—â—â— nâ—r had they any certainty in Stâ—ry till thâ—n which Varro positively affirms and Eusâ—bâ—â—â— also proves out of the Annals of Africaâ—us who tells us Usâ—iad Oâ—â—mpiadas niâ—il exploratum in Histori Graecorum mâ—â—tur sed omnia consusis conscripta temporiâ—us sunt Post Olympâ—ad â—s vâ—ro quoniam quadrâ—â—unto dilâ—gentissime oâ—nia notahantuâ— Nulla penitus confusio temporum su And indeed till that time there is little certainty in any Story but that o the Bible He lived bâ—fore the building oâ— Rome about eight hundred sixty and five years for Rome was founded in the beginning of the Seventh Olimpiad which was twenty five years after their first beginning But suppose Homer was not the first Graecian Writer as Euschius and others think and perhaps truly enough that they had others before him 'T is certain and agreed to by all They had no Letters amongst them till Cadmus nor any Written-â—earning for some considâ—â—able time after him And â—tis well known that Cadmus was Later then Moses Those that carry him highest make him but contemporary with Josuah and he is as some think more truely to be reckoned of the same time with Othâ—icl mentioned in the book of Judges And yet we find the Ancientest learning the world possessed of besides the Bible is written in the Greek toâ—â—â—e So Justin Martyr observes speaking of this matter says â—e Si quis vel Pâ—etarâ—â— veterum vel Legislaterum vel â—isioâ—â—orâ—m vel Plilosopherum meminissâ— velit comperiet tamen illâ—s Libros sues â—râ—cerum composâ—â—sse literis Both Justin Martyr who lived within a hundred and thirty of Christ and â—uschiâ—s aâ—our two hundred aâ—ter him have evidently proved from the best and most acknowledged Calculations and from the mention that is made of Moses by Prophâ—â—e Writers such as Sanconiathon the Phaenician Antiquaâ—â—â— Berâ—sus Caldeus Ptolomens and Manâ—tho Egiptian Chronologers and amongst the Creacâ—aâ—s Artapanus Polemon Eupolemus and from Tregus Pompâ—ius epitomized by Justin and others that Moses was the first Legislator and lived long before any Authors of Books were extant And this is also very particularly affirmed by Dioderus Siculus the best and most eminent Historian the Gracians â—â—d who says himself he spent thirty years in Travel to search out the Antiquities of all Countries and to inable himself to write a General Story for he tells us in his History that â—e had learnt from the Egyptian priests that Moses was the First Legislator and Preceded all others in that kind We are told by many Ancient Authors that he lived with and to them St. Austin agrees in his 18th Book De civit Dei and by others That he Preceded Cecrops the founder of Athens after whom all those Ancient and memorable things fell out in Greece as Deucalions flood Phaetons sire the birth of Ericthonius the ripe of Proserpina the misteries of Ceres the â—â—titution of the Eliâ—â—â—â—â—â— sacrifices Triptolemus his art of Tilling the Ground the carrying away of Europa the birth of Apollo the building of Thebes by Cadmus after whom also where Bacchus Minos Perseus Esculapius Hercules and others whom we find mentioned in the Graecian Authors as most Ancient Nor had the Graecians any higher terms to express Antiquity by then Cecropian and Ogygian which they used to call all such things as they thought most Ancient from Cecrops and Ogyges in whose times they supposed Men like Mushroms sprung naturally out of the Earth about Athens But the certainest account that seems to be given of the direct Time in which Moses lived is this That he was Contemporary with Inachus the first King of the Archieâ—es In this Chronologers seem most generally to agree as Scaliger shews in his most learned Animadversions upon Eusebius his Chronologie Justin Martyr Tertullian Tatianus Clemens Alexandrinus Athenagoras Theophilus and many others of the Christian Writers affirm it and from many Heathen Authors we have direct Evidence for it Polemon in his first Book Rerum Graecanicarum is express in it and Apion both in his Commentary that he writ against the Jews and also in other of his Writings speaks of the Jews coming out of Egypt Regnante apud Archivos Inacho quibus sayes he prefuit Moses And Ptolomens Mendiâ—us an Egyptian that wrote the Chronicle of Egypt sayes that Moses governed the Jews and lead them out of Egypt quando Inachus Argis regnabat And 't is sufficiently known to all that are any way verst in Antiquity that Inachus and also Cecrops lived some hundreds of years before the Trojan War and long enough before any Books or the most Ancient Written Learning the world had was extant Tertullian in the 19 Chapter of his Apology tells the Romans they also as well as the Graecians glorified much in Antiquities sayes he Our Religion far out does all you can produce of that kind for the Books of one of our Prophets only viz. Moses wherein it seems God hath inclosed as in a Treasury all the Religion of the Jews and consequently all the Christian Religion preceding for many Ages together reach beyond the Ancientest you have even all your publick Monuments the Antiquity of your Originals the establishment of your Estate the birth of most part of the people the foundation of many great Cities all that most advanced by you in all Ages of History and memory of times the invention of Characters which are Interpreters of Sciences and the Guardians of all excellent things I think I may say more even your Gods Temples Oracles and Sacrifices Have you heard mention made of that great Prophet Moses He was contemporary with Inachus he preceded Danaus three hundred fourscore and thirteen years the Ancientest of all that have a name in your Histories He lived some hundreds of years before the ruine of Troy Every of the other Prophets succeeded Moses and yet the last of them all is of the same Age as your first Wise men Law-givers and Historians were
has and in its own Antiquity answering that antiquity we may justly expect to accompany Gods First Revelations the Bible I say upon this account has a singular evidence given in to its Credibility and its antiquity does strongly affirm its Divine Authority Secondly The Antiquity of the Bible does point us to its Divinity because 't is not reasonable to believe that the First Writen account the world had of Religion should be a Cheat that the First eminent Record of Religion should be a Lye and not only a Lye but the Worst of Lies and the most Pernicious and Destructive falshood for so it must needs be to impose a Law upon the world in Gods name without his Authority that ever was published amongst mankind 'T is not in the judgment of right Reason consisting with the Wisdom and Goodness of God to suffer the world to be Originally Cheated in point of Religion to suffer a publick open Counterfeit of his Name and Authority to the highest degree First to possess the world and take the Precedence of all truth to permit the Devil to publish a Systeme of Lies and erect a Monument of Falshood Before there was any written Record of Truth We must needs suppose Gods care of Men and the concern's of his own honour to engage him to the contrary and that God should First establish his own Truth to which mankind might still have a recourse and by which as a Standard all Delusions and False Pretensions might be Tried 'T were as one says well very absurd to think God should permit the Devil to set up a Chappel before he had built a Church If the Bible were originally composed by Impostors and be not a Divine Book 't will then undeniably follow that the most Primitive and Ancient account we have of Religion is connterfeit And that in the Earliest notices we have of God of the worlds Original Mans fall and the way of his Recovery for we have none so early as what the Bible gives us of any of these and of some of them no other the world is Deceived and Abused and that God suffer'd the Devil in the first place and before any thing was publiquely extant from him to contradict it in his name and with pretence of his Authority to abuse and deceive Mankind with a false and delusive account of all those things they are most concern'd to know and upon the right Knowledge of which their present and future happyness does unavoidably depend This very one consideration will prevail much upon every impartial judgment Who can believe the first Religion should be the worst when True Religion must needs be as old as the World And the Earliest notions of God the falsest when we must needs think it reasonable that God should reveal himself to the World from the beginning Or that the first book we sind writ should contain the Highest imposture in point of Religion and more dishonour God and abuse the World then any or all the Books written since 'T is a thing beyond all compass of credit That God should suffer false informations to be given in his own Name of himself and his own Revelations from the first beginning of the World for about 4043 years for about so long a time it was from that first intercourse between God and Man the Scripture gives us Historically an account of till the last Revelation of St. John And that this account should begin with the first book that the world had and be gradually carried on into such a complete Systeme as now we see it is in a Written way by several hands in several Ages for a thousand and six hundred years together for about so long a time it was from Moses his first Writing to St. Johns Closing the Bible Nor is it supposable that the vilest falshood for such is the Bible if it be not from God a Religion whereby if it be false God would be more dishonoured and men more deluded then by any that ever was yet extant should have this to say in its justisication That 't is of all others the most Ancient and has been longest lasting amongst Mankind The consideration therefore of this Book in the Time of its conveyance the Antiquity of it in respect of the matter it contains and the Antiquity of it self as a Book written long before all others and of so early a Date in the World does with great Evidence point us to its Divine Original and very strongly tends to perswade us that God himself was the Author of it Secondly The way and manner of this Books conveyance to us The Method of Gods thus Recording his pleasure has been such that we shall find we have all those reasonable inducements and in some respects more to credit it upon which we receive any Humane Authors and acquiesce in them as true And all such farther Evidence as we can well expect to insure us of the truth of a Book that pretends to come from God and be Divint And this will appear to be so if we consider first the Instruments God imploied in the writing of it and such humane Circumstances as attended their doing it And Secondly The Divine witness God himself has in the most eminent way given to this Book in its conveyance to ascertain us of the truth of it and of the sincerity of those that wrote it First If we consider the Pen-men of this Book those Amanuenses God made use of for the writing of it and such Circumstances as attended their doing it How unlikely a thing is it that they either did or could abuse the world in this matter if we reflect upon these several things First the unblemished Credit and Reputation of these Writers Secondly the several Qualifications and Qualities of them Thirdly their Interests as moral and reasonable men Fourthly their Number and that great distance of Time in which many of them wrote one from another For the first Nothing we know does more credit Ancient Authors then the good Report of those Ages wherein they lived transferred to posterity Not one of those Holy Pen-men God imploied in writing the Bible was that ever we find upon any good grounds tainted in Reputation or convicted of any sort of Impostor in their own or future ages but were men of acknowledged Integrity and Sanctity in those times wherein they lived and very many of them gave the highest Testimony to their integrity in becoming Martyrs in justification of what themselves writ For the Second the various Qualities and Conditions of these Writers seems much to secure us against so vile a design as this book must needs be composed with if it be not from God Some of them were Kings and men of the greatest quality before they writ and not very likely to be guilty of so much baseness and meanness to carry on such a work and also men of deepest Learning and Knowledge Others of them many of the Prophets and most of the
all the certain notions we have of another and a farther World and the great account of all invisible things and Secondly because 't is the highest Motive we have to all good living 't is from hence from the authority of this Book that we are chiefly obliged to all that is holy and good and engaged against all the corrupt prastises of humane Life when we consider with what difficulty we attain in the first Case to a fixed and unshaken belief of such things as we do not actually see and how apt we are in the latter to decline from the strict Rules of a good life nothing can seem more necessary then a rational insurance about the great Foundation of all Belief and Practice in both That with a perfect security to our present and future welfare we may rely upon this Book as that great and only Revelation by which God will inform rule and judge the world I have hereby attempted to make evident not only from its own excellent nature and composure and such visible and open effects of a supreme and almighty power as accompanyed its first Publication and lasted till the Church was so far built that the Scaffolding might be safely taken down but also from many other considerations from whence an abundant testimony to its Divinity will appear to result And this task if sufficiently perform'd as 't will give answer to all reasonable doubts and cast a just contempt upon all prophane reproaches so it will also reflect much upon those who though they acknowledge this Book to come from God yet not acquiessing singly in the conduct thereof declare it thereby insufficient to those great ends for which it appears to be intended and such are those of the Roman Church on the one hand and all sorts of Enthusiasts on the other who by a twofold superfoetation that of endless Traditions and that of new and continued Revelations have rendred the whole Scriptures if not useless Yet as to their great end and design altogether deficient and imperfect My Lord I seek not by this Dedication to countenance a defence of the Bible nor any way to secure my self against the just reproach of an ill performance the first would engage me in an open affront to a Christian State and the other oblige me to be too injurious to You and that Candor and love to Truth you possess 'T is alone that great Honour and that entire affection I have for Your Lordship that Interests Your Name in this matter though there is nothing less needed by You than discourses of this nature Yet there is nothing more due from me then an open and publick profession that my self and what ever I do is devoted to Your Service I know my Lord into what hands I commit these Papers when I present them to You that great hazard to which they are exposed by your first view will sufficiently inure them to all future dangers I consider that Judgement with which they are put to encounter and want not a due sense what the success must needs be I know also your remedying kindness and am enough secur'd thereby am in this case upon the same terms of relief that he was that discoursed before Caesar who thus address'd to him Qui apud te Caesar audent dicere magnitudinem tuam ignorant qui non audent humanitatem My Lord as You were pleased before to allow that Method I used in discovering the Unreasonableness of Atheism So I promise my self some acceptance in the account I now give You of the Reasonableness of Scripture Belief as I know no better Property can be convey'd to the World then a Rational Possession of God and his Word So I am also much pleased that I have spent some part of my time in doing what You required To whom I owe all that is due to the most Generous and most lasting Friendship and shall ever be as much as I can be which is but what I ought to be My Lord Your Lordships most true Friend And most Humble Faithful Servant CHARLES WOLSELEY THE REASONABLENESS OF Scripture-Belief THat the being of the Christian Religion depends much upon the Credit and Authority of that Book we call the BIBLE there needs little to be said to prove it The instance were as hard to find as 't is unreasonable in it self to suppose that any man should at the same time reject the Bible as Fictitious and yet embrace the Christian Religion as True For it must either be granted there are No Laws any where extant that do formally constitute this Religion which is absurd to suppose of any Religion or they must needs be admitted here No man can be a Jew and renounce the Olâ— Testament nor he a Mahumetan that disclaimâ— the Alchoran Because to deny the Authority of those Books is visibly to rase the great foundation of all profession and practice in those two Religions Although the fact of Christs being in the World and many other things relating to the Christian Religion be attested to by other writings yet the Scriptures are the onely means by which we come to a sufficient knowledge of a Religion established upon that foundation and which alone contain the Laws and Constitutions of such Religion No considerable attempt has been at any time made to set the Christian Religion upon any other Bottom then the Bible to promulge any other edition of Christian Laws to write any Counter-Story of Christ and the Apostles or is there extant in the World any different account of their Doctrines from whence might be deduced a Contrary or other systeme of the Christian Profession from what is recorded in this Book Nor is it reasonable to believe there can be any foundation lay'd whereon to erect Christianity where the Bible is excluded For whatsoever has otherwise then by the Bible by writing or tradition descended down to the World touching the Christian Religion has been either by its Friends or its Enemies For the Latter no mention is made in any Heathen Writer of any Christian Laws nor indeed of any considerable matter at all relating to the Christian Religion farther then what we find in the Bible it self And so amounts to no more then a Cumulative help to its Credibility And 't is evident those of the Heathen who have at any time opposed the Christian Profession and disputed most against it have opposed it as contained there That Book being granted on all hands to comprise its Doctrine and to be the stated rule of that Religion For the former whatever has been by the writings or Traditions of such who embraced the Christian Religion and gave their Assent to it conveyed down to us can never induce any other Rule of that Religion then the Bible For besides that all such Collateral traditions are in their own nature relative to the Bible dependant upon it and such as must necessarily stand and fall together with it they have also come from the hands
of those who have themselves Universally proclaimed the Bible in all Ages to be the great and infallible Rule of the Christian Religion So that if Christian-tradition be credited the Authority of the Bible is thereby established And if it be dis-believed in thaâ— there can be then no good reason to receivâ— any other matter touching the Christian Religion upon the credit of that conveyance To retain therefore the name of a Christian and yet disown the Bible is to become a perfect Problem No such man can produce anâ— Laws or Rules of his Religion nor give anâ— account wherein they are contained or bâ— whom or by what Church with an exclusion of the Bible they have been at any timâ— Received Nor can any man rationally make a Partiaâ— rejection of the Bible and retain a Christian Profession from thence in a Limited sensâ— of his own For a man to say he receive the Bible as he receives other credible writings as a book generally True and written by men that meant honestly and well but believes it not written with an Infallible Spirit nor to carry a Divine Authority along with it nor submits to it as such is to say a thing extreamly incongruous to all good sense and to indulge himself in a perfect Absurdity For the Bible comes to us with a claim oâ— God's Authority attending it speaks to us in his Name is a Book that disowns all humane contrivement proposeth it self as written by Divine Inspiration and Immediate Direction from God admits of no Composition for its Reception In such a case there can be no Middle-way but either we must receive this Book and submit to it as such or else reject it with the justest contempt imaginable It is in nothing to be credited if it be not in Truth what it pretends to be For there cannot be a more vile and pernitious falshood imposed upon the world then to counterfeit a Divine Law and to pretend that to come from Heaven and to be sent us from God which is nothing but the product of Men. Whoever will admit these premisses that the Scriptures were not written in every part of them by the infallible direction of the Holy Ghost when they themselves tell us that they were so must needs descend to this conclusion that they then contain the most impudent falshood and were composed by the worst designers against mankind The Christian Religion and the Scriptures being so related and standing in so near a conjunction as they do The being of the one having so necessary a dependance upon the Truth and Authority of the other 'T will be easily granted to be the great concern of the Christian Church in all ages to assert their Divine Authority and to justify that Book to be written by men that were indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinely inspired and to be sent us from God as that supreme Law by which he would inform Rule and Judge the World He that undertakes this Province and designs to himself such a service is obliged First To consider with whom he is like to encounter And to proportion his defence to those various assaults the Scripture are usually exposed to This being admitted which it ought to be that no man can with any good Reason close with the Christian Religion and at the same time Renounce the Bible That Maxime of St. Austin being undeniable that Contra Scripturas nemo Christianus There are but three sorts of men by whom the Scriptures can at any time be generally Attact and from whose principles their sacred Authority can receive an Universal Invasion First Such who wholly deny the being of God and consequently of all Religion for God and Religion are Relatives such who wallow in the mire of an Atheistical profession Secondly Such who admit the Being of God and a supreme and first cause but deny his providence and believe he is no way concer'd about the World nor troubles himself to exercise any Rule or Dominion at all over it Thirdly Such who admit the Being of God and the existence of Religion and providence but reject the Christian Religion as not True and embrace some other in opposition to it Of those first-born Monsters of Mankind that Anomalous off-spring who deny the Being of God whose principles contain in them the utmost dreggs of all humane Apostacy and are of all others the most wild and absurd for as Cicero sayes Deos esse ita perspicuum est ut is qui negat vix eum sanae mentis existimem The Being of the Gods is so evident that no man can be thought well in his wits that denies it A previous consideration is necessary to whatever is said upon this or any other Divine subject and therefore I have already contested with such and dispatcht all my concernes with them in order to this matter and the last converse I mean to have with that evil generation of whom it may most truely be said They are not only the avowed opposers of all Religion but indeed they are Hostes Humani generis The common enemies of all mankind Who by denying a Supreme Being above demolish the great support of all well-being here below Of this belief they were heretofore at Athens in those primitive times of Atheism and first dawnings of â—speculative Irreligion upon the World and therefore Cotta tells us in Cicero that when Protagoras began his Books with this Introduction to Atheism De Diis neque ut sint neque ut non sint habeo dicere Atheniensum jussu Urbe atque Agro est exterminatus Librique ejus in concione combusti And he adds Ex quo equidem existimo tardiores ad hanc sententiam profitendam multos esse factos quippe cum poenam ne dubitatio quidem effugere potuisset For those secundary Enemies to the Bible and together with that of all Religion such who admit the Being of God but deny all Providence and Divine Rule over the World such who out of shame disown the grand principle of Atheism but yet by this Method secure all the effects of it to themselves Of those a preliminary consideration on ought to be had A previous confutation of such principles being of absolute necessity to make way for the discourse in hand For it must needs be a vain and impracticable project to indeavour to prove any Book to be Divine and a Law given forth from God if there be no such Law any where in Being which we are sure there never can be if God no way concernes himself with what men do nor exercises any Dominion at all over them 'T is plain such principles do uno ictu dispatch all Religion out of the World put a perfect period to all Divinity and render it a thing very absurd to submit either in our belief or practice to any thing as Divine To this purpose Cicero concludes in his first Book De nat Deor. Sin autem Dii says he neque possunt nos juvare nec volunt
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
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
Moses could not humanâ—ly foresee That so many Prophets would ariâ—â—â—n so many after Ages to justifie explain and carry on what he at the first writ nor could Moses or those Prophets know any thing of the coming of Christ and the Apostles so exactly to fulfill the whole And yet all this and all things relating to the Bible have come as punctually to pass as if all those persons that writ the Bible had lived at one time had all talked together and perfectly agreed the whole business before one word of it was written Nay Moses is so explained and justified by the Prophets and both in such a way explained and fulfilled by Christ and the Apostles Promises and Prophecies are in such a manner made good fulfilled and interpreted as seems utterly beyond the reach of all humane skill and contrivement supposing all the Writers had lived at one time had all consulted together and with their utmost abilities laboured to bring it so to pass What Humane skill can we reasonably conceive could have contrived such a gradual fulfilling throughout the whole Bible as now we see of that promise That the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents head What Humane Artifice can we conceive could have contrived such a Prophetical Prayer as Gods perswading Japhet to dwell in the Tents of Sem with such a fulfilling of it as that after the World had been Canton'd in Ages then to come into Jew and Gentile from their posterity both Jews and Gentiles who were in the highest enmity each to other should incorporate into one faith and become one under the Gospel by an united subjection to one common Head and so in many others of the like Nature And indeed no man that is not bereft of his wits can Imagine that any company of Impostors could have been the Authors of such a projection as the saving men by Jesus Christ which is the main and grand design of the whole Bible or could have contrived such remote obscure promises of it at first and such gradual and stupendious fulfillings of those promises after 'T is not I say only highly improbable that such a number of men living in such distant Ages should agree to write such a Book but 't is unreasonable to Imagine that admitting they had so agreed yet that they could have produced such a book as the Bible or that a Book so consisting with it self could have been at such remote distances of time contrived by the cunningest Heads of any wicked Impostors whatsoever Nothing less then a Divine and Heavenly Wisdom could have guided so many hands as writ the Bible in so many Ages into such an admirable agreement and punctual correspondency with themselves 'T is not easie to find an agreement between men of the same sect and opinion in any one Age or to find any one man in his own writings if he write much exactly agreeing with himself But to see so many men in writing such a Book as the Bible so harmonizing together as there they do is of singular consideration Throughout the whole Book we find these Writers still proceeding and building forward till the Top-stone is layed without rejecting any thing all things compleated and fulfilled never any thing denied Contradicted or destroyed but we still see a rare use of every part relative to the whole and such a fabrick intirely reared without the least part Mis-placed or any cause seen to entertain a second thought or to Alter Of which no instance can be given in the promoting of any humane Science whatsoever The Harmony we find in this Holy Book is of great Remark upon these three accounts First 'T is a harmony that results from exceeding Different Styles and the greatest Variety of Matter 'T is not so many mens bare agreement together upon any few plain points but t is so many mens agreeing together who have writ Historically Prophetically Doctrinally with wonderful variation both for Matter and Manner of all the Sublimest notions the minds of men are capable of as well as of the plainest truths of things in Heaven in Earth in Hell of all sorts of things relating to God and Men and of the whole business of this World and the next Secondly 'T is a harmony resulting from an involved Correspondency of the parts one with another and of every part with the whole now we see it conjoyn d in such a way as could not be foreseen or contrived by any humane wisdom in the writing of any one distinct part There is in the toâ—um compositum of the Bible such a peculiar Oeconomy relating to the whole in the conjunction of all the parts and likewise such an united consent in all the parts when together relating to their conjunction in all the Doctrines Prophecies Promises Types Histories to promote the same thing and such a Dependency each upon other in order to it the whole in its connexion is so issued into one great and common end as must needs argue a further and greater design in producing the whole then what any Individual Men could possibly have at several distant Times in writing the paâ—ticular Parts Thirdly 'T is such a harmony as has been and still is dayly more and more discoâ—erable to us by the Accidents of Time And the products of Ages and Generations have shewed us much of it that lay hid and we knew not of before The more experience we have of this Book the more we find it at unity with it self and the more we search into it the deeper harmony still we discover Every Age proves a fresh Interpreter and the successive Revolutions of this whole world reveal to us more and more of its rare and admirable Concord and we come to find things that seemingly most differ'd in the highest and safest agreement Which when we consider by how many several Pens and at how many several and distant times this Book was handed down to us could not be the effect of any Humane Artifice nor is it a thing that any Writers by the strength of their own abilities could possibly in their own Times design or provide for Nor can we suppose it the effect of any other cause but an Infinite Comprehension and Foresight And that the Writers of this Book were in all times guided in what they wrote by the Supreme Wisdome of that one God who is constant to himself and the Same for ever This consideration of the Pen-men God made use of for the Writing of this book and those Humane circumstances that attended their doing it goes thus far That there is at least as much if not More Ground to believe this book upon that single account as there is to Receive any other Humane Authors we are most satisfied in Indeed as rational inducements to credit those men that wrote the Bible considering Who they were that wrote it and how and when and upon what Termes they wrote it as to credit any other Authors we least doubt
at large in the 12th Book of his Jewish Antiquities Some will needs imagine that Antiochus so far prevailed in this undertaking that the Scriptures then Extant were wholly Destroyed But the contrary is most evident and a special providence in their preservation sufficiently visible For no sooner was that storme over but the Bible was every where publickly extant having been particularly preserved by Matthias the Son of Asmonaeus and his sons who as Josephus says resolutely ventured their Lives in the doing it and also by other good men and was universally known in that Age amongst the Jews to be so Calvin in the first book of his Institutes observes That though the Jews had undergone the malice of manifold Enemies on all hands yet neither the Loss nor the Change nor the Corruption of their Law was ever by their worst Enemies objected against them And indeed how great soever their enmity was against their Religion yet they never denied but that Moses was the Author of it and that the Law they had was the Same He deliâ—cred at first Under the New Testament since the closure and completion of the Whole What a fâ—â—ious Persecution did the Bible esâ—ape in the time of Dioclesian Who after the grievous sufferings of the Christians in Mine fore Persecutions assaults them about the year 302 with the sorest and most cruel of all and with a full purpose to root Christianity utterly out of the world and destroy its very Name from the face of the Earth Euselius tells us that in the Nineteenth year of his Reign He publisht an Edict against the Christians and Christianity it self In which he so much Gloried that he caused a Pillar to be erected as his Memorial to all posterity with this Inscription Dioclesiano Casari Augusto superstitione Christi ubique deleta To Dioclesian the Emperour having abolished the superstition of Christ all the world over By that Edict he commands that the Christian-Churches should every where be demolished the Christians all Seized and Imprisoned Et quibuâ—cunque adhiâ—itis Machinis victimas Idolis immolare cogerentur That by all sorts of means fair and foul they should be brought to sacrifice unto his Idoâ—s And that the Scriptures should be every where sought for burnt and destroyed And whoever Retained them should be most sharply Tormented Dioclesian at this time had the command of the greatest part of the Habitable world For as one of the Roman Writers said Romanâ— spatium est Vrbis Orbis idem The Scriptures were then but in Written hand Men generally Quak'd with the fear of that Raging Tyrant Very many Apostatized and delivered up the Bible to his wrath and were thereupon branded with the name of Traditores of which and of the whole business we might perhaps have had a larger account had not The Life of Deoclesian written by Eusthenius his Secretary been since lost For As Baronius has rightly observed in his Annalls We have now no Writer who did at that time Historically set down the Actions of that Emperour Yet God by his Providence delivered this Book out of his hand Disappointed his fury and suffered him not to quench the Light of these Divine Laws The Christians at that time Tired out the Inventions of their Enemies in finding out ways to torment them and by their constant and patient suffering the utmost of humane misery even wearied out their Executioners One remarkable passage we have in Euseblus that happened upon this occasion A noble man in Nicomedia of eminent Quality hearing this Edict against the Christians and the Bible published at Nicemedâ—a After it was Read and openly fixed to a publick Pillar in the presence of Dioclesian himself Maximinius Galerius Constantius and other the Chiefest persons in the Empire for 't was usual with the Emperors to come themselves in Person with their chiefest Attendanâ—s to hear their own Edicts against the Christians proclaimed to see the Christians tormented and to make themselves sport with their miseries this Noble man had such a zeal for the Bible and the Christian Religion that before the Emperors face he took down that prophane and impious Edict and with a Holy indignation openly tore it to pieces and and thereby willingly exposed himself to the utmost suffering the fury and rage of the Emperour could any way make him the subject of Two things are usually urged in diminution of the â—â—ble and its Authority upon a quite contrary account We are told by some The Bible has been so far from being preserved intire in the whole or in its parts that first all that part of the Bible that was then extant when the people of Israel were carryed into Babylon periâ—â—ed in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and that Esdras wrote it himself all over again upon their return and that we have now so much of the Bible only from Him and as he Re-pâ—â—ned it In this Mr. Hobs in the 33 Chapter of his Leviathan where he has not failed to insinuate all such things as might gratifie men of Sceptical notions about the Bible is very positive and tells us The Books of the Old Testament are derived to us from no other time then that of Esdras and were retrived by him when they were lost And Secondly we are told that many particular Books and Writings penned by Divine inspiration and once part of the Bible have been since consumed by Time and are now wholly lost out of the World The first That so much of the Old Testament as was then extant which was the whole as we have it save some part of the Psalms the Prophecies of Ezeâ—iel Daniel Haggai Zachary and Masachai and the Books of Esther Ezra and Nehemiah was totally lost and all the Copies destroyed in the ruine of Jerusalem and the Temple is an assertion very weakly grounded And there are very sufficient Reasons to perswade us to believe the contrary First Weakly grounded for there is no other ground for it but that in an Apocryphal Book that goes under the Title of the fourth Book of Esdras a Book every where stuffed with Childish and fabulous Stoties There we find this absurd fiction that Esdras should speak unto God and tell him Thy Law is burnt and no man knoweth the things that thou hast done and therefore desired to be inspired to write it all over again and to wrire all that had been done in the World from the beginning And that after he had been forty days and nights with God in an apish foolish imitation of Moses and had taken a Potion God had prepared for him he dictated all the Bible over again to five men Now of how little credit this Relation being no where found but in this Book ought to be with any considering man will appear if we consider that this Book was not only constantly rejected as Apocryphal by the Jewish Church as a counterfeit under Esdras his name and none of his but has been so by all
of Imposture Nor is it any way reasonable to think That such who designed to Personate the Holy Ghost in writing a Book should chuse to compose it in such a prophetick way and so positively and plainly deliver themselves about so many future events Indeed about most of the great things that have come to pass amongst Man-kind For the first miscarriage in that kind a palpable mistake in any one particular must needs ruine the credit of the Whole No man can believe that God can lie or that an Infinite Knowledge can ever give a wrong Divination about what is to come He therefore that personates the Holy Ghost in such a foreknowledge of things must be sure never to miss or else resolve to take the shame of his own Imposture That in the Heathen-World there have been great pretentions to a fore-knowledge of things is not to be doubted But upon very different terms to what we find of that kind in the Bible First Many things pretended to therein in a prophetical way were such as might humanely be fore-seen and were only the regular Consequents of some natural and then extant though more remote and less visible Causes The first Discoverers of many secret workings in Nature might upon that account have soon arrived to a great prophetical Credit Thales who first amongst the Heathens foresaw an Eclipse of the Sun might easily have passed for an eminent Prophet before the knowledge of its natural cause grew common 2dly The Heathen Predictions were generally clothed with Expressions so enigmatical and so unintelligible as in truth render'd them Problems rather than Prophesies They seemed to be framed more to confound and amuse than to inform or satisfie and to be chiefly calculated to abuse the weaker part of the World who are apt to adore what they least understand and to suppose some extraordinary Matter to be wrapt up in all such clouded Expressions According to that of Lucretius Omnia enim stolidi magis admirantut amantque Inversis quae sub verbis latitantia cernunt Thirdly Their oraculous Divinations of future things were for the most part so delivered that they had divers Aspects carryed in them divers intricate Senses manifold Ambiguities And to secure their Credit were made capable of divers and those contrary Interpretations Which made the Heathens themselves call their great Oracle at Delphos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Thwarter or Crooked-speaker Fourthly Many of their plainest and most intelligible Predictions have been consequently found to be false and mistaken and others of them have had a direct tendency to a perfect subversion of their own Religion and to establish the truth of the Bible so 't was when the Oracle of Apollo which we find repeated by Porphiry declared that All other Godds were but Airy Spirits and that the God of the Hebrews was alone to be worshipped Which Direction had it been followed had put a final end to all their own Religion So 't was when the Sybills prophesied so fully of the coming of Christ which we find repeated out of their Works in the 4th Eglogue of Virgil. We deny not but that for some secret and to us unknown ends God who as the Heathens generally acknowledge could onely do it for they still ascribed it even Porphiry himself unto their Godds might and did sometimes reveal some future events which no other way could be known as he did the death of Saul and his Son at Endor to the Devil or to others which they might communicate But nothing that ever was extant in that kind can be any way put in ballance with that Prophetick Spirit we find in the Bible 'T is much in this case as 't was in the business of Miracles The Heathen-world were filled with Pretensions both wayes Some of them real and true but most generally fictitious and false And when true both the Miracles and the Prophesies from whence we derive a proof of the Bible have been so differently circumstanced and there is such a superior eminency and lustre in the one as renders the other no Objection at all in this case Here we have clear plain and positive predictions of most of the greatest things that have happened Predictions of such things as could have no dependance upon any natural cause then extant when they were made Such as must needs have their rise from the unbounded Will of God or the free choice of men A multitude of such Predictions with marvalous variety and great exactness and particularity concerning Persons and Things in all Ages and throughout a constant and un-erring Success without a Failure in a Tittle And the accomplishment and truth of the most of them recorded in the general Story of the World Who but God himself can we suppose could pronounce with such a positive certainty upon all future events Not to foretell once or a second time what shall be here or there but to speak with a positive prophetick determination about all the Great Things that were to happen and write of the future state of the World as men write Histories of Ages past And to have things alwayes rightly come to pass Never to mistake Constantly to give right Divination This is singly the property of God Nor can any other be reasonably though the Author of such a Prophetical Book but He that grasps all Ages with an Infinite Knowledge spans all Times and Seasons from whom nothing can be concealed and who with the saine Infinite Eye equally beholds all things past present and to come To conclude this Matter If the supposition of some Revelation in the general be reasonable If it be not fit to believe that God should wholly leave the World to the conduct of Nature which hath been largely made to appear If then we find a Book that is of all others the most Ancient contains the most Primitive notions of things and from which the earlyest Authors as from the great Fountain and Spring-head of all Divine Learning and Knowledge appear to have drawn out much of what they have writ That gives us the most punctual account of the Worlds Original With an exact Historical Narrative of all the great Successive Revolutions of it long before any other Writers were extant with such an adjustment of Times all along that without it no certain Knowledge can be attain'd in Chronology and the study of it would become more intricate than a Labyrinth If we find a Book written by several Men of several Qualities Conditions and Interests in several distant Ages with wonderful variety both for Matter and Manner promoting by an unparallel'd agreement with it self one and the same Design and that the most excellent in the judgment of every mans own Reason that can descend from Heaven or be embraced by men terminating all in the Glory of God and Man's utmost Happiness A Book leading us to the farthest confines of all natural Truths our own Reasons comprehend and approve and revealing such supernatural Truths to
us as appear evidently sitted and suited to supply all the defects of our natural Knowledge and after an admirable manner harmonize with the rational Nature in which things from Above are so interwoven with things below and every way so proportioned to them as that Truths Supernatural which we cannot fully comprehend appear justified to us by Truths natural that we are perfectly judges of and between both there appears a wonderful concord If we find a Book written in God's own Name commanding the World upon that single account to bow before it and in a way peculiarly proper to his own Soveraignty and Greatness with a positive claim to his immediate Authority and the truth of this claim established to the World by a multitude of the greatest and most eminent Miracles at several times openly wrought that ever were extant and the Fact of which was never by any deny'd A Book the Doctrine whereof by the power and reputation of those Miracles it s own innate Worth and the Divine Assistance that accompanyed it without the least humane help nay against all Humane-Opposition all earthly Policy and Force withstanding it has gain'd so great an acceptance as we see â—his to have done subdued in its first enâ—rance that great Empire of Rome subâ—erted the whole Judaical Fabrick and â—as made both Heathenism and Judaism â—inaly fall before it If we find a Book that gives us the â—est and most satisfying account of the â—hole affair of this World and all the Vicissitudes of it and of God's providential Rule and Dispose of all Humane Affairs A Book in which the whole business of the World is fully and strangely epitomized and we see nothing happen or come to pass contradictive of but according to what is there written and of which we find there some general notice If we find a Book the Doctrine whereof totally subverts the whole interest of the Devil and all the corrupt interests of Men in a way far superior to what ever was or can rationally be supposed ever could be attempted in that kind by the wisest and best of men and introduces much nobler and elevated Notions oâ— Piety and Vertâ—e than the World werâ— any other way ever possessed of If we find a Book that has plainly anâ— directly foretold most of the great thing that have come to pass in all Ages thaâ— has many hundreds of years beforâ— some of them happened pronounced with an absolute prophetick certainty about thâ—m and has never been found tâ— mistake in a tittle though it has somâ—times descended so to Particulars as 〈◊〉 name even the Persons of men long before they were born cannot once be impeached for giving a wrong Divination about the least Circumstance relating either to Persons or Things If we find a Book that has been signally preserved from the greatest rage of many powerful Adversaries and from the most Violent and Potent Attempts for its total Suppression and Ruine of such who were in highest Authority and furnished with greatest advantages to effect it A Book that has scap'd all sorts of Contrivance against it and safely descended through the Channel of so many Ages and been to this day providentially secured and unmaimed and intirely delivered over to us If we find a Book that evidently in the judgment of all right Reason improves Mankind to the highest pitch in all worthy and excellent Attainments boâ—h Moral and Divine Brings the World into the best posture 't is capable of Makes men Wiser Better and Happier than they ever were or could themselves find out how to be If we find a Book that by means utterly unthought of and far out of all humane-reach and yet of a most holy and excellent Nature sweetly and safely even to our greatest admiration reconciles us to God Fills up that vast Gulph that was between Heaven and Earth and makes way for a free and perpetual intercourse between God and Man Exposes to the view of the World thereby a Beatitude infinitely transcending whatever the Wisdom of Man could contrive or invent which the rational Soul the more it considers still the more it adores and admires and in which to the utmost 't is delighted and satisfied In short If we find a Book that has all those things if we respect both the Matter of it and the Manner of its conveyance to us appurtenant to it that we can rationally expect should accompany a Revelation from Heaven and such a supernatural Law by which we may suppose God would enlighten and rule the World A Book that every way answers all the great ends of Revelation proposeth most suitable Remedies to all our natural Defects leaves not a Disease in Humane Nature uncured nor a Breach that mans fall hath occasioned un-made up If there be not one thing we can imagine God should reveal to us in order to our present or future Welfare about things visible or invisible about This World or the Next that we are not here told of If we have here such discoveries made of things supernatural and unseen as have evidently set bounds to the restless and inquisitive minds of Men about those Matters And such as we cannot reasonably judge could be the product of any humane thoughts nor of any thing lesse than the infinite and boundless Wisdom and Knowledge of GOD himself If we have found such a Book If the Bible be thus qualified What can be otherwise judged upon such Premises but that this Book is indeed that sacred Instrument wherein God has recorded his Sovereign Pleasure This is in truth that Revelation from Heaven the World in all Ages have so much expected and to which so many false pretensions have in all Ages been made Here is indeed contained that System of Laws supernatural by the publication whereof God has abounded in all the effects of his Bounty and even out-done the furthest Conceptions the World has at any time had of his Goodness How strangely unreasonable were it to derive such a Book from the highest degree of imposture How heterodox is it to all good sense to suppose that the worst and most pernitious delusion by which the World has been ever abused which we must needs reckon this Book to be if it be not from God should have in point of time the precedency of all true Religion and be of an antienter date than any divine Truth the World can pretend to Who that believes the supream Existence of God can imagine that the best documents in the judgment of all unprejudiced reason that ever mankind were disciplin'd by should have the Devil or the vilest of men for their Authors That such should contrive and publish a Doctrine that brings men to the best method of living That such should reduce mankind to the happyest and best condition and out do the Divine goodness in that particular Who can imagine that the Devil or any ill men in promoting the highest Treason against God counterfeting his Name and Authority and
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
we have now contained in our Bables all that was written by a Divine Inspiration and intended as a Rule to the Church and no more That is How can we now be safely assured about the Canon of the Scripture and be able upon good grounds to say what is Canonical and what is not 'T is too apparent a Truth that nothing by the power of its own worth and excellency has ever been able to scape contempt and reproach from the unruly wills and debauched minds of corrupt and unreasonable men The Bible has met with its share in this kind Some upon Fanatical Pretences have despised and rejected the Whole Others have mangled and severed it as themselves thought good receiving some part only as Divine and rejecting the rest as they pleased Of this Iraeneus Tertullian Epiphanius St. Austin and many of the Christian Writers have given us a large account The Manichees rejected the whole body of the Old Testament as coming from an Evil God The Ptolemaites as Epiphamus tells us rejected all the Books of Moses The Gnosticks with some other Hereticks rejected the whole Book of Psalms Cerdon and after him Marcion rejected all the Gospels but that of St. Luke the Acts of the Apostles and divers other parts of the New Testament as we find by Tertullian The Valentimans rejected all the Gospels but that of St. John as we see in Irenaeus Others rejected all that St. John wrote The Ebionites received no Gospel but that of St. Matthen and rejected in gross all the Epistles of St. Paul In a word There is not one Part of the Bible from the first to the last that has scap'd the reprobation of some bad Men. But all such attempts were soon blown away expired in the Birth bore about them their own shame and reproach made no considerable battery upon the Truth in any Age Nor did they reach further than the vitiated Minds and corrupt Breasts of such Profligate Hereticks as were the first Authors of them In answering to this Question How we come to be well assured about the Canon of the Bible and that those Books now received by the Church of England and other Protestant Churches as such are all Canonical and no other Two things only will occur that are of any seeming moment In the due consideration of which all will be said that is needful about this Matter First How we come to reject out of our Canon those Books commonly called Apocryphal which were written at least all but one of them during the times of the Old Testament And secondly Upon what grounds we now receive some particular parts of the New Testament which have sometimes layen under question If we mistake in the first we have less in our Bibles than we ought If in the latter we have much more than we should About the first concerning the several parts of the Old Testament there is amongst Christians themselves a present Disagreement But concerning the other the whole Christian World is at this day of the same opinion For the First That there is good Reason to reject those Books commonly called the Apocrypha that they were not written by any Divine Inspiration nor sent us from GOD as any part of those Supream Laws by which he intended to rule and judge the World and so ought not to be reckoned within the Canon will be made very evident to any reasonable Judge upon these Considerations following First After the time of Esdras and the erection of the second Temple 't is universally agreed by all the most Antient Jews and Christians that the Jews had no Prophet amongst them Nor did GOD raise up any Man with an Extraordinary Spirit from the time of Malachi who is agreed to be the last Prophet till John the Baptist Which was for the space of four hundred and odde years Now 't is sufficiently evident that these Apocryphal Books were all written after the time of Malachi and so can be of no extraordinary Mission And if any of them had been written before and had been extant in Ezra's time which they were not it had been an unanswerable Reason for their Rejection now Because they were not received then For 't is well known that none of these Books now in question were by Him incorporated with the rest of the Bible nor were within the Canon at that time setled That the Jews had no Prophets by whom all parts of the Old-Testament were written For the Church is built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles And the whole of the Old-Testament is called Prophecy nor any Men of an Extraordinary Spirit amongst them after the Captivity both Jews and Christians generally agree Josephus is express in it in his first Book against Appion he tells us that from the time of Artaxerxes though certain Books had been written yet they deserved not the same Credit and Belief that the Sacred Scriptures did because there was no succession of Prophers amongst them Saint Austine in the 45th Chapter of his 18th Book De Civitate Dei sheweth at large that the Jews had no Prophecy after Ezra's time And the same Eusebius affirmeth in his Demonstrationes Evangelicae Post Zachartam Malachiam non fuâ—sse amplius apud Judaeos Prophetam Et a reditu ex Captivitate ad tempora Servatoris nullum babucrint Judaei sacrum Volumen The Jews had no Prophets after Zachary and Malachi nor any Sacred Writings after the Captivity till our Saviour's time And some of these very Books tell us as much themselves For in the first Book of the Maccabees Chap. 9. 't is there said That there was then great Tribulation in Israel such as had not been since the dayes that there had been no Prophet in Israel relating to Ezra's time And indeed it appears very plain from the Scripture it self that there were no Divine Writings published between the Prophecy of Malachi and the writing of the Gospels For the Evangelists take things up just where he left them and begin the Gospel from the end of Malachi's Prophecy For he ending his Prophecy at John the Baptist under the Type and Title of Elias and the Evangelists beginning the Gospel with Him for St. Mark expresly declares the ending of that Prophecy to be the beginning of the Gospel There is a visible combination from thence from that period of Prophesie of the Old and New Testament together Secondly All the Writers of the Old Testament were Prophets to the House of Israel and to the Church of the Jews and their Writings and Prophesies were directed chiefly to them And so they were all writ except some Passages in Daniel and Ezra that were written in the Chaldee Dialect to which the Jews had in their Captivity been much accustomed in their own Native Language the Language of Canaan which was the Hebrew But these Books were confessedly most of them first written in Greek and could be of no use at all to the Jews at Jerusalem and
in Palestine nor understood by any but the dispersed Hellenists And so were no way likely to be sent from the Holy Ghost to that Church who never owned any Scripture for Canonical but what was in Hebrew a Language peculiar to them And the Bibles they constantly used till our Saviours time in their Synagogues were all in Hebrew Thirdly There is in most of these Books some eminent discovery of their own Humane Extraction As in the second of Macc. 2.24 The Author of that Book whoever he were tells us that he had borrowed what he wrote out of Jason of Cyrene and contracted five Books of his into one Volumn And so what he there wrote he is so far from fathering it on the Holy Ghost or any Dictates of his that he plainly confesseth 't was none of his own but the bare Epitomy of another mans Writings and desires to be excused if he had not done it well And 't is most notoriously evident to every common Reader that many of these Books contain such ridiculous Stories and gross Absurdities that without high impiety and great contradiction to all those Natural Notions we have of God they cannot be imputed to the Holy Ghost as their Author Fourthly These Books were never received by the Church of the Jews into their Canon nor are to this day And so during the times of the Old Testament were never received by any Church for there was then no other which is most absurd to conceive of any parts of God's Written and Supream Laws As also that the Jews to whom in a most peculiar way the Oracles of God were committed and who had the custody of all God's Sacred Records and were as St. Austin calls them God's the Churches great Library-Keepers should so notoriously err as to reject for not to receive into their Canon is to reject so great a part of the Bible 'T is somewhat strange that those of the Roman Church with whom chiefly we contest in this Matter and who annex to the Church an infallible Judgement should imagine the Church of the Jews to fall into so great and gross a mistake in so fundamental a matter That the Jewish Church never heretofore received these Apocryphal Books into their Canon nor do to this day is a thing that with the least colour of Reason cannot be denyed That they do not to this day is known all the World over wheresoever the Jews are And their Bibles are to be seen That the Ancient Church of the Jews before the times of our Saviour had no other Books within their Canon than those we now have is evident from the testimony of Josephus in his first Book against Appion who there tâ—lls us what Books the Jews reckoned Canonical and sayes They are onely twenty two in number according to the number of Letters in their Alphabet and reckons those very Books we now receive as onely Canonical Other Books he sayes there were written after the Captivity but they were never numbred with the Sacred Records Origen St. Jerome and many other of the Christian Writers have largely proved the same Those of the Roman Church who have turn'd every Stone to ease themselves from the dint of this Argument have found no other countenance that ever these Books received from the Jews to make us suppose they received them into their Canon but that in some places some few of the Hellenist Jews that lived remote from Palestine had annexed some of these Books to their Septuagint Bibles But such Hellenists themselves had any esteem of them as Canonical Writings Nor can it any more be proved from thence that they had than it can That we in England receive them into our Canon because they are bound up with some of our Bibles And never were any of these Books annexed to the Hobrew-Bibles used at Jerusalem and in Palestine nor were any of them ever read or admitted into their Synagogues there In truth This matter in point of Fact is so notorious and evident that Bellarmine himself makes an ingenuous confession of it and sayes plainly Hos omnes Libros speaking of these Apocryphal Books ad unum rejici ab Hebraeis That every one of these Books were rected by the Church of the Jews Contr. 1. lib. 1. ch 10. And confirms the same out of St. Jerome And if so we have then not only the judgment of the Judaical Church in this case which is singly sufficient For 't were a ridiculous contradiction to make any Books part of the Old Testament now which were not so received then But we have also a more infallible determination For our Saviour and the Apostles fully and constantly approved the Old Testament as the Jews were then possessed of it 'T were absurd to suppose that our Saviour should with so much exactness reduce all to the Rule of the Scripture and yet tacitly approve and silently pass over so great a mistake about the Rule it self Our Saviour directs the Jews to search the Scriptures as they then had them as being perfect and compleat Appeals to their own Bibles upon all occasions in his own defence Expounded Moses the Psalms and the Prophets as those to whom he spake were acquainted with them and as they were then extant Nay he himself read and preached in their Synagogues out of the Scriptures as he there found them and as they were there publickly used And no man can soberly imagine that our Saviour would go about to instruct the People out of any false and imperfect Rule The Apostles likewise upon all occasions made use of the Old Testament as they found the Jews possessed of it Nor have we the least intimation that the Jews were either mistaken in the number of those Books they received or that the least alteration had been made in those Books since the times wherein they were first written And 't is as evident that the Old Tement as the Jews then had it and as our Saviour and the Apostles approved it descended down to the Christian Church and was constantly so received The Primitive Writers agree universally in it Cyprian Epiphanius Athanasius Nazianzen all bear witness to it Cyril Bishop of Jerusalem after he has reckoned up to his Catechumini the 22 Books of the Old Testament we now receive adds Hos lege viginti duos Cum Apocryphis nil habe negotii Catechis 4. Read these two and twenty Books But meddle not with the Apocrypha Origen quoted for it at large by Eusebius in his History reckons up the very same twenty two Books for the Canonical parts of the Old Testament And so does St. Jerome and expresly reckons the other Apocryphal The same we find in Russinus who sayes The Apocryphal Books they never antiently called Libros Canonicos but Ecclesiasticos And the first Council we read of that entred into a consideration of this Matter which was that of Laodicea about the year 364. in their 59 Canon declare the Canonical Books of the
nec curant omnino nec quid agamus animadvertunt nec est quod ab his ad hominum vitam permanare possit Quid est quod ullos Diis immortalibus Cultus Honores Praeces adhibeamus If the Gods be no way concern'd about us to what end should we worship or serve them And Cotta in the same book tells Velleius That Epicurus by making God careless of the affairs of men Sustulerit omnem funditus Religionem Has utterly subverted all Religion Quid est enim cur Deos ab hominibus colendos dicas cum Dii non modo hominibus non consulant sed omnino nihil curent nihil agant The same Justin Martyr observed in the beginning of his Dialogue with Tryphon speaking to him of the opinion of those Philosophers who denyed the Doctrine of Providence Says he Hoc vero ad quem illi referant finem intelligere disicile non est Nam hoc efficit securitas atque libertas loquendi eos qui haec docent sectandi quod volunt agendi dicendi impunitas Neque paenam aliam metuens neque bonum quodque sperans a Deo That men by a denyal of Providence do only publish another Edition of Atheism is evident enough 'T is in it self equally destructive to all Virtue and Religion and lies in no less opposition to all true reasoning to say the highest Being no way concerns himself with what men do here below as to say there is no such Being at all That there is such a being and that this Being is a punisher of evil doers and a Rewarder of them that do well is the great Topick from whence all Religion and all good Manners are derived If God regard not what Men do they are no more obliged in their actions then if there were no God at all And 't is not more unreasonable to deny that God Is then to admit him to be and then deny those things that must necessarily belong to such an Existence That the fixed belief of Gods Rule over the world accompanied the notion of his Being amongst the best and wisest of the Heathen will appear obvious if we consult the writings of Seneca Plutarch Epictetus Simplitius and many others of them Balbus in Tully thus begins his Speech Omnino dividunt nostri totam istam de Diis immortalibus questionem in partes quatour Primum docent esse Deos deinde quales sint tum Mundum ab his Administrari postremo eos consulere rebus humanis Those of our opinion always divide the question about the Gods into four parts First we teach that the Gods are Then how they exist Then that the World is governed by them And lastly that they take the care of humane affairs And Tully in his second Book de Legib. tells us Persuasum hoc sit a principio hominibus Dominos esse omnium rerum ac moderatores Deos eaque quae gerantur eorum geriditione atque numine Men have believed this from the beginning that the Gods governed the World and that all things were under their Dominion and Rule Epicurus who first assaulted the Doctrine of Providence and by a denyal of that found a way to transform the notion of God so far as it concerns men into a meer nullity would needs suppose it a thing below the greatness of God to take any notice of humane affairs or concern himself with what men did here And therefore Cotta tells Velleius in Cicero speaking of him In illis selectis ejus brevibusque sententiis quas appellatis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hac ut opinor prior sententia est Quod Beatum Immortale est id nee babet nec exhibet cuiquam negotium This was one of his chi-fest Aphorisms that the Blessed and Immortal Being had no imployment himself nor occasioned any trouble to others which appeared a thing so absurd in it self and so Heterodox to all true Philosophy that the best Moralists sharply rebuked his folly thought this opinion of his to be Turpis indigna base and unworthy and refused him the Honour to be stiled a Philosopher who would be so unworthy to suppose that sloth and stupidity in the Deity which every worthy and good man thought beneath himself Aristotle though no very good Divine nor very Orthodox asserter of Providence yet so loathed this absurd fiction of Epicurus and a total denial of Providence that he speaks of it with this keen reflection sayes he Diversity of questions requires diversity of answers Some ask whether Fire be hot These must be answered by being made to touch it Some ask whether their Parents are to be honoured These are not to be discoursed with but rebuked Others ask whether there be any Providence that Rules the world and refuse to believe it without apparent demonstrations Such men sayes he should be answered by a Whip rather than by a Philosopher How extreme unreasonable the denial of Providence and Gods universal Rule over the world is how unsuitable and opposite to those conceptions of him our own Reasons dictate to us will soon appear if we view over those fond speculations men have pleased themselves with about this matter Some have confined providence to the Heavens and limited it to what is above us Will needs Imagine that God regards nothing beyond the Sphere of the Heavens and that his Dominion reacheth no farther then the Heavenly Bodies those they acknowledge are under a Divine disposure God settles they grant the Stars in their courses and orders all theâ—â— Coelestial Bodies but has no concern at all for any thing here below nor regards what happens on this side the Clouds This folly is sufficiently confuted when we consider how evident it is that the Motions and Influences of the Heavens are all designed for the use and benefit of Mankind and the good of all sublunary things and are still guided with a constant and suitable tendency therunto Now how unreasonable is it to suppose That God should provide and dispose means in order to an end and yet have no regard to the end it self That God should govern the Heavens in order to the good of this lower world and yet be no way at all concerned about it And that man for whose sake chiefly all things above as well as below appear to be made and disposed should be less regarded then those things made subservient to his use Others have Imagined that Providence is exercised about Universals but not about Singulars that God takes care of Generals but nor of particulars This Justin Mart. in his discourse with Tryphon tells him was the opinion of some Philosophers in Graece Saith he Illi etiam nobis persuadere moliuntur Universitatis quidem hujus ac generum specierumque ipsarum curam gerere Deum mei autem atque tui unius cujusque singillatim non itidem They will needs perswade us that God hath a general care of the whole but not a distinct care of you and I
and of every particular part The vanity of which will soon appear if we consent to this undeniable truth that all generals result out of particulars and consist of them The Species of Mankind subsists in the Individuals and Particulars comprehended under it And therefore God cannot be said to take care of Mankind nor his Providence to extend to it in general unless it do so in particulars and his care reach to every Individual man Abstract the Genus of any sort of Creatures from the Species and particulars of which it necessarily consists and 't is nothing When we place Providence so upon Generals as to abstract it from particulars we make it a nullity nor can there be Providence exercised over Generals without a distinst care of particulars because those generals do necessarily include each particular This is excellently proved by Plato in his discourse de Legib. That the whole of nothing can subsist without a distinct care of all the particular parts and therefore infers 't is no way fit to be credited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God who is so wise and excellent a Being should neglect to precide over any part of the World and not take an universal care of the whole and Cicero in his first Book de Divinatione upon the same ground concludes thus Deorum Providentia Mundus administratur ijdemque consulunt rebus Humanis neque solum universis verum etiam singulis The Gods govern the world and take care of humane affairs and not only of universals but also of singulars A third sort there have been that will have Divine Providence reach no farther then Men that say 't is conversant circa Homines non circa Bestias that God descends not to the care of other Creatures beneath man nor busies himself with those inferiour parts of the world This Doctrine seems to have been first set on foot by some of the Jews from whom 't is probable Pythagoras learnt it and became the teacher of it in Graece for so we find it in Hierocles And it has been too much countenanced since by St. Jerome in in his Exposition of the Prophesie of Habakkuk That God by his Providence after a various manner Rules over the several parts of the world and guids and disposes them according to the Nature of their Beings and that proper end to which he first designed them is not to be denied But that any parts of the world those beings beneath the nature of Man are not under the conduct of Providence is a position evidently untrue for if we consider Providence as it relates to preservation the intire Fabrick of the world in the whole of it cannot be continued without a preservation of every part If we consider Providence as it relates to Rule and Dominion there can be nothing more plain then that all Irrational Creatures are so under the Sovereignty and Dominion of Providence because they are all guided in whatsoever they do to some particular end and all in general to one common End Now to move or act towards some end is the peculiar property of an intelligent Being And therefore when we see Creatures void of Intelligence constantly and regularly moving and acting toward some end and all to a common end 'T is plain they are guided by some superiour Intelligence that has a supreme conduct of their Being which can be no other then that we call God in his Providence But the grand and total subverter of the Doctrine of Providence is Epicurus with Lucretius Pliny and others that have in this point embraced his sentiments They wholly deny all Providence whatsoever Suppose it a thing beneath the supreme Being to take any notice of humane affairs Imagine the world wholy left to it self and that God is retired above having not the least imployment himself nor at all regarding what others do To what just contempt and to how palpable a confutation Epicurus and his followers and all deniers of Providence expose themselves by the vanity and folly of such an opinion will with great ease be made to appear to every impartial understanding If God exercise no Dominion over the world nor take any care of its preservation if there be no such thing as Providence in either kind it must either be because he cannot or because he will not To say the first is to deny what men say before when they admit which the Epicureans do the existence of an Infinite Being 'T is a gross contradiction to say God cannot rule the world and yet to say he is Infinite And 't is plain Infiniteness is inseperably annexed to his Being If there be such a being that was before all and infinitely above all there can be no reasonable doubt of his power and ability to rule and command all and where ever his making and first framing of all is acknowledged there cannot be any for there can be no subjection in it self so natural and so necessary as in what is made to him that made it nor any Dominion so absolute or so certain as in the first framer of all things To say that God cannot Rule the world is in effect to say there is no God that made the world for the admission of the one naturally infers the possibility of the other 'T is much easier to suppose Gods Dominion over it now then his Creation of it at first and he that denyes a possibility of the former can upon no good ground suppose the latter Secondly to say that God will not that is though he could Rule and order the world yet out of choise he refuseth do it and hath designedly withdrawn him self from all the concerns of it is an affirmation highly unreasonable and that upon many accounts First This is plainly to suppose if we admit Creation that God made the world to no purpose at all beyond its bare existence and without any designed end to himself by it future to its simple Being for Providence is nothing but the preserving and guiding of all things existing to a common end 'T is to suppose a world capable of many noble and excellent ends when made without proposing any end at all to himself by it The meanest Composers in the smallest matters are never guilty of such an absurdity 'T were strange to Imagine the highest Wisdom and the perfection of it should in that act of making the World fall beneath the exercise of every common discretion No man attempts any thing without a prospect of some end If God have layed by all thoughts of the world and concerns himself no more about it then as if no such thing as the World were at all in being which by the Epicurean Doctrine he does What end can we conceive God to have in the first making of it Nay 't is not only unreasonable to suppose that God infinitely wise should make the World without proposing any end but without proposing the highest and utmost end to himself the World is
Political is derived from him as the Head of it and He himself is the Supreme Magistrate over the whole and can no otherwise stand related to the World We can no other way rightly conceive of Gods Power and Authority but as Magistratical nor look upon him in any other notion then as our chief and supreme Ruler and so are to take no measure of His proceedings from the actings of private persons but are to suppose God so to deal with the World as the supreme dispenser of Justice and placed in the highest Seat of Magistratical Authority And if this be true as most demonstrably 't is so how contrary is Epicurus his Doctrine to a right apprehension of God! and how inconsistent with it How inseperably is providence annexed to all true Conceptions of him And what a poor account does Epicurus give us of God without it What a Magistrate does he render the most supreme Magistrate One that neither relieves the oppressed punishes the guilty rewards the well-doer nor indeed takes any notice of what his Subjects either do or say 'T is in short impossible to separate supreme Magistracy from God His being supposeth it 't is evidently proved virtually and essentially to belong to him from an induction of all particulars relative to it And if so 't is extreamly unreasonable not to suppose from his hand the most compleat and perfect exercise of all Magistratical Authority that we are any way able to conceive of Fourthly To suppose that God declines the exercise of all Empire and Rule over the world is to suppose him to decline the most essential property of his own being and the noblest exercise of any being First the most essential property of his own being 'T is as essential to God to Rule as to Be. Gods existence we say is a necessary existence He cannot but be which implies a necessary superiority That which cannot but be cannot but be above all For whatever has a power superior to it has a possibility not to be And that which cannot but be above all cannot but Rule over all Because the very being of superiority lies in the exercise of Dominion and cannot be upheld without it To fancy the existence of infinite Power without exercise is to frame an Idol in in our own imaginations and to fancy what is in it self impossible to be Infinite Power to Rule implies infinite Actual Rule We can never separate between infinite Power and infinite Dominion The being of the one necessarily implies the other Whatever is in God is actually in him God has not only virtually an infinite power but an infinite power in Act. Infinite power must needs be in continual Act and cannot be otherwise because Infinite And therefore all things must needs be in subjection to it VVe are so to conceive of all Gods Attributes as things not only in Potentia but in Facto esse Gods infinite VVisdom is not onely an ability to be wise but an infinite Act and Exertion of wisdome So his infinite knowledg is not only an infinite capacity of knowing and ability to know but an infinite actual knowledge of all things excluding an ignorance of anything 'T were to annex imperfection to Gods Attributes to say they are not in exercise Power in its exercise implies Dominion 'T is from defect where 't is not so exerted And therefore from infinite Power in which there can be no defect must needs arise infinite Dominion 'T was a childish conceit of Epicurus to think that infinite Power could be set by and not be in continual operation or that any thing could move act or exist without a necessary subjection to infinite Power Should the world rule it self and be under no subjection Gods Power would cease to be what it can never but be which is infinite in its Supremacy Should any one thing be done in the VVorld and not come under the exercise of Gods supreme and Sovereign Rule his Power would cease to be Infinite because not actually above all VVhich it can never be unless it actually Rule over all Besides Were it a supposition capable of admission or such a thing as could pretend to a possibility that infinite power could be set by and exist without exercise who could embrace so gross an absurdity as to believe that God should thus determine with himself that the best use that could be made of infinite Power were to make no use at all of it And so having at first made the World by his wisdome and Power should leave it perfectly to its own Chanceable revolutions without any farther effect or communication of either Secondly We suppose God in declining the Rule of the World to decline the noblest exercise of any being VVe can think of nothing more excellent then Rule and Dominion to imploy the largest mind and dispense the compleatest virtues And is it reasonable to divest the highest Power of it To have Power and to use it for the good of others is that we most applaud amongst men Those best faculties we have by which we can only conceive of Gods excellent nature their Perfection lies in Communication He that Rules well does the best thing we can frame an idaea of And therefore the Rule of the VVorld is the most excellent thing we can ascribe to God Cicero in his 2 Book De Nat. Deor. speaks fully to this Nihil est says he praeclarius mundi administratione Deorum Igitur Consilio administratur mundus Nihil est praestantius Deo Ab eo igitur necesse est mundum regi Those of the best endowments we think the fittest for Empire And the more excellent any soul is the more inlarged and vigorous in action it is And shall we suppose God not to Rule in Heaven Shall we think him very vain that should tell us VVe then make the best Vse of all humane abilities when we least imploy them Because the great and natural end of all ability for action is action And yet shall we suppose that God layes by the exercise of all his Infinite attributes and wholly retires himself in Heaven Who is able without assaulting his own Reason to admit such conception of that excellent being we ascribe to God and father that upon him which would make up the Character of a very ill man But to render the absurdity of this Doctrine more evident to every impartial man let me ask the Epicureans this question If God doth not rule the World and that darling Axiome of Epicurus be true that Quod eternum beatumque sit nec habere ipsum negotii quidquam nec exhibere alteri How comes God to give Laws to the World to admit the one and still to affirm the other were ridiculous for they are inseperable Relatives All Laws necessarily relate to Rule and Dominion on the one hand and obedience and subjection on the other hand That God has planted a natural Law in every mans Being relating to his own Superiority and mans
are the reasonable bounds of all such future debates as are bottom'd upon them but ought not to be imposed when the principles themselves are in question nor upon such who make it their business to oppose them as erroneous and mistaken When two Mabumetans are in dispute the authority of the Alchoran is to them a proper Umpirage because a principle granted by both But when a Mahumetan disputes with a Christian the proof of the Alchoran it self must precede any proof he can make of Religion from thence because whatever is it self under question and doubt can never be a Rule to determine other controversies by Nor ought this the fact whereof is so verified to us to seem strange that men should often mistake and generally differ and divide upon all such acquired principles as they do that 't is hard if not impossible to find an instance wherein the whole World have been able universally to take one step together beyond those first and irrisistible institutes of Knowledge and those primary Elements of a rational Being 'T is no way strange to see what is laid as a foundation by one should seem an absolute nullity in the mind of another What one man resigns up himself to as his guide another should reject with contempt If we consider first the difficulty wherewith all acquired knowledg is attained and the various paths men tread towards it How hard it is to reduce things to a Harmony with the rational Nature With what labour and sweat of the mind we come to measure out things by the line of our Reason and to find out those proper Mediums of demonstration that lie in a direct line to the truth of any proposition And how natural is it to doubt and object to the utmost in all rational progression Secondly with what various abilities the World is capacitated for all intellectual attainments and how differently men do improve their knowing faculty First principles arise from the Truth of our Reason in its naked existence but all second Principles from the exercise and improvement of it How few be there that travel so far as their own Reason would guide them or suffer that noble faculty to do what it would do What unequal concerns have Mankind about Truth 'T is the Jewel and delight of some 'T is an absolute Drug to others Some men make the Talent of their Reason ten Talents oothers fold up their knowing faculty in the slumber of a drowzie sensuality The greatest part of the World sit down satisfied with what they do know not what they might know And choose a lazy enjoyment of ignorance and errour rather then an inquisitive possession of Truth Men are not only born of several Statures in the knowing part but they continually render themselves so by the various and different improvement of those abilities they possess Thirdly the faculty of our Reason it self renders all things capable of dispute and debate that are not bounded with visible contradiction to its own Being and are beyond the limits of those primary Laws it necessarily gives to it self and makes various determinations about all such disputable matters and very often where we may well suppose an equal ability on both sides men differ about the same thing The cause whereof must not be imputed to any innate defect in the rational Nature as if God had made us with a lame faculty for whoever denies the truth of that must needs retort the lie to himself because he has no other faculty to judge by but the true Reason of it lies collaterally either first From the difficulty relative to our Reason in the Objects 't is conversant about from whence may well be supposed to arise various and different Sentiments for all things are not in their own Nature capable of positive determinations we meet with few things without some difficulty but with very many things that greatly pose us with some things so much out of our reach that they exceed all bounds of comprehension are beyond the Verge of Problems and serve only to shew us the limits of a finite understanding Or Secondly from the want of such perfect information as is requisite to ground a compleat and perfect Judgment upon There being not a little share of uncertain guess and conjecture mingled with most of our Knowledge of things which nothing but experience can deliver us from Or Thirdly which is most general and an undeniable evidence of Mans fall From the Byass of some Interest or Concern whereby Men are engaged or some natural propensity and inclination they are born with that opposeth and undiscernedly prevails over the true and genuine issues of Reason inslaves them to appetite and sways the Judgment another way 'T was therefore a prudent observation that one made heretofore upon those various Sects that arose amongst the Philosophers in Graece that Qui fuerunt ingenio severo rigido moroso querulo aroganti ij Stoicismum suns amplecti qui vero fuerunt ingenio molli stadiosi tranquillitatis atij ij fuerunt Epicurei qui denique fuerunt ingenio civili modestoque liberali ij Peripateticorum Doctrinam sunt secuti And Aristotle in his Discourse of the Summum Bonum sayes Vnumquemque prout animo affectus est ita de Summâ— Rono judicare atque inde oriri quod alij Summum Bonum collecant in Divitiis alij in Honoribus alij in Voluptate 'T is from hence and from those many other circumstantial impediments we are liable to in all our rational determinations and not from the faculty of our Reason in it self considered that hath been derived that great variety of Judgment and Opinion whereby the World in all the Ages of it hath been divided Of this second sort of acquired and accidental Principles is Mens assent to and belief of the Scriptures as a Book penned by Divine Inspiration and being of extraordinary Mission from God 'T is not of those first born Principles of Reason from which we cannot dissent without an apparent absurdity and therefore is not within the compass of those first praerequisites to all debate and discourse and the standing boundaries of all Ratiocination but is of such a Nature as admits mens doubts quaeries and debates about it And the absolute positive belief of it is not to be imposed upon any man but all men reasoned and discoursed into an assent to it upon such grounds as are most suitable to such a subject and mens satisfaction about it Natural Religion is born with men and is connate with their Beings and must be supposed But all supernatural Religion is discoursed into men and makes its entrance that way Though it be true that in all Sciences there must be some Principles granted yet they ought to be no other nor need to be then such as are general and common to all Mankind and such as lie adequate to every mans Reason And not such as are only the property of one party and are peculiar
can now be urged in proof of the Bible that will come under any sensible demonstration The proposal of this Book to the World to be received as a Law Divine is not so made as by Mathematical Evidence or gross visible absurdities in its denial to introduce it self irresistably at the first sight But this book is so proposed to our belief as that all men by a serious and impartial consideration of the matter of it and a due enquity into all the Circumstances attending it may have ground sufficient to acquiesce in it as Divine and judge it to be such as it self claims to be And that the Bible should be upon such terms and no other proposed to the belief of the World seems highly reasonable when we consider that God intends this book as the great SHIBBOLETH by which he will try the World that from the believing or not believing of it shall arise the great discrimination between Virtuous and Good Men and such who free from the prevailing influence of corrupt and sensual Interests pursue the Genuine dictates of right Reason and improve those notions of Divinity they are born with and others who either choose to be Sottishly Ignorant or else wilfully to oppose what God had made in it self most suitable and corresponding to the Reason and Conscience of every unprejudiced Man The truth is our Assent or not to the Bible is made a matter of Reward and Punishment And therefore 't is so proposed to our belief that there may be a sufficient ground for both The way to this Discourse in hand being thus far cleared I shall now prosecute the design of it in this method First I will indeavour to render it a thing reasonable to be believed that there should be some supernatural Law revealed from God and given to mankind in order to their present and future happiness as the great Guide and Rule of all their actions towards God and towards each other And that 't is not a reasonable supposal that the world in the posture we find it should be left singly to the conduct of Nature Secondly That 't is most rationally credible upon all such grounds by which a judgment in this case ought to be established That this Book we call the Bible is this Revealed Law superadded to our natural Light and contains in it self that compleat Systeme of Divine Truth by which God will Informe Rule and Judge the World And this I shall endeavour a proof of from the matter of this Book it self and from such external concomitants of it as highly concur to create a belief of its Divine Authority And lastly propose all such considerable Doubts Queries and Difficulties as the minds of men are usually busied withall about this Matter And attempt their Satisfaction therein To make the first thing proposed evident that 't is Reasonable to believe in the general that God should give us some further direction then what our Natural Light will afford us That he should promulge some Supernatural Law to the world Let these several things following be duely considered First What wretched and dismal Ignorance has the world been in yea the wisest and best parts of it and in what disagreement with it self about all parts of Religion where this supernatural Law hath been either not known or not received How sadly hath that inbred principle of Religion wherewith all men are born been seduced and mislead where there has been nothing supernatural to guide and direct it The natural notion of a Deity has corrupted into all folly and vanity and men have formed Religions not only hateful to God but at last nauseous to themselves Devotion men still had to somewhat above them but they knew not well how to express it The Wisest saw reason enough to scorn their own Religion but knew not how to compose a better Some went farr in the Negative in saying what ought not to be that then was amongst themselves but none ever attained to a certain directory of what should be When we view over the utmost products of all humane abilities and the greatest discoveries at any time made by natural light we shall find the world without Revelation to have been greatly defective in these three things First in their Divinity in their conceptions of the Deity and their Worship of him Secondly In the account they gave to themselves of the worlds first Production and of the Origine of things Thirdly In their Morality and in their Ethical Institutes of humane life and the converse of mankind together First In their Divinity Varro ranks all the Heathen Theology under three heads Their Fabulous and Historical Theologie Their Natural and Mystical Theology Their Civil and Political Theology which he also calls Mythical Physical and Civil The first came from their Poets and contains such a Rapsody of Nonsense and Folly as the like to it hath not upon any occasion nor upon any subject been collected since the world began That one God was born from a Mans Head another from a Mans Thigh a third from some drops of Blood That some Gods were Thieves others Adulterers others Servants to Men with multitudes of such absurd and ridiculous fictions The Second sort came from their Wise men and from their Philosophers They dispute what the Gods are Where they are And whence they are And amongst them we find an endless diversity and most stupendious folly some making the gods to consist of Fire some of Numbers others of Atoms and by their Mystical Divinity interpreting Jupiter to Fire Juno to Earth Pluto to Air Nestis to Water and others of their Gods to the several parts of the World with many other so gross and notorious absurdities that Justin Martyr tells the Graecians that the Divinity of their Philosophers Multo sit quam Poctarum Theologia atque de Diis doctrina ridiculosior is much more absurd then that of their Poet. The third sort relates it self to the Laws and Customes of particular Cities and Countreys by which they ordered their Priests what Gods they should worship at what Times and Seasons and upon what occasions what Sacrifices and Services and all things relating to the exercise of their Religion both upon the Stages in their Theatres and also in their Temples For in the one they represented their Gods and had Plaies acted in honour to them as a part of Religion and in the other they Worshipped them In all which we find them shedding the blood one of another and offering most inhumane sacrifices and a numberless multitude not only of childish and foolish but profane and impious obscene and lascivious rites and ceremonies If we look back as farr as any Heathen Records will carry us and view over the Barbarous Nations of the world for so the Graecians were pleased to call all but themselves according to that of Varro Barbarae sunt omnes nationes praeter Graecos the Phaenicians the Caldaeans the Egyptians and such others as we have
his summa Philosophorum dissentione certatur And those says he that do acknowledge the Being of the Gods have such various and different Opinions about them that 't were an extreme trouble to reckon them up For about the shape of the Gods their imployments and what they do and the places where they are there are endless dissentions amongst the Philosophers Now why did not he out of all the several Sentiments of the Philosophers Compose a true notion of his own unite their differences and rectifie their mistakes by one common Truth instead whereof we find him doing little else but repeating their various opinions which amount to no less in number then four or five and twenty and in Diogenes Laertius there is good store more and generally condemning them all as false and extravagant unworthy the names of their Authors otherwise famous and learned men and at last sits down finding his own inability for so impracticable a task and has left the World not much more informed then they were before in that point The Sum of his three Books of the Nature of the Gods is indeed a perfect Condemnation of the whole Pagan Religion for he sayes directly All their Gods were but Men and reckons up their Ages their Garments their Children their Ancestors their Alliances and plainly confesseth their Temples were their Tombs and their Sacrifices and Ceremonies representations of their Lives and the whole of their Religions Superstition and Vanity But when he came to speak of the Supreme Deity that made all things yea the Heathen gods themselves he openly declares his own Ignorance and says he can sooner admire then utter any thing and better declare what the Deity is not then what it is And concludes upon the whole Vtinam tam facile veram Religionem invenire possim quam falsam convincere I would I could as easily find out true religion as discover that which is false Himself Socrates and some others of the wisest of them saw far into the Impotency of their own Religion but I could never yet find that any of them arrived at any ability to compose a better Nor can any man in any Age be produced that without Revelation has been able to give the world aright or satisfying information about the Being of God and the Truth of Divine things It having been in fact according to what is observed by the most excellent Mornay in his discourse De veritate Relig. Christ Denique evolve quaecunque a Priscis mundi sapientibus To be short says he Amongst all the things which the Wise men of the World have written here and there of the Service of God ye may hap to find some one good saying in a hundred years and some one other in another hundred But when ye have gathered them all together as diligently as you can yet shall ye be able to make of them neither Rules nor Grounds nor scarcely good Problems So greatly is man by his corruption both blinded in things concerning God and helpless in things that concern his own welfare T is true that many points of the Christian Religion especially the three Grand Fundamentals of it The Being of God his Providence and Rule over the World and the Immortality of the Soules of men have been even through these Heathen Ages two ways acknowledged and justified First Implicitely and more Remotely by the general and most corrupt practice of the Ethnick-Religion What greater proof can there be of a God and that the World still thought there was something above them then their grossest Idolatry All Idolatry apparently taking its rise from the corruption of mens natural notion of the True God What meant their Imaginary Deities for every business and for every part of the World and their applications to them upon all occasions to seek their favour and appease their anger but that they supposed a Supreme Disposal of things and that the World was Ruled by a Divine Providence And what signified all their fictions about Heaven and Hell and their adoration of Daemons and the worship of dead mens Souls which they made to be Mediators to the Gods and variously called them Lemures Lares Manes Larvae some of which if they were the Souls of their friends they fancied stayed about their Houses and Dwellings for their protection others were more at Large some were good Daemons and above Others Infernal and Below as appears by that of the Poet. Vos O mihi Manes Este Boni quoniam superis Aversa voluntas Whence came all this but from an obscure confused notion of mens existence after this Life and a belief of the Souls Immortality In the second place more expressly and explicitly from the Judgment of some particular persons amongst them who have uttered here and there some fragments of Truth and have sometimes spoken in justification of these Main Points So Plato and others have spoken somewhat of One God Though it ought to be noted that the Being of One God was never generally and distinctly acknowledged in any Heathen Country nor was there ever a Law made in any Heathen State to establish the Being and Worship of one God Nay some have supposed that no particular Person did ever purely by Natural Light determine that there was but one God But that such who have spoken of it had it from a Tradition originated in Revelation So says a Learned Author in reproch of the Grecian and Romane Learning That setting aside what they learnt out of Egypt they could never by themselves determine whether there were many Gods or but One Cicero Plutarch and others have spoken fully about Providence and others of them have said much to justifie the souls Immortality so much has been acknowledged in the Heathen World that the sparks of Divine Truth though under much Rubbish have been there secretly kept alive and so much as does sufficiently assure us that the great Fundamentals of the Christian Profession are most Suitable to the Rational Nature do only Rectify its Depravations and have been some way witnessed unto in the darkest times And to that end we often make use of their Testimony But 't is not imaginable that God should leave the world without any further discovery of himself their chiefest good or any further direction toward an eternal happiness which is mans chiefest end then what we find the world without Revelation has attained to Nor can there be a stronger evidence of the necessity of some Revelation then the condition the world has been in without it The whole of the Heathen Divinity having been some way or other tainted and is reducible to one of these three heads either erroneous uncertain or imperfect Most of it erroneous much of it uncertain but all of it imperfect If we enquire how mankind came to be benighted as they have been in these things of greatest concernment How such a flood of Idolatry and Superstition came to overslow the Gentile-world Two things ought to be
of the Stoicks thought should be burnt to Ashes and then would follow an immediate restoration of all things But these were but wild and â—oveing Guesses in general no certain determination was Mankind able to make about this matter in particular And yet of how great use is the assurance of it to all the ends of Virtue and Religion and how Sovereign a remedy is it against the terror of Death which Aristotle calls the terriblest of all Terrors to be assured upon safe grounds our Bodies shall be raised again and all the Friends we part with here shall in their Souls and Bodies Re-united Exist for ever But waveing the prosecution of these there be two things in themselves of absolute necessity to the being of all Religion and beyond all possibility of a Natural discovery from whence I shall endeavour to demonstrate the necessity of a Revelation in order to the present and future happiness of Mankind First a certain distinct Knowledge how that Evil we find in Mankind came first to Exist whence the Corruption of Humane Nature came In short how there came to be such a thing as Evil and Sin in the World Secondly how Sin and Guilt arising from the Conscience of it may be removed and Men brought to a Reconciliation with God! and an inward Acquescency about it For the first That there is such a thing as Evil and Sin in Men and Guilt resulting from it needs no proof every mans own Reason determines the Case and the whole transaction of the World is too sad an Evidence of We find in the Prayers of all Nations a Confession of Sin And no worship but some way or other tending to the removal of it which is a publick protest in the Case entered by the whole World against themselves 'T is visible our Inferiour faculties do combate our Superiour and our Wills over Rule us to that which our own Reasons determine against Aristotle in the end of the last Chapter of his first Book of Ethicks confesseth There is somewhat in our Nature that opposeth right Reason Whatever directions the Philesophers and Moralists gave to Conquer our Passions and subdue our Sensual Appetites and to conduct us to Virtue they are all grounded upon this supposal Hierocles a Stoical Philosopher in his Discourse upon the Golden sayings of Pythagoras speaks fully and excellently to this point His words are these Man sayes he is of his own motion inclined to follow the Evil and leave the Good There is a certain strife bred in his affections He hath a free Will which he abuseth bindang himself wholly to encounter the Laws of God And this Freedom it self is nothing else but a Willingness to admit that which is not good rather then otherwise That a certain Knowledge of the Origine of this we call Evil and a clear discovery of the first rise and Cause of it is of absolute necessity to the Being of all Religion and that a Man cannot be Religious as he ought without it is easily proved and will be sufficiently so by a due consideration of these four things First how can we acknowledge Gods Justice in Punishing Mankind and without repining submit to it as we ought unless we know whence this Evil first came what Author it had and how and upon what terms man comes to be guilty of that for which he is punished Secondly how can we be as we ought to be sensible of Gods general or particular favours and adore his goodness in preserving us and providing for us unless we be rightly informed of our own demerits and rebellion again him and that Mankind have deserved a total ruine and subversion which we can never be unless we know the first entrance of evil and the original Cause of it Thirdly how can we properly address our selves to God to repair our ruines unless we perfectly know how the first breach came to be made Lastly how is it possible upon reasonable Grounds to restrain Mankind from Impeaching the Wisdom Power and Goodness of God in making and Governing the world unless we know the first rise and primary Cause of all the disorder we see which is not to be known till we come to the Spring-head of evil and sin With what Impatience did Men use to reproch God and Nature about it as if there were a kind of Malevolens and ill will in the Deity to the happiness of Men One sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And a third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor indeed can we well blame the disorder of mens minds that contemplate the present posture of the World and are able to give no satisfying account to themselves how things came at first so to be And that a certain account of evil in its original is impossible to be had without revelation will appear very evident How should any man ever come to discover whence that internal conflict first arose between the Will and the Judgment How a man came to be first so divided against himself one condemning the other No man naturally knows any thing of its Causality nor more of it then that it is so How should any man ever find out from whence or by what means those unrnly lusts and passions those evil and crooked inclinations that naturally infest the minds of men and are a part of themselves that create a guilt in mens own Breasts and prove so ruinous to others came first to exist What footsteps are there in Nature to conduct us to the first cause of these things and the miseries that attend them something indeed we may say Negatively of the Origine of evil but we cannot affirm possitively the least thing about it VVe can much less tell how Mankind came to be wicked then we can tell how they came first to be and yet 't is impossible to know that but by revelation 'T is easie to derive the beings of men in general from some Supreme maker though we can never find out the time when nor the manner how they came first to be made but we can no way at all imagine from whence to derive the evil of their beings or upon what to father the Corruption of humane Nature nor what Date to give it From a Being infinitely perfect and good evil it self could not originally come that is Men could not at the first be made so That we may safely say in the Negative to assert mans Apostacy however any part of the world may dream otherwise 't is demonstrable that man is some way or other degenerated from his Primitive state from the clear evidence of which if we duly consider it results the absolute necessity of a revelation 'T is impossible evil it self should be Con-created with him and be originally appurtenant to him as part of him And 't is thus demonstrable if man had been at the first made as now he is naturally inclined to evil and
perfect Attributes the terms of our pardon must come from God 'T is not in man to find out how God shall forgive him or to to Chalk out the Tracks of Divine Justice and Mercy toward himself nor will his guilt be removed nor his thoughts be at rest till he know Gods mind about it Nothing can assure us of Reconciliation with God but what is from Heaven appointed as the means of it No natural knowledg can give us any certain direction about it nor is it reasonable to believe it should If Humane Nature had no absolute security in it self of its first state how can we expect it should restore it self when once degenerated What did not remain perfect when it was so is much more unlikely to recover again out of Imperfection to be so Every man may know he is degenerated from what he ought to be and so may reasonably collect from what he once was but no man can reason himself into a ceâ—taâ—n way of Recovery The whole world have subscribed to their own Apostacy but could never agree upon any certain remedy How miserably have Mankind tired themselves and to how little purpose in finding out what would appease Divine Anger and compensate for their disobedience No man ever yet worsâ— ipped any God but he made some Offering to him in hopes that might indemnisie him and be taken in Lieu of his own punishment Men have at a Venture offered up all parts of the world in Sacrifice have tried all experiments victimis lavacris and by all other means their best guesses could suggest to them to obliterate their own Guilt and to procure D vâ—â—e favour but never were upon any suâ—er gâ—ound then their own vain fancies for acceptance Agaâ—hias tells us in his second Book of the Peâ—sian war that the Persians were wont to solemnize a great Holy-day once a year which they called The death of Vices in which as an eminent piece of Devotion they slew multitudes of Serpents all other sorts of wild Beasts and thereby thought they should Execute all their Corruptions safely bury their sins The Philosophers abounded with remedies foâ— this Epidemical Disease Some thought to cure the evil of the world in a Moral way some in a way Mathematical and some by Religious Ceremonies But alas The right way of doing it has lain hid from Ages and Generations till God himself made it known and revealed it from Heaven VVhat a trifle is the Blood of a Sheep or an Oxe to satisfie for an Offence against an Infinite Justice At how easie and cheap a rate might men Sin and God be satisfied And what a publick tolleration of evil were it if the Blood of Bulls and Goats might take away sin and the lives of unreasonable Creatures Commute for the sins of Men The consideration of all these things does directly Steer us upward and point us to a dependance upon Revelation to give us a clear distinct and satisfying Knowledge of God of our selves and of this whole World How man came to Rebel and Sin first to enter By what ways and means Indemnity may be obtained And upon what terms we may be again reconciled to God and accepted This precious discourse the design of which is to render it a reasonable supposal that there should be in the general some Divine Revelation some Laws Supernatural promulged to the world and that Mankind should not be wholly left to the conduct of Nature can be no way ungrateful to those who are already possessed with a due esteem of the Scriptures and do assent to their verity because 't is to re-inforce one of the greatâ—st supports to all Scripture-belief Nor will it seem impertinent to those who are any way ingenious in their doubts and enquiries about this matter because 't is naturally necessarily the first step that is to be taken in order to their satisfaction But may be very well offensive to such who shall design to themselves a disbelief of the Scriptures and make it their Province to weaken their Authority and render all proofs brought for them insufficient because it goes far towards an evident and apparent determination of the whole cause against them Does indeed petere jugulum of their chiefest pretences and virtuâ—lly breaks the very Back-bone of all Antiscriptural opposition for if there be such a thing as a Revelation mâ—de to the World as that which the goodness of God and the wants of men seem necessarily to call for If God have given to Mankind a Law supernatural Where is this Divine Law to be found 'T is but reasonable to suppose it somewhere or other upon Record This Book we call the Bible must needs be it and will certainly carry it against all Pretenders the natural dictates o right Reason being Judge What Book or Writing is there extant under Heaven that can with any tollerable colour counter plead the Bible upon this account A man must be horribly Hood-winkt in his inteâ—lectuals that does not evidently see 't is impar coâ—gressus between the Bible and all other Pretenders From what paâ—ts of the world will you fetch such a Supernatural Lâ—w by which we may suppose God to Govern Mankind one either fit for him to Give or for us to Receive according to that Natural Knowledge we have of him and of our selves and that Rational Judgment to which all Supernatural pretences ought to be subjected Where wâ—ll you find a Systeme of Divinity that makes known to us in a way suitable to our natural conceptions of him the most of God and of his Nature we are able to comprehend delivers us from all the intanglements of Humane Nature by ways and Methods so pâ—opoâ—tioned thereunto and discoveâ—s to us ceâ—taâ—n tracks to the highest happiness here and hereafter we are capable to enjoy Shall we go to the Laws of Lycurgus and Solon because they pretended to Revelation Can any man be so stupid Those Laws were chiefly Municipal and made no pretence to what we enquire after Shall we imagine the Books of the Sybills because they were thought to be filled with many Divine secrets contained such Revelation The greatest part if not the whole of them is long since perished out of the world which is proof sufficient they were none of those standing Laws by which God designed to Rule and Judge Mankind Some excellent Greek Verses there are indeed extant at this day which go under their Names but they are upon good grounds by the most learned supposed to be none of theirs And iâ— they were the Christian Religion and the Truths contained in the Bible are so clearly described and the Pagan Religion so directly and strongly confuted therein that the Scriptures can scarce have a greater Testimony given to their Divinity Shall we go to the inspired Entâ—usiasticâ—l Poâ—ts for this Revelation What a ridiculous foppery would that seem to one that has once conversed with the Bible And what a wild extravagant Religion should we
erect from the Theology of Hesiod The Hymnes of Orpheus The Poems of Homer The Odes of Pindar Or from Virgil or Ovid Shall we look back to the Heathen Oracles for this Revelation To those of Delphos Dodona Jupiter Hammon and the rest Who can be so marvelously vain Besides the consideration of that general uncertainty and sometimes falshood that visibly attended their responses the Records of those Oracles the Books wherein their Responses and Divinations were contained are long since perished and lost Shall we goe as far as Numa Pompilius and his Goddess for the old Roman Theology That s impossible to be retrived The Religion of Numa is long since vanished out of the World and the Books wherein it was contained were openly Burnt And upon this occasion were they burnt long after the death of Numa in the Consulship of Cornelius and Bebius there were found in Rome two Coffins in the one whereof was the Body of Numa and in the other fourteen Books of Numa's seven of them in Latine containing the Laws and Ceremonies of their Religion and the other seven in Greek concerning the Study of Wisdom and in these latter was much contained not only destructive to the Gods and the Religion of other Countreys but also to his own and to the Roman Profession of which the Senate well considerdering resolved it as best that the whole fourteen books should be openly burnt together Which was accordingly done Of which we have an account at large in Valerius Maximus and Varro Or shall we at last come to that Arabian Prophet to Mahomet to set up his Collection of Precepts his Alchoran which he tells you a hundred times over God was the Author of and that all Mankind could not have writ a syllable of it to confront the Bible 'T were to the full as wife a project to light a Rush-candle and resolve to out-face the Sun as to encounter the Bible with such Mean and Ridiculous Stuff What an absurd Foppish Flam is that Alchoran Evidently a Cheat in every Page of it A confused Medley of wicked contemptible trash heaped up together by a Triumvirate of Arrians Jews and Pagans all known Impostors in the Ages wherein they lived and so transferr'd by the History of their own times to all future Generations God has made every Reasonable Mind not some way or other Debauched or Pre-ingaged a Touchstone sufficient to discover such counterfeit Metal Some part of it seems rather like the Ravings of men Distracted then any product of Common Reason It tells us that Men were first created of Shadow That the Earth was made in two dayes and that God fastened it to the Mountains by Anchors and Cables That Mahomet cut the Moon into two pieces and Cemented it close together again with a multitude of Such Raving and Distracted Fantasmes In many things 't is evidently self-contradictious and what is said in one place is directly overthrown in another Mahomet himself sometimes plainly Confessing He knows not whether He or His be in a way of Salvation for which very saying I wonder the people did not stone him The whole of it a Rapsody of most prodigious Absurdities A câ—nlused Inconsistent Composure Principles of Heathenisme Judaisme and Christianity all Generally Corrupted and so wildly patcht up together that Mahomet might very well declare what he did That he thought No body would ever be able to underst and his Law Whatever we sind in it that carries the least Resemblance of Truth is apparently stollen out of the Old and New Testamâ—nt though for the most part visibly Falsified and inverted It tells us that Jesus was sâ—cretly conveyed inâ—o Heaven and that somewhat in his likeness which was not himself was nailed to the Cross That He was not really Crucified but that the Jews were Abused and Deluded It tells us also that in the 14th of St. John's Gospel where mention is made of Sending the Comforter that there was much sard of Mahomet which the Christians have since Razâ—d out Which is to father a ridiculous and impossible falshood upon them for that Gospel was Extant long before Mahomet was born or thought of for he was not born till the year of Christ 571 and published most parts of the world over not onely in the Greek Copies of it but in divers Translations in the Syriacke Arabick Ethiopick and Latin tongues and was far enough from the possibility of any universal Alteration that could be made by the Christians in Mahomets time That which the Alchoran tells us in general of the Bible and the Christian Religion directly overthrows it self and Mahomet thereby has utterly subverted his whole Fabrick For he says that Moses and Christ were both sent from God and that the Old and New Testament are Divine Books that God imparted the Law to Moses the Psalms to David and the Gospel to Christ But pretends that as the Gospel succeeded the Law so the Alchoran does the Gospel Now if the first be true I am sure the latter is false unless God can contradict himself which is impossible For both Moses and Christ have delivered very many Doctrines directly Contrary to His. The Bible and the Alchoran are sufficiently Inconsistent And therefore wherever the Old and New Testament are acknowledged to be Books Divine and from God the Alchoran ought reasonably to be Rejected as a Vile and wicked Delusion If it be asked as usually it is How that Religion came to spread so far and the Disciples thereof to be so Numerous if it be so Vile and also so absurd a Couzenage as indeed it is Such a Question will be easily answered if these Three things be considered First The Mahometan Religion ows its original to the Sword more then to all its pretences besides 'T was Mahomets being a General that made him pass for a Prophet Nor was his Alchoran at first received in any Nation where his Sword did not make way for it 'T is a Religion that was at first Introduced and has been since Propagated and Vpheld purely by Force Not Discoursed into men but Imposed upon them Mahomet himself often declares that God did not send him to convert the World by Miracles but by the Sword and by Instruments of War And indeed There is not a Chapter in his Alchoran where he does not preach Fire and Sword Warrs and Massacres for the advancement of his Law Secondly Where-ever that Religion is introduced all Inquirie into it is absolutely forbid and men are Made without the least Tasting or Chewing to Swallow the whole Body of Mahomets Divinity at Once And by this means Ignorance is grown so natural an Appurtenant to that Religion that wherever 't is setled it does not only silence all Discourse of Divinity but totally ruines all Learning and brings men into perfect Enmity with all Liberal Sciences 'T is an easy thing to spread the Basest Metal as well as the purest if we can prevent its Trial. Falshood and Truth are upon Even termes
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
furnish mankind with all those necessary Requisites to their own present and future happiness they stand in need of and which they cannot otherwise obtain Adaquate therefore to our Natural Defects ought our expectancy to be in this matter When a Book proposeth it self to us as a Law Supernatural and containg Gods mind Revealed and make known to the World 't is a most reasonable way of Trial to examine whether This Book contain all those things I may justly expect from such a Revelation and be rationally accommodated to All those wants I expect a Revelation should supply and for which a Revelation from God my own Reason tells me must needs be Designed Now the Bible stands Single in this respect likewise No one Book nor all the Books that now do or at any time have pretended to Revelation can answer all the Ends of a Revelation besides it self or endure such a rational Test but are visibly Defective and Insufficient for those ends they must needs pretend to be Designed What Book besides the Bible ever gave us so full a discovery of God as our own rational Nature looks after tends to and capacitate's us to receive What Book besides This ever gave to mankind a clear and distinct account of the First Existence of things and the Origine of the Vniverse What Book besides This ever gave the least tolerable account of the Origine of Evil the first Rise and Inlet with the after Progress of it the Punishment inflicted for it and the certain Means to Remove and Obliterate it Never any Book so answered that great End of Revelation as to make a full discovery to us of the whole business of mans Apostacy and of his Recovery In short What Book but the Bible gives us an account of Gods proceedings with Men from the first Foundations of the Earth and has plainly and punctually told us what he will do to the end of the world and for ever has to the utmost discovered and supplied all our natural Defects made known to us all that was necessary and fit for us to know pointed us to the furthest bounds of our duty to God and one towards another and revealed to us plain and direct ways and means to attain the highest happiness here and the most excellent Rewards hereafter our Beings are capable of No other Book can so much as make a pretence to it nor with the least colour be produced upon this account in competition with the Bible Did the world afford any Other Book with an equal Pretence that more fully answered all those Ends to which we may rationally expect a Divine Revelation should be Designed I grant we had good Reason to preferr it before the Bible and receive it as such But if This Book alone and no other be found to answer all the Rational ends of a Revelation and to exceed all the Attainments of Mankind both Moral and Divine and whatever has made Pretence to Revelation besides There can be then no Reason at all to doubt but that This Book ought to have the Precedence of all others And really and truly is what it self claims to be Thirdly All Revelation must needs be supposed to be corresponding to and perfective of the true and genuine Issues of our Natural Light There must be nothing in it relating to God to our selves or to any part of the world that any way contradicts the Law Natural For that being the Primary Law God gave to the world and which is originally annexed to our Beings and inseperable from our selves 'T were absurd to conceive and indeed upon many accounts impossible to be that God should ever Repeal either the Whole or any Part of it but still proceed to Rectify and Compleat it and Superstruct all future Revelation upon it Two things upon this account we may reasonably expect from any pretence to Revelation First So farr as it relates simply to things Natural it ought to be justified to us by the dictates of right Reason and to be a Re-inforcement of the Law truly Natural Secondly Whatever it proposeth to our Belief as Supernatural ought to be no way unsuitable to a Rational reception as such For though I may well suppose God to reveale things to me that were Above and Beyond me and which my Reason could not Discover and cannot refuse so to do without a Negative upon the great End of Revelation yet I cannot reasonably suppose him to reveal any thing to me that is in it self directly Contradictory to my Reason to believe when 't is so discovered or uncapable of a rational assent to its verity when in such a way proposed Because the design of all Revelation must needs be in a Reasonable though Supernatural way to Instruct and Inform mankind The Bible upon this account will be found to justify it self against all exception and to prevail against all competition First Not a Syllable in it Destructive to the Rational nature some things indeed above the full reach and comprehension of it but no way Destructive to it And those such and in such a way proposed to our belief as ought to Enhance and no way to Lessen our value and esteem of it Because 't is a thing proper and suitable to the Majesty and Greatness of God and that which we ought to expect from him to bring such things about and to make such Sublime discoveries of himself to us as may provoke us to Reverence and Adore as well as to Believe When God discourseth to us of his own Infinite Being and tells us how the Deity it self does Exist 'T is a most rational thing to suppose from the nature of the Subject he should tell us many things that we cannot now Grasp in our minds nor fully Comprehend Indeed whenever God reveals himself to the world every mans Reason will tell him 't is a thing fit to be That many things should be Received and Believed barely upon the Credit of Gods Authority and justified to us from their Author when they exceed the bounds of our Comprehension What respect and Reverence do we otherwise pay to the Great God more then we should do to the Meanest humane Pretender to whom we cannot deny an Assent to whatever he can Demonstrate either to Sense or to Reason And 't is no way Contradictious to Reason to bell us any thing is that is in it self possible to be and no way Unsuitable to God to bring about when we are told God is the Author of it but highly agreeable to it Things Naturally and Humanely Impossible are as Easy and as Proper for God to do and as fuitable to our Reason to conceive he that first made all things should do as the ordinary actions of men are for them to do Nothing is a Barr to my reasonable Belief about God and his Operations but either what is against that notion I have of his Excellent Nature or what to my reason implies a perfect Contradiction in its Existence
whether the Daemons that first caused them were not Mortal and Perishable Or whether they removed not their Places and changed their abode and many things of that Nature At last concludes with this excellent Philosophy That the true Cause of those Oracles was that the Earth in some places was enduâ—d with certain Prophetick Virtues which came by Exhalations to be mingled with and insinuated into Souls fitted to receive those inspirations and so cause in them Enthusiasms and predictions of future things And at last that Virtue in the Subterranean Caverns is spent and evaporates and so the Oracular Spirit ceaseth What ground had the Heathen for all that Religion they took from their Poets but their own Words that they were Inspired What other Evidence had the Romans at first for their Religion but that Numa Pompilius told them hâ— conversed with a Goddess and received it from Her What have the Turks to this day to assure them that Mahomet was a Prophet 〈◊〉 and conversed with God and the Anâ—◠〈…〉 besides his own bare â—ord He 〈…〉 claimed working of mâ—â—acles anâ— aâ—â—â—â— hâ—mself sent from Heâ—â—â—â— to conveâ—â—◠〈…〉 with his Sword A Reâ—â—â—â—tion from 〈…〉 to be accompanied and â—â—nnot 〈…〉 to be otherwâ—â—eâ— with such plan and 〈◊〉 evidence as is â—â—ed to all reasonable satisfaction though 〈◊〉 pâ—evail nâ—t to a universal câ—â—viction such as will abundantly jusâ—â—fie it 〈◊〉 to the strictest â—crutiny or all wise and good men however it be judged or by perverse and corrupt men The Biâ—le is not only sâ—â—h for the matter out as that we make appeal to the most genuine issues of every â—â—ns Reason whether the Justice Helmess and Gâ—oâ—â—s of God be not very transparent in it but in its gradual Conveyance to the World at â—â—veâ—â—al times and in dâ—stant Ages and places has been visibly accompanied with open and apparent Evidences of Gods Infinite and Almighty power such and in such a manner visible as no one thing in the world besides it self can make a pretence to And such as the fact of them its worst Enemies not a Celsus nor a Julian did ever assume impudence enough to deny And indeed is eminently and singularly justified to us as in particulars shall be shewed hereafter by a concurrence of all those Evidences from whence a rational satisfaction about a Law Supernatural and Divine ought finally to result Fifthly A Revelation from God my Reason will tell me must be without any visible defect 'T is unreasonable to father that upon God which we our selves upon good grounds are able to charge with failing and Imperfection Whatever claims from Him and speaks to us in his Name must have nothing in it unlike him or unworthy of him A pretence to Revelation must be above any just and reasonable Exception or it naturally becomes its own Executioner If in the judgment of right Reâ—son it be found guilty of Corruption in Doctrine or of any falshood in matter of fact t is but equal to reject it as a Spurious and fictitious Delusion And therefore 't was rightly said of St. Austin to St. Jerome Si mendacium aliquod in Scripturis vel levissimum admittatur Scripturâ—â— Authoritatem omnem moâ— labefactari ac convelli If we admit the least falshhod in any part of the Bible we ruine the Authority of the whole All the Counterfeits of Revelation have upon this account visibly betrayed themselves and revealed to us their own original No one but the Bible can the world produce that will not some way or other disclose its own shame and that falls not under some nay many just and reasonable exceptions 'T is this Book alone in which there is not a flaw to be found 'T is only this Divine Law that is Perfect The Bible consists of three parts the Doctrinal the Historical and the Prophetical Let the most accute Anti scripturist living produce any one Doctrine out of the Bible that to the judgment of right Reason seems corrupt and unsound Let him shew any one Prophesie relating to things past not duly fulfilled Let him upon good and sufficient Historical Authority palpably disprove any one matter of fact in the History of the Bible and wee I yield him the cause And if this be not to be done as in fact it never has been and we are well assured never can be If a Book containing so much variety of History far beyond any other Book extant for so many thousands of years It a Book pronouncing with that positive certainty about such a multitude of future events in so many several Ages and relating to so many several persons and places containing in the Doctrinal part of it Directions and Rules for the whoâ—â— business of â—ens Duty â—o God and toward each other Iâ— this Book have not a â—â—â—un to be sound in it If it be proof against all exception If there be nothing but Truth in it in all these respects what more invinâ—â—ble Evidence can there be given to its Divinity Who but God himself could have indited in hâ—a â—ock 〈◊〉 who but a man wilfull and absurd can withstand such a Conviction 'T is the Bâ—â—le and 't is that Book alone upon every Page of which that Image and Superscriptiâ—n of God is engâ—aven Truâ— it self 'T is a â—oâ—◠〈◊〉 in its â—niverâ—â—â— Triumph over all 〈◊〉 Where is 〈◊〉 a Book to be â—ound 〈◊〉 of any considerable subject much 〈…〉 a â—auâ—â—â—â— this â—â—â—t câ—â—â—â—◠〈…〉 â—â—â—â—tonâ—â— Judgment of Mankind 〈…〉 worst enemy to find 〈…〉 pâ—oâ—ucts are brought forth in 〈…〉 failing and Impeâ—â—ect Nâ—â—â—â—â—◠〈…〉 the wisest or mâ—n 〈…〉 bound Of this we are experimeâ—â—â—â—ly â—â—â—â—ed by all History Philosophy and all 〈…〉 This Holy 〈…〉 legitimate Off spring of God and thâ—t which only contains his mind Authoritaâ—â—vely revealed and made known to the world so it has singly appurtenant to it all those requisites necessary to a Divine Revelation And without which no such thing can rationally be supposed These things being so He that rejects the Bible will find he is unâ—voidably obâ—â—â—ed either to deny that there is any Revelation aâ— all and consequently to give some good answer to what has been urged for the reasonable supposal of it and some tolleâ—â—â—â—â— account hâ—w Mankind when we consider Gods goodness and our own necessities can be suppoâ—â—d to be left without it or else to proâ—â—â—ce somewhat that with more Justâ—â—â— and better Evidence can put in a claim to it is Mâ—â—â—l more becoming the greatness and goâ—dness of God and more suitable and use â—l to men The first I dare say will be found a task utterly impracticable if unprejudiced reason may be Judg and with what success the latter iâ— like 〈◊〉 pâ—â—ceed and how visibly absurd 't will renâ—eâ— its undertaker will soon be determined by every sober mind when it plaâ—nly appâ—â—â—s by what has been said that so many things which my Reason tells me must all necessarily accompany a Divine Revelation and without which it
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
Apostles were men Illiterate and of Parts and Education so mean that they seem no way capable to write so profoundly to lay so deep a Contrivement of mischief or by the single strength of their own abilities to bid so fair to delude the World 'T were strange to Imagine men of such distant qualities and different abilities should all agree in the same Imposture and so Harmonize as we find they do in the promotion of it Thirdly If we consider the Interest of these Writers as they were Reasonable Men for so we must needs suppose them and to act upon the same inducements that Mankind do in all other things No man could reap any advantage by counterfeiting this Book nor could the Composers thereof design any Earthly or Heavenly Good to themselves as a Recompence for such an undertaking not Heavenly for 't were the highest Offence against God and meriting the highest Punishment Nor Earthly and that upon these two Grounds First because the tendency of the Book throughout is to mortifie mens Earthly ambitions and appetites and to propose a happiness of another Nature as mens great Interest and relating to another World and no man of common discretion that designed to greaten himself here would choose to become the Author of such a Doctrine in order to it because every step he advanced that way would visibly betray an Apostacy from his own Principles and render him an open Impostor meriting the scorn and contempt of all Mankind Secondly The most of those that God imploied in that work actually exposed themselves by the doing of it to all the Persecutions Hazards and Contempts imaginable And some of them as amongst the Prophets Isaiah Jeremiah Amos and Ezekiel and all the Apostles according to what our Saviour foretold them as History assures us save only the Apostle John with the loss of their own Lives published their Doctrine 'T is a thing greatly ridiculous to imagine so many men in so many Ages should agree to cheat the World to no other end but their own certain ruine both in this world and the next What end could many of the Prophets have in those unwelcome Messages they brought to those Ages wherein they lived and for which they knew beforehand they should meet with so much ill usage No man can be so sottish to think Jeremiah designed to himself any Interest in this world when he prophecied himself into the Dungeon and at last into his Grave Or that the Apostles designed greatness or happiness here when they knowingly exposed themselves to all the rage that was then upon Earth and endured the shock of all that fury which either Jews or Gentiles or the whole World together could execute upon them He that reads the Story of St. Paul must needs suppose him to act beyond the bounds of all folly and madness and not like a man either capable of instructing or abusing Mankind if he intended any thing in this world as his End The Motives of those Holy Writers in what they did cannot with any Colour of Reason be judged to be other then pure obedience to God love to truth and preferring a Reward hereafter above their own lives and all enjoyments here How highly did they preach up obedience and submission to Magistrates when all the Rulers upon Earth were their most bitter Enemies And that Doctrine could have no other effect but to bring their own Heads to the Block The Authors of the Heathen superstitions were of a very different Genius And as one sayes well of them Cute Authores superstitionis inter Gentes omnes sibi suis semper conciliarunt Dignitatem Nor is there any part of the Bible written by any of them with any the least shew of intention to greaten or advance themselves thereby But on the contrary many of the most eminent of them have themselves Recorded their own great fatlings and imperfections as well secret as open They all appear to be themselves under a subjection to the Doctrine they taught which plainly declares they were inspired from above and no way Masters of it as a Creature of their own Throughout the whole Book there is a visible Antipathy to all self-seeking flattery or compliance God alone is exalted and all mens persons Actions and reputations are openly Postponed to his honour and put in subjection to those Holy and excellent truths there delivered Moses of all the rest seems the gâ—etâ—st gainer in this world because 't was necessary at that time God should raise up a leader to his people yet 't is plain he had no design for himself for he pronounceth a grievous curse and a sore Judgment upon his own Tribe the Tribe of Levi rejects his own posterity leaves them to the condition of common Levites sets up Joshuah to succeed him and places the Kingly superiority over that people in another Tribe from his own the Tribe of Judah and himself while he lived attained to no more but to spend his days with great trouble amongst a murmuring mutinous people in a wearisome Wilderness Fouruthly The Number of those Writers and the great distances of Time may of them lived in from the other does as probably secure us against any Humane contrivement in the composure of this Book as we can reasonably expect The world affords not an instance that ever so many Men that lived in so many several and distinct Ages so exactly agreed about any one thing much less to cheat and abuse the World and carry it on in such a continued written way Never any such thing was done in any kind nor is it supposable upon the grounds of common Reason that ever any such thing should be 'T were strange it should be done in a matter of highest concernment wherein Gods Honour mans welfare are to the utmost engaged that such a number of Impostors should be at several distant times for fifteen or sixteen hundred years together in contriving and composing such a Book as the Bible is to delude and deceive the World and that in all that time there should be no palpable discovery made of them nor they themselves should so trip in the doing it as visibly to shame their own undertaking and betray those corrupt and rotten principles upon which they proceeded As 't is highly improbable that such a number of men living at such distances of time should all agree in the same design and the same way of promoting it and agree they must for 't were absurd to imagine it could happen so to be by chance because most parts of the Bible have been still written with a reference to things future and no man that writ any one part could at that time know that others in future Ages would justifie what he said and take up the design in a right nick of time just where he left it and so still carry it on and yet this must still so come to pass if the Bible were written by any Humane contrivement
of And if so these two things will follow upon it First That he that rejects the Bible obliges himself to believe no other books without apparent disingenuity Secondly He that does credit the Authors of this book with the same credit wherewith he credits other Authors and supposes they were men of common honesty that would not knowingly write an untruth cannot then refuse to receive it as a book Divine and Infallible upon as good termes of credibility as he believes any the best humane Author in its Kind to be True because they themselves tell us that it is so which were it otherwise without most impudent falshood they could not do that God himself inspired them to write it That 't was no product of their own but that every part of it is the genuine Dictate of the Holy Ghost But in the second place in the manner of this books conveyance we shall find a further and more unquestionable ground of satisfaction and a Divine witness given by God himself to the Truth of these Writings to assure us beyond all reasonable doubt they were written by men that did not deceive us but such as were Intrusted by himself for that purpose And that is the miracles that were wrought and which visibly accompanied their first publication In the discoursing of which after a due sort these three things will naturally fall under consideration First the Nature of a Miracle in general what propâ—rly it is Secondly What evidence we have for the Fact of those Miracles we say the Scriptures are justified by Thirdly Whether Miracles simply in themselves are always an unquestionable proof of that Doctrine they are wrought to confirm and an infallible justification of the integrity of the persons that work them The two first are of an eaâ—y dispatch the difficulty rests in the Latter For the first A Miracle is pâ—operly that which can have no second cause for its Author such a thing as no created Power in the judgment of reason can effect Raising men Dead curing â—iseases by speaking a Word being able in a moment to speak all Languages are things that exceed the bounds of all Natural Ability and such things as can be only related to God as effects of his supâ—eme and unlimited Power And suâ—h is a Miracle Secondly For the Fact of those Miracles we claim in defence of the Bible we are much eased of the labour of proof from a General Concession And 't is of great remark That the Warmest Adversaries the Scriptures have met with have never denied the Fact of those Miracles pleaded in their behalf but indeavoured to invalidate their testimony some other way Neither the Miracles of Moses which we find often mentioned in Heathen Story nor of Christ are denied by any in point of Fact but both fathered upon Egyptian Magick Those of Moses by the Heathens heretofore as we find in Pliny and Apuleius Pliny says There is a very great Magick depends upon Moses and the Cabala Though he might have remembred that never any Law so positively forbad Magick as did that which Moses delivered and those of our Saviour by the Jews and the Heathens since The Jewâ— affirmed that all that our Saviour did was done by a Magical skill he first learnt in Egypt and brought with him from thence And Julian the Heathen says that Peter and Paul were the most expeâ—t men in Magick that ever lived and that â—hrist himself wrote a Boâ—k of that Profession and Dedicated it to them two Our Saviours Miracles in point of Fact are not only acknowledged by the Jews but expresly both by Celsus and Julian two of the most Learned Malicious and Industrious Adversaries that ever opposed the Christian-profession And this we may see in Origin's second book against Celsus of whose wâ—â—kâ— there is nothing left but what is there â—â—peated and Cyâ—ill's sixth book against Juâ—ian And â—n truth the Miracles of Christ and the Apostles and those that succeeded them in the Christian-church were in Fact so many so eminent so visible lasted so long for in the Church for three hundred years in some measure they lasted and the Relation of them has descended down to us by such a Constant Uninterrupted Written and Unwâ—itten Tradition that no man has yet assumed Impudence enough publickly to Gainsay them For the Third Whether miraclâ—s simply in themselves are always an unquestâ—onable proof of that Doctrine they are bâ—â—ugâ—t to Confirme and an infallible justâ—ficâ—tion of the Persons that work them I answer In the general they are not If the Doctrâ—ne be no way Destructive to those Natural noâ—â—ons of God we are born with If it be not evidently to our Reason Dishonoraâ—le to H m tendâ—ng to seduce us from him and oppâ—siâ—e to that Natural Duty we owe him They are But if otherwise if they come in direct Competition with the Law of Nature They are not No Miracles whatever can or ought to oblige me to what my Judgment Dissents from as sinful And that upon these two grounds First The Law of Nature as 't is Previous to all Laws so 't is an unrepealeable Law because t is so perfectly the Result of my Reasonable self that should God contradict it he would cease to deal with me as a Rational Being which is not upon any account to be thought Secondly 'T is not against Reason to suppose a possibility that God may in some cases exert a supernatuâ—â—l power by ill instruments for Trial as well as Eâ—tablishment God has no where told us that he will not so do nor do our own faculties Recoile against it and adjudge it unreasonable that God should exercise the world with such a Trial if he afford means sufficient to Oppose and Resist it Such who deny this Latter and say that a Supernatural power in a way miraculous was never exerted but to confirm and establish a Divine Truth that 't is an Impeachment of Divine Justice and most unreasonable to think the contrary That although many things may be bâ—ought to pass by the Dâ—vil and Ill men that are in their own nature Wondrous miranda and miraâ—itia and utterly beyond the compaâ—s of our Reason to conceive How by any natural power they should be effected yet they are not Miracula they are still eitheâ— natural effects proceeding from â—atuâ—al causes though secret and occult or else delusions some way or other upon us From the opinion of such I dissent and that upon these four Grounds First That which they say does no way answer that end for which they themselves intend it Secondly 'T is against plain Texts of Scripture Thirdly 't is against great evidence of History And fouthly Because the admission of the contrary is no way Destructive to those natural nâ—tions we have of Gods aâ—trâ—butes and his providential Rule over the world Fi st What they say does not answer that end for which they themselves intend it For if God suffer the Devil to exert a natural power in
as his Minister to execute so many dreadful Judgments upon the Jews and therefore would establish him by those extraordinary Actings in the possession of the Roman Empire which with great difficulty and against much probability to the contrary he obtained and as Suetonâ—us sayes of him after he had obtained it wanted Personal Authority and Majesty to manage such a Dominion A clear instance concerning this whole matter God gave us at first in the Magicians opposition to Moses wherein he gave us to know that although Divine Truth might by Miracles be opposed yet the superiour Luster of his own Miracles should be so visible to all as perfectly to silence and vanquish the rest and both in Number Continuance and Quality as then it was the difference should be to every Eye obvious and apparent Thirdly The matter for the establishment of which Divine Miracles are ever wrought affords us ground sufficient to distinguish in this case 'T is always a doctrine leading us to that God of whom we have a notion imprinted in our own Nature revealing him further to us and instructing us in all those Holy Virtues and excellent ways of living that most correspond to our Natural light are most suitable to that natural Divinity we are born with and evidently tends to make us most happy here and conduct us to the highest reward hereafter Whatever miracles we shall at any time see wrought to justify a Contrary doctrine my own Reason will reject as a Temptation and assure me that in the one case a miracle is sent from God to Ascertaâ—n me and in the other the Devil is only inabled in the highest manner to Tempt and to Try me And these three ways in the case of miracles are we sufficiently secured against all the attempts that can be at any time made to seduce us that way And may hereby rest abundantly satisfied in the testimony of Divine Miracles given to Divine Truth by whatever ways the Devil shall be able to countenance and promote a Contrary Interest Now That the Scriptures have been attended with Miracles in their conveyance is not as before is proved by any denied And that those miracles have the advantage of all the foregoing circumstances is likewise very evident The Doctrine of Moses is the First bâ—rn of all others being the Religion that was from the Beginning God in the first place setled and consecrated That by a miraculous Power before any other Systeme of Religion was extant and gave it therein the Precedency of all false Prophets and Impostors and whatsoever Doctrines they should by that means oppose it withall And so the New Testament being the natural product of the old is by the miracles of Moses at the first and those of our Saviour and the Apostles after upon the validity of both which 't is established secured against all opposition that can that way be made against it to the end of the world Secondly The way and manner of Gods working those miracles by which the Scriptures are justified to us to be his Words has eminently distinguished them from all other operations of that kind So 't was in the times of Moses when the Devil by the Magicians went further that way then ever he did after How far did the miracles of Moses exceed His More miracles Greater miracles More Continued miracles Undeniable and Uncontrolable evidences of Gods Infinite and Almighty Power in a way far superiour to what they could bring about Under the Gospel the miracles have been such in the manner of their working as leaves no room to doubt of Gods intention to secure us from Heaven â—â—ereby of the Truth of our Saviour and his â—â—â—â—rine If we consider First the grand â—â—â—â—sion of them To fullfil the Old Testament and establish the New And this by Private men respecting the world without the least clothing of Humane Power or Authority Who can imagine less then that a Commission to Christ and the Apostles should be sealed from 〈◊〉 Heaven in extroardinary way to assure the World of their Authority to do this Secondly The admirable Nature of those miracles Raising dead persons curing all sorts of diseases commanding Winds and Seas Vanishing in a moment out of the sight of multitudes Thirdly Their Number being exceedingly Many done in all places and upon all occasions where they came Fourthly Their Visibility openly seen and acknowledged by all present by multitudes Fiftly Without the use of any Secondaâ—y means or the least shew of Diabolical enchantments And as one of the Ancients says Sine â—lla vi Carminum sine Herbarum aut Graminum sâ—ccis sine ulla aliqua observatione sollicita Sacrorum Libaminum Temporum c. All most frequent in Heathenish Sorceries and Enchantments Sixthly The Long and lasting continuance of them Not only during the times of Christ and the Apostles and one of them the Apostle John lived till Trajan's time which was above a hundred years from Christs birth but also for very many years after in the Christian Church What miraracles does the world pretend to that can compare themselves with these miracles upon all or any of these accounts No men noâ— Devils ever did such works nor in such a manner as these were What lamentable and pitifull things are those of Apollonius Tyanaeus Esculapius or any others compared with These And what a shameful and indeed Ridiculous Partiality does appear in Hierocles and Porphiry who designing thereby to incense the Empeâ—ours against the Christians who much justified themselves upon the power oâ— miracles and to bring them under persecution have indeavoured to draw a Paralel between the miracles of Christ and Apollonius We find by Eusebius that Hierocles in a Book that is since lost compared Apollonius and Christ the Evangelists who wrote our Saviours Story and Philostratus the writer of Apollonius his Life upon that account together and preferred Apollonius and Philostâ—atus before the other But with what an unreasonable Partiality is eaâ—y to be seen by any that wilâ— consult Eusebius his Answer to him One chieâ— miracle Philostratus tells us off was that Appollonius sitting at meat was served after wonderful manner with Men of Brass And another is That an Elme tree speak to him and Saluted him with many other such things which to every common understanding appear at first sight very capable of Deceit and Delusion The Sun is not in Lustre more Superior to the Dimmest Star then Christs miracles are to all Pretensions of that kind Nor were there ever any operations either of men or of Angels visible in this world that with any colour of Justice and Truth can all circumstances considered be put in ballance with those eminently miraculous actings of Christ and his Apostles Thirdly The Doctrine contained in the Scriptures which the miracles were wrought to confirme and to assure us of the sincerity of those that delivered them to us is most evidently from God most corresponding to our Natural obligations to him and
is in it self directly opposite to the whole Corporation of Debauched and Evil men destructive to all corrupt Doctrines and Practices whatever and perfectly ruinous to the Interest of the Devil in this World of which there needs no other proof but an appeal to the Judgments of all sober minded men Never was there any Doctrine brought to light so Holy and so excellent A Doctrine that has visibly the highest tendency to those two great ends of all Religion the Honour of God and Mans present and future happiness No Instance can be given of any particular Duty enjoyned Destructive to mans true happiness but all perfective of it The strictest self-denial has a Recompence proposed to us of a hundred fold in things of a far more Noble and excellent Nature and most suitable in all such cases to a Rational choice The result of the whole is this Whenever Miracles are wrought to establish such a Doctrine as in the judgment of right Reason is likely to come from God we are upon the highest and most unquestâ—onable ground of Assurance that we can be Whenever a Miracle is wrought to establish a contrary Doctrine 't is the highest Trial But still God is pleased to order it so that we have ground sufficient to oppose and will sâ—â—nd it and â—â—â—kon in onely as such Whâ—â—â—ver consults thâ— writings of the Primiâ—iâ—e Châ—â—sâ—â—â—â— will and there were two things upon which they â—hâ—â—â—lâ— inâ—â—â—â—d and by the strâ—nâ—th whereâ—f the Châ—â—stian Religion made its sâ—â—st Enâ—â—aâ—ce and â—avelled thorough a great part of the Heathen world The Excelâ—â—ncy of its Doctrine and the Miracles wrought â—o confirm it And these two conjoined give â—s the mâ—st inâ—aâ—â—ible Assuâ—ance of Religion we are capable of in this World The Miraâ—â—es justify the Doctrine and the Doctrine reflects a Testimony back to the Miracles and in that Conjunction the proof is Invincible And so 't is in this case of the Bible For we can have no more then what we find here The Best Doctrine with the Highest Attestation Whoever warily considers our Saviours Reasonings with the Jews shall find him going upon this Ground For as he frequently justifies his Doctrine from his Miracles so he likewise often justifies his Doctrine to be in it self Divine Corresponding to the Scriptures of the Old Testament and in direct pursuance of what Moses and the Prophets had taught And so makes the testimony of his Miracles unquestionable thereby For such a Doctrine accompanied with such miraculous Evidence must needs be from God and can admit of no Rational Opposition And therefore in discoursing this matter in hand neither ought to be insisted on neither the Doctrine nor the Miracles Distinctly and Separately from the other but Both urged in that excellent Conjunction in which they are handed down to us Thirdly If we look upon this Book in the Success and Effects of it since its Conneyance We have from thence still further evidences of its Divinity and more Rational perswasions to derive it from God as a Book of his own Composing and about which he has exercised a peculiar Care And that upon these two Grounds First That this Book though written at several times all so long since past and some of it before any other Books were extant has yet in its passage through so many Ages escaped all the dangers to which it has been exposed and is preserved intire to us to this day Secondly That this Rock and the Religion contained in it has made its Entrance into the world and gain'd an Acceptance amongst Mankind in such a way and by such Means as are Peculiar to it self and no other Religion can make a Pretence to In such a Way as when we rightly consider it 't will seem Absord and Ridiculous to all common Reason to suppose that the wickedest Counterâ—eit and the â—â—andest piece of Imposture about God and Religion should ever be able so to do Or indeâ—d that any Book of Religion should upon such Permes arrive at such a Reception but one that contain'd the Highest and most Evident Truths and had the great God for its Author For the first 'T is true that other Books very Ancient and written long ago as we have good ground to believe have descended Intire to this very Age. But herein the passage of the Bible through the chanel of so many Ages is Distinguished from all other Writings not only that 't is some of it much Elder then they and upon that account more liable to Loss and Decay but that no Book or Writing the world was ever possessed of has had that violent Opposition made against it nor such Designs formed for its Ruine and Extirpation as this has had Others have met with a quiet and peaceable passage This has been often beset with most Keen and Inveterate Enemies Besides that great hazard so much of the Bible was in as then was Extant in the days of Josiah when for ought appears by the Story there was but one Copy and that had been lost for sixty eight or sixty nine years and was hid either in the Rubbish or else in some secret part of the Walls of the Temple for it was found when the Temple came to be Repaired and in all probability was there hid during the wicked Reign of Manasseh by some malicious Idolaters with an intention utterly to extinguish it Which might easily have been done in a way that had made it Irrecoverable had not a Divine hand over ruled and secured it Besides this and some other Hazzards the Bible has scap'd of a like nature we read of two famous and most Implacable Enemies furnish'd with all Humane power that with all their might and skill have beset it Antiochus Epiphanes under the Old Testament and the Empâ—rour Dioclesian under the Nâ—w This Antiochus Epiphanes called likewise and much moâ—â— truely Epiâ—â—aâ—â—â— the Mad and the Furious was prophefied of and plainly foretolâ— by the Prophet David in the eighth and eleventh chapters of his prophecy He there calls him a King of fierce countâ—â—â—â—ce and says His heart should be against the hâ—ly Câ—venant and that he should have indignaâ—ion against the holy Covenant Which was the Law of God the Scriptures then Extant This Antiochus came in the times of the Maccaâ—ees and most cruelly destroyed and wasted Jerusalem and made it his grand business to ruine the Jews and utterly extinguish their whole Religion and Worship Dedicated their Temple to Jupiter Olympius Erected an Altar therein for the Worship of that â—â—â—l and in contempt of the Jews caused many Swine to be slain and offered up in sacâ—â—fiâ—e to him and as the surest way to pat a pâ—rfect â—â—nd to the Religion of that Place and People with utmost diligence made search after their Law and wheresoever he sound it iâ—â—â— diâ—tâ—ly Burnt and destroyed it and thâ—eatned â—â—st exquisite torments and Death to any that should dare to Conceal or Retain it Of which Josephas gives us the Relation
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
a Word that famous and venerable Senate in which the last of the Prophets were present all parts of the Old Testament being compleated and the whole Prophecy that God vouchsafed till the coming of the Messiah delivered applied themselves to the punctual Collection of the several parts together and securing the Original text against any corruption or alteration exactly setled the Canon of the Old Testament which the Jews kept punctually to till the times of our Saviour who fully approved the Scriptures as he then found the Jews in possession of them Secondly That any parts of the Bible or any Books dictated by the Holy Ghost are wholly Lost we utterly deny The affirmation of it is neither consisting with the notion of Divine providence in General nor can any particular proof be brought to make it good Those who insist upon this as Bellarmine and some of the Papists do thereby to gain an advantage to the Church when 't is put in ballance with the Bible And others with design by proving the Loss of any Part to invalidate the Authority of the Whole instance in the three thousand parables or proverbs of Solomon and a thousand and five songs spoken of 1 King 4.32 The Books of Nathan the Prophet and Gad the Seer mentioned in the second of Chronicles The Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite and the visions of Iddo or Addo the Seer spoken of in the 2 Chron. 9. and some others And under the New Testament an Epistle of St. Paul written as they suppose to the Laodicaeans mentioned Colos 4.16 Although very many of these Writings mentioned in the Old Testament seem to refer to other parts of Scripture contained in the Bible In particular 't is probable that Nathan and Gad wrote some parts of the Books of Samâ—â— and the Kings so much at least as concern's the Actions of David of which they were exactly knowing if they wrote not the whole Second Book of Samuel and the first of the Kings which some upon probable grounds supposes yet Admit all these were other writings then are now contained in any part of the Bible it will no way follow they were ever any part of Canonical Scripture When the Scripture mention's Books written by these or any other Men and relates historically to the matter oâ— them as St Paul sometimes quoted Heathâ— Authors Will that Infer They are parts of the Bible By no means Nay the very Writers of the Bible themselves such as David Solâ—mon and others of the Prophets might and without all doubt some of them did Write many things in an ordinary way that were True without any Divine or Infallible direction and which were never incorporated with the Bible and so says St. Austin in his 18th Book De civ Dei says be Those Prophet whom it pleased the Holy Spirit to inspire wrote some things as Men And those works we have 〈◊〉 in our Canon nor had the Jews in theirs and other things as from the mouth of God and these works are really Distinct Some being held their own as Men and some the Lords as speaking by them And therefore He that will prove from hence that any parts of the Bible are Lost must first be well assured that These are no parts of the Scriptures we are now possessed of and Secondly that admitting they are not That they were written by an Infallible Spirit and ence within the Canon Of which Latter we are well assâ—red the least proof cannot be made For the Jews were most faithful Preservers of those Oracles of God committed unto their change Nor were they ever so much as once blamed by Christ or the Apostles for any Miscarriage that way As for an Epistle supposed to be written by St. Paul under the New Testament to the Laodicaeons which is since Lost The supposition is frivolous and groundless For the words in the Greck are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that from Laodicaea Which cannot be understood of an Epistle written by St. Paul to Laodicae but of one written from Laodicaea either to the Colossians themselves which they then had by them or else to St. Paul which he sent them and required them to read it as containing something expedient for them to know The mistaken opinion from this place of an Epistle from St. Paul to the Laodicâ—ans hath most probably arisen from the ill rendition in the Vulgar Latin where the words are rendered illa quae est Laodicentium But without any ground from the Original Catherinus confesseth that according to the opinion of Chrisostome and Oecumenius Non hic nominari Epistolam a Paulo scriptam ad Laodicenses sed ex co loco scriptam That here 's no mention of any Epistle written by St. Paul to the Laodicaeans but of some Epistle written from Laodicaea That there was anciently a Counterfeit Epistle that pretended to be written by St. Paul to the Laodicaeans which is since lost is most true But in those times wherein 't was extant it was universally Rejected as Spurious and known so to be St. Jerome speaks of it but says Abomnibus exploditur The second Councel of Nice in their sixth Canon say thus of it Inter Epistolas Pauli Apostoli quaedam fertur ad Laodicenses quam Patres nostri tanquam Alienam reprobaverunt Tertullian against Marcion and Theophilact both reject it with great contempt and say 't is Apostolico nomine planâ— indigna And Bellarmine himself though he had formerly affirmed there was such an Epistle which was certainly Lost Yet in the first Chapter of his Book which he calls his Recognition or After-view of his works Retracts it says he was mistaken and that there never was any such thing as such an Epistle written by St. Paul So that all the Insinuations of this kind that any parts of the Bible any Books written by a Divine inspiration have been at any time Lost out of the world appear to be very weakly and ill Grounded And in truth the foot steps of Divine providence have been eminently visible in Securing those Holy writings upon this threefold account From Destruction Addition and Alteration First No accidents of Time nor Designs of its worst Enemies have Totally obliterated the Whole or any Part. Secondly Though many have attempted to piece in and add to it false and counterfeit Fragments and some whole Gospels yet in defiance to all those Essays the Scriptures have remained intire and stood like a Rock Impenetrable No Spurious Writings have been able to incorporate with this holy Book Such who have gone about to forge Scripture have but made the Lustre of the Bible more Eminent and more evidently shewed us the difference of Gods reâ—ealing from Heaven and Mens counterfeiting upon Earth Mens writing by the strength of humane abilities and mens writing as they were moved thereunto by the Holy Ghost Thirdly From Alteration No man has been suffer'd notwithstanding all the attempts of Hereticks to that purpose to pollute or corrupt it All
such attempts have still been discovered and openly sham'd How many Hereticks have carryed about their own Confutation whilest they possessed this Book and yet have not been suffer'd to change or alter such passages as have been most Cogent against themselves The Bible passed through the Arian-world with all those plain Evidences it contains of the Divinity of our Saviour When Emperours Câ—uncils and indeed upon the matter the whole Christian-world wâ—â—etainted with that Heresie the Bible scapd the infection when the alteration of two or three plain texts would have done them more service then all the volumns they wrote in their own Defence And great designs were on foot that way yet they were still disappointed as is evident by what we find in St. Ambrose The Jews to this day need no other Confutation then their own Bible Moses and the Prophets in whom they trust are theiâ— greatest Accusers All sort of Hereticks to this day are possessed of the Bible as Uriaâ— was of Davids Letters to Joab which contained his own Ruine and as Goliaâ— was of hiâ— sword which served at last to cut off his own head Secondly The success and effect of this Book since its conveyance gives in a Signal and most undeniable Evidence to its Divinity If we consider the ways and means by which it has introduced it self and upon what terms the Religion contained in it has gained that reception we find it has had amongst Man-kind 'T is of admirable consideration that a Religion directly opposite to the whole corrupt interest of humane Nature and calling men to the highest Mortification and Self-denial upon the account of an Invisible World to come nakedly proposed by men upon a worldly account always inconsiderable without any the least Earthly supports A Religion perioding the Jewish Religion and totally subverting all other Religions A Religion opposed disowned to the utmost by the Jews themselves though it derived it self wholly from them and pretended to be the natural product of their Religion and the true Completion of all they believed and expected a Religion in oppostion of which the whole World besides were agreed and indeed both Jews and Heathens perfectly concurred I say 'T is of admirable consideration that such a Religion so circumstanced against all the Religion the Wisdom and the Force of the World should at first make its entrance and be embraced by so great a part of Man-kind and within the space of thirty years or thereabouts after its first Publication for so it was be spread not only throughout all parts of the Roman Empire but also amongst the Parthians and remotest Heathens To no other Cause but it s own Innate worth and the Divine evidence from Heaven attending it can it with any tolerable colour of reason be ascribed The zeal men had for all other Religions in which they were Educated sufficiently prompted them to hate abhor and persecute it The Learning and the Wisdom of the whole World was employed to render it despicable and to bring it under contempt And all the force of the Roman Empire was every where violently at work for its total Suppression and Extirpation And yet against all these seeming invincible oppositions did the Bible prevail The power of that great Empire could not withstand the naked proposal of a simple Truth And both Judaism in the main of it as a National Establismment and Heathenism finally fell before it This Book and the Religion it contains as it avows it self to be solely from God and comes to us with a commanding voice from Heaven speaks to us in God's own Name and upon that single account requires our obedience And those that wrote it neither had nor pretended to have any other Authority but what was Divine and from Above So it has introduced it self by Means suitable thereunto Never was there at first any Force used to compel men nor any Arts practised to deceive men about this matter No man can prove out of any Story that ever the Apostles or the Primitive Professors of this Religion raised Arms to introduce or promote it Or that any Humane Authority did countenance or assist it The Christian Religion has this to say for it self above all others That 't is to debtor to the Sword either in a Civil or Military way Neither the Sword of Justice nor the Sword of War can lay any claim to it as a Product of theirs The greatest part of the Roman World â—ad embraced it and were become Criâ—tians before Constantine publickly owned it It ows nothing to any violent course for its Primitive Reception nor indeed to any Humane contrivement Neither the subtilty of Philosophers nor the Eloquence of Orators assisted in this matter It never advanced one step further in its first publication than its own Innate Excellency the Divine evidence attending it procured it acceptance nor did it ever gain a Convert but where it could approve it self by Divine Evidences to the Reasons Consciences of men to be Divine I make a peremptory demand to all Antiscriptural men to grant me this as a truth not capable of any denial That for three hundred years together the Gospel by its own Divine strength withstood the most furious and violent Winds Tides of all humane opposition and by no other assistance but what was purely Divine travelled most parts of the World over It offered it self to mens reception upon no other terms but by an Appeal to the Judgment and Concience and was contenteâ— to stand and fall by the Rational determination of every mans own Breast and sâ— prevailed Such who embraced it haâ— no other way of Contest but Holiness oâ— living and Patience in suffering 〈◊〉 both which they were very Eminent To the first their very Enemies the Heathens bore testimony Pliny and others speak of the Christians harmless and holy behaviour For the latter Never was any Religion so begun and propagated by such indefatigable Sufferings How few Martyrs for Religion can the Heathen World boast of If we admit Socrates for one how few Successors had he And those few they pretend to seem by all Circumstances to be such as had no other end but to perpetuate their own names to Posterity by suffering for such things as they thought the World would highly magnifie But for Christian-Religion we find innumerable sufferings of Men and Women of all Ranks Qualities Ages and Conditions In many of which we cannot suppose any thing but Conscience and hopes of a future Reward could possibly be the Motive Being persons of such mean parts and conditions as could no way be thought to design a Name to themselves hereafter Nor indeed can we reasonably suppose an esteem upon Earth and vain-glory could be the ground upon which any of them suffer'd when we consider they suffered for a Religion the very name of which was every where Odious and Detestable and the Profession of it brought nothing but shame and contempt It swims down to
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
order to the great end of the whole But at last the Positive and absolute Proof to one that denies it must needs depend upon somewhat Collateral to the Book it self Secondly No External proof of the Bible would be sufficient to any reasonable enquiry were there not likewise an Internal Evidence resulting from it to its Divinity that is 'T were to no purpose to urge any Arguments from External Evidences be they Miracles or what they will to prove a Book to be Divine and sent us from God did not the Book approve it self to the judgment of right Reason likely so to be 'T were a vain attempt to endeavour to make a reasonable man upon any collateral considerations submit to the Bible as a Law Divine did not the Bible upon a due Search into the matter of it appear worthy of such a Denomination I much applaud that saying of Mr. Chillingworth upon this occasion For my part sayes he I profess if the Doctrine of the Scripture did not appear as good and as sit to come from God the Fountain of goodness as the Miracles by which it was confirmed were great I should want one main Pillar of my Faith and for want of it I fear I should be much stagger'd Nay 't is that Innate and satisfactory Testimony the Scriptures give at last of themselves and their own Divinity to our Reasons that finally determins all rational assent establishes the truth of all other Testimonies and upon which our belief of them as Sacred and Divine is ultimately founded and established So that as on the one hand we ought not to insist upon any Internal Evidence as simply sufficient to Evidence the truth of the Scriptures exclusively to the External justification God has incircled them withal and upon which the full and absolute proof of divers parts must necessarily depend and also because 't is upon all the reason God has given us to believe the Bible that be requires our assent to it So on the other hand we must not deny an Internal evidence to result from the Innate worth of the Bible it self whereby it appears to our reasons at last to be what other External Arguments perswade us to believe it is When we tast the Excellency of the Doctrine and when we perceive how all the matters of Fact stand justified to us a Divinity appears in the Whole We finde this Book to be a rare Composure of Divine Wisdom are convinced upon the whole matter 't is from above and bow to the Authority of God as the formal Reason of our Obedience whom we evidently perceive speaking to us in it This being premised I proceed to consider this Book in it self in the Matter of it as it now lies before us And herein I shall endeavour these two things First To shew that this Book so far as 't is capable of being compleatly judged of by what ariseth from it self without any Collateral Supplement so far as every Man's Reason becomes a competent Judge of it in its bare proposal appears to a reasonable enquiery most likely to come from God and to be Divine And by that internal Evidence arising from its own excellent Nature reflects back also a justification to all those External Arguments brought to prove it Secondly That in all such things as relate to Matters of Fact and wherein an External Justification is necessary to ascertain us fully about it we find this Book so witnessed unto so inviron'd with a concurrence of Humane Testimonies as leaves no room for any reasonable Doubts to be made about this Matter For the first That this Book so far as we can competently judge of it from it self appears to be Divine and that there are many Internal Reasons of great force resulting from the Matter of this Book it self to perswade us that it is from God and written by his special Command will be sufficiently manifest in the consideration of these following Particulars First We find contained in this Book some things that exceed the bounds of all Natural Abilities ever to have found out Such as could not in the judgment of right Reason be the product of any Humane Invention Not only such things as no man did think of before for that every Book contains that gives birth to a New Notion but such things as no man could ever have thought of Such as could not have been known amongst Man-kind any other way than by Revelation And therefore though written by Men must needs be revealed from Above The Instances of this shall be these two First This Book tells us such things of God of his Nature of his Eternal Counsels of the manner of his Existence as were utterly beyond the confines of all Natural Discovery and could not be minted in any Humane Brain No fimie Intellect could ever have travelled into such Depths and Heights as by this Book we are acquainted with and appear to us to be in the Counsels of God in order to the glorifying of himself by the Works that he has made No man could ever have imagined a Trinity in the Deity or such an existence of one Simple Essence as this Book acquaints us withall These are such things as could never be hammer'd out in any Humane Shop Such as without Revelation could never have enter'd into any created Mind to conceive of Secondly That contrivement we find in this Book of Saving the World and rebuilding the fallen Tabernacle of Humane Nature is evidently a reproach to the best abilities of Man-kind and an undenyable instance of this kind 'T is not onely what was unthought of before but what lay infinitely distant and wide from what could be thought either by Angels or Men and directly fathers it self upon that Supream Wisdom that is Above And that first in respect of the thing in it self considered And secondly In respect of the Manner and Method of its Accomplishment First In respect of the Thing it self and that on two accounts The height of stupendiousness that is in it and the transcendent degree of excellency that is in it First The Stupendiousness of it What a hidden and amazing Mystery how far removed from any mortal view or imagination was this That the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity should descend from Heaven and assume Humane Nature into a conjunction with the Divine and in that conjunction become the Saviour of the World That He should take upon Himself in His own Person the Sin and Guilt of Man-kind Die for the World Make thereby a Satisfaction proportionate to Infinite Justice and prepare a way for God to express himself in the utmost act of Mercy in a conjunction with the highest exercise of Justice No less than an Infinite Understanding could have shaped such a Design or been the Author of such a Projection Nor could any but God himself with whom all things are possible that are in themselves possible have found out an expedient to have reconciled those two Infinite Attributes in
bring us to the best way of Living we are capable of in this World both in respect of God of our selves and all others The Doctrines and Precepts of this Holy Book are so justified to us from the Light of our own Reason and do so directly tend to the perfection of our Nature and so guide us to what we our selves judge to be best that 't were extream unreasonable to judge it an Effect of the vilest and worst sort of Imposture Never any Doctrine taught men to live so dutifully to God so comfortably to themselves and so usefully one to another so tuneably in all Holiness and Righteousness as this of the Bible does The Doctrines of this Book are most transparent Beams of Divine Perfection They are a Rule given according to what is eternally existing in the Holy Nature of God so far as we are capable of a conformity to it And that in the judgement of right Reason is the Highest and Noblest account of all good Living For we cannot do better than in our Measure to correspond to Divine Perfection No Law can with greater Reason and less Arbitrariness nor more indispensably oblige us than that which appears to be grounded upon the Eternal and Unchangeable Nature of God And such are the Laws of the Gospel The great Design of which is to assimilate men so far as their Faculties will bear it to the excellent Nature of God and that rational Idea of it we are all born withal What crooked and imperfect Lines have men drawn in their best Documents both Moral and Divine compared with this compleat and excellent Rule of Holy Living What Pure and Spiritual Worship is here How suitable to the Holy Nature of God! What undefiled Religion without the least mixture of Idolatry or Superstition What Superlative Piety and Vertue without any one spot of Vice Yea forbidding Evil in the very Thoughts What punctual and perpetual Truth and Honesty is here required upon no other grounds but pleasing God doing good to Others and hopes of a Reward hereafter There 's not the least taint upon any one Duty the Scripture requires from us by proposing any base mean or sordid Ends. No vain Glory No esteem from Men No corrupt Advantages are made the ultimate End of our Obedience The best way of living and upon the noblest account is here proposed to us An exact Scripture-Life has as much of Heaven as can well descend upon Earth Makes the World as quiet an Habitation as it can be and Man-kind as happy in themselves and as easie one to another in all Converse and Society as they themselves can wish to be Where is there a Man not degenerated below his own Reason but approves the Scripture-Precepts as Excellent and justifies Him in his own Breast that conforms most to them No well-disciplin'd Heathen can refuse so to do What Charity is here required Still we are bid to hope the best To look upon all Men with a kind eye and to interpret them into the best sense they are capable of What commands Not to offend weak Ones What mutual Forgivenesses What provocations to Love What strict injunctions to do good to all men upon all occasions With what patience and meekness are we taught to behave our selves Indeed 't is such a Doctrine as makes a Man perfect throughly furnished to every good Work Brings men to the best way of Living the noblesâ— Principles of Suffering and the comfortablest way of Dying Now How can we better-judge of a Law that pretends to come from God and to be of Divine Mission than by its Nature the great Tendency of it and the influence it has upon Humane Life And when we find so holy and excellent a Design as appears throughout this whole Book for the honouring of God and compleating the Happiness of Men and in a way so corresponding to the judgement of right Reason and that Divinity we are Born with What can we otherwise judge but that such a Book must needs be from God Such pure and untainted Streams of Prety and Vertue must needs slow from the Fountain of all Perfection 'T is not possible to imagine that the Devil or any Ill Men should be ever either able or willing to compose a Book of such a Nature that should reduce the World to such a posture as This does To make men the best Subjects to God the best Friends to themselves and the most useful Citizens one to another Nothing less than an Infinite Wisdom could have contrived so great a Happiness for the World And nothing less than Infinite Goodness it self can be reasonably thought to be the Dispenser of it 'T is extreamly absurd to think that That Doctrine which in the judgment of the best Reason is the most Pure and Excellent and most useful to the World of any we find in it should be the product of the Devil or the worst sort of Impostors and that â—t must be if it be not from God for there 's no middle way 'T is to suppose that such should out-do Divine-Goodness in that wherein my Reason bids me expect the highest expression of it And in truth That the World should stand more indebted to such Benefactors for the best things than to God himself Fourthly We find in this Book a full and most comprehensive account of the Revolution of this whole World in all its changeable Vicissitudes and of God's visible Providence in the disposal of all Humane Affairs Indeed We find this Book a compleat Map of the Whole Affair of the World and God's Government of it There evidently appears an exact Conformity between the course of the World and what we are here told of it Nothing comes at any time to pass contradictive of but according to what is here revealed to us And this we shall sind if we consider the course of things either in a Natural way a Moral way or a Spiritual way First In a Natural way The natural course of the World has continued to this time according to what Moses at first as from the Mouth of God declared about it That there should be Seed-time and Harvest cold and heat Summer and Winter and that Day and Night should not cease but succeed each other Secondly In a Moral way The Scripture has given us a Summary yet satisfactory and full account of what-ever we have seen acted amongst Man-kind to this day and told us in general of all those Principles Designs and Practices by which the Wheel of this World has been turn'd about by the restless minds of Men in all Ages So that we see nothing under the Sun of which we are not some way inform'd in this Book Thirdly In a Spiritually way Here we have an exact account of all that Divine Intercourse which has been or at any time is between God and Men The manner of it set down and the general method of God's proceedings in his convincing enlightning sanctifying satisfying and comforting the
minds of men No man can well judge this an effect of any Humane Design nor can reasonably think that the private observation or experience of any particular men could have reached so far Providential Occurrences would soon have confuted any counterfeit pretence to such an universal account of the whole Affair of the World Nor could any but God himself be secure not to mistake in such a matter The more we contemplate this World in its various motions the more we consider the many intricacies and changes of it the more is the Bible still justified to us because we perceive the whole transaction of this World to be there strangely Epitomized We are not only told in the general what shall fall out that bad men shall often Prosper and good men Suffer that there is one even to the Righteous and the Wicked that no man shall be able to make a certain judgment of Gods Loving or Hating by the course of things here below but we are so far pointed to the Reasons and Ends of these things as much justifies Providence to us and greatly informs us about those Grounds upon which God proceeds in his Supream Rule here in order to his future judgment hereafter Nothing can befall a good man or an ill man or happen in any kind of which we are not told in the Bible and of the reason whereof we have not some general and satisfying account 'T is extreamly unreasonable to think that any other but God himself especially not the worst deceivers could have made such a compleat Model of his own Government and 't is no little justification of this Book that God visibly governs the World according to what is here delivered And those Laws must needs have all the rational probability to be Divine and come from the Supream Ruler above sutably to which all things evidently come about here below and to which the whole Revolution of this World in all times and ages and in all respects appears exactly corresponding Fifthly We find in this Book a full and ample provision for all the ills that have accompanied mans first Apostacy and adequate and proper Cures for all the Maladies of humane life And therefore 't is very likely to be a Divine preseription sent from above to heal and relieve the World Who but God himself can be reasonably supposed safely to disengage Man-kind from all the entanglements of their Lapsed and Apostate condition I appeal to every unprejudiced man whether this Book be not a general Store-house a Divine Treasury far beyond what the World besides can afford to supply all the wants of Humane Nature Not only more clearly and fully than was ever before revealing to us the greatest good pointing us to that true Summum bonum of a rational Being which Mankind in all Ages with so much ignorance and disagreement with themselves had been groping after and conducting us to the greatest happiness but applying suitable Remedies to every Distemper Where can any man under the sense of sin and the displeasure of God or under any other dejection of mind poverty or disgrace in the World sickness of body loss of friends or any sort of affliction comfort himself as he may here What a Sacrifice are we here told of for Sin We find all men in all Religions have still harped upon a Sacrifice The Sacrifices of living men were most Inhumane detested by the best of Heathens The sacrificing of Beasts though generally practis'd the wisest knew not what to make of and thought it strange that God should be Atoned by the fat of a Bruit How infinitely does the Sacrifice we are acquainted withal by the Gospel exceed all the World has thought of in that kind Of how amazing and yet of how satisfying a nature is it What Divine Antidotes are there provided in this Book from suitable Examples comforting Promises wise Directions heavenly Counsels to keep up a sinking Mind 'T is like that Wood where Jonathan came in his extremity and found Honey every where dropping and a taste of it revived his Spirits and renewed his Vigour And herein lies the strength of this Consideration The reality the excellent and proper nature of that relief and those Satisfactions that upon al occasions are here proposed to us They are no such deluding Trifles as men are cheated into by education and acquiess in only because they are bred up with a good Opinion of this Book But they are such things as are of intrinsick value such as are in themselves and in their own Nature most real most suitable to a rational Being in all such cases and justified to us from the Light of our own Reason and that innate Notion we have of a Deity The Voice of the Bible is If thou do well they own Conscience being judge thou shalt be accepted If not Sin lies at the door We find no resemblance here of the Heathen Superstitions nor of those Vanities wherewith other Religions through mens ignorance and the track of Education have besotted the World The terms of our Reconciliation with God and our happiness in this World and the next are such and so propounded to us as every mans own reason must needs acquiesce in and there is a self-evident satisfaction results from the performance of them It prevails much upon me this general provision I find here made to suite all mens conditions in all Times and Ages and the great worth and transcendent excellency of it And 't is a great account to us of that wonderful variety we find in this Book both for matter and expression What Depths and Shallows in both respects Sometimes the sublimest Notions clothed with the highest Expressions Sometimes the easiest plainest Truths imaginable Sometimes Divinity deck't with the richest Expressions of Oratory to delight and instruct the noblest and largest mind Sometimes brought down to the meanest Similitudes and expressed by things of the most common use amongst Man-kind to be grasped by the poorest understanding And yet a decency and majesty in all No part of Man-kind but find here a plentiful and suitable provision for every Condition Not an impotent impoverished mind but is here relieved nor a condition so mean but is cared for And this tells us much of the vanity of those who are apt to sit in judgment upon this Holy Book To find fault with some things as too Mysterious and with others as too mean To think many Stories Examples Directions Superfluous and others wholly Impertinent When such men can fathom the deep and large design of this Book are able fully to comprehend the sizes of all mens Capacities and the variety of all mens Conditions and can assure me that what one contemns or not understands may not prove of excellent and proper use to another I then will acknowledge They are every way fit to correct the Bible and leave them free to fit the World with a better Model Sixthly This Book appears so composed that all
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
Moses I mean the true antient Berosus and not the latter Counterfeit of him sets down the Story of it in the very same way that Moses does Begins his History Ante Aquarum cladem Famosam quâ universus perut orbis And sayes There was only eight Persons saved Cyril in his first Book against Julian shews that Alexander Polybistor and Abidene under the feigned names of Saturn and Xyfuthrus have writ for the most part the same Story that Moses has done of the Flood and of the Ark and the Place of its Resting And in very many other antient Authors have we particular Narratives of it And 't is evident that many Poetical Fictions and Fabulous Stories that we find amongst the Antient Heathen-Writers had their derivations from thence So that to doubt about the Fact of what Moses has written in this particular were extreamly unreasonable For 't were to deny what is eminently witnessed unto by several Historians of several Countreys and to withstand the Stream of an Universal Tradition The Story of Building the Babylontan Tower is particularly set down by the same Alexander Polyhistor and Abidene as we find them quoted at large by Eusebius They tell us That Men would needs in despite of the Godds build up a Tower to the Sun in the place where Babylon now is And when they had built it very high the Godds overthrew it And that at that time began the diversity of Languages And 't is obvious to the commonest understanding That all that Fiction of the Poets about the Gyants warring against Heaven is but a corruption of this Story The Burning of Sodom is mentioned by many of the best credited Authors by Diodorus Saculus Strabo Tacitus Pliny and Solinus And 't were easie to produce the like Testimonies to the most eminent Passages that Moses has set down That the People of Israel conquered the Land of Canaan dispossest the Inhabitants and setled themselves in Palestine is a thing so notorious from the Effects that 't is capable of no denyal And we have a large account of many particulars of it in Procopius Eupolemus and other Authors who wrote of Joshua Samuel Saul David in whom according to the Prediction of Moses the Government of that People came into the Tribe of Judah and others mentioned in the Sacred Story That there was such a King as Solomon that built a Temple at Jerusalem Josephus in his first Book against Appion proves from the antient Chronicles of the Tyrians which sayes he they have kept with great diligence And therein mention is made of Solomons League with the King of Tyre and of his building the Temple at Jerusalem and the exact time of it A hundred forty three years and eight months before the building of Carthage The same account we have in Eupolemus Alexander Polyhistor Haecateus Dius a Phenician and many others who have written so largely about that Temple that as some have observed There was not a Vessel nor any Tool or Instrument in it which they have not particularly mentioned which exactness we find not in any Heathen Story in the Descriptions of any Temples of their own The Captivity of the Jews in Babylon Cyrus his obtaining the Persian Empire and his Conquest of Babylon is all punctually set down by prophane Writers Alexander Polyhistor writes an exact Story of Jeremiah's Prophesie and of the Captivity And Diocles and Berosus both give an account of the Jews deliverance by Cyrus and that they were Captives in Babylon 70 years And Alexander Polyhistor and Haecateus both write of Cyrus his re-building the Temple of Jerusalem Daniels Predictions about the four Monarchies and other things have been visibly fulfilled beyond all denyal Porphiry so raged heretofore at that Prophetical Instance of the Truth of the Bible that he seeks by all means to evade it spends his whole twelfth Book which he wrote against the Christians to that purpose and finds no other way at last to do it but by an absurd pretence That those Prophesies about the four Monarchies were written long after Daniels death by some other in the times of Antiochas Which is sufficiently confuted Not only by the credible relation we have in History that Daniels Prophesie was shewed by Iaddus the High-Priest of the Jews to Alexander who lived many years before Antiochus when he was marching toward Jerusalem with an intention to destroy it who finding himself so particularly in that Prophesie prophesied of spared the City thereupon But because the 70 Interpreteâ—â— who tranâ—tated the Old Testament for Ptolomy about a hundred years before Antiochus tranâ—â—â—ated the Book of Daniel which was then extant and part of the Bible After the Captivity t is clear from all Story that the Jews that returned out of Babylon continued under a National establishment though not under a succession of Kingly Government from the Posterity of David for God had declared by Jeremiah that none of the Seed of Jeconaih should any more sit upon the Throne of David had Sovereign Jurisdiction among them which the ten Tribes had wholly lost and long before were totally deprived of Nay were still govern'd by some of themselves till the Romans imposed Herod and Idumaean upon them in whose time our Saviour was born So that the Scepter did not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his feet till Shiloe came For the Matters of Fact relating to the New Testament 'T is not possible for any reasonable Man to dis-believe there was such a Man in Fact as our Saviour and such Men as the Apostles that lived in those times that erected the Christian Religion because of the succession of it in multitudes of Professors ever since and the written Account we have of it Not only from Christians themselves but from Jews and Heathens in those times Tacitus and Suetonius both make mention of Christ Tacitus in the 15th Book of his Annals speaking of Nero's cruelty to the Christians sayes The Author of them was one Christ who in the Reign of Tiberius was punished with death by Pontius Pilate Procurator of Judea Josephus speaks of him Pliny Suetonius and others write of the Christians extant in those times of their Principles their manner of Living and of their Sufferings Suetonius sayes in the Life of Nero Christianos genus hominum maleficae superstitionis suppliciis affixit That he pumshed the Christians a sort of men of a magical superstition Many Historical Passages in the Gospels are attested to us by Heathen and Jewish-Writters though 't is most certain the Roman Historians of that Age knew not much of the Affairs of Palestine as appears by what they have writ concerning the Jews especially Tacitus who appears very grosly ignorant both about them and their Religion The Star that appeared at our Saviours Birth is mentioned by Pliny lib. 2. chap. 5. And by the Philosopher Chalcidius largely in his Comment upon Platoes Timaeas Herodi killing the Children in Bethlehem by Macrobius The Eclipse of
the Sun upon the Crucifixion of our Saviour which considering the Position of the Moon at that time it being the time of the Jews Passeover must needs be judged to be prodigiously supernatural was mentioned in many Heathen Writers which Eusebius sayes he himself had read Both Eusebius in his Chronology and Origen in his second Book against Celsus tell us That Phlegon Trallianus who lived in the time of Adrian in the thirteenth Book of his Chronicles wrote of this Eclipse and sayes That in the fourth year of the two hundred and tenth Olympiâ—d there was the greatest Eclipse of thâ—â—an that ever was beheld and withal a strange Earth-quake And that year was exactly the eighteenth year of Tiberius in which our Saviour suffered And 't is certain by what we find in Tertullians â—â—â—loâ—y and other of the Christian Writâ—rs in those first Ages that this and divers other Passages that relate to the Stoâ—â— of the Gospel were in those times Reâ—â—red amongst the Romans For they ofâ—en appeal to their own Records to â—â—ove the truth of this and many other particulars Justin Martyr in his Apology to the Emperor Antoninus which â—e wrote but fifty years after the death of St. John perswading the Emperor to the belief of our Saviours Miracles refers him to the Acts of Pontius Pilate then Registred at Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That our Saviour says he did these things you may learn from the Registers of the Acts done under Pontius Pilate Josephus who was born about five or six years after our Saviours suffering and survived the Reigns of both the Vâ—spatians relates much of the New Testament Story of John the Baptist of his Holy Life and also of his Death Tells us of Herod and gives a large and particular account of his strange and remarkable Death of Pilate of Festus Foelix Gamaliel and others Indeed neither Jews nor Heathens did ever in those times contradict or deny any matter of Fact that relates to the New Testament Story judging it certain beyond all denial Julian himself admits the Fact of Christ and his Miracles and plainly acknowledges the Books of the New Testament were written in those Times and by those very Men whose names they bear That we have no fuller and exacter an Account of Christ and the Affairs of Judea in his time in the Roman Story is not to be much wonder'd at if we consider the peaceable Posture that Country was then in News which best pleased the Romans from any of their Provinces and wherein they were mostly concern'd Tacitus observes that Judea was most quiet in the Reign of Tâ—berius as well it might All that our Saviour and his Followers did tending highly to Peace and Subjection Now We find that the Roman-Writers chiefly applyed themselves to write of some famous Wars the suppression of some eminent Mutinies or some such Accidents as in their Issue redounded much to the Roman-glory The peaceable condition of any Province usually shortned their Relation of it and therefore neither of the Jews not of the Christians in that Age have they vouchsafed to say much Nor did the Christians at any time such was their peaceable and submissive behaviour give Historians occasion to mention much more of them than their patient sufferings But in the after-times of Vâ—spatian Trajan Adrian when the Roman-Sword was drawn against the Jews and there were great Mutinies Rebellions and Wars amongst them the Roman-Historians have left us an ample Relation of all those Affairs Two things there are of great eminency in themselves and of most publick Nature contained in the Bible the Fact of which have had such signal justification as does greatly establish the Truth of the Whole and to which a very peculiar Remark is due The one is the History of the Flood in the Old Testament and and the re-peopling of the World after it by the Posterity of Noah The other is those Prophetical Predictions of the Destruction of Jerusalem of the ruine of the Temple and the Afflictions and Sufferings of the Jews uttered by our Saviour in the New For the first That there was such a Flood Nothing I have shewed has had a more universal Belief That the Earth according to the History of Moses was again re-peopled by the Posterity of Noah and that the Nations were divided in the Earth from his three Sons and their Issue as Moses tells us we have from the Records of all Nations and the consent of all History abundant cause to believe And that upon this three-fold account First We find that in those Eastern Parts where Noah and his Family are said first to land and settle themselves after the Deluge the Grandure of the World first began of which the Greatness and Splendor of the Assyrian-Empire is a sufficient Instance Those Eastern Countries arriving to much state and pomp and to much greatness in Dominion and Government long before either in Greece Italy or any of the Western Parts any such thing was attained to or known Which evidently shews that the Inhabitants of those Countries were the First-born and Heirs of the World who had the great Court and Metropolis amongst them and that other Nations were of the Younger House and Colonies of a Latter Edition Secondly The earliness of Learning of Art Sciences and Inventions amongst â—he Assyrians Chaldaeâ—ns and Egyptians before they so much as budded forth or appeated in other Conntries does argue That those parts were first inhabited That they were the eldest Possessors oâ— the World had been longest in it werâ— of greatest Experience and that otheâ— Nations People were gradually deriveâ— and planted from those Countries anâ— the Inhabitants of that part of the World Thirdly We find that those in honour of whom the Nations received their first Names were the Posterity of Noah that Moses tells us of From Japhet most probably the Eldest Son of Noaâ— called by Hesiod and others of the most anâ—ient Writers Japitos and his Posterito Japeâ—â—onides came the Gomerians or â—ymbrians from his Son Gomer the Magogims from Magog the Medes or Madians from Madus the Jones after called Graeâ—â—ns from Javan in Greek Jovan and so from the Posterity of the other two The Canaanites from Canaan the Sabaeâ—ns from Seba which the Grecians write Saba the Philistims from Palesthim the Thracians from Thyras the Sidonâ—ans from Sidon the Egyptians from the Posterity of Cham Egypt being called Mizraim from Mizraim one of his Sons Mizraim in Hebrew being the name of Egypt and antiently even to the time of Josephus the Egyptians he sayes were called Chuseans from Cush or Chus the eldest Son of Cham And so throughout all the chiefest parts of the Earth we find the several Nations by their antient denominations to be originally descended from that Posterity of Noab set down in the tenth of Genesis Sems Posterity appear to have been the Planters of Asia Chams of Africa and Japhets of most part of Europe with Asia the Less
till our Saviours coming and the writing of the New Testament when there was again a Flood-gate of Divine Power let open in Mighty and Miraculous Operations all the parts of the Old Testament that were at any time written and they were not all Written till the time of Ezra after whom and the erection of the second Temple God made no further Addition all the other parts I say of the Old Testament were principally to be judged of by what Moses at first established Working of Miracles after his time was not to be the great and onely Rule of Prophesie and Revelation God had declared and commanded the contrary Nor indeed has the Holy Ghost thought fit to record to us whatever might be done in that kind that any one Pen-Man of the Old Testament wrought any Miracles after Moses his time 'T is a truth that there was among the Jews a Succession of the Office of Prophets after Moses and certain Schools of them which first began and were continued in the Cities of the Levites who dwelt dispersed amongst all the other Tribes And of many that were probably trayn'd up in those Schools we read in Scripture as of God and Nathan and other Seers and Prophets That some of them wrote no part of the Bible nor that we read of were any way extraordinarily imploy'd but most likely were so stiled because they had their education there were bred up and devoted to that Office and Employment That God did often make use of those that were of that Prophetical Society in extraordinary Matters I doubt not But in dictating the Bible God was pleased arbitrarily to chuse out what Instruments of conveyance he pleased and confin'd not himself to any one sort of Men nor to any Prophetical Office to give us any assurance from thence in this case For he sometimes chose men out of the Court as he did Isaiah the Kings Nephew And sometimes from the Herd as he did Amoz the Shepherd who sayes himself He was neither a Prophet nor the Son of a Prophet And God in an extraordinary way by the Word and the Prophesie that he gave such to utter created them Prophets And the greatest evidence of such mens Prophetical Authority arose if no Miracles were wrought by them from the Word they uttered And if any were of which we cannot be certain the Holy Ghost being silent about it from a conjunction of both A Miracle wrought in confirmation of any Doctrine correspending to what God by Moses had at first established was the greatest assurance that the Judaical Church after Moses was capable of No false Prophet in those dayes ever arrived so far That is They never had the concurrence of a Personal and a Doctrinal Justification together If any such wrought a Miracle to gain them a personal credit yet their Doctrine was still faulty And being to lead men from God and to subvert those Laws of his by Moses so solemnly setled That was an intimation sufficient from God's own direction to discover and shame them But supposing the several Pen-Men of the Old Testament after Moses wrought no Miracles at all and that God made most of them Prophets by that very Employment which 't is certain he did and that they were not previously in any such Office so that nothing of that kind could give men any assurance Yet by these three wayes men might be then much secured in that case in the first Edition of every distinct part of the Old Testament First From the known personal Sanctity and Integrity of the Writers themselves God never made use of any ill men or such as could come under any reasonable suspition of Imposture to write any part of the Bible nor of any but such whom men in that Age wherein they lived had very good reason to credit This being a certain and revealed Truth that in writing all the parts of the Bible 't was Holy Men still that Spoke and Wrote Now there could not be a more superlative imposture and wickedness than to ascend the Throne of God to speak in his Name and pretend his Authority without his Order No Man not wholly forsaken of all fear of God and respect to men could be supposed to make such an attempt Nor could any Man of known Piety and Honesty be reasonably suspected of it Secondly and chiefly From the conformity of what was then writen to the Laws and Precepts of Moses setled upon such unquestionable evidence for whatever was superstructed upon that Foundation came under the same Justification So that if any Writings were published in God's Name that appeared to be as all the other parts of the Old Testament did but a further discovery and promise of the Messiah a renewal of those Threatnings and Promises in Moses to that People and a further promotion of those Holy Laws and that Religion and Worship by him established there was no absolute necessity of Miracles in such cases If any man will suppose there might be in those times Books piously written and grounded upon the Doctrine of Moses that came not from any Divine Inspiration in judging of which Men might be possibly deceived and mistaken I answer Either such Books pretended to a Divine Mission from God or they did not If they did not no man could be indangered by them If they did They must either be written by true Prophets or False No true Prophets would do it And 't is not reasonable to think any false prophets should because they could serve no Design by it Nor could the Devil or any ill Instruments any way promote their own Interests by perswading men to serve the true God in the right way Nor do we find that in Fact any such thing ever was Thirdly There appeared in most if not all the parts of a Bible a peculiar Majesty a savour of Divine Authority in a more than ordinary way A great and eminent difference as the Prophet Jeremiah sayes between the Chaff and the Wheat Nor is it fit to suppose but that whâ—â— came by an immediate Inspiration from God should carry some Impressions of his Wisdom Power and be some way differenced from the common Writings of weak and fallible men Besides from many other Circumstances attending the first Edition of the several parts of the Bible relating to the Matter written and the Authors that wrote might God give a further evidence to their Divine Authority of which we are now wholly ignorant And it would be perhaps somewhat of curiosity and of little use to enquire after And some of them are recorded to us in the Scripture it self As particularly the foretelling of future Events that accordingly came to pass Two wayes God himself had previously appointed by Moses for the discovery of all false pretentions to Revelation First If any Pretenders that way came to seduce men from the true God and that Divine Worship of his then established God commands They should be rejected And secondly If
broke forth like the Sun in his strength has over-spred the whole Horizon of the Christian Church And where ever the Gospel is owned these Books are received with that Veneration that becomes due to such Sacred Writings The Church of England Judges the doubts that have been at any time made about any parts of the New Testament not worthy of our Notice And therefore in the sixth Article it is thus expressed In the Name of the holy Scriptures we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament of whose Authority was never any doubt in the Church That is no considerable doubt no general doubt in the Whole Church Nor indeed any such doubt as ought to disturb either the Churches determination or any particular mans judgment about this matter For it cannot be shewed that any One intire Church or that any National or Provincial Council or indeed that any Considerable part of the Christian World in any Publick Confessions Catechisms or otherwise have rejected any of those Books we now reckon within the Canon The most Considerable Doubt that we find made about any one of them was about the Epistle to the Hebrews which for some time was doubted of in the Roman Church And yet Eusebius says onely It was doubted of a quibusdam in Ecclesia Romana by some in the Roman Church and 't is certain much of that doubt was whether St. Paul were the Authour of it or no But to conclude an Answer to this Question let these two things be Considered First under the Old Testament so soon as all the Parts of it were finished the Canon of That was exactly settled by men of an infallible Spirit in the times of Esdras and those last Prophets contemporary with him and so no further Doubt was or could reasonably be made about that Secondly under the New Testament it pleased God so to order it that he that closed up the whole Bible and wrote the Conclusion of it so far out-lived all the other Pen-men that he himself might very well see the Whole conjoyned and deliver it over to the Church intire as we now have it The Apostle St. John not onely survived Titus and that famous Destruction of the Temple and the Jews in his time but he lived through Domitian's time and Cocceius Nerva's time to the Reign of the Emperour Trajan which was somewhat above a Hundred years after our Saviours Birth and sixty and odd after his Crucifixion so Irenaeus tells us lib. 2. p. 192. And some other of the Apostles it should seem lived long for the same Author says that there were in his time Saniores qui non solum Johannem viderint sed alios Apostolos Elders that had not onely seen S. John but others of the Apostles That the Canon of the New Testament was established and setled by Apostolical Authority seems very probable S. Austin contra Faust Man lib. 11. cap. 5. and in his 19. Epist positively affirms it Distincta est says he à posteriorum libris excellentia Canonica authoritatis veteris Novi Testamenti quae Apostolorum confirmata temporibus Saint Jerome sayes Johannem omnium longissimè vixisse videre libros omnes confirmare pâ—sset si qui fictitij liberi ederentur eos à sâ—cris verè Canonicis distinguere That the Apostle John out-lived all the rest of the Apostles that he might perâ—se and confirm all the Parts of the New Testament and distinguish them from all counterfeit Writings if any such came abroad And he further adds That some Spurious Writings concerning the actions of S. Paul were brought to him and that he by his Apostolical Authirity condemned them Tertullian de Prescript says expresly The Canon of the Bible is founded upon Apostolical Authority And Eusebius gives this plain testimony to it Narrant veteres Johannem Asiaticarum Ecclesiarum rogatu Germanum Scripturae Canonem constituisse The antients tell us says he that St. John upon the request of the Asiatick Churches settled the true Canon of Scripture 'T is certain that S. John before his death made his abode much at Sardis and Ephesus and amongst those Asiatick Churches For after the death of Domitian he was restored from his Banishment by the Emperour Nerva and returned from Patmos into Asia and there governed the Churches until his death And 't is extreamly probable that upon their desire he then fully settled the Canon of the New Testament for that there was then occasion for the doing of it we sind by Enseâ—ius his History of those times And it is evident from S. John himself that the Church of Ephesus had been attempted by false Apostles in those days and whatever Doubts of that kind were then extant we cannot otherwise suppose but that they would be proposed to him and End in his Apostolical determination So that if we lay all these things together St. Johns living so long after all â—he Parts of the New Testament but the Revelation were Written And his surviving some very considerable time after the Writing of that for it is most probable that he received those Visions and wrote them in the end of the Reign of Domitian his closing the whole with that Book after which he declares as many think by pronouncing a Curse to him that should add to it or diminish from it that there was to be no further Revelation expected having therein given a full account of the State of the Church to the end of the world Considering the Doubts that were then extant about some Parts amongst such as had not a thorough Information about them and that False apostles did then appear considering of how great a Concern it was then and would be to all future Ages to have the Canon of the whole Bible settled by an Infallible judgment and considering the material Evidence we have from many Primative Writers That indeed it was so All these things considered there seemes very probable Ground to believe that the Apostle John before he left the world did fully Determine this matter and 't is most likely that as the Knowledge of what he had done came to be published abroad the Doubts that were then made dis-appeared And we that live in these latter Ages see that all the Questions and Doubts that have at any time been are perfectly vanished and the whole bopy of the New Testament hath now gained an Universal reception Thirdly How can we that have not the Originals of the Scriptures not the Outographa 's of those that Wrote them but onely the Copies of them and most but the Translations of those Copies rest assured we have Gods Mind as it was first delivered In Answering to this Question it must be acknowledged that the Original Records of every Part of the Bible did at first consist of Perishable matter and have undergone the common Fate of all othâ—r Writings 'T is evident it was not the pleasure of God that the Authority of the Scriptures
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
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