Tradition Another Set of Testimonies which Eusebius furnishes us with in behalf of the Christian Tradition are Relicks Buildings and other such like Monuments several of which were remaining in his Time and seen by him himself such were Christian Burying-Places and Sepulchres with the Names of Christians upon them particularly those of Peter and Paul Statues and Pictures particularly the Statue of the Woman cured by Christ of the Bloody Flux Pictures of Christ Peter and Paul in colours These were all seen by Eusebius himself as was likewise the Episcopal Chair of James at Jerusalem several Christian Libraries and several Christian Temples before they were pull'd down and destroyed by the Order of Dieclesian These and many other such like Monuments remaining in Eusebius's Time whether all the Particular Traditional Reports concerning them were true or false might easily be perceived upon view or divers other ways be known to be Ancient and whatever Age they were of they must be good proofs of the Belief of the Men of those Times and consequently of the truth of Christianity so far as we are now concern'd to prove it But the Tradition of Christianity from its first Original down to the Council of Nice with all the principal Matters of Fact upon which it is built is further and more especially secured to us and the truth of all the foregoing Testimonies confirm'd by Books and written Records vast Numbers of which of different Kinds and different Ages written by several Men of different Countries Characters Designs and Religious Persuasions were extant in Eusebius's Time a great many of which were generally known multitudes of Copies of them being dispersed throughout the World and several of these Writings were carefully preserved in particular places and either never communicated further by any Transcripts or Copies to remaining there to be seen in their Primitive State after Transcription Now all these Writings of what kind soever they are whose Authority is made use of for the establishing the Christian Faith I shall rank under certain distinct Heads in order to shew what sense and weight they have in the proof of what they are brought to maintain The several Books and Writings then to be considered are Copies of the Holy Scriptures viz. of the Books of the Old and New Testament Publick Acts and Records belonging properly to Societies and not to particular Authors Genuine Writings of profess'd Christians who by reason of their common Agreement in some certain Doctrines of Christianity are Styl'd Orthodox Books writ by Hereticks who were Men of particular Opinions different from those commonly received by other Christians Jewish and Pagan Books containing such Things as have Relation to Christianity Forged and Supposititious Writings of uncertain Authors which do some way or other concern the Christian Religion As to Copies of the Scriptures found in the hands of Christians in Eusebius's Time I have these Things to observe that they were then multiplyed to so great a Variety that hardly a Christian Family was without some of the Books That they were Translated into several different Languages That in those Countries where the Translations were of common use a great many Copies in the Original Language were preserv'd That in most of the great Cities and Episcopal Churches there was a Copy in the Original Language more ancient than the rest from whence the other Copies were taken and Translations made That such Copies as these might not only by Tradition but by several intrinsick Marks be known to be ancient and their Age pretty nearly determined That upon comparison there was a very great Agreement betwixt these ancient Copies preserved in several very distant and remote Churches That such care had been taken in Transcribing and Translating from them that the differences found between any Copies either of the Originals or Translations were very inconsiderable That all Christians thought themselves concern'd to preserve the Jewish Canon of Scripture as well as the New Testament and therefore Copies of the Old Testament in the Original Tongue and Translations of it into several Vulgar Languages were multiplied carefully Transcribed and kept together with those of the New That upon a diligent search into the Matter it was found that besides those Copies of the greatest part of the Books of the New Testament which were alike to be met with in all Christian Churches there were others received in some Churches and by a constant Tradition then vouch'd to be as early and of as great Authority as the rest From all which I think I may safely inferr That the Writings of the New Testament were as early as they are pretended to be and that the Christian Religion had its Original in Judea at the time assigned it which being less than 300 Years before Eusebius and the Books of the New Testament which give an account of the Christian Religion and plainly suppose an antecedent Propagation and Establishment of it in a great part of the World being writ some time after the first Publication Eusebius or any other Person of his Age who throughly examined the Matter concerning the Copies of the Scriptures then received must needs be satisfied from this Consideration only that the Books of the New Testament had as early a Publication in the World as is now ascribed to them and consequently that the Christian Faith was somewhat earlier and the same then as it is in these Books represented to have been This will further be made out from the next sort of Writings to be considered viz. Publick Acts and Records belonging properly to Societies and not to particular Authors such were Catalogues of Bishops Decrees of Synods Letters from Churches and Societies of Men general Records of remarkable Matters particular Acts and Monuments of Martyrs Psalms Hymns Creeds and Forms of Prayer The most famous Churches especially those constituted by Apostles kept the Succession of their Bishops with great care laid up in their Archives recording their Names and days of their Death in a pair of writing Tables This Eusebius tells us was the Custom of the Primitive Christians and these Tables he assures us he diligently examined and he was very exact in the Account he took of them as particularly appears from what he says concerning the Church of Jerusalem viz. That he found from Old Records fifteen Bishops with their Names who had succeeded in that Church from the Apostles to the Siege of the Jews in Adrian 's Time but could not find preserved in Writing the space of Time each Bishop spent in his Presidency over that See The like diligence and exactness are observable in the Account he gives of the Succession of Bishops in several other Churches most of their Names being set down and the times of their several Succession Presidency and Death punctually determined and Reasons given why he could not speak with the same certainty of the rest omitted There were likewise extant in his Time a great many Canons and Decrees made by several Councils and
Synods convened at several times in different Countries and upon different occasions as also several Letters writ from Churches and Societies of Men such as were the Epistles of the Churches of Vienna and Lyons to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia concerning their Martyrs Epistle of the Church of Smyrna concerning the Martyrdom of Polycarp Epistle of the Martyrs of Lyons to Eleutherus Bishop of Rome Epistles of the Bishops and other Members of Synods inforcing the Observation of the Canons they made c. All which were according to the Nature and Designs of them either dispersed far abroad and to be found in several Countries or else carefully preserved in some particular places whither they were directed and so remain'd there to be seen by such as were pleased to consult them Besides such occasional Writings as these which according to some particular Exigencies of the Church were sent abroad and communicated from one Society of Christians to others there were in several Places Publick Histories of all remarkable Affairs that happened in each Place continued down for a considerable space of Time several of which Publick Histories or Records Eusebius consulted as he himself assures us particularly when he gives us that wonderful Relation of Agbarus King of Edessa he says he took it out of the Publick Records kept at Edessa wherein the Antiquities of the City and the Acts of Agbarus are contained And a great many other Memorable Facts he came by the same way In this manner were more especially preserved the Acts and Monuments of such as had suffered Martyrdom upon the account of the Christian Religion The Names of abundance of Martyrs the Times when they Suffered the various sorts and kinds of Sufferings they endured with all the other Circumstances relating to their Persecution were largely set forth in Writing and the Records of them carefully kept in many Countries where the Cruelty and Violence of the several long Persecutions which had raged at several distant Periods of Time were most remarkable Other Publick Writings extant in Eusebius's Time were Hymns and Psalms Creeds and Forms of Prayer Several of which that were constantly used in the Publick Assemblies of Christians were known to be of great Antiquity And some of these ancient Forms of Worship were the same in many Churches and several of them more or less different from one another Now 't is plain to any one that examines any of these Publick Writings belonging to Societies of Christians that whensoever they were writ and whether in all respects true or false they are certain proofs of an antecedent Establishment and Belief of the Christian Religion such as it was in Eusebius's Time and such as it was and is now found in the New Testament and all the Accounts we have of the Age and other Circumstances of them do concurr to strengthen the Evidence already given of the Christian Tradition But the Truth of all those Matters of Fact related in the New Testament which I have at present engaged my self to prove will be more abundantly made out by a continued Succession of a vast number of Writings belonging to particular Persons distinguish'd by the Titles of Orthodox Christians Hereticks Jews and Heathens A great many of these Writings are mention'd by Eusebius and had been with incredible industry read and examined by him Several he gives the Titles of only others he gives some Character and Account of and Transcribes large Passages out of them a great many Orthodox Books he omits the mention of for want of their Authors Names being prefix'd to them others for want of being able to distinguish when their Authors lived and a great many he rejects the Authority of though they made for the Cause of the Christian Religion which he maintained because they had not sufficient Marks upon them to prove they belong'd to the Persons and Times they pretended to Some of the Writings he quotes were lost in his Time and only Fragments of them to be found in others that were entirely extant several that were then extant and mention'd by him were seen by a great many later Authors and all his Quotations out of them are confirm'd to us by their Writings but the Originals of them are now lost and a great many remain entire still and are plainly the same he represented them to be and so are the Fragments of more ancient Authors contained in them All which are certain Arguments of the Diligence and Sincerity of this Historian and the Antiquity of those Books whose Authority we are now to make use of In the next place then let us take a more particular view of these Writings and consider the Age Character and other Circumstances of the Authors the Subjects they treat about and the Form and Manner in which they are writ As to the Age of those Christian Authors we call Orthodox some small Treatises and Fragments we have of such as lived together with the Apostles and were immediate Witnesses of the Doctrines delivered and the mighty Works done by them and several of these ancient Pieces are allowed to be Genuine by those whose Skill and Enquiry into the Matter have rendred them capable Judges The Authors of the next Age who declare they lived with those who convers'd with the Apostles are more their Writings much larger and of more unquestionable Authority than the other being confirmed by more numerous Testimonies of following Writers who in very near Periods of Time continually succeeded them The Character of all these Writers was in some respects very like and in others very different Some of them were Jews and Heathens converted to Christianity others were born of Christian Parents many of them were Greeks and writ in that Language and many were of Roman Colonies and writ in Latin but though all the Authors we have writ in one of these Languages they were most of them of very different and very remote Countries from one another Several of the first Writers were Plain Simple Men without the advantage of a Learned Honourable or Publick Education others of them were Philosophers and Men very well vers'd in all the Heathen Learning some were of Honourable Families and Publick Employments many of them were Bishops of the Christian Church and lived in the most considerable Cities of the Roman Empire and by that means had great opportunities of being acquainted with the true State of Things in the World In this they all agree that they were hearty Believers and zealous Assertors of the Christian Religion that they bottom'd their Faith upon the Books of the New Testament that they made it the chief Business of their Lives and Writings to promote the Christian Faith and that they were ready to bear Testimony to the Truth of what they profess'd by resigning their Lives the sincerity of which disposition of theirs is confirm'd to us by the actual Martyrdom of several of them who lived in such Times and Places as gave them opportunities of manifesting
delivered in the Old and New Testament are obligatory to us so far as they are there declared to be so that is they are to be believed and observed in the Way and Manner and upon the Reasons and Motives there proposed and consequently that at present the true and adequate Rule of Human Life is what we call the Christian Religion But because as 't is plain from the nature of all Revelation the truth of what is pretended to be revealed must depend upon the proof of Matters of Fact I shall take this Method of establishing the Certainty of the Christian Revelation 1. Having premised some things concerning those particular Facts I design to insist upon I shall give a short Abstract or Summary of the Christian Scheme as we find it delivered in the New Testament 2. I shall prove by such direct Arguments as Matters of Fact are proveable by that all the principal Matters of Fact related in the New Testament are true 3. I shall endeavour to make good the same Proposition indirectly by shewing the Absurdity of a contrary Supposition and the weakness of all the Difficulties and Objections raised against the truth of those Facts or of Revelation in general 4. I shall shew the sufficiency of such a proof as shall be given under the former Heads to induce us to believe the Christian Religion and to render us inexcusable if we do not As to what concerns those particular Facts I design to insist upon for the proof of the Christian Religion there are these three things necessary to be observed First I take all this for granted viz. That there are such Books as those I call the Old and New Testament that they are in the hands of a great number of People of different Countries in the World and are with a very little variation the same every where That the greatest part of those in whose hands they are who are called Christians profess to believe that the Matters of Fact there Recorded are true and that the Doctrines came from God and are appointed by him as the Rule and Measure of their Actions but more especially those delivered in the New Testament which they look upon to contain a full Scheme of their Duty That a large Sect of Men called Jews profess to believe the same of the Old Testament as the Christians do but reject the New and make the former only the Rule and Measure of their Duty and that a great many of these both Jews and Christians do really and sincerely believe what they profess and endeavour to order their Lives accordingly All which Matters of Fact are such as I have no manner of reason to suspect any body will deny me Secondly I insist wholly upon the proof of those Matters of Fact which are recorded in the New Testament not only because the Christian Religion the Certainty of which I have undertaken to establish is fully confirmed by the truth of those Facts But because the Old Testament is supposed and every where appealed to in the New as true and authentick upon which account a thorough effectual proof of the latter will be of it self a sufficient establishment of the former Besides many of the same Arguments that I shall make use of to support the Christian Revelation are in like manner applicable to the Jewish And therefore I shall only consider the Old Testament as a Book that was extant long before the Christian Religion appeared in the World and which was then and had been long before esteemed by the whole People of the Jews as a Book that contained the Revelations of God and I shall concern my self no farther in the proof of these ancient Writings than to defend them from the little Cavils and Objections raised against them by Modern Unbelievers with a design to weaken the Certainty of Divine Revelation in general and consequently to invalidate the proofs of the Christian Religion Thirdly I distinguish all the Matters of Fact observable by us in the New Testament into Common and Extraordinary such as are conformable to those Facts we have often taken notice of before or to those Notions we have of the Natures and Powers of the Agents which appear to be the immediate Authors of them and such as exceed all our Knowledge and Observation of what we call Nature and natural Powers which Extraordinary Facts mentioned in the New Testament I distinguish further into two kinds such as were immediately perceivable by some of the Senses of those before whom they were done and such as were knowable only by reasoning from the Natures of Things and other concurrent or consequent Facts Of the first kind are Prophesies and Miracles of the second are Divine Assistance and Revelation And thus I shall endeavour to establish the Certainty of the Christian Religion by proving the truth of all the principal Matters of Fact contained in the New Testament according to the Order and Distinction of them before mentioned viz. Common Historical Facts Prophecies and Miracles Divine Assistance and Revelation I. But for a better and clearer prosecution of my Design I shall in the first place before I enter upon this proof give a short Abstract or Summary of the Christian Scheme as we find it delivered in the Books of the New Testament Wherein I shall consider the Matter and Subject of these Books and the Manner in which they are writ with all the important Circumstances belonging to them that offer themselves upon a careful and impartial reading Which general view of of all the Christian Facts the truth of which I have undertaken to maintain will not only prevent a great many inconvenient Repetitions and shew the force of the subsequent Proofs in a stronger light but give us such an Idea of the Christian Religion as if carefully weighed and attended to would render any further attempts to prove it unnecessary It is plain to any one that reads over the New Testament that it contains in short a History of the Publication and Propagation of certain Doctrines and Rules of living proposed to the Belief and Practice of Mankind together with an Account of the several Discourses Actions Writings Sufferings and other remarkable Circumstances in the Lives of the first Publishers and some of the principal Propagators of those Doctrines and Principles which make up the New Scheme of Religion here delivered But to take a more particular Survey of the New Testament according to the several Parts or Volumes into which it is divided In the first Four Books of it call'd the Gospels we find a very large and particular Account of the Birth of Jesus Christ the first Author as is there affirm'd of that Religion which is now term'd Christian and his Birth is related to have been after an extraordinary manner in all the Circumstances of it viz. That he was conceiv'd by the Spirit of God and the over-shadowing of his Power That he was born of a Virgin That his Conception was foretold
seem to have been Pen'd by so many different Authors as appears not only from several Ways and Manners of Expression observable in each of them but also from the Subject which being the same in all and most of the same Matters of Fact being repeated in each Gospel some of which are told with such a diversity of circumstances as occasions some difficulty to reconcile together it cannot be imagined that any one Man would write so many accounts of the same Story so little different from one another in the main Branches and so much in some lesser particulars The Narration in all the Historical parts of the New Testament is very short naked and simple nothing but bare Matters of Fact being related just as they happen'd without any interposition of the Author There is no Preparation of Events no artful Transitions or Connexions no set Characters of Persons to be introduced or Reflections upon past Actions and the Authors of them no Excuses or Apologies for such things as a Writer might probably foresee would shock or disturb his Readers no Colours Artifices or Arguments to set off a doubtful Action and reconcile it to some other or to the Character of the Person that did it The Faults and Infirmities of those Persons the Authors would seem to recommend are fairly recorded without any mitigation or abatement and the Crimes of their Enemies barely told without any aggravation The Epistles appear to be written with a great Air of Piety and Devotion and the Authors of them seem to be acted by as warm and steady Zeal for the Glory of God and the Good of Mankind and to speak with mighty Assurance from a full Conviction of the truth of those things they so earnestly press and recommend Whether any of them were written by the Authors of the Historical Books and which of them were and which not we have nothing in the Writings themselves to judge by but the difference of Style which seems very distinguishable in some of them but I shall not lay much stress upon that because it may be disputed by Pretenders to Criticism The last Epistle which goes under the Name of the Revelation is plainly of a different Character from all the other Books of the New Testament though said to be written by one who was Author of a Gospel and some other Epistles which difference arising wholly from the Matters contained in it and the manner of their Conveyance into the Mind of the Writer upon this supposion it may easily be allowed to belong to the same Author that writ some other parts of the New Testament in a different Style from that of the Revelation which is altogether Figurative and Mysterious All the several Books in the New Testament excepting the Epistle to the Hebrews have Names of Persons prefixed to them as the reputed Authors of them who are all the same that are mention'd in the Gospels and Acts either as immediate Apostles of Christ or such as were chosen and directed by those that were so But neither by the Titles nor by any thing said in the Books themselves does it appear that any part of the New Testament was written by Christ himself or that he writ any thing at all I have these things further to observe of the Books of the New Testament in general that there are in divers places of them a great many particular remarkable Notes of Time to distinguish when the several Actions therein related happened all which are within the space contained betwixt the Death of Julius Caesar and the Destruction of Jerusalem That there are a great many Names of Persons and Places concern'd in these Actions the greatest part of which are Jewish Greek and Roman And that most of the chief Matters of Fact and Doctrines mention'd in any of the Books of the New Testament are supposed by the several Writers of them to be known and believed before those Books were writ The two former of these Observations are very evident upon the first and most transient reading of the New Testament and a very small degree of attention will serve to satisfie us of the latter All the Epistles are very absurd and unintelligible without this Supposition for first the Arguments and Exhortations there made use of with which they abound are for the most part inferences from Matters of Fact taken for granted and not newly told as appears from the Way and Manner in which they are mention'd the Facts being alluded to only and imperfectly hinted at not related with all the Circumstances necessary to inform those that had never heard of them before Then the Forms of Blessing and Salutation we find there and the Titles the Writers give themselves and those they write to all necessarily imply the same thing Besides there are several direct Expressions in many places of them which do formally and in plain terms assert that the Persons these Epistles were writ to had been before instructed in all the principal Truths of the Gospel 'T is plain also from the Acts of the Apostles as well as the Epistles that Churches and Congregations of Believers are supposed to be established in several parts of the World before any of these Books were writ the manner and way of their establishment being the chief Subject of that Book called the Acts as the fixing and confirming them in the Faith is the chief Design of the Epistles Nor is it less manifest from the Gospels that they all suppose the principal Matters of Fact related of Christ and most of the Doctrines delivered by him to have been known and believed by a great many at the the time when these Gospels were writ and in the places where they were published The manner of beginning each Gospel is a very good proof of this Truth St. Luke plainly in express Words affirms That the Person for whom he more particularly writ his Gospel had been before instructed in those things he was about to give him an account of in order and that those things which others had before him set forth a Declaration of were such as were most surely believed among them even as they delivered them unto them which from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word And the Writers of the other Gospels begin so abruptly and fall so immediately into the Story of Christ without any Introduction or Preface concerning the Character of the Person whose History they writ or the time or design of their writing that it cannot be imagined they would address themselves in such a manner to Persons who were perfect Strangers to the Name and History of Christ But besides this way of beginning we have several accounts in the Body of each Gospel of multitudes of People that followed Christ that heard his Sermons and were Witnesses of his Miracles of great numbers of Believers who were converted by his Discourses and of a great many that opposed and prosecuted Christ and objected several things to his
that being but 150 Years before the Council of Nice the same it was then And if the Christian Religion was as far spread in the time of Trajan as it was Sixty Years afterwards the same will hold as to all the Roman Empire and if it was not it must be derived to those Provinces that wanted it from those where it was profess'd which amounts to the same thing for if the Christian Religion in the time of Trajan was not the same it was Sixty Years afterwards no account can be given of so general and wide an Agreement then in so many different Provinces as has already been prov'd the same Christian Religion was profess'd in at that time in all which the Religion then profess'd must be supposed different from the Original it was derived from Sixty Years before even in those very Provinces where it had been so long ago established as well as in those where it was later entertain'd which is absurd to imagine And further since by the account we have of these Times it plainly appears that the Christian Religion was very far spread under the Reign of Trajan and consequently published long before and since as far as it was then spread it was the same it was Sixty Years afterwards when as we have already proved the greatest part of the Roman Empire agreed in the same general Form or Scheme of Religion which was profess'd at the Council of Nice and in the same Religious Institutions and Practices as were then in use it follows from hence and from what has been before advanced that the Christians we find in Nero's Time were of the same Religion and Faith with those that lived at the time of the Council of Nice and consequently that all the common Historical Matters of Fact mention'd in the New Testament respecting the Original of the Christian Religion the Place where it first appeared the Time and Manner of Publishing and Propagating it the Characters of those concern'd in the Work and the Fortune that attended both them and their Doctrine must necessarily be true as I shall endeavour to shew more particularly by summing up the whole Argument in this manner It has been proved before That the generality of Christians at the time of the Council of Nice acknowledg'd all the same Scriptures that we do now and that most of the Books of the New Testament were universally received then and believed by all Christians of that Time to have been so from their first appearance in the World The Books which were thus universally received were as universally thought to have been written by those Authors to whom they are ascribed and to have been all written by their several Authors at several times between the end of Caligula 's Reign and the beginning of Trajan's And indeed if they believ'd the Scripture-History as 't is plain the Christians who received these Books did they must have believed likewise that all the Books of the New Testament being written by such Authors whose Names they bear were writ within the compass of Time assigned for them for from the Time and Manner of the Publication of the Christian Religion it appears that they could not have been any of them written sooner and from the Age of the Authors it is plain that they could not have been Works of a later Date This being the general Faith of all Christians at the Time of the Council of Nice must likewise according to what has been already proved the universal Belief of Christians 150 Years before this Council sat and if the same Scriptures were in the same Manner received and acknowledg'd in the greatest part of the Roman Empire 150 Years before this Council of Nice they must have been generally known and received in the Time of Trajan as far as the Christian Name then reach'd they could not otherwise have been propagated so far and wide in less than Threescore Years time And if the Christians in Trajan's Time knew and believ'd these Scriptures then was the Christian Religion under Trajan the same it was under Nero For in every Book of the New Testament the Author plainly supposes the Christian Religion established and all the principal Matters of Fact and Doctrines there recorded believed before he wrote and therefore if all or any of these Books were received at Rome in the Time of Trajan as the Epistle to the Romans must have been when Sixty Years afterwards it was believed by the greatest part of the Roman Empire to have been sent to them then does it follow that all the Christians that received them must have certainly known that they believed the same Facts and Doctrines which they found in those Books ever since they profess'd the Christian Religion and that all others who were of the same Name must have profess'd to believe the same things too the Nature of that Religion so requiring and consequently that the Christian Religion at Rome was the same in the Time of Nero it was then the Neronian Persecution being not above Thirty five Years before the Reign of Trajan which is so short a Period that several Christians of Trajan's Time might have been Christians under Nero too and must have known whether Christianity then Preach'd to them was the same with what they found written supposing they were converted before they had seen any of the Books of the New Testament and if they were not they might as easily have inform'd themselves whether that part of the Christian History they found in these Books respecting Rome and particularly Nero's Time were true or not And their Conversion to Christianity by the means of these Books necessarily proves them satisfied of the truth of the Relations there given Now if most of the Books of the New Testament were received in Trajan's Time and if Christianity was the same under Nero as under Trajan and the same Preach'd as Written then does it necessarily follow not only that these Books were written by those Authors whose Names they bear some time between the Death of Tiberius and beginning of Trajan's Reign but that all the common Historical Facts mention'd in the New Testament and which I have undertaken to prove under this Head are certainly true otherwise they could not have been so generally and firmly believed so near the Time they are there reported to have happen'd in For the Christians that lived in Trajan's Time and received these Books as written by such Authors must consequently believe that the first Promulgation of the Gospel or Christian Religion by Jesus Christ happen'd but Seventy Years before and that during that space it was Preach'd throughout the Roman Empire by such Persons and in such a Manner as is there related that it was embraced by great numbers of People in all the considerable Provinces and Cities of it established by the Vnion of large Societies and Congregations under the same common Form of Discipline and Witness'd and Confirm'd by the various Sufferings of the first
Teachers and multitudes of their Disciples and the Christians that lived in Nero's Time must have believed most of this to have happen'd in half that space Thus by the help of meer Tradition only does it plainly appear that the Christian Religion was the same at the Time of the Council of Nice as it was when it was first Publish'd and Preach'd to the World and consequently that all the principal Matters of Fact in the New Testament such as I have before given an account of were all along believed by those who Styled themselves Christians and therefore all those common Historical Facts the certainty of which 't was my present business to shew must be true All the Authority I have made use of to strengthen this Tradition is the Testimony of some Heathen Authors of unquestionable Credit for the proof of this one point only that there were a great many Persons Styled Christians who were persecuted for what they believed and did as such at Rome by Nero and in other remote Provinces of the Roman Empire by Trajan Which two Matters of Fact happening at such particular distances from the supposed Original of the Christian Religion I chose to mention rather for the better Illustration of the Matter I was to prove than for any distinct proof of it For taking it for granted that the Matters of Fact concerning the Council of Nice and the State of the Christian Religion at that time were such as I have represented and allowing further what I think I have proved that the Christian Religion was professed in most if not all the same Places from whence the Nicene Bishops came and in the same manner as to the Belief of the Scriptures and use of those Religious Customs and Institutions I have before instanced in 150 Years before as it was then it follows from hence that without the help of any particular Testimony of Heathen or other Writers or any other Ancient Monuments of History that all those common Matters of Fact which I have mention'd at the beginning of this Head must needs be true For according to this Supposition the greatest part of the Roman Empire believing the Books of the New Testament 150 Years before the Council of Nice must consequently believe that in less than 150 Years before that Time the Christian Religion was first published to the World at Jerusalem there being no such Thing as a Christian before and that within that space of Time down from the first Publication of the Gospel to their present Belief of it it must have been Preached and Propagated through the greatest part of the known World in the Way and Manner recorded in the Books of the New Testament and that the same Persons who Preach'd it were the Authors of those Books Copies of which had been dispers'd so far and multiplied to so great great a variety that most of the People that profess'd the Christian Religion in every Country had them in their Hands which Matters of Fact and other Particulars depending upon them if they had not been true could never have been so generally believed at a Time so near that in which they were supposed to happen that the first and remotest of all was not 150 Years past and the others must fall out much later But further besides this proof that I have brought from Tradition there are a great many other concurrent Authorities which do not only confirm the Certainty of the Tradition but are of themselves a distinct and sufficient Evidence of the same Truths which we have already proved that way For at the same Period of Time wherein we have chosen to consider the State of the Christian Religion and from whence we have traced it up to its first Original and shewed the Constancy and Integrity of the Conveyance viz. At the Meeting of the first General Council of Nice we find a great many fixt and standing Monuments of several Ages and different Places that every body might have recourse to and examin when they pleased all which did very exactly and fully prove the Antiquity and uninterrupted continuance of the Christian Faith as to all the principal Matters of Fact related in the New Testament Eusebius one of the Bishops of the Nicene Council before mention'd has writ a History of the Christian Religion from its first appearance in the World down to his own Time and the Book is now extant warranted to be his by the Testimony of abundance of succeeding Writers and question'd by none Now in this History he gives us a very large and particular account of the State and Condition of Christianity in all the several Places of the World wherever he could learn it had been entertain'd which Account consists of a vast variety of Matters of Fact beside those already instanced in as preserved by Tradition the Memory of most of which was not only preserved the same way but was further secured by lasting Monuments and Records The most remarkable Matters in him which I think sufficient to my present purpose to mention for the further Confirmation of those Truths I have already proved may be referred to these three Heads Customs and Vsages Relicks Buildings and other such like Monuments Books and written Words And first it is to be observed that at the time of the Council of Nice besides those Religious Customs and Institutions before instanced in which were general and constant in all Ages and Countries since the first Original of Christianity there were several other Customs and Vsages then Practised some of which obtained as generally as the former did and others were confined to some particular Places such were the Annual Feasts of Christmas Easter and Pentecost stated times of the Year and Week for Fasting Anniversary Commemoration of the Sufferings of Martyrs and often Meeting at the Places where they Suffered using the Sign of the Cross upon several occasions calling Children by the Names of the first Apostles and Saints c. These and many other such like Customs as these are plainly founded upon and suppose an antecedent Belief of Christianity and particularly those principal Facts Recorded in the New Testament upon which the whole Christian Religion turns These therefore are both fresh proofs of the Truth of those Facts we have undertaken to prove and do also strengthen and confirm the Tradition of those other Customs and Institutions we have before instanced in especially if we consider what the same History that gives us this account informs us of viz. that the Christian Customs now mention'd were not look'd upon as such necessary parts of that Religion nor of so early an Original as the other and that both these and the former were in several Places and Ages practised after several Manners with different additional Rites and Ceremonies which general Reception of some Customs and general distinctions betwixt Necessary and Vnnecessary Substance and Manner in all that were received are certain Arguments of a sincere and well-examin'd
their Faith and Christian Resolution this way But the general Character of these Writers as well as the Authority of what they say will be further made out from the consideration of the Subjects they writ about the several kinds and sorts of their Writings and the Manner in which they are writ All which I shall endeavour to bring under one view and raise such Observations from them as will plainly confirm the main Conclusion I am to establish The common Subject of all the Books and Writings of the first Orthodox Authors was the Christian Religion though in several Ways and Methods discoursed of Most of these concern the History of Christian Affairs either expresly or occasionally For besides those Authors who purposely designed an Historical Relation either of the Church in general or of some particular Ecclesiastical Matter there 's hardly a Christian Writer within the Time of our present Enquiry but has some occasion or other to mention several Historical Passages in almost every Book that he wrote in order to some further end he proposed to himself in writing Now concerning the Writings of Christian Authors considered under this Character of Historians I have these Things to observe First That they do manifestly confirm the truth of all those Traditions and standing Monuments before mentioned For we have frequent Proofs of the Antiquity of the Scriptures and all those Religious Customs and Institutions in use amongst Christians in Eusebius's time and the General Tradition strengthen'd by abundance of New Circumstances such were the great Controversies and Quarrels about some Christian Usages particularly Baptism and the Feast of Easter together with the Canons and Decrees that were made and the Letters that were writ with relation to these Affairs Here is likewise mention made of the same Christian Relicks and Momonuments and the same publick Acts and Records which Eusebius saw and the Accounts and Extracts of them in several Authors agree with what Eusebius himself was witness of In the next place 't is very plain that they give us an account of several other Customs Monuments and publick Acts and abuudance of other particular Historical Passages besides those mention'd in Eusebius the Truth of which or the Antiquity of their Fiction being proved they are so many new Arguments in behalf of the Christian Tradition or the truth of those Facts we are now to prove Thirdly I observe that most of these Authors considered as Historians were very Competent Judges and Credible Reporters of the truth of the Facts they relate For either they were actual and immediate Witnesses of what they tell us themselves or they took a great deal of care to inform themselves right or the Facts were of that nature that they could not be deceived though they did not examine them very strictly and which way soever they came by them they were Faithsul and Sincere in their Relation Several things they tell us of their own Knowledge others they quote their Authors for and others they deliver only as Traditional Reports which they distinguish also into Probable and Fabulous according to the Evidence that then appeared to them upon a diligent Examination And several of them have given great Marks of their Diligence and Care in enquiring as well as Sincerity in reporting as particularly Hegesippus who gave an account of the Unity of Faith in several Cities after having travell'd through them and convers'd with the Bishops of them Clemens who used all the care he could to inform himself of the Truth and Sincerity of the Christian Tradition from several Eminent Persons of different Countries Irenoeus who carefully remember'd the Conversation he had with Eminent Christians in his Youth and was very much concern'd to have his own Writings deliver'd down faithfully to Posterity a proof of which first Remark concerning Irenaeus we have in an Epistle of his to Florinus quoted by Eusebus part of which I think worth the Transcribing when reproving Florinus for some ill Opinions he held he speaks to him in this manner Eus Ec. H. l. 5. c. 26. These Opinions the Presbyters who lived before our times who also were the Disciples of the Apostles did in no wise deliver unto thee For I saw thee when being yet a Child I was in the Lower Asia with Polycarp behaving thy self very well in the Palace and endeavouring to get thy self well esteemed of by him for I remember the things then done better then what has happen'd of late for what we learnt being Children increases together with the Mind it self and is closely united to it insomuch that I am able to tell where the Blessed Polycarp sate and Discoursed also his goings out and comings in his manner of Life the shape of his Body the Discourses he made to the Populace the familiar Converse which he said he had with John and with those who had seen the Lord and how he rehears'd their Sayings and what they were which he had heard from them concerning the Lord concerning his Miracles and his Doctrine according as Polycarp received them from those who with their own Eyes beheld the Word of Life so he related them agreeing in all things with the Scriptures These things by the Mercy of God bestowed upon me I then heard diligently and copied them out not in Paper but in my Heart and by the Grace of God I do continually and sincerely ruminate upon them And the same Irenaeus at the end of one of his Pieces says thus I adjure thee who shalt Transcribe this Book by our Lord Jesus and by his Glorious coming to Judge the Quick and the Dead that you compare what you shall Transcribe and correct it diligently according to that Copy whence you shall Transcribe and that in like manner you ascribe this Adjuration and annex it to your Copy Which concern of Irenaeus for the faithful conveyance of Truths contained in his own Writings to Posterity is a very good argument of his care in examining the Traditions and Writings that came down to him from elder times respecting the same Important Truths A great many other such like Instances as these may be given where the Primitive Christian Writers positively and expresly declare that they had seen and convers'd with the immediate Successors of the Apostles and with those upon whom several great Miracles had been wrought by them had themselves been Witnesses of a great many wonderful Gifts remaining in the Church in their time as likewise where they demonstrate by many sensible Marks and Signs the great Care and Diligence they had taken in examining the Informations they received from remoter Hands and all other concurring Presumptions arising from Circumstances of Fact and Rational Inferences And as they were competent Witnesses and careful Relators in General so are they more especially to be relied upon as to those two great and concerning Matters of Fact the Scriptures of the New Testament and Persecutions of Christians The Truth and Authority of the Scriptures
account in a great measure may be given of the Heathens whose Writings do any ways concern Christianity For neither those of them that were Instrumental in the Persecution of Christians nor those who endeavour to overthrow the truth of their Religion by Arguments do deny any of those matters of Fact related in the New Testament which we have distinguished by the Title of Common Historical Facts and a great many of them are confirm'd by other Heathen Writers who treat of their own affairs only or mention Christian Matters occasionally as they happen'd to be intermixt with those Things they designedly writ about Nay some of those that writ expresly against the Christian Religion do not only allow that Christ pretended to Miracles and that he did those Things Recorded of him in appearance as was the Opinion of several of them but that he did really work those very Miracles he pretended to But then they endeavour to lessen the Credit of them and destroy the Doctrines built upon them either by ascribing them as many of the Jews likewise did to Magick and Evil Spirits or shewing that several of their own Religion had done as extraordinary Things as any that were attributed to Christ and his Apostles A great many of these Heathen Writings are quoted some of them particularly Answer'd and Confuted and several large Pieces of them inserted in the Books of Christian Authors There we find besides a great many Passages out of Private Authors and Common Traditions several Rescripts Edicts and Letters of Roman Emperors either mentioned or transcribed and several Publick Acts and Records compiled by the Authority of Heathens and in their keeping appeal'd to with the greatest Confidence and Assurance imaginable as extant in the Writers Time that Cites them and generally known Particularly we meet with divers of these Heathen Monuments in the Christian Apologies which were at several times by different Writers Dedicated to Roman Emperors the Senate of Rome and Governors of Provinces Many such Proofs and Evidences as these of the Christian Faith and History are still to be found in the Christian Books which were writ before Eusebius and are now extant But there were also extant in his Time several of the same Heathen Books out of which those Testimonies were taken and others which gave the same Account of Christian Affairs which was look'd upon by Eusebius to be so notorious a Truth that when he talks of the State of Christianity under Domitian he confirms what he says by the Authority of Heathen Writers without thinking it necessary to name any particular Author Eus E. H. l. 3. c. 18. So mightily says he did the Doctrine of our Faith flourish in those forementioned Times that even those Writers who are wholly estranged from our Religion by which he plainly means Heathens have not thought it troublesome to set forth in their Histories both this Persecution and also the Martyrdoms suffered therein and they have also accurately shewn the very Time relating that in the Fifteenth Year of Domitian Flavia Domitilla Daughter of the Sister of Fabius Clemens at that time one of the Consuls of Rome was together with many others banished into the Island of Pontia for the Testimony of Christ There are likewise several Heathen Authors still separately extant out of which may be Collected a great many Passages which give a concurrent Evidence of the Truth of the Christian History as Tacitus and Pliny before quoted and divers others and there is nothing to be found in any of them that does in the least contradict any of the principal Matters Fact now to be proved But besides these Writings which are acknowledged to be Genuine and the true and proper Works of those Persons whose Names they bear whether Orthodox Christians Hereticks Jews or Heathens there were a great many other in the Primitive Times of Christianity written by uncertain Authors and either purposely Published under false Names and Titles with a design to promote the Belief of the Christian Religion in general or to advance and defend some particular Notions and Practices which the Authors of them approved and had a mind to recommend to the World or else by some mistake ascribed to those Persons to whom they did not really belong Such were a great many false Gospels Acts Epistles and Revelations and several other Historical and Doctrinal Discourses Published under the Names of Christ the Virgin Mary the Apostles and Eminent Christians of the succeeding Ages such were also several Letters said to be Writ by Pilate Seneca and Lentulus the Oracles of the Sybils and several other Writings attributed to some considerable Heathens a Passage in Josephus relating to Christ c. All which supposing them all Forged or only some of them so some accidentally mistaken and others doubtful whoever were the Authors of them so long as it plainly appears they were of such and such Antiquity they are certain proofs of the general Faith of Christians at the respective Times when any of them were Published and consequently of the Truth of those Facts in question forasmuch as they all evidently suppose an antecedent Belief of the Christian Religion founded upon those Facts as is visible by all the Remains we have left of them and therefore are as good Arguments of the Truth of what I am proving as the most Genuine unquestionable Writings of any other Author whatsoever viz. That the common Historical Facts related in the New Testament are true Which Point I think is proved by such a multitude and variety of Evidence that I may take it for granted That Jesus Christ who lived and was Crucified at Jerusalem in the Reign of Tiberius Cesar was the first Author of the Christian Religion That the Characters Sufferings and Pretences of Christ and his Apostles and the Doctrines taught by them were the same we find represented in the Books of the New Testament and that the Christian Religion there delivered was propagated through the World and those Books writ according to the Time Manner and Circumstances there mentioned between the middle of Tiberius and the beginning of Trajan's Reign and consequently that the Christian Faith as to the principal Facts and Doctrines contain'd in the New Testament was always the same from the Time of Tiberius to the Council of Nice and from thence to the present Age the greatest part of the Scriptures having been always acknowledged to be the Genuine Works of those whose Names they bore and to contain the unalterable grounds of the Christian Religion and the Sum of what Christians were obliged to believe 2. In the next place then I am to prove that those extraordinary Facts Recorded in the New Testament which we call Miracles and Prophecies were really true according the Relation there given of them That they were constantly believed to be true by all Christians ever since the Time in which they are first said to happen has already been proved but whether their Faith was well
of the World that most of the Books of the New Testament were written by those very Persons whom we that are now called Christians pretend they were Written by and that all of them were writ about the same time we now believe and affirm they were and therefore there is the same reason to believe these Books to be true and genuine as any other of the same Standing and Antiquity and if we consider the importance of the Books much greater In the next place 't is certain that in all the Accounts we have left us of the History of Christianity it no where appears that any of the Ancient Adversaries of this Religion either Jews or Heathens Prophane or Revolting Christians ever Objected to the true Christian Believers that the Books in which they pretended their Religion was contained were Forg'd and Supposititious and consequently that their Faith was Vain and Ill-grounded And if those who lived at and near the first rise of Christianity never made use of this Objection against it then what strength can it have now when urged by those who cannot well be more industrious Enemies of the Christian Religion than their Unbelieving Predecessors were and cannot possibly at this distance make out such a discovery as they pretend to could we suppose the thing true and never detected before by such as sought all occasions to lessen the Credit and stop the growth of Christianity in every Age which to me seems utterly inconceivable I am likewise perswaded that no meer Man by the strength of his own unassisted Capacities could have framed and contrived such a Book as the New Testament is I cannot possibly prevail upon my self to believe that such Facts as are there Recorded such a Contexture of History such a Scheme of Doctrines such Characters of Men and such a manner of Writing as we find throughout that Book could be altogether the Issue and Result of Humane Sagacity alone But supposing it to be possible that all these things might have enter'd into a Man's Mind supposing likewise that notwithstanding the present appearance of Vniversal uncontradicted Tradition to the contrary a Book now believed to be true might some time or other have been invented without any ground for such a Work in the reality of things allowing I say the possibility of these things 't is still upon many other Accounts manifestly absurd to imagine that the Writings of the New Testament were the Work and Contrivance of Men without a sufficient Foundation of true real Facts to support them This will more paticularly appear from these two Considerations 1. That there is no End or Design imaginable sufficient to have determined the supposed Author of the New Testament to undertake such a Work 2. That if the Principal Matters of Fact contained in the New Testament both Common and Extraordinary had not been true 't would have been utterly impossible that the Christian Religion should ever have been believed and propagated in the World in the manner we find it is at present First then I am to prove that there is no End or Design imaginable sufficient to have determined the supposed Author of the New Testament to undertake such a Work All the Ends we can imagine the Author of this Extraordinary Performance acted upon must be either the Good of Mankind his own particular Interest or Reputation in the World or purely the pleasure of deceiving but none of these could have Influence enough to produce such a Work and therefore we must account for its Original some other way For first it cannot be supposed that some Vertuous Good Man who endeavoured as far as he was able to live up to those Rules we find delivered in the New Testament should out of pure Zeal for the Welfare and Interest of Mankind Publish such a Scheme of Living as is there laid down under the grossest form of Imposture imaginable it could never enter into the thoughts of such a Man as this to recommend Simplicity Truth and Integrity by the most solemn variety of Lyes and Falshoods that ever were invented He that was concern'd to establish a Form of sound Words who represents all manner of Lying Deceit and Dissimulation as utterly inconsistent with that Model of Religion he was setting up and who strictly forbids all Men to do Evil that Good might come of it a Person I say of this Character who was in earnest and throughly perswaded of the truth of the Principles he recommended cannot be imagined to have acted directly contrary to them himself in order to have them Believed and Observed by others 'T is true indeed Fables and Parables have been often made use of as very proper and easie means of conveying good Instructions to Mankind but the History of the New Testament is too Particular and Circumstantial to be reckoned an Allegory and therefore there is no occasion to prove it none so that if the Principal Matters of Fact Recorded in the New Testament are not true according to the first obvious literal meaning of them the whole Relation must be a downright Forgery and consequently could not be the Work of an Honest Man invented by him merely for the good of Mankind The possibility of which Supposition can no ways be accounted for by the many Forged and Supposititious Writings Published by some of the first Christians in favour of that Religion for considering only those which made for the Christian Religion in General and may seem to have been contrived purely for the Propagation of it among such whose Condition was lookt upon as very Miserable by reason of their Ignorance or Disbelief of Christianity whatever of this Nature was Forged by any Christians was not really done upon any good Motive but proceeded from too passionate a Concern for the Party they were of and the Opinions they had undertook to defend When the Enemies of their Religion stood out against all the true rational Proofs urged for it an eager desire of convincing those they Disputed with and doing Honour to their own Cause and Management of it put them upon inventing such things as by the Temper or Concessions of their Adversaries were likelier to prevail with them This I take to be the true Spring and Cause of most of those False and Spurious Writings which were designed for the advantage of the Christian Cause in General the Forgeries that were contrived for the defence of some Particular Doctrine proceeding most commonly from a worse Original But 't is very evident that the first Invention and Publication of the whole Christian Scheme could not be owing to the Influence of any such Principle or Motive as is before mentioned and if it had the Inventer and Publisher could not have been a Good Man that was so Influenced nor such a good Man as we suppose acted upon a pure disinterested Principle of Love to Mankind And if it should be further Objected that 't is very probable some honest well-meaning Christians were guilty
insist upon is this That 't is utterly inconceivable that the supposed Author and Contriver of that Book could have imagined that such a Scheme of Things as we there find delivered should ever come to be believed and established in the World and without such a Thought and Perswasion of this in the Author we can never account for either the first Contrivance or Publication of it Whatever it was that determined him to frame the Christian Scheme whatever End he proposed to himself from his Labour and Skill in making it he must certainly design that the whole Fiction should be believed by those it was communicated to otherwise it was impossible for him to compass the End he aimed at If therefore 't is certain That the first Author and Publisher of the Christian Religion did design and intend to have it believed and if he was a Wise Understanding Man of great Reach and Sagacity as the Enemies of his Religion allow and is very evident from that Rational Draught of Morality the World is obliged to him for then does it plainly follow That Christianity is no Imposture and that the Books of the New Testament are not Forged and Invented For how was 't possible for a Wise Man to think that such a Multitude of strange unheard of Facts as are Recorded in the New Testament and made the Foundation of the Christian Religion should be believed without any manner of Proof or Evidence of the Truth of them But if he did not distrust the credibility of the Facts themselves what could induce him to give such a particular circumstantial Relation of them as submitted them to every Bodies Enquiry and Examination and made the discovery of their Falshood easie and obvious How could he perswade himself that such New and Difficult Doctrines should be entertained which no former Notions of Learning or Religion prepared Men to receive and which no Discovery or Revelation could make them fully comprehend And how was it possible for him to imagine That such Doctrines and Facts as these should set off and recommend his Morality to the World which considered by it self is granted to be unexceptionable Had the principal Aim and Design of this supposed Impostor been to establish the Christian Morality he would rather have Published it alone in the Name of some admired Prince or Philosopher or have pretended by some secret way of conveyance to have received it from Heaven This any Man of common Sense would have judged a likelier Method of getting it believed than the mixing and blending so many strange Facts and Doctrines amongst it and laying the whole Work upon such a Foundation as he knew had no manner of Support from Reality And on the other side had it been his chief Intention to abuse the Credulity of Mankind by making them believe so many strange and unaccountable Lyes as are contained in the History and peculiar Doctrines of Christianity if they are all False he would have taken care to have made his Morality more easie and palatable and more suited to the common Prejudices and Inclinations of the generality of Mankind that so the other parts of the Scheme might have been taken down readily and without Examination for the sake of this But taking the Christian Religion altogether as we now find it 't is not to be imagined that a Wise Man should believe he was able to bring People over to imbrace it supposing it purely an Invention of his own which he knew had no Foundation in true Facts And therefore there could be no End or Motive sufficient to Influence him to contrive what he could not believe would ever be received so far as to answer any End proposed But supposing it possible that there should have been some Man who was Wise enough to invent the whole Christian Scheme as we now find it in the Scriptures of the New Testament and who was at the same time so absurdly foolish as to think it would be believed so far as to recompence him for the pains of making and the hazard of Publishing it Supposing I say all this which to me is perfectly unconceivable yet the Books of the New Testament could not be forged Because 2. If the Principal Matters of Fact contained in the New Testament both Common and Extraordinary had not been true 't would have been utterly impossible that the Christian Religion should ever have been believed and propagated in the World in the manner we find it is at present which I shall endeavour to prove in the following Method That the Christian Religion such as we find delivered in the Books of the New Testament is at present own'd and profess'd in a great part of the World and that where-ever this Religion is profess'd those Books are appeal'd to as the Rule and Standard of it as to every thing therein contained are Truths I shall take for granted It is likewise as evident that there was a Time when there were no such Books or Religion known or heard of The inquiry then will be when and how the Christian Religion came to be Establish'd in the World In answer to which it must be allowed that either the Books of the New Testament were written first and the Christian Religion Propagated from them or the Doctrines therein contained were spread first by Preaching and Conversation and afterwards committed to Writing But which soever of these Suppositions we take the Publication of the Christian History and the Doctrines built upon it cannot possibly be placed above the Times mentioned in the New Testament because there are abundance of Names and other Circumstances allowed to be true which could not be known before without a Spirit of Prophecy which Imposture has nothing to do with In the Account the New Testament gives of this Matter the first Scene of the Imposture if the Christian Religion be accounted such is laid at Jerusalem in the time of Tiberius Cesar and consequently the Period fix'd upon for first acquainting the World with what is pretended to have happen'd then at Jerusalem must be at or near that time or at some distance since Let us consider this great Event in all these different Periods and see what the Success will be In the first place then let us suppose the Christian Religion Invented and Published at Jerusalem in the Reign of Tiberius Cesar 'T is plain the way of Propagating the belief of it must have been by Writing or Preaching if the Work was begun by Writing it must be by some of the Gospels none of the other Books of the New Testament can be pretended to be then Written without Prophecy But whether it were by one or more of the Gospels or by Preaching the things contained in them 't was absolutely impossible such a Scheme of Falshood should be believed by those who by an Infallible Consciousness must know it to be so or be spread propagated and defended by those who did not believe it themselves in places
Indirectly and Negatively by shewing that none of those Suppositions which exclude the Being of God can be true p. 57. Matter alone considered at rest could not be Eternal and in time produce the Present Frame of the World p. 59. 'T is impossible to account for the Production of the World by the Atheist's Hypothesis of moving Atoms p. 61. 'T is absurd to suppose that the World has Existed Eternally under the same Form we now behold it without a God p. 64. The Eternal Coexistence of Matter and Mind improbable p. 71. Supposing it probable neither Matter alone nor Matter and Motion nor the present Constitution of things could have been Eternal Independently of God p. 77. The Original of all things from God further evinced from General Reflections p. 81. A positive and direct Proof of Religion drawn from the Nature of God and Man and the Relations there are betwixt them p. 91. Of the Nature and Ground of Obligation together with the Right and Power of Obliging Ib. That Man is obliged to order his Life according to the Will of God is proved p. 102. From the Natural Judgments we make concerning our Actions p. 105. From the End and Design of God in making us which appears by several Tokens and Indications p. 117. in the Frame and Disposition of our Mind p. 118. and in the Oeconomy and Constitution of Humane Society p. 125. From the Nature of Religion it self a regular practice of which conduces to the greatest Happiness we are capable of in this Life p. 129. And from the certainty of a Future State which is proved p. 137. From the defect of a General and Regular Practice of Religion here p. 138. And from the General Wants Necessities and Imperfections of our present Nature p. 141. From all which Considerations it appears that 't is more for our Happiness to live Religiously then otherwise and therefore we are obliged to live so p. 146. The Certainty and Necessity of Religion further shewn from the pernicious effects of all kind of Irreligion with respect to the Happiness of Mankind p. 149. The absurdity and folly of all the Grounds and Pretences of Irreligion and whatever is alledged in defence of it p. 181. Irreligion not capable of any direct proof p. 183. The usual Ways and Methods of defending it Improper and Insufficient p. 187. Ridiculing Religion proves nothing against it Ib. Requiring a more certain and Mathematical proof of it unreasonable p. 188. Schemes and Hypotheses to account for the present state of things without God and Religion absurd and inconsistent p. 192. The chief and most common Objections against Religion answered viz. p. 200. Mysteries seeming Inconsistencies and Absurdities in Scripture p. 201. Extravagant Notions and Pernicious Doctrines maintained under the name of Religion p. 202. Variety of Opinions among the Professors of the same Religion p. 204. Foolish and Ridiculous Arguments urged in defence of it p. 205. Scandalous Lives of great pretenders to Piety and Virtue p. 206. Religion the effect of Fear and Education p. 209. Religion a politick Contrivance p. 211. The absurdity and folly of Irreligious Principles and Practices demonstrated from General Reflections upon the different Grounds and Foundations Religion and Irreligion stand upon and the different Conduct of those that act under the Influence of the one and the other p. 213. Irreligion further exposed from the causes and Reasons that induce Men to take up Atheistical and Prophane Opinions p. 227. The chief Causes of Atheism shewn to be these two The Fear of an after reckoning for a wicked Life and the Vanity of appearing greater and wiser than other Men. p. 230. The Doctrines of Irreligion the sole result of Prejudice and not deliberate reasoning more plainly made out p. 239. From the Character and Capacities of the Atheists Ib. From the manner and process of their Infidelity p. 242. And from the Confession of several Atheists themselves p. 246. An account of the Notions of Atheism and Deism and how they are to be distinguished p. 249. THE CERTAINTY Of the Christian Revelation And the Necessity of Believing it c. The Contents THe Connexion of this Discourse with the former Page 1. The Method laid down for the Establishing the Certainty of the Christian Revelation p. 3. An Abstract or Summary of the Christian Scheme as it is delivered in the Books of the New Testament p. 8. The General Subject of the several Books or Volumes of the New Testament p. 9. The Character of Jesus Christ p. 19. A short Account of his Doctrine or Gospel p. 31. The Character of those that believed in him and that assisted him in the Publishing and Propagating his Gospel p. 42. The Character of those that Persecuted Him and his Disciples and opposed the Establishment of his Religion p. 50. The way and manner in which the Books of the New Testament are writ with all the important Circumstances which refer to the form and composition of those Writings p. 51. All the Principal Matters of Fact related in the New Testament shewn to be true by a plain direct proof according to this distinction of them premised viz Common Matters of Fact Miracles and Prophecies Divine Assistance and Revelation p. 59. The Common Historical Facts mentioned in the New Testament proved to be true in the following manner p. 60. The Original of Christianity rightly assigned in the New Testament p. 61. A Survey of the Christian Religion in the time of Constantine p. 70. The Christian Faith the same in the time of Constantine as it was at and immediately after the first Publication of the Gospel p. 74. This Proposition made out from the constant Tradition of such a Belief together with many sensible Infallible Effects of it p. 75. And from many other extrinsick Signs and Monuments remaining at the Meeting of the Council of Nice under Constantine p. 105. Such as were several Customs and Vsages p. 107. Relicks Buildings and other the like Monnments p. 108. Books and Written Records of several kinds viz. p. 109. Copies of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament p. 110. Publick Acts and Records belonging to Societies p. 113. Genuine Writings of Orthodox Christians p. 119. Books Written by Hereticks p. 132. Jewish and Pagan Books p. 133. Forged and Suppositious Writings of uncertain Authors p. 137. The Miracles and Prophecies Recorded in the New Testament shewn to be true Facts according to the Relation there given of them p. 140. An Account by way of Introduction of what is meant by Miracles and Prophecies in this place p. 141. And what kind of Evidence these Facts are capable of p. 143. The Miracles considered by themselves according to the different Periods in which they were done and the different Persons they were done by p. 144. The Prophecies considered apart according to the same distinction of Times and Persons p. 158. The Truth of these Extraordinary Facts call'd Miracles and Prophecies and the Reasonableness of those
themselves in Christ their whole lives are taken up in Travelling and Preaching and labouring with their hands to maintain themselves their whole Business and Design is to persuade People to embrace the Gospel of Christ many are their Troubles and Sufferings upon this account all which they undergo very chearfully and never shew the least sign of fear or regret for any thing that happens to them they never decline an opportunity of Preaching the Gospel or converting People to the Belief of it upon any prospect of danger whatsoever and no Power or Authority of Rulers and Governors no severity of Persecutors can discourage them in their Work The other Persons concern'd in the Ministry and Propagation of the Gospel of Christ by whatever Names and Offices distinguished whether Apostles Disciples Deacons Pastors Teachers Prophets Evangelists and Presbyters Bishops or Rulers so far as we know any thing of them by the Scriptures were all of them very near of the same Character with the Twelve for meanness of Birth and Education simplicity of Manners Steadiness of Faith and adherence to the Doctrines they taught Piety and Devotion Self-denial and Disinterestedness Constancy and Resolution under continual Sufferings and a chearful preference of a future expectation in another Life to all considerations whatsoever which this World could afford But one of them named Paul is represented to us under some particular Circumstances which make his Character very different from that of the rest He was Educated in all the Learning of the Jews at the feet of one of their greatest Doctors and by some passages we find in the Epistles ascribed to him we collect that he was acquainted with the Heathen Greek Authors he was at first a zealous Enemy of the Christian Doctrine and a fierce Persecutor of all that called upon the Name of Christ but being in an extraordinary manner call'd by God and by several wonderful Signs and Appearances converted to the Faith of Christ he became a zealous Preacher of the Gospel had a larger and fuller Commission of Apostleship granted to him than any of the Twelve was exercised with a greater variety of Afflictions for the sake of the Gospel laboured more abundantly in the establishment of the Christian Religion in the World and writ more for the Confirmation of those in the Faith whom he had converted The generality of the first Common Believers who were not call'd to the Ministry were of the lowest sort of the People and several of them scandalous and notorious Sinners before their Conversion but some there were of the better and richer sort and some Rulers and Priests that believed in Christ though but a very few that we read of The Character of which Believers after the Ascension of Christ and first Sermons of the Apostles was this That the Multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own but they had all things common neither was there any among them that lack'd for as many as were Possessors of Lands or Houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them at the Apostles feet and distribution was made to every Man according as he had need In other places it is said of them that believed That before they were Servants of Sin but after they had obeyed from the heart that Form of Doctrine that was delivered them they were made free from sin and became the Servants of Righteousness that in times past they walked according to the course of this World fulfilling the desires of the flesh and mind but now being created in Christ Jesus unto good Works did walk in them that some of them who were before Fornicators Idolators Adulterers Abusers of themselves with Mankind Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers and Extortioners were washed and sanctified by the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God many of them that believed came and confess'd and shewed their Deeds many also of them which used curious Arts brought their Books together and burnt them before all Men. But in process of time when the number of Believers encreased tho' the greatest part of them manifested their Faith by their Works turn'd from the Vanity of Idols to the Living God renounced all the hidden Works of Sin and Darkness and were ashamed of those things in which before they took pleasure yet Offences and Heresies did spring up among Christians notwithstanding all the care of those that first planted the Churches and those that afterwards presided over them and some there were that walked disorderly that Preached Christ out of Envy that taught other Doctrines than what they had received that turn'd after Satan that loved this present World that put away Faith and made Shipwrack of a good Conscience but these bore no proportion to the numbers of the Faithful whose Faith and good Works were spoken of throughout the World Such were the first Publishers and Believers of the Gospel of Christ And the Persons who endeavoured to discourage the Belief and oppose the Establishment of it by all the means they could but especially by Contemning Disgracing Reviling and Persecuting those who were any ways concern'd in maintaining or propagating this new Religion were among the Jews their Kings Governors Chief Priests Elders and Chief of the Jews as also the Scribes Pharisees and Saducees who were the Men of greatest Learning and Authority in the Jewish Nation some of which are represented as very wicked Men and notorious Hypocrites and others as disbelievers of a Future State And among the Gentiles the Magistrates Rulers and Chief of the Cities Philosophers Sorcerers Craftsmen for Idolatrous Shrines and certain lewd Fellows of the baser sort most of which were stirred up and moved to what they did by the Jews that lived among them This is the shortest and plainest account I could give of the Subject of the New Testament or the Matters contained in that Book which are such as every Body that reads it will find there and consequently must subscribe to the truth of the Representation however he may doubt of the reality of the Original The next thing to be considered in the New Testament is the Way and Manner in which the several Matters before mention'd are there related with such other circumstances as referr to the Form or Composition of the whole Book and the several parts of which it consists Now 't is plain to any Man that reads over the New Testament with the same care attention and impartiality as he does another Book that it was not all writ by the same Person at one continued time but by several Persons at different times and upon different occasions and that in general 't is writ with great plainness and simplicity of Stile without Art or Affection and with many extraordinary Marks of Sincerity and Truth But to be more particular the four first Books called Gospels
Doctrine and Miracles all which being told as happening in the life-time of Christ most of the things concerning him must be supposed by those who pretend to have written presently after his Death as 't is plain all the Evangelists do to be generally known and freshly remembred at the time of their Writing which Supposition further appears from the short and disorderly Relation of several Matters of Fact in each Gospel which in such cases where we are not assisted with a fuller Account from the other Gospels or following Books of the New Testament seem very obscure to us now who are not acquainted with the rest of the Circumstances omitted This is what I thought fit to remark concerning the Subject and Form of that Book which we call the New Testament And now that this Book does really contain such things as are before mention'd and is writ in such a way and manner as I have here represented I think may be taken for granted since whatever has been observed under this head must necessarily appear too true to any one that will read over the New Testament and is capable of making any Judgment of a Book II. Supposing then that I have given a just Account and Character of the New Testament and the several Books or Volumes it consists of I shall from hence advance to the main Design proposed which was to prove That all the principal Matters of Fact related in the New Testament are really true that is did really happen out at the Times and Places and in the Manner they are there recorded to have happen'd This I shall endeavour in the second place to make good by a direct Proof according to the distinction of the several Facts to be enquired into before laid down viz. common Historical Facts Prophesies and Miracles Divine Assistance and Revelation I. The first Step then I am to make in the proof of what I have before asserted is to shew that the common Historical Facts mention'd in the New Testament are true The principal of which are these following viz. That there was such a Person as Jesus Christ of such a Character who taught such Doctrines pretended to such mighty Works and was executed in such a manner as is represented in the New Testament That there were likewise certain Persons who were Followers and Adherents of Christ who after his Death profess'd to believe the Miracles we find now recorded of him and to do as great themselves who taught the same Doctrines he did in his life-time and many other things which they pretended to have received from him while he was alive and from the Spirit of God afterwards and who made is their business to propagate the Belief and Practice of what they taught throughout the World whose Characters and Sufferings were such as are before described That the Doctrine or Religion of Christ was accordingly propagated through all Judea and most Parts of the Roman Empire so that great Numbers of People every where own'd and profess'd it And that all this happen'd within that compass of Time included between the Death of Julius Caesar and the Destruction of Jerusalem Now these are such remarkable notorious Facts have been so well proved by multiplicity of Evidence and so little contested by the several Enemies of Christianity That I shall content my self by giving a summary Proof of them without entring upon that great Variety of particular Arguments every general Branch of Evidence contains in it Which Proof I shall cast into this Method First I shall take an Account of the Original of Christianity and shew That this Religion must have came first into the World at the time assign'd for this Event in the New Testament Afterwards I shall consider the state of Christianity at another Period of Time when it will certainly be allowed that all the principal Matters of Fact that stand now recorded in the New Testament were generally believed And then I shall prove That the same Matters of Fact were likewise believed at and immediately after the Times in which they are said to happen and so continually down to that particular Period fixed upon Which last Proposition I shall endeavour to make out From the constant Tradition of such a Belief together with many sensible infallible Effects of it And from many other extrinsick Signs and Monuments remaining at that Time From which constant and universal Belief among Christians of all the principal Facts in the New Testament both common and extraordinary continued down to such a Period from the very first Times in which they severally happen'd I conconclude That at least the common Matters of Fact such as I have just before instanced in must be true First then as to the Original of Christianity it is to be observ'd That there is no Age of the World no Portion of Time since the beginning of Things at any great Distance from us that we have a clearer fuller and more particular Account of than we have of that which past under the Twelve first Cesars or Emperors of Rome both Learning and Empire being then at the highest Pitch and furnishing abundance of Matter for the Pens of that and the succeeding Ages And as the History of that time is the truest and best known of any so no Matter of Fact could happen within that Time which was more remarkable or could more easily and certainly be conveyed down to Posterity than the first Rise and Propagation of the Christian Religion There 's nothing so easy to be known of any Countrey where we have the least Remains of History left us as what Religion was profess'd there and what considerable Alterations were made in it All the Laws Customs and Policy of a Nation are intermixt with their Religion most of the Actions Opinions and Characters of particular Men bear the Marks of it and if we examin Things more narrowly and trace them up to their Original we shall find that Religion puts a greater Distinction betwixt one Nation and another than any difference of Climate can do But not to pursue that Speculation any further 't is very plain from all History what the Religion of the Jews was and what Religion they had at Rome and in other Parts of the Roman Empire under the Reign of Augustus There were no such Persons then to he heard of as bore the Name of Christians no such Religion any where professed as that which is now call'd Christian the Plan and Model of which we find in the Books of the New Testament But in the Time of Nero we find a great many Persons at Rome Tacitus call'd Christians put to Death and several other ways persecuted and tormented for being so by that Emperor which Denomination and whatever they thought themselves obliged to believe or do upon that Account was then generally acknowledged by themselves and others to be derived to them from one Christ who was sometime before crucified at Jerusalem Now the Time when this
Christ the first Author of this Sect of Men call'd Christians began to publish his Doctrine to the World is very particularly and circumstantially set down by St. Luke in the Third Chapter of his Gospel to be the Fifteenth Year of the Reign of Tiberius Cesar Pontius Pilate being Governor of Judea and Herod being Tetrarch of Galilee and his Brother Philip Tetrarch of Iturea and of the Region of Trachonitis and Lysanias the Tetrarch of Abilene Annas and Caiaphas being the High Priests of the Jews And in the Book call'd the Acts of the Apostles said to be writ by the same St. Luke it is affirm'd That the Disciples by which Word is there meant all those that believed in Christ and embraced the Doctrines taught by him were called Christians first at Antioch Which Matter of Fact is by the Consent of all Christian Historians recorded to have happen'd at the latter end of the Reign of Caligula who was the next that succeeded Tiberius in the Empire of Rome And that this is the lowest Point of Time it can be fix'd at appears from the same Place of St. Luke where immediately after the Words before cited it follows And in these Days came Prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch and there stood up one of them named Agabus and signified by the Spirit that there should be great Dearth throughout all the World which came to pass in the Days of Claudius Cesar From whence I infer That this Relation of Agabus concurring in Time with that other Account of the Disciples being first call'd Christians and it being plain from what is said concerning the Completion of Agabus's Prophecy in the Days of Claudius Cesar That he first utter'd his Prophecy some time before the Days of Claudius Cesar the Time when the Disciples were first called Christians must likewise be sooner or later before the Reign of Claudius which Claudius being the immediate Successor of Caligula in the Empire the Matter of Fact in question must happen in the latter end of the Reign of Caligula or at some time before Now from the Fifteenth Year of Tiberius when Christ first published his Doctrine at Jerusalem to the last of Caligula when his Disciples were first call'd Christians at Antioch is about Twelve Years from whence to the Tenth Year of Nero when the Christians were first persecuted at Rome is a little above Twenty Years within Five Years after which Jerusalem was destroyed and an End was put to the Jewish Government and Policy So that from the Fifteenth of Tiberius when it is pretended that Christ first published his Gospel at Jerusalem to the first of Vespatian when Jerusalem was destroy'd is about Forty Years and no more If therefore these Matters of Fact concerning the Neronian Persecution and the Destruction of Jerusalem are true as is constantly attested by Heathen and Jewish as well as Christian Writers 't is more than probable that those mention'd by St. Luke are so too For before the Fifteenth of Tiberius no Signs or Footsteps of Christianity are to be found in the World neither is it pretended by any of the Adversaries of this Religion that it was earlier and the Destruction of Jerusalem falling in the First Year of Vespatian the Propagation of the Christian Religion from thence to other Parts of the World must needs have had as early a Date of that And therefore if we find great Numbers of Christians at Rome in Nero's Time both the Propagation as well as Original of the Christian Religion must have happen'd not only before the Destruction of Jerusalem but some time between the Fifteenth Year of Tiberius and the Tenth of Nero and consequently the Account before given by St. Luke of these great Events cannot well be imagin'd to be false but 't is certain the Mistake in Time if there should be any supposed cannot be considerable From all which I think I have reason to conclude That the Christian Religion was profess'd at Rome in the Time of Nero and was derived from one Christ who was the first Author of it and suffered Death at Jerusalem upon that Account toward the latter end of Tiberius's Reign as I find it recorded by St. Luke and the other Writers of the New Testament The next view I shall take of the Christian Religion shall be under Constantine another Emperor of Rome who upon some occasion or other was disposed to embrace this Religion about 300 Years after the first Publication of it by Christ at which time it is very notorious that Christianity was the prevailing Religion in all the parts of the Roman Empire the extent of which was then very great This manifestly appears from all the accounts we have of the History of this famous Emperor and the State of the World under his Reign in the Twentieth Year of which was held a General Council which was a Meeting or Assembly of a great number of Bishops who came from all the different Provinces and Cities both of the Eastern and Western Empire and were Persons that in their several Districts govern'd and directed in Religions Affairs the chief design of that Meeting was by Constantine who called them together declared to be for the decision of a Controversie that had happen'd between certain Christian Professors concerning a particular Article or Doctrine of their Religion which some affirm'd ought to be believed in one Sense and some in another These Bishops did meet accordingly to the number of about 300 decided the Matter they were called about by appointing a Form of Words for all Christians to express their Belief of that and several other particulars in which was unanimously approved and subscribed by all but two Besides which Form of Faith they made several Canons or Rules with Relation to Discipline which concern'd the Qualifications of such Persons as were to perform Religious Offices or to partake of the Effects of them their manner of Acting upon such occasions and their Behaviour to one another upon the account of any Religious distinction But in order to take a more particular survey of the State of the Christian Religion under Constantine from the account that is given us of this Council by Eusebius and Athanasius who were present at it and other credible Writers who lived at or near the same time I shall draw these following Observations and Reflections I. Constantine was the first Roman Emperor that profest the Christian Religion There was no King Consul Dictator Emperor or any other the chief Governour of the Roman State before him that ever departed from the ancient Institution made upon the first Settlement of that Commonwealth or publickly embraced a new Religion of a different Character from that established by the Laws of Numa 2. There never was before this Council any such General Meeting of Eminent and Learned Persons who were Assembled together from so many different quarters of the World purely to settle some Controversies in Religion Which two surprising Circumstances must make this
Council of Nice one of the most remarkable Events that ever happen'd in the World 3. The calling of this Council does plainly inferr that Constantine look'd upon the whole Roman Empire to have been at that time generally Christian The Persons summon'd the Places from whence they came the occasion of their Meeting do all prove this For the Persons of which the Council was compos'd were most of them Governors and Teachers of large Churches and Congregations they came out of all the greater and lesser Provinces and from the most Populous and Considerable Towns under the Roman Government and the reason of their coming was to give their Opinion concerning a particular Doctrine which did suppose an antecedent Belief of the whole Christian Scheme 4. The whole behaviour of this Council of Bishops while they sat together and the business they did there is a certain proof not only that they were Christians and that the Christian Religion was publickly and generally profest in the Places from whence they came but that they all agreed in some common Faith and that the Christian Religion profess'd in the several Places from whence they came was every where the same without any other variation than what was grounded upon the different Conception of some Articles by particular Persons which were allowed by all alike in some general Terms or different application of some general Rules about such Matters as Christians were by the whole tenour of their Religion left at liberty so to apply 5. The reason of this general Agreement of all Christians separated so far from one another in place and never before this time united under one common Head or Governor was as we find by what pass'd in this Council a firm and constant Belief that such and such Books which they all had amongst them were written by the immediate Followers and Disciples of Christ and contained a true Account of his Life and Doctrine and a full Scheme of their Religion What ever was in any of these Books they lookt upon as Obligatory and such they esteemed the Authority of these Writings That they were not upon any Account in the least Passage of them to receive any Addition Diminution or Alteration whatsoever In the Decision of the present Controversy before them these were appeal'd to on both Sides and the Authority of them allowed by all and the particular Canons they made were founded upon the general Rules and Orders of Discipline laid down in these Scriptures 6. As we find by what was done in this Council concerning the Matter of Faith they came to settle That all the Bishops there assembled were acquainted with several of the same Books of Scripture which we now have under the Name of the New Testament and that they were perswaded they were delivered down to them from the Apostles as a Rule of their Faith So by several of the Canons they made we are assur'd That in all the several Places from whence they were assembled the Customs of Baptism and the Communion were universally and constantly used That the First Day of the Week was observed as a Day set a-part for Religious Services which were chiefly Prayers and Reading the Scriptures That there were a great many Men in a particular Way and Manner appointed for the Performance of Religious Offices in the Name and Presence of the People And that some of these did in a more eminent Degree preside over all other both Religious Officers and common Christians in such a District under the Title and Style of Bishops Now the Truth of this Relation concerning the Council of Nice and the State of the Christian Religion at that Time being supposed in the next Place I shall undertake to prove That the Christians we find in Nero's Time were of the same Faith and Religion with those that lived under the Reign of Constantine and consequently That all the principal Matters of Fact now recorded in the New Testament were generally believed at and immediately after the Times in which they are said to happen and so continually down to the Council of Nice This I shall endeavour to make out First From the constant Tradition of such a Belief together with many sensible and infallible Effects of it From the Neronian Persecution to the Council of Nice is about 260 Years which is so short a Period That 't is hardly possible to imagine the Tradition of so important a Fact as the general Profession of the Christian Religion in any considerable Country or Nation should in the main Branches and Substance of it be defective or corrupted within that Time though there were no other remaining Monuments of it but what were obvious to every Man 's own Observation at the Meeting of this Famous Council And therefore since the Christians of this latter Period did look upon it as a certain Truth delivered down to them That the Christians who lived in Nero's Time professed the same Faith they did as 't is plain from the Account before given of their Religion they must we may very well conclude That the Matter of Fact was really so without further Proof But to remove all Doubts and Objections so general a Conclusion as this may be apt to create the Truth and Credibility of the Tradition shall be more clearly made out in the following Manner Several of those who were present at the Council of Nice might of their own certain knowledge be fully satisfied That for Fifty Year backward the Christian Religion had been the same it was then in the Countries from whence they came That all this Time they had had the same Scriptures among them That these Scriptures had constantly been read both in publick and private and as far as fell within humane Cognizance as constantly and in the same manner believed and esteemed as they appeared then to be That the Ceremonies of Baptizing and Communicating had been always universally used at such Times and upon such and such Occasions That these and several other Religious Performances as Reading the Scriptures Prayers Exhortations c. had been constantly practised in publick when Christians were assembled together That Meetings or Assemblies for these Purposes were very frequent That besides other occasional Times they always observed the First Day of the Week as a Portion of Time which they thought themselves obliged to set a-part for the Performance of Religious Duties and especially in Publick That there were a constant Succession of Men by certain Ceremonies peculiarly appropriated to the Discharge of some Religious Offices which they did not think it Lawful for others not so distinguished to be concern'd in That it was the particular Business of these Men to teach and instruct the rest in the Knowledge of the Christian Religion and exhort them to a steady and exact Submission to the Rules of it That there were some of these styled Bishops who were by some different Marks of Distinction known from the rest of their Brethren and presided
of the New Testament were acknowledg'd by the greatest part of the Nicene Fathers and most of them by all 'T is plain from all the publick Decisions and Orders of the Council That they are grounded upon some or other of the Books of Scripture now in our Hands if they may be supposed to have been written before that Time And that they were Eusebius one of the Bishops of this Council is a sufficient Witness who in a History he has left us gives us an Account of the Time when they were all writ and the Authors they were writ by which is another very good Argument That most of the Nicene Bishops had the same Bible For Eusebius being not only present amongst and conversing with several of them but having a great Share in the Management of the Controversy they came to decide and being of a doubtful Faith in the main Point determined by them or as some suspect a Favourer of the Side condemned must have had occasion either in publick Debate or private Conversation to have cited most of the Books he acknowledg'd for Scripture and had any doubt arisen concerning the Authority of them such a considerable and important Controversy as would have sprung from thence would have produced a Determination of the Council upon it or to be sure have been as much taken Notice of and as faithfully Recorded as any Thing else that was done there Besides 't is plain from the History we have of this Council by Cotemporaries and others of the Age immediately following That some Scriptures were appeal'd to their Authority acknowledg'd Forms of Expression drawn from thence a Difficulty made of departing from Scripture-Terms till other equivalent Expressions were found necessary to distinguish those who believ'd Scripture in a right Sence from those who interpreted it wrong And therefore if Eusebius or Athanasius who were present at the Council or any other Writer cotemporary or near in Time to it says any Thing of this Nature he must be judg'd to mean That the same Scriptures were acknowledg'd by the Nicene Council which he himself owns So that if Eusebius or Athanasius own'd all the Books of the New Testament which we do 't is manifest That when he talks of the Scriptures in the Account he gives of the Nicene Council he must mean the same that he does when he mentions them upon any other Occasion And the like will hold of other Writers But further to put this Matter past all doubt 't is certain That the Canon of Scripture was some time or other afterwards fixed as we find it now with all the same Books in the New Testament that we have at present The Occasion of making such a Canon was because it was doubted of some of the Books Whether they were the genuine Works of those whose Names they bore and if they were not Whether they were of equal Authority with the rest Now the way that was taken to remove all Objections and fix the Authority of those Scriptures which were to be the unalterable Standard of the Christian Religion was by examining the general Tradition of all the different Churches where Christianity was professed upon which Examination when it was certainly known That such and such Books which were doubted of by some because they had been but lately received among the Christians of those Provinces and Churches to which they belong'd had been constantly acknowledg'd under the same Style and Character with the rest by the Generality of the other Churches of Christians these were likewise as universally receiv'd as the other and their Authority in the same manner allow'd The Consent of so many different Churches in the same Opinion concerning certain Books and agreeably to their Opinion in the same careful Preservation of them unalter'd most of which Churches had continued separate and independent one of another ever since the Date they ascribed to those Writings and several of them at such a Distance as to have had no communication with one another since that Time such a Consent I say as this whensoever the Canon of Scripture was first determined in a general Meeting was thought sufficient to establish the Authority of any Book that was doubted of and accordingly the whole Canon we now have was afterwards universally acknowledg'd Since therefore we find That all the Scriptures of the New Testament were universally received some time after the Nicene Council and since the Establishment of the Canon and universal Submission to it were founded upon a general Tradition so faithfully preserved in the far greatest part of Christian Churches that all other Christians were fully satisfied of it From hence it follows That the greatest part of the Nicene Bishops must own the same Scriptures we do now because the greatest part of the Churches from whence they came did But not to insist upon this we will consider only those Scriptures which were never doubted of by any Christians and consequently must have been received by the whole Council of Nice These were according to Eusebius who in his History gives us a Catalogue of them the Four Gospels Acts of the Apostles the Thirteen Epistles of St. Paul which have his Name to them the First Epistle of Peter and the First Epistle of John And Eusebius could not say this had he known of any of his Fellow-Bishops of the Council who denied either the Authority or general Reception of any of these Books Supposing therefore That these were the only Scriptures acknowledg'd by all the Nicene Bishops then what was said before concerning several Religious Customs and Practices there mention'd will hold in like manner of those Books of Scripture and such or such a particular Bishop that was present at this Council might himself by a short easy and unquestionable way of conveyance be assured That for 150 Years last past the same Scriptures had been acknowledg'd as well as the same Religious Customs practised in that Church and Province from whence he came and consequently That the main Scheme of Christian Doctrine and the publick Profession of it had been all that Time the same Now if we apply the foregoing Observations to all the several Bishops of this Council and suppose them all satisfied of the constant Tradition of the same Scriptures Customs as are before specified in the several Churches and Provinces from whence they came as the History of these Times relates the Matter of Fact to have been then is the unanimous consent of all these Bishops an infallible Argument of the truth of what they testifie And if there had not been such a constant Tradition in any of these Churches or Provinces as we suppose then the Original Introduction or Intermission of any of those Scriptures or Customs within the same compass of Time would have been in the same Way and Manner and with the same Certainty known to the Bishops of those Churches and Provinces where such Introduction or Intermission happen'd and what was first introduced
that were done by the Hands of his Apostles and Disciples the truth of which was likewise owned and acknowledged by avast Multitude more both of such as believed the Gospel and of such as rejected and opposed it and violently Persecuted the Teachers of it To omit the Testimony of true Believers thus it is Recorded concerning those upon whom the Gospel of Christ had no Power nor Influence The Rulers Elders Scribes and High Priests among the Jews when they summoned Peter and John before them for curing a Lame Man could not deny but that a notable Miracle had been done by them which was manifest to all them that dwelt at Jerusalem They were afterwards filled with Indignation and took Counsel to slay them because they could not restrain them from doing more Miracles in the Name of Christ but they never questioned the Truth of the Facts Stephen full of Faith and Power did great Wonders and Miracles among the people but he was accused and condemned by the Council of the Jews not for deceiving the People with false Miracles but for speaking things against the Holy Place and the Law for saying that Jesus should destroy that Place and change the Customs which Moses delivered them when at the same time it is said that all that sat in the Council looking stedfastly on him saw his Face as it had been the Face of an Angel Neither had they any Thing to object against his Life or his Works Simon the Sorcerer to whom all the people in Samaria gave heed from the least to the greatest looking upon him to be the great Power of God was himself as well as those that were bewitched by him Baptized by Philip and believed when he beheld the Miracles and Signs that were done But afterwards we find by the wickedness of his heart which he discovered to Peter that he was an Enemy to the true Doctrine of the Gospel Elymas the Sorcerer who was struck Blind by Paul and yet not converted to the Faith is another unwilling Witness of the Power of the Apostles The People of Lystra confirm the same Truth who took Paul and Barnabas for Gods in the likeness of Men by reason of the Miracles they saw performed by them and afterwards by the Instigation of the Jews stoned Paul The Damsel possess'd with a Spirit of Divination and her Masters who saw the hope of their gains gone by Paul's commanding the Spirit to come out of her several Vagabond Jews Exorcists who took upon them to cast out Evil Spirits in the Name of Jesus but suffered very much for the Impudence of their Pretences and a great many other such like were Witnesses of the Miracles of the Apostles who by reason of some wicked or dishonourable Motives rejected the Doctrine they taught or profess'd to imbrace it upon ill Designs or after they had received it made Shipwrack of the Faith Great Complaints of all which sort of Men we find in the Epistles Thus are the Miracles of the first Apostles and Disciples of Christ declared and attested But moreover it is Recorded of them that they had not only a Power of working Miracles themselves but that they were Authorized and Enabled by Christ and his Spirit to convey the like Power to others And accordingly we find a great many Instances in the New Testament where Miracles were wrought by private Christians by Virtue of a Power they had received from the Apostles which was conferred upon them by Prayer and Imposition of Hands After which Actions of the Apostles they are immediately said to be filled with the Holy Ghost and to have received the Gifts of the Spirit which according to the different exigencies of the Church and the different qualifications of the Persons indued with them were divers And among these are reckoned the Gifts of Tongues and of Interpretation the Gifts of Healing and of Miracles which Gifts are said to be very common among the first Converts to Christianity in all places where the Gospel was Preach'd and the same is plainly implied by the frequent Rules and Cautions that are given by the Apostles concerning the due Exercise of them and the fear and apprehension they often express lest the Christians thus impowered should by coveting one anothers Gifts or being puft up with those they were severally possessed of neglect to apply themselves as they ought to do to the Edification of the Church of Christ This is the Scripture-Account of Miracles and these were those wonderful Facts believed by the first Christians their full assurance of the Truth of which was the chief Ground and Motive of their imbracing the Gospel or Doctrine of Christ There were likewise other strange Matters of Fact called Prophecies which were most surely believed among them and which contributed very much to their receiving the Gospel and continuing in the Profession of Christianity without wavering and these I shall consider in the same Way and Method I did Miracles For there are several Prophecies Recorded in the New Testament as uttered by our Saviour himself together with several other spoken with relation to him and fulfilled by him others there are mentioned as spoken by the Apostles and Disciples of Christ who had received the Power of Prophecy immediately from him 'T is plain also from several Instances and Passages in the Sacred Writings that the Spirit of Prophecy was conveyed by the first Apostles and Disciples to private Christians and was very common among them The Prophecies spoken by our Saviour were most of them delivered in private to his Disciples some of which were not written till after the things happened and the truth of these the Disciples are wholly answerable for and some of them were Published in Writing before the things happened and these might then and may still be examined by the Circumstances of them others of them were spoken publickly and frequently before great Multitudes of People as those about his Suffering and Resurrection c. and several besides their being spoken openly in the presence of many were also spread abroad in Writing long before the Events actually happened as particularly that remarkable one concerning the Destruction of Jerusalem Prophecies spoken of Christ in former times with relation to his Person Actions Sufferings and Doctrine with the several Circumstances belonging to the whole Dispensation of his Gospel are to be found written in the Books of the Old Testament which were manifestly wrote long before his coming into the World and are now Extant and might then and may still be compared with those Events related in the New which are pretended to be completions of them And some Prophecies there are concerning our Saviour spoken by Holy Persons a little before and after his Birth and at his Presentation in the Temple as also others concerning John his Forerunner and all the Preaching of John was Prophetical of Christ The truth of all which Matters of Fact does not depend wholly upon the Credit of the Prophets themselves
Prediction was fulfilled and that therefore it was a true Prophecy 't was enough to know that Jerusalem was Destroyed and the Jewish People driven out of their Country whatever way this came about but to know that such a Man was Well or such another Alive or that the one had been Sick and the other to all appearance Dead is not sufficient to convince a Man of the truth of the Miracle in either case and a Person who did not see the Manner and Circumstances in which each of these Facts was done can receive no assurance of them afterwards but from the Testimony of others because there are no visible Remains and Footsteps of the Miracle left after the Action is over whereas in the other Instance of Prophecy the Event is constantly the same it was at first and equally convincing at all times to every one that will take the pains to satisfie himself And further if a considerable time intervene between the Prediction and the Accomplishment and the Record of the Prediction was very publick before the thing happen'd the Persons who live after the Accomplishment and so were immediate Witnesses of neither part of the Prophecy may be more easily and fully satisfied of the truth of a particular Prophecy than of a particular Miracle they were not Witnesses of themselves because both the Prediction and the Accomplishment being Common Facts considered in themselves without any relation to one another are less liable to suspicion than unusual Events of a more surprising Nature and the truth of the latter Fact being often certainly cognizable at any time of inquiry there is so much time supposed between this Accomplishment and the former Prediction that 't is easie to find out whether that really happened out before this which is all that is required for the truth of the whole Prophecy the extraordinary nature of which arises from the comparison of both together in order to know the reason of their Connexion and not from any thing in the Facts themselves severally considered as it does in Miracles where the Facts themselves are wonderful without any consideration of the Causes or Occasions of them Thus are the first Christian Miracles and Prophecies related and attested These are the Grounds and Reasons upon which they were believed and this is the summ of all the Evidence that is brought for them which is capable of being illustrated and confirm'd by a vast variety of particular Observations but my intended Method not allowing me to make such Inlargments I shall conclude the Proof I was upon with this General Reflexion From the account that is given in the New Testament of the Miracles and Prophecies there Recorded and of the manner of Preaching the Gospel and Converting People to the Christian Religion it plainly appears that the first and principal Motive upon which any Persons believed in Christ and imbraced the Doctrine taught by him and his Apostles was some Miracle they themselves were actual Witnesses of for Miracles were then so common every where that there was hardly any Christian even among the Gentile Converts for above Threescore Years after the Promulgation of the Gospel by Christ but was himself a Witness of some Miracle wrought by others So that tho' they might be further confirm'd in the belief of what was taught them by the Characters of Christ and his Apostles the Testimony of Jewish Christians who upon the several Persecutions in Jerusalem and all Judea were scattered and dispersed among the Gentiles of all Nations and the Accomplishment of Prophecies written in the Books of the Old and New Testament which they knew to have been written before the Events happen'd yet the first and chief ground of their assent to the Miracles and Doctrines of the Gospel was some Miraculous Power they had themselves been Witnesses of When therefore we consider the vast number of Converts that were made to Christianity in the first Age of the Gospel and consequently the vast Multitude of seeming Miracles that must have been continually wrought for their Conversion in all Places together with the steady and invincible Perseverance of Christians in the Faith notwithstanding all the variety of Sufferings they indured for believing 't is impossible to imagine there should be a whole Age of Delusion and Deceit that there should be such a long continued train and series of meer empty Appearances without any reality under them which produced such real Effects as remain till this Day and Effects of such an extraordinory nature as in a very short time gave a new turn to the whole Scheme of Affairs in the most considerable part of the World Since therefore all the common Matters of Fact mentioned in the History of the Gospel as we find it delivered in the New Testament are true as I have shewed before and consequently that among the rest that the Miracles Recorded in the New Testament were believed according to the relation there given of them it necessarily follows from hence that there were such Facts as those in appearance at least otherwise there could have been no ground for believing them in that manner as 't is said they were believed and if there were all those appearances of something done I shall take it for granted for the reason just before given that there were so many true real Facts And if the Miracles are allowed to be real the Prophecies must be so too as being freer from all suspicion of wrong appearance 3. The next step I am to make in the proof of the Christian History is to shew that what is said in the New Testament concerning Divine Assistance and Revelation is true Now 't is frequently and positively asserted there not only that such and such Signs and Wonders were wrought such Prophecies uttered and fulfilled and such Doctrines preach'd but that all these things were performed by the immediate Power and Authority of God This is every where acknowledg'd and insisted upon by Christ and his Apostles and all that were concerned in the Work and Ministry of the Gospel What they constantly affirm of themselves is that they were sent from God that they were authorized and ordained by God to Preach the Gospel that they were doing the Work of the Lord that the Doctrine they taught and preached came from God that they had it by Revelation that God shewed them things to come that they spake by the Spirit of God that the Power they had was from God and that God was with them continually assisting them and revealing himself to them Whether the Matters of Fact were really so as they affirmed we have no other ways of knowing but these two their own Testimony and the nature of the things said and done by them As to the Testimony of those who declare all these wonderful things of themselves their Condition Character and Sufferings have been considered already and found to be such as are a sufficient warrant to secure us from any fear or suspicion of
their designing to impose upon us But because they do not require us to believe their own Witness but bid us examine their Works and inquire of their Doctrine in order to know whether they were of God or not we will take the Method they have prescribed us though I cannot but observe by the way that the Appeal they make and the Directions they give for a careful examination of their Pretences is a very good Argument of their Sincerity and full assurance of the truth of what they pretended to But waving all Observations of this kind I will confine my self to the consideration of the nature of the things said and done by Christ and his Disciples and shew that they were such as neither they themselves who said and did them nor those that saw and heard them nor any body else that is any other way convinced of the truth of the Appearances could be deceived in thinking they proceeded wholly from God The Matters to be inquired into fall under one of these Three Heads viz. Miracles Prophecies and Doctrines concerning which we will inquire first whether the Persons themselves who appeared to be the immediate Authors of them might not be infallibly satisfied that whatever of this kind they did or said was from God alone and not at all from their own Power or Skill This is certainly and undeniably possible that God may if he so please reveal and discover something to a Man which he did not know before and something which without such discovery he could not have known at all or not at that time when he first perceived himself to know it He that made us and gave us the capacity of Perception and Understanding may as easily when and howsoever he thinks fit put into our Minds such thoughts as our own Labour and Industry had not yet or could not have supplied us with There needs no further proof of this to him that believes a God And if God can reveal any thing to Man 't is likewise as certain that that Man to whom such discovery is made may be undeceivably convinced that the Revelation came from God The same God who gave him the faculty of difcerning betwixt Truth and Falshood in his acquired knowledge can enable him to distinguish as certainly betwixt his own Attainments and Divine Communications He may judge that such a thing was revealed to him by God with the same Satisfaction and Acquiescence of Mind and with the same impossibility of entertaining a doubt notwithstanding all his efforts and endeavours to distrust himself as he judges any other Proposition is true in which the connexion of the simplest and most known Ideas is irresistibly perceived Evidence of Perception is the only Standard of Truth in all Cases And though several Men may have been deceived in thinking some things were revealed to them by God which were not so revealed this is no more an Argument that a Man cannot be certain of any Revelation than 't is an Argument for Vniversal Scepticism that some Men have been mistaken in what they thought self-evident Propositions and Demonstrations But not to enter further into that dispute which I shall have occasion to consider in another place besides the certainty that a Man may have that God has revealed himself to him from immediate consciousness his Faith may be confirm'd if any degrees of Evidence can be supposed wanting by External Signs and Characters God may if he please give a Man such a strong conviction of his Power to do such and such wonderful things that he may be intirely satisfied without so much as a desire to make any tryal of his Talent and he may likewise manifest himself to him in such a manner as leaves some room for Doubts but such as must needs yeild to further Proofs ordained by God for the removal of them Thus for Instance a Man that is strongly perswaded God has given him a Power of performing such and such extraordinary things but has some little distrust of himself lest he should mistake the Delusions of his own Fancy for the Revelations of God when upon trial he finds that such things are really perform'd by his Hands all his doubts vanish and he is throughly confirm'd that both his Power and former Perswasion were from God This in general must be granted that a Man may take such a certain estimate of his own Capacities Powers and Attainments that he may be infallibly sure that he could not do or know such a thing of himself without some other Assistance that he did not know such a thing before such a time that he did not know it then by the help of his Antecedent Knowledge and that he did not do such a thing by any Power or Force of his own or by any Skill or Knowledge of the manner how it was done That I cannot now Cure the Sick nor Raise the Dead nor Speak the Syriack and Arabick Tongues nor tell when the Jews shall be settled in their own Country again I am as sure as 't is possible for me to be that I can think or speak or move And if I should hereafter Cure the Sick or Raise the Dead by the word of my Mouth if I should speak the Syriack and Arabick Languages without reading any Books writ in those Tongues or hearing them spoke or should foretel the exact time of the Restoration of the Jews I should then be also fully satisfied and assured that I did not perform such Works as curing the Sick and raising the Dead by any Power or Skill of my own that I did not understand such Languages or know any thing of such an Event before I spoke the one and foretold the other and that all the knowledge I had acquired before that time was not sufficient to make me understand those Languages and that Event without some further and more extraordinary Assistance exceeding all my Power and Knowledge If I am capable of knowing any thing at all of my self I cannot be mistaken in these things and the same Experience every other Man is alike capable of But supposing Christ whom I consider now only as a Man and his Apostles and Disciples were all severally satisfied by a certain consciousness of their own Power and Knowledge that the Miracles they performed exceeded their Humane Power and the Prophecies and Doctrines they delivered could not be the Results and Products of their antecedent Knowledge how could they be assured that God was the sole Author of them all and not some other Being of Superiour Order to Men Why the very same way they were convinced that they themselves were not God who made them after such a manner that they could by immediate consciousness perceive that such a thing did not proceed from themselves could enable them in like manner to judge that such a thing did proceed from God only and not from any other Being 'T is true indeed there may be and we have several reasons to
great variety and disproportion of Faculties and Attainments observable among us a Man may be able by what he knows of himself so far to determine the Limits of Humane Force and Skill as to be firmly assured such and such things cannot possibly lye within the reach and comprehension of meer Man unassisted by any other Being Thus for Example to use the former Instances we are fully and intirely assured that no Man whatsoever barely by his own Power without the Assistance or Application of any other Being can Cure the Sick or Raise the Dead or Speak a Language he knew nothing of just before he spake it or foretell such Events as that of the Restoration of the Jews We may likewise be as fully sure that Persons of such an Education and Course of 〈◊〉 could not possibly of themselves by the force of their own Capacities and Acquisitions conceive speak write or do such and such things in such a particular way and manner as we can suppose or may actually find Whoever therefore believes the Miracles Propheâ—â—s and Doctrines of Christ and his Apostles according to the History given of them in the New Testament must have this assurance that if these Matters of Fact were so as they are there delivered 't is impossible that those Men should be the Authors of them as I shall shew more particularly by considering them apart To begin with Prophecies which have been always reckoned the most unexceptionable Testimonies of an Intelligence exceeding Humane Knowledge If the Books of the Old Testament were writ long before Christ came into the World and all those Passages out of them which we find applied to Christ and the Dispensation of the Gospel in the New Testament 〈◊〉 a designed relation to those Events they are there applied to 't is impossible to imagine that either the Prediction or Accomplishment of them was the effect of meer Humane Knowledge and Power Such a multitude and variety of surprizing Events never before heard of in the World that had no manner of perceivable connexion with the state of things when they were foretold nor indeed at any other time before they happened could not by any force of Humane Wisdom be so particularly and circumstantially foreknown Neither can it be supposed that Christ made all those Relations in the Old Testament pass for Prophecies by an Arbitrary Application of them to such Events as were in his own Power to bring about in such a manner as he thought would bear the nearest resemblance to those accounts of things he found already written for 't was manifestly impossible for Christ to order and contrive the time place and manner of his Birth and all the other Circumstances which attended his coming into the World and yet these things are as particularly and remarkably expressed in the Writings of the Old Testament as any other matters whatsoever applied by Christ to himself and as certainly believed by the Jews to belong to the Messiah before the Pretensions of Jesus Christ were heard of as any other Prophecies that were ever thought by them to concern him If the Prophecies cited out of the Scriptures of the Jews relating to the Death Resurrection and Ascention of Christ the Mission of the Holy Spirit Propagation of the Gospel Rejection of the Jews and Destruction of Jerusalem and the success and continuance of the Christian Religion among the Gentiles were allowed by the Jews of that time to belong to the Messiah when Christ applied them to himself then are they certain Arguments of a knowledge in the Prophets who uttered them exceeding all Humane Sagacity and Foresight But if none of the Jews understood them in that sence or would grant the Passages referred to to be Prophetical of any thing then must the Application of them to such and such future Events by Christ be reckoned as new distinct Prophecies uttered first by himself and so they will be equal proofs of an extraordinary and more than Humane Knowledge in Christ because the Events foretold were such as 't was plainly impossible for Man to foresee or accomplish by his own Power For not to mention the vast unlikelihood there was according to all Humane Measures of Judging that Jerusalem should be utterly destroyed and the whole Nation of the Jews rooted out so soon after the time it was foretold this should happen and in that very manner in which the whole Fact stood described not to insist upon all the amazing Difficulties that might be urged against the success of the Gospel which render'd it in all Humane Appearance a thing impracticable that Christian Religion should so mightily and suddenly prevail and spread by such means and instruments as is foretold it should be propagated by Waving I say all Reflexions of this nature that might be made which are a great many this must certainly be granted that 't was utterly impossible for Christ by any Humane Skill or Wisdom to know that he should rise again and ascend into Heaven and that afterwards his Apostles should receive such Knowledge Courage and Power as to Preach his Gospel boldly indure Afflictions patiently confirm their Doctrine by many Signs and Wonders and Convert great Multitudes to the Christian Faith And if it was impossible for him of himself to know all these things it must be accounted much more impossible for him to effect and accomplish them by his own Power But if it be said that all these great and wonderful Events were really foretold in the Old Testament though so darkly and obscurely exprest that no Man before Christ understood the method and way of applying them right whence had he the Art and Skill of Interpretation This is as great a Mark and Character of an extraordinary and more than Humane Wisdom as Prophesying it self would be But then besides this wonderful Skill of Interpreting he must be allowed the Talent of Prophesying too by reason of several new Circumstances and Particulars relating to those great Events which are plainly and expresly mentioned by Christ and cannot be deduced from any Passages of the Old Testament as will easily appear upon a Comparison of the several Predictions of Christ and the ancient Prophecies of the same Events referred to by him Which Particulars foretold by Christ himself and others afterwards by some of his Disciples and Believers are most of them such as could not be foreseen by any Labour Art or Force of Humane Understanding because they are such Matters of Fact as before they did actually happen no Man without an over-ruling Conviction could possibly perswade himself to believe would ever happen at all much less to expect that others should believe they would upon his Testimony From hence it evidently appears that most of the Prophecies Recorded in the Old and New Testament relating to Christ and his Gospel must be the results of some Higher Knowledge than that of Man because they are such as cannot possibly be accounted meer lucky Conjectures nor skilful
of the like indirect Practices as well as others and that Purely out of Love and Compassion to Mankind for no other End and Design but to bring over as many as they could to the belief of that Religion which they were perswaded would make them happy the Answer to this is very ready and obvious viz. That these were very plain simple Men as manifestly appears by those Circumstances whereby their Forgeries were discovered their great Zeal for the Salvation of their Brethren was without Knowledge and they were ignorant of the Nature and Power of that Religion they sought to Propagate as imagining such well-intended Frauds allowable But the Author of the New Testament if the Work was wholly Humane was certainly a wise knowing Man his Forgery if it was one was so well laid and contrived that no body has been yet able to find it out and he cannot be thought to have been so ignorant of the Religion he made himself as to believe that to be lawful which he had expressly forbid and therefore we may certainly conclude that if the Scriptures of the New Testament were Forged the Author of them was an Ill Man who acted upon some Private Motive and not out of a true generous Concern for the good of Mankind But what Principle or Motive can we imagine strong enough to have disposed an ill Man to frame such a Work Not any Profit Interest or Advantage that could accrue to him from it He could not but foresee that to impose a New Religion upon the World to change the Ancient Laws and Customs of Nations to Condemn and Expose to Contempt what the Wisest and most Powerful part of Mankind had in Veneration to disturb Men in the Possession of Advantageous Errors and Prejudices and to put a Restraint upon their most agreeable Passions and Inclinations This I say he must needs foresee would be an attempt too difficult to be manag'd without the most violent Opposition imaginable and too great to be effected in his Days 'T was hardly possible I think for a Man of Common Sense to perswade himself such a design as this should succeed at all but much more inconceivable that he should imagine Things should be carried on so smoothly and easily that he should live to enjoy the Fruits of his Labour and a future Reward in another Life could have no antecedent Influence upon him who is supposed to Invent the Notion or at least to inforce it upon others without having any good Reason to believe it himself And as it must be acknowledged 't was very easie to foresee the many Troubles and Difficulties that would attend the Establishment of Christianity so 't is plain that the Author of the New Testament whoever he was understood very well what the Natural Consequences of such an Attempt were as appears by the large Representation he makes of the manifold Sufferings and Afflictions which befel all the first Publishers and Preachers of the Christian Religion and those who embrac'd the Doctrines they taught It must be likewise confessed That if any of those mentioned in the New Testament as concern'd in Publishing or Preaching what is there call'd the Gospel did really Suffer such things as are there Written of them for endeavouring to persuade people to believe such Wonderful Facts and Doctrines as we now find Recorded in that Book which some of them had before invented and afterwards caused to be written together with the Account of their own Sufferings If this I say be supposed then it must be granted That the Event was every way answerable to the Prospect which we have seen the Author of the Christian Scheme must have had before him when he was upon that Design and which soever of these Persons we ascribe the Work to we must be convinced that he did by no means consult his own Interest in it But if some unknown Person was the Author of the New Testament and the whole History of it is pure Fiction as must be allowed in the Supposition we are at present concerned to disprove then is it utterly impossible to find out what Advantage he could propose to himself by a Performance of this Nature I cannot conceive for the Reasons before given that he should design any Interest of his own at all in it and his being unknown is no small Argument that the Advantages gained whatever they were were too inconsiderable a Recompence for such a noble well-invented Scheme as he has given us in the Scriptures of the New Testament 'T was not then for any Private Interest or Advantage assignable by us That any Person who thought fit to conceal himself could frame and contrive the New Testament and much less can it be supposed that a desire of Reputation put him upon such a Work since he has taken such effectual care to suppress his own Name and attribute the Glory of his Invention to another Nothing therefore remains but that we say 't was purely the pleasure of deceiving which occasioned the writing that Book But this is as unlikely and insufficient a Cause of such an Effect as any of the other before mentioned For the secret Pleasure of deceiving without the Reputation which is wont to attend an artful Deceiver could never work so strongly as to produce any thing of that excellent Skill and Contrivance in the making and of such mighty tendency in the Consequences of it as the Christian Religion is Besides when a Man acts for no other End but to deceive his Designs can never be such as serve for the procuring and promoting the benefit of Mankind The pleasure that an ill Man takes in deceiving is always a malicious pleasure which is raised and heightned by the prospect either of the Folly or Misery of the deceived Had such an Impostor as this contrived the Christian Religion he would never have taken the pains to oblige the World with such a Rational Scheme of Life as was never before exhibited and could never since be mended he would rather have chose to triumph over the Ignorance and Credulity of Mankind by giving them false and pernicious Rules of Action as well as monstrous and improbable Articles of Belief but those who considering the Christian Facts and Doctrines as meer Imposture talk of them under that Style are forced to allow that the Christian Morality whether it be of Humane Invention or Divine Revelation is certainly the most perfect accomplish'd Piece that was ever declared to Mankind There is no other Motive imaginable the Author of the New Testament if it be all a Forgery could have acted upon and the insufficiency of those alledged has been already shewn and might be further made to appear if there were occasion for such an inlargement But the absurdity and impossibility of the supposed Forgery appearing more plainly from the following Head I shall add but one Argument more for the Confirmation of what I have said very briefly upon this Now the Argument I shall
received from a constant Repetition of the same appearances But 't is not to prove a God or Providence or the first General Principles of Natural Religion that Miracles are urged these things are all so plain and easie without such a confirmation that they are altogether without excuse who do not believe them or act contrary to their belief but when Men are lost and gone out of the way and are become altogether Corrupt when through Blindness and Ignorance they know not how to serve God aright and when those who use their endeavours to do it can have no assurance of being accepted if in compassion to this sad and distressed Estate of Mankind God is pleased to reveal himself to them and acquaint them with a true and certain way to Happiness which they were not able to find out of themselves what Perfections of God is it contrary to to make such a discovery to his Creatures And how could he take a more effectual way to convince them of the truth of the Revelation than by Miracles which are real Effects of Divine Power and which Men are readily disposed to acknowledge as Infallible Signs and Indications of it If these were the Works of God and might certainly be known to be so as has already been proved in the former part of this Discourse then were they very fit and proper Proofs that the Doctrine they were intended to comfirm came from God though they were not brought about by an immediate Interposition but were part of the General Scheme of Nature And therefore though it should be allowed to be a Derogation to God to make him the Author of those Works we call Miracles by a present and immediate exercise of his Power yet it can be no diminution to any of his Perfections to affirm that originally at the beginning of the World he ordered such Effects to proceed from the General Laws of Nature at such a time that they might be for Signs and Tokens to Mankind that the Revelation which should then be given them came from him Another Objection made to the Argument of Miracles is that Miracles have been wrought by other Men as well as Moses and Christ and as great as those that were Recorded of them from whence it is inferred that the Doctrines they taught are never the truer for their Working Miracles To which I Answer that the Matter of Fact is none of it sufficiently attested a great deal or it manifestly false and were it all true the Inference drawn from it does not hold To make good this Charge I shall instance in the Miracles attributed to Vespasian and Apollonius Tyanaeus which have been particularly made use of by the Enemies of our Religion to lessen the Credit and Authority of it Of Vespasian it is Recorded That he once cured two Blind Men but the strange and wonderful Works of Apollonius fill a Book writ on purpose to give an account of them Now as to Vespasian's Cure of the Blind 't is but one single Miracle and therefore is very unjustly compared with that Multitude of mighty Works that were wrought by the Hands of Christ neither is it so well attested but Reasons may be given why it should be false notwithstanding the reality of all the appearing Circumstances of it Several Inducements might be alledged that very probably disposed this Emperor to pretend to such a Miracle 't is very easie to conceive how his Design might be brought about in the Presence of a great many People without their discovering the Cheat and should any have found it out 't is very obvious to imagine why they did not Publish it But nothing of all this would hold when applied to Christ had he pretended to no more than the Cure of two Blind Men A Man of his Character and Condition in the World could not promise himself any Honour Respect or Advantage from such a Pretence and should he have made this use of it he would very probably have raised the Envy of all the People of the same Rank and the Jealousie of his Superiors upon these and other Motives as well as Natural Curiosity a great many would have been very Industrious and Inquisitive in searching into the Truth of the Fact and whom can we imagine so far concern'd for such a Pretender as to be privy or assisting to his Cheat at the first or to conceal his shame after they had found it out But supposing an Account could be given in one or two Instances how 't was possible for Christ to pretend to such Works as were never done there are abundance still remaining upon Record that are manifestly incapable of such a Solution which puts an unanswerable difference betwixt the Miracles of Christ and the Pretences of other Men. As to the Story of Apollonius the whole Credit of it depends upon the Testimony of one single Author who lived too long after him to be a competent Witness of the Truth of what he Relates and was too Credulous and Partial to be believed if he had lived at the same time with him The strange unusual Things Related to have been done by this Apollonius bear no Proportion to the Miracles of Christ either as to the Number of the Facts and Persons concern'd in them the Wonderful and Extraordinary Nature of them the beneficial Design of them or the publick and hazardous Manner in which they were done and a great many of these have been proved to be false upon examination from the manifest inconsistencies and contradictions in the Relation of them But supposing the Miracles attributed to Vespasian and Apollonius were true in Fact what Reasons can we alledge either from the Characters of the pretended Authors the Ends and Designs they acted upon the Consequences and Effects of the Pretences or from any other Circumstances of their Story that the strange Things Recorded of them were not done by the Ministry of Evil Spirits Let us suppose farther That the Facts were not only real but true and proper Miracles performed by the express and immediate Assistance of God What can be inferred from thence Not that the Heathen Religion was true because these Miracles were not design'd or intended for a Confirmation of it Not that the Christian Religion was purely Humane because the whole End of Christ's working Miracles was to prove that his Doctrine came from God There may be several Reasons given why it may please God sometimes to work Miracles indifferently by the Hands of good or ill Men Men of a true or false Religion but it cannot possibly be supposed of God that he should imploy Good Men or concur with the Wicked in working Miracles in order to their deceiving Mankind and establishing a Lye by such Evidence as cannot be disproved and no Instance can be given where any one true Miracle was wrought by a Person that made use of it to prove any other Doctrine by than what we have delivered in the Scriptures By a true Miracle
Senses or first obtain Credit among those who lived afterwards without any proof of their being done or believed before And if we suppose the Christian Morality Entertained and Established in the World without the present History we have of it the Forgery of that afterwards would have been wholly unnecessary and the difficulty of getting such a Forgery believed much greater From hence then it plainly follows that there could never have been such a state of things in the World as we now perceive if all the Principal Parts and Substance of the Christian History as it is at present generally believed were not true and had some time or other really happen'd out according to the Relation we find given of them This does likewise further appear from the way and manner in which those Books that contain this History are Written where we find so many extraordinary Marks and Characters of the Simplicity Integrity and undesigning Humility of the Writers their hearty Belief of what they wrote themselves and their great Zeal and Concern for the Good of Mankind as plainly shew them to have been Influenced not only by the force of well-attested Truth but by some extraordinary and more than Humane Impressions 3. These are in short the Reasons we have to believe the Truth of the Christian Religion The Validity and Force of which I shall endeavour to make out more fully under the Third Head where I am to shew the Sufficiency of the Proof that has been given of the Christian Matters of Fact from the Nature of Things upon which the certainty of all Matters of Fact as well as other Truths is ultimately founded Now the chief and immediate Reason of believing most Facts being taken from the Nature of Man and there being nothing we are so well acquainted with as the common Original Capacities and Powers Inclinations and Aversions of Mankind and consequently their Ends and Motives of acting it will be easie to shew from hence that the proof of the Christian Religion before given is not only sufficient to determine our assent to it but does in Evidence and Multiplicity of Conviction far exceed the Proof any other Matters of Fact are capable of In the first place then let us consider why we believe any Matter of Fact which never fell within our own particular and immediate Cognizance Why do we so firmly believe the Story of Julius Cesar and William the Conqueror that there is such a place as Italy or China c Now the reason of this upon examining our selves we shall find to be because a great many Men have acquainted us that there were formerly such Persons who did such and such Things and that there are now such Places in the World c. which Men were competent Judges of what they tell us had sufficient Opportunities of knowing the Truth themselves no Motives conceivable that could dispose them to lye to others and are contradicted by no body of equal Authority with them these are all the grounds of Credibility upon which Matters of Fact are generally believed and no further Characters of Truth are required by one that is satisfied of these But we have all these Reasons to believe the Common Matters of Fact related in the New Testament in the fullest Force and Extent of them and several other besides as the Incapacity of the Witnesses to deceive if they had been disposed to do it the greater Motives they had not to say what they did than to say it if it had been false and the greater Motives other Persons had to contradict them if they could have been disproved Let us examine all these Characters of Truth and see how far the Proof of the Christian History exceeds that of other Matters of Fact and how far the supposed Falshood of it notwithstanding these Characters is consistent with that certain Knowledge we have of Humane Nature As to the first Character required for the Proof of Matters of Fact the Number of the Witnesses there never was certainly so vast a Multitude of Persons all unanimously agreeing to assert the Truth of so great a variety of Matters of Fact as there is in the Case before us because the Progress of Christianity was so swift that we cannot suppose more Persons could have been acquainted with the History and Doctrines of it in so short a time and there never was such industrious Care taken to propagate the Belief of any other Facts and Opinions that we ever read of It is likewise as certain that the whole Multitude of the first Publishers and Professors of Christianity were as competent Judges of the Matters they bear witness of as 't is possible for any Man to be of any thing else whatsoever We will only suppose now that Christ and his Apostles and Disciples pretended to such Things as are Recorded of them in the Scriptures and consequently to believe their own Pretences and that all others who profess'd the Gospel of Christ did declare their Belief of all those Things which are related as said or done by Christ and his Apostles And surely a Man may infallibly know his own Thoughts and Imaginations he can tell whether he believes such or such a Thing or no or at least he can be certain that he thinks or fancies he believes it and if there be any Intercourse or Communication betwixt Men one Man may know that another pretends to believe or do a Thing whether he really believes or does it or no. If a Multitude of Men can be deceived in such Judgments as these concerning themselves and one another 't is evident that there is no such thing as Knowledge at all If therefore it must be allowed that a vast Multitude of Persons did pretend to believe all those things that they are said to believe in the New Testament it necessarily follows from hence that they did really and truly believe them or else they pretended to believe what they certainly knew to be false But that they did not pretend to believe what they knew to be false will evidently appear from these further Reflections upon Humane Nature First then 't is certain that every Man must act for some End or Motive and here is no End or Motive conceivable that could determine any of the first Publishers or Professors of Christianity to pretend to believe those Facts which they knew to be false All the Ends and Motives we can imagine any Man to act upon in such a Case we have reckoned up before and we find that if we put our selves into the same Circumstances with those first Witnesses of Christianity it would have been impossible for us to have been influenced by any of them to make the same pretences being infallibly assured at the same time that they were utterly false and groundless from whence we conclude that neither did they since all Men are so made and contrived as to be determined by the same general Motives though according to the difference of
made upon the course of things in the World it cannot be conceived or imagined that such Events as these should ever happen That there never was an Instance of any thing like the Christian Scheme which was proved or allowed by any body in the World to be an Imposture I shall take for granted since none of the Enemies of Christianity have ever produced one As for Mahometism which some have had the impudence to compare with Christianity so far as both they and we allow it to be an Imposture it can have no manner of place here as a Parallel Instance For it is on all hands granted that there was such a Man as Mahomet who lived at the Time and Place 't is pretended by his Followers he did 't is granted likewise that he wrote the Alcoran and pretended to the things there Recorded of him and that his Religion prevailed and was Propagated in the way and manner there related and described by him But in the present supposition of the whole Christian Scheme's being an Imposture it must be affirmed that call the Scriptures of the New Testament and the whole History therein contained are meer Forgery and Invention without any Foundation of Truth in the Common Matters of Fact there Recorded which makes the case of Christianity in all the important variety of Circumstances and Events possible unlike that of Mahometism And as no Instance of such an Imposture as is here pretended can be given out of the History of former times so likewise is it utterly impossible to imagine that such an Instance as this could ever happen at all To give our selves a fuller and more sensible Conviction of this let us take as exact and extensive a view as we can of the State of the World just before we affirm that Christianity was discovered or at the latest Period of Time mentioned in the New Testament Let us consider the General Temper Inclinations Opinions and Interests of the Jews at that time together with the highest Improvements in Learning and Religion then amongst them Let us make the same Reflections upon the Roman State and Government and the Principal Nations and Countries within that Empire Then let us carefully weigh and examine the Christian History and Religion contained in the Scriptures of the New Testament let us represent to our selves in one continued Prospect all the Principal Facts there Recorded drawn forth in all their variety of Circumstances the whole System of Doctrines and Rules in their just Dependance and Connexion the Characters of the Persons concerned in the Publishing and Establishing them together with the way and manner in which all these things are Written and when we have done this let us truly and impartially ask our selves whether we can possibly conceive how any Person could at that time Invent and Publish that whole Scheme of Things at Jerusalem Rome or any other part of the Roman Empire without any ground of truth to build upon and supposing it Published how it could be Believed so firmly and Propagated so far and wide that it should be fixt and continue in all this part of the World to this day without any Footsteps or Motives remaining whereby we might be able to detect the Imposture This I say appears to me as hard to conceive as that Rome should build it self and I am verily perswaded would appear so to any one else that had as fully and impartially considered the Matter as I have endeavoured to do If we date the Imposture later the same difficulty will attend the Invention and Propagation of it and we shall be further puzled to account for all the Signs and Monuments of Christianity which will appear to have been before the Period assigned for its Original wheresoever we place it But if we deal as fairly by Christianity as we do by Mahometism and allow the Common Matters of Fact Recorded of it to be true if we grant that there was such a Man as Christ who lived at the Time and Place 't is affirmed by Christians he did that he and his Disciples pretended to what is Recorded in the Scriptures of the New Testament of them that those Books were written by the Persons whose Names they bear and that the Christian Religion spread and prevail'd over the World in the way and manner and by the means of those Pretences we have there an account of Granting I say all these things as by the general acknowledgement of all sorts of Persons and the impossibility of their being false just before proved they must be granted From hence it necessarily follows that all the other Extraordinary Facts are true and consequently that the Christian Religion came from God and lays a necessary Obligation upon Mankind to believe it and conform themselves to it This is certain in the same way of Reasoning we used before because there never was an Instance and it cannot be conceived there ever should be one where such Marks and Indications of Truth as accompany these things should all belong to an Imposture Upon this account therefore it is that we affirm all these things to be impossible viz. That Persons of such Characters as Christ and his Disciples were represented to be should invent and contrive the Christian Doctrine and Institution or perform those things that are Recorded of them meerly by their own Skill and Power That Christ and his Disciples should pretend to have done such Extraordinary Facts as are attributed to them in the New Testament if they were not the true and immediate Instruments by whom they were done That such Multitudes of Persons as we there Read of should believe these Facts and imbrace Christianity upon the Credit of them if they were not true or should pretend to believe them if they were not really perswaded of their truth And if all the Principal Facts both Common and Extraordinary were certainly true as far as the Persons concerned in bearing Testimony to them were capable of perceiving their Truth It is likewise impossible but the whole Christian Religion and all the Conduct and Management in the Discovery and Propagation of it must come from God All these Propositions we are firmly assured of upon this ground viz. because if we suppose the contrary of any thing here alledged no Parallel Instance can be given to prove the truth of what we suppose and if we represent any of these Cases to our selves fairly in all its Circumstances we cannot possibly conceive it should ever happen 'T is true indeed there have been Persons of low Fortunes and mean Imployments in the World who have by the meer force of their Natural Genius spoke Wisely and acted Gallantly upon some Occasions but 't was never known and 't is impossible to conceive that Persons of no Learning or Education who knew nothing beyond the mean Affairs of their own Village and never Converst with any of higher Improvements than themselves it is impossible I say to imagine that such Persons