most prone to Idolatry their Kings also and Rulers being most of them Vicious and Idolaters in Times of Peace easily drawn away to follow the Superstition of their Neighbours and at length broken to pieces by a miserable Captivity and even the scatter'd Fragments of their Nation batter'd by a continual series of Calamities and irrepairable Disorders And yet notwithstanding all these disadvantages we find their Religion to have been miraculously preserv'd for the space of Fifteen hundred years For the Law of Moses was never abolish'd nor any new Rites introduc'd by the solemn Decrees of the Sanhedrim so that there was still the Face of a Church and Men rais'd up in an extraordinary manner to support the same by their exemplary Lives and seasonable Instructions all which could not be but by the singular and special Power of Almighty God when for so long a Tract of Time all human Means universally conspir'd to the utter Ruin and Extirpation of it CHAP. XV. Of the Authority of the Old Testament THE Divine Authority of the Books of the Old Testament in which the Jewish History and Religion is contain'd may be demonstrated first from the Matter and Manner of their writing next from Records of human Antiquity And First The Old Testament has singular Advantages above any other Works and Writings whatsoever in respect of its Antiquity It begins with the Creation of the World with a short account of the Antidiluvian Times down to the general Deluge after which time it shews the Re-settlement of Mankind as also what Nations were of greatest Antiquity and then comes more particularly to the Ancestors of the Jewish and describes the plainness of the first Ages in the Lives and Manners of their Patriarchs From thence it descends gradually to the Time of the Jews settling in Egypt in many delectable Passages with some account also of the Neighbouring Nations During their abode in Egypt we have little Account till such time as Moses appear'd to whom the Law was given From Moses downwards we have a more large and accurate History distinguish'd by several Successions of Judges and Kings and the years they govern'd reduc'd to certain Periods of Time even to the Babylonish Captivity we have a particular History also of their Re-settlement and after some intermission we have an Account of their Actions under the Government of their High-Priests during their Wars with the Greeks Not long after which Time followed the Birth of the Messiah In short the Acts and Monuments of the Old Testament are of that Antiquity that even the first Historians amongst the Greeks as Herodotus and Thucydides flourish'd but about the time of Esdras who was one of the last amongst the Jewish Writers In the next Place these Sacred Books have a singular Advantage above all other Writings whatsoever whether we consider the great variety of Matter contain'd in them or the Stile in which they are writ The Stile is for the most part very plain and obvious to all Capacities as Books of this kind ought to be but withal it speaks with that Gravity and Authority as becomes Divine Oracles not insinuating its Precepts by Rhetorical Arts but enjoyning them by a kind of Majesty and severe Commands and yet we have some Descriptions especially amongst the Prophets made with that liveliness of Representation and grandeur of Expression as far exceeds the Raptures of our Modern Poets or those of former Ages What Strains of Wit can draw such an Idea of a Glorious Combatant as that we meet with in Isaiah cap. 63. in the Description he gives us of our Saviour's Bloody but Victorious Conflict upon the Cross Who is he that cometh from Edom with died garments from Bozrah this that is glorious in his apparel travelling in the greatness of his strength Answ I that speak in righteousness mighty to save Quest Wherefore art thou red in thy apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth in the Wine-press Answ I have troden the Wine-press alone and of the people there was none with me for I will tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain all my raiment And I looked and there was none to help and I wondred that there was none to uphold therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me and my fury it upheld me And I will tread down the people in mine anger and make them drunk in my fury and I will bring down their strength to the earth Can there be form'd a nobler Image of a Conqueror dapled with Blood wreeking with Revenge and panting and bestriding his prostrate Enemy in the sight of two Armies How far short of this is Aeneas's Character in his Combat with Turnus describ'd by Virgil So that Angelus Politianus shew'd a singular delicacy or rather a critical weakness in neglecting to read these Sacred Compositions for fear of debasing his Stile whereas Marsilius Ficinus and John Picus Mirandula Men of greater Parts and Learning delighted in nothing more than in the study of them If we consider the variety of Matter treated of in these Sacred Writings there is no Collection under Heaven can compare with them what excellent Observations and Instructions have we for Morality in the Books of Ecclesiasticus which without an Hyperbole may be said to be the best in that kind in the whole world as reaching to all the Circumstances of Life The Books of Solomon must tell a Heathen that he was a Man of vast Knowledge His Canticles shew him to have been a Man of a most pregnant Fancy His Ecclesiastes seems to have been a Discourse by way of Dialogue betwixt Wisdom and a Sensual Nature But his Proverbs do declare him to have been both Good and Wise and were writ probably before he was Corrupted The Books of the Prophets shew that they were writ by Men of intrepid Resolutions They reprove without Flattery and touch the Affections to the quick breathing always an Ardent Zeal for Vertue and for the Glory of Almighty God And as for the Book of the Psalms they are a kind of Poem and they must be confess'd of all Hands to flow from an inexhaustible Fountain of Piety and Devotion and teach us how we may Address our selves to God under the several Forms of Confession Petition Supplication Thanksgiving Vows and Praises And truly had David been inspir'd with a Human Spirit he would have employ'd his Poetick Fancy in illustrating some Passages of his own Life viz. His Fights and Victories as a Warriour and particularly his Engagement with Goliah would have afforded noble Matter for an Heroick Poem or else as a Courtier he would have Compos'd some soft Pastoral or Madrigal containing his Amours with Bathsheba or as a Friend he would have exercis'd his Fancy about his more Innocent Love and Affection for Jonathan But we find nothing of this Nature his Subject always is Divine one while as a Suppliant or
and present Enjoyments Who would scruple to enrich himself by Fraud Robbery and Murder or to gratifie his Lusts by Rapes Adultery or any other Enormity were he sure there were no Punishnent to be met with after Death The consequence of which disorders could be no less than the subversions of all Property and Civil Government Upon these and such like Considerations we may in the last place observe that the wisest and most learned Men through all Ages and Countries of the World believ'd the Soul's Immortality such as Hermes and Pythagoras who by the few Fragments Hermes in Paenrand cap. 1. that are extant of him in Ancient Writers was of the same Belief Socrates at his Death adher d to this Belief also and resisted the Strength and Malignity of his Poison by this Antidote that his Soul shortly should enjoy the Society of the Vertuous and Blessed in the other World This Doctrine was much improv'd by Plato and his Followers especially Platinus who was the most learned of that Sect and who wrote ex professo divers learned Books upon this Argument the summ of which is that the Soul of Man is not deriv'd from the Nature of the Parents but immediately from God that though it subsist in the Body yet its Operations are independent on it Forasmuch as the Soul the more it withdraws it self from all sensible Objects the more distinct and clear is Ratiocination From whence we conclude that when it shall totally be separated it shall apprehend things in an instant by Intuition without the helps of reasoning by Ratiocination is nothing but a Combat of the Mind to evince something of which it doubts which doubtings spring from the gross and cloudy Suggestions and Obstacles of the Body from which being once deliver'd there will be no place left for Doubt and Hesitation As for the Stoicks their Doctrine seemed to lead them to a different persuasion since they plac'd all the Felicity of Man in the Practice of Vertue with regard to no other reward So that our Moral Actions ceasing as certainly they do after Death all is at an end And this Doctrine of theirs though it carried with it a great many of noble Sentiments yet it failing in the true end of Man's Felicity it oblig'd them to maintain a great number of Paradoxes in its defence whereas had they understood the Immortality of the Soul and future Rewards after Death that had been sufficient to have supported them in a vertuous course of life maugre all the disasters that might assault them and which these Philosophers endeavour'd to oppose by so many noble Precepts of their Doctrine Seneca in some places seems dubious yet in his Consolatory Epistle to Mercia upon the Death of his Son he is altogether Divine Epictetus also a Stoick and the Glory of his Sect and Age asserts every where the Soul's Immortality But above all Tully the Flower of Roman Tuscul Quaes lib. 1. Eloquence and himself a Philosopher of Plato's School is every where most Copious and Ravishing when he comes to speak of the Capacities and Future State of the Soul Many says he think the Eternity of Souls to be incredible because they cannot comprehend the essence and qualities of a separated Soul but can they let me ask them define what a Soul is even in the Body of what form it is what its dimensions are and what is the place of its abode And a little after for my own part when I seriously reflect upon the Nature of the Soul it seems to be much more difficult and obscure to know what the Soul is whilst it is in Conjunction with the Body where it seems to be lodg'd as in a foreign Inn than to understand the same when it quits the Lodging in which it sojourns and takes its Journey home-wards to Heaven the place of its constant Habitation For if we cannot understand that which we never saw we may as well disown all knowledge of God as of a separated Soul but Spirits are to be understood and known only by Spirits And by and by he concludes whatsoever that thing is which perceives which understands which wills which is always Vigorous and Masculine must needs be Celestial and Divine and therefore Eternal for we can form no other Notions of God but as of a Mind abstracted from all material Concretion understanding all things moving all things and being it self ended with an Eternal Activity All which the same Divine Oratour prosecutes most copiously in his Book de Senectute telling us that it was not the Itch of Disputation which drew him to this Persuasion but having built his Belief upon the Authorities of Pythagoras and Socrates he declares farther that such is the celerity of the Soul's Thoughts so great its Memory of past and foresight of future things so many are its Arts Sciences and other Inventions that 't is inpossible that the Nature which comprehends such excellent things should be Mortal and therefore since the Mind is always a working and has this principle of Motion from it self and knows also no period of its Motion because it can never divide from it self and serve the nature of the Soul is void of all Mixture and Allay and contains nothing heterogenious to it self he concludes that it must be indivisible and uncapable of Dissolution following as he says the Doctrine of Plato in this particular To Conclude he says that if I do err in this Belief of the Soul's Immortality I do err willfully nor will I ever retract this beloved Errour whilst I live or if it should be possible that being dead I should be void of all sense as some Minute Sophisters do fancy I shall not fear to be reproached by them Nor was this Doctrine of the Soul's Immortality the constant Belief of the wisest Greeks and Romans only but also of the Persians too as appears by the excellent Discourse of dying Cyrus upon this subject recorded by Xenophon And as for the Poets they universally tell us of a future State after Death wherein the Wicked shall be punish'd and the Just rewarded and what their sense was in this matter we may read in Lucan in that noble Description he makes of Pompey's Apotheosis From all which Considerations we have a most undeniable proof of its Eternal Verity It being impossible that a Doctrine established upon all the Principles of Reason of such an universal consent and believ'd by the wisest best and most learned Men of all Ages in opposition to all humane Interests and sensual Suggestions whatsoever should be the effect only of uncertain Conjecture or of a premeditated Collusion CHAP. XXVIII Of Natural Religion as a means to Salvation HAving shewn in the precedent Chapters of this Discourse that the wiser Heathen had not only a knowledge of the true God as the Creator and Preserver of the Universe but a knowledge also of the Immortality of the Soul and of a future State where good Men should receive
Penitent another while as an humble Petitioner anon with Strains of Gratitude and in Heavenly Raptures he addresses himself to his Creator and Celebrates the Praises of Almighty God by recounting his Wonders and Mercies his Comforts and many Deliverances all which cannot but shew that they were dictated by another Spirit and kindled by a purer Fire than what commonly sparkles in the gay Fancies and Inventions of Men. As for the Historical Books of the Old Testament we have touch'd upon them already and we may say of the whole Book or Collection of these Sacred Writings that 't is like the Manna it speaks of it is Food to every Palate such as does not nauseate but has a rellishing Taste of every thing and creates an Appetite And 't is worth our Observation that let a Man read these Holy Writings with all attention imaginable yet when he comes to read them again he shall discover some things of which he was ignorant before though he repeat the Section of them to the very end of his Life which shews that t is a Spring which is inexhaustible and that the more we drink of these Waters the more we thirst from whence it is that the Wisest and most Learned Men have addicted themselves most to the reading of these Books the nearer they drew towards their End which shews also that 't is their Nature to lead Men forwards towards a State of further Perfection Another thing which shews these Books to be of Divine Inspiration is the manner of their writing Turn over all human Histories whatsoever and we shall still find it to have been their grand Scope and Design to magnifie their own Nation and to represent their Actions with all advantageous Characters imaginable to applaud their own Customs and Manners and to avouch the Justice of their Dealings But 't is otherwise in these Sacred Writings the Pen-Men of them are in nothing more copious than in shewing the Blemishes of their own Nation their Apostacies their Idolatrous Dispositions together with the notorious and scandalous Lapses and Relapses of their Kings though held in never so great esteem for Power and Goodness And this certainly is an Invincible Argument that they did not in their Reports proceed upon Natural and Human Considerations but as it was dictated to them by a higher and more noble Impulse and contrary to the Genius and Temper of that Nation who in reality were as Vain Self-admiring and Unconstant as any other People upon the Face of the Earth 'T is beyond my Power to answer such Difficulties as occur in the Old Testament touching the Jewish Genealogies and Chronologies together with some Customs and Passages as seem strange to us of this Age since we find the like and greater in the Writings of all prophane Authors though never so well digested or perhaps God Almighty might on purpose suffer some Passages to be obscure and seemingly Repugnant to our Understandings the better to subjugate our Reason to Faith which is a more excellent degree of assent because it resolves it self into the absolute Authority and Veracity of the Proponent without hesitance or any dependance upon our own feeble Notions In the last Place the Divine Authority of these Sacred Writings is legible in the Acts and Monuments even of Human Antiquity so that the most polite Writers amongst the Ancients did light their Candles from this Sacred and ever burning Lamp Virgil and Ovid borrowed out of Genesis their History of the Worlds Creation which they improv'd or rather debas'd by their Poetick Fictions Iapetus the Father of Prometheus and by whom the World was Re-peopled after the Flood was no other but Japhet whom the Poets feign'd to be the Son of Coelum and Terra that is to have had his Extraction from God The Ogygian and Deucalion Floods were Poetick Fictions deriv'd from Noah's Deluge Plutarch Plutarch lib. quod Bruta ratione utuntur makes mention too of a Doves being sent out of an Ark by Deucalion to discover the Abatement of the Waters The Giants climbing up to Heaven was taken from the building of Babel we find also whatsoever occurs in the Fragments of Prophane Writers of greatest Antiquity to square with the Accounts we meet with in the Jewish Monuments The Egyptians and Chaldeans were ever held amongst prophane Authors to have been the most Ancient of Nations and we find the same in Scripture also The History of the burning of Sodom has left indelible Marks of its verity in the Bituminous Waters and noisom smells of the Lake adjoining which is so stinking and poisonous that nothing can live in it as appears even at this very day as also in the Fruits which grow near that accursed Place which though most beautiful to the Eye are easily crumbled to Dust and Ashes as Morney du Plessis a Morn cap. 26. de Verit. Rel. proves out of Galen Strabo Solinus and others The same thing is affirm'd also by Tacitus The departure of the Children of Israel out of Egypt under the Conduct of Moses with many other Passages of the Old Testament are mention'd by b Justin lib. 36. Justin as also by c Lib. 5. Hist Tacitus though with some depravation The simplicity and plain Pastoral Life together with the Habits of the Patriarchs are much the same which we meet with in Homer who liv'd a little after the time of David in his Descriptions of the Age and Men of which he wrote and even the Feasts of the Gods consisted of no other Dainties than Bread and Wine The Temple of Solomon was so famous throughout the World that it gave the denomination to the City it self which is called Hierosolyma quasi Hieron Solomonis or the Temple of Solomon And even at this very day the great Emperor of the Abyssines or of Ethiopia called Prester John with all the Natives of that vast Country though Christians still retain Circumcision not as brought thither by the Eunuch who was Baptiz'd by St. Philip but in Memory of their descent from the Queen of Sheba whom Solomon treated not only at his Table but at his Bed also so that amongst other proud Titles of that Emperour he glories most in stiling himself the Son of Solomon and of David The Memory of the Ten Tribes who were at several times carried away Captives by Teylath Phalastor and Salmanastor into the Desart and Nothern Parts of Media is preserv'd to this very day in the Tartars who 't is certain are descended from the Jews who were dispers'd by the Medes their Conquerors for the Colchians who were the Progenitors of the Tartars as Herodotus tells us Herod lib. 2. were Circumcis'd tho' the Name of Tartar was not considerable nor known till about the year of our Lord 1200. at such times as Givigi their Captain began to over-run the World with his Barbarous Multitudes However so it was that they still retain'd Circumcision even long before they ever heard of Mahomet and upon