Argument Whereas if Chistians were but throughly acquainted with the Grounds of their Religion and sincerely disposed to believe and practise according to them they would be no more moved with these Cavils than they would be persuaded to think the worse of the Sun if some Men should take a fansie to make that the Subject of their Railery To have the more doubtful and wavering thoughts of Religion because it is exposed to the scorn and contempt of ill Men is as if we should despise the Sun for being under a Cloud or suffering an Eclipse not knowing that he retains his Light and Religion its Excellency still though we be in darkness the Light may be hid from us but can lose nothing of its own Brightness though we suffer for want of it and lie under the shadow of Death The Consideration of the Grounds and Reasons of our Religion is useful to all sorts of Men for if ever we will be seriously and truly Religious we must lay the foundation of it in our Vnderstandings that by the rational conviction of our Minds we may through the Grace of God assisting us bring our Wills to a submission and our Affections to the obedience of the Gospel of Christ and the more we think of and consider these things the more we shall be convinced of them and they will have the greater power and influence in the course of our Lives For tho' the Truth of the Christian Religion cannot without great sin and ignorance be doubted of by Christians yet it is a confirmation to our Faith and adds a new Life and Vigour to our Devotions when we recollect upon what good Reasons we are Christians and are not such by Custom and Education only but upon Principles which we have throughly considered and must abide by unless we will renounce our Reason with our Religion And what Subject can be more useful or more worthy of a rational and considering Man's Thoughts These things which are now made matter of Cavil and Dispute will be the Subject of our Contemplation and of our Joy and Happiness to all Eternity in the other World We shall then have clear and distinct apprehension of the Means and Methods of our Salvation and shall for ever admire and adore the Divine Wisdom in the Conduct and Disposal of those very Things about which we now are most perplex'd THE CONTENTS PART I. CHAP. I. That from the Notion of a God it necessarily follows That there must be some Divine Revelation THE Being of a God evident to Natural Reason p. 3. That there are wicked Spirits Enemies to Mankind p. 6. The miserable Condition of Man without the Divine Direction and Assistance and that God would not leave him without all Remedy in this Condition p. 8. The Judgment of St. Athanasius in the Case p. 15. CHAP. II. The Way and Manner by which Divine Revelations may be suppos'd to be deliver'd and preserv'd in the World The Manifestations of God's ordinary Providence insufficient and therefore some extraordinary Way of Revelation necessary p. 19. The ways of extraordinary Revelation either immediate Revelation to every particular Person or to some only with a Power of Miracles and Prophecies to enable them to communicate the Divine Will to others p. 20. I. It could not be requisite that God should communicate himself by immediate Revelation to every one in particular ibid. II. Prophecies and Miracles are the most fitting and proper Means for God to discover and reveal himself to the World by p. 29. 1. Concerning Prophecies ibid. 2. Concerning Miracles p. 33. III. Divine Revelations must be suppos'd to be preserv'd in the World by Writings p. 43. IV. They must be of great Antiquity p. 44. V. They must be fully publish'd and promulg'd p. 45. PART II. CHAP. I. The Antiquity of the Scriptures THE Antiquity of the Scriptures a Circumstance very considerable to prove them to be of Divine Revelation p. 48. They give an Account of Divine Revelations made from the beginning of the World ibid. What Moses relates of things before his own time is certainly true and must have been discover'd to be false if it had been so p. 50. CHAP. II. The Promulgation of the Scriptures 1. In the first Ages of the World the Revealed Will of God was known to all Mankind p. 58. II. In succeeding Ages there has still been sufficient Means and frequent Opportunities for all Nations to come to the knowledge of it p. 76. 1. The Law of Moses did particularly provide for the instruction of other Nations in the Reveal'd Religion p. 77. 2. The Providence of God did so order and dispose of the Jews that other Nations had frequent Opportunities of becoming instructed in the True Religion p. 90. Testimonies of the Heathen concerning the Jews and their Religion p. 115. There have ever been divers Memorials and Remembrances of the true Religion among the Heathen p. 117. Of the Sibylline Oracles p. 121. The Gospel had been preach'd in China and America before the late Discoveries p. 129. The Confessions both of Protestants and Papists as to this Matter p. 132. Christians in all Parts of the World p. 135. A Sect call'd the Good Followers of the Messiah at Constantinople p. 136. Though great Part of the World are still Vnbelievers yet there is no Nation but has great Opportunities of being converted p. 141. The Case of particular Persons consider'd p. 142. CHAP. III. Of Moses and Aaron The Sincerity of Moses in his Writings p. 146. He was void of Ambition p. 149. Aaron and he had no Contrivance between themselves to impose upon the People p. 151. CHAP. IV. Of the Pentateuch The Pentateuch written by Moses p. 152. The great Impartiality visible in these Books p. 153. The Book of Genesis an Introduction to all the rest p. 154. The principal Points of the History of the Jews confess'd by the Heathen p. 155. CHAP. V. Of the Predictions or Prophecies contain'd in the Books of Moses The Promise of the Messias p. 158. The Predictions of Noah ibid. The Promises made to Abraham p. 159. The Prophecies of Isaac c. p. 160. of Jacob p. 161. of Balaam p. 162. of Moses p. 163. CHAP. VI. Of the Miracles wrought by Moses I. The Miracles and Matters of Fact contain'd in the Books of Moses as they are there related to have been done were at first sufficiently attested p. 170. II. The Relations there set down are a true Account of the Miracles wrought by Moses and such as we may depend upon p. 188. For 1. These things could not be feign'd by Moses and Aaron and others concern'd with them in carrying on such a Design p. 189. 2. The Miracles could not be feign'd nor the Books of Moses invented or falsify'd by any particular Man nor by any Confederacy or Combination of Men after the Death of Moses p. 191. 3. The Pentateuch could not be invented nor falsify'd by the joynt Consent of the whole Nation either in
Moses's time or after it p. 206. Of what Consequence the Proof of the Divine Authority of the Pentateuch is towards the proving the rest of the Scriptures to be of the same Authority p. 214. CHAP. VII of Joshua and the Judges and of the Miracles and Prophecies under their Government Joshua the Author of the Book under his Name p. 215. The Book of Judges written by Samuel p. 216. The Waters of Jordan divided p. 217. The Males circumcis'd at the first coming into Canaan and thereby disabl'd for War contrary to all Humane Policy p. 219. The Walls of Jericho thrown down and the Prophecy concerning them ib. The Integrity of Joshua p. 220. of Eli p. 221. of Samuel p. 222. CHAP. VIII Of the People of Israel under their Kings From the Revolt of the Ten Tribes an Argument for the Truth of the Law of Moses Prophets in the Kingdoms both of Israel and Judah p. 223 CHAP. IX Of the Prophets and their Writings The kinds of Prophecy among the Jews p. 224. The Freedom and Courage of the Prophets and the Reverence paid to them even by bad Princes p. 226. They laid down their Lives in Confirmation of their Prophecies p. 227. Many of their Prophecies fulfill'd during their own Lives p. 228. Their Prophecies committed to writing ibid. They as well as the Law were carefully preserv'd during the Captivity in Babylon p. 229. The Books of the former and of the latter Prophets the Books of Samuel by whom written p. 231. The Books of Chronicles and of Kings by whom written ibid. Of the Psalms Moses and the Prophets comprehend the whole Old Testament p. 233. The Hebrew Tongue sufficiently understood by the Jews when they return'd from Babylon ibid. The Scriptures could not be corrupted afterwards p. 235. CHAP. X. Of the Prohecies and Miracles of the Prophets Josiah Prophesy'd of by Name long before his Birth the Circumstances of that Prophecy p. 236. The fâ—â—filling of Elijah's Prophecies p. 238. The Confession of Julian the Apostate p. 240. Divers other Prophecies and Miracles ibid. Cyrus prophesy'd of by Name long before his Birth p. 241. Jeremiah's Prophecies of the Destruction of Jerusalem p. 243. The Contradiction which was then thought to be betwixt the Prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel a manifest Proof of the Truth of the Prophecies of them both p. 245. Other plain Prophecies fulfill'd p. 247. These Prophecies and Miracles manifestly true p. 249 CHAP. XI Of the Dependance of the several Parts of the Scriptures upon each other and that the Old Testament proves the New and the New again proves the Old as the Cause and the Essect p. 252. CHAP. XII Of the Person of our Blessed Saviour Our Blessed Saviour's undeniable Innocence and Holiness of Life p. 257. Judas himself gave Testimony to it p. 259. The Prophecies concerning the Birth of the Messias fulfilled in him p. 265. The Prophecies concerning his Life fulfilled p. 277. The Prophecies concerning his Death fulfilled p. 280. And those concerning his Resurrection and Ascension p. 286 CHAP. XIII Of the Prophecies and Miracles of our Blessed Saviour Our Saviour foretold the Treachery of Judas and the manner of his own Death p. 287. The Destruction of Jerusalem with the circumstances of it and the Prodigies attending it ibid. His Miracles verified the Prophecies which had been concerning the Messias p. 290 CHAP. XIV Of the Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour The Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour prophesied of and typified p. 293. The Apostles who were Witnesses of our Saviour's Resurrection could not be deceiv'd themselves in it p. 295. They would not deceive others p. 306. They alledged such Circumstances as made it impossible for them to deceive p. 307 CHAP. XV. Of the Apostles and Evangelists The Apostles were Men of sufficient Vnderstanding to know what they testified p. 312. They had sufficient Means and Opportunities to know it p. 313. They were Men of Integrity and truly declared what they knew for they had no worldy Interest to serve by their Testimony but suffered by it and had a certain prospect of suffering p. 315. There are peculiar marks of Sincerity in all their Writings p. 319 CHAP. XVI Of the prophecies and Miracles of the Apostles c. Of their Prophecies p. 328. Of their Miracles p. 330. The Miracles wrought by the Apostles themselves p. 331. A Power of working Miracles communicated by them to others p. 336. Their supernatural Courage and Resolution p. 342. This likewise was communicated to their Followers p. 351 CHAP. XVII Of the Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists The History of our Saviour's Life and Death contains so notorious and publick circumstances that it was an Appeal to that Age whether the things related were true or not p. 354. The other Books of the New Testament are explicatory and consequential to the Gospel or History of Christ and besides these likewise contain many memorable and publick Matters of Fact p. 361. The Gospel and other Books of the New Testament cited by Authors contemporary with the Apostles and owned for genuine both by the Jews and Heathens p. 363. Many of the Eye-witnesses to the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles lived to a great Age p. 364. The chief Points of the Christian Religion were testified in Apologies written from time to time to the Heathen Emperors ibid. CHAP. XVIII Of the Doctrines contained in the Holy Scriptures The Christian Religion teacheth an universal Righteousness both towards God and Man p. 368. The Scriptures propound to us the only true Principle of Holiness p. 370. The Christian Religion proposeth the most effectual Motives to Obedience and Holiness of Life p. 372. It afferdeth the greatest Helps and Assistances to an Holy Life p. 374. It expresseth the greatest Compassion and Condescension to our Infirmities p. 374. The Propagation of the Gospel has ever had great effects towards the Reformation and Happiness of Mankind p. 376. The highest Mysteries of the Christian Religion are not meerly speculative but have a necessary relation to Practice for the advancement of Piety and Vertue amongst Men p. 382 PART III. THat there is no other Divine Revelation but that contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament p. 385. CHAP. I. The Novelty of the Heathen Religions The Pretences of the Aegyptians to Antiquity examined p. 387. Of the Chaldaeans ibid. Of the Chinese p. 389. CHAP. II. Of the Defect in the Promulgation of the Heathen Religions The Heathen Religions never extant in Books to be publickly read p. 392. Every Country had its peculiar Deities They prevailed only by the Temporal Power Though the Heathens more in Number yet the Religion of Christians more promulged p. 392 CHAP. III. Of the Defect of the Prophecies and Miracles of the Heathen Religions Of the Oracles of the Heathens p. 394. That they were uncertain and ambiguous p. 396. But they could not be all counterfeit p. 398. The cessation of Oracles gradual p. 399. Their Miracles never
signal Judgment from Heaven and Moses advanced neither of his and both Moses and Aaron died by the particular Appointment and Command of God for their Offences against him never enjoying nor for a long time before expecting to enjoy the Land of Promise And therefore as they could never have performed what they did but by the Almighty Power of God so they could have no Motive or Inducement to attempt it but his Command and Promise of Assistance revealed to them CHAP. IV. Of the Pentateuch AS the Books entitled to Moses are confessed by all to be of the greatest Antiquity so we have it confirmed to us by the Authority of Heathen Writers themselves that the Books which go under his Name are indeed of his writing besides the unanimous Testimony of the whole Jewish Nation ever since Moses's Time from the first writing of them Which is infinitely better Proof of their being Authentick and entitl'd to the true Author than can be pretended for any Books but the Holy Scriptures Divers Texts of the Pentateuch imply that it was written by Moses and the Book of Joshua as well as other Books of Scripture import as much and though some Passages have been thought to imply the contrary yet this is but a late Opinion and has been sufficiently confuted by Learned Men. It is observable whoever wrote these Five Books that there is no Partiality shewn to any one whomsoever Noah is said to be overcome with Wine and expos'd to the Mockery of one of his Sons Lot is describ'd not only to have been drunken but to have lain with his own Daughters Abraham himself denies his Wife twice and Isaac imitates him in it Jacob gets the Blessing by Fraud and Subtilty from his Brother Esau Joseph's Brethren sell him into Aegypt and he when he is there learns to swear By the Life of Pharaoh The Faults of Aaron and of Moses himself as I have already observ'd are not conceal'd On the other side particular Notice is taken how Melchizedeck bless'd Abraham and receiv'd Tythes of him And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better Heb. vii 7. The Advice of Jethro is recorded and the Prophecies of Balaam himself are punctually set down It was no Design of the Sacred Pen-Man to write a Panegyrick upon any Man but to represent the Failings and Infirmities as well as the Excellencies of each Person and to shew by what various Methods the Providence of God brought to pass his gracious Designs how he turn'd Evil into Good and made use even of the Infirmities and Sins of Men to accomplish his Purposes In the Book of Genesis we have a short Account of the most Memorable and Remarkable Things which had past to the Times of Moses as the Creation of the World the Institution of the Sabbath the Fall of Man the Promise of the Messiah and the Custom of Offering Sacrifices as Types of his Death Who first committed Murther and who first brought in Polygamy the Inventon of divers Arts the Flood the Confusion of Tongues the Original of the several Nations of the World with the Chronology of the whole all which is comprehended in a little Compass but a larger and more particular Account is given of Abraham and his Family For here the Scene begins to open to the main Design of the Work the Book of Genesis being as an Introduction to the rest of the Pentateuch and containing such things as were requisite to be premis'd And in the beginning of the History of Abraham it is noted that the Canaanite was then in the land Gen. xii 6. even at that very time when Abraham erected an Altar to the Lord ver 7. this being a great Encouragement to the Israelites to excite them to follow the Example of their Father Abraham who worshipp'd the True God in a publick and solemn Manner in that Land which they were now going to possess and amongst that People which they were now to drive out and which at that time when the Land was promis'd them were the Inhabitants of it and God who had protected Abraham in so signal a Manner would no less assist them And if we consider those things particularly wherein Moses himself is concen'd as an Agent as well as an Historian there can be no Pretence for any Man to doubt but that at least the principal Points of the History of Moses are true that is that Moses was the Governor or General of the People of Israel who conducted them out of Aegypt that they travell'd for many Years in the Wilderness that they fought divers Battels with the several Nations who oppos'd their Journeying into the Land of Canaan and that Moses gave them the Laws which we find there recorded These are the chief Points of the History of Moses which are as it were the Foundation of all the rest the rest being but as Circumstances to shew the Manner of doing it and the Power by which all this was done And that these main Points are true it was never deny'd by those Heathens themselves who most reproach'd and vilify'd the Jewish Nation They acknowledg'd that Moses was the great General and Law-Giver of the Israelites they own'd that the Israelites came out of Aegypt they could deny nothing of the History it self but only gave wrong Accounts partly out of Ignorance and partly out of Malice and Design of the Manner and Means by which this was effected and the Reasons and Occasions upon which it came to pass From the Books of Josephus against Apion in which he gives an Account of what the most Ancient Authors of other Nations have deliver'd concerning the Jews and from what the latter Heathens Strabo Tacitus Justin and others after the Jews became so odious and contemptible in the eyes of all Nations have written it is evident that the great and fundamental Points as to the Matters of Fact are confess'd and the only Dispute is concerning the Manner in which they were brought about and the Means whereby all was effected Now we take the Histories of all other Nations rather from themselves than from Foreigners and Strangers to their Affairs or professed Enemies and it were extreme Partiality to admit the Accounts we have of the Jewish Affairs from Authors who liv'd so much too late to have any certain Information of the things they write about and who upon every Occasion shew such Disaffection to their Name and Nation and contradict each other and themselves too as Josephus shews it would I say be notorious Partiality to follow such Authors rather than credit the Jewish Records attested and deliver'd down to us by the unanimous Approbation and Testimony of the whole Nation And when I come to consider the Miracles wrought by Moses I shall prove That they were of that Nature and perform'd in such a Manner as that they could not be feign'd or counterfeit at first nor the Account given of them in the Pentateuch falsify'd afterwards and therefore
became so much admired and magnified by the people that they brought forth the sick into the Streets and laid them on Beds and Couches that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might over-shadow some of them There came also a multitude out of the Cities round about unto Jerusalem bringing sick Folks and them which were vexed with unclean spirits and they were healed every one Acts v. 15 16. And in this manner the Apostles continued several years in Jerusalem doing Miracles upon all occasions and before all people And the same miraculous power manifested it self at Ephesus where God wrought special Miracles by the hands of Paul so that from his Body were brought unto the Sick handkerchiefs or aprons and the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them Acts xix 11 12. So impossible was it for the Apostles to deceive those before whom their Miracles were so frequently and publickly wrought And yet it must be much more impossible if any thing more impossible can be supposed to deceive those upon whom their Miracles had the effect of restoring to them the use of their feet their sight and their health and even of raising them again from the dead And indeed none of the Adversaries of old of the Christian Religion ever denied but that Miracles were wrought by the Apostles they only disputed the Power by which they were wrought they never questioned the reality of the Miracles themselves The Books of the New Testament which gave an account of these wondrous works were written soon after the things related had been done and these Books were in the hands of Heathens and Jews as well as Christians and neither the Jews nor the Heathens could deny but that such works had been done they only cavilled at the Power and Authority by which they were wrought which how groundless and unreasonable soever it were yet was the only evasion they could have when there were so many Christians if they had denied the matter of fact who did the like Miracles every day to confute them For II. The Apostles not only wrought Miracles themselves but conveyed to others a power of working them Thus when St. Peter was sent for to Cornelius the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word and they spake with Tongues and magnified God Act. x. 44 46. And so at Ephesus the Holy Ghost came on those whom St. Paul had laid his hands upon and they spake with Tongues and Prophesied Acts xix 6. And this miraculous Power was in that evident manner received by the laying on of the hands of the Apostles that Simon Magus offered them Money to purchase it Acts viii 18. Now as the Apostles could neither be deceived themselves in the Miracles which they did nor deceive those before whom they were performed and upon whom they were wrought so certainly they could never deceive such as they conferred this Gift upon When they not only did all sorts of Miracles and spoke all Languages themselves but conveyed a Power likewise upon others of speaking and doing as themselves did this was still a further evidence that all their pretences were real beyond all possibility of Deceit Deceivers would never have done their Miracles so openly and so frequently at such a time and place they would never have pretended to a gift of Tongues at a Festival where men from all parts of the world were met together so that they could attempt to speak in no strange Language but some present would have discovered them if they had not been able to speak it But they would least of all have pretended to enable others in an instant to work the same wonders and speak the same Tongues only by laying their hands upon them Men that would attempt all this though they were unable to perform it must be so far from being capable of discoursing and writing as the Apostles did that they must be void even of common sense and if they could succeed in their designs and make the world believe that they did act and speak in this manner when they did not they must have a Power over the understandings and senses of all with whom they conversed which is as strange even as this Miraculous Power it self They must work Miracles either upon the objects of sence or upon the sences themselves for in this case they could never have been able so much as to deceive without a Miracle and since God would never have empowered them to work Miracles to deceive we are certain that their Miracles were all wrought for that intent and purpose which they made profession of and to confirm that Doctrine which they taught And this Power of Miracles which now descended from Heaven upon the Apostles and was conveyed by them to others continued for some Ages in the Church and approved it self to the worst Enemies of our Religion in such instances as must make them most concerned to examine it (d) Minut. Faelix Lactant. lib. ii c. 15. c. 21. Several of the Primitive Writers witness that nothing was more notorious than that the Devils were wont to cry out for very anguish and torment when they were adjured by the true God (e) Apolog c. 23. and Tertullian made publick challenges to the Heathens that if they would but admit them this Tryal the Christians would undertake to make their most famous Deities acknowledge the Power of Christ and to make their very Gods confess themselves to be wicked and seducing Spirits or else they would be contented to be slain upon the place and this he wrote under persecutions and in Apologies dedicated and presented to their Persecutors themselves And indeed the Oracles in all parts of the World soon began to fail so as they had been never known to do before for their Power began to abate and decay upon the approach of our Saviours Birth into the World till by degrees they quite ceased which the Heathens wondered at and were much perplext about it as we learn from what (f) Cicer. de Divinat Plutarch de Oracul Defecta they have left written upon that subject And though Julian the Apostate used all the ways that he could think of to bring them into credit again he was never able to elect it but the most famous of them confess'd to him when he consulted it that a miraculous and Divine Power residing in the Remains of a Christian Martyr after his Death would suffer no answer to be given And it is so remarkable that I must mention it once more that when the same Apostate Emperor in hatred and despight to the Christian Religion became a great Patron of the Jews and encouraged them to re-build their Temple great balls of fire broke forth under the foundation and destroyed both the work it self and the persons employed in it And this we have related not only by several Christian Writers that lived about that time but by an (g) Ammian
Eloquence as well as the Power and Prejudices and Vices of Mankind were combined against it and yet less elegancy and accuracy of style was employed by the Apostles and Evangelists than had been before used by Moses and th◠Prophets who yet had nothing which seemed so strange and wonderful to deliver Which is one great argument of the Power and Efficacy of the Gospel that it could prevail so much against all the opposition in the world only by telling a plain Truth and in the plainest manner For where the thing is evident the fewest and plainest words are best as in Mathematical Demonstrations it is enough if men make themselves to be understood this likewise was all that the Apostles aimed at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist lib. iii. c. 24. their Cause and Doctrine was so certain and demonstrable that any words which did but fully and clearly express their meaning were sufficient for their purpose their Rhetorick lay in the things themselves not in words there is no great Art required to prove that to any man which he sees with his eyes and therefore as the power of Miracles was greater under the Gospel than under the Law so there was less need of Eloquence in the New Testament than in the Old Yet it cannot be denied as a †Mer Casaub of Enthus c. 4. Learned Critick has declared that St Paul in some kind and upon some subjects is as eloquent as ever man was not inferiour to Demosthenes in whose writings he believes that Apostle had been much conversant or Aeschines or any other anciently most admired 3. It is reasonable to believe that the Scriptures may be written in the Words and Phrases of the Penmen of the several parts of them and that the Holy Ghost might permit them to use their own style so directing them still and over-ruling them in every word and sentence that it should infallibly express his own full sense and meaning and speak the Truth which he inspired And therefore tho there be divers styles in the Scriptures yet this is no prejudice to the Authority and Certainty of them Isaiah for instance being of the Blood Royal and educated at Court may write in a more refined and lofty style and Amos who was brought up among the Herdsmen of Tekoa may speak in a more humble strain and fetch his Metaphors from lower and meaner things and yet the sense and substance of both may be from the Holy Ghost and as exactly true and infallible as if every word and syllable were dictated by him But this has been already considered under its proper head CHAP. IV. Of the Canon of the Holy Scriptures WHatever uncertainty there can be supposed to be concerning the Canon of the Holy Scriptures or the Catalogue and Number of Books of Divine Revelation this ought to be made no objection against the certainty of Divine Revelation itself or against the authority of those Books of Scripture which are universally acknowledged and received by all Churches For if this be a true way of arguing then whatever we are ignorant of must be an argument against the certainty of what we know and by consequence no man can be certain of any thing since the wisest man is ignorant of so many things that he knows very little in comparison of what he is ignorant of And as to the matter in hand there is scarce any Author of great note and fame but that Criticks have had Disputes concerning the number of his genuine Works and yet this has never been thought any prejudice to such as are allowed by all to be genuine Would not that man make himself ridiculous who should reject the Philippicks of Tully or Virgil's Aeneis as spurious because other Books either doubtful or counterfeit have past under the names of these two Authors If some Books have been disputed the rest certainly are genuine beyond all dispute because they have never been called into question or doubt Now if these Books only were of Divine Revelation concerning which there has never been any Dispute they contain all things necessary to be believed and practised and as to the rest concerning which there has been any controversy tho they be exceeding useful to explain divers things which we find in these and perhaps to teach us some things not essential to our Religion nor necessary to Salvation which are not to be found elsewhere yet they are not absolutely necessary to be received because whatever Doctrines are absolutely necessary they are to be found fully and plainly delivered in those Books of Scripture which have ever been received without contradiction or dispute Many men were undoubtedly saved before the writing of these controverted Books nay before the writing of any Books at all Writings being no further necessary than as they are necessary to convey the knowledge of what is written when the things now written could be as well known without writing Books were not necessary and tho for after ages it became necessary that the Prophets and Apostles and Evangelists should consign their Doctrine to writing yet no more of their writings can be absolutely necessary to be known by us than what may be sufficient to instruct us in the ways of salvation It is the infinite Goodness and Mercy of God to afford us more than is absolutely necessary for our spiritual and eternal Life as he has done for our Natural and it is a great sin in any man to reject any means of Salvation or Instruction which God has been pleased to allow but still that man would sustain his Natural Life and Health who should think all that is not necessary to the support of it common or unclean and not fit to be used for food And if a man without any of his own fault or neglect should come to the knowledge only of the uncontrroverted Books he would find them abundantly sufficient to answer all the ends of Revelation and to procure his Salvation It cannot be denied but that one infallible Authority is as great a Security as never so many could be but the same Doctrines are taught in several places of Scripture and we ought to be thankful to God for it that he has been pleased to furnish us with so much more than is absolutely necessary and to repeat the same things in sundry places and in divers manners for our further instruction and confirmation in the Faith tho it would be absurd and wicked to say that he who believes all the points of necessary Faith upon the authority of any one Book of Scripture has no sufficient means of Salvation unless he likewise believe them upon the Authority of all the rest Not that I suppose any wise and good man can now find any cause to doubt of any Book in the Old or New Testament whether it be genuine or no but to suppose the most and the worst that can be supposed if those Books which at any time have been called in
Principles of Natural Reason and Religion But when Miracles were perform'd which both for the End and Design of them as well as for the Manner and Circumstances of their Performance had all the Credibility that any Miracle could have if it were really wrought by God's immediate Power to confirm a Revelation if these Miracles have been foretold by Prophecies as on the other side the Prophecies were fulfill'd by the Miracles if they were done publickly before all sorts of Men and that often and by many Men successively for divers Ages together and all agreed in the same Doctrine and Design if neither the Miracles themselves nor the Doctrines which are attested by them can be discover'd to have any Deceit or Defect in them but be most excellent and divine and most worthy of God in such a Case we have all the Evidence for the Truth of the Miracles and of the Religion which they were wrought to establish that we can have for the Being of God himself For if these Miracles and this Religion be not from God we must suppose either that God cannot or that he will not so reveal himself by Miracle to the World as to distinguish his own Revelation from Impostures Both which Suppositions are contrary to the Divine Attributes contrary to God's Omnipotence because he can do all things and therefore can exceed the Power of all finite Beings and contrary to his Honour and Wisdom and Goodness because these require both that he should reveal himself to the World and that he should do it by Miracles in such a manner as to make it evident which is his Revelation But if he both can and will put such a Distinction between False Miracles and True as that Men shall not except it be by their own Fault be seduc'd by false Miracles then that Religion which is confirm'd by Miracles concerning which nothing can be discover'd to be either impious or false must be the true Religion For we have seen that there must be some Reveal'd Religion and that this Religion must be reveal'd by Miracle and we have the Goodness and Truth and Justice of God engag'd that we should not be impos'd upon by false Miracles without being able to discern the Imposture And therefore that Religion which both by its Miracles and Doctrine and Worship appears to be Divine and could not be prov'd to be false if it were so must certainly be true because the Goodness and Honour of God is concern'd that Mankind in a Matter of this Consequence should not be deceiv'd without their own Fault or Neglect by Impostures vented under his own Name and Authority Upon which account the Sin against the Holy Ghost in ascribing the Miracles wrought by Christ to Belzebub was so heinous above all other Crimes this being to reject the utmost Means that can be us'd for Man's Salvation and in Effect to deny the Attributes and very Being of God The Summ of this Argument is That though Miracles are a most fit and proper Means to prove the Truth of Religion yet they are not only to be consider'd alone but in Conjunction with other Proofs and that they must necessarily be true Miracles or Miracles wrought to establish the true Religion when the Religion upon the account whereof they are wrought cannot be discover'd to be false either by any Defect in the Miracles or by any other Means but has all the Marks and Characters of Truth Because God would not suffer the Evidence of Miracles and all other Proofs to concur to the Confirmation of a false Religion beyond all Possibility of discovering it to be so 3. How Divine Revelations may be suppos'd to be preserv'd in the World It is reasonable to suppose that Divine Revelations should be committed to Writing that they might be preserv'd for the Benefit of Mankind and deliver'd down to Posterity and that a more than ordinary Providence should be concern'd in their Preservation For whatever has been said by some of the Advantage of Oral Tradition for the Conveyance of Doctrines beyond that of Writing is so notoriously fanciful and strain'd that it deserves no serious Answer For till Men shall think it safest to make Wills and bequeath and purchase Estates by Word of Mouth rather than by Instruments in Writing it is in vain to deny that this is the best and securest way of Conveyance that can be taken So the common Sense of Mankind declares and so the Experience of the World finds it to be in things which Men take all possible Care about and it is too manifest and much to be lamented that Men are more sollicitous about things Temporal than about Eternal which affords too evident a Confutation of all the Pretences of the Infallibility of Oral Tradition upon this Ground That the Subject Matter of it are things upon which the Eternal Happiness or Misery of Mankind depends Now go write it before them in a table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever Isa xxx 8. 4. It is requisite that a Divine Revelation should be of great Antiquity Because upon the same Grounds that we cannot think that God would not at all Reveal himself to Mankind we cannot suppose that he would suffer the World to continue long under a State of Corruption and Ignorance without taking some Care to remedy it by putting Men into a Capacity of knowing and practising the Duties of Vertue and Religion 5. Another requisite of a Divine Revelation is that it should be fully promulg'd and publish'd to the World for the general Good and Benefit of Mankind that it may attain the Ends for which a Revelation must be design'd THE Reasonableness and Certainty OF THE Christian Religion PART II. FROM what has been already Discours'd it appears That these Things are requisite in a Divine Revelation I. Antiquity II. Promulgation III. A sufficient Evidence by Prophecies and Miracles in Proof of its Authority IV. The Doctrines deliver'd by Divine Revelation must be Righteous and Holy consistent with the Divine Attributes and suitable to their Condition to whom it is made and every way such as may answer the Design of a Revelation CHAP. I. The Antiquity of the Scriptures AS it is evident from the Divine Attributes that God would not so wholly neglect Mankind as to take no Care to discover and reveal his Will and Commandments to the World so when there was so great a Necessity of Divine Revelation in order to the Happiness of Mankind both in this World and the next it is not to be believed that he would defer it so long before he made known his Will as till the Date of the first Antiquities amongst the Heathen It cannot be deny'd that some Books of the Seripture are much the Ancientest Books of Religion in the World for it were in vain to pretend that the Works in this kind or indeed in any other of any Heathen Author can be compar'd with
the Pentateuch for Antiquity And the Antiquity of these Books is one considerable Circumstance whereby we may be convinc'd that they are of Divine Revelation For if God would not suffer the World to continue long in a state of Ignorance and Wickedness without a Revelation we may conclude that he would not suffer the Memory of it to be lost and therefore a Book of this Nature which is so much the ancientest in the World being constantly received as a Divine Revelation carries great Evidence with it that it is Authentick For the first Revelation as hath been proved is to be the Criterion of all that follow and God would not suffer the ancientest Book of Religion in the World to pass all along under the Notion and Title of a Revelation without causing some Discovery to be made of the Imposture if there were any in it much less would he preserve it by a particular and signal Providence for so many Ages It is a great Argument for the Truth of the Scriptures that they have stood the Test and received the Approbation of so many Ages and still retain their Authority though so many ill Men in all Ages have made it their endeavour to disprove them but it is still a further Evidence in behalf of them that God has been pleased to shew so remarkable a Providence in their preservation The Account we have of Divine Revelation in the Writings of Moses is from the Creation of the World for he relates the Intercourse which from the Beginning past between God and Man and this might be delivered down either by Writing or by Tradition till Moses's time For Methuselah living with Adam and Shem with Methuselah Isaac with Shem and Amram the Father of Moses living with the Patriarchs the Sons of Jacob the History of the Creation and of the Manifestations which God had been pleas'd to make of himself to their Fore-fathers could not be unknown to that Age Such a Posterity could not but be zealous to preserve the Memory of so great Honours and Blessings and their living in Goshen separate from the Aegyptians did much contribute to the Preservation of their Antiquities for there they liv'd in Expectation of a Deliverance and of seeing the Prophecies fulfill'd that were made to their Fore-fathers concerning it The famous Prediction made to Abraham Gen. xv 13. could not be forgotten in so few Generations for the coming out of Aegypt was as it was there foretold it should be in the Fourth Generation reckoning from Isaac the first of the promised Seed to Moses exclusively Exod. vi 16. Moses seems to referr to some things that happened near the Beginning of the World as well known in his own time as Gen. iv 22. where he says the sister of Tubal Cain was Naamah For no probable account can be given why Naamah should be mention'd but because her Name was then well known among the Israelites for some reason which it doth not concern us to be acquainted with but which served to confirm to them the rest of the Relation Some have delivered that Naamah by her Beauty enticed the Sons of God or the Posterity of Seth to commit Idolatry Gen. vi 2. And so Gen. xi 29. we read that Haran was the Father of Ischa as well as of Milcah and Gen. xxxvi 24. this was that Anah that found the Mules or the Hot-Baths or that fell upon the Emims or Giants mention'd Deut. ii 10 11. however the word be understood in the wilderness as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father These and such like Particulars must have been preserved and commonly known among the Israelites and were therefore inserted to serve as Epocha's and notes of Remembrance for the better understanding the rest of the History The Story and manner of Life of Nimrod was conveyed in a Proverb Wherefore it is said Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord Gen. x. 9. And the Remembrance of Abraham's offering up his Son was retained both by the Name of the Place and by a Proverbial Saying And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh as it is said to this day In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen Gen. xxii 14. And there is no doubt to be made but that there were other the like Remembrances of the most remarkable Transactions Josephus has proved that Authors of all Nations agree that in ancient Times Men lived to the Age of about a Thousand Years and some are known to have lived to a very great Age in latter Times But however it had been more serviceable to Moses's purpose if he had had any other design but Truth that Men should not have been so long lived For when he had so much scope for his Invention if it had been an Invention of his own he would never have fix'd the Creation of the World at the distance of so few Generations from the time in which he wrote but would rather have made the Generations of Men more and their Lives shorter that so he might the better have concealed his Fictions in obscure and uncertain Relations which must be supposed to be delivered through so many hands down to that Age. The distance of Time from the Flood to Moses was more than it is from the Conqust to the present Age but half of this time Noah himself was living and therefore allowing for the greater length of Mens Lives in those Ages than in ours the time when Moses wrote cannot be computed at so great a distance from the Flood as we are at from the Reformation But is it possible to make any Man of tolerable Sense amongst us believe that Henry VIII was the first King of England that he lived above Seven hundred Years ago that there was a Deluge since his time which swept all the Inhabitants away of this Island and of the whole World besides but some seven or eight Persons and that all whom we now see were born of them And yet this as ridiculous as it seems is not more absurd than Moses's Account of the Creation and the Flood must have been to those of his own Time if it were false For it is very reasonable to think as Josephus informs us that Writing was in use before the Flood And it is not improbable as some have conjectured that the History of the Creation and the rest of the Book of Genesis was for the substance of it delivered down to Moses's time in Verse which was the most easie to be remembred and the most ancient of all sorts of Writing and was at first chiefly used for Matters of History and consisted of plain Narration without much of Art or Ornament We read of Instrumental Musick Gen. iv 21. before the Flood and Vocal Musick being so much more natural than Instrumental it is likely that Poetry was of as great Antiquity both in their Hymns and Praises of God and as a help to their Memories which are the two Ends to which Moses
the Ammonites were descended from Lot and therefore it must be through their great Sin and Negligence if they did not retain a true Notion of Religion They had Possession given them of the Land they dwelt in by God himself by whom the former Inhabitants a wicked and formidable Race of Giants were destroyed before them as the Canaanites afterwards were before the Children of Israel Deut. ii 9 19. Our Saviour was descended from Ruth the Moabitess And the Ammonites are distinguished from the Heathen Ezek. xxv 7. But as Abraham has the peculiar Character given him of the Friend of God and the Father of the Faithful so his Power and Influence was very great He is said (i) Justin l. 36. 〈◊〉 2. Nic. Damas apud Joseph Antiqu. l. 1. c. 8. both by Justin and Nicolaus Damascenus to have been King of Damascus and the latter further adds that in his own time the Name of Abraham was famous in that City and that a Village was nominated from him being called Abraham's House or Palace He was a mighty Prince among the children of Heth and was respected as such by them Gen. xxiii 6 10. The Saracens and other Arabians were descended from Abraham and Circumcision which was practised by so many Nations being a Seal of the Covenant and a Rite of Initiation must be supposed to have some Notion of the Covenant it self communicated together with it For there is no probability that Circumcision used as a Religious and Mysterious Rite could have any other Original among Heathen Nations than from Abraham and the only Reason brought to prove that it had another beginning amongst them is because it was used upon a Natural Cause and varied in the Time of Administration but the Time might happen to be changed by some unknown Accident and it was always I think used upon a Religious account whatever Natural Causes might be likewise assigned and such the Jews themselves were (k) Philo Moimonid wont to assign as well as that of their Religion and it is possible that in some places the Religious cause of its Observation might be forgot and the Natural only retained Besides the other Sons of Abraham which were many Isaac and Ishmael must have been very instrumental in propagating the true Religion and we can suppose none educated under Abraham or belonging to him but they must have been well qualified for that purpose and must more or less retain the Impressions they had received from him this being the Character which God himself gives of Abraham I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord Gen. xviii 19. The Jews make particular mention of the care which both Abraham and Sarah took in instructing Proselytes and Maimonides de Idololatr l. 1. writes that Abraham left a Book behind him upon that Subject Ishmael was the Son of an Aegyptian Mother Gen. xvi 1. and his Wife was an Aegyptian his Sons were Twelve in number and of great Power being styled Princes and their Dominions were of a large extent Gen. xxv 16 18. Isaac was to marry none of the Daughters of Canaan but one of his own Kindred and a Messenger is sent into Mesopotamia to bring Rebekah from thence God directing and prospering him in his Jurney Which Alliance and Affinity renewed with the Chaldoeans could not fail of a good effect for the preservation and advancement of Religion in those Countreys But a Famine being again in the Land Isaac removes to Abimelech King of the Philistines unto Gerar and by him the Beauty of Rebekah was admired as Sarah's had been by Pharaoh in Aegypt and here by Abimelech but tho' he had said she was his Sister as Abraham said likewise of Sarah meaning in that latitude of the word usual in those Countries whereby Women were call'd the Sisters of all to whom they were nearly related yet the Providence of God so order'd it that no Attempts should be made to her Dishonour but the King of the Philistines had a great regard and reverence for Isaac and his Wife the Blessing of God was visible in all his Undertakings he became much mightier than the Philistines and therefore they envied him which occasion'd his remove to Beersheba whither Abimelech with his Friends and Attendance came to enter into a strict League and Covenant with him professing that they saw certainly that the Lord that is Jehovah the True God was with him and declaring him to be the blessed of the Lord Gen. xxvi 11 14 16 26. And for the same reason the Philistines had formerly desired to make a Covenant with Abraham saying God is in thee with all that thou dost c. Gen. xxi 22. Esau at the Age of Forty Years marry'd two Wives of the Daughters of the Hittites Gen. xxvi 34. which tho' it grieved Isaac and Rebekah who would have had him marry with their own Kindred yet must give the Hittites further Opportunities of acquainting themselves with the Religion and Worship of the Hebrews but he marries besides a Daughter of Ishmael Abraham's Son Gen. xxviii 9. which confirmed and strengthned the Alliance between true Believers Esau was the Father of the Edomites and of a numerous Off-spring of Dukes or Princes Gen. xxxvi 9. And according to the Custom and Design of the Book of Genesis the Generations descended from Esau had not been so particularly set down unless they had retained the Knowledge and Worship of the True God The Edomites as well as the Moabites and Ammonites were put into possession of their Countrey by the same Divine Power by which the Israelites became possest of the Land of Canaan and the Children of Israel were not to meddle with them Deut. ii 5. Jacob is sent to Padan-Aram to take to Wife one of the Daughters of Laban and with him he abode twenty Years Gen. xxxi 38. and all which he took in hand prospered so that there was the visible Power and Blessing of God in it as Laban confessed Gen. xxx 27. Isaac was not to leave the Land of Canaan but was forbid to remove into Aegypt when there was a Famine in the Land Gen. xxvi 2. and he was not upon any account to return into Chaldaea or to go out of Canaan Gen. xxiv 6 8. but Jacob went out of it when there were enough of Abraham's House besides to keep up a sense of the true Religion among the Canaanites Afterwards God manifested himself to the Aegyptians by a various and wonderful Providence for the Children of Israel dwelt in Aegypt Four hundred and fifty Years till at last by Signs and Wonders and dreadful Judgments by Judgments upon their First-born and upon their Gods Num. xxxiii 4. they were brought out from thence and the nations heard the fame of it and all the earth was filled with the glory of the Lord Num. xiv 15 21. Thus Chaldaea and Aegypt the most famous and flourishing Countreys in those Ages
after a Captivity of Seventy Years and Cyrus sent forth his Proclamation declaring that he had received his Kigdom from God with a charge to re-build the Temple at Jerusalem 2 Chron. xxxvi 23. And this Decree of Cyrus was reinforced by Darius and Artaxerxes Ezra vi vii Now so many several Decrees put forth in favour of the Religion of the Jews and the miraculous Power and Wisdom which gave occasion to them and the Advancement of Daniel and others and the long life and continuance of Daniel in that Power and Esteem must leave all the Eastern part of the World without any excuse who were not converted to the Knowledge and Worship of the True God The Advancement of Esther and Mordecai under Ahasuerus and of Nehemiah under Artaxerxes gave the Jews great Authority and great opportunites of propagating their Religion from India even unto Aethiopia over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces for this was the extent of the Dominions of Ahasuerus Esth i. 1. and the Jews were dispersed in all the Provinces of the Kingdom of Babylon chap. iii. 8. And they wanted no Care nor Diligence to improve every Opportunity as we learn from the Books of Ezekiel Daniel Ezra Nehemiah and Esther and the very Names of such Persons is enough to convince us that that part of the World could want no means of Conversion Confess him before the Gentiles ye Children of Israel for he hath scattered us among them there declare his greatness and extol him before all the living for he is our Lord and he is the God our Father for ever In the land of my captivity do I praise him and declare his might and majesty to a sinful nation Tob. xiii 3 4 6. This was the Practice of Pious Men among the Ten Tribes of whom some were likewise in great Place and Authority chap. i. 13 21 22. And as the Ten Tribes were first carried away Captive so upon the Restoration of the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin all but a few in comparison of the other Tribes remained in the places of their Captivity and many (c) Joseph Antiq. l. 11. c. 1. Mede's Discourse 20. p. 75. of those Two Tribes also chose rather to continue in Babylon than forsake the Possessions which they enjoyed there It is supposed that not much more than half of them returned and there were afrerwards three celebrated Universities (c) Lightf Harm N.T. p. 335. Exercit. on Acts p. 681 799. of the Jews in Babylon Nehardea Pombeditha and Soria besides several other Places famous for Learning The Jews relate (e) Hier. in Zech. x. that the Ten Tribes were carried away not only into Media and Persia but into the Northern Countries beyond the Bosphorus and Ortelius finds them in Tartary The Odomantes a People of Thrace were Circumcised and the (f) Aristophan Acharnens Act. 1. scen 4. Scholiast of Aristophanes says that they were reported to be Jews The Restoration of the Jews by Cyrus who had been so long before appointed and named by God himself for that Work was ordained for this end that they might know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is no God besides him Isa xlv 6. And it is observable that after the Captivity the Jews were never given to Idolatry and tho' they were bofore too much addicted to it yet this gave occasion to Prophecies and Miracles to withdraw them from it and these with the Judgments of God which befell them for their Iniquities gave continual Manifestations to the World of the Truth of their Religion When the Ten Tribes were carried from Samaria and strange Nations were transplanted thither in their room God would not suffer his Name and Worship to be quite neglected and forgotten amongst them but they were forced to send for a Priest back again to teach them the fear of the Lord 2 King xvii And after the Taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the Death of Gedaliah who was set over them that were left behind in the Land of Judah all the People that were not before carried to Babylon fled into Aegypt Jeremiah being forced along with them who there prophesied against Aegypt and foretold its Destruction by the Babylonians Jer. xliii and at last suffer'd Maâ—yrdom Their going into Aegypt was indeed contrary to the Word of the Lord by Jeremiah but the Providence of God so order'd things that Jeremiah should be carry'd thither with the rest to testifie against their Wickedness and Obstinacy and to denounce God's Judgments upon them and upon the Aegyptians in whom they placed their confidence rather than in the Living God and then to die in testimony of the Truth of what he had delivered Cyrus and Darius desired the Prayers and Sacrifices of the Jews in behalf of themselves and their Kingdoms Alexander the Great Pâ—olemaeus Philadelphus Augustus Tiberius and Vitellius sent Victims to be sacrificed at the Temple of Jerusalem as we learn from Philo and Josephus The Jews constantly offer'd Sacrifice and Prayers for the Kings and Emperor under whom they lived and for their Allies and Confederates 1 Maccab. vii 33. xii 11. and it was expected of them for the omission of this contrary to their known and approved Custom in all former Times was the thing which hastned their final Destruction by the Romans The course of Alexander's Victories was so unexpected so sudden and every way so wonderful that it alarm'd the World And no Man can believe that this was designed by Providence only to gratifie the Ambition and Vanity of a rash Youth but to open a way for a communication between the several Parts of the Earth to the benefit of Mankind in the improvement of all useful Knowledge and when this Work was done he was no longer the same Man he had been before but soon resigned his Conquests with his Life Alexander is said by (g) Joseph Antiqu. l. 11. c. ult Josephus to have been mightily encouraged in his Enterprise against Persia by the Prophecy of Daniel He remitted the Tribute of every Seventh Year in which by their Law they were obliged not to sow their Ground (h) Ibid. l. 14. c. 17. which was afterwards remitted to them likewise by the Romans He granted the Jews who in great numbers listed themselves in his Army the free Exercise of their Religion and promised to grant the same to the Jews of Babylon and Media and those of Sanballat's Faction who followed him into Aegypt he placed in Thebais Hecatoeus who lived in Alexander's time wrote (i) Joseph contra Ap. lib. 1. pag. 1048 c. a Book concerning the Jews in which he took notice of their great Zeal for their Law which he proves by this Instance That when Alexander repaired the Temple of Belus at Babylon his Soldiers who were Jews could by no means be brought to help forward that Work and at last the King excused them He related that Hezechias the High-Priest of the Jews
till the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and in the Synagoges the Scriptures were read in the Greek Tongue which was the most universal Language then in the World Some have affirmed that as much of the Scriptures as was written in Solomon's time was then translated into the Syriac Tongue and there is little doubt (a) Clem. Alexand. Strom. l. 1. Euseb Praepar Evang. l. 13. c. 12. but that at least part of the Bible was translated into Greek before the time of Alexander the Great but the Version of the Septuagint was soon dispersed into all hands which was made at the Command of Ptolemaeus Philadelphus to whom likewise and his Father (b) Euse b Eccl. Hist l. 7. c. ult Aristobulus dedicated an Exposition of the Law of Moses By all these means vast multitudes of Proselytes were made to the Jewish Religion in all Parts of the World What numbers there were at Rome of this Religion we know from the Roman Poets and Historians and we have as good Evidence of the spreading of it in other Places Not to repeat what has been already related nor to mention particular Persons of the greatest Note and Eminency nor particular Cities as Damascus (c) Joseph de Bell. Jud. l. 2. c. 25. where it more remarkably prevailed it is evident what numbers of Persons in all Nations professed this Religion from the incredible Treasures which Crassus found in the Temple of Jerusalem being Ten thousand Talents amassed there by the Summs of Gold sent from all Places by the Jews and such as became Proselytes to their Religion And for the Truth of this Josephus cites Strabo's Authority who says (c) Joseph Antiq. l. 14. c. 12. that the Jews were every where dispersed and every where gained Men over to their Religion and that in Alexandria they had their Ethnaychae or proper Magistrates by whom they were governed And another Proof of the multitudes of Proselytes made to the Jewish Religion may be had from the great numbers assembled (e) Joseph de Bell. Jud. l. 7. c. 17. Act. ii 5. at their Passovers and at the Feast of Pentecost out of every Nation under Heaven Thus mightily prevailed the Religion of the Hebrews till the City and Temple by a Divine Vengeance as (f) Ibid. cap. 24. pag. 979. Josephus often confesses was destroyed and the Law it self with the Utensils of the Temple was carried among the Spoil in Titus's Triumph And when the Jewish Religion had its full Period and Accomplishment the Christian Religion which succeeded in the room of it and was prefigured by it soon spread it self into all corners of the Earth and is at this day preached among all Nations But before I proceed to consider the Propagation of the Christian Religion it may be requisite 1. To produce some Testimonies of the Heathens concerning the Jews and their Religion 2. To shew That there have been always remaining divers Memorials of the True Religion among the Heathen 3. To consider the Authority of the Sybilline Oracles I. As to the Testimony of Heathen Authors it were no more an Objection against what has been alledged though they had taken no notice of the History of the Jews than it can be supposed to be an Objection against the Truth of the Taking of Troy or the Building of Rome that the Scriptures make no mention of either of them The Greek Historians were so ignorant of Foreign Affairs as (g) Joseph contr Ap. l. 1. Josephus has observed that Ephorus one of the best of them thought Spain to be but one City and neither Herodotus nor Thucydides nor any Historian of their Times made any mention of the Romans The Roman Authors are but of a very late date in comparison and the Greeks besides their ignorance in Antiquity and in the Affairs of other Nations are known to have been a vain People who despised all besides themselves accounting them Barbarians and taking little notice of Rome it self before they fell under its Power Yet many of the Heathen Writers as Josephus shews have made famous mention of the Jews though others have given a wrong and malicious Account of them whom he proves to contradict one another and sometimes themselves Some again have omitted the mention of the Jews though they had never so much occasion for it of which he gives a remarkable Instance in one Hieronymus who though he were Governor of Syria and wrote a Book of the Successors of Alexander and lived at the same time with Hecataeus yet never vouchsafed to speak of the Jews of whom Hecataeus wrote a particular Book But the Works of him and of many other Greek Authors are now lost which were written concerning the Jews the Fragments whereof are still to be seen in Josephus Clem. Alexandrinus Eusebius and others Of those whose Works remain Herodotus relating the Victory of Pharoh Necho in the Battle at Megiddo calls Jerusalem Cadytis by a small variation as (h) Light Chorog on St. Mark c. 3. §. 6. Strab. l. 16. Diodor. Sic. l. 1. Plin. Nat. Hist l. 5. c. 14. Tacit. Hist l. 15. Dr. Lightfoot has observed for Kedosha that is the Holy City the usual denomination of that City Strabo mentions Moses and the ancient Jews with commendation Diodorus Siculus names Moses amongst the chief Law-givers of ancient Times Pliny says Jerusalem was the most famous City not only of Judaea but of the whole East Tacitus himself gives this testimony of the Jews That they worshipped the Supreme Eternal Immutable Being But above all Varro (i) S. Aug. Civit. Dei l. 4. c. 31. the learnedest of the Romans much approved their way of Worship as being free from that Idolatry which he could not but dislike in the Heathen Religion And it is generally agreed by all that the Religion of the Jews was received all over the World and as Seneca (k) Ibid. l. 6. c. 11. express'd it Victi victoribus leges dederunt II. There have been always remaining divers Memorials and Remembrances of the True Religion amongst the Heathen The Flood of Noah and the Ark (l) Joseph Antiquit. l. 1. c. 3. were generally taken notice of by Heathen Historians and the Flood of Deucalion was (m) Luciaâ—â— de Dea Syr. plainly transcribed from that of Noah Jove is a plain depravation of the word Jehovah and Diodorus Siculus said (n) Diod. Sic. l. 1. that Moses received his Laws from the God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is another variation from it And this proves the Antiquity of the Heathen Tradition concerning the True God since the Jews of latter times would not speak the name themselves much less communicate it to others Appollus Clarius being consulted to know who the God Jao was answered That he is the Supreme God of all as Macrobius (o) Macrob. Saturn l. 1. c. 18. informs us from Cornelius Labeo which both shews that the Heathen had knowledge of the God Jehovah and that
Prophecy be misapply'd to a wrong Person The Fourth Eclogue of Virgil contains the Sense of the Sibyl and however it were design'd by him is in most things much more applicable to our Saviour than to the Person whom he describes In Cataline's Conspiracy Lentulus flatter'd himself with the hopes of being a King from (y) Tull. in Catalin Orat. 3. Salust Bell. Catilin the Sibylline Oracles And from the same Oracles as well as from the Scriptures it is probable the Expectation of a King who should arise out of Judaea which both Suetonius and Tacitus mention (z) Tacit. Hist l. 5. Sueton. in Vespas c. 4. was spread throughout the East What Tully says lib. 2. de Divin in Disparagement of this Oracle is not much considerable in the Case because that whole Book is written with a Design to disparage all Divination in general For being an Academic as he professes throughout his Books of Philosophy he acknowledg'd no more of any Part of their Religion than was just necessary to comply with the Laws as he owns himself in divers Places However from him it appears that a Sybylline Oracle was alledg'd to the Purpose there mentioned and that being in Favour of Caesar and of Monarchy if there had been no other was Cause enough for Tully to reject it and turn it to ridicule 2. Tho' the Verses of the Sibyl of Cuma were burnt with the Capitol A. V. C. DCLXXI yet Virgil expresly naming Cuma this Sibyl's Verses must be still remaining or suppos'd to be so unless what he writes became some way or other known before the Burning of the Capitol and was deliver'd afterwards down by Tradition Tully quotes Sibylla Erythraea lib. 1. de Divin and if he means the same Sibyl in the 2d Book Martianus Capella says (a) Martian Capel Nupt Philolog l. 2. that Sibylla Erythraea and Cumana were the same And in the Search which was made for the Sibylline Oracles in Italy and in all other Places where there was any Probability of finding any Remains of them after the Burning of the Capitol it is likely her Verses might be recover'd For (b) Valer. Maximus l. 1. c. 1. Valerius Maximus says that M. Tullius as he calls him not Attilius was put to Death by Tarquinius for suffering Petronius Sabinus to transcribe the Sybil's Verses and whether they were dispers'd in divers Copies before it was discover'd so as not to be suppress'd it is not known But if they were the Verses of some other Sibyl which went under the Name of the Sibyl of Cuma after her's were burnt with the Capitol it is not much material however the Romans certainly thought they had the Oracles of the Cuman Sibyl For as Lactantius says (c) Lactan. de Falsa Relig c. 6. they allow'd the Verses of all the other Sibyls to be copy'd out and publish'd though they would not suffer those of Cuma to be read but by Order of the Senate Notwithstanding all this Care they could not keep them conceal'd for we meet them often quoted Indeed the Oracles in the Capitol (c) Diouys Halicar l. 4. were only Copies taken from Originals which were left in those Places from whence the Romans had their own Copies transcrib'd and the Originals might be read and other Copies taken how carefully soever the Romans kept their own 3. It being known that the Sibylline Oracles contain'd things which concern'd the Kingdom of the Messias and the Verses themselves being in divers Hands this gave Occasion to some to make many more Verses under the Name of the Sybil's relating the whole History of our Saviour c. But if the Sibyl's Verses had been all burnt or lost or if they had been kept so close that no Body could possibly come to to the Knowledge of them without Leave from the Senate there could have been no Pretence for any Imposture nor would the Christians ever have alledg'd them as genuine Celsus objects only (e) Origen contra Cels l. 7. That many things were added to the Verses of the Sibyls Not that they were all Counterfeit or that the Christians had no Means of coming by the True Which was an Advantage that an Adversary much less subtile than Celsus would not have omitted if there had been any Ground for it Origen replies That it was a malicious Accusation and that he was able to bring no Proof of it by producing Ancient Copies more genuine than those which the Christians made use of And if the Sibyls had deliver'd nothing relating to these Matters why should any one counterfeit Verses in their Name rather than under the Title of any other Oracle There must be some Ground and Foundation of Truth to give any Opportunity or Pretence to the Counterfeiting of it And the Prophecies of the Sibyls concerning Christ must be the Occasion of all the additional ones which were falsly ascrib'd to them 4. Isaac Vossius thought that great Part of these Oracles were compos'd by the Jews And indeed Pausanias says (f) Pausan in Phocic p. 328. one of the Sibyls was by the Jews call'd Sabba the same I suppose who is mention'd by * Aelian l. 2. c. 35. Aelian and by Suidas said to be descended from Noah and nam'd Sambethe call'd the Chaldaean and by some the Hebrew and also the Persian Sibyl whom †Alexand. ab Alex. l. 3. c. 16. Alexander ab Alexandro calls Sibylla Judaea But if these were only Heathen Oracles yet there is Reason to believe that the Predictions concerning Christ were very plain though not so particular as those now set down in the Sibylline Books both because the Heathen having but few Oracles of this Nature and so many of a quite contrary Nature it was the more necessary that these should be plain and because we find that when God in his Infinite Wisdom saw it fitting to reveal himself to others he did it in as plain a Manner and sometimes in a plainer than he did to his own People in any one Prophecy Thus Balaam's Prophecy is as plain as any Prophecy of that time at least and our Saviour discover'd himself more plainly to the Woman of Samaria than he had yet done to any of his Disciples John iv 26. Not to mention the Dreams of Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar or the Message of Jonah to the Ninevites And as Balaam an Inchanter or Sorcerer deliver'd a true and famous Prophecy of Christ and the Devils were forc'd to confess him to be the Son of God so it is reasonable to believe that God might ordain that these Celebrated Prophetesses whose Oracles were otherwise the Devil's Instruments to promote his Ends should foretell our Saviour's Coming And yet St. Augustine assures us (g) August Civ Dei l. 18. c. 23. that the Sibylla Erythraea or Cumana had nothing of Idolatry in her Verses but spoke so much against it that he believ'd her to belong to the City of God 5. The Difference which there is
these Five Books of Moses must be Genuine and of Divine Authority being written by him who had so many ways given Evidence of his Divine Commission CHAP. V. Of the Predictions or Prophecies Contain'd in the Books of Moses IT was foretold by God himself upon the Fall of our First Parents That the seed of the woman should bruise the serpem's head Gen. iii. 15. Maimonides is observ'd to take particular Notice That it was the Seed of the Woman and not of the Man and the Jews in their Targum's are observ'd to apply this Text to the Messias which was fulfill'd in our Saviour Christ who was born of a Woman that was a Virgin and had no Man to his Father And therefore this Prediction express'd thus precisely concerning the Seed of the Woman could be fulfill'd in no other Person and no other Person ever gain'd such Victories over the Enemy of Mankind who had so long tyranniz'd over the Sons of Men. God reveal'd the precise Time of the Flood to Noah who thereupon built an Ark and foretold the Destruction of the World to that wicked Generation and was a Preacher of Righteousness and Repentance to them Gen. vi 3. After the Flood Noah by a Prophetick Spirit foretold the Fate and Condition of the Posterity of his three Sons Gen. ix 25. That Canaan should be Servant to Shem which was accomplished when the Children of Israel the Posterity of Shem subdued the Canaanites and possessed their Land about Eight hundred Years after this Prophecy That Japhet should dwell in the Tents of Shem which was fulfilled in the Greeks and Romans descended from Japhet when they conquer'd Asia That Canaan should likewise be the Servant of Japhet as well as of Shem. Upon which Mr. Mede observes (n) Mede Book 1. Disc 28. that the Posterity Cham never subdued the Children either of Japhet or of Shem though Shem hath subdued Japhet and Japhet hath conquer'd Shem which made (o) Liv. l. 27. Hannibal descended from Canaan cry out with amazement of Soul Agnosco fatum Carthaginis God promiseth Abraham a Son in his old Age by Sarah his Wife who was likewise of a great Age and declares that his Posterity by this Son should be exceeding numerous that they should inherit the Land of Canaan after they had been afflicted in a strange Land Four hundred Years Gen. XV. 13. and that then they should come out of that Land with great substance but that God would judge the Nation that had oppressed them or that he would procure their Deliverance by signal Judgments upon their Oppressors and that in the fourth generation they should be brought back again to the Land of Promise ver 16. which agrees exactly with the Deliverance of the Children of Israel out of Aegypt computing the Years from the time that the Promise was made to Abraham Exod. xii 40. Gal. iii. 17. and reckoning the Four Generations to be betwixt Isaac the Son promised to Abraham and Moses in whom the Prediction was fulfilled This Promise made to Abraham and his Seed was renewed several times and repeated again to Him and to Isaac and Jacob Gen. xxvi 3. xxviii 14. and was all along depended upon by the Israelites God foretold of Abraham That all the nations of the earth should be blessed in him Gen. xviii 18. which was fulfilled in that God made Abraham ' Posterity his Messengers to communicate his Will to the rest of Mankind and more especially in that Blessing which all Nations received in the Birth of Christ This is a remarkable Prophecy concerning the greatest of Blessings and is often repeated The Prophecy of Isaac concerning Esau and Jacob Gen. xxvii 40. first That the Posterity of Esau should serve Jacob's Posterity was fulfilled in David's Victories over the Edomites 2 Sam. viii 14. 1 King xi 15. 1 Chron. xviii 13. and by Amaziah 2 King xiv 7. and then that part of it That the Edomites should break the yoke from off their neck was accomplish'd 2 King viii 20. 2 Chron. xxi 8. Joseph's own Dream and his Interpretation of the Dream of Pharaoh when none of the Magicians or Wise-men of Aegypt were able to interpret it had remarkable and publick Circumstances that could neither be mistaken nor forgotten in the accomplishment Jacob describes the Borders of their several Possessions in the Land of Canaan though it were so many years after divided among the Tribes by Lot Gen. xlix 13. He foretold the different state and condition of the rest of his Sons and particularly prophesied That the scepter should not depart from Judah until Shiloh came And upon the fulfilling of this and other Prophecies in the Pentateuch not only the Jews but the Samaritans who received no other Prophecies as they did these expected the Messias at the time in which our Saviour appeared in the world and believed on him because they saw the Prophecies fulfilled in Him Joh. iv 25 29 39 42. Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel saying God will surely visit you and ye shall carry up my bones from hence Gen. l. 25. which they did accordingly Exod. xiii 19. Jacob had desired to be buried in the Land of Canaan insomuch that he caused Joseph to swear to him that he would bury him there and not in Aegypt and Joseph and his Brethren went into Canaan to bury their Father because that was the Land where Abraham and Isaac had been buried and the Land which their Posterity was afterwards to Possess but Joseph as a further token of Assurance to the Israelites that they should inherit that Land would not have his own Corps carried thither at his death but ordered his Bones to be kept and carried up by their Posterity at their leaving Aegypt and in the mean time they were a perpetual Monument and Representation to them of the Promise made to their Fore-fathers and a Ground and Motive for their Trust and Confidence in God for the Accomplishment of it The Remembrance of Balaam's Prophecy was preserved in the East and the Wisemen upon the appearance of the Star knowing it to be fulfilled came to Jerusalem to enquire where they might find the King of the Jews then newly born Num. xxiv 15. Mat. ii 2. He prophesied likewise of Agag by Name saying of Israel And his king shall be higher than Agag and his kingdom shall be exalted Num. xxiv 7. thereby foretelling the Destruction of Agag by Saul who being the first King that ever Israel had overcame Agag King of the Amalekites 1 Sam. xv 8. The same Balaam foretold the Conquests of Alexander in these words And ships shall come from the coasts of Chittim and shall afflict Ashur Num. xxiv 24. By the Coasts of Chittim are to be understood the Coasts of Greece from whence Alexander's Army was transported into Asia for Alexander came out of the Land of Chettim or Chittim 1 Mac. i. 1. and Perseus was King of the Citims or Macedonians chap. viii 5. These
several Prophecies we have recorded in the Books of Moses and ascribed to others and the last comaining so many remarkable things is from the mouth of an Enemy Moses himself foretold That the Children of Israel should after Forty Years come into the Land of Promise That they should prove Victorious over the Canaanites and That their Country should by the Divine Care and Protection be preserved in safety whilst they went up to worship at Jerusalem thrice every Year Thrice in the year shall all your men-children appear before the Lord God the God of Israel For I will cast out the nations before thee and enlarge thy borders netther shall any man desire thy land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year Exod. xxxiv 23 24. Here is the Promise of a constant Miracle to be fulfilled to the Israelites thrice every Year as long as their Government stood all their Males were to go up to Jerusalem at three set and known times every year and yet their Enemies round about them whom they had so many ways provoked were by the Almighty Power of God restrained from taking any advantage of this opportunity which was frequently and notoriously given them of Invading their Countrey The very Nature and Constitution of the Jewish worship made it impossible for their Government to subsist in the observation of their Religion without a Miracle wrought three times in a Year for their preservation And the fulfilling of this Promise which God had made to them by Moses and the preserving of them in the performance of that Worship which he had appointed them was a continual Confirmation of his Law and a repeated Assurance that it was from God By the Law of Moses likewise every Seventh Year they were Permitted neither to sow their Land nor to prune their Vineyards nor to gather any Corn or Fruits that grew of their own accord which was a Law that must have brought them under great extremities and the observation of it had been impracticable if the extraordinary and miraculous Blessing of God had not supplied this constant want of the seventh year's Product with as constant an Overplus in the preceeding years For as God by Moses foretold That on the Sixth Day there should fall Manna enough to supply them on the Sabbath-day so they had a Promise of Three Years Fruits precisely every Sixth Year to supply that want which the Sabbatical Year must otherwise have reduced them to And if ye shall say What shall we eat the seventh year behold we shall not sow nor gather in our encrease Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year and it shall bring forth fruit for three years And ye shall sow the eighth year and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store Lev. xxv 20 21 22. Which is another clear Instance that the People of Israel could never have subsisted in the observation of their Law but by the constant and miraculous accomplishment of the Prophecies which contained the Promises made to them for their Preservation In blessing the Twelve Tribes of Israel he foretold the peculiar state and condition of every distinct Tribe Deut. xxxiii He foretold to them all in general That they should have miraculous success against the Canaanites That they should possess themselves of their Land That they should set Kings over them That they should have a peculiar Place of Worship whither they should all resort and that they should have the Divine Oracles and a succession of Prophets for their direction in all Matters of great importance and difficulty And Joshua appeals to the Experience of the children of Israel whether all had not been fulfilled which was promised as far as his time And be hold this day I am going the way of all the earth and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to pass unto you and not one thing hath failed thereof Josh xxiii 14. The extent of the Dominions of the children of Israel after they came to be setled in the Land of Canaan is foretold Exod. xxiii 31. and fulfilled 2 Sam. viii 3. Ezra iv 20. And Solomon at the Dedication of the Temple declared in the audience of all the People That there had not failed one word of all God's good promise which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant 1 King viii 56. Moses also foretold that besides a constant succession of Prophets for many Ages there should arise a Prophet of extraordinary Power and Authority and whosoever would not hear that Prophet should be destroyed Deut. xviii 18. This Prophet was the great expectation of the Jews at the time of out Saviour's coming Joh. 1.21 vi 14. vii 40. and the Apostles prove our Saviour to be him Act. iii. 22. vii 37. Lastly Moses foretold the Disobedience and the Revolt of the children of Israel the Judgments that should befall them for their Iniquities and their Deliverance upon their Repentance he foretold so many Years before they had any King That they and their King whom they would set over them should be carried into Captivity and that at the same time when they were taken Captive by the Assyrians who are described in the very same words that the other Prophets use concerning them the remainder should be carried into Aegypt Deut. xxviii 36 49 50 68. and we see it came accordingly to pass Jer. xliii And the Siege of Samaria by the Assyrians and of Jerusalem both by them and the Romans is particularly described to the very circumstance of their eating the flesh of their sons and of their daughters Deut. xxviii 53. which is a thing that has scarce ever happen'd in any other Siege but those of Samaria and of Jerusalem Lam. ii 20. iv 10.2 King vi 29. This monstrous and dreadful thing was twice known in Jerusalem first when it was besieged by Nehuchadnezzar and again when it was destroyed by the Romans under Titus And such a circumstance could not be foretold so long before but by a Divine Prescience and that so strange and unnatural a thing should befall the Children of Israel three several times according to the express words of a Prophecy could have nothing of Chance in it Thus we see that besides the Prophecies concerning the other Nations of the Earth every State and Condition of the People of Israel from their first Original to the Destruction of Jerusalem was the Perpetual Fulfilling of express Prophecies contained in the Books of Moses CHAP. VI. Of the Miracles wrought by Moses IF it be once proved That Moses did what is related of him in the Pentateuch it will unavoidably follow That he did it by a Divine Power and that he was God's Servant and Minister and that
therefore whatsoever he did or wrote as by his Direction and Command was really so For if there ever were or can be any such thing as a Miracle it must be confessed that the Works performed by Moses were such and therefore the only Enquiry will be Whether they were really performed by Him since it is absurd to think that God may not upon great Reasons alter the course of Nature And I shall undertake to prove supposing only that there was such a Man as Moses and that the Jewish Law was given by him That it is of Divine Authority and stands confirmed by all the Miracles which are related in the Pentateuch to have been wrought by Moses And that there was such a man and that he delivered the Law to the Israelites is affirmed by the best Heathen Authors as Diodorus Siculus Strabo and others and was never yet that I have heard of question'd by any Man For those who will not acknowledge that Moses wrote the Books which contain it yet confess that the Law it self was of his prescribing But if it should be question'd whether there ever was such a Man who gave them their Law how absurd is it to imagine that a new and burthensome Law which at first was so very uneasie to them and which nothing but a full persunsion of its Divine Authority could ever have made them so zealous for should be received by any Nation merely upon a feigned and groundless Report that Moses had at some time or other delivered it in such a manner and in such circumstances if there never had been such a Man or such a Law-giver in the World Could any one or more Men persuade a whole Nation to this or could a whole Nation conspire to deceive their Posterity with a belief of it What mighty Charm could there be in a Name never heard of before and in a Story newly invented that a whole Nation should presently grow fond of it They must consider Humane Nature very little who can fansie any thing so unnatural I shall therefore take it for granted that there was such a Man as Moses and that the Jewish Law was given by him And if it be once proved that the Matters of Fact or Miracles related of him were indeed performed as they are related to have been no rational Man can doubt but that they were brought to pass by an Almighty Power I shall now therefore consider the History of the Jews barely as National Records not as written by an Inspired Author For it will appear from them considered only as an Account of Matter of fact that Moses was a Person inspired and assisted by God and both wrote and did all by God's express Will and Appointment And if we question the Authority of the Books of Moses in this matter when they are considered but as National Records it must be upon one of these accounts Either 1. Because the Matters of fact contained in them as they are there related to have been done were not at first sufficiently attested Or 2. Because the Records themselves are seigned and therefore the Relations there set down are not to be depended upon For if the Miracles be sufficiently attested supposing the Truth of the History then if the History be true the Miracles must be so too 1. The Miracles and Matters of fact contained in the Books of Moses as they are there related to have been done were at first sufficiently attested The permission of Polygamy amongst the Israelites for the encrease of that People the peculiar Fruitfulness of the Climate of Aegypt where the Women are observed to bring forth often two or three sometimes more Children at a birth the long Lives of Mankind in those Ages and above all the Promise of God made to Abraham That he would bless and multiply his Posterity in Isaac's Line Gen. xxii 17. caused the Children of Israel to be exceeding numerous in a few Generations after they came into Aeygpt A Syrian ready to perish was their father and he went down into Aeygpt and sojourned there with a few and became there a nation great mighty and populous Deut. xxvi 5. The fighting-Men from twenty years old and upward that were numbred in the Wilderness of Sinai in the second year after they came out of the Land of Aegypt were Six hundred thousand and Three thousand and five hundred and fifty besides the Tribe of Levi Num. i. 1 46 47. And the Males of the Levites that were numbred from Thirty Years old to Fifty were Egtht thousand and five hundred and fourscore Num. iv 47 48. And the number of Males from Twenty Years old and upward which was taken in the Plains of Moab was Six hundred thousands and a thousand seven hundred and thirty besides the Levites and those that were numbred of them were Twenty and three thousand all males from a month old and upward and not a man of these was numbred before in the wilderness of Sinai chap. xxvi 51 62 64. And those of the other Sex must be supposed to have been about the same number when both these Accompts were taken In all reckoning Men Women and Children and Servants the Number is computed at three Millions And all this People the Parents and the Children who as they died grew up in their stead were conducted for Forty Years together by a constant course of Miracles wrought continually in their sight God took him a nation from the midst of another nation by temptations by signs and by wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm and by great terrours Deut. iv 34. They could not be ignorant whether there were Miracles wrought to procure their Deliverance out of Aegypt these were publick and notorious both to the Israelites and the Aegyptians the Magicians were not able to do the like with their Inchantments but were forced to confess This is the finger of God Exod. viii 19. and they were of that nature and of such mighty consequence that they could not fail of being particularly taken notice of when two Nations were so much concerned in the Effects and Events of them The Children of Israel had been Witnesses of Ten Plagues inflicted successively upon the Aegyptians in the most remarkable manner that can be conceived to procure their Deliverance and when Pharaoh pursued them as they were going away it was impossible for them to escape from him but by Miracle the People were in the greatest consternation they wished themselves again in Aegypt and made such Expostulations with Moses as it was natural for Men in that condition to make and such as shewed that upon the first opportunity they would have been ready â—o deliver up Moses to secure themselves and malâ—â— their peace with Pharaoh And they said unto Moses Because there were no graves in Aegypt hast thou taken us away to die in â—he wilderness Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us to carry us forth out of Aegypt Is not â—his
Fact to be known to any single Person 2. Having shewn That the Matters of fact and Miracles contained in the Books of Moses as they are related to have been done were at first sufficiently attested and that if we may credit that Relation all the Miracles there mention'd were certainly wrought by him since they are of that nature that the People of Israel could not be deceived in them I now proceed to shew That the Relations there set down are a true Account of those things and such as we may depend upon For if these Matters of Fact or Miracles are either feigned or falsified this must be done either in Moses's his time or afterwards and if in his time then either by Moses and Aaron with others who were concerned in carrying on the Design or by the whole People of Israâ—l together And if it were done after Moses his death then again it must be done either by some particular Man or by the contrivance of some few or more together or it must have been by the joint Knowledge and consent of the whole Nation I will therefore prove 1. That the Miracles could not be feigned by Moses and Aaron and others concerned with them in carrying on such a Design 2. The Miracles could not be feigned nor the Books of Moses invented or falsified by any particular Man or by any Confederacy or Combination of Men after the death of Moses 3. The Miracles could not be feigned nor the Books invented or falsified by the joint Consent of the whole Nation either in Moses's time or after it 1. These Things could not be feigned by Moses and Aaron and others concerned with them in carrying on such a Design It is plain that they could never invent such an Account as that of their miraculous Escape out of Aegypt and their Travelling in the Wilderness under the conduct and support of the same miraculous Power and then impose it upon the People of Israel for Truth For the People are supposed to be chiefly concerned in the whole Relation Moses appeals to their own sense and experience The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers but with us even with us who are all of us here alive this day Deut. v. 3. And know you this day for I speak not with your children which have not known and which have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God his greatness his mighty hand and his stretched-out arm and his miracles and his acts which he did in the midst of Aegypt unto Pharaoh the king of Aegypt and unto all his land and what he did unto the army of Aegypt unto their horses and to their chariots how he made the water of the Red-sea to over flow them as they pursued after you and how the Lord hath destroyed them unto this day and what he did unto you in the wilderness until ye came into this place and what he did unto Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab the son of Reuben how the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their housholds and their tents and all their substance that was in their possession in the midst of all Israel But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did Deut. xi 2 3 4 5 6 7. Here is a Recapitulation of all the Miracles that had been wrought with an Appeal to their Senses for the Truth of them And Moses would never have made such Appeals as these if they could possibly have disproved him they could never be persuaded that they â—ame out of Aegypt after so many Plagues inflicted upon the Aegyptians to procure their Deliverance if there had been no such thing or that they were so long time in the Wilderness and that so many and so great Miracles were wrought in their sight if they had never been done before them Though Men may perhaps be persuaded to believe that their Ancestors a long time ago saw and heard things which they never saw nor heard yet a whole Nation was never supposed to have been persuaded out of their Senses at once and Moses could not attempt to make so many Men believe what they must all have known to have been false as well as himself if it had been so but he would have lard the Scene at a greater distance of time and not have brought those in as chiefly concerned in the whole business who were then alive and present to convince him of falshood And therefore if the Particulars set down in the Pentateuch be false and as ancient as Moses his time they must be invented with the knowledge and received by the consent of the whole Nation For Moses and Aaron could never so far delude so many thousands as to make them believe such variety of Matter of fact in so many and so wonderful Instances set forth and with such notorious Circumstances and appeal to the Senses of those whom they deceived whether they had not seen and perceived and had the experience of what had been done for so many years if it had been all but Fiction 2. The Miracles could not be feigned nor the Books of Moses invented or falsified by any particular Man or by any confederacy or combination of Men after the death of Moses If the Miracles were feigned after the death of Moses either the Laws must likewise be invented or altered after his death and the Miracles inserted to procure them Authority or the Laws remained as they had been delivered by him and the Miracles only were added For the Books of Moses may be considered either as containing the Laws delivered by him or as relating the Miracles by which these Laws were ratified and established in each of which respects there could be no Forgery or Falsification For 1. The Laws themselves could not be invented nor altered or falsified because the whole Jewish State and Policy was founded upon them and could not subsist without them and therefore they must be as ancient as the Jewish Government which is confess'd on all hands to have been first erected by Moses For not only their Religious Worship but their Civil Rights and Interests depended entirely upon the Laws of Moses their Publick Proceedings and their Private Dealings one with another were all to be regulated and governed by these Laws and when any Laws are brought into constant use and practice in any Nation it is ridiculous to imagine that they can be altered and falsified and a new System of Laws introduced instead of them without the knowledge of the People governed by them or any remembrances of it left amongst them No material Alterations can be made in Laws which are of continual use and which concern every Man's Interest but they must be taken notice of and discovered by such as shall find themselves aggrieved by such Alterations But this was less practicable amongst the Jews than amongst any other People 1. Because the Distinction of their Tribes and the Genealogies which
were kept of every Family made them have a more separate and distinct Interest in every Tribe and a more exact Account of Times and perfect Knowledge of things in every Family and therefore they were not so capable of being imposed upon in things of this nature as the People of other Nations might be where Marriages and Inheritances are promiscuous and no occasion is given for the like emulation and watchfulness over one another and where no such Remembrances and Notices of the Transactions of Affairs are to be consulted by any one of every private Family In the wilderness of Sinai on the first day of the second month in the second year after they were come out of the land of Aegypt Moses and Aaron assembled all the congregations together and they declared their pedigrees after their families by the house of their fathers according to the number of their names from twenty years old and upward by their poll Num. i. 1 18. and this was done again in the Plains of Moab at the end of Forty Years chap. xxvi And these Genealogies we preserved not only during the Captivity Ezra vii and down to the Reign of Herod but even to the time of Josephus who in his First Book against Apion says That they had the Genealogies of their Priests then still extant for two thousand Years By which means it came to pass that every Tribe had a kind of separate Interest which was the occasion of Korah's Sedition against Moses And every Man amongst their Tribes might certainly hereby know how many Generations he was removed from those who first took possession of the Land of Promise and might find the Names of his Ancestors registred who were in the Wilderness with Moses or came with Joshua over Jordan And this must make the memory of their Ancestors more dear and familiar to them and it must make them have a greater regard for any thing they had left behind them especially for a Book upon which their Rights of Inheritance and the Title they had to all they enjoyed depended This was the Deed by which they held their Estates and the Last Will and Testament as it were of their Ancestors amongst whom the Land was divided But it is certain Men are more careful of nothing than of the Writings by which they enjoy their Estates and there is no great dauger when a will is once come to the hands of the right Heir that it will be lost or salsified to his prejudice but if the Books of Moses were altered it must be upon the account of some advantage to such as must be supposed to make the Alterations and consequently to the disadvantage of others who therefore would have found themselves concerned to oppose such Alterations But as the Books of Moses were in the nature of a Deed of Settlement to every Tribe and Family so they were a Law too which all were obliged to know and observe under the severest Penalties And being so generally known and universally practised it could no more be falsified at any time since its first Promulgation than it could be now at this day For 2. Another thing which made the People of Israel less capable of being imposed upon in this matter was That they were by their Laws themselves obliged to the constant study of them they were to teach them their Children and to be continually discoursing and meditating on them to bind them for a sign upon their hand that they might be as frontlets between their eyes to teach them their children speaking of them when they sate in their houses and when they walked by the way when they lay down and when they rose up to write them upon the door-posts of their houses and upon their gates Deut. xi 18 19 20. Nothing was to be more notorious and familiar to them and accordingly they were perfectly acquainted with them and as Josephus says knew them as well as they did their own Names they had them constantly in their mouths and thousands have died in defence of them and could by no Menaces or Torments be brought to forsake or renounce them And to this end One Day in Seven was by Moses's his Law set apart for the learning and understanding of it The Jews have a Tradition That Moses appointed the Law to be read therice every Year in their publick Assemblies And Grotius (q) Grot. ad Matth. xv 2. is of this opinion However the Scripture informs us that Moses of old time had in every city them that preached him being read in the synagogues every sabbath-day Act. xv 21. It is indeed the common opinion That there were no Synagogues before the Captivity But then by Synagogues must be understood Places of Judicature rather than of Divine Worship for there is no reason to question but the Jews had their Proseuchas or Places of Prayer from the Beginning since it is incredible that those who lived at a great distance and could not come to Jerusalem on the Sabbath-days and other time of Divine Worship besides the three great Festivals when all their Males were bound to be at Jerusalem should not assemble for the Worship of God in the places where they dwelt nay they were by an express Law obliged to it on the Sabbaths The seventh day is the sabbath of rest an holy convocation ye shall do no work therein it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings Lev. xxiii 3. They must therefore have places in all their Dwellings to resort to where they held their Convocations or Assemblies and these they went to on the New Moons as well as on the sabbaths 2 King iv 23. which made the Psalmist lament that the Enemy had burnt up all the synagogues of God in the land Psal lxxiv. 8. And being met together there is as little doubt to be made but that they read the Law which was to be read by them in their Families and much more in their Publick Assemblies on their solemn Days of Divine Worship The Books of Moses therefore were â—ead in their Synagogues in every City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from ancient Generations or from the first settlement of the Children of Israel in the Land of Canaan And then at the end of every Seven Years the Law was read in the most publick and solemn manner in the Solemnity of the Year of Release in the Feast of Tabernacles Moses wrote a Book of the Law and commanded it to be put in the side of the Ark Deut. xxxi 29. as the Two Tables of Stone were put into the Ark it self chap. x. 5. and this he delivered to the Priests and to all the Elders of Israel and commanded them saying At the end of every seven years in the solemnity of the year of release in the feast of tabernacles when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their
hearing Gather the people together Men and woman and children and thy stranger that is within thy gates that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and observe to do all the words of this law And that their children which have not known any thing may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it Deut. xxxi 10 11 12 13. How is it possible that any more effectual care could have been taken to secure a Law from being depraved and altered by Impostures Every seventh Day at least was set apart for the reading and learning it in their seveval Tribes throughout all the Land and then once in seven years it was read at a publick and solemn Feast when they were all obliged to go up to Jerusalem And for this purpose Moses wrot a Book of the Law which was put in the side of the Ark that it might be there for a Testimony against them if they should trangress it much more if they should make any Alterations in it And out of this Book the King was to write him a Copy of the Law Deut. xvii 1â— and this Book of the Law was found by Hilâ—iah the High-Priest in the House of the Lord 2 Cron. xxxiv 14.2 King xxii 8. For after all that the wicked and idolatrous Kings could do to suppress the Law of Moses and draw aside the People to Idolatry the Authentick Book of the Law writen by Moses himself was still preserved in Josiah's time besides the several Copies which must be dispersed throughout the Land for the use of their Synagogues and those which must be remaining in the hands of the Prophets and other pious Men. And there is little reason to doubt but that this very Book written by Moses was preserved during the Captivity and was that Book which Ezra read to the People It is by no means credible that the Prophets would suffer that Book to be lost much less that they would suffer all the Copies generally to be lost or corrupted which indeed considering the number was hardly possible Is it probable that Jeremiah would use that favour which he had with Nebuchadnezzar to any other purpose rather than for the preservation of the Book of the Law The Jews say the Ark was secured in the burning of the Temple at the time of their Captivity but it is much more probable that the Book of their Law was secured it being both more easily conveyed away and not so tempting a Prey to the Enemy We find the Law cited in the time of the Captivity by Daniel Den. ix 11. by Nehemiah Nehem. i. 8 9. and in Tobit who belong'd â—o the Ten Tribes Tob. vi 12. vii 13. And it is not to be doubted but that these and other pious Men had Copies of it by them and were very careful to preserve them Maimonides (r) Huet 〈◊〉 Prop. 41. says that Mises himself wrote out Twelve Books of the Law one for each Tripe besides that which was laid up in the side of the Ark and the Rabbins teach that every one is obliged to have a Copy of the Pentateuch by him And Ezra and Nehemiah (s) Dros dâ—â—â—â—th Sect. l. 3. c. 11. are said to have brought Three hundred Books of the Law into the Congregation assembled at their return from Captivity It is certain there were Scribes of the Law before the Captivity and in the time of it Jer. viii 8. Ezra is stiled a ready Scribe in the law of Moses and the Scribe even a Scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord and of his statutes to Israel And by Artaxerxes in his Letter he is called a Scribe of the law of the God of heaven Ezra vii 6 11 12. By which it appears that there were Scribes of the Law during the Captivity who were known by this solemn Stile and Character and whose care and employment it was to study and write over the Law of whom Ezra was the principal at the time of their Return It is most probable then that the Book of the Law was preserved in Moses's own Hand till the coming of the Jews from Babylon besides the Copies that were preserved in the hands of Daniel Nehemiah Ezra Zechariah and the other Prophets who were not only of unquestionable Integrity but wrote themselves by Divine Inspiration 3. Nothing is more expressly forbidden in the Books of Moses than all Fraud and Deceit and it cannot reasonably be suspected that any Man would be guilty of a Fraud of the highest nature imaginable to introduce or establish a Law that forbids it Moses had forewarned them against all such practices both in his Laws in general and by an express Prohibition Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it Deut. iv 2. And all who had any regard to the Observation of his Laws would observe this as well as other parts of it for this preserved the Authority of all the rest inviolable And if they had had no regard to the Law but had altered it as they pleased they would certainly have made such Alterations as would have gratified the People and would have taken great care to leave nothing which might give offence but the Laws of Moses are such as that without a Divine Authority to enforce them they would never have been complied with but would have been grievous to a less suspicious and impatient People than the Jews were If it be said That the Prohibition against Alterations might be added amongst other things there is no ground of probability for it but so much odds against it that a Man might as well suspect that the whole Five Books had been forged as to pitch upon that particular Verse and say that it is not genuine Besides why should Impostors insert such a Clause as would hinder them from changing any thing in the Law ever after why should they not rather reserve to themselves a liberty of changing and adding as often as they thought fit 2. As the Laws themselves could not be invented nor altered after Moses's time so neither could the Account of the Miracles wrought by him be inserted after his death by any particular Man nor by any Confederacy or Combination of Men whatsoever For if the Miracles by which the Law is supposed to be confirmed were afterwards inserted they must be intended as a Sanction to give Authority to it and keep the People in awe when they were become uneasie and disobedient under the Government of those Laws But it must needs be much more difficult to introduce Laws at first than to govern a People by them after they have been once introduced and are setled and received amongst them Indeed it is incredible how Laws so little favourable to the ease or advantage of a People which were so expensive and burthensome in there
Ceremonies and which where purposely designed in many things to be contrary to the Customs of all the Nations round about them and to the Customs which they had been themselves acquainted with in Aegypt in so many Instances could be at first introduced but by Miracles but if they could have been once introduced without Miracles there is no reason to think but that when the People were used and accustom'd to them there would have been no need of any pretence of Miracles to keep them in obedience to them and as little reason there is to imagine that they would have been over awed by a Report of Miracles which must be supposed never to have been heard of till the People gave occasion for the Invention of them by their Disobedience The Books of Moses were read as I have shewn in the Synagogues or Religious Assemblies in the several Tribes at least every Sabbath-day and were appointed to be solemnly read in the audience of all the People at the Feast of Tabernacles every Seven Years and if they had had no knowledge of the Laws of Moses but from the Rehearsal of it at the Feast of Tabernacles yet can we conceive that the Body of the Jewish Nation should be so stupid and forgetful as not to remember when these Miracles must be supposed to be first read to them that they had never heard them before But how impossible is it that they should be thus imposed upon when they heard the Books of Moses read every Week to them and had them besides in their own keeping to read them at their leisure The Miracles now make up great part of the Books of Moses they are every where interspersed and intermix'd throughout the History and they are of such a nature as is most apt to make impression upon the Memories of Men And can we imagine that Miracles so often repeated and every were inculcated could be inserted by any contrivance and imposed upon a People who were all wont to hear the Law publickly read in a solemn Assembly once every Seven Years and heard it read in their Synagogues besides every Seventh Day Would they not be infinitely surprised the first time they heard the Relation of the Plagues inflicted on the Aegyptians of the Judgment upon Korah and his Company and of the miraculous Punishments which befell the Idolatrous and Disobedient in the Wilderness Would they not soon have found out so obvious a Deceit as this must have been if it had been one If we can think that such Insertions could pass without discovery why may we not as well believe too that as many more might be made now and not be discovered Would not the whole Body of the People have been able to testifie that all this was counterfeited and inserted into the Law for no such thing was read to them in their Synagogues upon the Sabbaths nor had been read at the end of the last Seven Years but it was all now added to terrifie them and keep them from following the Customs of other Nations Would not this have been the worst contrivance that could have been thought of to keep a People in awe to tell them of such things as every Man of them could disprove that was of Age and had but Understanding and Memory enough to know what he had heard so often read before and to distinguish it from such things as are so remarkable that they could hardly escape any one's Memory who had ever heard of them They had Books of the Law for their private reading and besides the reading of it in their Weekly Assemblies they had a solemn Publication and Proclamation of their Law once every Seven Years as it were purposely to prevent any Design of falsifying it And to have read any thing so remarkable as the Miracles of Moses are in all their circumstances so often repeated and insisted upon if the People had not found them in their own Books and had not been used to hear them read to them from the time of the giving the Law by Moses had been only for the Projectors to proclaim themselves Impostors but could never have deceived any Man And besides the care that was taken for the Preservation of the Books of the Law there were publick Memorials of the principal Miracles enjoined such was the Feast of the Passover in remembrance of the Angel's passing over the Israelites when he slew the first-born born of the Aegyptians and the Feast of Tarbernacles in remembrance of their dwelling in Tents in the Wilderness and such were the Brazen Serpent the Ark and the Tabernacle These were things seen and observed or known by all and they could not be introduced after Moses's time because there could be no pretence for it since they who introduced them must suppose them to have been before at the very time when they designed first to introduce them The Vrim and Thummim was both a constant Miracle and a constant Attestation to the Law by which it was ordained And it appears that the Priests who were to examine and judge of Leprosie either in Persons or Things were secured from the Infection of it though it were infectious to all others And their constant Service could not be performed without a (t) Vid. Lightfoot's Prospect of the Temple c. 34. p. 2030. miraculous Dispensation Thus it is evident That there is all the Proof which it is possible to bring in any case of this nature that the Books of Moses could not be falsified by any Man or Party of Men whatsoever since the Nature and Institution of the Law it self did effectually provide against all Impostures and the Jews had all the assurance that it is possible for any People to have that the Books of Moses are the same which he wrote and left behind him And this inspired them with such a zeal for their Law as to sacrifice their Lives in vindication of it whereas there was no Book whatsoever as Josephus observes amongst the Heathens which any Man amongst them would not rather a thousand times see destroyed though it were in never so much esteem with them than he would suffer for it Which shews that the Jews were fully convinced of the Divine Authority of their Law from all the Evidence above-mentioned and were persuaded that it is the same which Moses delivered and left behind him 3. The Pentateuch could not be invented nor falsified by the joint Consent of the whole Nation either in Moses's time or after it For how is it possible that such a thing should have been concealed from all other Nations and that a whole Nation should know of the Imposture and no Man ever discover it nor no Apostate ever divulge it but they and their Posterity should always profess that they believed the Law to be revealed to Moses by God himself just as we now have it in the Peutateuch that under all Afflictions and Adversities they should impute their Sufferings to the violation of
Nations to report that after so many loathsome and grievous Plagues inflicted upon Pharaoh and his People they came out of Aegypt and at last by the destruction of him and his whole Army in the Red-Sea made their escape and that they forced their way thro' all the other Nations that withstood their passage into Canaan and vanquished and destroyed them as they went and then to proclaim a sacred War against all the Nations whose Land they were to possess and many of whose Posterity were remaining in Solomon's time and probably long after and might have been able to confute great part of what the Israelites affirmed of themselves if it had been false and of a late invention for any People I say to invent such Accounts of Themselves and their Ancestors and then to make such Laws and to have the one believed and the other obeyed is altogether incredible When they had enraged all the neighbouring Nations to their destruction they obliged themselves by their Laws to leave all their Borders naked thrice every year and to give them an opportunity to destroy them and no People could have lived half an Age in such a condition under such Laws unless they had been protected by God himself the Author of them It appears therefore that as neither Moses himself nor any Party of Men either in his time or after it could either invent or change and falsified the Books which are under his Name so it is still more extravagant if possible to conceit that the whole People of Israel should either in Moses's time or afterwards be conscious to such an Imposture and yet that no man should ever discover it but it should to this day be concealed from all other Nations and that neither at the time of the Division of the Ten Tribes when Jeroboam was forced to set up Altars in other Places to keep the People from going up to Jerusalem to worship nor upon any other occasion this Secret if that may be called so which must be known to so many thousands should ever come to light Besides that they could never have invented those Laws by unanimous consent amongst themselves which they were so hardly brought to obey and if they had not been disobedient they would never have pretended they were and have invented Miracles to make it believed and if they had been never so forward in their obedience they could not have lived in the observation of the Law without a perpetual Miracle If then the Miracles of Moses and consequently the Divine Authority by which he gave his Law to the Israelites be sufficiently attested supposing the Matters of Fact to be true which are contained in the Pentateuch and if neither Moses himself could feign the Matters of Fact nor any other Person or Persons either in his time or afterwards could insert them or change the Law and the whole Jewish Nation could not at any time conspire in such a Fiction and Imposture We have all the Assurance that it is possible to have and all that any sober Man can desire both of the Truth of the Miracles wrought by Moses and of the Divine Authority of the Books penn'd by him And it will be found that after all the Reflections made by Infidels upon the Credulity as they esteem it of others there are none so credulous as they for they reject the most certain to believe the most incredible things in the World The Divine Mission and Authority of Moses being sully proved from thence it will follow 1. That God having instituted the Jewish Government was in point both of Wisdom and Honour concerned in the administration of it and that a more especial and peculiar Care and Providence must he watchful over this holy Nation and peculiar People 2 That whatever befell them either by Prophesies or by Miracles and the extraordinary Appointments of God according to the Revelations made in the Law of Moses has besides its own proper and intrinsick Evâ—dence the additional Proof of all the Miracles and Prophesies of Moses So that the Proof of the Divine Authority of Moses his Books is at the same time a Proof of all the other Books of Scripture so far as they are in the Matter and Subject of them consequent to these 3. That the Pentateuch and the other Parts of the Old Testament not to mention the New Testament in this place reciprocally prove each other like the Cause and the Effect the Pentateuch being the Cause and Foundation of These and these the Effect and the Consequence of the Pentateuch and the fulfilling the several Predictions of it CHAP. VII Of Joshua and the Judges and of the Miracles and Prophecies under their Government IT is generally agreed that Joshua himself was the Author of the Book under his Name and some who are of another opinion yet acknowledge that it must be written by his particular Order in his life-time or soon after his death The nature of the thing it self required that the Division of the Land of Canaan amongst the several Tribes should forthwith be committed to Writing for no People can be named who had the use of Letters that trusted the Boundaries of their Lands to Memory and there is no delay to be used in such cases Joshua therefore who did by Lot set out the Bounds of the Tribes at the same time put them down in Writing which he lest upon Record to Posterity to prevent Disputes and to be appealed to in case any Controversie should arise But the bare Distribution of the Land was not to be transmitted without an Account of the miraculous Conquests of it which might dispose them to be conâ—ented with their several Lots and remind them of their Duty in the possesssion and enjoyment of a Land which they were settled in thy the immediate Hand of God The Book of Joshua appears to have been written during the life-time of Rahab Jos vi 25. and to have been written in part at least by Joshua himself and annexed to the Law of Moses chap. xxiv 26. But the five last Verses giving an Account of the Death of Joshua and of what followed after it were added by some of the Prophets probably by Samuel who according to the Jewish Tradition is the Author of the Book of Judges where we find the same things repeated concerning the Death of Joshua Judg. ii 7. The Book of Judges is reckon'd among the Books of the Prophets Mat. ii 23. Judg. xiii 5. and It seems to be entitl'd to Samuel Act. iii. 24. where Samuel is mention'd as the first of the Prophets that is the first Author of the Books written by them That the Book of Judges was peâ—n'd before the Taking of Jerusalâ—â—â— by David we may learn from Judg. i. 22. After the death of Moses Joshua undertakes the Government and Conduct of the People of Israel according to God's Appointment and his Investiture to it by Moses Num. xxvii 22. who also foretold the great Success that
to lose so many Talents and to want their help in the War and to venture the ravage that such an Army who looked upon themselves as affronted made in his Country upon the Prophets assuring him that God would give him the Victory if he would dismiss them but not otherwise and telling him The Lord is able to give thee much more than this and the Event proved the Truth of the Prediction 2 Chron. xxv The Children of Israel likewise at the word of Oded the Prophet sent back Two hundred thousand Persons of the Kingdom of Judah with great spoil which they had taken 2 Chron. xxviii So ready and so general a Compliance in such cases could arise from nothing but a certain Belief and Experience of the Truth of what the Prophets delivered but at other times they were despised and persecuted And the Truth of their Prophecies was not only attested by Miracles and justified by the Event and confessed by the Deference and Respect both of the Kings and People but it was asserted by their Sufferings and sealed by the Blood of the Prophets and was at last acknowledged by the Posterity of those who had slain them they being most forward and zealous to adorn the Tombs of the Prophets whom their Fore-fathers had killed and to die in vindication of those Prophecies for which they had been slain There was a constant succession of Prophets from the time of Moses till the return of the Jews from their Captivity in Babylon some prophesied for many Years Jeremiah for above One and forty Years Ezekâ—el about Twenty Years the least time assigned to Hosea's Prophesying is Forty three Years Amos prophesied about Six and twenty Years Micah about Fifty Isaiah Jonah and Daniel a much longer time so that they lived to see divers of their own Prophecies fulfilled and to have suffered as False Prophets if they had not come to pass And though many Prophecies were not to be fulfilled till long after the death of the Prophets who deliver'd them yet they wrought Miracles or they foretold some things which came to pass soon after according to their Predictions to give evidence to their Authority and confirm their Divine Miâ—â—ion The Prophets committed their Prophecies to writing and left them to Posterity Isa xxx 8. Per. xxx 2. xxxvi 32. Hab. ii 1 2. And the writing of the Histories of the Jews belong'd to the Prophets 1 Chron. xxix 29. 2 Chron. xii 15. xiii 22. xx 34. xxvi 22. xxxii 32. And both in their Prophetical and Historical Books they deal with the greatest plainness and sincerity they record the Idolatries of the Nation and foretell the Judgments of God which were to befall it upon that account and they leave to Posterity a Relation of the Miscarriages and Crimes of their best Princes David Solomon and others who were Types of the Messias and from whose Race they expected Him and looked upon the Glories of their several Reigns to be presages of His are yet described not only without flattery but without any reserve or extenuation They write as Men who had no regard to any thing but Truth and the Glory of God in telling it The Prophets were sometimes commanded to seal and shut up their Prophecies that the Originals might be preserved till the fulfilling of them and then compared with the Event Isai viii 16. Jer. xxxii 14. Dan. viii 26. xii 4. For when the Prophecies were not to be fulfill'd till many Years and in some cases not till several Ages afterwards it was requisite that the Original Writings should be kept with all care but when the time was so near at hand that the Prophecies must be in every one's memory or that the Originals could not be suspected or supposed to be lost there was not the same care required Rev. xxii 10. It seems to have been customary (y) 〈◊〉 Anâ—â—quit l. 11. c. 1. 〈◊〉 l. 6. c. 5 for the Prophers to put their Writings into the Tabernacle or lay them up before the Lord 1 Sam. x. 25. And there is a Tradition (z) Epiphan de Ponderib Measâ—â— c. 4. That all the Canonical Books as well as the Law were put into the side of the Ark. It is certain that the Books of the Law and the Writings of the ancient Prophets were carefully preserved during the Captivity and are frequently referr'd to and cited by the latter Prophets The Pentateuch has been already spoken of and this is as evident of the Books of the Prophets The Prophecy of Micah is quoted Jer. xxvi 18. a little before the Captivity and under it the Prophecy of Jeremiah is cited Dan. ix 2. and all the Prophets v. 6. and so the Prophets in general are mention'd Neh. ix 26 30. And Zechariah not only cites the former Prophets Zech. i. 4. but supposes their Writings well known to the People Should you not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity chap. vii 7. The Prophet Amos is likewise cited Tob. ii 6. and Jonas and the Prophets in general chap. xiv 4 5 8. There can then be no reason to question but that Ezra Nehemiah Daniel Zechariah and the other Prophets in the time of the Captivity were very careful to keep the Books of the former Prophets for they frequently cite them and appeal to them and expected Deliverance out of their Captivity by the accomplishment of them And perhaps from the Originals themselves or however from Copies taken by Ezra the Scribe or by some of the latter Prophets or at least acknowledged for genuine and approved of by them the ancient Prophecies and other Inspired Writings were preserved and those of the latter Prophets were added to them and all together make up the Book of the Prophets mention'd Act. vii 42. which was read as well as the Law every Sabbath-day Act. xiii 27. The Books of Joshua Judges Samuel and Kings have the Title of the former Prophets in the Hebrew Bibles to distinguish them from the Books which they set out under the Title of the latter Prophets Isaiah Jeremiah c. The Books of Joshua and Judges have been already spoken of The Books of Samuel were written by Samuel Nathan and Gad 1 Chron. xxix 29. from whence we may conclude that the first Book of Samuel to the 25th Chapter was written by Samuel himself and the rest of that and the whole Second Book by Nathan and Gad but Samuel being a Person so much concerned in the former part of the History and having written so much of it out of respect to him the whole Two Books go under his Name though indeed the Jews anciently reckon'd both the Books of Samuel as one Book and Aquila as Theodorit has observed made no distinction between the First and Second Books of Samuel following the Hebrew Copies of his time and in our Hebrew Bibles though they are distinguished yet they are
not distinguished in the same manner as the two Books of Kings and of Chronicles are and it is no wonder that a Book begun by Samuel and continued by other Prophets should bear the Name only of Samuel From 1 Chron. xxix 29. we may likewise learn that the beginning of the First Book of Kings must be written by one of these Prophets Both the Books of Kings as far as Hezekiah's Reign were written before Josiah's time for 2 Kin. 18.5 it is said of Hezekiah That he trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him was none like him of all the kings of Judah nor any that were before him And of Josiah it is said 2 King xxiii 25. That like unto him was there no king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart c. For it is evident that Josiah in his Reformation exceeded Hezekiah and from hence it appears that the History of Hezekiah must be written before Josiah's time or else it could not have been with truth said of Hezekiah That there was no King after him who was like him or equalled him of all the Kings of Judah From 1 Chron. iv 43. it appears that it was written before the Captivity though the Genealogies were transcribed afterwards out of the Records as we learn from 1 Chron. ix 1. That the Second Book of Chronicles as well as the First Book of Kings was written before the Captivity we may conclude from 2 Chron. v. 9. 1 King viii 8. for the Ark was not remaining after the Captivity The last Chapter of the Second Book of Kings gives so particular an account of the manner of carrying them away Captive in every material circumstance that it seems to have been written at that very time and is an argument that Memorirs were constantly taken and preserved of all that happened The Second Book of Chronicles concludes with the First Year of Cyrus in the same words with which the Book of Ezra begins being added by him at the time when Cyrus gave out his Proclamation for the Prophets from time to time made Continuations to the Histories of their Predecessors by inserting what related to their own Times and it was no unusual thing among the Ancients as Grotius observes to begin one Book with the Conclusion of another The Psalms are quoted under the Title of the Prophets Mat. xiii 35 xxvii 35. and from the first penning they were used in the Publick Service of God 1 Chron. xvi 7. 2 Chron. v. 13. vii 6. xx 21. Jer. xxxiii 11. Ezra iii. 10 11. This was known even to their Enemies in their Captivity Psal cxxxvii 3. and some of them were written by the Prophets under it And Lessons out of the Law and the Prophets with Hymns out of the Psalms and Prayers made up the Jewish Form of Worship Moses and the Prophets are put for the whole Old Testament Luke xvi 29. Acts xiii 15. And if both the Law and the Prophets comprehending all the Books of Scripture written before the Captivity were still extant and well known and made use of by Pious Men during all that time and the People had Copies of them or had means and opportunities of being acquainted with them as the Prophet Zechariah supposes Zech. vii 7. there is no reason to imagine that they had not sufficient knowledge of the Hebrew Tongue at their Restoration many being still alive who were first carried away Captive and the Writings of the Prophets during the Captivity shew that the People did understand it for they all wrote in the Hebrew Language except upon some particular occasions where their Prophecies more immediately concerned the Babylonian Affairs Both Men and Women could understand Ezra when he read the Law And the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law Neh. viii 3. And it was not the Language unless in some Particulars which in all Languages will want explication to the Vulgar who are Natives but the Sence and Meaning that was interpreted ver 7 8. And in the same manner the Letter of Artaxerxes was both written in the Syrian tongue and interpreted in the Syrian tongue Ezra iv 7. Nehemiah particularly complains that the Children of those who had married strange Wives could not speak in the Jews language which supposes that the Children of other Parents as well as the Parents themselves were taught to speak the Hebrew Tongue Neh. xiii 24. And the Decree of Ahasuerus in favour of the Jews was written unto every province according unto the writing thereof and unto every people after their language and unto the Jews according to their writing and according to their language Est viii 9. which seems to imply that the Jews still retained not only their Language but their manner of Writing it or the form and fashion of their Letters under the Captivity Not long after the Captivity the Scriptures were translated into the Greek Tongue and were dispersed into so many hands among the Jews and Proselytes that the Copies could not be destroyed either in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes or at any other time by the malice of Perscutors or any other accident And though the Jews were so fond of their Traditions as to make the Word of God of none effect by them yet they never added any Books to the Canon of Scripture in favour of those Traditions which they were so zealous for but when they had no longer any Prophets among them they durst not place any other Books in the same Rank and Authority with those which the Prophets had left behind them All the Canonical Books were written by Inspired Authors and have been in constant use among the People of the Jews in their private Houses and publick Assemblies even from the first writing them for they were preserved during the Captivity and both understood and used by the People but their other Books written under the Second Temple though never so useful and pious were never received with the like esteem and veneration they pretended to no more than Humane Composition and were never ranked with those of Divine Authority CHAP. X. Of the Prophecies and Miracles of the Prophets THe False Prophets prophesied in the Name of Jehovah 1 King xxii which supposes that True Prophecies were wont to be deliver'd in his Name or else they could never have hoped to deceive by it And in the Historical Books of the Old Testament in which the Prophecies and Miracles of the Prophets are related reference is frequently made to the Records then extant in the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah and Israel most of the Prophecies and Miracles being of that Publick Nature and so intermix'd with the Affairs of State that they must be recorded together with them Josiah (a) Joseph Antiquit. l. 10. c. 5. was prophesied of by Name Three hundred sixty one Years before he was born Behold a child shall be born unto the house of David Josiah by name
of Babylon and be carried to Babylon Ezekiel That he should not see Babylon Jeremiah That he should die in peace and be buried after the manner of his Ancestors Ezekiel That he should die at Babylon and if we compare all this with the History nothing ever was more punctually fulfilled For Zedekiah saw the King of Babylon who commanded his Eyes to be put out before he was brought to Babylon and he died there but died peaceably and was suffered to have the usual Funeral Solemnities 2 King xxv 6 7. And therefore both Prophecies proved true in the Event which seemed before to be inconsistent And so critical an Exactness in every minute Circumstance in Prophecies delivered by two Persons who were before thought to contradict each other was such a conviction to the Jews after they had seen them so punctually fulfilled in their Captivity that they could no longer doubt but that both were from God Jeremiah foretold also That the Kingdom of the Chaldaeans should be destroyed and that the Jews should be restored after a Captivity of Seventy Years these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years And it shall come to pass when seventy years are accomplished that I will punish the King of Babylon and that nation saith the Lord for their iniquity and the land of the Chaldaeans Jer. xxv 11 12. For thus saith the Lord That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return to this place Jer. xxix 10. And this Prophecy of Jeremiah the Jews depended upon under the Captivity Dan. ix 2. Zech. i. 12. and it was exactly fulfilled to them The Generations of Nebuchadnezzar's Posterity that should succeed him till the Destruction of that Monarchy are foretold Jer. xxvii 7. The Destruction of Babylon with the manner of Taking the City as it was foretold and described by the Prophet agrees punctually with the Account of it by (l) 〈◊〉 â—odo◠〈◊〉 c. 191. Herodotus One post shall run to meet another and one messenger to meet another to shew the king of Babylon that his City is taken at one end and that the passages are stopped and the reeds they have burned with sire and the men of war are affrighted And this was declared in a memorable and solemn manner by writing it down and by casting the Book into Euphrates Jer. li. 31 32 62 63. The Destruction of Tyre and Zidon and of Aegypt was foretold by the Prophet Ezekiel and the Restoration of the Aegyptians after Forty Years Ezek. xxviii 19. xxix 12 13. The Prophanation of the Temple and of the Sanctuary by Antiochus Epiphanes with the Death of Antiochus and a Description of his Temper and of his very Countenance was clearly delivered by Daniel Four hundred and eight Years (m) Joseph Antiquit. l. 11. c. 11. before the accomplishment Dan. viii Daniel likewise described the Fate of the Four Monarchies the Restoration of the Jews and the Rebuilding of their City and the Birth of the Messias with the precise Time of it And Alexander the great is said (n) Ibid. l. 11. c. 8. to have been encouraged by Daniel's Prophecy in his Expedition Indeed his Prophecy and the History of the Four Monarchies are so exactly parallel that Porphyry could find no other evasion but to say That the Book of Daniel was writen after the Events which as Grotius observes is as absurd as if a Man should maintain that the Works of Virgil were not written under Augustus but after his time For the Book of Daniel was as publick and as much dispersed and as universally received as ever any Book could be Lastly Haggai and Malachi prophesied That Christ should come before the Destruction of the Second Temple Hag. ii 7 9. Mal. iii. 1. And Hosea foretold the present state of the People of Israel in those remarkable words They shall be wanderers among the nations Hos ix 17. Not to insist therefore upon other Miracles and Prophecies which were concerning things of lesser moment or less remarkable in the eyes of the World these may suffice which were of that Publick nature that there could be no deceit or mistake in them multitudes of Men whom Prejudice or Malice had prepared to make the utmost Discoveries were Witnesses to the Miracles and both the Prophecies themselves and the Fulfilling of them were notorious to other Nations as well as to the Jews to whom they were delivered and in whose hands they have ever since been being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day The Jews had as good Evidence for Instance that Elijah wrought his Miracles as they could have that there was such a Man in the World And when the publick Transactions and Councils of Princes the Fate and Revolution of Empires with the Prefix'd Time and Place and the very Names of the Persons were so particularly foretold Two or Three hundred Years before the Things came to pass we may as well question the Truth of all History as the Certainty of these Revelations For indeed they are the History of Things that were to come set down in the very Circumstances in which they afterwards were brought to pass And yet if a Man should dispute whether there ever were such a Man as Elijah or such a Prince as Josiah or Cyrus he would but make himself ridiculous but if he deny that Elijah wrought such Miracles or that Isaiah spoke of Cyrus and another Prophet of Josiah by Inspiration perhaps he may be thought to have made some great Discovery and to know something above the rest of Mankind and shall be likely to meet with Applause instead of that Contempt which such Pretences deserve so strangely partial are Men for any thing which is but against the Authority of the Scriptures For I think it will be hard for Men to bring better Proof that there were such Men as Elijah and Josiah and Cyrus than may be brought to shew that the latter were by Name prophesied of long before their Birth and that the first wrought all the Miracles related of him or to produce clearer Evidence that there was such a City as Jerusalem before the Reign of Cyrus than we have that the Destruction of the City and Temple and the Captivity of the people with their Restoration after Seventy Years was foretold by Jeremiah The prophets did their Miracles in the most publick manner and their Prophecies were delivered not in corners but openly before all the People not in obscure and ambiguous Words but in plain Terms with a particular Account of Persons and Time and Place they were kept they were read and studied by that very People who at first as little regarded them as any Man now amongst us can do but slew the prophets themselves and rejected their Prophecies with rage and indignation but were afterwards by the Event of Things so fully convinced which was likewise foretold Ezek. xxxiii 33. of their
Divine Inspiration and Authority that they wholly depended and relyed upon them and lived in an uncomfortable Exile upon the sole Hopes and Expectations of seeing the rest of their Prophecies fulfilled And theirfore the Posterity of those who had slain the Prophets had the Highest veneration for the Memory of these Prophets whom their Forefathers had killed they built and adorned their Sepulchres and chose to die any Death rather than renounce the Authority of their Books or part with them even when they had forsaken their Doctrine and changed their Religion for vain Traditions and superstitious Observances and when it was so reproachful to them to erect Monuments of perpetual acknowledgment That they were the the Children of them which killed the Prophets Matth. xxiii 31. they referred themselves to these Prophets for the Authority of their Religion and acknowledged that they had neither Prophecies nor Miracles after the Captivity CHAP. XI Of the Dependance of the several Parts of the Scriptures upon each other and that the Old Testament prove the New and the New again proves the Old as the Cause and the Effect IT is a thing altogether incredible that the Inhabitants of so small a part of the World as Judaea is should lay a Design of imposing upon the rest of Mankind which could prove so successful for so many thousand Years together and that they should be such Masters of Deceit and the World so fond of receiving Revelations from them that at last though the greatest part of that People disclaimed the Books which some few and those the most unlearned among them would impose for Inspired Writings yet the Authority of these Books should be more acknowledged in all Parts of the World than those had ever been in which they all unanimously agreed and the rest should be received for the sake of these more than ever they had been upon their own account which is the case of the Books of the Old and New Testament If the Jews even the meanest and most ignorant of them could do this merely by their own Wit and Device they must have a Genius superiour to that of all Mankind besides For what imaginable Reason is there why the Oracles of all the Heathen Nations should never be much regarded and now in a manner utterly lost and that the Books of the Jews should still be preserved in their full Authority but the power and Advantage of Truth in these and the want of it in them And the Evidence of this Truth is most observable in the mutual Dependence which all the Parts of the Scriptures have one upon another They were penn'd by Men of different Countreys different Ages different Conditions and Callings and Interests from the King to the poor Fisherman and yet all carry on the same Design They are not like the Oracles of the Heathen Gods which must stand or fall by themselves but there is an admirable Series and Connexion between all the Writings of the Holy Scriptures by which the several Parts of them give a mutual support and attestation to each other The Pentateuch and Moses contains the first Lineaments and evident Types and Prophecies of all that is contained in the rest He foretold That a succession of Prophets should arise and that at last the Great Prophet should be sent who is Christ and he foretold all that was to befall the Jews from his own time to the Destruction of Jerusalem And as Moses has given us the general State of the Jews for all Generations so the several Prophets who were sent from time to time according to his Predictions foretold particular Events and more-especially they foretold and described the Times of the Gospel This was the great Design of all Prophecies and the thing that God had spoken by the Prophets which have been since the world bigan Luk. i. 70. For in Christ was the Accomplishment of all the Types and Prophecies in the Old Testament And this Dependance and Coherence between all the Parts of the Scriptures in the Matter and Design of them which is as great as the dependance of one part of any Book written by the same Author can be upon another gives great strength and confirmation to the whole since it is an Evidence that it was all Inspired by the same Infallible Spirit and if one part of Scripture be proved to be true all must be so for besides the particular Evidence which may be brought for any part separately we must consider the Connexion which it has with the rest and the Evidence which is derived upon it by this Connexion if the Pentateuch be once proved to be of Divine Authority than the Prophets who succeeded Moses must be Divinely Inspired because he foretold the succession of such Prophets And if the Prophecies and Miracles of the Prophets were Divine the Pentateuch must be so because they all along acknowledged and appealed to it as containing God's Covenant with his People the Jews and being therefore the ground and foundation of their own Mission if Moses and the Prophets be from God the Gospel must be from him if that be foretold by them And if the Prophecies and Miracles of our Saviour and his Disciples prove their Divine Authority the Writings of Moses and the Prophets must be likewise of the same Authority because they acknowledge them for such and prove their own Authority from them as well as from the Miracles that they themselves wrought And if the Prophecies and Miracles either of Moses or of the Prophets or of our Saviour and his Apostles taken by themselves and apart from the rest be sufficient they must needs be more convincing when they are considered together in their united Force and Light I might further observe That Miracles without Prophecies or Prophecies without Miracles or that one evident Miracle or one evident Prophecy at least That either the Miracles or prophecies of some one Person in the several Ages in which so many Prophets lived would have been a sufficient ground of Faith and that therefore they must all be much rather so in conjunction But I shall only desire it may be remembred That whatever Evidence has been brought in proof of the Divine Authority of the Books of Moses and of the Prophets doth reciprocally prove both the one and the other and that therefore whatever is brought from either of them in Proof of the Gospel has the Evidence of the whole and that the Gospel in different respects doth prove them and is proved by them both deriving Authority from the Books of the Old Testament and communicating its own Authority to them For as the Cause may be proved by its Effect and the Effect by its Cause so both Predictions prove the Things foretold and the accomplishment of the Things foretold verifie the Predictions and Miracles wrought in consequence of Prophecies concerning them have doubly the Divine Seal and Attestation Now the Messias is the Scope and Centre of the whole Old Testament
it is a sign of a little Mind when one is able to distinguish himself only by Singularity by an odd Dress or a new Mode when his Wit borders upon Madness and Prophaneness and his Learning is all out of the way Many who are neither Heterodox in Religion nor fond of being singular in any thing else have shewn an extraordinary Sagacity and a surprising variety of excellent Learning upon Subjects which are unusual and in themselves but little considerable And I will not deny but that some of the Men of Singularity have no Worse Design than to gratify a little Vanity and to appear like some body in the Commonwealth of Learning as if Learning were a mere Trifle a very Play-thing to be employ'd to no serious and useful Purpose but would serve only to give men occasion to talk and to be talk'd of This is call'd Pedantry and I know not why that should go under a better Name which is of a worse Nature and join the Trifling of Pedantry to the Mischief of Irreligion If this Sort of Men would but busie themselves no worse than Tiberius did when he examined who was the Mother of Hecuba what Name Achilles went by whilst he hid himself in Womans Apparel and what Songs those were which the Sirens were wont to sing those indeed are profound Enquiries and so worthy of them that it were pity they should be disturb'd in such ingenious Disquisitions But if Men will be for removing Foundations and rejecting established Doctrines and denying the Principles of Religion it is fit they should be told that there is neither Wisdom nor Learning in this and those who are acted themselves by a Spirit of Contradiction have the least Reason of any Men to take it amiss to be contradicted tho' it be in never so plain a manner In short it is possible that some may be well Skill'd in Tricks and Artifices who know little of the substantial and useful Part of the Law and it is certain that many who talk boldly of the highest Points of Religion are ignorant even of the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ. There surely can be little need for any Man to have recourse to Error and Extravagancy for the exercise and improvement of his Faculties they must be strange Faculties to want such Improvement Truth it self is infinite tho' always uniform and consistent in every part and will afford room enough for the free use of Reason in examining and considering the Nature of things in stating particular Cases by general Rules in the Study of Antiquity and in explaining particular Texts of Scriptures according to the Analogy of Faith and the Tenour of sound Doctrine And it may justly be look'd upon as a Defect of Judgment and good Sense or be suspected which is much worse of want of Sincerity and a good Conscience when Men can find nothing by which they may recommend themselves to the World but by setting up for Novelties in Religion For what Man of an honest Meaning and of sufficient Abilities and strength of Parts to proceed securely in direct and approved Paths would run out of the way by Cunning and Artifice to steal a despicable Reputation which another would be asham'd of and of which the best thing that can be said is that as it is never worth the having so it is never lasting After the Reception and Establishment of the Gospel for so many Ages we are call'd upon to prove the Grounds and Principles of our Religion all over again and we will never decline a thing so easy to be done But the Modern Infidels have changed the State of the Question The Truth of the Miracles wrought by our Saviour and his Disciples was never deny'd by the Adversaries of Christianity of old this was not disputed by Celsus Porphyrie Hierocles and Julian the Apostate if some of them did upon any occasion insinuate the contrary that was so malicious and groundless a Calumny that they were neither able to insist upon any Proof of it nor to reconcile it to what they themselves had elsewhere said The Matter of Fact was acknowledged by the antient Jews and has been confest by their Posterity they could not contradict the Miracles but denied the Consequence of them tho' the Men we have to deal withal to make clear work with much Confidence but with as much Ignorance deny both Let them know then that they are in part confuted by the Enemies of our Religion and it were strange if its Friends should fail in the other Part. IV. I have here endeavoured to do some Right to our Religion and to satisfy all such as are willing to be satisfied in the most difficult Points of it And tho' I have discoursed at large upon the Subjects of which I treat and not in the usual Method of Objection and Answer yet I have always had my eye upon the Objections which I have known that I could think at material But to bring in Objections at every Turn in plain Discourses such as these were design'd to be as far as the Matter would permit might have been of no good Consequence A man may very well be guided in the right Road without having all the wrong and dangerous Paths describ'd to him and he may be directed how to recover or preserve his Health without being presented with a Catalogue of Diseases he may get safe to his Journeys end without knowing all the Bogs and Precipices by which he might have miscarried and in order to be well there is no need that he should be acquainted how many ways there are of being sick I have heard of some that read Objections without the Answers as lately a shameless Writer has produced the Objections of Celsus and Faustus against the Canon of Scripture without takeing Notice of the Answers given by Origen and St. Austin from whom he had them And tho' both the Objections and Answers should be read yet Objections are commonly in few Words and are often remembred when the Answers are forgotten And indeed tho' I were never so Expert at it I have no Ambition to try my strength in tying a knot that I may shew my Skill in unloosing it But to provide against all exceptions as much as it is possible I have proved at large that if all Objections could not be answered this would be no sufficient Reason to reject or question the Authority of our Religion I cannot say I must confess that I have been able or have been much sollicitous to obviate all the Cavils which may have been started many have been given up and others seem never to have been seriously urged An Author who had more Learning it seems than Judgment to spare wrote a Book to prove that there were Men before Adam but this was rejected by Judicious Men as a very absurd and Ridiculous Conceit particularly by Grotius as the Author complains who yet afterwards retracted it himself Some notwithstanding are so fond of any
Parodox that they are still for maintaining it I confess it agrees admirably with a Tradition of the Arcadians that their Ancestors were before the Moon and if any Man should pretend that this might very well be true according to the Cartesian Hypothesis by attempting to prove that Arcadia might be inhabited before the Moon of a Luminous became an Opake Body in so curious an Age he must have ill Luck if he should want his Applauders If some Object that the Originals of the Books of Scripture in the Hand-Writing of the several Authors are not still remaining doth this deserve to be answered till they can produce the Original Writings of all other Books Or at least of all or any that are as Antient as even the last written of the Books of the New Testament Would they have an Office erected to prove the Titles to all Estates by Original Deeds and upon what Period of time will they fix for the Date of them which will admit of any Comparison with the Date of the Manuscript Copies now extant of the Scriptures Some have alleged that the Sea through which the Israelites passed is not Red But they may be pleased to know that Religion is nothing concerned in what has been written on both sides upon this subject for it is not called the Red Sea in the Hebrew but the Sea of Weeds with which it abounds It has the denomination of the Red Sea from the Greeks however it came by it for the Criticks are not agreed about it and is best known by that Name which is therefore made use of by the Septuagint and in our own and other Translations which herein follow St. Luke and the Apostle to the Hebrews Men must call things by known Names if they will be understood whatever gave the first occasion to those Names As to many Objections let Men but do Moses the same Right which they would do Thucydides or Tacitus and we need desire no more tho' they should not allow for the great distance of Time between them Indeed they might live in the same Age for all that many of these Objectors know and be next Neighbours I have known divers Objections made which the looking only into the Bible would answer and many proceed from the want of being Conversant in it Some have supposed that they had great matter of Objection from Christ's Cursing the Fig-tree and causing it to wither away But never so little Reflection might serve any one to take notice how merciful a thing it was in the Son of God and how suitable to the Gospel which he Preach'd for him to shew his Power of punishing upon a Tree rather then upon a Man it was then and is at any time as easy for him to punish his Revilers as it was to Curse this Tree or as it can be for them to Revile him tho' they be never so ready at it But to manifest himself to be the Saviour not the Destroyer of mankind He Cured all manner of Diseases and raised the Dead but never took away the Life of any Man nor inflicted any Disease he spared his worst Enemies the Scribes and Pharisees and Punished their Hypocrisie in the Emblem only of a Fig-tree flourishing in Leaves before the Time and Season of Figs and thereby promising very much an Early Fruit but having none it made a show of Figs out of Season but had nothing to answer so fair an Appearance Other Objections which may seem more considerable have been confuted even to a Demonstration Cavils which have been raised concerning the (x) Tacquet Geometr Pract. lib. 3. c. 20. â—robl 2. quantity of Matter which will be required to Compose the Bodies of all Men at the Resurrection and concerning the (y) Sir Sam Morland's Vrim of Conse p. 95. Bottomless Pit have been demonstrated to be frivolous That the (z) Buteo de â—rea Noe. Kircher de Arc. Noâ— Sir W. Raleigh Hist lib. 1. c. 7. S. 9. Bishop Wilkin 's Real Character Part 2. c. 5. Capacity of the Ark was sufficient to contain Noah and his Family with the Beasts and Food for them and that the (a) Petav. Doctr. Temp. lib. 9. c. 14. Encrease of Mankind might extend to so great Numbers in no longer a Compass of Years than the Scriptures in any Instance Assign are things which have been often proved beyond any possibility of a Confutation and whatever force there may seem to be in Objections of this Nature they are to be reckoned among the Vulgar Errors and in that Number Sir Thomas Brown has placed some of them for Learned Men have been long ago ashamed to make them and this one would think should cause others to be more Modest and Cautious in their Objections against the Scriptures when such as have the Appearance of the greatest strength in them being once brought under strict Examination prove to be evidently false And if they find they have been mistaken and are willing to be undeceived this will go so far towards their Conviction that I cannot but hope that the Consideration here proposed may be of some weight with them Thus far methinks at least I may hope to prevail upon those who will not be convinced of the Truth of the Christian Religion that they will no longer imagine it Safe or Prudent to speak lightly and profanely of it Religion is too serious a thing and of too great Concernment to Mankind to be exposed to the Scorn of every one that thinks he can make a Jest And that which is too hard for their Reason will be in little danger of their Raillery but will rather receive an additional Confirmation from it The best and most sacred things are always most Capable of Dishonour and Affronts for to Affront and Abuse any Person or Thing is to endeavour to make it appear bad and it is the security of some things and some Men that they cannot be represented worse than they are It is in any ones Power to Affront the greatest Prince and a Man of the most eminent Vertue may be be most easily abused but no Treason can be spoke against a Beggar and it is the hardest matter to find out how to disgrace him of whom nothing can be said worse than he deserves It is a kind of Testimony given to Religion and an acknowledgment paid to Vertue when Men so industriously labour to villify it For how can that be disparaged which is of no Worth or Excellency Or why should Men endeavour to bring that into discredit which hath not at present a confessed Reputation Whether this be a deserved Reputation or no they may question if they think fit but then let them make it a serious question and not to be decided by the loudest noise But here is the mischief they have no Patience to attend to the Force of an Argument or to go on with a dispute but a Cavil is soon started and Objections are more easily raised than answered
upon any Subject and then they trample with wonderful Scorn and Triumph upon that which they conceive is so miserably overcome but alass the Victory is over themselves nothing is either the more or the less true for their believing or disbelieving it and Religion is always the same how profanely soever it may be spoken of We have no design to impose upon any Man's Faith but if there be Reason in what we say it may well be expected from Reasonable Men that they should hearken to Reason Religion is Reason and Philosophy as the Fathers often speak the best and truest Philosophy And I am persuaded how much soever I may have failed in the performance that the Christian Religion is capable of being proved with such clear and full Evidence even to ordinary Understandings as to make all Pretences of Arguing against it appear to be as ridiculous as they are impious THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. Of Humane Reason THE Divine Authority of the Scriptures being proved in the First Book such Points are cleared in the Second as are thought most liable to exception in the Christian Religion But before Men venture upon Objections against the Scripture it is fit for them to consider the strength and compass of their own Faculties and the manifold Defects of Humane Reason p. 1. In some things each side of a Contradiction seems to be demonstrable p. 4. Every Man believes and has the Experience of several things which in the Theory and Speculative Notion of them would seem as incredible as any thing in the Scriptures can be supposed to be p. 12. Those who disbelieve and reject the Misteries of Religion must believe things much more incredible p. 24. CHAP. II. Of Inspiration ALL motion of Material things is derived from God and it is at least as conceiveable by us that God doth Act upon the Immaterial as that He Acts upon the Material part of the World and that He may act more powerfully upon the Wills and Understandings of some Men than of others p. 28. Wherein the inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did consist and how far it extended p. 31. Such Inferences from thence as may afford a sufficient Answer to the Objections alleged upon this Subject p. 41. The Inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did not exclude Humane Means as information in Matters of Fact c. p. 42. It did not exclude the use of their own Words and Style ibid. Tho' somethings are set down in the Scripture indefinitely and without any positive Assertion or Determination this is no proof against their being Written by Divine Inspiration p. 43. In things which might fall under Humane Prudence and Observation the Spirit of God seems to have used only a directive Power and Influence p. 46. This infallible Assistance was not permanent and Habitual P. 49. It did not prevent Personal failings p. 50. No Passage or Circumstance in the Scripture Erroneous p. 51. CHAP. III. Of the 〈◊〉 of the Holy Scriptures THE Grammatical Construction and Propriety of Speech p. 53. Those whch are look'd upon as Defects in the Scripture-Style were usual in the most approved Heathen Authors p. ib. Metaphors and Rhetorical Schemes and Figures p. 57. The Style different of different Nations p. 58. The Titles of Kings p. 59. What Arts were used by Orators to raise the Passions p. 60. That they sometimes Read their Speeches p. 62. The Figurative Expressions of the Prophets and their Types and Parables were Suitable to the Customs of the Places and Times wherein they Liv'd ibid. Several things related as Matter of Fact are only Parabolical Descriptions or Representations p. 64. The Prophetick Schemes of Speech usual with the Eastern Nations p. 66. The want of Distinguishing the Persons speaking has been a great cause of misunderstanding the Scriptures p. 68. The Antiquity and various ways of Poetry p. 69. The Metaphorical and Figurative use of Words in Speaking of the Works and attributes of God p. 71. The Decorum or Suitableness of the matter in the Style of Scripture p. 79. The Method p. 86. Some Books of Scripture admirable for their Style p. 89. Why the Style not alike excellent in all the Books of Scripture p. 93. CHAP. IV. Of the Canon of the Holy Scriptures ANy Controversy concerning the Authority of some Books of Holy Scripture no prejudice to the rest p. 96. The uncontroverted Books contain all things necessary to Salvation p. 97. The Dispute concerning the Apochrypha falls not here under consideration p. 99 No Suppression or Alteration of the Books of the Old Testament by Idolatrous Kings c. p. 100. The Book of the Law in the Hand-Writing of Moses found in the Reign of Josiah p. 102. No Books but those which were Written by Inspiration received by the Jews into their Canon p. 103. What opinion the Ten Tribes had of the Books of the Prophets c. p. 105. Neither the Samaritans nor the Sadduces rejected any of the Books of the Old Testament p. 106. Of the Books whereof mention is made in the O. T. p. 106. Why the Books of the Prophets have the Names of the Authors exprest and that there was not the same Reason that the Names of the Authors of the Historical Books should be exprest p. 108. A wonderful Providence manifest in the Preservation of the Books of the O. T. for so many Ages p. 109. The New Testament confirms the Old p. 111. The Caution of the Christian Church in admitting Books into the Canon ib. The Primitive Christians had sufficient means to examine and distinguish the Genuine and inspired Writings from the Apochryphal or Spurious p. 113. The Gospel of St. Matt. in Hebrew how long preserved p. 115. The Greek Version of it p. 116. The Canon of Scripture finished by St. John and the Books of the other Evangelists c. reviewed by him p. 117. The Testimony of the Adversaries of our Religion ib. Copies of great Antiquity still extant p. 118. How it came to pass that the Authority of some Books was at first doubted of p. 119. The Canon had been fix'd and confirmed in Councils in Tertullian's time p. 121. The Canon of Scripture generally received by Christians of all Sects and Parties p. 124. CHAP. V. Of the various Readings in the Old and New Testament AN extraordinary Providence manifest in the preservation of the Scriptures from such Casualties as have befaln other Books p. 126. The Defect in the Hebrew Vowels and the late invention of the Points no prejudice to the Authority of the Bible p. 127. The change of the old Hebrew Characters into that now in use is no prejudice to the Authority of the Hebrew Text p. 130. The Keri and the Ketib no prejudice to it ib. The Difference between the Hebrew Text and the Septuagint and other Versions or between the Versions themselves no way prejudicial to the Authority of the Scriptures p. 132. It is confessed by the greatest Criticks both Protestants and
* In Vit. Homer Plutarch as excellencies in Homer and he says they were usual in Prose as well as in Verse amongst the Antients Whatsoever Soloccisms or Improprieties of Speech are to be found in any part of the Scriptures the like have been observed †Vid. Dan. Heins Proleg ad exercit Sacr. in Homer Aeschylus Sophocles Pindar and Apollonius Rhodius by their several Scholiasts and in Thucydides by Dionysius Halicarnasseus and in Tully by * Dialog Cicuron Erasmus and others Xenophon is observed by †Apud Phot. cod cclxxix Helladius not to be always exact in point of Grammar which he ascribes to his Military Life and his conversation with strangers Many Soloecisms are found in the ancient Inscriptions and in Hyginus an Author as it is generally supposed of Augustus's age which are to be imputed rather to the custom of speech amongst the Vulgar than to the mistake of these Authors For in Languages so difficult as the Greek and Latin are it was impossible but that the common people must often make great mistakes which by degrees became customary and were the character of the * Vid. Schefferi Praefat. Munkeri Dissertat in Hyginum Low and Plebeian Style and in the Greek tongue they ascribed their Soloeâ—isms to the particular Dialect of the people among whom they were most in use The Stoicks who were the most numerous and flourishing Sect of Philosophers in the Primitive times of Christianity had little regard to the Rules of Grammar for they were cautioned by their Master Chrysippus not to be careful about such niceties and they are highly commended by a †Mer. Casaub in M. Antoâ—in lib. â— n. 14. great Critick for expressing their thoughts tho commonly with words very proper and significant yet in a style so free from all Affectation or Curiosity as cometh next to the Simplicity of the Holy Scriptures The design of Revelation is not to teach Words but Things and to express them in such words as may serve for that purpose and if an improper word or a soloecism may be more serviceable to that end it is beyond all exactness and propriety of Language The truth is it is a sign of a little Genius to be over-curious about words as Demosthenes intimated in his Reply to Aeschines telling him that the Fortunes of Greece did not depend upon a Criticism which Tully mentioning says it is * Facile est enim verbum aliquod ardens ut ita dicam notare idque restinctis jam animorum incendiis irridere Cic. Orator an easie matter to pitch upon a word spoken in the heat of discourse and in cool blood to make sport with it But this is at large treated of by Longinus and Seneca speaks excellently to this purpose †Cujuscunque orationem videris sollicitam politam scito animum quoque non minus esse pusillis occupatum Magnus ille remissius loquitur securius quaecunque dicit plus habent siduciae quam curae Senec. Epist cxv If you observe says he that a mans speech is too nice and critical be sure that he has a mind taken up with little things A man of a great mind speaks with the less caution and exactness whatsoever he says he is better assured of the matter of his discourse than to trouble himself much about words This is the reason that so many great Authors have afforded so much work for the Criticks to blame or to excuse them and very often to commend them for departing from the common forms The Old Testament has nothing of this nature but what for ought that can now be known was most proper in the Hebrew tongue whatever it may be in others And as to the New Testament it is penned in such words and in such construction of Grammar as might render it most useful not according to the Attick or any other dialect which was known to so few in comparison that it was confined as it were to one Country or known only to the Learned in others but in such Greek as was generally understood in the remote and numerous Nations where that Language was spoken For which reason so many expressions are taken from the Translation of the Septuagint which was so much in use amongst the Proselytes in all parts of the world In the Preface to the Book of Ecclesiasticus it is observed that the same things uttered in Hebrew and translated into another Tongue have not the same force in them and * Hieron ad Amos. v. 8. in Epist ad Galat. 3. 〈◊〉 St Jerom shews that there was a necessity of making use of such words as were first taken from the Heathen Fables in translating the Scriptures which had no affinity to them but when men speak or write they must do it so as to be understood unless they will do it to no purpose and therefore must take such words as are to be had and are intelligible to those for whose benefit they write and they must be contented too with such Grammatical construction as well as with such words as shall be found expedient to the end for which they write * Hieron in Galat. 1 2. Sometimes again it was necessary to frame new words to express the Propriety of the Hebrew Language as Tully has done in his Books of Philosophy to explain in Latin the terms of it in the Greek tongue And in all respects men must accommodate themselves to their subject and to the capacities of those for whom they undertake to discourse upon it II. Metaphors and Rhetorical Schemes or Figures of Speech Men differ as much in their forms and schemes of speaking as they do in their manners or customs or in their complexions and dispositions Every man has something peculiar in his way of expressing himself which is so easily distinguished by good Criticks from that of others that they seldom fail in it tho there can be no absolute certainty in things of this nature And †Phot. cod cclxv Photius observing that some Orations which pass under the name of Demosthenes were by reason of the difference of style ascribed by certain Criticks to other Authors makes this remark that he had often taken notice of a great resemblance in the style of Orations made by different Authors and of as great an unlikeness in the style of those made by the same man But the different character and manner of style in the several Countries and Nations of the world is much more easily discerned than it can be in particular men of the same Country Thr people of Caria Phrygia and Mysia were not at all polite and neat * Adsciverunt aptum suis auribus opimum quoddam tanquam adipatae dictionis genus Cic. Orator says Tully and therefore they loved a gross and slovenly kind of discourse which the Rhodians not far distant from them never approved of and the other Greeks liked it much less but the
to the customs of other Nations well known and practised at that time Thus the Slaves were wont to have their Masters Name or Mark upon their Forehead and the Souldiers to have the name of their General upon their Right hand and the like marks were wont to be received by men in token that they had devoted themselves to their Gods from whence we read of the mark of the Beast received by his Worshippers in their right Hand or in their Foreheads * Vid. Grot. ad loc Rev. 13.16 and of his Fathers Name written in the Foreheads of those that stand in Mount Sion with the Lamb Rev. 14.1 St Paul alludes to the Grecian Games in his Epistle to the Corinthians who were much addicted to those sports and had one sort of them the Isthmian perform'd among them 1 Cor. 9.24 25. and he alludes to the distinction among the Romans between Freemen and Slaves For which he gives this reason that it was in condescention to them I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh Rom. 6.19 Melchisedec is said to be without Father without Mother without descent Heb. 7.3 because his Pedigree is unknown which was a most significant way of expression to the Jews who were so careful and exact in their Genealogies But the very same manner of expression is also used †Patre nullo matre serva Liv. lib. 4. c. 3. â—ullis majoribus ortos Horac Serm. lib. 1. sat 6. duos Romanos Reges â—sse quorum alter Patrem non habet alter Matrem Nam de servij Matre dubitatur Anci Pater nullus Numae nepos dicitur Senec. Epist c. 8. by Livy Horace and Seneca upon the like occasions There is much of Nature but very much likewise of Use and Custom in the several Schemes and Forms of Rhetorick We meet with a sudden change of the Person speaking Jer. 16.19 20 21.17.13 and with interlocatory discourse Isa 63. and many places of Scripture are obscure to us for want of distinguishing the Persons who speak Thus for instance Jer. 20.14 the Prophet seems transported abruptly from one extream to another but if they be the words of the wicked mention'd ver 13. under the divine vengeance from the 14th ver to the end of the Chapter the sense will be more easy This abrupt change of the Person is taken notice of by Longinus as an excellency in Homer Hecataeus and Demosthenes and the want of distinguishing the Persons speaking has been a great cause of misunderstanding the Scriptures * Justin Apol. 2. Origen Philocal c. 7. as Justin Martyr and Origen observe Many Instances of the like nature might be given in the best Heathen Poets And the reading the ancient Poets is the best help for the understanding all other Authors of great Antiquity for the ancienter any Author is the nearer his stile comes to Poetry The first design of Writing was to delight so as to be the better able to instruct which made Verse much more ancient than Prose and tho it be natural for Men to speak in Prose and not in Verse yet it seems the humour oâ— Greeks would not bear tho writing Philosophy in Prose till the time of Cyrus for then * Plin. Hist Lib. 5. c. 29.7 c. 56. vid. Harduin ad loc Pliny tells us Pherecydes first wrote in Prose which must be understood of Philosophy for he ascribes the first writing of Prose in History to Cadmus Milesius And the ancient Writers now extant in Prose Herodotus Thucydides and Xenophon have many Expressions which are seldom or never met withal besides but in the Poets H. Stephens made a Collection of the Poetical words used by Xenophon which is prefix'd to his Works And the Orators both among the Greeks and Romans were as exact and curious in the Feet and Measure of their Prose as the Poets could be in Verse Great part of the Scriptures is in Verse and the different way of writing in different Ages and Nations appears in nothing more than in the several sorts of Poetry That way of writing all Verse in Rhime which in these parts of the World is most in use and esteem would have been ridiculous to the Greeks and Romans Tho' the use of Rhime in Verse is so far from being example in Antiquity that it is perhaps the most ancient of all ways of writing Verse Acrosticks tho' of no esteem and little us'd in many Ages and Countries are of great Antiquity Verses composed in the Acrostick and Alphabetical way were found to be a help to the Memory and this benefit and the ornament which it was then supposed to give to Poems is the cause why it is sometimes used in the Scriptures and sometimes the Inspiration was so strong upon the Writers mind as to interrupt the Art and Method which he had proposed to himself as Ps 25. and 145. or perhaps it might be customary upon certain occasions to omit some Letter in the Alphabet in such compositions for reasons which we are ignorant of but which might be very satisfactory and agreeable to the sense of those Times and Countries * Athenae lib. 10. c. 21. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an example of this among the Greeks used by Pindar and other ancient Poets The old †Casanb in Athen. lib. 8. c. 11. Spartan Dorick and Aeolick Dialect changed σ into P the rough sound of this Letter being more agreeable it seems to those People and if any of them had written Acrosticks and Alphabetical Poems σ would have been omitted Rhophalick Verses which begin with a Monosyllable every word encreasing by one syllable more than the former are to be found in Homer and the Leonine or Monkish Verses with a double Rhime one in the middle and the other at the end are not without precedent To say nothing of the Poems composed of divers sorts of Verse and framed into the shape of several things by Simmias Rhodius some of which are ascribed to Theocritus The Repetitions so frequent in Homer were not for want of words for no Author ever wanted them less than he but out of choice though latter Poets have not thought fit to imitate him in this and Martial turn'd it to Ridicule It is certain that nothing is more various than the Wit and Fancy of Man and it is as certain that whoever would write to any purpose must write in some such manner as the temper of the people to whom he writes will bear and as their customs require But before I leave this particular it may be proper to consider the stile of Scripture in the Metaphorical and Figurative use of words in speaking of the Works and Attributes of God There never was any Book written in a strict and literal propriety of words because all Languages abound in Metaphors which by constant use become perhaps better known to the Natives of a Country than the original words themselves and in process
therefore were called Prophets which is an argument that in the common opinion of men inspired Writers might use such forms of Speech as would not be proper nor decent for others to use And this liberty was taken by Orators as well as Poets when the occasion seemed to require it as may be observed in * Panegr Panathen Isocrates For the ancient Orators too by Longinus's observation pretended to something more than humane and would be thought to speak by some kind of impulse upon which account this liberty might be allowed them But it may well be thought needless for me to have used so many words on this subject when there is so little occasion for any objection of this nature in the Holy Scriptures and where-ever there can be any pretence for it it has been considered in its proper place but I thought it might not be labour ill bestowed to shew here besides how had Criticks they are that can object at this rate I will say further that the passage Tob. 5.16 concerning the Dog which followed Tobias which has given occasion to unwary and unskilful men to insult with so much scorn over a Book that is very useful tho not of Divine Inspiration is not only innocent but agreeable to the best patterns of Antiquity * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odiss ii Nec non gemini custodes limine ab alto Procedunt Gressumque canes comitantur herilem Aen. 8. Hoc in Homero lectum est in Historia Romana quae ait Syphax inter duas canes stans scipionem appellavit Serv. Homer and Virgil who thought it a very proper and natural ornament of their Poems to describe Dogs following their Masters Homer speaking of Telemachus and Virgil of Evander And Servius produceth an Example of the same thing out of the Roman History IV. As to the Method used in the Holy Scriptures there is no reason to expect that Prophecies should be written according to the order of time in which they were delivered or that Histories should be digested into Diaries or Annals since there may be Reasons whether known or unknown to us why they should be otherwise placed And thus the Lyrick â—â—â—ts * Vid. Hieron ad Hieremiae cap. 21 25. who pretended to Enthusiasm and an imitation as it were of Prophecy do not confine themselves to observe any order of Time Some things last foretold might be first to be fulfilled or some things were more or less remarkable or concerned the Jews more or less than others but generally in the Prophetical Books of Scripture what concerns the same subject is put together tho fore-told or falling out at different times that the clearer and more distinct view may be had of it This as †Hieren ad Ezech. cap. 29 30. St Jerom observes is the cause of diveâ—â— Transpositions in point of Time in the Prophesies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel and †Id. ad Dan. c. 7. he takes notice that Daniel having set down the Prophecies which had relation to the several Reigns of Nebuchadnezzar Belshazzar Darius or Cyrus according to the order of Time afterwards declares the Revelations that were made to him that had no dependance upon the times in which they were made but were written for the benefit of Posterity But the several Transpositions in the Scripture are sufficiently accounted for by Commentators And it must be observed that the Sacred Writers mention no more of Civil affairs than was necessary to their purpose and therefore in many things they refer to the Histories then extant for a fuller account of them their design was not to write a compleat History of all events but they confine themselves to such as were most fit for them to take notice of and keep within the compass of their proper business It was expedient that the same Doctrines should be repeated in divers places of Scripture and interspersed with other things according to no certain Art or Method because this prevents their being corrupted or falsified as they might have been if they had been all reduced to several distinct Heads and placed according to the Rules of Art If one Prophet repeats what another Prophet had said this is to give it a new confirmation to revive the remembrance and shew the certainty and importance of it It is ordinary in the best Authors not only to find the same things repeated in divers places of their Works but to meet with them repeated in the very same words thus Isocrates Xenophon and Demosthenes transcribe in one part of their Works what they have written in another but none I think so frequently as Demosthenes tho * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ulp. Enarr Oâ—at Demosthen coâ—t Midiam Vlpian has observed that this was a usual thing with the Ancient Writers It was customary likewise with the Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to allude to the Verses of Homer and to apply them with little variation upon all occasions as may be seen frequently in Diogenes Laertius All the cavils therefore that are made against the style of Scripture proceed from ignorance of Antiquity and from rashness in judging of ancient Times and foreign Countreys by our own Whoever would either delight or profit must speak and act in some measure according to the genius of the people with whom he converses and if we will but read the Scriptures with the same candour and respect with which we read the Writings of Human Authors and consider the Times and Persons and the Occasions upon which they were written there is nothing that can seem harsh or improper either in the words or actions of the persons inspired for it was the manner of those Countries to speak by their actions almost as much as in words If we will but observe the circumstances in which the several parts of the Scriptures were written we shall find cause to admire the Simplicity and Plainness and Modesty of the style of the Scriptures In many Books of the Scriptures the style is sublime and elegant beyond any thing to be found in other Writings and yet as natural as if it could not have been otherwise exprest and this is the true excellency of style that it be plain and natural and yet eloquent Longinus gives a high character of Moses's style in a Book the design whereof is to represent the most perfect Idea of Eloquence indeed such is the fitness both in Verse and Prose of the words and style of Moses so admirably suited to the subject upon all occasions as if he had been to prescribe a pattern of true Eloquence as well as to enact Laws H. Stephens has observed that there is a great resemblance in Herodotus to the style of the Scriptures Herodotus had Homer in his view throughout his History and Homer's expressions are the same with those used in the Scriptures in many instances as particularly when he so often mentions the children of the Trojans and the children of
the Greeks as the Scriptures mention the children of Israel and other Greek Authors say the children of the Physicians as the Scriptures say the children of the Bride-chamber and the children of Light * Grot. ad 4. Reg. 19.2 ad Ezech. initio Grotius compares Isaiah to Demosthenes a sublime but a most natural and judicious writer the same Author compares Ezekiel to Homer for the beauty and nobleness of his style †Pref. to Pindarick Odes and Notes upon Pind. Ode â—n Isai 34. Mr Cowley compares the Prophets especially Isaiah to Pindar but of Pindar he says that if a man should undertake to translate him word for word it would be thought that one mad man had translated another For which he gives this reason that we must consider in Pindar the great difference of time betwixt his Age and ours which changes us in Pictures at least the colours of Poetry the no less difference betwixt the Religions and Customs of our Countries and a thousand particularities of Places Persons and Manners which do but confusedly appear to our eyes at so great a distance and lastly we must consider that our ears are strangers to the Musick of his numbers which sometimes especially in Songs and Odes almost without any thing else makes an excellent Poet. And of David he observes that the best Translators have been so far from doing Honour or at least Justice to that Divine Poet that methinks says he they revile him worse than Shimei And Buchanan himself comes in his opinion no less short of David than his Country does of Judea Yet Isaiah and the râ—â—â— of the Prophets and the Psalms are translated into our Language word for word as far as it is possible for one Language to be thus render'd into another and notwithstanding all the differences of Time and Place and Customs and Persons no sensible man reads them in the English Tongue but he must acknowledge that their style with all these disadvantages is truly great and excellent Whereas * Quod sicui non videtur Linguae gratiam interpretatione mutari Homerum ad verbum exprimat in Latinum Plus aliquid dicam eundem in fuâ linguâ prosae verbis interpretetur videbit ordinem ridiculum Poetam eloquentissimum vix loquentem Hieron Praef. in Chron. Euseb there are none of the Heathen Authors that are so much esteemed which if they were literally translated as the Scriptures are would bear the reading but they would appear ridiculous and impossible to be understood For the Spirit and Genius and peculiar Idioms of most Tongues being so very different one from another and depending upon the Customs and Humours of the people of several Countries it was the evident care and providence of God to cause great part of the Scriptures tho written by so many different men and at such distant times and some Books of them in the earlier Ages of the World to be penned in such a language and style as is most natural and which without any want of Art exceeds the most artificial and studied Eloquence in sublime and noble thoughts and expressions and in all the beauties and ornaments of Speech and yet which in all the necessary points of Salvation is easie to be understood under all the disadvantages of a Verbal Translation by men of ordinary capacities who live so many Ages after The Prophesies of Isaiah cannot be read or heard or thought of without being moved by them with what Life then with what Zeal and Flame must they have been delivered And what a mighty Blessing was such a Prophet to his own Age and to all succeeding Generations Of Royal Blood and of a Style and Behaviour suitable to his Birth of Divine Virtues and of Divine Eloquence He declares things which were not to be fulfilled till many Ages afterwards as plainly as if he had seen them before his eyes and would make all others to see them he speaks of Christ as clearly as if with Simeon he had had his Saviour in his arms or with the Wise men had been kneeling down before him and presenting him with more precious Gifts than any they had to offer and describes his Passion as fully as if he had followed him through every part of it and having been Crucified with him had been just entring with him into Paradice If this be thought a Digression from my subject I hope it may easily be excused for who can speak of Isaiah without a Digression when men choose the food of Swine and trample upon Pearls as things of no value as if he and the other Prophets had always the hard fate to preach to the Rulers of Sodom and the People of Gomorrha But if the style of the Scriptures be not in all places alike excellent and exact let it be considered that 1. The same stile is not suitable to all subjects and the stile and dialect is different according to the difference of the matter or of the persons for whose use it was immediately designed What concerns the Assyrian Monarchy in the Prophet Daniel is in the Chaldee Tongue and what relates directly to the Jews is in the Hebrew Part of Ezra is in Chaldee being a relation of Matter of Fact contained in the Chaldee Chronicles and Jer. 10.11 is in the same Tongue that the Jews might reject the Idolatry of the Chaldeans in their Language and openly profess their own abhorrence of it And as upon these occasions the Language of Scripture is changed with respect to the subject and the persons concerned so the style must be sometimes altered upon the same account 2. Artificial strains of Rhetorick whereby the passions are moved to the utmost heighth were very necessary to gain a present point and carrry a Cause by a violent and sudden transport before Reason could interpose But Religion being to be propounded upon reasonable motives there could be no need of Rhetorick when the evidence of those Miracles by which it was established afforded so many other more certain and powerful means of perswasion The Scriptures are not written in the enticing words of mans wisdom but in truth and simplicity and therefore might well have been without any advantages of Eloquence as needing no such helps to recommend them to serious and impartial Minds And tho God has been pleased to condescend so far to the infirmities of men as to convey very much of his Revealed Will to us in such a style as for its own sake is highly to be esteemed and admired Yet it was fit that other parts of the Scriptures should have the bare force and evidence of truth only to convince men that it might appear that our Religion was propagated not by any Arts of humane Eloquence but by its own Worth and Excellency For Eloquence was not used where it would have been most necessary if any humane means could be so in asserting and propagating the Divine Truth In the propagation of the Gospel all the
character of a Book of the Scriptures The modern Jews in like manner never dared to pretend to new Books of Revelation but have constantly adhered to the old And what inducement could the Jews have to receive these Books into their Canon of which it consists rather than the Apocryphal Books but the evidence of their Divine Authority which is a thing more especially remarkable in some Books Why should they receive certain Books under the Names of Solomon Esther Daniel and Ezra but not admit into the Canon others going under the same names but because of the difference in their Authority Why should they receive the Books of those whom their fore-fathers had slain and those very Books for which they slew them but upon the clearest evidence It is certain they could be possest with no prejudice in their favour but with very many against the Books of such Authors To give another instance The Book of Ruth contains the affairs and transactions of a particular Family of no great consequence as one might imagine at first view and yet it has been preserved with as much â—are and as constantly received as the rest There is little reason upon human considerations why a relation concerning that Family should be inserted into the Canon of Scripture rather than one concerning any other But the lineage of the Messias is set forth in it and that was a sufficient reason why it should be inserted and therefore by the Divine Wisdom and Providence neither the emulation and envy of other Families nor any other cause or accident hindred its reception and preservation amongst the other inspired Books And in that History there is an account not very honourable for David's Family in deriving his descent from Phares of Thamar and shewing that his Great Grandmother was a Moabitess the Moabites being a people who had an indelible mark of intamy sixt upon them by the Law of Moses Dentr xxiii 3. II. As the Pentateuch was ever acknowledged by the People of Israel after their separation from the Tribe Judah so if they rejected the writings of the Prophets it must have been because all or most of them were written by Prophets who were of the two Tribes and all the Prophets of Israel owning the Temple of Jerasalem to be the true place of Worship the Isâ—aelites and Samaritans must have great prejudices against them upon that account and it cannot be expected that they should receive the Books of any of the Prophets in the same manner as they did those of Moses The Books of Samuel David and Solomon had less regard paid to them upon Reasons of State by the Tribes who followed the Revolt of Jeroboam yet when * Antiqu. Orient Eccl. pist 1. Joseph Scaliger sent to the Samaritans for the Canticles of the Book of Psalms in their Language as well as for the Book of the Law and of Joshua they promised to send him them And it is proved sufficiently by Dr †Hebr. Talmud exercit on Joh. iv 25. Lightfoot that neither the Samaritans nor the Sadducees rejected the Books of the Old Testament tho they did not admit the rest into the same veneration and authority with the Books of Moses nor read them in their Synagogues This is also proved by F. Simon * Crit. Hist V. T. lib. 1. c. 16. 29. Disquisit Crit c. 12. both of the Sadducees and the Karaei and †Epist 70. inter Antiqu Eccl. Orient Morinus likewise proves it of the Karaei who are generally taken for Sadducees F. Simon maintains the contrary and that they have wrong done them in being charged with the opinions of the Sadducces However this is not material to our present purpose since he shews that both the Sadducees and the Karaei or Caraites and all the Jews besides received the entire Volume of the Scriptures without any contradiction * Praefat. de Lipmanno Hackspan likewise has shewed that the Sadducees denied not the Authority of the Books of the Prophets III Concerning the Books whereof we we find mention made in the Old Testament either 1. They are not different from those which are now in the Canon but the same Books under divers Names Or 2. They were not written by Inspiration tho written by Prophets For we are not to suppose that the Prophets were inspired in every thing that they wrote any more than in all they spoke And this shews the care and integrity of the Jews in compiling their Canon that they would not take into it all the Writings even of the Prophets themselves but only such as they knew to be written by them as Prophets that is by Inspiration the Prophets themselves no doubt making a distinction as we find St Paul did between what they had written by the Spirit of God and that in which they had not his immediate and extraordinary direction and infallible assistance Or 3. They might not be written by Prophets For the office of Recorder or Remembrancer or Writer of Chronicles as it is explained in the Margin is mentioned as â—n office of great Honour and Trust and was distinct from that of the Prophets 2 Sam. viii â—6 2 Kings xviii 18. 2 Chron. xxxiv 8. Isaiah xxxvi 3 22. Besides the Hebrews called every small Writing a Book Thus Deut. xxiv 1. â—hat which we render a Bill of Divorcement â—s in the Original a Book of Divorcement the word being the same which Josh x. 13. and 〈◊〉 Sam. i. 18. is translated the Book of Jasher â—o Matt. xix 7. and Mark x. 4. it is in the Greek a Book of Divorcement the word is the same which the Septuagint had used it indeed may signifie a little Book but it often signifies a Book without that distinction and so it is rendered 2 Tim. iv 13. David's Letter to Joab is a Book in the Hebrew and in the Greek 2 Sam. xi 14 15. and Lettets are stiled Books by * Herod lib. 1. c. 124. lib. 6. c. 4. Herodotus Or 4. Tho it should be granted that some Books which were written by Inspiration are now lost it is no absurdity to suppose that God should suffer Writings to be lost thro the fault and negligence of men which were dictated by his Spirit Several things might by the Prophets be delivered by Revelation to the persons whom they concerned which were never committed to writing and others which were written but which were not necessary to the ends of Revelation in general but rather concerned particular times and places and the substance whereof as far as the world in general is concerned is to be found in the other Scriptures might by the carelesness of men never come to the sight and knowledge of Posterity And here I shall observe that the Books of Prophecy have always the Names of the Authors exprest and commonly they are often repeated in the Books themselves but in the Historical Books there was not the same reason for it because in matters
of fact which are past an Author may easily be disproved if he relates what is false of his own times or of times whereof there are memorials still extant But the Credit of Prophecies concerning things to come a long time after to pass must depend upon the Mission and Authority of the Prophet only and therefore it was necessary that the Names of the Prophets should be annext that their Predictions might be depended upon when they were known to be delivered by men who by other Predictions already fulfilled had proved themselves to be true Prophets IV. The very preservation of Books of so great Antiquity thro so many changes and revolutions against all the injuries of Time and Ignorance against the violence of War and the malice of Adversaries and so many other Accidents which have destroyed most other Books of any considerable Antiquity is a certain indication of a wonderful Providence concerned for them and of that evidence whereby they were at first attested The Laws of the wisest Law-givers of the most flourishing and powerful Nations have been so little regarded by the people to whom they were given that they soon forsook the practice of them and readily delivered up themselves to be governed by other Laws upon any Revolution and all the pretences to Revelation which most of the Ancient Law-givers assumed to themselves could make them no longer adhered to nor so much valued as to outlive the fate of the particular Kingdoms and States for which they were contrived but most of them were changed or laid aside before and the rest given up and abandoned as out of date and of little use or esteem afterwards and all of them were so little able to withstand the destruction of time that we know not much more of them than that the best and most ancient were in great measure taken out of the Laws of Moses But the Books of Moses and the Prophets have continued entire and unchanged under all accidents and revolutions of affairs bearing this character as well as others of him who is immutable they have been still asserted against all the malice and opposition of Enemies by a captived and dispersed people who by the signal providence of God tho they reject their Messias yet still acknowledge those prophesies which foretold his coming and after their dispersion for so many hundred years are so far from renouncing them that they assert and maintain them and are zealous even to superstition for those Books which command that worship and appoint those Solemnities which they have so long been out of all possibility to observe as if those Laws which were once so uneasy to their Fore-fathers were now become natural to their Posterity or rather because they were revealed by him whose word shall never pass away till all be fulfilled V. The New Testament gives evidence and confirmation to the Books of the Old which are so often cited in it VI. The Christians were religiously cautious and circumspect in admitting Books into the Canon of the New Testament The * Hieron Catalog Eccl. Script Epistle to the Hebrews and the second Epistle of St Peter were at first scrupled only or chiefly upon the account of the style the style of the former being thought different from that of St Paul and the Style of the latter from that of St Peter The Epistle of St Jude was likewise doubted of for this reason because the Apocryphal Book of Enoch is cited in it Writings which went under the names of several of the Apostles were rejected and by general consent laid aside The genuine Epistle of St Barnabas who is stiled an Apostle Acts xiii 2. xiv 14. was never received but as Apocryphal and the First Epistle of St Clement of whom St Paul gives as high a character Phil. iv 3. as he doth of St Luke or as St Peter ever gave of St Mark was never admitted among the Canonical Books tho it was wont to be read in Churches But the Gospel according to St Mark and the Gospel and Acts of the Apostles written by St Luke have ever been received for canonical For which no reason can be given but that St Mark and St Luke were known to have written by inspiration since upon all personal and humane Accounts an Epistle of St Barnabas or St Clement must have carried as much Authority with it as any thing under the name of St Mark or St Luke †Unam ad aedisicationem Ecclesiae pertinentem Epistolam composuit quae inter Apochryphas scripturâ—s legitur Id. ib. St Jerom says that St Barnabas was the Author of one Epistle written for the edification of the Church which is read among the Apocryphal Books so that Books were styled Apocryphal not because it was uncertain who were the Authors of them but because it was doubtful whether they were written by inspiration or no. So careful was the Primitive Church to receive none into the Canon but Books certainly inspired It is well observed * Crit Hist of the N. T. Part. 1. c. 1. by F. Simon to this purpose that if we compare the Gospels and the other Books of the New Testament with the Liturgies that we have under the names of several Apostles to whom the most part of the Eastern Christians do attribute them we shall be convinced that the Gospels are truly the Apostles For all the Churches have preserved them in their Ancient Purity whereas every particular Nation hath added to their Liturgies and hath taken the liberty often to revise them The respect that hath been always had to the Writings of the New Testament without in serting any considerable additions therein is an evident proof that all people have looked upon them as Divine Books which it is not lawful for any to alter On the contrary they have been perswaded that the Liturgies tho they bear the Names of the Apostles or of some Disciples of Jesus Christ were not originally written by them to whom they were attributed And therefore it hath been left free to the Churches to add to them or to diminish from them according as occasion requires VII As the Primitive Christians were very jealous and cautious in admitting Books into the Canon so they had sufficient means and opportunities to examine and distinguish the genuine and inspired Writings from the Apocryphal or spurious The way of Writing and the hands of the Apostles were well known to those to whom they wrote as St Paul intimates of his own hand and manner of Salutation for when he used an Amanuensis yet he wrote the Salutation with his own Hand as his token in every Epistle 2 Thess iii. 17. They generally wrote to whole Churches but particular men are frequently named in their Epistles which was a great means to ascertain the Authority of them * Ago jam qui voles curiofitatem melius exercere in negotio salutis tuae percurre Ecclesias Apostolicas apud quas ipsae adhue Cathedrae
Apostolorum suis locis presidentur apud quas ipsae Authenticae Literae eorum recitantur Tertull de Praescript c. 36. Tertullian appeals to Authentick Books or the very Hand-writings of the Apostles themselves For tho it be acknowledged that the word Authenticus doth not always denote the Original Writing under the Authors own Hand but sometimes only the Original Language yet the words of Tertullian are express that the Original Epistles were in his times still extant for which Reason he refers the Hereticks to the Apostolical Churches where they were read viz. to the Church of Corinth of Phillippi Thessalonica Ephesus and Rome but the Epistles of the Apostles were read in Greek without doubt in other Churches besides these and the Reason why he refers them to the Apostolical Churches rather than to any other must be because the Originals under St Paul's own Hands were there still to be seen and he mentions that the Thrones or Seats of the Apostles were then also preserved as †Euseb Hist lib. vii c 19. Eusebius says that of St James was preserved to his time Justin * Apol. 2. Martyr ascribes the Gospels to the Apostles he transcribes the Christian Doctrine at large out of them and declares that they were read in the Christian Assemblies every Sunday †Irenae lib. 3 c. 2. St Ireneus a Disciple of St Polycarp who was made by Bishop St John gives a particular account of the Writings of the Four Evangelists and says there were Four Gospels and no more and that these were written by St Matthew and St Mark and St Luke and St John * Tertull. adv Marcion lib. iv c. 2 5. Tertullian undertook the Defence of the Four Gospels against Marcion And these Fathers frequently quote these and the other Writings of the Apostles so do likewise Clemens Romanus and Ignatius who lived and conversed with the Apostles themselves But in our Disputes with Infidels particular regard is to be had to the History of the Gospel for our Proof against them depends upon matter of Fact Both * Grot. Mat. F. Sim. Crit. Hist on the N. T. c. 7 8. Grotius and F. Simon have proved that the Gospel written in Hebrew by St Matthew was preserved to the time of St Jerom and Epiphanius and that tho the Nazarens had made some additions to it yet they had made no Alterations in the Original Text. F. Simon moreover says that the Gospel of St Matthew had been translated undoubtedly out of Hebrew into Greek before the Nazarens had inserted their Additions these being to be found in no Greek Copy The Ebionites had corrupted the Hebrew Copy which they used and had left out what they pleased but the Copy of the Nazarens Epiphanius †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphan Haeres 29. Num. 9. says was more entire only he is not certain whether they retained the Genealogy of Christ but it is most probable in F. Simon 's judgment that they did retain it tho the Ebionites omitted it So that tho there were some Additions made by the Nazarens yet as far as the proof of our Religion against Infidels is concerned the Hebrew Gospel in its Original Hebrew as it was written by St Matthew remained exactly perfect for divers ages Till the Sect of the Nazarens ceasing and the Hebrew Tongue growing out of use the Greek Translation only was preserved This Translation of St Matthew's Gospel is ascribed to one of the Apostles or Evangelists tho it be not certain to whom of them it belongs * Euseb Hist lib. iii. c. 39. Papias speaks of the times before there was any Authentick Version when he says that every one translated it as he could for his own use It appears from him however that there were Greek Versions of the Gospel of St Matthew made immediately upon its first publication and from hence we may be assured that St John revised and approved the present Version which is by some attributed to him by whomsoever it was made at first For this Gospel in the Greek Tongue being most in use and thereby preserved when the Original Hebrew has been so long ago lost it is not to be supposed that St John should have no regard to it in that Review which he took of the other Gospels that were written originally in Greek We read in †Phot. cod ccliv Photius that he revised the Gospels which were brought to him written in divers Languages the Versions as well as the Originals and therefore this of St Matthew's Gospel cannot be supposed to have been omitted One of the Miraculous Gifts was that of Discerning of Spirits whereby persons endued with it were enabled to distinguish true Revelations from Impostures 1 Cor. xii 10. And St John wrote his Gospel and his Epistles to confute those Hereticks who were the chief Forgers of counterfeit Books of Scripture or the most notorious corrupters of the true Books and his Life was by the Providence of God prolonged that he might be able both to vindicate and perfect the Canon of Scripture We find that †Hier Catal. in St. Luc. he discovered an Imposture which was framed concerning St Paul and * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist lib. iii c. 24. quod quum legisset Matthaei Marci Lucae volumina probaverit quidem Textum Historiae vera eos dixisse firmaverit Hieron Catal. in St. Joan. that he read and approved the Gospels which had been written before his own and there is no reason to doubt but he had seen all the other Writings of the New Testament and so finished the Canon of Scripture himself And the Scriptures of the New Testament were read in the Churches and Assemblies of Christians from the beginning as those of the Old Testament had been in the Synagogues of the Jews by which means they became so divulged and published that they could be neither lost nor falsified VI. The Books of the New Testament were acknowledged to be genuine by the Adversaries of the Christian Religion To say nothing of St Paul's Epistles which he frequently quotes the Gospels were allowed by Julian * Cyrill Alex. contr Jul. lib. x. the Apostate to belong to the Authors whose names they bear †Just Mart. Dial Trypho owns he had read the Gospels and makes no question or scruples about the Authors Celsus quotes the Scriptures frequently and Hierocles as * Lactant. Institut lib. v. c. 2 3. Lactantius who had heard him discourse says was as conversant in them as if he had once been a Christian yet neither of them moved any dispute concerning the Authors of the Books of the Scriptures but in referring to them upon all occasions shewed that they had nothing to object on that Head And when †Orig. cont Cels lib. 2. Celsus says that some of the Christians made alterations in the Gospels this is a confession that some only did it and Origen shews that they were
Hereticks viz. the Marcionists and Valentinians and perhaps the Disciples of Lucanus or Lucianus for in this he could not be positive tho this Lucanus was a follower of Marcion IX There are still extant Copies of great Antiquity The Cambridge Copy in Greek and Latin containing the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles and that which is supposed to be the second part of it containing St Paul's Epistles in the French Kings Library and another the like Copy which is in the Library of th Benedictines of St Germains * F. Simon Crâ—t Hist of the N. Test Part 1. c. 31. Mabil de Re Diplom lib. 5. Tabell 1. are concluded to be a thousand years old at least Morinus thought them to be ancienter than St Jerom's time The Alexandrian Copy is believed to have been written by Thecla above one thousand three hundred years ago Morinus †Epist 54. inter Antiquâ— Eccl. Orient acknowledgeth it to be of above twelve hundred years date Bishop * Prolegom ix 34. Walton supposes the Alexandrian MS. to be at least as old as that in the Vatican which is allowed to be twelve hundred years old There is †F. Sim. Crit. Hist of the N. T. part 2. c. 4. one Syriack MS. of the Gospels in the Library of the Duke of Florence of above a thousand years Antiquity and another not much less ancient A * Gruter Inscript p. 146. Gothick Translation of the Four Evangelists in the Abbey of Werdin is likewise of above a thousand years Antiquity And what ancient Books are there of which the Originals are still extant or of which there are so ancient Copies as of the Scriptures X. Sufficient reasons may be given to shew how it came to pass that the Authority of some Books was at first doubted of 1. The Epistle to the Hebrews had no name prefixt either because the Jews were prejudiced against St Paul or because the Gentiles were his more peculiar care or for some other reason unknown and in this it differs from the rest of St Paul's Epistles and the †Hieroâ— Catal. i Petr. Paul style is different which occasioned the first doubts about it as it happend likewise to St Peter's second Epistle upon the account of its style and then the Novatians alledging some Texts in the Epistle to the Hebrews in favour of their opinion this made the Orthodox the less inclined to receive a Book which before had been disputed and therefore tho it was received in the East it was questioned at Rome where Novatian begun his Schisms The second Epistle of St Peter might be scrupled on the same account and both that and the Revelation of St John being alledged for the Millennium by such as undestood it in a gross sense this caused the Authority of those Books to be called in question which is said * Euseb Hist lib. vi c. 25. expresly of the Revelation 2. Some Epistles were written to particular persons or directed to such as lived at a great distance and by reason of Persecutions arising the Authentick Epistles might not readily be produced 3. Some Books were not usually read in the Churches as the rest were All the Books of Scripture except the Revelation of St John are inserted in the Catalogue of the Council of Laodicea and this was omitted because by reason of the abstruse Mysteries contained in it it was not publickly read in Churches for that Catalogue was designed to shew what Books ought to be read in the publick Assemblies But the Revelation was long before acknowledged to be genuine by †Justin Mart. Dialog Tertull. de Resur c. 27 38. Adv. Marcion lib. ii c. 5. iii. c. 14. Euseb Hist lib. iv c. 18. v. c. 8. Hierom. Catal. in Johannum Justin Martyr by Irenaeus and by Tertullian and others both Justin Martyr and Irenaeas wrote a comment upon the Revelation of St John The Epistle to the Hebrews the Epistle of St James and the the second Epistle of St Peter are cited by Clemens Romanus in his first Epistle which was itself wont to be read in Churches 4. The Hereticks would use all their endeavours and subtilty to hinder the reception of those Books by which their Heresies were disproved and they might so far have effect as to make some doubt for a while of their Authority For instance Diotrephes an ambitious aspiring man who prated against St John with malicious words and had so much power as to cast the Brethren out of the Church would forbid the receiving of St John's Epistles as well as the receiving the Brethren of that Apostles Communion and that he did this St John himself intimates when he says I wrote unto the Church but Diotrephes who loveth to have the Pre-eminence among them receiveth us not Joh. Epist iii. 9. that is he received not St John's Epistle for that would have been to receive him as an Apostle or to acknowledge his Authority XI Tho the Authority of some Books hath been questioned by private men yet those Books were never rejected by any Council of the Church tho frequent Councils were called in the first Ages of Christianity and had this very thing under consideration * Tertull. de Pudicit c. 10. Tertullian after he had turned Montanist rejecting the authority of Hermas's Pastor as not being received into the Canon of Scripture says that it was reckoned amongst the Apocryphal Books by all the Councils of his Adversaries the Orthodox From whence it is evident that in Tertullian's time divers Councils had past their Censure upon the Apocryphal Books and that the Canon of Scripture had been fixt long before So that the time in which some of these Councils were held must probably be whilst St Polycarp a Disciple of St John was yet living whose Martyrdom by the earliest computation was not till A. D. cxlvii at least they must be held in Irenaeus life time who conversed with St Polycarp and lived at the same time with Tertullian Thus was the Canon of Scripture vouched by those who had received it from St John and Councils upon occasion were called which †Tertull. de Jejun c. 13. Tertullian elsewhere mentions as very numerous and frequent in Greece to give testimony to the Genuine Canon and censure Apocryphal Books It is manifest that the Canon of Scripture was settled before the Council of Laodicea which in the lixth Canon appoints that no Books * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. Laod can lix which are extra Canonem but only Canonical Books should be read in the Christian Assemblies and then subjoyns the Titles of the Canonical Books which Title they had as Zonaras and Balsamon observe because they were inserted into the Apostles Canons and all others were styl'd uncanonical And it is concluded after the strictest examination by the best Criticks that those which go under the Name of the Apostles Canons are the Canons of Councils assembled before the Council
Caeterum non tanti momenti sunt ejusmodi errores ut in iis quae ad sidem bonos more 's pertinent Scripturae Sacrae integritas desideretur Plerumque enim tota discrepantia variarum Lectionum in Dictionibus quibusdam posita est quae sensum aut parum aut nihil mutant Bellarmin De Verbo Dei lib. ii c. 2. Bellarmin himself and the best Criticks amongst the Papists have acknowledged that all things relating to Articles of Faith and Rules of Life are delivered intire and uncorrupted in the Scriptures notwithstanding the various Lections And tho some of the Roman Communion have endeavoured to prove the necessity of an infallible Church by Arguments drawn from hence yet says * Considerator considered ch 12. s 4. Bishop Walton I do not remember that in any particular controversy between them and us they urge any one place of Scripture for their cause upon the uncertainty of the Reading without Points which plainly shews that there is no such uncertainty in the Text unpointed as is pretended F. †Hist Crit. V. T. lib. 3. c. 23. Simon complains that the Catalogues of various Lections are much larger than they ought to be and that for the most part they are of no moment and he charges Cappellus more than once with multiplying 'em without Reason Morinus indeed made it his endeavour to lessen the authority of the Hebrew Text in favour of the Septuagint and the Vulgar Latin but his Authority is very inconsiderable when compared with those of the same Communion who have declared themselves against his opinion In * Joh. Morin Vita the life of Morinus written by F. Simon there is this Character of Cappellus and Morinus that if they be compared as to what they have both written concerning the Bible Morinus shews more learning in his Books but it is very often not to the purpose whereas Cappellus has more sagacity and judgment and never wanders from his subject but proves what he is upon by the strongest Arguments And as severe as this Censure may seem to be yet it is justified in effect by the confession of Morinus himself For he †Epist 70. inter Antiqu. Eccl. Orient acknowledgeth to Buxtorf that he never throughly applied himself to the study of the Hebrey Tongue that he had read nothing in Hebrew for 7 years together and that therefore he did not question but he had made many mistakes especially in his Samaritan Exercitations great part of which were written in hast and he was forc'd to use such a variety of Authors that he believes it impossible but that he must have been often mistaken The Authority of Morinus then signifies nothing in prejudice to the Hebrew Text And * Hoc certo affirmare possum me nullam animadvertisse menâ—â—m nec Lectionum varietatem circa moralia documenta quae ipâ—â— obscura aut dubia reddere possunt Tractat. Theolog. Polit. c. 9. Spinoza himself has owned that he could for certain affirm that he had observed no fault nor various reading which concerned the Moral Precepts that cou'd render them obscure or doubtful Bishop Walton has with great learning and judgment summed up the Arguments on alâ— sides and as †Crit. Hist V. T. lib. 3. c. 21. F. Simon acknowledgeth haâ— examined this matter with more exactness than all that had gone before him His Polyglot Bibles give an ocular demonstration to the truth of what he maintains that there is nothing of consequence either as to Faith or Practice concerned in the difference of the several Copies of the Hebrew Text or of the several Versions And as many Sects and Divisions as there are amongst Christians and as many different Translations as they make use of they all acknowledge the Authority of the originals and their Translations in the main are the same however they disagree in rendring some particular passages which concern the different opinions of the several parties and upon that account maintain their own Translation to be more correct than others If we allow of Mr * Table-Talk Selden's Judgment who was very able to make a true one and far enough from being prejudiced in the case he says the English Translation of the Bible is the best Translation in the world and renders the sense of the Original best taking in for the English Translation the Bishop's Bible as well as King James ' s. However by different Translations and by comparing divers Copies and Versions to make out the true Reading many Texts become better understood and more fully explained than if there had been but one Reading and no difference in the Translations VI. And no less may be said in behalf of the New Testament than of the Old for the Books of it were kept from the beginning as a Sacred Treasure with great care and reverence and were constantly read in the Christian Assemblies and soon translated into all Languages The Primitive Christians chose to undergo any Torments rather than they would deliver up the Books of Scripture to their Persecutors to be destroyed and they were no less careful to preserve them uncorrupted by Hereticks Besides when Hereticks attempted to corrupt any Text of Scripture to serve their particular Heresies they were declared against not only by the Orthodox but by other Hereticks who were not concerned for those opinions in behalf whereof the corruption was intended So that it was impossible for any corruptions to be imposed upon the Church or to pass undiscovered even by some of the Hereticks themselves They must be designed for some end and to authorize some particular Doctrines and then all who were not for those Doctrines and more especially those who were against them would certainly oppose such corruptions The agreement likewise of the Greek Text of the New Testament with the several ancient Versions and with the quotations found in the Writings of the Fathers who cited and alledged them from the times of the Apostles proves that there have been no alterations of any such consequence as to make the Scriptures insufficient for the ends of a Divine Revelation If any man be of another opinion let him instance in any one Article of Faith or Rule of Life which cannot be proved from the Scriptures It is not enough for him to shew that some one or more Texts which have been brought in proof of it are disputed but he must shew that it can be proved by no Text which is clear and undisputed The various Lections of the Holy Scriptures are so far from being an Argument against their Authority that they rather help to prove it since they are comparatively so few in a Book of so great Antiquity For no care and regard inferiour to that which we must suppose men to have of a Book which they are convinced is of Divine Authority could have produced a less variety of Readings in a Book of much less Antiquity They are all of no consequence to the
VII Of the Obscurity of some Places in the Scriptures particularly of the Types and Prophesies HEre it must in the first place be remembred that it has been a common and true observation that all Authors are rather perplex'd and obscured than explained by a multitude of Commentators and this is so true of no Book as of the Scriptures for as none has had so many Glosses and Comments put upon it by men of all Ages and Nations so most of them endeavour to find out some new Explication or to serve a Cause and maintain some particular opinions by their Expositions So that it is a wonder that any part of the Scriptures should be clear after Volumes have been written I may truly say upon every Text rather than that difficulties should be found in them But at the same time it must be acknowledged that we find it declared in the Scriptures themselves that there are places of difficulty in them which makes it but so much the more unreasonable that this should be urged as an objection against them For what is acknowledged and profest must be suppos'd to be with a design and for some good reason and the reason and design ought to be inquired into before this be used as an objection St Peter speaking of Christ's coming to Judgment says that St Paul in his Epistles had delivered some things hard to be understood and St Paul himself intimates that there had been mistakes concerning what he had written in this matter 2 Thess ii 1 2 3. St Peter on this occasion says that it so happened not only to St Paul's Epistles but to other Books of the Scriptures thro the ignorance and rashness of unlearned and unstable men 2 Pet. iii. 16. And it happens more especially in those places of Scripture which are concerning things of this nature or contain whatever Prophecies of things to come Therefore I shall I. give an account how it comes to pass that there are things hard to be understood in the Scriptures in general II. I shall in particular consider the obscurity of Prophecies and shall prove the certainty of the Types made use of by the Prophets and shew that there is great force and evidence in the Arguments brought from them III. I shall prove that the obscurity of some places of the Scriptures is no prejudice to the Authority of them nor to the end and design of them I. I shall give an account in general how it comes to pass that there are some things in the Scriptures hard to be understood 1. Some Doctrines which it mightily concerns us to be acquainted withal could not be delivered in so plain a manner but that they must needs have great difficulties in them as the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity of the Incarnation of Christ of the Resurrection and of the Joys of Heaven and of the Torments of Hell There are several things which we are capable of knowing and which are necessary to be known of which yet we cannot have so perfect and absolute a knowledge but that something of them will still remain unknown to us As there is no object more visible or better known to us than the Sun is but to calculate the dimensions and the distance of the Sun from us to know how its light is communicated and suddenly spread over the face of the Earth are things of great difficulty and can never perhaps be fully accounted for In like manner what the Scriptures deliver to us concerning the Nature of God and the state of the World to come must needs have difficulties in it tho we are never so well assured that there is a God and a future state because these are things above our understandings we may perfectly understand that there are such things but can have no full and clear conception of all that may be fit to be delivered to us concerning them Nothing can be made plainer to us than we are capable of knowing it or than the Nature of it and the portion our Faculties bear to it will allow God being incomprehensible whatever is delivered concerning him can never be without all difficulty and whilst we are in this world we can never understand the state of the next so fully as we shall do hereafter And these are difficulties which must be unless the Nature of the things or our own Nature were different from what it is Nevertheless the greatest Mysteries in the Christian Religion so far as they are revealed and so far as they are required to be known by us contain no inexplicable difficulties but if we will needs know more of the Mysteries of Religion than is revealed and more than is required to be known no wonder if we meet with difficulties What is meaut for instance by the Doctrine of the Trinity is capable of being very well understood as the opposers of this Doctrine must own unless they will confess that they oppose they know not what He that says a thing is not true knows what it is which he pretends not to be true if he understands what he says The thing then is known tho there be difficulties in the explication but the explication concerns the manner of existence not the truth of it For that may certainly be and we may certainly know it to be which yet we know not how it should be And the Doctrine itself only is revealed as necessary to be believed not any particular explication of it And if it can be proved that this is the Doctrine of Scripture and it be plain to be understood what is meant by this Doctrine as it is delivered in Scripture this shews the plainness of the Christian Religion in all things necessary to Salvation tho divers things relating to this Doctrine be difficult to be explained because the Doctrine is plainly enough and intelligibly delivered so far as it is required to be understood and believed Several Arts and Sciences which are very difficult and abstruse in the Theory are easy in the Practice and a man may very well unsterstand what the Theorem itself is which is to be proved tho he be altogether uncapable of understanding the proof of it Now what God says is as certain as any demonstration can be and what he has plainly delivered is plain as well as certain and it is never the less certain or plain because we cannot make out the proof of it nor are able to understand how it can be It is sufficient that the Scriptures are plain in this Doctrine so far as we are concerned to know it it is not necessary that the Doctrine itself should be plain in all the controversies which may be raised about it when we know the meaning we must take Gods word for the Truth of it The manner of the distinction of Persons and the Unity of Essence in the Godhead is not required to be believed but the Thing and we know the Thing to be so because God himself has said it tho
be avoided but by the care and concernment of an extraordinary providence and they are of so little moment that it could not be expected that God should particularly concern himself to prevent them 3. The Penmen of the Scriptures in their Proverbs or Parables often allude to Customs or to things that happened in those times in which they lived that were then commonly known but being unknown now may well make many places of their Writings obscure to us which were not so to those of their own time This is alledged as the reason of the obscurity * Obscuâ—itates inquit sex 〈…〉 â—ssignemus culâ—◠〈…〉 sed inscitiae non 〈…〉 quanquam hi 〈…〉 quae Scripta 〈…〉 â—ercipiunt culpa 〈…〉 â—am longâ—aetas ver 〈…〉 â—ores veteres oblite 〈…〉 qâ—â—â—us verbis moribus 〈◊〉 sententia legum comprenensa est A. Gell. lib. xx c. 1. of the Laws of the Twelve Tables among the Romans at the distance of less than seven hundred years after their first being enacted And thus it is in all Books of Antiquity especially in such Books as have frequent occasion to hint at things so notorious at the time when they were written that it was needless to give any particular account of them This has made Notes and Comments necessary upon all Ancient Books and those places need them most which treat of things formerly so well known that the Authors did not think fit to insist upon them but supposed them and only alluded to them rather than exprest or explained them For which reason we owe the Informations which we have of the Roman Antiquities chiefly to Greek Authors because it had been absurd for Romans writing to men of their own City and Nation to acquaint them with the customs of Rome which they knew as well as themselves but those things were proper for Foreigners to take notice of for the information of Foreigners And whatever Allusions either in Parables or otherwise are made to such things must needs be difficult to us because whatever is thus spoken with reference to any thing can be known no better than the thing itself and that which served for an Illustration at the first Writing renders the sense obscure when the thing used for Illustration becomes unknown Nothing is more generally known than the proverbial Sayings of a Nation to the people of it but there is nothing that needs more explication to Foreigners And these Sayings are very frequent both in the discourses of our Saviour and throughout the whole Scriptures for they are the most significant and instructive way of Discourse and the most easily apprehended by such as are used to them The use of Proverbs is natural to all Nations and they are the result of the experience and observation of any people So that the most effectual and readiest way of Instruction is to apply these Sayings generally known and received to particular cases and occasions But then these commonly depend upon the customs of a people or upon some History or particular Accident and oftentimes are taken up at first upon small occasions and the intention and signification of them is apt to be forgotten or mistaken in future Age or by other Nations And therefore all places of Scripture exprest in Allegorical or Proverbial Forms of Speech or by Types and Resemblances of things must needs have been better understood in those times when they were written than they are now because we have but an imperfect Notion of many things to which the Allusion is made or from whence the similitude is taken and the very thing which makes them now obscure to us made them the more plain and intelligible to them who lived at the time of their being written 4. Maimonides * Maim More Nevoch Praef. lays this down as a fundamental Rule of the explication of the Scripture that we should attend to the main Scope any Design of Parables and not insist upon every word and circumstance which is added to make them more Natural but not as any necessary part of them And in those Ages when Prophecies were so frequent and Types and Allegories so constantly made use of they had certain Rules and Methods †Joseph Gell. Jud. lib. iii. c. 14. of Interpretation as we learn from Josephus which thro length of time and the corruption of succeeding Ages are now lost And it is certain that the Jews in the time of our Saviour and his Apostles were often confused and silenced by them with the Application of Types and Prophecies which were then acknowledged to belong to the Messias and were ever so understood by the Jews but would scarce be understood so by us if we did not find them thus interpreted and apply'd We see then that the obscurity of many places of Scripture proceeds from the length of Time and other accidents and that therefore it could not be prevented unless God should make a New Revelation to every Ago and Nation of the World which yet would be of little effect to those who will not be convinced nor perswaded by that Revelation which we have in the Scriptures Tho the Scriptures were designed for the Benefit and Instruction of all Ages and Nations yet they often had a more direct and immediate Regard to the Age and Nation in which they were first penned We have nothing left but the Names of most of the Historians mentioned by St Jerom as necessary to be read in order to explain the Prophecies of Daniel and many objections made against the Scriptures would have no pretence if we knew the circumstances of affairs and had a compleat History of those times to which they relate but God having given us full evidence that the Scriptures are written by his Appointment and Direction expects to be believed upon his word and has not thought fit to gratify the curiosity of men who will disbelieve it And if men will use any tolerable care and diligence the Sense and Importance of the Scriptures may be so far understood as is needful in all Times whatever difficulties there may be in some particular passages II. I shall consider more particularly the obscurity of Prophesies and shall shew what certainty there is in the Types made use of by the Prophets 1. As for any differences which are to be met with in the Interpretation of Prophecies they may proceed partly from the Infirmities and Passions of humane Nature by which it comes to pass that when men undertake to write upon any subject they are seâ—dom sausâ—â—d with what others have said before them but 〈…〉 seeking 〈…〉 Iâ—â—erprâ—â—tion 〈…〉 partâ— â—â—om the 〈◊〉 ficulty of sixing the particular and prâ—â—se time of Actâ—â—â— But this 〈…〉 objection against 〈…〉 the Truth of all 〈…〉 well conclude that things 〈…〉 to paâ—s because learned 〈◊〉 diffâ—â—◠〈◊〉 time of their being done as â—hat they 〈◊〉 never prophesied of for the same reason Expâ—siâ—â—rs may differ in the niceties of the Chronological part but in the
first the whole Design and Contrivance and Method and Stile of it not to criticize upon some difficult Parts of it without any regard had to the rest This is the Method used by all who would criticize with Judgment upon any Author And some Passages of Scripture are explained to our hands to be a Key as it were and a Direction to us in the Explication of others Thus whereas in one place it is said that Jesus baptized in another it is said that he baptized not and the former place is expalined to be meant not of Baptism performed by Himself but by his Disciples who baptized in his Name Joh. iii. 22. iv 1 2. III. It is reasonable to observe whether the Objections be not such as do suppose Mistakes which a Man who could write such a Discourse as they are imagined to be found in could not run into For if they be of this Nature this very Consideration is enough to take off the force of the Objection against the Authority of any Book and we must conclude that the Objections are capable of being answered and that the Mistake lies not in the Book it self but in the Readers who without sufficient Skill or Attention pass a rash Judgment upon it For by all the Rules of Reasoning an Objection may imply too much as well as prove too little to be of any force And the common Rules of Candor and Equity would prevent many Objections which are wont to be made against the Scriptures For if we will but suppose the writers of the Scriptures to have been Men of any tolerable Sense even without Inspiration they could never have committed such mistakes as some would fasten upon them We read Exod. xxxiii 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a Man speaketh unto his Friend yet Vers 20. the Lord answers Moses who had besought God to shew him his Glory Thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see me and live Would it not be impudent Trifling to pretend any Contradiction in these two Verses when they are easily understood in a consistent Sense and no Man of any Judgment can be supposed to write Contradictions and lay them so near together When it is said Act. ix 7. that the Men who journeyed with St. Paul heard a Voice but saw no man and Act. xxii 9. that they heard not the Voice of him that spake to St. Paul besides the Explications which are known and obvious to reconcile these Texts those who who will not be at the Pains to consult Expositors or to consider the Importance of the Words may be pleased to observe that St. Luke was a Man bred to Learning and this History of the Acts of the Apostles shews him to have been at least a prudent and wise Man and therefore he could never have written so palpable a Contradiction as the Objection must suppose in so small a Compass concerning one of the most remarkable Things in his whole History relating to a Person with whom he constantly travelled and convers'd I appeal to any Man whether if he had met with two such Passages which seem to contradict each other in Thucidides or Xenophon or even in the very worst Historian he would not be enclined rather to seek out for some way of reconciling them than to suspect that he could so soon forget what he had written so little a while before in an Account of a Thing of that Nature Of the same kind is that Difference which is between the Genealogy of Christ in St. Matthew and that in St. Luke For there is no doubt but the Genealogies of the Jews were then and long after extant in the Publick Registers (x) Ab exordio Adam usque ad extremum Zorobabel omnium generationes ita memoriter velociterque precur runt ut eos suum putes referre nomen Hieron in Tit. iii. 9. they could repeat them by heart with as much readiness as they could their own Names and to insert a wrong Genealogy had been to give up all the Arguments that could be alledg'd for our Saviour's being the Christ Nothing could be more destructive to their Cause than for the Evangelists to produce a false Pedigree when the True one might be so easily produced by any who had a mind to disprove them The Merits of their Cause wholly depended upon the Proof of Christ's Descent from Abraham and David and therefore whatever Difficulties there may now be thought to be in this Twofold Genealogy it was certainly acknowledged by those of that Age and beyond all Dispute or else it would never have been produced by the Evangelists or had for ever ruined their Cause if they had produced it Some Crimes are too great to charge upon Men of any Credit or Reputation and some Errors are so notorious that no Man of common Prudence can be supposed to commit them And therefore when we find an Author rational and consistent in other parts of a Discourse the ordinary Ingenuity and Condor of Mankind will hinder us from supposing him to commit gross and palpable mistakes and it is great disingenuity and folly to shew the less Respect to any Author because he is at least believed to have written by Inspiration or to deny him the Respect due to a Man because God has enabled him to write Infallible Truth IV. If any Contradictions be framed or forced from the various Readings the difficulties in Chronology or whatever elsé of this Nature is to be found in the Disputes of Criticks they prove no more against the Authority of the Scriptures than they do against the Authority of all other Books in the World unless it could be shewn that these Difficulties could not happen in a Book written by Divine Inspiration but that it must be first written in such a manner as to afford no occasion for Disputes and that it must be ever after so preserved by a constant Miracle that it may be subject to none of the Accidents and Casualties to which all other Books are liable On the contrary it can never be proved that God might not permit Books written by Inspiration to be obnoxious to any such Casualties as are not prejudicial to the End and Design of a Revelation But if the necessary points of Doctrine be preserved entire and the Evidence of Matters of Fact be sufficient to prove the Truth of the Miracles and Prophecies in Confirmation of that Doctrine all lesser Matters may be lest to the same contingencies which befall all other Books in the World That the Evidence is very clear and full in Proof both of the Prophecies and Miracles which demonstrate to us the Divine Authority of the Scriptures has been already shewn and if no more could be produced than has by me been brought to prove their Authority yet unless this can be proved to be insufficient from some mistakes or defects in it no such Objections can invalidate it Because no Man can prove that God
Vers 13. The Sun stood still or was silent and the Moon staid where the Word applied to the Moon signifies properly to stay or stand still but the Word used concerning the Sun is Metaphorical as if it had been purposely so ordered because the Moon moves but the Sun only seems to do so which is further confirmed by the following part of the same Verse where in the Citation from the Book of Jasher the same Word is used of the Sun which was before used of the Moon signifying that the Sun properly stood still For the Book of Jasher is cited in its own words but when Joshâ—a who wrote by Inspiration set down the words of the Holy Spirit he exprest the thing so that it cannot be from thence inferr'd that the Sun must be supposed to move but rather the contrary tho' immediately after in a Citation from another Book he inserts the Expression of an Author who had followed the vulgar Opinion III. Gen. i. 6. And God said let there be a Firmament in the midst of the Waters The Word translated Firmament is in the Margin rendred Expansion by which seems to be meant this Orb in which the Earth is placed and by the Waters above the Firmament or Expansion may be meant the Waters beyond the Circumference of our Orb and belonging to the Planets and by the Waters under the Firmament may be understood the Waters belonging to the Earth and contain'd within its Expansion For at first all was one confused Heap of Waters without any Distinction of Orbs the Mass of Waters being extended throughout before the several Orbs were appointed but then the Waters belonging to each Orb were caused to subside towards their several Centers till they being gathered together in their proper Channels and Receptacles the dry Land appeared I confess I once thought this had been only an Explication of my own but I have since found that it is of equal Date with the Modern Philosophy and that it has likewise been lately used by others Indeed it seems to be so easy an Exposition that I believe it would come into most Mens Minds who would consider how this Text may be explain'd according to the new Philosophy Others suppose the Firmament to signify the Region of the Air and by the Waters above the Firmament they understand the Vapours contained in the Clouds When he uttereth his Voice there is a Multitude of Waters in the Heavens and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the Earth Jer. x. 13. IV. The Sun and Moon are called Two great Lights Gen. i. 16. But this doth not imply that either of them is greater than the fixt Stars which are not spoken of till the latter end of the Verse But the Sun is the great Light that rules the day and the Moon the great Light that rules the Night the Moon being in respect of the Light which she gives us bigger than any fixt Star for She gives us more Light than they do in some sense however and with respect to us the Moon is the greater Light tho' the Stars are the greater Luminous Bodies Consider this Luminary as it concerns us and it is in that conception greater than the biggest Star Yet the Sun and the Moon are not said to be greater Lights than the fixt Stars nor as great as they are But are only called great Lights which they certainly are tho' every Star should be bigger than either of them The Stars are plainly spoken of by themselves and apart from the Sun and Moon without any comparison or relation to them And God made two great Lights the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser Light to rule the Night He made the Stars also That is besides the two great Lights which are the Sun and Moon He made the Stars which are distinguished from these and not reckoned with them but are spoken of by way of Parenthesis The Stars being of another Division of Celestial Bodies and belonging to other Orbs are mentioned here distinctly and not with any comparison to the Sun and Moon But will any Man deny that the Sun and Moon are great Lights because the Stars are great Lights too and as big perhaps as the Sun and bigger than the Moon There are in Europe many great Cities and there are great Cities likewise in other parts of the World Doth therefore he that says there are great Cities in Europe to Rule the Neighbouring Countries and Cities in other parts of the World also say That the Cities of Europe are greater than any Cities in the rest of the World Or if any one should say God made four great Rivers to Water Paradise and Rivers in other places also would he thereby affirm that the Rivers of Paradise were larger than all the Rivers in the World besides V. 1 Sam. ii 8. We read of the Pillars of the Earth but this is spoken Metaphorically and by Pillars of the Earth may be meant the Power of the Princes of the World mentioned but just before In the like sense it is said Psal lxxv 3. The Earth and all the Inhabitants thereof are dissolved I bear up the Pillars of it We find mention made of the Pillars of the Earth Job ix 6. which is to be understood of the Earth's unmoveable stability (x) Colamnas hoc loco pro stabilitate terrae intelligamus quam Deuâ—super semeâ— ipsamiâ—â—anbilissimâ— mole â—daviâ— St. Hierâ—â— ad Job ix 6â— as St. Jerom observes and so the other Texts may likewise be understood by the Pillars of the Heavens Job xxvi 11. we are to understand that Power which supports and upholds them VI. Job xxxvii 18. The Sky is said to be strong and as a Molten Looking-glass that is to be durable and resembling a Molten Looking-glass But however they be taken these are the Words of Elihu And Job's Friends sinned in what they charged him withal and therefore he may be supposed to make so innocent a mistake as to think the Heavens solid or at least he as well as the rest might speak the Language of those that did think so VII Job speaks strictly according to Philosophy when he saith that God hangeth the Earth upon Nothing Job xxvi 7. And we read Psal xxiv 2. That the Lord hath founded the Earth upon the Seas and established it upon the Floods and Psal Civ 5. that he hath laid the Foundations of the Earth that it should not be removed for ever All which is as exactly as any Philosopher can speak For the Foundation of a pendulous Globe can be nothing but its Center upon which all the parts lean and are supported thereby And the Waters continually flowing thro' the Bowels and Concavities of the Earth from the depths of the Sea by a constant Course and Circulation constitute an Abyss of Waters in the lowermost parts of the Earth So that with great Propriety of Speech the Terraqueous Globe is said to hang upon nothing and the
instructed in the Rewards and Punishments of the Life to come and Temporal Rewards and Punishments were appointed by Moses as Pledges and Types to represent and prefigure to them those of a Future State For that Abraham and the Patriarchs before him had a true and full Notion of a Life after this we are certain from Heb. xi 10 13. And we have as great Certainty that Abraham did instruct his Children and his Houshold after him Gen. xviii 19. and Moses wrote of Christ Jo. v. 46. Gen. iii. 15. xii 3. xlix 10. Deut. xviii 15 18. These things were delivered in the Books of Moses and well understood by the Generality of the Jews in all Ages the Sadducees were singular in denying the Resurrection of the Dead and some other Doctrines in which all the rest were agreed But if there were any Obscurity or Difficulty in the Books of Moses they had besides the Priests a constant Succession of Prophets for many Ages to Interpret them and to maintain and inculcate those Fundamental Doctrines of Religionâ— The Rewards of Heaven are declared Psal xvi 11. xvii 15. Prov. xv 24. Eccles xii 14. Dan. xii 2 3. The Torments of Hell are asserted Psal xvi 10. Eccles xi 9. xii 14. Isai xxxiii 14. Dan. xii 2. The Resurrection of the Dead Psal xvii 15. Isai xxvi 19. Ezek. xxxvii 1. Dan. xii 2. Hos xiii 14. And in the Book of Job which is of the greatest Antiquity Job xiv 12. xix 26.27 In that Expression that David and others Slept with their Fathers is implyed not only the Imortality of the Soul but the Resurrection of the Body For it implies that there was not a total end of them but as they Slept so must they awake and rise again Psal xvii 15. And this Expression is taken from the Old Testament and applied to the same Sense in the New Our Saviour speaking of Regeneration says to Nicodemus art thou a Master in Israel and knowest not these things Joh. iii. 10. and he bids the Jâ—ws search the Scriptures of the Old Testament for in them says he ye think ye have Eternal Life and they are they which testify of me Joh v. 39. it was in them fore-told that a much clearer Revelation was to be made by the Gospel Jer. xxxi 31. When our Saviour by his Resurrection gave a fuller Manifestation of a future Immortal State than could be given by any other Means and brought Life and Immortality to Light thro' the Gospel 2 Tim. i. 10. Yet this it self was Typifyed in the Old Testament by raising Dead Men to Life again and the Translation of Enoch and Elijah into Heaven was for a Testimony and Assurance of a Future State both of Body and Soul The Doctrin deliverd by Moses and the Prophets was as effectual a Caution and warning to Men to keep them from the place of Torments as a Message from the Dead could have been Luke xvi 31. The Old Testament therefore is not deficient in any necessary Point of Salvation but the Ceremonial Law was enjoyned as a suitable Help and Expedient for the retaining those Truths which had been revealed before Which was so well known (x) Origen contra Cels lib. 2 that Celsus puts this as an Objection into the Mouth of the Jews whom he brings in Arguing against the Christian Religion that it taught them nothing but what they knew before concerning the Resurrection of the Dead and a future Judgment and a State of Rewards and Punishments in another World And it cannot be denied that the Apocryphal as well as the Canonical ' Books teach these things The Honour and Authority of our Religion amongst Men depends very much upon a right Knowledge and a due consideration of this Subject And those who profess never so great Veneration for the New Testament but have little esteem for any part of the Old understand neither the one nor the other as they ought They refer all along to each other and must stand or fall together for the one is but a Draught as it were or Model of the other all things being though obscurely yet sufficiently taught in the Old Testament which are fully and lively exprest in the New The Sum of all is this The Faith in the Messias to come and the Principles of Religion and Morality had been delivered down from the Beginning by Adam and Noah to their Posterity And when Moses by God's Direction and Appointment gave Laws to the Children of Israel the End and Design of these Laws was the preservation of this Faith and Practice amongst them And this was effected by visible Objects and sensible Remembrances the Jewish Dispensation was ordain'd in condescension to the Circumstances and Capacities of those Ages and that Nation in such a manner as was most suitable to their Condition and most Worthy of God the rest of the World had wholly given up and abandoned themselves to Carnal Ordinances and Superstitions and God who produceth Good out of Evil made use of this Fondness and Dotage of Mankind to the Preservation and Advancement of Truth and Holiness amongst Men. The Ceremonial Worship was no farther acceptable to God and no otherwise design'd by Him than to keep his People from running into Idolatry to which they had so great a Proneness to put them in mind of their own Sinfulness and Unworthiness to preserve a Sense of Moral Duties and of an inward and spiritual Service and to retain a Remembrance and Expectation of that Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction which had been foretold and was in the Fulness of time to be offered upon the Cross for the Sins of the World Thanks be to God that we are instructed to worship him in Spirit and in Truth without so many burthensome Ceremonies but in those Ages of the World nothing would have seem'd more strange and absurd than a Religion without some Pomp and Solemnity of Ceremonies And God appointed for his People those which were innocent to restrain them from all that were wicked and hurtful He appointed the Sacrifices of Beasts to be Types of Christ's Sacrifice and to withhold them from Humane Sacrifices which were practised in other Nations and enjoyn'd by other Religions he commanded them to abstain from certain Meats that they might not eat of Things offer'd to Idols and these innocent Ceremonies he made useful and serviceable to the Great Ends of Faith and Righteousness Nothing impracticable can be supposed to be prescrib'd by God to any People nothing which is above their Abilities and present Attainments and therefore would be of no use and benefit to them But rather the Divine Goodness would condescend to their Infirmities and comply with them in giving them such Laws as may be agreeable and convenient for them in their present State and may fit them for an higher and more excellent Dispensation Whatsoever we may think of it now nothing at the time when the Law was given would have look'd like Religion that had
the performing any good Action Every good Gift and every perfect Gift is from above Jam. i. 17. 3. We learn from hence that God can bring Good out of Evil and doth often over-rule even the worst Actions to the accomplishment of the best Ends and putteth no Trust in his Saints Job xv 15. There is a Remarkable Instance to this purpose in the Case of Jacob and Esau when Jacob came by fraud and subtilty and depriv'd his Brother of the Blessing (p) Casaub in Athenae Lib. 1. c. 11. It was in Ancient times customary to offer that of which they were to eat in Sacrifice especially on so Solemn an Occasion as a Father's giving his final Blessing and as in this Case foretelling the Fate of his Posterity And therefore when Jacob had by subtilty got the Blessing of his Father Isaac could not recall it to conferr it upon Esau because what was done in so solemn a manner had a Religious Obligation amounting to that of an Oath and Oaths tho' obtain'd by fraud were Obligatory as we learn from the Case of the Gibeonites he had blessed Jacob before the Lord and the Prediction that the Elder should serve the Younger Gen. xxv 23. with Esau's despising and selling his Birth-right might now probably come into Isaac's Mind whereupon tho' he did not approve of the fraud by which the Blessing was obtain'd yet he knew it to be irrevocable and that the Divine Purpose and Prediction would be accomplish'd thereby and what he had by a Prophetick Spirit conferr'd it was not in his power to recall The Relation therefore of this Matter doth not justifie Jacob's behaviour in it but manifests the over-ruling Providence of God to make any Means whatsoever instrumental to his gracious Ends which can never be disappointed by any Actions of Men for if they depended upon humane Actions these would often fail them the best Men being subject to so much frailty and sin 4. Tho' God of his Mercy doth accept of the imperfect Services of the Righteous forgiving upon their habitual Repentance the Sins and Frailties which are mix'd with the best Actions and pardoning the worst Actions likewise after a particular Repentance and Amendment of Life yet these stand upon Record for the glory of God's grace in their Repentance and Forgiveness and for a memorial and warning to future Ages that Men may neither presume upon their own Righteousness nor despair of God's Mercy But because they are pardon'd they are not always censur'd And I think the ill Actions of Good Men are seldom or never mention'd with a mark of God's displeasure unless the Series of the History require it and then the reproof is mention'd which pass'd at the time of the Commission of them as in the Case of David of Hezekiah and St. Peter But where no such Censure was pass'd at the time of the Action the Action it self is barely related and nothing further said of it because the Crime being forgiven God forbears to shew any further displeasure against it such is his Mercy to Repenting Sinners And there could be no necessity as I have observ'd for any Censure upon the account of others who may know by the plain Rule of God's word what Actions are sinful tho' they are not always styl'd so in relating the Commission of them CHAP. XVIII Of the Imprecations in the Psalms and other Books of the Old Testament ONE of the greatest Excellencies of the Christian Religion is the Universal Charity which it enjoyns and we shall find that Charity was likewise the Doctrine of the Old Testament and that there is nothing in the Book of Psalms or any other part of the Old Testament contrary to this Doctrine which will appear if we consider the peculiar Reasons for those expressions which may seem to imply any thing contrary to it I. Many of those Expressions are used in reference to the Nations upon whom after signal Acts of Mercy and Forbearance on his part and repeated provocations on theirs God had commanded the Israelites to execute his Judgments and the Sins of the People of Israel were the cause that this was not accomplish'd and therefore it was lawfull for them to pray that they might have grace to repent and that their Sins might be no hindrance to them in the fulfilling his will but that God would enable them to execute vengeance upon the Heathen Ps cxlix 7. And it was lawful likewise to pray against all the other Enemies of God that he would abase their Pride and make them to know themselves to be but Men Ps ix 20. lxxiv. 22 23. cxxxix 21 22. II. David being King had the Sword of Justice committed to him he was the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that did evil and therefore when his Rebellious Subjects were too strong for him as in the Rebellion of Absalom he might make his Appeal to God and beseech him to take the matter into his own hand If he might punish his Subjects he might pray to God that he would enable him to do it And in Foreign Wars if he might kill his Enemies he might pray for Victory and Success over them III. It is lawful to pray that publick and notorious Malefactors may be punish'd for it is lawful to discover them and bring them to punishment and it must needs be lawful to pray that that may be done which it is lawful for us to do It is lawful to seek redress of private Injuries and therefore it is lawful to pray that they may be redress'd for we may pray for success upon any honest undertaking If this be done out of a love to Justice and a necessary care of our own preservation not out of malice and a thirst after Revenge but with the most favourable construction that the worst Actions are capable of and with hearty Prayers to God for his Blessing upon the Offender in giving him the grace of Repentance and granting him whatsoever happiness in this World may be consistent with the honour of God and Justice towards other Men and the Salvation of his own Soul IV. God was the peculiar Law-giver and Political Governour of the Jews and Temporal Rewards and Punishments were the Sanction of the Laws which he had given them For the Mosaical Law is called the ministration of Death and the Ministration of Condemnation 2 Cor. iii. 7 9. because the promises of the Law as such belong'd only to this Life and a Curse was denounc'd against every one that continu'd not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. iii. 10 11. God had expresly threatned to inflict Punishment in this Life for the transgression of those Laws and therefore to pray to God that his Judgments might overtake Evil doers was no more than it is in other Governments to prosecute Offenders before the Magistrate they appealed to God to put his Laws in force against them and not to
Witness to the Truth of their Doctrine God himself bears Witness to it and the Jews might have said in this as they did in a very different Case What need we any further Witnesses for we our selves have heard of their own mouths in the Miraculous Gift of Tongues or seen it with our own Eyes in the many wonderful Works which were continually wrought in the most publick manner in Testimony of the Resurrection of Christ Our Blessed Saviour therefore gave as full proof of his Resurrection as if he had appear'd in the Temple or in the midst of Jerusalem to the whole People of the Jews For this had not been more effectual to the Conversion of most of them nor more sufficient to evidence the Truth of the Gospel than his Appearance to his Disciples was and if the Jews had unanimously believed it could not have contributed more to convince Men of the Truth of the Resurrection than their Unbelief has done he sent his Apostles with a Miraculous Power as convincing as his own Appearance could have been and all things considered the Jews afford us as full Evidence in behalf of the Gospel by opposing it as they could have done by their compliance with it And since we have sufficient Testimony to resolve our Faith into the Divine Veracity the certainty is the same whether the Witnesses be more or fewer because it depends upon the veracity of God which is always the same whatever the means be by which our Faith is resolved into it CHAP. XXVII Of the Forty Days in which Christ remain'd upon Earth after his Resurrection and of the manner of his Ascension OUR Blessed Saviour had certified his Disciples of his Resurrection in such a manner as to give them many infallible Proofs of it or else it is impossible for any thing to be infallibly proved and that which is chiefly to be considered in this matter is that he was seen by them not once but often not for a short time or at a hasty Interview but for forty days together and then he performed the common Actions of Humane Life he did eat and drink with them and discoursed with them of the things relating to his Kingdom To whom also he shewed himself alive after his Passion by many infallible proofs being seen of them forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God Acts i. 3. That which I here design is to make some Observations upon the Conversation that our Saviour had with his Disciples during the Forty days between his Resurrection and his Ascension and upon the manner of his leaving them when he ascended into Heaven 2. The Scriptures acquaint us that our Saviour was seen of his Disciples Forty Days or that he vouchsafed them his presence the greatest part of that time which he remained upon Earth after his Resurrection But in what manner all that time was spent with them we are no where told which is no wonder if we consider how much of his former Life is concealed from us In the Scriptures which are written for our Instruction and in the plainest and sincerest manner in the World to inform us of all things necessary to our Salvation we have nothing taken notice of for Ostentation nor for Ornament but many things omitted in the Life of Christ which are thought needful in Humane Authors to make up a compleat History We have no more mentioned of his Parentage than was necessary to make it evident that he was descended from David and born of a Virgin as the Prophets had foretold of him When he was born we read that the Shepherds and the Wise-Men came to Worship him that he was Circumcised that he was brought to Jerusalem to be presented to the Lord and that he was carried into Aegypt to avoid Herod's Cruelty and hereby known Prophecies were fulfilled Afterwards he was brought to Nazareth upon the death of Herod and from that time we read no more of him 'till the twelfth Year of his Age when he Disputed with the Doctors in the Temple And then we are told that he went down to Nazareth and was subject to his Mother and to Joseph and in general Terms that he encreased in Wisdom and Stature and in favour with God and Man as it was before said of him that he grew and waxed strong in Spirit filled with Wisdom and the grace of God was upon him Luke ii 40 52. The next time we read any thing of him is when he was about Thirty years of Age and came to John to be Baptized Thus not only during his Infancy and Childhood there is little related of our Blessed Saviour but his riper years are passed over in Silence in all which time we may be sure that there was no Speech or Action of so Divine a Person but what well deserved the observation of all that knew him and was more worthy of mention in History than all the Renowned Adventures and Exploits or than the Wise or Witty Sayings which adorn the Lives of the Greatest among the Sons of Men. But Modesty Humility and a Contempt of the praise of Men were some of the great and useful Doctrines in which he came to instruct Mankind and he could not do this more effectually than by his own Example in leading a mean and obscure Life little known or taken notice of in the World 'till two or three years before he was to leave it by a Cruel and Infamous Death He did not chuse to spend his time in places of publick Resort and Converse and when he Disputed in the Temple yet nothing of the particulars is mentioned This obscure and unknown Person was to rebuke and comptroll the Pride and Vanity of the Popular Scribes and Pharisees And after he had appeared in the World very much of his Life was spent in privacy and retirement not many of his Discourses are delivered down to us and the greatest part of his Actions are omitted For if they had been all written and described in their several Circumstances many Volumes must have been taken up in the Narrative of them insomuch that St. John supposes that even the World itself could not have contained the Books that should have been written Joh. xxi 25. that is as we might express it in our Language he did a world of things more than these which are related of him and in the same sense of the Word St. James says that the Tongue is a world of Iniquity Jam. iii. 6. The meaning of St. John is that hardly any words could express how many other things were done by our Saviour besides those which he had set down Christ might have employed some accurate Historian to compose the Annals of his whole Life with the greatest exactness imaginable but he was pleased to be represented to the World very imperfestly by such as knew nothing of what belonged to the writing History any farther than to be able to tell the strict and necessary Truth The
Evangelists wrote his Life with the same Humility with which he lived And it is observable that when St. John says that there were so many other things which Jesus did he speaks with relation to the things done by him after his Resurrection having just before given an account of what our Saviour had said to St. Peter And so in the foregoing Chapter when St. John has declared how our Saviour certified St. Thomas of the Truth of his Resurrection he adds and many other Signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have Life through his Name Joh. xx 30 31. So that we are acquainted with no more than was necessary of what pass'd between our Saviour and his Disciples after his Resurrection the rest concerns us not to know it was for their Instruction and encouragement in their Duty and they were empower'd to teach and instruct us We know that beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself Luke xxiv 27. but we are no where told what were the Particulars of his Exposition only we are sure that the Apostles in their Explications of the Old Testament followed the Interpretations which he had given We read that he was seen of them forty days and spoke of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God from whence we may conclude that the time between the Resurrection and the Ascension of Christ was chiefly spent in comforting and instructing them and in expounding to them the Scriptures concerning his Passion and Resurrection and the coming of the Holy Ghost after his Ascension St. Paul mentions that he was seen by above five hundred Brethren at once of whom the greater part were then still alive to testifie the Truth of what he said 1 Cor. xv 6. tho' this Particular however remarkable is omitted by the Evangelists for they relate things just as they saw it needful upon every Occasion and since they said enough to convince Men they were not careful to say all that might be said they were ready to die in Testimony of what they delivered and daily wrought Miracles to confirm it and therefore were not sollicitous to lay together all the Particulars or to put them into any exact Order and Method they declared what they knew and their Miracles proved it and they depended not upon such Niceties as Humane Proofs have need of We may reasonably conclude then notwithstanding the silence of the Sacred Writers that when Christ had once fully manifested himself to his Disciples and satisfied them in his Resurrection the rest of the time till his Ascension was most of it spent with them in Divine Discourses for their Instruction and Comfort such as those are which we read in the Evangelists one of whom declares that a full account of all that pass'd between him and his Disciples was more than could well be express'd That happy time was employ'd in pure and Spiritual Joys and Contemplations in forming and preparing them for the Reception of the Holy Ghost As soon as Mary Magdalen knew our Lord after his Resurrection she fell at his feet to Worship him and would touch his Sacred Body Matt. xxviii 9. Joh. xx 17. For this Reason perhaps too as well as out of Devotion to him that she might be able to give the Apostles the better account of his being risen again But he forbad her saying touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father and then sends her to his Disciples to his Brethren as he with infinite Love and Condescension styles them He was not yet ascended or was not then about to ascend but to stay many days upon Earth and there would be time enough for her nearer approaches to him either for the encrease and confirmation of her Faith or for her Acknowledgment and Adoration After his Resurrection Christ made himself known to his Disciples by degrees and by several Appearances to them at distant times in divers Places and in different manners he suffered them to doubt of that great Article of our Faith for a while that he might overcome their Unbelief and extort a Conviction from them by such means as that no Man unless he would be very unreasonable and obstinate should pretend any Cause to doubt of it afterwards But when he had thoroughly convinc'd them of his Resurrection we may conclude from what we read of his Conversing with them that from that time he admitted them to a freer and more intimate Communication with himself and Discoursed with them in the most mild and gracious and instructive manner of all which it concerned them to know pertaining to his Kingdom or which they were capable then of knowing before the descent of the Holy Ghost sometimes perhaps vouchsafing his Presence to one and sometimes to others of them and most commonly to them altogether when they were assembled as we find they generally were And when he withdrew himself it was because their Mortal State would not bear a constant and uninterrupted Attendance for so long a time upon their Blessed Master and because it was requisite that they by degrees should be accustomed to endure his Absence and to walk by Faith not by Sight and after his Ascension the Holy Ghost the Comforter did not immediately come upon his Departure from them but their Faith was to be exercised in the expectation of him for the space of Ten Days and then his Promise was to be fulfilled in the fittest and most proper Season on the Feast of Pentecost In few words Christ was seen of them says the Scripture forty Days which implies that these for the most part were spent in his Presence and we are in the same place told how this time was employ'd in speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God II. We may observe the manner how our Saviour left his Disciples when he ascended up from them into Heaven He had before prepared them to expect his Ascension for besides what he had said to them before his death immediately upon his Resurrection he sent this Message to his Disciples by Mary Magdalen Go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Joh. xx 17. They were in hopes it seems that he would at this time have restored again the Kingdom to Israel and did not think he would have left them before that which they so much desired had been accomplished However taking his Leave of them he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the Promise of the Father which says he ye have heard of me And whilst he was giving them repeated Assurances that this Promise should be most effectually fulfilled while they beheld he was taken up and a Cloud received
of them must cease and the Reason why they should be bestowed ceasing these miraculous Gifts must of consequence cease with it And thus it was likewise under the Law It is observable that we read of no miraculous Power bestowed upon any Man before Moses The Creation of the World was dilivered down with undeniable Certainty and the miraculous Judgments of God in Drowning the Old World in the Confusion of Tongues and in the Punishment inflicted upon Sodom and Gomorrah were sufficient to keep up a Sense of the True Religion But when a new Institution of Religion was to be introduced by Moses miraculous Gifts were necessary to give Authority to it and to oppose those false and lying Wonders which were in use among the Magicians in Egypt and other Places In the former Ages Predictions were very frequent and they were delivered by the Patriarchs who were Men of unquestionable Credit and Authority and could have no need of Miracles to confirm the Truth of their Prophecies which were so usual in those Times and when the Lives of Men were so long divers Prophecies of the same Persons had been verified by the Event But Moses had a New Law to deliver and both He and the Prophets had a a stubborn People to deal with to whom the Message they were charged withal was commonly very unwelcome so that till this Institution was fully settled Miracles became necessary But when the Old Testament had been sufficiently authorized and established by Prophecies and Miracles and when by the Captivities and Dispersions of the Jews the Divine Mission of their Prophets became known among so many other Nations when the Jews were reduced from Idolatry which they never practised after their Return from their Captivity in Babylon and when they had made numerous Conversions amongst the Heathens then these miraculous Gifts were no longer continued as they had been before in the Jewish Church insomuch that it became a (a) Lightf Glean out of Exod. §. vi Harm of the Evang Luke i. 18. Joh. ii 18. Maxim among them that after the Death of Zechariah and Malachi and the rest of the Prophets who returned from Babylon the Spirit of God departed from Israel and ascended and for above Four hundred Years together the Gifts both of Prophecy and Miracles had been with-held from them before the Manifestation of Christ For though there were gross Errours and dangerous Corruptions among the Pharisees and Sadducees and other Sects of the Jews yet since the Truth and Certainty of that Revelation from whence these Errours might have been confuted had been so throughly confirmed all their Corruptions and Errors were not a sufficient cause for the continuance of miraculous Gifts and the Pharisees and other Sects who were most fond and zealous of their several Tenets and Traditions yet never durst pretend to a Power of Miracles or Prophecy but endeavoured to support themselves upon the Authority of Moses and the Prophets What they sometimes spake of (b) id Fall of Jerus §. IX Harm of the N. T. §. LXXIII the Bath Col or Voice from Heaven deserves but little Credit and amounts but to a Confession that the Spirit of Prophecy had failed under the Second Temple as the Jews themselves expressly acknowledge it to have done (c) More Nevock Part. 2. c. 36 41. Maimonides declares that the Bath Col did not denominate Men Prophets and therefore it is not reckoned by him among the Degrees of Prophecy I have already Proved at large Book 1. that the Evidence of those Miracles which were wrought in the Primitive Times affords as much certainty to our Faith as if we our selves had seen them wrought And our Saviour plainly says notwithstanding his Works which bore Witness of him that it was not to be expected that his own Words should be rather believed than the VVritings of Moses For had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me But if ye believe not his VVritings how shall ye believe my VVords Joh. v. 46 47. And when once the Gospel had been attested by Miracles as the Law had been and rendred as certain to all succeeding Ages as a constant Power of Miracles could have made it there could be no Reason why such a Power should be any longer bestowed Miracles were wrought in Evidence of the Truth of Revelations made to Mankind in the Old and New Testament not to decide any Controversies arising amongst those by whom the Scriptures are received For to whom the Scriptures are the Rule by which all Disputes ought to be determined and therefore the Gifts of Miracles were sometimes manifested among (d) Ad Orthodox inter Justin Martyr Oper. Respons v. Hereticks for the Conviction of Infidels which is the true end and design of Miracles and not to be any Note of Distinction between the Orthodox and Hereticks The learned (e) In Irenae Dissert 11. §. 28. c. Mr. Dodwell by an historical Account of Miracles from the Times of the Apostles through the Ages next succeeding has shewn that they were always adapted to the Necessities of the Church being more or less frequent as the State of the Church required till they at last wholly ceased when there was no longer any need of them For the only end and use of miraculous Gifts is the Confirmation and Establishment of Religion and therefore when this is once fully confirmed and established they can be no longer needful But it seems rather necessary that they should afterwards cease than that they should be continued I mean as to any constant Power of working Miracles residing in the Church For tho' there may possibly be some extraordinary Cases in which it may please God to manifest a miraculous Power yet there is no Reason to conclude that a constant Power of working Miracles should be continued to the Church but rather that those Gifts should cease when Religion has been confirmed by a perpetual Course of Miracles for some Hundreds of Years together Because I. Miracles when they became common would lose the design and end and the very Nature of Miracles For the Nature of Miracles consists in this that they are an extraordinary VVork of God not that they are more difficult than the ordinary works of Nature All things are alike easy to God and Miracles are as easy as any thing in the constant course of Nature can be the only difference is that Miracles are his wonderful Work they are more apt to raise our Wonder and Admiration and to put us in mind of a Divine Presence For we wonder at strange and unusual things and suppose a more than ordinary Reason for them But if Miracles had continued in all Ages this Effect of Miracles would have ceased and they would no longer have been Miracles but a kind of different Course of Nature For according to the best and most accurate Philosophy nothing in the settled Course of Nature can be performed without an
was a long Succession of Philosophers and Sophists who made it their business to oppose the Christian Religion The Shool of Platonists which continued at Athens for some Ages would revive or reinforce any Arguments that had been used by their Predecessors in Opposition to Christianity Proclus and Damascius who were of this School lived about the middle of the Sixth Age and the Writings of Damascius were extant (u) Phot. cod CLXXXI CCXLII. LXXVII in Photius's time in the middle of the Ninth Age the History of Eunapius was then likewise extant and is (x) Voss de Graec. Hist said to be preserved at Venice We have the Abridgment of it by Zosimus and a sufficient Specimen of his malicious Invectives in his other Writings And it is probable that these and many other Books of the like nature which are now lost continued much longer than any Accounts which we have now remaining of them mention Of about Thirty Answers (y) Holstein de Vit. Script Porphyt c. 10. which were written to Porphyry by several Authors not one of them is now to be found When the World was satisfied of the insufficieny of his Objections the Answers to his Books were as little regarded as the Books themselves but underwent the same Fate with them The Jews who from the beginning of Christianity before but especially since the Destruction of Jerusalem have in vast Numbers been spread all over the World and have ever been the most implacable Enemies of the Gospel had the greatest Opportunity to detect any falshood in it and have never omitted any Advantage of improving and enforcing the Arguments against it and and therefore would be sure to retain any thing considerable which had been objected by their Fore-Fathers or by the Heathens with whom they conversed The Jews have been a perpetual restless Enemy in all Parts and Ages of the World and nothing material in this Case would escape their Observation But out of the Writings of the Ancient Jews which are still extant many things have been alleged by many Learned Men of our own and other Nations in confirmation of our Religion from the Confession of the Jews themselves The Unbelief therefore both of the Jews and Gentiles of those Ages is no material Objection nor altogether so unaccountable as the Unbelief of too many now who were born among Christians and have had their Education in the Christian Religion The Truth is Example is always the weakest Argument in any Case and can be of no Force or Authority against the clearest rational Evidence CHAP. XXXI That the Confidence of Men of false Religions and their Willingness to suffer for them is no Prejudice to the Authority of the True Religion THE Christian Religion doth infinitely surpass all others in the Number of its Martyrs of both Sexes of every Age and Nation and Rank and Condition Mistaken ignorant Zealots may often have suffered for other Religions but Men of the highest Station and Worth and inferiour to none in the Knowledge and Experience of every thing that the World esteems Excellent have renounced all and upon choice and after a full consideration of the Merits of the Cause have laid down their Lives for the sake of the Gospel Tyrants of the greatest Power and Cruelty have made it their Aim and Ambition by all sorts of Tortures to extirpate the Christian Religion they esteemed their Persecutions matter of Triumph and a fit subject for the (a) Gâ—uter Inscript p. 238 280. Inscriptions of Monuments erected to their Memories But the invincible Patience and glorious Sufferings of the Christians prevailed against all the Rage and Force of their Enemies If the Martyrologies of all Religions were to be compared there would soon appear so manifest a difference between the Christian Martyrs and the Sufferers for other Religions that nothing would be needful to be said upon this subject But remembring with whom I have to deal I am resolved to take every thing at the lowest and argue with them upon their own Terms Let us for a while set aside whatever of this nature might be said in preference of the Christian Martyrs and suppose the Numbers and Zeal of the Martyrs for so we must call them at present of other Religions to have been as great as can be imagined yet the Cause it self makes a plain difference between them An ignorant Zeal in a wrong Cause is no Argument against the Goodness of any Cause which is maintained and promoted by such a Zeal as is reasonable and proceeds upon sure Grounds Indeed it were very hard and very strange if that which is true should be ever the less certain or the less to be regarded and esteemed because there may be other things that are false of which some Men are as firmly persuaded and are as much concerned for them as any one can be for the Truth it self And yet this is the wisest thing that many have to pretend against the certainty of the Religion in which they were Baptised that there are many Impostures in the World and none is without its Zealots to appear in Vindication of it I am confident no Man ever parted with any thing but his Religion upon so weak a Pretence A false Religion is not the only thing for which Men are wont to have an undeserved Value but their Country their Friends and themselves they are commonly as much mistaken in and do as highly overprize Is there then no real difference or solid worth in any of these Some of the most unlikely Countrys in the World have been admired by the Natives as if they were the Garden of Eden and the Place of Paradise Though there is nothing easier than to make a distinction concerning different Countrys And it is as easie to distinguish between the Elysium of the Heathens or Mahomet's Paradise and the Kingdom of Heaven and between the Ways which lead to them There is nothing especially if it be of any Moment and Consequence to them for which Men have not shewn themselves passionately concerned and it is not to be expected that they should be so much more infallible in Religion than in other things or should be so much less in earnest about it as not to discover the same Frailties and the same Affections which are visible in all the other Actions and Business of their Lives It is often seen in most Cases that some are as earnest and zealous in a false Cause as others are in a True but doth this prove that there is no difference between Falshood and Truth When two Men of opposite Parties are equally confident of the Goodness of their Cause it is certain that but one of them can be in the right and it is as certain that one of them must be at least so far in the right as he contradicts the other because as the two Parts of a Contradiction cannot be both True so they cannot be both False If then a confident and zealous
time as not only to endure but often to humour their Insolence and Vanity and from them he had his Notions of Philosophy which agree with the Christian Doctrine and not from the Scriptures For he owns in his Book from whom he had received his Precepts but if he had Read and considered the Scriptures he could never have looked upon the Zeal and Fortitude of the Christian Martyrs as Lib. 1◠§ 3. Obstinacy But the Sophists who made it their business to oppose the Gospel knew they could not better recommend themselves to him than by Teaching its Moral Doctrines and preventing that esteem which he must needs have had of the Christian Religion if he had â—nown that to this those Doctrines which he so much admired owed either their Original or Improvement Whatever opinion he had of the Christians he was wont to attribute too much to his own Vulcat in Cassio Virtue and Piety to ascribe his deliverance wholly to their Prayers And after all the Praises which have been justly given to M. Antonius it must be acknowledged that he valued himself extreamly upon Two Things which were very great hinderances to his Reception of the Gospel viz. The Capitolin Study of Philosophy and the Love and esteem of his People For it is no Wonder that an Emperour who made the Philosophy of those times his Study the Sophists his chief Favourites and Popularity his Aim should not be Converted to a Religion so unpopular and so opposite in some of its Principal Articles to that which the World called Wisdom It is unconceiveable upon what Principles of Religion or Philosophy this Emperour could Deify id Lucius Verus and Faustina but it was impossible that he could do this and be at the same time a Christian that the same Man who Deisied Notorious Wickedness because it had been Cloathed in Purple and shined in Emperial Robes should believe in the Son of God Crucified is utterly inconsistent 〈◊〉 p. 527. l. 3. after at all add 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man of very great Learning and who upon that account had his Statue erâ—â—ted in the Forum at Rome often acknowledged himself convinced of the Truth of Christianity before he could be persuaded openly to profess it for fear of displeasing his Friends that were Gentiles He pretended he might be a Christian as well in Secret and this no doubt might be the case of many others who never made open Profession of it IB p. 530. l. 7. after with them add The Doctrines of the Epicureans and the Stoicks he speaks of such as were peculiar to either Sect were little regarded in St. Austin's time and none durst maintain them but under the Denomination of some Heresy or other these Two Sects then were in so little esteem that they had not Authority enough to give those errors any countenance which they before had so long with great subtilty and success defended against the Platonists but they who would gain any Reception to their errors were at last forced to assume the Name of Christians and betake themselves to some Heresy Of Plotinus's School some became Christians and others applyed themselves to Magick as Plotinus himself must have done if we believe all that Porphyry Writes of him The Relation of the Serpent which was seen under the Bed and then was observed creeping into a hole of the Wall as he gave up the Ghost is an odd Story FINIS BOOKS Printed for and Sold by Peter Buck. THE Reasonableness and Certainty of the Christian Religion Book I. By Robert Jenkin c. Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning By William Wotton B. D. Chaplain to the Right Honorable the Earl of Nottingham The Second Edition with large Additions The Characters or Manners of the Age. Written Originally in French by Monsieur de la Bruyere to which is added a Key in the Margent made English by several Hands with the Characters of Theophrastus Translated from the Greek The Second Edition Corrected throughout and inlarg'd A Dictionary of the Greek and Roman Antiquities explaining the Religion Mythology History Antient Chronology Geography Sacred and Profane Rites and Customs Laws Policy Art and Engines of War Opinions of their Philosophers Lives of Inventers of Arts and Sciences and others famous for them or Arms containing whatsoever is necessary for Elucidating the abstruse passage which Occur in the Clastical Authors and Historians Compiled Originally in French by the Command of the King of France for the Use of the Dauphin D. of Bourgundy Anjou and Berry by Mr. Danet and now made English with the Addition of Useful Maps ERRATA IN the Preface p. 6. Marg. r. Populo p. 7. Marg. r. Cic. Brut. p. 9. l. 7. r. those p. 11. l. 13. r. Pleraque l. 3. r. intus p. 18. l. 12. r. Author l. 14. r. Superstitious p. 20. Marg. r. lib. 1. p. 22. Marg. r. Greg. Nazianz. ib. r. Cic. Topic. p. 27. l. 24. r. to expose them for being ill Disputants than for being Teachers of ill Doctrins p. 29. l. 2. r. Solon who was p. 32. Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 38. l. 13. r. joins p. 41. l. 9. r. at all p. 42. l. 22. r. Pharadox p. 44. l. ult r. and early p. 45. Marg. r. Buteo de Arcâ p. 46. l. 3. r. considerations In the BOOK p. 3. l. ult r. every p. 4. l. 22. r. it s own p. 5. l. 18 r. whether p 6. l. 16. dele be p. 7. l. 12. dele the p. 8. l. 26. r. Demonstration p. 9. l. 14. r. of the. p. 14. l. 3. r. persuaded l. penult r. to be True p. 21. l. 14. r. Philosopher Mr. Boyle p. 27. Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 29. l. 13. r. another p. 30. l. 19. r. Wind l. 29. r. of themselves p. 35. l. 18. r 1 Joh. 11.20 p. 44. l. 22. r. with the Ancient ib. Marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 59. l. 13. r. Regum ib. Marg. r. Aâ—mian Marcellâ—n lib. 17. c. 5. ib. r. Cic. de Orat. p. 61. Marg. r. contr Ctesiph ib. l. 27. r. Judges and. p. 62. Marg. r. Sermo omnis utitur r. laetas esse segetes r. paâ—am audacter p. 65. Marg. r. nec culpandus Propheta p. 67. Marg. r. de Servii Matre. p. 69. l 23. r. without Example p. 70. l. 17. r. Rhepaliâ—k p. 71. l. 19. r. from things p. 72. l. 6. r. Isa XLIV 8. p. 73. l r. may p. 81. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 86. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. r. Scipionem p. 88. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 90. l. 12. r. as p. 95. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 106. l. 9. r. and the Book p. 67 marg r. Sen. â—pist 108. p. 113. l. ult r. time p. 114. l. 10. r. hand ib. l. 19. r. Bishop by St. John p. 115. l. 15. r. mâ—st entire ib. marg 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 119. l. 28. r. Schâ—sm p. 123. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 122. l. 8. after Scripture dele of l. 22. r. by those p. 125. l. 12. r. tho' the Divine p. 128. l. 20. r. as Josephus ib. marg r. considered p. 129. l. 26. r. Eâ—penius p. 130. l. 28. r. Ketib p. 134. l. 6. r. Theadetion p. 135. l. 24. dele ever p. 138. l. 12. r. Hâ—brew p. 142. l. 〈◊〉 r. had p. 145. l. 1. r. Diogenes p. 166. marg r. Sex p. 168. l. 30 r. confuted p. 179. l. 25. dele just before Affront and place it before very p. 180. marg r. habet pro merito inferior multiplices latent p. 181. l. 5. r. be so p 192. l. 8. dele as p. 201. l. 28. r. love and adore p. 120. marg r. in Johan p. 209. l. 14. r. contact l. 20. r. Forms l. 27. r. Gravitation's being p. 210. l. 1. r. Mass p. 213 l. 2. r. Monstrous p. 215. l. 13. after of dele the. l. 24. after as dele te p. 219. l. 19. r. Microscopes p. 220. for or r. of 221. l. 17. r. they have p. 223. l. 22. r. as hard p. 229. l. 9. r. there are Cities l. 28. r. By the. p. 230. l. 18. r. exactly exprest p. 238. l. penult r. in which p. 239. l. 2. r. Ransom p. 380. l. 19. r. the means p. 385. l. 4. r. spared him l. 27. r. Born in Sin p. 386. marg r. Lerii Hist r. Celso apud ib. l. 13. r. Words p. 357. l. 12. r. to this p. 346. l. 5. r. was designed p. 354. l. 20. r. please p. 339. l. 3. r. Laws p. 321. l. 29. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 339. l. 8. r. Proselytes p. 342. marg r Judaic p. 343. l. 12. r. Calcare l. 13. r. Sententâ—is p. 363. l. 5. r. Man p. 393. l. 8. r. whom p. 394. l. 26. r. requires p. 395. l. 8. r. Sun p. 400. l. 26. r. Counsel p. 481. l. 11. r. theirs p. 485. l. 16. r. that they l. 24. r. was denied p. 492. l. ult r. all p. 497. l. 10. r. to them p. 511. l. 14. r. themselves p. 512. l. 2. r. themselves p. 517. l. 19. dele a p. 520. l. 15. r. with the rest p. 540. l. 5. r. Offences come or p. 527. marg Lib. 1. c. 15. p. 548. l. 19. r. it tends p. 549. l. 25. r. to which p. 551. l. 14. r. aâ—l Ages l. 26. he does p. 556. l. 1. r. disputed about l. 3. r. that this p. 558. l. 11. r. which Enemies l. 13. dele and. r. approved it self p. 559. l. 14. r. affect p. 562. l. 12. r. Rites l. 14. r. be able l. 25. r. way to be p. 566. l. 20. r. to our p. 570. l. 19. r as in p. 571. l. 20. r. Arts of p. 574. l. 14. r. have thought
a Fire from Hâ—aâ—en devoured others there was not a Man of all the Congregation but must be an Eye-witness to this Judgment and there could be no Deceit nor Mistake in a thing of this nature For Men may as well doubt whether those whom they see live are alive as whether those whom they see taken away by so terrible and so visible a death are dead and unless they can know this there can be no Knowledge nor Proof of any thing They saw the Earth first divide it self and then close it self again upon these wicked Men they saw them go down alive into the pit they heard the Cry of them and fled away â—oâ— fear and they saw besides a Fire from the Lord consume no fewer than Two hundred and fifty Men and these the Men that offer'd Incense in opposition to Aaron Princes of the assembly famous in the congregation men of renown whose death was very remarkable upon the account of their Persons as well as for the Manner of it So many Men of that Rank and Character being taken away at once was a thing that would have been much observed and strictly enquir'd into if they had fain by any other death but their dying in this manner was so wonderful and so plain a declaration of the Divine Justice that it could neither be unknown nor forgotten by any Man in the whole Congregation Yet their Discontents against Moses still continued for He and Aaron were charged with killing the people of the Lord ver 41. and the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron and behold the cloud covered the tabernacle of the congregation and the glory of the Lord appeared And God's Wrath was so hot against the People for their Stâ—bbornness and Disobedience that notwithstanding the Intercession of Moses and Aaron in their behalf a Plague from the Lord raged so much amongst them that they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred beside them that died about the matter of Korah ver 49. And there were probably many Families in every Tribe which bore the marks of God's Displeasure and of the Truth of Moses his Mission and then Aaron's Rod alone blossom'd of all the Rods of the Twelve Tribes but by this time the people were weary of their contumacy and cried out â—â—hold we die we perish we all perish Shall we be consumed with dying Num. xvii 12 13. And thus was an end put to a Sedition which was the greatest and the most dangerous as Josephus well observes that was ever known among any People and such as that so dreadful a succession of Miracles was necessary to deliver Moses out of it And I would know of the greatest Infidel whether if he had lived at that time and had been in the Wilderness with Moses and had been of Korah's Conspiracy as it is most likely he would have been I would know of him I say whether he could have done any thing more to put Moses upon the utmost tryal of his power and Authority received from God than these rebellious Israelites did And if he could not as he must needs confess he could not then he ought to be satisfied in the Authority of Moses as they themselves afterwards were unless he has an ambition to shew that some Christians can be more refractary than Jews Yet again when they wanted Water the Peopled quarell'd with Moses and said Would God that we had died when our brethren â—ied before the Lord. And Moses brought Water out of the Rock before the whole Congregation in so great plenty that the whole People and their Cattle just ready to perish with thirst was satisfied with it Num. xx 3 10. At another time after a signal Victory over the Canaanites they made the same Complaints again and for their Murmurings were stung by fiery Serpents and many died till a Brazen Serpent being erected as many as looked on it were miraculously cured Num. xxi 6. And if the delivering the Law in so conspicuous and wonderful a manner if so remarkable Judgments upon those that questioned and opposed Moses his Authority and that transgressed his Law by committing Idolatry if a continual course of Miracles for Forty Years done before the eyes and obvious to every sense of so many thousands of People be not a plain demonstration that the Matter of Fact in all the circumstances of it necessary to prove Moses to have acted by God's immediate Authority and Commission was at first sufficiently attested it is impossible that any thing can be certainly testified We see how impossible it was for Moses to impose upon the People of Israel in things of this nature it he could have been so far forsaken of all Reason and common Sense as to hope to do it But if he had designed to put any deceit upon them he would certainly have taken another course he would have done his Miracles privately and but seldom not in the midst of all the People for Forty Years together he would never have made two Nations at the first Witnesses to them and then have proceeded in such a manner as that every Man among the Israelites must have known them to be false if thy had been so he would have chosen such Instances to shew his Miracles in as should have provoked no body not such as must have enraged the whole People against him by the death of so many thousands so often put to death if they had been slain by any other means than by the Almighty Hand of God And indeed what could destroy so many so irresistibly so suddenly and visibly but the Divine Power And what could be the Design and Intent of such Miracles but to fulfil the Will of God and make his Power to be known and his authority acknowledged in the Laws which were delivered in his Name and which were so often affronted and transgressed by these Sinners against their own Souls At their going out of Aegypt by a miraculous Providence there was not one feeble person among their tribâ—s but upon their transgressions they were punished by Diseases as miraculous We have other Evidence as I have before observed that Moses had no design to delude the People of Israel from the Meekness of his Disposition from his discovering his own Faults and Infirmities in his Writings and from his not advancing his Family but leaving his Posterity in a private condition and putting the Government into the hands of Joshua one of the Tribe of Ephraim But when all the People of Israel were Witnesses to so many Miracles wrought by him and particularly to so strange a Judgment as the cleaving asunder of the Earth and the Fire and Plague by which so many thousands perished we need not insist upon any other Proof to shew that the Miraculons Power and Divine Authority by which Moses acted and wrote was as well attested and as fully known to the whole People of Israel as it is possible for any Matter of