and Instruments whereby he is pleas'd to convey into our Souls the blessed Influences of his Holy Spirit Or lastly they may be consider'd as visible Rites whereby we are admitted into the visible Society of Christ's Church or profess our Communion with it And in all these respects it will appear how beneficial and requisite the Institution of Sacraments is and how fitting it is that God in his Dispensations with Men should appoint something outward and visible to be done or received by them I. Ceremonies and Rites of Initiation and of Worship have been Instituted in all Religions which is Evidence sufficient that the Nature of Man requires them and that our Worship cannot be wholly Mental and Spiritual And God is pleas'd in his Dealings with Mankind to condescend to their Capacities to ascribe to himself their Passions to allude to their Customs and to make use of such Means and Methods as Men are accustomed to in their Dealings with one another He best understands Humane Nature and knows all the dispositions and tendencies of it he knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are dust Ps ciii 14. He considers that we are Flesh as well as Spirit he fully comprehends the strict Union between the Soul and the Body and the cause and manner of it and how great influence the one hath upon the other in their several Operations he planted in us all our Powers and Faculties and sees all their Motions and Inclinations the secret Springs of Action and Passion and has accordingly fitted and proportioned the Institution of his Laws and Ordinances We see among Men that they are not content only to understand one anothers Meaning or to express their Minds in words tho' they be the most solemn and significant but are wont to use some Ceremony and Solemnity of Action and Circumstances in matters of great Importance because this makes greater impression upon the Mind and lays upon it a more forcible and lasting engagement by taking in the Senses and Passions as Parties concerned with it and this is by experience found to have the best effect to all the ends and purposes of Agreement and Obligation between Men. Oaths themselves are not found to be so secure to be rely'd upon when they are only pronounc'd as when they are taken with such Circumstances of words and gesture as may create an awe and reverence in those who take them For the manner and circumstances in which any action is done raise and fix the Attention and express the Mind and Design of the Doer and are better retain'd in the Memory and work more upon the Will and Affections than the Action of itself can do This Orators very well understand for the Art of Rhetorick is almost nothing else but a skilfull management of the circumstances of actions to the advantage of a Cause And Philosophy informs us that the evil or goodness of Actions depends chiefly upon their Circumstances from whence we learn what the intention of the Mind is and to what degree of Resolution it came in the performance of any Action If an Action be performed at a solemn time and place in the presence of Witnesses met together for that very purpose upon great deliberation with such words and gestures as are very significant to express our full Design and Intention all these Circumstances consider'd make it much more our own proper Act and Deed than if it were done without them tho' the Intention were the same For what we declare before others to be our mind and purpose to do or undertake we cannot but think our selves bound to under more obligations than if we barely design'd it or promis'd it only to the Persons concern'd because the design of declaring it is to lay upon our selves a farther obligation to perform it and to call others as Witnesses against us if we neglect the performance of it and since our Resolution may be declar'd as well by Actions as by Words he that expresses his Resolution both these ways shews a farther design to oblige himself than if he should only use words to express it and if the Circumstances of Actions be stated and solemn and significant then all the ways and means concurr by which it is possible for Men to declare and express their Minds in any Case and to oblige themselves to the performance of any Covenant Now Sacraments are the Seals of the Covenant between God and Man and when God is pleas'd to receive Men into Covenant with himself it is requisite that Men should not barely give their assent to the Terms and Conditions of it and declare that they will undertake them but it is farther necessary that this should be done with all the Solemnity of Words and Actions that may engage them to the performance of it and render them inexcusable if they transgress it it is fitting it should be entred into and renewed in the presence of Witnesses that the Words should be Solemn and the Actions Significant and that nothing should be wanting which may testifie the Sincerity and secure the Fidelity of the Undertakers For if Covenants between Man and Man be made with all the formality of Witnesses and Hands and Seals and Delivery in solemn and express words if Men know themselves too well to trust one another without all this Solemnity it may well be expected that when God is pleas'd to permit them to enter into Covenant with himself he should not receive them under less Obligations of Caution and Security for their Integrity than Men are wont to use amongst themselves For every breach of Covenant with him is infinitely more affronting and sinful than any breach of Covenant with Man can be and therefore God who will not be mocked has appointed the most effectual Means to secure his Laws from contempt he knows the deceitfulness of Man's heart how perverse and stubborn it is especially in things of such a Nature as these are of to which Men are obliged by that Promise and Vow that they are required to make to him and that all the Restraints and all the Remembrances which Words or Actions can afford are little enough to keep Men in any tolerable measure to their Duty God was pleas'd to confirm his Promise to Abraham with an Oath and therein shew'd himself willing to give all the assurance that the most Incredulous Man can desire of the fix'd and unalterable stedfastness of his purpose and the Immutability of his Council that we might have a strong Consolation Heb. vi 17 18. And when God himself is pleas'd so far to condescend for our comfort and satisfaction it is most reasonable that he should oblige us to perform our part of the Covenant by all the ways that may put us in remembrance of our Duty and make us faithful and constant in the performance of it And this could be effected by no better Means than by outward Acts and visible Signs to testifie and profess in the most serious and solemn
c. 18. lib. v. c. 7. Quadratus had this gift of Prophecy and it continued in the Church to the time of Justin Martyr and of Irenaeus II. The Miracles wrought by the Apostles were according to an express promise of Christ to them that after his Ascension they should do even greater Works than he had done himself John xiv 12. that is they should do works that would be more eminent and observable in the eyes of the World though not more excellent and divine for nothing could be greater in that sense than to raise a man from the dead Which promise was fulfilled to them at the Feast of Pentecost when men from all parts of the world were made witnesses to it For they were commanded by our Saviour not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for this promise and he assured them that they should be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days after his being taken up from them into Heaven and that they should receive power after that the Holy Ghost was come upon them and should be witnesses unto him both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the Earth Acts i. 4 5 8. And this miraculous power was visibly bestowed not only upon the Apostles themselves but upon the (c) Monstrabatur locus ubi super centum viginti credentium animas spiritus sanctus descendisset Hieron Epitaph Paulae vid. Dr. Light exercit on Act. ii 1. p. 643. hundred and twenty mentioned Acts i. 15. I have already shewn that the Apostles were effectually qualified to be witnesses of what they delivered concerning Christ and that they could neither be deceived themselves in it nor could propose any advantage to themselves by deceiving others and that if they had designed any deceit they alledged such circumstances as made it impossible for them to have past undiscovered All which will be exceedingly confirmed by considering the miraculous Gifts which the Apostles received by the descent of the Holy Ghost according to this promise of our Saviour I shall therefore shew how the Apostles were enabled by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them to become witnesses to Christ 1. By the Miracles which they wrought themselves 2. By that power which was conveyed by them to others of working Miracles 3. By their supernatural Resolution Courage and Patience under their sufferings I. The Apostles were enabled to become witnesses to Christ by the Miracles which they wrought themselves This power of Miracles qualified them most effectually to be witnesses of the Resurrection and Ascention and other Articles of our Faith for they could neither deceive nor be deceived in these miraculous Gifts which were bestowed upon them to be an assurance to themselves and an evidence to others that it was the Cause of God in which they were engaged and his truth which they delivered They could not be deceived them selves undoubtedly in a thing of this nature they could not be ignorant whether they were real Miracles which they wrought or not they must needs know whether their own pretences were true or false and whether they could speak the Languages and do the Wonders which the world believed them to do and speak and they could not but know by what power and means they were enabled to perform all their miraculous Works And these works were of that nature and done in that manner that they could impose upon no man by them they could not make men believe that they spoke all kinds of Languages if they did not speak them nor that they cured all sorts of Diseases if they had not cured them nothing is more easy than for a man to know a Language that he understands when he hears it or than for men that were sick to know that they are recovered when they feel themselves well And the manner oâ— their performing these Miracles was the most publick and notorious in respect of the time and place and the persons on whom they were wrought Our Saviour had been crucified at the Feast of the Passover in the sight of the Jews and Proselytes who were met together from all parts of the World at that Solemnity and but fifty days after at the next solemn Festival of the Jews in the very same City where he had been Crucified in the presence of multitudes of people of all Nations and Languages which came to keep the Feast of Pentecost the Apostles declared to them in all their several Tongues that this same Jesus was by the Almighty Power of God raised from the dead and that they were impowered by him to speak all those Languages The Apostles were at the same time taken notice of to be Gallileans men of low Birth and of new Education St. John in particular was known to the High Priest himself and the rest were all known to many that heard them their Parentage and place of Abode and manner of Life might easily be enquired into for they were no strangers nor in a far Country and from all these it appeared that it was impossible that they should be capable of speaking any of these Languages but by inspiration and to speak all Languages is a thing which no man ever could hope to arrive at by study or conversation though he should make it the whole business of his Life and therefore this could least of all be suspected of men of mean Employments and who got their Livelihood by their daily labour and industry The Miracles which the Apostles wrought were likewise in the most publick places of the City and in the most publick manner upon persons who had been most remarkable and generally taken notice of for their Infirmities St. Peter by pronouncing only these words In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk cured a man of above forty years of Age who was known to have been lame from his Birth and was carried and laid daily at one of the Gates of the Temple where there was wont to be the greatest resort of people to ask an Alms of them that entred into the Temple and this man being immediately cured went with St. Peter and St. John into the Temple and all the people saw him walking and praising God and they knew that it was he which sat for Alms at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple Acts iii. 9 10. And the Rulers of the Jews enquired into the matter and upon examination when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men they marvelled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus and beholding the man which was healed standing with them they could say nothing against it but confessed among themselves that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem and we cannot deny it Acts iv 13 14 16. By this and other evident and publick Miracles the miraculous Power of the Apostles
other Man's Body And besides it must be granted by all that Believe a God and a Providence that a particular Providence may take such effectual care of us as to reserve to every Man his own Body in all the Essential Parts of it the Hairs of our Heads are all Numbred that is they are as well known to God as they could be to us if we had told and numbred them never so exactly and therefore much more the necessary Parts of us are under his Cognizance and Care These necessary constituent Parts then being the same God may supply the rest as he shall see fitting and the Body will be the same after the Resurrection that it was in this Life tho' the Bodies of Men at the Resurrection must arise in all the Perfection of an Humane Body and therefore must have no part wanting For if any part of an Humane Body should be wanting they would not have all the perfection of such a Body tho' they should be never so perfect in all the parts which they be supposed to have For if a Man having but one Eye or one Ear should be able to see or hear with that one better than ever any Man did with two yet it would still be a defect in his Body to want an Eye or an Ear. All the uses of any one part of our Bodies are not perhaps yet fully known and the Dependance which one part has upon another may be such as that it may be requisite that those parts should be raised for their Relative usefulness which may seem to have no proper use of their own after the Resurrection The Sight is a Sense which may be capable of Improvements beyond what we now are able to conceive as we may conclude from the Improvements which have been made by the help of Microscopes and Telescopes And who knows but that in the Glorified State our Eyes shall have that perfection as to be able to discern the Contexture and Motions and the whole Frame of those pure Spiritual and Coelestial Bodies and then those parts which now to the naked view and much more when discerned thro' Microscopes cause so much Admiration will be still much more admirable to behold when they are thoroughly seen and fully understood by us and to want those parts which may seem to be then no longer of any use would be to want one great Argument of our praise of God in the contemplation of his Wonderful Works But this is mentioned only to shew that an ordinary Fancy if it be allowed to take the Liberty which some have done upon this Subject might easily propose as probable Reasons in Defence of the Received Doctrines as can be framed against them (o) Quaest 53. The Author of the Answers to the Orthodox amongst the Works of Justin Martyr says that some parts of our Bodies tho' they will then have no direct usefulness yet will be raised at the last Day to be Memorials to us of the Wisdom of God in that use which we had of them in this Life And (p) Aug. Civit. Dei lib. xxii c. 17. St. Austin says that the Glory of God will be magnified in that he will have freed those Members from the Corruption to which they were subject here However it ought to suffice Christians that our Bodies shall be like to Christ's Body and therefore shall have the full perfection and proportion of all the parts constituting an Humane Body as his Body had after his Resurrection We know that we shall be like him 1 Joh. iii. 2. and as for any thing further it will be time enough to know it at the Resurrection II. It is not only Credible and Reasonable to believe that God can but likewise that he will Raise the Dead The Revelation of his Will in his Holy Word ought to put this beyond Dispute among Christians But besides it appears to be requisite from the Nature of Man consisting of Soul and Body that there should be a Resurrection of the Body it is fit that the Man should be punished that Sinned and that the Man who lived well here and suffered for Righteousness sake should be rewarded for it But if the Soul only be Punished or the Soul only be Rewarded the Man is not rewarded or Punished for the Soul is but part of the Man but Soul and Body together make up the whole Man and therefore it is requisite that the Soul and Body should be re-united For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. v. 10. For this Reason it is requisite that the Soul should be again united to the same Body otherwise the Soul and Body would constitute a Man but not the same Man that was before the Body not being the same for it must be the same Soul and the same Body that make the same Man As in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. xv 22. the same Body therefore that died in Adam is to be made alive in Christ who shall change our vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself Philip. iii. 21. Christ himself rose with the same Body that was Crucified and we are to be like him at the Resurrection and to have our Bodies Changed into the likeness of his Glorious Body And indeed if a New Body were assumed how could it be a Resurrection Which implies the Rising again of that Body which after the Separation of the Soul was Buried in the Grave and otherwise as it is usually argued one Body may be punished for the Sins committed in another If it be said that the Body is only the Instrument of Sensation to the Soul but is it self capable of none and therefore must be uncapable of Rewards or Punishments It may perhaps be Answered that this is more than can be absolutely concluded from the Notions of Modern Philosophy against the General Sense of Mankind and the Philosophy of all former Ages However the Body being unable to determine it self in its Sensations if it have any of its own I confess I cannot think this Argument fit to be insisted upon in as much as no Actions can be capable of Rewards or Punishments but such as proceed from choice But it must be acknowledged that the the Soul may be capable of more Happiness or Misery when re-united to the Body than in its Separate State For besides the Anguish or the Peace and Joy of Mind besides its own Reflections and its proper Operations which the Soul is capable of 〈◊〉 State of Separation from the Body it is capable of being affected with Sensations which arise from its Union with the Body And that these may be answerable to what a Man's Actions in this
worought to confirm any sound and useful Doctrine The Confession of the False Gods when they were adjur'd by Christians p. 401. CHAP. IV. The Defect in point of Doctrine in the Heathen Religions The Theology of the Heathens absurd p. 403. Their Religious Worship wicked and impious p. 405. Humane Sacrifices customary in all Heathen Nations p. 406. No Body of Laws nor Rules of Good Life proposed by their Oracles p. 402. But Idolatry and Wickedness approved and recommended by them ibid. CHAP. V. Of the Philosophy of the Heathens The Heathen Philosophy very defective and erroneous p. 411. Whatever there is of Excellency in the Philosophy of the Heathens is owing to Revelation p. 423. If the Heathen Philosophy had been as certain and as excellent as it can be pretended to be yet there had been great need of a Divine Revelation p. 429 CHAP. VI. The Novelty and Defect in the Promulgation of the Mahometan Religion p. 436. CHAP. VII The want both of Prophecies and Miracles in the Mahometan Religion p. 439 CHAP. VIII The Alcoran is false absurd and immoral p. 441 CHAP. IX Of Mahomet That he was Lustful Proud and Cruel appears from the Alcoran it self p. 443 PART IV. CHAP. I. THat there is as great Certainty of the Truth of the Christian Religion as there is of the Being of God p. 447 CHAP. II. The Resolution of Faith The Scriptures considered 1. As Historically true 2. As to their Doctrine which concerns Eternal Salvation p. 451 452. From both these Considerations it follows that they are infallibly True p. 455. In many cases there is as much cause to believe what we know from others as what we see and experience our selves p. 456. And thus it is in the present case concerning the Resolution of Faith p. 460. The Evidence of Sense and of Humane Testimony in this case compared p. 462. The Certainty of both ultimately resolved into the Divine Veracity c. ibid. An Objection from Joh. xx 29. answered p. 467. The Truth of the Christian Religion evident even to a Demonstration p. 470 Newly Publish'd CHristian Thoughts for every Day in the Month with Reflections upon the most Important Truths of the Gospel To which is added Prayers for every Morning and Evening Price 1 s. A Course of Lectures upon the Church Catechism By Thomas Bray D. D. The Third Edition Price 5 s. Very proper to be read in Families A Minister's Counsel to the Youth of his Parish when Arrived to Years of Discretion Recommended to the Societies in and about London By Francis Bragge Vicar of Hitchin Hertfordshire Price 2 s. THE REASONABLENESS AND CERTAINTY OF THE Christian Religion BOOK I. PART I. IN Discoursing of the Reasonableness and Certainty of the Christian Religion I shall use this Method I. I shall shew That from the Notion of a God it necessarily follows That there must be some Divine Revelation II. I shall enquire into the Way and Manner by which this Revelation may be suppos'd to be deliver'd and preserv'd in the World III. I shall shew That from the Notion of a God and the Nature and Design of a Divine Revelation it follows That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are that Divine Revelation IV. That no other Books or Doctrines whatsoever can be of Divine Revelation V. I shall from hence give a Resolution of our Faith by shewing That we have the same Evidence for the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures that we have for the Being of God himself because it follows from the Notion of a God both that there must of necessity be some Divine Revelation and that the Scriptures are that Divine Revelation VI. Having done this I shall in the last Place endeavour to clear such Points as are commonly thought most liable to Exception in the Christian Religion and shall propose some Considerations which may serve to remove such Objections and obviate such Cavils as are usually rais'd against the Holy Scriptures CHAP. I. That from the Notion of a God it necessarily follows that there must be some Divine Revelation IN the first Place I shall shew how Reasonable and Necessary it is to suppose That God should Reveal himself to Mankind And I shall insist the rather upon this because it is not usually so much consider'd in this Controversie as it ought to be for if it were it certainly would go very far towards the proving the Divine Authority of the Scriptures since if it be once made appear that there must be some Divine Revelation it would be no hard Matter to prove that the Scriptures are that Revelation For if it be prov'd that there must be some Revealed Religion there is no other which can bear any Competition with that contain'd in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament My first Business therefore shall be to shew from the Consideration of the Attributes of God and of the Nature and State of Mankind that in all Reason we cannot but believe that there is some Revealed Religion in the World There is nothing more evident to Natural Reason than that there must be some Beginning some first Principle of Being from whence all other Beings proceed And nothing can be more absurd than to imagine that that wonderful Variety of Beings in the Heavens and Earth and Seas which all the Wisdom of Man is not able in any Measure to understand or throughly to search into should yet be produc'd and continu'd for so many Thousand Years together without any Wisdom or Contrivance that an unaccountable Concourse of Atoms which could never build the least House or Cottage should yet build and sustain the wonderful Fabrick of the whole World that when the very Lines in a Globe or Sphere cannot be made without Art the World it self which that is but an imperfect Imitation of should be made without it and that less Skill should be requir'd to the forming of a Man than is necessary to the making of his Picture that Chance should be the Cause of all the Order and Fortune of all the Constancy and Regularity in the Nature of Things and that the very Faculties of Reason and Understanding in all Mankind should have their Original from that which had no Sense or Knowledge but was meer Ignorance and Stupidity This is so far from being Reason and Philosophy that it is down-right Folly and Contradiction From a Being therefore of infinite Perfection must proceed all things that are besides with all their Perfections and Excellencies and among others the Virtues and Excellencies of Wisdom Justice Mercy and Truth must be deriv'd from him as the Author of all the Perfections of which the Creatures are capable And it is absurd to imagine that the Creator and Governor of the World who is infinitely more Just more Wise and Good and Holy than any Creature can be will not at last reward the Good and punish the Wicked For Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do Right
Areopagite Sergius Paulus Simon Magus Felix King Agrippa Tertullus Gallio and others were Names of too great Note and Fame to be used in a false story in which they are so much concerned And all their Proceedings in the Courts of Judicature were kept upon record and therefore could not be pretended without being discovered by those who always had so many Adversaries The Miraculous power bestowed upon the Apostles was chiefly employed in curing Diseases and for the health and preservation of Mankind but they had a power of inflicting Diseases likewise and death it self upon just occasions as in the case of Ananias and Saphira Act. v. of Elymas the Sorcerer Acts xiii and the incestuous Corinthian 1 Cor. v. And when this was done by private men and divulged to the world with the names of the persons who inflicted diseases and death it self and of those on whom they were inflicted this is an evidence both of the truth of the matter of Fact and of the power by which it was done for no Author could think to serve his Friend or his Cause by relating things of this nature unless they had been evidently done in a miraculous manner and by a Divine Commission and Authority The Conversion of St. Paul was a thing so memorable both for the manner of it and for the business he was going about and the persons that employed him and for his known zeal at other times in persecuting the Church that St. Paul appeals to King Agrippa as one who could not be ignorant of a thing so notorious Acts xxvi 26. and it was the great providence and wisdom of God that a man so well known and esteemed by the Pharisees and Chief Priests before his conversion should be the greatest instrument both by his Preaching and writings for the propagation of the Gospel and both his Epistles and the other Books of Holy Scripture have the same proof from the observations already mentioned concerning the names and characters of persons and other circumstances And they were always read in the Assemblies of Christians and were appointed to be read in them Coloss iv 16.1 Thess v. 27. And the writings both of him and of the Evangelists and the other Apostles are cited by Authors contemporary with the Apostles by Barnabas an Apostle himself and by Clemens Romanus Ignatius Polycarp c. and they have been acknowledged to be the genuine works of those whose names they bear both by Jews and Heathens and particularly by Tryphon the Jew in his Dialogue with Justin Martyr and by Julian (e) Apud Cyril lib. x. the Apostate It is enough in this place to observe that excepting some very few Books of which an account shall elsewhere be given the Books of the Scriptures of the New Testament have been received as genuine from their first appearance in the world during the Lives of their several Authors and have been delivered down for such through the several Ages of the Church In the main they have been so unanimously received and so fully attested by Christians that the Jews and Heathens themselves never denied them to be genuine nor ever pretended the principal matters of Fact to be false or doubtful Euseb lib. iii. c. 29. Many of the Eye-witnesses to the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles lived to a great Age St. John himself above an hundred years and he Preached the Gospel above seventy years Simeon the Son of Cleopas lived to an hundred and twenty years and Polycarp the Disciple of St. John to fourscore and six of whom (f) Id. lib. v. c. 20. Iraenaeus in his Epistle to Florinus a Marcionite declared that he remembred exactly what he had heard Polycarp discourse concerning the account of the Miracles and Doctrine of our Saviour which he had received from St. John and others who had conversed with Christ and that it differed in nothing from the Scriptures And besides the inspired Writings the chief points of the Christian Religion were testified in Apologies written from time to time to the Heathen Emperors themselves (g) Euseb Hist lib. iv c. 3. vid. Irenae lib. ii c. 56 57. Qudaratus Bishop of Athens in his Apology to Adrian declared that persons who had been healed by our Saviour and others that had been raised from the dead by him were still living in his time Aristides presented an Apology to the same Emperor Justin Martyr wrote two Apologies the first dedicated to Antoninus Pius and his two Sons and the Roman Senate the latter to M. Antoninus and the Senate (h) Euseb lib. iv c. 26. Melito Bishop of Sardis and Apollinaris Bishop of Hierapolis likewise wrote a Vindication of the Christian Religion to M. Antoninus Athenagoras offered his Apology to M. Aurelius and Commodus (i) Euseb lib. v. c. 17. Meltiades to Commodus or to the Deputies of the Provinces (k) Hier. Catai Euseb lib. v. c. 21. Apollonius a Roman Senator made a publick defence of the Christian Religion in the Senate of Rome and Tertullian presented his Apology to the Senate or to the Governors of the Provinces And the Apologists did not dwell only upon generals but descended to such particulars as to appeal to the publick Records for the truth of what they delivered concerning the place of our Saviour's Birth and the manner of his Death and his Resurrection so that the principles and foundations of the Christian Religion were from the beginning asserted in publick Writings dedicated and presented to the Heathen themselves who were most concerned and most capable of disproving it if it had been false (l) Euseb lib. ix c. 5. 10. And though the Acts which were forged under the Emperor Maximin and pretended to be Pilate's were by his command sent into all the Provinces of his Empire and published in all places and ordered to be taught Children and to be learnt by heart by them yet all this malicious care and contrivance was ineffectual to the suppressing the Truth of the History of our Saviour which waâ— so well attested and so fully published amongst all sorts of men that it was impossible to extirpate the belief of it And this Emperor himself as I before shewed was by miraculous Diseases inflicted on him forced to retract by a publick Edict his practices against Christianity and to acknowledge that his sins and blasphemies against Christ were the just cause of his Punishment CHAP. XVIII Of the Doctrines contained in the Holy Scriptures THE Scriptures must be acknowledged by all considerate men to contain excellent Rules and Precepts for the Government of our Lives and it cannot be denied that it is to these we owe the Peace and Happiness we enjoy even in this world It is therefore the interest of every good and prudent man to wish the Christian Religion true though it were not so and there can be no cause to wish it false but our own sin and folly And this of it self is a good argument that
fitting to reveal such things to us as are above our understandings but then we must be contented to take his word for the Truth of them and not apply our Principles and Maxims taken from things of an inferiour Nature to things of which we can have no conception but from revelation which would be as absurd as for a deaf man to apply the Notion which he has of Colours to Sounds or for a blind man to fancy that there is no such thing as Colours because he is told they cannot be heard And there must be a due proportion between the Faculty and its object For the Faculties both of our Bodies and Minds are confined and limited in their exercise about their several objects The parts of Matter may be too small and fine to be any longer discerned or perceived by sense For only Bodies which are so big as to reflect a due quantity of Rays to the eye can be perceived by the sight it self the quickest and subtilest of all our senses And as objects in their bulk are sensible but are insensible in their minute parts so it is in the inward sensations or preceptions of the mind in respect of its objects We may puzzle and perplex our selves in the deductions which may be made from the most common Notions Nothing is more certain and familiar to our Minds than our own thoughts that we think and understand and will we all know but what is the principle and subject of thought in us and how our understanding and will act upon and determine each other is matter of perpetual dispute The summ of this argument is that our Faculties are finite and of no very large extent in their operations but are confined to certain objects and limited to certain bounds and periods Both our Natural and Acquired knowledge is conversant about certain kinds of objects and our Faculties are fitted and suited to them and from the properties and affections which we observe in them we form Notions and make Conclusions and raise Maxims and Axioms Now if we apply our Natural Notions to things which we know only by Revelation we must be very liable to great mistakes about them For thus it is in things not so much out of the reach of our capacities and which are not of a spiritual Nature if we frame speculative and abstract Ideas from the Principles and Maxims which are formed in our Minds from sensible objects we may soon puzzle our selves and seem to demonstrate contradictions which demonstrates only that all arguments of this Nature are vain and unconcluding And therefore it must be absurd to reject the Mysteries of Religion because they will not come under the Rules of Logick and Philosophy when they are acknowledged to be incomprehensible and therefore not to be judged of as to the Manner and Nature of them by the Rules and Principles of Humane Sciences What has been here alledged concerning the Contradictious about the divisibility of Matter is no more than has been generally confest by the best Philosophers and Mathematicians And the excellent Mr Boyle having produced the Testimony of Galileo and Des Cartes upon this subject concludes with this observation (a) Considerat about the Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion Sect 2. If then such bold and piercing Wits and such excellent Mathematicians are forced to confess that not only their own Reason but that of Mankind may be passed and non-pluss'd about Quantity which is an object of contemplation Natural nay Mathematical and which is the subject of the rigid demonstrations of pure Mathematicks why should we think it unfit to be believed and to be acknowledged that in the attributes of God who is essentially an infinite being and an ens singularissimum and in divers other divine things of which we can have no knowledge without Revelation there should be some things that our finite understandings cannot especially in this life clearly comprehend II. 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 It was well observed by (b) Sunt onim plurima vera quidem sed parum credibilia sicut falsa quoque frequenter verisimilia Quintil. Institut l. 4. c. 2. Quintilian aad may be observed by any one that will consider it that very many things are true which scarce seem credible and as many are false which have all the appearance of Truth and yet the cause of unbelief in matters of Religion is chiefly this that we are hardly brought to believe any thing possible to be done which we never saw done and judge of things not from any principle of Reason but from our own experience and make this the measure of what is possible to be not considering that many things may be altogether as possible which we never knew done and that we should think many things impossible of which we have the daily experience if we had never seen nor known them to be For what we have the daily experience of we are apt to think very easy and scarce suspect that there can be any difficulty in it but frame to our selves some kind of account of it and please ourselves perhaps with a conceit that we perfectly understand it and conclude that such and such things must needs come to pass from the causes which we assign For when a thing is common and familiar to us we either take no pains at all to consider the nature of it or when we do observe and consider it being ashamed to confess our own ignorance we perswade ourselves that there is no such great difficulty in it but fancy we understand the true Reason and Cause of it And if it were not for the carelesness of some in not minding the wonderful effects of Nature and the Pride of others in fancying that they are ignorant of nothing which is the constant object of their senses I am perthat there are several things in the World which we daily see and experience that would seem as wonderful almost as the Resurrection itself or any Mystery in Religion The greatest Philosophers have been able to give but a very imperfect account of the most ordinary and obvious things in Nature and if we had only a relation of them without any tryal or experience we should be inclin'd to conclude them impossible The King of Siam it is said would not believe the Dutch Ambassador but thought himself affronted when he was told by him that in Holland Water wou'd become so hard in cold weather that Men or Elephants might walk upon it and the relations of things in those Countries would have seem'd as strange to us if the constant report of men who have been there had not made them familiar to us It was formerly disbelieved nay absolutely deny'd as absurd and impossible that there could be any such place as that which is now known
Athenians could not endure it †Quintil. Instit lib. 12. c. 10. Cic. Brut. There were three kinds of style among the Greeks the Attick the Asiatick and the Rhodian and Tully besides makes the Asiatick twofold The Attick was close and comprehensive the Asiatick was quite contrary to this and was very lofty figurative and copious which some assigned to other causes but Quintilian more truly thinks it proceeded from the different nature and temper of the Athenians and Asiaticks The third kind of style was the Rhodian which was of a middle nature betwixt the other two neither so concise as the Attic nor so redundant as the Asiatick but was a mixture of both the Genius of that people inclining rather to the Asiatick but Aeschines in his Banishment at Rhodes reformed their style and fashioned it after the Attick manner as far as the Rhodian Genius would admit of it It would be endless to make observations upon particular Authors Xenophon and Plato have not escaped the Censure of Longinus and Demosthenes and Cicero besides what hath â—een objected to them in particular fall under â—he general censure which * Nullum sine venia placuit ingenium Da mihi quem cunque vis magni nominis virum dicam quid illi aetas sua ignoverit quid in illo Sciens dissimulaverit Sen. Epist cxiv Seneca passeth upon all Authors of the greatest Fame and Merit but he adds that there is no certain â—ule for Style which is continually altered by â—he use and custom of the place Both the Language and Actions of the Eastern Nations especially in the earlier ages of the world had something more vehement and passionate in them than those of these Western Countreys The Stiles and Titles of of their Kings are a remarkable instance of this witness that of Sapores * Ammian Marcellino lib. 14. c. 5. Rex Regnum Sapor particeps siderum frater Solis Lunae Constanti Caesari fratri meo Salutem plurimam dico And they retain the like Titles to this day †Ricant ' s Hist lib. 1. c. 2. the Grand Signior's is in some things the same in others more extravagant he is stiled God on Earth the Shadow of God Brother to the Sun and Moon the Giver of all Earthly Crowns The King of * Letter of David K. of Aethiop in Geddes Church Hist of Aethiop Aethiopia calls himself the King at whose Name the Lyons tremble The Romans themselves who used greater modesty of style and more gravity in their actions than many other Nations practis'd divers things in their Orations and Pleadings which amongst us would be very strange and absurd Thus †Lic de Orat. lib. 3. Quintil institut lib. 1. c. 10. C. Gracchus a great and popular Orator at Rome was wonâ— to have one stand behind him with a Flute to give him the true Key to which he was to raise his voice which would go near to make the best Orator amongst us ridiculous It was customary likewise with the Romans to use all arts to raise the passions by Actions and Representations as well as by Words * Cic. pro P. Sextio Sometimes they would hang up a Picture representing the Fact about which they were to speak and the Accusers were wont to produce in open Court a Bloody Sword or the Garments of the Wounded and the Bones if any had been taken out of their Wounds or to unbind the wounds or shew the Scars †Quintil. ib. lib. 6. c. 1. Quarum rerum ingens plerumque vis est velut in rem presentem animos hominum ducentium These and other things more strange to us were practised by the most famous Orators of their times amongst the Romans by which they spoke to the eyes as it were of their Hearers and therefore these may well be reckoned amongst the Figures and Modes of Rhetorick whereby they gained upon the affections of the people * Cic. Orator Tully tells us of himself that he took up a Child sometimes and held it in his arms to move compassion and that †Nulla perturbatio animi nulla corporis frons non percussa non femur pedis quod minimum est nulla suppiosio Câ—â— Brut. when M. Callidius had accused Q. Gallius of an attempt to poison him and had made it out by clear proof he urged this as a sufficient objection against all that Callidius had said that he had not exprest any passion in his pleading he had not smote his Forehead ' nor his Thigh nor which was the least thing he could have done if his accusation had been true he had not so much as stampt with his Foot Callidius had all the accomplishments of an Orator but this of moving the passions by such means and the want of this was looked upon as a very great defect in him Upon the death of the two Scipio's in Spain when the signal of Battle was given by the new General * Liv. lib. 25. c. 38. Livy describes the Roman Army weeping and knocking their heads and throwing themselves upon the Ground And what could a Speech at any time have availed with such men that had been delivered in a cold and unaffecting manner †Suet. Jul. Caes c. 33. Caesar himself wept and rent his Garment in a Speech which he made to his Souldiers as soon as he had past the Rubicon Whoever observes their Orations would think that the ancient Greeks and Romans had tears more at command than men now have for the Orators wept as freely upon every occasion as if that were true of them all which Aeschines * Aeschin contr Etesiph said of Demosthenes that it was easier for them to weep than for others to laugh And sometimes not only the Orators themselves †Cic. pro â—lancio Pro Milon Pro Rabirio but the Judges of the whole Auditory were all in tears The great art of Oratory consisted in Action by which is to be understood both the voice and gesture as Demosthenes that best knew declared and therefore though nothing weâ—â— more common than for Historians and Poets and Philosophers to read their works to the people yet the Orators seldom read their Orations however * Recitetur oratio quae propter ejus magnitudinem dicta de Scripto est Cic. Pro Plancio Ac ne periculum memorioe adiret aut in ediscendo tempus absumeret instituit recitare omnia Suet. in August c. 84 vid. ib. c. 89. Quanquam Orationes nostri quidam Graeci lectitaverunt Plin. lib. 7. Epist 17. Tully sometimes did it And from the time that Augustus read his Speeches which he had occasion to use in the Senate or to the People or Souldiers it grew into a custom by his example and encouragement and so continu'd The common †Qua translatione frequentissime Sermo omnis utiter non modo urbanus sed etiam Rusticorum Siquidem est eorum gemmare
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
Prophesies of him than in his Person Again Obscurity was necessary because some events could never have been brought to pass if they had been expressly and in plain terms foretold unless God would have forced men to the Accomplishment of his Predictions which must have taken away the Liberty of Human Actions For men would scarce have ventured upon such Actions as they knew before-hand must end in Affliction and great Calamity and perhaps in the ruin of themselves or of their Families or Nation and yet it may be necessary that these things should come to pass for the wise ends of Providence and for the Good and Salvation of Mankind Few would have shewn that Courage and Resolution which St Peter and St Paul did in preaching the Gospel if they had been told so long before as St Peter was that it must end in Martyrdom or if the Holy Ghost had witnessed in every City concerning them as he did of St Paul saying in express terms that bonds and afflictions did abide him most other men would have been moved tho he was not by any of these things Acts xx 23. For we find that the Disciples upon this account were earnest with him not to go up to Jerusalem So difficult is it for the best men in the best cause to resolve to meet certain and apparent Dangers The nature therefore of some things requires that they should not be more particularly described in the Prophesies concerning them For either they must have been obscurely spoken of or else they could not have been prophesied of at all because if they had been clearly foretold they could never have come to pass which implies a contradiction for it is impossible that what God declares by his Prophets should not be fulfilled If all that was to befal the Church of Christ had been set down with the circumstances of time and place and persons by St John in the Revelation so as to prevent the objections of those who except against the obscurity of that Book this certainly would have proved a great discouragement to many Christians in the performance of their Duty and must have hindred the bringing to pass the events unless God should have over-ruled the minds of men and forced them upon acting which had been to deprive them of their Freedom of Will 4. If Prophecies had punctually foretold the things to be fulfilled in all their Circumstances men would have purposely contrived to frame their actions in such a manner as to appear to fulfill many of them and whenever they had been fulfilled it might have been supposed to have been by design and contrivance Which would have been only to act a part or live by a rule and pattern described and set before them but when the obscurity is such that they become fulfilled without any Intention or Knowledge of the Person employed in fulfilling them this manifests the wisdom and providence of God If Prophecies had been less obscure men would have been the more prone to venture upon the commission of sin in order to fulfil them We find by experience how apt all Enthusiasts and such as perswade themselves that they have a clear and perfect knowledge of the obscurest Prophecies are to think any thing lawful to be done which may bring about those events that they fancy to be the Accomplishment of them And if the events of all Prophesies had been concealed under no obscurity of words and circumstances but had been obvious and visible to every Reader the number of such undertakers would have been much greater for it is a hard matter to make men distinguish between the accomplishment of Prophecies and the sin which is often committed in the accomplishment of them but when they can serve their Interest by it they are willing to believe the worst actions lawful which may fulfil a Prophecy and the clearer Prophesies had been the more occasion and pretence had been given to such dilusions to which none are now subject but such as think them clear and perswade themselves or would perswade others that they throughly understand them 5. Another reason is that sometimes a Prophecy may be delivered obscurely in mercy to the Instruments who are to bring about the event foretold by it For God foreseeing that some men notwithstanding the clearest Revelations would persist in their wickedness and become instrumental in accomplishing the prediction may in mercy to them forbear to discover the particulars of the event lest thiâ— should add to their guilt and prove a greaâ— aggrâ—vation both of their â—rime and punishmenâ— Our Saviour tho he knew from the beginning who it was that should betray him yet concealed it till his last Supper and then discovered it to Judas in the mildest manner to move him to Repentance if he had not hardned himself against it not to make him desperate upon the discovery of so wicked a design Again other Prophesies may be hid in obscurity for a judgment upon those who are obstinate and will not make a due use of the means afforded them of Salvation but harden their hearts and resolve to continue impenitent against all the methods which God has been pleased to use to reclaim them For of such our Saviour gives this reason why he spoke to them in Parables that seeing they might see and not perceive and hearing they might hear and not understand lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them Markiv 12. For when God has both by Miracles and other Prophesies unquestionably clear and plain admonish'd and forewarn'd 'em of the folly and danger of their ways and they will take no notice of it but reject his Revelations and just affront his mercy it is very for him to deny them that further Declaration and Manifestation of his Will and Power which might effectually produce a true Faith in 'em and bring 'em to Repentance especially when the obscurity of Prophesies may be conducing to the methods of his Providence and to his gracious designs of mercy towards other men who have not stood out in so bold a defiance of his other Declarations of himself God endureth with much long-suffering thevessels of wrath fitted for destruction he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth and therefore the obscurity of Prophesies may be in mercy to some to prevent the aggravation of their sins and for a judgment upon others to harden them 6. It is the Glory of God to conceal a thing but the honour of Kings is to search out a matter Prov. xxv 2. The obscurity of Prophecies may be designed to abate the confidence and confound the pride of some and to provoke the diligence and industry of others For as some men care to be at no pains to attain the most useful and necessary knowledge so others despise all that is obvious and have no satisfaction in the knowledge of such things as are easily known by others as
and Contrivance in his Establishment of the Laws of Motion that Matter and Motion are with that Wisdom set to work that they can perform all without any more than preserving and sustaining them in their Being and Operations and that he is the best Artist who can contrive an Engine that shall need the least medling with after it is made But it ought to be considered what the Nature of the Engine is and what the ends and uses of it are and if the Nature of it be such that it cannot answer the ends for which it was framed without sometimes an assisting Hand it would be no point of Wisdom in the Artificer for the Credit of his Contrivance to lose the most useful Ends design'd by it As if among other uses this curious Engine were design'd to reward the Good and punish bad Men to remove the punishment upon Amendment and to renew it upon a Relapse Since Brute Matter is uncapable of varying its Motion and suiting it self to the several States and Changes of Free Agents he must assist it unless he will lose the Chief end for which it is to serve It is no defect in the Skill and Wisdom of the Almighty that Matter and Motion have not Free will as Men have But it would be a great defect in his Wisdom not to make them the Instruments of Rewards and Punishment because it is impossible for them of themselves to apply and suit themselves to the several States and Conditions of Free Agents The Nature of Matter and Motion is such that they cannot serve all the Designs of their Creator without his Interposition and therefore he constantly doth interpose according to a certain Tenour which he has prescribed to himself but this Tenour and Course is altered upon some important Occasions In a natural and ordinary way he Cures Diseases sends Rain or dry Weather or else our Prayers to him would be insignificant upon such Occasions and there would be no room left for his inflicting these Temporal Rewards and Punishments He feeds the Hungry that cry to him and he punishes the Wicked when he sees it fitting by Famine or Drought or Pestilence in the ordinary Methods of his Providence But sometimes he alters these ordinary Methods and acts above them or contrary to them to signalize his Mercy or his Judgments And thus Christ fed so many thousands in the Wilderness and God Rained down Fire from Heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah by a particular and miraculous Dispensation Miracles are the particular Appointment of God in peculiar Cases and Occasions and the course of Nature is his general and perpetual Appointment at all other times God at no time leaves Nature to it self but ever concurs with it by assisting its Power and directing its course he ordinarily interposes in the constant course of Things according to established Laws But Miracles are his wonderful Work when he interposes in an extraordinary manner and alters that Method which he has prescribed to himself to observe in the common course of Nature God doth not in an extraordinary manner interpose to prevent the irregular or unusual productions of Nature as in mostrous Births c. For how irregular soever these may seem yet they are according to this standing Rule that they shall be suffered to happen in certain Cases and they rarely happening serve to illustrate the Divine Wisdom in contriving Nature so that in its general Course all its Operations should be regular and uniform and from hence it appears that God doth not extraordinarily interpose to alter the Course of Nature but for great Ends Superiour to those which concern only the material World We may well suppose that God has at much regard to his Wisdom in his Government of the Moral as of the Material Part of the Creation and yet he has added supplemental Laws to enforce the Moral Laws and these additional Laws have been changed as the Circumstances and Condition of Men required Why then should the Laws of the Material World be so much more sacred as that he should never intermeddle with them He assists Moral Agents with the continual supplies of his Grace and natural Agents with that help which is needful for them to perform his will God may hasten and assist natural causes upon our Prayers he may quicken the Motions and enforce the Powers of Nature and remove secret Impediments to help and make way for natural Operations or he may slacken or retard natural Causes To say that God has so ordered the course of Nature as upon the fore-sight of Mens Prayers to him to grant them what they Pray for and upon the fore-sight that they will not Pray to withhold from them what they want by Mechanical Laws is by no means satisfactory For there is neither Proof nor possibility of Proof of it it is merely a Supposition without any ground of Reason but only this that the Mechanical Notion cannot otherwise be maintained But I will suppose with much more Reason that two Men are Sick of the same Disease that the Circumstances of the Disease are all the same and all outward Accidents likewise the same till the Prayers of one of them make a Difference For one of these Men upon his Prayers Recovers the other neglecting to Pray Dies The natural Causes are supposed to be the same excepting only so far as Prayer moves God in his Mercy to make a Difference in their Case To say that this never happened is wholly precarious and hard to believe since it probably may often happen in Epidemical Distempers but it is much harder to believe that it can never happen and if this either have or can happen it is not upon fore-sight of their Prayers by the contrivance of Mechanical Laws in their first Establishment but by an immediate Act that God assists Men upon their Prayers to him The strange Providential Deliverances of some certain Persons are observable in every Age and all Histories mention them But how shall particular Men amidst the greatest Dangers be preserved in the common Calamities of the Sword and Famine and Pestilence but by a particular interposing Providence Were these Men who have been so remarkably preserv'd all of one Constitution or do Soldiers Slay Mechanically tho' the Plague and Famine should be supposed to do so I wonder it should be thought less agreeable to Philosophy for God to interpose in directing natural Causes than in over-ruling Moral Agents where the Designs of the Providence equally require it The same Providence delivers both from the snare of the Hunter and from the noisome Pestilence A thousand shall fall besides thee and ten thousand at thy Right Hand but it shall not come nigh thee Psal xci 3.7 4. The Mechanical Philosophy proceeds upon a wrong Notion of God supposing it unworthy of him to be concerned immediately in every thing which is done We may as well imagine it below him to know every thing as to suppose it unworthy of him
in so few Generations of Men supposing it had ever been known to Adam's Posterity If it were never known but the Relation of it were always conveyed down in Metaphor and Allegory then this Allegory must pass for Historical Truth in those Ages and the Reason why it was delivered to them in Allegory must be because that manner of delivering it was most suitable to that Age and most credible and every way most proper and if it were most fitting that it should be thought to have happened so this is a good Argument that it did really happen so since there is nothing hinders but it might so have happened and it was most probable at least to the first Ages of the World that it did so come to pass or else it would not have been requisite to relate it in this manner 3. The Fall of our First Parents brought a Curse upon their Posterity And here it must be acknowledg'd that God may bestow his infinite Grace and Mercies upon what Terms he pleaseth and therefore he might ordain that the Happiness or Unhappiness of their Posterity should depend upon the Obedience or Disobedience of our First Parents 1. God might ordain that the Condition of their Posterity in this World should depend upon it so that they should have been immortal upon their Obedience and should become mortal upon their Disobedience that they should be made subject to Cares and Labours to Diseases and Dangers by reason of the Fall of our First Parents from which otherwise they should have been exempt This is esteem'd just in all Governments amongst Men that Children should be reduced to Poverty and Disgrace by the Fault of their Parents from whom Riches and Honour were to have descended upon them And this way of Proceeding is just both in Humane Laws and in the Dispensations of Providence because God and our Country have an antecedent Right and Interest in us superior to any Man 's private Title or Welfare and this they may justly make use of to restrain Men from those Crimes out of Love and Concern for their Posterity from which no consideration of themselves could have with held them The Experience of the World has found this to be the most effectual Remedy with many Men and therefore the wisest and justest Governments have made use of it and the most wise and just God might think fit to deal in this manner with our First Parents by representing to them that the Happiness or Misery of their Posterity depended upon their Good or ill Behaviour in this one Instance of their Duty We daily see that Children commonly inherit the Diseases of their Parents and an extravagant and vicious Father leaves his Son Heir to nothing but the Name and Shadow perhaps of a Great Family with an infirm and sickly Constitution and little or nothing to support and relieve it Now if these Miseries and Calamities had been entail'd upon all the Race of Mankind from Adam the thing would have been the same in the Nature and Justice of it for Numbers cannot alter the Nature of Things as it is now when they descend upon some only from their immediate Parents And therefore it must be much rather just that the Fall of our First Parents should make their whole Race only liable to such Calamities but not involve All necessarily in them 2. The Communications of God's Grace and the Favours and Blessings of his more immediate Presence might depend upon the Behaviour of the First Parents of Mankind He might send them out of Paradise and might withdraw his free and usual Communications of himself from them and their Posterity upon this Forfeiture by their Disobedience 3. The Proneness which we cannot but observe in our selves to Sin might proceed from hence We daily see and feel the corruption of our Nature by whatsoever means we became subject to it So that it is in vain to object that it would be unjust that all Mankind should be involv'd in Adam's Sin For the Condition which we are in is matter of Fact of which no man doth or can doubt The Question is only how we come into this Condition and since we are born in it and it is our Natural and Hereditary evil the Justice and Goodness of God is cleared and vindicated by assigning a Cause for it from the Imputations of such as must acknowledge the same corruption of Nature but will allow no Cause or Reason for it except the arbitrary Will and Pleasure of the Creator The Children of vicious Parents are generally most enclin'd to Vice and if Men may partake of the evil Dispositions and Inclinations of their more immediate Parents why might not the Corruption of the Humane Nature in our First Parents descend upon all their Posterity 4. The Happiness of Men in the next Life might depend upon the Obedience of our First Parents For when God proposed to bestow upon Men Rewards of Glory and Happiness which far surpass any Pretences of Desert or Claim of Right that they in a State of Righteousness and Innocency could have been able to make since the Promises were so great and the Happiness so far exceeding any thing to which Men could pretend a Right we must be very unreasonable unless we will confess that God might bestow his own Gifts upon his own Terms He might therefore debar Men from Heaven upon the Transgression oâ— our First Parents because the Promise of Heaven was â—n act of his free Bounty For no Man can pretend that an Innocent Creature which preserves its Integrity must for that Reason be advanced to the unspeakable Joys of Heaven No Creature can be profitable to his Maker and an unprofitable Servant can merit no such Reward And what God was not obliged to bestow tho' Men continued in the State of Innocency he might with all the Justice and Reason in the World refuse when Men became divested of their Innocency and thereby forfeited all pretences to that Happiness which was promised upon condition that our First Parents had continued in their Primitive and Original State of Righteousness 5. God might ordain that all Men should become liable to Eternal Misery by the Fall of our First Parents and that those who would not accept of Means appointed of Salvation by Faith in Christ to rescue them from it should perish eternally We no sooner read of the Fall of Man but Christ is forthwith promised even before the Curse was denounced upon Adam and Eve for their Offence the Seed of the Woman is immediately promised to bruise the Sepents Head and afterwards the Judgment is denounced first upon Eve and then upon Adam for their Transgression and the Seed of the Womans bruising the Serpent's Head is to be understood of Victory over our Spiritual Enemies and that Conquest which should be obtained over Death and Hell by Christ For the Temporal Punishment which was to befall Adam and Eve and their Posterity is afterwards added and therefore this Promise
him out of their sight he was not snatch'd away from them by a swift and violent motion like Elijah and carried up in a fiery Chariot which might dazle their sight that they could not discern him in his Ascent but he was lifted up and removed from them leisurely and by degrees they looked stedfastly towards Heaven as he went up by a visible and easie motion and they had a clear view of him 'till at last a Cloud received him out of their sight It is probable that all the Disciples to the Number of about an hundred and twenty mentioned Acts i. 15. were present to behold the Ascent of our Saviour (q) Apud Euseb Hist lib. 1. c. ult The Apostle St. Thaddeus declared tho' this as well as many other things is not inserted into the Scriptures that a great multitude of the Saints and Heavenly Host went up with him we read of the Appearance of two Angels upon this Occasion who acquainted the Disciples that this same Jesus whom they had thus evidently seen taken up from them into Heaven should so come in like manner as they had seen him go into Heaven And St. Paul informs us that the manner of his Coming at the last Day will be with his mighty Angels or the Angels of his Power 2 Thes i. 7. From whence we may conclude according to the Account of St. Thaddeus that the Holy Angels visibly attended him in his Ascension The Disciples were all much surprized at a thing so wonderful and stood gazing up into Heaven after him 'till they were certified not only by their own Senses but by the Message of the Angels that he was gone from them into Heaven no more to be expected from thence till the Day of Judgment We have therefore the plainest and fullest Evidence that can be desired both of the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour He shewed himself alive to his Disciples after his Passion by many infallible Proofs he was seen of them forty days and Conversed and Discoursed with them tho' we are not told after what manner and by what Intervals of time he was pleased to vouchsafe them his Presence this being concealed from us as very many of the Particulars are of his former Life before his Crucifixion But at the end of the space of forty days whilst he was in the midst of them he ascended into Heaven in the sight of them all in such a manner that they distinctly saw and beheld him and kept their Eyes fix'd upon him in his Ascension and a Vision of Angels besides informed them that he is to return in the like manner when he shall come to Judge the World CHAP. XXVIII Why some Works of Nature are more especially ascribed to God why Means was sometimes used in the working of Miracles and why Faith was sometimes required of those upon whom or before whom Miracles were wrought I. ALL the Powers of Natural Causes proceeding from God that may justly be ascribed to him which is wrought by them for he works as truly by Second Causes as by his own direct and immediate Power in producing any Effect The Order and Frame of Nature was Originally by his Appointment and by his Care and Providence and Influence it is upheld and therefore the Scriptures ascribe the effects of Natural Agents to God as the Author of them because these can do nothing but by his Support and Influence and the continuance and preservation of Natural Causes in the production of their Effects for so many Ages in one constant Tenour is a manifest and wonderful Demonstration of the Divine Power and Wisdom But those things may be said more especially to be done by God himself whereby upon some extraordinary Occasion his Power and his Will are more particularly manifested or his Promise is fulfilled for in those things his Care and Providence is more concerned to bring them to pass and therefore God may employ a more than ordinary concourse to sustain and influence the Powers of Nature that they may not sail in such Cases to produce their Effects according to their usual and setled Course II. Miracles are more peculiarly the Works of God because they are wrought without the concurrence or subserviency of Natural Means For tho' sometimes outward Means were used in the Miraculous Curing of Diseases yet they were such as could have no effect in the Cure but rather the contrary as when the Man that was born blind recovered his Sight by washing in the Pool of Siloam at our Saviour's Command after his Eyes had been anointed with Clay made of Dust and Spittle The Ointment made of Dust and Spittle was so far from having any effect towards the Cure that it would have been much more likely to have put out the eyes of a Man that had seen and the washing afterwards could only remove that which was so far from being a Remedy that it must have been an obstruction to the best sight As many Miraculous Cures were wrought by our Saviour without any more than a word speaking and sometimes even without so much as that to shew that he had no need of Means so when any Means were used they were such as apparently could not tend to the Cure and were not used as Remedies but as Circumstances in the working his Miracles to raise the Attention of the Beholders to imprint what was done the deeper upon their Memories and to give the greater Credibility to the History of his Miracles For all matter of Fact is to be proved or disproved by Circumstances and the more Circumstances concurr in any Action the less liable it is to Mistake or Imposture Our Saviour therefore was pleas'd that his Miracles should always be accompanied with remarkable Circumstances which were sometimes of one kind and sometimes of another the better to work upon the variety of Mens Tempers and Dispositions but whatever outward Means was at any time used by him it could have the Nature only of a Circumstance and was no more proper and effectual to produce the Miracle than any other might have been Some he touched some he only spoke to and others he sent to the High-Priest that he might be a Witness of the Cure Now the touch the speaking or the sending could have no effect as outward Means but only as they were attended with an inward and Divine efficacy But all these were considerable Circumstances to excite the Observation of those who were present at these Cures and to preserve the Remembrance of them to Posterity III. Tho' our Saviour had the most absolute and unconfined Power of working Miracles at all times and before all Persons whensoever he pleased yet we may observe that he sometimes refused to exercise it For tho' he could always do his Marvellous Works yet it was not fit that they should be always done but then only when they might be useful and serviceable to the Ends for which they were wrought and to his Design of coming
immediate Influence of the Divine Power but in Miracles this Power manifests its self in an extraordinary manner above and contrary to the Established Laws or Rules which God has in all other cases prescribed for the producing Effects II. Men would fancy to themselves some kind of Scheme or other and would frame some Notions and Conceits to give an Account of Miracles or they would imagin them to return of Course at certain Periods or upon some Accidents if they saw them frequently done or perhaps they would suppose them to proceed from some Defect in the Nature of Things which could not always keep its course but made many Deviations from it But when Miracles were wrought only in some Ages for peculiar Reasons this shews that they were done by an immediate Divine Power with a particular Design which could be no other than the Confirmation of Religion since they ceased both under the Law and the Gospel when both were fully declared and confirmed III. A perpetual Power of Miracles in all Ages would give occasion to continual Impostures which would confound and distract Mens minds and would make the true Mircles themselves suspected We see now that the Dreams of every Enthusiast and the Pretences of every Impostor are apt to startle weak minds tho' we have so much Reason not to expect Miracles or Revelations But if we were in constant expectation of True Miracles the False would be much more likely to mislead many and to make others reject the Belief of any Miracles at all If Prophecies and Miracles had been frequent in the Jewish Church to the coming of our Saviour his Prophecies and wonderful Works had not so well distinguished and manifested him to be the Christ But when after so long an Intermission they were again revived in him this shewed him to be the great Prophet and Messias who was expected And it is very observable that as Miracles had been discontinued for a long time among the Jews so St. John Baptist who was more than a Prophet and one of the greatest of all the Men that had been before him yet wrought no Miracles that he might be the better distinguished from the Messias and that there might arise no doubt in the Minds of any which of them was the Christ And when our Saviour had been acknowledged to be the Christ in all Parts of the World it was fit that Miracles should cease to preserve the Authority due to the Miracles wrought by himself and his Disciples it being more for the Honour of Christ that the Miracles wrought in his Name should cease when his Religion had been fully Established than that Men should be tempted to doubt who was the true Christ and which was the true Religion upon the account of false Miracles wrought in opposition to the True IV. Another Reason why the Gift of Miracles has been with-held in latter Ages may be this because since there has been a general depravation of Manners among Christians it would have proved a great occasion of Pride and Vain-Glory to those who had possest it as we find it was to some even in the times of the Apostles 1 Cor. xii xiv And our Saviour saw it requisite to give Caution to his Disciples Notwithstanding in this rejoice not that the Spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoice because your Names are written in Heaven Luke x. 20. It must be an eminent and truly Primitive Piety that could bear the having of such Gifts with an humble and Christian Temper of Mind V. It is an Observation of (f) Advan of Lâ—arn l. iii. c. 2. my Lord Bacon's That there was never Miracle wrought by God to Convert an Atheist because the Light of Nature might have led him to confess a God But Miracles are designed to Convert Idolaters and the Superstitious who have acknowledged a Deity but erred in his Adoration 〈…〉 Light of Nature extends to declare the 〈◊〉 and true Worship of God For the same Reason when once the true Religion is confirmed in such a manner as to have the same Evidence for it which there is for the Existence of God himself Miracles are no more to be expected to convert an Infidel than to convert an Atheist Among Men of Learning and Reason there ought to be no more doubt of the Truth of the Gospel than of the Being of a God and they without the help of Miracles may instruct others (g) De Procur Indor Salute Lib. ii c. 9. Acosta enquiring into the Cause why Miracles are not wrought by the present Missionaries for the Conversion of Heathen Nations as they were by the Christians of the Primitive Ages gives this as one Reason because the Christians at first were ignorant Men and the Gentiles learned but now on the contrary all the Learning in the World is employ'd for the Defence of the Gospel and there is nothing but Ignorance to oppose it and there can be no need of farther Miracles in behalf of so good a Cause when it is in the Hands of such able Advocates against so weak Adversaries However though there be no such change as was wont formerly to be wrought in the visible Course of Nature in Confirmation of our Religion yet there is still a Divine Power evident among Christians living in Heathen Countries For the Devil who tyrannizeth over the Heathens has no Power over Christians dwelling among them of which the Indians have taken great Notice and have (h) Lerii Histor Navig in Brasil c. 16. declared the Christians happy in being freed from the Tortures of Wicked Spirits by which they find themselves often seized on the sudden in a terrible manner and stand in perpetual fear of them (i) Capt. Knoxe 's Hist of Ceylon Part iii. c. 4. Christians they do acknowledge have a Prerogative above themselves and not to be under the Power of these Infernal Spirits It is so generally related by Travellers of all Professions both Protestants and Papists that the Devil exercises a manifest Tyranny over the Heathens but is able to do nothing to the Christians abiding amongst them that this cannot be denied to be a plain Argument of a Divine Power discovering it self in Confirmation of the Christian Religion though not by such Miracles as were formerly wrought because there is no longer any need of them CHAP. XXX Of the Causes why the Jews and Gentiles rejected Christ notwithstanding all the Miracles wrought by Him and his Apostles THough the Christian Religion be most certain in it self yet there is a Supernatural Grace required to make us throughly and effectually convinced of the certainty of it No Man can come to me says our Saviour except the Father which hath sent me draw him and this is declared to be the Reason of the Infidelity of such as were offended at his Doctrin and departed from him But there are some of you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not