claps one or both of these upon them to make up the Objection And yet beside that they are a confession of the matter of Fact it self they are things of which he was obliged by his Principles to entertain as little belief as of the Christian Faith For the power of Magick supposes some Spirits or Beings distinct from Matter and Motion and the Resurrection of Men from the Grave supposes Souls distinct from Bloud and Brains both which are meer contradictions to the Epicurean Philosophy And therefore he could not design to oppose them to the cause of Christianity for any truth that he supposed in them but onely thereby to intimate that as they were Fables so might that too Which is such a slender way of arguing as onely betrays its own weakness for when I have demonstrated the truth of a thing with all the Evidence that any matter of Fact is capable of is it not a poor come off onely to reply That yet there are the same kind of Stories that neither I nor perhaps any Man else believes There are so but then the difference is this that the Story that I believe is vouched with all the Testimony in the World and that is the reason of my belief but the Stories that I do not believe are on the contrary destitute of all manner of Attestation and that is the reason of my disbelief so childish is this great and shrewd reflection of this witty Philosopher But beside these there are several other passages that we have already consider'd and therefore shall not here repeat neither is it fit to pursue every bubble that he has blown up but whatsoever is any way pertinent to the matter of Fact that is indeed to the Argument though never so remotely I shall give it as much confutation as and perhaps more than it deserves And when I have done that will make up a new demonstration of the truth of Christianity for thereby we shall see how little its greatest Enemies were able to object against it The Cavils of his first Book then are such as these viz. Their clancular Meetings against the Laws their being a barbarous Sect as springing from the Jews and not the Grecians Moses not being so ancient as is pretended the World not being created as he relates because eternal and his teaching the Jews to worship Angels our Saviour's being a Magician himself being poor and his Disciples ignorant First then they kept clancular Meetings against the Laws Against what Laws Why against such as forbid the Worship of the onely true God and in its stead injoin the Worship of Idols and dead Men. But as for the publick Laws against the Christians I have already given a sufficient account of their Iniquity Though as Celsus has managed the Cavil it needs no reply because it is a vain thing meerly to urge the Laws unless he had vindicated their goodness and justice in that there may be bad as well as good Laws And therefore unless he would have undertaken to make good the piety of those Laws that command the Worship of their Heathen Gods that himself knew to be no better than very bad Men he had much better have let the Laws alone But in the next place the Christians are a Barbarous Sect that had their beginning among the Jews not the Grecians But 't is no matter whence they sprang so they bring a good evidence of the truth of their cause and of this Origen tells him they had from the very beginning to that very day a demonstration that exceeds all their pretended Learning and that is the demonstration of power or the power of Miracles But alas this objection of Barbarity is nothing more than meerly an Instance of the Pedantick pride of the Greeks who valued themselves above the common rate of Mankind and looked down with intolerable scorn and contempt upon all the World beside But as for their great improvements in learning above other Nations of which they so much boasted among themselves I need here say nothing though I must confess I find nothing so valuable among their choicest Philosophers but when I lookt for the reasoning of Men I could find little better in any of them than Childish tricks and sports of Sophistry But however to pass that by I am sure no Nation in the World ever equall'd the Greeks in the Barbarity of their Religion and though with this Celsus and his Companions were at that time sufficiently upbraided yet it is too well known that they could never be prevail'd with so much as to undertake its defence But in the next place Christianity he sayes gives no Laws of Morality but such as the Philosophers taught and were common to Mankind before To this Origen replyes 't is very true in that there could be no exercise for the Justice and Providence of God or obligation of the duty of Men without a sense and knowledge of the Laws of good and evil And therefore it was requisite to have the Seeds of those Moral Notions which God taught by his Prophets and his Son planted in the hearts and consciences of all Mankind that in the final judgment every Man might be justly call'd to an account for the faithful discharge of his duty But beside is not this a fit objection to follow that of Barbarity or their Ignorance in the Grecian Philosophy that the Christian Church agreed in all their main points and Doctrines with the Schools of the Philosophers The next thing objected is credulity and contempt of humane Learning But the charge of credulity is already answer'd by those undenyable proofs that are produced for the Divine Authority of the Christian Faith And as for the humane learning that they despised it was nothing but the Pedantry of the Grecian Philosophers who whilst they pretended to the height and perfection of all Wisdom fell into the extreamest ignorance and folly And to mention no more what thinks he of the celebrated Founder of his own Séct who with abundance of pride and arrogance boasted that he had rid the World of a God and a Providence but with such trifling reasonings as are below the Bablings and Follies of Children Let them therefore cease to upbraid the Christians with the neglect of their Learning when there cannot be a greater Argument of true wisdom and a right understanding of things than to see through its folly And in the next place as for the Antiquity of Moses he had as good have let that alone too when Porphyrie or any other Learned Man conversant in Histories of Ancient times could have told him that nothing is more evident or undenyable than that Moses lived many Ages before Linus or Orpheus or any other the most Ancient Writers among the Grecians But it is the custome of Epicureans to be confident upon the slightest Enquiries Otherwise if he had taken never so little pains in searching and comparing Ancient Records he could never have put such a
unprofitable cheat but yet however one would think Racks and Gibbets would have spoil'd the frolick And it is highly credible that any Men but much more these Men who have given us no ground to suspect their integrity because they could have no motive to forgoe it should prevaricate after such an odd and extravagant manner with Mankind yes and themselves too And when so many plain and simple Men so apparently without Craft and without Design without Advantage without Interest have given the World the most unquestionable proofs that they were serious and in good earnest as to the certain truth and reality of what they related after all this what wise and wary Man would not suspect the Forgery and disbelieve the Relation But this Argument I find prosecuted by Eusebius with extraordinary acuteness both of Wit and Reason Supposing says he that our Saviour never wrought any of those Miracles that are unanimously reported of him by his Disciples we must then suppose that they enter'd into Covenant among themselves after this manner Men and Brethren what that Seducer was that lived among us t'other day and how justly he suffer'd Death for his vile Imposture we of all Men have most reason to know and though others that were less intimately acquainted with him and his ways of deceiving might have some opinion of his worth and honesty yet we that were the daily Companions of his Conversation saw nothing in him answerable to the greatness of his pretences but that his whole design was by all the boldest Arts of Craft and Hypocrisie to get a Name in the World and therefore let us one and all join hands and enter into solemn Covenant among our selves to propagate the Belief of this impudent Cheat among Mankind and to fain all manner of Lies for its Confirmation to swear that we saw him restore Eyes to the Blind Ears to the Deaf and Life to the Dead and though it be all impudently false yet let us confidently report it nay and stand too it to the last drop of our Blood And because after all his great and glorious Pretences of being no less than the Son of God he was at last executed as a vile Malefactour with all the circumstances of shame and dishonour we must agree among our selves upon some Lie to wipe off this disgrace Let us therefore resolve to affirm with an undaunted impudence that after he was thus dishonourably Crucified the third Day he arose again and often conversed with us in the same familiar way as he had always done before his Execution But then we must be sure to stand unalterably to the impudence of the Lie and to persevere to Death it self in its assertion For what absurdity is there in throwing away our Lives for nothing And why should any Man think it hard to suffer Stripes Racks Bonds Imprisonments Reproaches Dishonurs and Death it self for no reason at all Let us therefore unanimously and vigorously set our selves to the design and with one consent agree to report such impudent Falshoods as are of no advantage either to our selves or to those we deceive or to him for whose sake we deceive Neither let us be content to propagate this Lie onely among our own Country-men but let us resolve to spread it through all parts of the habitable World impose new Laws upon all Nations overthrow all their old Religions command the Romans to quit the Gods of their Ancestours the Greeks to renounce the Wisedom of their Philosophers and the Egyptians the pretended Antiquity of their Superstition Neither will we take the pains to overthrow these ancient Customs of the most polite and most powerfull Nations in the World by the force of Learning or Wit or Eloquence but by the meer Authority of our crucified Master Neither will we stop here but we will travel to all barbarous Nations in the World reverse all their ancient Laws and command their obedience to a new Religion and this let us resolve to go through with an undaunted courage and resolution For it is not an ordinary reward that we expect for our Impudence nor is it for vulgar Crowns and Trophies that we engage our selves in such hard and hazardous enterprises No no we are sure to meet with the utmost severity of the Laws in all places whereever we come and the truth is we deserve it for disturbing the publick Settlement onely to establish a ridiculous Cheat and Imposture But for this who would not endure all the torments in the World burning hanging beheading crucifying and being torn in pieces by wild Beasts All which we must as we will secure the honour of the Impostor encounter with a cheerfull and resolved Mind For what can be more praise-worthy than to abuse God and affront Mankind to no purpose and to reap no other benefit from all our labours beside the pleasure of vain foolish and unprofitable lying And for that alone will we blaspheme all the Religions that have been from the beginning of the World to gain worship to a crucified Malefactour nay we will lay down our Lives for his Reputation notwithstanding that we know him to have been an impudent Impostor and for that reason is it that we honour him so highly because he has put such a dishonourable abuse upon our selves Who would not doe or suffer any thing for the sake of so vile a Man Who would not undergo all manner of Sufferings for a Cause that himself knew to be meer falshood and forgery And therefore let us constantly to the last breath averr that he raised the Dead cleansed Lepers cast out Devils and wrought all manner of Miracles though we are conscious to our selves of the gross falshood of the whole Story that we have meerly forged out of our own brains And therefore let us deceive as many as we can and if people will not be deceived yet however we shall sometime or other enjoy the pleasure of suffering and perhaps of dying for an unprofitable Lie It is no doubt credible that Men should discourse and act after such an extravagant rate as this or that humane Nature that has above all other Creatures an high sense of the love of Life and Self preservation should thrust it self upon a voluntary Death without any motive or any reward or if they should that when so great a multitude had agreed among themselves to carry on such a frantick design they should all persevere in the Lie to the very Death and not one of them be wrought upon by all the threatnings and all the slatteries in the World to betray the Plot and yet this was the case of the Apostles if their Testimony were not true So that it is plain that there is no more required to demonstrate the truth of the Christian Cause against Infidelity than onely to suppose that the Apostles were Men. And that certainly is as modest and moderate a Postulatum as can be premised to any Question And yet that onely being
the Tables of the Consuls yet they were very carefully preserved in those times and as easily consulted by any inquisitive Person as any other publick Record and were so by all learned Men who made it their business to enquire into them or to convey the account of them to after-ages and particularly Eusebius who as he made use of many other helps and had all the other advantages of information would not want this that was so easie and so satisfactory as himself particularly informs us concerning the succession of Jerusalem that he transcribed it out of their own Archives Though setting aside the information that he received thence the History of the succession is sufficiently preserved by other Writers That of Rome is already cleared that of Antioch is as clear onely some Men are willing to raise a dispute about the immediate Successour to the Apostles whether it were Euodius or Ignatius probably it might be both as it was at Rome but if Euodius were the first it is enough that his Successour Ignatius was an Apostolical Man and familiarly acquainted with the Apostles and that from him the succession runs clear and undisputed down to the Council of Nice to which Eustathius its then present Bishop was summon'd and as he was a Man of eminent learning so he bore a considerable sway in it As for Alexandria the succession runs so clear there that I do not find that the most sceptical Adversaries in this point dare so much as question it and indeed the succession of learned Men in that Church was so early and so uninterrupted that it was no more possible for them to be ignorant of the succession of their Bishops than it is for any learned Man now not to know the succession in the See of Canterbury from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth To these it were easie to add many more if it were not too tedious but though I do not meet with any reasonable suspicion of an interrupted succession in any eminent Church yet I shall instance onely in two that next to those already mention'd most deserve our notice that is the Churches of Corinth and Athens an account of whose succession we have from Dionysius a learned Man and Bishop of Corinth in the time of M. Antoninus as indeed we have of many other Churches in his Epistles to them as for his own Church it were a vain thing to demand a particular account of its succession when himself was so near the fountain head and has withall accidentally let us understand his knowledge of what was transacted there before his own time and particularly by his account of Saint Clement's Epistle As for the Church of Athens he expresly affirms that Dionysius the Areopagite was their first Bishop and after him mentions Publius and Quadratus so that it was not possible there should be any unknown interruption in so short an interval This may suffice for a brief specimen of the certain succession in the most eminent Churches from the Apostles and by consequence of their undoubted Tradition § XXIX The next part of the Argument is to prove its more particular conveyance down from the very time of the Apostles through the hands of a great many wise and learned Men And for this reason it was that Clemens Alexandrinus after he had passed through the Discipline of several Masters and several Sects acquiesced at last without any farther search in the Christian Institution because they that preserved the Tradition of this heavenly Doctrine received it immediately from Peter James and John and Paul the holy Apostles as a Son succeeds a Father and by the Providence of God have brought it down to us planting those seeds of Doctrine which they derived from their Ancestours and the Apostles And it is a very good reason and becoming the wisedom of that learned Man supposing the matter of Fact to be true and that it is is evident from the succession it self in that the first Witnesses of Christianity next to the Apostles familiarly conversed with the Apostles themselves or with Apostolical Men. As Saint Clemens Bishop of Rome who wrote an excellent Epistle to the Church of Corinth received with great veneration in the Christian Church valued next to the holy Scriptures and therefore read with them in several Churches but especially the Church of Corinth And as it was the most ancient next to the Apostolical Books so was it the most undoubted Writing of the Christian Church it was says Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 received without controversie And it is cited by Dionysius Bishop of Corinth a short time after who affirms that it was then read in that Church every Lord's Day It is magnified by Irenaeus not onely for its own strength and piety but for the primitive Antiquity of its Authour who he says was conversant with the Apostles received his Christianity from them had their preaching still fresh in his memory and their customs and traditions in his eye as divers others there were then living that were taught by the Apostles themselves And Clemens Alexandrinus quoting this Epistle as he often does gives him the Title of Apostle for his primitive Antiquity But beside that it was unanimously attested by the Ancients it was never call'd in question by any of our modern Criticks who though they have taken infinite pains to destroy or impair as much as in them lay the credit of all the ancient monuments of the Church yet have passed this Epistle as undoubtedly genuine with an unanimous approbation Now this supposes the owning and the settlement of the Christian Religion in the World it asserts particularly the truth and certainty of our Saviour's Resurrection and beside several other Books of the New Testament quotes the first Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians in which the Apostle proves its undoubted certainty by the Testimony not onely of himself and the Apostles but of above five hundred Witnesses beside most whereof were then alive Beside this he tells us of the great labours and martyrdoms of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in asserting the Christian Faith and the great patience and constancy of vast numbers more for the same cause and this he speaks of as a thing present Let us says he consider the generous and worthy Examples of our own Age through emulation and envy the faithfull Pillars of the Church were persecuted even unto a most grievous Death Let us place before our Eyes our holy Apostles and so he proceeds to the acts and sufferings of Saint Peter and Saint Paul Now how could this have been done at that time if Christianity had been a meer Fable or what more unquestionable Tradition can we have of its truth especially of the Resurrection when he quotes the Gospels in which it is recorded the Epistle of Saint Paul in which it is proved by such a number of Eye-witnesses the Testimony of the Apostles and innumerable others that lived at the
trick upon himself as to think of bringing down the History of Moses below the known times of Greece As for the Eternity of the World which follows next I shall not answer him here because if it were true as I have elsewhere proved it false it runs too far from the present Argument of the truth of our Saviour's History And as for Moses his commanding the Jews to Worship Angels I scorn to answer it because it is so impudently false when the great Commandment of his Law is to Worship one God alone and when himself had but a very little before objected this as a singularity in the Jews against all the World beside And then as for our Saviour's being a Magician I hope I may now let that pass too without being suspected as guilty of any Omission And as for his Meanness and Poverty I think I have sufficiently accounted for that too already in that it was but suitable to the design of the Divine Providence that he should be sent into the World stript of all Worldly advantages that he might subdue it purely by the power of Truth And therefore that alone is to be consider'd in this Enquiry whether he wrought such Miracles in Confirmation of his Doctrine or not if he did the meanness of his condition is no objection against the truth of his Miracles if he did not he is to be rejected for a much worse objection Nay this is so far from bringing any real disadvantage upon the Christian cause that it brings a considerable accession to its demonstrative proof and evidence In so much that without it it must have ever been lyable to suspicion for if he had appear'd with Kingly splendour and all the advantages of earthly power the strange and wonderful entertainment of his Doctrine might have been imputed to Worldly Interest and not to the force of truth and Men would have followed him for politick Ends and not for any Conscience of Religion And therefore to be secure of the Integrity of his Disciples he gives them no secular Encouragement nay on the contrary ensures to them all the miseries of humane life in their propagation of the Christian Faith His Institution was pure Religion and conscience towards God was its onely Obligation and therefore it was but agreeable to its own intention that it should carry along with it no other recommendation And thus I remember when Julian objects the meanness of our Saviour's condition in that he was born a Subject of the Empire which as he fancies was below the dignity of the Son of God St. Cyril answers that if he had appear'd with Imperial Power and by virtue of that commanded the Obedience of Mankind Men must have submitted to him for Worldly Interest and not out of any sense of duty or Religion and he had been just such another Deity as Caligula and the rest of their Emperours were who forced Men in spite of themselves to give them the shew of Divine honour by their own Laws And whereas you object sayes he that he was subject to Caesar what is that to the purpose when he did such things as neither Caesar nor any other Man ever did He raised Men from the Dead did any of your Caesars ever doe so What then if he were subject to Caesar it is evident from his Works that he was greater and they alone demonstrate him to have been the same Person that he pretended to be So that being the Son of God he scorn'd all your outward pomps and shews of Majesty and would receive no honour but what reflected upon him from the glory and greatness of his own Works To which might be added Origen's reply that it is no wonder for Men that have all the advantages of Birth and Fortune to make themselves considerable in the World but this is the thing that is most wonderful in Jesus that a Person so obscure upon all Worldly accounts should raise himself to so great a fame and reputation that a Man so poor and meanly Educated and never instructed in the arts of Eloquence should take upon him to convert the World to a new Doctrine to Reform the Religion of the Jews and to abolish the Superstition of the Greeks and yet that without any force or Artifice he should so speedily effect what he undertook this sayes he is a thing singular in him and was never done by any Man that I know of in any other Age. Nay farther beside the obscurity of his Life and all other things designedly laid to Eclipse his Glory his ignominious death one would think should have put it out for ever and that even those that he had deluded in his Life-time should then have been convinced of the grossness of the Imposture And therefore it is most wonderful of all that if the Apostles had never seen our Saviour after his Resurrection or had no assurance of his Divinity how it could ever come into their minds to leave their Country and expose themselves to all hazards and hardships to publish and propagate the belief of a known falsehood So that we see that the meanness of that State in which our Saviour appear'd is so far from being any material Objection against his Divine Authority that upon several accounts in the last result of things it lyes at the bottom of itsdemonstration In the next place he flouts at the Relation of the appearance of the Holy Ghost and the voice from Heaven at our Saviour's Baptism as a thing in it self absurd and incredible But here the Epicurean forgets that he is a Jew in that there are many Relations of such appearances in the Old Testament which yet if this objection hold good every Jew is bound to believe false and impossible But to treat with him as an Epicurean why is it impossible Because all Stories of God's concerning himself in Humane affairs are undoubted Fables An admirable way this of confuting a matter of fact onely by saying that it is impossible upon a precarious Principle of our own So that the last result of this rude objection against the Faith of the Evangelists is onely this that it cannot be true because there is no such thing as a Divine Providence But he adds that there was no witness of it but onely John the Baptist his Companion in wickedness And this is another unhappy mistake of a Man that sustein'd the Person of a Jew when all the Jewish Nation even the greatest Enemies to Jesus had a very great Reverence for John the Baptist. And yet it is not his Testimony that we rely upon for the truth of the Story but the truth of the Evangelists that have Recorded it they knew what Evidence they had of its reality and we know what evidence we have of their sincerity And now having discharged all his little Topicks of Calumny against our Saviour's own Person in the last place he falls foul upon his Apostles and that with the same unhappy success For