The Christian Religion Increas'd by Miracle A SERMON BEFORE THE QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL October 21. 1694. By Francis Atterbury Student of Christ-Church and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties Published by Her Majesties special Command LONDON Printed for Thomas Bennet at the Half Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1694. A SERMON ON ISAIAH 1X 22. A little one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong Nation I the Lord will hasten it in His time THE Evangelic Prophet is very particular throughout This Chapter in describing the sudden and mighty increase of Christianity its triumphant progress thrô all Nations and its prevalence over all other Religions in the World And this Wondrous Enlargement of it he takes occasion at the Close of the Chapter Particularly to magnifie from the consideration of that Small Appearance it should make at first and those Slender and Unpromising Beginnings with which it should set out A little one says he in That Verse I have read to you shall become a thousand and a small one a strong Nation I the Lord will hasten it in His i. e. in the Messiahs time From which words therefore I shall take occasion to raise These several Heads of Discourse First I shall enquire into the Matter of Fact itself to which This Prophesie referrs how swift and strange the increase of the Gospel really was at and after its first setting out from Jerusalem Secondly ' I shall prove to you that This Increase was certainly Miraculous and owing chiefly to the mighty Operations and effectual Assistances of the Holy Spirit of God After establishing which great Truth upon firm and proper Arguments I shall in the Third place fairly lay together what can be offered to evade the force of them and give the several Objections their Answers Fourthly I shall consider how great an Advantage it brings to the Christian Religion to have had such a miraculous increase of its Professors and what excellent Uses and Purposes it serves Fifthly and Lastly I shall enquire into the Time when and the Manner how this Miracle ceas'd and make some suitable Reflections upon it with regard both to Those who liv'd Then When this stop was put to the Gospel and to Us who live Now in the Latter Ages of the World 1. I am to Enquire into the Matter of Fact itself to which the Prophesie of the Text referrs and to consider how swift and strange the Increase of the Gospel was at and after its first setting out from Jerusalem And the Account of this is as much above Imagination as it is beyond Dispute From S. Luke we learn that upon the Ascent of Our Saviour the little Flock He had gathered consisted of but one hundred and twenty Disciples These receiv'd a mighty addition to their number on the very day of Pentecost the day on which the Apostles enter'd on the Public Exercise of Their Ministry even on That day Three Thousand Souls were brought over to the Faith by a Sermon of S. Peters so well did that Spiritual Fisher begin to make good the Character which Christ had given of him that he should catch men After this the number of the Disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly says the same holy Pen greatly even in proportion to their first increase Indeed so much and so fast that even the Acts of the Apostles which being written by S. Luke the Companion of S. Paul are spent chiefly in giving an account of That Particular Apostles Labours and Travels and of Those of them only which he underwent in some Few First years of his Ministry I say the Acts of the Apostles do however contain an account of the spreading of the Gospel Forward◠thrô many Eastern Countries and Backwards thrô a great part of the West of its piercing on the one side into all the Civiliz'd and some of the Barbarous Provinces of Asia and on the other as far as the great Metropolis of Europe Rome itself so mightily grew the word of God and prevail'd Indeed The Writers of the Story of the Church do with one consent agree that Scythia India Gaul and Egypt all the most distant parts of the World Then known had the Doctrine of Christ conveyed to them in less than forty years i. e. before the destruction of the Jewish State by Titus And what Degree of success the Voice of These Preachers had in the several Countries thrô which it sounded we may learn from the Antient Apologists who e're Two Centuries were run out pleaded for Christianity on the account of its vast and incredible numbers represented to the Heathen Emperors that their Courts their Camps their Cities their Provinces were all full of them and that it was impossible to extirpate them without destroying the far Greatest part of their Subjects Thus did the Christian Faith diffuse itself like Lightning from East to West with an unconceivable swiftness gaining as it went along mighty spoils from all Religions and gathering vast multitudes of every Country under its Banners And therefore well did the Founder of this Kingdom Thus Prophesie concerning it Unto what is the Kingdom of God like and whereunto shall I resemble it It is like a Grain of Mustard-seed which a man took and threw into his garden and it grew and waxed a great Tree and the Fowls of the Air lodged in the branches of it And again he said Whereunto shall I liken the Kingdom of God It is like Leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the Whole was leavened But because the matter of Fact it self that there was such a sudden and prodigious increase of Converts to Christianity is so well agreed upon on all hands as to need no set Proof it may suffice to have given this short Account of it I go on now in the Second place to prove that this increase was certainly miraculous and owing chiefly to the mighty Operations and effectual Assistances of the Holy Spirit of God and that for This plain Reason because the Natural and Visible Causes which concurr'd to the Production of This great Effect were not at all equal to the Effect produc'd and therefore there must needs have been some Supernatural and Invisible Cause at the bottom of it The Appearing Causes and Instruments of this Wondrous Revolution were chiefly Twelve Men of obscure Birth and Parentage of the meanest-Education of the plainest and simplest Understandings unpolish'd by Learning and Eloquence unnuimprov'd by Experience and Converse Men of no Subtilty no Art no Address that had no manner of Authority Interest or Repute in the World These Men undertake to convince the World that one Jesus a Man who had been seen just before to expire publickly on the Cross was the true God blessed forever and in consequence of this to preach up a Doctrine the most unwelcom to Flesh and Blood that could be the most repugnant to Men's natural Desires and Inclinations to their settled Habits and inveterate Prejudices
Evidently assure us that the Preaching of the Apostles was in the Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power as if we had heard them speaking with Strange Tongues seen them Healing the Blind and Lame and Reviving the Dead Which Truth that we may be yet Further confirm'd in let us consider as I propos'd in the Third Place what Shifts the Enemies of the Gospel make use of to evade the force of This Argument This then is the utmost that Any of them pretend to say 'T is true they will own Christianity multiply'd very fast and This Increase of it was in some sense Miraculous That is it was wonderful as every Unusual Thing is to those who do not know or consider the Causes of it But to a man they say that will dare to go out of the Common road and to think for himself it will appear that there were at That Time natural Causes a foot sufficient to produce this Effect without needing a Recourse to something Divine and Supernatural The Apostles indeed were Twelve plain Illiterate Men that had not in Themselves force or skill enough to bring about Such an Event but Their Natural Inability was supply'd by a Lucky Confluence of Other Causes and by several Accidental Advantages that mightily help'd on the Work As for Example The Sufferings of those poor bigotted Creatures the Martyrs made mighty impressions upon Men especially upon Those of the same Rank with the Sufferers the Common people who never fail to take the side of the Oppress'd and to think that Cause good let it be what it will for the Profession of which Men are us'dill Then the Purity of the Christian Morals was a mighty Argument to bring in the Men of Probity and Vertue into the Interests of the Gospel And so Also was the Analogy of some of its Mystical Truths to the Doctrines of Plato then in great esteem and vogue a very good Bait to the Men of Philosophy and Learning The Distribution of Goods which the first Christians made and their Living together in Common was a good Reason for many mens embracing That Truth which they were sure would maintain them The Casual Cessation of Oracles was immediately turn'd to the advantage of the Christian Religiou as if That had procur'd it And the destruction of the Jewish State contributed greatly to the encrease of the Christian Numbers because it seem'd to have been foretold by Christ and therefore luckily coming to pass about that time rais'd an high Opinion in Men of his Person and Doctrine and made them willing to think that the Christian Estabishment now newly set up was design'd by God to come into the Room of the Jewish one which then hapned to be pull'd down And thus say they several Extraordinary and Accidental Advantages conspiring to advance the Growth of Christianity it grew indeed mightily and prevail'd as a little River will swell high and spread itself wide and run far if a great many other Streams should at once happen to empty themselves into it and These second Causes they think had of themselves force enough without our having recourse to a first to solve the appearance But now in opposition to this that These Causes assign'd were utterly insufficient to produce the Event for which they are assign'd a short Review of them I think and the time will allow of but a short one will easily satisfie us The Blood of the Martyrs was indeed according to that well known saying the Seed of the Church But how Not surely by alluring Men to the Profession of Christianity at the Time when those Martyrs suffer'd for certainly nothing was more apt to frighten and discourage men from professing the Gospel then to find they should be persecuted for it But the meaning of that saying is that the Sufferings and Torments which the first Christians underwent so willingly and so bravely were a strong Evidence of the Truth of that Doctrine which could inspire its followers with so much Courage Constancy and Resolution and dispos'd men mightily to embrace the Religion of Christ afterwards in better and more quiet Times But before This Motive could have any great force and influence the Gospel had allready spread and settled itself every where and therefore nothing can well be accounted for on This Head but the Accession that was made to Christianity after it was sufficiently establish'd and This had confessedly nothing extraordinary in it and is not the Thing which we are at present Enquiring after The same Answer serves to that Other pretended account of this Increase from the Destruction of the Jewish State It did indeed add to the Numbers of Christian Converts when it hapned but it hapned not till near forty Years after the Death of Christ and by That time Christianity was strong enough of itself and needed no Aids And then even at that time thô Several Jews promoted the Interests of the Gospel by owning the Faith yet the Obstinate Part of them that stood out did it abundantly more harm then the Complying Ones did it good For They were not satisfy'd in rejecting Christianity themselves but made it their business to render it odious suspected and contemptible to the Heathens also in all the Corners of the Earth to which they were driven The Purity of the Christian Morals and the answerable Lives of Christian Converts was indeed what would be apt to make men admire and value the Doctrine of Christ but by no means to come under the Yoke of it For thô most Men have an Esteem for strict Rules and strict Livers yet few care to practise the one or to Imitate the other And nothing I think could be contriv'd so effectual next to the former wise Motive from the Sufferings of the Martyrs to deterr men from Christianity as to tell them that when they took it upon them they must renounce their dearest Appetites and Passions and deny their very Selves And I desire the Men who raise these Objections against the Divinity of the Gospel to tell us fairly whether if They had liv'd at that time they think They should have come in upon This Principle I am sure they would not because it is This Principle alone that they must part with their Satisfactions and Pleasures if they do that keeps them out of it now Therefore neither can This be any Sufficient reason for the sudden and wide Growth of Christianity The Analogy of some mystical Truths of Christianity to the Doctrine of Plato is a yet a weaker plea. For This Motive is Calculated to touch but very few onely the Philosophers of the Academic School And with Those it could have no Great weight surely or at least not enough to over ballance that Scorn and Contempt which upon other accounts they had of the Christian Religion and its Promulgers of That for its short Unphilosophical way of proposing its Truths without Demonstration and Reasoning and of Those for their Ignorance and the Meanness of their
Education And accordingly we find the Event was For we have no absolute certainty that any One Philosopher of Note embrac'd the Christian Faith till it had been for many Years Preach'd and disseminated and had taken deep root in the World The Casual Cessation of Oracles as 't is call'd about the Time of Promulging the Gospel was not casual but directly caus'd by that Promulgation and we own had men understood it to be so then and imputed this Cessation to its True Principle it would have been very Effectual to have brought in the Heathen World to the acknowledgment of Christ. But we deny that they did at all understand or allow it to be so And for a plain Proof of this we referr our selves to That discourse in Plutarch about the Cessation of Oracles where among many Reasons which that Learned Man assigns for it This of the coming of Christ is not mention'd or hinted at Thô He gives Such an account of things there that a Christian would easily prove from what He relates that it was really the coming of Christ that effected it Lastly Neither can any probable account of this matter be drawn from the Charitable Distribution of their Goods which the sirst Christians made For supposing This might tempt some of the Poorer sort yet surely They that were Easie in their Circumstances and had wherewithall to sustain themselves did not come in upon This Motive It will not be said I hope that They who made this Distribution of their Goods which will be found have been a very great and considerable number came in to partake of it But then neither could the Hopes of this be any Great Temptation even to the Poorer sort since there was Something in the Christian Religion ten times more apt to frighten them than This was to allure them the strict Rules of Honesty and Temperance they were bound to live by and the great Calamities and Persecutions they were sure to undergoe I do not deny after all but that Every One of These Causes might in a natural way contribute somewhat either to the planting or spreading of the Gospel But I think it is Evident from the short Hints I have suggested to You that All of them together were not able to do the thousandth part of That Work which is allotted them And therefore to resolve this Great Event into a mere Conspiracy of second Causes as 't is call'd without any regard to the first is an absurd and a senseless attempt and onely shews us how very strong an Inclination and Biass there must be in Some minds towards Infidelity when they can bring themselves to espouse it upon so very Slight Grounds A man that should see an Acorn put into the Ground and perceive in a Few weeks or months an Oak shoot up from it to a prodigious height and spread its Branches to an amazing extent so as even to cover the whole Field where it grew might as well say there was a strange Conspiracy of Natural Causes an extraordinary degree of warmth moysture and so forth which concurr'd to produce this effect as affirm that the Vast Progress of the Gospel was owing to such petty Principles as Some men endeavour to persuade themselves it was But it must be granted them that their Thoughts are of a piece and that This particular Tenet falls in with Their Systeme For their account of the New Creation by Jesus Christ is much like That they give of the Old one It was a Lucky Hit of concurring Causes that propagated Christianity And it was a Lucky Hit also in the several motions of innumerable Atoms that at first made the World And 't is the same Lucky Hit that still preserves and governs it too And They who assert the Last of these Opinions may consistently enough be supposed to entertain the former too But surely no other Creature but an Atheist by Complexion can ever take up with such pittiful Accounts of things Well then The Christian Religion from small and weak beginnings spread itself farr and wide after a sudden and strange manner and this it did against all probability and contrary to all the Rules of success that all other Rising Opinions have ever set up with It had no One of those great Advantages some of which recommend every new Sect that stands and prevails and as for all other Lesser Helps and Assistances toward its increase which the Wit of Man can assign they are apparently too weak to sustain the weight that is lay'd on them It remains therefore that This wondrous Effect sprang undoubtedly from the immediate Influence of the First Cause actuating after an Extraordinary manner the Industry and blessing the Endeavours of the Apostles stirring up the Minds of Men to attend to and disposing Their Hearts to imbrace the Truths of the Gospel in a word accompanying all they said and did with mighty Signs and Wonders with the Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power FINIS Advertisement PRinted for Tho. Bennet A Sermon on Praise an Thanksgiving before the Queen at White-Hall ' May 29. 1692. The Power of Charity to cover sin A Sermon before the Governours of Bridewell and Bethlehem August 16. 1694. Both by the same Author