could not deny the Evidence of the Fact supposing the thing possible but they would not own it possible that such a thing should be and upon that account rejected all the Evidence that could be produced as tending only to prove an Impossibility and so not to be regarded I shall therefore shew the possibility of the Resurrection of the Dead and that it is unreasonable to think it incredible that God should raise the Dead If it be incredible that God should Raise the Dead it must be upon one of these Two Accounts either because he cannot or because he will not do it For what God both can and will do is so far from being Incredible that it is a most undoubted Truth Therefore I shall First Prove that God is certainly able to Raise the Dead and Secondly That he certainly will do it 1. That God is certainly able to Raise the Dead is a thing credible in it self and therefore ought to be esteemed incredible by no sort of Men whatsoever tho' they have no Knowledge of any Revealed Religion if they have but right Apprehensions concerning God No Man can have a true Notion of God but he must know that God is a Being of Infinite Power and Wisdom that he made the World and all things therein that he preserves and sustains all Creatures and that all things are wholly at his Will and Disposal to do with them as he pleases that nothing can oppose or resist his Will or give him the least hindrance in any thing which he is pleased to undertake How then can it seem incredible that God should raise a Dead Man to Life again when he at first gave him his Life And is it not as easie to restore it to him as to give it him at first Might we not as well dispute that it is impossible for a Man to be Born as that it is impossible for him to be Raised from the Dead if our own experience did not convince us of that but not of this God who gave all that Power and Ability which Natural Causes have to produce their Effects may if he pleases produce the same Effects immediately by himself For it is not because he stands in need of any help from Natural Causes that he has appointed them but because it seemed best to his Infinite Wisdom to appoint this Course and Order in the World And it is evident even to Natural Reason that there must have been some who were immediately Created by God and were not born of others as Men are since that there must have been some First Parents some who had no Parents themselves but were of Gods immediate Creation that there must have been some who were the First of all Mankind and therefore could be born of no others Since then Man must of necessity have been first formed by God himself and not have come by a Natural Birth into the World it is evident that God might have made as many Men and Women after this manner as he had pleased and he who is the Author of our Nature may act without it and as much beyond and above any Natural Powers and Faculties in his Creatures as it seems best to him And it may as well be thought incredible that God should at first make Man as that he should be able to raise him up again after Death for Death is only the End of Nature's power of working not of the Power of God himself who as he originally made the Race of Mankind so he appointed the Nature of Things and gave it a stinted Power which it cannot exceed but his own Power is Infinite and no Bounds can be set to it When a Man is once Dead Nature has done with him and can never recover him to Life again for God ordained at first that according to the Course of Nature he should only be born and live here a while not that his Life should be restored again to him after Death But he is not so confined himself that he cannot give Life to the Dead but has reserved this as his own Prerogative and above any thing in Nature's Power God who formed Adam of the Dust of the ground might have formed all Mankind so if he had pleased and he can as easily raise all Mankind to Life again out of the Dust as he made the first Man out of it And the Atheist one would think has of all Men the least pretence to scruple the Resurrection of the Dead who must suppose that Mankind at first sprung out of the Earth as Plants do by a Spontaneous Production and for him to pretend that the Bodies of Men cannot be raised to Life again by an Almighty Power is as unreasonable as any thing in Atheism it self can be When at certain Seasons every Year we see things receive a New Life as it were according to the Course of Nature we may well conclude that if so strange an Alteration can proceed from Natural Causes then surely God is able to effect that which is much more wonderful and to raise even these Bodies of ours after they are dead and rotten in the Grave to Life again And since the Corn which is Sown in the Earth is not quickned except it die and will not revive and grow again and come to perfection unless it be first buried in the Ground and undergo great Alterations there it is a foolish thing as the Apostle argues to doubt of the Resurrection of the Dead because we cannot understand the way and manner of it Let Men Answer all the Difficulties in Nature and it will be time enough afterwards to dispute with them about a Resurrection but when we are at a loss about the most common and obvious things it must be great Presumption to deny the Resurrection because we cannot comprehend it when alas what is there besides that we are able to comprehend Will we presume to say that God can do nothing but what we understand how it may be done when every thing we see may inform us that his Wisdom is Infinite and his ways past finding out Indeed if we understood every thing else there might be some pretence to scruple the Resurrection because we do not understand how it shall be But when our Ignorance is so notorious in all other things it is the heighth of Folly and Perverseness to think our selves competent Judges of such a Mystery as this So far are we from being able to make any Estimate of God's Power and so far is the Resurrection from being Incredible because there may be Objections made about it which may seem unanswerable that if no other Answer could be given this would be sufficient that God can do more than we can have the least Thought or Conception of and that it is no Argument that he cannot do what we cannot conceive how it should be done so long as there is nothing contrary to the Divine Nature in it nor which implies a Contradiction the
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
for the Oath which secur'd their Lives to them had forfeited that Right which otherwise they might have had to their Lives by a Peace fairly obtained and they lost all other Advantages of the League but only the securing their Lives But that the Canaanites if they had submitted and owned the God of Israel were not to have been destroyed but to have been received to mercy is evident from Josh xi 19 20. There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon all other they took in battel For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battel that he might destroy them utterly and that they might have no favour but that he might destroy them as the Lord commanded Moses Which necessarily supposes that if God in his just Judgment upon them for their heinous Provocations had not hardned their Hearts but they had submitted themselves and sought Peace of the Children of Israel they ought to have had favour shewn them It doth therefore sufficiently appear that the Canaanites themselves after all their Provocations against both the Mercy and Justice of God were not excluded from all the Benefits of Strangers and Proselytes amongst the Jews and that all other Nations were encouraged and invited to become Partakers of the Privileges of the Law of Moses and acquaint themselves with the Service and Worship of the True God is notorious and as evident as any thing in the Law and the Prophets But after the Canaanites had fill'd up the measure of their Iniquities God manifested his Almighty Power and Justice upon them and he was pleased to do it by the Sword of the Children of Israel rather than by Pestilence or any other Judgment both to raise the greater abhorrence of Idolatry in his own People and in the neighbouring Nations and because those rude and warlike Nations could observe the Power of God no where so much as in the success of War they chiefly implored their own Gods for success in their Wars and when they were overcome by any People they concluded that the Gods of that Nation were too hard for their own Gods 1 King xx 23. 2 King viii 34. whereas if they had been destroyed by Famine or Pestilence they would have ascribed these Judgments no more to the God of Israel than to any of the Heathen Gods But God got him honour upon these Nations as he did upon Pharaoh and upon all his host when Jethro said Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them Exod. xviii 11. from whence he is so often styled the Lord of Hosts in the Old Testament 2. The Providence of God did so order and dispose of the Jews in all their Affairs as to afford other Nations frequent opportunities of becoming instructed in the true Religion and multitudes of Proselytes were made out of all Nations Moses dwelt in Midian and there marry'd an Aethiopian Woman Exod. ii 15. Num. xii 1. his Wife's Father Jethro the Priest of Midian and his Family became converted And the Deliverance of the Children of Israel out of Aegypt magnify'd the Power of God in all Countries where the Report of a thing so wonderful and notorious came The miraculous Victories which the Israelites gained over the Canaanites where-ever they came struck a mighty Terror into all those Nations as we see by the Fear of Balak Num. xxii and from the Speech of the Gibeonites Josh ix 9 10. who were glad to make use of any Pretence as an Expedient to save themselves Rahab with her Family and Kindred and the Gibeonites were early Accessions to the Israelites and Rahab was marry'd to a Man of Israel and the Babylonian Gemara (p) Lightfoot Hebr. and Talmud Exercitat in Mat. i. 5. reckons up Eight Prophets who were likewise Priests descended from her This is certain that our Saviour himself was pleased to derive his Genealogy from her The various Successes of the Israelites in the land of Canaan their Victories and their Overthrows and the miraculous Power of God visibly appearing either in their Defeat and Punishment or in their Conquest or Deliverance must need raise a mighty Fame and Admiration of the God of Israel in all those Countries for they proclaimed a Religious War upon these Nations they destroyed their Images and Groves and Alters where-ever they came and the People plainly perceived that their Gods could not help them The Taking of Jericho not by Storm but only by the meer Sound and Alarm of War the Lengthning of the Day to favour their Conquests and the Destruction of so many Kings by Moses and Joshua were undeniable Evidences of a Divine Power and must awaken Men to make enquiry into that Religion which could inspire such Courage and work such Wonders And these Nations among whom the Patriarchs had sojourned and so many Wonders and Judgments had been wrought were dispersed in Colonies over all Parts of the World as Bochart has proved at large in a most learned and elaborate Work some them if we may believe Procopius erecting a Pillar in Africk as a Monument of Joshua's Victories with an Inscription declaring that they were driven out of their own Countrey by him And S. Augustine says (q) Aug. Exposit Epist ad Rom. that in his time the Country People about Hippo called themselves Canaanites After the Death of Joshua the Israelites were in subjection to the King of Mesopotamia eight Years to the King of Moab eighteen Years Judg. iii. 8 14. to Jabin King of Canaan chap. iv 1. to the Midianites seven Years chap. vi 1. to the Philistines forty Years chap. xiii 1. And still it was because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord that they were given up into the hand of their Enemies and upon their Repentance a Deliverance was wrought for them 1 Sam. xii 10. And when they were so often and for so long a time subdued by their Enemies round about them for their Idolatries and other Transgressions and then again upon their Repentance were rescued from their oppression by Gideon and Jeptha and Samson all raised up for that purpose this must give great occasion and opportunity to all the bordering Nations to know and consider that Religion the observation or neglect whereof had such visible Effects upon its Professors for under their Affliction and in the time of their Repentance the Israelites declared the cause of their Misery and made known the Power of their own God and the Vanity and Sinfulness of Idolatry And therefore their being so often and so long time under the Oppression of their several Enemies was a merciful Providence to the Nations who had them in subjection as well as for the Punishment and Amendment of the Israelites themselves What good use was made of these Methods of the Divine Providence doth not appear to
Nations to report that after so many loathsome and grievous Plagues inflicted upon Pharaoh and his People they came out of Aegypt and at last by the destruction of him and his whole Army in the Red-Sea made their escape and that they forced their way thro' all the other Nations that withstood their passage into Canaan and vanquished and destroyed them as they went and then to proclaim a sacred War against all the Nations whose Land they were to possess and many of whose Posterity were remaining in Solomon's time and probably long after and might have been able to confute great part of what the Israelites affirmed of themselves if it had been false and of a late invention for any People I say to invent such Accounts of Themselves and their Ancestors and then to make such Laws and to have the one believed and the other obeyed is altogether incredible When they had enraged all the neighbouring Nations to their destruction they obliged themselves by their Laws to leave all their Borders naked thrice every year and to give them an opportunity to destroy them and no People could have lived half an Age in such a condition under such Laws unless they had been protected by God himself the Author of them It appears therefore that as neither Moses himself nor any Party of Men either in his time or after it could either invent or change and falsified the Books which are under his Name so it is still more extravagant if possible to conceit that the whole People of Israel should either in Moses's time or afterwards be conscious to such an Imposture and yet that no man should ever discover it but it should to this day be concealed from all other Nations and that neither at the time of the Division of the Ten Tribes when Jeroboam was forced to set up Altars in other Places to keep the People from going up to Jerusalem to worship nor upon any other occasion this Secret if that may be called so which must be known to so many thousands should ever come to light Besides that they could never have invented those Laws by unanimous consent amongst themselves which they were so hardly brought to obey and if they had not been disobedient they would never have pretended they were and have invented Miracles to make it believed and if they had been never so forward in their obedience they could not have lived in the observation of the Law without a perpetual Miracle If then the Miracles of Moses and consequently the Divine Authority by which he gave his Law to the Israelites be sufficiently attested supposing the Matters of Fact to be true which are contained in the Pentateuch and if neither Moses himself could feign the Matters of Fact nor any other Person or Persons either in his time or afterwards could insert them or change the Law and the whole Jewish Nation could not at any time conspire in such a Fiction and Imposture We have all the Assurance that it is possible to have and all that any sober Man can desire both of the Truth of the Miracles wrought by Moses and of the Divine Authority of the Books penn'd by him And it will be found that after all the Reflections made by Infidels upon the Credulity as they esteem it of others there are none so credulous as they for they reject the most certain to believe the most incredible things in the World The Divine Mission and Authority of Moses being sully proved from thence it will follow 1. That God having instituted the Jewish Government was in point both of Wisdom and Honour concerned in the administration of it and that a more especial and peculiar Care and Providence must he watchful over this holy Nation and peculiar People 2 That whatever befell them either by Prophesies or by Miracles and the extraordinary Appointments of God according to the Revelations made in the Law of Moses has besides its own proper and intrinsick Evâ—dence the additional Proof of all the Miracles and Prophesies of Moses So that the Proof of the Divine Authority of Moses his Books is at the same time a Proof of all the other Books of Scripture so far as they are in the Matter and Subject of them consequent to these 3. That the Pentateuch and the other Parts of the Old Testament not to mention the New Testament in this place reciprocally prove each other like the Cause and the Effect the Pentateuch being the Cause and Foundation of These and these the Effect and the Consequence of the Pentateuch and the fulfilling the several Predictions of it CHAP. VII Of Joshua and the Judges and of the Miracles and Prophecies under their Government IT is generally agreed that Joshua himself was the Author of the Book under his Name and some who are of another opinion yet acknowledge that it must be written by his particular Order in his life-time or soon after his death The nature of the thing it self required that the Division of the Land of Canaan amongst the several Tribes should forthwith be committed to Writing for no People can be named who had the use of Letters that trusted the Boundaries of their Lands to Memory and there is no delay to be used in such cases Joshua therefore who did by Lot set out the Bounds of the Tribes at the same time put them down in Writing which he lest upon Record to Posterity to prevent Disputes and to be appealed to in case any Controversie should arise But the bare Distribution of the Land was not to be transmitted without an Account of the miraculous Conquests of it which might dispose them to be conâ—ented with their several Lots and remind them of their Duty in the possesssion and enjoyment of a Land which they were settled in thy the immediate Hand of God The Book of Joshua appears to have been written during the life-time of Rahab Jos vi 25. and to have been written in part at least by Joshua himself and annexed to the Law of Moses chap. xxiv 26. But the five last Verses giving an Account of the Death of Joshua and of what followed after it were added by some of the Prophets probably by Samuel who according to the Jewish Tradition is the Author of the Book of Judges where we find the same things repeated concerning the Death of Joshua Judg. ii 7. The Book of Judges is reckon'd among the Books of the Prophets Mat. ii 23. Judg. xiii 5. and It seems to be entitl'd to Samuel Act. iii. 24. where Samuel is mention'd as the first of the Prophets that is the first Author of the Books written by them That the Book of Judges was peâ—n'd before the Taking of Jerusalâ—â—â— by David we may learn from Judg. i. 22. After the death of Moses Joshua undertakes the Government and Conduct of the People of Israel according to God's Appointment and his Investiture to it by Moses Num. xxvii 22. who also foretold the great Success that
Divine Inspiration and Authority that they wholly depended and relyed upon them and lived in an uncomfortable Exile upon the sole Hopes and Expectations of seeing the rest of their Prophecies fulfilled And theirfore the Posterity of those who had slain the Prophets had the Highest veneration for the Memory of these Prophets whom their Forefathers had killed they built and adorned their Sepulchres and chose to die any Death rather than renounce the Authority of their Books or part with them even when they had forsaken their Doctrine and changed their Religion for vain Traditions and superstitious Observances and when it was so reproachful to them to erect Monuments of perpetual acknowledgment That they were the the Children of them which killed the Prophets Matth. xxiii 31. they referred themselves to these Prophets for the Authority of their Religion and acknowledged that they had neither Prophecies nor Miracles after the Captivity CHAP. XI Of the Dependance of the several Parts of the Scriptures upon each other and that the Old Testament prove the New and the New again proves the Old as the Cause and the Effect IT is a thing altogether incredible that the Inhabitants of so small a part of the World as Judaea is should lay a Design of imposing upon the rest of Mankind which could prove so successful for so many thousand Years together and that they should be such Masters of Deceit and the World so fond of receiving Revelations from them that at last though the greatest part of that People disclaimed the Books which some few and those the most unlearned among them would impose for Inspired Writings yet the Authority of these Books should be more acknowledged in all Parts of the World than those had ever been in which they all unanimously agreed and the rest should be received for the sake of these more than ever they had been upon their own account which is the case of the Books of the Old and New Testament If the Jews even the meanest and most ignorant of them could do this merely by their own Wit and Device they must have a Genius superiour to that of all Mankind besides For what imaginable Reason is there why the Oracles of all the Heathen Nations should never be much regarded and now in a manner utterly lost and that the Books of the Jews should still be preserved in their full Authority but the power and Advantage of Truth in these and the want of it in them And the Evidence of this Truth is most observable in the mutual Dependence which all the Parts of the Scriptures have one upon another They were penn'd by Men of different Countreys different Ages different Conditions and Callings and Interests from the King to the poor Fisherman and yet all carry on the same Design They are not like the Oracles of the Heathen Gods which must stand or fall by themselves but there is an admirable Series and Connexion between all the Writings of the Holy Scriptures by which the several Parts of them give a mutual support and attestation to each other The Pentateuch and Moses contains the first Lineaments and evident Types and Prophecies of all that is contained in the rest He foretold That a succession of Prophets should arise and that at last the Great Prophet should be sent who is Christ and he foretold all that was to befall the Jews from his own time to the Destruction of Jerusalem And as Moses has given us the general State of the Jews for all Generations so the several Prophets who were sent from time to time according to his Predictions foretold particular Events and more-especially they foretold and described the Times of the Gospel This was the great Design of all Prophecies and the thing that God had spoken by the Prophets which have been since the world bigan Luk. i. 70. For in Christ was the Accomplishment of all the Types and Prophecies in the Old Testament And this Dependance and Coherence between all the Parts of the Scriptures in the Matter and Design of them which is as great as the dependance of one part of any Book written by the same Author can be upon another gives great strength and confirmation to the whole since it is an Evidence that it was all Inspired by the same Infallible Spirit and if one part of Scripture be proved to be true all must be so for besides the particular Evidence which may be brought for any part separately we must consider the Connexion which it has with the rest and the Evidence which is derived upon it by this Connexion if the Pentateuch be once proved to be of Divine Authority than the Prophets who succeeded Moses must be Divinely Inspired because he foretold the succession of such Prophets And if the Prophecies and Miracles of the Prophets were Divine the Pentateuch must be so because they all along acknowledged and appealed to it as containing God's Covenant with his People the Jews and being therefore the ground and foundation of their own Mission if Moses and the Prophets be from God the Gospel must be from him if that be foretold by them And if the Prophecies and Miracles of our Saviour and his Disciples prove their Divine Authority the Writings of Moses and the Prophets must be likewise of the same Authority because they acknowledge them for such and prove their own Authority from them as well as from the Miracles that they themselves wrought And if the Prophecies and Miracles either of Moses or of the Prophets or of our Saviour and his Apostles taken by themselves and apart from the rest be sufficient they must needs be more convincing when they are considered together in their united Force and Light I might further observe That Miracles without Prophecies or Prophecies without Miracles or that one evident Miracle or one evident Prophecy at least That either the Miracles or prophecies of some one Person in the several Ages in which so many Prophets lived would have been a sufficient ground of Faith and that therefore they must all be much rather so in conjunction But I shall only desire it may be remembred That whatever Evidence has been brought in proof of the Divine Authority of the Books of Moses and of the Prophets doth reciprocally prove both the one and the other and that therefore whatever is brought from either of them in Proof of the Gospel has the Evidence of the whole and that the Gospel in different respects doth prove them and is proved by them both deriving Authority from the Books of the Old Testament and communicating its own Authority to them For as the Cause may be proved by its Effect and the Effect by its Cause so both Predictions prove the Things foretold and the accomplishment of the Things foretold verifie the Predictions and Miracles wrought in consequence of Prophecies concerning them have doubly the Divine Seal and Attestation Now the Messias is the Scope and Centre of the whole Old Testament
of time often cause them to be quite laid aside But then this borrowed and Metaphorical sense of words may be very strange to Men of other Countries especially when they are taken for things peculiar to the place where they are used The Horn of the Son of Oyl signifies in our way of expression a very fruitful Hill Isa 5.1 and Horn signified strength in the Hebrew Tongue as familiarly as Robur or Oak signifies the same in Latin And not only the Valleys are said to shout and sing Ps 65.13 but the best Fruits in the Land are in the Hebrew called the singing of the Land Gen. 43.11 The word Rock is often used to denote the Almighty Power of God and by the Septuagint and vulgar Latin is sometimes translated God For their Rock is not as our Rock even our Enemies being Judges Deut. 32.31 those versions render it their Gods and our God and in like manner v. 4 15 18. Ps 31.3.73.26 Is there any God besides me yea there is no God I know not any Isai 46.8 in the Hebrew it is there is no Rock as the Margin of our Bibles remarks This use of Metaphors ariseth partly from the likeness that is perceiv'd between things which makes one thing to be exprest by another and gives a delightful illustration to the things discoursed of and partly from our want of fit words to express the various natures of things especially of things spiritual which we commonly speak of in Negative terms and rather deny that they are like things sensible than positively affirm what they are Thus we say that they are immaterial invisible incorruptible c. And when we speak positively of them we must use such words as sensible objects can furnish us withal since we can have no other for we understand their Nature so imperfectly that we are not able to frame a Language on purpose to express it and he who should go about such a work would neither be understood by others nor well known what he meant himself But of all Beings God himself is so far above our comprehension that we can never speak of him in expressions suitable to his Divine Nature and therefore when true concâ—ptions are had of him it is fittest to speak of him in such terms as many serve to raise and preserve in us a due sense of Gods Honour and of our duty to him The Reasons then why God is often spoken of in the Scriptures after the manner in which we are wont to speak of men may be reduced to these particulars 1. The use of Metaphorical and Figurative expressions is usual in all Languages and no Language is sufficient to set forth the Majesty and Attributes of God 2. The peculiar Nature and Genius of the Hebrew Tongue inclined or constrained the Writers in that Language to express themselves in this manner Gen. 9.5 at the hand of every Beast will I require it that is I will require it of every Beast Sin in the Hebrew signifies a Sin-offering as it is translated and must of necessity be understood in many places of Scripture and in this sense Christ was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 We read Jos 24.27 that Joshua said unto all the people behold this stone shall be a witness unto us For it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us it shall therefore be a witness unto you lest ye deny your God This might have been a very improper and unintelligible Speech to another people but was most significant and emphatical to the people of Israel who well understood upon what account sense was often ascribed to inanimate things as Gen. 31.52 Num. 20.8 Deâ—t 4.26.30.19.32.1 and afterwards frequently by the Prophets 3. An express Law was made against the worshipping of God under any Image or Similitude and the people are put in mind that they saw no similitude but only heard a voice when the Lord spake to them from the Mount Deut. 4.12 and that he is without change or repentance Num. 23.19 1 Sam. 15.29 Malach 3.6 4. When this caution had been given and such a Law made it cannot be expected but that the Divine Writers should make use of such expressions as were commonly used and were as commonly understood in a Metaphorical or improper sense when applied to God to give the more force and emphasis to their discourse * Maimoâ—id More Nevoch Par. 1. c. 1 26 27 28 36.48 Maimonides has proved from the propriety of the Hebrew words that the Image and Likeness of God in which man is said to have been made is to be understood of the faculties of his Mind and he lays this down as a general and known rule amongst the Jews Loquitur Lex secundum linguam Filiorum hominum and he likewise observes that both Onkelos and Jonathan have in their Paraphrases taken care to give the true sense of such expressions as seem to imply any thing corporeal in God The Scriptures make mention of his eyes and hands and feet to express the effects of those Actions which are performed by men with these members and when it was said it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart Gen. 6.6 This was well understood to mean no more than that God acted as men are wont to do when they change their minds and repent and grieve at what they have done and that he would certainly destroy the world which he had made for Moses himself instructs the Children of Israel that God is without any bodily shape or substance and therefore cannot be said to have any heart or to be grieved at his heart in the same sense that it is said of men And Num. 23.19 it is declared that God is not a man that he should lye neither the Son of man that he should repent And when God says that it repented him that he had set up Saul to be King 1 Sam. 15.11 this is explain'd v. 29. where we read that the strength of Israel will not lye nor repent for he is not a man that he should repent and yet again in the last verse it is said that the Lord repented that he had made Saul King over Israel The most careless writer could not so soon and so often forget himself but what is said of Gods repenting is to be taken in an improper and figurative sense to imply that God would act in that case as men act when they repent of what they have done tho without any change of mind or any grief or other passion in him attending it the effect was the same as if God had repented and therefore by a Metonymy the effect is exprest by that which in men is wont to be the cause of such effects tho repentance was not the cause of it but the reason and state of the case which he had fully known and considered from all eternity and therefore could not be surprized or
ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them Male and Female And said for this cause shall a Man leave Father and Mother and shall cleave to his Wife and they twain shall be one Flesh Matth. xix 4 5. And St. Paul in like manner to shew that the Woman ought not to usurp Authority over the Man proves it by this Argument For Adam was first formed then Eve 1 Tim. ii 13. and in another place and upon another occasion he observes that the Man is not of the Woman but the Woman of the Man 1 Cor. xi 8. And long before the Prophet Malachi had Argued from the same Topick Malach. ii 15. And Hebr. iv 4. it is noted that God did rest the Seventh day from all his Works from whence the Apostle concludes that he that is entred into his rest he also hath ceased from his own Works as God did from his Vers 10. Now as these and whatever other Arguments are to be found in the Scriptures of the like Nature do evidently suppose the Creation of the World in the same manner as it is related in the Book of Genesis so they explain to us the Reasons why it was thus Created For all these Arguments had been lost and there could have been no ground for them if the World had been otherwise created As certainly therefore as this Arguing from the manner of the Creation is good So certain it is both that the World was so Created and that there was great Reason for it But whatever some Philisophers may think now there is nothing which would have been more disagreeable to the Notions of the Generality of the wisest Men in all Ages than that the World should be made upon Mechanical Principles He spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fact Psal xxxiii 9. He Commanded and they were Created Psal Cxlviii 5. This expresses not only the Truth of the History but the general sense of Mankind who have ever had this Notion of God that to command and to do is the same thing with him And therefore the Objection till of late has run the other way that God did rather Create the World in an instant than in six days It was little suspected formerly that divers Years or many Ages were spent in the Creation It was in the Description of the Creation of the World that Longinus observed the sublime Style of Moses and if the Relation of it be admirable the Creation it self in such a manner as is there related must be much more admirable For it is proper for it to be thus described for no other Reason but because it was proper for it in this manner to be done But what would Longinus have said if the Creation had been related to have been performed not by any command which had its immediate effect but by the tedious Process of Mechanical Causes What Grandeur what evidence of the Divine Power and Majesty is there in this more than in any Chymical Operation if the Mechanical Hypothesis were true It were strange Presumption to demand of Almighty God a Reason of all his Actions and not to believe him upon his Word that he has done any thing but when and how some Men conceit it ought to have been done But what I have now said may at least serve to silence the Cavils of such Men. 2. The Preservation of the World is not performed according to Mechanical Laws or Principles The Mechanical Hypothesis supposes that Bodies act upon Bodies or Actives upon Passives in a certain course and according to such Laws as that being left to themselves they necessarily produce their Effects without any immediate Interposition of a Divine Power But this Notion is grounded wholly upon mistakes 1. It supposes that there was at first a certain quantity of Motion infused or impressed upon Matter which still continues passing from one Body to another according to certain Methods or Rules prescribed But this Supposition that there is always the same Quantity of Motion in the World is wholly precarious or rather notoriously false and the best Philosophers have been able to give no Account how Motion can be Communicated without an immediate Impulse or Concourse of the Divine Power 2. By the Mechanical Hypothesis it is supposed as a thing certain that there is a Plenum which at least is very uncertain or rather it has been demonstrated by Mr. Newton that there is a Vacuum not only interspersed but of a Prodigious and almost incredible extent at the distance of the Earths Simidiameter from us And by his Principles Gravitation must proceed from an immediate and constant Impression or Impulse of God For it proceeds from no Action of one Body upon another but is a Quality belonging to all Matter alike and to every particle of Matter however separate and distant from all others The Projectile Motion and that Attractive Force by which the Planets are carried in their Orbits cannot be communicated or performed according to any Mechanical Laws whereby they are determined from a Rectilinear to an Orbicular Motion For Bodies can act upon Bodies only by Contract and therefore cannot Communicate their Motion or any way determin or affect the Motion of each other in a Vacuum so vast as it must be near the Circumference of the several Orbits so that the old occult Qualities and Substantial Terms were not more repugnant to the Mechanical Hypothesis than these Principles are The being of a Vacuum must suppose an immediate Divine Power necessary to keep the System of the World in that order in which we see it continue For otherwise by this Principle of Gravitations being inherent in every Part of Matter all Bodies would press towards the Center and in a Vacuum there can be nothing to hinder their tendency towards it till they come crowding the upon another so that all the Order of things would soon be reduced to one confused Heap or Moss unless some immaterial Power interposed to hinder it It is evident then that the Mechanical Hypothesis is quite destroyed by these Principles For by these here is no Connexion of Causes and Effects according to any Laws of mere Matter and Motion but all must be done by the immediate Power of God Gravitation and the Projectile Motion must be impressed and suspended without any dependance upon surrounding Bodies they must produce their Effects thro' prodigious void Spaces where Bodies have no Communication of Motion from one to another And all being performed by the immediate directing and assisting Hand of God a Man may as well pretend to solve a Miracle Mechanically as to give any Account of the Phaenomena of Nature by Mechanical Laws according to these Principles 3. The Abetters of the Mechanical Hypothesis argue that God acts in the most General and Uniform ways that it is more becoming his Wisdom to let Nature have its course and that constantly to interpose would be a disparagement to the Order
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