World though Men will take no Warning by never so many Examples but have need of continual Advice and Exhortation to keep them from the Commission of them Is there the less Certainty in the Mathematicks because Euclid Apollonius and innumerable others of all Ages and Nations have put forth Books and Systems of Mathematicks in several Forms and Methods When many write upon the same Subject it is an Argument of the Excellency and Vsefulness of it not that they are dissatisfy'd in what has been already said by others but that they think more may be said or that some Things may be prov'd more clearly in another Method with more Advantage to some Capacities and with greater Probability of removing the Scruples of some Men. It is undoubtedly very fit that all necessary Doctrines upon which the Eternal Happiness or Misery of Mankind depends should be treated of in all kinds of Ways and Methods and they cannot be too often discours'd of nor by too many Men that no Objection may remain unanswer'd nor Scruple unobserv'd Though a little may be sufficient upon a plain Matter to wise Men yet too much cannot be said upon a Subject wherein all Men are concern'd And it is the great Assurance of the Truth of Religion and Charity to the Souls of Men that has engag'd so many Authors in this Cause Besides the Primitive Fathers and Apologists Men of the greatest Learning and Abilities in latter Ages have undertaken this Subject having made it their Study and Business to consider the Grounds of our Holy Religion And I think few will pretend to more Judgment to discover Truth or to more Integrity to declare it than such Authors who have had no particular Interest or Profession in reference to Religion but were under only the common Obligations of all Christians which if they had valu'd as little as some others they could with as much Wit and Learning have appear'd in the Cause of Irreligion as any that ever undertook it Many of the most Eminent in all Professions and Callings have been the most zealous Assertors of Religion as I might shew by particular Examples which are in every Man's Memory Indeed I believe few Men have so vain an Opinion of themselves as to think they understand their several Studies and Professions better than such Persons who have given undoubted Evidence of their unfeigned Belief of the Christian Religion Men of the greatest Sagacity and Judgment have not been mov'd with such Objections as others so much stumble at but have liv'd and dy'd the Glory of their Age and an Honour to their Religion such were the Learned Prince of Mirandula and that Learned French Nobleman Mornaeus such were Grotius Sir Matthew Hales Dr. Willis and many besides both of our own and other Nations I shall mention but one more who indeed was so Eminent that I scarce need mention him for he must be already in every Reader 's Thoughts I mean the Honourable Mr. Boyle who was as inquisitive and as unwilling to be impos'd upon and knew as much of Nature perhaps as ever any Man not Inspir'd did and had withal as stedfast a Belief and as aweful Apprehensions of Reveal'd Religion which he endeavour'd to Establish and Propagate not only by his own Writings but by the Labours of others which he Engag'd and rewarded by his Last Will and Testament 2. But Men do not always live answerably to what they profess to believe It were heartily to be wish'd that there had never been any Occasion given for this Objection For though it be very inconsiderable in it self yet it does I believe the most mischief of any because Men naturally govern themselves more by the Example than by the Judgment of others or even than by their own Reason But if we will judge aright the Example of one Man who lives according to the Doctrines of Religion ought to be of more weight with us than the Example of never so many who live contrary to their Profession Because when Men profess one thing and act another their Actions are surely as little to be regarded as their Profession And if we will not believe their Profession against their Actions why should we regard their Example against their avowed Principles and Profession It is in all other cases esteemed a good Argument for the Truth of any thing when Men confess it against themselves And the Motives and Temptations are visible by which they are led aside from their own declared Faith and Judgment this Pleasure or that Profit is the cause of it which every Man can point to But when he who lives conformably to his Principles denies himself when he loses and suffers by it he must needs be in great earnest whereas the others are apparently bribed to forsake that in Practice which notwithstanding they cannot but own in the Theory and Principles This was an old Prejudice against Philosophy That the Philosophers did not observe their own Precepts But it was rejected by wise Men as no Argument against the Truth and Vsefulness of Philosophy It is a great Objection against the Men but sure it can be no Argument against the Things themselves that they are disregarded by those who understand their worth and pretend to have a due value and esteem for them And whoever renounces the Faith or takes up Principles of Irreligion because of any ill Practices of others too plainly declares either that in Truth and Sincerity he never had any or that he is very willing to part with his Religion All Men make some pretence to Reason and those Men most of all who are so apt to decry Religion upon this account That many who profess to believe it do not always live up to its Rules and Instructions But they do not consider in the mean time That Men generally act as much against Reason as against Relgion and that therefore this Objection if it can signifie any thing must banish all Reason and good Sence out of the World If there be no True Religion because so few practise it as they ought there can be no True Reason neither because the Lives of so many Men contradict it And some perhaps would be contented that there should be no True Religion rather than that there should be no True Reason because then they must be no longer allowed to be able to Reason against Religion But if the Truth and Reality of Things depend upon the Practice of Men then the same Religion may be true and false at the same time it may be true in one Age and false in another or true in one Countrey and false in the next and must be more or less true or false in the same proportion as the Lives and Manners of its Professors are more or less vertuous or vicious Indeed this is so unreasonable and unjust a Prejudice against Religion though it be grown a very common one that methinks every Man should be ashamed of it especially Men of Reason
he had of those who were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the word Luke i. 2. And he was the Companion and Disciple of St. Paul who was such an enemy to Christianity before his Conversion that nothing less than a miraculous Power could have made that sudden change in him he probably must have seen our Saviour before his Passion and then saw him again at his Conversion and heard him speaking to him from Heaven So that St. Paul as well as the other twelve Apostles had seen and heard our Saviour and they were all convinced by their own senses of what they delivered to others and besides these he was seen after his Resurrection by many others both Men and Women and at one time was seen by above five hundred together 1 Cor. xv 6. Of all the writers of the Books of the New Testament there are but two who were not Eye-witnesses to what they relate and these two had their Relations from the Apostles and others who were eye-witnesses III. The Apostles were Men of integrity and without any Artifice or Design truly declared what they knew 1. They had no worldly Interest to advance by their Testimony but suffered by it and had a certain prospect of suffering 2. There are peculiar marks of sincerity in all their writings I. They had no worldly interest to serve by their Testimony but suffered by it and had a certain prospect of sufferings They could propose no advantage to themselves of Gain or Honours or Pleasures but on the contrary underwent a voluntrary Poverty and Infamy and Torments which was all that they met with in this world for their Pains and all that they could expect to meet with They forsook all which they had St. Matthew a gainful Employment and St. Paul who wrote the most of any of the Penmen of the New Testament lost the favour of the Chief Priests and the preferments which a person of his Learning and Zeal might promise himself from them St. Luke a Physician by his profession left an employment both of Honour and Advantage and the rest lost all they had and can any Man lose more All of them left an honest and secure livelihood and exposed themselves to the hatred and contempt of all their nearest Friends and Relations whose love and esteem both by nature and education they must be enclined most to desire and they became obnoxious to all the affronts and outrage and torments which a furious zeal could inflict upon them All which was no new or unexpected thing to them they saw what their Master had suffered and could hope to fare no better than he had done They were often forewarned by Christ long before hand what must befal them they were told that they must take up their Cross and follow him and could be his Disciples upon no easier terms He had set forth the reception which they must expect to meet with in the world just in the same manuer as they found it under the most frightful appearance that words could represent And this they soon found as punctually true as all the rest that he had foretold to them but though they found it so and sometimes were dismissed with a severe charge to desist from Preaching the Gospel and at other times escaped and had an opportunity given them to avoid any further danger by Preaching it they ever perservered in it with the greatest zeal and constancy despising all dangers and all sorts of torments and deaths and glorying still and rejoicing that they suffered in so good a Cause and at last they sealed their Doctrine with their Blood St. Paul was in great reputation with the Chief Priests and Scribes and Pharisees before his conversion and was employed by them in persecuting the Church and as often as he appeared before them they had nothing to accuse him of but his profession of a Religion which obliges all Men to the strictest justice and holiness If the Apostles had not been the best they must have been the worst of Men for imposing upon the world under the pretence of a Divine Mission and Authority and yet this they must do with no other design but to promote virtue and holiness which no ill Man could design to his own certain loss and destruction in this world and the next and the less Men believe of the next world the more fond they are to make sure of this Ambition and a desire of Fame and a Name after Death rarely happens to Men of obscure Birth and mean Education and it was naturally impossible that it should now befal so many of them without any ground or reason to expect it when in all humane consideration they had a certain prospect of nothing but infamy after death as well as of disgrace and want and torment during their lives And no Man could resolve upon attesting any thing on such terms unless he had been absolutely certain of the Truth of it much less could so many set upon such a design together for as they could have no arguments to perswade one another to enter upon such an Attempt so if they had once conspir'd in it they would soon have deserted and discovered each other when they lay under all the disadvantages and difficulties imaginable and had nothing to support and unite them but the truth and reality of what they delivered And it is further observable that in the first Ages of the Church and the nearer Christians were to the Apostles the more zealous they were to live according to the Gospel of Christ and to die in defence of it for they had then greater opportunities of informing themselves of the Imposture if there had been any and had therefore the greater means of being certified that there was none And Men of great parts and Accomplishments such as Sergius Paulus Governour of Cyprus Dionysius the Areopagite Justin Martyr Tertullian and others who were inquisitive Men and able to make a true judgment of things upon a full examination of all particulars became early Converts to the Christian Religion II. There are peculiar marks of sincerity in all the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists They were not ambitious of being known to the world by their writings but wrote only as they were (a) Euseb Eccle. hist lib. iii. 23. by necessity drawn to it for the further propagation of the Gospel And upon all occasions they declare their own frailties and faults and many times such as could never have been known but from themselves St. Matthew had spent the former part of his Life in no very creditable employment but among Publicans and Sinners as he says himself for he leaves recorded to all Posterity the censure of his own Life saying that he sat at the receit of custom Matt. ix 9 10. and stiling himself Matthew the Publican Mat. x. 3. Eusebius observes that none of the other Evangelists have mentioned a thing so reproachful of him as his having been a Publican but St.
was a long Succession of Philosophers and Sophists who made it their business to oppose the Christian Religion The Shool of Platonists which continued at Athens for some Ages would revive or reinforce any Arguments that had been used by their Predecessors in Opposition to Christianity Proclus and Damascius who were of this School lived about the middle of the Sixth Age and the Writings of Damascius were extant (u) Phot. cod CLXXXI CCXLII. LXXVII in Photius's time in the middle of the Ninth Age the History of Eunapius was then likewise extant and is (x) Voss de Graec. Hist said to be preserved at Venice We have the Abridgment of it by Zosimus and a sufficient Specimen of his malicious Invectives in his other Writings And it is probable that these and many other Books of the like nature which are now lost continued much longer than any Accounts which we have now remaining of them mention Of about Thirty Answers (y) Holstein de Vit. Script Porphyt c. 10. which were written to Porphyry by several Authors not one of them is now to be found When the World was satisfied of the insufficieny of his Objections the Answers to his Books were as little regarded as the Books themselves but underwent the same Fate with them The Jews who from the beginning of Christianity before but especially since the Destruction of Jerusalem have in vast Numbers been spread all over the World and have ever been the most implacable Enemies of the Gospel had the greatest Opportunity to detect any falshood in it and have never omitted any Advantage of improving and enforcing the Arguments against it and and therefore would be sure to retain any thing considerable which had been objected by their Fore-Fathers or by the Heathens with whom they conversed The Jews have been a perpetual restless Enemy in all Parts and Ages of the World and nothing material in this Case would escape their Observation But out of the Writings of the Ancient Jews which are still extant many things have been alleged by many Learned Men of our own and other Nations in confirmation of our Religion from the Confession of the Jews themselves The Unbelief therefore both of the Jews and Gentiles of those Ages is no material Objection nor altogether so unaccountable as the Unbelief of too many now who were born among Christians and have had their Education in the Christian Religion The Truth is Example is always the weakest Argument in any Case and can be of no Force or Authority against the clearest rational Evidence CHAP. XXXI That the Confidence of Men of false Religions and their Willingness to suffer for them is no Prejudice to the Authority of the True Religion THE Christian Religion doth infinitely surpass all others in the Number of its Martyrs of both Sexes of every Age and Nation and Rank and Condition Mistaken ignorant Zealots may often have suffered for other Religions but Men of the highest Station and Worth and inferiour to none in the Knowledge and Experience of every thing that the World esteems Excellent have renounced all and upon choice and after a full consideration of the Merits of the Cause have laid down their Lives for the sake of the Gospel Tyrants of the greatest Power and Cruelty have made it their Aim and Ambition by all sorts of Tortures to extirpate the Christian Religion they esteemed their Persecutions matter of Triumph and a fit subject for the (a) Gâ—uter Inscript p. 238 280. Inscriptions of Monuments erected to their Memories But the invincible Patience and glorious Sufferings of the Christians prevailed against all the Rage and Force of their Enemies If the Martyrologies of all Religions were to be compared there would soon appear so manifest a difference between the Christian Martyrs and the Sufferers for other Religions that nothing would be needful to be said upon this subject But remembring with whom I have to deal I am resolved to take every thing at the lowest and argue with them upon their own Terms Let us for a while set aside whatever of this nature might be said in preference of the Christian Martyrs and suppose the Numbers and Zeal of the Martyrs for so we must call them at present of other Religions to have been as great as can be imagined yet the Cause it self makes a plain difference between them An ignorant Zeal in a wrong Cause is no Argument against the Goodness of any Cause which is maintained and promoted by such a Zeal as is reasonable and proceeds upon sure Grounds Indeed it were very hard and very strange if that which is true should be ever the less certain or the less to be regarded and esteemed because there may be other things that are false of which some Men are as firmly persuaded and are as much concerned for them as any one can be for the Truth it self And yet this is the wisest thing that many have to pretend against the certainty of the Religion in which they were Baptised that there are many Impostures in the World and none is without its Zealots to appear in Vindication of it I am confident no Man ever parted with any thing but his Religion upon so weak a Pretence A false Religion is not the only thing for which Men are wont to have an undeserved Value but their Country their Friends and themselves they are commonly as much mistaken in and do as highly overprize Is there then no real difference or solid worth in any of these Some of the most unlikely Countrys in the World have been admired by the Natives as if they were the Garden of Eden and the Place of Paradise Though there is nothing easier than to make a distinction concerning different Countrys And it is as easie to distinguish between the Elysium of the Heathens or Mahomet's Paradise and the Kingdom of Heaven and between the Ways which lead to them There is nothing especially if it be of any Moment and Consequence to them for which Men have not shewn themselves passionately concerned and it is not to be expected that they should be so much more infallible in Religion than in other things or should be so much less in earnest about it as not to discover the same Frailties and the same Affections which are visible in all the other Actions and Business of their Lives It is often seen in most Cases that some are as earnest and zealous in a false Cause as others are in a True but doth this prove that there is no difference between Falshood and Truth When two Men of opposite Parties are equally confident of the Goodness of their Cause it is certain that but one of them can be in the right and it is as certain that one of them must be at least so far in the right as he contradicts the other because as the two Parts of a Contradiction cannot be both True so they cannot be both False If then a confident and zealous
demure Pretenders to Humane Reason and Moral Vertue and the Enemies of Revealed Religion We are fallen into an Age in which there are a sort of Men who have shewn so great a forwardness to be no longer Christians that they have catch'd at all the little Cavils and Pretences against Religion and indeed if it were not more out of charity to their own Souls than for any credit Religion can have of them it were great pity but they should have their Wish for they both think and live so ill that it is an argument for the goodness of any Cause that they are against it It was urged as a confirmation of the Christian Riligion by Tertullian that it was haved and persecuted by Nero the worst of Men And I am confident it would be but small Reputation to it in any Age if such Men should be found of it They speak evil of the things they understand not and are wont to talk with as much confidence against any point of Religion as if they had all the Learning in the World in their keeping when commonly they know little or nothing of what has been said for that against which they dispute They seem to imagine that there is nothing in the World besides Religion that has any difficulty in it but this shews how little they have considered the Nature of Things in which multitudes of Objections and Difficulties meet an observing Man in every Thought And after all Religion has but one fault as they account it which they have been able to discover in it and that is that it is too good and vertuous for them for when they have said all they can this is their great quarrel against it and as it has been truly observed no charity less than that of the Religion which they despise would have much care or consideration for them Thus have some Men dishonoured Religion by their Lives some by an affectation of Novelty some by invalidating the Authority of Books relating true Miracles and Prophecies and others by forging false ones some again by their too eager and imprudent Disputes and Contentions about Religion whilst from hence others have taken the liberty to ridicule it and to dispute against it but so as to expose themselves whilst they would expose Religion And thus has the clearest and most necessary Truth been obscured and despised whilst it has been betrayed by the vanity and quarrels of its Friends to the scorn and weakness of its Enemies However in all their opposition and contradiction to Revealed Religion I find it asserted by these Men that Atheism is so absurd a thing that they question whether there ever were or can be an Atheist in the World I have therefore here proved from the Attributes of God and the Grounds of Natural Religion that the Christian Religion must be of Divine Revelation and that this Religion is as certainly true as it is that God Himself exists which is the plainest Truth and the most universally acknowledged of any thing whatsoever And because there is nothing so true or certain but something may be alledged against it I shall besides discourse upon such Heads as have been most excepted against In which I shall endeavour to prove the Truth in such a manner as to vindicate it against all Cavils though I shall not take notice of particular Objections which is both a needless and indeed an endless labour for there is no end of Cavils but if the Truth be well and fully explained any Objection may receive a sufficient Answer from the consideration of the Doctrine against which it is urged by applying it to particular Difficulties as one Right Line is enough to demonstrate all the variations from it to be Crooked It is very easie to cavil and find fault with any thing and to start Objections and ask Questions is even to a Proverb esteemed the worst sign that can be of a great Wit or a sound Judgment Men are unwilling to believe any thing to be true which contradicts their Vices and the weakest Arguments with strong Inclinations to a Cause will prove or disprove whatever they have a mind it should But let Men first practise the Vertues the Moral Vertues which our Religion enjoins and then let them disprove it if they can nay let them disprove it now if they can for it stands in no need of their favour but for their own sakes let them have a care of mistaking Vices for Arguments and every profane Jest for a Demonstration I wish they would consider whether the Concern they have to set up Natural against Revealed Religion proceed not from hence that by Natural Religion they mean no more than just what they please themselves or what they judge convenient in every case or occasion whereas Revealed Religion is a fix'd and determined thing and prescribes certain Rules and Laws for the Government of our Lives The plain truth of the matter is that they are for a Religion of their own contrivance which they may alter as they see sit but not for one of Divine Revelation which will admit of no change but must always continue the same whatever they can do Vnless that were the case there would be little occasion to trouble them with Books of this kind for the Arguments brought against the Christian Religion are indeed so weak and insignificant that they rather make for it and it might well be said as M. Paschal relates by one of this sort of Men to his Companions If you continue to dispute at this rate you will certainly make me a Christian I shall venture at least to say of this Treatise in the like manner as he doth of his That if these Men would be pleased to spend but a little of that time which is so often worse employed in the perusal of what is here offered I hope that something they may meet withal which may satisfie their Doubts and convince them of their Errors But though they should despise whatever can be said to them yet there are others besides the profess'd Adversaries of Revealed Religion to whom a Treatise of this nature may be serviceable The truth is notwistanding the great Plainness of the Christian Religion I cannot but think that Ignorance is one chief cause why it is so little valued and esteemed and its Doctrines so little obeyed A great part of Christians content themselves with a very slight and imperfect Knowledge of the Religion they profess and are able to give but very little Reason for that which is the most Reasonable thing in the World but they profess it rather as the Religion of their Country than of their own choice and because they find it contradicts their sensual Desires they are willing to believe as little of it as may be and when they hear others cavil and trifle with it partly out of Ignorance and partly from Inclination they take every idle Objection if it be but bold enough for an unanswerable
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
Condemnation And it is not only Just but Merciful for him to with-hold the Knowledge of his Reveal'd Will from those who he forefees would reject it and abuse the Opportunities which should be offer'd them to the Aggravation of their own Guilt and Punishment Especially if it be observ'd 2. That as to particular Persons we have reason to believe that God who by so wonderful a Providence has taken care that every Nation under Heaven might have the True Religion preach'd in it and who has the whole World at his Disposal and orders all things with great regard to the Salvation of Men we have abundant cause to think that he would by some of the various Methods of his Providence or even by Miracle bring such Men to the knowledge of the Truth who live according to their present Knowledge with a sincere and honest Endeavour to improve it When St. Peter was by Revelation sent to Cornelius he made this Inference from it Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him Act. x. 34 35. From whence what less can we conclude than that every Man in any part of the World who is sincerely good and pious in the Practice of his Duty so far as it is known to him shall rather by an express Revelation have the rest discover'd to him as in the Instance of Cornelius which gave occasion to these words of S. Peter than that he should be suffer'd to perish for want of a true Faith and sufficient Knowledge of his Duty And it is Just with God to punish those Heathens who sin without any Reveal'd Law for their Sins against Natural Reason and Conscience and for neglecting to use and improve their Reason and to embrace the Opportunities afforded them of becoming Christians We may likewise be certain that besides Natural Reason and Conscience God in his Goodness is not wanting to afford such inward Motions and Convictions of Mind to such of the Heathen as are not wilfully blind and stupify'd by their Vices as may prepare them for the reception of the Gospel which by his Providence he gives them so many Opportunities of becoming acquainted withal And if once they do discern the Defects and Faults of their own Religions which are so grosly against Natural Reason and Conscience they may make enquiry of Christians concerning their Religion as some of the Americans did of Cortes's and the Christians some of them at least however negligent they be in propagating it would never refuse to instruct them in it And it must be remembred that among those who have not receiv'd the True Religion yet many Points are taught and believ'd which had their Original from Revelation as is evident not only of the Mahometans but of several Heathen Nations which Points are so many Steps and Preparatives towards the Reception of the whole Truth if they be not wanting to themselves in pursuing them in their immediate Tendency and Consequences I shall not say That the Merits of Christ and the Salvation of the Gospel do extend to those who in the Integrity of their Hearts dye under an invincible Ignorance of it I believe rather that God suffers no Man so qualify'd and dispos'd to remain in invincible Ignorance But it is sufficient to vindicate God's Justice and Goodness that all Nations have had such Opportunities of coming to the Knowledge of the Truth and great Allowances may be made at the Last Day for the Ignorance and unhappy Circumstances of particular Men. It was well said That when God hath not thought fit to tell us how he will be pleas'd to deal with such Persons it is not fit for us to tell Him how he ought to deal with them But if it be difficult for us now to think how it will please God to deal with the Heathen it would be a thousand times more difficult to conceive how the Gracious and Merciful God could Govern and Judge the World if all Mankind were in the State of Heathens without any Divine Revelation What will become of the Heathen as to their Eternal State is not the Subject of this Discourse nor doth it concern us to know some of them will have more to plead for themselves in point of ignorance than others can have and they are in the hands of the Merciful Creator and Saviour of Mankind and there we must leave them But it must be acknowledged that it is much more agreeable to the Goodness and Mercy of God to reveal his Will and to give so many Opportunities to the World to be instructed in it though never so many should neglect the Means of Salvation than it is to suppose him to take no care to reduce Mankind to the sense and practice of Vertue and Religion but to let them continue in all manner of Idolatry and Wickedness without giving them any warning against it I have not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else Come ye near unto me hear ye this I have not spoken in secret from the beginning from the time that it was there am I Isa xlv 19 22. xlviii 16. Having proved That the Scriptures want nothing requisite to a Divine Revelation in regard either of the Antiquity or Promulgation I proceed to shew That they have sufficient Evidence both by Prophecies and Miracles in proof of their Authority This Evidence depends upon Matter of Fact which concerns either the Prophecies and Miracles themselves in their several circumstances as we find them stand Recorded or the Lives and Personal Qualifications of those by whom they were performed or by whom they are related in the Scriptures For if we can be assured both that they are truly related and that if they were done as they are related they could proceed from none but a Divine Power we have all the Evidence for the Truth of the Scriptures that can be had for a Revelation CHAP. III. Of Moses and Aaron THat Moses was a very Great and Wise Man is related by several of the most eminent Heathen Writers and I think it has never been denied by any Man But it is no less evident that he was likewise a very Good and Pious Man He frequently declares his own Failings and Infirmities Exod. iii. 11. iv 1 10 13. Num. xi 10. xx 12. xxvii 14. and never speaks any thing tending to his own Praise but upon a just and necessary occasion when it might become a prudent and modest Man especially one Divinely Inspired For all the Praise of such an one doth not terminate in himself but is attributed to God whose Instrument and Servant he is and in such cases where God's Honour is concerned it was a Duty to set forth the Favour and Goodness of God towards him though some Honour did redound
and had seen his Miracles and had been enabled by him to do the like and they were never credulous but always backward and slow of belief and the Resurrection of Christ was a surprizing thing to them For though he had often plainly foretold it to them yet the disappointment of their hopes of a Temporal Kingdom and the great terrour and consternation that his Death had put them into had quite broke their Spirits and thrust all hopes or thoughts of a Resurrection out of their minds and they were very hardly brought to a belief of it But he overcame their unbelief and satisfied all their scruples by such ways as must be convincing or else we can never be convinced that there is any real man besides our selves in the World and that all the rest are not mere Shadows and Ghosts they did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead they all beheld the marks in his hands and in his side and one of them who would not otherwise be perswaded to the belief of his Resurrection did thrust his fingers into the Print of the Nails by which he was fastned to the Cross and his hand into the wound of his side which was made by the Soldiers Spear just before he was taken down from it so that they knew him as certainly to be risen again as they had ever known him to be alive before his Death The Apostles were so diffident that our Saviour upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen Mark xvi 14. But it is observable that as St. Thomas was at first absent and was suffered afterwards to be so very difficult of Belief so it is said of the two Disciples that were walking to Emaus that their eyes were holden that they should not know him It was purposely so ordered by the Divine Providence that they might not readily know and acknowledge him but that the manner of his Manifestation of himself to them might be an invincible argument against all opposers that no Man might have any thing to object when every circumstance was as narrowly examined and with as great caution and circumspection and diffidence as it could have been done by himself if he had been there For I think we may challenge the boldest and subtilest Adversary to say what he could have done more to discover the Truth if he had been then living and amongst the Apostles than was done by them That which we have heard says St. John which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of Life for the Life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you 1 Joh. 1.2 3. which is all that is possible for any witness to say as to any matter of Fact and they who could speak and write in this manner must be competent witnesses if no other exception can lye against them they certainly speak home to the purpose and all that any Witness can be desired or supposed to speak II. As the Apostles could not be deceived themselves so they would not deceive others having no temptation to it but acting against all the Interests and advantages of this world And those who had denied or forsook Christ when he was living would never have been so zealous and resolute to suffer for him after he was Crucified if they had not been fully assured of his Resurrection It is not to be imagined they would have suffered all manner of Torments and Deaths only to bear Witness to a thing they had known to be false and it has been already proved that they could not be deceived in it but must have known it to be false if it had been so and therefore it must be true that Christ is risen from the Dead or else we must suppose the Apostles to have been of so different a nature from all the rest of Mankind as to delight in the things which all others fear and abhor even in Bonds and Imprisonments in infamy and torments and all the punishments that can be inflicted he that would endure all these for the sake of what he knew to be false must surely not be of humane nature and we may as well doubt whether the Apostles were Men as we are as whether Christ did rise from the Dead III. They alledged such circumstances as made it impossible for them to deceive those to whom they testified the Truth of Christ's Resurrection though they had had never so much mind to do it They declared that that Jesus whom the Jews had caused to be Crucified and had then placed a Guard of Soldiers to secure his Sepulchre lest his Disciples should take him away was notwithstanding all their care risen from the Dead and that that Report of the Jews that his Disciples came by night and stole him away while the Watch slept was utterly false nay that it was a suborned story and that the Chief Priests had given the Soldiers Money to say it Now if Christ had not really been risen how easily had all this been disproved and what a Provocation was this to the chief Priests to disprove it If they could their Honour and Reputation and their Interest with the People was highly concerned to vindicate the Truth of the Report which they had hired the Souldiers to give out and if there had been no such Report what reason could St. Matthew have to pretend there was And if against all Reason and common sense he had pretended such a report when there had been none it must have been the greatest disservice to his Cause that could have been thought of But when there was such a report amongst the Jews that his Disciples had stoln him away by night if this could have been made good against them would his Disciples so soon after in the very City where he had been Crucified declare to the Face of the Chief Priests assembled in Counsel the God of our Fathers hath raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a Tree him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour and to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins and we are his Witnesses of these things Acts v. 30 31 32. Was not this as much as could be said to challenge them to produce those Soldiers to confront them But besides the senseless story that Men should be able to know what was done when they confess themselves to have been asleep the Apostles could soon have confuted that calumny by the Miracles which they wrought by virtue of his Resurrection if the Soldiers had been asleep when the Body was taken away yet the Jews were certainly awake when they invented and spread the report and when they saw the Miracles and heard the strange Languages by which the Apostles proved it to be false and declared that
upon any Subject and then they trample with wonderful Scorn and Triumph upon that which they conceive is so miserably overcome but alass the Victory is over themselves nothing is either the more or the less true for their believing or disbelieving it and Religion is always the same how profanely soever it may be spoken of We have no design to impose upon any Man's Faith but if there be Reason in what we say it may well be expected from Reasonable Men that they should hearken to Reason Religion is Reason and Philosophy as the Fathers often speak the best and truest Philosophy And I am persuaded how much soever I may have failed in the performance that the Christian Religion is capable of being proved with such clear and full Evidence even to ordinary Understandings as to make all Pretences of Arguing against it appear to be as ridiculous as they are impious THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. Of Humane Reason THE Divine Authority of the Scriptures being proved in the First Book such Points are cleared in the Second as are thought most liable to exception in the Christian Religion But before Men venture upon Objections against the Scripture it is fit for them to consider the strength and compass of their own Faculties and the manifold Defects of Humane Reason p. 1. In some things each side of a Contradiction seems to be demonstrable p. 4. Every Man believes and has the Experience of several things which in the Theory and Speculative Notion of them would seem as incredible as any thing in the Scriptures can be supposed to be p. 12. Those who disbelieve and reject the Misteries of Religion must believe things much more incredible p. 24. CHAP. II. Of Inspiration ALL motion of Material things is derived from God and it is at least as conceiveable by us that God doth Act upon the Immaterial as that He Acts upon the Material part of the World and that He may act more powerfully upon the Wills and Understandings of some Men than of others p. 28. Wherein the inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did consist and how far it extended p. 31. Such Inferences from thence as may afford a sufficient Answer to the Objections alleged upon this Subject p. 41. The Inspiration of the Writers of the Scriptures did not exclude Humane Means as information in Matters of Fact c. p. 42. It did not exclude the use of their own Words and Style ibid. Tho' somethings are set down in the Scripture indefinitely and without any positive Assertion or Determination this is no proof against their being Written by Divine Inspiration p. 43. In things which might fall under Humane Prudence and Observation the Spirit of God seems to have used only a directive Power and Influence p. 46. This infallible Assistance was not permanent and Habitual P. 49. It did not prevent Personal failings p. 50. No Passage or Circumstance in the Scripture Erroneous p. 51. CHAP. III. Of the 〈◊〉 of the Holy Scriptures THE Grammatical Construction and Propriety of Speech p. 53. Those whch are look'd upon as Defects in the Scripture-Style were usual in the most approved Heathen Authors p. ib. Metaphors and Rhetorical Schemes and Figures p. 57. The Style different of different Nations p. 58. The Titles of Kings p. 59. What Arts were used by Orators to raise the Passions p. 60. That they sometimes Read their Speeches p. 62. The Figurative Expressions of the Prophets and their Types and Parables were Suitable to the Customs of the Places and Times wherein they Liv'd ibid. Several things related as Matter of Fact are only Parabolical Descriptions or Representations p. 64. The Prophetick Schemes of Speech usual with the Eastern Nations p. 66. The want of Distinguishing the Persons speaking has been a great cause of misunderstanding the Scriptures p. 68. The Antiquity and various ways of Poetry p. 69. The Metaphorical and Figurative use of Words in Speaking of the Works and attributes of God p. 71. The Decorum or Suitableness of the matter in the Style of Scripture p. 79. The Method p. 86. Some Books of Scripture admirable for their Style p. 89. Why the Style not alike excellent in all the Books of Scripture p. 93. CHAP. IV. Of the Canon of the Holy Scriptures ANy Controversy concerning the Authority of some Books of Holy Scripture no prejudice to the rest p. 96. The uncontroverted Books contain all things necessary to Salvation p. 97. The Dispute concerning the Apochrypha falls not here under consideration p. 99 No Suppression or Alteration of the Books of the Old Testament by Idolatrous Kings c. p. 100. The Book of the Law in the Hand-Writing of Moses found in the Reign of Josiah p. 102. No Books but those which were Written by Inspiration received by the Jews into their Canon p. 103. What opinion the Ten Tribes had of the Books of the Prophets c. p. 105. Neither the Samaritans nor the Sadduces rejected any of the Books of the Old Testament p. 106. Of the Books whereof mention is made in the O. T. p. 106. Why the Books of the Prophets have the Names of the Authors exprest and that there was not the same Reason that the Names of the Authors of the Historical Books should be exprest p. 108. A wonderful Providence manifest in the Preservation of the Books of the O. T. for so many Ages p. 109. The New Testament confirms the Old p. 111. The Caution of the Christian Church in admitting Books into the Canon ib. The Primitive Christians had sufficient means to examine and distinguish the Genuine and inspired Writings from the Apochryphal or Spurious p. 113. The Gospel of St. Matt. in Hebrew how long preserved p. 115. The Greek Version of it p. 116. The Canon of Scripture finished by St. John and the Books of the other Evangelists c. reviewed by him p. 117. The Testimony of the Adversaries of our Religion ib. Copies of great Antiquity still extant p. 118. How it came to pass that the Authority of some Books was at first doubted of p. 119. The Canon had been fix'd and confirmed in Councils in Tertullian's time p. 121. The Canon of Scripture generally received by Christians of all Sects and Parties p. 124. CHAP. V. Of the various Readings in the Old and New Testament AN extraordinary Providence manifest in the preservation of the Scriptures from such Casualties as have befaln other Books p. 126. The Defect in the Hebrew Vowels and the late invention of the Points no prejudice to the Authority of the Bible p. 127. The change of the old Hebrew Characters into that now in use is no prejudice to the Authority of the Hebrew Text p. 130. The Keri and the Ketib no prejudice to it ib. The Difference between the Hebrew Text and the Septuagint and other Versions or between the Versions themselves no way prejudicial to the Authority of the Scriptures p. 132. It is confessed by the greatest Criticks both Protestants and
last Days of the Jewish Dispensation p. 388. The Times of the Gospel meant by the last Days p. 389. St. Paul did not suppose that the Day of Judgment was approaching in his time p. 391. There is no reason to suppose that the last Judgment must be confined to one Day p. 393. CHAP. XXIII Of Sacraments THE Nature and design of Sacraments p. 396. 1. They are outward and Visible Signs of our Entrance into Covenant with God or of our Renewing our Covenant with him ib. 2. They are Tokens and Pledges to us of God's Love and Favour p. 402. 3. They are means and Instruments of Grace and Salvation p. 404. 4. They are Federal Rites of our Admission into the Church as a Visible Society and of our Union with it as such p. 406. The Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper fully Answer the end and Design of the Institution of Sacraments p. 407. CHAP. XXIV Of the Blessed Trinity THere is no Contradiction in this Mistery of our Religion p. 412 The Distinction of the Three Persons in the Deity p. 413. The Unity of the Divine Nature p. 414. The Difference between the Divine Persons and Humane Persons 417. Other things are and must be believed by us which are as little understood as this Doctrine p. 421. The necessity of the Belief of this Doctrine explained and Defended p. 423. This Doctrine exceedingly tends to the Advancement of Vertue and Holiness and has a great Influence upon the Lives and Conversations of Men p. 427. CHAP. XXV Of the Resurrection of the Dead GOD is certainly able to raise the Dead p. 431. Bodies after their Corruption and the Dissolution of the Parts which Compose them may be restored to Life by the Reunion of these Parts again p. 436. We may rise again with the same Bodies which we have here notwithstanding any change or Flux of the Parts of our Bodies while we Live or any Accidents after Death p. 437. It is not only credible and Reasonable to believe that God can but likewise that he will raise the Dead p. 443. CHAP. XXVI Of the Reasons why Christ did not shew himself to all the People of the Jews after his Resurrection THere are Reasons peculiar to this Dispensation of his Resurrection why Christ should not shew himself to all the People after he was risen from the Dead p. 449. It had not been suitable to the other Dispensations of God towards mankind for him to have done it p. 451 Great Numbers of the Jews being given over to hardness of Heart would not have believed tho' they had seen Christ after his Resurrection p. 452. If the Jews had believed in Christ their Conversion had not been a greater Proof of the Truth of his Resurrection than their Unbelief has been p. 453. The Power of Christ's Resurrection manifested in the Miraculous Gifts bestowed upon the Apostles was as great a Proof of his Resurrection as the Personal Appearance of our Saviour himself could have been p. 454. CHAP. XXVII Of the Forty Days in which Christ remained upon the Earth after his â—â—â—surrection and of the manner of his Ascension MAny things in the Life of Christ before his Passion omitted by the Evangelists p. 459. And likewise after his Resurrection p. 461. What may be concluded from that which we Read of his conversing with his Disciples after it p. 463. The manner of his Ascension p. 465. 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 ALL Creatures act with a constant dependance upon the Divine Power and Influence but 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 fulfilled p. 469. Miracles are more peculiarly the Works of God because they are wrought without the concurrence or subserviency of Natural Means ib Means used as Circumstances to render Miracles more observable not as concurring to the Production of the effect 470. Christ had given undeniable Proof of his Miraculous Power before he required Faith as a condition in such as came to see his Miracles and to receive the benefit of them p. 471. Whether he required Faith of any before his working of a Miracle who had not already seen him work Miracles p. 481. Great Reason that no Miracle should be purposely wrought for the captious and Malicious p. 482. The case of his own Country-men was particular ib. The case of those who came to desire his Help p. 487. Our Saviour hereby signified that he requires the same Faith of those who have not seen his Miracles as he did of those who had seen them p. 489. CHAP. XXIX Of the ceasing of Prophâ—â—â—es and Miracles THe Antiquity of Prophecies adds to their force and Evidence p. 491. The Cessation of Miracles We read of no Miraculous Power bestowed upon any Man before Moses p. 492. Neither Prophecies nor Miracles in the Jewish Church for more than four hundred years before Christ p. 495. Miracles if common would lose the design and nature of Miracles p. 498. Men would pretend to frame Hypotheses to solve them p. 499. A constant Power of Miracles would occasion Impostures ib. They would occasion Pride in those that wrought them p. 501. No more Reason for Miracles to prove the Christian Religion among Christians than there is need of them to prove a God ib. A Divine Power is notwithstanding evident among Christians living in Heathen Countries p. 502. CHAP. XXX Of the Causes why the Jews and Gentiles rejected Christ notwithstanding all the Miracles wrought by him and his Apostles ASupernatural Grace necessary to True Faith p. 504. Jews and Proselytes were converted in great Numbers p. 508. Many durst not own Christ Others had their hearts hardned p. 511. They had violent prejudidices against the Gospel p. 512. The Signs and Wonders of false Prophets a cause of the Infidelity of the Jews p. 514. The unbelief of the Jews being foretold by the Prophets is a confirmation of the Gospel p. 515. Great Numbers of the Heathens converted p. 516. The cause of unbelief in the Philosophers ib. Of Epictetus and Seneca p. 518. The prejudices of the Gentiles p. 521. They would not be at the Pains rightly to understand the Christian Religion p. 522. Oracles had foretold that it should not last above 365 Years p. ib. Heresies and Schisms gave great Scandal p. 523. Many Heathens however had more favourable and just Thoughts of the Christian Religion p. 524. Of the Writings of the Heathens against it p. 528. The Writings of the ancient Jews confirm it p. 530. CHAP. XXXI That the Confidence of Men of false Religions and their Willingness to suffer for them is no prejudice to the Authority of the True Religion THe Martyrs for the Christian Religion more
fitting to reveal such things to us as are above our understandings but then we must be contented to take his word for the Truth of them and not apply our Principles and Maxims taken from things of an inferiour Nature to things of which we can have no conception but from revelation which would be as absurd as for a deaf man to apply the Notion which he has of Colours to Sounds or for a blind man to fancy that there is no such thing as Colours because he is told they cannot be heard And there must be a due proportion between the Faculty and its object For the Faculties both of our Bodies and Minds are confined and limited in their exercise about their several objects The parts of Matter may be too small and fine to be any longer discerned or perceived by sense For only Bodies which are so big as to reflect a due quantity of Rays to the eye can be perceived by the sight it self the quickest and subtilest of all our senses And as objects in their bulk are sensible but are insensible in their minute parts so it is in the inward sensations or preceptions of the mind in respect of its objects We may puzzle and perplex our selves in the deductions which may be made from the most common Notions Nothing is more certain and familiar to our Minds than our own thoughts that we think and understand and will we all know but what is the principle and subject of thought in us and how our understanding and will act upon and determine each other is matter of perpetual dispute The summ of this argument is that our Faculties are finite and of no very large extent in their operations but are confined to certain objects and limited to certain bounds and periods Both our Natural and Acquired knowledge is conversant about certain kinds of objects and our Faculties are fitted and suited to them and from the properties and affections which we observe in them we form Notions and make Conclusions and raise Maxims and Axioms Now if we apply our Natural Notions to things which we know only by Revelation we must be very liable to great mistakes about them For thus it is in things not so much out of the reach of our capacities and which are not of a spiritual Nature if we frame speculative and abstract Ideas from the Principles and Maxims which are formed in our Minds from sensible objects we may soon puzzle our selves and seem to demonstrate contradictions which demonstrates only that all arguments of this Nature are vain and unconcluding And therefore it must be absurd to reject the Mysteries of Religion because they will not come under the Rules of Logick and Philosophy when they are acknowledged to be incomprehensible and therefore not to be judged of as to the Manner and Nature of them by the Rules and Principles of Humane Sciences What has been here alledged concerning the Contradictious about the divisibility of Matter is no more than has been generally confest by the best Philosophers and Mathematicians And the excellent Mr Boyle having produced the Testimony of Galileo and Des Cartes upon this subject concludes with this observation (a) Considerat about the Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion Sect 2. If then such bold and piercing Wits and such excellent Mathematicians are forced to confess that not only their own Reason but that of Mankind may be passed and non-pluss'd about Quantity which is an object of contemplation Natural nay Mathematical and which is the subject of the rigid demonstrations of pure Mathematicks why should we think it unfit to be believed and to be acknowledged that in the attributes of God who is essentially an infinite being and an ens singularissimum and in divers other divine things of which we can have no knowledge without Revelation there should be some things that our finite understandings cannot especially in this life clearly comprehend II. Every man believes and has the experience of several things which in the Theory and Speculative Notion of them would seem as incredible as any thing in the Scriptures can be supposed to be It was well observed by (b) Sunt onim plurima vera quidem sed parum credibilia sicut falsa quoque frequenter verisimilia Quintil. Institut l. 4. c. 2. Quintilian aad may be observed by any one that will consider it that very many things are true which scarce seem credible and as many are false which have all the appearance of Truth and yet the cause of unbelief in matters of Religion is chiefly this that we are hardly brought to believe any thing possible to be done which we never saw done and judge of things not from any principle of Reason but from our own experience and make this the measure of what is possible to be not considering that many things may be altogether as possible which we never knew done and that we should think many things impossible of which we have the daily experience if we had never seen nor known them to be For what we have the daily experience of we are apt to think very easy and scarce suspect that there can be any difficulty in it but frame to our selves some kind of account of it and please ourselves perhaps with a conceit that we perfectly understand it and conclude that such and such things must needs come to pass from the causes which we assign For when a thing is common and familiar to us we either take no pains at all to consider the nature of it or when we do observe and consider it being ashamed to confess our own ignorance we perswade ourselves that there is no such great difficulty in it but fancy we understand the true Reason and Cause of it And if it were not for the carelesness of some in not minding the wonderful effects of Nature and the Pride of others in fancying that they are ignorant of nothing which is the constant object of their senses I am perthat there are several things in the World which we daily see and experience that would seem as wonderful almost as the Resurrection itself or any Mystery in Religion The greatest Philosophers have been able to give but a very imperfect account of the most ordinary and obvious things in Nature and if we had only a relation of them without any tryal or experience we should be inclin'd to conclude them impossible The King of Siam it is said would not believe the Dutch Ambassador but thought himself affronted when he was told by him that in Holland Water wou'd become so hard in cold weather that Men or Elephants might walk upon it and the relations of things in those Countries would have seem'd as strange to us if the constant report of men who have been there had not made them familiar to us It was formerly disbelieved nay absolutely deny'd as absurd and impossible that there could be any such place as that which is now known
to the customs of other Nations well known and practised at that time Thus the Slaves were wont to have their Masters Name or Mark upon their Forehead and the Souldiers to have the name of their General upon their Right hand and the like marks were wont to be received by men in token that they had devoted themselves to their Gods from whence we read of the mark of the Beast received by his Worshippers in their right Hand or in their Foreheads * Vid. Grot. ad loc Rev. 13.16 and of his Fathers Name written in the Foreheads of those that stand in Mount Sion with the Lamb Rev. 14.1 St Paul alludes to the Grecian Games in his Epistle to the Corinthians who were much addicted to those sports and had one sort of them the Isthmian perform'd among them 1 Cor. 9.24 25. and he alludes to the distinction among the Romans between Freemen and Slaves For which he gives this reason that it was in condescention to them I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh Rom. 6.19 Melchisedec is said to be without Father without Mother without descent Heb. 7.3 because his Pedigree is unknown which was a most significant way of expression to the Jews who were so careful and exact in their Genealogies But the very same manner of expression is also used †Patre nullo matre serva Liv. lib. 4. c. 3. â—ullis majoribus ortos Horac Serm. lib. 1. sat 6. duos Romanos Reges â—sse quorum alter Patrem non habet alter Matrem Nam de servij Matre dubitatur Anci Pater nullus Numae nepos dicitur Senec. Epist c. 8. by Livy Horace and Seneca upon the like occasions There is much of Nature but very much likewise of Use and Custom in the several Schemes and Forms of Rhetorick We meet with a sudden change of the Person speaking Jer. 16.19 20 21.17.13 and with interlocatory discourse Isa 63. and many places of Scripture are obscure to us for want of distinguishing the Persons who speak Thus for instance Jer. 20.14 the Prophet seems transported abruptly from one extream to another but if they be the words of the wicked mention'd ver 13. under the divine vengeance from the 14th ver to the end of the Chapter the sense will be more easy This abrupt change of the Person is taken notice of by Longinus as an excellency in Homer Hecataeus and Demosthenes and the want of distinguishing the Persons speaking has been a great cause of misunderstanding the Scriptures * Justin Apol. 2. Origen Philocal c. 7. as Justin Martyr and Origen observe Many Instances of the like nature might be given in the best Heathen Poets And the reading the ancient Poets is the best help for the understanding all other Authors of great Antiquity for the ancienter any Author is the nearer his stile comes to Poetry The first design of Writing was to delight so as to be the better able to instruct which made Verse much more ancient than Prose and tho it be natural for Men to speak in Prose and not in Verse yet it seems the humour oâ— Greeks would not bear tho writing Philosophy in Prose till the time of Cyrus for then * Plin. Hist Lib. 5. c. 29.7 c. 56. vid. Harduin ad loc Pliny tells us Pherecydes first wrote in Prose which must be understood of Philosophy for he ascribes the first writing of Prose in History to Cadmus Milesius And the ancient Writers now extant in Prose Herodotus Thucydides and Xenophon have many Expressions which are seldom or never met withal besides but in the Poets H. Stephens made a Collection of the Poetical words used by Xenophon which is prefix'd to his Works And the Orators both among the Greeks and Romans were as exact and curious in the Feet and Measure of their Prose as the Poets could be in Verse Great part of the Scriptures is in Verse and the different way of writing in different Ages and Nations appears in nothing more than in the several sorts of Poetry That way of writing all Verse in Rhime which in these parts of the World is most in use and esteem would have been ridiculous to the Greeks and Romans Tho' the use of Rhime in Verse is so far from being example in Antiquity that it is perhaps the most ancient of all ways of writing Verse Acrosticks tho' of no esteem and little us'd in many Ages and Countries are of great Antiquity Verses composed in the Acrostick and Alphabetical way were found to be a help to the Memory and this benefit and the ornament which it was then supposed to give to Poems is the cause why it is sometimes used in the Scriptures and sometimes the Inspiration was so strong upon the Writers mind as to interrupt the Art and Method which he had proposed to himself as Ps 25. and 145. or perhaps it might be customary upon certain occasions to omit some Letter in the Alphabet in such compositions for reasons which we are ignorant of but which might be very satisfactory and agreeable to the sense of those Times and Countries * Athenae lib. 10. c. 21. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an example of this among the Greeks used by Pindar and other ancient Poets The old †Casanb in Athen. lib. 8. c. 11. Spartan Dorick and Aeolick Dialect changed σ into P the rough sound of this Letter being more agreeable it seems to those People and if any of them had written Acrosticks and Alphabetical Poems σ would have been omitted Rhophalick Verses which begin with a Monosyllable every word encreasing by one syllable more than the former are to be found in Homer and the Leonine or Monkish Verses with a double Rhime one in the middle and the other at the end are not without precedent To say nothing of the Poems composed of divers sorts of Verse and framed into the shape of several things by Simmias Rhodius some of which are ascribed to Theocritus The Repetitions so frequent in Homer were not for want of words for no Author ever wanted them less than he but out of choice though latter Poets have not thought fit to imitate him in this and Martial turn'd it to Ridicule It is certain that nothing is more various than the Wit and Fancy of Man and it is as certain that whoever would write to any purpose must write in some such manner as the temper of the people to whom he writes will bear and as their customs require But before I leave this particular it may be proper to consider the stile of Scripture in the Metaphorical and Figurative use of words in speaking of the Works and Attributes of God There never was any Book written in a strict and literal propriety of words because all Languages abound in Metaphors which by constant use become perhaps better known to the Natives of a Country than the original words themselves and in process
we can know nothing of the manner of it We know the Proposition which is to be believed tho we cannot make good the Proof of it in the way of natural Reasoning but only from the Authority of the Revealer which is of it self sufficient and ought to be instead of all other Reasons to us 2. Some parts of the Scriptures were fitted and accommodated to former Ages and were more proper and useful for them than if they had been written in such a manner as to be less obscure and difficult We may well imagin that many parts of the Scriptures must have been more peculiarly adapted to their use and advantage for whom they were immediately designed and the Learning and Wisdom of ancient Times consisted in Parables and Proverbs and obscure Forms of Speech in Prophecies in Subtil and Dark Parables and in the secrets of grave Sentences Eccl. xxxix 1 2 3. And it was foretold of the Messias in particular that he should speak in Parables as a matter of great excellency I will open my mouth in a Parable I will utter dark sayings of old Ps lxxviii 2. Matt. xiii 35. This was in Ancient Times the Language of Courts and the properest way of Address to Kings Nathan the Prophet and the woman of Tekoa came to David with a Parable 2 Sam. xii 1. xiv 4. And Jehoash King of Israel sent a Message of the same nature to Amaziah King of Judah 2 Kings xiv 9. and Cyrus * â—eâ—odot lib. i. c. 141. answers the petition of two Nations at once to him in a short Parable To understand a Proverb and the Interpretation the words of the wise and their dark sayings was the best description that Solomon himself could give of Wisdom Prov. i. 6. And * Joseph Antiqu. lib. viii c. 2. â— Solomon and Hiram are related by Josephus to have propounded Problems and Riddles or Parables to each other upon condition of a forfeiture to be paid by him who could not explain the Riddle sent him This would be looked upon now as a strange correspondence between Kings but then it was otherwise thought of many of their Epâ—â—â—â—s were preserved as he tells us to his time at Tyre and the Heathen Historians whose Testimonies he produceth thought it deserved their particular observation This custom of propounding Riddles was as old as Sampson's time Judg. xiv 12. and examples of the same nature are to be seen in Herodotus †Vid. Athenae lib. x. c 15. c. and other Authors Whether it be true or false that Homer died of grief because he could not explain the Riddle of the Fishers it shews that Riddles were in great request amongst the Ancient Greeks for otherwise there could have been no ground either for the Truth or Fiction of such a story Plutarch relates it as the true cause of Homer's death and when * Herod Plut. in Vit. Homer Herodotus denies this he owns the Report and by the Verses which he says Homer spoke upon this occasion it appears what opinion Homer had of this sort of Wit Hesiod is by †Quintil. institut lib. v. c. xi Quintilian thought the Author of the Fables which pass under the name of Aesop however this makes it probable that he did write Fables and perhaps there were few men of Learning and note in those times who did not Mythology was in the highest esteem amongst the Ancients and indeed all the Ancient Learning was of this kind The Aegyptians who were in great Reputation for Learning delivered their Notions in Hieroglyphicks as if they had resolved not to be understood And the Philosophers of old Pythagoras Heraclitus c. greatly affected obscurity Socrates himself and Plato and Aristotle purposely concealed their meaning in many cases from vulgar capacities and Thucydides took the same course in â—is History and was obscure out of design as Marcellinus has observed in his life The Books of the Old Testament for the most part seem to have been the most plain and the most easily intelligible of any Writings of ancient times and they could not have been more obvious but they must have been contemptible and useless to those for whom they were immediately designed The precepts and exhortations are always plain and obvious and the obscurity of other things is so far from being an exception to the Books of Scripture that it was necessary according to the Learning and Customs of ancient times The Parables of our Blessed Saviour are explained to us and there can now be no pretence of obscurity in them and in his Discourses with the Jews to whom they were not explained he alluded to those Proverbs and Customs which were best known and most in use among them to whom upon any occasion he spoke that thereby all who had ears to hear and were not by their sins hindred from attending to what they heard might be the more affected with them and the better inclined to give themselves up to his Instructions when they heard him make use of such Allusions as they knew according to the way of teaching amongst them had some excellent hidden meaning which they would be very desirous to become acquainted withal 3. Many places of Scripture which are obscure to us were not obscure in the ages in which they were written 1. Because the obscurity for the most part is rather in the form and manner of Speech than in the notions themselves so that that might be clear at first which is obscure to us who are but little acquainted with the Phrases and Idioms of the Language and the Eloquence of those Times and Countries For the Fashions of Speech vary as much as those of the Garb and Habit and the Eloquence and ways of Expression are as different as the Dialects and Languages of divers Ages and Nations 2. The names of Animals of Flowers and Plants and Minerals are very liable to be mistaken and especially whatever is peculiar to any Country must needs be difficult to be understood by Foreigners who have no such things among them and perhaps want words to express their Nature and can scarce have a true and exact notion of them The precise value of Coins and proportion of Weights and Measures used so long ago and in Countreys so far from ours can hardly now be known and must necessarily admit of great variety of opinions there is much uncertainty about these in all ancient History but the great Antiquity of the Jewish History above others may make us reasonably expect to find many more such difficulties in it and the different Names of the same Persons and of the same Places in the Scriptures is another occasion of obscurity The Names Coins Weights and Measures and Habits of ancient times afford the greatest work for Criticks which were so well known when the Authors who mention them wrote that it had been ridiculous for them to explain them These are difficulties of that Nature that they could not
Son are Thoughts which must create a new Heaven as it were in Heaven it self I mean they will enlarge our Souls to the utmost Capacities of our Natures and fill and actuate them with such Divine Ardors of Love as if we had been kept necessarily from all Sin seem impossible to have been raised in us The Angels themselves rejoyce over one Sinner that repenteth and that Joy must have been wanting to them who are of so much higher and more excellent a Nature than we are of if there had been no Possibility either of Sin or of Repentance And the wonderful Dispensation of the Gospel is an eternal Subject of Praise and Adoration an eternal Fountain of Love and Joy and Happiness to all the Blessed Spirits in Heaven The more the Divine Attributes are displayed the more Adorable the Majesty of God will appear and will become the greater Object of our Praise and Veneration those that are wise and good will be made the wiser and better by it and the happier in the Contemplation of the Divine Perfections Now a Governour in his Laws and in the Method and Order of his Government has regard chiefly to the Good and Obedient and has little Concern for the rest And we must consider God not only as the Father but as the Governour of Mankind and tho' an earthly Father perhaps would by all means possible preserve his â—on from incurring Punishment yet a good Governour when the Ends of his Government can be better obtain'd by leaving him to his Liberty would not restrain him by any Force or Violence Therefore if the Liberty of Choice in Men and the Possibility of their Sin and Damnation be for the Glory of God and for the Benefit of good Men and be no Injury to the Bad this is a sufficient Account why man was not necessarily restrained from Sinning tho' Damnation be the consequence of it CHAP. XIII Of the Fall of the Angels and of our First Parents IN the Beginning God created every thing perfect in its kind and endned the Angels and Man with all intellectual and Moral Perfections suitable to their respective Natures but so as to leave them capable of sinning For it pleased the infinite Wisdom of God for the Reasons already alledg'd and for many more and greater Reasons perhaps than any man is able to imagine to place them in a State of Tryal and to put it to their own Choice whether they would stand in their present Condition of Innocence and Happiness in which they were created or fall into Sin and Misery We have little or no Account in the Scriptures of the Cause or Temptation which occasioned the Fall of Angels because it doth not concern us to be acquainted with it and therefore it little becomes us to be inquisitive about it Indeed it is very difficult to conceive how Beings of so Great Knowledge and Purity as the Fall'n Angels once were of should fall into Sin But it must be considered that nothing is more unaccountable than the Motives and Causes of Action in Free Agents when any Being is at Liberty to do as it will no other Reason besides its own Will need be enquir'd for of its Actings What is liable to Sin may sin whatever the Motive be and to enquire after the Motive is to enquire what Motives may determine a Free Agent that is an Agent which may determine it self upon any Ground or Motive But how perfect and excellent soever any Creature is unless it be so confirmed and established in a State of Purity and Holiness as to be secured from all possibility of Sinning it may be supposed to admire it self and dote upon its own Perfections and Excellencies and by degrees to neglect and not acknowledge God the Author of them but to sin and rebell against Him And it is most agreeable both to Scripture and Reason that Pride was the cause of the Fall of Angels For those Excellencies which might secure them from any other Sin proved a Temptation to this and the greater their Perfections were the greater was the Temptation as in a Man who is guilty of Spiritual and Pharisaical Pride all that is good and commendable in him affords him only matter for his Sin So that where there is a freedom of Will and a possibility of Sinning the very Perfection of Nature in a Creature may be made an Occasion to sin and that which excludes other sins may prove a Motive and Temptation to Pride which therefore we have reason to conclude was the Sin of the Fall'n Angels As to the Fall of Man however the Thing may be disputed the Effects of it are visible in the strange Proneness of Humane Nature to act against Reason and Conscience that is to act in plain contradiction to it self and its own Principles This is a State in which it cannot be supposed that Mankind was at first created by the infinitely Good and Holy God And the most plausible Opinion and that which has most generally obtained among the Heathens is that the Souls of Men had a Being before they came into this World and were sent into Human Bodies in Punishment for what they had done amiss in a precedent State But this is mere suspicion and Conjecture without any possibility of Proof and there is this plain Reason against it that â—o man can be punished for his Amendment who knows nothing of it For it is inconsistent with the Nature and end of Punishment that the Offender should not be made sensible of his Fault especially when the Punishment is designed for his Amendment as it is said to be in the present Case If it can be supposed that Men may possibly retain no Remembrance of what they did in another State yet if their Faults were not kept in Memory they should be brought to their Remembrance if this Life were designed as a State of Punishment in order to Amendment But the State of this Life is so far from being thought a Punishment that Men naturally are of nothing more fond nor dread any thing more than to leave it And tho' Men meet with great Afflictions here yet those do not befall those only or chiefly who by their Proneness to Evil in this Life might be supposed to have been the greatest Offenders in a former State and every Calamity has not the Nature of Punishment The Sufferings and Miseries which we endure by reason of Adam's Transgression are not so properly Punishments as the Effects and Consequences of his sin But Personal Faults such as are supposed to have been committed in a State of pre-existence require a proper Punishment and if the Punishment be for Amendment as it is supposed to be in this present State both the Fault and the Punishment must be known with the Cause and End of its being inflicted and the greatest Offenders must undergo the severest Punishment The Account which the Scripture gives us of the Fall of our First Parents may be considered either 1.
bring to our remembrance the Body and Blood of Christ offer'd upon the Cross for us to make us Partakers of them and to be Pledges of all the Benefits which we receive thereby And as the Eucharist was appointed by Christ in the room of the Paschal Supper so Bread and Wine were in use among all Nations in their Religious Worship and nothing can more fitly express our Communion with God and with one another than to be entertained together at God's Table So that since there must be Sacraments or External Rites and Ordinances they could neither be fewer nor more suitable to the simplicity of the Gospel and to the Wants of Christians than the Sacraments of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper are CHAP. XXIV Of the Blessed TRINITY I Am not here to prove the Doctrine of the Trinity from the Scriptures but to suppose this to be the Doctrine which the Scriptures teach and to shew that no reasonable Objection can be brought against the Christian Religion upon that Account And indeed this was supposed to be the Doctrine of the Scriptures and objected against by (k) Lucian Philopatr Heathens long before the Council of Nice Which is a strong proof for the Truth and Antiquity of this Doctrine when it was so well known even to the Heathens that they upbraided the Christians with it in the second Century and in all probability from the very beginning for we find it then mentioned as a known and common Reproach Supposing then this to be the Doctrine of the Scriptures that the Father Son and Holy Ghost are but one God I will shew I. That there is no Contradiction in this Mystery of our Religion II. That other things are and must be believed by us which we as little understand III. That the Belief of this Doctrine doth mightily tend to the advancement of Vertue and Holiness and hath a great influence upon the Lives and Conversations of Men. 1. There is no Contradiction in this Doctrine We are ignorant of the Essences of Created Beings which are known to us only by their Causes and Effects and by their Operations and Qualities and our Reason and Senses and Passions being continually conversant about these our Notions are formed upon the Ideas which we frame to our selves concerning the Creatures and this makes us the less capable of understanding the Divine Essence besides the infinite Disproportion between the Nature of God and Humane Faculties When we say that God is an Infinite and Incomprehensible Being we speak the general sense of Mankind and no Man cavils at it but because the Scriptures represent this Incomprehensible Being to us under the Notion of Father Son and Holy Ghost that is Matter of Cavil and Dispute Whereas God being essentially Holy and True we must believe him to be what he declares himself to be in the Scriptures and he being Incomprehensible we may not be able to comprehend it If God be infallibly True why do we not believe what he delivers concerning himself And if he be Incomprehensible what Reason can be given why the Divine Essence may not subsist in Father Son and Holy Ghost These are styled Three Persons because we find distinct Personal Acts and Properties attributed to them in the Scriptures and we may suppose Three Persons in the Unity of the Divine Nature without any appearance of contradiction This will be evident if we consider 1. The Distinction of the Three Persons in the Deity 2. The Unity of the Divine Nature 3. The Difference between the Divine Persons and Humane Persons 1. The Distinction of the Three Persons in the Deity The Divine Nature is in Three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in the Father Originally without either Generation or Procession in the Son as communicated to him by the Father not in any such way as Sons amongst Men have their Nature derived to them from their Fathers but yet in some such manner as is best exprest to our Apprehensions by styling him the Son of God tho' the manner of his Generation is altogether incomprehensible to us The Holy Ghost has the Divine Nature communicated to him from the Father and the Son not in the same way whereby the Son has it communicated to him from the Father but in some other different incomprehensible manner whereby he is not begotten but proceeds both from the Father and the Son The Divine Nature is communicated by the Father to the Son by Eternal Generation and by the Father and the Son to the Holy Ghost by Eternal Procession We have nothing further revealed to us of the Generation of the Son but that he is begotten or received the Divine Nature from the Father in some such way as for want of a fitter Word we can best understand by the Term of Generation and the Scripture teacheth us no more of the Procession of the Holy Ghost but that he is not begotten of the Father as the Son is but proceeds from the Father and the Son some other way and not by Generation But as he that would Discourse to a Man born Blind concerning Light must use many very improper expressions to make himself tho' never so imperfectly understood so it is here we have no words that are proper but these are sufficient to teach us all which we are capable of knowing at least all that is necessary for us to know of the Godhead 2. The Unity of the Divine Nature To say that Three Gods are one God or that Three Persons are One Person is a manifest Contradiction but to say that Three Persons are not One Person but One God is so far from a Contradiction that it is a Wonder how it should be mistaken for One by any who understand what a Contradiction means The Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God and yet they are not Three Gods but One God For neither of these Three Persons is God distinct and separate from the rest but they all are but One God One Lord Jehovah not Three distinct and separate Lords and so not Three Eternals nor Three Incomprehensibles nor Three Uncreated nor Three Almighties distinct and separate from each other but all the Three Persons together are One Eternal Incomprehensible Uncreated Almighty Lord God It is Matter of Dispute what is the Principle of Individuation in Men or what it is which causes one Man to be a different Individual Person from another and it is still more difficult to find out the Principle of Individuation in Beings which are purely Spiritual and have nothing of Material Accidents to distinguish them But whatever the Principle of Individuation in Men may be it is certain that the Consequence of it is that two Men may exist separately both as to Time and Place and that one may know more or less than the other they may live at a distance the one from the other and can never at once sill the same Numerical Place nor
Evangelists wrote his Life with the same Humility with which he lived And it is observable that when St. John says that there were so many other things which Jesus did he speaks with relation to the things done by him after his Resurrection having just before given an account of what our Saviour had said to St. Peter And so in the foregoing Chapter when St. John has declared how our Saviour certified St. Thomas of the Truth of his Resurrection he adds and many other Signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have Life through his Name Joh. xx 30 31. So that we are acquainted with no more than was necessary of what pass'd between our Saviour and his Disciples after his Resurrection the rest concerns us not to know it was for their Instruction and encouragement in their Duty and they were empower'd to teach and instruct us We know that beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself Luke xxiv 27. but we are no where told what were the Particulars of his Exposition only we are sure that the Apostles in their Explications of the Old Testament followed the Interpretations which he had given We read that he was seen of them forty days and spoke of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God from whence we may conclude that the time between the Resurrection and the Ascension of Christ was chiefly spent in comforting and instructing them and in expounding to them the Scriptures concerning his Passion and Resurrection and the coming of the Holy Ghost after his Ascension St. Paul mentions that he was seen by above five hundred Brethren at once of whom the greater part were then still alive to testifie the Truth of what he said 1 Cor. xv 6. tho' this Particular however remarkable is omitted by the Evangelists for they relate things just as they saw it needful upon every Occasion and since they said enough to convince Men they were not careful to say all that might be said they were ready to die in Testimony of what they delivered and daily wrought Miracles to confirm it and therefore were not sollicitous to lay together all the Particulars or to put them into any exact Order and Method they declared what they knew and their Miracles proved it and they depended not upon such Niceties as Humane Proofs have need of We may reasonably conclude then notwithstanding the silence of the Sacred Writers that when Christ had once fully manifested himself to his Disciples and satisfied them in his Resurrection the rest of the time till his Ascension was most of it spent with them in Divine Discourses for their Instruction and Comfort such as those are which we read in the Evangelists one of whom declares that a full account of all that pass'd between him and his Disciples was more than could well be express'd That happy time was employ'd in pure and Spiritual Joys and Contemplations in forming and preparing them for the Reception of the Holy Ghost As soon as Mary Magdalen knew our Lord after his Resurrection she fell at his feet to Worship him and would touch his Sacred Body Matt. xxviii 9. Joh. xx 17. For this Reason perhaps too as well as out of Devotion to him that she might be able to give the Apostles the better account of his being risen again But he forbad her saying touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father and then sends her to his Disciples to his Brethren as he with infinite Love and Condescension styles them He was not yet ascended or was not then about to ascend but to stay many days upon Earth and there would be time enough for her nearer approaches to him either for the encrease and confirmation of her Faith or for her Acknowledgment and Adoration After his Resurrection Christ made himself known to his Disciples by degrees and by several Appearances to them at distant times in divers Places and in different manners he suffered them to doubt of that great Article of our Faith for a while that he might overcome their Unbelief and extort a Conviction from them by such means as that no Man unless he would be very unreasonable and obstinate should pretend any Cause to doubt of it afterwards But when he had thoroughly convinc'd them of his Resurrection we may conclude from what we read of his Conversing with them that from that time he admitted them to a freer and more intimate Communication with himself and Discoursed with them in the most mild and gracious and instructive manner of all which it concerned them to know pertaining to his Kingdom or which they were capable then of knowing before the descent of the Holy Ghost sometimes perhaps vouchsafing his Presence to one and sometimes to others of them and most commonly to them altogether when they were assembled as we find they generally were And when he withdrew himself it was because their Mortal State would not bear a constant and uninterrupted Attendance for so long a time upon their Blessed Master and because it was requisite that they by degrees should be accustomed to endure his Absence and to walk by Faith not by Sight and after his Ascension the Holy Ghost the Comforter did not immediately come upon his Departure from them but their Faith was to be exercised in the expectation of him for the space of Ten Days and then his Promise was to be fulfilled in the fittest and most proper Season on the Feast of Pentecost In few words Christ was seen of them says the Scripture forty Days which implies that these for the most part were spent in his Presence and we are in the same place told how this time was employ'd in speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God II. We may observe the manner how our Saviour left his Disciples when he ascended up from them into Heaven He had before prepared them to expect his Ascension for besides what he had said to them before his death immediately upon his Resurrection he sent this Message to his Disciples by Mary Magdalen Go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Joh. xx 17. They were in hopes it seems that he would at this time have restored again the Kingdom to Israel and did not think he would have left them before that which they so much desired had been accomplished However taking his Leave of them he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the Promise of the Father which says he ye have heard of me And whilst he was giving them repeated Assurances that this Promise should be most effectually fulfilled while they beheld he was taken up and a Cloud received
of them must cease and the Reason why they should be bestowed ceasing these miraculous Gifts must of consequence cease with it And thus it was likewise under the Law It is observable that we read of no miraculous Power bestowed upon any Man before Moses The Creation of the World was dilivered down with undeniable Certainty and the miraculous Judgments of God in Drowning the Old World in the Confusion of Tongues and in the Punishment inflicted upon Sodom and Gomorrah were sufficient to keep up a Sense of the True Religion But when a new Institution of Religion was to be introduced by Moses miraculous Gifts were necessary to give Authority to it and to oppose those false and lying Wonders which were in use among the Magicians in Egypt and other Places In the former Ages Predictions were very frequent and they were delivered by the Patriarchs who were Men of unquestionable Credit and Authority and could have no need of Miracles to confirm the Truth of their Prophecies which were so usual in those Times and when the Lives of Men were so long divers Prophecies of the same Persons had been verified by the Event But Moses had a New Law to deliver and both He and the Prophets had a a stubborn People to deal with to whom the Message they were charged withal was commonly very unwelcome so that till this Institution was fully settled Miracles became necessary But when the Old Testament had been sufficiently authorized and established by Prophecies and Miracles and when by the Captivities and Dispersions of the Jews the Divine Mission of their Prophets became known among so many other Nations when the Jews were reduced from Idolatry which they never practised after their Return from their Captivity in Babylon and when they had made numerous Conversions amongst the Heathens then these miraculous Gifts were no longer continued as they had been before in the Jewish Church insomuch that it became a (a) Lightf Glean out of Exod. §. vi Harm of the Evang Luke i. 18. Joh. ii 18. Maxim among them that after the Death of Zechariah and Malachi and the rest of the Prophets who returned from Babylon the Spirit of God departed from Israel and ascended and for above Four hundred Years together the Gifts both of Prophecy and Miracles had been with-held from them before the Manifestation of Christ For though there were gross Errours and dangerous Corruptions among the Pharisees and Sadducees and other Sects of the Jews yet since the Truth and Certainty of that Revelation from whence these Errours might have been confuted had been so throughly confirmed all their Corruptions and Errors were not a sufficient cause for the continuance of miraculous Gifts and the Pharisees and other Sects who were most fond and zealous of their several Tenets and Traditions yet never durst pretend to a Power of Miracles or Prophecy but endeavoured to support themselves upon the Authority of Moses and the Prophets What they sometimes spake of (b) id Fall of Jerus §. IX Harm of the N. T. §. LXXIII the Bath Col or Voice from Heaven deserves but little Credit and amounts but to a Confession that the Spirit of Prophecy had failed under the Second Temple as the Jews themselves expressly acknowledge it to have done (c) More Nevock Part. 2. c. 36 41. Maimonides declares that the Bath Col did not denominate Men Prophets and therefore it is not reckoned by him among the Degrees of Prophecy I have already Proved at large Book 1. that the Evidence of those Miracles which were wrought in the Primitive Times affords as much certainty to our Faith as if we our selves had seen them wrought And our Saviour plainly says notwithstanding his Works which bore Witness of him that it was not to be expected that his own Words should be rather believed than the VVritings of Moses For had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me But if ye believe not his VVritings how shall ye believe my VVords Joh. v. 46 47. And when once the Gospel had been attested by Miracles as the Law had been and rendred as certain to all succeeding Ages as a constant Power of Miracles could have made it there could be no Reason why such a Power should be any longer bestowed Miracles were wrought in Evidence of the Truth of Revelations made to Mankind in the Old and New Testament not to decide any Controversies arising amongst those by whom the Scriptures are received For to whom the Scriptures are the Rule by which all Disputes ought to be determined and therefore the Gifts of Miracles were sometimes manifested among (d) Ad Orthodox inter Justin Martyr Oper. Respons v. Hereticks for the Conviction of Infidels which is the true end and design of Miracles and not to be any Note of Distinction between the Orthodox and Hereticks The learned (e) In Irenae Dissert 11. §. 28. c. Mr. Dodwell by an historical Account of Miracles from the Times of the Apostles through the Ages next succeeding has shewn that they were always adapted to the Necessities of the Church being more or less frequent as the State of the Church required till they at last wholly ceased when there was no longer any need of them For the only end and use of miraculous Gifts is the Confirmation and Establishment of Religion and therefore when this is once fully confirmed and established they can be no longer needful But it seems rather necessary that they should afterwards cease than that they should be continued I mean as to any constant Power of working Miracles residing in the Church For tho' there may possibly be some extraordinary Cases in which it may please God to manifest a miraculous Power yet there is no Reason to conclude that a constant Power of working Miracles should be continued to the Church but rather that those Gifts should cease when Religion has been confirmed by a perpetual Course of Miracles for some Hundreds of Years together Because I. Miracles when they became common would lose the design and end and the very Nature of Miracles For the Nature of Miracles consists in this that they are an extraordinary VVork of God not that they are more difficult than the ordinary works of Nature All things are alike easy to God and Miracles are as easy as any thing in the constant course of Nature can be the only difference is that Miracles are his wonderful Work they are more apt to raise our Wonder and Admiration and to put us in mind of a Divine Presence For we wonder at strange and unusual things and suppose a more than ordinary Reason for them But if Miracles had continued in all Ages this Effect of Miracles would have ceased and they would no longer have been Miracles but a kind of different Course of Nature For according to the best and most accurate Philosophy nothing in the settled Course of Nature can be performed without an
and who should betray him and he said Therefore said I unto you that no Man can come unto me except it be given unto him of my Father John vi 64 65. So that the Belief of the Gospel is stiled a Divine Faith not only in respect of its Object but of its efficient Cause In attaining to the Knowledge of the Truth of Religion we must proceed upon the same Principles of Reason by which we proceed in attaining to the Knowledge of any other Truth But Reason when it comes up to the Evidence even of Demonstration though it satisfies the Understanding yet doth not necessarily gain that firm and lasting Assent of the Will which is required in Faith but when the thing proved to be true is unacceptable against the Inclinations of the Will and against the former Opinions and Persuasions of the Understanding the present Convictions of the Understanding are soon stifled and overpowered by the prevailing Force of the Will and Affections which carry the Mind off to other and contrary Objects which it has been wont to think of and believe Thus it was in the Academicks and Scepticks they could not but have the same sense of Mathematical Demonstrations and other clear Truths which the rest of Mankind have whilst they thought of them and attended strictly to them But by a constant Practice to amuse themselves with Subtilties they had wrought themselves to a Persuasion that nothing could be certainly known to be true and this general and habitual Opinion soon stifled the Evidence of any particular Truth which could be represented never so clearly to their Minds To as many therefore as lay under long and violent Prejudices by reason of their former Opinions and of their Pride and Vanity in contending for them or by reason of any of those Lusts which are so contrary to the Purity of the Gospel to such an extraordinary and miraculous Power of Grace was necessary to establish them in the Faith or else though they believed for the present at the sight of some Miracle yet this was no lasting or well-grounded Faith John ii 23 24. And that Grace which was necessary to their Faith was denied to some for their Sins that they should not see with their Eyes nor understand with their Heart and be converted John xii 40. So that Men of great Learning and worldly Wisdom might still continue Unbelievers and not submit to all the Evidence of the Gospel because the Doctrin of the Gospel being so contrary to their Habitual Thoughts and Inclinations there was something necessary to convert the Will and Affections and to subdue the former Habits which had been rooted in their Minds by frequent Acts and length of Time and which were too strong for any Convictions of the Understanding that consisted but in transient Acts and were soon lost and vanished through the prevailing contrary Habits both of the Understanding and Will and Affections And therefore Faith must necessarily be an effect of Grace as well as of Reason and where because of former Sins and Provocations this Grace was not vouchsafed there could be no Faith though there might be some transient Convictions of Mind some faint Glimmerings which were soon damped and extinguished being overpowered by former contrary Persuasions And for the same Reason those who had less Wisdom and Knowledge but were not under the Power of Habitual Lusts and Passions and therefore were more easily persuaded to any thing of the Truth whereof they were once convinced were likewise the more easily converted The Causes why the Word became unfruitful and so little prevailed with many Men are in the Parable of the Sower declared to be either inconsiderate Negligence and Ignorance and the Advantage taken from thence by Satan or want of Constancy in Times of Tribulations and Persecutions or the Cares of this World and the Deceitfulness of Riches and the Lusts of other things Matth. xiii 18. Mark iv 9. It was next to an impossibility for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of God or to become a Christian They were not Natural so much as Moral Accomplishments not so much Parts and Learning as an honest and humble Mind which were the requisite Qualifications for Men to become Christians Because as God the more freely bestowed his Grace upon Men thus qualified so they were the better disposed to be wrought upon by it whereas others though they wanted a greater measure of Grace yet had less vouchsafed to them For God resisteth the Proud but giveth Grace to the Humble Thus much in the General I now proceed to give a particular Account of the Causes of the Unbelief both of the Jews and Gentiles I. Since there is so great Evidence that our Saviour is the true Christ it may seem a wonderful and almost an incredible thing that the Jews should so generally reject him notwithstanding all the Means and Opportunities which they had above other Nations of being converted But 1. The Jews and Proselytes were converted in vast Numbers Besides the Shepherds Simon and Anna the Prophetess acknowledged and adored our Saviour in his Infancy as the true Messias Luke ii 25 36. and it is probably (k) Buxtorf de Abbrev. Hebr. supposed that this was Rabban Simeon the Son of Hillel and Father of Gamaliel The Title of Rabban was the highest of all Titles signifying a Prince rather than a Doctor or Teacher as Rabbi doth and there were but Seven of the Posterity of Hillel who were dignified with it Nicodemus Joseph of Arimathea and many others of Note and Eminency received the Christian Faith About Three Thousand were converted at one time Acts ii 41. Great Numbers were converted not only of the People but of the Priests also Acts vi 7. All that dwelt at Lydda and Saron Acts ix 35. Many of the Jews and Religious Proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas Acts xiii 43. At Iconium a great multitude of the Jews believed Acts xiv 1. Crispus Chief Ruler of the Synagogue believed on the Lord with all his House Acts xviii 8. And Sosâ—henes another Chief Ruler of the Synagogue Acts xviii 19. 1 Cor. i. 1. Apollos an eloquent Man and mighty in the Scriptures was a Christian Acts xviii 24. Many Thousands or Myriads in the Greek Acts xxi 20. And the number of them which were sealed was an Hundred and forty and four thousand of all the Tribes of the Children of Israel Rev. vii 4. The People were generally well-disposed to receive the Gospel and when the Chief Priests and Rulers would have Persecuted our Saviour and his Apostles they were often forced to desist for fear of the People And if the Apostles did not depart (l) Euseb Hist lib. V. c. 18. from Jerusalem in the space of Twelve Years as there is Reason to believe the number of Converts in all that time must needs be extreamly great The Church of Jerusalem flourished exceedingly from the Beginning and the Bishops of that City were of
well assured of that in which they agree that is of the Truth of Religion in General and of the Christian Religion in Particular as to the Fundamental Points of it The Differences among Christians may serve to prove to us Divine Authority of our Religion and of the Scriptures which contain it since Christians agree in asserting their Divine Authority and have never been so much at unity among themselves as to be able to agree to corrupt them but have certainly delivered them down entire to us 2. It is not Religion only which Men Dispute about but there is nothing besides in which they have not disagreed It is observed that want of Experience and Knowledge of the World leads Men into more inconveniencies than want of Parts and Abilities And it is as certain that a thorough Knowledge of the Debates and Contentions in Philosophy would sooner cure most Men of their Infidelity than any Arguments could do Those who raise Objections against Religion if they would but consider that almost every thing else has as great Difficulties would be ashamed to reject Religion upon Pretences which if they hold must force them to reject all other things with it and to believe just nothing at all There have been Disputes in all Ages concerning Light and Motion the Wind and Seas and other Wonders of Nature but it would be absurd for this Reason to question whether there be any such thing as Light and Motion and whatever besides Men have disputed And yet it is more absurd if it be possible to allow that is a good Argument against Religion but against nothing else If the Sun yield his Light and Nature go on in her constant Course tho' Men differ never so much in their Philosophy about it what can Religion be the worse for their Disputes no body thinks that he sees ever the less for any Difficulties which have been urged concernning Vision and why should we be ever the less inclined to believe the Truth of Religion by reason of any Controversies in it Men may dispute any thing and there is hardly any thing but it has been disputed but nothing is the less credible for being disputed unless it can be disproved but is rather confirmed and advanced by it Truth is nevertheless Truth for meeting with opposition but is the more tried and the more approved as Strength and Courage is by the sharpest Conflicts Since then there will be Vices as long as there are Men in this World and Differences and Dissentions in Religion as long as there are Vices since they cannot be hindered but by the Omnipotent Power of God and there are great Reasons why he should not interpose to prevent them since Differences in Religion are so far from implying any uncertainty in Religion that they rather prove a Confirmation of it and are in divers respects made useful and expedient to the Edification of Christians it must be great inconsideration and weakness to produce them as an Objection against Religion There must be Heresies and the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter Times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to Seducing Spirits and Doctrins of Devils speaking Lies in Hypocrisy having their Conscience seared with an hot Iron 1 Tim. iv 12. The Scripture could not be true unless these things should happen which are foretold in several Places of Scripture Behold says our Saviour I have told you before Matt. xxiv 25. it ought to be no new nor surprising thing to Christians to see Heresies arise tho' they be never so wicked and abominable because we are forewarned to expect them and they serve to give a kind of Testimony to the True Religion in fulfilling the Predictions of it They help to prove the Religion which they would destroy For if there had been no Heresies that Religion could not be True which has foretold them but since there are Heresies our Religion is at least so far true as to contain express Prophecies concerning them which we see daily fulfilled and as they evidently prove our Religion true in this particular so they invalidate it in no other Which is the (b) Just Mart. Dial. Answer that the Christians anciently returned to the Enemies of Religion when they made this Objection against it Let us follow the plain the known and and confessed Duties of Religion Humility Temperance Righteousness and Charity and when once we have no Temptations to wish Religion untrue upon the account of the plain Precepts and Directions of it we shall never suspect it to be so by reason of any Controversies in it For if Men will impartially consider things that Religion which has now For so many Ages stood out all the Assaults and Attempts with Enemies from without and Parties within could make against it and has approved it much better and more gloriously than it could have done if there never had been either Heresies or Schisms Let us therefore hold fast the Profession of our Faith without Wavering being assured that the Gates of Hell that is all the Power and Stratagems of Satan shall never be able to prevail against the Church of Christ but shall only serve to add to its Victories and adorn its Triumphs The Malice O Lord and fierceness of Man shall turn to thy Praise And the fierceness of them shalt thou refrain Ps Lxxvi 10. CHAP. XXXIII Though all Objections could not be answerred yet this would be no just Cause to reject the Authority of the Scriptures ALL Objections which can with any Colour or Pretence be alleged have been considered and answered by divers Men of Great Learning and Judgment and several Objections which have made most noise in the World as that about the Capacity of the Ark and others have been Demonstrated to be groundless and frivolous But tho' all Difficulties could not be accounted for yet this would be no just or sufficient cause why we should reject the Scriptures because Objections for the most part are impertinent to the Purpose for which they were designed and do not at all effect the Evidence which is brought in proof of the Scriptures and if they were pertinent yet unless they could confute that Evidence they ought not to determine us against them He that with an honest and sincere Desire to find out the Truth or Falshood of a Revelation enquires into it should first consider impartially what can be alleged for it and afterwards consider the Objections raised against it that so he may compare the Arguments in proof of it and the Objections together and determine himself on that side which appears to have most Reason for it But to insist upon particular Objections collected out of Difficult Places of Scripture tho' they would likewise observe the Answers that have been given which few of our Objectors have patience to do but run away with the Objection without staying for an Answer I say to allege particular Objections without attending to the main Grounds and Motives