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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	work_n	world_n	wrought_v	52	3	7.6775	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56385	A demonstration of the divine authority of the law of nature and of the Christian religion in two parts / by Samuel Parker ...	Parker, Samuel, 1640-1688.	1681 (1681)	Wing P458; ESTC R7508	294,777	516

and transactions of his Life were open and conspicuous to the World he laid not the scene of his actions in a dark unknown or undiscover'd corner of the Earth but he appear'd in one of the most eminent places of all Asia all his Works were perform'd amidst his Enemies and he chose the Jews the most jealous and the most prejudiced People in the World for the Eye-witnesses of his Miracles and the Companions of his Conversation But above all Jerusalem it self the most famous City at that time in that part of the World was the scene of his most publick Actions there it was that he was put to death in the presence not onely of that City but of the whole Nation there it was that he rose from the dead there it was that his Disciples first publisht his Resurrection and there it was that some of them wrought undeniable Miracles in proof of the Divinity of his Power and the Truth of their own Testimony And Origen has observed very well that the publick Death of Jesus in the sight of all the People of the Jews was design'd by the Divine Providence as an advantageous circumstance to demonstrate the truth of his Resurrection for if it had been private and not notorious to all the Nation though he had afterward risen from the dead as he did the obscurity of his Death might have been pleaded against the certainty of his Resurrection But beside the notoriety of the matter of Fact among the Jews the strange Stories that were reported of him in a little time fill'd the World with noise and wonder No Affair in that Age was more talked of than the Story of Jesus of Nazareth every body made enquiry into the circumstances of his Actions and they were exposed to the malice of the Jews and the curiosity of the Philosophers There was never Man born as Eusebius observes upon whose account the whole World was so much concern'd as upon that of Jesus of Nazareth Mankind being as it were at first divided concerning him so that the controversie is not improperly styled by Nicephorus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the struggling and concussion of the World Now 't is a likely matter and worthy our belief that a few simple and illiterate persons should have the confidence but much more the ability to perswade the World into the belief of a Legend so palpable and so obnoxious to contradiction That they should be so impudent as to begin to publish the strange Story of his Life and stranger one of his Resurrection even in Jerusalem it self and amidst his most implacable Enemies where though it were so easie to discover the bold and manifest cheat if a cheat at all that yet it should pass without any contradiction of the matter of Fact and meet with such prodigious and unparallel'd entertainment in the Minds of so many thousands of its Inhabitants Certainly they must have been puissant and irresistible Arguments wherewith they could so briskly bear down and vanquish Jewish stubbornness Their prejudices were too strong to be overcome by any weaker proof than evident and undeniable demonstration and had they not brought some such thing along with them they might to as much purpose have preached to the Stones of the Temple as to the People of Jerusalem But that I say is the wonder that they should first publish this strange story in the very place where it was acted and yet if it were false not onely escape being convicted of Forgery which it was impossible they should upon supposition of its being false but force great numbers of Persons against their most stubborn prejudices to own and submit to the truth of their Relation and from that very place in a short time to propagate the belief of it all the World over This is the thing that I affirm not to be at all possible in the course of humane Affairs that a matter of Fact of such a nature and under these circumstances if really and indeed false should ever gain so great a belief of its being true I will grant that Mankind may be imposed upon in matters of meer Opinion as much as any Man can require but matter of Fact is of a quite different nature that depends not so much upon Mens Understandings as their Senses and the Senses of all Mankind are alike here is no difference between the learned and the unlearned And though a false Story may for a while be imposed upon the common People yet unless it appear to prove it self true with an evidence proportionable to its weight it either dyes and vanishes of its own accord or is convicted of Forgery by the more wise and judicious when they come to enquire into its grounds and pretences And yet this Story the more it was enquired into the more firmly it was believed and learned Men every where and of all persuasions when they came to examine into it could not bring their Minds to any issue concerning it till at length they were forced to resign up themselves to its full belief I have indeed heard some witty Gentlemen as our phantastick Age very much abounds with such shrew'd persons compare the first propagation of Christianity in those parts of the World with that of the late growth and spreading of the folly of Quakerism in England than which nothing could be more enormously surmised for setting aside a thousand other defects in the comparison it is notorious that that wild and enthusiastick Sect did not set up upon the pretence of a new Revelation but onely pretended to raise some foolish and fanatique conceits of their own upon supposition of the truth of an old one But if the leaders of that Rabble when they first appear'd about thirty years since at York and Bristol had pretended to have wrought in those great Cities such kind of Miracles as are recorded of our Saviour and his Apostles no Man can doubt but that they had been long since buried in contempt and oblivion And yet that is the case of Christianity that such a matter of Fact as that was gain'd such a firm belief in the place where it was first published and acted too and from thence all the World over onely by the undeniable evidence of its own Proofs and Miracles For the Men of that Age were every whit as cautious and incredulous as the Wits of ours and as I shall shew anon their Minds were prepossest with stronger prejudices of Atheism and Infidelity How then could this Story of Jesus prevail so effectually upon them but by the undeniable evidence of its truth and certainty and when it carried with it nothing in the World whereby it might bribe their belief nay when it labour'd under all other objections but onely evidence of Truth I will challenge any sober Man to frame any the least tolerable Hypothesis how it was so much as possible that it should prevail had not its truth been vouched by the most undoubted and

fiercest Enemies How then could they avoid its force by denying it Never nay they confess it as a thing undeniable Thus Hierocles freely grants our Saviour's Miracles but then he says that they onely proved him to be a Divine Man but not what he pretended to be a God But if they were true then whatever he was they prove him to be what he pretended to be and that is enough to our present purpose against Paganism and Infidelity viz. That he came from God and after that whether he were to be truly and properly to be styl'd God or onely esteem'd of as an Ambassadour from him is a dispute that supposes his Divine Commission So that this very confession of Hierocles proves no less because we all know that he profest to teach and act by no less Authority In the next place the Emperour Julian does not deny but diminish the wonder of our Saviour's Miracles in that there is nothing so very remarkable recorded of him unless to cure the Lame and the Blind and to cast out Devils in the Towns of Galilee may be reckoned among the works of greatest magnificence But this is objected rather like an Emperour than a Philosopher For as Huetius very well replies to it it is the greatest work of ambitious Princes to raise Armies to dispeople Nations to erect prodigious Buildings here to demolish a great City and there to reedifie a greater But alas these are works within the power of Art and Nature and are to be wrought out by the wit or the industry of Men whereas those that were wrought by Jesus were quite of another stamp and such as could never have been effected by any power less than Divine These are works truly magnificent and becoming the greatness of the Son of God and therefore it was very weakly objected of a great pretender to Philosophy that he did nothing so extraordinary when to raise one Man from the Grave proceeds from a power that infinitely exceeds that of Alexander or Caesar in sending so many millions thither But the most usual shifts made use of to evade the force of this Argument is either to ascribe all this train of Miracles to the power of Magick or to vye against them the wonderfull works of other Men that never made any such lofty pretences And at this lock we find Celsus at every turn and whenever he is pressed hard he still takes shelter in one of these evasions and for that reason we cannot avoid to take notice of them And first as for the pretence of Magick it s own vanity is its own confutation for if he were such a Magician as is pretended then either himself was the first Inventour and Master of his own Art or he learnt it from others if he had no Teacher and yet acquired the skill of doing things so extraordinary that alone seems something divine and wonderfull that a young Man without Learning without Books without Tutours without Instructions should by the strength of his own Faculties arrive to an higher degree of knowledge than all the learned Men in the World beside for it cannot be denied that the Actions recorded of him infinitely exceed the very pretences of all others Yes but say they he had Masters in Egypt from whom he learnt all those Magick Mysteries by which he afterward made himself so famous in Judaea But why then do we hear of no such eminent Magicians at that time either in Egypt or any where else beside himself Why was there no fame of them in the World before his Accusation Why was there not any the least memory of them preserved whilst his Name is so universally celebrated or when did any Magician from the beginning of the World either among the Greeks or Barbarians doe such things as he did But what need I say more our Saviour's works themselves are the fullest confutation of this vain pretence for whatever the powers of Magick may be no Man can ever believe that any thing less than a Divine Power could with a word speaking cure all manner of Diseases give sight to Men born Blind recover dying Persons at a distance and raise the Dead themselves To ascribe such actions as these meerly to Magick is a conceit so utterly extravagant that it were an affront to the understanding of Mankind at least at this time to think it needed any other confutation beside its own impossibility Though if any Man will be so humoursomly credulous in his Infidelity as to pretend some such suspicion I shall onely refer him to a smart Discourse of Arnobius in answer to it who first pursues all our Saviour's miraculous actions and the manner of their performance and then appeals to the common sense of Mankind concerning each particular how it was possible that they could ever have been effected by any power less than Divine But in my Opinion this thing is so evident of it self that at this time it would be a very needless piece of Industry to spend so much pains upon it whatever it might have been in his Age when it was so easie and indeed so usual a thing to impose upon the superstitious vulgar with such vain Romances Insomuch that the Enemies to Christianity were not content to perswade them that Christ was a Magician but told them that he was a Teacher of Magick too and writ a Book to instruct his Disciples in the same Art especially Peter and Paul to whom he inscribed it So ignorantly do these Calumniatours falsifie when it is so well known that our Saviour had left the World a considerable time before Paul became his Disciple but beside that the story is altogether groundless and without proof and if it were not yet it confutes it self by its own silliness and absurdity viz. That the Apostles should learn to doe those things that they did by Rules of Art But either these Men that tell us of this magick Book have seen it or they have not if they have not they speak at random if they have why are they not able to doe the same things themselves why do they not cure their sick Friends or conjure them out of their Graves As for the Fable of the Jews that our Saviour had stoln out of the Temple the Shem Hamporash or the Name of God written in its proper Characters which they say it was not lawfull for them vulgarly to doe and by virtue of that was enabled to work all kind of Miracles it is a Fable so very despicable that I am ashamed to repeat it and therefore much more scorn to confute it § XXVI Their next evasion to this Argument is to vye other Stories with that of our Saviour and his Apostles and thereby to abate either their wonder or their credit and this they chiefly doe as to the Resurrection especially Celsus who has in this point more than any other shewn the strength of his Malice and the weakness of his Cause And he