Argument Whereas if Chistians were but throughly acquainted with the Grounds of their Religion and sincerely disposed to believe and practise according to them they would be no more moved with these Cavils than they would be persuaded to think the worse of the Sun if some Men should take a fansie to make that the Subject of their Railery To have the more doubtful and wavering thoughts of Religion because it is exposed to the scorn and contempt of ill Men is as if we should despise the Sun for being under a Cloud or suffering an Eclipse not knowing that he retains his Light and Religion its Excellency still though we be in darkness the Light may be hid from us but can lose nothing of its own Brightness though we suffer for want of it and lie under the shadow of Death The Consideration of the Grounds and Reasons of our Religion is useful to all sorts of Men for if ever we will be seriously and truly Religious we must lay the foundation of it in our Vnderstandings that by the rational conviction of our Minds we may through the Grace of God assisting us bring our Wills to a submission and our Affections to the obedience of the Gospel of Christ and the more we think of and consider these things the more we shall be convinced of them and they will have the greater power and influence in the course of our Lives For tho' the Truth of the Christian Religion cannot without great sin and ignorance be doubted of by Christians yet it is a confirmation to our Faith and adds a new Life and Vigour to our Devotions when we recollect upon what good Reasons we are Christians and are not such by Custom and Education only but upon Principles which we have throughly considered and must abide by unless we will renounce our Reason with our Religion And what Subject can be more useful or more worthy of a rational and considering Man's Thoughts These things which are now made matter of Cavil and Dispute will be the Subject of our Contemplation and of our Joy and Happiness to all Eternity in the other World We shall then have clear and distinct apprehension of the Means and Methods of our Salvation and shall for ever admire and adore the Divine Wisdom in the Conduct and Disposal of those very Things about which we now are most perplex'd THE CONTENTS PART I. CHAP. I. That from the Notion of a God it necessarily follows That there must be some Divine Revelation THE Being of a God evident to Natural Reason p. 3. That there are wicked Spirits Enemies to Mankind p. 6. The miserable Condition of Man without the Divine Direction and Assistance and that God would not leave him without all Remedy in this Condition p. 8. The Judgment of St. Athanasius in the Case p. 15. CHAP. II. The Way and Manner by which Divine Revelations may be suppos'd to be deliver'd and preserv'd in the World The Manifestations of God's ordinary Providence insufficient and therefore some extraordinary Way of Revelation necessary p. 19. The ways of extraordinary Revelation either immediate Revelation to every particular Person or to some only with a Power of Miracles and Prophecies to enable them to communicate the Divine Will to others p. 20. I. It could not be requisite that God should communicate himself by immediate Revelation to every one in particular ibid. II. Prophecies and Miracles are the most fitting and proper Means for God to discover and reveal himself to the World by p. 29. 1. Concerning Prophecies ibid. 2. Concerning Miracles p. 33. III. Divine Revelations must be suppos'd to be preserv'd in the World by Writings p. 43. IV. They must be of great Antiquity p. 44. V. They must be fully publish'd and promulg'd p. 45. PART II. CHAP. I. The Antiquity of the Scriptures THE Antiquity of the Scriptures a Circumstance very considerable to prove them to be of Divine Revelation p. 48. They give an Account of Divine Revelations made from the beginning of the World ibid. What Moses relates of things before his own time is certainly true and must have been discover'd to be false if it had been so p. 50. CHAP. II. The Promulgation of the Scriptures 1. In the first Ages of the World the Revealed Will of God was known to all Mankind p. 58. II. In succeeding Ages there has still been sufficient Means and frequent Opportunities for all Nations to come to the knowledge of it p. 76. 1. The Law of Moses did particularly provide for the instruction of other Nations in the Reveal'd Religion p. 77. 2. The Providence of God did so order and dispose of the Jews that other Nations had frequent Opportunities of becoming instructed in the True Religion p. 90. Testimonies of the Heathen concerning the Jews and their Religion p. 115. There have ever been divers Memorials and Remembrances of the true Religion among the Heathen p. 117. Of the Sibylline Oracles p. 121. The Gospel had been preach'd in China and America before the late Discoveries p. 129. The Confessions both of Protestants and Papists as to this Matter p. 132. Christians in all Parts of the World p. 135. A Sect call'd the Good Followers of the Messiah at Constantinople p. 136. Though great Part of the World are still Vnbelievers yet there is no Nation but has great Opportunities of being converted p. 141. The Case of particular Persons consider'd p. 142. CHAP. III. Of Moses and Aaron The Sincerity of Moses in his Writings p. 146. He was void of Ambition p. 149. Aaron and he had no Contrivance between themselves to impose upon the People p. 151. CHAP. IV. Of the Pentateuch The Pentateuch written by Moses p. 152. The great Impartiality visible in these Books p. 153. The Book of Genesis an Introduction to all the rest p. 154. The principal Points of the History of the Jews confess'd by the Heathen p. 155. CHAP. V. Of the Predictions or Prophecies contain'd in the Books of Moses The Promise of the Messias p. 158. The Predictions of Noah ibid. The Promises made to Abraham p. 159. The Prophecies of Isaac c. p. 160. of Jacob p. 161. of Balaam p. 162. of Moses p. 163. CHAP. VI. Of the Miracles wrought by Moses I. The Miracles and Matters of Fact contain'd in the Books of Moses as they are there related to have been done were at first sufficiently attested p. 170. II. The Relations there set down are a true Account of the Miracles wrought by Moses and such as we may depend upon p. 188. For 1. These things could not be feign'd by Moses and Aaron and others concern'd with them in carrying on such a Design p. 189. 2. The Miracles could not be feign'd nor the Books of Moses invented or falsify'd by any particular Man nor by any Confederacy or Combination of Men after the Death of Moses p. 191. 3. The Pentateuch could not be invented nor falsify'd by the joynt Consent of the whole Nation either in
to himself thereby The greatest Masters of Decency have not thought it always improper for Men to commend themselves either because they supposed some occasions might require it or because it was a more usual thing in ancient Times when Mens Lives and Manners were more natural and sincere and they oftner spoke as they thought both of themselves and others yet we no where find Men speaking so freely in disparagement of themselvs as in the Holy Scriptures Which shews that Moses and the rest of the Inspired Writers little regarded their own Praise or Dispraise but wrote what God was pleased to appoint it being a thing indifferent to them so God might be honoured whether they lost or gained in their own Reputation by it But what we read of Moses Num. xii 3. that he was very meek above all the Men which were upon the face of the Earth which is the only commendable Character that Moses gives of himself may be translated that he was the most afflicted Man according to the Marginal Reading and if he mentions his own Meekness he mentions also his great Anger or heat of Anger Exod. xi 8. and his being very wroth Num. xvi 15. But if Moses had not had more respect to Truth than to his own Reputation he would never have left it upon Record That he so often declined the Message and Employment which God appointed him to undertake Exod. iii. 11 13. iv 1 10 13 14. and that God was angry with him upon other occasions and for that reason would not permit him to enter into the promised Land He would certainly have ascribed Balaam's Prophecy and Jethro's Advice to himself at least he would never have Recorded That by Jethro's Counsel he took up a new and better Method for the administration of Justice If he had been led by Ambition and Vain-glory he would have endeavoured by these things to adorn his own Character and would never have lessen'd it by telling his own Infirmities at the same time when to the diminution of himself he publishes the Excellencies of others The Wonders of the Magicians of Aegypt are not concealed by him and being to give an account of his own Genealogy from Levi he first sets down the Families of Reuben and Simeon the two elder Brothers lest he might seem to arrogate too much to himself and his own Tribe Some have observed that Moses relates his own Birth to have been by a Marriage contrary to the Laws afterwards by himself established which indeed is doubtful by reason of the latitude of signification in the word Sister in the Hebrew Language yet it is certain he was not careful to avoid the being thought to have been born from such a Marriage as he would have been if his Laws had been of his own contrivance lest his own Reputation or the Authority of his Laws or perhaps both might have suffered by it Exod. vi 14 20. He sets forth the Ingratitude Idolatry and perpetual Revolts and Murmurings of his whole Nation and relates the Failings and Faults of their Ancestors the Patriarchs and particularly of Levi from whom he was descended Gen. xxxiv 30. xlix 6. He spares neither his People nor his Ancestors nor himself in what he relates and these are all the Characters of a faithful Historian and a sincere Man that can be desired And as Moses was not ambitious of Praise so neither was he ambitious of Power and Dominion For besides that he entered upon such an Undertaking as no sober Man would have attempted without a Revelation it appearing otherwise impossible to accomplish it his whole Conduct shews that he had no design of advancing his own Interest or Dominion If he had been never so Ambitious he needed not have gone into the Wilderness to seek his Preferment amongst a wandring and stubborn People when he had been bred up to all the Honours and the Pleasures that Aegypt or Pharaoh's Court could afford but he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt Heb. xi 24 25. He undertook to lead the People of Israel for Forty Years through a barren Wilderness where he could promise himself but a very uneasie and inglorious Reign if that had been his Design and by the course of Nature he could not hope to out-live that period of Time and tho' he was preserved in his Old Age in the full strength and vigour of Manhood yet upon their entrance into the promised Land he meekly resigned himself to death in the very sight and Borders of Canaan knowing before-hand that he must not be suffered to possess the Land which he had been so many years in so great dangers leading the People of Israel to enjoy though he doth not conceal how desirous he was to pass over Jordan Deut. iii. 23 c. The History of his Death is like that of his Life related with a peculiar kind of native simplicity He is not said to be taken up into Heaven as Enoch and Elijah were and as the Romans feigned of Romulus but to die and his Sepulchre was hid to prevent the Superstitious and Idolatrous Veneration which might have been paid to the Remains of so great a Person And tho' he had Sons yet they were but private Men no otherwise known to us than as they were his Sons the Government he conferred upon Joshua one of another Tribe Moses therefore was the furthest of any Man from Vain-glorious or Ambitious and Aspiring Designs and could propose no other Advantage to himself but the fulfilling the Will of God in delivering his Commandments to the People of Israel and following his Directions in his Conduct and Government Aaron was of a different Temper from Moses and was envious of him and both Aaron and Miriam murmured against him It is so notorious that there could be no Contrivance between them to deceive the People that it was the immediate and visible Power of God which kept Aaron as well as the rest in Obedience to Moses Upon Moses's Absence Aaron complied with the People in making a Golden Calf and his two eldest Sons offered strange Fire before the Lord which he had not commanded for which they were both destroyed by Fire miraculously issuing out from the Presence of the Lord And Aaron held his peace knowing that this Punishment was inflicted by God himself and having nothing to reply to Moses when he declared to him the Justice of it And both Aaron and his other two Sons are forbidden upon pain of Death to mourn for them Lev. x. 1 2 3 6. At last by the Commandment of God Aaron goes up into Mount Hor to die there not being permitted to enter into the Land of Promise Thus Moses and Aaron were sometimes at disagreement Aaron envying Moses Aaron lost two of his Sons by a
Fact to be known to any single Person 2. Having shewn That the Matters of fact and Miracles contained in the Books of Moses as they are related to have been done were at first sufficiently attested and that if we may credit that Relation all the Miracles there mention'd were certainly wrought by him since they are of that nature that the People of Israel could not be deceived in them I now proceed to shew That the Relations there set down are a true Account of those things and such as we may depend upon For if these Matters of Fact or Miracles are either feigned or falsified this must be done either in Moses's his time or afterwards and if in his time then either by Moses and Aaron with others who were concerned in carrying on the Design or by the whole People of Israâ—l together And if it were done after Moses his death then again it must be done either by some particular Man or by the contrivance of some few or more together or it must have been by the joint Knowledge and consent of the whole Nation I will therefore prove 1. That the Miracles could not be feigned by Moses and Aaron and others concerned with them in carrying on such a Design 2. The Miracles could not be feigned nor the Books of Moses invented or falsified by any particular Man or by any Confederacy or Combination of Men after the death of Moses 3. The Miracles could not be feigned nor the Books invented or falsified by the joint Consent of the whole Nation either in Moses's time or after it 1. These Things could not be feigned by Moses and Aaron and others concerned with them in carrying on such a Design It is plain that they could never invent such an Account as that of their miraculous Escape out of Aegypt and their Travelling in the Wilderness under the conduct and support of the same miraculous Power and then impose it upon the People of Israel for Truth For the People are supposed to be chiefly concerned in the whole Relation Moses appeals to their own sense and experience The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers but with us even with us who are all of us here alive this day Deut. v. 3. And know you this day for I speak not with your children which have not known and which have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God his greatness his mighty hand and his stretched-out arm and his miracles and his acts which he did in the midst of Aegypt unto Pharaoh the king of Aegypt and unto all his land and what he did unto the army of Aegypt unto their horses and to their chariots how he made the water of the Red-sea to over flow them as they pursued after you and how the Lord hath destroyed them unto this day and what he did unto you in the wilderness until ye came into this place and what he did unto Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab the son of Reuben how the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their housholds and their tents and all their substance that was in their possession in the midst of all Israel But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did Deut. xi 2 3 4 5 6 7. Here is a Recapitulation of all the Miracles that had been wrought with an Appeal to their Senses for the Truth of them And Moses would never have made such Appeals as these if they could possibly have disproved him they could never be persuaded that they â—ame out of Aegypt after so many Plagues inflicted upon the Aegyptians to procure their Deliverance if there had been no such thing or that they were so long time in the Wilderness and that so many and so great Miracles were wrought in their sight if they had never been done before them Though Men may perhaps be persuaded to believe that their Ancestors a long time ago saw and heard things which they never saw nor heard yet a whole Nation was never supposed to have been persuaded out of their Senses at once and Moses could not attempt to make so many Men believe what they must all have known to have been false as well as himself if it had been so but he would have lard the Scene at a greater distance of time and not have brought those in as chiefly concerned in the whole business who were then alive and present to convince him of falshood And therefore if the Particulars set down in the Pentateuch be false and as ancient as Moses his time they must be invented with the knowledge and received by the consent of the whole Nation For Moses and Aaron could never so far delude so many thousands as to make them believe such variety of Matter of fact in so many and so wonderful Instances set forth and with such notorious Circumstances and appeal to the Senses of those whom they deceived whether they had not seen and perceived and had the experience of what had been done for so many years if it had been all but Fiction 2. The Miracles could not be feigned nor the Books of Moses invented or falsified by any particular Man or by any confederacy or combination of Men after the death of Moses If the Miracles were feigned after the death of Moses either the Laws must likewise be invented or altered after his death and the Miracles inserted to procure them Authority or the Laws remained as they had been delivered by him and the Miracles only were added For the Books of Moses may be considered either as containing the Laws delivered by him or as relating the Miracles by which these Laws were ratified and established in each of which respects there could be no Forgery or Falsification For 1. The Laws themselves could not be invented nor altered or falsified because the whole Jewish State and Policy was founded upon them and could not subsist without them and therefore they must be as ancient as the Jewish Government which is confess'd on all hands to have been first erected by Moses For not only their Religious Worship but their Civil Rights and Interests depended entirely upon the Laws of Moses their Publick Proceedings and their Private Dealings one with another were all to be regulated and governed by these Laws and when any Laws are brought into constant use and practice in any Nation it is ridiculous to imagine that they can be altered and falsified and a new System of Laws introduced instead of them without the knowledge of the People governed by them or any remembrances of it left amongst them No material Alterations can be made in Laws which are of continual use and which concern every Man's Interest but they must be taken notice of and discovered by such as shall find themselves aggrieved by such Alterations But this was less practicable amongst the Jews than amongst any other People 1. Because the Distinction of their Tribes and the Genealogies which
the performing any good Action Every good Gift and every perfect Gift is from above Jam. i. 17. 3. We learn from hence that God can bring Good out of Evil and doth often over-rule even the worst Actions to the accomplishment of the best Ends and putteth no Trust in his Saints Job xv 15. There is a Remarkable Instance to this purpose in the Case of Jacob and Esau when Jacob came by fraud and subtilty and depriv'd his Brother of the Blessing (p) Casaub in Athenae Lib. 1. c. 11. It was in Ancient times customary to offer that of which they were to eat in Sacrifice especially on so Solemn an Occasion as a Father's giving his final Blessing and as in this Case foretelling the Fate of his Posterity And therefore when Jacob had by subtilty got the Blessing of his Father Isaac could not recall it to conferr it upon Esau because what was done in so solemn a manner had a Religious Obligation amounting to that of an Oath and Oaths tho' obtain'd by fraud were Obligatory as we learn from the Case of the Gibeonites he had blessed Jacob before the Lord and the Prediction that the Elder should serve the Younger Gen. xxv 23. with Esau's despising and selling his Birth-right might now probably come into Isaac's Mind whereupon tho' he did not approve of the fraud by which the Blessing was obtain'd yet he knew it to be irrevocable and that the Divine Purpose and Prediction would be accomplish'd thereby and what he had by a Prophetick Spirit conferr'd it was not in his power to recall The Relation therefore of this Matter doth not justifie Jacob's behaviour in it but manifests the over-ruling Providence of God to make any Means whatsoever instrumental to his gracious Ends which can never be disappointed by any Actions of Men for if they depended upon humane Actions these would often fail them the best Men being subject to so much frailty and sin 4. Tho' God of his Mercy doth accept of the imperfect Services of the Righteous forgiving upon their habitual Repentance the Sins and Frailties which are mix'd with the best Actions and pardoning the worst Actions likewise after a particular Repentance and Amendment of Life yet these stand upon Record for the glory of God's grace in their Repentance and Forgiveness and for a memorial and warning to future Ages that Men may neither presume upon their own Righteousness nor despair of God's Mercy But because they are pardon'd they are not always censur'd And I think the ill Actions of Good Men are seldom or never mention'd with a mark of God's displeasure unless the Series of the History require it and then the reproof is mention'd which pass'd at the time of the Commission of them as in the Case of David of Hezekiah and St. Peter But where no such Censure was pass'd at the time of the Action the Action it self is barely related and nothing further said of it because the Crime being forgiven God forbears to shew any further displeasure against it such is his Mercy to Repenting Sinners And there could be no necessity as I have observ'd for any Censure upon the account of others who may know by the plain Rule of God's word what Actions are sinful tho' they are not always styl'd so in relating the Commission of them CHAP. XVIII Of the Imprecations in the Psalms and other Books of the Old Testament ONE of the greatest Excellencies of the Christian Religion is the Universal Charity which it enjoyns and we shall find that Charity was likewise the Doctrine of the Old Testament and that there is nothing in the Book of Psalms or any other part of the Old Testament contrary to this Doctrine which will appear if we consider the peculiar Reasons for those expressions which may seem to imply any thing contrary to it I. Many of those Expressions are used in reference to the Nations upon whom after signal Acts of Mercy and Forbearance on his part and repeated provocations on theirs God had commanded the Israelites to execute his Judgments and the Sins of the People of Israel were the cause that this was not accomplish'd and therefore it was lawfull for them to pray that they might have grace to repent and that their Sins might be no hindrance to them in the fulfilling his will but that God would enable them to execute vengeance upon the Heathen Ps cxlix 7. And it was lawful likewise to pray against all the other Enemies of God that he would abase their Pride and make them to know themselves to be but Men Ps ix 20. lxxiv. 22 23. cxxxix 21 22. II. David being King had the Sword of Justice committed to him he was the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that did evil and therefore when his Rebellious Subjects were too strong for him as in the Rebellion of Absalom he might make his Appeal to God and beseech him to take the matter into his own hand If he might punish his Subjects he might pray to God that he would enable him to do it And in Foreign Wars if he might kill his Enemies he might pray for Victory and Success over them III. It is lawful to pray that publick and notorious Malefactors may be punish'd for it is lawful to discover them and bring them to punishment and it must needs be lawful to pray that that may be done which it is lawful for us to do It is lawful to seek redress of private Injuries and therefore it is lawful to pray that they may be redress'd for we may pray for success upon any honest undertaking If this be done out of a love to Justice and a necessary care of our own preservation not out of malice and a thirst after Revenge but with the most favourable construction that the worst Actions are capable of and with hearty Prayers to God for his Blessing upon the Offender in giving him the grace of Repentance and granting him whatsoever happiness in this World may be consistent with the honour of God and Justice towards other Men and the Salvation of his own Soul IV. God was the peculiar Law-giver and Political Governour of the Jews and Temporal Rewards and Punishments were the Sanction of the Laws which he had given them For the Mosaical Law is called the ministration of Death and the Ministration of Condemnation 2 Cor. iii. 7 9. because the promises of the Law as such belong'd only to this Life and a Curse was denounc'd against every one that continu'd not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. iii. 10 11. God had expresly threatned to inflict Punishment in this Life for the transgression of those Laws and therefore to pray to God that his Judgments might overtake Evil doers was no more than it is in other Governments to prosecute Offenders before the Magistrate they appealed to God to put his Laws in force against them and not to
THE REASONABLENESS AND CERTAINTY OF THE Christian Religion BY ROBERT JENKIN Chaplain to the Right Honourable the EARL of EXETER and late Fellow of St. John's College in Cambridge The Second Edition Enlarged LONDON Printed for P. B. and R. Wellington at the Dolphin and Crown the West-end of St. Paul's Church-Yard 1700. TO The Right Honourable JOHN EARL of EXETER May it please Your Lordship THE general Decay and Contempt of the Christian Religion amongst us has made me think that I could not better employ the Leisure which by Your Lordship's Favour I enjoy than in using my best Endeavours to shew the Excellency and the Certainty of it And what I have done is here humbly presented to your Lordship as of Right and upon many Accounts it ought to be The Honour and the Satisfaction which I have often had to hear Your Lordship speak in the behalf of Religion and Virtue encourage me to hope that a Performance though but such as this upon that Subject may obtain your Acceptance And the Name only of a Person of your Lordship's Honour and Learning and Knowledge of the World may perhaps be of more advantage to the Cause I undertake than any thing I have been able to write Religion may seem by Descent and as it were by Inheritance to belong to Your Lordship's Care The Wisdom and Piety of Your Great Ancestor appear to distant Ages in the Reformation which through the Blessing of God was in so great a measure by His means establish'd in this Kingdom And I have with Joy often thought that I could observe the Spirit and Genius of my Lord Treasurer BVRGHLEY now exerting it self more than ever in your Noble Family From whence methinks we may presage Happiness to the Nation and may yet expect to see a true sense of Religion revive and may hope that even in our days Christianity amongst English-men shall be more than a Name which is every where spoken against An eminent Vertue is a Publick Good There is a powerful and commanding Force in Great Examples to countenance Vertue and discourage Vice and Profaneness to make Irreligion appear as it is base and contemptible in the World to degrade it and thrust it down among the lower and untaught part of Mankind Much is not to be expected from the Schools and from the Gown under such Contempt and Discouragement But the Great and the Honourable have it in their Power to do great things things worthy of Themselves and for the Advancement of God's Glory Persons of High Birth and both by Nature and Education fitted for the Highest Undertakings whose Vertues shall flourish with their Years and add New Lustre to their Hereditary Honours may yet regain a due Esteem to Religion and adorn the Gospel of Christ This is a proper Object for the Ambition of generous aspiring Minds to express their Gratitude to Him who has placed them so much above the rest of the World and when they find themselves happy now to disdain to aim at any thing less than Everlasting Happiness hereafter To be Miserable after Happiness is an Aggravation of Misery But to receive Eternal Blessings as the Fruits and Improvement of such as are Temporal is the Privilege of those whom God has been pleased to distinguish from others by his Mercies and who distinguish themselves by a regard to his Honour and Service All that know Burghley and who is there almost that doth not know it are surprised with Wonder and Delight to observe what Art can do and to behold the Splendor and the Magnificence of Foreign Countries in our own But the Glories and Rewards of Vertue shall continue when Burghley it self and the World shall be no more and will make Death but a Passage and an Advancement from one Palace from one Honour to another and a Removal only from the uncertain Riches and imperfect Felicities of this Life to the Mansions of Eternal Bliss in Heaven That these my Endeavours may prove but in any measure serviceable to the Ends of Religion and Virtue and thereby to the Glory and Happiness of your Honourable Family in this and a better World is My Lord the unfeigned Desire and Prayer of Your Lordship 's Most Humble and most Obedient Servant and Chaplain R. Jenkin THE PREFACE I Am sensible that the Publication of a Treatise of this nature will be liable to Exceptions from those for whose Vse and Benefit it is chiefly design'd who will be ready to lay hold of all Pretences to avoid the being convinc'd of what they have so little mind to believe They will be apt to say That if the Truth of Religion be so certain and so evident as it is maintain'd to be there could be little need of so many Discourses upon this Argument for it is no sign of Certainty when tho' such a number of Books are Publish'd of this kind that so many Men of Learning and Parts have written upon the Subject yet others it seems are not satisfy'd in their Performances but are continually offering something new upon it They will likewise object That many of the Professors and Ministers of Religion do not live as if they believ'd themselves at least not as if they were so very certain of what they teach and that if there were so great Certainty there never could be so many Vnbelievers but all who had heard of it must needs be convinc'd by such Evidence I shall therefore shew here That the Number of Books written on this Subject doth not prove the Vncertainty of Religion but rather the contrary and that the ill Lives of Men is no Argument against the Religion they profess And then I shall enquire how it comes to pass That a Religion which carries so plain and convincing Evidence along with it should yet by too many be disbeliev'd or disregarded 1. To the First Thing it might be sufficient to say That the Number of Writers is a great Confirmation of the Truth of our Religion since as many as have undertaken the Proof of it have always agreed in the main Evidence and differ only in Method or in the Management of particular Arguments And though all have not written with equal Strength and Clearness yet there is not I believe one Author but has brought sufficient Arguments to confute the Adversaries of Religion They are pleas'd indeed to think otherwise But they may at least take notice how obvious it is that if this Objection prove any thing it must prove That there is no such thing as Certainty in the World because there is no Art nor Science concerning which divers Treatises are not daily Publish'd But are therefore the Natures of Vertue and Vice uncertain Is it the less certain whether Justice Temperance and common Honesty be Vertues or whether Murther Adultery and Theft be Crimes because Laws are made and Sermons daily preach'd concerning these Things Or can any Man doubt That these Crimes often meet with severe Punishments even in this
a Fire from Hâ—aâ—en devoured others there was not a Man of all the Congregation but must be an Eye-witness to this Judgment and there could be no Deceit nor Mistake in a thing of this nature For Men may as well doubt whether those whom they see live are alive as whether those whom they see taken away by so terrible and so visible a death are dead and unless they can know this there can be no Knowledge nor Proof of any thing They saw the Earth first divide it self and then close it self again upon these wicked Men they saw them go down alive into the pit they heard the Cry of them and fled away â—oâ— fear and they saw besides a Fire from the Lord consume no fewer than Two hundred and fifty Men and these the Men that offer'd Incense in opposition to Aaron Princes of the assembly famous in the congregation men of renown whose death was very remarkable upon the account of their Persons as well as for the Manner of it So many Men of that Rank and Character being taken away at once was a thing that would have been much observed and strictly enquir'd into if they had fain by any other death but their dying in this manner was so wonderful and so plain a declaration of the Divine Justice that it could neither be unknown nor forgotten by any Man in the whole Congregation Yet their Discontents against Moses still continued for He and Aaron were charged with killing the people of the Lord ver 41. and the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron and behold the cloud covered the tabernacle of the congregation and the glory of the Lord appeared And God's Wrath was so hot against the People for their Stâ—bbornness and Disobedience that notwithstanding the Intercession of Moses and Aaron in their behalf a Plague from the Lord raged so much amongst them that they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred beside them that died about the matter of Korah ver 49. And there were probably many Families in every Tribe which bore the marks of God's Displeasure and of the Truth of Moses his Mission and then Aaron's Rod alone blossom'd of all the Rods of the Twelve Tribes but by this time the people were weary of their contumacy and cried out â—â—hold we die we perish we all perish Shall we be consumed with dying Num. xvii 12 13. And thus was an end put to a Sedition which was the greatest and the most dangerous as Josephus well observes that was ever known among any People and such as that so dreadful a succession of Miracles was necessary to deliver Moses out of it And I would know of the greatest Infidel whether if he had lived at that time and had been in the Wilderness with Moses and had been of Korah's Conspiracy as it is most likely he would have been I would know of him I say whether he could have done any thing more to put Moses upon the utmost tryal of his power and Authority received from God than these rebellious Israelites did And if he could not as he must needs confess he could not then he ought to be satisfied in the Authority of Moses as they themselves afterwards were unless he has an ambition to shew that some Christians can be more refractary than Jews Yet again when they wanted Water the Peopled quarell'd with Moses and said Would God that we had died when our brethren â—ied before the Lord. And Moses brought Water out of the Rock before the whole Congregation in so great plenty that the whole People and their Cattle just ready to perish with thirst was satisfied with it Num. xx 3 10. At another time after a signal Victory over the Canaanites they made the same Complaints again and for their Murmurings were stung by fiery Serpents and many died till a Brazen Serpent being erected as many as looked on it were miraculously cured Num. xxi 6. And if the delivering the Law in so conspicuous and wonderful a manner if so remarkable Judgments upon those that questioned and opposed Moses his Authority and that transgressed his Law by committing Idolatry if a continual course of Miracles for Forty Years done before the eyes and obvious to every sense of so many thousands of People be not a plain demonstration that the Matter of Fact in all the circumstances of it necessary to prove Moses to have acted by God's immediate Authority and Commission was at first sufficiently attested it is impossible that any thing can be certainly testified We see how impossible it was for Moses to impose upon the People of Israel in things of this nature it he could have been so far forsaken of all Reason and common Sense as to hope to do it But if he had designed to put any deceit upon them he would certainly have taken another course he would have done his Miracles privately and but seldom not in the midst of all the People for Forty Years together he would never have made two Nations at the first Witnesses to them and then have proceeded in such a manner as that every Man among the Israelites must have known them to be false if thy had been so he would have chosen such Instances to shew his Miracles in as should have provoked no body not such as must have enraged the whole People against him by the death of so many thousands so often put to death if they had been slain by any other means than by the Almighty Hand of God And indeed what could destroy so many so irresistibly so suddenly and visibly but the Divine Power And what could be the Design and Intent of such Miracles but to fulfil the Will of God and make his Power to be known and his authority acknowledged in the Laws which were delivered in his Name and which were so often affronted and transgressed by these Sinners against their own Souls At their going out of Aegypt by a miraculous Providence there was not one feeble person among their tribâ—s but upon their transgressions they were punished by Diseases as miraculous We have other Evidence as I have before observed that Moses had no design to delude the People of Israel from the Meekness of his Disposition from his discovering his own Faults and Infirmities in his Writings and from his not advancing his Family but leaving his Posterity in a private condition and putting the Government into the hands of Joshua one of the Tribe of Ephraim But when all the People of Israel were Witnesses to so many Miracles wrought by him and particularly to so strange a Judgment as the cleaving asunder of the Earth and the Fire and Plague by which so many thousands perished we need not insist upon any other Proof to shew that the Miraculons Power and Divine Authority by which Moses acted and wrote was as well attested and as fully known to the whole People of Israel as it is possible for any Matter of
he saw that he was condemned repented himself and brought again the thirty pieces of Silver to the Chief Priests and Elders saying I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood And they said What is that to us see thou to that And he cast down the pieces of Silver in the Temple and went and hanged himself Matt. xxvii 3 4. How could the Chief Priests themselves have contrived a better way to vindicate our Saviour's Innocence if they had never so much endeavour'd it than for one of his own Disciples after he had betrayed him instead of witnessing against him which it was natural to suppose he would have done to be so far from that as to come before them all and fling down the Money in the Temple which they had given him as the hire of his Treachery and declare publickly that he had betrayed the Innocent Blood and then to give a further proof of all this out of meer anguish and horror of Mind to go immediately from them and hang himself If our Saviour had done any thing whereby he could deserve to be put to Death Judas must needs have known it and when he had once betray'd him it cannot be supposed he would forbear to discover any thing he knew of him But when on the contrary he was so far from accusing him that as soon as he saw him condemned at the Accusation of other false Witnesses he could not bear the Agonies of his own mind but went and made away with himself this is as evident a proof of Christ's Innocence as any of the other Apostles themselves could ever give and Judas is so far an Apostle still as to proclaim his Master's Innocence in the face of the Sanedrim and then to Seal that Testimony with his Blood It has been thought by some that Judas as wicked as he was had never any design to cause his Master to be put to Death or to be any way instrumental towards it but he supposed that Christ would be secure enough against the Chief Priests in his own Innocence and Holiness or that they would not dare to hurt him for fear of the People which had been a restraint upon them in their former attempts or that he could easily make his escape from them as he had formerly done and therefore his Covetousness tempted him to believe that though he should betray his Master yet he would come to no harm by it However it is certain that Judas himself cleared our Saviour's snnocence by betraying him more than any other man could have done who had not been his Dlsciple and his making that confession and then his dying upon that account and in that manner may afford us that evidence which we must have wanted to certify us in the Truth of the Christian Religion if Christ had not been betray'd or had been betrayed by any but one of his own Disciples When he was condemned and crucify'd one of the Thieves who was crucified with him made an open Profession of him when there could be no Temptation of flattery nor leisure or patience for a man in that condition to speak in that manner but by the special Providence and Grace of God and to give an early instance of the great efficacy of his Cross and of the Mercy which it reacheth forth to all repenting Sinners our Saviour assures him that that very day he should be with him in Paradise A strange discourse upon the Cross To speak of Kingdoms and promise Paradise under so much infamy and torment That one should have the Faith to ask and the other the Power to promise so great things in that condition Who could have had the courage to promise so much upon the Cross but he who was able to perform it And as no ill could ever be proved against him but all circumstances concurred to confirm his Innocence as Herod dismissed him and Pilate often declared him to have committed nothing worthy of Death so the Devils themselves during his Life here upon Earth confessed him to be the Son of God and after his Death (b) Porphyr apud Euscb Demonstr Evang. lib. 3. c. 6. by their Oracles acknowledged him to have been an holy person whose Soul was translated into Heaven And this person thus Innocent and Holy both in his Life and Doctrine was prophesied of many Ages before his Birth and all the Prophecies concerning the Messias were exactly and in a wonderful manner fulfilled in him These Prophecies concern either his Birth or his Life or his Death or his Resurrection and Ascension 1. The Prophecies concerning the Birth of the Messias were fulfilled in our Saviour For his Birth was prophesied of in all the circumstances of the Time and the Place of it and the Person of whom he was born 1. As for the Time by Jacob's Prophecy Gen. xlix 10. The Messias was to come about the time of the Dissolution of the Jewish Government The Scepter was not to depart from Judah that is the Power and Authority of the Jewish Government was not to cease until Shilo came which the ancient (c) See Bp. Pearson on the Creed Jewish Interpreters expounded of the coming of their Messias To (d) Lightfoot's Prospect of the Temple c. 21. which purpose it is held by the Jews that the great Sanhedrim sat in the Tribe of Judah tho' but part of the Court in which they sat was of that Tribe and the rest in the Tribe of Benjamin And the Jews among all their objections never objected against the time in which our Saviour came into the World but many of them have confessed that the Messias was born at that time but say that because of their sins he has (e) Munster de Messiâ concealed himself ever since And the latter Jews have by a great many stories endeavoured to make it believed that there is a Kingdom still of their Nation in some unknown part of the world tho' if this were true it could prove nothing to their purpose the prophecy being concerning their Power and Authority in the promised Land It is certain that soon after our Saviour's coming Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews dispersed and upon severe Penalties forbidden to come to their desolate and ruined City or so much as to look upon Zion the City of their Solemnities unless it were once every year to lament their calamity and they have ever since been a wandring and despicable People And several times when they have at tempted to re-build their Temple they have not been suffered to do it particularly when they had the favour and encouragement of Julian the Apostate who out of malice to the Christian Name and Doctrine was forward to promote the work they were hindred by an Earthquake and a miraculous eruption of Fire bursting out from under the foundation which burnt down what they had erected and destroyed those that were employed in it and this we have attested not only from Christian writers
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.
Composition of Cato it had been hard for him to avoid the being a Stoick and he might probably have founded that Sect if it had not been known in the World before The Philosophers had no Authority to promise rewards or to threaten punishments upon the observation or neglect of their Precepts and therefore every man was at his liberty to chuse or to reject what they taught and divers of them were sensible of this unavoidable defect in all humane Doctrines and therefore pretended to Revelation There is no inconvenience therefore in supposing that many of the Precepts contained in the Proverbs and other Books of Scripture might be known without a Revelation for there is notwithstanding very good Reason why they should be inserted into the Scripture Because the Scriptures have the Authority of a Divine Law and are to be looked upon not as a System of Ethicks or a Collection of Moral Precepts but as a Body of Laws given out upon Divers occasions and as Rules of Instruction which at the same time both shew us our Duty and command our Obedience It is not expected that Kings in their Laws shouid argue more profoundly than other men do but they should command more effectually than others can teach they do not dispute but pronounce and dictate what their subjects must take notice of at their peril And it is no diminution to a Princes Authority to command the most known and obvious things though it may be a fault in the subject to need such commands And God in his word did not design to furnish us with a Treatise of Philosophy to gratify our curiosity with strange and new notions and make us profound Scholars but to speak to the necessities of men and put them in mind of known Duties to appeal to their own Consciences and to enforce those notions of Good and Evil which natural reason perhaps might suggest to them by the authority of a revealed Religion and a Divine Law established upon Rewards and Punishments 3. Though the Philosophers were able to discern something more than other men yet they durst not openly declare what they knew but were over-born with the errors and vices the Times and Countries in which they lived even to the Commission of Idolatry and the worst of vices and therefore their Doctrines whatever they were could do but little good towards the reformation of the World I shall not enquire into the Reports concerning Socrates and Plato Seneca and Cato himself but only observe that Socrates who was the only Martyr among the Philosophers for the truth yet when he comes to die speaks with no assurance of a Future State and ordered a Cock to be sacrificed to Aesoulapius which can hardly be reconciled to that Doctrine for for which he is supposed to die And after his Death how did his Friends and Disciples behave themselves Did they openly and courageously vindicate his innocence and teach the Doctrine for which he suffered Did they not use all means to conceal and dissemble it But Mankind stood in need of a perfect example of Virtue and of such instructors as should both teach and practise the Doctrines of it at their utmost peril and of a succession of such Men as should bear Testimony to their Doctrine both by the Miracles wrought during their Lives and by the constancy of their Deaths 4. As the Heathen Philosophy wanted the Authority of a Law and the example of those who taught it so it wanted principal Motives to recommend the practice of it to the Lives of Men. The Philosophers teach nothing of the exceeding Love of God towards us of his desire of our happiness and his readiness to assist and conduct us in the ways of Virtue They owned no such thing as Divine Grace and Assistance towards the attainment of Vertue and the perseverance in it (o) Tull. de Nat. Dâ—or lib. iii. Virtutem autem nemo unquam acceptam Deo retulit nimirum recte propter virtutem enim jure laudamur in virtute recte gloriamur quod non contingeret si id donum a Deo non a nobis haberemus nam quis quod bonus vir esset gratias Diis egit unquam Jovemque optimum maximum ob eas res appellant non quod justos temperatos sapientes efficiat sed quod salvos incolumes opulentos copiosos This occasioned those (p) Sen Epist 53. insolent Boasts of the Stoicks equaling themselves to the Gods and sometimes even preferring themselves before them because they had difficulties to encounter which made their conquests of vice and their improvements in virtue more glorious than they supposed the like excellencies to be in their Gods who were good by the necessity of their own Nature Wherefore tho the Rules of Philosophy had been never so perfect yet they must needs be ineffectual being so difficult to find out and so unactive and dead when they were discovered without that Authority and Life and Energy that may be had from Divine Revelation which there was a necessity for not only to supply the imperfections and correct the errors of Philosophy but to enforce the Doctrines of it tho they had been never so true and perfect CHAP. VI. The Novelty and Defect in the Promulgation of the Mahometan Religion THE Novelty of the Mahometan Religion in respect both of the Old and New Testament is past all dispute And this Religion notwithstanding all its sensual allurement owes its Propagation solely to the â—ower of the Sword For though the Alcoran has been translated into most of the Languages in use amongst Christians yet it has never been known to make any Proselytes but by force of Arms. At first this Religion had many circumstances for its advantage which might in humane probability gain it success in the world It was begun in Rebellion and in a final Revolt from the Emperor Heraclius and besides this popular and seducing Temptation of Licence and Violence Mahomet added the enticements of Lust and Sensuality he forbad Men indeed some things but such as he could easily see they would part with for the free and unbounded enjoyment of others then he pretended to sound his Doctrine on the Authority of Moses and of Christ saying that Christ had promised to send him all which made his Religion find the more easy entertainment amongst both Jews and Christians 'T was but like the Heresy of the Gnosticks at the first and not altogether so gross and this must needs encline all of Seditious and lewd principles to come in to him being glad of such a colour for their wickedness and it had the advantage of Power and Force to make it more lasting than other such Blasphemies have been Christ on the contrary forbad Resistance of the supreme Power upon any terms whatsoever he asserted the Authority of Moses but so as to abolish the ceremonial part of the Law which was what the Jews were most fond of so that this very thing made the Jews
we may not be assured of some things as certainly from the Testimony of others as from our own Senses 2. Whether this be not the present case relating to the resolution of Faith I shall therefore consider in the first place the certainty which we have for the matters of fact by which the Authority of the Scriptures is proved and confirmed to us compared with the evidence of sence and will then apply it to the resolution of Faith I. In many cases men seem generally agreed that there is as much cause to believe what they know from others as what they see and experience themselves For there may be such circumstances of credibility as equal the evidence even of sence it self no evidence can satisfie sence so much indeed nor perhaps so much affect the passions as that of sence but there may be other evidence which may give as clear conviction and altogether as good satisfaction to our Reason as that which is immediately derived from our sences concerning the Being of Objects or the Truth of matters of fact Thus those who never travelled to the Indies do as little doubt that there is such a place as those who have been never so often there and all men believe there was such a man as Julius Caesar with as little scruple as if they had lived in his time and had seen and spoke with him I suppose no man in his wits makes any more doubt but there are such places as Judoea and Jerusalem from the constant report of Historians and Travellers than if he had been in those places himself and had lived the greatest part of his Life there and the greatest Infidel that I know of never pretended yet to disbelieve that there was such a person as our Saviour Christ But all men think themselves as well assured of things of this nature upon the credit of others as if they had seen them themselves For how doubtful and intricate soever some things may be for want of Knowledge or credit in the Relaters yet there are other things delivered with that agreement and certainty on all hands that to doubt of them would be as unreasonable as to doubt of what we our selves see and hear And if our Saviour's Resurrection for instance be of this nature we can with as little reason doubt of it as if we had lived at that time and had conversed with him after his Resurrection from the Dead But we have as great assurance that he was alive again after his Crucifixion as that he ever lived at all and we have at least all the assurance that there was such a Person as Christ that we can have that there once lived any other man at that distance of time from us We can no more doubt that our Saviour was born in the Reign of Augustus Coesar and was Crucified under Tiberius than that there were once such Emperors in the World nay we have it much better attested that Christ was Born and was Crucified and rose again than that there ever were such Princes as these two Emperors for no man ever made it his business to go about the world to certifie this and to testifie the truth of it at his Death But the Apostles themselves and their Disciples and Converts and innumerable others ever since from the beginning of Christianity have asserted the particulars of the Life and Death and Resurrection of our Saviour under all dangers and torments and deaths and have made it their great aim and design both living and dying to bear Testimony to the Truth of the Gospel So that a man may as well doubt of any matter of fact that ever was done before his own time or at a great distance from him as doubt of these fundamentals of the Christian Religion and yet there is no man but thinks himself as certain of some things at least which were done a long time ago or a great way off as if he had been at the doing of them himself Indeed in some respects we seem to have more evidence than these could have that lived in the beginning of Christianity for they could see but some Miracles we have the benefit of all they relyed upon their own sences and upon the sences of such as they knew and conversed with we upon the sences of innumerable People who successively beheld them for the space of Divers hundred years together so that whoever will not believe the Scriptures neither would he believe though one rose from the Dead that is though the greatest Miracle were wrought for his conviction This was said of the Old Testament and therefore may with greater reason be said of that and the New both And we have besides one sort of evidence which those that lived at the first planting of Christianity could not have for we see many of those Prophecies fulfilled which our Saviour foretold concerning his Church we know how it sprung up and flourished and from what small unlikely beginnings it has spread it self into all corners of the Earth and continues to this day notwithstanding all the malice of Men and Devils to root it out and destroy it The continuance and success of the Gospel under so improbable circumstances was matter of Faith chiefâ—y to the first Christians but to us is matter of Fact and the object of sense they saw the work indeed prosper in their hands but their Faith only could tell them that it should flourish for so many Ages as we know it has already done This is a standing and invincible proof to us at this distance of time and has the force of a twofold Argument the one of a Power of Miracles the other of Prophecies we know that a miraculous power has been manifested in conquering all opposition and in a wonderful manner bringing those things to pass which to humane wisdom and power are altogether impossible And the fulfilling hereby of Prophecies is a visible confirmation to us of the truth of those Miracles which by the Testimony of others we believe to have been done by the Prophets whose Prophecies we see fulfilled And since it must be acknowledged that things may be so well attested that we may with as much reason doubt of the truth of our own sences as of the Authority by which we are assured of the truth of them and must turn Scepticks or worse if we will not believe them we may conclude as well upon the account of these Prophecies which we our selves see fulfilled as upon all other accounts that the Historical evidence in proof of the Christian Religion amounts to all the certainty that a matter of Fact is capable of not excepting even that of sense it self II. Let us now apply all this to the Resolution of Faith and give an account how a divine and infallible Faith may be produced in us Humane Testimony is the Motive by which we believe the Scriptures to contain God's revealed Will this certifies us that such Miracles were wrought
Errors and both he and Socrates practised the Idolatries of their Country They asserted many excellent Truths which they had received as they profest from Antiquity but whenever they argu'd any Point they commonly fell into mistakes which oftentimes were of very ill consequence So weak a thing is Humane Wisdom without the guidance of Divine Revelation And of this the Philosophers were so sensible that divers of them would have it thought that they had some supernatural Assistance tho' they were able to bring no sufficient Proof of it The Pretences of others deserve no Regard their Impostures were too Notorious to admit of any Denial or Excuse The Genius of Socrates may be supposed Worthy of more Consideration yet it amounts to no more than this that Socrates declared that a certain Genius had accompanied him from his Childhood which often forbad him to do what he had design'd but never put him upon doing of any thing and by the Information of this Genius he often forewarned his Friends of the ill Success of what they were about to undertake But after the best Search I have been able to make concerning this Genius of Socrates I cannot but look upon it as an intricate and perplext Business It may suffice in this place to observe that (x) Xenoph. de exped Cyri. lib. 111. Xenophon acquaints us that when he advised with Socrates whether he should follow Cyrus in his Expedition Socrates sent him to the Oracle of Apollo who he said was to be consulted in obscure and uncertain Affairs which affords no very advantageous Character either of Socrates himself or of his Genius (y) Ciâ—â—dâ— Divtâ— lib. â— Tully informs us that Antipater the Sâ—oick had made a Collection of such things as Socrates's Geniu had discovered to him but whatever they were it appears that Tully had little regard to them And this we are sure of that all the Philosophy of Socrates ended in nothing but Uncertainties For when he had just before his Death discours'd of the State after this Life the most that he could say to his Friends in Conclusion was (z) Plato Phaed. that they had a Noble Prize before them great Hopes and a glorious Venture and therefore ought to possess and Charm their Minds with those Thoughts The suggestions of his Genius signified little to him if it left him no better instructed as to a future State in the last Moments of his Life It must be acknowledg'd that Socrates made great Improvements in the Moral and useful part of Philosophy He was of an excellent Understanding loving and belov'd of honest Men and had Courage and Resolution enough to bear the Affronts and withstand the Malice of others he minded none but the practical Doctrines of Philosophy and tho' he never had travelled in search after Learning as it was the Custom in those Ages for Philosophers to do but scarce ever stirr'd out of Athens yet he knew how to make the best use of the Notions which were brought to him by those who had been in foreign Countries It must be confess'd that if Plato had not made Socrates the Author of things which he had never sâ—â—d as not only (a) A. Gell lib. 14 c. 3. Diog. Laert. in Platon Xenophon but Socrates himself declar'd but had â—iven us as plain an Account of Socrates's Philosophy as Arrian has of that of â—pictetus we might have known more of him than we now are able to do But from what Plato and Xenophon have said of Socrates we may be assur'd that he did not reâ—â—ain from Idolatrous Worship nor reject the Heathen Oracles nor deliver his own Doctrines without much Uncertainty and Diffidence Plato carried his Philosophy to far greater Heights than Socrates had done and the sublimer Parts of it were not to be discovered to the Vulgar which were so difficult that he declares to (b) Epist 2. Dionysius that Men of Great Abilities and as great Application and Industry after the Study of thirty Years at last with much ado understood them Some things were not to be written at all or so obscurely as not to be intelligible if they should fall into the hands of Men who were not fit to be trusted with the Secret of them and he acknowledgeth that his best and only sure Argument for the Immortality of the Soul without the Knowledge of which all Philosophy can be but of little worth was from (c) Epist. 7. antient and sacred Tradition The Notions and Traditions which Plato had brought from other Countries with his delightful way of setting them forth gain'd him great Reputation some Attempts were made by himself and those of his Sect to bring his Laws into practice and to erect a Commonwealth after the Model of them his Name and Memory was had in Great Esteem his Birth-day was kept and the Solemnity of it was renewed about two hundred Years ago by some of his Admirers as we are told by (d) Comment in Conviv Plat de Amere c. 1. Ficinus one of that Society But there is too much Alloy found in his Philosophy for any Endeavours to gain it a constant and general Reception His Errors in some Cases are so notoriously gross and scandalous that (x) Vid. Plat de Repub lib. v. Serran edit Serranus sets over against them in the Margin Prima Insania hominis delirantis and Portentosa Insania (e) Orig. coâ—r Cels â—lib 2. Aristotle had studied twenty Years under Plato but he so often confutes and contradicts his Master that he has been charged with Ingratitude for it And if Socrates and Plato did not firmly believe the Souls Immortality Aristotle believ'd the contrary as (f) vid. Jac. Billium in Greg Nariam Orat 3â— many have prov'd out of several places in his Works (x) Diog. Leert His Will shews that he was both in his Practice and Judgment for the Idolatries of his Country His Books by an Accident lay conceal'd till they were brought to Rome upon the taking of Athens (g) Strabo lib. 13. Plut. in Sylla by Sylla But they were known to few Philosophers in (h) Lic Topiâ— Tully's time And a Learned Author has given an Account what their Fate has been since The Sect of the Stoicks is observed by Josephus in the Account of his own Life to have been like that of the Pharisees which (i) Grot. ad Mat. xxii 23. Grotius says is no wonder since in Cyprus which was Zeno's Native Country there were always many Jews But if the Stoicks were at first indebted to the Jews they certainly afterwards borrow'd much more from the Christians This Sect was very numerous and had Men of great Note in the Primitive Ages of Christianity who did not lose the opportunity offer'd them of improving it But the Philosophers then began to carry on a Joint-Interest and those who denominated themselves from any particular Sect were no longer strict in adhereing nicely to its Principles For
c. 7. in Ceylon the Noya will stand with half his Body upright for two or three hours together (q) See Mr. Mede lib. 1. Disâ—â— xli These may be for Monuments of the Truth of the Curse upon the rest as some of the Race of the Giants were left in the Land of Canaan till David's time as a Memorial to the Israelites of the Miraculous Power of God in the Conquest of the Land by their Forefathers The Curse of the Ground was for a Punishment to Adam and his Posterity and can be considered no otherwise nor be made matter of Objection unless it be thought unreasonable to inflict a Curse upon Mankind for this Offence of eating the Forbidden Fruit by making the Earth less fruitful and pleasant to them Tho' the Garden of Eden were the most delightful and happy Part of the Earth yet the whole Earth before the Fall was very different from what it has been since For if it had continued as it was the Curse and Punishment upon Mankind could not have been effected in that manner in which it was determined 2. Our First Parents were turned out of Paradise and not suffered to taste of the Tree of Life They had been charged not to eat of the Fruit in the midst of the Garden and Threatned with Death that is that they should become Mortal and be sure to die if they would presume to eat of it To be subject to Misery both in Body and Mind so that the Body should decay and at last be dissolved and the Soul which could not Perish should be miserable after its separation from the Body was the Original Notion of Death and our First Parents who had never feen what Natural dying was understood Death no otherwise than as a Privation of Happiness and consequently a State of Misery both in this Life and the next The first was unavoidable the latter to be avoided by Repentance and a future Obedience thro' Faith in God's Mercy for Christ's sake They were hindred from tasting of that Tree which was to have been the Means and Instrument of Immortality to them For God who has given a Medicinal Vertue and a Power of Nourishment to other Fruits and Herbs might convey a Power and Influence into this Tree of rendring Men Immortal by preventing the decays of Nature and Nourishing or Strengthning them to an endless Life How this should have been we are now no more able to know than to become immortal here upon Earth But this was God's Decree that Immortality should be annext to the tasting of that Tree and therefore our First Parents when they had incurred the Penalty of Death were not suffered to taste of it but were forced out of Paradise and it was just that they should be hindred from enjoying any longer the Delights of Paradise for the Transgression of a Commandment which wantonness only and a vain and criminal Curiosity could make them disobey We are able to give little more Account how the Food we now eat can nourish and sustain us from time to time for Threescore and Ten or Fourscore Years than how the Fruit of the Tree of Life should have been a preservative to keep Men alive for ever only this we have the Experience of and so fancy we can tell how it comes to pass but that is strange to us and what is strange Men wonder at and will hardly believe it But since God has endued our ordinary Food with a power of Nourishment no man can reasonably doubt but that he might endue this Fruit with such a Vertue that it should have made men immortal to Taste of it and have prevented that decay of Nature which now still creeps upon us in the use of other Food We may well suppose that if they had once tasted of this Fruit they should have suffered no Decay but have lived in constant Vigour here tho' partaking afterwards only of other Nourishment till they had been translated to Heaven Or it might be design'd not as a Physical but a Sacramental Cause of Immortality that is as a Sign and Pledge of Immortality God having decreed that upon the Tasting of this Fruit Adam and his Posterity should have been immortal But the Forbidden Fruit being of a most delicious Taste as well as pleasant to the Eyes and containing a very fermenting Juice might put the Blood and Spirits into great Disorder and thereby divest the Soul of that Power and Dominion which it had before over the Body and by a closer and more intimate Union with Matter might reduce it to that miserable Condition which has been propagated and derived down to Posterity with the Humane Nature from our First Parents as some Poysons now strangely affect the Nerves and Spirits without causing immediate Death but make such Alterations in the Body as are never to be cured And it could not be fitting that Man should become immortal in this Condition or that the Threatning of God however should not take place From what has been hitherto said upon this Subject I hope it is evident that there can be no necessity of running to Allegorical Interpretations to explain the Fall of our First Parents And indeed all the Reason that can be given why it is represented under an Allegory will rather prove the Litteral Sense For if the Simplicity and the Customs and Manner of Life in the Beginning of the World did require that the Fall of our First parents should be describ'd under an Allegory of this Nature for the very same Reasons we may suppose that the Fall was in this manner For what is it which makes it seem improbable but only its being disagreeable as some Men conceit to Reason But if it be absurd to suppose that such a thing should have been in the Beginning of the World why is it not as absurd that such a thing should be represented to those who liv'd at the beginning of the World as if it had been If this was then the most fitting and proper Representation of the Fall why was it not the most likely manner for it to happen by God's Dispensations are always fitted to the Capacities and Circumstances of those who are most concern'd in them and the Devil in his Temptations applies himself to the Circumstances of those whom he would seduce And it cannot be conceiv'd that the most remarkable Thing that ever has befaln Mankind except the Redemption of the World by Christ should so come to pass as not to be told to Posterity but in an Allegory For if the Litteral Truth had ever been known it was impossible it should be forgotten in so few Generations and that Moses should put an Allegory in the room of it Did the Children of Israel know the Historical Truth of the Fall or did they not know it If they did why should Moses disguise it under an Allegory rather than the rest of the Book of Genesis If they did not know it how could it be forgotten
of eternal Rewards and Punishments as well as Christians and the eternity of the latter was the great Impediment which Epicurus endeavour'd to remove out of the way to the free Enjoyment of Men's Lusts For whatever some have said in behalf of Epicurus his own word produced (x) Tusc Qu. lib. iii. by Tully too plain to be evaded shew that he did place all Happiness in sensual Pleasures only he was willing to enjoy them as quietly and securely as he could and for this Reason laid down divers Rules by way of expedient to keep the Mind in Peace void of all Auxiety in this Life and of all Hopes or Fears of a future State The prevailing Belief of the eternal Punishments of wicked Men after Death was enough to ruine all his Philosophy and therefore this was by all means to be removed which yet he was never able to effect So that this was a thing sufficiently known to make all men sensible of what they must expect would be the consequence of Sin And what God has threatned so long before and has given Men time and Opportunity and Ability to avoid they cannot fall under but thro' their own Wilfulness and Misbehaviour and can have no reason to complain when it comes upon them 3. It was necessary that the Sanction of the Divine Laws should be by eternal Rewards and Punishments The Sanction of all Laws is by Rewards and Punishments and the Design of appointing Punishments is to affright Men from Sin as the end of Rewards is to invite them to Obedience The only true Measure and just Proportion therefore between the Crime and the Punishment is the suitableness of the Punishment to enforce Obedience to the Law and cause it to be duly observed For if the Law be good and necessary and cannot be so well and so effectually obeyed without a very severe Punishment to enforce it the Severity of the Punishment is so far from Cruelty that it is a just and wise Provision to secure Obedience to the Law and procure all the Good design'd by it Thus we always judge in Humane Laws A man is condemn'd to lose his Life for taking from another that which he perhaps could very well spare but we are all agreed in the Justice of making such Examples because we find that Men can scarce be secure in their Lives and Estates notwithstanding the Severity of such Laws And if the Terrors of everlasting Torments will not frighten Men from Sin what effect would a less Punishment denounced have had upon them If men can but once perswade themselves that the Torments of Hell are not so terrible they freely give themselves up to all Licentiousness and we know how fond Men of wicked Lives are of such Doctrines God therefore perfectly understanding the Temper and Inclination the Stubborness and Perverseness of Mens Hearts so prone to Vice and so backward to all that is good foresaw that a less Punishment threatned would not prevail with Men to forsake their Sins and get to Heaven And with what Face can that Man object that the Torments of Hell are too great and intolerable who as terrible as they are lives still secure and undisturb'd in his Sins If they are so great that he complains of them as unjust Why doth he not leave his Sins If he doth not forsake his Sins they are not too great since they have not attained that End upon him for which the Punishment is denounced viz. his Repentance and Amendment of Life But if he doth not believe their Eternity and therefore continues in his Sins this shews how necessary the Denouncing and how necessary the Belief of eternal Punishments is Out of thine own Mouth will I judge thee thou wicked Servant Thou knewest that I was an austere Man wherefore then didst thou not do as thou wast commanded 4. It is necessary that eternal Punishments should be inflicted upon the Wicked according to the Sanction of the Divine Laws by â—ternal Rewards and Punishments We find by sad Experience how little offect the Punishments now threatned have upon too many Men and if they were less dreadful they would be so much the less regarded So that it appears that the appointment of eternal Punishments was but necessary to keep Men from Sin and what God's Wisdom saw necessary to appoint his Justice and Truth will make it necessary for him to inflict For what he has so often and so solemnly declared he can never depart from but will certainly execute it The Promises and Threatnings relating this Life are conditional and are expresly declared to be so Jer. xviii 7 8 9 10. because in this Life Men are changeable from Good to Bad or from Bad to Good but the Threatnings as well as the Promises concerning the other Life must be absolute and unconditional because they relate to an unchangeable sinal State which will admit of no alteration either in the Wicked or the Righteous It is not therefore because God can recede from his Threatnings rather than from his Promises that Nineveh was spared but because all Threatnings belonging to the State of this Life imply a condition of Repentance upon which they are not to be inflicted as Jonah and the Ninevites themselves well understood but then all Promises too which concern this Life are under the like condition and are not to be performed upon the Disobedience of those to whom they are made as we are assured by God's express Declaration But what is threatned or promised to Men to befall them after this Life is promised or threatned to befall them when they shall be in a fixt unalterable State and therefore must be uncapable of any Condition or Reserve to be implied in it For when Men continue the same they were at the time when God's Promises and Threatnings were declared to them his Promises and Threatnings always take place in this World according to the full extent and importance of the Words in which they were delivered and therefore they must thus take place in the next World into which when Men are once entred they must for ever continue equally fit Objects either of the Divine Promises or Threatnings as they were at the time of their Death The Point is that God never changes but Men are changeable in this Life and both his Promises and Threatnings which concern Men here suppose them such and therefore Rewards are with-held or Punishments remitted in this World as Men fall into Wickedness or become reclaim'd from it But in the other World where the State of Men is unalterable from good or bad vertuous or vicious both the Promises and Threatnings of God must be punctually fulfilled and can admit of no Condition or Reservation God has sworn that those who will not believe and obey him shall not enter into his Rest Heb. iii. 1i and what he has once sworn is irrevocable Heb. vi 17. If we believe not yet be abideth faithful he cannot deny himself 2 Tim.
humanae vitae speculum constitutum est Novatian de lib. Judaic c. 3. signification of such Prohibitions is implied in the Proverb alleged by St. Peter concerning Dogs and Swine which are two of the Animals prohibited the Jews 2 Pet. ii 22. Sacrifices and Offerings were to represent to them that they depended upon God for all they had and therefore they were to offer something of every kind in Acknowledgment that they had received all which they enjoyed from him They were likewise designed to signify to them that their Sins deserved Death even Everlasting Burnings The daily Sacrifices were to be Remembrances to them of that Acceptable and Living Sacrifice which they were to offer to God a broken and a contrite Heart and an Innocent and Blameless Life Ps iv 4 5. Cxli. 2. And the Scriptures frequently testify how little Pleasure God took in the Sacrifices of Beasts and in Burnt-Offerings Incense and Oblations and how small Regard he had to them He never required these things for themselves and upon their own Account or because there is any thing acceptable to him in them Psal xl 6 4. l. 8 li. 17. To do Justice and love Mercy is more acceptable to God than all Sacrifices Prov. xxi 3. Jer. vii 22 23. This is so evident throughout the whole Old Testament that the Scribes and Pharisees in the most superstitious and corrupt Age of the Jewish Church could not but confess that the Love of God and of our Neighbour is of more Account in God's sight than all the Sacrifices and Oblations in the World Mark xii 37. The Ceremonial Part of the Law was always to give place to the Moral thus Acts of Charity were to be done tho' it happened that they were performed by the violation of the Jewish Sabbath and the Prophets were upon necessary Causes held exempted from the Legal Observances For I desired Mercy and not Sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than Burnt-Offerings Hos vi 6. 3. All the Jewish Worship appointed by the Mosaical Law was Typical of Christ and his Gospel By a Type we are to understand the Likeness and Resemblance which one thing has to another as that of the Impression to the Seal or of the Shadow to the Substance or of the Picture to the Man whom it represents Thus the Death of Christ was typified or resembled or represented and prefigured by the Death of the Beasts which were Sacrificed they were signs appointed to keep up the Remembrance that Christ was to be Sacrificed and were very apt and proper to put Men in Mind of it It was acknowledged by the Jews and received from the Beginning as a certain Rule for the Interpretation of Scripture that there was a Typical as well as a Literal Sense of it relating to the Messias and his Kingdom Circumcision was to signify to them that Christ was to be born of the Seed of Abraham to whom Circumcision was first enjoyned upon the Promise made to him of Isaac from whom Christ was to descend And the Blood shed in Circumcision was Typical of that Blood which Christ was to shed for us The most probable Account of the Origiginal of Sacrifices is that they were at first of Divine Institution and were appointed soon after the Fall of Man as Types of the Sacrifice of the Death of Christ who was promised to be sent to die for the Expiation of Sin For tho' there be a natural Reason why we shouuld not Offer unto the Lord our God of that which doth Cost us nothing but should Honour the Lord with our Substance 2 Sam. xxiv 24. Prov. iii. 9. and should present some part of the best of what we have in Devotion and Gratitude to him from whom we have received the Whole Yet no sufficient Reason can be given why Beasts should be Slain in Sacrifice before they were used as far as it appears for Food by Men or how it should be imagined that God would accept of the Blood of any Creature or be pleased with the taking from it that Life which he had given it or why a peculiar Efficacy towards the Expiation of Sin was supposed to be in the Blood unless it had been upon the Account of the Blood of Christ which was Typically prefigured by the Blood of Beasts By Faith whereof Abel offered his Sacrifice and was accepted Heb. xi 4. The Paschal Lamb was a plain Type of Christ for which Reason Christ is styled the Lamb of God and our Passover which is Sacrificed for us Jo. i. 29. 1 Cor. v. 7. And for the same Reason the Feast of the Passover was appointed to the Israelites just before their Escape out of Aegypt to be a Type to thâ—m of that Deliverance which Christ was to accomplish of which their Deliverance out of Aegypt was but a Figure Aaron was a Type of Christ and all the Sacrifices he offered were Types of Christ's Sacrifice upon the Cross They were appointed to take away the Legal Uncleanness to restore Men to a State of Legal Purity which was Typical of Moral and Spiritual Purity and to put the Legal Worshipers into such a Condition as the Law required to qualify them for the Legal Service and Worship and herein they were Figures of that one Sacrifice which was to be offered up once for all in Attonement for the Sins of all Mankind Hebr. ix 14. whereby Men might be rendred Capable of paying God an acceptable Service in Spirit and in Truth Legal Purifications were Typical of that Purification which is by the Blood of Christ Tit. ii 14. 1 John i. 9. And the smoak of the Incense ascending signified how the Prayers of the Saints come up before God Rev. v. 8. viii 3 4. The State and Dispensation of the Gospel is exprest by the Prophet Malachi under the Figure of Incense and a Pure Offering Malach. 1.11 The whole Epistle to the Hebrews is written upon this subject to shew that all the Legal Rites and Ceremonial Worship were but Shadows and Types and Figures of Christ and of that Redemption Righteousness and Sanctification which was to be wrought by him and that therefore they were to cease when in him they had received their Accomplishment Their Incense and Purificatitions their Sacrifices their Temple and the Priests themselves were all but so many Types of Christ and his Kingdom under the Gospel Christ had been promised to our first Parents immediately after their Fall and this Promise had been renewed to Abraham with an Assurance that he should descend from Isaac and Circumcision was instituted as a perpetual mark in the Flesh of that Covenant and all Sacrifices from the beginning of their Institution were as so many Types and Memorials of the Sacrifice of Christ which was promised before any Sacrifice had been offered And more especially that of the Passover at the deliverance of the Israelites out of Aegypt was a lively Representation of our Redemption by the Death of Christ They had ever
could not deny the Evidence of the Fact supposing the thing possible but they would not own it possible that such a thing should be and upon that account rejected all the Evidence that could be produced as tending only to prove an Impossibility and so not to be regarded I shall therefore shew the possibility of the Resurrection of the Dead and that it is unreasonable to think it incredible that God should raise the Dead If it be incredible that God should Raise the Dead it must be upon one of these Two Accounts either because he cannot or because he will not do it For what God both can and will do is so far from being Incredible that it is a most undoubted Truth Therefore I shall First Prove that God is certainly able to Raise the Dead and Secondly That he certainly will do it 1. That God is certainly able to Raise the Dead is a thing credible in it self and therefore ought to be esteemed incredible by no sort of Men whatsoever tho' they have no Knowledge of any Revealed Religion if they have but right Apprehensions concerning God No Man can have a true Notion of God but he must know that God is a Being of Infinite Power and Wisdom that he made the World and all things therein that he preserves and sustains all Creatures and that all things are wholly at his Will and Disposal to do with them as he pleases that nothing can oppose or resist his Will or give him the least hindrance in any thing which he is pleased to undertake How then can it seem incredible that God should raise a Dead Man to Life again when he at first gave him his Life And is it not as easie to restore it to him as to give it him at first Might we not as well dispute that it is impossible for a Man to be Born as that it is impossible for him to be Raised from the Dead if our own experience did not convince us of that but not of this God who gave all that Power and Ability which Natural Causes have to produce their Effects may if he pleases produce the same Effects immediately by himself For it is not because he stands in need of any help from Natural Causes that he has appointed them but because it seemed best to his Infinite Wisdom to appoint this Course and Order in the World And it is evident even to Natural Reason that there must have been some who were immediately Created by God and were not born of others as Men are since that there must have been some First Parents some who had no Parents themselves but were of Gods immediate Creation that there must have been some who were the First of all Mankind and therefore could be born of no others Since then Man must of necessity have been first formed by God himself and not have come by a Natural Birth into the World it is evident that God might have made as many Men and Women after this manner as he had pleased and he who is the Author of our Nature may act without it and as much beyond and above any Natural Powers and Faculties in his Creatures as it seems best to him And it may as well be thought incredible that God should at first make Man as that he should be able to raise him up again after Death for Death is only the End of Nature's power of working not of the Power of God himself who as he originally made the Race of Mankind so he appointed the Nature of Things and gave it a stinted Power which it cannot exceed but his own Power is Infinite and no Bounds can be set to it When a Man is once Dead Nature has done with him and can never recover him to Life again for God ordained at first that according to the Course of Nature he should only be born and live here a while not that his Life should be restored again to him after Death But he is not so confined himself that he cannot give Life to the Dead but has reserved this as his own Prerogative and above any thing in Nature's Power God who formed Adam of the Dust of the ground might have formed all Mankind so if he had pleased and he can as easily raise all Mankind to Life again out of the Dust as he made the first Man out of it And the Atheist one would think has of all Men the least pretence to scruple the Resurrection of the Dead who must suppose that Mankind at first sprung out of the Earth as Plants do by a Spontaneous Production and for him to pretend that the Bodies of Men cannot be raised to Life again by an Almighty Power is as unreasonable as any thing in Atheism it self can be When at certain Seasons every Year we see things receive a New Life as it were according to the Course of Nature we may well conclude that if so strange an Alteration can proceed from Natural Causes then surely God is able to effect that which is much more wonderful and to raise even these Bodies of ours after they are dead and rotten in the Grave to Life again And since the Corn which is Sown in the Earth is not quickned except it die and will not revive and grow again and come to perfection unless it be first buried in the Ground and undergo great Alterations there it is a foolish thing as the Apostle argues to doubt of the Resurrection of the Dead because we cannot understand the way and manner of it Let Men Answer all the Difficulties in Nature and it will be time enough afterwards to dispute with them about a Resurrection but when we are at a loss about the most common and obvious things it must be great Presumption to deny the Resurrection because we cannot comprehend it when alas what is there besides that we are able to comprehend Will we presume to say that God can do nothing but what we understand how it may be done when every thing we see may inform us that his Wisdom is Infinite and his ways past finding out Indeed if we understood every thing else there might be some pretence to scruple the Resurrection because we do not understand how it shall be But when our Ignorance is so notorious in all other things it is the heighth of Folly and Perverseness to think our selves competent Judges of such a Mystery as this So far are we from being able to make any Estimate of God's Power and so far is the Resurrection from being Incredible because there may be Objections made about it which may seem unanswerable that if no other Answer could be given this would be sufficient that God can do more than we can have the least Thought or Conception of and that it is no Argument that he cannot do what we cannot conceive how it should be done so long as there is nothing contrary to the Divine Nature in it nor which implies a Contradiction the
Doctrine of the Resurrection would be very credible and certain too whatever other Objections might be urged against it which yet are not in themselves so formidable as they may be imagined to be All the Objections against the Resurrection of the Dead are either against the Resurrection of Bodies after their Corruption and Dissolution or against the Resurrection of the same Bodies of Men which they had before their Death because the parts of our Bodies are in a perpetual Change and Flux here and after Death by several Accidents as by the devouring of Humane Bodies by Men or by Fish or other Creatures which are afterwards eaten by Men it may come to pass that the same parts which Compounded one Man's Body shall afterwards belong to anothers and yet in the Resurrection they can belong but to one of these Bodies But 1. Bodies after their Corruption and the Dissolution of the Parts which compose them may be restored to Life by the Re-union of these Parts again We have several Instances of this in Natural Philosophy that Bodies divided into never so minute Parts tho' these Parts be mix'd and confounded with the Parts of other Bodies may by Chymical Operations be reduced to their former State and Condition and which is of nearer affinity to the Subject in hand after the Ashes of a Plant have been sown in a Garden fairer and larger Plants have sprung up than had been known of that kind in the place where the Experiment was made And (l) Mr. Boyle 's Consideration about the Possibility of the Resurrection Mr. Boyle thinks it scarce to be imagined what Expedients to reproduce Bodies a further Discovery of the Mysteries of Art and Nature may lead us Mortals to And much less says he can our dim and narrow Knowledge determine what means even Physical ones the most wise Author of Nature and absolute Governour of the World is able to employ to bring the Resurrection to pass And where the powers of Nature fail we know that God is Infinite and can want no means to effect whatever he pleases 2. We may rise 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 It is agreeable to Reason and to the Observations of Philosophers and Physicians to believe that the Bones and Muscles and Nerves and all the Essential constituent Parts of Humane Bodies are of so firm and solid a substance as to suffer little Alteration during our Lives when once they are come to their full growth and proportion but to continue the same till we die and the Alterations which they undergo before Men come to their full Stature is by Addition of parts not by the diminution of those wherewith we are born It appears from a late Discourse of a (m) Dr. Haver's Osteolog 2d Discourse of Accretion and Nutrition Learned Physician that Nutrition is a supply of the Fluid Parts and that the proper Substance of the Solid Parts suffers no Diminution but in some extraordinary Cases and therefore can stand in no need of Reparation but in such a Case For the whole Body is Vascular or made up of Vessels and Pipes replenished with their several Substances so that in an Atrophy the Fibres become dry and the Nerves and Vessels are contracted and shrunk for want of the Spirits and Juices and Liquors which before filled and distended them But the Solid Parts are of so durable a Substance that they can suffer no Diminution but by such Corrosives to dissolve them as must produce Ulcers and such as would affect the Fibres with so intolerable Pains that the Torments of the Stone and Gout would be moderate and easie to them which in a Consumption would be Universal in all parts of the Body whereas there is no such Symptom in any Part and in the greatest Consumptions the Bones are found to retain their entire Bigness tho' a piece of Bone is sooner Dissolved by a Corrosive Liquor such as Aqua-Fortis than Muscular Fibres of equal quantity or weight It is wont to be observ'd upon this Subject that when the Change of Parts is gradual and in the course of some Years the Body may still be the same as it could not be if the Change were made all at once A Ship or House remains the same tho' it be never so often repaired and tho' the Materials in Succession of Time be all or most of them renewed whereas if it should be taken to pieces all at once and all the Materials should be changed and new Materials of the same Figure and Dimensions should be exactly in the same manner framed and built up together in their stead these would make another House or Ship and not the same that was before But when the Parts which constitute the Humane Body and give it the Denomination of the Body of this or that individual Man continue the same the same Person has the same Body in his Old Age that he had in his Youth as truly as he has the same Body in Sickness which he had in Health and the same under the Languishings of a Consumption which he had in his greatest Vigour and Strength For the Change is only in the variable and accidental Parts which are not necessary to constitute the Body of such a Man and the necessary constituent Parts tho' they were changed or altered as in some very rare cases they may be being so few in Comparison of the rest which make up the Bulk of a Man's Body can hardly be supposed by the devouring of Canibals or by any other Accident to become the constituent Parts of any other Man's Body (n) Sanctor De staticâ Medicinà Sect. 1. Aph. vi lix lx Sect. iii. Aph. x. Sanctorius from his Statick Experiments has Observed that a very inconsiderable part of what we eat is turned to Nourishment and from the small proportion which the Necessary constituent Parts bear to the rest and the unfitness of them as of Bones c. to nourish it may be concluded that little or nothing of that which turns to Nourishment can be supposed to be of those constituent Parts and considering further the great Changes which happen in our Bodies in the continual Flux of Parts and the small Proportion again which the constituent or necessary essential Parts have to the rest we may conclude supposing those parts as well as others to suffer Alteration that it is the greatest odds that the constituent Parts which turn to Nourishment do not by that Nourishment happen to belong to the constituent Parts of the Mans Body who is nourished by them when he comes to die So that if a Man should live wholly upon Humane Flesh which it is not to be believed that ever any Man did yet it would perhaps be above an Hundred to one whether any constituent Part of his Body were made up when he died of the constituent Parts of any
in Sport Prov. xxvi 18 19. But what Description or Comparison can be found equal to his Madness who deceiveth and destroyeth himself and that Eternally and yet says Am not I in Sport Is not this the very perfection of Wit and Raillery Wo unto him that Striveth with his Maker Isai xlv 9. Do they provoke me to anger saith the Lord do they not provoke themseves to the Confusion of their own Faces Jer. vii 19. And thou shalt know that I am the Lord and that I have heard all thy Blasphemies Thus with your Mouth ye have boasted against me and have Multiplied your Words against me I have heard them Ezek. xxxv 12 13. Do we provoke the Lord to Jealousy are we stronger than he 1 Cor. x. 22. There shall come in the last days Scoffers walking after their own Lusts 2 Pet. iii. 3. But Beloved remember ye the Words which were spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ how that they told you there should be Mockers in the last time who should Walk after their own ungodly Lusts Jude 17.18 If all that I have discoursed be insufficient to convince these Men yet let their own Arguments and even their own Blasphemies convince them for the very worst that they can say or do serves to fulfil the Prophecies and confirm the Authority of the Holy Scriptures FINIS ADDENDA The BOOK having been long ago fitted for the Press and out of the Author's Custody he could not insert the following Additions in their proper places CHAP. IV. p. 112. l. 3. after St. Mark and St. Luke add If either in the Epistle of St. Barnabas or St. Clement it be supposed that the Reasoning is not always just but is sometimes too Allegorical and sometimes founded upon Mistakes in Natural Philosophy yet it is certainly agreeable to the ways of Reasoning and the Philosophy of that Age so that nothing of this kind could then be any hindrance or prejudice to the Reception of these Epistles CHAP. X. p. 222. l. ult after Principles add And besides other Uses which may be found out hereafter one very considerable has been already made of the Satellites for the benefit of the World in rectifying Geography and determining the Longitude of Places Philos Burgund Tom. 5. c. 8. Disseâ—t 3 M. Cassini has drawn up Tables for this Purpose and Written a Treatise on the Subject And the Le Compte's Memoire p. 15. and 505. Missionaries by their Observations have discovered that the Empire of China is Five Hundred Leagues nearer Europe than Geographers have placed it CHAP. XI p. 226. l. 27. * after Opinion add The same Words which Joshua used is Translated to wait upon and wait for Ps LXII 1. LXV 1. So that all which can be Concluded from the Word is that the Sun attended he lengthned the Day and waited for the Victory or waited upon the Army of Israel CHAP. XIII p. 256. l. 24. after Christ's sake add A State of Damnation is a State of Death and the Soul which lies under the Divine Wrath is in that State tho' it be not irreversible during this Life So that the Death Threatned being Twofold viz. of the Soul and of the Body it was accordingly inflicted on both But it was not Threatned that this Death should be to the final Destruction either of Soul or Body but thro' the Redemption of Christ the Body might be recovered from the Death to which it became Subject to a Blessed and Glorious Resurrection and the Soul be restored from the Death into which it had faln to a State of Reconciliation and Favour with God CHAP. XV p. 325. l. 15. after in the New add Of the Assistance of Divine Grace we are Taught Deutr. XXX 6. Psalm XXV 4. XXVII 11. LI. 10 11 12. LXXXVI 11. CXIX 12 26 33 64 66 68. 108. 124. 135. CXLIII 10. Prov. 1.23 Isa XLIV 3. LIX 21 Jer. XXXI 8. XXXII 40. Ezek. XI 19. XXXVI 26 27. CHAP. XVI p. 338. l. 10. after Religion add The Soveraignty was in due time to be placed in the Tribe of Judah which was fulfilled in David's being advanced to the Kingdom and from that time the Scepter and the Lawgiver c. CHAP. XXII p. 391. l. 5. after expected add The Duration of the World is considered in the Scriptures with relation to Christ's coming and all the Time after his coming is stiled the last Days as in the Description of the Different States of Job's Life the space of an Hundred and Forty Years of it after his Sufferings is Stiled the latter end of his Life and all the precedent part is Termed the Beginning of it Job XLII 12 16. CHAP. XXVIII p. 486. l. after Prophet Jonas add Dr. Lightfoot in his Remains lately published has observed as the Reason why the Jews were so importunate for a Sign notwithstanding the many Miracles which our Saviour Wrought before them That their Traditions Taught them to expect these two Signs of the Messias when he came viz. that he should raise the Old Prophets and other Holy and famous Men from the Dead and that he should bring down Manna for them from Heaven In their Old Writings and Records he says they speak much of these Two things of their Expectation I am inclined to believe that these Traditions if they had been rightly understood were not so blind and foolish as that Learned Author Stiles them but had respect to the very Time and Occasion to which our Saviour refers the Jews when they required these Signs of him For at his Resurrection many Bodies of Saints which Slept arose Matt. xxvii 52. And speaking to them of the Manna or Bread which came down from Heaven he puts them in Mind of his Ascension What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before Joh. vi 62. Whereby he intimates that then would be the time of sending this Manna when upon his Ascension he would bestow the Gifts of the Holy Ghost The time was not yet come for these Miracles to be wrought they were not to be wrought at their Demand it was sufficient that they had Intimations given to expect them and in the mean time they ought to have been contented with others CHAP. XXX p. 519. l. 12. after he pleased add But it seems most of all strange that the excellent Emperour M. Antoninus who had so much of the Christian Morality both in the Speculation and in the Practice of it should not also be of the Christian Faich especially if he owned that a signal Miracle was by the Prayers of the Christians obtained for the deliverance of himself and his whole Army Apol. c. 5. ad Scap. c. 4. as Tertullian who could not be Ignorant of the Truth of it Declares But it should be considered that M. Anteninus was very superstitious in all the Heathen Worship and was so much addicted to the Philostr Vit. Sophist in Herod Hermag Aristid Adrian Sophists of his
which was brought to them and to all Mankind by it Thus we see that both the Time and Place of our Saviour's Nativity and the Person of whom he was born are evident proofs of his being the Christ He was to be born whilst the second Temple stood he was to be born at Bethlehem and he was to be born of a Virgin of the Tribe of Judah and of the Lineage of David all which most exactly agree in the Birth of our Saviour II. The Prophecies concerning the Life of the Messias were fulfilled in our Saviour The meanness and obscurity and sorrows of it are exprest Isa liii 23. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground he hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not His meekness and patience are described Isai xlii 2 3 4. He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the Street a bruised reed shall he not break and the smoaking flax shall he not quench he shall bring forth judgment unto truth he shall not faâ—â— nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth and the Isles shall wait for his Law His abode was to be chiefly in Galilee Isai ix 1. Matt. iv 14. And accordingly he was brought up at Nazareth and dwelt at Capernaum His miracles are every where inculcated by the Prophets and this was so well understood by the Jews of that time that many of the people believed in him upon the account of his Miracles and said when Christ cometh shall he do greater Miracles than these which this man hath done Joh. vii 31. And when St John Baptist sent two of his Disciples to enquire of our Saviour whether he were the Christ he gives them no other answer but that they should acquaint John with what things they had seen and heard how that the blind saw the lame walked the lepers were cleansed the deaf heard the dead were raised to the poor the Gospel was preached Luke vii 22. which was the literal fulfilling of that Prophecy Isaiah xxxv 5 6. and it was the very character all the Prophets had given of the Messias St. John Baptist whom Josephus gives a high commendation of and whom all men looked upon as a Prophet Matt. xxi 26. had before declared Jesus to be the Christ though he now sent two of his Disciples to enquire of him not for his own buâ— for their satisfaction that they might be witnesses how the Prophecies were fulfilled in him And both the Preaching and Baptism of John was preparatory to that of Christ and was foretold by the Propphets Isa xl 3. Malach. iv 5. But besides the Record of John the Holy Ghost gave witness to Christ visibly descending upon him at his Baptism with a voice from Heaven pronouncing the words prophetically delivered before concerning the Messias which were always understood by the Jews to be meant of him Matt. iii. 13. and this voice was a gain repeated though not so publickly as before at his Transfiguration Mat. xvii 5.2 Pâ—â— i. 17. and at a third time there came a voice to him from heaven in the hearing of all the people Jo. xii 28. By the Hosanna's of the Multitude and even of the Children and by his driving the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple several known Prophecies concerning the Messias were fulfilled in him Matt. xxi 16. Jo. ii 17. III. The Prophecies concerning the Death of the Messias were fulfilled in our Saviour His Death was foretold both in the writings of the Prophets and by several Types or Actions which did represent and prefigure his Death with the manner and circumstances of it and this was one kind of Prophesying by the resemblance of Actions and Things as well as by descriptions in words Thus Abraham's offering up Isaac was a Type of Christ's being offered upon the Cross and Isaac's carrying the Wood on his Shoulders was a Type of Christs carrying his Cross The listing up the brazen Serpent in the wilderness was a Type of Christ's being lifted up and the Paschal Lamb was a plain Type of the Sacrifice of Christ and our Saviour Christ was sacrificed upon the Cross aâ— the very time of the Passover A bone of him was not broken which was typified of him in the paschal Lamb the breaking of his Legs was prevented by his voluntary giving up the Ghost when he had so much strength and vigour after all his pains as to cry out with a loud voice which by the course of nature a person who had endured so much before and had hung bleeding and languishing for three hours at least upon the Cross till he expired by the force and extremity of his Torments could not have done and his being dead sooner than was expected and sooner than the Malefactors were caused the fulfilling this prophetical Type a Bone of him shall not be broken Exod. xii 46. Numb ix 12. (k) Ligh Harm N. T. Sect. lix p. 243. He died likewise in the year of Jubilee as Dr. Lightsoot proves by which the release and redemption which he purchased for Mankind was typified And as the fulfilling of these several Types concurred in our Saviour so the fulfilling of them was brought to pass by the malice and cruelty of his Enemies and of those very Jews who had ever understood these Types to relate to the Messias The Prophecies in like manner were fulfilled in him not by any design or contrivance of his own but by the mere envy and malice of his Murtherers The thirty pieces of Silver for which he was betrayed were by the Chief Priests given to buy the Potters Field by which waâ— fulfilled a noted Prophecy that stands recorded in the Book of Zachariah but because Jeremiah had Prophesied of the same thing before him or for some other reason it was better known among the Jews by the name of Jeremiah's Prophecy unless as some suppose Jeremy be put for Zachary by a mistake of the Transcriber which was obvious enough in transcribing the Abbreviation of the name of Zachary as it is now to be seen in some of the Ancient MSS. z. not much differing from I. Ouâ— Saviour was buffeted and spit upon according to a Prophecy of Isaiah Is l. 6. He had Vinegar given him to drink mingled with Gall and his Garments were parted amongst the Souldiers by casting of Lots both which were foretold Ps xxii 18. lxix 21. They pierced his hands and his feet Ps xxii 16. They that pass'd by reviled him in the very words of the Psalmist and in his Agony he cried out in the words of the same Psalm v. 1.7 8. His death was voluntary for though it was in the power of his Enemies
to crucify him yet his Life was in his own power which he resigned in the words of another Psalm Ps xxxi 5. and he caused another Prâ—phecy to be fulfilled by dying at that very point of time which if his death had been deferred a little longer had not been fulfilled for the Soldiers broak the Legs of the two other that were crucified with them but finding him deâ—d they broak not his Legs though one of them suspecting that he could not be so soon dead pierced his side to try whether he were really dead or not by which that Scripture was fulfilled which saith they shall look on him whom they pierced Joh. xix 34. Zach. xii 10. which (l) See Bp. Pearson Text the Ancient Jews interpreted of the Messias The liii Chapter of Isaiah is a clear description of our Saviour's Passion almost in every circumstance of it He was despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief he was wounded for our Transgressions and bruised for our Iniquities he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth he was brought as a Lamb to the Slaughter and as a Sheep before her Shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth his Silence being taken special notice of by Pilate himself and his meekness towards Judas his most ungrateful Disciple is wonderful beyond all example He made his Grave with the Rich in his Death though he died in that shameful manner under the imputation of so much wickedness yet Joseph of Arimathea an honourable Counsellor was suffered by Pilate to bury him which he did in his own new Tomb. He was numbred with the Transgressors and in that sense made his Grave also with the wicked being crucified between two Thieves and so was not only reputed a Malefactor and underwent the punishment of Transgressors but was executed at the very time and place with them and buried when they were He made intercession for the Transgressors for the Penitent Thief in particular whom he promised that he should be with him that day in Paradise and for his Persecutors themselves praying that they might be forgiven The Prophecies of this Chapter are so very plainly and directly fulfilled that I have known a Child apply them to the Passion of Christ One of the most glorious Characters by which the Messias was described by the Prophets was that he should be their Prince and King and this led the Jews into that fatal mistake of a Temporal Messias for Messias or Anointed signifies King as well as Prophet or Priest in which three Offices Unction was used and they were all united in our Saviour who was the Messias anointed and inaugurated by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon him in a visible shape and with a distinct and audible voice declaring him to be the Son of God And that all the world might know our Saviour to be the King of the Jews that Title was fixt upon his Cross in three several Languages the most vulgar Tongues then in the world that no Nation might be ignorant that Christ the King of the Jews was then crucified For Pilate would not alter the Inscription but though they had frighted him before by observing to him that it was Treason against Caesar to call any one King besides him yet when they would now have had him change the Inscription and have written only that he said I am King of the Jews Pilate gave a short and resolute Answer what I have written I have written How much soever it were at his Peril to provoke a malicious people in a point wherein they thought the honour and safety of their Nation so much concerned and in a point which could not but be exceeding tender to so jealous an Emperor as Tiberius but Pilate had suffered himself to be carried too far already against his own Conscience and had shewn great aversion to their proceedings in the whole management of his Tryal and the same providence which had ordered every circumstance to the manifestation of the Truth and the conviction both of the Jews and Gentiles now so disposed this remarkable particular that the last period of his Life in opposition to all the spight of the Jews should be adorned and dignified with his true Title and Character under which he had been foretold by the Prophets in Capital Letters upon his Cross Thus were the Prophecies concerning the Birth and Life and Death of the Messias exactly fulfilled in our Blessed Saviour which were so many that they could not be fulfilled by chance and the fulfilling of them depended so much upon the words and actions of others and even of his worst Enemies that it could proceed from no design or contrivance of him or his Disciples They were fulfilled in him by the malice chiefly of his Enemies and according to the interpretation which they themselves were wont to give of them IV. His Resurrection likewise and Ascension were the fulfilling of express Prophecies as the Apostles proved to the face of his Crucifiers Act. ii And these were such Accomplishments of Prophecies as depended upon the sole Will and Power of Almighty God and yet as certainly came to pass as the Birth and Life and death of Christ did As shall be proved in due Place CHAP. XIII Of the Prophecies and Miracles of our Blessed Saviour AS our Blessed Saviour was Prophesied of by all the Prophets who were before him so he was himself the Great Prophet that was to come and was at the time of his being in the world expected of the Jews and he fulfilled that Prediction by the many eminent Prophecies which he spake He foretold the Treachery of Judas and knew from the beginning who it was that should betray him he foretold the manner of his own Death that it was to be by crucifixion though the Jews often sought opportunities to put him to death privately and that was a kind of punishment which the Jews could not inflict but if they had killed him themselves and had not brought him to the Roman Judicature they would have done it by stoning as they murthered St. Stephen He foretold all the circumstances of his sufferings that he should be delivered unto the Chief Priests and unto the Scribes and that they should condemn him to death and should deliver him to the Gentiles and that they should mock him and should scourge him and should spit upon him and should kill him and that he would rise again the third day Mark x. 33 34. which his enemies took such notice of that they used all their vain endeavours to prevent it He assured his Disciples that his Gospel should be preached over the whole world and that one particular action which they were offended at of the Woman who anointed his head should never be omitted wheresoever it should be preached Matt. xxvi 13. He declared that his Religion should prevail against all the opposition which it would meet withal and continue to
in so few Generations of Men supposing it had ever been known to Adam's Posterity If it were never known but the Relation of it were always conveyed down in Metaphor and Allegory then this Allegory must pass for Historical Truth in those Ages and the Reason why it was delivered to them in Allegory must be because that manner of delivering it was most suitable to that Age and most credible and every way most proper and if it were most fitting that it should be thought to have happened so this is a good Argument that it did really happen so since there is nothing hinders but it might so have happened and it was most probable at least to the first Ages of the World that it did so come to pass or else it would not have been requisite to relate it in this manner 3. The Fall of our First Parents brought a Curse upon their Posterity And here it must be acknowledg'd that God may bestow his infinite Grace and Mercies upon what Terms he pleaseth and therefore he might ordain that the Happiness or Unhappiness of their Posterity should depend upon the Obedience or Disobedience of our First Parents 1. God might ordain that the Condition of their Posterity in this World should depend upon it so that they should have been immortal upon their Obedience and should become mortal upon their Disobedience that they should be made subject to Cares and Labours to Diseases and Dangers by reason of the Fall of our First Parents from which otherwise they should have been exempt This is esteem'd just in all Governments amongst Men that Children should be reduced to Poverty and Disgrace by the Fault of their Parents from whom Riches and Honour were to have descended upon them And this way of Proceeding is just both in Humane Laws and in the Dispensations of Providence because God and our Country have an antecedent Right and Interest in us superior to any Man 's private Title or Welfare and this they may justly make use of to restrain Men from those Crimes out of Love and Concern for their Posterity from which no consideration of themselves could have with held them The Experience of the World has found this to be the most effectual Remedy with many Men and therefore the wisest and justest Governments have made use of it and the most wise and just God might think fit to deal in this manner with our First Parents by representing to them that the Happiness or Misery of their Posterity depended upon their Good or ill Behaviour in this one Instance of their Duty We daily see that Children commonly inherit the Diseases of their Parents and an extravagant and vicious Father leaves his Son Heir to nothing but the Name and Shadow perhaps of a Great Family with an infirm and sickly Constitution and little or nothing to support and relieve it Now if these Miseries and Calamities had been entail'd upon all the Race of Mankind from Adam the thing would have been the same in the Nature and Justice of it for Numbers cannot alter the Nature of Things as it is now when they descend upon some only from their immediate Parents And therefore it must be much rather just that the Fall of our First Parents should make their whole Race only liable to such Calamities but not involve All necessarily in them 2. The Communications of God's Grace and the Favours and Blessings of his more immediate Presence might depend upon the Behaviour of the First Parents of Mankind He might send them out of Paradise and might withdraw his free and usual Communications of himself from them and their Posterity upon this Forfeiture by their Disobedience 3. The Proneness which we cannot but observe in our selves to Sin might proceed from hence We daily see and feel the corruption of our Nature by whatsoever means we became subject to it So that it is in vain to object that it would be unjust that all Mankind should be involv'd in Adam's Sin For the Condition which we are in is matter of Fact of which no man doth or can doubt The Question is only how we come into this Condition and since we are born in it and it is our Natural and Hereditary evil the Justice and Goodness of God is cleared and vindicated by assigning a Cause for it from the Imputations of such as must acknowledge the same corruption of Nature but will allow no Cause or Reason for it except the arbitrary Will and Pleasure of the Creator The Children of vicious Parents are generally most enclin'd to Vice and if Men may partake of the evil Dispositions and Inclinations of their more immediate Parents why might not the Corruption of the Humane Nature in our First Parents descend upon all their Posterity 4. The Happiness of Men in the next Life might depend upon the Obedience of our First Parents For when God proposed to bestow upon Men Rewards of Glory and Happiness which far surpass any Pretences of Desert or Claim of Right that they in a State of Righteousness and Innocency could have been able to make since the Promises were so great and the Happiness so far exceeding any thing to which Men could pretend a Right we must be very unreasonable unless we will confess that God might bestow his own Gifts upon his own Terms He might therefore debar Men from Heaven upon the Transgression oâ— our First Parents because the Promise of Heaven was â—n act of his free Bounty For no Man can pretend that an Innocent Creature which preserves its Integrity must for that Reason be advanced to the unspeakable Joys of Heaven No Creature can be profitable to his Maker and an unprofitable Servant can merit no such Reward And what God was not obliged to bestow tho' Men continued in the State of Innocency he might with all the Justice and Reason in the World refuse when Men became divested of their Innocency and thereby forfeited all pretences to that Happiness which was promised upon condition that our First Parents had continued in their Primitive and Original State of Righteousness 5. God might ordain that all Men should become liable to Eternal Misery by the Fall of our First Parents and that those who would not accept of Means appointed of Salvation by Faith in Christ to rescue them from it should perish eternally We no sooner read of the Fall of Man but Christ is forthwith promised even before the Curse was denounced upon Adam and Eve for their Offence the Seed of the Woman is immediately promised to bruise the Sepents Head and afterwards the Judgment is denounced first upon Eve and then upon Adam for their Transgression and the Seed of the Womans bruising the Serpent's Head is to be understood of Victory over our Spiritual Enemies and that Conquest which should be obtained over Death and Hell by Christ For the Temporal Punishment which was to befall Adam and Eve and their Posterity is afterwards added and therefore this Promise
cannot be understood of a Deliverance from that but from the wrath of God and of Redemption from Sin upon Repentance under whatever condition of this Life The Consequence of the Sin of our First Parents is to entail Grief and Trouble and Labour and Pain upon their Posterity and a frail and infirm Nature exposed to Temptations and destitute of the Aids of Grace and the presence of God in their Hearts uncapable of Heaven and in no capacity of avoiding Hell without Christ's Merits But Christ was at that very time promised to take away all the Curse and Vengeance consequent upon the Transgression of our First Parents nay his Death was pre-ordained and determined beforehand For Christ is the Lamb Slain from the Foundation of the World Rev. xiii 8. Who verily was fore ordained before the Foundation of the World 1 Pet. i. 20. He was Slain in the determinate Counsel and fore-knowledge of God even before the Fall of our First Parents came to pass the whole Scheme and Design of Man's Salvation was laid from all Eternity in God's Counsel and Decree he foresaw that Man would fall and he determined to send his Son to redeem him and this he had determined to do so long beforce the Fall of Man even by an eternal Decree So that the Goodness and Wisdom of God had effectually provided against the ill consequences to the Salvation of Mankind by the Fall in all that obey him and made it impossible that Adam's Posterity should become eternally Miserable and Tormented in Hell Fire but through their own Fault For tho' we learn from the Scriptures that Infants are by Nature born in Sin and the Children of Wrath yet whatever the Effects of that Wrath may be we have no Ground to conclude that any one shall be condemned to the Flames and Pains of Hell without his own Personal and Actual Guilt The Redemption of the World by Christ was decreed from Eternity and was actually promised before any Child of Adam was born and even before the Curse was denounced upon our First Parents and a Remedy was from the beginning provided against all that Misery which was brought upon Mankind by their Transgression CHAP. XIV Of the Eternity of Hell Torments THere is nothing in Religion which has been thought by many more liable to Objections than the Eternity of Hell Torments And yet I shall undertake to prove that they are plainly consistent not only with the Justice but with the Equity and Mercy of God I. I shall prove the Eternity of Hell Torments to be consistent with the Justice of God from these Arguments 1. Because both Rewards and Punishments are alike proposed to our Choice 2. Because the Rewards are Eternal as well as the Punishments 3. Because it was necessary that the Sanction of the Divine Laws should be by Eternal Rewards and Punishments 4 Because it is necessary that Eternal Punishments should be inflicted upon the Wicked according to this Sanction 1. Both Rewards and Punishments are alike proposed to our Choice It is certainly consistent with Infinite Justice to set before Men Life and Death Blessing and Cursing and then to deal with them according to their own Choice And none will fall into a State of Everlasting Misery but such as shall be convinced in their own Consciences of the Justice of God's Proceedings with them And this conviction will prove one great part of their Punishment when they shall consider that they Perish only by their own Fault that they were wilful and obstinate to their own Ruine that no Promises no Threats could reclaim them And this is all that the strictest Justice can require to deal with Men according to their own Choice to let them chuse their own Condition of Happiness or Misery and to proceed in such a manner with Sinners as that they shall be convinced themselves that there is no Injustice done them 2. The Rewards are Eternal as well as the Punishments If the Rewards on the one hand had not born a just proportion to the Punishments on the other the Cause had been different and it had seemed hard to suffer Eternal Torments for a short Life of Sin if there had not been Eternal Happiness proposed to as short a Life of Vertue and Righteousness But since the Rewards and the Punishments are equal it is not necessary that there should be an exact proportion between the Offence and the Punishment considered in it self and without respect had to the Rewards because the Reward being Eternal answers the opposite Punishment on the other Part. Thus Men are wont to set so much Less against so much Gain and no Man pities him that might have gained as much as he has lost if it had not been his own Fault tho' the loss be never so great and depended upon never so small and short a Tryal It may seem an hard Case that a Man should lose his Life for but going out of a City when he could do no hurt by it nor intended to do any and this was the Case of Shimei but he had forfeited his Life before to David who had spar'd and he had been afterwards engag'd it seems in other ill Practices and had probably been concern'd with Joab and others in setting up Adonijah for it was another Shimei the Son of Elah of whom it is said that he was not with Adonijah 1 Kings i. 8. iv 18. and David gives Solomon the same Direction concerning these two Men. 1 Kings ii 5 8. Solomon therefore sets him this Condition and he was to expect to live upon no other Terms but his keeping within these Bounds which by the Confession of Shimei himself was a good saying 1 Kings ii 38. that is he was glad of it and could expect no kinder Usage And if Solomon had proposed some great Reward to him upon Condition that he had kept within the City he had been not only just but very gracious and bountiful to him in it I am confident any condemn'd Malefactor would think so The Case of Mankind is like this but infinitely more gracious on God's part and more provoking on ours The very best of us were in Sin and have often forfeited our Salvation to the Divine Justice and God by his Sovereign Power and Authority over us might have proposed any Terms of Reconciliation But he has been pleased to appoint that our everlasting State of Happiness or Misery should depend upon the Moral Terms of Vertue and Vice and to set everlasting Happiness against everlasting Misery and no man shall be sentenced to Hell Torments but he might have been as happy as he shall find himself to be miserable Both the (a) Isa xxxiii 14. lxvi 24. Dan. xii 2. Jews and (b) Plat. in Phed. Lucret. lib. i. v. 112. Drog Laert in Pythag Cels Hist Navigat in Brasil c. 16. Lerij apud Origin l. viii Abr. Roger de la vie des Moeurs des Bremines c. 21. Heathens had a Notion