to their former employment for they could not subsist without doing something to get a Livelyhood And Jesus after his Resurrection appeared sometimes to them on the Sea shore where they were a fishing What can be suspected in all this Vers 20 21 22 23. Then Peter turning about seeth the Disciple whom Jesus loved following which also leaned on his Breast at Supper and said Lord who is it that betrayeth thee Peter seeing him saith to Jesus Lord and what shall this Man do Jesus saith unto him if I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee Follow thou me Then went this saying abroad among the brethren that that Disciple should not die yet Jesus said not unto him he shall not die but if I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee This is the Disciple which testifies of these things and wrote these things c. Can we imagin that the Evangelist himself invented this Report which he pretends went about concerning his Immortality And do such Thoughts come into a Man's Head However do but observe how all the particulars of this matter hang so one upon another that whosoever grants one of them must grant also the rest For the Report spread abroad that John should not die was grounded upon the Answer which Christ returned to Peter and he returned not that Answer to Peter till after his Resurrection and after having foretold Peter himself with what kind of Death he should glorifie God This connexion therefore plainly shews us what we ought to believe upon this account CHAP. VIII Wherein we shall further produce from the Acts of the Apostles several Places very proper to make us truly sensible of the Divinity of the Christan Religion CHap. I. 8. But ye shall receive Power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria c. unto the uttermost part of the Earth â—et these Witnesses be strictly examined let their Patience be tryed with all kinds of severe punishments and it will then appear whether it be possible ever to force them to recant their Opinion Vers 26. And the Lot fell upon Matthias and he was numbred with the eleven Apostles In this election there appears neither Bribe Preeminence or arbitrary Partiality so different was that Society from these now established in the World Chap. II. 13 Others mocking said these Men are full of new Wine These sort of Circumstances are of excellent use to shew the Exactness and Sincerity of the Historian Vers 22. Jesus of Nazareth a Man approved of God among you by Miracles and Wonders and Signs as ye your selves also know How came they to know it had Christ wrought no Miracles among them And what a strange piece of Confidence must it have been in the Apostles to speak thus Vers 41. And the same Day were added unto them about three thousand Souls What but the wonderful Power of the Holy Ghost given to the Apostles could make so many Proselytes Vers 44 45. And all that believed were together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all Men as every Man had need A holy Society indeed consisting of none but such as had given up all their Interest in this World and glorified God by offering up themselves and what was dearest to them as a sacrifice to him What could they hope for who absolutely renounced every thing for the sake of Christ Let a Man reason never so much upon the manner of uniting Men in a Body together 't is certain there was never a more effectual method to form a Society than Charity For it makes those things equal which humane Passions had before distinguished it subverts all competition destroys all interest banishes the designs of Pride and Ambition and all the little distinctions Vanity creates In a word it unites Men in a State wherein they all equally enjoy the same Revelation the same spiritual Worship and the same Faith Hope and Charity All which represents as it were on Earth the Joys we may partake hereafter and gives us a lively Image and Idea of Heaven And what greater Miracle than this can be brought to prove the Divinity of a Religion Vers 46. And they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking Bread from House to House did eat their Meat with gladness and singleness of Heart What Perseverance what Joy nay what Simplicity of Heart did the Apostles here shew supposing them to have been Deceivers For we must either acknowledge them to be such or else allow the Gospel they preached to be most certainly true and Divine Chap. III. 8 9. And he entred with them into the Temple walking and leaping and praising God And all the People saw him walking and praising God Is it an easy matter to make other men believe such matters of fact as these supposing they were altogether false Vers 12. And when Peter saw it he answered unto the People Ye Men of Israel why marvel ye at this Or why look ye so earnestly on us as though by our own Power or Holiness we had made this Man to walk Had Simon Magus performed such a Miracle he would certainly have took all the Honour of it to himself and now more confidently than ever affirm that he was the great Power of God Observe I pray here a Character of Ingenuity Humility and Sincerity which can't be sufficiently expressed Vers 16. And his name through faith in his name hath made this Man strong whom ye see and know yea the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all This multiplying expressions of the same thing may not so well please some Men and seems to be an empty flourish of words or a putting some good words finely together to signifie little a thing not agreeable to the true Eloquence Men ought to use But here it is not really so The Apostles here regarded not Politness in the least but rather were afraid they could not use expressions strong enough to let them know that it was not in their own Names but in the name of Jesus Christ that all these things were done T is no matter then whether the Ear was offended at it or not provided the Vnderstanding humbled itself in the presence of God and ascribed that extraordinary Miracle to none but Christ himself Vers 14. But ye denied the holy one and the just and desired a murderer to be granted unto you Observe how little he knew what it was to flatter those Men he spoke to Chap. IV. 4. Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed and the number of the Men were about Five thousand How could S. Luke who wrote in a time when the Church of Jerusalem consisting of so many Proselytes flourished I say how could he have made so many believe such miraculous
Husbandmen after having destroyed them as so maâ—y unfaithful servants another while that the King â—ho had invited them to the Marriage of his Son would â—nd his Soldiers to destroy them and burn up their City But not to go so far off one of the Marks whereâ—y they ought to have known that the Event which esus Christ had foretold drew nigh was that the â—entiles were to be called to the knowledge of the â—ue God This is expresly delivered in the places â—e have already quoted He therefore that insertâ— this Prophecy in the Gospel must have imaginâ— that in his time the Gentiles had already been â—lled to the knowledge of Jesus Christ But since â—ere were then an infinite number of Christians disersed throughout World since an infinite number â— Persons had the Writings of the Apostles in their â—ssession How was it possible either to alter or â—d thereto several Parables and Chapters nay to â—rrupt three Gospels in three Essential places If ch a thing had been done in Asia how could it afterwards have been received in Europe where there must necessarily have been an infinite number of Copies of that Gospel For of all the Books of the New Testament the Gospels were first composed And now do not the Incredulous as yet perceive that Truth overthrows more scruples than they are able to raise against it That they continually offer Violence to thelr Reason by resisting the Truth which appears so strong and invincible on all hands and that tho' their Reason is sometime perverted and blinded by their Passions so that they cannot see things in their due light yet the Objects the Nature of things and the Truth which is immutable never shift or turn a side to follow the foolish fancies of their Understanding or the perverse Inclinations of their Heart CHAP. IX Wherein we shall examine the matters contained iâ— the Book of Acts. THe matter of this Book may be reduced tâ— these three heads viz. the Ascension of Jesuâ— Christ the coming down of the Holy Gost upon thâ— Apostles and the Establishment of the Christiaâ— Churches by the successful preaching of the Apostles All these things are of such a nature as could noâ— possibly be forg'd The Ascension of Jesus Christ is related with toâ— many Circumstances to leave us any reason to believe that the Disciples themselves were deceiveâ— therein The Author expresly affirms that Jesâ— conversed the space of forty days with his Disciplâ— after his Resurrection that he promised them theâ— should be baptised with the Holy Ghost and commanded them to wait at Jerusalem for the effect of that promise that he carried them to the Mount of Olives that he was taken up in a Cloud which carried him out of their sight and that as they stedfastly looked up towards Heaven as he went up two men stood by them in white apparel and promised them that Jesus Christ would come again in like manner as they had seen him go into Heaven So that â—t is no longer a question whether the Disciples were deceived in this respect but rather whether they had a mind to deceive others by a false Relation of so Chimerical an Event For the perfect understanding of this Matter it is sufficient to observe the time in which the Disciples begun to declare it And when the day of Pentecost was fully come says St. Luke they were all with one accord in one place And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty Wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting And there apâ—eared unto them Cloven tongues like as of fire and it â—at upon each of them And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and begun to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews devout Men out of every Nation under Heaven Now when this was noised abroad the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own Language c. But Peter standing up with the eleven lift â—p his voice and said c. Then they that gladly received his Word were baptised and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand Souls c. And fear came upon every Soul and many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles Acts Chap. 2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 14 41 43. That this matter of fact was not invented appears by the bare Consideration of it because this is a thing as must have been brought to pass at Jerusalem upon a solemn feast day before men of all sorts of Nations and as I may so speak in the sight of all the Universe and which Consequently is such as could not possibly have been forg'd or invented What then can be objected to shake the Certainty of this History Can it be said that this Matter of fact was inserted in the Writings of St Luke long after the Death of that Author But then it must at the same time be confessed that the whole Book was forg'd because that is an essential and fundamental matter of fact on which the other things contained in the Book of Acts altogether depend Thus for instance the preaching of the Apostles and the success of it wholly depend upon it Whatever is contained in their Epistles absolutely relates to it And lastly every thing in the New Testament is forg'd if the coming down of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles be a meer Invention Shall I believe that St. Luke himself invented this matter of fact and that no one ever spoke of it before him If so what was it the Apostles said to those they preach'd the Gospel to What did they ground their preaching upon but only on the Mission of the Holy Ghost What other right but that had they to preach Did the Apostles themselves to deceive Mankind pretend that they had received the Holy Ghost This is the only plausible suspicion the Incredulous can entertain yet for all that it is absurd For when was it they made this Pretension It must necessarily be either after they had founded a Church at Jerusalem or some time before If it was after they had founded a Church therein how was it possible this Church should have been afterwards perswaded that the Apostles had received the Holy Ghost that they had publickly spoken all sorts of Languages and that their preaching attended with several strange prodigies had been the occasion of the forming that Church But if the Apostles pretended they had received the Holy Ghost before there was ever any Christian Church established in Jerusalem nay if it were by a false attestation of this matter of fact and many other such that they founded this Church the Apostles must of necessity have learned all the Languages in the World since the death of their Master and together with that the secret of making the lame walk and healing the sick because these are what they call the gifts of the
of their Graves and appeared unto many in the City of Jerusalem It will be sufficient for us to consider only those Prodigies which drew the eyes of the whole World and could not but universally cause a publick Consternation and make a fearful Impression on the Minds of Men. Now I affirm it cannot naturally enter I shall not say into the Mind of a sincere honest Man but even into that of an Impostor to imagine he could ever be capable of making others believe things so notoriously known as those we now have under Consideration must have been had they been false 'T is not many Years ago since a certain Man was Executed at Paris for calling himself the Holy Ghost who had a few Disciples and some Followers but his Sect was soon buried together with him in his Grave Now let us suppose if you will that his Disciples had preach'd after his Death and composed a new Gospel filled only with the Doctrine and Precepts of that Man who was thought by them to be no less than a divine Person I ask then whatsoever Extravagance you may suppose them to have been guilty of whether you can conceive it could have entred into their Minds to perswade the People of Paris that the very Day on which that Man who called himself the Holy Ghost died the Church of Nostre Dame was either thrown down or demolished that its Altars and Statues were broken down that there happened an Eclipse of the Sun the greatest that ever was known accompanied with such a mighty Earthquake that even the Rocks were rent and that all these Wonders wrought so great an Impression upon the Mind of a certain Captain that guarded the Body of the executed Person that he believed in him Doubtless these whimsical Men could not have taken a more effectual way not only to hinder others from believing their Report but even to undeceive all those who might till then have been led away by that pernicious Sect than to insert in the Gospel they were to compose of the Doctrine of their Master such Circumstances as would have contradicted the publick Knowledge and fresh Remembrance every body had of things so lately done and to advance such matters of fact as would immediately have been proved to be false by the publick Testimony every body could give of them Now all this may be very well applied to the Disciples of Jesus Christ For supposing those Disciples were very great Impostors we cannot reasonably ascribe to them any other Design than that of deceiving Men by making them receive Falshood for Truth And it is sufficient if they had that Design and were not wholly void of Reason to make us think they could not have had â—â—e Boldness to invent such Circumstances as these and afterwards publish them to the World But after all was there not a very numerous Church 〈◊〉 in Jerusalem when that Gospel was composed And did not that Church consist of many thousands of People who dwelt at Jerusalem and knew perfectly well whatever had happened at the Death of Jesus Christ Certainly no Man can doub◠〈◊〉 it unless he has a mind voluntarily to 〈◊〉 himself Those very Christians then of Jerusalem saw all those things which happened at the Death of Christ for they were the Men that had been converted by the preaching of St. Peter and the other Apostles and who being prick'd to the Heart cried out Men and brethren what shall we do Acts 2. 37. They had seen then that the Sun was not eclipsed that the Rocks rent not that there happened no Earthquake no surprising and supernatural Prodigy at the Death of Christ And if they saw none of these things they could not but look upon the Report of the Evangelists as a scandalous Lye and notorious Falshood design'd to seduce them from their rational Belief and perswade them out of their Senses But it is farther observable that not one only but three Evangelists have written these things who as appears evidently did not compose their Gospels together but separately and at different times and yet all agree in their Relation of that notable Circumstance of the Death of Christ And no doubt but they all agreed also in the Relation of it when they preached the Gospel by word of Mouth Who then can reasonably believe that when the Disciples preach'd the Gospel in Jerusalem in order to establish a Christian Church there their Design was to perswade the Jews that they must not believe their own Eyes and that what they had seen was not that thing which they had seen Who can imagine that those very Jews themselves who were present and assisted at the Death of Jesus Christ should suffer themselves insensibly to be perswaded that that fabulous Recital was a very true Narration and believe that really to have happened which they certainly knew never came to pass Who can even suppose that the Apostles could fancy themselves able to make the Jews look upon a crucified Man as the Object of their Adoration and Worship by proposing to their Belief the most impudent and apparent Lyes that ever were invented since the Beginning of the World But it will concern us carefully to consider the rending of the Vail of the Temple for that Circumstance is so very singular that it is sufficient of it self to stop the Mouths of our incredulous Adversaries who tho' they should so inconsiderately and wilfully delude themselves as to suppose that the Day whereon Jesus Christ died there happened by chance or rather according to the ordinary Course of second Causes a real Eclipse which had indeed seemed supernatural to the ignorant Vulgar but had nothing supernatural in it self yet what can they say to the Vail of the Temple 's being rent in twain from the Top to the Bottom Could there be any natural Cause why it should be rent precisely and exactly at the time when Jesus Christ suffered Death or could any exterior Darkness produce such an Effect Perhaps some will object that the Primitive Christians were simple and ignorant People and that nothing could be easier than to delude and impose upon them I grant it But then what great Learning was required to know precisely whether all those so sensible and so notable Prodigies had really fell out upon the Day of Christ's Death We have already shewn that among the several Circumstances of the Life and Death of Jesus Christ there were several which the Disciples durst not have invented or forged had they not been really true We must add in the second place that there were a great number of other Circumstances which the Disciples could not have forged had they design'd it To say nothing of the great number of Lame People whom our Saviour caused to walk of the Sick of the Palsy to whom he restored the Use of their Limbs of the Deaf whom he caused to hear and of many others diversly affected with various Diseases whom he wonderfully healed to the
him when at the same time he so well had prepared himself for Death as to have instituted a Sacrament for a Commemoration of it unto the End of the World his complaining that his heavenly Father had forsook him whilst he promised Heaven to a Thief that glorified him upon the Cross An hundred other mysterious Contrarieties there are which Divine Providence inspired the Evangelists to write against their profest Opinions against the Biass of their Passions and their natural Ideas that their Gospel might have a more extraordinary and more divine Character But these are not the Circumstances I mean when I speak of such extraordinary ones in the Life of Christ as the Disciples would not have forg'd if they could By them I mean all the sensible and extraordinary Miracles which Christ himself wrought and his Disciples have related to us and these I say the Disciples would not invent had they been false which I prove by these two invincible Arguments First that by their relating them and above all their mentioning both Places and Persons as it appears they have done they manifestly ingaged themselves both to maintain and evince the Truth of them Certainly they doubted not but that they should be called to give an account of them They who so very well knâ—w how difficult it had been for them to escape free when their Master himself was put to Death They knew they should be compelled to maintain what they had thus affirmed and they knew also they could never be able to defend their Imposture if they should by chance be confronted with the Witnesses they mention'd And all this is no very hard thing for any one to foresee a Man tho' not over-wise may easily presage these Things and it is sufficient that he be in his Senses to make him cautious of advancing such Matters as he thinks himself incapable to maintain the Falshood of which would be presently discovered by the very Witnesses he mentions by the Places he sets down and the other Circumstances of the matter of fact he thus exposes to publick View 2. The Second Argument which proves that the Evangelists would never have forg'd the like matters of fact supposing they had been altogether false is that by counterfeiting them they necessarily rendered themselves liable to be put to a great Confusion when they should find themselves obliged to perform the very same Miracles For besides that it was very natural for any one to say to them thus If it be true that your Master has wrought so many strange Miracles surely he has also given you Power to do the like your selves it being well known that the first thing they taught was that Jesus Christ had sent them abroad with Power to perform the very same Works he had done 'T was no time therefore to use Shifts or stand doubting and shuffling they were obliged either to suppress what they knew concerning the Miracles of Jesus Christ or to perform the same themselves Christ himself when he sent them to preach in the different Parts of Judea commanded them saying Heal the Sick cleanse the Lepers raise the Dead cast out Devils freely you have received freely give Matth. 10. 8. And these are the Characters he gave of the calling of his Disciples And these Signs shall follow them that believe in my Name shall they cast out Devils they shall speak with new Tongues they shall take up Serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay hands on the Sick and they shall recover c. And they went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and comfirming the word with Signs c. Mark 16. 17 18 20. Thus it appears they could not well relate what Jesus Christ had done without at the same time publishing what they themselves were obliged to perform for the further Confirmation of the Gospel so that they did not relate the least Miracle without at the same time affirming they were able to do the like It must therefore certainly be one of these two things either that those Men had utterly lost their Reason or that they sincerely believed the Miracles of Jesus Christ Had they thought them to be false they would neither have engaged themselves to maintain an unwarrantable Fiction by setting down so many Circumstances more than sufficient to discover the real Truth of it nor have rendred themselves liable to Shame and Confusion by relating such Miracles they were not able so much as to imitate at that very time when they professed themselves absolutely capable of doing every thing their Master himself had done Thus it appears to us that the Miracles of Jesus Christ are such matters of fact which the Disciples had neither the Boldness the Power nor the Will to counterfeit supposing they never had been done And I think this enough to convince us in this respect and to make us look upon those Miracles which have illustrated the Life and Death of Jesus Christ as a Center of Truth that will infallibly perswade us of the Truth and the Divinity of the Christanity we profess CHAP. III. The second Center of Truth A particular Consideration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ HAving spoke of the Miracles of Jesus Christ we come now to his Resurrection an Event which ought chiefly to be considered in the Connexion it has with those Miracles For if this Resurrection be true without dispute those Miracles are so too And if those Miracles are true one cannot easily doubt of the Truth of our Saviour's Resurrection Now to take away all Scruples that may arise in our Minds concerning the Truth of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 't is but reflecting a while upon Christ himself upon the Jewish Doctors who used all possible Care and Precaution to prevent so much as a Report after his Death that he was risen from the Dead upon the Testimony of the Watch appointed to guard his Sepulchre upon the Procedure of the Apostles and the discourse of all the Disciples in general and lastly upon that ready Disposition of Mind found in a great number of Jews to embrace Christianity aâ— Jerusalem a few Weeks after the Death of Jesus Christ and at a time when nothing could be easier than to enquire into the Truth of his Resurrection As for Jesus Christ the Evangelists unanimously tell us that he had several times foretold his Death and Resurrection to his Disciples Nay 't is observable that those very Predictions are oftentimes intermixed either with such Circumstances as do not easily of themselves enter into any Man's Mind or with those which seem to have no manner of Relation one with another which proves that they cannot be the imaginary Conceits of a pleasant Fancy that delights in the Invention of Fables It is very improbable that the Evangelists should have invented the Discourse of Jesus Christ with St. Peter concerning the Sufferings that should certainly besall him at his going
the Emperour that having strictly inquired into the lives of the Christians he found nothing else but that they assembled together in remote places early in the morning and there said their prayers to heaven and bound themselves under a Solemn Oath not to commit Murder Adultery Injustice or any other crime They would also produce an answer from Trajan to Pliny wherein that Emperour gave positive orders that for the future there should be no particular enquiries made after the Christians but those only should be punished who should discover themselves And that we may not think that these letters are forged we may consider that 't is Tertulian that mentions them in his Discourse to the Senate and the Roman Emperour whom he could not impose upon without endangering his own life and prejudicing his Religion CHAP. II. Wherein we shall examin the Martyrdom of the Primitive Christians BUt Perhaps we may sooner suspect the credulity of the Primitive Christians than their innocence We are sure their Constancy proceeded from their hope and their hope from their perswasion But who knows the ground of that Perswasion Are there not Mahumetans so strongly perswaded of the Divinity of the Alcoran as to die in defence of that Errour The multitude then of Martyrs shews an infinite number of persons to be strongly perswaded of the truth of Christian Religion but proves not that perswasion to be well grounded We mâ—st therefore go a little further And here we may easily suppose without fear of being mistaken that the Primitive Christians had some sort of Common sense Those who made it their profession to ridicule the plurality of Gods and the many superstitions of the Heathens which were really contrary to Reason those who put in practice such wise Rules of Morality who were so regular in their behaviour so averse to all the excesses that disorder Reason who formed to themselves such rational Ideas of the Deity in comparison to others those men I say could not be wholly destitute of the light of Nature Now supposing them to have but the least glimmering of that light 't will be hard to conceivâ— that they should wholly renounce their Estates and Fortune and couragiously suffer Death in defence of any cause whatsoever unless they had very powerful Reasons to believe it were good This consideration will be further strengthn'd by two very important Reflexions And first we speak not here of such only who being born Christians blindly followed the prejudices of Birth and Education but also of a great number of persons who renounced Paganism to embrace Christianity and laying aside the favourable prejudices of Education and Birth which in them were quite contrary to the Christian Religion were yet willing to die for it as soon as 't was known and embraced Secondly The truth of Christian Religion is altogether founded upon mattters of fact For if Jesus Christ wrought Miracles and rose again from the Dead than is the Christian Faith True But if Jesus Christ wrought no miracles nor rose from the Dead then is the Christian Faith false And surely 't would have been folly or madness in those men to forsake so flourishing a Communion as Paganism to take upon them the name of Christians a name so vile and contemptible in those days to suffer voluntarily the loss of their Estates and undergo a most terrible Death only to defend a Religion grounded upon such matters of fact as they had no reason to believe to be true Those indeed that are born and live peacably in a Communion may blindly believe the Doctrines of it but he that is never so little acquainted with the constitution of man's heart can scarce imagin men to be so sensless as to renounce the prejudices of Birth and Education to offer violence to their dearest and most tender Inclinations and embrace a Faith pursued with fire and sword and persecuted by all the powers of the World unless they had first duely examined the nature of it and knew well upon what grounds they thus embraced it If it be objected that some of these men were of the meanest sort of people whose example cannot be alledged as a precedent for Wise and learned men We 'll grant it But then it must also be confess'd that the Vulgar usually embrace that Religion which is attended with Power and Prosperity Pomp and Authority and hate even Truth it self when once destitute of all these outward helps How is it possible then that against all outward appearance they should have acted so contrarily to themselves in this Occasion But supposing the commmon sort of Christians to have lost their Reason can we say the same of the Doctors of the Primitive Church as Clement Polycarp Justin Iraeneus c 'T is certain on one hÄnd these men were men of very good sense as their Writings those Monuments they have left us evidently demonstrate And on the other 't is very well known they lived in a time so very near to that of the Apostles that it is absolutely impossible they should have been deceived in this respect For Polycarp conversed a long while with St. John Iraeneus saw Polycarp and Justin was a more ancient Father than Iraeneus Had those Doctors only told us that Jesus Christ and his Apostles wrought several Miracles we might perhaps have suspended our belief upon their bare word But since they suffered Death in defence of the truth of certain matters of fact which they must necessarily have fully been informed of since I see that Clemens and Polycarp Disciples and Contemporaries with the Apostles chearfully came to the stake to maintain a Religion essentially founded upon those matters of fact such as were the gift of divers Languages conferred upon the Apostles the power of working Miracles and imparting those very gifts themselves to others Since I say these Christian Doctors suffered Martyrdom for the confirmation of matters of fact which the Christian Religion is essentially united to I confess I begin to be convinced Nevertheless let us search more narrowly into this matter and see whether we shall yet have any Reason to entertain any further scruples CHAP. III. In which we further prove the Truth of Religion by several undeniable matters of fact WHo told us Clemens and Polycarp suffered Martyrdom And supposing they did who will assure us they were not deluded by the Apostles Nay who can tell whether there ever were any such men I suppose I shall not be obliged to prove with a great many arguments there were such men as Clemens and Polycarp who suffered Martyrdom Eusebius who wrote their history could not wholly have invented it unless he had corrupted all the Writings of the Fathers that lived before him for they all speak of it Iraeneus Justin Clemens Alexandrinus c. mention it as a known matter of fact The first of them glories in several places of his works that he had seen Polycarp in his youth and it appears they all suffered Martyrdom
in imitation of those Primitive Christians That the Apostles deceived Polycarp and Clemens and the rest of their Disciples is a thing much less to be suspected because they themselves stuck not to boast of their being able to work miracles heal all kind of diseases speak all sorts of languages and impart to others those gifts they called the gifts of the Holy Ghost And it is impossible that Clemens Polycarp c. should have suffered themselves to be deceived in this respect especially to â—uch a degree as to suffer Death for the testimony of a Religion founded on so many impostures But whence appears it that the Apostles boasted of a power to work miracles and impart the gifts of the Holy Ghost It appears not only from their own Epistles which can't be forged as we shall prove by and by but also from the writings of the Doctors of the Primitive Church and in fine 't is manifest of it self For as we can't deny that there was such a man as Alexander the Great without overthrowing the common Opinion that he subverted the Empire of Darius and the Macedonians subdued all Asia under his conduct because one matter of fact depends upon the other so we cannot acknowledge the Divinity of the Christian Religion without believing the Miracles of Jesus Christ his Resurrection his pouring out the Holy Ghost on the Apostles and the miraculous Gifts imparted to those that believed For take away these matters of fact and what would become of the Christian Religion Wherein would the Divinity of it consist Wherein would lie the Strength Promises and Essentials of it Since therefore Clemens and Polycarp suffered Martyrdom for the truth of Christian Religion it follows also that they died in defence of the truth of those matters of fact we just now mentioned So that those matters of fact being very palpable and it being very easy for Clemens and Polycarp who lived and conversed with the Apostles to know certainly whether they really had the pretended gifts of divers tongues of healing all sorts of diseases and of communicating these extraordinary gifts to others so as to render them frequent in the Church I do not see how its possible to call the truth of them in question The soul of man however fruitfull in imaginations can hardly raise here a doubt of a moment's continuance For should I fancy they may have given me a false Relation of the Martyrdom of Clemens of Polycarp and the successors of the Apostles this thought soon vanishes when I consider the number quality and unanimous consent of the Witnesses of this matter of fact For can we think that the Sucessours of Clemens and Polycarp would have suffered a real Martyrdom in imitation of one that was but imaginary Would they so couragiously have imitated a fictitious Martyrdom of their own invention And should I imagin Clemens and Polycarp were imposed on by the Apostles I am soon convinced of the contrary since those matters of fact which we have now before us are matters of Experience so evident in themselves that we cannot be mistaken in them Lastly should I doubt whether the Apostles endeavoured to perswade men of the truth of them I am made to understand that there can be no Christianity without these matters of fact and that the Apostles could never have established the Christian Religion unless they had first perswaded men of the truth of them This will be farther seen by what we shall offer in the following chapters In the mean while may we not know what the profess'd Enemies of Christianity said of them For it seems unjust to hearken to that only which the Christians alledge in defence of their own cause This is no hard matter We find Porphirius Celsus and Julian surnamed the Apostate maintaining that Jesus Christ did no miracles at all but by a magick power and that it was a fantom which appeared to the Disciples instead of Jesus Christ risen again from the dead Whereupon I think it necessary to make some few Reflections It is very remarkable that those who were far more exasperated against the Christians than the Incredulous of these imes are and who living in a time nearest to that â—f the Apostles might have easily known the truth â—r falshood of those matters of fact I say 't is remarkable that those men durst not in the least call â—ny of them in question but were forced to have â—ecourse to Ghosts and a Magick power to avoid â—eing perplexed with them 'T is also worth our while to observe that Celsus himself who ever before questioned Magicians was at length forced to aâ—cribe the miracles of Jesus Christ to a Magick power â—s Origen himself upbraids him in some part of his works Thus it immediately appears that the Primitive Christians were men of very good sense and very honest and sincere principles too that part of them lived in a time so very near that of the Apostles in whose days all those things came to pass that they must necessarily have known the truth of them that in the mean time they suffered Death to seal the truth of a Religion founded upon all those matters of fact and lastly that their Enemies themselves durst not presume entirely to call any of them in question But I will not yield my self conquered for all that but rather raise my self a little higher and stop for a while at the latter end of the first Century which is the time wherein St. John the last of the Apostles was yet living and wherein Clemens and Polycarp whom we just now mentioned flourish'd and this shall be our fixed point in the following Chapters CHAP. IV. Where we yet further prove the Truth of the Christian Religion by several undeniable matters of fact 'T Is an hundred years since there were no Christians at all in the World and now there are some in all parts of it at Rome and at Antioch at Alexandria at Corinth at Ephesus in Spain and among the Gauls c. I confess I am some what surprised to see this progress yet not so much as to be convinced of the truth of Christian Religion because Mahomet's Religion was established in a lesser time We must then go yet farther and consider that the Christian Faith was not only destitute of the assistance of Policy and Authority but received notwithstanding the continual oppositions of both 'T is observable that other Religions as that of the Heathens and Turks were established in the World by some singular and extraordinary prosperity and by the policy of persons raised to dignities and grandeur but Christianity in a small time became Master of mens hearts and understanding tho it was attended with nothing but shame and Misery tho all the powers of the World strove to stifle it in its very birth and for that purpose invented such tortures and punishments as no other interest could have made men devise We might indeed question the sufferings of the Christians
have here something still more clear and convincing than all this to offer Either those Books which you may think forg'd or not forg'd spread of themselves the Christian Doctrine throughout the World after they had been carried into several Parts of it before there were any Apostles to preach it there or else those Books were composed after the Apostles had published their Doctrine in the different parts of the Universe I see no medium If the Books of the New Testament instructed men in the Christian Doctrine before any of the Apostles had preached it how could the Romans be perswaded that St. Paul which is a meer Name had wrote an Epistle to them or those of Antioch that St. Peter had been in their City or the Galatians that St. Paul had preached the Gospel to them or in general all Judea and Galilee that Jesus Christ with his Disciples had preached there or in particular the people of Jerusalem that he was there condemned to Death by the Sanhedrin c. But if the New Testament was not collected into several Books nor composed till after the Disciples of Jesus Christ had preached the Gospel in the several parts of the World it must follow from thence that there were some Apostles before that time and a certain Jesus Christ crucified who was reputed the Son of God and the true Messias according to the Christian Doctrin So that whether those Books be forg'd or not still I am certain they relate certain fundamental matters of fact which are necessarily true For it is certain there was such a person as Jesus Christ who dwelt in Nazareth and was at last crucified at Jerusalem 'T is also as certain that Peter James and John were Fishermen who followed him out of Galilee and preached the Gospel after his Death in several Parts of the World Wherefore then should I be the only person that should question a thing never so much as doubted of among the Christians or the Jews nay which the Incredulous themselves of these times do not pretend to call in question But to stop a little here It seems that Jesus the Son of Mary living in a certain Corner of Judea pretended himself to be the Son of God or if you will the Messias 'T is very strange indeed that a Man of so mean an extraction who all his life time followed the profession of a Carpenter as his Enemies so often reproached him to have done should notwithstanding pretend himself to be the Messias who was to have been according to the profess'd opinion of that age surrounded or attended with pomp splendour and temporal Prosperity Let us therefore enquire a little into it This Jesus whoever he might be and whatever Idea we may frame to our selves of him gathered together a company of Disciples some of which he took from among Fishermen on the bank of the Lake of Gennesareth some out of the Towns of Galilee nay and some he called from among the Publicans themselves whom the people ever had in abomination as the First Enemies of Christian Religion laid to his charge Those men which thus followed him were of mean Education and Birth They neither had Learning nor Politeness they neither were acquainted with the heart nor the inclinations of men neither with the Policy of Princes nor the elevated Morals of the Stoicks nor lastly with the misterious and secret Wisdom of the Sages But they were mean and simple Persons as the Enemies themselves of Christianity readily acknowledge I shall not at present examin what Reasons induced them so firmly to adhere to Jesus Christ nor what convincing arguments he used to engage them to follow him It is enough we know they were ignorant persons who looked for the Messias according to the common Opinion of those times and so might probably be thought to have been imposed upon in that respect But here I cannot but admire that those mean and ignorant people who had undoubtedly framed to themselves a very sublime Idea of their Messias and imagined no less than that he would have distributed Crowns to them to use that expression since this was always a strong opinion amongst the Jews I say I cannot but admire that those ignorant sort of people should content themselves with the outward and apparent meanness of a man who took quite another form upon him than that of a Conqueror It can't be denied that Jesus Christ was in a very poor and mean condition when he called his Disciples since Porphirius Celsus and Julian the Apostate reproach him with it Besides this is such a matter of fact as no man would invent tho' he could easily have done it and which he could not easily invent tho he would have done it 'T is certain the Jews at that time and always before expected a Triumphant Messias 'T is also as certain the Disciples adher'd to Jesus Christ notwithstanding the profess'd opinion they were prepossessed with at that time this is what we are surpris'd at Since the Disciples found not in Jesus Christ all the Glory and temporal power they were strongly perswaded their Messias should have been invested with they undoubtedly imagin'd that what their Master did not then actually possess he would certainly enjoy some time after They did not at all question but that he was to re-establish the Monarchy of Israel and overcome the Enemies of the Jews This made them to dispute the Priority among themselves They would know who was to be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven that is in the flourishing Kingdom of the Messias which they termed the Kingdom of heaven in imitation of the Prophet Daniel Nay two of them importuned our Saviour to grant them to sit the one on his Right Hand and the other on his Left as soon as he was exalted to that state of Glory I admit not of these matters of fact meerly because they are in the New Testament but because they are very conformable to the Jewish Tradition and Reason it self Common Sense assures us that the Disciples adhered not to Jesus Christ without some hope or other Now what could they hope for from him whom they looked upon as the Messias but that which they expected from the true Messias himself viz. a temporal deliverance attended with the like Prosperity But not to advance any thing doubtful or in the least uncertain in it self I affirm that the Disciples considered Jesus Christ as the true Messias and that they could not regard him as such but either in the sense of the Jews or in that of the Christians that is either as a temporal Deliverer or a spiritual one and consequently that whatever sense we take it in still were they to hope for some advantage or other from him but let us see how far this twofold Consideration will lead us Whilst the Disciples were strongly preposessed with the thoughts that Jesus was their Messias that is the person that should have raised up their Nation to
the Earth has heard of the preaching of the Apostles who all unanimously declared that Jesus Christ was risen again from the Dead and 't is purely upon their testimony that the World believ'd it Can we imagin that the Disciples of Jesus let slip a long period of time as twenty or thirty years after the Crucifixion of their Master and so having had time to embolden themselves and to contrive an imposture they suddenly appeared in the World and preached that Jesus was risen again from the Dead If so how could the compilers or forgers of the New Testament make the world believe that the Disciples of Jesus preached his Resurrection a few Weeks after his Crucifixion How comes it to pass that the Jews never had the least thoughts of contradicting our Scripture in that respect And what is the reason that the Christians yearly commemorate two festivals successively one after another one for the commemoration of the Death and Resurrection of the Lord and the other for that of the coming down of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles which was purposely given them to preach the Gospel in all places If the Disciples had not preached the Resurrection of their Master till a long time after his Death would it not have been ask'd them what have you done since your Jesus was Crucified Rose he not sooner from the Dead Or wherefore do you now preach his Resurrection so long after it What could have obliged the Jews to assert that his Disciples had stolen away his Body by night if his Resurrection had been preached so very late in the World And how comes it to pass that there were Christian Churches established almost every where by the sole testimony of the Apostles few years after the Death of Jesus Christ Can we suppose that it was out of ambition or revenge that the Disciples of Jesus published his Resurrection as designing to make the Chief Priests and Scribes pass for Paricides or immortalise their own names to Posterity But could the Disciples think of revenging themselves on those Men that had so clearly shewn them their mistake in the Messias Or could they fancy there was any revenge purely in inventing such a ridiculous fable Would they buy their Revenge so dear as at the price of their own lives and expose their persons to inevitable Torments and certain death then as for ambitious thoughts did they entertain them immediately after the death of him who could only support and confirm them Had they any reason to aspire after Glory and Grandeur just when all their hopes were destroyed with their Messias Is it likely a few poor Fishermen should have had such thoughts Certainly had that been their design they would soon have relinquish'd it and the immediate scandal affixed to their profession the Misery and barbarous persecution it continually drew upon them would have soon banished out of their Minds so ridiculous and extravagant a design But to what purpose is it for any one to delude himself 'T is well known that when a Malefactor is put to the rack he is forc'd to confess his Crime the torments he endures extorting a confession of his most secret Actions This is a way almost infallible to discover truth and human Justice often puts it in execution for that purpose How were it possible therefore that so many impostors together that had been so often examined and urged by Fire and Sword to recant what they had asserted should yet so constantly persist in a false deposition For 't was not only one single witness but a great Number of Witnesses who were not compell'd to suffer one single punishment only but all sorts of punishments 'T was not only in one single place but almost in every place where they preached they were urged to recant their opinion by the severest torments Neither was it for one single Moment but for every Moment of their lives that they were thus exposed to persecution Not one single party was on their side But Jews and Heathens Kings and Magistrates Prelates and People openly declared themselves their Adversaries They were not only assaulted with Persecutions but reviled contemned and reproached yet for all that not one of them recanted his Opinion Being Separated or Confronted they all unanimously deposed not only that Jesus Christ was risen from the Dead but that they had seen him after the Resurrection If this be the Method commonly used to maintain an imposture I wonld gladly know how Truth it self is to be defended But perhaps the Disciples were themselves deluded and Peter or some other Apostle being so cunning as to remove the body of our Lord out of his Sepulcher perswaded the other Disciples their Master was really risen from the Dead and so they firmly believing his report went about the World preaching his Resurrection But this Opinion necessiarily falls of it self to the ground For the Apostles not only testify'd that they had all seen Jesus Christ after his Resurrection from the Dead but that the holy Ghost fell on them in the likeness of fiery Tongues They testify'd likewise the Truth of Christ's other Miracles and 't is impossible they should all have been deceived in respect of all those matters of fact at once Above all 't is necessary to observe this last kind of miracle viz. the coming down of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles in the likeness of fiery tongues For those Apostles boldly affirmed that with the help of that very miracle they were endowed with the gift of divers Languages so that Greeks Romans Parthians Persians c. heard them speak every one in their own Language This is a matter of fact which neither the Apostles could have deceived the World in nor they themselves have been deceived in It can't be imagined they could have deceived the World or that some Fishermen could have been so bold as to pretend they were endowed with the gift of divers Languages unless it had been really so for they would in every place have been immediately convicted of the most notorious Cheat in the world There were at Rome men who spoke Greek as well as in Greece some that spoke Latin And by reason of Trade it generally happens that there are men of all Languages in every Country Now if St. Paul really understood no other Language but that Greek spoken in Cilicia can we suppose he would have been so bold as to boast in Asia of his speaking Latin or any other forreign Language Would he not have certainly met with people who would have immediately convicted him of falshood Neither is it more likely that the Apostles could have been themselves deceived in this respect because 't is a business of inward sense I may easily be deluded outwardly and think that I see a man indeed when I see but the shadow or fantom of a man But I can never perswade my self that I speak several different Languages when I speak but one But when I see that men of
then must that person do or rather what must an infinite number of persons do who utterly renounce all things for the sake of the Gospel III. There has been found some who have counterfeited Books of Humane Learning but none ever known that were willing to die in defence of their forgery Now none here can be suspected to have forged the Books of the New Testament but only those who suffered Death in defence of the Christian Religion and consequently to confirm the Truth of these matters of fact on which Chistianity it self is founded IV. A man may very well counterfeit a Book of Humane Learning but not always nor in all circumstances and 't would be very ridiculous in a man to forge Letters that must have been written not long ago to whole Societies or Epistles that must have been deposited in the hands of an infinite number of persons and in very many different places Now this must needs be affirmed of all the Epistles of the Apostles which make up a very considerable part of the New Testament And how could the Church of Rome have possibly been made to believe that St. Paul wrote an Epistle to her or the Church of Corinth that she had received two Epistles from him and so of the rest unless it had been so V. This argument is so much the more considerable since he that grants one point in this matter unavoidably grants the whole and if you should agree with me that perhaps one single Epistle among all those of the New Testament was not forg'd you must grant the same thing of them all or at least it will be to no purpose for the Incredulous to to cavil thereupon For what if I should grant the four Gospels to be forg'd does not the Book of the Acts of the Apostles contain nay does it not necessarily suppose the same essential matters of fact related to us in the Gospels should I grant the same of the Book of Acts are not the Epistles of St. Paul sufficient to inform us that Jesus Christ wrought several miracles rose again from the Dead and ascended into heaven and that the Holy Ghost descended upon the Disciples on the day of Pentecost and that 's as much as I desire In a word should I grant all the Epistles of St. Paul to be the works of another man I need but receive those of St. Peter or those of St. John to prove the same thing There being never an Epistle in all the New Testament but what mentions or implies those essential matters of fact without which there can be no such thing as Christianity in the World Let us now see whether we can perswade our selves that all the Books of the New Testament without excepting one fragment or single Epistle amongst them are forg'd and whether we can entertain such a suspicion which no Heretick no Impious or Incredulous Person ever entertained But how is it possible all the Epistles of the Apostles should be forg'd since they must have been committed to an infinite number of Persons as they were really in the begining of Christianity and since Tertullian tells us that in his time they carefully preserved in several Churches the Originals of those Epistles which the Apostles had wrote to them Again in what time and on what occasion could this Forgery have been made Was it during the lives of the Apostles No For could the World consider those Books as Sacred and Divine which the Apostles themselves forg'd Was it then immediately after the Death of the Apostles Do we owe it to Clemens Polycarp and the other Doctors of that Age By no means for those Disciples of the Apostles separated themselves as soon as those great Lights of the World were extinguished Polycarp went to Rome to decide a controversy with a Bishop of Rome occasioned in the Church about the time wherein they were to celebrate the Feast of the Christian Resurrection or Passover Those two great men differed much in that point but yet they both greed unanimously to receive the Writings of the Apostles and to look upon them as the true standard of their Faith and Manners Moreover what Probability is there that so great a number of Churches could have been induced to receive so many false Epistles so soon after the Death of the Apostles and when there was so many Persons yet living who had conversed with them In truth this is so extravagant a Notion that we hold our selves not at all obliged to refute it But it may be objected that the Primitive Christians question'd the Authority of some Epistles such as the Epistle to the Hebrews whose Author was never certainly known the second Epistle of St. Peter that of St. Jude c. I grant it but then I presume that this consideration makes for us since it cannot be conceived that the Ancient Primitive Christians should dispute so long about some Epistles in particular had the rest altogether been as liable to suspicion But may we not reasonably imagin that during those strange disorders which followed the destruction of Jerusalem some Christians either perfect cheats or but partly perswaded of that Faith might have composed the Books of the New Testament and so after having inserted in them whatever stories they pleased ascribed them to the Apostles to gain the greater veneration and respect for their fictions No certainly because the devastation of Jerusalem hinder'd not but that there might be very numerous Churches at Rome at Antioch at Thessalonica Philippi c. whom it would have been impossible to have perswaded that the Apostles had wrote them some Epistles which must have been already deposited in their hands And besides that it appears plainly that the Books of the New Testament were composed before the destruction of Jerusalem because Jerusalem and the Church established at Jerusalem is often mention'd therein without the least hint that Jerusalem was then utterly destroyed Besides how could it come into any mans mind to forge such Books after the destruction of Jerusalem whose design was only to humble the pride of the Jews to induce them no longer to hate the Heathens as being strangers and to perswade them that tho God as yet suffered the carnal worship of their Law they ought not to expect to be justified by that This I say was the end of the New Testament and especially the Epistles of St. Paul who seems earnestly to desire to unite the minds of the two Nations And Heaven having sufficiently declared it self against the Jews by the destruction of their City the confusion of their Tribes and Families and that general dispersion which made them Tributaries to all other Nations there was no need of any further reasons to prove that the Jews were not the only Nation called to the Knowledge of the true God 'T was enough that this proof was evidently written by the hand of God in the just punishment of that people In the mean while 't is necessary to observe
that by shewing that the New Testament was composed before the destruction of Jerusalem I shew also that it is as ancient as the Apostles themselves which affords us one determination very advantagious to our Cause So that this objection being very favourable to instead of proving any thing against us nothing hinders but that we pass on to the consideration of the second suspicion we were willing to entertain concerning the Books of the New Testament CHAP. II. Proving that the Books of the New Testament were never corrupted 'T Is certain that from the Apostles time to ours the New Testament was ever look'd upon as sacred and not to be corrupted without impiety and Irreligion But whether it were Reason or Prejudice that made it so esteemed by the Christians I shall now examin It is enough that the esteem men have of it seems as ancient as the Book it self It s being considered as the foundation of all our hopes and the original of heavenly Revelation its being read and order'd to be read in Publick and Private from the Age of Clemens Polycarp Justin and Iraeneus to ours I say all this shews that it could not have been corrupted in its Essentials But this Truth very well deserves a more strict consideration I say then how is it possible that all the World should have unanimously conspired to corrupt this Book For tho' one single Doctor of the Church should have attempted it yet the rest would certainly have opposed it Tho' all the Christian Doctors dispersed up and down the World should have agreeed to it yet the people would never have consented to 't Tho' the Doctors and the People together should have been inclinable to it yet sure their Adversaries would not have failed to reproach them with it The Jews and Heathens whose only aim was to cry down their Religion would never have concealed it Julian Porphirius and all other particular Enemies of the Christians would have drawn some advantage from it In a word tho' the silence of their Adversaries had favoured so strange an Enterprise yet the different parties and various Heresies which soon after sprung up among the Christians were an invincible obstacle to it 'T is well known that immediately after the Death of the Apostles the Church was strangely disturbed by several various Controversies For not to speak here of the Gnosticks that abominable Sect which deserves not the honourable name of Christians certainly the Opinion of the Millenarians which Papias seems to have been the Author of founded upon the Apostolical Tradition fifteen years after the death of St. John the Controversy which soon after happened concerning the Christian Passover together with the Disputes of the Orthodox against the Origenists concerning the Resurrection and several other Articles of the Christian Doctrin I say these Disputes might easily have divided the Christians in the first Century of the Church Next to them succeeded the famous Disputes of the Orthodox with the Arrians and with what heat and animosities they were carried on is sufficiently known to all the World But however fatal all those Controversies were to the Church yet they produced that good effect by the direction of Providence which orders every thing to some good end that they preserv'd the Revelation of the New Testament pure and entire and at present strengthen our belief against all suspicions we might probably entertain in this respect For tho the Millenarians the Origenists and the Arians should have attempted to corrupt the Scripture yet how were it possible that the Orthodox which were so exasperated against them should have suffered it to be done or that if the Orthodoxes had had any such design their Adversaries which were so incens'd should have agreed with them in the same Intention Should I further grant this mutual agreement possible doubtless the almost infinite number of Copies of Editions and Translations made at first of the New Testament rendered the execution of that design impossible For tho' a man had corrupted one single Copy among all those Copies or translated those Books false yet how could he corrupt all the other Copies of them which are dispersed in the World or how could he alter so many other Translations which have been made of them in different times and in different places But supposing this were feasible if the Writings of the Apostles were ever corrupted it must have been either in their Essentials or in things of little Importance I mean by their Essentials those miraculous matters of fact related in the New Testament as well as all those others which if true demonstrate the Truth of the Christian Religion Now if those Writings were not corrupted in their Essentials it necessarily follows that they contain several true matters of fact sufficient to prove the Truth of Christianity But if they were altered in their Essentials there must have been added to them the Miracles of Jesus Christ his Resurrection Ascension into Heaven the pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost the power the Apostles had of speaking strange Languages and of imparting miraculous gifts to others Now I affirm that all those matters of fact could not have been added to the New Testament unless the whole Book was forg'd because the subject matter of the New Testament consists of nothing else but of those matters of fact or if you will of such things as evidently relate to them and which would certainly be false if those matters of fact were false But let us joyn Experience to Reason and consider that if the Christians had corrupted the writings of the Apostles the Books of the New Testament would now be quite different from what they were in the former ages and that having been continually altered from that time untill now nothing could be more apparent than such an alteration Yet 't is easy to perceive the contrary and it evidently appears by an almost infinite number of places of the New Testament quoted in the Books of the Fathers that there never was a Book that suffered less alteration by the revolution of years than that did There are but two things in my opinion that may be answered to this Argument the first is that in corrupting the Books of the New Testament those places quoted in the Works of the Fathers might also have been altered But this thought can never enter into any reasonable mans mind for he must then suppose that there was a person in a manner Immortal who might have had time enough to alter so many Books composed from Age to Age and a man too so much Master of other Mens hearts and understandings as to have been able to corrupt a Book the most universally read and most carefully preserved that ever was and to alter also with it all the Books of the ancient Fathers without any body ever perceiving it or making the least opposition against it The second thing that may be answered is that this
corruption of the Scripture was done before any of the Fathers begun to write that is fifteen or twenty years after the Death of the Apostles But we need only recall to mind all the reasons that perswaded us that the Books of the New Testament were not forged by the Successors of the Apostles and it will appear they are no less conclusive in this place In short we need but joyn the Martyrdom of the Primitive Christians who were not certainly so Whimsical as to die in defence of their fictions with the passion the people had for the Writings of the Apostles the Divisions which disunited the Church immediately after their Death the variety of Translations the number of Copies the constant and perpetual Tradition of the Ancient Fathers the connexion of the essential matters of fact of the Gospel which is such that he that admits of one is obliged to admit of the other too as he that believes the Ascension of Jesus Christ is obliged to believe his Resurrection also and he that denies those matters of fact is no longer a Christian the number of the Books which the New Testament consists of the Repetition of the same matters of fact in them the want of Time and Opportunity to invent or essentially corrupt them the impossibility of it unless the Book was wholly forg'd the prodigious multitude of people who must have been imposed upon in that respect the nature of the matters of fact they must have been made to believe viz. that whole Societies had received some Epistles from the Apostles which contained such and such things which they ought to have well remembred the Experience of time past which evidently shews that from Clemens and Polycarp down to us that is for sixteen Ages together the Books of the New Testament were not essentially corrupted the distance of places where those Books must have been forg'd or corrupted together with the impossibility of making many fictions which in all appearance those Books would have been full of pass for Truth and that so soon after the Death of the Apostles when the World had their preaching yet fresh in their memory the silence of the Enemies of the Christians on that account who never mentioned any thing concerning that pretended forgery the distinction the Primitive Christians made at first between the Writings of the Fathers and those of the New Testament which they looked upon as the absolute Rule and Standard of their Faith All these considerations I say put together plainly shew us and that too in an evident manner that it would argue madness in the highest Degree longer to entertain either of the two former Suspicions I pass on therefore to a third which is that the Apostles themselves composed fables for the honour of their Master But since this is the most considerable of them all and that which Julian Mahomet and almost every Incredulous person of these times chiefly urge against us it is but reasonable I should more particularly and throughly examin it in the following Chapters for truly upon that chiefly depends the solid proof of our Religion CHAP. III. That the Apostles did not Write what was false TO comprehend distinctly that the Authors we speak of did not impose upon us in their Writings it is fit to consider those Writings in particular one after another They consist of three principal parts which are the four Gospels the Book of Acts and the Epistle of the Apostles St. Mathew writ the first and his Gospel is quoted by Clemens Bishop of Rome Disciple and Contemporary with the Apostles Barnabas quotes it also in his Epistle And Ignatius and Polycarp who lived in the time of St. John Justin Iraeneus who lived a little after Athenagoras Tertullian and all the other Doctors of the Church which succeeded them unanimously received it There is not only the Gospel according to St. Matthew concerning which 't would be a very difficult matter to entertain any reasonable suspicions but the Gospel according to St. Mark was also a while after written for a second support of our belief The same Fathers who testify of the one testify also of the other Papias Clemens Alexandrinus Justin speak of it and St. Iraeneus relates that Mark the Disciple of St. Peter composed his Gospel of those matters he had heard the latter speak of St. Luke who accompanied St. Paul in all his Travells wrote a third Gospel which the Ancient Fathers have also received Lastly St. John the last of the Apostles composed a fourth Gospel towards the latter end of his days as the Doctors of the Primitive Church tell us and this Apostle declares at the end of it that he himself is the Author of it this is the Disciple says he which testifieth of these things which he has seen chap. 21. 24. It is to be observed first of all that the four Evangelists who all agree in the plainness and ingenuity which appears in their Relations have nevertheless a very different stile from one another Thus St. John expresses himself after a very simple manner if compared with that of St. Luke who being a Phisitian ought to have written in a more lofty stile than St. John who was originally a Fisherman And this consideration removes the Suspicion we might entertain that all those Gospels were composed by one and the same Author Secondly We may observe that altho' these Writers agree essentially in the matters they relate there is nevertheless some small difference betwixt them which very sensibly shews us that they composed their Gospels separately Divine Providence having so ordered it the better to confirm ouâ— Faith Yet our incredulous Adversaries will not stand to this Assertion They will perhaps imagin that the Disciples of Jesus having got together at Jerusalem after the Death of their Master took certain Measures to make men believe certain supposititions matters of fact which they very exactly and precisely set down least they should contradict themselves in the Testimony they should give of them and that after having founded several Churches by then preaching some of them took special care to digest those very matters of fact in Writing which they had preach'd throughout the World after having invented them I think this is the most plausible objection of theirs that is likely to be raised against this subject But in order to confute this imagination it might perhaps suffice to call to mind what I have before mentioned the absurdity there is in supposing that a few simple and ignorant Fishermen dejected by the Death of their Master undeceived of the opinion they had entertained that he was their Messias and so fearful that they fled when he was seized upon in order to his Crucifixion should contrive amongst themselves how to deceive other men when they themselves were so miserably deluded that they should dare to invent a matter of fact which would certainly fix an eternal blot and scandal upon their Nation by making the Jews be looked
Preaching a Church at Jerusalem II. Would you know the time 'T was in the space of three years that the Miracles of Jesus Christ his Death Resurrection and Ascension were brought to pass and a few Weeks after the Ascension the Apostles begun to Preach publickly in Jerusalem III. Would you know the witnesses of the truth of these matters of fact We can produce a great number of persons who both lived and conversed with Jesus Christ himself IV. Would you fain know the nature of the matters of fact here attested We shew you that they are very evident and singular ones that the Sick are healed the Winds and Seas hush'd the Dead raised a man put to death who convers'd with his Disciples and ascended into Heaven c. V. If you would know their number we can shew that the whole Life of Jesus Christ was but one continual series of Miracles VI. Lastly Would you know the proofs of all this The Apostles themselves boast of having received miraculous gifts and that too by a good Title as we shall shew in the sequel of this Work In the interim do but unite all these Circumstances together and see what an irresistible evidence arises from their Union How could the Apostles perswade so many persons concerned in this thing so many that had both known and seen Jesus Christ Would they not soon have lost all Credit if search had been made into the places and the truth of what they affirmed strictly examin'd Or rather how is it possible that whilst they ventur'd to publish such things in the very places where they must necessarily have been brought to pass the Jews should not have stopt the progress of the Gospel by discovering to the World so visible and evident an Imposture For the Apostles did not publish only one single matter of fact of this nature They affirm'd also that their Master had raised Lazarus from the Dead together with the Son of the Widdow of Naim and the Daughter of Jairus that he had heal'd almost an infinite number of people possessed with the Devil Deaf Blind and sick of the Palsy and that his fame had spread throughout all Syria Nor were the Apostles content barely to preach all these things they put them also down in writing and their Writings are dispers'd throughout all the World Therefore they hid not themselves but were willing every one should know the certainty of what they testify'd and examine as much as they pleased the matters of fact they related They gave them out to the World and exposed them to be search'd all manner of ways But supposing I should grant those Books to be written forty fifty or sixty years after the Death of Jesus Christ still is it evident that before that time there was a Church at Jerusalem founded by the preaching of the Apostles and it is certain that the Apostles had declared by word of mouth the Miracles and Resurrection of Jesus Christ which are the essential matters of fact contained in those Books For how could they otherwise perswade the World to worship a crucified man or convince them that Jesus Christ was the true Messias How was it possible the Christians should look upon that Book as Divine which went upon a supposition of what was never done By what kind of agreement should four persons who wrote in different times and places and copy'd not one anothers Writings as is plain if we read them over with never so little attention and consider their different manner of relating the same things I say by what kind of agreement should they have conspired to inform us of the same matters of fact if the Apostles had not first of all unanimously and universally publish'd them How could the Apostles have perswaded men to turn Christians had they not declared the Miracles Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ since Christianity can't subsist without these matters of fact Thus we see 't is to no purpose for Impostors to disguise themselves for all their shifts and tricks serve only to discover them CHAP. V. Where we shall more particularly examine whether the Apostles had the Power or the Will to deceive mankind THose men who have a design to deceive the World must have more skill wit and cunning than others which skill wit and cunning will appear in their works in spite of all their Art and subtilty But when I strictly examine those Authors whom we call Sacred I neither find Cunning Wit nor Affectation in their Books Every thing they contain seems to me very simple naked and open They all exactly relate their own Weaknesses and imperfections They do not conceal their true Birth and extraction They discover their ambition in their controversy who amongst them should be the greatest in the flourishing Kingdom of the Messias their gross ignorance in the Questions they asked their Master and one another viz. What meaneth this to rise again from the Dead their cowardise in betaking themselves to flight at the sight of the Soldiers that came to take away their Master and their incredulity in those scruples they raised concerning his Resurection All these things plainly discover the greatest sincerity and impartiality But yet there arises here a certain scruple which seems not altogether inconsiderable and may deserve a little consideration Who knows perhaps some will object but that this is an affected sincerity which prepossesses our minds in their behalf only to deceive us the more securely In order to overthrow this notion I shall not assert that the Writers we speak of were originally Fishermen and Publicans and that it would seem very strange that men of that Birth and Education should affect simplicity and be capable of so refined apiece of policy of which there can hardly be given an example amongst the most able Politicians that ever took upon them to deceive mankind Neither shall I say that since the four Evangelists composed their Writings apart 't would be very surprising that they should all concur in the design of imposing upon the credulity of men by Writing after so simple and ingenuous a manner and that they should not only be entirely conformable to one another in this respect but also should agree with the other Writers of the New Testament 'T is sufficient to observe that they sometimes relate such things as at first view suggest those notions in us which Piety utterly rejects and Incredulity makes use of to oppose the Christian Religion by attacking its divine head This they would never have done had they only affected an ingenuous simplicity Thus it 's ask'd why Jesus Christ who was subject to his holy and ever blessed Mother according to the observation of the Evangelists should make her this answer which is some what rough and severe Woman what have I to do with thee my hour is not yet come Thus Julian the Apostate Celsus Porphirius and other Enemies of the Christian Religion stick not to say that Jesus Christ gave
Holy Ghost But perhaps 't is a question whether there was ever any Christian Church founded at Jerusalem If so then must the Ancient Doctors of the Church who lived in different times and in different places have conspired together to deceive us in this respect and the Jews and Heathens and all other profess'd Enemies of our Religion as well Ancient as Modern who never contested the truth of this matter of fact must utterly have lost their Reason In a word supposing the Book of Acts composed long after the destruction of Jerusalem that is when there could be no longer any flourishing Church in that City yet there is no point gained For it is true still that the Apostles set down the matter of fact we speak of and that their Epistles are filled with such things as visibly relate to it I shall not here further add that the Book of Acts mentions nothing of the Death of the Apostles which manifestly shews that it was composed during their lives and consequently in a time wherein the Church of Jerusalem flourish'd nor that it mentions nothing of the last destruction of Jerusalem no not so much as any of the signs or presages of it which induces us to believe that that Book was composed some time before that great Event it being very probable that the Author who composed it meerly for the Glory of the Apostles and of the Christian Religion as the Incredulous undoubtedly imagin would never have failed to have inserted in it the History of all those dreadful Misfortunes which fell upon the Jews and which the Christians look upon as the effect of their rejecting the Messias But since my design is not to leave the Reader the least shadow of a doubt I promise to prove by and by that the Apostles both received and imparted many miraculous gifts In the mean while till the Method I have prescribed to my self gives me leave to enter upon that subject I think it fit to make some few Reflexions concerning the success of the Apostles's preaching which is that essential head to which all other matters contained in the Book of Acts relate CHAP. X. Wherein we shall take into Consideration what success the Preaching of the Apostles had THis matter of fact is related with very remarkable Circumstannces As I. That those men who first preached the Gospel were Fishermen that is gross and ignorant people of no appearance or authority in the world II. That those men went about preaching that they had seen Jesus Christ risen from the Dead and ascending into Heaven and that they had long before been Eye-Witnesses to his Miracles III. That they offended by their preaching all the Powers of the World and exposed their persons to an infinite number of Dangers and Misfortunes IV. That they suffered them with Patience or rather with Joy V. That the success of their preaching was so swift and sudden as is almost inconceivable In all this St. Luke has told us nothing but what our own Reason would tell us We may conclude that they were men of no extraordinary birth or credit in the World that first preached the Gospel since no body has ever said any thing to the contrary 'T is manifest that those men ought to have testified that they had seen Jesus Christ work many miracles seen him risen from the Dead and ascending into Heaven because they would never have converted so many Nations as they did had they only said they knew all those things by hear say and besides that the Epistles of the Apostles inform us that that was the subject of their preaching There is no doubt but all the Powers of the World persecuted these men for as much as Policy is an Enemy to all new Sects and the People themselves are always Jealous of their Religion It cannot be doubted neither but that the Apostles very couragiously suffered the effects of that persecution because had they recanted or drawn back for fear of punishments their design would have miscarried in its very beginning Lastly who can deny but that the success of their preaching was very swift and sudden in as much as in a short time there were several Churches established in all parts of the known World This is a matter of fact which was never contested And therefore Reason as well as St. Luke tells us all these things The Book of Acts informs us of the Truth of them and the Nature of things will not suffer us to doubt but that they were so which utterly destroys the suspicion we might entertain that they were all forg'd or invented In the mean time I cannot consider all these matters of fact nor unite them together and observe the proportion they have one with another without presently believing the Truth of that Religion which they so plainly Prove and Establish CHAP. XI Wherein we shall examin the matters contained in the Epistles of the Apostles THo' the Ancients had not unanimously received the Epistles of St. Paul tho' Clemens Polycarp and Barnabas had made no mention of the second Epistle of St. Peter yet it would be sufficient to observe that they were written to some Churches that is to whole Societies who for a long while preserved the Originals of them to assure us that they were not forg'd 'T is then our concern to see whether we can find therein any Characters of the Divinity of our Religion We cannot Read St. Paul's Epistles without observing therein I. The Piety and Charity of that Apostle II. His Impartiality and Contempt of the advantages of the World III. His Courage in enduring afflictions which instead of disheartning rather overjoy'd him IV. A continual repetition of the Testimony which the Apostles bore of the Truth of the Resurrection of the Lord. V. Such things which manifestly denote that St. Paul had received the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost and that those that then believed very frequently received them The Piety of that Apostle so variously discovers it self in his Writings that we cannot think it dissembled without offering Violence to our Understanding For tho' a man should constrain himself upon some occasions yet is it possible he should after the very same manner during a great part of his life in all his Actions in all his Words in his manner of telling of things which oftener discovers the bottom of the heart than the things he speaks of I know very well Hypocrisy covers it self with the external shew of Vertue but really there is yet something which I can't express a simple and natural air in true vertue which is not to be met with in Hypocrisy or rather Hypocrisy is neither so subtle nor clear sighted but that it discovers it self on one side or other nay often it lets drop a wordwhich unmasques it to the eye of the World However I am willing the Epistles of St. Paul should be strictly examin'd to see whether any thing but what is very natural and sincere can be found
just going to shed the blood of Christians He went about afterwards preaching that he had seen Jesus Christ that a great light shone round about him that the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven were revealed unto him He affirmed that God had set him forth unto the World and that he became a Spectacle unto Men and Angels 1 Cor. 4. 9. If men will not credit his report let them try him by torments and see what effect they will have upon him Let them load him with Chains and cast him into Prison let them expose him to Wild beasts at Ephesus let the Elements Men and Devils be all at once set against him let them scourge him drag him along stone him let them bring him from Jerusalem to Cesarea from Cesarea to Rome increase and prolong his Afflictions Saul the Witness of the Synagogue 't is true recanted his opinion but Paul the Witness of Jesus will never recant his Having seen the strange alteration which happened to the Person of the Minister of the Synagogue let us reflect a little on that which happened to the Person of the Apostle of Jesus Christ Judas betrayed his Master and received for his reward thirty pieces of Silver But how comes it to pass he was so much disturbed after he had done it The Jews the Romans the People the Doctors the Magistrates and Judges all favoured his crime and let him go unpunished yet the remorse of his own Conscience tormented him to that degree that he could not rest any where and at length not being able to overcome his Despair he made away with himself and the Wisdom of God so ordered it that the Jews themselves preserv'd the memory of that astonishing event by buying with that mony a field which is since called Aceldama because it was the price of blood What a strange difference we find in these two Persons of Judas and Saul Judas killed himself in the midst of his Prosperity but Saul rejoyced in the midst of his afflictions Judas prevailed upon by the Synagogue could not be comforted by the same but died in despair Paul became the Disciple and Witness of Jesus and to him the Cross of Jesus was matter of the greatest joy God forbid says he Gal. 6. 14 that I should glory save in the Cross of my Saviour Christ by whom the World is crucified unto me and I unto the World Will any one believe that Judas was his own Executioner meerly out of remorse for having betray'd an Impostor to the Jews Or that St. Paul derived from the sense of his infidelity the courage he shewed in all his sufferings Certainly it may be very properly said that they were both the Martyrs of God but only with this difference that Judas was so against his will but Paul voluntarily If the constancy of the one testify'd in behalf of Jesus Christ the despair of the other was no small honour to him And the only difference is this that Paul was properly a Martyr but Judas in spite of himself a witness of the Truth of Religion CHAP. XVII Where we further answer the Objections of the Incredulous OF all the Objects which the Christian Religion offers to our understanding there is no one seems more to shock the Reason of a prejudiced and incredulous person than the Death of the Messias The Cross of Jesus Christ was according to the Expression of an Apostle a scandal to the Jew and a folly to the Greek But in our opinion there is nothing bears more visible characters of Greatness and Divinity than that does The Incredulous tell us that could we but rid our selves of all our prejudices we should be heartily ashamed to entertain such strange Ideas of God And we also tell them that could they once but free themselves of those passions which darken their understanding they would certainly admire with us the wonders of so Divine an object Who then is in the wrong in this thing That will best appear by the answers we shall make to their objections We find in the Person of Jesus Christ one who suffered himself to be seized upon and was afterwards nailed on a Cross not having any one to deliver him from the power of his Enemies This they object was a mark of his Weakness For say they had he been the King of the Jews why did he not come down from the Cross and all the World would have believed on him He died as one condemned by the grand Council of the Jews which God himself had established This was he as was found guilty He was seized with sorrowfulness even unto Death the day before his Passion and cried out bitterly when he gave up the Ghost This shews his wretched condition He was made to suffer a punishment proper only for Slaves It cannot therefore be doubted but that he died a most infamous Death And who can imagin that Weakness Guilt or at least Condemnation Wretchedness and Infamy should be the true Characters of the Son of God Thus the Incredulous argue We answer that Jesus Christ suffer'd by the determinate Council of God since the Scriptures foretold that he was to be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities that he was to make his Soul an offering for sin that he was to be cut off but not for himself And St. John the Baptist seeing him coming to him at a time wherein it was very unlikely he should ever suffer called him the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World John 1. 29. Jesus Christ suffered voluntarily he foretold all his own Sufferings to his Disciples inviting them to take up their Cross and follow him He told them that he had made choice of a Company of miserable and afflicted Wretches in the World who were notwithstanding to overcome the World and by their sufferings establish the Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth He freely owned to them that he was not come to settle peace in the World but the sword that God would smite the Shepherd and that the Sheep should be scattered that they were to drink of the same cup with him and be Baptised with his Baptism that is to taste the bitter cup of his Afflictions and be Baptised with him with a Baptism of Blood He intermixed his suffering with theirs that they might the better bear them in remembrance If we should in the least doubt whether Christ foretold his sufferings we need only consider the design of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the time wherein this Ceremony was instituted For unless we should call in question the real institution of that Sacrament and so affirm that the Disciples out of an unaccountable and fantastical Extravagance pretended only that Jesus Christ had instituted that Ceremony when there was no such thing it will appear that Jesus Christ foresaw his Death that he prepared himself for it and affirmed he suffer'd it voluntarily for the Salvation of Mankind The Sacrament of the Eucharist which he
instituted in cold Blood certifies us of all these things But because an involuntary Death would argue a certain kind of weakness 't is also most certain that nothing can better evince the strength and courage of Jesus Christ than that tho' he foresaw the horrours of an infamous and painful Death yet he exposed himself to it with such a constant will and firm Resolution that by his example he shewed his Disciples how he would have them imitate and commemorate his sufferings Jesus Christ was condemned to Death by a Nation seditiously stirred up against him and by a Sanhedrin envious of his Glory but he was justified by the Conscience of Judas whose remorse for having betray'd him forced him to kill himself and by the solemn declaration of Pilate who washed his hands in the presence of the Jews to shew that he was innocent of the Blood of that just Person He was justified too by the voice of the Centurion who saw the prodigies his Death was attended withall and soon after by the mouths even of those who sought his ruin and who being prick'd to the heart cry'd out to the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do Act. 2. 37. And certainly 't is a very great glory to our Messias that the most guilty Conscience the most unjust judges the most insensible and hardened sort of Soldiers and the most barbarous Murtherers should even bare record of his Innocence Jesus Christ suffered but it was for our sakes he gave himself up to the sorrow and anguish of Death and made his life an offering for Sin And if those wounds are counted honourable which a Subject receives sighting in the presence of his King and if those which a King receives for the safety of his Subjects are esteemed yet far more glorious what Glory then did Christ deserve who suffered in the presence and by the will of his Father for the Salvation of his People and Children and who by his sufferings established such an Empire which no power can dissolve Lastly Jesus Christ suffered a punishment proper only to Slaves but we are also very certain that during the time of his sufferings he shewed himself to have a power over Nature her self since the Graves were opened at his Death the Rocks rent the Sun was darkened and the Vail of the Temple was rent in twain And it is impossible that the Disciples of the Lord should have invented so sensible and signal matters of fact against the fresh and publick knowledge which those men that lived in their days had of it without being guilty of such an Extravagance which is more than humane But here we will ask the Incredulous in our turn whether a voluntary Death an innocence publickly own'd the sorrows and anguish which a man suffered out of Charity to the World the homages which even insensible Creatures paid to him whom men scorned and condemned were not certain Characters worthy of the Messias that had been promised us Indeed if you take away the proofs which evidently shew Jesus Christ to be the Son of God you may then call his Cross a scandal to him and the World but whilst those proofs shall be left entire his Cross will serve the more to illustrate his Majesty and Grandeur and we shall not only then assert that it was a voluntary Death which he underwent and a Death that was foretold us but we shall also shew that it is as it were a looking-glass-like wherein we may see at once all the vertues of man and all the Attributes of God There we may find the patience of a man who suffered every thing from his equals and from those who ought to have been his Servants and Disciples the Charity of a man who pray'd for them that put him to Death the Constancy of a just man who bore the burden of the iniquities of mankind and the constancy of an innocent man who at once as it were wrestled with the fury of men and the Justice of God There we may see the Masterpiece of Divine Wisdom the designs of our Enemies frustrated and the designs of God triumphing over the vain opinions and projects of men the propitiation of sins made for us by the most dreadful parricide that was ever committed or conceived the Synagogue buried in his grave whom they barbarously put to Death in defence of their priviledges the Romans crowning a King with thorns who was to rule over all Nations and putting a Reed instead of a Scepter into his hands flesh and blood shewing us in the Death of Christ the true pattern of mortification Jesus Christ dying attended with almost infinite numbers of Martyrs who were willing to die in imitation of him who was Conquerour of the World only by his shame who crucifyed the flesh by the preaching of his Cross and procured Rest and Peace to the Souls of them that dyed by the Anguish of his Agony We may also see the Justice and Mercy of God clearly manifested in his Death For what other Victim could have better evinced Gods hatred for Sin What present could have been made unto men that could have better discovered Gods love to them The Incredulous therefore reproach us with the meanness of an object wherein the vertues of men and the attributes of God himself are shewn in their greatest height and perfection But let him that any ways doubts it consider the Resurrection of Jesus Christ which is as it were a key that opens all these Events to us To dye and remain under the power of Death is indeed an evident mark of weakness and misery but to dye and yet overcome Death by rising from the Grave is the mark of a supernatural power and a divine glory Thus Jesus Christ descended into the lower parts of the Earth for no other end but to ascend into Heaven as the Eye-witnesses of that great and notable Event did plainly testify But the Incredulous will not believe their report and they further pretend that they can find in history the example of a testimony very like that which was nevertheless without contradiction reputed to be a meer Imposture We read say they that after the Death of Romulus there was a certain senator who having always lived in the repute of a very honest man certified that Romulus was ascended into Heaven where he was inserted among the Gods and that this Monarch had appeared unto him c. Is not this a matter of fact not unlike that which the Disciples testify'd of Jesus Christ throughout the Universe 'T is very like it indeed only it has these following differences there you read of a single person testifying that he had seen Romulus ascended into Heaven but here you have a very great number of people who certifiy'd that they had seen Jesus Christ after his Resurrection There it is pretended that a great and triumphant Monarch during the course of his life was inserted amongst the Gods after his Death which agrees
one another and so to become Subjects of the same Heavenly King they renounced then all their differences and quarrels the dear expectation they had of their Messias stifling in their hearts all Passions and Resentments But when John the Baptist had as it were led them by the Hand to Jesus Christ himself they were strangely surprised to find in him nothing of what they expected They found in him Poverty where they thought to have found Riches Shame and Afflictions where they thought to have met nothing but great Splendor and Temporal Glory For this Reason therefore they rejected him with Horrour and Abomination all their thoughts being on a sudden changed into indignation and anger against him in whom before they had fixed all their imaginary hopes But tho' the generality of his Nation cast him off there were yet a certain number of persons who were willing to follow him and that number daily increased in proportion as Jesus Christ's sufferings and afflictions increased There were at first but twelve whom he called to his Service Then sent he seventy others abroad who were succeeded by a great may others after his Death And their number further increasing with the fury of the Sanhedrin there were at length many seen who testify'd in behalf of that crucified man But how come those Disciples to follow a Messias so contrary to their first Ideas and receiv'd opinions How is it possible they should not have been discouraged at his Cross unless Jesus Christ had promised them to do signs and wonders How could they have been with him night and day for three Years and an half without inquiring into that important matter of fact or knowing whether he were really able to do Miracles or not Or how is it possible when they found their mistake that Jesus Christ was but an ordinary sort of a man uncapable of working any signs or wonders they should not have forsaken him as a Whymsical Impostor How could their minds be so suddenly changed as to look on Humiliation and Meanness Misery and Afflictions as upon the true and real Character of the Messias they I say whose minds Education had filled only with carnal Ideas of the flourishing Kingdom of the Messias But above all how could they be present at the Crucifixion of their Master without being reduced to the last greatest Consternation and Confusion So that the second Consequence which may very well be drawn from these principles already established is that the Disciples having always imagined with their Fathers and Mothers their Brothers and Sisters their Teachers and Elders and in general with their whole Nation that their Messias should have restored the Kingdom of Israel and having understood those words in a literal sense it is impossible but that they should be extreamly offended to see him wearing a Crown of Thorns upon his Head when he was nailed on the Cross and a Reed instead of a Scepter in his Hand Nay more than this 't is morally impossible but that this object must have rooted out of their Hearts all thoughts of Pride and Ambition and all pretensions to Greatness and Temporal Prosperity which their Blindness had caused them to conceive upon this mans account unless there had happened since his Death such supernatural and extraordinary things as were able to revive in their Heart such great hopes as these Thirdly We shall conclude from the Principles we have already established that the Disciples as well as all other Jews being as it were ty'd to their Religion by what they had Seen and Heard by their Inclination and Vnderstanding by their Interest and Piety by their Customs and Education and by the Advantage wherewith they might well flatter themselves of being distinguished from all other Nations of the World and being further as it were wedded to it by that great number of Ceremonies and Customs the Justice and Holiness of which they could no way doubt of since they had been so exactly prescribed them by the Law of God himself it cannot be supposed but that they imagined their Law to be of an eternal Duration and that being extreamly averse to every new sort of Worship which was contrary to that of Moses they could not have so suddenly altered their opinion nor could there have happened so strange a revolution in the Hearts and Minds of so many persons united and as it were link'd by so many respects to the Law of Moses that in so small a period of time the Souls of all those Jews should have been so entirely changed as that they should begin to look upon the Jewish Religion as upon a Dispensation granted with a proviso and which was to come to an end and for the future be considered only as a thing altogether useless and out of Date I confess that this principle was not first of all approved of in the World without great contest and difficulty and that there were for a while certain Judaising Christians who taught others that the Law of Moses was still in force and that it was necessary to Salvation to joyn the Doctrine of Jesus Christ with the Ceremonies of the Law But then it is well known they were only either some of Christ's Enemies who started these questions out of a particular design to make a division in the Christian Church or some Jews turned Christians as yet very weak and not fully strengthened in their belief whose scrupulous Zeal and blind Superstition caused all those Controvesies But however 't is evident that the true Disciples of Jesus Christ and especially the Apostles were not long in an errour as to this point They affirmed that men were justify'd only by the Faith of Jesus Christ without the works of the Law And 't is manifest that in the first Council held at Jerusalem the Disciples of our Lord abolished the Customs and Rites of the Ceremonial Law But at last it is of no great moment whether the Ceremonial Law or Religion of Moses was abolished ten years sooner or later Still it is certain that it was sometimes abolished or rather to speak more exactly and truly it was fulfilled by the Gospel and so the observation of it ceased Now I demand how it is possible that those men who were so devoted and bigotted to that Law who made it the object of their thoughts and most common discourse should so great a number of them and in so short a time with one common consent renounce that Law which Piety made so venerable and Honour and Interest so valuable in their Esteem Whereas so many ages elapsed before the coming of Jesus Christ into the World could not wear out of their minds that profound esteem and respect they had for that Law For tho' they had often broke it in several respects yet it may be said in their behalf they almost always look'd upon it as inviolable And can we suppose that so many ages as have passed since the Death of Jesus Christ could not remove
that perswasion so deeply rooted in their Mind that their Law was to be eternal and yet that a few years should perswade that great multitude of Disciples converted by the preaching of the Apostles that all those Rites and Ceremonies were become invalid by the Death of a Man whom the Sanhedrin had condemned to be executed as a Malefactor without any extraordinary or supernatural accident intervening which should occasion the framing to themselves such Ideas so particular and so contrary to their first Prejudices Certainly we may very well affirm that our Incredulous Adversaries have too great a value for imposture and ignorance when they imagin that an universal delusion and unanimous consent to a Lye could convert Nations Sanctify Mankind and spread the Knowledge of God throughout the World according as it was foretold by the Scriptures or that a few simple and ignorant Fishermen whose knowledge extended no further than their Employment should discover the defects and imperfections of the Ceremonial Law and introduce instead of it a Spiritual worship as really more conformable to the Nature of God who is a Spirit and more worthy of man who is a Spirit and more worthy of man who is a Reasonable Creature that those simple and ignorant men should discover the Sacrifices under the Law to be only Types of the Death of a man who was condemned to be executed as a Malefactor that they should attribute this thought to John the Baptist and make him express it only in these words Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World John 1. 29. Words so full and comprehensive that they contain the whole sum of Christan Religion And Lastly That they should invent Mysteries so very different from mens ordinary Thoughts and Conjectures and so far above the Capacity of the most judicious and learned that it may deservedly be said of them that they are such things which Eye has not seen nor Ear heard neither has it enter'd into the Heart of Man to conceive them 1 Cor. 2. 9. Lastly Experience tells us how difficult it is for persons already advanced in years to renounce the Common practices generally approved of in the World especially when authorised by Religion and Education How hard would it be for us Christians to live as the Jews And yet it would be more difficult for them to live as we do Because we look upon all their Customs as things very indifferent in themselves whereas they always look'd upon our Practices as scandalous and unlawful How then was it that not only one or two Jews but thousands who had embraced Christianity no longer in the least scrupled to converse with the Gentiles nay to to live with Heathens who before were an Abomination in their eyes You will say this was not without many considerable difficulties and was the cause of several great Animosities and Disputes I grant it but yet it appears the Ceremonial Law was utterly abolished presently after the Death of Christ the Apostles having determined that it had been accomplished in his Death and that it was not Lawful to joyn the Carnal Ceremonies of the Law with the Spiritual worship of the Gospel And I say that had not the Apostles both testify'd the Miracles and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and wrought very great wonders themselves it was naturally impossible they should have executed so great a design especially in so small a time For certainly if we consider the Disciples as born Jews they must necessarily have been very much devoted to their own Law If we consider them as poor and mean people they could not but have been passionately fond of that Law which gave such wonderful precepts for the Administration of Justice and the relief and comfort of the Poor If we consider them as simple and ignorant men they could not but have a blind love and obedience for their Law as all ignorant People have for the external objects of Religion Lastly Should we consider them as prepossessed with the usual prejudices of their Nation they must necessarily have expected a Glorious and Triumphant Messias who instead of abolishing the Law of Moses should have established it throughout the World Yet we need only consider the event to clear the truth of this matter We shall not insist upon all the Reflections we might easily make hereupon It 's sufficient to have taken notice of those things by the by because they may serve in some measure to illustrate the particular examination we shall make of the Miracles of the Gospel We have already considered them in general sufficiently to convince all reasonable Persons But it may not be amiss to insist more particularly on them that we may confound the Obstinate and Incredulous and make them at least truly sensible of their Errour tho' perhaps we cannot reclaim them from it To do this better we shall lay down four miraculous matters of fact which shall be as so many centers of the Truth we enquire into because there are several lines and degrees of Evidence and Light which necessarily lead us to the Truth of each of these matters of fact and then we shall joyn them all together the better to form a full and perfect Demonstration of them CHAP. II. The first Center of Truth a particular consideration of the Miracles of Jesus Christ WE dare say that such is the nature of these Miracles that the composers of the Gospel durst not could not would not have forged them had they been really false I say they durst not because they could not but have been publickly known To prove this I shall lay down four Examples of them which are I. The History of Zachariah the Father of John the Baptist II. The History of the Massacre of the young Children of Bethlehem III. The miraculous feeding of several thousands at several times in the Wilderness with a few Loaves and some small Fishes IV. And Lastly the supernatural prodigies which happened at the death of Jesus Christ himself As to the First we may observe that the Subject upon whom this great Miracle was wrought is a Priest a Priest who daily performed the functions of his Ministerial office and was then actually burning Incense in the Temple of Jerusalem at a very remarkable time during which the people who expected him were very intent at their Prayers to God in the outward Part or Porch of the Temple whilst he himself was in the Holy Place Now tho' the Historian had observed only concerning the Birth of John the Baptist that Zachariah and Elizabeth his Wife were far advanced in years and that the latter till then was thought Barren yet that event would have employed something so extraordinary and surprising that one might have been almost positive that the Evangelist durst not have been so bold as to forge it against the publick knowledge which all the Jews must then have had of it How then durst any one have affirmed that Zachariah wholly lost
incapable of Illusion and Deceit at least with respect to those who wrought them Jesus Christ could never imagine that he had filled five thousand Men at one time three thousand at another that he had raised to Life the Widows Son of Naim the daughter of Jairus and Lazarus of Bethany that he had made St. Peter walk upon the Sea c. if all these things had not really been true No one surely can doubt but that Jesus Christ foretold his Resurrection if he considers that it was upon this Account only that the Jewish Doctors appointed a Watch to guard his Sepulcher and commanded the Stone of it to be sealed Sir we remember said they to Pilate that that Deceiver said while he was yet alive after three days I will rise again Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day lest his Disciples come by night and steal him away and say unto the people he is risen from the Dead so the last errour shall be worse than the first Pilate said unto them ye have a watch go your way make it as sure as you can So they went and made the Sepulchre sure sealing the stone and setting a watch Mat. 27. 63 64 65 66. This is such a matter of fact which the Disciples could not durst not invent against the publick knowledge every body had of it and which besides agrees very well with the other Circumstances of that Event For how came that Report to be spread in Jerusalem that the Watch slept when the Disciples took away the Body of Jesus had they not really set a Watch to guard his Sepulchre And what necessity was there to appoint a Watch to guard it had it not been to hinder the Disciples from reporting abroad that he was risen from the Dead And if Christ really believed that he should rise again he could not have believed it but upon the Truth of his Miracles neither could he have believed his Miracles to be true had they been false Thus it appears that the Connexion of all those Circumstances if narrowly considered forms as it were a kind of a moral Demonstration which cannot but throughly convince any just and reasonable Man But let us not slightly pass over that matter of fact but having seen what Christ thought concerning his Resurrection let us next consider the Opinion of the Scribes and Pharisees concerning it and the Report the Soldiers made that were appointed to guard this Sepulcher For the Consideration of those Circumstances may give us some light in the Discovery of that matter of fact the most important and the most essential that ever was or ever shall be hereafter In the first place the Scribes and Pharisees and generally every Member of the Sanhedrin being instigated by the very same Spirit that had induced them to put Jesus Christ to Death were in a great Apprehension lest his Disciples should take away his Body and afterwards report abroad that he was risen from the Dead We may judge how much they thought it for their Interest to prevent it by the Attempts they had already made to put him to Death And it is very probable that since the Sepulcher of Jesus Christ was to have been guarded but three days they took all care imaginable before hand for fear the Watch thro negligence or otherwise should have suffered that Body to be taken away which it so mightily behoved them to keep in their Custody But let us consider the Event of all this The Soldiers that watch'd the Body could not hinder it from rising out of it's Sepulcher How so Was it because they were afraid or were they bribed not to discover the Business Had they been bribed one might very well imagine it was not in behalf of the Disciples that they would run the hazard of losing their Lives for their Negligence or Treachery What then were they afraid But how could the Watch prove so fearful and the Disciples on a sudden so couragious as to attempt the taking away the dead Body of one from whom they had so lately fled while he was yet alive Besides How could those Soldiers have reported such things as they did without manifestly contradicting themselves For if they were asleep how did they know that the Disciples of Christ had taken away his Body But why did not the Sanhedrin for their own Honour and the Respect they bare to the Truth put all those Soldiers to the Rack And if that Thought came not presently into their Heads is it not natural to think they would have done it when they found awhile after all Jerusalem inclinable to believe in that crucified man and that about six thousand Souls had already believed in him in one day and that too but fifty days after his Death Certainly the Soldiers that watch'd his Body were still at Jerusalem And the Sanhedrin had still the same Power and Authority as before It highly concerned them to punish the Negligence of those Soldiers or make them confess the Secret of their Perfidy and who it was that suborned them I say it highly concerned them to make that strict Examination both to justify their own Procedure and prevent the utter Loss of almost an infinite number of Persons that had already sided with the Disciples of that pretended Impostor But this is not all When on the Day of Pentecost that is fifty days after the Death of Jesus Christ the Apostles shewed themselves in the City of Jerusalem to testify there that they had seen him risen from the Dead and that after he had several times appeared to them and was gone up into Heaven he had poured down upon them the miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost why did not the Sanhedrin then who was so highly concerned in discovering the Authors of the taking away the Body of Jesus Christ I say why did they not seize upon the Apostles and so make them confess how all things had happened Why did they not confront them with the Watch Why did they not cast Joseph of Arimathea and those Men in Prison till they had made them confess what was become of that Body as also every other Circumstance of their Imposture 'T is already very unlikely that if the Disciples of Christ had come by night and had stolen his Body away they durst have shewed themselves and appeared in publick nay immediately confessed that they were his Disciples It is much more credible they would have hid themselves after such an Action and that if they preach'd at all it would have been to People more remote and not in Jerusalem the very Place where those things had happened nor in the Presence of that very Sanhedrin they were so much afraid of and had so much offended Why then did not the Sanhedrin take the ordinary Methods made use of to discover Criminals They were very ready by Threats Torments and Persecutions to oblige the Apostles not to preach up the Name of
Mankind or at least those Countreys where all those things came to pass I answer first those matters of fact were not in the least stifled or concealed They were so far from it that they converted an infinite number both of Jews and Gentiles and that too in a very short time Secondly there were several external Causes which very much contributed towards the weakning the Impression they would otherwise have made upon Mankind For first the Elders amongst the Jews endeavour'd as much as they could to perswade the People that all those Miracles were nothing but the product of some Magick Power or a kind of compact with the Devil Secondly Those that were in Power were so much exasperated against the Disciples of Christ that whosoever resolved to embrace his Doctrine must immediately prepare himself to be cast into a Dungeon or executed upon a scaffold Nay to undergo if possible any thing more sorrowful and fatal than this And because nothing makes a greater Impression upon Men than to see Punishments inflicted on others all Parents strictly charged their Children not to hold any Conversation with the Christians least they should see them end their days in the midst of Torments Nay they were very cautious and strict themselves in avoiding their Society which was the reason that keeping such an extraordinary distance from the Christians they shut their Eyes and stopped their Ears that they might not hear their Words nor see the Miracles which they perform'd Thirdly The Doctrine of the Apostles was so contrary to the Opinion the Jews had been prepossessed with that they could not but hate and avoid it For the Cross of Christ became a scandal to the Jews and was treated as a folly by the Greeks Lastly The Christian Religion putting an end to the bondage of the Law and the Religion of the Heathens a Jew then could not be converted to Christanity without utterly renouncing what he always esteemed inviolable nor could a Heathen believe in Jesus Christ without looking upon that as profane which he thought before most sacred Hence it is that the holy Scripture speaks to us of the effects of the Gospel attended with the power of the Holy Ghost as of the Creation of new Heavens and of a new Earth If we add to this the extraordinary care the Jewish and Heathenish Priests and the Magistrates of both Nations took to smother the light of the Gospel and the Weaknesses and Passions of Men who were unable to sustain so much as the Idea of the torments that were invented on purpose to hinder the progress of Christanity I say if we consider this we shall have no Reason to be any longer astonish'd at that which at first view so much surprised us But secondly it may be asked why the Historians among the Heathens never mention'd any thing of those mighty Wonders of the Gospel which yet deserved to have the most considerable place amongst the many other Events they have so carefully related We answer That this Consideration proves nothing against the truth of those Matters of fact we have so firmly established First because it is needless and extravagant to draw any further Consequences from a Principle which proves more than enough already 'T is true the Heathen Writers say little or nothing concerning Jesus Christ for they hardly knew his Name Suetonius speaks of him after this manner Judaei tumultuati sunt Cresto impulsore But what then Does it follow that because Suetonius hardly knew the Name of Christ that there was no such Person as Christ or that he was not really called Christus The Heathen Authors you see relate not how several Christian Churches were in a small time settled at Rome at Corinth at Ephesus at Sardis at Smirna at Philippi at Thessalonica c. But must it follow from thence that there was no such thing Certainly if any matters of fact were true this was undoubtedly true I grant indeed that the Miracles Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ were all matters of fact that might be doubted of yet we may at least affirm that the Establishment of those Christian Churches composed of such Men as believed all those things was a thing not to be doubted of This was a matter of fact very important and remarkable Yet it was not in the least mention'd by the Historians of that Age therefore the Objection goes too far it proves too much and so consequently proves nothing Secondly I say that the Historians of those Times have so ignorantly treated of the Jewish Affairs that we need not wonder they appear so little instructed in the Knowledge of what concerned the Christians whom they supposed to have been a Sect belonging to the Jews For if it appears that the History those Authors composed of them agrees not very well with the Gospel of the Apostles 't is but comparing it with that of Josephus and we may clearly see that it agrees no better with one than with the other Lastly the Heathen Authors consider'd the Christian Religion as a kind of Magick and a detestable Superstition which aimed at the total Destruction of Mankind It is certain that some Men earnestly endeavour'd to make it pass for such among those who lived both in the Time of the Apostles and long after them and it was very dangerous to give it any other Name The World was divided between the Friends and Enemies of Christanity Those who were the Friends of it professed it and deliver'd not only by word of Mouth but in Writing what they knew concerning the Wonders of it As for its Enemies they neither had the Boldness Power or Will to write ofit as the former had done They would not do it lest they should wrong their own Cause and dishonour their own Religion And they could not do it because they themselves were not so well acquainted with the Miracles of Christanity having always been afraid to converse with the Christians and esteemed the Belief of those Men a very sorrowful and dangerous Persuasion since by professing their Religion they were sure of getting nothing but Torments and Death it self Lastly they durst not presume to write things as they really were tho' they had been never so well acquainted with them because their own Writings would accuse them of having embraced Christianity a Crime which was so severely punish'd in those days that it would unavoidably have brought upon them certain Death and Ruin or at least after their Death Shame and Infamy upon their Families But thirdly it may be asked why the Apostles who had Power to heal the Sick and raise the Dead did not raise all the Dead to Life again nor heal all the sick that were in Judea because then all the World would have been forced in spite of themselves to believe in Jesus Christ We answer That this Question is much like what the Murtherers of Jesus Christ said to him upon the Cross He saved others let him save himself let him come
against their so very simple and natural Expressions It is our chiefest Concern to regard the Substance and Essential part of their preaching and that is God's Design to save Mankind by the Death of his Son To this every thing relates and it is supported by Three other very great and important Objects the Resurrection of Christ attested by the Apostles themselves the Completion of all the Prophecies contained in the Old Testament and the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost all which things the Apostles saw and clearly and distinctly taught Men and at last digested in Writing directed by the Wisdom of God when the whole Earth seemed full of Astonishment at the sight of the Extraordinary Gifts God poured down upon Men at the accomplishment of so many Prophecies in the Person of Christ and at the sufferings and Trials of the Witnesses of God And this is the main Substance of the Writings of the Apostles as well as of their Preaching And Divine Providence was pleased that all those things should be digested in Writing in a time when they could not possibly be forged or altered that they should be received and approved of in all Christian Societies of the World that they should be first dispersed every where by an infinite number of Copies and Translations of them then afterwards quoted by almost an infinite number of Doctors carefully preserved almost every where and carried generally into those places whence Persecution had banished and removed the Christians Nay God has pleased that those Writers should all conspire to teach us the same things tho each expressed himself after his own particular way that the manner of their Compositions should be the same with that of their Speaking that they should exactly follow in all their Quotations the Greek Translation which was known of the People and not puzzle the Faith of the simple and ignorant by any critical Remarks which were things beneath those Men who had both seen and handled the Word of Life had declared the wonderful Works of God and received the Gift of Tongues that they might be clearly understood by all Men. It was also necessary that those wonderful Writers should insist rather upon the things themselves that they delivered than the ordering of their Words that so they might keep up the great Character of their Office and we might learn from thence to regard rather the Sense of what they have written than the accuracy of their Expressions They have sufficiently expounded all the fundamental Truths of Religion which tho not very many are yet repeated almost in every Page of their Writings They left to their Disciples the Care of collecting their Writings and setting together those Canonical Books which contain all things necessary for Salvation Not that that Collection has all the Writings of the Apostles but it contains certain Truths often and often repeated by them sufficient to promote the Sanctification of Mankind As for the various Readings they are so few and so inconsiderable in themselves that they alter not in the least the Sense of these Books so far are they from changing the unalterable Substance of Religion in as much as there is no part of the Apostles Writings to which it is not inseparably united and almost every where repeated And as for the Objections about the Hebrew Grammar and Authority of the Books of the Old Testament were all true as is objected which yet is dubious it ought not to disturb us since Christ and the rest of his Apostles have so fully confirmed those Books Those little and inconsiderable Difficulties are far from being prejudicial to our Faith since 't is enough to know that the Scripture is the Word of God as we perceive by the Marks and Characters of it 'T is enough to be certain that it is impossible that either through the Faults of the Transcribers or Negligence of Men or the want of Exactness found in the Translations or lastly through the Multitude of equivocal Terms it should ever want those important Precepts and evident Truths which are necessary for our Salvation and Sanctification and of which 't is as it were a constant Repetition For otherwise God must either have deceived us or his Wisdom have been deceived in being wanting in the preservation of such Means as it purely design'd to maintain and keep up the Faith of Mankind However it be 't is not our present Design to blame in the least either the Care which some take to instruct themselves in the Criticisms of the Holy Scripture or the Respect they have for its Expressions which are indeed worthy to be preferred before all others God forbid we should ever entertain any such impious and foolish Thoughts We therefore here intend only to assert Two things 1 st that all those small Difficulties the Criticks raise against them ought not to be looked upon as any way sufficient to shake the Foundations of our Faith the Wisdom of God having wonderfully provided that our Faith should be established without Respect had to those Difficulties The second is that those very Difficulties are not only of excellent use to humble our Minds but also necessary to keep us from the Superstition of insisting only upon a literal Signification and from that Folly which we may call the Adoration of Words We must therefore grant that all things our Senses Education the Curiosity of the Mind Superstition Philosophy Policy Humane Eloquence and Grammar are as so many Instruments which our Passions employ to make void that Submission which our Faith owes to God that through the ill use we put them to they are converted into so many different ways of shaking off that Divine Obedience and that the Speculations which spring from all these Principles aim at nothing else but the weakning our Faith just as the loose and remiss Maxims of some Casuists tend to the Destruction of Morality it being as difficult for the Vnderstanding to believe as for our Heart to mortifie it self Nevertheless it may reasonably be affirmed 1 st That this Submission of our selves to God is absolutely necessary and that unless we pay it him by readily receiving the Principles of his Religion we must inevitably yield it up to Matter and so give up our selves to the most wretched and impious Ignorance and horrid Darkness of Understanding it being most certain that we shall no better comprehend what Eternity Infinity Extension the manner and necessity of the Existence of Matter is than we already know what passes within God 2 ly That our Heart is disposed to such a submission of Mind in those things which relate to our civil and natural Concern And if it be certain that we do not defer to receive Nourishment till we are fully instructed after what manner Nutrition is made within us and if we are easily induced to beleive the Attraction of the Magnetick Stone tho we are ignorant of the manner of that Operation why should we not in like manner as
Books of the Old Testament are partly reducible to Three Heads 1 st To a general Preparation of all things for the reception of the Messias who was to come 2 ly To the Representation of his Office and Oeconomy by a Type or Shadow 3 dly To the describing of him after such a manner as to render it altogether impossible for the Elect Souls not to know him when he came Whosoever shall consider the Books of the Old Testament under these Three Notions will certainly discover nothing in them that can perplex his Faith but he will find that every thing therein serves to increase his Knowledg by discovering to him as it were the Scheme of God's Councels and his great Plan and Design of Religion But since 't is not our present Design to dive into the unfathomable Abyss of the Justice Wisdom and Mercy of God so neither shall we enquire into the Reasons which induced him to permit Men to sin or why he was pleased to save some rather than others or upon what account he made use of the Intervention of a Mediatour rather than of any other Means or whether there were any other way to expiate the sins of Mankind but the Death of Christ I say we shall not trouble our selves about any of these vain and fruitless Enquiries And since it is but just we should freely own our Ignorance I think we can never find a better opportunity to acknowledge it than when we are talking about the secret Methods and Councels of God because we can never discover the bottom of them unless we cease to be what we are or he to be what he is Without attempting then to search into the manner of these things which is altogether incomprehensible to us and of which we are not able to speak but imperfectly we freely suppose the Truth of them We do not in the least question but God permits Sin because we are all Sinners We know that a small Number of Men are sanctified to whom the Scripture makes several great and sublime Promises And we are also taught that they are delivered from their Sins by the intervention of a Mediatour and that God had resolved to bring it to pass by such means even before the Foundation of the World But let us now consider how the Wisdom of God prepared and disposed Men for it These Preparations related in the Old Testament are manifold For there are Preparations of Events Preparations of Ceremonies Preparations of Prophecies Preparations of Precepts and Preparations of Tenets As for the Events they all relate to this great Center of Religion Had Abraham always lived in Vr of the Chaldees he must necessarily have fallen into Idolatry as well as the rest of his Kindred or he could never have preserved to his Posterity the Knowledge and Worship of the true God and his Seed consequently could not have been a Seed of Blessing for all the Nations to come It was then absolutely requisite he should forsake his Country as well as his Kindred And had Jacob always lived with his Father Laban the Posterity of the latter would have corrupted that of the former so that Esau having already mixed himself with Strangers the holy Race could by no means avoid being confounded with the profane and so the Promise of the Messias would not have been entailed upon any particular Family or Nation because in Succession of Time it would have been altogether impossible to distinguish it from the rest It was then necessary that Jacob should forsake his Father-in-Laws House and consequently live apart from all other Nations And had it not been for the protecting Providence of God this People who was honoured with his Covenants and intrusted with his Oracles would have absolutely perished in Egypt and together with them the Hopes of a promised Redeemer To preserve therefore such comfortable hopes they were necessarily separated from all other Nations and the better to keep themselves in that State tho' they differed from them all in matters of Policy Manners Inclinations and Religion yet it was necessary they had God for their supream Magistrate who gave them all those wonderful Marks of his Protection we read of in the Old Testament Tho' thev were carried away captives into Babylon for their Sins they were necessarily gathered together again from that Dispersion Seventy years after lest a longer Bondage should have made them for ever lose the Marks of their Election 'T is no difficult matter to perceive that it was in behalf of the Messias only that God was pleased to make so many Distinctions And the Promise of his coming could not be entailed upon every Nation of the World He set apart one single Nation from the rest purposely to intrust them with so great a Salvation And because 't was absolutely requisite this Distinction should remain till the Birth of that Redeemer so for that End he appointed five very remarkable Principles of that Separation The first whereof was the Knowledge of the true God a divine Character of the Election of that People and a Priviledge they could not chuse but be infinitely jealous of especially when they considered what profound Darkness Ignorance and Superstition was then dispersed in the World The second was the Circumcision that sign of his Covenant which God was pleased the Israelites should bear in their Flesh to distinguish them the more effectually from all other Nations For it was not by meer Chance or out of any fantastical Humour that this Custom was first settled among the Jews 'T is not to be supposed they could have received without very powerful Motives to it so painful and difficult a Custom so contrary to the natural Affection of Mothers as appears by the Example of Zeporah nay which even seems at first view somewhat shameful and obscene As for Philo's and other Mens Reflexions on the Customs of the Circumcision they are very pitiful The third Principle of that Distinction was the Land of Canaan which God gave to the Patriarchs and their Posterity after them tho' he did not give them immediatly an actual possession of it He fixed the Hearts of that People upon that particular Land lest they should have been insensibly dispersed over the Face of the whole Earth And the Patriarchs upon their Death-beds strictly recommended the carrying of their Bones into it the better to fix the Hopes and Affections of the whole Nation upon it But lest it should have happened that the Canaanites the Perisites the Jebusites c. who were before in possession of that Land should have intermixed themselves with the holy Generation and consequently corrupted them by their Superstition God himself consented that those Nations should in this Life undergo an exemplary Punishment for their Sins which had been carried on to the utmost pitch of Excess and for that end his Vengeance made use of Josuah and his Armies as Instruments to destroy them utterly The fourth was the Tabernacle and afterwards the
the utmost pitch of Prosperity and Glory this Jesus himself was seized and nailed on a Cross where he suffered a most infamous Death infamous in the esteem of all Nations but more particularly accursed in the Jewish Law What a mighty thunder bolt must this have been to such men who had fed their fancies with such charming hopes They were long since perswaded that the Messias would make his appearance in a very Glorious State that he would overthrow at his coming the Empire of Cesar together with all the Roman Grandeur and thereby make the Jews absolute Masters of the World All these things they impatiently expected from Jesus and yet this Jesus was dishonoured by an infamous punishment he was compelled to endure The Jews themselves not only sacrificed him but they sacrificed him even to Cesar himself and delivered him up to the Romans to put him to Death There was no power able to deliver him out of the hands of his Tormentors so that he died and his Disciples heard of his Death or rather were eye-witnesses of it In truth I cannot conceive how they should after all this have still preserved the least of their pretentions They might reasonably grieve at the loss of such pleasing hopes but nothing could redeem the loss of them They might abhor the furious passion of the chief Priests and Sanhedrin who had utterly deprived them of their dearly beloved Master but they must at length lay aside the opinion they had entertained of him And therefore nothing can be so likely as that which St. Luke makes them utter in the midst of their sorrow and astonishment But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel and besides all this to day is the third day since these things were done Luke 24. 21. But supposing they had no such Hopes or Expectation it is enough that the Disciples look't upon Jesus as the promised Messias Nay 't is all one whether it was in the sense of the Jews or in that of the Christians For if it was in the sense of the Jews they could not but imagin that Jesus would have raised up the glory of the Jews to its utmost height so far were they from conceiving he was liable to be put to Death by them But if it was in the sense of the Christians they ought surely to have believed that in case he should die he would certainly raise up himself and those that believed on him from the grave because the whole System of Christian Religion essentially depends upon this foundation Thus were the Disciples preposessed with the general opinion of the Jews they could not chuse but lose it at the sight of the Death of Jesus and were they prepossessed with the profess'd Doctrine of the Christians they could not likewise but be undeceived of their Errour when they saw that Jesus Christ rose not again from the Dead What then shall we think of certain Fishermen who were a most mean wretched sort of people as the Enemies of Christianity called them who had not the courage to accompany their Master even when they looked upon him as the true Messias but gave him over to his Executioners Sure they are by this time sensible of their mistake What care then does it appear they took to hide themselves to conceal their shame and confusion from men let us see what was the Event and we shall know the Truth We find that few weeks after the Death of Christ his Disciples publickly shewed themselves in Jerusalem and confidently affirmed that they had seen their Master who was risen again from the Dead had spoken with him handled him eat with him conversed with him for forty days and lastly that they had seen him ascend into Heaven 'T is certain this was the Testimony of the Disciples since the Faith of the Primitive Christians was founded on this Testimony Who could have thought of this unexpected turn The Disciples affirmed that Jesus was the Messias but could they still believe it when they saw him give up the Ghost Or if they did not believe it were they now grown bolder to maintain an imposture than before to follow their Master when they thought him the true Messias Could certain Fishermen dejected fearful Fishermen who ought with shame to have owned their Error could they invent such a fable preach it with so much confidence maintain it with so much boldness expose their persons to all sorts of Torments and even to Death it self in defence of such an incredible fiction Could any of them imagin that they could seduce Mankind or had any one of them imagined it could the rest have been so extravagant as to approve of his ridiculous fancy Did they think the World would believe them upon their bare Word And were they then no longer in any dreadful apprehension of the Sanhedrin that had inhumanely put their Master to death Did they believe they might safely reproach the Jews for having put the Messias to death without being themselves severely punished Were they not sensible into how many troubles and afflictions this fable would inevitably cast them And if they were could they still be so couragious as to maintain such an imposture Is it possible that no one of them should recant his opinion not one contradict himself but that all should unanimously depose notwithstanding the most rigorous punishments inflicted on them a matter of Fact which they knew to be altogether Chimerical and false Certainly this is a thing so very strange or rather which appears to me so very absurd and extravagant that I question whether our incredulous Adversaries could perswade themselves of it provided they would but reflect never so little upon it But let us continue still to distrust our selves may we not probably have made some false Supposition in what we just now affirmed we will therefore go over again the same principles we just now established And indeed the more I reflect upon them the less I conceive how we can possibly call any of them in question For can I deny that Jesus ever was in the World that he ever had any Disciples or that those Disciples thought him at first the promised Messias But why should I alone question a matter of fact which the Thalmudists nay Julian Porphirius and all other Enemies of Christianity have always acknowledged This is what I have shewn to be absurd Can I question but that if Jesus died and rose not again from the dead his Disciples were then undeceived of the opinion they probably entertained that Jesus was the Messias the Son of God If so either they understood nothing at all by these two words the Messias the Son of God or else they understood quite another thing than that he was a Meer Man who was to remain for ever under the power of Death after his Crucifixion Can I deny that the Disciples declared the Resurrection of Jesus Christ after his Crucifixion It 's self evident All