to himself thereby The greatest Masters of Decency have not thought it always improper for Men to commend themselves either because they supposed some occasions might require it or because it was a more usual thing in ancient Times when Mens Lives and Manners were more natural and sincere and they oftner spoke as they thought both of themselves and others yet we no where find Men speaking so freely in disparagement of themselvs as in the Holy Scriptures Which shews that Moses and the rest of the Inspired Writers little regarded their own Praise or Dispraise but wrote what God was pleased to appoint it being a thing indifferent to them so God might be honoured whether they lost or gained in their own Reputation by it But what we read of Moses Num. xii 3. that he was very meek above all the Men which were upon the face of the Earth which is the only commendable Character that Moses gives of himself may be translated that he was the most afflicted Man according to the Marginal Reading and if he mentions his own Meekness he mentions also his great Anger or heat of Anger Exod. xi 8. and his being very wroth Num. xvi 15. But if Moses had not had more respect to Truth than to his own Reputation he would never have left it upon Record That he so often declined the Message and Employment which God appointed him to undertake Exod. iii. 11 13. iv 1 10 13 14. and that God was angry with him upon other occasions and for that reason would not permit him to enter into the promised Land He would certainly have ascribed Balaam's Prophecy and Jethro's Advice to himself at least he would never have Recorded That by Jethro's Counsel he took up a new and better Method for the administration of Justice If he had been led by Ambition and Vain-glory he would have endeavoured by these things to adorn his own Character and would never have lessen'd it by telling his own Infirmities at the same time when to the diminution of himself he publishes the Excellencies of others The Wonders of the Magicians of Aegypt are not concealed by him and being to give an account of his own Genealogy from Levi he first sets down the Families of Reuben and Simeon the two elder Brothers lest he might seem to arrogate too much to himself and his own Tribe Some have observed that Moses relates his own Birth to have been by a Marriage contrary to the Laws afterwards by himself established which indeed is doubtful by reason of the latitude of signification in the word Sister in the Hebrew Language yet it is certain he was not careful to avoid the being thought to have been born from such a Marriage as he would have been if his Laws had been of his own contrivance lest his own Reputation or the Authority of his Laws or perhaps both might have suffered by it Exod. vi 14 20. He sets forth the Ingratitude Idolatry and perpetual Revolts and Murmurings of his whole Nation and relates the Failings and Faults of their Ancestors the Patriarchs and particularly of Levi from whom he was descended Gen. xxxiv 30. xlix 6. He spares neither his People nor his Ancestors nor himself in what he relates and these are all the Characters of a faithful Historian and a sincere Man that can be desired And as Moses was not ambitious of Praise so neither was he ambitious of Power and Dominion For besides that he entered upon such an Undertaking as no sober Man would have attempted without a Revelation it appearing otherwise impossible to accomplish it his whole Conduct shews that he had no design of advancing his own Interest or Dominion If he had been never so Ambitious he needed not have gone into the Wilderness to seek his Preferment amongst a wandring and stubborn People when he had been bred up to all the Honours and the Pleasures that Aegypt or Pharaoh's Court could afford but he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt Heb. xi 24 25. He undertook to lead the People of Israel for Forty Years through a barren Wilderness where he could promise himself but a very uneasie and inglorious Reign if that had been his Design and by the course of Nature he could not hope to out-live that period of Time and tho' he was preserved in his Old Age in the full strength and vigour of Manhood yet upon their entrance into the promised Land he meekly resigned himself to death in the very sight and Borders of Canaan knowing before-hand that he must not be suffered to possess the Land which he had been so many years in so great dangers leading the People of Israel to enjoy though he doth not conceal how desirous he was to pass over Jordan Deut. iii. 23 c. The History of his Death is like that of his Life related with a peculiar kind of native simplicity He is not said to be taken up into Heaven as Enoch and Elijah were and as the Romans feigned of Romulus but to die and his Sepulchre was hid to prevent the Superstitious and Idolatrous Veneration which might have been paid to the Remains of so great a Person And tho' he had Sons yet they were but private Men no otherwise known to us than as they were his Sons the Government he conferred upon Joshua one of another Tribe Moses therefore was the furthest of any Man from Vain-glorious or Ambitious and Aspiring Designs and could propose no other Advantage to himself but the fulfilling the Will of God in delivering his Commandments to the People of Israel and following his Directions in his Conduct and Government Aaron was of a different Temper from Moses and was envious of him and both Aaron and Miriam murmured against him It is so notorious that there could be no Contrivance between them to deceive the People that it was the immediate and visible Power of God which kept Aaron as well as the rest in Obedience to Moses Upon Moses's Absence Aaron complied with the People in making a Golden Calf and his two eldest Sons offered strange Fire before the Lord which he had not commanded for which they were both destroyed by Fire miraculously issuing out from the Presence of the Lord And Aaron held his peace knowing that this Punishment was inflicted by God himself and having nothing to reply to Moses when he declared to him the Justice of it And both Aaron and his other two Sons are forbidden upon pain of Death to mourn for them Lev. x. 1 2 3 6. At last by the Commandment of God Aaron goes up into Mount Hor to die there not being permitted to enter into the Land of Promise Thus Moses and Aaron were sometimes at disagreement Aaron envying Moses Aaron lost two of his Sons by a
patience which was necessary for men that were to declare an ungrateful and despised truth amongst those who would think themselves so much concerned to oppose and suppress it If they had wrought no Miracles their courage and resolution might have pass'd for a groundless confidence and if they had not had the courage to stand so resolutely to the truth of what they delivered their Miracles themselves might have become suspected but acting by a Divine Power and being supported in all their sufferings by a supernatural constancy and greatness of Mind and being so suddenly changed and raised above themselves in all they did or suffered and working the same change in others they gave all the evidence and certainty of the truth of the Doctrines they taught that it was possible for men to give And as a power of working Miracles was derived from the Apostles down upon their Disciples so was the spirit of meekness and patience under afflictions communicated to them And it is observable that God was pleased not to raise up any Christian Emperor till above three hundred years after Christ that he might shew that the Religion which came from heaven could need no human aid nor be suppress'd by any human force and that he might recommend the great vertues of meekness and patience to the world by the examples men as eminent for these as for the Miracles they wrought and might instruct mankind in a suffering Religion For to assure the world of the truth of it he would not grant it protection from Christian Emperors till most of the Empire was become Christian and Christianity had diffused it self into all the known parts of the Earth For before the last Persecution begun by Dioclesian (l) Euseb Hist lib. viii c. 1. the Church flourished as much and had the favour of the Court and of great men in as high a degree almost as under Constantine himself till their Prosperity caused their sins and these brought Persecution But at last the persecuting Emperors were forced by a divine power manifested in miraculous diseases inflicted on them to restore the Christians to their former liberty in their worship of God that so it might appear to all the world that the Christian Religion needed no Patronage of men for God would compel its worst Enemies to become its Protectors when he saw it fitting And (m) Sozom lib. v. c. 16. when Julian made it his great aim and business to restore Paganism again in the world he saw to his grief how ineffectual all his endeavours proved he observed that the Christian Religion still retained a general esteem and approbation and that the Wives and Children and Servants of his own Priests themselves were most of them Christians If any one then upon a serious consideration of all circumstances can withstand the conviction of so great evidence I would only ask him whether he believes any History or relation of matters of fact which he never saw and desire him to shew what degrees of certainty he can discern in any of them which are are not to be found here and besides to consider that if in a vicious and subtile Age a Doctrine so contrary to flesh and blood by so weak and incompetent means could obtain so universally amongst men of all Tempers and Professions and Interests in all Nations of the world against so violent opposition without the help of Miracles this is as great a Miracle as can be conceived either therefore the Christian Religion was propagated by Miracles or it was not if it was then the Miracles by which it was propagated prove it to be from God if it was not propagated by Miracles the Propagation it self is a Miracle and sufficient to prove it to be from him CHAP. XVII Of the Writingâ— of the Apostles and Evangelists IT is justly esteemed a sufficient reason for the credibility of any History if it be written by men of Integrity men who have no suspicion upon them of dishonesty and have no Temptation to deceive and who relate nothing but of their own Times and within their own knowledge though the Authors never suffered any loss nor run any hazard in asserting what they deliver But the History of Christ has this further advantage that many of the most considerable things in it were done in the sight of his enemies and that which is an History to future Ages was rather an Appeal to that Age whether the things related were true or not The History of our Saviour's Life and Death and Resurrection and Ascension as it hath been proved was attested by his Apostles to the faces of his very Crucifiers and they all remained upon the place where what they witnessed had been done for several years afterwards declaring and preaching to all people the things which they had seen and heard And soon after his Ascension when all the proceedings against him were fresh in memory they committed the same to writing in Greek which was the most common language and generally known at that time St. Matthew who first penned his Gospel is said to have written it in Hebrew or Syriack tho it was soon after translated into Greek so that whover of the Jews did not understand the Greek tongue might read the Gospel in their own Language Not long after the other Gospels were penned and they were all in a short time dispersed into the several parts of the world and translated into all Languages It is particularly related (a) Eâ—iphan Haerâ—â— Ebion that St. John's Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles were soon translated into the Hebrew tongue The Evangelists give such an account both of the Birth and Death of our Saviour as must suppose them recorded at Rome For there the censual Tables were kept where by St. Luke's account the name of our Saviour must have been registered and his Death and Resurrection were so remarkable as they relate them that according to the custom used in the Government of the Roman Provinces the Emperor must have a relation sent him of them and as I have shewn both Justin Martyr and Tertullian appeal to the Roman Records for the truth both of the Birth and Resurrection of our Saviour The memory of the Massacre of the Infants by Herod is preserved to us by a saying of Augustus concerning Herod upon it (b) Macrob Saturnal lib. ii c. 4. which is mentioned in Macrobius a Heathen Author For Augustus was told that among others Herod had caused his own child to be slain which whether true or no gave occasion to the Emperor to make this observation that it was better to be Herod's Swine than his Son Tacitus mentions our Saviour's suffering under Pontius Pilate and Tertullian in his (c) Tertul. Apol. c. 21. Apology tells the Heathens that the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun which was at Christ's Death stood upon Record in their own Registers whether it were for the strangeness of the thing it being contrary to the course
the Gods of other Nations did not worship them after their manner and yet the Rites of the Romans themselves in the worship of Cybele Flora Bacchus c. were very scandalous and wicked And all their sports and spectacles which had nothing surely in them that could be proper for Divine Worship were invented and performed in honour of their Gods (p) Quintil Institut lib. iii. c. 8. whence Quinctilian says the Theatre might be stiled a kind of Temple 3. But besides their bloody Spectacles where men were exposed to be killed by Beasts or by one another their Altars themselves were not free from humane Blood For the barbarous cruelty of the Religions amongst the Heathens was such that they were obliged to offer up innocent Men and Children in Sacrifice to their Deities Some of the Rabbins have been of opinion that Jephtha sacrificed his Daughter but others deny it (q) Utcunque autem seres ea habuerit id certum puto esse non reperiri apud Magistros qui ex jure aliquo immolandam eam esse affirmaveâ—it Selden de jure Nat. Gent. lib. iv c. 2. The â—aughters of israel went yearly to lament or to talk with 〈◊〉 as it is in the Margin Judg. xi 40. and all are agreed that if he did sacrifice her he sinned in doing it and we know that Abraham was hindred by a Miracle and a voice from Heaven when he was about to slay Isaac But it was a custom among the (r) Grot. ad Deutr. xviii 10. Phoenicians and Canaanites for their Kings in times of great calamity to sacrifice one of their Sons whom they loved best and it was common both with them and the Moabites and Ammonites to sacrifice their Children The Egyptians the Athenians and Lacedaemonians and generally all the Graecians the Romans and Carthaginians the Germans and Gauls and Britains and in brief all the Heathen Nations throughout the world offered up men upon their Altars and this not on certain emergencies and in imminent dangers only but constantly and in some places every day but upon extraordinary Accidents multitudes were sacrificed at once to their Bloody Deities (Å¿) Diodo Sic. apud Euseb de laudib Constant c. xiii Lanctant lib. i. c. 21. ex Piscennio Festo as Diodorus Siculus and others relate that in Africk two hundred Children of the principal Nobility were sacrificed to Saturn at one time And (s) Euseb Praepar lib. iv c. 16. Macrob. Saturn lib. i. c. 7. Alex. ab Alexand. lib. 6. c. ult Aristomenes sacrificed three hundred men together to Jupiter Ithometes one of whom was Theopompus King of the Lacedâ—emonians And the same custom is found practised amongst the Idolatrous Indians of offering whole Hecatombs of humane Sacrifices to their false Gods (t) Jos Acost Hist lib. 5. c. 19 21. In Peru when their new Ingra was crowned they sacrificed two hundred Children from four to ten years of Age And the Son was wont to be sacrificed for the Life of the Father when he was in danger of death Sometimes the Mexicans have sacrificed above five thousand of their captives in a day and in divers places above twenty thousand as Acosta writes out of the informations he had from the Indians (u) Liv. lib. xxii c. 57. Livy makes mention of Humane Sacrifices at Rome and (w) Plutarch in Marcello initio Plutarch says they continued in his time and it was not till about the time of Constantine's Reign that A final stop was put to so strange and Abominable a Practice for tho it abated very much under Adrian yet it was used when Minutius Felix wrote and (x) Lact. lib. 1. c. 21. Lanctantius mentions it as not laid aside in his time Notwithstanding it is so much against humane Nature as well as contrary to the Divine Mercy and Goodness yet it made up so great a part of the Heathen Religion and was become so customary that it was hard to bring men off from it which at the same time demonstates both how false such Religions were and that men had a most undoubted experience of invisible Powers or else in so many Nations both the Kings and People would never have sacrificed their own Children to their false Gods to avert the evils which they were threatned withal The Persons that introduced the Heathen Religions were either Men of Design who established themselves in their Power and Authority by it as Numa or Men of Fancy and Fiction as the Poets whom Plato would have banished out of his Common-wealth And the Gods of the Heathens who must be supposed to reveal these Mysteries and Ways of Worship were always more wicked than their Votaries whose greatest Immoralities consisted in the Worship of them the gross Enormities not only of Venus and Bacchus but of Saturn and Jupiter are too well known to need any particular relation There was no Body of Laws or Rules of good Life proposed by their Oracles but on the contrary they were in commendation of lascivions Poets or they flattered Tyrants or they appointed Divine Worship to be paid to such as won the Mastery at the Olympick Games or to Inanimate things or they promoted some other ill or vain and unprofitable design as Oenomaus the Philosopher observed and proved by particular instances recited out of him by (y) Euseb Praepar lib. v. c. 34 35. Eusebius The Laws of (z) Plutarch in Lycurg Lycurgus were approved of and confirmed by the Delphick Oracle and yet Theft and a Community of Wives and the Murder of Infants was allowed by these Laws This is enough to shew that the Heathen Religions could not be from God since they taught the Worship of Idols and of Devils and the Mysteries and Rites of them were utterly inconsistent with the Goodness and Purity of Almighty God And whoever doth but look into the Religions at this day amongst the Idolatrous Indians by their ridiculous and cruel Penances and other Superstitions besides the sacrificing of Men and sometimes of themselves as the Women who offer themselves to be burnt with the Bodies of their dead Husbands and the like will soon be convinced that they cannot be of God's Institution The Chineses themselves who have so great a Reputation for Wisdom are like the rest both in their Idolatries and in many of their Opinions and Practices It is evident therefore that none of the Heathen Religions can make any probable claim to Divine Revelation having none of the Requisites to such a Revelation but being but of a late Original not far divulged supported neither by Prophecies nor Miracles from God and containing Doctrines that are Idolatrous Impure Cruel and every way wicked and absurd CHAP. V. Of the Philosophy of the Heathens BUT besides the Religions of the Heathen divers of the Philosopherss pretended to something Supernatural as Pythagoras Socrates and some others and therefore it will be proper here to examinlikewise the Justice of their Pretensions And
Death of his Father Terah but if we consider that the whole number of years which Terah lived is set down Gen. xi 32. and that the departure of Abram out of Haran which is related Gen. xii yet happened before his Fathers Death there will be no inconsistency but it will be evident if Terah was but seventy years old when Abram was begotten and Abram was but seventy five years old when he went out of Haran that Abram left his Father Terah in Haran where he lived after Abram's departure from him to the age of two hundred and five years Tho during his Father's life he did upon occasion return to Haran For the final removal of Abram was not till the death of his Father as we learn from Acts vii 4. And if this way of relating that in General first which is afterwards set forth in the Particulars be attended to in the Interpretation of the Scriptures it will afford a Solution of many difficulties as * Aug. Qu. Sup. Genef c. 25. St Austin has observed which otherwise are inexplicable Others suppose Abrant was the youngest of Terah's Sons tho mentioned first and then there is no difficulty in the Chronology only by this and other instances we may observe that the eldest Brother is not always placed first in Scripture but sometimes the youngest out of respect to him for his favour with God and his greater dignity and worth and therefore whatever difficulties in Chronology arise upon this supposition that the Son first named must therefore necessarily be first born proceed from a mistake 2. Sometimes the principal number is set down and the odd or lesser number is omitted which being added to the great or principal number in some other place causes a difference not to be reconciled but by considering that it is customary in the best Authors not always to mention the lesser numbers where the matter doth not require it And we have evident proof of this in the Scriptures The time of the sojourning of the children of Israel in the land of Canaan and of their dwelling in Egypt is said to be the space of four hundred years Gen. xv 13. Acts vii 6. which yet was in all four hundred and thirty years Exod. xii 40. Galat. iii. 17. The Israelites who came out of Egypt are computed to be six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty Num. i. 46. ii 32. but Moses speaking of them Num. xi 21. leaves out the three thousand and five hundred and fifty Jerubbual or Gideon is said to have had threescore and ten Sons by his Wives besides Abimelech whom he had by a Concubine Judg. viii 30 31. and Abimelech is often said to have slain these threescore and ten brethren tho Jotham the youngest of them is at the same time said to have escaped Judg. ix 5 18 24 56. The Benjamites that were slain Judg. 20.35 are said to be twenty and five thousand and an hundred men whereas vers 46. they are reckoned only twenty and five thousand men 1 Cor. xv 5. we read that our Saviour was seen of Cephas then of the twelve tho St Matthias was not chosen into the number of the Apostles till after the Ascension of Christ and St Mark says precisely that he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat Mark xvi 14. Thus in Heathen Authors the Trojan * Si inquam Numerus non est ad amussim ut non est cum dicimus mille naves iisse ad Trojam centumvirale esse judicium Romae Varro de Re Rust lib. ii c. 1. Fleet is said to consist of a thousand Ships whereas Homer makes them two hundred more as †Thucyd. lib. i. c. 10. Thucydides reckons them or one hundred sixty six by his Scholiasts counting but the Historian did not care to be so punctual The Judges stiled Centumviri amongst the Romans were at first five more than an hundred and afterwards * Plin. lib. vi Epist 33. almost twice that number yet still they retained the same name as the LXXII Interpreters are commonly stiled the Septuagint Since therefore it is manifest that the lesser Number are sometimes omitted both in the Old and New Testament as well as in other Authors and the principal and greater numbers whether more or less than the precise Calculation are only set down and at other times the lesser numbers are specified it is reasonable to make abatements for this in adjusting the aâ—â—ounts of Chronology 3. Sometimes an Epocha may be mistaken by Chronologers as Gen. vi 3. And the Lord said my Spirit shall not always strive with man for that he also is flesh yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years But from Gen. v. 32. compared with Gen. viii 13. the Flood must happen but an hundred years after these words seem to have been spoken tho if we compute not from the time when this was threatned but from the beginning of Man's Apostacy which we may suppose then to have been already Twenty years there will be no difficulty in it Or else the Threatning tho placed after it might be denounced Twenty years before the Five hundreth year of Noah's Age which falls under the observation above-mentioned of St Austin †Hieron Qu. in Genes St Jerom indeed says that the time allowed mankind for Repantance was shortned for their Contumacy and the Flood was brought upon the World twenty years sooner than was designed if their Provocations had not hastned it 4. Variations in Chronology may sometimes proceed from the likeness of two words which occasioned the writing the one for the other Thus Acts xiii 20. some read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some famous Copies from whence most others now remaining may have been transcribed might happen to be uncorrect in some of these less material parts of Scripture the Numeral Letters were casily mistaken as we see our Figures now are and when they numbred by Letters mistakes might the oftner happen because the Transcribers might unawares write down a Letter of the foregoing or following Word instead of the true Numeral Letter when there was any likeness between them and the Hebrew Letters being some of them so very much alike might be a readier occasion of mistake This change of Numeral Letters some think to have occasioned the difficulty concerning the Age of Ahazia son of Jehoram King of Judah when he began to Reign 2 Kings viii 26.2 Chron. xxii 2. And that such mistakes have been made in Transcribing the Septuagint is evident because the several Copies of that Version have different accounts of Chronology and they also differ from the Copies made use of by Africanus and Eusebius Mistakes of this kind are very * Error fortasse ex notis ortus nusquam non isto modo in bonis utriusque Linguae Scriptoribus est peccatum Casaub ad Theoph. Charact. Proem Sed non dubito Lib ariorum potius
he saw that he was condemned repented himself and brought again the thirty pieces of Silver to the Chief Priests and Elders saying I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood And they said What is that to us see thou to that And he cast down the pieces of Silver in the Temple and went and hanged himself Matt. xxvii 3 4. How could the Chief Priests themselves have contrived a better way to vindicate our Saviour's Innocence if they had never so much endeavour'd it than for one of his own Disciples after he had betrayed him instead of witnessing against him which it was natural to suppose he would have done to be so far from that as to come before them all and fling down the Money in the Temple which they had given him as the hire of his Treachery and declare publickly that he had betrayed the Innocent Blood and then to give a further proof of all this out of meer anguish and horror of Mind to go immediately from them and hang himself If our Saviour had done any thing whereby he could deserve to be put to Death Judas must needs have known it and when he had once betray'd him it cannot be supposed he would forbear to discover any thing he knew of him But when on the contrary he was so far from accusing him that as soon as he saw him condemned at the Accusation of other false Witnesses he could not bear the Agonies of his own mind but went and made away with himself this is as evident a proof of Christ's Innocence as any of the other Apostles themselves could ever give and Judas is so far an Apostle still as to proclaim his Master's Innocence in the face of the Sanedrim and then to Seal that Testimony with his Blood It has been thought by some that Judas as wicked as he was had never any design to cause his Master to be put to Death or to be any way instrumental towards it but he supposed that Christ would be secure enough against the Chief Priests in his own Innocence and Holiness or that they would not dare to hurt him for fear of the People which had been a restraint upon them in their former attempts or that he could easily make his escape from them as he had formerly done and therefore his Covetousness tempted him to believe that though he should betray his Master yet he would come to no harm by it However it is certain that Judas himself cleared our Saviour's snnocence by betraying him more than any other man could have done who had not been his Dlsciple and his making that confession and then his dying upon that account and in that manner may afford us that evidence which we must have wanted to certify us in the Truth of the Christian Religion if Christ had not been betray'd or had been betrayed by any but one of his own Disciples When he was condemned and crucify'd one of the Thieves who was crucified with him made an open Profession of him when there could be no Temptation of flattery nor leisure or patience for a man in that condition to speak in that manner but by the special Providence and Grace of God and to give an early instance of the great efficacy of his Cross and of the Mercy which it reacheth forth to all repenting Sinners our Saviour assures him that that very day he should be with him in Paradise A strange discourse upon the Cross To speak of Kingdoms and promise Paradise under so much infamy and torment That one should have the Faith to ask and the other the Power to promise so great things in that condition Who could have had the courage to promise so much upon the Cross but he who was able to perform it And as no ill could ever be proved against him but all circumstances concurred to confirm his Innocence as Herod dismissed him and Pilate often declared him to have committed nothing worthy of Death so the Devils themselves during his Life here upon Earth confessed him to be the Son of God and after his Death (b) Porphyr apud Euscb Demonstr Evang. lib. 3. c. 6. by their Oracles acknowledged him to have been an holy person whose Soul was translated into Heaven And this person thus Innocent and Holy both in his Life and Doctrine was prophesied of many Ages before his Birth and all the Prophecies concerning the Messias were exactly and in a wonderful manner fulfilled in him These Prophecies concern either his Birth or his Life or his Death or his Resurrection and Ascension 1. The Prophecies concerning the Birth of the Messias were fulfilled in our Saviour For his Birth was prophesied of in all the circumstances of the Time and the Place of it and the Person of whom he was born 1. As for the Time by Jacob's Prophecy Gen. xlix 10. The Messias was to come about the time of the Dissolution of the Jewish Government The Scepter was not to depart from Judah that is the Power and Authority of the Jewish Government was not to cease until Shilo came which the ancient (c) See Bp. Pearson on the Creed Jewish Interpreters expounded of the coming of their Messias To (d) Lightfoot's Prospect of the Temple c. 21. which purpose it is held by the Jews that the great Sanhedrim sat in the Tribe of Judah tho' but part of the Court in which they sat was of that Tribe and the rest in the Tribe of Benjamin And the Jews among all their objections never objected against the time in which our Saviour came into the World but many of them have confessed that the Messias was born at that time but say that because of their sins he has (e) Munster de Messiâ concealed himself ever since And the latter Jews have by a great many stories endeavoured to make it believed that there is a Kingdom still of their Nation in some unknown part of the world tho' if this were true it could prove nothing to their purpose the prophecy being concerning their Power and Authority in the promised Land It is certain that soon after our Saviour's coming Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews dispersed and upon severe Penalties forbidden to come to their desolate and ruined City or so much as to look upon Zion the City of their Solemnities unless it were once every year to lament their calamity and they have ever since been a wandring and despicable People And several times when they have at tempted to re-build their Temple they have not been suffered to do it particularly when they had the favour and encouragement of Julian the Apostate who out of malice to the Christian Name and Doctrine was forward to promote the work they were hindred by an Earthquake and a miraculous eruption of Fire bursting out from under the foundation which burnt down what they had erected and destroyed those that were employed in it and this we have attested not only from Christian writers
for the Oath which secur'd their Lives to them had forfeited that Right which otherwise they might have had to their Lives by a Peace fairly obtained and they lost all other Advantages of the League but only the securing their Lives But that the Canaanites if they had submitted and owned the God of Israel were not to have been destroyed but to have been received to mercy is evident from Josh xi 19 20. There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon all other they took in battel For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battel that he might destroy them utterly and that they might have no favour but that he might destroy them as the Lord commanded Moses Which necessarily supposes that if God in his just Judgment upon them for their heinous Provocations had not hardned their Hearts but they had submitted themselves and sought Peace of the Children of Israel they ought to have had favour shewn them It doth therefore sufficiently appear that the Canaanites themselves after all their Provocations against both the Mercy and Justice of God were not excluded from all the Benefits of Strangers and Proselytes amongst the Jews and that all other Nations were encouraged and invited to become Partakers of the Privileges of the Law of Moses and acquaint themselves with the Service and Worship of the True God is notorious and as evident as any thing in the Law and the Prophets But after the Canaanites had fill'd up the measure of their Iniquities God manifested his Almighty Power and Justice upon them and he was pleased to do it by the Sword of the Children of Israel rather than by Pestilence or any other Judgment both to raise the greater abhorrence of Idolatry in his own People and in the neighbouring Nations and because those rude and warlike Nations could observe the Power of God no where so much as in the success of War they chiefly implored their own Gods for success in their Wars and when they were overcome by any People they concluded that the Gods of that Nation were too hard for their own Gods 1 King xx 23. 2 King viii 34. whereas if they had been destroyed by Famine or Pestilence they would have ascribed these Judgments no more to the God of Israel than to any of the Heathen Gods But God got him honour upon these Nations as he did upon Pharaoh and upon all his host when Jethro said Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them Exod. xviii 11. from whence he is so often styled the Lord of Hosts in the Old Testament 2. The Providence of God did so order and dispose of the Jews in all their Affairs as to afford other Nations frequent opportunities of becoming instructed in the true Religion and multitudes of Proselytes were made out of all Nations Moses dwelt in Midian and there marry'd an Aethiopian Woman Exod. ii 15. Num. xii 1. his Wife's Father Jethro the Priest of Midian and his Family became converted And the Deliverance of the Children of Israel out of Aegypt magnify'd the Power of God in all Countries where the Report of a thing so wonderful and notorious came The miraculous Victories which the Israelites gained over the Canaanites where-ever they came struck a mighty Terror into all those Nations as we see by the Fear of Balak Num. xxii and from the Speech of the Gibeonites Josh ix 9 10. who were glad to make use of any Pretence as an Expedient to save themselves Rahab with her Family and Kindred and the Gibeonites were early Accessions to the Israelites and Rahab was marry'd to a Man of Israel and the Babylonian Gemara (p) Lightfoot Hebr. and Talmud Exercitat in Mat. i. 5. reckons up Eight Prophets who were likewise Priests descended from her This is certain that our Saviour himself was pleased to derive his Genealogy from her The various Successes of the Israelites in the land of Canaan their Victories and their Overthrows and the miraculous Power of God visibly appearing either in their Defeat and Punishment or in their Conquest or Deliverance must need raise a mighty Fame and Admiration of the God of Israel in all those Countries for they proclaimed a Religious War upon these Nations they destroyed their Images and Groves and Alters where-ever they came and the People plainly perceived that their Gods could not help them The Taking of Jericho not by Storm but only by the meer Sound and Alarm of War the Lengthning of the Day to favour their Conquests and the Destruction of so many Kings by Moses and Joshua were undeniable Evidences of a Divine Power and must awaken Men to make enquiry into that Religion which could inspire such Courage and work such Wonders And these Nations among whom the Patriarchs had sojourned and so many Wonders and Judgments had been wrought were dispersed in Colonies over all Parts of the World as Bochart has proved at large in a most learned and elaborate Work some them if we may believe Procopius erecting a Pillar in Africk as a Monument of Joshua's Victories with an Inscription declaring that they were driven out of their own Countrey by him And S. Augustine says (q) Aug. Exposit Epist ad Rom. that in his time the Country People about Hippo called themselves Canaanites After the Death of Joshua the Israelites were in subjection to the King of Mesopotamia eight Years to the King of Moab eighteen Years Judg. iii. 8 14. to Jabin King of Canaan chap. iv 1. to the Midianites seven Years chap. vi 1. to the Philistines forty Years chap. xiii 1. And still it was because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord that they were given up into the hand of their Enemies and upon their Repentance a Deliverance was wrought for them 1 Sam. xii 10. And when they were so often and for so long a time subdued by their Enemies round about them for their Idolatries and other Transgressions and then again upon their Repentance were rescued from their oppression by Gideon and Jeptha and Samson all raised up for that purpose this must give great occasion and opportunity to all the bordering Nations to know and consider that Religion the observation or neglect whereof had such visible Effects upon its Professors for under their Affliction and in the time of their Repentance the Israelites declared the cause of their Misery and made known the Power of their own God and the Vanity and Sinfulness of Idolatry And therefore their being so often and so long time under the Oppression of their several Enemies was a merciful Providence to the Nations who had them in subjection as well as for the Punishment and Amendment of the Israelites themselves What good use was made of these Methods of the Divine Providence doth not appear to
the word that we did tell thee in Aegypt saying Let us alone that we may serve the Aegyptians For it had been better for us to serve the Aegyptians than that we should die in the wilderness Exod. xiv 11 12. But the Israelites were purposely brought into this Distress by God's express Will and Command that he might get him honour upon Pharaoh and upon all his dost upon his chariots and upon his horse-men ver 17. And â—he Sea being divided at Moses's lifting up his Rod the Children of Israel went in the midst of it upon dry-ground and the waters were a wall unto them on the right hand and on the lest ver 22. And could they be ignorant whether they walked in the Water or upon dry Land whether they were the Men that had escaped or whether they had been all drowned The words are express that the Waters were on both sides of them in their passage and that they were separated to make way for them which could not fall out by any ebbing of the Sea for then they would have had Water but on one side of them whereas now the Waters stood equally on both hands And nothing can be supposed more absurd than it is to imagine that neither the Aegyptians nor the Israelites should understand the nature of the Red-Sea but that the course of the Tide should be known only to Moses At the giving of the Law the whole People of Israel had warning given them three days before that they might sanctifie and prepare themselves to make their Appearance before the Lord All the people saw the thunderings and lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and beheld the mountain smoaking and the Lord spake in the audience of the whole Assembly the words of the Ten Commandments and they were struck with such a terrour that they removed and stood afar off and desired Moses that he would acquaint them with what God should be pleased to give him in command concerning them that they might no longer hear God speaking to them lest they should die Exod. xx 18. Deut. v. 22. The clond of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day and fire was on it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys Exod. xl 38. whether it were two days or a month or a year that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle remaining thereon the children of Israel abode in their tents and journeyed not but when it was taken up they journeyed Num. ix 22. From the time of their escape out of Aegypt the Pillar of the Cloud by day and the Pillar of Fire by might the Manna with which they were â—fed during the whole time of their journeying in the Wilderness till the very day after they had eaten of the corn of the land of Canâ—â—n Exod. xvi 35. Jos v. 12. and their Garments lasting for so long a time without any decay Deut. xxix 5. these were constant and perpetual Miracles for forty years together and it is the most impossible thing in the world to suppose that a People consisting of so many Hundred Thousands should for so long a time be imposed upon in things of this nature their Eves and Taste and all their Senses were Witnesses that they were conducted and fed and cloathed by Miracle for Forty Years together Indeed it was impossible to lead so great a Multitude through a vast and barren Wilderness by so long and tedious Journeys without the help of Miracles If they had been under no other distress but want of Food in so barren a place it had been impossible for any number of Men and much more for so vast a multitude to subsist for any time without a Miracle but they were sed with Manna from Heaven not with such as the Manna is which is now any where to be found which is a kind of Honey-dew but with Manna which was fit for Nourishment not for physick and so hard as to be ground in Mills and beaten in Mortars and baked in Pans Num. xi 8. and yet it was melted by the Sun and bred Worms and stunk if it were kept but one night except it were on the night before the Sabbath though again when it was to be preserved for a Memorial to future Generations nothing was more lasting and it fell on every Day of the Week but the Sabbath The Manna therefore which is now of what sort soever it be is of quite a different Nature from this Miraculous Manna though it have its Name from it as a learned Physician (p) Jo Chrys Magnen de Manna c. 2. has proved Their Water was as miraculous as their Food and their Cloathing as either neither their Raiment decayed nor their Bread and Water failed till they arrived in the promised Land The March of the Greek Army out of Asia under the Conduct of Xenophon after the death of Cyrus is looked upon as a thing scarce to be equalled in all humane Story though that was but for one Year and three Months and the Difficulties they met with were nothing in comparison of those that beset the Israelites on every side in that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and drought Deut. viii 15. a land of desarts and of pits of drought and of the shadow â—f death a land that no man passed through and where no man dwelt Jer. ii 6. Nothing but a Power of Miracles could have sustained them and nothing but the Sense of it could have kept them within any Bounds of Duty and Obedience We see how froward and rebellious they were upon all occasions notwithstanding the wonderful Power and Presence of God continually manifest amongst them they would have been content with the Aegyptian Slavery and the Aegyptian Gods too rather than endure the Hardships of the wilderness Moses complains that they were almost ready to stone him Exod. xvii 4. and out of despondency prayed that God would kill him out of hand rather than lay so great a burden upon him Num. xi 15. And whoever can believe that Moses by his own Skill and Management could lead such a Multitude through such a Wilderness so many Years Journey can it seems believe any thing rather than the Scriptures for this is one of the most incredible things that can be conceived but it is not in the least incredible that he might do it by the Divine Power and Assistance The Children of Israel tempted God ten times by their Murmurings and their distrust of his Power and Care over them Num. xiv 22. for which many of them were puniâ—h'd with death till at last the whole number of Men that were Twenty Years old and upwards had this Judgment denoâ—nced against them That for their Murmurings but two of them by name Caleb the Son of Jephunneh and Joshua the Son of Nun should be suffered to enter into the promised Land and the rest should all die in the Wilderness but that after
Forty Years wandring in the Wilderness their Children should be brought in to possess it I the Lord have said I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation that are gathered together against me in this wilderness they shall be consumed and there shall they die Num. xiv 35. And the Men who were sent out to search the Land and brought the evil report upon it died forthwith by the plague before the Lord ver 37. and these Men were the Heads of the Children of Israeâ— a Man of every Tribe being chosen out every one a Ruler amongst them chap. xiii 2 3. and but two of them agreed in giving the true Account of the Land so great an aversion they had to proceed any farther in their way thither And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried and the people wept that night And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron and the whole congregation said unto them Would God that we had died in the land of Aegypt or would God we had died in this wilderness And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword that our wives and our children should be a prey were is not better for us to return into Aegypt And they said one to another Let us make a cantain and let us return into Aegypt And all the Congregation were for stoning Joshua and Caleb if they had not been hindred by the glory of the Lord appearing in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel Num. xiv 1 2 3 4 10. Now upon so general a dâ—fâ—ction to pronounce peremptorily That but Two by name of so many Thousands should go in to inherit the Land of Promise and that all the rest should die in that very Wilderness which they complained so much of and that no less than Forty Years were to be spent in that wandring condition which they were already so weary of This is such a Method of quelling so general a Discontent and Mutiny as never was heard of before nor since and which could proceed from nothing less than a Wisdom and Authority which could check and controul the most combined and inveterate Perverseness of men and a Power which struck the Spreaders of this false Report with immediate death before their eyes for an Example of that Vengeance which they must all expect would fall upon them sooner or later within the space of Forty Years So that hereby was taken off all prospect of Advantage and â—ll hopes of any Reward for what they now with so much regret and impatience underwent and from henceforth they were led meerly by Conviction of the Divine Power and Presence amongst them and of the Terrours of those Judgments which in all Revolts seized upon the Disobedient And now being restless and uneasie in their present condition and past all hopes of remedying it like desperate Men they were upon every little occasion thrown into violent Commotions but were as soon controlled and appeased by visible Judgments upon the chief Authors of them For when we read soon after that a Rebellion was raised against Moses by Korah Dathan and Abiram God gave such evident Tokens of that Authority which he had invested him withal and so signally manifested that what he had done amongst them was by his Power and Commission that it was impossible for any of them to be deceived in it or to doubt of it Though the truth of it is they had never from the very first doubted of God's Power amongst them but were acted now with a Spirit of Rage and Despair like the Men described by the Prophet fretting themselves and cursing their king and their God and looking upwards Isai viii 21. Korah of the Tribe of Levi and Dathan and Abiram and On of the Tribe of Reuben being Principal and Leading Men of these two Tribes with Two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly famous in the congregation men of renown gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron charging them That they took too much upon them And to clear himself of this Accusation Moses implores God to vindicate his Innocency before all the People and by agreement Korah and Aaron appeared before the Lord with Censers in their Hands and Two hundred and fifty Men besides with their Censers likewise Korah at the time appointed gathered all the Congregation against Moses and Aaron unto the Door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation So that here was the most solemn Appearance of the whâ—lâ— People who had entertained great Jealousies against Moses and Aaron and were now met together to see whether they could give sufficient Proof of their Authority which they challenged over them The Time and Place was appointed and they came enclined and prepared to receive any farther ill impressions concerning Moses and Aaron if they could not have made out their Pretensions in the most remarkable and astonishing manner to the utter confusion of all their Enemies First the Glory of the Lord appeared unto all the congregation and then Moses at God's Command charges the Congregation to depart from the Tabernacles of Korah Dathan and Abiram and declares Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works for I have not done them of mine own mind If these men die the common death of all men or if they be visited after the visitation of all men then the Lord hath not sent me But if the Lord make a new thing and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up with all that appertain unto them and they go down quick into the pit then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. And it caâ—e to pass as he had made an end of speaking all these words that the ground clave asunder that was under them And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their houses and all the men that appertained unto Korah and all their goods They and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit and the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the congregation And all Israel that were round about them sled at the â—ry of them for they said Lest the earth swallow us up also And there came out a fire from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense Num. xvi Thus Moses vindâ—cated himself and proved his Divine Mission and Authority in such a manner as it was impossible but that the whole People of Israel must be convinced of it They were very suspicious and jealous of him tho' they had had so much experience of his Favour with God and of all his mighty Works done in the midst of them but when this dreadful Vengeance fell upon his Enemies before the whole Congregation who were met together on purpose to see whether God would declare himself for him when the Earth divided it sâ—lf â—o swallow some of these Men and
of Babylon and be carried to Babylon Ezekiel That he should not see Babylon Jeremiah That he should die in peace and be buried after the manner of his Ancestors Ezekiel That he should die at Babylon and if we compare all this with the History nothing ever was more punctually fulfilled For Zedekiah saw the King of Babylon who commanded his Eyes to be put out before he was brought to Babylon and he died there but died peaceably and was suffered to have the usual Funeral Solemnities 2 King xxv 6 7. And therefore both Prophecies proved true in the Event which seemed before to be inconsistent And so critical an Exactness in every minute Circumstance in Prophecies delivered by two Persons who were before thought to contradict each other was such a conviction to the Jews after they had seen them so punctually fulfilled in their Captivity that they could no longer doubt but that both were from God Jeremiah foretold also That the Kingdom of the Chaldaeans should be destroyed and that the Jews should be restored after a Captivity of Seventy Years these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years And it shall come to pass when seventy years are accomplished that I will punish the King of Babylon and that nation saith the Lord for their iniquity and the land of the Chaldaeans Jer. xxv 11 12. For thus saith the Lord That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return to this place Jer. xxix 10. And this Prophecy of Jeremiah the Jews depended upon under the Captivity Dan. ix 2. Zech. i. 12. and it was exactly fulfilled to them The Generations of Nebuchadnezzar's Posterity that should succeed him till the Destruction of that Monarchy are foretold Jer. xxvii 7. The Destruction of Babylon with the manner of Taking the City as it was foretold and described by the Prophet agrees punctually with the Account of it by (l) 〈◊〉 â—odo◠〈◊〉 c. 191. Herodotus One post shall run to meet another and one messenger to meet another to shew the king of Babylon that his City is taken at one end and that the passages are stopped and the reeds they have burned with sire and the men of war are affrighted And this was declared in a memorable and solemn manner by writing it down and by casting the Book into Euphrates Jer. li. 31 32 62 63. The Destruction of Tyre and Zidon and of Aegypt was foretold by the Prophet Ezekiel and the Restoration of the Aegyptians after Forty Years Ezek. xxviii 19. xxix 12 13. The Prophanation of the Temple and of the Sanctuary by Antiochus Epiphanes with the Death of Antiochus and a Description of his Temper and of his very Countenance was clearly delivered by Daniel Four hundred and eight Years (m) Joseph Antiquit. l. 11. c. 11. before the accomplishment Dan. viii Daniel likewise described the Fate of the Four Monarchies the Restoration of the Jews and the Rebuilding of their City and the Birth of the Messias with the precise Time of it And Alexander the great is said (n) Ibid. l. 11. c. 8. to have been encouraged by Daniel's Prophecy in his Expedition Indeed his Prophecy and the History of the Four Monarchies are so exactly parallel that Porphyry could find no other evasion but to say That the Book of Daniel was writen after the Events which as Grotius observes is as absurd as if a Man should maintain that the Works of Virgil were not written under Augustus but after his time For the Book of Daniel was as publick and as much dispersed and as universally received as ever any Book could be Lastly Haggai and Malachi prophesied That Christ should come before the Destruction of the Second Temple Hag. ii 7 9. Mal. iii. 1. And Hosea foretold the present state of the People of Israel in those remarkable words They shall be wanderers among the nations Hos ix 17. Not to insist therefore upon other Miracles and Prophecies which were concerning things of lesser moment or less remarkable in the eyes of the World these may suffice which were of that Publick nature that there could be no deceit or mistake in them multitudes of Men whom Prejudice or Malice had prepared to make the utmost Discoveries were Witnesses to the Miracles and both the Prophecies themselves and the Fulfilling of them were notorious to other Nations as well as to the Jews to whom they were delivered and in whose hands they have ever since been being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day The Jews had as good Evidence for Instance that Elijah wrought his Miracles as they could have that there was such a Man in the World And when the publick Transactions and Councils of Princes the Fate and Revolution of Empires with the Prefix'd Time and Place and the very Names of the Persons were so particularly foretold Two or Three hundred Years before the Things came to pass we may as well question the Truth of all History as the Certainty of these Revelations For indeed they are the History of Things that were to come set down in the very Circumstances in which they afterwards were brought to pass And yet if a Man should dispute whether there ever were such a Man as Elijah or such a Prince as Josiah or Cyrus he would but make himself ridiculous but if he deny that Elijah wrought such Miracles or that Isaiah spoke of Cyrus and another Prophet of Josiah by Inspiration perhaps he may be thought to have made some great Discovery and to know something above the rest of Mankind and shall be likely to meet with Applause instead of that Contempt which such Pretences deserve so strangely partial are Men for any thing which is but against the Authority of the Scriptures For I think it will be hard for Men to bring better Proof that there were such Men as Elijah and Josiah and Cyrus than may be brought to shew that the latter were by Name prophesied of long before their Birth and that the first wrought all the Miracles related of him or to produce clearer Evidence that there was such a City as Jerusalem before the Reign of Cyrus than we have that the Destruction of the City and Temple and the Captivity of the people with their Restoration after Seventy Years was foretold by Jeremiah The prophets did their Miracles in the most publick manner and their Prophecies were delivered not in corners but openly before all the People not in obscure and ambiguous Words but in plain Terms with a particular Account of Persons and Time and Place they were kept they were read and studied by that very People who at first as little regarded them as any Man now amongst us can do but slew the prophets themselves and rejected their Prophecies with rage and indignation but were afterwards by the Event of Things so fully convinced which was likewise foretold Ezek. xxxiii 33. of their
the end of the world He foretold the denial of St. Peter and the manner of his Martyrdom and both were foretold to St. Peter himself and his denial but a very little while before it came to pass when St. Peter looked upon it as a thing impossible who alone could have it in his power to hinder it He prophesied of the destruction of Jerusalem which came to pass about forty years after his own Death within the compass of that Generation as he had foretold the very foundations of the Temple and City were destroyed and the ground plowed up so that one stone was not left upon another of all the magnificent Buildings of the Temple which the Disciples so much admired when our Saviour told them that this should be the Fate of that glorious Pile Matt. xxii 2. And as I have already observed upon another occasion when Julian with a design (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sozom. lib. 5. c. 21. to defeat this Prophecy endeavoured to have it rebuilt both the Works and the Workmen were miraculously destroyed by a fire bursting out of the ground The Inhabitants fell by the edge of the Sword and were led away captive into all Nations Luke xxi 24. the chiefest place of security was the mountainous part of Judea which our Saviour foresaw when he advised his Disciples to flee to the Mountains Matt. xxiv 16. And Cestius Gallus compassed Jerusalem with his Army which was a warning to the Christians to depart and then by raising the Siege gave them an opportunity to escape to Pella in the Mountains of Perea exactly according to Luke xxi 20 21. And what Dion Cassius relates in the Reigns of Claudius Nero Vitellius and Titus may serve as a comment upon our Saviour's Prophecy for there were famines and pestilences fearful sights and great signs from Heaven and great Earthquakes the Sea and the Waves Roaring xxi 11 25. The Sun was darkned and the Moon did not give her light Matt. xxiv 29. Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which were coming on the Earth Luke xxi 26. and there was so terrible an eruption of Vesuvius that the Ashes were carried by the winds into Africk and into Egypt and Syria with so great smoak and darkness that it was thought the world had been at an end Our Saviour's Miracles verified the Prophecies which had been concerning the Messias for the Jews expected that the Messias should manifest himself by Miracles to the world as they concluded from the ancient Prophets and therefore St. John Baptist did no Miracles that he might not be mistaken for the Messias of whom Miracles were a principal Token to know him by His Miracles were wrought in the midst of his Enemies and extorted a confession from the Devils themselves of his Divine Power they were of that nature that it was impossible for them before whom they were wrought to be imposed upon by them and as impossible for them to be performed but by the immediate Power of God The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes was twice done and the Persons who were Witnesses to it were at one time five thousand men besides Women and Children Matt. xiv 21. and the other time four thousand men besides Women and Children Matt. xv 38. a Miracle wrought at two several times and obvious to all the sences of so many thousand Men besides Women and Children who being hungry found themselves filled and satisfied with this miraculous food in the barren Wilderness where it was impossible for them to be supplied by natural means was impossible to be mistaken The Miracles of our Saviour were so many and so publick and undeniable that St. Peter appeals to the Jews themselves declaring that Jesus of Nazareth was a man approved of God among them by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of them as they themselves also knew Acts ii 22. The Nobleman's Son was cured at a distance and the multitude were Witnesses to the request he made to our Saviour and to our Saviour's answer upon it and the Nobleman's Family were Witnesses that the cure was effected at that very time He cast Devils out of one known to have been a long time possess'd and then suffered them to go into the Swine to make it appear that they were indeed evil Spirits which had possess'd the Man contrary to the Doctrine of the Sadduces who believed no such thing as Spirits He cured the Leprosy and sent the cured to the Priest as the Law required that he by inspection might examine whether it were a perfect cure or no. He gave sight to one born Blind and this was upon examination attested to the Pharisees themselves Lazarus was raised to life again after he had been dead four days before so many Witnesses that the Scribes and Pharisees were not able to contradict the Truth of it but were mightily enraged against him for it and consulted to put Lazarus to death because many were induced to believe on Christ by reason of so great and manifest a Miracle Some who had been cured and others who had been raised from the Dead by our Saviour were living for many years after (b) Enseb Hist lib. iv c. 13. Hieron Catalog as Quadratus testified of his own time in his Apology to Adrian the Emperor The circumstances of these and the rest of our Saviours Miracles shewed that they were really performed and they were wrought with this intent and design to prove him to be the Christ The nature therefore and end of them shews that nothing less than a Divine Power could have effected them For God would never have suffered them to be wrought to vouch an Imposture to the World under his own Name and Authority (c) Guil. Ader me dici enarrationes de a grotis morbis in Evangelio A â—earned Physician has Written a Treatise to shew that according to the Principles and Axioms of the best Physicians all the Diseases which our Saviour cured were incurable by natural means and it is evident to every man that many of them were so But I shall insist more particularly upon the Resurrection of our Saviour this being the most wonderful and a confirmation of all his other Miracles and of the whole Gospel to us CHAP. XIV Of the Resurrection of our B. Saviour THE Resurrection of our B. Saviour was Prophesied of by David Psal xvi 8. Act. ii 27. And it was prefigured by the Type of Isaac's deliverance when he had been offered up by Abraham who both believed that God was able to raise him up even from the Dead and received him also from thence in a Figure Heb. xi 19. and it was also prefigured by the Type of Jonas his being three days and three nights in the Whale's Belly Matt. xii 40. Our Saviour was three days and three nights in the Grave that is three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or three natural days according
prejudice of the end and design of a Revelation and therefore they come under the number of such Accidents as God cannot be obliged in his providence to prevent But the Bible could not without the signal providence of God have been preserved for so many ages under so many changes and revolutions which the Wisdom of God for reasons elsewhere observed saw fit to permit much less could it have escaped with so inconsiderable variations unless it has been secured by a particular providence from those corruptions and alterations which are so frequent in Humane Writings CHAP. VI. Of the difficulties in Chronology in the Holy Scriptures CHronology is the part of Learning which is most nice and difficult to be exactly adjusted because it depends upon so many several Circumstances and comprehends so great a variety of affairs in all Ages and Nations and how punctually soever the accountâ— of time be set down at first yet the least alterations in one word or letter may cause a great difference in Copies and the difference of Epoches in the computations of differenâ— Countreys especially at great distances oâ— time as well as place is such that theâ— exactest Chronology may easily be mistaken and may be further entangled and perplext by those who endeavour to rectify what they think amiss for that which was exact at firâ—â— is often made faulty by him who thought it so before But I suppose that no material exception will lye against the Scripture upon the acconâ—â— of any difficulties in Chronology if those twâ— things be made out I. That differences in Chronology do not infer uncertainty in the matters of fact themselves II. That differences in Chronology do not imply that there was any Chronological mistake made by the Penmen of the Holy Scriptures but that they have been occasioned by the mistakes of Transcribers or of Expositors I. Differences in Chronology do not infer uncertainty in the matters of fact themselves Because the point of time is but one circumstance and that easily mistaken by a thousand accidents and there may be many other circumstances so particular and so well attested as to give sufficient evidence to the truth of things related notwithstanding any uncertainty in the circumstance of Time For which reason * Plut. i Solon Plutarch did not reject the Relation of a discourse that past between Solon and Craesus tho he could not answer the objections brought from Chronology to prove it feign'd because he found it delivered by good Authors and saw nothing improbable in it but every thing very likely and suitable to Solon's temper and he thought it unreasonable to reject a matter of fact which had no other objection against it but some difficulties in Chronology when says he innumerable persons have endeavoured to rectify the Chronological Canons but could never be able to this day to reconcile the differing opinions The uncertainty of Chronology is a general complaint made by the best Historians and therefore if this objection have any weight it must invalidate the Authority of all History A very learned and accurate Author has shewn the uncertainty in Chronology †Mr Milner 's Defence of A. Bishop Usher during the first Monarchy both in respect of Kingdoms viz. the Kingdom of Assyria itself and the Kingdoms contemporary with it and of Persons and Occurrences But doth this prove that there never were any such Kingdoms nor any such Persons and Occurrences It is uncertain when the City of Rome was first built for * Salust Bell. Catalin Salust and others contrary to the common opinion that it was founded by Romulus have ascribed the foundation of it to the Trojans And †Plutarch in Romulo those who make Romulus the Founder yet are at a strange disagreement concerning the Parents of Romulus and the time of his Birth Some have called his Mothers name Ilia some Rhea some Silvia others as Livy Rhea Silvia yet still there is a further difference about the time of the foundation of the City which has occasioned great disputes among Chronologers What then must follow from hence Why if the uncertainty of the time when any Fact was done imply the uncertainty of the Fact itself we must fairly conclude that it is uncertain whether Rome was ever built at all or at least we must with * Temporar Chron. Demonst lib. iii. Temporarius believe that there never was any such man as Romulus The Copies of Diogines Laertius place the Time of Epicurus's Death 9 years before he was born as * Menag observ in Diog. Laert Menagius has observed but the enemies of Religion have too great a value for Epicurus to give him up for that Reason and to conclude that there never was such a man But it is yet more strange that the time of so late and so remarkable a thing as the taking of Constantinople by the Turks should be placed by some a year sooner than by others This was an Action known and discoursed of throughout all Europe and is a pregnant Instance how little Reason there is to dispute the certainty of a Thing from any uncertainty of Time if other Circumstances concur to assure us of the Truth of it The Chronologers are not a little ashamed says Mr Gregory that they should not be able to satisfy us Jo. Greg. de Aeris Epochis c. 3. concerning so late and famous a calamity as the Siege of Constantinople by Mahumed the Second II. The differences in Chronology do not imply that there was any Chronological mistake made by the Pen-men of the Holy Scriptures but they arise from the mistakes of Transcribers or Expositors To be convinced of this we need only reflect a little upon some of those things which are apt to cause mistakes in the Computations of Chronology and it will soon appear how unreasonable it is to imagin that no Book can be of Divine Inspiration which is not sitted to secure men from the errors which it is natural for them to commit in things of that intricacy I. Many difficulties in Chronology are occasioned by not observing that that which had been said before in the general is afterwards resumed and delivered in the particulars contained under it For the total summ of any term of years being set down first before the particulars have been insisted upon and explained has led some into mistakes by supposing that the particulars afterwards mentioned were not to be comprehended in it but to be reckoned apart as if they had happened afterwards in order of Time because they are last related in the course of the History Thus Gen. xi 26. it is said that Terah lived seventy years and begat Abram and vers 32. that the days of Terah were two hundred and five years and Terah died in Haran But Gen. xii 4. it is written that Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran which is inconsistent if we suppose that Abram lived in Haran till the
If therefore Christ had been born at the beginning of the World how many more pretences would those Men have feigned to themselves for their Infidelity who are now so prone to unbelief and so unwilling to be Christians Men are tempted to suspect that there is something of obscurity and uncertainty in all things long since past and if Christ had been born a thousand or two thousand years sooner those who now think he came too late would then have cavilled that he came too soon and that it was too long ago to be believed and had happened in a dark and fabulous Age. And therefore it seems that Christ came in the very season and centre of time that as the former Ages were not so remote as not to be capable of all the benefits of his Death and Passion to be in due time accomplish'd so the last Ages of the World may have no pretence to question the truth of the Christian Religion upon any account of the long distance of time since the Death of our Saviour and his Apostles This may be the Case for ought any Man can tell or many other Reasons there might be much better and more important than this to deferr the Incarnation of our Saviour and therefore it is an absurd thing to raise Objections about it Many Reason there might be for it which we are uncapable of knowing and it is sufficient for us to know that it was in the fulness of time and that this time was the most proper and expedient and therefore was the time appointed and determined by God from all Eternity 4. God had by the various Methods of his Providence given such signal opportunities to the Gentiles to become acquainted with the Scriptures of the Old Testament as did mightly prepare them for the acknowledgment of Christ at his coming into the World All the Dispensations of the Divine Providence from the Beginning had been as so many several preparations to the Birth of Christ God chose Abraham to be the Father of a peculiar People and when that People had been by the constant manifestation of a miraculous Providence preserv'd and by their Laws and Ceremonies distinguished from all other People they were driven into Captivity as well in mercy to other Nations as by God's just Judgment upon them for their Sins that by this means the Gentiles might be instructed in the Worship of the true God and the Prophecies concerning Christ might become divulged and all Nations might be in a readiness to acknowledge and receive him who was to be the desire of all Nations and the joy of all People First the Ten Tribes were by Shalmaneser carried away Captive and then the two remaining Tribes by Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus was by Name appointed to restore them Alexander's Conquests made yet way for a farther reception of the Prophecies which were the most considerable about the time of the Captivity And besides the Prophecy of Balaam by which the Wise Men were directed to find out Christ by the guidance of a Star those of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel must be well known in the East The Bible had been about three hundred years before our Saviour's Birth at the Command of a Heathen Prince Translated into the Greek Tongue which was by the Victories of Alexander become the most known Language in the World And we read of no Revolution of Empires no Blessing no Affliction which befell the Jews but it contributed in a remarkable manner to raise an expectation of Christ and to prepare for his Coming It is certain that at the time of his Birth there was among the Jews an Universal expectation of the Messiah and that it was a receiv'd Opinion in that Age all over the East that a great Prince should arise out of Judea this appears both from the Scriptures and from (z) Sueton. in Vespas c. 4. Tacit. Hist lib. v. Heathen Writers the Wise Men came to enquire after him and Herod's Jealousie proceeded to the utmost Rage and Cruelty and could not have failed of success if it had been against any but the true Messiah whom God did by an immediate Revelation deliver out of his hands All the World stood in expectation of some extraordinary Person and it was no unwellcome piece of Flattery to one of the Roman Emperors not long after to have it reported that he was the Prince spoken of and expected in the East but it was esteemed his Glory and his Happiness to be thought the King that was to arise amongst a despised and hated People The expectation of Christ was so great that he could not lie conceal'd in that obscure and mean Condition but was adored in a Manger and receiv'd more than Royal Honours from the remotest parts of the Earth And in this respect it was the fulness of time or the most convenient and proper time for Christ to appear because the Divine Providence had wonderfully disposed and prepared the World for the expectation of him 5. The particular temper and disposition of the Age in which our Saviour was born made it the most fitting and proper Age for him to be born in for there were several things peculiar to that Age which very much conduce to the proof of the certainty of his Religion That Age was so remarkable and the History of it has been delivered down to us by so many eminent Writers that it is more studied and generally better known than any Age of the World besides and it was fit that a thing of this nature and consequence should come to pass in such an Age that it might be fully enquired into in any Age afterwards and that no distance of time might cause such doubts concerning it as should ever render it the less certain to any who are willing to acquaint themselves with the truth of it If it had been an Imposture this surely had been the most unlikely time of any for it to succeed No Prince could be more jealous than Herod who was so enraged at the Report of the Birth of Christ that he too plainly shew'd how much he credited it And no Age perhaps since the Creation could be more unlikely to have a Cheat put upon it than this in which Peace and Learning and all Polite Arts flourish'd which refine Men's Understandings and make them the most unfit and difficult to be imposed upon Policy was in its highest perfection in the Courts of Augustus and Tiberius which have been esteemed the greatest Patterns of it ever since the Scribes and Pharisees were in great Power and Authority at Jerusalem who were a subtle Generation of Men and the worst Enemies any one could have to deal withall Vice which was likely to give the greatest hindrance to a holy Religion was the fashion of the times and that Empire was never so abandoned to wickedness as at the first propagation of the Gospel As Men were then most able to discover any Imposture so they must have been most
Witness to the Truth of their Doctrine God himself bears Witness to it and the Jews might have said in this as they did in a very different Case What need we any further Witnesses for we our selves have heard of their own mouths in the Miraculous Gift of Tongues or seen it with our own Eyes in the many wonderful Works which were continually wrought in the most publick manner in Testimony of the Resurrection of Christ Our Blessed Saviour therefore gave as full proof of his Resurrection as if he had appear'd in the Temple or in the midst of Jerusalem to the whole People of the Jews For this had not been more effectual to the Conversion of most of them nor more sufficient to evidence the Truth of the Gospel than his Appearance to his Disciples was and if the Jews had unanimously believed it could not have contributed more to convince Men of the Truth of the Resurrection than their Unbelief has done he sent his Apostles with a Miraculous Power as convincing as his own Appearance could have been and all things considered the Jews afford us as full Evidence in behalf of the Gospel by opposing it as they could have done by their compliance with it And since we have sufficient Testimony to resolve our Faith into the Divine Veracity the certainty is the same whether the Witnesses be more or fewer because it depends upon the veracity of God which is always the same whatever the means be by which our Faith is resolved into it CHAP. XXVII Of the Forty Days in which Christ remain'd upon Earth after his Resurrection and of the manner of his Ascension OUR Blessed Saviour had certified his Disciples of his Resurrection in such a manner as to give them many infallible Proofs of it or else it is impossible for any thing to be infallibly proved and that which is chiefly to be considered in this matter is that he was seen by them not once but often not for a short time or at a hasty Interview but for forty days together and then he performed the common Actions of Humane Life he did eat and drink with them and discoursed with them of the things relating to his Kingdom To whom also he shewed himself alive after his Passion by many infallible proofs being seen of them forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God Acts i. 3. That which I here design is to make some Observations upon the Conversation that our Saviour had with his Disciples during the Forty days between his Resurrection and his Ascension and upon the manner of his leaving them when he ascended into Heaven 2. The Scriptures acquaint us that our Saviour was seen of his Disciples Forty Days or that he vouchsafed them his presence the greatest part of that time which he remained upon Earth after his Resurrection But in what manner all that time was spent with them we are no where told which is no wonder if we consider how much of his former Life is concealed from us In the Scriptures which are written for our Instruction and in the plainest and sincerest manner in the World to inform us of all things necessary to our Salvation we have nothing taken notice of for Ostentation nor for Ornament but many things omitted in the Life of Christ which are thought needful in Humane Authors to make up a compleat History We have no more mentioned of his Parentage than was necessary to make it evident that he was descended from David and born of a Virgin as the Prophets had foretold of him When he was born we read that the Shepherds and the Wise-Men came to Worship him that he was Circumcised that he was brought to Jerusalem to be presented to the Lord and that he was carried into Aegypt to avoid Herod's Cruelty and hereby known Prophecies were fulfilled Afterwards he was brought to Nazareth upon the death of Herod and from that time we read no more of him 'till the twelfth Year of his Age when he Disputed with the Doctors in the Temple And then we are told that he went down to Nazareth and was subject to his Mother and to Joseph and in general Terms that he encreased in Wisdom and Stature and in favour with God and Man as it was before said of him that he grew and waxed strong in Spirit filled with Wisdom and the grace of God was upon him Luke ii 40 52. The next time we read any thing of him is when he was about Thirty years of Age and came to John to be Baptized Thus not only during his Infancy and Childhood there is little related of our Blessed Saviour but his riper years are passed over in Silence in all which time we may be sure that there was no Speech or Action of so Divine a Person but what well deserved the observation of all that knew him and was more worthy of mention in History than all the Renowned Adventures and Exploits or than the Wise or Witty Sayings which adorn the Lives of the Greatest among the Sons of Men. But Modesty Humility and a Contempt of the praise of Men were some of the great and useful Doctrines in which he came to instruct Mankind and he could not do this more effectually than by his own Example in leading a mean and obscure Life little known or taken notice of in the World 'till two or three years before he was to leave it by a Cruel and Infamous Death He did not chuse to spend his time in places of publick Resort and Converse and when he Disputed in the Temple yet nothing of the particulars is mentioned This obscure and unknown Person was to rebuke and comptroll the Pride and Vanity of the Popular Scribes and Pharisees And after he had appeared in the World very much of his Life was spent in privacy and retirement not many of his Discourses are delivered down to us and the greatest part of his Actions are omitted For if they had been all written and described in their several Circumstances many Volumes must have been taken up in the Narrative of them insomuch that St. John supposes that even the World itself could not have contained the Books that should have been written Joh. xxi 25. that is as we might express it in our Language he did a world of things more than these which are related of him and in the same sense of the Word St. James says that the Tongue is a world of Iniquity Jam. iii. 6. The meaning of St. John is that hardly any words could express how many other things were done by our Saviour besides those which he had set down Christ might have employed some accurate Historian to compose the Annals of his whole Life with the greatest exactness imaginable but he was pleased to be represented to the World very imperfestly by such as knew nothing of what belonged to the writing History any farther than to be able to tell the strict and necessary Truth The
of them must cease and the Reason why they should be bestowed ceasing these miraculous Gifts must of consequence cease with it And thus it was likewise under the Law It is observable that we read of no miraculous Power bestowed upon any Man before Moses The Creation of the World was dilivered down with undeniable Certainty and the miraculous Judgments of God in Drowning the Old World in the Confusion of Tongues and in the Punishment inflicted upon Sodom and Gomorrah were sufficient to keep up a Sense of the True Religion But when a new Institution of Religion was to be introduced by Moses miraculous Gifts were necessary to give Authority to it and to oppose those false and lying Wonders which were in use among the Magicians in Egypt and other Places In the former Ages Predictions were very frequent and they were delivered by the Patriarchs who were Men of unquestionable Credit and Authority and could have no need of Miracles to confirm the Truth of their Prophecies which were so usual in those Times and when the Lives of Men were so long divers Prophecies of the same Persons had been verified by the Event But Moses had a New Law to deliver and both He and the Prophets had a a stubborn People to deal with to whom the Message they were charged withal was commonly very unwelcome so that till this Institution was fully settled Miracles became necessary But when the Old Testament had been sufficiently authorized and established by Prophecies and Miracles and when by the Captivities and Dispersions of the Jews the Divine Mission of their Prophets became known among so many other Nations when the Jews were reduced from Idolatry which they never practised after their Return from their Captivity in Babylon and when they had made numerous Conversions amongst the Heathens then these miraculous Gifts were no longer continued as they had been before in the Jewish Church insomuch that it became a (a) Lightf Glean out of Exod. §. vi Harm of the Evang Luke i. 18. Joh. ii 18. Maxim among them that after the Death of Zechariah and Malachi and the rest of the Prophets who returned from Babylon the Spirit of God departed from Israel and ascended and for above Four hundred Years together the Gifts both of Prophecy and Miracles had been with-held from them before the Manifestation of Christ For though there were gross Errours and dangerous Corruptions among the Pharisees and Sadducees and other Sects of the Jews yet since the Truth and Certainty of that Revelation from whence these Errours might have been confuted had been so throughly confirmed all their Corruptions and Errors were not a sufficient cause for the continuance of miraculous Gifts and the Pharisees and other Sects who were most fond and zealous of their several Tenets and Traditions yet never durst pretend to a Power of Miracles or Prophecy but endeavoured to support themselves upon the Authority of Moses and the Prophets What they sometimes spake of (b) id Fall of Jerus §. IX Harm of the N. T. §. LXXIII the Bath Col or Voice from Heaven deserves but little Credit and amounts but to a Confession that the Spirit of Prophecy had failed under the Second Temple as the Jews themselves expressly acknowledge it to have done (c) More Nevock Part. 2. c. 36 41. Maimonides declares that the Bath Col did not denominate Men Prophets and therefore it is not reckoned by him among the Degrees of Prophecy I have already Proved at large Book 1. that the Evidence of those Miracles which were wrought in the Primitive Times affords as much certainty to our Faith as if we our selves had seen them wrought And our Saviour plainly says notwithstanding his Works which bore Witness of him that it was not to be expected that his own Words should be rather believed than the VVritings of Moses For had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me But if ye believe not his VVritings how shall ye believe my VVords Joh. v. 46 47. And when once the Gospel had been attested by Miracles as the Law had been and rendred as certain to all succeeding Ages as a constant Power of Miracles could have made it there could be no Reason why such a Power should be any longer bestowed Miracles were wrought in Evidence of the Truth of Revelations made to Mankind in the Old and New Testament not to decide any Controversies arising amongst those by whom the Scriptures are received For to whom the Scriptures are the Rule by which all Disputes ought to be determined and therefore the Gifts of Miracles were sometimes manifested among (d) Ad Orthodox inter Justin Martyr Oper. Respons v. Hereticks for the Conviction of Infidels which is the true end and design of Miracles and not to be any Note of Distinction between the Orthodox and Hereticks The learned (e) In Irenae Dissert 11. §. 28. c. Mr. Dodwell by an historical Account of Miracles from the Times of the Apostles through the Ages next succeeding has shewn that they were always adapted to the Necessities of the Church being more or less frequent as the State of the Church required till they at last wholly ceased when there was no longer any need of them For the only end and use of miraculous Gifts is the Confirmation and Establishment of Religion and therefore when this is once fully confirmed and established they can be no longer needful But it seems rather necessary that they should afterwards cease than that they should be continued I mean as to any constant Power of working Miracles residing in the Church For tho' there may possibly be some extraordinary Cases in which it may please God to manifest a miraculous Power yet there is no Reason to conclude that a constant Power of working Miracles should be continued to the Church but rather that those Gifts should cease when Religion has been confirmed by a perpetual Course of Miracles for some Hundreds of Years together Because I. Miracles when they became common would lose the design and end and the very Nature of Miracles For the Nature of Miracles consists in this that they are an extraordinary VVork of God not that they are more difficult than the ordinary works of Nature All things are alike easy to God and Miracles are as easy as any thing in the constant course of Nature can be the only difference is that Miracles are his wonderful Work they are more apt to raise our Wonder and Admiration and to put us in mind of a Divine Presence For we wonder at strange and unusual things and suppose a more than ordinary Reason for them But if Miracles had continued in all Ages this Effect of Miracles would have ceased and they would no longer have been Miracles but a kind of different Course of Nature For according to the best and most accurate Philosophy nothing in the settled Course of Nature can be performed without an
Opinions of their own besides the general Prejudices which they lay under with the rest of the World And all Men of any Learning and Education studied the Books of the Philosophers and were commonly addicted to one Sect or other It must be confest that Vanity and the Praise of Men was the chief aim of many of the Philosophers as Tertullian and others of the Fathers object and therefore they were very unlikely to become Proselytes to a Religion which was looked upon in the World with such Disdain and Contempt Philosophy in general if we believe (y) Instit lib. I. c. 1. Quintilian was in his time by most used as an Artifice and Disguise to conceal the worst of Vices under a morose Look and a Habit different from that of other Men. And from such Philosophers as these we must expect that the Scriptures should be read with no manner of Candor or good and serious Intention (z) Contra Celf. lib. II. Origen gives Instances of the wilful Abuse of the Scriptures by some of his Time who cavilled at half Sentences without taking notice of the Coherence which they have of the rest And he complains that (a) Ib. lib. I. Celsus seemed never to have read the Scriptures though he pretended to a very exact Knowledge both of the Jewish and Christian Religion but understood little of either (b) Philip. Sidet apud Dodw. Append. ad Dissert in Irenae e. Cod. MS. Baroc Athenagoras who before him had read the Scriptures with more care and sincerity tho' with the same Design became converted and wrote in Defence of that Religion which he intended to oppose (c) Euseb contr Hier. Lactant. Institut lib. V. c. 2 3. De Mortib Persecut c. 16. Hierocles likewise had read the New Testament with a design to write against it but he who could believe the Miracles of Apollonius Tyaneus and prefer that notorious Impostor to our Blessed Saviour and Maximus Aegiensis Damis the Philosopher and Philostratus to St. Peter and St. Paul shews so strange a partiality as might be expected only in him who opposed the Christian Religion by his Persecutions more than by his Arguments for Hierocles was the chief promoter of the Persecution under Diocletian 2. The Gentiles looked upon the poor persecuted Condition of the Christians as an Argument against their Religion and were not only prejudiced against a New Religion which must expose them to Sufferings by that fondness which Men naturally have for their own Ease and Safety but (d) Aug. Civit. Dei lib. I. c. 29. when they saw the Christians in Distress they would upbraid them as the Psalmist's Enemies reproached him saying Where is now thy God They considered their own Religion as the Religion of their Country and of their Ancestors which was what Tully said for it when he ruined all the Grounds and Pretences in behalf of it They alleged that this had been the Religion of their Forefathers and that the Roman Empire had arrived to so much Power and Greatness under its Influence This was so much insisted upon as is to be seen in Zosimus Symmachus and others that Orosius set himself to answer it in a particular Work and St. Austin who put him upon Writing it thought himself concerned in his own Works to oppose so unreasonable but fatal a Prejudice 3. The Consequence of these Prejudices against the Christian Religion both in Favour to the Religion of their Country and in Fondness for their old Opinions and out of an Abhorrence of Afflictions and a Disregard of those who were so much exposed to them as having but small pretence to any part of the Divine Care the Consequence I say of these Errors and Prejudices was that the Gentiles despised the Christian Religion before they understood any thing of it For many Men of Learning and Observation were so little acquainted with it that they did not distinguish Christians from Jews as we see by (e) Sueton in Claudio c. 25. Suetonius They knew not so much the true Pronunciation of the Name of Christ or Christian but were wont to write (f) Nam nee Nominis certa est notitia penes vos Tertul. Apol. c. 3. Sueton ib. Lactant. Lib. IV. c. 7 Chrestus and Chrestianus This the Apologists much insist upon that they condemned and persecuted what they did not understand the Christians desired no more than a fair Hearing and if they might but be suffered to make their Religion fully known to their Adversaries they begged no further Favour 4. It was believed (g) Aug. de Civit. Dei Lib. XVIII c. 53 54. that the Heathen Oracles had delivered that the Christian Religion should continue no longer than Three hundred and sixty five Years and it is observable that Julian the Apostate died A. D. CCCLXV according to some Chronologers tho' others place his Death Two Years before It seems the Devil had some great Expectation from his Reign but at or near that very time in which he had foretold that the Christian Religion should have an end if the Computation were to be made from the Nativity of Christ he saw an end of all his hopes in the Death of that Emperor who was so zealous in his Service and had given out severe Threatnings against the Christians of what they were to expect if he had returned victorious from that Expedition in which he perished And this Prediction had respect probably to his Reign though the Greek Verses in which it was delivered might be altered afterwards or so contrived at first as to extend it to a longer time leaving it uncertain from whence the Calculation was to begin However this Oracle kept many of the Gentiles from being Christians till they saw the time past which they supposed to be meant by it as St. Austin assures us 5. The Heresies and Schisms which soon arose in the Church gave great Scandal and Offence to such as judged of these things at a distance and in the gross without examining into the Occasions of them The (h) Just Martyr Dialog Jews not only Blasphemed Christ in the Synagogues but made choice of Men on purpose whom they sent from Jerusalem into all Parts of the World to vilifie him and his Religion (i) Id. Apol. 2. And because Christians spoke of Christ's Kingdom this was understood to their Prejudice as if they had been for setting up a Temporal Kingdom by Rebellion And the evil Doctrins and Practices of divers Hereticks confirmed Men in any ill Opinion which they had conceived of Christians in general The absurd Doctrins and Heresies of the Gnosticks and other Hereticks were by the Enemies of the Gospel in their Censures and Invectives applied to all Christians without distinction and were taken upon Trust by most Men. (k) Orig. cont Celf. lib. 6 7 8. Celsus makes Objections from the erroneous and wicked Notions and Practices of the Ophitae the Valentinians the Marcionites and others This
Persuasion doth not determine Right and Wrong True and False the remaining difficulty is how to distinguish them and that must be by the proper Evidence and the intrinsick Goodness of the Cause And our Evidence in behalf of our Religion is plain matter of Fact as the Death and Resurrection and Ascension of our Blessed Saviour and the Miracles wrought by him and his Apostles And if our Religion has sufficient Proof of what we assert in matter of Fact and other Religions have not sufficient Proof of that Authority to which they lay claim this must determine the Point though a Mahometan or Pagan should be as zealous for his Religion as a Christian can be It is commonly and truly said that it is not the Suffering but the Cause which makes the Martyr and if Men of False Religions have never so much Confidence of the Truth of them and have no Ground for it this can be no Argument against the Grounds and Proofs upon which the Evidence of the Christian Religion depends Other Religions may have their Zealots who offer themselves to die for them but the Christian Religion properly has the only Martyrs For Martyrs are Witnesses and no other Religion is capable of being attested in such a manner as the Christian Religion no other Religion was ever propagated by Witnesses who had seen and heard and been every way conversant in what they witnessed concerning the Principles of their Religion no Religion besides was ever preached by Men who after an unalterable Constancy under all kinds of Sufferings at last died for asserting it when they must of necessity have known whether it were true or false and therefore certainly knew it to be true or else they would never have suffered and died in that manner for it no other Religion was ever attosted from its first Propagation for several Hundreds of Years together by Men who had either seen the first Preachers themselves or had been acquainted with others who had seen them or had wrought Miracles and seen others work them no other Religion is contained in Books which were written at the first Propagation of it and dispers'd into all Countries in all Languages amongst all sorts of Men and especially amongst those who were most concerned and most able and desirous to disprove it if it had been false no Religion besides has by so weak and unlikely means prevailed over all the Power and Policy of the World none is in its Doctrin so agreeable to Reason and so worthy of God for its Author and none has been delivered down with so clear a continued and uninterrupted Testimony through all Ages and conveyed by a succession of Testimonies to this present Age And therefore no other Religion can have Martyrs who can die in confirmation of such a Testimony as this or who can be Martyrs and Witnesses to it by assuring the World at their Death that they have received the Religion thus testified and confirmed for which they die It is not the bare asserting a thing boldly and then dying for it which makes a Martyr but the Qualifications necessary in a Witness are necessary in him that is that he should have all Opportunities needful to know the Truth as well as no Temptation to speak the contrary Which Qualifications were evident in the Apostles and first Martyrs whose Testimony is that upon which the Proof of our Religion is founded and the Martyrdoms of latter Ages are additional Testimonies which without the former would be insignificant but supposing them are all the Testimony that can be given to any matter of Fact at this distance of Time and are as much beyond the Sufferings in behalf of any other Religion as the Evidence of the Christian Religion is beyond the Evidence for all others It is not merely Zeal though it proceed even to Death and Martyrdom upon which we build our Faith but the Reasons which Christians have for their Zeal Divers Nations have been as earnest Assertors of their Fabulous Antiquities as others can be of theirs which are known to be true but are these ever the less or those ever the more true upon that account We insist upon it that we have Books to shew and clear Evidence to produce for what we maintain and these have been examined by many Men in every Age and compared with what is to be alleged in behalf of contrary Religions and Men of the greatest Learning and Judgment and Prudence have chosen to die rather than to renounce this Religion for any other after the nicest and most impartial Examination they could make Whereas the Zealots and Martyrs for the Religions which are contrary to Christianity must be acknowledged to be Men that understand nothing of Antiquity but are ignorant of the History of their several Religions and take all upon uncertain Report and absurd Traditions without any Proof or Possibility of it and even against manifest Reason and the Evidence of undoubted History So plain is it that the Zeal and Confidence of Men of false Religions and their willingness to die for them can be no prejudice to the Authority and Certainty of the true Religion The Enthusiasms and vain Notions and Conceits of some Zealots can be no more a Prejudice to the Truth and Reality of our Religion than it is an Argument against the Truth and Certainty of Human Reason that there are so many Fools and Madmen in the World CHAP. XXXII That Differences in Matters of Religion are no Prejudice to the Truth and Authority of it THere is nothing which has proved a a greater Snare and Scandal to weak Minds nor which gives the Enemies of Religion greater Advantage as they think against it than the Dissentions amongst Christians and the different Sects and Parties into which they are divided This makes some willing to conclude that there is no certainty on any side when they see equal Zeal and equal Confidence in Men of all Persuasions that contend for their several Opinions But St. Paul writes to the Corinthians that there must be not only Divisions but Heresies also and not only that they must be but that they are not without their use and expediency in the Church They are so far from being any real Prejudice to the Truth and Certainty of Religion that they do indeed conduce to manifest the Excellency of it and the Sincerity of those that profess it For there must be also Heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you 1 Cor. xi 19. From whence I shall shew I. That Differences in matters of Religion must be among Christians unless God should miraculously and irresistibly interpose to prevent them II. That it is not necessary nor expedient that God should thus interpose III. That these Differences how great and how many soever they be even the worst of Schisms and Heresies are no prejudice to the Truth and Authority of Religion I. That Differences in matters of Religion must be among