the publick Good to concur with the Advancement of the Private and the private with that of the publick For instance what will follow from the practice of Charity which enjoyns us to love God with all our Heart and with all our Mind and our Neighbour as our Selves The Result of it will be that every Man's Interest shall be the same that there shall reign no Hatred or Animosities no Jealousy or Competition amongst them that every Man will thank God for the Blessings that others have received at his hands that Charity will make every thing our own that we shall be happy in other Men's Advantages as a Son in the Prosperity of his Father and a Father in that of his Son that a publick Society will make but one Family more closely united since Charity can make those things equal that humane Passions had before distinguish'd and much the happier since the Happiness of one single Person shall be enjoy'd by all and the Happiness of all by each single Person 'T is easy to foresee what Objections our Incredulous Adversaries will make They will say that Christian Morality is undoubtedly a very fine Idea of true Perfection but very unprofitable since it is so far raised above our ordinary Strength and Capacity The Answer to this Objection depends upon those Reflections we shall continue to make upon the Characters of this Morality VIII We therefore assert that altho by reason of the continual Warfare betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit we cannot observe this Christian Morality in its full Perfection and consequently cannot be sensible of the advantages which accrue to us from it in their utmost extent it is enough if by observing it according to our present condition it procures us a thousand advantageous Effects which clearly demonstrate that it is not a meer Idea And this is such an undeniable Truth as is daily confirmed by Experience so true it is that the strict observance of this Divine Morality tends to our Profit and Welfare that Parents themselves wish it to their Children Husbands to their Wives and Wives to their Husbands Servants to their Masters and Masters to their Servants Princes to their Subjects and Subjects to their Princes Creditors to their Debtors and Debtors to their Creditors as the Principle of Fidelity Love Vnion Virtue and even of Joy and Satisfaction Self-love indeed looks upon it as a meer Idea especially when it commands it to shake off its evil Inclinations and thinks it self not able to observe it strictly but still it thinks it very just reasonable and perfect when there is occasion to reform other men's Imperfections and Vices and it is well pleased to see if it be not extreamly degenerated into the worst Irregularities that that Bridle sufficiently curbs at least in other Men their Concupiscence and unruly Passions whose End is only to confound ruin and violate all things IX But that which wholly secures Christian Morality from the Reproach it might be charged with in this respect is that it is it self either endowed with such Strength as must necessarily exalt the Souls of Men or contains such Objects which together with the efficacy of that Spirit which continually attends them outweigh the most sensible Objects and that passionate Inclination we all have for the World Philosophers indeed may be very justly charged with this Reproach namely that their Morality is meer Speculation because their excellent Maxims have no Motives powerful enough to support them They tell us 't is true that we must overcome our Selves and renounce our evil Desires but if once they are asked the reason of it they are much perplexed how to solve the Query It cannot be denied but that their Morality is very Excellent but the Motives that induce Men to observe it are weak and a little Renown acquired in practising that Virtue they so strictly recommend as also the Title of Wisemen and that abundance of Vanity always concomitant with it are very weak Inducements to constrain the Heart of Man to deprive it self of its darling beloved Passions But it is not so with the Morality of Christ which is wonderfully supported by the Motives it lays before us Every thing is coherent in it and all the Parts proportionable It requires our Observance of many hard and mortifying Duties It curbs the Affections of the Heart and mortifies the Flesh But since that cannot be done without great Difficulty and more than ordinary Endeavours it promises us a magnificent and glorious Reward The Greatness of the Promise is supported by many terrible Threatnings and both these Objects are confirmed by such Favours as are very proper to gain our Affections The Blessings are a sure Token of the Truth of the Promises and the Truth of these makes us believe that of the Threatnings I grant the Promises of a blessed Life and Immortality which we find in the Gospel are very great and glorious but still not greater than that which Jesus made to Two of his Disciples when he called them unto him saying Come after me and I will make you Fishers of Men. There was less probability that a few poor ignorant Fishermen should have been able to catch in their Nets the Doctrin Authority Wit and Eloquence of Men than that we should see God after Death The Truth of his Promises cannot subsist without that of his Threatnings and 't is evident when he promises that the pure in Heart shall see him he threatens also to exclude those that are not so from the beatific Vision Let not Men therefore slatter themselves let them shake off their Unbelief of the severe Punishments that attend the wicked after this Life Their Reason will tell them that God can do no less than banish those his Presence who have persisted in a wilful design of offending him by their Sins and that such a Banishment is attended with the greatest of all Miseries and that is eternal Death The Stings of Conscience convince us of this and the Promises of God inform us of it His Justice points it out to us His Law teaches it and the Gospel confirms it The very Nature of things will not suffer us to doubt it since God cannot direct Man to the true end of his Creation without revealing himself to him and he cannot reveal himself to him without making his Will known to him according as he pleases nor can he make his Will known to him without giving him a Law nor give him a Law without annexing to it such Motives as must be either Promises or Threatnings deeply engraven'd in the Conscience if they accompany the Law of Nature but deliver'd in writing if they follow the written Law nor can he make such Promises or Threatnings unto Men without being punctual in the accomplishment of them And can we have any greater Certainty than that which is so visibly founded upon the Veracity of God and the Nature of things themselves There is nothing therefore capable to free Man from
three Years or three Years and an half as long as his Office lasted wrought more surprizing Miracles than have been either seen or known since the Beginning of the World And so to believe the Gospel is firmly to believe that Christ work'd those Miracles which are so often and so circumstantially repeated in it and so inseparable from the other Parts and Accidents of his Life It must not then be affirmed that the Primitive Christians embraced Christianity without enquiring in the least into the Miracles of Christ for that implies a Contradiction Neither must we say that they believed those Miracles without a due Examination of them Such Things as these indeed require no very great Examination but they could not avoid examining them had they endeavour'd it for 't is not wholly left to my Choice either to know or not to know the Things which are done in the Place which I inhabit neither does it wholly depend upon me to believe or not to believe certain matters of fact that are contradictory to publick Knowledge And tho' a Man under Pretence of Religion or otherwise should endeavour to make me believe he had raised a dead Man to Life again in a Village a few Miles distant from the Place I dwell in whom I might have both seen and known after his Resurrection or if I had not seen him my self many others had both seen and known and many went to see I say all this is no more left to my Choice to know or not to know than it is left to my Choice to be Mad or in my Senses For the better apprehending the Strength of this Argument I shall make this Supposition What if we being fully perswaded that Christ did all those Miracles the Gospel relates had gone up to the City of Jerusalem in the time of the Apostles themselves and reach'd thither just at the Evening of that Day of Pentecost on which St. Peter Converted so many People by convincing them that he had received the Holy Ghost I dare maintain first that we could not have forborn examining such Things which made so great a Noise then secondly I affirm that however willing we might have been to delude and impose upon our selves we could not have been so much as twenty four Hours at Jerusalem without knowing very distinctly the certain Truth of all those matters of fact It would have been no very great Trouble for us to have enquired how Lazarus did and his two Sisters Mary and Martha and tho' by chance they might have been all three dead to have desired to speak with their Friends and Relations or with those that had seen Lazarus and eaten with him both before and after his Resurrection In like manner we might have easily spoken with the Friends and Relations of Jairus and with those too of other People whom Christ had healed or raised from the Dead in the different Parts of Judea and Galilee and that was so much the more easy because Commerce was much more stirring between the Metropolis of Judea and the other Cities of the Holy Land than between the Metropolis and the other Cities of the other Provinces the Jews being wont to go up to Jerusalem at least on every solemn Feast-day Nay farther we might have enquired about the Truth or Falshood of those wonderful Prodigies which as the Gospel tells us attended the Death of Christ And since it was impossible that several thousand Witnesses should have been imposed upon concerning so great a number of evident and sensible matters of fact so in like manner it would have been absolutely impossible we should have become Christians only for twenty four hours after we had left Jerusalem supposing those matters of fact had been utterly false I have already shewn that the Life and Death of Jesus Christ were attended with such wonderful Circumstances as the Evangelists durst not have presumed to invent had they been utterly false neither had the Power to forge or make one single Person believe them had they design'd to impose upon Mens Belief There remains only for our full Conviction in this matter to shew that they would not have forged them had it been wholly left to their Choice I shall not here alledge that the Miracles of Jesus Christ according to the Recital of the Evangelists were attended with such Circumstances and so many strange Events that it is inconceivable the Disciples should take any Pleasure in inventing them such is for Example the tempting of our Saviour a strange and most scandalous Passage indeed to all those who are not fully acquainted with the true Mystery of it since it represents Christ to us as being in the hands of the Devil who sported himself with his Weakness tho' he was not able to overcome his Virtue one while placing him upon the Pinacle of the Temple whence he advised him to cast himself down another while upon an exceeding high Mountain from whence he shewed him all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them Now to see a Man in the hands of Satan would be a Sight that would shock us to see a just Man would be an Object more terrible but to see a Prophet himself would be a Wonder that would create Horror in us What must it be then to see a Divine Person in his Clutches or rather one that is both God and Man one that was called by way of Eminence the Just the Holy the Man without Sin or Blemish the greatest of all the Prophets in â—ine the Son of God himself He must necessarily be much mistaken that can imagine that such Thoughts as these could have naturally offered themselves to any Man's Mind much less to the Mind of Ignorant People who judge of Things by the Prejudices they are generally possest with 'T is true indeed Christ is represented to us in the Gospel as surrounded with Angels who ministred unto him after his Temptation but yet that Circumstance is so far from removing that which may seem offensive and surprising in that Event that it rather makes it the more strange and incomprehensible nothing so ill befitting a Man who was but just now in the Power of the Devil and carried about by him wherever he pleased as to be immediately after waited upon by Angels Add to this the uniting of so many mean Circumstances with so many glorious ones that occur in his Nativity in his Life and in his Death to instance in Christ's lying in a Manger whilst he was praised by the Hosts of Heaven his having not a Hole wherein to lay his Head whilst at the same time he commanded the Fishes of the Sea to bring him Mony to pay Tribute to those who asked it of him his shewing a great deal of Fear nay even apparent Weakness whilst he shook the whole Frame of the World and made the Earth tremble and the Sky to become dark his begging of his Father that the Cup of his Sufferings might pass away from
were we not assured of them from the Writings of the Heathens and had we not a clearer proof in the complaints of the Fathers who certainly were not so extravagant as publickly to complain of an imaginary persecution when it was so dangerous to complain of one that was real And therefore I would fain know what this Christian Faith and Doctrine is which made men so patiently suffer and abandon all things But to my great amazement I find that they believed that a certain crucified man was the Son of God that a man hang'd and nailed on a Cross was the sovereign judg of the World and the object of our Adoration I confess I can't but acknowledg some supernatural power in all this For tho' men of as mean appearance as those who first preached the Gospel might without any Miracles have weigh'd down the Authority of Emperours and Prelates and all the Magnificence and glory of Paganism objects very suitable to the worldly and ambitious heart of a man yet how can we conceive that they could without the help of Miracles perswade men to believe a Paradox so offensive to Reason and which appears at first view so horrible as this that the Son of God was nailed on a Cross We can never perswade our selves without offering violence to our Reason that those who from their youth represented their Deities to themselves as the greatest and most glorious Beings they could imagin and gave the name of Divine to whatever they thought in the highest degree beautiful and magnificent should yet substitute to all these great Ideas the notion of a God who died an infamous Death upon the Cross That not one alone but an infinite number of persons embraced an Opinion that immediately overthrew all their first Ideas of a God that this great change was not gradually and insensibly brought to pass or in the compass of several ages but in a very few years and with an incredible swiftness by the Mystery of vile and contemptible persons of no power or authority in the World and that the passion they had for a Doctrine which seemed at first so monstrous to Men induced them to suffer Death in defence of the same after having renounced their Fortune Reputation and Pleasures But does not prejudice over-rule in all this and make me Fancy I see that distinctly which I perceive but confusedly in truth I ought yet further to distrust my self and tho' I honour Errour too much in suspecting it may be so coherent so united to the Principles of Common sense and involved in so many appearances of Truth yet I will not pass by any scruple for all that has been hitherto said I find then that the Christian Religion was established in the World an hundred years ago I know that the Christians believe in a certain Jesus Christ crucified I know also that this Opinion of theirs was not innate I am fully perswaded that neither the Heathenish Priests nor their ordinary Guides taught them this Doctrin because they were the profess'd Enemies of it I am compelled therefore in despite of my self to credit at least in some respect the Relation the ancient Doctors of the Church unanimously gave of it viz that some persons called Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ went about the World preaching that this same Jesus Christ was the Son of God and the Messias whom God had promised to the Jews But these fundamental Truths require a more particular Examination and therefore we must shew more distinctly whether there were ever such men as the Apostles in the World what their Original was what Doctrine they preached and how they were qualified This we shall presently see by laying down for a certain Principle that the Christians had the books of the New-Testament in their possession at that very time we have chose for our fixed point I shall not at present enquire whether those Books are forged or not my design being to argue some time without entring upon that Enquiry For whether they are forged or not at least we learn from them certain undeniable matters of fact which will wonderfully illustrate all our following Enquiries CHAP. V. Which demonstrates that all the matters of fact contained in the Books of the New Testament can never be forg'd IF the New Testament be forged It may well be presumed that the Contrivers of that forgery who certainly could have no other design but to make it pass for truth endeavour'd to ground it upon some foundation either good or bad So that we have reason to believe that tho' they should have invented all that they relate at least they invented not the Names Country and Persons of Jesus Christ and his Apostles under whose Names they speak and to whom they ascribe the Establishment of the Christian Religion For is it probable they should endeavour to perswade men to worship a certain Jew called Jesus the Son of Mary a Galilean too who was crucified at Jerusalem and had several Disciples whose names â—re exactly related if the Jews could have immediâ—tely convinced them of the falsehood of all those matters by producing the Testimony of their own Nation who would have thronged in to tell them â—hat Jesus and his Disciples were only fictitious â—ames and that there was no more to do but conâ—ult all the Registers and Decrees wherein Augustus commanded all the Jews should be taxed in the days of Cyrenius and where it must have appeared that Jesus Christ himself if there was any such Person was also taxed 'T is all one as if a man should publish in this age a book full of excellent precepts of Morality intermixt with several fictitious actions which book he would have the World receive as the Doctrine of some divine and extraordinary man who in the beginning of this age raised up several men from the Dead healed all sorts of Diseases calm'd the Winds and Tempests of the Sea gave Authority to several of his Disciples to work many strange Miracles was at length seiz'd and put to Death in Germany and whose Disciples who bore such and such names and were born in such and such a Countrey came afterwards into France dispersed themselves throughout the other parts of Europe preach'd his Doctrine and at length died all unanimously in defence of it What think you of this Tale And how would it be received in the World but as a System only of many evident and palpable falsities What think you those persons would say of it who should be thus accused of so dreadful a parricide They would certainly reply that that fictitious book was purposely design'd to blast their Reputation But it appears the Jews never attempted to clear themselves after that manner They confess there was such a person as Jesus Christ and that their Fathers put him to Death neither do they deny the least Circumstance of his Life Ministry or Death excepting those which might probably make him pass for the Son of God But we
then must that person do or rather what must an infinite number of persons do who utterly renounce all things for the sake of the Gospel III. There has been found some who have counterfeited Books of Humane Learning but none ever known that were willing to die in defence of their forgery Now none here can be suspected to have forged the Books of the New Testament but only those who suffered Death in defence of the Christian Religion and consequently to confirm the Truth of these matters of fact on which Chistianity it self is founded IV. A man may very well counterfeit a Book of Humane Learning but not always nor in all circumstances and 't would be very ridiculous in a man to forge Letters that must have been written not long ago to whole Societies or Epistles that must have been deposited in the hands of an infinite number of persons and in very many different places Now this must needs be affirmed of all the Epistles of the Apostles which make up a very considerable part of the New Testament And how could the Church of Rome have possibly been made to believe that St. Paul wrote an Epistle to her or the Church of Corinth that she had received two Epistles from him and so of the rest unless it had been so V. This argument is so much the more considerable since he that grants one point in this matter unavoidably grants the whole and if you should agree with me that perhaps one single Epistle among all those of the New Testament was not forg'd you must grant the same thing of them all or at least it will be to no purpose for the Incredulous to to cavil thereupon For what if I should grant the four Gospels to be forg'd does not the Book of the Acts of the Apostles contain nay does it not necessarily suppose the same essential matters of fact related to us in the Gospels should I grant the same of the Book of Acts are not the Epistles of St. Paul sufficient to inform us that Jesus Christ wrought several miracles rose again from the Dead and ascended into heaven and that the Holy Ghost descended upon the Disciples on the day of Pentecost and that 's as much as I desire In a word should I grant all the Epistles of St. Paul to be the works of another man I need but receive those of St. Peter or those of St. John to prove the same thing There being never an Epistle in all the New Testament but what mentions or implies those essential matters of fact without which there can be no such thing as Christianity in the World Let us now see whether we can perswade our selves that all the Books of the New Testament without excepting one fragment or single Epistle amongst them are forg'd and whether we can entertain such a suspicion which no Heretick no Impious or Incredulous Person ever entertained But how is it possible all the Epistles of the Apostles should be forg'd since they must have been committed to an infinite number of Persons as they were really in the begining of Christianity and since Tertullian tells us that in his time they carefully preserved in several Churches the Originals of those Epistles which the Apostles had wrote to them Again in what time and on what occasion could this Forgery have been made Was it during the lives of the Apostles No For could the World consider those Books as Sacred and Divine which the Apostles themselves forg'd Was it then immediately after the Death of the Apostles Do we owe it to Clemens Polycarp and the other Doctors of that Age By no means for those Disciples of the Apostles separated themselves as soon as those great Lights of the World were extinguished Polycarp went to Rome to decide a controversy with a Bishop of Rome occasioned in the Church about the time wherein they were to celebrate the Feast of the Christian Resurrection or Passover Those two great men differed much in that point but yet they both greed unanimously to receive the Writings of the Apostles and to look upon them as the true standard of their Faith and Manners Moreover what Probability is there that so great a number of Churches could have been induced to receive so many false Epistles so soon after the Death of the Apostles and when there was so many Persons yet living who had conversed with them In truth this is so extravagant a Notion that we hold our selves not at all obliged to refute it But it may be objected that the Primitive Christians question'd the Authority of some Epistles such as the Epistle to the Hebrews whose Author was never certainly known the second Epistle of St. Peter that of St. Jude c. I grant it but then I presume that this consideration makes for us since it cannot be conceived that the Ancient Primitive Christians should dispute so long about some Epistles in particular had the rest altogether been as liable to suspicion But may we not reasonably imagin that during those strange disorders which followed the destruction of Jerusalem some Christians either perfect cheats or but partly perswaded of that Faith might have composed the Books of the New Testament and so after having inserted in them whatever stories they pleased ascribed them to the Apostles to gain the greater veneration and respect for their fictions No certainly because the devastation of Jerusalem hinder'd not but that there might be very numerous Churches at Rome at Antioch at Thessalonica Philippi c. whom it would have been impossible to have perswaded that the Apostles had wrote them some Epistles which must have been already deposited in their hands And besides that it appears plainly that the Books of the New Testament were composed before the destruction of Jerusalem because Jerusalem and the Church established at Jerusalem is often mention'd therein without the least hint that Jerusalem was then utterly destroyed Besides how could it come into any mans mind to forge such Books after the destruction of Jerusalem whose design was only to humble the pride of the Jews to induce them no longer to hate the Heathens as being strangers and to perswade them that tho God as yet suffered the carnal worship of their Law they ought not to expect to be justified by that This I say was the end of the New Testament and especially the Epistles of St. Paul who seems earnestly to desire to unite the minds of the two Nations And Heaven having sufficiently declared it self against the Jews by the destruction of their City the confusion of their Tribes and Families and that general dispersion which made them Tributaries to all other Nations there was no need of any further reasons to prove that the Jews were not the only Nation called to the Knowledge of the true God 'T was enough that this proof was evidently written by the hand of God in the just punishment of that people In the mean while 't is necessary to observe
Preaching a Church at Jerusalem II. Would you know the time 'T was in the space of three years that the Miracles of Jesus Christ his Death Resurrection and Ascension were brought to pass and a few Weeks after the Ascension the Apostles begun to Preach publickly in Jerusalem III. Would you know the witnesses of the truth of these matters of fact We can produce a great number of persons who both lived and conversed with Jesus Christ himself IV. Would you fain know the nature of the matters of fact here attested We shew you that they are very evident and singular ones that the Sick are healed the Winds and Seas hush'd the Dead raised a man put to death who convers'd with his Disciples and ascended into Heaven c. V. If you would know their number we can shew that the whole Life of Jesus Christ was but one continual series of Miracles VI. Lastly Would you know the proofs of all this The Apostles themselves boast of having received miraculous gifts and that too by a good Title as we shall shew in the sequel of this Work In the interim do but unite all these Circumstances together and see what an irresistible evidence arises from their Union How could the Apostles perswade so many persons concerned in this thing so many that had both known and seen Jesus Christ Would they not soon have lost all Credit if search had been made into the places and the truth of what they affirmed strictly examin'd Or rather how is it possible that whilst they ventur'd to publish such things in the very places where they must necessarily have been brought to pass the Jews should not have stopt the progress of the Gospel by discovering to the World so visible and evident an Imposture For the Apostles did not publish only one single matter of fact of this nature They affirm'd also that their Master had raised Lazarus from the Dead together with the Son of the Widdow of Naim and the Daughter of Jairus that he had heal'd almost an infinite number of people possessed with the Devil Deaf Blind and sick of the Palsy and that his fame had spread throughout all Syria Nor were the Apostles content barely to preach all these things they put them also down in writing and their Writings are dispers'd throughout all the World Therefore they hid not themselves but were willing every one should know the certainty of what they testify'd and examine as much as they pleased the matters of fact they related They gave them out to the World and exposed them to be search'd all manner of ways But supposing I should grant those Books to be written forty fifty or sixty years after the Death of Jesus Christ still is it evident that before that time there was a Church at Jerusalem founded by the preaching of the Apostles and it is certain that the Apostles had declared by word of mouth the Miracles and Resurrection of Jesus Christ which are the essential matters of fact contained in those Books For how could they otherwise perswade the World to worship a crucified man or convince them that Jesus Christ was the true Messias How was it possible the Christians should look upon that Book as Divine which went upon a supposition of what was never done By what kind of agreement should four persons who wrote in different times and places and copy'd not one anothers Writings as is plain if we read them over with never so little attention and consider their different manner of relating the same things I say by what kind of agreement should they have conspired to inform us of the same matters of fact if the Apostles had not first of all unanimously and universally publish'd them How could the Apostles have perswaded men to turn Christians had they not declared the Miracles Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ since Christianity can't subsist without these matters of fact Thus we see 't is to no purpose for Impostors to disguise themselves for all their shifts and tricks serve only to discover them CHAP. V. Where we shall more particularly examine whether the Apostles had the Power or the Will to deceive mankind THose men who have a design to deceive the World must have more skill wit and cunning than others which skill wit and cunning will appear in their works in spite of all their Art and subtilty But when I strictly examine those Authors whom we call Sacred I neither find Cunning Wit nor Affectation in their Books Every thing they contain seems to me very simple naked and open They all exactly relate their own Weaknesses and imperfections They do not conceal their true Birth and extraction They discover their ambition in their controversy who amongst them should be the greatest in the flourishing Kingdom of the Messias their gross ignorance in the Questions they asked their Master and one another viz. What meaneth this to rise again from the Dead their cowardise in betaking themselves to flight at the sight of the Soldiers that came to take away their Master and their incredulity in those scruples they raised concerning his Resurection All these things plainly discover the greatest sincerity and impartiality But yet there arises here a certain scruple which seems not altogether inconsiderable and may deserve a little consideration Who knows perhaps some will object but that this is an affected sincerity which prepossesses our minds in their behalf only to deceive us the more securely In order to overthrow this notion I shall not assert that the Writers we speak of were originally Fishermen and Publicans and that it would seem very strange that men of that Birth and Education should affect simplicity and be capable of so refined apiece of policy of which there can hardly be given an example amongst the most able Politicians that ever took upon them to deceive mankind Neither shall I say that since the four Evangelists composed their Writings apart 't would be very surprising that they should all concur in the design of imposing upon the credulity of men by Writing after so simple and ingenuous a manner and that they should not only be entirely conformable to one another in this respect but also should agree with the other Writers of the New Testament 'T is sufficient to observe that they sometimes relate such things as at first view suggest those notions in us which Piety utterly rejects and Incredulity makes use of to oppose the Christian Religion by attacking its divine head This they would never have done had they only affected an ingenuous simplicity Thus it 's ask'd why Jesus Christ who was subject to his holy and ever blessed Mother according to the observation of the Evangelists should make her this answer which is some what rough and severe Woman what have I to do with thee my hour is not yet come Thus Julian the Apostate Celsus Porphirius and other Enemies of the Christian Religion stick not to say that Jesus Christ gave
some marks of his weakness in the Garden of Gethsemane where the fear of Death made him sweat great drops of Blood and where he cried out several times O my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me They also pretend that this exclamation of Jesus Christ when nailed on the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me was an expression of his despair I know not here what to admire most either the impudence of these proud Enemies of our Religion or the force of Truth which still becomes stronger the more they endeavour to shake it For as for the first If the Enemies of the Christians wont believe the report of the Evangelists how came they to know that Jesus Christ uttered these words which give them occasion to think he wanted constancy But if they will believe the report of the Evangelists why should they refuse to believe so many miraculous matters of fact which the Evangelists left to us in writing after having been eye-witnesses of the same It is certain that we may find in our principles wherewith to explain those places they bring against us The words which Jesus Christ spoke to his blessed Mother give us only to understand how very jealous he was of the duties of his Calling He spoke to her as a Mediatour between God and Man as the person in whom she ought necessarily to believe in order to her Salvation and who doubts but in that quality he had some Authority over her As for the sorrowfulness he expressed in his Agony it might proceed from a double cause the one natural and the other supernatural He might very well fear Death as Man and the pains inflicted on his Humane Nature might force him to utter some innocent complaints But that was not all that made his torments grievous He was loaded with the Sins of Mankind and subject to the curse of the Law He looked upon God as his Father but God offered himself to him as an angry Judge The more he loved his Father the more sensible he was of the Grief he sustained in being remov'd from him The measure of his sufferings consisted in the measure of his vertue and what he says here to his Father is rather the Language of his Love than that of his Despair But if the Incredulous should say they are not obliged to subscribe to my explanations because it is incertain whether they have any other ground than my bare imagination I am willing they should entertain this scruple and cherish it till by establishing my principles I have an opportunity of answering yet more fully all those difficulties But in the mean time I hold that nothing can more demonstrate the sincerity of the Evangelists than those places just now mentioned and I affirm that the sincerity of the Evangelists being well demonstrated does invincibly prove the Truth of the Christian Religion For certainly either those who composed the Gospels had a design to deceive Mankind in behalf of Jesus Christ and his Religion or they had no such design at all If they had any such design they would have taken special care not to set down those Circumstances of the death of their Master which might give the World an occasion to suspect he wanted Courage or thought himself forsaken of God But if in writing the matters of fact contained in the Gospel they had no manner of design to deceive Mankind we must then of necessity look upon them as being very sincere Authors who would not deceive us unless they themselves had first of all been deceived So that all the question is whether the matters of fact they tell us of are such as are shewn only by Illusion And we need here only consider whether all the Disciples could have fancied they saw an infinite number of very singular and sensible Miracles such as sick men healed Dead raised to Life c. and have believed that they themselves work'd miracles when all the while there was no such thing 'T is to no purpose here to alledge that the Evangelists affected an ingenuous simplicity to avoid the suspicion of dishonesty For had that been their design they would have taken special care not to furnish impious men with places and passages on which they might raise imaginary triumphs Nor is there any reason to believe that the Evangelists related those words because their simplicity was so great that they had not judgment to discern whether they were for or against their cause For what probability is there that men who had wit enough to deceive other people should have so little in this occasion Must a man needs be wise and learned when he chuses to represent his Master constant and undaunted rather than sorrowful unto Death And yet 't is not one single Evangelist that relates the history of his passion after this manner they all agree in this respect And how could this be so but that they only proposed to themselves to speak the plain truth and they spoke it without considering the impression it would make on Mankind without examining whether the Incredulous would take occasion from thence to slander the Christian Religion In the mean while if what has been said here is not sufficient I am willing more particularly to examin the matters contained in the Gospels CHAP. VI. Where we shall examine the matters contained in the Gospels and see whether they are capable of Illusion or Imposture THose Books contain an infinite number of extraordinary divine and admirable things but the principal of them are reducible to these four heads I. The Birth Genealogy and Education of Jesus Christ with all the Circumstances of them which we shall not speak of at present least we should be too tedious having already mention'd them in our first part of this work II. The Exercise of his Office confirmed by an infinite number of miracles from his Baptism to his Ascension III. The holiness of his life and conversation seen clearly in several occasions and shining throughout the various Actions of his life IV. His Doctrin and his Prophecies From these four different heads spring forth such beams of Truth as wonderfully illustrate this whole matter Let us therefore examine them in their order and keep still to our usual method which is to raise as we go along as many difficulties as we can and urge them on with all their force to stop if it be possible the complaints of the Incredulous against us We may very well consider in the miracles of Jesus Christ their number variety and greatness the noise they made in the World and the manner in which they were received And first the Evangelists make appear the number variety and greatness of them in telling us that he changed Water into Wine in Cana that he restored sight to the Blind hearing to the Deaf and health to the Sick that he cleansed the Leprous healed the sick of the Palsy cured one of a withered Hand
another of a Dropsy a third diseased with an Issue of Blood that he cast out many Devils raised the Dead to Life appeased the stormy Winds and Tempests and at several times wonderfully fed many thousands in the Wilderness These Miracles are very numerous indeed seem very much different from one another and cannot proceed but from a Divine Power To this we must further add that they are of such a nature as could not be concealed from the knowledge of men that they must necessarily have an infinite number of witnesses so that had the Apostles purely invented them they might soon have been contradicted by an infinite number of people And yet it seems the most inveterate enemies of Jesus Christ durst not altogether deny the evidence of them because they accused him of healing the sick on the Sabbath Day and pretended he cast out Devils by Belzeebub the Prince of the Devils this sort of calumny being as it were an extorted confession of his infinite Power and a Testimony which they bore in spite of themselves to the Truth of his Mission Besides 't is easy to believe that the Evangelists did not invent of themselves what they make the Scribes and Pharisees utter on this account because they unanimously agree in the relation they give us of it they represent Jesus Christ refuting this calumny and assuring us in this occasion that blasphemy against the Holy Ghost would never be forgiven a thing which could not easily enter into any mans mind In a word the Jews that came after being compelled to own that Jesus Christ had done several miracles were obliged to say that he had found out the true pronunciation of the great word Jehovah and that 't was by the help of this pronunciation a pattern whereof he had found in the Temple that he wrought so many miracles See into what extravagant opinions men necessarily fall into when they endeavour to shun the force of Truth But not to insist on all these vain Chimeras methinks neither of these two Truths can reasonably be contested The first is that Jesus Christ pretended to have work'd many miracles This is what his enemies reviled him with when standing round about his Cross they said he saved others himself he cannot save Let him now come down from the Cross and we will believe him The second is that the Disciples who followed him knew for certain whether he wrought any miracles or not For since we have here to do with evident and singular miracles above the reach of Human Power they could not but certainly know the truth of them Things being thus supposed I further consider that of the many Disciples Jesus Christ had there were but two that proved unfaithful to him but it was not long before they did right to the Truth tho each of them in a very different manner The one was moved with a sensible regret and wept bitterly the other was so tormented with the remorse of Conscience that he was forced to make himself away Had Jesus been an Impostor how came Peter to repent and Judas to despair If he falsly boasted of many miracles those two men those two constant and perpetual witnesses of his Actions must needs have known it and and if they did certainly know it whence could then proceed the Repentance of the one and the Despair of the other 'T would be to no purpose to use any Evasions in the history of Judas which the Writers of the New Testament have represented to us as a thing publickly known to the World This man says St. Peter in the first Chapter of the Books of Acts verse 18. purchased a field with the reward of iniquity and falling headlong burst asunder in the midst and all his Bowels gush'd out And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue Aceldama that is to say the field of Blood Is it possible to be more particular in any thing And could the Author of the Acts be so foolish to imagin he could invent all these Circumstances and make St. Peter utter them without making him ridiculous and himself liable to be contradicted In like manner the Evangelists tell us all the Circumstances of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ They say that at his death there was a great Darkness and a dreadful Earth-quake that the Rocks burst and the vail of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom If all this were meer Invention those Writers shew'd but little reason in chusing such strange Circumstances to impose upon mens belief Was it such an easy matter to perswade all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem that on the day Jesus Christ was crucified the vail of the Temple rent in twain and several other notable Prodigies were seen Was it not a pretty way of getting credit amongst men And those men too who related such strange things contrary to the certain knowledge of every one and so soon after they must have been brought to pass could they gain over to their side so many thousand people As to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ the Evangelists relate that the Stone of his Sepulchre was sealed and a watch set over it that the Soldiers said the next day that the Disciples of Jesus came by night and stole away his body whilst they slept c. If you doubt whether the Souldiers were suborned by the chief Priests and gave out that the body of Jesus Christ had been stole away by his Disciples St. Matthew will inform you of it in such a manner as will infallibly clear all your doubts Now says he some of the watch came into the City and shewed unto the Chief Priests all the things that were done And when they were assembled with the Elders and had taken Councel they gave large money unto the Soldiers saying say ye his Disciples came by night and stole him away while we Slept And if this comes to the Governours ears we will perswade him and secure you So they took the mony and did as they were taught and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews unto this day Chap. 28. v. 11 12 13 14 15. Here the Evangelist is far from designing to deceive the Publick in those things he pretends were publickly known It is therefore to be confess'd that a watch was set over the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ and that some of the watch reported such things as are mentioned by the Evangelists or at least that it was supposed that that same was their report The question therefore is whether the Disciples did really steal away the body of Jesus Christ from the midst of a company of Soldiers that were appointed to guard it But do but only reflect a little on the person of the Disciples who were no better than poor and fearful Fishermen on their Dispersion their trouble and heaviness the triple denial of the stoutest of them all together with all other
been clearly explained by their event Neither the Books of the Old or New Testament bear the least record of Mahomet whereas the Prophets had foretold the coming of Jesus Christ as of a Messias that was to unite the Jews and Gentiles and to carry the Covenant of God unto the ends of the World Mahomet established himself in the World by force and violence but Jesus Christ only by patience and sufferings The former was environ'd with Soldiers the latter was attended with Martyrs The one put men to Death but the other received Death for our sakes Mahomet's ambition who established such a flourishing Empire was presently seen in the success he had in his undertaking But Jesus Christ was far from self Interest or Ambition since he withdrew himself when they would have made him King and declared his Kingdom was not of this World Instead of encouraging the carnal prejudices of his Disciples he took care to undeceive them and to foretell all the Evils they were to expect And tho' any should presume openly to dispute all these matters of fact still they appear by the end and success of the Gospel the design of which was to sanctify the heart and calm the disorderly passions of the Soul Mahomet invented such a Religion which agreed only with corrupted Reason and the loose inordinate desires of the heart He made the scandal of the Cross to give place to the magnificence and grandeur of the World he took away the most spiritual and difficult matters of Morality to fill the minds of his Disciples with carnal and sensual Ideas But not so did our Saviour act who proposed his Cross to the minds of men as an astonishing Paradox and a continual cause of Mortification and Repentance Mahomet Established his Religion by the help of Ignorance and Darkness by suppressing such Books as might have enlightened mens Understandings and by requiring a blind submission from them Jesus Christ on the contrary would not have them believe his Doctrine but as they found it conformable to that of the Prophets Search the Scriptures says he for in them ye think ye have eternal life John 5. 39. Mahomet established himself in the World by dissembling and disguising his thoughts He promised in the beginning a toleration of all Religions carried it fair to the Christians but afterwasds did his utmost endeavours to extirpate them utterly But Jesus Christ declared at first his intention and design which was to save mankind and overthrow Superstition it self Nor he nor his Disciples used any Policy or Circumvention in this respect Mahomet died but never rose nor pretended to rise again from the dead thereby to shew he was approved of God Jesus Christ died but it was believed he rose again from the dead upon the testimony of those who had seen him after his Resurrection and testified of the Truth of this matter of fact to all the World at the expence of their lives and effusion of their blood Mahomet's Religion was invented maintained and supported by Policy but that of Jesus Christ was at first offensive to all the Princes upon earth and was established in the World notwithstanding all their endeavours to the contrary Mahomets's Religion appear'd at first view to be as it were the Triumph of Humane Industry and Covetousness but the Religion of Jesus Christ shew'd that of integrity and justice in their full perfection and Natural Religion in that proper purity and simplicity that was restored to it by Charity Mahomet laid the foundation of a particular Monarchy and established such Laws as humanly speaking are serviceable only in those places wherein he has settled his Dominion but Jesus Christ has given us new Principles of union and intelligence very usefull to the good of publick society in general and very fit to cement the union of all men together by making the spirit of Charity reign in the World The coming of Mahomet did not sanctify mankind but that of Jesus Christ was attended with an innumerable Company of persons who all renounced the World meerly by the Faith they had in him 'T was not Mahomet but Jesus Christ who exactly fulfilled the Oracles concerning the calling of the Gentiles because Mahomet derived all his knowledge of the true God from Jesus Christ as we have already shewed Lastly Temporal Prosperity was the true Character of the Religion of Mahomet and it might be very well affirmed that Mahomet was a Man of God if it were true that all those who enjoy the greatest Prosperity in the World that is all Tyrants wicked and unjust men are the favorites of God But the Character of the Religion of Jesus Christ is patience self-denial innocence and a simplicity of manners and certainly he was approved of God if God approves of vertuous patient humble and charitable men It concerns now the Incredulous to answer all these differences if they would have us allow of this Comparison for otherwise we shall ever reject it as being very ridiculous and extravagant CHAP. XV. Where we further examin the objections of the Incredulous THe Incredulous are apt to raise as many suspicions against the miracles of Jesus Christ as against his person because of all those proofs which establish his Religion there are none that can move the senses so much as that taken from true Miracles I. Then they object that Jesus the Son of Mary might have healed two or three people either by chance or by vertue of Second causes and that that good success might have got him afterwards the name of a Prophet through the ignorance of the people who are wont to ascribe to supernatural Causes every thing that is unknown to them We answer that we have here a very great number of miracles all of different kinds evident and sensible miracles in their Nature unimitable and above all Imposture Such are the Resurrection of the dead healing the Blind the Lame and the sick of the Palsy c. II. They pretend that he might perhaps have suborned Witnesses to testify some fabulous miracles But how could this be Since Jesus Christ had neither money to give nor dignities to promise and as for cunning Politick niceties Riches and Credit they were only amongst the Scribes and Pharisees and Doctors of the Law his implacable Enemies who took all opportunities to prejudice him because he publickly censured their hypocrisy upon all occasions III. They object that Jesus Christ was so prudent as to work his miracles only before three of his chosen Disciples viz. Peter James and John Now say they who knows but that those three Disciples to flatter the ambition of their Master might have attested certain Miracles as true which were not really so To remove this suspicion we need only reflect upon the many miracles Jesus Christ wrought in the presence of his other Disciples He raised from the dead the Son of the Widdow of Naim as he was a carrying to be interr'd He raised Lazarus from the grave in
the sight of several Jews who were purposely come thither to comfort the Sisters of the Deceased Person He tarried four days that it might not be said he was not really dead He permitted Lazarus to converse with his acquaintance after his Resurrection which gave occasion to the Jews blinded with madness to conspire together to send him to the grave again whom the grave had just sent them for their Conversion IV. But is it possible that such great and such unparalelled miracles as these should make so little impression upon peoples minds This Age is indeed a wicked and prejudiced age But yet what a noise would the Resurrection of a dead man make now How many would make it their business to be fully satisfied of the truth of such a matter of fact How few would doubt it after having known the certain truth of it To this I answer that the greatest part of those who heard this Miracle did not in the least believe it Some ascribed it to the power of Beelzebub others to some other cause some knew not what to think of it and therefore refused to enquire into it others verily believ'd that Jesus Christ and Lazarus had agreed together thus to seduce the people and this very likely was the opinion of those who sought after Lazarus to put him to death Others tho' very few took occasion from thence to glorify God But lest any man should wonder at the little impression this miracle made upon the prejudiced and superstitious minds of men 't will be sufficient to make these two following Reflections First That there have been several Jews who freely acknowledged the Miracles of Jesus Christ tho' they persisted in their incredulity chusing rather superstitiously to ascribe them to a certain I know not what pronunciation of the word Jehovah than to refer them totheir true cause which shews that the evidence of Miracles is not always of it self sufficient to overcome the hardness of some mens minds when prepossess'd with prejudice Secondly That superstition it self has been sometimes carried on to that degree as to extinguish utterly all the lights of Reason and even to call in question those very objects that are present to the senses rather than be obliged to renounce its prejudices But it is not necessary to insist much upon this last reflection It sufficiently appears from thence that there are such people in the World whose minds being prepossessed will either call in question any palpable truths or else ascribe matters of fact truly miraculous to some fantastical and extravagant causes But there are none that are willing to die in order to maintain that they were spectators of those things which they had really never seen especially when they profess to believe that imposture is a crime worthy of Death and when they might be so easily found out by so great a number of witnesses it would argue meer folly for any to pretend to impose upon men in this respect The Jewish Doctors had credit and authority enough over the people partly to stifle the knowledge they might have of those matters of fact or if that fail'd at least to give such reasons of them as would certainly flatter the immoderate desire the Jews had to see not a sorrowful and contemptible but a glorious and triumphing Messias But the Disciples were too weak to endure the severity of those Torments inflicted on them had they been meer Impostors and were not surely so sensless as ever to think they might easily perswade men to believe such matters of fact as the Resurrection of Lazarus For to endeavour to conceal a matter of fact of that Nature one had need only of prejudice and a wicked inclination but to have a design to make other men believe it when it was really false one must be possess'd with an unaccountable and unheard of madness V. But you will say let the opinion the Jews had of the Miracles of Jesus Christ be what it will still is it possible they could have no better preserved the memory of them and that Josephus for example who carefully relates the least sort of Events and forgets not to mention certain Seducers that had appeared in the World from time to time before him should not in the least speak of the Miracles of of Jesus Christ It is supposed by some that that notable testimony which he bears of him was a pious fraud of his or a meer Invention of the succeeding ages We shall not enquire into the truth of that at present We are willing to take things in the worst sense and we have three several replies to make this objection concerning the silence of Josephus in this respect The first is that those who probably inserted in the Writings of that Author that notable place which has given occasion to the Criticism of the Learned might for a continuation of their design have blotted out every thing that Josephus really tells us on this account and which perhaps tho' less advantagious to our cause is yet sufficient to shew that Jesus Christ was held as one that wrought many Miracles The second that Josephus being a Pharisee might probably have concealed the wonders of the life of our Saviour out of the hatred he bore to our Religion And the last is that as this man had endeavoured to insinuate himself into Vespasian's favour by foretelling him that he should be Emperour and had ascribed to him several prophecies of the Old Testament which promised that a King should come from the East it is highly probabable that this Author being a Courtier would not out of complaisance to Vespasian and his Children mention the least thing of a man who had pretended he was the Messias and to whom other people ascribed those famous prophecies whereby he had endeavoured to ingratiate himself in that Emperours Esteem And certainly it is very unlikely to suppose that a man who had carefully related the least Circumstance of the life of Herod the Great should have forgot the Murther of the Children of Bethlehem if at the time he discovered the cause of that Murther he had not been affraid to discover also the dread Herod had upon him at the birth of the Messias and the Opinion then currant among the Jews that the Messias was to be born in Bethlehem 'T is however certain that this Author could not have concealed any such events as these but only out of Ignorance or Policy He could not have done it out of ignorance and the Incredulous themselves will not presume to think that Josephus was altogether ignorant that Jesus Christ had been put to death at Jerusalem that he was accused there of seducing the people that he had several Disciples to attend him whose number in his time increased yet daily nay that there had been a very numerous Church at Jerusalem composed of persons of that perswasion And certainly there must have been Christians in all Judea since there dwelt a very
instituted in cold Blood certifies us of all these things But because an involuntary Death would argue a certain kind of weakness 't is also most certain that nothing can better evince the strength and courage of Jesus Christ than that tho' he foresaw the horrours of an infamous and painful Death yet he exposed himself to it with such a constant will and firm Resolution that by his example he shewed his Disciples how he would have them imitate and commemorate his sufferings Jesus Christ was condemned to Death by a Nation seditiously stirred up against him and by a Sanhedrin envious of his Glory but he was justified by the Conscience of Judas whose remorse for having betray'd him forced him to kill himself and by the solemn declaration of Pilate who washed his hands in the presence of the Jews to shew that he was innocent of the Blood of that just Person He was justified too by the voice of the Centurion who saw the prodigies his Death was attended withall and soon after by the mouths even of those who sought his ruin and who being prick'd to the heart cry'd out to the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do Act. 2. 37. And certainly 't is a very great glory to our Messias that the most guilty Conscience the most unjust judges the most insensible and hardened sort of Soldiers and the most barbarous Murtherers should even bare record of his Innocence Jesus Christ suffered but it was for our sakes he gave himself up to the sorrow and anguish of Death and made his life an offering for Sin And if those wounds are counted honourable which a Subject receives sighting in the presence of his King and if those which a King receives for the safety of his Subjects are esteemed yet far more glorious what Glory then did Christ deserve who suffered in the presence and by the will of his Father for the Salvation of his People and Children and who by his sufferings established such an Empire which no power can dissolve Lastly Jesus Christ suffered a punishment proper only to Slaves but we are also very certain that during the time of his sufferings he shewed himself to have a power over Nature her self since the Graves were opened at his Death the Rocks rent the Sun was darkened and the Vail of the Temple was rent in twain And it is impossible that the Disciples of the Lord should have invented so sensible and signal matters of fact against the fresh and publick knowledge which those men that lived in their days had of it without being guilty of such an Extravagance which is more than humane But here we will ask the Incredulous in our turn whether a voluntary Death an innocence publickly own'd the sorrows and anguish which a man suffered out of Charity to the World the homages which even insensible Creatures paid to him whom men scorned and condemned were not certain Characters worthy of the Messias that had been promised us Indeed if you take away the proofs which evidently shew Jesus Christ to be the Son of God you may then call his Cross a scandal to him and the World but whilst those proofs shall be left entire his Cross will serve the more to illustrate his Majesty and Grandeur and we shall not only then assert that it was a voluntary Death which he underwent and a Death that was foretold us but we shall also shew that it is as it were a looking-glass-like wherein we may see at once all the vertues of man and all the Attributes of God There we may find the patience of a man who suffered every thing from his equals and from those who ought to have been his Servants and Disciples the Charity of a man who pray'd for them that put him to Death the Constancy of a just man who bore the burden of the iniquities of mankind and the constancy of an innocent man who at once as it were wrestled with the fury of men and the Justice of God There we may see the Masterpiece of Divine Wisdom the designs of our Enemies frustrated and the designs of God triumphing over the vain opinions and projects of men the propitiation of sins made for us by the most dreadful parricide that was ever committed or conceived the Synagogue buried in his grave whom they barbarously put to Death in defence of their priviledges the Romans crowning a King with thorns who was to rule over all Nations and putting a Reed instead of a Scepter into his hands flesh and blood shewing us in the Death of Christ the true pattern of mortification Jesus Christ dying attended with almost infinite numbers of Martyrs who were willing to die in imitation of him who was Conquerour of the World only by his shame who crucifyed the flesh by the preaching of his Cross and procured Rest and Peace to the Souls of them that dyed by the Anguish of his Agony We may also see the Justice and Mercy of God clearly manifested in his Death For what other Victim could have better evinced Gods hatred for Sin What present could have been made unto men that could have better discovered Gods love to them The Incredulous therefore reproach us with the meanness of an object wherein the vertues of men and the attributes of God himself are shewn in their greatest height and perfection But let him that any ways doubts it consider the Resurrection of Jesus Christ which is as it were a key that opens all these Events to us To dye and remain under the power of Death is indeed an evident mark of weakness and misery but to dye and yet overcome Death by rising from the Grave is the mark of a supernatural power and a divine glory Thus Jesus Christ descended into the lower parts of the Earth for no other end but to ascend into Heaven as the Eye-witnesses of that great and notable Event did plainly testify But the Incredulous will not believe their report and they further pretend that they can find in history the example of a testimony very like that which was nevertheless without contradiction reputed to be a meer Imposture We read say they that after the Death of Romulus there was a certain senator who having always lived in the repute of a very honest man certified that Romulus was ascended into Heaven where he was inserted among the Gods and that this Monarch had appeared unto him c. Is not this a matter of fact not unlike that which the Disciples testify'd of Jesus Christ throughout the Universe 'T is very like it indeed only it has these following differences there you read of a single person testifying that he had seen Romulus ascended into Heaven but here you have a very great number of people who certifiy'd that they had seen Jesus Christ after his Resurrection There it is pretended that a great and triumphant Monarch during the course of his life was inserted amongst the Gods after his Death which agrees
one another and so to become Subjects of the same Heavenly King they renounced then all their differences and quarrels the dear expectation they had of their Messias stifling in their hearts all Passions and Resentments But when John the Baptist had as it were led them by the Hand to Jesus Christ himself they were strangely surprised to find in him nothing of what they expected They found in him Poverty where they thought to have found Riches Shame and Afflictions where they thought to have met nothing but great Splendor and Temporal Glory For this Reason therefore they rejected him with Horrour and Abomination all their thoughts being on a sudden changed into indignation and anger against him in whom before they had fixed all their imaginary hopes But tho' the generality of his Nation cast him off there were yet a certain number of persons who were willing to follow him and that number daily increased in proportion as Jesus Christ's sufferings and afflictions increased There were at first but twelve whom he called to his Service Then sent he seventy others abroad who were succeeded by a great may others after his Death And their number further increasing with the fury of the Sanhedrin there were at length many seen who testify'd in behalf of that crucified man But how come those Disciples to follow a Messias so contrary to their first Ideas and receiv'd opinions How is it possible they should not have been discouraged at his Cross unless Jesus Christ had promised them to do signs and wonders How could they have been with him night and day for three Years and an half without inquiring into that important matter of fact or knowing whether he were really able to do Miracles or not Or how is it possible when they found their mistake that Jesus Christ was but an ordinary sort of a man uncapable of working any signs or wonders they should not have forsaken him as a Whymsical Impostor How could their minds be so suddenly changed as to look on Humiliation and Meanness Misery and Afflictions as upon the true and real Character of the Messias they I say whose minds Education had filled only with carnal Ideas of the flourishing Kingdom of the Messias But above all how could they be present at the Crucifixion of their Master without being reduced to the last greatest Consternation and Confusion So that the second Consequence which may very well be drawn from these principles already established is that the Disciples having always imagined with their Fathers and Mothers their Brothers and Sisters their Teachers and Elders and in general with their whole Nation that their Messias should have restored the Kingdom of Israel and having understood those words in a literal sense it is impossible but that they should be extreamly offended to see him wearing a Crown of Thorns upon his Head when he was nailed on the Cross and a Reed instead of a Scepter in his Hand Nay more than this 't is morally impossible but that this object must have rooted out of their Hearts all thoughts of Pride and Ambition and all pretensions to Greatness and Temporal Prosperity which their Blindness had caused them to conceive upon this mans account unless there had happened since his Death such supernatural and extraordinary things as were able to revive in their Heart such great hopes as these Thirdly We shall conclude from the Principles we have already established that the Disciples as well as all other Jews being as it were ty'd to their Religion by what they had Seen and Heard by their Inclination and Vnderstanding by their Interest and Piety by their Customs and Education and by the Advantage wherewith they might well flatter themselves of being distinguished from all other Nations of the World and being further as it were wedded to it by that great number of Ceremonies and Customs the Justice and Holiness of which they could no way doubt of since they had been so exactly prescribed them by the Law of God himself it cannot be supposed but that they imagined their Law to be of an eternal Duration and that being extreamly averse to every new sort of Worship which was contrary to that of Moses they could not have so suddenly altered their opinion nor could there have happened so strange a revolution in the Hearts and Minds of so many persons united and as it were link'd by so many respects to the Law of Moses that in so small a period of time the Souls of all those Jews should have been so entirely changed as that they should begin to look upon the Jewish Religion as upon a Dispensation granted with a proviso and which was to come to an end and for the future be considered only as a thing altogether useless and out of Date I confess that this principle was not first of all approved of in the World without great contest and difficulty and that there were for a while certain Judaising Christians who taught others that the Law of Moses was still in force and that it was necessary to Salvation to joyn the Doctrine of Jesus Christ with the Ceremonies of the Law But then it is well known they were only either some of Christ's Enemies who started these questions out of a particular design to make a division in the Christian Church or some Jews turned Christians as yet very weak and not fully strengthened in their belief whose scrupulous Zeal and blind Superstition caused all those Controvesies But however 't is evident that the true Disciples of Jesus Christ and especially the Apostles were not long in an errour as to this point They affirmed that men were justify'd only by the Faith of Jesus Christ without the works of the Law And 't is manifest that in the first Council held at Jerusalem the Disciples of our Lord abolished the Customs and Rites of the Ceremonial Law But at last it is of no great moment whether the Ceremonial Law or Religion of Moses was abolished ten years sooner or later Still it is certain that it was sometimes abolished or rather to speak more exactly and truly it was fulfilled by the Gospel and so the observation of it ceased Now I demand how it is possible that those men who were so devoted and bigotted to that Law who made it the object of their thoughts and most common discourse should so great a number of them and in so short a time with one common consent renounce that Law which Piety made so venerable and Honour and Interest so valuable in their Esteem Whereas so many ages elapsed before the coming of Jesus Christ into the World could not wear out of their minds that profound esteem and respect they had for that Law For tho' they had often broke it in several respects yet it may be said in their behalf they almost always look'd upon it as inviolable And can we suppose that so many ages as have passed since the Death of Jesus Christ could not remove
that perswasion so deeply rooted in their Mind that their Law was to be eternal and yet that a few years should perswade that great multitude of Disciples converted by the preaching of the Apostles that all those Rites and Ceremonies were become invalid by the Death of a Man whom the Sanhedrin had condemned to be executed as a Malefactor without any extraordinary or supernatural accident intervening which should occasion the framing to themselves such Ideas so particular and so contrary to their first Prejudices Certainly we may very well affirm that our Incredulous Adversaries have too great a value for imposture and ignorance when they imagin that an universal delusion and unanimous consent to a Lye could convert Nations Sanctify Mankind and spread the Knowledge of God throughout the World according as it was foretold by the Scriptures or that a few simple and ignorant Fishermen whose knowledge extended no further than their Employment should discover the defects and imperfections of the Ceremonial Law and introduce instead of it a Spiritual worship as really more conformable to the Nature of God who is a Spirit and more worthy of man who is a Spirit and more worthy of man who is a Reasonable Creature that those simple and ignorant men should discover the Sacrifices under the Law to be only Types of the Death of a man who was condemned to be executed as a Malefactor that they should attribute this thought to John the Baptist and make him express it only in these words Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World John 1. 29. Words so full and comprehensive that they contain the whole sum of Christan Religion And Lastly That they should invent Mysteries so very different from mens ordinary Thoughts and Conjectures and so far above the Capacity of the most judicious and learned that it may deservedly be said of them that they are such things which Eye has not seen nor Ear heard neither has it enter'd into the Heart of Man to conceive them 1 Cor. 2. 9. Lastly Experience tells us how difficult it is for persons already advanced in years to renounce the Common practices generally approved of in the World especially when authorised by Religion and Education How hard would it be for us Christians to live as the Jews And yet it would be more difficult for them to live as we do Because we look upon all their Customs as things very indifferent in themselves whereas they always look'd upon our Practices as scandalous and unlawful How then was it that not only one or two Jews but thousands who had embraced Christianity no longer in the least scrupled to converse with the Gentiles nay to to live with Heathens who before were an Abomination in their eyes You will say this was not without many considerable difficulties and was the cause of several great Animosities and Disputes I grant it but yet it appears the Ceremonial Law was utterly abolished presently after the Death of Christ the Apostles having determined that it had been accomplished in his Death and that it was not Lawful to joyn the Carnal Ceremonies of the Law with the Spiritual worship of the Gospel And I say that had not the Apostles both testify'd the Miracles and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and wrought very great wonders themselves it was naturally impossible they should have executed so great a design especially in so small a time For certainly if we consider the Disciples as born Jews they must necessarily have been very much devoted to their own Law If we consider them as poor and mean people they could not but have been passionately fond of that Law which gave such wonderful precepts for the Administration of Justice and the relief and comfort of the Poor If we consider them as simple and ignorant men they could not but have a blind love and obedience for their Law as all ignorant People have for the external objects of Religion Lastly Should we consider them as prepossessed with the usual prejudices of their Nation they must necessarily have expected a Glorious and Triumphant Messias who instead of abolishing the Law of Moses should have established it throughout the World Yet we need only consider the event to clear the truth of this matter We shall not insist upon all the Reflections we might easily make hereupon It 's sufficient to have taken notice of those things by the by because they may serve in some measure to illustrate the particular examination we shall make of the Miracles of the Gospel We have already considered them in general sufficiently to convince all reasonable Persons But it may not be amiss to insist more particularly on them that we may confound the Obstinate and Incredulous and make them at least truly sensible of their Errour tho' perhaps we cannot reclaim them from it To do this better we shall lay down four miraculous matters of fact which shall be as so many centers of the Truth we enquire into because there are several lines and degrees of Evidence and Light which necessarily lead us to the Truth of each of these matters of fact and then we shall joyn them all together the better to form a full and perfect Demonstration of them CHAP. II. The first Center of Truth a particular consideration of the Miracles of Jesus Christ WE dare say that such is the nature of these Miracles that the composers of the Gospel durst not could not would not have forged them had they been really false I say they durst not because they could not but have been publickly known To prove this I shall lay down four Examples of them which are I. The History of Zachariah the Father of John the Baptist II. The History of the Massacre of the young Children of Bethlehem III. The miraculous feeding of several thousands at several times in the Wilderness with a few Loaves and some small Fishes IV. And Lastly the supernatural prodigies which happened at the death of Jesus Christ himself As to the First we may observe that the Subject upon whom this great Miracle was wrought is a Priest a Priest who daily performed the functions of his Ministerial office and was then actually burning Incense in the Temple of Jerusalem at a very remarkable time during which the people who expected him were very intent at their Prayers to God in the outward Part or Porch of the Temple whilst he himself was in the Holy Place Now tho' the Historian had observed only concerning the Birth of John the Baptist that Zachariah and Elizabeth his Wife were far advanced in years and that the latter till then was thought Barren yet that event would have employed something so extraordinary and surprising that one might have been almost positive that the Evangelist durst not have been so bold as to forge it against the publick knowledge which all the Jews must then have had of it How then durst any one have affirmed that Zachariah wholly lost
Matthew who was born a Jew And who did he relate them to Why to several thousand Jews that had embraced Christianity and who dwelling at Jerusalem knew full as well what had happened therein both in their days and in those of their Fathers as they know at Paris what was done in that City in the days of Cardinal Richelieu or as they know at London every thing that happened in those of Oliver Cromwell and at Stockolm in those of Gustavus Adolphus And now I pray consider whether it be probable any man could have made the like matters of fact believ'd in any of those great Cities by such a successful forgery or whether he could have gained over to his side several thousands of people by the meer strength of his Fictions But if I grant that the Evangelist had boldness enough expresly to denote the coming of the Wise-men and the impression it made on all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem against their publick knowledge nay against the memory of those things they had then fresh in their minds at least it can't be denied but that the consequences of that coming and the Dependencies of that first event are of such a Nature and Character as not possibly to have been forged or invented by the most bold faced and impudent Writer that ever was There are here two or three Circumstances so naturally and inseparably united one with the other that it is impossible to grant one without granting the other too No man can doubt of the coming of the Wise-men to Jerusalem if he allows that this coming forced Herod to assemble the Grand Council of the Jews to know of them where the Messias should be born neither can he doubt of the answer that was made him by the Sanhedrin if he owns that Herod sent his men into Bethlehem to slay the young Children that were there from two years old and under So that if it can be made out that this last matter of fact was true the other two will not need much proof Now I affirm that the Evangelist durst not assert this last matter of fact had it been utterly false For what Since the reign of Herod surnamed the Great was so well known that the least of his Actions was publickly talk'd of how could any one have presumed to impute falsly to him a Massacre so notable and extraordinary as that must have been The City of Bethlehem had not as yet been destroyed when the Evangelist wrote those things and therefore supposing the things false there were so many Witnesses of the Falsity as there were Inhabitants yet living in that City That City was not so far distant from Jerusalem but that those Christians who dwelt in the latter might have very well known the certain Truth of them Besides there was a very great Commerce between those two Places and the time from the Birth of Jesus Christ to that in which this Gospel was composed was not so long as to have given occasion to so improbable a Fiction Suppose a Man in these latter Days should take upon him to make us believe that one of the present Kings in Europe or if you will of those who reigned forty or fifty Years ago caused two or three thousand Children to be slain in their Cradle that so he might involve in that Massacre the Ruin of a Child whose Destiny he suspected would prove fatal to him Certainly it is not very probable we should credit such a Fable or that any one durst pretend to publish it nay had so much as the least Thoughts of it But then 't is much more improbable that any one should endeavour to perswade those Men to the Belief of it who lived in that Kingdom or in those very Places where such a thing was supposed to have happened But to come a little nearer to the Death of Jesus Christ. The Evangelists represent him to us as having lived thirty Years obscurely in the World Now had it been their Design to put us off with Stories they might have perswaded us that Jesus Christ during his abode here had been often wrap'd up into Heaven or transported into far Countries where he had done many Signs and Wonders nay they might have told us too that for the space of thirty Years he had continually wrought very sensible and wonderful Miracles in the midst of the Jews For it was as easy for them to suppose such a thing as all the rest Yet it appears that the Evangelists include all his Miracles in the three last Years of his Life And what is the Reason of it Because they wrote nothing but Truth But we shall not here insist much upon this Consideration What is most certain is That the Evangelists having delivered in their Writings that Jesus Christ had done a great many Signs and Wonders before a great number of Witnesses and having set down the Time and Place when and where they were done they must necessarily have been void of all Shame as well as Reason to relate such things as these if they were false They tell us That Jesus Christ with a few Loaves and some small Fishes miraculously fed in the Wilderness at one time five thousand and at another three thousand men besides Women and Children Now I am at a stand to imagine how it can be thought natural for one Man to undertake to perswade several thousands that they had been wonderfully fed and not only to relate the bare matter of fact it self but also bring in Christ reproaching the Multitude that they followed him not purely for the sake of his Miracles but the Loaves he fed them with and then the Multitude excusing themselves and saying that Moses had fed their Forefathers and that he must also feed them if he would have them believe in him as also Jesus Christ bidding them on this Occasion to labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life Joh. 6. 27. and to that end promising to give them his Flesh to eat and his Blood to drink All which Expressions are indeed very extraordinary in themselves and such as no Man ever made use of before him But there are matters of fact related in the Gospel more extraordinary and surprising than these There is nothing so remarkable and which strikes us so much with Astonishment as the Description the Evangelists give us of the Prodigies that attended the Death of Christ And behold say they the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom and the earth did quake and the rocks rent and the graves were opened and many bodies of saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many Matth. 27. 51 52 53. We shall not here insist on each particular Circumstance that attended this miraculous matter of fact neither shall we nicely examine the Resurrection of those Saints whose Bodies came out
of their Graves and appeared unto many in the City of Jerusalem It will be sufficient for us to consider only those Prodigies which drew the eyes of the whole World and could not but universally cause a publick Consternation and make a fearful Impression on the Minds of Men. Now I affirm it cannot naturally enter I shall not say into the Mind of a sincere honest Man but even into that of an Impostor to imagine he could ever be capable of making others believe things so notoriously known as those we now have under Consideration must have been had they been false 'T is not many Years ago since a certain Man was Executed at Paris for calling himself the Holy Ghost who had a few Disciples and some Followers but his Sect was soon buried together with him in his Grave Now let us suppose if you will that his Disciples had preach'd after his Death and composed a new Gospel filled only with the Doctrine and Precepts of that Man who was thought by them to be no less than a divine Person I ask then whatsoever Extravagance you may suppose them to have been guilty of whether you can conceive it could have entred into their Minds to perswade the People of Paris that the very Day on which that Man who called himself the Holy Ghost died the Church of Nostre Dame was either thrown down or demolished that its Altars and Statues were broken down that there happened an Eclipse of the Sun the greatest that ever was known accompanied with such a mighty Earthquake that even the Rocks were rent and that all these Wonders wrought so great an Impression upon the Mind of a certain Captain that guarded the Body of the executed Person that he believed in him Doubtless these whimsical Men could not have taken a more effectual way not only to hinder others from believing their Report but even to undeceive all those who might till then have been led away by that pernicious Sect than to insert in the Gospel they were to compose of the Doctrine of their Master such Circumstances as would have contradicted the publick Knowledge and fresh Remembrance every body had of things so lately done and to advance such matters of fact as would immediately have been proved to be false by the publick Testimony every body could give of them Now all this may be very well applied to the Disciples of Jesus Christ For supposing those Disciples were very great Impostors we cannot reasonably ascribe to them any other Design than that of deceiving Men by making them receive Falshood for Truth And it is sufficient if they had that Design and were not wholly void of Reason to make us think they could not have had â—â—e Boldness to invent such Circumstances as these and afterwards publish them to the World But after all was there not a very numerous Church 〈◊〉 in Jerusalem when that Gospel was composed And did not that Church consist of many thousands of People who dwelt at Jerusalem and knew perfectly well whatever had happened at the Death of Jesus Christ Certainly no Man can doub◠〈◊〉 it unless he has a mind voluntarily to 〈◊〉 himself Those very Christians then of Jerusalem saw all those things which happened at the Death of Christ for they were the Men that had been converted by the preaching of St. Peter and the other Apostles and who being prick'd to the Heart cried out Men and brethren what shall we do Acts 2. 37. They had seen then that the Sun was not eclipsed that the Rocks rent not that there happened no Earthquake no surprising and supernatural Prodigy at the Death of Christ And if they saw none of these things they could not but look upon the Report of the Evangelists as a scandalous Lye and notorious Falshood design'd to seduce them from their rational Belief and perswade them out of their Senses But it is farther observable that not one only but three Evangelists have written these things who as appears evidently did not compose their Gospels together but separately and at different times and yet all agree in their Relation of that notable Circumstance of the Death of Christ And no doubt but they all agreed also in the Relation of it when they preached the Gospel by word of Mouth Who then can reasonably believe that when the Disciples preach'd the Gospel in Jerusalem in order to establish a Christian Church there their Design was to perswade the Jews that they must not believe their own Eyes and that what they had seen was not that thing which they had seen Who can imagine that those very Jews themselves who were present and assisted at the Death of Jesus Christ should suffer themselves insensibly to be perswaded that that fabulous Recital was a very true Narration and believe that really to have happened which they certainly knew never came to pass Who can even suppose that the Apostles could fancy themselves able to make the Jews look upon a crucified Man as the Object of their Adoration and Worship by proposing to their Belief the most impudent and apparent Lyes that ever were invented since the Beginning of the World But it will concern us carefully to consider the rending of the Vail of the Temple for that Circumstance is so very singular that it is sufficient of it self to stop the Mouths of our incredulous Adversaries who tho' they should so inconsiderately and wilfully delude themselves as to suppose that the Day whereon Jesus Christ died there happened by chance or rather according to the ordinary Course of second Causes a real Eclipse which had indeed seemed supernatural to the ignorant Vulgar but had nothing supernatural in it self yet what can they say to the Vail of the Temple 's being rent in twain from the Top to the Bottom Could there be any natural Cause why it should be rent precisely and exactly at the time when Jesus Christ suffered Death or could any exterior Darkness produce such an Effect Perhaps some will object that the Primitive Christians were simple and ignorant People and that nothing could be easier than to delude and impose upon them I grant it But then what great Learning was required to know precisely whether all those so sensible and so notable Prodigies had really fell out upon the Day of Christ's Death We have already shewn that among the several Circumstances of the Life and Death of Jesus Christ there were several which the Disciples durst not have invented or forged had they not been really true We must add in the second place that there were a great number of other Circumstances which the Disciples could not have forged had they design'd it To say nothing of the great number of Lame People whom our Saviour caused to walk of the Sick of the Palsy to whom he restored the Use of their Limbs of the Deaf whom he caused to hear and of many others diversly affected with various Diseases whom he wonderfully healed to the
him when at the same time he so well had prepared himself for Death as to have instituted a Sacrament for a Commemoration of it unto the End of the World his complaining that his heavenly Father had forsook him whilst he promised Heaven to a Thief that glorified him upon the Cross An hundred other mysterious Contrarieties there are which Divine Providence inspired the Evangelists to write against their profest Opinions against the Biass of their Passions and their natural Ideas that their Gospel might have a more extraordinary and more divine Character But these are not the Circumstances I mean when I speak of such extraordinary ones in the Life of Christ as the Disciples would not have forg'd if they could By them I mean all the sensible and extraordinary Miracles which Christ himself wrought and his Disciples have related to us and these I say the Disciples would not invent had they been false which I prove by these two invincible Arguments First that by their relating them and above all their mentioning both Places and Persons as it appears they have done they manifestly ingaged themselves both to maintain and evince the Truth of them Certainly they doubted not but that they should be called to give an account of them They who so very well knâ—w how difficult it had been for them to escape free when their Master himself was put to Death They knew they should be compelled to maintain what they had thus affirmed and they knew also they could never be able to defend their Imposture if they should by chance be confronted with the Witnesses they mention'd And all this is no very hard thing for any one to foresee a Man tho' not over-wise may easily presage these Things and it is sufficient that he be in his Senses to make him cautious of advancing such Matters as he thinks himself incapable to maintain the Falshood of which would be presently discovered by the very Witnesses he mentions by the Places he sets down and the other Circumstances of the matter of fact he thus exposes to publick View 2. The Second Argument which proves that the Evangelists would never have forg'd the like matters of fact supposing they had been altogether false is that by counterfeiting them they necessarily rendered themselves liable to be put to a great Confusion when they should find themselves obliged to perform the very same Miracles For besides that it was very natural for any one to say to them thus If it be true that your Master has wrought so many strange Miracles surely he has also given you Power to do the like your selves it being well known that the first thing they taught was that Jesus Christ had sent them abroad with Power to perform the very same Works he had done 'T was no time therefore to use Shifts or stand doubting and shuffling they were obliged either to suppress what they knew concerning the Miracles of Jesus Christ or to perform the same themselves Christ himself when he sent them to preach in the different Parts of Judea commanded them saying Heal the Sick cleanse the Lepers raise the Dead cast out Devils freely you have received freely give Matth. 10. 8. And these are the Characters he gave of the calling of his Disciples And these Signs shall follow them that believe in my Name shall they cast out Devils they shall speak with new Tongues they shall take up Serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay hands on the Sick and they shall recover c. And they went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and comfirming the word with Signs c. Mark 16. 17 18 20. Thus it appears they could not well relate what Jesus Christ had done without at the same time publishing what they themselves were obliged to perform for the further Confirmation of the Gospel so that they did not relate the least Miracle without at the same time affirming they were able to do the like It must therefore certainly be one of these two things either that those Men had utterly lost their Reason or that they sincerely believed the Miracles of Jesus Christ Had they thought them to be false they would neither have engaged themselves to maintain an unwarrantable Fiction by setting down so many Circumstances more than sufficient to discover the real Truth of it nor have rendred themselves liable to Shame and Confusion by relating such Miracles they were not able so much as to imitate at that very time when they professed themselves absolutely capable of doing every thing their Master himself had done Thus it appears to us that the Miracles of Jesus Christ are such matters of fact which the Disciples had neither the Boldness the Power nor the Will to counterfeit supposing they never had been done And I think this enough to convince us in this respect and to make us look upon those Miracles which have illustrated the Life and Death of Jesus Christ as a Center of Truth that will infallibly perswade us of the Truth and the Divinity of the Christanity we profess CHAP. III. The second Center of Truth A particular Consideration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ HAving spoke of the Miracles of Jesus Christ we come now to his Resurrection an Event which ought chiefly to be considered in the Connexion it has with those Miracles For if this Resurrection be true without dispute those Miracles are so too And if those Miracles are true one cannot easily doubt of the Truth of our Saviour's Resurrection Now to take away all Scruples that may arise in our Minds concerning the Truth of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 't is but reflecting a while upon Christ himself upon the Jewish Doctors who used all possible Care and Precaution to prevent so much as a Report after his Death that he was risen from the Dead upon the Testimony of the Watch appointed to guard his Sepulchre upon the Procedure of the Apostles and the discourse of all the Disciples in general and lastly upon that ready Disposition of Mind found in a great number of Jews to embrace Christianity aâ— Jerusalem a few Weeks after the Death of Jesus Christ and at a time when nothing could be easier than to enquire into the Truth of his Resurrection As for Jesus Christ the Evangelists unanimously tell us that he had several times foretold his Death and Resurrection to his Disciples Nay 't is observable that those very Predictions are oftentimes intermixed either with such Circumstances as do not easily of themselves enter into any Man's Mind or with those which seem to have no manner of Relation one with another which proves that they cannot be the imaginary Conceits of a pleasant Fancy that delights in the Invention of Fables It is very improbable that the Evangelists should have invented the Discourse of Jesus Christ with St. Peter concerning the Sufferings that should certainly besall him at his going
up to Jerusalem And it is worth taking notice of that St. Peter had but just made a very excellent Confession of what Jesus Christ was in Presence of all the other Disciples telling him Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God and that Jesus Christ had crowned this admirable Confession with that extraordinary Promise of his Blessed art thou Simon Barjona For flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee but my father which is in heaven And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it c. Matth. 16. 17 18. Immediately after Christ foretold what Death he was to suffer from the Chief Priests and Scribes but added withal he should rise again the third Day Whereupon St. Peter rebuked him and said Be it far from thee O Lord this shall not be unto thee But Jesus Christ instead of approving of that seeming Concern and Affection his Disciple had for him severely reproved his Indiscretion in these words Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not c. This History seems to be very natural and sincere and that mixture of Circumstances which in all probability have no manner of relation with one another could not of it self easily enter in any Man's Mind St. Peters Confession was excellent and the Promise Jesus Christ made him was extraordinary Nay the very Expression of it implied somewhat strange and difficult But above all it seems at first view that Jesus Christ too rigorously censures the great Zeal which Peter shewed for his Person and it does not seem very natural that he who told him Blessed art thou Simon Barjona and promised to make him a Pillar of his Church should tell him presently after Get thee behind me Satan 'T is plain a Man must in spite of himself perceive that 't is â—he force of Truth and not the natural Agreement of those Circumstances that obliged the Evangelist to joyn them both together in one and the same Recital And that which necessarily occasions this Reflexion of ours is that Jesus Christ had really foretold his Death and his Resurrection before ever he had suffered the one or the other was brought to pass But what proves this better than any thing else is that Jesus Christ upon cooler Thoughts and the very Day before his Passion did such a thing as had never been done before and which doubtless never will be done again and that is he instituted a Memorial of that Death he was just upon the point of suffering He foretold that he should suffer Death from the Chief Priests the Scribes and the Doctors of the Law Nevertheless he might have easily avoided it if he would by retiring into another place But he chid or rather storm'd at the Indiscretion of Peter who would have diverted him from that Death therefore he considered it as an Event that was to be attended with very happy and saving Consequences with respect to Mankind And what happy Consequences could his Death have been attended withal unless it was to have been immediately followed by his Resurrection He first instituted a Memorial of his Death and then voluntarily suffered it He commanded that it should be commemorated therefore he regarded it as an Event which was to be the Means of our Salvation He foresaw that it would be commemorated he foresaw then what would most infallibly come to pass and that too in a time when there was but little Appearance of its ever happening He did not say that they should commemorate his Death only till he rose again but till his Second Coming He foresaw then that he should speedily rise again and that after his Resurrection he should depart in order to return again at the End of the World Besides no reasonable Man can imagine that the Evangelists had wholly invented the Account of the Institution of the Eucharist For there is a great deal of Difference between a Doctrine and a Practice A Doctrine can hardly be forged especially because it must be concerted by the Consent of several Persons But a sensible Practice a thing in Use and as it were a speaking Doctrine can much less be palm'd upon Mankind And certainly 't would be the greatest piece of Folly imaginable in any one to think that a dozen poor Fishermen astonished and cast down at the Death of their Master and undeceived in the Opinion they had entertained that he was to have restored the Kingdom of Israel Persons who knew not what things might come to pass by their publishing the Doctrine of that crucified Man that that they should go and invent the Institution of the Eucharist with all the Circumstances of it and make Jesus Christ utter these Words This is my body which is broken for you this is the New Testament in my blood Words that implied something new and very surprising which have given occasion to so many Contests and are liable to such different Interpretations Words which S. Paul and the Evangelists unanimously set down but without any mutual Compact as appears by the little Variety there occurs in their Recital of them I say it would be very extravagant to imagine that the Disciples had in the least thought of inventing these Words or that History of the Institution of the Eucharist so that we need not insist longer on any farther Proofs of it We have already touched upon it in another Place and upon another Subject The only Consequence we shall draw from it here is that Jesus Christ foresaw his Death prepared himself for it and suffered it voluntarily Whereupon I argue thus If he foresaw that he should die and if he voluntarily offered himself up to Death he then either foresaw that he should rise again or he did not foresee it If he did not foresee it with what kind of hopes then did he comfort his Disciples What was it he promised them Or what proposed he to himself by his Death Why did he not shun it as he might yet have done when he was at Supper with his Disciples What meant he by instituting a Memorial of his Dead Body if that Dead Body were always to abide under the power of Death and rot away as it were in the Presence of his Disciples And if he thought he should rise again as we may very reasonably imagin he did I say he himself could not have believed it but only upon the Experience he had already made of that Power which had restored Sight to the Blind Health to the Sick and Life to the Dead For he could not think his own Miracles false and yet at the same time believe he should rise again from the Dead If he thought he should rise again he also thought his Miracles to be true And if he believed his Miracles to be true his Miracles must of necessity have been really so because they were of a Nature
incapable of Illusion and Deceit at least with respect to those who wrought them Jesus Christ could never imagine that he had filled five thousand Men at one time three thousand at another that he had raised to Life the Widows Son of Naim the daughter of Jairus and Lazarus of Bethany that he had made St. Peter walk upon the Sea c. if all these things had not really been true No one surely can doubt but that Jesus Christ foretold his Resurrection if he considers that it was upon this Account only that the Jewish Doctors appointed a Watch to guard his Sepulcher and commanded the Stone of it to be sealed Sir we remember said they to Pilate that that Deceiver said while he was yet alive after three days I will rise again Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day lest his Disciples come by night and steal him away and say unto the people he is risen from the Dead so the last errour shall be worse than the first Pilate said unto them ye have a watch go your way make it as sure as you can So they went and made the Sepulchre sure sealing the stone and setting a watch Mat. 27. 63 64 65 66. This is such a matter of fact which the Disciples could not durst not invent against the publick knowledge every body had of it and which besides agrees very well with the other Circumstances of that Event For how came that Report to be spread in Jerusalem that the Watch slept when the Disciples took away the Body of Jesus had they not really set a Watch to guard his Sepulchre And what necessity was there to appoint a Watch to guard it had it not been to hinder the Disciples from reporting abroad that he was risen from the Dead And if Christ really believed that he should rise again he could not have believed it but upon the Truth of his Miracles neither could he have believed his Miracles to be true had they been false Thus it appears that the Connexion of all those Circumstances if narrowly considered forms as it were a kind of a moral Demonstration which cannot but throughly convince any just and reasonable Man But let us not slightly pass over that matter of fact but having seen what Christ thought concerning his Resurrection let us next consider the Opinion of the Scribes and Pharisees concerning it and the Report the Soldiers made that were appointed to guard this Sepulcher For the Consideration of those Circumstances may give us some light in the Discovery of that matter of fact the most important and the most essential that ever was or ever shall be hereafter In the first place the Scribes and Pharisees and generally every Member of the Sanhedrin being instigated by the very same Spirit that had induced them to put Jesus Christ to Death were in a great Apprehension lest his Disciples should take away his Body and afterwards report abroad that he was risen from the Dead We may judge how much they thought it for their Interest to prevent it by the Attempts they had already made to put him to Death And it is very probable that since the Sepulcher of Jesus Christ was to have been guarded but three days they took all care imaginable before hand for fear the Watch thro negligence or otherwise should have suffered that Body to be taken away which it so mightily behoved them to keep in their Custody But let us consider the Event of all this The Soldiers that watch'd the Body could not hinder it from rising out of it's Sepulcher How so Was it because they were afraid or were they bribed not to discover the Business Had they been bribed one might very well imagine it was not in behalf of the Disciples that they would run the hazard of losing their Lives for their Negligence or Treachery What then were they afraid But how could the Watch prove so fearful and the Disciples on a sudden so couragious as to attempt the taking away the dead Body of one from whom they had so lately fled while he was yet alive Besides How could those Soldiers have reported such things as they did without manifestly contradicting themselves For if they were asleep how did they know that the Disciples of Christ had taken away his Body But why did not the Sanhedrin for their own Honour and the Respect they bare to the Truth put all those Soldiers to the Rack And if that Thought came not presently into their Heads is it not natural to think they would have done it when they found awhile after all Jerusalem inclinable to believe in that crucified man and that about six thousand Souls had already believed in him in one day and that too but fifty days after his Death Certainly the Soldiers that watch'd his Body were still at Jerusalem And the Sanhedrin had still the same Power and Authority as before It highly concerned them to punish the Negligence of those Soldiers or make them confess the Secret of their Perfidy and who it was that suborned them I say it highly concerned them to make that strict Examination both to justify their own Procedure and prevent the utter Loss of almost an infinite number of Persons that had already sided with the Disciples of that pretended Impostor But this is not all When on the Day of Pentecost that is fifty days after the Death of Jesus Christ the Apostles shewed themselves in the City of Jerusalem to testify there that they had seen him risen from the Dead and that after he had several times appeared to them and was gone up into Heaven he had poured down upon them the miraculous and extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost why did not the Sanhedrin then who was so highly concerned in discovering the Authors of the taking away the Body of Jesus Christ I say why did they not seize upon the Apostles and so make them confess how all things had happened Why did they not confront them with the Watch Why did they not cast Joseph of Arimathea and those Men in Prison till they had made them confess what was become of that Body as also every other Circumstance of their Imposture 'T is already very unlikely that if the Disciples of Christ had come by night and had stolen his Body away they durst have shewed themselves and appeared in publick nay immediately confessed that they were his Disciples It is much more credible they would have hid themselves after such an Action and that if they preach'd at all it would have been to People more remote and not in Jerusalem the very Place where those things had happened nor in the Presence of that very Sanhedrin they were so much afraid of and had so much offended Why then did not the Sanhedrin take the ordinary Methods made use of to discover Criminals They were very ready by Threats Torments and Persecutions to oblige the Apostles not to preach up the Name of
Jesus Christ but they never accused them of having stolen away the Body of their Master whilst the Watch slept They durst not enter upon that Examination for they knew well enough what the Soldiers had told them and 't was that very thing which made them so apprehensive We all know well enough how Men generally act upon the like Occasions Had the matter so happened as the Soldiers afterwards reported those very Soldiers would not have failed pursuing some one of the Disciples of Christ throughout the whole City of Jerusalem on purpose to make him confess the plain truth by the many Torments they would have made him suffer and the Scribes and Pharisees together with the other Doctors of the Law would on their side have made such an exact Enquiry into the matter that they would have at last found either some Witnesses or some other Evidence to prove the stealing away of that Body upon them And that would have been no very hard task for them to perform because it had been done during the Celebration of one of their Solemn Feast-days when the People of Jerusalem were never so intent upon any Spectacle as they had been upon the Sufferings of Christ when what had so lately happened to such an extraordinary Man had filled every body with Amazement witness that which the Evangelist makes a Disciple utter on the way to Emmaus as he was discoursing with Jesus Christ himself not Knowing it was him Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem and hast not known the things which are eome to pass there in these days And since those men who had appointed a Watch to guard the Sepulcher of Jesus Christ had in all probability very expresly charged them to take care lest any of his Disciples should come by night and steal his Body out of the Sepulchre it is repugnant to Reason and contrary to all outward Appearance to suppose that the second night after the Soldiers were placed there they should fall into so deep a sleep as that the Disciples should be bold enough to hazard the taking away of this Body or be able to roll the Stone away from the Sepulchre and break the Seal that they should have Time enough Leisure Freedom and so little Fear as to untye and take away the linnen Cloaths wherein he was wrapped up and the Napkin that was about his Face For the Evangelists unanimously relate that they found the Sepulchre in that state Yet these are not the strongest Arguments that may be brought to evince the Truth of that matter of fact We must also pass on from the Consideration of the Soldiers that watched the Body to that of the Apostles themselves Had they testify'd falsly that they had seen Jesus Christ risen from the Dead it was either with a mutual Agreement or without one Now it cannot be without a mutual Agreement for an Error that is not supported by an unanimous Consent must necessarily fall of it self to the ground and it would have unavoidably so happen'd while one would have affirm'd that Jesus Christ was risen from the Dead another that he was not at all risen one would have said that he appeared unto many and another that he appeared to one only another that he appeared to no Body one would have related the matter one way another another way and in fine the most honest and sincere would have frankly confess'd that there was nothing at all in it But if they unanimously agreed to contrive this Imposture there must have been then several Persons who agreed together constantly and unanimously to relate a matter of fact which they knew to be utterly false Now that 's a thing altogether impossible 1. First Because it is inconceivable that a man should willingly expose himself to all sorts of Punishments and even to Death itself on purpose to testify a matter of fact which he knew very well to be utterly false 2. That tho' there should have been by an unheard of Prodigy one single Person of that mind yet it is the height of Extravagance to imagine that there were a very great number of Persons that took on a sudden that dangerous and fatal Resolution especially such as had behaved themselves before after a manner quite opposite to that and shewed not only a great deal of Caution but Fearfulness in several other Occasions 3. That tho a very great number of People should have agreed together to bear Witness to a Falsity yet it could never be thought so of those who looked upon Lying and Perfidy as Sins that were altogether inconsistent with their Salvation neither could it be thought of those who if they allow'd the Resurrection of Jesus Christ to be a meer Fiction must allow also that they had followed a Phantom a Chimerical imaginary Messias and if they own'd that they had follow'd a Phantom they must likewise confess their own mutual Extravagance 4. That this mutual Agreement could never have been so carried on but that some of them to avoid Punishment would have discovered the Intrigue to the Jews with all its Circumstances it being most certain that since Jesus Christ had been so very basely betrayed in his Life-time it is more probable he would be so served after his Death For they might indeed have expected some Reward from him when living but they could hope for nothing from him after his Death but Misery and Torments Shame and continual Remorses for having followed a deceitful Impostor 5. And lastly 'T is not to be question'd but that the very same Principles which had dissolv'd their mutual Fidelity would more probably break off their mutual Treachery And since the Love and Affection they had had for their Master supported by a strong Perswasion on their side that he was the true Messias had not been capable to maintain and keep up that mutual Fidelity which made them say not very long before Let us go there also that we may die with him John 11. 16. so that they fled and wholly left him to the Power of his Enemies can we reasonably suppose that having been undeceived of the Opinion they had entertained of their Messias they should yet notwithstanding their Shame Fear and dejected Condition presently after unanimously agree to maintain and affirm a most horrid Lye on purpose to blemish their Nation by laying an imaginary Crime to their charge and maintain it too to that degree that not one of them should recant or contradict himself but all of them unanimously suffer the severest Torments only to affirm that they had seen what they had really never seen 'T is yet further observable that this was not a mutual Agreement carried on between twelve Apostles only but also between all the Disciples of Jesus Christ in general who made up a very considerable number For Jesus after his Resurrection appeared one while to some Women whom he commanded to tell his Brethren that he was a going before them into Galilee another while to
tho perhaps he is ignorant of any true and real one he frames at least an imaginary one to himself and would feign out-live his Days in spite of Death by immortalizing himself in the remembrance of Men. Who then can reconcile Man to Himself How come such lofty Sentiments to be joyned with so much Wretchedness and Misery Or why should a Being so mean and humble have such great and elevated Notions If we consult the Christian Religion we shall soon be satisfied in this Point For the first Rudiments of it will solve all the seeming Riddles It will teach us that Man consists of two Parts Body and Soul whose qualities and parts are very different The Body makes him a Member of the Material World from whence he derives his Wretchedness and Misery In his Soul he bears the Image of God which is the Foundation of his real Goodness If the Mind be subject to Matter we see only his Imperfections and find nothing but a Sensitive Man in him but if the Body be wholly subject to the Soul then only the Greatness and Glory of the Soul appears and we find a Spiritual Man in him Whatever therefore may be said concerning the Greatness of Man becomes an incredible Paradox if applied to his outward and carnal part And whatever may be said concerning his Imperfection and Unworthiness will be utterly false if applied to him as a Being glorious and purely Spiritual But in our present State the Soul and Body are in a continual War Sometimes the Excellence and Greatness of Man's Nature and sometimes the Weakness and Vnworthiness of it appears according as the Flesh or Spirit are predominant and this serves for a certain Rule to judge of Mans Perfection or Imperfection that every thing is great and noble in him that brings the Flesh in subjection to the Spirit and every thing seems vile and contemptible that basely brings the Spirit in subjection to the Flesh For what sort of Greatness can we find in the latter and wherein consists the Excellence of his outward qualifications by which alone he endeavours to procure the Esteem of other Men Not in the Antiquity of his Original for that brings him but the nearer to his primitive Nothing or to the Clay out of which he was first formed He betrays his weak Judgment in esteeming so much the Original of his Body and not regarding that of his Soul As for the Goods of Fortune they swell his Heart with Pride and therefore he values himself more for what he enjoys than for what he really is Suppose him a Conquerour or if you please Lord of the Vniverse But alas that can be of no great continuance His Reason indeed exalts him far above all other Creatures but even that Reason is a Slave to his Scnses his Passions deject rather than elevate him Ambition is a Weakness which makes him unable to rule his Desires Pride an Imperfection which so possesses his Mind that he cannot pass by the least Affront to his Reputation Avarice a base fear of future want a limited Consideration of Self-love that forgets it self to think better upon what is least valuable in its condition The Punctilios of Honour a vain Imperfection that makes an Idol of it self That Valour which affronts Death nothing but a Mans strangely forgetting himself and being insensible of the Dangers that surround him And Lastly all the Passions but so many Deviations from the End we ought to pursue so many Disorders and Irregularities of the Soul as appears fully by what we have said elsewhere concerning the End for which Man was orginally designed And tho' these be all Moral Truths they are not the less certain Experience confirms them and â—he free confession of the Incredulous who are glad of any Opportunity of making us observe all these signs and characters of our Wretchedness and Misery thinking thereby to persuade us that so miserable a Creature was not designed for such a glorious End as we imagin But let them only consider how truly great Man is when he submits the Lusts of the Flesh to the Rule of the Spirit and they 'll be asham'd of their false Opinions They 'll find him indeed a Being that had a Beginning but yet one that glories in God as the Author of it They 'll find him an Atom that raises it's self above all other Creatures by running back to it's first Author and paying him Homage for it's Unworthiness A Worm that has the Honour of referring it's self to the Glory of God to which also all other Beings are referr'd but without knowing it They 'll find him a Being that is indeed Mortal carries it's Hopes beyond Death A Being that is finite yet it's Desires and Intentions are unlimited A small quantity of Earth will cover his Body yet nothing but Immensity will satisfy his Soul He possesses all things for he calls himself the Son of him that created all things He is not to be rank'd among those Creatures which grow proud by promotion or cannot be humble without debasing themselves He is great but not proud because he knows his Natural Vileness and he is humble but not base because he is sensible of his true Greatness and Worth He has made such a Covenant with his God as the Destruction of the Body is not able to dissolve Tho' he conqers not Kingdoms nor razes Cities yet he is able to overcome those Passions which have produced the like effects He sacrifices to God those very Passions to which Men heretofore sacrificed all their Possessions He esteems not a Crown and the highest Dignities are of no Value in his Thoughts He quits a Throne to equal himself to Shepherds and tho' but a Shepherd he thinks himself as great as the most powerful Monarch What the World admires is but a Dream to him Tho he enjoys the greatest Titles yet has he the same humble Thoughts of himself Should the World afflict him on every side it cannot lessen his Opinion of himself He raises himself above what he sees to humble himself in the sight of God who is invisible He possesses Eternity tho he exists in Time He is a Child of God tho he lives amongst Men He is sensible of his Exaltation above all other Beings but he is truly Great in his own Humility Thus the Christian Religion not only shews us Man's Excellence but is also the Cause of it by making the meanest part of our Nature subservient to the nobler He therefore that utterly renounces all Religion loses the perfection of his Nature and the less he believes the more he debases himself below other Creatures 'T is therefore the Christian Religion alone that shews us the Cure as well as the Disease that produces our hidden Virtues and unmasks our Vices that discovers to us our Misery and frees us from it that puts an end to all the Wretchedness of our Nature by making us truly sensible of it that makes us great by making
against their so very simple and natural Expressions It is our chiefest Concern to regard the Substance and Essential part of their preaching and that is God's Design to save Mankind by the Death of his Son To this every thing relates and it is supported by Three other very great and important Objects the Resurrection of Christ attested by the Apostles themselves the Completion of all the Prophecies contained in the Old Testament and the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost all which things the Apostles saw and clearly and distinctly taught Men and at last digested in Writing directed by the Wisdom of God when the whole Earth seemed full of Astonishment at the sight of the Extraordinary Gifts God poured down upon Men at the accomplishment of so many Prophecies in the Person of Christ and at the sufferings and Trials of the Witnesses of God And this is the main Substance of the Writings of the Apostles as well as of their Preaching And Divine Providence was pleased that all those things should be digested in Writing in a time when they could not possibly be forged or altered that they should be received and approved of in all Christian Societies of the World that they should be first dispersed every where by an infinite number of Copies and Translations of them then afterwards quoted by almost an infinite number of Doctors carefully preserved almost every where and carried generally into those places whence Persecution had banished and removed the Christians Nay God has pleased that those Writers should all conspire to teach us the same things tho each expressed himself after his own particular way that the manner of their Compositions should be the same with that of their Speaking that they should exactly follow in all their Quotations the Greek Translation which was known of the People and not puzzle the Faith of the simple and ignorant by any critical Remarks which were things beneath those Men who had both seen and handled the Word of Life had declared the wonderful Works of God and received the Gift of Tongues that they might be clearly understood by all Men. It was also necessary that those wonderful Writers should insist rather upon the things themselves that they delivered than the ordering of their Words that so they might keep up the great Character of their Office and we might learn from thence to regard rather the Sense of what they have written than the accuracy of their Expressions They have sufficiently expounded all the fundamental Truths of Religion which tho not very many are yet repeated almost in every Page of their Writings They left to their Disciples the Care of collecting their Writings and setting together those Canonical Books which contain all things necessary for Salvation Not that that Collection has all the Writings of the Apostles but it contains certain Truths often and often repeated by them sufficient to promote the Sanctification of Mankind As for the various Readings they are so few and so inconsiderable in themselves that they alter not in the least the Sense of these Books so far are they from changing the unalterable Substance of Religion in as much as there is no part of the Apostles Writings to which it is not inseparably united and almost every where repeated And as for the Objections about the Hebrew Grammar and Authority of the Books of the Old Testament were all true as is objected which yet is dubious it ought not to disturb us since Christ and the rest of his Apostles have so fully confirmed those Books Those little and inconsiderable Difficulties are far from being prejudicial to our Faith since 't is enough to know that the Scripture is the Word of God as we perceive by the Marks and Characters of it 'T is enough to be certain that it is impossible that either through the Faults of the Transcribers or Negligence of Men or the want of Exactness found in the Translations or lastly through the Multitude of equivocal Terms it should ever want those important Precepts and evident Truths which are necessary for our Salvation and Sanctification and of which 't is as it were a constant Repetition For otherwise God must either have deceived us or his Wisdom have been deceived in being wanting in the preservation of such Means as it purely design'd to maintain and keep up the Faith of Mankind However it be 't is not our present Design to blame in the least either the Care which some take to instruct themselves in the Criticisms of the Holy Scripture or the Respect they have for its Expressions which are indeed worthy to be preferred before all others God forbid we should ever entertain any such impious and foolish Thoughts We therefore here intend only to assert Two things 1 st that all those small Difficulties the Criticks raise against them ought not to be looked upon as any way sufficient to shake the Foundations of our Faith the Wisdom of God having wonderfully provided that our Faith should be established without Respect had to those Difficulties The second is that those very Difficulties are not only of excellent use to humble our Minds but also necessary to keep us from the Superstition of insisting only upon a literal Signification and from that Folly which we may call the Adoration of Words We must therefore grant that all things our Senses Education the Curiosity of the Mind Superstition Philosophy Policy Humane Eloquence and Grammar are as so many Instruments which our Passions employ to make void that Submission which our Faith owes to God that through the ill use we put them to they are converted into so many different ways of shaking off that Divine Obedience and that the Speculations which spring from all these Principles aim at nothing else but the weakning our Faith just as the loose and remiss Maxims of some Casuists tend to the Destruction of Morality it being as difficult for the Vnderstanding to believe as for our Heart to mortifie it self Nevertheless it may reasonably be affirmed 1 st That this Submission of our selves to God is absolutely necessary and that unless we pay it him by readily receiving the Principles of his Religion we must inevitably yield it up to Matter and so give up our selves to the most wretched and impious Ignorance and horrid Darkness of Understanding it being most certain that we shall no better comprehend what Eternity Infinity Extension the manner and necessity of the Existence of Matter is than we already know what passes within God 2 ly That our Heart is disposed to such a submission of Mind in those things which relate to our civil and natural Concern And if it be certain that we do not defer to receive Nourishment till we are fully instructed after what manner Nutrition is made within us and if we are easily induced to beleive the Attraction of the Magnetick Stone tho we are ignorant of the manner of that Operation why should we not in like manner as
Nature And what is most surprising in the former of those two Unions is to see that the Soul which is so noble a Being should be so closely fastened and united to Matter and even depend upon it in all its Operations Now 't is not so with the Incarnation of Christ And it can never be said that the Divine Nature depends on the Humane but contrariwise 't is the Humane Nature which depends on the Divine In this Union God remains the same as before All-perfect All-mighty All-full Eternal and Immutable but Man is changed and sanctified and exalted by it What Inconveniency then can there result from it As it is surprising to see a most noble Being subject to a less perfect Being so it is natural for a less perfect Being to be subject to one more Noble Now the latter of these the Mystery of the Incarnation evidently demonstrates and the Union of the Soul with the Body discovers the former It follows hence therefore that the Union of the Soul with the Body is in some sense very extraordinary and far more surprising than the Mystery of the Incarnation 3. If still you require another Representation of this Object that might further give you a clearer Notion of the same Conceive a false Sun composed of two different things so closely united together that they seem as it were confounded together viz. A Cloud and the Light of the Sun The Cloud is not the Sun nor is the Sun the Cloud And thus the Humane Nature of Christ is not the Divine Nature the same with the Humane This false Sun is a Sun and yet a Cloud so likewise Christ is God and Christ is Man This false Sun is formed of the Substance of the Earth because it is composed of a Cloud which is nothing else but the Vapours of it and of the Sun himself being formed out of those Beams in which the Body of that Planet consists so in like-manner Christ is taken from the Earth and is a part of the common Lump of Mankind because he is Man which does not hinder him from being the Substance of the Father since he is the Brightness of his Glory This is a very just Representation of that great Mystery but not perfect But we hope every just and equitable Reader will easily forgive the Defects of this Comparison in a Subject that is so far exalted above our weak Imagination 4. Moreover of all those who pretended to treat of the Nature of the Deity none but the Epicureans who thought it was idle and lazy divided it entirely from its Creatures and all other Men besides looked upon it as united to its Works The Heathens for instance imagined it was affixed to their Temples and Statues to which they supposed it constantly united But the Jews more properly looked upon God as being united in a more partilar manner to a Bush or a Cloud or the Ark. And several of the Incredulous now adays represent the Deity to themselves as an Vniversal Soul affixed to universal Matter just as our Soul is united to our Body If then it be so common to Men to conceive God as being united to his Works why should it seem so strange to them to represent him as closely united to the Humane Nature of Christ and that too in a more particular manner than to any of his other Creatures For if there be any Creature which the Deity may be united to it must necessarily be such an holy and innocent Creature as that is And if it be possible for God to unite himself to any living Body it is much more likely he should impart himself to the Soul of Jesus Christ. If an Ark was capable to be filled with the Presence of God there is not the least Difficulty in conceiving that Humane Nature being pure and holy and far perfecter than all the Arks in the World should have been thus honoured in a more particular manner And if Men in short stick not to make the Vniversal Soul as it were depending upon Matter by its Union to it why should we refuse to admit of an Union which leaves to God his intire Independence and Liberty and aims at nothing else but the bringing the Body and Soul of Christ in a greater subjection to Him We no sooner embrace the Mystery of the Incarnation but every thing that seems offensive in the Doctrin of Christian Religion will presently vanish We shall then easily comprehend that 't was possible for Christ to die since he was Man and that his Death is infinitely valuable since he was God And so great is the Dignity which proceeds from the Union of those two Natures that it makes the Death of Christ equivalent to the Punishments our Sins had so justly deserved We shall not then think it difficult to be fully convinced of the Truth of the Resurrection of our Lord for it would be unreasonable to suppose that a Nature as had been honoured with so particular an Union to the Deity should yet have been for ever dissolv'd and remain'd to all Eternity under the Power of Death But we shall think it very reasonable to imagin that it could not but have risen from the Grave into which it had been pleased to descend If then Christ be truly risen from the Dead can our Incredulous Reason still refuse to believe that we shall also rise again But how can that Reason contradict a Truth which the Disciples saw They beheld the Glory of Christ both in the Miracles which he performed and in his Holiness of life They saw God manifested in the Flesh and were Witnesses of the Resurrection of our Lord They perceived Angels coming down towards him The Gospel was preached to the Gentiles by their Ministry The World believed on their Preaching and Lastly they saw Christ ascending into Heaven all which were very sensible and evident matters of Fact The Mystery then of the Incarnation tho the hardest to comprehend of all those of Christian Religion implies however nothing contrary to Reason But we must except the most Holy and ever-blessed Trinity another Mystery which being infinitely exalted above the reach of our shallow Capacity is not easily reconcilable to it Nevertheless 't is most certain that the Sublimity of its Nature renders it not any ways repugnant to Reason 1 st Because the word Person is not to be taken in the same sense with that of Essence I grant that three Persons and one Person one Essence and three Essences implie a Contradiction but the Notion of one Essence and three Persons is not liable to any after you know the Signification of those two Terms 2 ly Because the Deity is so great and so sublime a Subject that we ought not to wonder if we can't reach to the Greatness of it by our weak Imagination 3 dly Because for ought we know the most considerable Difficulties of this Mystery proceed from a Defect of Revelation or the silence which holy Writ observes on that