this Necessity and it is to no purpose to alledge his Meanness and Wretchedness for that Circumstance rather aggravates the Crime than excuses it it being impudent beyond all pardon for a Traytour to plead Innocence because he is a Peasant and not a Lord. It will be also in vain to lay the Fault upon the evil Temperament of Body and Mind For if either submits to those Reasons which you have for committing no indecent action before a Sovereign and if that and all its Passions are calm when you fall into any Danger or expect Sentence of Death there is the same Reason that the Presence the Will and Judgments of God should have the same effect upon it Nor will Ignorance be any Excuse It would indeed justifie you if it were not only a bare pretence as it does Brutes Children and Ideots But what Man knows not his Duty 'T is also in vain to rely on the Mercy of God for that extends not to impenitent Sinners and the Almighty saves only those that desire and endeavour to be saved Lastly 'T is meer folly to assert that eternal Punishments are disproportionable to the weakness of our Nature For is not God himself eternal whom you have offended And is not your Soul also eternal that has Sinned against him Self-love however blinded thinks not life eternal a thing disagreeable and imagins nothing in it disproportionable to our Condition But 't is shock'd at the Thoughts of everlasting Pains and therefore willing to believe them improbable Dreams and Whimsies But why it does so is hard to be imagin'd unless we suppose its design to be at any rate to impose upon it self In the mean while since you can neither destroy the Eternity of God or the Soul which Reason it self forces you to acknowledge you must either suppose that the Soul is to dwell eternally with God or that it must be eternally banished from his Presence that is that it must live or die eternally For to live with God is to enjoy the greatest Perfection of Happiness and to be banished his Presence is certainly the greatest Misery that can be thought of As soon as we know the Existence of God that the Soul has no Parts and that 't is incapable of any Dissolution that its Nature altogether distinct from that of Matter cannot be buried under the Ruins of the Body it is then very hard for us to oppose the Doctrin which the Gospel teaches us concerning the State of the Soul after Death Nay we are so far from impugning of it that there is even a Necessity incumbent upon us readily to embrace the same For if the Souls of the Wicked together with those of the Good are equally to be banished the Presence of God then Reason Nature and all our other Knowledge impose upon us in giving us Hope of a future Reward And if the Souls both of the Wicked and the Good are to enjoy alike the Presence of Almighty God then too those very Principles delude us in making us dread his pretended Judgments and so Gods Justice and Veracity together with all our other Knowledge are at an end To avoid therefore falling into such an impious Assertion we must own that the Souls of the Good are to dwell for ever with God but that contrariwise those of the Wicked are to be banished his Presence and in owning this we affirmthe only thing in the World that is most agreeable to all our Knowledge and most visibly flows from the nature of things themselves The Blessings of God excellently answer his liberal Promises and the formidable Severity of his Punishments All the Creatures of this visible World conspire together to do us good And besides all the temporal Blessings daily conferr'd upon us besides the whole Earths being replenished with the Knowledge of the true God the Hearts of Men are sanctified their Souls comforted the Gospel preached throughout the whole World the Son of God died for our Offences and was raised for our Justification our crucified Saviour came out of the Grave to bring us Peace from God and seal the Truth of his Gospel by his frequent Apparitions after his Death there was a visible and frequent Effusion of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost upon Men a multitude of Martyrs sent from God to reclaim the World by their Examples and Conversation from Vice and Idolatrous Superstition all these things I say are such Blessings as are wonderfully suitable to the Promises and Threatnings of God and fully convince us that the Christian Morality has as many Objects to exalt and comfort Men's Souls as it has to excite and terrify their Minds to the performance of their Duty X. But to prove that this Morality is not a meer Idea of Perfection God in is Wisdom was pleased not only to have it set down in the Book of the New Testament but also to have it lively Painted first in the Life of Christ and afterwards in the daily practice of the Primitive Christians These Men are not such Teachers as might deservedly be accused of speaking well but doing ill as it was objected formerly to Seneca who composed very excellent Discourses concerning Poverty and the contempt of the Goods of Fortune when he himself was richer than the wealthiest Citizen of Rome These on the contrary confirm'd by their practice what they taught And by extirpating their evil Desires form'd such a Society as is conformable to that we have had above but a faint Prospect of when we laid down the Idea of Man's Duty They utterly renounced those Passions which put a Distinction betwixt them and other Men. They forgot their Quality and Condition the better to use one another like Brethren The same Interests were common to them all They sold their Possessions to ease the Wants and Necessities of those that suffered Adversity They rejoyced for having been thought worthy to suffer for the Name of God Every thing conduced to their Happiness even Afflictions themselves They prayed for those that despitefully us'd them and as Charity and not Selflove was the Rule of their Affections so all the Motions of their Heart tended to one as to the same Center to the Glory of God and the good of their Neighbours which gave the Scripture occasion to say that they were but one Heart and one Soul I confess that State could not always continue in the Church but the Wisdom of God permitted it should last for some time to give us a lively Image and Idea of Heaven here on Earth and so to confirm by the excellence of such an Example a Morality already supported by so many great and powerful Motives VIII Portraiture of the Christian Religion as it is consider'd in its Mysteries THe Mysteries God has revealed unto us in his Word are like the cloudy Pillar which led the Children of Israel through the Wilderness For like that they are clear on one side but dark and obscure on the other If we contemplate
the Earth has heard of the preaching of the Apostles who all unanimously declared that Jesus Christ was risen again from the Dead and 't is purely upon their testimony that the World believ'd it Can we imagin that the Disciples of Jesus let slip a long period of time as twenty or thirty years after the Crucifixion of their Master and so having had time to embolden themselves and to contrive an imposture they suddenly appeared in the World and preached that Jesus was risen again from the Dead If so how could the compilers or forgers of the New Testament make the world believe that the Disciples of Jesus preached his Resurrection a few Weeks after his Crucifixion How comes it to pass that the Jews never had the least thoughts of contradicting our Scripture in that respect And what is the reason that the Christians yearly commemorate two festivals successively one after another one for the commemoration of the Death and Resurrection of the Lord and the other for that of the coming down of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles which was purposely given them to preach the Gospel in all places If the Disciples had not preached the Resurrection of their Master till a long time after his Death would it not have been ask'd them what have you done since your Jesus was Crucified Rose he not sooner from the Dead Or wherefore do you now preach his Resurrection so long after it What could have obliged the Jews to assert that his Disciples had stolen away his Body by night if his Resurrection had been preached so very late in the World And how comes it to pass that there were Christian Churches established almost every where by the sole testimony of the Apostles few years after the Death of Jesus Christ Can we suppose that it was out of ambition or revenge that the Disciples of Jesus published his Resurrection as designing to make the Chief Priests and Scribes pass for Paricides or immortalise their own names to Posterity But could the Disciples think of revenging themselves on those Men that had so clearly shewn them their mistake in the Messias Or could they fancy there was any revenge purely in inventing such a ridiculous fable Would they buy their Revenge so dear as at the price of their own lives and expose their persons to inevitable Torments and certain death then as for ambitious thoughts did they entertain them immediately after the death of him who could only support and confirm them Had they any reason to aspire after Glory and Grandeur just when all their hopes were destroyed with their Messias Is it likely a few poor Fishermen should have had such thoughts Certainly had that been their design they would soon have relinquish'd it and the immediate scandal affixed to their profession the Misery and barbarous persecution it continually drew upon them would have soon banished out of their Minds so ridiculous and extravagant a design But to what purpose is it for any one to delude himself 'T is well known that when a Malefactor is put to the rack he is forc'd to confess his Crime the torments he endures extorting a confession of his most secret Actions This is a way almost infallible to discover truth and human Justice often puts it in execution for that purpose How were it possible therefore that so many impostors together that had been so often examined and urged by Fire and Sword to recant what they had asserted should yet so constantly persist in a false deposition For 't was not only one single witness but a great Number of Witnesses who were not compell'd to suffer one single punishment only but all sorts of punishments 'T was not only in one single place but almost in every place where they preached they were urged to recant their opinion by the severest torments Neither was it for one single Moment but for every Moment of their lives that they were thus exposed to persecution Not one single party was on their side But Jews and Heathens Kings and Magistrates Prelates and People openly declared themselves their Adversaries They were not only assaulted with Persecutions but reviled contemned and reproached yet for all that not one of them recanted his Opinion Being Separated or Confronted they all unanimously deposed not only that Jesus Christ was risen from the Dead but that they had seen him after the Resurrection If this be the Method commonly used to maintain an imposture I wonld gladly know how Truth it self is to be defended But perhaps the Disciples were themselves deluded and Peter or some other Apostle being so cunning as to remove the body of our Lord out of his Sepulcher perswaded the other Disciples their Master was really risen from the Dead and so they firmly believing his report went about the World preaching his Resurrection But this Opinion necessiarily falls of it self to the ground For the Apostles not only testify'd that they had all seen Jesus Christ after his Resurrection from the Dead but that the holy Ghost fell on them in the likeness of fiery Tongues They testify'd likewise the Truth of Christ's other Miracles and 't is impossible they should all have been deceived in respect of all those matters of fact at once Above all 't is necessary to observe this last kind of miracle viz. the coming down of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles in the likeness of fiery tongues For those Apostles boldly affirmed that with the help of that very miracle they were endowed with the gift of divers Languages so that Greeks Romans Parthians Persians c. heard them speak every one in their own Language This is a matter of fact which neither the Apostles could have deceived the World in nor they themselves have been deceived in It can't be imagined they could have deceived the World or that some Fishermen could have been so bold as to pretend they were endowed with the gift of divers Languages unless it had been really so for they would in every place have been immediately convicted of the most notorious Cheat in the world There were at Rome men who spoke Greek as well as in Greece some that spoke Latin And by reason of Trade it generally happens that there are men of all Languages in every Country Now if St. Paul really understood no other Language but that Greek spoken in Cilicia can we suppose he would have been so bold as to boast in Asia of his speaking Latin or any other forreign Language Would he not have certainly met with people who would have immediately convicted him of falshood Neither is it more likely that the Apostles could have been themselves deceived in this respect because 't is a business of inward sense I may easily be deluded outwardly and think that I see a man indeed when I see but the shadow or fantom of a man But I can never perswade my self that I speak several different Languages when I speak but one But when I see that men of
it will be often said lo here is Christ or lo he is there before the last day of Judgment As before the destruction of Jerusalem Jesus Christ gathered together in some Christian Churches the Elect from the four Winds of Heaven and that by the preaching of the Apostles his Mystical Angels so likewise at the end of the World he will send his Angels to raise his Elect from the Dust and Obscurity of the Grave For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and the Dead in Christ shall rise 1 Thess 4. 16. As there were seen several Comets and terrible Signs that foretold the Destruction of Jerusalem as the Smoak of the City and Flaming Temple hid the light of the day and darkned the Sun and Stars so without doubt the end of the World will be also attended with Signs and Prodigies much more terrible St. Peter saith the Earth shall be burnt up and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat c. 2. Epistle 3. 10. As the Destruction of the Jews happened after an unexpected manner so also shall the last day come as a thief in the night As Jerusalem and the Temple were utterly destroyed as soon as the Jews had compleated the measure of their sins so this World which we inhabit must perish as soon as the end or Calling of all Nations shall be fulfilled as Jesus Christ himself says in that Prophecy we now have under Consideration Besides one may reasonably imagin the Disciples to be always prepossessed with this Opinion that the End of the World would immediately follow the destruction of Jerusalem For when it was reported among the Disciples that St. John should not die because Christ had said to one of them speaking of him If I will that he tarries till I come what is that to thee They stretch'd that till I come as far as the end of the World but they might have confined it to the Destruction of Jerusalem a time which the Apostles in reality saw and in which Jesus Christ visited the Jews in his justice Further this Tradition being spread abroad that the day of the Lord drew nigh the Thessalonians were so terrifi'd at it that St. Paul to comfort them again sent them the following assurances to the Contrary Now we beseech you Brethren that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as that the day of Chrst is at hand Let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except first c. 2 Thess 2. 2 3. In a word there is no reason to wonder that that Prophecy of Jesus Christ so faithfully related by his Disciples should have left this Impression in their minds For Jesus Christ on the one hand had given such marks and signs of his coming that it seemed as if the last judgment was immediately to follow it saying that he should appear as the lightning that cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West and on the other hand he had declared several times that all those things should happen to that generation that many of those who were present with him should not taste of Death until they had seen all those things Since then Jesus Christ united thus two several Events in one and the same Description but two subordinate Events as like unto one another as the Copy and the Original may be it follows thence that his Prophecy must have had two accomplishments the one very nigh and the other remote This in my opinion is the true way of unravelling all those Difficulties The Disciples confounded together two very remote Events and Jesus Christ suffered them to continue in that Opinion 'T is necessary that the Event should justifie the Prophecies but not that the Prophecies should be contrary to their Event It is necessary therefore they should be obscure before their Completion but clear and easy when once accomplish'd But however probable what I 've laid down may seem to be I should be very sorry any one should think I lay the stress of my argument upon it I make a distinction between bare Conjectures and true and certain Principles and I leave all the Explanations I have just now given to the Readers judgment to use according to his Discretion I am indifferent whether he uses my Notions or those of any other Man to solve certain difficulties which may occur therein I shall only insist upon two certain Truths which in my opinion admit of no Difficulty The first is that this Prophecy is so circumstantially related that it is absurd to imagin it composed after the event or that a man took occasion from the Destruction of Jerusalem at which none but Titus and his Army were seen to make Jesus Christ say when he foretold that Devastation that he would come in the Clouds of heaven that he would send his Angels to gather his Elect from the four winds that they would see him coming with power and great glory as the lightning that cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West that all the Tribes of the Earth should mourn at his coming and that day should come as suddenly as the fire of Sodom and Gomorrah The second Truth which seems to me altogether unquestionable is that notwithstanding that little darkness with which the Wisdom of God thought fit to overshadow this prophecy it was nevertheless in all Respects so very exactly related in all its Circumstances and so clearly fulfilled that supposing it composed before the Event we cannot but acknowledge it to proceed from a Prophetical Spirit For what can we Read in the History of the Jews but what is included in this Prophecy The beginning the continuation and ending of the Misfortunes of the Jews are all to be found in it It does not foretel a particular Captivity of that people but a general dispersion of the whole Nation and they shall be led Captives into all Nations Luk. 21. 24. Jesus Christ wept over Jerusalem on another occasion at his entring into it and uttered these Compassionate Words O that thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace But now they are hid from thine eyes For the days shall come that thine Enemies shall cast a Trench about thee and compass thee round and keep the in on every side and shall â—ay thee even with the ground and thy Children within thee and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another because thou knewest not the time of thy Visitation Luke â—9 42 43 44. And can any one believe that this passage of our Saviours weeping over Jerusalem was also inserted in â—he Gospel Were all those Prophetical Parables inâ—erted too in which Jesus Christ threatned the Jews â—ith their approaching Destruction telling them â—ne while that the Lord would let his Vineyard to other
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
Christ into Heaven And how can any Man reasonably imagin that it was natural and according to the regular Course of second Causes to see a Man that had been crucified and laid in a Sepulcher where a Watch was appointed to guard him rise out of that Sepulcher again appear alive to several Men that touched and handled him and afterwards ascend into Heaven in their sight Certainly that very Ascension of Jesus Christ cannot but convince the most suspicious and scrupulous Person that it was an Event purely divine and supernatural For otherwise our Incredulous Adversaries might imagin since they are everlastingly raising Doubts that the Body of Jesus Christ might have been taken down from the Cross before the Breath was gone out of it that Joseph of Arimathea who was his Disciple tho he durst not own it publickly might have dress'd his Body and recover'd him out of his Swoon by the strength of the Remedies he gave him that he might have laid another counterfeit dead-Dead-body in his place and buried it and that afterwards Jes Christ might have privately shewed himself to his Disciples not daring to appear in publick for fear of falling a second time into the hands of the Jews and suffering a true and real Death instead of that imaginary one he had suffered before But this Fiction is absurd and incredible and that for several Reasons First Because the Evangelists relate that Christ had his Side pierced with the Lance of a Soldier which thing alone was enough to give him his Death Secondly It is very improbable to think that the Jewish Sanhedrin who had condemned him to die nay who had taken such care to set a Watch over his Sepulcher should yet suffer his Body to be taken down from the Cross before the Breath was gone out of it Lastly because it can never be supposed that a Man who hung several Hours together on a Cross should yet escape Death and shew himself not long after safe and sound to his Disciples But that which will immediately remove all these Doubts is that Jesus Christ not only rose from the Dead but also ascended into Heaven in the sight of his Disciples And this is so sensible and evident a matter of fact that they could never have been imposed upon in that respect So that it may very well be affirmed that the Argument for the Truth of the Christian Religion chiefly depends upon that Important Inquiry whether the Disciples designed to impose upon us by relating to us a false Event which they did not believe themselves Now if we can clearly prove the contrary we shall invincibly demonstrate the certain Truth of our Faith Let us therefore in order to it closely stick to the Examination of that matter of fact the most essential and the most important that ever was and endeavour to discover whether it be possible we should have been imposed upon by those Men which could not deceive themselves If we would suppose that the Disciples of Jesus Christ deceived us in their relation of a fictitious Event we must also necessarily suppose these three things 1. That their Illusion or Imposture must be a thing that was possible to be put in Execution 2. That it must be of some Use or other to them 3. That it must be such as Men and only Men make use of Now it is certain that their pretended Illusion here in question could not have any of these three Qualities 1. It could not have been possible because it must have been agreed upon by many Persons who all knew the bare Truth of the matter of fact it self 2. It would have been of no use for what could those Men propose to themselves in inventing such a Fiction 3. It could not be such as Men usually contrive because from the Beginning of the World till now we never heard of any Man that invented Lyes on purpose to have the pleasure of being hanged scourged burnt or executed upon a Scaffold 1. As to the first I 'll grant you if you will that Peter with some other Disciples might have taken away the Body of Jesus Christ out of the Sepulcher either by tricking the Watch or taking the Advantage of their sleeping or lastly by bribing them with Mony I 'll grant you too if you will they might have easily perswaded the whole Company of Disciples who were too credulous and too eager in swallowing of Novelties that Jesus Christ had appeared to them indeed and that he was risen from the Dead I 'll grant you likewise that the other Disciples might have imagined thereupon they had seen some Visions or thought they had seen him in several Places and on several Occasions but then I ask How they could have all agreed together concerning the truth of his Ascension By what Charm or Cunning could Peter and the other Apostles have made them see that which they never saw or heard a Man speak whom they really never heard By what Machine could they have caused the Clouds to descend Or by what sort of Inchantment could they have produced two Men in white Raiments telling them Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go up into Heaven Acts 1. 11. By what secret Power could they have so deeply imprinted in the Minds of the Disciples the Words which Jesus Christ spoke to them after his Resurrection the Reproaches he made them of their Infidelity his Promise of sending the Holy Ghost to them his forbidding them to depart from the City of Jerusalem and the Command he gave them to Baptise all Nations in the Name of the Father the Son and Holy Ghost I say how could they have done all this if all these things were but the witty Conceits of their Imagination and Fancy Certainly tho St. Peter or some other Disciple of Jesus Christ should have formed to himself the Design and Plan of so Signal a Cheat and tho he should have set down in writing all the Articles one by one which he was obliged to make other Men believe against the plain Truth yet he could never have been so bold as to propose any such thing to those Men who were prepossessed with the Opinion that Lying was a great Sin but Truth and Sincerity on the contrary a great Vertue Nay it is even impossible it should ever come into his Head to frame so Signal an Imposture upon so sad and sorrowful an Event as the Death of Jesus Christ Neither does it appear that his Mind or his Thoughts were any ways bent upon any such Design And tho he should have been induced out of a Spirit of Revenge to invent such a Lye to discredit the Scribes and Pharisees yet it can't be supposed he should have been so very silly as to imagin that the rest of the Disciples would consent to that Imposture or be willing to maintain it
at any rate whatever out of meer Complaisance to him Such is the Nature of Mankind such the Frame and Temper of their Hearts that they will admit of no Falsity unless covered with a specious shew of Truth So that when any thing is so evidently false that every Body must necessarily be sensible of it we have no Thoughts of attempting to make others believe it as for instance it will never come into my Head to make other Men believe that I have Wings and that I fly c. We might here repeat what has been said concerning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ either the Disciples looked upon Jesus Christ before his Death as the promised Messias or else they did not look upon him as such If they considered him as the promised Messias they then believed his Words and thought that he would truly rise again and if they did expect that he would truly rise again they consequently believed he would come himself out of his Grave and so it was not at all necessary they should steal his Body away And if they did not consider him as the promised Messias whilst he was alive it must follow from thence that they were Seducers and Impostors even before the Death of Christ Now how can any one conceive that those Seducers should not have been terrified at the Punishment inflicted on their Master or that such a terrible Example of the most rigorous Justice design'd too for them should not put an end to their frontless Impudence Above all How can it be supposed that those wicked and perfidious Disciples durst have proposed to the other Disciples who were really Sincere and True to joyn with them and so testify that they had seen Jesus Christ ascending into Heaven Truly I don't see what any Man can alledge except one of these two things either that they were all sincere and honest Men or that some of them were honest and the rest Cheats If they were all sincere and honest Men as their Manners their Discourse their Conduct and a thousand other Characters of them evidently shew then is it absolutely impossible that any such Cheat could have been carried on amongst them But if they were all a pack of cheating treacherous Impostors then it was the first time that ever a Society of cheating perfidious Rogues was erected who seemed to have had no other Design than to sanctify Mankind But what Man be his Thoughts never so confus'd and irregular be his Reason never so corrupt can yet imagin that so many mean-spirited simple and humble Men as the Disciples were should immediately become the most Lying notorious Cheats out of no other Design then to involve themselves in ruin If some of them were false and others sincere and if the latter were at all imposed upon by the former which is the most our Incredulous Adversaries can imagin yet even then I assert that such a Cheat could not have been carried on by them For supposing Peter never so smooth and Eloquent never so adroit at Dissembling and Insinuation yet how could he possibly perswade so great a number of Persons to believe against their Senses that they had seen that which they really never saw or handled that which they had never handled that Jesus Christ after having given them many Precepts and large Instructions which he left very deeply imprinted in their Minds ascended into Heaven in their sight But should I grant he might have perswaded them of the Truth of his Resurrection yet how is it possible he could perswade them of the Truth of his Ascension Had St. Peter but so much as proposed it to them whom he designed to delude it would have been for that very Reason impossible but that they should have found out his Design to cheat them But he would not sure presume to propose to them the joint Contrivance of such a fabulous Story nor would he have found tho he had been bold enough to have proposed it any that would have assisted him in so sensless a Design much less maintain'd his Extravagance and least of all exposed themselves to a thousand Torments on purpose to maintain it 2. But secondly I observed that such an Imposture would have been of no manner of use to them It is enough to have proved that it was impossible to be put in Execution to satisfie any reasonable Man how needless and useless it would be to advance it 'T is true there have been in all Ages and Countries such Men as would have been very willing for their own Advantage to make others believe improbable Stories and Fictions had the thing been but practicable but because they could not effect it without such a mutual Concert among several Persons to maintain it as is altogether impossible for that very Reason it never came into their Minds upon serious and cooler Thoughts It would no doubt be of very singular Advantage to those Princes who so earnestly desire to procure themselves an extraordinary Respect and Veneration from their Subjects and for that Reason very seldom appear in publick and hardly ever shew themselves to their Poople I say it would be of great Advantage to them if they could but once perswade their People that they were of a Divine Race and came down from Heaven but because they judge such a Design impracticable they reckon it a thing altogether useless and needless ever to undertake it Certainly we may as well affirm that the Design of making other Men believe the Ascension of Jesus Christ against the real truth of the thing and inward sense of their own Consciences would have been altogether as useless and needless because it does not in the least appear that the Disciples could propose to themselves any reasonable Design in maintaining such an incredible Story 3. Nay it was a thing not only wholly useless but as we observ'd in the third place such a one as Men dont usually Design or contrive It could not enter into any one Man's mind much less into that of so many different men at once to fancy that they could perswade other Men to credit such an impudent Lye as that must have been or to dare undertake to make others believe it to think in the least that they could succeed in so strange a Design or that others would have acted in it jointly with them to imagin that they could be able to endure the most rigorous Torments and the severest and most cruel Afflictions or that the Cheat which they unanimously had agreed on would have been both believed and approved of throughout the World nay what is more that Men should repent and become Holy and Righteous out of a Respect and Reverence they boâ—e to an Impostor and that Vertue and Piety should have been established in all the Parts of the World by the means of an extraordinary Cheat. To this we may add that considering this Design of theirs another way it is not cannot be such a one as any
have for ever divided Now the Christian Religion restores the Society of Nature For by uniting Men so strictly in the Bond of Charity it farther strengthens that natural Love which we call Humanity It destroys too the Societies of Interest and Ambition because it extirpates such inordinate Desires as are not true Principles of Vnion and good Vnderstanding one among another It also strengthens Civil Society by commanding us to obey our Superiours and teaching us to render unto Cesar the things that are Cesars and unto God the things that are Gods Lastly it establishes such a Society as restores the Equality of Nature among us and whereas there was in the World till the coming of Christ a Society of Men externally indeed united by the Bond of Civil Laws Government and the Degrees of Proximity of Blood but internally divided by their irregular Passions Christ shews us a Society of Men externally divided by the distance of Time and Place and the disparity of their Conditions but internally united by the Bonds of the same Faith the same Hope and the same Charity Nor are these meer Ideas or Speculations for besides that the Christian Religion visibly relates wholly to the Design of making Men holy and pure and dedicating them to God besides that the Apostles tell us that it is the End of their Preaching directing themselves in their Epistles to those that are called to be Saints and to the Spiritual Israel and declaring concerning Apostates that they went from them because they were not of them besides that Jesus Christ on all occasions makes the very same Distinction refusing to own them for his Disciples that should be wholly taken up with the advantages of the World and giving this Mark and Character of those whom he owned for his My Sheep hear my Voice and the World hates them because they are not of the World Joh. 17. 14. I say besides all this we have this Satisfaction that we can produce a Society of holy Men that yielded not to any Powers of the World but withstood the most rigorous Trials of Persecutions and renounced the enticing Charms of the World the better to adhere to the Cross of Christ A Society victorious in Temptations that overcame Vices and deluded the indefatigable Endeavours of Tyrants a Society composed of Mortal Men yet not to be exstinguished by Death that was subject to the Laws of Nature yet encourag'd with motives Super-natural that conversed in the World yet despised it that was dispersed in several different Times and Places yet always united in the same Thoughts and Opinions that was continually attack't by different Passions yet constantly surmounted them In a word a Society that still flourish'd in the midst of Persecution increas'd the more as often as it was defeated and rais'd it self out of it 's own ruins Certainly he must have read but little of Ecclesiastical History that is unacquainted with all these Truths and he must be wilfully blind and purposely impose upon himself that acknowledges not the Efficacy of Religion in all those wonderful Effects And 't is properly in that Society of holy Men or in the Church it self that we ought to seek for the Fruits of Religion for there we shall find the Accomplishment of those ancient Prophecies which promised to shew us the Sheep feeding with the Bear and the Leopard with the Lamb c. And as the Ark of God could not be left in the midst of it's Enemies without working several Wonders among them which even those Infidels were sensible of so the Christian Church cannot continue in the World without producing such remarkable Effects in it which the most incredulous themselves cannot call in question For let them tell us if they can how came the Oracles of the Heathens to be immediately silenced when the Apostles first preach'd the Mysteries of Christianity and by what Power the Sound of those Men being gone to the end of the World made those Oracles eternally cease which had so long foretold things to come and so forc'd the Heathenish Writers as Plutarch and others to inquire into the Cause of that so sudden and so unexpected Silence For to object with Julian that the Jewish and Christian Oracles have been also silenced concludes nothing because the Apostles foretold that the Gift of Prophecy should cease But how appears it that the Oracles among the Heathens declar'd they should one day be silenced The Accomplishment of our Prophecies being an everlasting Proof of the Truth of our Religion serves us instead of Perpetual Oracles But what Accomplishment of Prophecies confirms the Pagan Religion No less wonderful an Effect of our Religion was the abundance of Revelation which brought so many Superstitious and Idolatrous Nations to the Knowledge of the true God Hence came the World to be fill'd with Wisdom by the preaching of ignorant Persons and the meanest Servants to have more noble and rational Ideas of the Deity than the most quick Clear-sighted Philosophers and that too by the Proposal of such a Doctrin as seems indeed to the Flesh an Object of Scandal and Horror We cannot deny but that the Christian Religion has the advantage of all others for having utterly abolished all those Sacrifices wherein they offered the Blood of Men Neither can we doubt but that this cruel and bloody Superstition was sufficiently advanc'd in the World since we find that the Holy Scripture reproaches the Jews for having sacrificed their Children to Moloch and that Julius Cesar tells us in his Commentaries that it was an ancient Custom among the Gauls to offer Human Victims to their pretended Deities I confess indeed the Romans had already renounced such a barbarous and cruel Superstition but then I question whether they did not still retain some Spice of it in those Spectacles they exhibited to the People wherein they were extreamly pleased to see the Blood of their Gladiatours run down who killed one another meerly to make them Sport A Sacrifice so much the more impious because dedicated rather to the unlawful pleasure of Men than the Honour of those Beings they look't upon as Gods And what but the Christian Religion could have abolished all those bloody Spectacles and horrid Divertisements We have just reason to be surprized to think how licentiously that abominable Sin usually punish'd by God and Man with Fire reign'd heretofore in the World and we cannot without horror and amazement reflect how that the love of both Sexes seem'd equally grown common to Men and that ancient Authors freely speak of that kind of Debauchery which our own Writers dare not so much as mention lest they defile their Writings Socrates is represented to us by some of them as being deeply smitten with the Beauty of Alcibiades and the Emperour Trajan whose Panegyrick well deserv'd thirty Years labour strangely blemished his Reputation by that monstrous Lechery Which pretty well shews the just Grounds for St. Paul's reproach to the Heathens who says that because when
that by shewing that the New Testament was composed before the destruction of Jerusalem I shew also that it is as ancient as the Apostles themselves which affords us one determination very advantagious to our Cause So that this objection being very favourable to instead of proving any thing against us nothing hinders but that we pass on to the consideration of the second suspicion we were willing to entertain concerning the Books of the New Testament CHAP. II. Proving that the Books of the New Testament were never corrupted 'T Is certain that from the Apostles time to ours the New Testament was ever look'd upon as sacred and not to be corrupted without impiety and Irreligion But whether it were Reason or Prejudice that made it so esteemed by the Christians I shall now examin It is enough that the esteem men have of it seems as ancient as the Book it self It s being considered as the foundation of all our hopes and the original of heavenly Revelation its being read and order'd to be read in Publick and Private from the Age of Clemens Polycarp Justin and Iraeneus to ours I say all this shews that it could not have been corrupted in its Essentials But this Truth very well deserves a more strict consideration I say then how is it possible that all the World should have unanimously conspired to corrupt this Book For tho' one single Doctor of the Church should have attempted it yet the rest would certainly have opposed it Tho' all the Christian Doctors dispersed up and down the World should have agreeed to it yet the people would never have consented to 't Tho' the Doctors and the People together should have been inclinable to it yet sure their Adversaries would not have failed to reproach them with it The Jews and Heathens whose only aim was to cry down their Religion would never have concealed it Julian Porphirius and all other particular Enemies of the Christians would have drawn some advantage from it In a word tho' the silence of their Adversaries had favoured so strange an Enterprise yet the different parties and various Heresies which soon after sprung up among the Christians were an invincible obstacle to it 'T is well known that immediately after the Death of the Apostles the Church was strangely disturbed by several various Controversies For not to speak here of the Gnosticks that abominable Sect which deserves not the honourable name of Christians certainly the Opinion of the Millenarians which Papias seems to have been the Author of founded upon the Apostolical Tradition fifteen years after the death of St. John the Controversy which soon after happened concerning the Christian Passover together with the Disputes of the Orthodox against the Origenists concerning the Resurrection and several other Articles of the Christian Doctrin I say these Disputes might easily have divided the Christians in the first Century of the Church Next to them succeeded the famous Disputes of the Orthodox with the Arrians and with what heat and animosities they were carried on is sufficiently known to all the World But however fatal all those Controversies were to the Church yet they produced that good effect by the direction of Providence which orders every thing to some good end that they preserv'd the Revelation of the New Testament pure and entire and at present strengthen our belief against all suspicions we might probably entertain in this respect For tho the Millenarians the Origenists and the Arians should have attempted to corrupt the Scripture yet how were it possible that the Orthodox which were so exasperated against them should have suffered it to be done or that if the Orthodoxes had had any such design their Adversaries which were so incens'd should have agreed with them in the same Intention Should I further grant this mutual agreement possible doubtless the almost infinite number of Copies of Editions and Translations made at first of the New Testament rendered the execution of that design impossible For tho' a man had corrupted one single Copy among all those Copies or translated those Books false yet how could he corrupt all the other Copies of them which are dispersed in the World or how could he alter so many other Translations which have been made of them in different times and in different places But supposing this were feasible if the Writings of the Apostles were ever corrupted it must have been either in their Essentials or in things of little Importance I mean by their Essentials those miraculous matters of fact related in the New Testament as well as all those others which if true demonstrate the Truth of the Christian Religion Now if those Writings were not corrupted in their Essentials it necessarily follows that they contain several true matters of fact sufficient to prove the Truth of Christianity But if they were altered in their Essentials there must have been added to them the Miracles of Jesus Christ his Resurrection Ascension into Heaven the pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost the power the Apostles had of speaking strange Languages and of imparting miraculous gifts to others Now I affirm that all those matters of fact could not have been added to the New Testament unless the whole Book was forg'd because the subject matter of the New Testament consists of nothing else but of those matters of fact or if you will of such things as evidently relate to them and which would certainly be false if those matters of fact were false But let us joyn Experience to Reason and consider that if the Christians had corrupted the writings of the Apostles the Books of the New Testament would now be quite different from what they were in the former ages and that having been continually altered from that time untill now nothing could be more apparent than such an alteration Yet 't is easy to perceive the contrary and it evidently appears by an almost infinite number of places of the New Testament quoted in the Books of the Fathers that there never was a Book that suffered less alteration by the revolution of years than that did There are but two things in my opinion that may be answered to this Argument the first is that in corrupting the Books of the New Testament those places quoted in the Works of the Fathers might also have been altered But this thought can never enter into any reasonable mans mind for he must then suppose that there was a person in a manner Immortal who might have had time enough to alter so many Books composed from Age to Age and a man too so much Master of other Mens hearts and understandings as to have been able to corrupt a Book the most universally read and most carefully preserved that ever was and to alter also with it all the Books of the ancient Fathers without any body ever perceiving it or making the least opposition against it The second thing that may be answered is that this
corruption of the Scripture was done before any of the Fathers begun to write that is fifteen or twenty years after the Death of the Apostles But we need only recall to mind all the reasons that perswaded us that the Books of the New Testament were not forged by the Successors of the Apostles and it will appear they are no less conclusive in this place In short we need but joyn the Martyrdom of the Primitive Christians who were not certainly so Whimsical as to die in defence of their fictions with the passion the people had for the Writings of the Apostles the Divisions which disunited the Church immediately after their Death the variety of Translations the number of Copies the constant and perpetual Tradition of the Ancient Fathers the connexion of the essential matters of fact of the Gospel which is such that he that admits of one is obliged to admit of the other too as he that believes the Ascension of Jesus Christ is obliged to believe his Resurrection also and he that denies those matters of fact is no longer a Christian the number of the Books which the New Testament consists of the Repetition of the same matters of fact in them the want of Time and Opportunity to invent or essentially corrupt them the impossibility of it unless the Book was wholly forg'd the prodigious multitude of people who must have been imposed upon in that respect the nature of the matters of fact they must have been made to believe viz. that whole Societies had received some Epistles from the Apostles which contained such and such things which they ought to have well remembred the Experience of time past which evidently shews that from Clemens and Polycarp down to us that is for sixteen Ages together the Books of the New Testament were not essentially corrupted the distance of places where those Books must have been forg'd or corrupted together with the impossibility of making many fictions which in all appearance those Books would have been full of pass for Truth and that so soon after the Death of the Apostles when the World had their preaching yet fresh in their memory the silence of the Enemies of the Christians on that account who never mentioned any thing concerning that pretended forgery the distinction the Primitive Christians made at first between the Writings of the Fathers and those of the New Testament which they looked upon as the absolute Rule and Standard of their Faith All these considerations I say put together plainly shew us and that too in an evident manner that it would argue madness in the highest Degree longer to entertain either of the two former Suspicions I pass on therefore to a third which is that the Apostles themselves composed fables for the honour of their Master But since this is the most considerable of them all and that which Julian Mahomet and almost every Incredulous person of these times chiefly urge against us it is but reasonable I should more particularly and throughly examin it in the following Chapters for truly upon that chiefly depends the solid proof of our Religion CHAP. III. That the Apostles did not Write what was false TO comprehend distinctly that the Authors we speak of did not impose upon us in their Writings it is fit to consider those Writings in particular one after another They consist of three principal parts which are the four Gospels the Book of Acts and the Epistle of the Apostles St. Mathew writ the first and his Gospel is quoted by Clemens Bishop of Rome Disciple and Contemporary with the Apostles Barnabas quotes it also in his Epistle And Ignatius and Polycarp who lived in the time of St. John Justin Iraeneus who lived a little after Athenagoras Tertullian and all the other Doctors of the Church which succeeded them unanimously received it There is not only the Gospel according to St. Matthew concerning which 't would be a very difficult matter to entertain any reasonable suspicions but the Gospel according to St. Mark was also a while after written for a second support of our belief The same Fathers who testify of the one testify also of the other Papias Clemens Alexandrinus Justin speak of it and St. Iraeneus relates that Mark the Disciple of St. Peter composed his Gospel of those matters he had heard the latter speak of St. Luke who accompanied St. Paul in all his Travells wrote a third Gospel which the Ancient Fathers have also received Lastly St. John the last of the Apostles composed a fourth Gospel towards the latter end of his days as the Doctors of the Primitive Church tell us and this Apostle declares at the end of it that he himself is the Author of it this is the Disciple says he which testifieth of these things which he has seen chap. 21. 24. It is to be observed first of all that the four Evangelists who all agree in the plainness and ingenuity which appears in their Relations have nevertheless a very different stile from one another Thus St. John expresses himself after a very simple manner if compared with that of St. Luke who being a Phisitian ought to have written in a more lofty stile than St. John who was originally a Fisherman And this consideration removes the Suspicion we might entertain that all those Gospels were composed by one and the same Author Secondly We may observe that altho' these Writers agree essentially in the matters they relate there is nevertheless some small difference betwixt them which very sensibly shews us that they composed their Gospels separately Divine Providence having so ordered it the better to confirm ouâ— Faith Yet our incredulous Adversaries will not stand to this Assertion They will perhaps imagin that the Disciples of Jesus having got together at Jerusalem after the Death of their Master took certain Measures to make men believe certain supposititions matters of fact which they very exactly and precisely set down least they should contradict themselves in the Testimony they should give of them and that after having founded several Churches by then preaching some of them took special care to digest those very matters of fact in Writing which they had preach'd throughout the World after having invented them I think this is the most plausible objection of theirs that is likely to be raised against this subject But in order to confute this imagination it might perhaps suffice to call to mind what I have before mentioned the absurdity there is in supposing that a few simple and ignorant Fishermen dejected by the Death of their Master undeceived of the opinion they had entertained that he was their Messias and so fearful that they fled when he was seized upon in order to his Crucifixion should contrive amongst themselves how to deceive other men when they themselves were so miserably deluded that they should dare to invent a matter of fact which would certainly fix an eternal blot and scandal upon their Nation by making the Jews be looked