offered himself a Sacrifice upon the Cross was made a Curse died was buried rose again and is sat down at the right hand of God that thereby he might redeem us from our Iniquities and from the Curse of the Law be a propitiation for our Sins and reconcile us to his Father through his Blood that our Trespasses might not be imputed to us but that by his Obedience we should be made righteous That he might become the Mediator of a new and better Covenant between God and Man than that which God made with the People of Israel when he brought them out of the Land of Egypt and that he might abolish the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances and break down the middle Wall of Partition between Jew and Gentile that so both might be united in one Building of which Christ was the chief Corner Stone and all of us be Members of one Body or Church of which Christ is the Head That he might be an Advocate with the Father when we sin and make continual Intercession for us that so upon our Confession and Repentance God might forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness And lastly That he might obtain a Kingdom and by that means spoil Principalities and Powers triumphing over them destroy the works of the Devil and put all Enemies under his feet and that when Death the last Enemy is destroyed he might raise the Dead and judge the World Part of which he has already performed and the rest he does and will hereafter fulfil The most remarkable matters that occur in the New Testament concerning the Nature Condition and Circumstances of Mankind are these Adam was the first Man Adam was first form'd then Eve the first Man Adam was made a living Soul the last Adam by which is meant Christ was made a quickening Spirit which two different Expressions are distinguish'd as Natural and Spiritual Earthly and Heavenly by one Man Sin entered into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned Adam was not deceived but the Woman being deceived was in the Trangression notwithstanding she shall be saved in Child-bearing if they continue in Faith and Charity and Holiness with Sobriety Death reigned from Adam unto Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam 's Transgression who is the Figure of him that was to come A Man is the Image and Glory of God but the Woman is the Glory of the Man notwithstanding which all that are of the race of Mankind are stiled and accounted in the Scriptures sinners ungodly enemies of God dead in trespasses and sins servants of sin and corruption Children of the Devil by nature Children of Wrath of whom it is said further That Sin dwelleth in us and reigneth in our Mortal Bodies that when we would do good evil is present with us and we find the Flesh lusting against the Spirit and a Law in our Members warring against the Law of our Mind and bringing it into Captivity to the Law of Sin The Jews are represented as subject to Ordinances and a Law which had only a shadow of good things to come and as in bondage to weak and beggarly Elements and all other Nations are reckoned as Aliens and Strangers from the Covenants of Promise having no hope and without God in the World This is the state of Mankind considered without relation to Christ but by Christ we are cleansed from our sins we are made free we are justified by Faith in him and by his righteousness we are saved But the advantages which accrue to Mankind by the means of Christ and the change that is made in our Condition by him will be more fully understood from these following passages As by one Mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous as sin hath reigned unto death so shall Grace reign through righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ Cursed is every Man that continueth not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them the Man that doth them shall live in them but this being impossible 't is evident that no Man is justified by the Law in the sight of God if there had been a Law given which could have given life righteousness should have been by the Law but the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise of Faith by Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe In many things we offend all but if we repent and are baptized and believe and shew our Faith by our Works and persevere unto the end we shall be saved but if we believe not the Truth and have pleasure in unrighteousness and repent not of the evils we have committed we shall be damned Those that have embraced and obeyed the Gospel of Christ are said to have put off the Old Man with his Deeds and put on the New Man which is renewed in Knowledge after the Image of him that created him Thus through Christ only we are to expect Salvation there being no other Name given under Heaven whereby we might be saved which Salvation if we neglect we shall be condemned by God at the last day when he comes to judge the World in Righteousness by his Son whom he has appointed Judge of the quick and dead Then shall we be raised from the dead by Christ and receive every Man according to his Works As in Adam all died so in Christ shall all be made alive and since by Man came Death by Man came also the Resurrection of the dead The dead shall be raised incorruptible their mortal corruptible Bodies shall put on immortality and incorruption and those which are alive at the coming of Christ shall be changed in a moment at the last Trump As we have born the Image of the earthly Man Adam so we shall also bear the Image of the heavenly Man Christ Then shall they which have done evil be condemn'd to everlasting torment and misery and they which have done good shall be rewarded with everlasting joy and happiness in the presence of God and his holy Angels This is the substance of what is taught and proposed to the Faith of Mankind in the New Testament which I have express'd as near as ever I could in the very language of Scripture as my design plainly obliged me to do The other Branch of the Gospel or Doctrine of Christ which concerns the Practice of a Christian and may properly be stiled Christian Morality consists of such rules and measure of Action as every one that believes in Christ is obliged to conform his life to and without which his Faith is dead and vain he is still in his sins and he must expect the Wages of them Eternal Death The principal Heads of Christian Duty are these To love God and the Lord Jesus Christ with all our heart and with all our power to honour praise
and his Birth proclaim'd by Angels That his Coming into the World was signified by a Star which brought Wise Men from the East to worship him That mighty Things were immediately before and after his Birth said of him by Angels and Just Persons moved by the Spirit of God From the Birth of Christ 'till he was thirty years of Age very little is mentioned of him besides some Discourse he held with the Doctors in the Temple at Twelve but when he began to be about thirty he was baptized by John who is stil'd his Forerunner that prepared the way for him and at his Baptism the Heavens were opened and the Spirit of God descended upon him like a Dove and a Voice was heard from Heaven saying This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleas'd The principal Things that are afterwards recorded of him are his calling of Disciples and Apostles his Sermons and Instructions to the People his Miracles and Prophecies and his Sufferings Death and Burial with some other remarkable Passages that happened after his Death His Disciples and Apostles but more especially Twelve of them were favoured with a nearer and more intimate Conversation than any of the rest he directed his Instructions to These were the constant Companions of his Labours and Witnesses of his most private Behaviour These he instructed in a more plain and open manner than he did others and communicated several things to Them which he kept secret from his common Auditors and Followers To these he gave a Commission to teach and instruct the Jews and to do mighty things among them while he lived and to preach to all Nations after his Death and propagate his Doctrine with Signs and Wonders He himself is represented as preaching and teaching throughout all Judea and several of his Publick Sermons and Discourses as also many things which he said in private to his Disciples are every where throughout the several Gospels repeated sometimes in short and only the Substance of them sometimes more at large in the same Form and Manner in which they were delivered The Miracles or wonderful Things mentioned to be done by Christ exceeding all the Observation and Power of Mankind are these Fasting Forty Days and Forty Nights together turning Water into Wine Stilling Tempests walking upon the Sea telling the secret Thoughts of Men's hearts curing the Blind Lame and Maimed healing all manner of Diseases with a word or touch of his Garment casting out Devils and unclean Spirits and restoring Men possessed with 'em to their former state of health and sense feeding vast multitudes of People with a few small Loaves and Fishes by his bare Word causing a Fig-Tree immediately to wither great numbers of Fish to be taken in a Net and a single Fish to come to the Hook with Money in its mouth to pay his Tribute with transfiguring himself before some of his Disciples so that they saw the fashion of his Face alter'd and his Raiment chang'd raising the Dead and rising himself after his Burial appearing to his Disciples after he was risen and conversing with them Forty Days sometimes being known by them and sometimes not according as he pleased and at last in their Presence ascending up into Heaven The Matters we find in the Gospels foretold by Jesus Christ were his own Passion Death Resurrection Ascension and Mission of the Holy Spirit or Comforter with several particular Circumstances of them the Persecutions and Sufferings of his Disciples the Death of some of them and the manner in which they were to dye as also their future Glory and Office at the end of the World the Rejection of the Jews Vocation of the Gentiles Success and Continuance of the Gospel or Christian Religion the Appearance of False Prophets and Teachers and False Christs the springing up of Heresies and falling away of Professors the Destruction of the Jewish Temple and Constitution and Dispersion of that whole People with many strange and terrible Signs foregoing and lastly the second Appearance of himself in Glory to judge the World which is set forth in a very large and pompous Description of the whole Scene As to his Sufferings Death and Burial and what followed afterwards which are the next things that challenge our Consideration we read that he was betrayed by one of his Disciples denied by another and deserted by all the rest that he was taken and carried first before the High Priest of the Jews and afterwards before Pilate and Herod that he was scourged mocked spit upon reviled and at last upon false and frivolous Accusations condemn'd by Pilate contrary to his Conscience only to please the Jews and then crucified between Two common Malefactors one of which reproached him the other believed in him while he was upon the Cross the Sun was dark'ned the Veil of the Temple was rent in twain and the Earth quaked and the Rocks rent and the Graves were open'd and many Bodies that slept arose and came out of their Graves after his Resurrection and appear'd unto many his Body being taken down from the Cross unbroken was laid in a Sepulchre hewn out of a Rock with a Stone roll'd to the door of it and the Sepulchre was made sure by sealing the Stone and setting a Watch notwithstanding which he rose again the Third day after he was buried and appear'd to his Disciples and many others But the Soldiers that were appointed to watch the Sepulchre being affrighted by the appearance of an Angel who descended from Heaven and roll'd back the Stone from the door came into the City and shew'd the Chief Priests all the things that were done and had Money given them to say his Disciples came by Night and stole him away after this the Disciple that betray'd him repented of the Fact brought back the Money he had received for betraying him and hang'd himself This is the summ of what is contained in the Four Gospels In the next Book call'd The Acts of the Apostles we find the Eleven who are peculiarly stiled Apostles after their return from beholding the Ascension of their Master assembled together at Jerusalem with the rest of those who were more particularly distinguished by the Name of Disciples where they make choice of another Apostle to supply the room of Judas that had hang'd himself After which choice the twelve being all with one accord in one place they were filled with the Holy Ghost and spake with other Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance which wonderful Gift of divers Languages was conferred upon them with very strange amazing Signs and Appearances viz. a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty Wind cloven Tongues like as of Fire c. Having received this extraordinary Assistance we find them wholly employ'd in preaching the things concerning Jesus interpreting the Scriptures of the Old Testament with relation to him baptizing in his Name converting People to the Belief of those Facts recorded in the Gospels and the Doctrines built upon them
exhorting Men to the Practice of the several Duties enjoin'd them by God and delivered to them by the Ministers of the Gospel of Christ and bidding them expect Salvation by Christ only ordaining several Persons under different Characters to assist in the Ministry healing all manner of Diseases raising the Dead and doing many other Signs and Wonders where-ever they come and conveying the same Powers and Gifts to others they had received themselves By which means we read that the Gospel was spread and the number of Believers encreased many Churches or Congregations were every where established and the Members of them kept so united by those that were set over them first in Judea and Samaria then in remoter Parts abroad where the Jews were scattered afterwards in several Cities Islands and Nations of Asia and Europe With the Progress of the Gospel or Christian Religion we have an Account likewise of several Attempts made in many Places to hinder and oppose the Establishment of it together with the Sufferings and Persecutions of the first Apostles and others chosen afterwards to be Assistants to them in carrying on the same Work many of which were beaten imprison'd and many other ways afflicted and distressed and some were put to death But a more particular relation is given of the Conversion Travels and Sufferings of Paul all which appear to be very extraordinary Several Discourses of Paul and other Apostles and Disciples of Christ are set down at large Some Prophecies also are mentioned of Holy Men who are represented as being filled with the Holy Ghost and speaking by the Spirit of God and some remarkable Judgments of God upon wicked Persons are there recorded These are the principal Matters which compose the History of the Acts of the Apostles All the following Tracts or Volumes of the New Testament are written in the form of Letters or Epistles sent from such of the Apostles and Disciples of Christ as we find mention'd in the Gospels and Acts and directed some of them to particular Persons some to large Societies of Men of several different Countries who had embraced the Christian Faith In which Epistles are contained most of the same Rules and Precepts that are laid down in the Gospels and Acts many large and particular Explications of several Doctrines there delivered and several new Doctrines which we do not meet with in those Books the Truth and Obligation of all which are frequently enforced by Arguments Most of the principal Matters of Fact recorded in the Gospels and Acts are reserr'd to in the Epistles and alledged as Proofs of the Truth of the Doctrines there taught and of the Authority of the Teachers Here are likewise several new Matters of Fact incidentally mentioned which we do not find in those former Books and some of the Facts there related are repeated here with new Circumstances All the Epistles do abound throughout with Exhortations to a steady Belief of those wonderful things said and done by Christ and his Apostles and to a constant Practice of the Duties enjoin'd by them In several of them there are some Prophecies too intermixed with these other Matters before taken notice of And the last Epistle directed to the seven Churches in Asia which is by a peculiar Title stiled The Revelation is almost wholly prophetical Some of them also conclude with Salutations to and from several particular Persons therein named These are the most remarkable things that occurr to a Man upon reading the Epistles Thus have I run through all the Variety of Particulars treated of in the New Testament But in order to form a juster and fuller Idea of the Subject of this Book 't is necessary to add some farther Considerations not formally express'd in any one particular Volume or Chapter but fairly and evidently collected from the whole Composure or from several plain Passages here and there dispersed through the several parts of it Such as are the Characters of Jesus Christ and his Doctrine of those that believed in him and that assisted him in the publishing and propagating his Gospel and of those that persecuted him and all that bore Testimony to him and opposed the Establishment of his Religion As to the Character of Jesus Christ so far as it can be collected from the several Writings of the New Testament it is in short this His Birth Life and Death were attended with extraordinary Circumstances of different kinds Those who are called in Scripture his Parents are said to be descended from the Family of David the greatest King that ever reigned over Judah and Israel but their present Condition when this Child was born is set forth as very low and the Employment that maintained them then and afterwards very mean but they were Persons that feared God and lived very conformably to the Law of Moses The first Appearance of Christ in the World was prepared accompanied and followed by Prophecies Visions Signs and Wonders Ministry of Angels Adoration of Wise Men Jealousies and Fears of a Great King together with the Doubts Ignorance Amazement Necessities and Flight of his Father and Mother His Education was fuitable to the meanness of his Birth Thirty years were spent at home in Obscurity and Retirement where he was subject and obedient to his Parents but at the same time he waxed strong in Spirit and encreased in Wisdom and the Grace of God was upon him to the Astonishment of all his Kindred and Countreymen who could not imagine whence he had that Wisdom His whole Life afterwards was taken up in preaching and instructing and confirming his Doctrine and Authority by Signs and mighty Works and by Arguments drawn chiefly from the Prophecies and other Passages of the Old Testament He went about every where teaching and doing Good He taught in the Temple and other publick Places of Jerusalem he passed through all the Cities and Villages of Judah and Samaria and the Neighbouring Coasts preaching and expounding the Scriptures to the People in their Synagogues In the Fields the Desarts and upon the Sea-shore we find him attended with great multitudes who heard him gladly Thus was he constantly employed from the first discovery of himself and his Gospel to the World 'till by Treachery and Malice he was apprehended and put to Death In all which time that he publickly convers'd with Men we have a great many surprizing things related of him which do very much distinguish his Character from that of any other Person He is represented as sensible of Human Passions Appetites and Infirmities and yet free from all Sin and endued with a Power of not feeling and relieving those very wants he suffered He loved grieved and was angry but these Affections were occasion'd in him by a just Concern for the Glory of God and the Success of that great Work he came about the Salvation of Mankind and they never exceeded their due bounds He felt Hunger and Weariness yet fasted Forty days and Forty nights together fed vast multitudes and
Doctrine and Miracles all which being told as happening in the life-time of Christ most of the things concerning him must be supposed by those who pretend to have written presently after his Death as 't is plain all the Evangelists do to be generally known and freshly remembred at the time of their Writing which Supposition further appears from the short and disorderly Relation of several Matters of Fact in each Gospel which in such cases where we are not assisted with a fuller Account from the other Gospels or following Books of the New Testament seem very obscure to us now who are not acquainted with the rest of the Circumstances omitted This is what I thought fit to remark concerning the Subject and Form of that Book which we call the New Testament And now that this Book does really contain such things as are before mention'd and is writ in such a way and manner as I have here represented I think may be taken for granted since whatever has been observed under this head must necessarily appear too true to any one that will read over the New Testament and is capable of making any Judgment of a Book II. Supposing then that I have given a just Account and Character of the New Testament and the several Books or Volumes it consists of I shall from hence advance to the main Design proposed which was to prove That all the principal Matters of Fact related in the New Testament are really true that is did really happen out at the Times and Places and in the Manner they are there recorded to have happen'd This I shall endeavour in the second place to make good by a direct Proof according to the distinction of the several Facts to be enquired into before laid down viz. common Historical Facts Prophesies and Miracles Divine Assistance and Revelation I. The first Step then I am to make in the proof of what I have before asserted is to shew that the common Historical Facts mention'd in the New Testament are true The principal of which are these following viz. That there was such a Person as Jesus Christ of such a Character who taught such Doctrines pretended to such mighty Works and was executed in such a manner as is represented in the New Testament That there were likewise certain Persons who were Followers and Adherents of Christ who after his Death profess'd to believe the Miracles we find now recorded of him and to do as great themselves who taught the same Doctrines he did in his life-time and many other things which they pretended to have received from him while he was alive and from the Spirit of God afterwards and who made is their business to propagate the Belief and Practice of what they taught throughout the World whose Characters and Sufferings were such as are before described That the Doctrine or Religion of Christ was accordingly propagated through all Judea and most Parts of the Roman Empire so that great Numbers of People every where own'd and profess'd it And that all this happen'd within that compass of Time included between the Death of Julius Caesar and the Destruction of Jerusalem Now these are such remarkable notorious Facts have been so well proved by multiplicity of Evidence and so little contested by the several Enemies of Christianity That I shall content my self by giving a summary Proof of them without entring upon that great Variety of particular Arguments every general Branch of Evidence contains in it Which Proof I shall cast into this Method First I shall take an Account of the Original of Christianity and shew That this Religion must have came first into the World at the time assign'd for this Event in the New Testament Afterwards I shall consider the state of Christianity at another Period of Time when it will certainly be allowed that all the principal Matters of Fact that stand now recorded in the New Testament were generally believed And then I shall prove That the same Matters of Fact were likewise believed at and immediately after the Times in which they are said to happen and so continually down to that particular Period fixed upon Which last Proposition I shall endeavour to make out From the constant Tradition of such a Belief together with many sensible infallible Effects of it And from many other extrinsick Signs and Monuments remaining at that Time From which constant and universal Belief among Christians of all the principal Facts in the New Testament both common and extraordinary continued down to such a Period from the very first Times in which they severally happen'd I conconclude That at least the common Matters of Fact such as I have just before instanced in must be true First then as to the Original of Christianity it is to be observ'd That there is no Age of the World no Portion of Time since the beginning of Things at any great Distance from us that we have a clearer fuller and more particular Account of than we have of that which past under the Twelve first Cesars or Emperors of Rome both Learning and Empire being then at the highest Pitch and furnishing abundance of Matter for the Pens of that and the succeeding Ages And as the History of that time is the truest and best known of any so no Matter of Fact could happen within that Time which was more remarkable or could more easily and certainly be conveyed down to Posterity than the first Rise and Propagation of the Christian Religion There 's nothing so easy to be known of any Countrey where we have the least Remains of History left us as what Religion was profess'd there and what considerable Alterations were made in it All the Laws Customs and Policy of a Nation are intermixt with their Religion most of the Actions Opinions and Characters of particular Men bear the Marks of it and if we examin Things more narrowly and trace them up to their Original we shall find that Religion puts a greater Distinction betwixt one Nation and another than any difference of Climate can do But not to pursue that Speculation any further 't is very plain from all History what the Religion of the Jews was and what Religion they had at Rome and in other Parts of the Roman Empire under the Reign of Augustus There were no such Persons then to he heard of as bore the Name of Christians no such Religion any where professed as that which is now call'd Christian the Plan and Model of which we find in the Books of the New Testament But in the Time of Nero we find a great many Persons at Rome Tacitus call'd Christians put to Death and several other ways persecuted and tormented for being so by that Emperor which Denomination and whatever they thought themselves obliged to believe or do upon that Account was then generally acknowledged by themselves and others to be derived to them from one Christ who was sometime before crucified at Jerusalem Now the Time when this
great variety and disproportion of Faculties and Attainments observable among us a Man may be able by what he knows of himself so far to determine the Limits of Humane Force and Skill as to be firmly assured such and such things cannot possibly lye within the reach and comprehension of meer Man unassisted by any other Being Thus for Example to use the former Instances we are fully and intirely assured that no Man whatsoever barely by his own Power without the Assistance or Application of any other Being can Cure the Sick or Raise the Dead or Speak a Language he knew nothing of just before he spake it or foretell such Events as that of the Restoration of the Jews We may likewise be as fully sure that Persons of such an Education and Course of 〈◊〉 could not possibly of themselves by the force of their own Capacities and Acquisitions conceive speak write or do such and such things in such a particular way and manner as we can suppose or may actually find Whoever therefore believes the Miracles Propheâ—â—s and Doctrines of Christ and his Apostles according to the History given of them in the New Testament must have this assurance that if these Matters of Fact were so as they are there delivered 't is impossible that those Men should be the Authors of them as I shall shew more particularly by considering them apart To begin with Prophecies which have been always reckoned the most unexceptionable Testimonies of an Intelligence exceeding Humane Knowledge If the Books of the Old Testament were writ long before Christ came into the World and all those Passages out of them which we find applied to Christ and the Dispensation of the Gospel in the New Testament 〈◊〉 a designed relation to those Events they are there applied to 't is impossible to imagine that either the Prediction or Accomplishment of them was the effect of meer Humane Knowledge and Power Such a multitude and variety of surprizing Events never before heard of in the World that had no manner of perceivable connexion with the state of things when they were foretold nor indeed at any other time before they happened could not by any force of Humane Wisdom be so particularly and circumstantially foreknown Neither can it be supposed that Christ made all those Relations in the Old Testament pass for Prophecies by an Arbitrary Application of them to such Events as were in his own Power to bring about in such a manner as he thought would bear the nearest resemblance to those accounts of things he found already written for 't was manifestly impossible for Christ to order and contrive the time place and manner of his Birth and all the other Circumstances which attended his coming into the World and yet these things are as particularly and remarkably expressed in the Writings of the Old Testament as any other matters whatsoever applied by Christ to himself and as certainly believed by the Jews to belong to the Messiah before the Pretensions of Jesus Christ were heard of as any other Prophecies that were ever thought by them to concern him If the Prophecies cited out of the Scriptures of the Jews relating to the Death Resurrection and Ascention of Christ the Mission of the Holy Spirit Propagation of the Gospel Rejection of the Jews and Destruction of Jerusalem and the success and continuance of the Christian Religion among the Gentiles were allowed by the Jews of that time to belong to the Messiah when Christ applied them to himself then are they certain Arguments of a knowledge in the Prophets who uttered them exceeding all Humane Sagacity and Foresight But if none of the Jews understood them in that sence or would grant the Passages referred to to be Prophetical of any thing then must the Application of them to such and such future Events by Christ be reckoned as new distinct Prophecies uttered first by himself and so they will be equal proofs of an extraordinary and more than Humane Knowledge in Christ because the Events foretold were such as 't was plainly impossible for Man to foresee or accomplish by his own Power For not to mention the vast unlikelihood there was according to all Humane Measures of Judging that Jerusalem should be utterly destroyed and the whole Nation of the Jews rooted out so soon after the time it was foretold this should happen and in that very manner in which the whole Fact stood described not to insist upon all the amazing Difficulties that might be urged against the success of the Gospel which render'd it in all Humane Appearance a thing impracticable that Christian Religion should so mightily and suddenly prevail and spread by such means and instruments as is foretold it should be propagated by Waving I say all Reflexions of this nature that might be made which are a great many this must certainly be granted that 't was utterly impossible for Christ by any Humane Skill or Wisdom to know that he should rise again and ascend into Heaven and that afterwards his Apostles should receive such Knowledge Courage and Power as to Preach his Gospel boldly indure Afflictions patiently confirm their Doctrine by many Signs and Wonders and Convert great Multitudes to the Christian Faith And if it was impossible for him of himself to know all these things it must be accounted much more impossible for him to effect and accomplish them by his own Power But if it be said that all these great and wonderful Events were really foretold in the Old Testament though so darkly and obscurely exprest that no Man before Christ understood the method and way of applying them right whence had he the Art and Skill of Interpretation This is as great a Mark and Character of an extraordinary and more than Humane Wisdom as Prophesying it self would be But then besides this wonderful Skill of Interpreting he must be allowed the Talent of Prophesying too by reason of several new Circumstances and Particulars relating to those great Events which are plainly and expresly mentioned by Christ and cannot be deduced from any Passages of the Old Testament as will easily appear upon a Comparison of the several Predictions of Christ and the ancient Prophecies of the same Events referred to by him Which Particulars foretold by Christ himself and others afterwards by some of his Disciples and Believers are most of them such as could not be foreseen by any Labour Art or Force of Humane Understanding because they are such Matters of Fact as before they did actually happen no Man without an over-ruling Conviction could possibly perswade himself to believe would ever happen at all much less to expect that others should believe they would upon his Testimony From hence it evidently appears that most of the Prophecies Recorded in the Old and New Testament relating to Christ and his Gospel must be the results of some Higher Knowledge than that of Man because they are such as cannot possibly be accounted meer lucky Conjectures nor skilful