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A39248 A catechism wherein the learner is at once taught to rehearse and prove all the main points of Christian religion by answering to every question in the very words of Holy Scripture : together with a short and plain discourse useful to confirm the weak and unlearned in his belief of the being of a God and the truth of Scripture / by Clement Ellis ... Ellis, Clement, 1630-1700. 1674 (1674) Wing E550; ESTC R15049 47,017 128

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receive these books as the Word of God and a great part of the world doth receive them as such Now that such men once were in the world and that these books were indeed written by them I have as much reason to believe as the matter will bear that is as much as I can have to believe any thing that was done before I was born and no man can expect more I find that the Histories which are generally received throughout the world do make mention of them and do record the many oppositions and persecutions which they met with in the world because of what they preached and writ And of these that witness of them some indeed are Friends such as believe what they write and build their Salvation upon it and therefore would certainly take what pains they could to be well informed of the truth of it and cannot be supposed being many of them the learnedst men in the world to have taken meerly on trust a thing which they thought of such everlasting concernment to all the world that they feared not ●he most barbarous Torments and Deaths but chearfully suffered all in defence of it Others are Enemies such as believe not what is written but yet witness that there were such men and that thus they writ and themselves write against the things here written Seeing then that we have the concurr●nt Testim●nies of Friends and Enemies in all ages since these men lived and wrote and that now their Writings have been received and to the death defended by a great and that the most civilized learned and wisest part of the world for neer upon seventeen hundred years if I do not believe that such men there were and that such things they wrote I can believe no History nor any thing which was or was done before I was or that I have not seen and this certainly were most absurd 2. I find that these men who writ these Books do tell us in them that there was one then in the world called Jesus Christ and he was the Son of God and came forth from God to teach men the true knowledge of God and that they were his Disciples Scholars and Followers and were taught by him and by the Spirit of God and were sent forth by him with command to preach what he had taught them to the world and that this is God's Word which they have left us in these Books If then these men speak the truth then is this God's Word All then that I am now to be satisfied in is what reason I have to believe that these men spake the truth 3. That these men spake truth and writ the truth and nothing else I shall have reason to believe If I can find that they had all opportunities of knowing the truth of what they writ and that they have given sufficient testimony of their integrity and fidelity in writing only what they knew 1. That they had all the opportunities of knowing the truth of what they writ I cannot doubt when I consider that most of them were constantly with Jesus Christ and instructed by him and that all they write is either a relation of the deeds of Christ whereof they were eye-witnesses or of such deeds whereof themselves were actors or else such Doctrines as Christ taught them and they received from his mouth 2. That they have given sufficient evidence of their fidelity and honesty in delivering unto us nothing but the truth which they knew I cannot but believe when I consider these things 1. In some of the chief matters of fact which they relate which seem of all others most incredible and which if once believed will certainly give credit to all they say as the Death and Burial and Resurre●tion of Je●●s Christ from the dead on the third day they appeal to the Testimonies of a multitude of witnesses then living and this is not the custome of men not confident of the truth of what they say 2. It cannot be conceived what advantage they could propose unto themselves in delivering such an untruth to the world for they could not but foresee that they were to preach a Doctrine which the reputed Wise-men of the world would scorn and deride as a thing incredible to their reason and contrary to the Principles which their admired Philosopy was built upon a Doctrine contrary to the Religions then professed by the men of the world and for which they were most zealous and all the powers of the world did own and countenance and in all probability would with the Sword endeavour to uphold Yea they found themselves indeed derided and persecuted exposed to hunger and thirst and watchings and stripes and bonds and death and constantly endured all sufferings and shame for the Doctrine's sake which they preached they could not then propose to themselves worldly wealth or honors or pleasures in what they did Nor is it reasonable to think they did it meerly to get themselves an empty name hereby for besides that they were made a laughing-stock both to Iews and Gentiles and wholly disreguarded it it is not usual for men of their breeding and mean way of living to be so ambitiously greedy of a bare name as to forgo their whole livelyhoods endure all miseries and lay down their lives to purchase it yea both their Conversatitions and Doctrines did all along condemn and shew they were not tainted either with falsehood or ambition Did they then believe themselves what they spake and writ or did they not If they did not believe it then did they for the sake of an known and unprofitable lie forsake all that was good and profitable to them in this world whilst they had no hopes of another world and so must needs be perfectly mad but they were no mad men their own writings do abundantly witness for them If they did believe what they writ to be true and had all opportunities of knowing the truth and ●un the hazard of all they had in professing it and making it known unto the world and sought no temporal advantage to themselves b● it then sure we have all reason to believe them honest and plain-dealing men and to embrane the Truth which they have left us I consider once more that they were men so unblameable in their Lives that the very worst their enemies could say of them was that they were a company of plain simple and unlearned men If so then is it still more unlikely that they should of their own brains invent such a Religion as so great and learned a part of mankind hath now so long a time embraced as the wisest and the best and which all must grant did require more than a Fools head to invent it Again if these men had an ambition onely to be the Founders of a new Religion then either they had real hopes that the world would accept of it or they had none It cannot be thought they had no such hope for who would suffer what