Divinity itself and happy were it would men consider the grounds of their Faith that they might with the Apostle amidst all the oppositions of the World stand firm with a Nevertheless I am not ashamed for I 2 Tim. 1. 12. know whom I have believed And that Mankind might have rational and satisfactory grounds for Faith in Jesus The Divine Spirit which ever gave Testimony to him exerted it self both as a Spirit of Omnipotency in Miracles and of Omniscience in Prophecy to the end Men might believe the great concerns of Revelation upon the demonstrative grounds of Divine perfection This I take to be St. Paul's meaning when he says My preaching was not with enticing words of man's 1 Cor 2. v. 4 wisdom but in Demonstration of the Spirit and of power i. e. of Miracles wrought by the Spirit of Omnipotency and of Demonstrative conviction out of the Prophets who appear to have been acted by the Spirit of Omniscience and Truth itself by the Events answering their Predictions That your Faith saies he should Verse 5. not stand in the wisdom of men either the Authority of the Civil State with the Leviathan or strong Probability with Others but in the Power of God i. e. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 4. the Divinity itself which when it gives Testimony Natural light unquestionably concludes it true And if it be demanded which way the Apostle made his Demonstrations in the Spirit I suppose he tells us v. 13. We speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth i. e. according to the studied Rules of Arts now in Greece but which the Holy Ghost teacheth Comparing spiritual things with spiritual i. e. comparing the Doctrine and Transactions of the New Testament with the Prophecies of the Old and hereby the Faith of Jesus is Demonstrated to be Divine because attested by the Spirit of Prophecy for in the 9th verse he had quoted the Prophet Isaiah and so in all his preaching as Acts 17. 2 3. and for studying this Demonstration or comparing the New Testament with the Old the Bereans are so much commended v. 11. and nothing is plainer than that all the Evangelists and Apostles and even Christ himself did thus argue or convince out of the Old Testament Prophets The force therefore of the Testimony depends solely upon the Spirit of Prophecy or that 't is the Testimony of the Prime and Omniscient Verity I must not stay to clear my hand of the Tractatus Theologico-politicus who has resolv'd the Spirit of Prophecy not as St. Peter did into being Moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet 1. 21. but into the Crasis of the Imaginative faculty that so you may know him the First-born of the Leviathan and by their Hypotheses whose Scholars Tract p. 7 c. both were even his who resolv'd the Creation of the Universe into the fortuitous concurs of Atoms Neither may I reflect upon that Moral Probability which some seem to think a sufficient foundation for Faith further than to say That matters reveal'd and confirm'd by the Spirit of Prophecy are and ought to be so far as reveal'd as certain Truths as any Demonstrations in the World besides I fear not after St. Paul to say that matters of a Moral and Spiritual nature may be demonstrated taking Demonstration not in the confin'd signification which the School of Heathen Philosophy affixt to it but in the reality of the thing and with respect to the end for which Demonstration serves viz. a Proof that creates a knowledge certain and indubitable and this the Spirit of Prophecy not as revealing but as confirming Revelation by Prediction doth Which brings me to the Third and chief design'd Particular Thirdly That of all other Testimonies of Jesus the Spirit of Prophecy is The Testimony My meaning is There is no such standing satisfactory and demonstrative proof of the Divinity of JESVS's Transactions Faith and Doctrine as the Spirit of Prophecy is There are indeed many other Testimonies of Jesus better than most or any other cause beside his can produce First The Testimony of Angels both good and bad the good in obsequious attendancies upon his Birth his Luke 2. 13. 22. 43 c. Agonies his Resurrection and Ascension The bad in flying Fears concluding at least strongly suspecting by Luke 8. 28. Mark 1. 24. the Predictions of the Old Prophets who it was they now had to deal with in Humane Nature even the Holy One of God or the Seed promised to break the Serpent's head Secondly The Testimony of Men both his Friends and Enemies His Friends extol adore him die for him his Enemies of all sorts confess him an extraordinary Person though a deceiver as Celsus Jalian Mahomed the Jew the Philosopher the Apostate the Impostor the Infidel Mahomed is kindest of all the rest for he will allow him to be his Pew-fellow in Prophecy upon condition he may but sit above him Nay Thirdly There are more venerable Witnesses than either Angels or Men I mean those Three in Heaven 1 Joh. 5. 7 8. and those Three on Earth where though the Divine Spirit make One in either Three yet which I wonder is no more observed and insisted on the Spirit as 't is in this sence explain'd The Spirit of Prophecy is however to my apprehension The Testimony Not in preference to the Others consider'd in themselves but consider'd with reference to Mankind who are to be Judges of their Evidence and whose Judging faculties are more susceptive of satisfaction from the Spirit as a Spirit of Prophecy or infinite Science in truth than from the same Spirit in any other way of Evidence the reason of which I conceive to be this That the convictions of the Spirit in the way of Prophecy or in the display of Omniscience is more directly accommodate to humane Intellect our faculty of Science than any other operation of the Spirit is For the strongest tendencies of Intellect are to the Science of Truth and therefore acts of Omniscient Truth are more accommodate to Humane understanding than acts of Power Wisdom being that it is more delighted in than Strength If any Revelation be from God by the foresaid Rule of Natural knowledge it ought to be accepted and submitted to But whether that which pretends Revelation be from God or no is the only Question Now the Argument from Miracles is prest by all this of Prediction by few or none but without depreciating the former I must confess ever since I consider'd it the latter is weightier and more convictive with me for I am more fully satisfied That the whole Series of Scriptural Revelation is Divine because I find all along the Spirit of Prediction interwoven than because I read such and such Miracles done For I find the Alcharon pretending Miracles but not daring to pretend Prediction So that of all the innate Characters of Divinity pretended to in any written Law this of Prediction is peculiar to the Scriptures This
therefore is the Proposition I shall insist upon That the Spirit of Prophecy not as revealing God's mind only for that 's the Question but as predicting to confirm what is revealed is primarily The Testimony The Reasons I shall at present offer are these Two First Because this Spirit of Prophecy is that Tally cannot be counterfeited but may easily be discovered by certain Rules of tryal Secondly Because all Ages are equally under its conviction which they are not as to any other Testimony abstracting from this nay succeeding Ages have the advantage in this and may rely upon it as that which gives credit to all the rest First Because the Spirit of Prophecy is that Tally cannot be counterfeited but may easily be discovered and therefore God gave it to the World to prevent delusion in matters of Revelation The intentions of his Mercy to recover Mankind from the Fall God held forth the faith and hope of to Adam and all his Posterity in the Promise of a Seed that should break the Serpent's head i. e. in the Gospel style should Gen. 3. 15. 1 Joh. 3. 8. destroy the works of the Devil But lest the subtil Serpent should set up one of his own party under the specious pretences of redeeming Mankind when the conceal'd intention was to enslave them more God did by the Spirit of Prophecy in several Ages so individualize that Redeemer so precisely foretel his Time so notifie all his Transactions that in common reason he might be known from all others and this want of reason is that our Saviour wonders at in the Pharisees who sought a Sign of him Ye can discern the Matt. 16. 1. face of the sky but can ye not discern the signs of the times i. e. that these are the Times of your expected Messiah presignified by the Spirit of Prophecy in the Old Testament and that ye need no Sign from me to prove it but the correspondency of my time and actions to their Predictions That the Spirit of Prophecy had thus characteriz'd the Person the Time the Actions and Sufferings of the Messiah that this Jesus of Nazareth must needs be him of whom Moses and the Prophets did write Joh. 1. 45. I shall not go about to clear In this I refer to the Evangelists especially St. Matthew who still appeals * As Matt. 18. 17. and elsewhere even in Christ's Miracles to what was written in the Prophets Taking then this for granted I say that this Spirit of Prophecy was that Tally could not be counterfeited given therefore by God to prevent delusion in matters pretending to Revelation and so 't is emphatically The Testimony Not that a lying Spirit could not pretend a Divination as well as a Revelation but that it could not predict a future contingent Event especially remote so as to adventure on the tryal of Prophecy and all Heathen Divination boggled here For 't is as infallible a Rule That none but the Divine Spirit can be the Spirit of Prophecy as 't is That remote future contingencies can be clearly foreseen and certainly foretold by none but Omniscient Veracity And therefore setting aside the Works of Creation which found Natural Religion there 's no effect that argues an immediate Divinity for its cause so clearly as the Prophetical Predictions do because there are more easie and certain Rules of Tryal to discern which is the true Spirit of Prophecy than any Divine operation after the creation of things For wonderful Works may be said to be the products of that energy which the Creator at first enricht Nature with and so a * Quare absolutè concludimus omnia quae in Scripturis Verè narrantur contigisse ea secundum leges Naturae ut omnia necessario contigisse Et si quid reperiatur legibus Naturae repugnare aut ex iis consequi non potuisse planè credendum id à Sacrilegis hominibus sacris Literis adjectum esse Tract Theo. pol. c. 6. p 71. late Off-spring of the Leviathan affirms But Prediction is Self-evidently an immediate issue from the Divinity de novo which if so and prest home upon the Leviathan and his First-born now mentioned will shew them other grounds for Christian Faith and Scriptures than only the Authority of God's †Leviath cap. 36 37. Lieutenants Now the Rules to try the Spirit of Prophecy by as I take it are but these Two First That the thing pretended to be a Revelation from God which was alwaies an Injuction or Prohibition with their annexes had no intrinsecal Evil in it or necessarily derivative from it peccant against the Laws of Morality settled in the first Creation i. e. against Natural Religion or a former Law reveal'd and on good grounds accepted as Divine for God's Laws never contradict one another neither is his Wisdom so short-sighted as to set up contrary Institutions of life and therefore the Christian Law destroys not the Mosaical but compleats its imperfections I came not to destroy but to fulfil i. e. to fill up This is the primary and grand Rule of Tryal To which mens non-attendance has at last debaucht all Religion made it a wild and unaccountable thing and let in that Spirit of Giddiness that exposes men to every wind of Doctrine The Second Rule of Tryal is this That the Revelation pretending from God and not peccant as aforesaid should be confirm'd with a Sign i. e. Prediction fulfill'd These two Rules brought the whole Spirit of Prophecy under trial let the Rabbies and they that in this admire them multiply never so many I apprehend not that the Scriptures have given us any more or that reason requires them Only Two things are here to be observ'd First That in whatever matter it consisted whether Miracle or not yet being a contingency the formality of a Sign consisted in Prediction fulfill'd Secondly That the Rule of Tryal by Signs was but Secondary and subordinate to that of tryal by Natural Religion i. e. a former Law whether that of Creation or Revelation after confirmed and accepted And all this is plain from Deut. 18. and the 13th Chapters First When a Prophet speaketh in the Name of the Chap. 18. 22. Lord i. e. pretends a Revelation if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken The defect of Prediction fulfill'd overthrows the pretences of Inspiration or Revelation which necessarily argues whatever the materiality of a Sign be its * Jer. 28. 9. Ezek. 33. 33. formality consists in Prediction fulfill'd Though I allow 't was often but not alwaies in a matter or work miraculous that what Omniscience had said Omnipotence might back and awaken the Understanding by the impressions on sense Secondly If a Sign or Prediction should be fulfill'd to promote Idolatry or any thing destructive to Natural Religion or a former Divine Law reveal'd Thou shalt not hearken to the voice of that Prophet for the Lord Deut. 13. 3
of Jesus was to restore it effectually which he did by Supernatural helps whereas others essay'd it by the strength of Nature alone which after the Fall was impossible so that though Jesus in this surpast all Mankind yet some Rivals have been set up against him as Apollonius by Hierocles 2. To be a Martyr for a Lie when a man believes it as the Apostle tells us some shall is neither unusual nor 2 Thess 2. 11. unreasonable 3. The Age of Miracles excepting the wisdom and conduct of Providence which is not regarded is worn out for all the Legendary Impostures of that Church that still pretends them But that which strengthens all the rest by its connexion with them The Testimony of the Spirit of Prophecy stands like a fixed Star to give light to every hour of time call'd therefore The more sure Word and the 2 Pet. 1. 19. 1 Pet. 1. 25. Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Word of God which abideth for ever to which we do well if we give heed My meaning is The Old and New Testaments are standing Witnesses to our Faith in Jesus all Ages may consult these Records and find the Testimony of the Spirit of Prophecy so interwoven in every part that it certainly evidenceth their Divinity and Truth Can any other Writing be produc'd that durst attempt to foretel such things and at such a distance to confirm any other pretended Revelation or Institution contradictory to this or doth not every Event in these answer its prediction Ex. gr Is not the disperst condition of the Jewish Nation a * On those words Psal 59. 11. Slay them not lest my People forget Scatter them by thy power St. Austin applying Them to the Jews has this excellent remark Ne obliti legem Dei ad hoc de quo agimus testimonium nihil valerent quoniam si cum testimonio scripturarum in suâ tantummodo terrâ non ubique essent profecto Ecclesia quae ubique est eos Prophetiarum quae de Christo pramissae sunt testes in omnibus gentibus non haberet De Civit. lib. 18. cap. 46. And then concludes Ideo nihil est firmius ad convincendos quoslibet alienos si de hac re contenderint nostrosque fulciendos si rectè sapuerint quam ut Divina praedicla de Christo ea proferantur quae in Judaeorum scripta sunt Codicibus Quibus avulsis de sedibus proptils propter hoc Testimonium toto Orbe dispersis Christi usquequaque crevit Ecclesia Ibid. cap. 47. standing Sign to all Ages of the World since the Gospels promulgation and a permanent Rule of Tryal laid before all considerative men that both Testaments which foretold it proceeded from the unerring Spirit of Omniscience Or was there ever any parallel Case to theirs to continue so many hundred years without any Ty of National Government and yet not to be lost in the crowd of the Nations where so many mutations have happen'd nor at all like the Ten Tribes swallow'd up in their Dispersions as wide as the Universe I must not insist upon other permanent Signs confirming the Scriptural Revelation as the Case of the Four Monarchies the Conversion of the Gentiles and many more foretold in the Old and New Testament which our Age and others may see fulfilled and therefore are under the conviction of this Testimony equally I mean We of this and every Age are under the Convictions of that Revelation which the Spirit of Prophecy has attested in the Scriptures and therefore because it has so attested as much as those who liv'd in the daies of the Prophets or in the Age of Miracles for else I see not how Abraham's answer to Dives is good nay certainly Posterity is better enabled to judge of Prophecy than the Age in which it first appear'd And this after the Canon of Scripture shut up and universally receiv'd renders all New light and extraordinary Inspiration not only suspected but perfectly needless The design of my Discourse is chiefly this to shew That the Spirit of Prophecy thus explain'd which so apparently runs parallel to the whole lines of Scriptural Revelation doth most rationally convince us and all Ages of the Divine Truth of that Revelation And if so we gain two Points not only of great advantage alwaies but most needful at this day when Christian Religion is either look'd out of countenance by Atheism and Scepticism or looks itself we know not whither by the distortions of Popery and Phanaticism The First Point we gain is To confirm our Christian Faith in general upon most rational and accountable grounds that it may endure the concussions and mutations of the World The Second is To confirm the Divine Authority of the Scriptures in particular as our Sure Rule both of Faith and Duty for if we confess as cannot be deny'd till some other be produc'd as able that the Divine Spirit was Author of the Predictions in Scripture what reason can we have against the Institution of life Reveal'd It being in all mens allowance unreasonably unjust To allow the Testimony of the Record in one part that it declares and not in another unless we can better than by bold affirming prove it in that part corrupted To draw these Points out to the greater advantages let me reflect upon this Discourse and infer Three things First That the great design of our Merciful Creator in giving this Testimony is mens conviction in order to the Faith i. e. the Obedience of Jesus For in its most plentiful effusion and powerful operation this was its first grand end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It shall convince the World John 16. 18. which when it has done the Revelation itself becomes the undoubted Rule as to Believers but they who disbelieve the whole Revelation are principally to be convinc'd by this Testimony which I have asserted to be most demonstrative and satisfactory and such surely our Saviour thought it himself I have told you before that when it s come to pass ye may believe Joh. 13. 19. and 16. 4. Whether then the Unbelievers who pretend to a Primogeniture in Wit and Reason having this conviction offer'd them under all the advantages of Predictions fulfill'd more than the Scribes and Pharisees had as the Atheists and Scepticks of our Age may not by ascribing all to a cheat sin against the Holy Ghost as well as they in Matt. 12. is a question I will not absolutely determine in the affirmative but ought not methinks to be carried in the negative so dogmatically as by the Authors of our Age it has who led I believe Hales c. by their own native tenderness and benignity have concluded there 's no Meridian for that Sin to appear in now the Age of Miracles is past To confirm the Faith of Jesus the Spirit both of Power and Prophecy was given Believers as the Prophets and Jesus foretold and the manifest effects of this remain unto
this day as foretold in the Conversion of the Gentiles nay all Events by Jesus the Prophetical Writings and Apostolical foretold answer their Predictions to instance in the case of the Jewish Nation Therefore not only Jesus and his Apostles had the Spirit of Prophecy but the Revelation or Doctrine by them preach'd is confirm'd by it to be Divine and that as certainly as the Divine Spirit can demonstrate St. Paul saies it did demonstrate and I think it can as effectually as any Mathematician in the Universe whence I conclude 't is no defect in the Argument but Brutality in the recipient obstructs its force Secondly I infer That seeing the design of this Testimony was and is man's Conviction in order to the Faith of Jesus there is something in man capable of Conviction even before he can be said to be converted Thirdly Nothing in Man being capable of Divine conviction but the faculty of Reason I infer That the Faith of Jesus is and ought to be a Rational Faith For the declining this Proposition has encourag'd men of Parts and lovers of Pleasures to decline Christianity or men of weak Reason and strong Imagination to convert it into an Enthusiastick and Phantastical thing And to give this account for the Mysteries of Faith that the Prime Verity has affirm'd them as 't is all we can without vanity give in this state so if consider'd 't is as good and rational as of any other knowledge we pretend to for 't is demonstrable that the last resolution of See Job 38. 4 5 c. and 24 25 c. our Knowledge of all other things must upon a through scrutiny be into the First Cause Many more than the Leviathan think the want of Miracles mitigates the Crime of Infidelity which to me seems but Dives's vain opinion for if men will not believe the Testimony of the Spirit of Prophecy neither will they believe Miracles as being a Conviction that 's easier shifted than this which considered is more argumentative because Reason may with some colour seruple the one as the Jews did than they can the other for the proof of which I refer to John 5. 49. For I can never conceive that Miracles are of any signification but as they address to Reason to give it satisfaction i. e. as they prove the attestation of the Divinity and argue the Commission to be from God because his Seal is to it For to think that Miracles are terminated in the senses or designs any further upon them than only to Excite the Intellect to a Judicious conclusion is to think that something may be wrought upon a Beast by a Demonstration Neither is the proper Mathematical Demonstration in Scheme of any signification as 't is terminated in sight alone for then the Elephant that was taught to draw Pliny Nat. hist lib. 8. cap. 3. the Greek Alphabet might have been taught as well to demonstrate but as thereby it helps to present convictive Truth to Reason so that whatever convinceth Reason satisfactorily attains the end of Demonstration Now all Divine Revelation though usher'd in by sense for the stupidity's sake of our dull Understanding which otherwaies will hardly be awaken'd yet ever made its application to Reason therefore saies the Prophet Shew your selves men with reference to this very Isal 46. 8 9 10. Luk. 12. 56. 2 Thess 3. 2. Argument of Prediction Why do ye not of your selves judge what is right saies Jesus Pray that we may be delivered from unreasonable men for all men have not Faith saies the Apostle Neither is this Pelagianizing at all I acknowledge the necessity of God's Supernatural Grace and that Faith is his gift 't is possible it may be rejected but the Arguments that induce to it are most cogent because of God's making not our own what we do is but to shew our selves men i. e. to exert the Faculties with which he endu'd us in the first Institution of our Nature and with which he is ever ready to concur by his Grace So then whatever convinces Reason most confirms Faith best and Faith being so confirm'd is the highest Reason in the World for because its light and discoveveries proceed as my Reason tells me from a more unerring Intellect than mine own 't is most reasonable that it should supersede all the opposit acts of my own Mind and leaves me no Inquiry but whether the Spirit of God has said so or no which sufficiently discountenances all Socinianism For it will not follow by any Rule of Reason That things are therefore true or false because I can or cannot comprehend them this were for our Reason to make it self God but because they are or are not attested by the Prime Verity how far soever they may exceed the Idaeal comprehensions of our own finite Faculties as the discoveries of Infinity necessarily must do and in these all Christian Mysteries consist So that Faith without Reason is fancy as Reason opposing Faith is phrenzy For all the Mysteries which Gospel Christianity has made necessary this is good and sufficient Reason God has plainly reveal'd them and other matters beside Mysteries are evidently true from their congruity with our own reasonable minds as the excellency and goodness of its Precepts and the nobleness of its End And now if upon these grounds we have that due honour for our Christian Faith to assert it Reasonable as well as Holy then 't will follow That no man of Parts that 's willing to consider and Demonstrations signifie nothing else the Testimony of Jesus is Irreligious but he that is Irrational For no Interest opposit to that of Jesus can produce this Testimony unless it be to its own overthrow And therefore the grand Interests opposit or destructive to those of Jesus will alwaies dissemble and pretend this Testimony Thou art Peter upon this Rock will I build To thee I give the Keys feed my sheep so the Papal on one hand or on the other hand though in truth they are coincident They shall be all taught of God and that 's Infallible so the Enthusiast My meaning is That which endangers true Christianity is some Evil within its own Profession or Pale And though there be a numerous brood of Offenders herein yet there are Three who mainly threaten that Religion amongst our selves which God's wonderful Providence has preserv'd so long and we seem solicitous that it might be longer and they are in my apprehension these Three the Atheists the Papists and the vicious Protestant i. e. the Vnbelievers the Ill-believers and the Ill-livers allowing Vice its due latitude And these Three serve the mutual designs of one another though as 't is very subtil Popery gets the last advantage for Vice begets Atheism and Atheism at length devolves to Popery for Ill-livers 't is their interest to be Unbelievers and they that through the vice of Opinions and Sects have been alwaies unstable are very near the brink of this Precipice so Vice begets