thus for it is ever supposed and agreed in all Cases that no Man is bound to any thing impossible and that God requires nothing of any Man either in Faith or Practice beyond his Power and Capacity Whosoever will be Saved before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly But this supposes that he has already attained or is able to attain to the Knowledge which is necessary to Faith for no Man can hold that Faith the general Knowledge whereof he cannot attain We must with an implicit Faith believe all that God says to be true tho' it be never so much above our Understanding but no Man is bound to believe explicitly any more than he can understand so far as is necessary to such a Belief He is able to understand so much of it as to know in general what he is required to believe tho' he can have no such compleat and comprehensive Notion of it as to give a particular and full Account of the Nature and Manner of Existence of that which is to be believed by him And let the Articles of Faith supposed necessary to Salvation according to Natural Religion be never so few and plain yet there will still be some Men who are uncapable of understanding them in any way or measure and then there will lie the same Objections against those Articles of Natural Religion which are upon this Account urged against their Faith in the Trinity it self which so far as it is required to be known and believed is not above the Capacity of the Generality of Mankind and no more is required to be believed explicitely of any than they are capable of knowing in such a Degree as is necessary in order to such a Belief whatever Articles of Faith be assigned in Natural or Revealed Religion they will be above the Capacity of many Adult Persons and of all Infants to apprehend them who therefore according to all Religions may be Saved without the actual Knowledge of those Articles which are never so necessary to others And what may be objected against all Religions Natural as well as Revealed ought in Reason to be objected against none for there can be no force in it III. This Doctrine exceedingly tends to the advancement of Vertue and Holiness and has a great influence upon the Lives and Conversations of Men. That God the Father should send his Son his only Begotten and only beloved Son to be Born and to Die for us is an endearing and amazing Act of the Divine Goodness The Death not of a meer Man but of the Son of God Blessed for ever in our stead must needs heighten our Love of God and our Faith and Dependance on him our Hatred of Sin and our Assurance of Pardon upon Repentance This I have proved at large in Discoursing of the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God for us and therefore shall not insist upon it here In like manner whatever the Holy Ghost hath done and is continually doing for us must needs be of more weight with us and give us quite another Notion and Apprehension of his Goodness and our own Duty than we could have had if we believed him to be a Creature For unless we believe him to be God we cannot have that devout Love and Faith and Dependance upon him which we ought we cannot have that Esteem and Reverence for his Communion and Presence which is required of us nor that sense of the heinousness of Sin whereby we resist and grieve and do despight to him That Argument of St. Paul what know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost and many other to the like purpose would be lost but on supposition that the Holy Ghost is God We can never have that Sense which it behoves us to have of our Sins committed in opposition to the Gifts and Influences of his Grace without an acknowledgment of his Godhead So that our Faith and Hope and Fear and Love is more excited and enlarged and all the Powers and Faculties of our Souls are more disposed to the obedience of the Gospel thro' the belief of this Doctrine of the Trinity than they could be without it And therefore as there is nothing absurd or impossible to be believed in this Doctrine so it was very reasonable and expedient that it should be revealed CHAP. XXV Of the RESURRECTION of the Dead THE Resurrection of our Saviour from the Dead was that which the Apostles chiefly insisted upon in all their Discourses For if once they could convince Men that Christ was Risen from the Dead they could not fail of perswading them into a Belief of all that they Taught besides There was no other Part of their Doctrine which could seem more strange and incredible than this and when that which they could with so much Difficulty be brought to believe and which could not come to pass but by the Almighty Power of God himself was evidently and undeniably proved to them this must give that Credit and Authority to all their other Doctrine that it could be no longer withstood or gain-said This therefore is the Point which the Apostles most of all urged knowing that if they could gain this all the rest would follow of Course and that every Man must of necessity be Converted to the belief of the whole Gospel of Christ who was once convinced of his Resurrection And St. Paul in his Defence before King Agrippa puts the Question Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the Dead Acts xxvi 8. which implies that it is a very unreasonable thing to think that God cannot Raise the Dead and that therefore there was all the Reasons in the World to believe that he had raised Christ For there was so great Evidence of his Resurrection and so many Men daily Witnessed it at the peril of their Lives that if their Adversaries would but allow the thing to be possible there could be no Doubt remaining but that Christ was indeed raised from the Dead The Apostle Argues that it is a very absurd thing to say that God cannot raise the Dead What Reason could any Man give why God cannot do it Or how durst any Man so limit and confine the Infinite Power of God by his own Notions and Conceptions of things as to say that the Resurrection of the Dead cannot be effected by him This is unreasonable and absurd in the highest Degree and therefore it is manifest that Christ is Risen and that there is to be a General Resurrection of the Dead since there is no other Objection that can lie against it but the Impossibility of the thing it self For our Resurrection is asserted in the Scriptures as a necessary Consequence of Christ's Resurrection 1 Cor. xv 20. and his Resurrection was so well attested that the greatest Enemies to Christianity
equivalent to the Distinction of Persons among Men. That there is this Unity and this Distinction we learn from the Scriptures but what kind of Distinction this is or how far it is to be reconciled with our Notion of Persons amongst Men and after what manner it is consistent with the Unity of the Godhead the Scriptures have not told us and it is impossible for us to determine II. Other things are and must be believed by us which are as little understood as this Doctrine Our Knowledge at the best concerning Finite Things is very imperfect which is so generally acknowledged by all Men of Wisdom and Experience that it is esteemed a great point of Wisdom for a Man to be truly sensible of his own ignorance and it is the Character which Solomon himself giveth of the Fool that he rageth and is confident Prov. xiv 16. But when we consider things Infinite we are much more at a loss That there must of necessity be something Eternal must be acknowledged by all who understand what is meant by the word even those that are so foolish as to say in their hearts there is no God yet must believe something else to be Eternal they must believe that there always was something because if ever there had been nothing there never could have been any thing For how could any thing have been produced by Nothing Out of Nothing it might but then there must have been something to produce it We can be certain therefore of Nothing if we are not sure of this that there is something Eternal the Atheist himself cannot deny it unless he be so stupid as not to know what it means And yet what apparent contradictions may he fancy to himself in the Notion of Eternity For what is Eternal can never be capable of either a shorter or a longer Duration than it always had so that Millions of Ages hence it will not have continued longer than it had done as many Million of Ages past And how strange and contradictory doth this seem to be that not only Three Ages and one Age should be the same but that there should be no difference between one Hour or Moment and never so many Ages in respect of Eternity And there is no avoiding this difficulty if a Man be of any Religion or no Religion let him but apprehend what is meant by Eternity and he must own both that there is such a thing and that he is utterly unable to explain it Here then is an unaswerable Difficulty in a thing which all the World must believe if they have it but so proposed to them as to be made understand what it is And there is no difficulty imaginable in the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity which can be pretended to be greater than that which is inseparable from this Notion which all must of necessity hold And if we do but observe it in Finite things which are usual and familiar to us and the Objects of our Senses every day we Believe what we very little understand or are capable of understanding Our Knowledge indeed is so very imperfect concerning the Nature of most things that I may almost venture to say that if we will but be contented for the present to believe what God has delivered concerning his own Nature we may hereafter know God himself as plainly as now we know many things here For now we see through a Glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known 1 Cor. xiii 12. If it be thought unreasonable however that such abstruse Mysteries should be made necessary to Salvation and that we should pronounce that whosoever will be saved must thus think of the Trinity and that all who do not thus think and believe shall without doubt perish everlastingly Let it be considered that in all Religions whether Natural or Revealed there must be something believed which is above all Humane Comprehension and which can be known no further than in order to be believed there can be no Faith without all Knowledge but Knowledge if it were compleat would exclude Faith which is the Evidence of things not seen Knowledge may be considered either as it is general and imperfect or as it is particular and adequate to the Nature of the thing known we must have a general Knowledge of whatever is the Object of Faith but if we had a particular and adequate knowledge of it there could remain nothing of it unknown to be the Object of Faith The difference between Science and Faith is not that we are less certain of the Objects of Faith than of the Objects of Science but that we know less of them For Certainty depends upon our general Knowledge as that God is true and therefore what he has revealed is as certain as if we saw it or could demonstrate it in every particular And this general Knowledge which is necessary in order to Faith is in Natural Religion attained to by Reason and in Revealed Religion from Revelation Thus we attain to such a general Knowledge of the Divine Nature by Rational Evidence as to be convinced that Infinite Power and Goodness and Truth and all manner of Infinite Perfections belong to it but we believe the Divine Perfections without any particular comprehensive Knowledge of them in like manner from Revelation we attain to this general Knowledge that the Divine Nature consists of Three Persons in One undivided Essence but we believe these Three Persons to be One God without any particular and comprehensive Knowledge of so great a Mystery for then it would no longer be a Mystery and Faith would be no more Faith I would therefore ask the Adversaries of this Doctrine whether the Belief of a God Omnipresent Eternal Almighty Omniscient Infinitely Holy Just and Merciful be not necessary to Salvation No rational Man can deny it I enquire further whether Insants and Ideots are obliged necessarily under pain of Damnation to this Belief They must certainly answer no because none can be obliged to Impossibilities I demand then again whether if one or more of these Attributes or the Agreement of them one with another be impossible to be understood with a general and imperfect Knowledge by any who are capable of knowing and believing the rest the ignorance of these Articles which are above their Understandings even as to this general and imperfect way of Knowledge can be destructive of their Salvation They must needs say it cannot because God can require nothing impossible of any Man And the very same Answers applied to the Cavils against the Athanasian Creed will be sufficient to Silence them That Creed contains such Truths as are necessary to be believed in order to Salvation but necessary to particular Persons so far only as they are capable of knowing them in order to believeing them He that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity but this supposes him capable of thinking
Is it to be suppos'd that the Wise and Good God would create Men only to abuse themselves and one another To live a while in Sin and Folly here and some of them in the most extravagant and brutal Wickedness and then go down to the Grave and so there should be an end of them for ever What is there worthy of the infinite Wisdom of God in so poor a Design as this Doth not the Voice of Nature it self teach us and has it not been the general Belief and Expectation of all Ages and Nations that the prosperous Sinner who is subtle and powerful to do Mischief must suffer in another World for what he has done amiss here And that all is not to pass away with us in Sport and Extravagance in Laughter and Noise in Riot or in Violence and Cruelty as some Men are willing to believe as if the World were made for the Wicked and they to abuse it It appears likewise from the common Belief and Experience of Mankind that as there is a God of infinite Goodness and Holiness so there are wicked and malicious Spirits which are ever contriving the Mischief and Ruine of Men. For besides the Evidence of this from Scripture which we must be allow'd here to alledge in the Nature at least of an History it is Folly to imagine that all the Oracles and Prodigies of the Heathens could be meer Forgeries and that there was no Ground nor Foundation for such a Belief as universally obtain'd in all Nations and Ages of the World and for the Customs and Practices which follow'd upon this Belief that there are Daemons or Spirits of an evil and malicious Disposition and Power I shall instance only in the unnatural Cruelties which the Heathen World even the Greeks and Romans themselves were continually put upon by the Instigation of these malicious and wicked Spirits For the Heathen Nations offer'd up Multitudes of innocent Men and Women and even their own Children in Sacrifice to their false Gods which is as sure an Evidence that there are such Beings which requir'd these Cruelties from them as it is that there are Tyrants and Persecutors when they cause innocent Men to be murther'd and Children to be torn from the Arms of their Parents and slain in their sight And though the Dominion of Satan be now restrained by the over-ruling Power of the Gospel we have as great Evidence from all History that there are such Beings as Devils as we have for any other Matter of Fact whatsoever There have been indeed many false Stories concerning Spirits as well as in other Matters of History but doth this prove that there are none True Or could the Historians of all Times and Places be perpetually imposed upon or conspire to impose upon others There is no ancient History but gives some Instance or other of these things and all the Modern Histories of Heathen Nations are full of such Relations as confirm this Truth to us and even among Christians those who have by unlawful Arts put themselves under the Power of wicked Spirits have been convinced that there are such Beings which is proved not only by the publick Confessions of Witches in all Nations but by the private (a) See Mr. Boyle's Excellency of Theology c. § 1. Acknowledgments of divers learned Men both Physicians and others who have made attempts to discover the truth of this matter in different places and were Persons neither timorous nor superstitious But the Apparition of Spirits is Praeter-natural and therefore that Good Spirits who live in perfect Obedience to the Divine Will and in Conformity to the Order of their Nature should appear is now no more to be expected than any other Miracle But there are frequent Apparitions of Bad Spirits in Countries where the Christian Religion is not receiv'd and where it is receiv'd they appear to such as are willing to com◠under their Power but very rarely to others And if the Devil after so much Humane Blood as he has caus'd to be spilt in his Sacrifices and after so many Oracles and Impostures can yet perswade same Men that there is no such Being this is one of his subtilest Stratagems of all and proves how great Power though in a different kind and manner he still retains over the Minds of Men. Since therefore it is most certain That there is a Being of insinite Power and Wisdom and Justice and Goodness and that there is likewise a malicious cruel Spirit ever watchful and industrious to abuse and destroy Mankind It is highly reasonable to believe that a Being of such infinite Perfections after he had created Man would communicate himself to him would set him a Rule by which he ought to live and prescribe him Laws whereby he might answer the Ends of his Creation and attain to that Happiness which he was made capable of and design'd for by his Maker We cannot suppose that the God of all Goodness and Wisdom would create Man and then leave him to himself to follow his own Inventions and to live at random without any Law or Direction to frame his Actions by and to be expos'd to all the Assaults of an implacable subtile Enemy without any Caution and Instruction given him or any Help and Assistance afforded for his Defence Man in his Innocence was not thus to be left to himself And we have all the reason in the World to believe though we had not the express Word of Scripture for it that the God of infinite Goodness would not disregard this corrupt State of Mankind but would use some Means to reclaim them from the Error of their Ways to bring them to a Knowledge of themselves and of the Divine Majesty to inform them of their Duty and direct them to Happiness How Man became so prone to all Evil we can know only by Revelation and therefore those who reject all Revelation must suppose that Man was first created in this State of Sin and Misery which is a very heinous Imputation upon the Goodness and Justice of God but to suppose him plac'd in this Condition without all help or remedy is to charge God still more foolishly But how Men became so is not here the Matter of Enquiry it is evident that Man is of himself in a miserable and helpless Condition and considering the great Ignorance and Wickedness which have been from the Fall of our First Parents visible continually in the Word and still reign in it considering I say the notorious Wickedness and gross Ignorance of Men which from the earliest Records of Antiquity have continued down to our own Times nothing is more reasonable than to think that a Being of Infinite Perfection would take some care to rectifie the Mistakes and reform the Manners of Men. Can we believe it consistent with Infinite Truth never to manifest it self in the World but to suffer all sorts of Men of all Nations to be exposed to all the Designs and Delusions of Impostors
and of seducing and Apostate Spirits without any sufficient Means afforded them to undeceive and rescue themselves Can we suppose that God of Infinite Majesty and Power and who is a Jealous God and will not give his Honour to another should suffer the World to be guilty of Idolatry to make themselves Gods of Wood and Stone Nay to offer their Sons and their Daughters unto Devils and to commit all manner of Wickedness in the Worship of their False Gods and make Murther and Adultery and the worst of Vices not only their Practice but their Religion Can we imagine that the True God would behold all this for so many Ages among so many People and yet not concern himself to put a stop to so much Wickedness and to vindicate his own Honour and restore the Sense and Practice of Vertue upon Earth I shall in due place prove at large That Mankind have in all Ages had the greatest necessity for a Revelation to direct and reform them and That the Philosophers themselves taught abominably wicked Doctrines who yet were the best Teachers and Instructors of the Heathen World And we have no true Notion of God if we do not believe him to be a God of Infinite Power and Knowledge and Holiness and Mercy and Truth and yet we may as well believe there is no God at all as imagine that the God of Infinite Knowledge should take no notice of what is done here below that Infinite Power should suffer it self to be affronted and despised without requiring any Satisfaction that Infinite Holiness should behold the whole World lie in Wickedness and find out no way to remedy it and that Superstition and Idolatry and all the Tyranny of Sin and Satan for so long a time should enslave and torment the Bodies and Souls of Men and there should be no Compassion in Infinite Mercy nor any Care over an erroneous and deluded World in the God of Truth Would a wise and good Father see his Children run on in all manner of Folly and Extravagancy and take no care to reclaim them nor give them any Advice but leave them wholly to themselves to pursue their own Ruine And if this be unworthy to suppose of Natural Parents how much more unreasonable is it to imagine this of God himself whom we cannot but represent to our selves with all the Compassions of the tenderest Father or Mother without the Weakness and Infirmities that accompany them in Humane Parents How unreasonable is it to entertain such a Thought of Almighty God infinite in Goodness and Mercy as to suspect that he would suffer Mankind to make themselves as miserable as they can both in this World and the next without putting a Stop to so fatal a Course of Sin and Misery or interposing any thing for their Direction to shew them the Way to escape Destruction and to obtain Happiness The Fall of our First Parents is known to us only by Revelation and therefore is not to be taken into Consideration when we argue upon the meer Principles of Reason But I consider Mankind as we find it in Fact setting aside the Advantages of Revelation Wicked and abandoned to Wickedness in the Snares of the Devil taken captive by him at his will unable to work out their own Salvation lost and undone without Power or Strength without any Help or Remedy And in this State of the World however it came to pass is there no Reason to believe that infinite Goodness should take some Course and not disregard all Mankind lying in this Condition The great Argument of the Scoffers of the last Days St. Peter tells us would be this That all things go on in their constant Course and that God doth not meddle or concern himself with them Where is the Promise of his Coming For since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the Creation 2 Pet. iii. 4. And if no Promise had ever been made they would have had some Reason in their Arguing For that which rendred the Heathen without Excuse was That they did not make use of the Natural Knowledge that they had of God to lead them to the Knowledge of his Revealed Will which they had frequent Opportunity of becoming acquainted withal and had many Memorials of it amongst them in every Nation but they did not like to retain God in their Knowledge And this is the Force of St. Paul's Argument Act. xvii Rom. i. unless this latter Chapter were to be understood as Dr. Hammond interprets it of the Gnostick Hereticks That the Gentiles ought not to pervert and stifle those Natural Notions which God had implanted in their Minds but from the Law of Nature to proceed to find out the Written Law and for this Reason the Bounds of the Habitation of other Nations were determin'd and appointed by God according to the Number of the Children of Israel that they might seek the Lord and might be able to find and discover the True Religion and Way of Worship among that People to whom he had reveal'd himself Deut. xxxii 8. Act. xvii 26 27. They might have been less vicious than they were without the Knowledge of a Revelation and therein they were inexcusable that though they could not free themselves from the Power of Sin yet they might not have given themselves so wholly up to it as to become excluded from the Grace and Salvation to be obtained by the Revealed Will of God And when God has revealed himself all who will not use the Means and by a due Improvement of their Reason endeavour from Natural Religion to arrive at Revealed become inexcusable for their Negligence and Contempt of God and the Abuse of those Talents and Endowments which God has bestowed upon them For when God has once given Men warning and directed them in the way of Salvation and they will not regard it they must be wilfully ignorant if they will not consider that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day and it is Argument of his Patience and Long-suffering that he doth not bring speedy Vengeance upon a disobedient and rebellious World The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but is long-suffering to us ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night Now this is very well consistent and exceedingly agreeable with all the Divine Perfections that he should give Men Warning of the Evil and Danger of Sin and afterwards leave them to their own Choice whether they will be Righteous and Happy or Wicked and Miserable and then that he should not take the first Opportunity to punish them nor lay hold of any Advantage against them but give them time for second Thoughts and space for Consideration and Repentance but if they abuse so much Patience and Loving-kindness that he should at last come
after a Captivity of Seventy Years and Cyrus sent forth his Proclamation declaring that he had received his Kigdom from God with a charge to re-build the Temple at Jerusalem 2 Chron. xxxvi 23. And this Decree of Cyrus was reinforced by Darius and Artaxerxes Ezra vi vii Now so many several Decrees put forth in favour of the Religion of the Jews and the miraculous Power and Wisdom which gave occasion to them and the Advancement of Daniel and others and the long life and continuance of Daniel in that Power and Esteem must leave all the Eastern part of the World without any excuse who were not converted to the Knowledge and Worship of the True God The Advancement of Esther and Mordecai under Ahasuerus and of Nehemiah under Artaxerxes gave the Jews great Authority and great opportunites of propagating their Religion from India even unto Aethiopia over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces for this was the extent of the Dominions of Ahasuerus Esth i. 1. and the Jews were dispersed in all the Provinces of the Kingdom of Babylon chap. iii. 8. And they wanted no Care nor Diligence to improve every Opportunity as we learn from the Books of Ezekiel Daniel Ezra Nehemiah and Esther and the very Names of such Persons is enough to convince us that that part of the World could want no means of Conversion Confess him before the Gentiles ye Children of Israel for he hath scattered us among them there declare his greatness and extol him before all the living for he is our Lord and he is the God our Father for ever In the land of my captivity do I praise him and declare his might and majesty to a sinful nation Tob. xiii 3 4 6. This was the Practice of Pious Men among the Ten Tribes of whom some were likewise in great Place and Authority chap. i. 13 21 22. And as the Ten Tribes were first carried away Captive so upon the Restoration of the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin all but a few in comparison of the other Tribes remained in the places of their Captivity and many (c) Joseph Antiq. l. 11. c. 1. Mede's Discourse 20. p. 75. of those Two Tribes also chose rather to continue in Babylon than forsake the Possessions which they enjoyed there It is supposed that not much more than half of them returned and there were afrerwards three celebrated Universities (c) Lightf Harm N.T. p. 335. Exercit. on Acts p. 681 799. of the Jews in Babylon Nehardea Pombeditha and Soria besides several other Places famous for Learning The Jews relate (e) Hier. in Zech. x. that the Ten Tribes were carried away not only into Media and Persia but into the Northern Countries beyond the Bosphorus and Ortelius finds them in Tartary The Odomantes a People of Thrace were Circumcised and the (f) Aristophan Acharnens Act. 1. scen 4. Scholiast of Aristophanes says that they were reported to be Jews The Restoration of the Jews by Cyrus who had been so long before appointed and named by God himself for that Work was ordained for this end that they might know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is no God besides him Isa xlv 6. And it is observable that after the Captivity the Jews were never given to Idolatry and tho' they were bofore too much addicted to it yet this gave occasion to Prophecies and Miracles to withdraw them from it and these with the Judgments of God which befell them for their Iniquities gave continual Manifestations to the World of the Truth of their Religion When the Ten Tribes were carried from Samaria and strange Nations were transplanted thither in their room God would not suffer his Name and Worship to be quite neglected and forgotten amongst them but they were forced to send for a Priest back again to teach them the fear of the Lord 2 King xvii And after the Taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the Death of Gedaliah who was set over them that were left behind in the Land of Judah all the People that were not before carried to Babylon fled into Aegypt Jeremiah being forced along with them who there prophesied against Aegypt and foretold its Destruction by the Babylonians Jer. xliii and at last suffer'd Maâ—yrdom Their going into Aegypt was indeed contrary to the Word of the Lord by Jeremiah but the Providence of God so order'd things that Jeremiah should be carry'd thither with the rest to testifie against their Wickedness and Obstinacy and to denounce God's Judgments upon them and upon the Aegyptians in whom they placed their confidence rather than in the Living God and then to die in testimony of the Truth of what he had delivered Cyrus and Darius desired the Prayers and Sacrifices of the Jews in behalf of themselves and their Kingdoms Alexander the Great Pâ—olemaeus Philadelphus Augustus Tiberius and Vitellius sent Victims to be sacrificed at the Temple of Jerusalem as we learn from Philo and Josephus The Jews constantly offer'd Sacrifice and Prayers for the Kings and Emperor under whom they lived and for their Allies and Confederates 1 Maccab. vii 33. xii 11. and it was expected of them for the omission of this contrary to their known and approved Custom in all former Times was the thing which hastned their final Destruction by the Romans The course of Alexander's Victories was so unexpected so sudden and every way so wonderful that it alarm'd the World And no Man can believe that this was designed by Providence only to gratifie the Ambition and Vanity of a rash Youth but to open a way for a communication between the several Parts of the Earth to the benefit of Mankind in the improvement of all useful Knowledge and when this Work was done he was no longer the same Man he had been before but soon resigned his Conquests with his Life Alexander is said by (g) Joseph Antiqu. l. 11. c. ult Josephus to have been mightily encouraged in his Enterprise against Persia by the Prophecy of Daniel He remitted the Tribute of every Seventh Year in which by their Law they were obliged not to sow their Ground (h) Ibid. l. 14. c. 17. which was afterwards remitted to them likewise by the Romans He granted the Jews who in great numbers listed themselves in his Army the free Exercise of their Religion and promised to grant the same to the Jews of Babylon and Media and those of Sanballat's Faction who followed him into Aegypt he placed in Thebais Hecatoeus who lived in Alexander's time wrote (i) Joseph contra Ap. lib. 1. pag. 1048 c. a Book concerning the Jews in which he took notice of their great Zeal for their Law which he proves by this Instance That when Alexander repaired the Temple of Belus at Babylon his Soldiers who were Jews could by no means be brought to help forward that Work and at last the King excused them He related that Hezechias the High-Priest of the Jews
Condemnation And it is not only Just but Merciful for him to with-hold the Knowledge of his Reveal'd Will from those who he forefees would reject it and abuse the Opportunities which should be offer'd them to the Aggravation of their own Guilt and Punishment Especially if it be observ'd 2. That as to particular Persons we have reason to believe that God who by so wonderful a Providence has taken care that every Nation under Heaven might have the True Religion preach'd in it and who has the whole World at his Disposal and orders all things with great regard to the Salvation of Men we have abundant cause to think that he would by some of the various Methods of his Providence or even by Miracle bring such Men to the knowledge of the Truth who live according to their present Knowledge with a sincere and honest Endeavour to improve it When St. Peter was by Revelation sent to Cornelius he made this Inference from it Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him Act. x. 34 35. From whence what less can we conclude than that every Man in any part of the World who is sincerely good and pious in the Practice of his Duty so far as it is known to him shall rather by an express Revelation have the rest discover'd to him as in the Instance of Cornelius which gave occasion to these words of S. Peter than that he should be suffer'd to perish for want of a true Faith and sufficient Knowledge of his Duty And it is Just with God to punish those Heathens who sin without any Reveal'd Law for their Sins against Natural Reason and Conscience and for neglecting to use and improve their Reason and to embrace the Opportunities afforded them of becoming Christians We may likewise be certain that besides Natural Reason and Conscience God in his Goodness is not wanting to afford such inward Motions and Convictions of Mind to such of the Heathen as are not wilfully blind and stupify'd by their Vices as may prepare them for the reception of the Gospel which by his Providence he gives them so many Opportunities of becoming acquainted withal And if once they do discern the Defects and Faults of their own Religions which are so grosly against Natural Reason and Conscience they may make enquiry of Christians concerning their Religion as some of the Americans did of Cortes's and the Christians some of them at least however negligent they be in propagating it would never refuse to instruct them in it And it must be remembred that among those who have not receiv'd the True Religion yet many Points are taught and believ'd which had their Original from Revelation as is evident not only of the Mahometans but of several Heathen Nations which Points are so many Steps and Preparatives towards the Reception of the whole Truth if they be not wanting to themselves in pursuing them in their immediate Tendency and Consequences I shall not say That the Merits of Christ and the Salvation of the Gospel do extend to those who in the Integrity of their Hearts dye under an invincible Ignorance of it I believe rather that God suffers no Man so qualify'd and dispos'd to remain in invincible Ignorance But it is sufficient to vindicate God's Justice and Goodness that all Nations have had such Opportunities of coming to the Knowledge of the Truth and great Allowances may be made at the Last Day for the Ignorance and unhappy Circumstances of particular Men. It was well said That when God hath not thought fit to tell us how he will be pleas'd to deal with such Persons it is not fit for us to tell Him how he ought to deal with them But if it be difficult for us now to think how it will please God to deal with the Heathen it would be a thousand times more difficult to conceive how the Gracious and Merciful God could Govern and Judge the World if all Mankind were in the State of Heathens without any Divine Revelation What will become of the Heathen as to their Eternal State is not the Subject of this Discourse nor doth it concern us to know some of them will have more to plead for themselves in point of ignorance than others can have and they are in the hands of the Merciful Creator and Saviour of Mankind and there we must leave them But it must be acknowledged that it is much more agreeable to the Goodness and Mercy of God to reveal his Will and to give so many Opportunities to the World to be instructed in it though never so many should neglect the Means of Salvation than it is to suppose him to take no care to reduce Mankind to the sense and practice of Vertue and Religion but to let them continue in all manner of Idolatry and Wickedness without giving them any warning against it I have not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else Come ye near unto me hear ye this I have not spoken in secret from the beginning from the time that it was there am I Isa xlv 19 22. xlviii 16. Having proved That the Scriptures want nothing requisite to a Divine Revelation in regard either of the Antiquity or Promulgation I proceed to shew That they have sufficient Evidence both by Prophecies and Miracles in proof of their Authority This Evidence depends upon Matter of Fact which concerns either the Prophecies and Miracles themselves in their several circumstances as we find them stand Recorded or the Lives and Personal Qualifications of those by whom they were performed or by whom they are related in the Scriptures For if we can be assured both that they are truly related and that if they were done as they are related they could proceed from none but a Divine Power we have all the Evidence for the Truth of the Scriptures that can be had for a Revelation CHAP. III. Of Moses and Aaron THat Moses was a very Great and Wise Man is related by several of the most eminent Heathen Writers and I think it has never been denied by any Man But it is no less evident that he was likewise a very Good and Pious Man He frequently declares his own Failings and Infirmities Exod. iii. 11. iv 1 10 13. Num. xi 10. xx 12. xxvii 14. and never speaks any thing tending to his own Praise but upon a just and necessary occasion when it might become a prudent and modest Man especially one Divinely Inspired For all the Praise of such an one doth not terminate in himself but is attributed to God whose Instrument and Servant he is and in such cases where God's Honour is concerned it was a Duty to set forth the Favour and Goodness of God towards him though some Honour did redound
fitting to reveal such things to us as are above our understandings but then we must be contented to take his word for the Truth of them and not apply our Principles and Maxims taken from things of an inferiour Nature to things of which we can have no conception but from revelation which would be as absurd as for a deaf man to apply the Notion which he has of Colours to Sounds or for a blind man to fancy that there is no such thing as Colours because he is told they cannot be heard And there must be a due proportion between the Faculty and its object For the Faculties both of our Bodies and Minds are confined and limited in their exercise about their several objects The parts of Matter may be too small and fine to be any longer discerned or perceived by sense For only Bodies which are so big as to reflect a due quantity of Rays to the eye can be perceived by the sight it self the quickest and subtilest of all our senses And as objects in their bulk are sensible but are insensible in their minute parts so it is in the inward sensations or preceptions of the mind in respect of its objects We may puzzle and perplex our selves in the deductions which may be made from the most common Notions Nothing is more certain and familiar to our Minds than our own thoughts that we think and understand and will we all know but what is the principle and subject of thought in us and how our understanding and will act upon and determine each other is matter of perpetual dispute The summ of this argument is that our Faculties are finite and of no very large extent in their operations but are confined to certain objects and limited to certain bounds and periods Both our Natural and Acquired knowledge is conversant about certain kinds of objects and our Faculties are fitted and suited to them and from the properties and affections which we observe in them we form Notions and make Conclusions and raise Maxims and Axioms Now if we apply our Natural Notions to things which we know only by Revelation we must be very liable to great mistakes about them For thus it is in things not so much out of the reach of our capacities and which are not of a spiritual Nature if we frame speculative and abstract Ideas from the Principles and Maxims which are formed in our Minds from sensible objects we may soon puzzle our selves and seem to demonstrate contradictions which demonstrates only that all arguments of this Nature are vain and unconcluding And therefore it must be absurd to reject the Mysteries of Religion because they will not come under the Rules of Logick and Philosophy when they are acknowledged to be incomprehensible and therefore not to be judged of as to the Manner and Nature of them by the Rules and Principles of Humane Sciences What has been here alledged concerning the Contradictious about the divisibility of Matter is no more than has been generally confest by the best Philosophers and Mathematicians And the excellent Mr Boyle having produced the Testimony of Galileo and Des Cartes upon this subject concludes with this observation (a) Considerat about the Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion Sect 2. If then such bold and piercing Wits and such excellent Mathematicians are forced to confess that not only their own Reason but that of Mankind may be passed and non-pluss'd about Quantity which is an object of contemplation Natural nay Mathematical and which is the subject of the rigid demonstrations of pure Mathematicks why should we think it unfit to be believed and to be acknowledged that in the attributes of God who is essentially an infinite being and an ens singularissimum and in divers other divine things of which we can have no knowledge without Revelation there should be some things that our finite understandings cannot especially in this life clearly comprehend II. Every man believes and has the experience of several things which in the Theory and Speculative Notion of them would seem as incredible as any thing in the Scriptures can be supposed to be It was well observed by (b) Sunt onim plurima vera quidem sed parum credibilia sicut falsa quoque frequenter verisimilia Quintil. Institut l. 4. c. 2. Quintilian aad may be observed by any one that will consider it that very many things are true which scarce seem credible and as many are false which have all the appearance of Truth and yet the cause of unbelief in matters of Religion is chiefly this that we are hardly brought to believe any thing possible to be done which we never saw done and judge of things not from any principle of Reason but from our own experience and make this the measure of what is possible to be not considering that many things may be altogether as possible which we never knew done and that we should think many things impossible of which we have the daily experience if we had never seen nor known them to be For what we have the daily experience of we are apt to think very easy and scarce suspect that there can be any difficulty in it but frame to our selves some kind of account of it and please ourselves perhaps with a conceit that we perfectly understand it and conclude that such and such things must needs come to pass from the causes which we assign For when a thing is common and familiar to us we either take no pains at all to consider the nature of it or when we do observe and consider it being ashamed to confess our own ignorance we perswade ourselves that there is no such great difficulty in it but fancy we understand the true Reason and Cause of it And if it were not for the carelesness of some in not minding the wonderful effects of Nature and the Pride of others in fancying that they are ignorant of nothing which is the constant object of their senses I am perthat there are several things in the World which we daily see and experience that would seem as wonderful almost as the Resurrection itself or any Mystery in Religion The greatest Philosophers have been able to give but a very imperfect account of the most ordinary and obvious things in Nature and if we had only a relation of them without any tryal or experience we should be inclin'd to conclude them impossible The King of Siam it is said would not believe the Dutch Ambassador but thought himself affronted when he was told by him that in Holland Water wou'd become so hard in cold weather that Men or Elephants might walk upon it and the relations of things in those Countries would have seem'd as strange to us if the constant report of men who have been there had not made them familiar to us It was formerly disbelieved nay absolutely deny'd as absurd and impossible that there could be any such place as that which is now known
times bigger than the whole Globe of the Earth and yet they appear less thro the Telescopes than they do to the naked Eye and look no bigger than meer Specks or Physical Points of Light and the Sun which is some millions of miles nearer to us than the Fixt Stars is by Mathematicians generally believed to be above an hundred and threescore times bigger than the Earth and by the exactest calculations is estimated to be eight or ten thousand times as big as the whole Earth and as Mr Boyle thinks may perhaps be found to be yet much vaster by further observations The Earth is * Huygen 's Conject concerning the Planetary Worlds lib. 2. computed to be above seventeen millions of German miles distant from the Sun And a Bullet carried with the same swiftness that it has when it is shot out of a great Gun supposing it moved from the Earth to the Sun would spend twenty five years in its passage to move from Jupiter to the Sun it would require one hundred and twenty five years and from Saturn thither two hundred and fifty years and such a Bullet by Mr Huygens's computation would spend almost seven hundred thousand years in its passage between us and the nearest of the Fixt Stars he speaks concerning the nearness of em and then stands amaz'd to think what a prodigious number besides there must be of those which are placed so deep in the vast spaces of Heaven as to be as remote from these as these are from the Sun For if with our bare eye we can observe above a thousand and with a Telescope can discover ten or twenty times as many what bounds of number says he must we set to those which are out of the reach even of these Assistances especially if we consider the infinite Power of God Really when I have been reflecting thus with myself methought all our Arithmetick was nothing and we are versed but in the very Rudiments of Numbers in comparison of this great summ For this requires an immense Thedsury not of twenty or thirty Figures only in our Decuple Progression but of as many as there are grains of Sand upon the shore And yet who can say that even this number exceeds that of the Fixt Stars The Quantity of Motion in the world is no less wonderful For if the Earth move upon its own * Mr Boyle ibid. Axis a place situate under the Aequator must be carried with as swift a motion as a Bullet shot out of a Cannon and if the Earth stand still and the Stars move round about it a Fixt Star in the Aequator must move fifty two thousand five hundred fifty five miles in a minute of an hour which if not more is at least three thousand times faster than the motion of a Cannon Bullet and the motion of the Fluid Matter intersperst between the Earth and the Stars must be answerably rapid And yet all these prodigious motions are so exactly proportioned and moderated that as that Great Philosopher observes no Watch for a few hours has ever gone so regularly as the whole World has been moved for so many Ages And in the consideration of innumerable Instances of the stupendous Works of Nature the ingenuous says he confess their Ignorance and the confident betray theirs But if any man shall think these Calculations extravagant as discoveries in Philosophy are commonly thought by such as are little conversant in it let him remember that they are set down according to the best observations that the wit of man after the experience of so many Ages has been able to make So that whether these accounts be true or false they shew the insufficiency of humane Understanding to examine the works of God and do by consequence shew how much more â—uncapable the wisest of men are to comprehend the Infinite essence of the Creator himself The famous Mr * Conject concerning the Pâ—â—xetar Worlds Lib. 1. Huygens lately mentioned speaking of the passage and communication of Light every way and in every point of Space through such vast Regions which must be much more to be admired if there be suppos'd to be a Vacuum in which there can be nothing to direct or determine its Motion and regulate its Course has these words all these things are so wisely so wonderfully contrived that it is above the power of humane Wit not to invent or frame somewhat like them but even to imagin or comprehend them To say nothing of the strange Discoveries concerning the Formation and Contexture of the Bodies both of Plants and Animals the innumerable little Animals which are discovered by Microscopes in but one drop of water and many other observations of the like nature are so wonderful that we might well suspect the truth of the experiments if men of the greatest skill and integrity as well in our own as in other Countreys did not agree in them The vast quantities of water which are continually flowing out of so many thousand Rivers into the Sea keep their constant course and are some way so disposed of as that the Sea and Land retain always a due proportion to each other But the Original of the Fountains from whence those Rivers proceed and how this Circulation of Waters is made is still matter of dispute The concussions of Earthquakes reaching sometimes to so vast an extent and the prodigious eruptions of Fire from divers burning Mountains in several parts of the Earth throwing out abundance of matter in Rivers of Fire of great breadth for many miles together seem incredible to those who have not read and considered these things The Verticity of the Loadstone the Flux and Reflux of the Sea Life and Motion every thing in Natural Philosophy when seriously examined has so many inexplicable Difficulties as would make a considerate man very modest in his Censures concerning things supernatural For if we had been placed in another World a Natural History of this might have seemed as strange to us as any thing Revealed can do now And it must be great presumption in us who know so little of the World we live in to talk pragmatically of another which we have only been told of and to believe no more than our Sences can inform us of when every Sence may inform us how narrow and imperfect our Knowledge is and that we take upon Trust or swallow in the Gross what we are commonly least distrustful about And not only Nature but even Art exceeds the Apprehensions of most men The Mechanical Powers and Motions are wont to be mistaken for Magick by such as have not skill and experience in those matters the performances of Archimedes were so wonderful beyond all expectation or belief that the King of Syracuse is said to have made a Decree to forbid any man to question whatever Archimedes should assert The Force of Gun-powder might be thought incredible if it were not so common amongst us Not to mention that the Indians took