considered in order to the satisfaction of such an enquiry First the Internal Cause of it And secondly the External Means by which it hath been brought about The Internal Cause of it hath layn in two things First An Insussiciency in our Natural Abilities since the Fall to ascertain us fully about Divine things and to give a satisfying answer to all those enquiries we naturally make about them Secondly the general ill improvement the world has made of those abilites it had and the universal Declension and Apostacy of mankind from that knowledg they might have arrived at For the first Though the Being of God and the existence of a Supreme Power be witnessed to by every mans Reason and every man be born with a relation to somewhat Above him and there be many Maximes of Natural Divinty connate to the true exercise of our rational faculties yet there be two things can never be attained by any Natural search First A certain knowledg What God is And Secondly a certain knowledg How he is to be Served Neither a Satisfying account of the Nature of his Being nor of a Worship acceptable to him is to be compassed without Revelation About these two things when men have had nothing told them from Heaven to fix them their Opinions have been as various as their Inventions The grosser part of the world God being onely an Intellectual Object whom they could not see generally fell to conceive of him by what they did see Cicero himself confessing that when we come to consider Qualis sit Deorum Natura Nihil est dificilius quam a consuctudine oculorum aciem mentis abducere Lib. 2. de Nat. Dear And the more Refined part lost themselves in a Wilderness of Abstracted Speculations about what they could never distinctly comprehend For the Second 'T is plain a great part of the Heathen Idolatry arose not only from their Mistakes in what they could not know but from a corrupt defection from what they might know Those Notices their own natural abilities gave them of God thwarting their Sensual Inclinations they delighted not to retain such a knowledg of God in their minds but willingly turned aside to Delusion left the guide of their Reason and chose the conduct of Appetite The Stupendious folly of their Religions is as a Thousand witnesses to this Truth That they lived not only below the true Knowledg of the one God but farr beneath the exercise of Right Reason For though I am apt to believe that a Supernatural knowledg does much instruct us in the true extent of what is meerly Natural and does much inkindle our natural Light and we see many things now to be attainable by Nature which the world so farr as I can discerne never found out without Revelation Yet 't is not credible that a Rational Being without some way extinguishing the dictates of his own faculty should make a God of that which he himself knew to be but a Perishing Creature or should think to please a being of such perfections as every mans Reason must needs ascribe to God by debasing himself before the Meanest parts of the World Secondly If we consider the External means by which these Internal Causes have operated and how all that Rubbish of Pagan Theology hath been visibly induced to defile and cumber the world from five things chiefly we may derive it First From a corrupt Tradition of the Worlds first original and the History of the Creation and the Flood and many passages both before and after the Flood which Noah and his family first conveyed down to the world in its Repeopling and the Jews from Moses afterward inform'd them off This appears to have been a great rise to many of the Heathen Superstions and Vanities and most especially amongst the Phaenicians much of whose Religion seems to be a plain corruption of those original Truths and an apparent Mythology upon the True History of things before and after the Flood as appears by Diodorus Sicubus and more anciently by their own famous Antiquary Sanconiathon in the Version of Philo Biblius The occasion of which corruption in the Tradition of those things was probably the Confusion of Tongues at first the great increase of Barbarisme after the proud desire every Nation had to apply all Traditional Stories of famous persons to some of themselves with many other Reasons which Scaliger Bochart and other Learned men give for it Secondly From the Fictions of the Poets who 't is clear were the first beginners of all the Graecian Learning and were therefore anciently called in Graece 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teachers and as Strabo says and I thinks upon very good grounds were also the first beginners of all the ancientest Learning every where All other Speech whether Historical or Rhetorical being but the progeny of Poetry the Ancients knowing no other artificial or set form of speech but what was in Verse and therefore as the same Author saies Poetry was anciently called Prima quaedam Philosophia These fill'd the World with innumerable Fables Mythologized upon every thing and did greatly promote their Theological Vanities and the Corruption of all true Story Thirdly From the wild Speculations and multiplied Theories of the Philosophers of whom there were some hundreds of Sects which served greatly to Puzzle and Mis-lead men There being as Cicero saies no Absurdity but had some Philosopher for its Patron Fourthly From their Oracles by which the world lay subjected to all Diabolical delusions And fifthly from their corrupt Legislators such as Numa in Rome and others who finding the World Sequacious in point of Religion and Mankind apt to adore every fiction imposed upon their belief whatever they thought most conducing to their own Politick Ends. Nor has the World without Revelation been free from defects in its Morals though Men attained far therein and their Morality much outwent their Divinity Cicero wrought with much better success de Officiis then he he did de Nat. Deorum yet the Bible has greatly improved the world herein Let any man extract the most exact Scheme he can of Morality out of the best Philosophers and the acutest Moralists and compare it with the Doctrine the Bible proposeth to us about those things and the defects of it will be visible Amiraldus observes in his Treatise of Religions That scarce can there be found any Common-Wealth amongst those which have been esteemed the best policyed in which some Grand and Signal Vice has not been excused or permitted or even sometimes recommended by publick Laws Plato makes a Community of Women one of the fundamental Constitutions of his Republick Socrates and Cato I think are agreed to be two as famous Moralists as ever were in Graece or in Rome Cato the great exemplar for Virtue and Justice amongst the Romans and Socrates the Phoenix of Graece for Virtue and Piety of whom Xenophon gives this admirable account in his Book De Socratis memorabilibus dictis Nemo autem unquam Socratem
perfect Attributes the terms of our pardon must come from God 'T is not in man to find out how God shall forgive him or to to Chalk out the Tracks of Divine Justice and Mercy toward himself nor will his guilt be removed nor his thoughts be at rest till he know Gods mind about it Nothing can assure us of Reconciliation with God but what is from Heaven appointed as the means of it No natural knowledg can give us any certain direction about it nor is it reasonable to believe it should If Humane Nature had no absolute security in it self of its first state how can we expect it should restore it self when once degenerated What did not remain perfect when it was so is much more unlikely to recover again out of Imperfection to be so Every man may know he is degenerated from what he ought to be and so may reasonably collect from what he once was but no man can reason himself into a ceâ—taâ—n way of Recovery The whole world have subscribed to their own Apostacy but could never agree upon any certain remedy How miserably have Mankind tired themselves and to how little purpose in finding out what would appease Divine Anger and compensate for their disobedience No man ever yet worsâ— ipped any God but he made some Offering to him in hopes that might indemnisie him and be taken in Lieu of his own punishment Men have at a Venture offered up all parts of the world in Sacrifice have tried all experiments victimis lavacris and by all other means their best guesses could suggest to them to obliterate their own Guilt and to procure D vâ—â—e favour but never were upon any suâ—er gâ—ound then their own vain fancies for acceptance Agaâ—hias tells us in his second Book of the Peâ—sian war that the Persians were wont to solemnize a great Holy-day once a year which they called The death of Vices in which as an eminent piece of Devotion they slew multitudes of Serpents all other sorts of wild Beasts and thereby thought they should Execute all their Corruptions safely bury their sins The Philosophers abounded with remedies foâ— this Epidemical Disease Some thought to cure the evil of the world in a Moral way some in a way Mathematical and some by Religious Ceremonies But alas The right way of doing it has lain hid from Ages and Generations till God himself made it known and revealed it from Heaven VVhat a trifle is the Blood of a Sheep or an Oxe to satisfie for an Offence against an Infinite Justice At how easie and cheap a rate might men Sin and God be satisfied And what a publick tolleration of evil were it if the Blood of Bulls and Goats might take away sin and the lives of unreasonable Creatures Commute for the sins of Men The consideration of all these things does directly Steer us upward and point us to a dependance upon Revelation to give us a clear distinct and satisfying Knowledge of God of our selves and of this whole World How man came to Rebel and Sin first to enter By what ways and means Indemnity may be obtained And upon what terms we may be again reconciled to God and accepted This precious discourse the design of which is to render it a reasonable supposal that there should be in the general some Divine Revelation some Laws Supernatural promulged to the world and that Mankind should not be wholly left to the conduct of Nature can be no way ungrateful to those who are already possessed with a due esteem of the Scriptures and do assent to their verity because 't is to re-inforce one of the greatâ—st supports to all Scripture-belief Nor will it seem impertinent to those who are any way ingenious in their doubts and enquiries about this matter because 't is naturally necessarily the first step that is to be taken in order to their satisfaction But may be very well offensive to such who shall design to themselves a disbelief of the Scriptures and make it their Province to weaken their Authority and render all proofs brought for them insufficient because it goes far towards an evident and apparent determination of the whole cause against them Does indeed petere jugulum of their chiefest pretences and virtuâ—lly breaks the very Back-bone of all Antiscriptural opposition for if there be such a thing as a Revelation mâ—de to the World as that which the goodness of God and the wants of men seem necessarily to call for If God have given to Mankind a Law supernatural Where is this Divine Law to be found 'T is but reasonable to suppose it somewhere or other upon Record This Book we call the Bible must needs be it and will certainly carry it against all Pretenders the natural dictates o right Reason being Judge What Book or Writing is there extant under Heaven that can with any tollerable colour counter plead the Bible upon this account A man must be horribly Hood-winkt in his inteâ—lectuals that does not evidently see 't is impar coâ—gressus between the Bible and all other Pretenders From what paâ—ts of the world will you fetch such a Supernatural Lâ—w by which we may suppose God to Govern Mankind one either fit for him to Give or for us to Receive according to that Natural Knowledge we have of him and of our selves and that Rational Judgment to which all Supernatural pretences ought to be subjected Where wâ—ll you find a Systeme of Divinity that makes known to us in a way suitable to our natural conceptions of him the most of God and of his Nature we are able to comprehend delivers us from all the intanglements of Humane Nature by ways and Methods so pâ—opoâ—tioned thereunto and discoveâ—s to us ceâ—taâ—n tracks to the highest happiness here and hereafter we are capable to enjoy Shall we go to the Laws of Lycurgus and Solon because they pretended to Revelation Can any man be so stupid Those Laws were chiefly Municipal and made no pretence to what we enquire after Shall we imagine the Books of the Sybills because they were thought to be filled with many Divine secrets contained such Revelation The greatest part if not the whole of them is long since perished out of the world which is proof sufficient they were none of those standing Laws by which God designed to Rule and Judge Mankind Some excellent Greek Verses there are indeed extant at this day which go under their Names but they are upon good grounds by the most learned supposed to be none of theirs And iâ— they were the Christian Religion and the Truths contained in the Bible are so clearly described and the Pagan Religion so directly and strongly confuted therein that the Scriptures can scarce have a greater Testimony given to their Divinity Shall we go to the inspired Entâ—usiasticâ—l Poâ—ts for this Revelation What a ridiculous foppery would that seem to one that has once conversed with the Bible And what a wild extravagant Religion should we
in themselves Morally Good and Morally Evil. No mans Reason determines about the positive Use of any such Outward Mediums of Worship nor can assure me of Gods distinguishing Acceptance in any of them And to be upon certain grounds of Acceptance with God is the chief thing in all our VVorship Nor is any man by Nature a clear and certain Law to himself about such things Nor is it possible he should Because there is no Intrinsically Religious Good as to matter of Worship in any parts of the world but all such goodness results purely from Institution God has not sanctified any part of the Creation to his Service in such a way by any unalterable obligation arising from the Rational Nature No such External Mediums of Worship are founded in Reason but all in Institution 'T is true the Light of Nature will direct me to that behaviour of my self in the performance of all Worship which I think most Decent and Reverent But for any External Mediums of Worship the Light of Nature will give me no certain Direction at all If any parts of the World be to be made use of in Worship as by the judgment of God himself and the practice of the whole world it has been declared Necessary that some should be we must then both for the Choice and the Use of such parts of the World be wholly guided and steered by Revelation And the truth is every mans own Reason is Impregnated with Obligations to a further Degree of Worship and Divine Homage then Reason it self is able to be a Safe and a Certain guide to us in and directs us to many Duties which we want Revelation to teach us how to performe Which has in all Ages made the world so inquisitive after it and shews us how Rationally we tend Upward in this matter and how greatly our own Natures prepare us to expect and receive Instructions from Above Secondly Should this be admitted that Divine Worship might be confined simply to Thoughts Gestures and Words yet would not our natural light inable us to acquit our selves as we ought in this matter nor well to perform such a service as that without supernatural help There be two great ends of all worship which though inseparable in their attainment are yet distinct in their application and if not attained the whole of mens attempts that way will prove altogether useless and fruitless First in a right manner to give to God the Honour due from us to him And Secondly to provide sufficiently for our own welfare by an acceptance with him For the First how can we Honour God with the Honour due to him unless we have a right Knowledge of him and such a discovery of his Being as may fully inform and ascertain our minds about him which we never can have nor to this day the World never had without Revelation 'T is impossible to Honour God as we ought unless according to our measure we know him as in truth he is and 't is equally impossible to know what God is unless it be told us by himself 'T is not simply sufficient to Capacitate me for a due address to the Deity to know in the general that there is a Supreme Wisdom and Justice and Power above me that some way or other exists which is all my Reason will tell me but I must have some direct and distinct Knowledge of that Being wherein all those Attributes do exist Upon which as the Object of my Worship my mind may terminate and without which I shall be sure to form an Idol to my self in the room of that Being and then apply those Attributes to It. To which fatal mistake and Idolatrous delusion the World having by Nature no certain account what God was not after what manner the Deity did exist in all Ages has been too apparently subject Secondly how can we sufficiently provide for our own welfare unless we can be safely assured of the forgiveness of sin and the total removal of natural guilt And how is it possible to be so assured unless we knew the Terms of Gods forgiveness and the Means of our Reconciliation to him Of which we have no certain satisfying account given us by any dictates of Nature nor can they ever be found out until they be told us from above Men must needs make strange Prayers and have very wild and uncertain Meditations about God and their own Conditions that were benighted with Ignorance in such things Prayer and whatever else is it self a part of Natural worship would be very lamely performed without some Revelation to guide it The Pagan devotion was a medley of strange Sentiments founded in horrible Ignorance of God and of their own Condition and the way of mans Restoration Had Plato or Aristotle or the wisest amongst them but left us a Liturgy of their own Composition it would with great effect have convinced us what necessity there is of some Revelation to guide even the best understandings in all Divine addresses Two things about Worship the practice of the Heathen World has taught us beyond all reasonable denial First that Mankind have generally acknowledged it necessary that some Supernatural direction should be given for the manage of that intercourse that ought to be between God and Man and have subscribed to the shortness and defficiency of Humane Wisdom about it And Secondly that there is no one certain compleat Systeme of Worship that by the light of Nature Men do uniformly agree in The one results from their constant recourse to Supernatural enquiries and the many Enthusiastick pretensions thereupon The other from their great and eminent disagreement amongst themselves for the Pagan world who were only under the conduct of Naturallight and had in truth no Revelation at all but were still abused with the counterfeit of it fell by that guidance into endless diversity in practice and into a numberless variety of opinions about the right way of serving and approching the Deity and were universally engaged in multiplied Mediums and Methods of worship no way prescribed by any Natural Law connate with Mens beings or any general uniform issues of right Reason nor indeed were they under any direction at all either for their Choise or their Use further then what their own fancies or best guesses or some Enthusiastick Imposters could suggest to them which plainly declares there is not an ability in Nature sufficiently to guide Men in Divine worship so far as their own devotions do naturally Steer them And we that indeed have Revelation are instructed by that Revelation it self sufficiently to know the necessity there is of Revelation For we find that God by his revealed Laws does not only revive in general the whole of Natures Laws about worship and instruct us in the true Extent thereof which he does and much inlightens our natural Knowledge therein which we find was greatly defective even about Natural Duty and gives us a compleat view of our Natural Obligations
and so is utterly Impossible to be The one my reason tells me God because of his Infinite Perfection never will nor can do And the other it assures me cannot be done The Bible tells us of no one thing in the highest Supernatural Discoveries it makes to us but what is in it self very Possible to be Nor of any thing but what seems to our reason very agreeable to the Nature of God that it Should be and very fit for us to believe when we are told of God so that it is Secondly Never any Book made such a discovery to us of what is truely Natural and so farr Revived and Restored to the truth of themselves as this has done the Natural Laws of our own Beings All impartial Reason being Judge No Humane Wisdome ever did or ever could have given Mankind such a prospect of their Natural Duties toward God and toward Themselves as the Ten Commandements have done or composed such a Systeme of Law Natural or made such an exact Compendium of it None but God that made man at first and knew his Original could have so farr Discovered him to himself and retriv'd to his knowledg so much of his Primitive State and discovered to him What by the judgment of his own Breast he still Ought to be The whole of the Scripture-Religion both as it relates to God and his worship and our performance of Relative duties to each other carries in it the Highest Perfection attainable by our Natural Light And wherein it exceeds it is the most Suitable to it and the most justified by it of any Religion the world has been ever yet possessed of What pure and admirable discoveries of Gods Excellent Nature does it afford us without the least Savour of what is Earthly and from Below So corresponding to a Rational Idea of him that nothing can be more Religion and Worship without the least taint of Idolatry or Superstition Rules of Holy living without the least mixture of Impurity Such Directions for our Behaviour towards God and Man as every mans own Breast Subscribes to as Just Holy and Good Indeed 't is a Religion that so perfects Nature and whatever it reveals that is above nature 't is so graffed upon the Stock of our Natural knowledg and in such a suitable way Super-added to it and so Incorporates with it as is admitable to conceive and could be the effect of nothing but an Infinite Wisdome even of God himself who perfectly knew what was in Man and what would be Best for him and most Agreeable to him What just cause is there to Reject and Disclaim all other Religions upon this single account 'T is impossible That should be a Law Divine and Supernatural that proves any way Destructive to what is truely Natural What Unworthy Vnreasonable and Unnatural conceptions of God and his Being does the Heathen Religion stand justly charged withall How contrary was it to the true dictates of Nature and the natural shame inherent in every mans being to use such horrible Obscene and Lascivious Ceremonies as they did in the worship of some of their Gods How unnatural and Inhumane was it to Murther each other and shed the blood of Mankind as they did in their Sacrifices How may Vices that Nature condemns grew up under the shadow of their Religion and no way reproved yea some allowed and justified by it The Bible spares not one Goes to the utmost extent of all natural Evil and all natural Good The Alchoran also falls slat before the Bible upon this account 'T is so far from perfecting our natural light or corresponding with it that in some things it directly overthrows it And is every where stuft with such absurd ridiculous and incredible sopperies as do inevitably expose it to the just scorn and contempt of all unprejudiced Reason Fourthly We must needs suppose that a Revelation from God a Law Supernatural to which an universal obedience is required should have such a Conveyance to us as is suitable to its Author and that great concern mankind have in it that is 'T were a most irrational admission that God should reveal himself to the world and not do it in such a way as should carry in it Evidence sufficient to every rational enquiry We ought to believe that when God requires our obedience to Laws as Divine he should afford us means sufficient to know that they are so such as may satisfie all reasonable doubts and shame all wilfull Opposition 'T were to impeach the Wisdom Justice and Goodness of God to think otherwise Without this neither Gods end nor mans end can be attained Not Gods end for he can never with Justice proceed to reward or punish men by a Law revea'ed unless they have notice sufficient that it is so Not mans end for 't is impossible to be any way advantaged by a Revelation as such unless I be first assured that it is such How general soever pretences to Revelation have been and mens belief of those pretences yet no pretence to Revelation but the Bible alone has in any Age been accompanied with such a rational justification as we ought to expect a Divine Revelation should be to ascertain us that it is so And of this the fact is sufficiently evident All pretensions that way have been either recommended to the world upon the credit of mens bare words or else have obtained a reception by means visibly capable of delusion and imposture What reasonable assurance had the Heathen world of a Divinity in their Oracles which yet made the most probable pretension of any thing amongst them to it 'T is acknowledged by all that lived in those times That the responses of those Oracles were given by persons visible and seen when they did it In some of them by young Virgins which they supposed them to receive in a strange Obscene way not fit to be mentioned and in others of them by a man whom they called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that spake under the Oracle out of the Caverns of the Earth by the Vapours of which they supposed him Inspired and to become an Enthusiast That those Oracles for the most part uttered things doubtful and un-intelligible is evident and sometimes contrary to Truth as we may see plainly set down in Thucidides and other Authors of their own and which never came to pass one Instance of which was singly sufficient to confute their Divinity No Almanack maker writes with less certainty of the Weather then they generally pronounced about future events And the best excuse their greatest Adorers made then for them was That those Daemons that inspired the predictions did not themselves know things future otherwise then by their inspection of the Stars and so could collect from thence but uncertain conjectures Plutarch after all the pains he has taken to give the world a right account of the first rise of those Oracles and the cause of their after ceasing and spent much time in discoursing
us as appear evidently sitted and suited to supply all the defects of our natural Knowledge and after an admirable manner harmonize with the rational Nature in which things from Above are so interwoven with things below and every way so proportioned to them as that Truths Supernatural which we cannot fully comprehend appear justified to us by Truths natural that we are perfectly judges of and between both there appears a wonderful concord If we find a Book written in God's own Name commanding the World upon that single account to bow before it and in a way peculiarly proper to his own Soveraignty and Greatness with a positive claim to his immediate Authority and the truth of this claim established to the World by a multitude of the greatest and most eminent Miracles at several times openly wrought that ever were extant and the Fact of which was never by any deny'd A Book the Doctrine whereof by the power and reputation of those Miracles it s own innate Worth and the Divine Assistance that accompanyed it without the least humane help nay against all Humane-Opposition all earthly Policy and Force withstanding it has gain'd so great an acceptance as we see â—his to have done subdued in its first enâ—rance that great Empire of Rome subâ—erted the whole Judaical Fabrick and â—as made both Heathenism and Judaism â—inaly fall before it If we find a Book that gives us the â—est and most satisfying account of the â—hole affair of this World and all the Vicissitudes of it and of God's providential Rule and Dispose of all Humane Affairs A Book in which the whole business of the World is fully and strangely epitomized and we see nothing happen or come to pass contradictive of but according to what is there written and of which we find there some general notice If we find a Book the Doctrine whereof totally subverts the whole interest of the Devil and all the corrupt interests of Men in a way far superior to what ever was or can rationally be supposed ever could be attempted in that kind by the wisest and best of men and introduces much nobler and elevated Notions oâ— Piety and Vertâ—e than the World werâ— any other way ever possessed of If we find a Book that has plainly anâ— directly foretold most of the great thing that have come to pass in all Ages thaâ— has many hundreds of years beforâ— some of them happened pronounced with an absolute prophetick certainty about thâ—m and has never been found tâ— mistake in a tittle though it has somâ—times descended so to Particulars as 〈◊〉 name even the Persons of men long before they were born cannot once be impeached for giving a wrong Divination about the least Circumstance relating either to Persons or Things If we find a Book that has been signally preserved from the greatest rage of many powerful Adversaries and from the most Violent and Potent Attempts for its total Suppression and Ruine of such who were in highest Authority and furnished with greatest advantages to effect it A Book that has scap'd all sorts of Contrivance against it and safely descended through the Channel of so many Ages and been to this day providentially secured and unmaimed and intirely delivered over to us If we find a Book that evidently in the judgment of all right Reason improves Mankind to the highest pitch in all worthy and excellent Attainments boâ—h Moral and Divine Brings the World into the best posture 't is capable of Makes men Wiser Better and Happier than they ever were or could themselves find out how to be If we find a Book that by means utterly unthought of and far out of all humane-reach and yet of a most holy and excellent Nature sweetly and safely even to our greatest admiration reconciles us to God Fills up that vast Gulph that was between Heaven and Earth and makes way for a free and perpetual intercourse between God and Man Exposes to the view of the World thereby a Beatitude infinitely transcending whatever the Wisdom of Man could contrive or invent which the rational Soul the more it considers still the more it adores and admires and in which to the utmost 't is delighted and satisfied In short If we find a Book that has all those things if we respect both the Matter of it and the Manner of its conveyance to us appurtenant to it that we can rationally expect should accompany a Revelation from Heaven and such a supernatural Law by which we may suppose God would enlighten and rule the World A Book that every way answers all the great ends of Revelation proposeth most suitable Remedies to all our natural Defects leaves not a Disease in Humane Nature uncured nor a Breach that mans fall hath occasioned un-made up If there be not one thing we can imagine God should reveal to us in order to our present or future Welfare about things visible or invisible about This World or the Next that we are not here told of If we have here such discoveries made of things supernatural and unseen as have evidently set bounds to the restless and inquisitive minds of Men about those Matters And such as we cannot reasonably judge could be the product of any humane thoughts nor of any thing lesse than the infinite and boundless Wisdom and Knowledge of GOD himself If we have found such a Book If the Bible be thus qualified What can be otherwise judged upon such Premises but that this Book is indeed that sacred Instrument wherein God has recorded his Sovereign Pleasure This is in truth that Revelation from Heaven the World in all Ages have so much expected and to which so many false pretensions have in all Ages been made Here is indeed contained that System of Laws supernatural by the publication whereof God has abounded in all the effects of his Bounty and even out-done the furthest Conceptions the World has at any time had of his Goodness How strangely unreasonable were it to derive such a Book from the highest degree of imposture How heterodox is it to all good sense to suppose that the worst and most pernitious delusion by which the World has been ever abused which we must needs reckon this Book to be if it be not from God should have in point of time the precedency of all true Religion and be of an antienter date than any divine Truth the World can pretend to Who that believes the supream Existence of God can imagine that the best documents in the judgment of all unprejudiced reason that ever mankind were disciplin'd by should have the Devil or the vilest of men for their Authors That such should contrive and publish a Doctrine that brings men to the best method of living That such should reduce mankind to the happyest and best condition and out do the Divine goodness in that particular Who can imagine that the Devil or any ill men in promoting the highest Treason against God counterfeting his Name and Authority and
Political is derived from him as the Head of it and He himself is the Supreme Magistrate over the whole and can no otherwise stand related to the World We can no other way rightly conceive of Gods Power and Authority but as Magistratical nor look upon him in any other notion then as our chief and supreme Ruler and so are to take no measure of His proceedings from the actings of private persons but are to suppose God so to deal with the World as the supreme dispenser of Justice and placed in the highest Seat of Magistratical Authority And if this be true as most demonstrably 't is so how contrary is Epicurus his Doctrine to a right apprehension of God! and how inconsistent with it How inseperably is providence annexed to all true Conceptions of him And what a poor account does Epicurus give us of God without it What a Magistrate does he render the most supreme Magistrate One that neither relieves the oppressed punishes the guilty rewards the well-doer nor indeed takes any notice of what his Subjects either do or say 'T is in short impossible to separate supreme Magistracy from God His being supposeth it 't is evidently proved virtually and essentially to belong to him from an induction of all particulars relative to it And if so 't is extreamly unreasonable not to suppose from his hand the most compleat and perfect exercise of all Magistratical Authority that we are any way able to conceive of Fourthly To suppose that God declines the exercise of all Empire and Rule over the world is to suppose him to decline the most essential property of his own being and the noblest exercise of any being First the most essential property of his own being 'T is as essential to God to Rule as to Be. Gods existence we say is a necessary existence He cannot but be which implies a necessary superiority That which cannot but be cannot but be above all For whatever has a power superior to it has a possibility not to be And that which cannot but be above all cannot but Rule over all Because the very being of superiority lies in the exercise of Dominion and cannot be upheld without it To fancy the existence of infinite Power without exercise is to frame an Idol in in our own imaginations and to fancy what is in it self impossible to be Infinite Power to Rule implies infinite Actual Rule We can never separate between infinite Power and infinite Dominion The being of the one necessarily implies the other Whatever is in God is actually in him God has not only virtually an infinite power but an infinite power in Act. Infinite power must needs be in continual Act and cannot be otherwise because Infinite And therefore all things must needs be in subjection to it VVe are so to conceive of all Gods Attributes as things not only in Potentia but in Facto esse Gods infinite VVisdom is not onely an ability to be wise but an infinite Act and Exertion of wisdome So his infinite knowledg is not only an infinite capacity of knowing and ability to know but an infinite actual knowledge of all things excluding an ignorance of anything 'T were to annex imperfection to Gods Attributes to say they are not in exercise Power in its exercise implies Dominion 'T is from defect where 't is not so exerted And therefore from infinite Power in which there can be no defect must needs arise infinite Dominion 'T was a childish conceit of Epicurus to think that infinite Power could be set by and not be in continual operation or that any thing could move act or exist without a necessary subjection to infinite Power Should the world rule it self and be under no subjection Gods Power would cease to be what it can never but be which is infinite in its Supremacy Should any one thing be done in the VVorld and not come under the exercise of Gods supreme and Sovereign Rule his Power would cease to be Infinite because not actually above all VVhich it can never be unless it actually Rule over all Besides Were it a supposition capable of admission or such a thing as could pretend to a possibility that infinite power could be set by and exist without exercise who could embrace so gross an absurdity as to believe that God should thus determine with himself that the best use that could be made of infinite Power were to make no use at all of it And so having at first made the World by his wisdome and Power should leave it perfectly to its own Chanceable revolutions without any farther effect or communication of either Secondly We suppose God in declining the Rule of the World to decline the noblest exercise of any being VVe can think of nothing more excellent then Rule and Dominion to imploy the largest mind and dispense the compleatest virtues And is it reasonable to divest the highest Power of it To have Power and to use it for the good of others is that we most applaud amongst men Those best faculties we have by which we can only conceive of Gods excellent nature their Perfection lies in Communication He that Rules well does the best thing we can frame an idaea of And therefore the Rule of the VVorld is the most excellent thing we can ascribe to God Cicero in his 2 Book De Nat. Deor. speaks fully to this Nihil est says he praeclarius mundi administratione Deorum Igitur Consilio administratur mundus Nihil est praestantius Deo Ab eo igitur necesse est mundum regi Those of the best endowments we think the fittest for Empire And the more excellent any soul is the more inlarged and vigorous in action it is And shall we suppose God not to Rule in Heaven Shall we think him very vain that should tell us VVe then make the best Vse of all humane abilities when we least imploy them Because the great and natural end of all ability for action is action And yet shall we suppose that God layes by the exercise of all his Infinite attributes and wholly retires himself in Heaven Who is able without assaulting his own Reason to admit such conception of that excellent being we ascribe to God and father that upon him which would make up the Character of a very ill man But to render the absurdity of this Doctrine more evident to every impartial man let me ask the Epicureans this question If God doth not rule the World and that darling Axiome of Epicurus be true that Quod eternum beatumque sit nec habere ipsum negotii quidquam nec exhibere alteri How comes God to give Laws to the World to admit the one and still to affirm the other were ridiculous for they are inseperable Relatives All Laws necessarily relate to Rule and Dominion on the one hand and obedience and subjection on the other hand That God has planted a natural Law in every mans Being relating to his own Superiority and mans
the reach of all humane power can be no other but the Divine Being If we look downward we find the Sea and the Waters a standing Monument of Providence The Sea kept within Bounds and not suffered to exceed them restrained from the natural tendency of its own Being which 't is plain no humane power could effect Aristotle in his Book of Wonders owns himself a Convert to Providence upon the single consideration that the Land was not drowned in the Waters and the Earth overwhelmed with the Sea which without a Divine Power must needs be Strabo observes the same necessity of Providence from the position of the Waters which sayes he if you respect only their Quality and suppose them left to themselves must needs take place between the Earth and the Air when as now we behold them confined to one proper Chanel and interfused in the Earth so far as to make it more fruitful and useful nay we find the Water as Grotius observes in subserviency to the good of the whole against its own Nature sometimes moving upwards being so composed as to sustain it self in such motion by a continued Cohaesion of parts Wheresoever we cast our Eyes the whole of the World in all the parts of it does evidently own it self to the manage and product of a wise and excellent Providence all things moving towards particular Ends and all those particular Ends issuing themselves into one Common End To move to an End is the plain effect of an Intelligent Being And therefore when we see Creatures without intelligence still moving both to particular and general Ends 't is plain they are directed by some intelligence And we see Creatures Rational and that have Intelligence moving and acting to Ends superiour to their own intelligence and which themselves knew not of nor intended and yet their actings and motions towards them regular 't is plain they are conducted by a higher Intelligence And this in both cases can be no other but the highest Intelligence who at once comprehends all Ends and all Means tending to those Ends which is God himself 'T is likewise an irrefragable proof of Providence that many things have come to pass in this World that have been evidently supernatural and beyond all humane ability to effect which could never have been if God be so withdrawn from the World as to be no way an actor in it What will the Epicureans say to all the Miracles that have at any time been wrought and to such things as have come to pass beyond all product of Nature to deny the fact of such things and to say they have not been is at once to impeach all humane Testimony and to discard the credit of all History If we admit them we must needs confess they are the effect of Gods supreme power and the evident Works of his hands in a providential way and if so we shall soon dispatch with Epicurus and spoil his fictitious retirement of God in the Heavens and bring down the Divine Majesty to an open converse with Mankind and indeed undeniably establish both his care of and his supreme Rule over this whole World Two things there are upon which Epicurus at first Lucretius Pliny and all the Epicucureans since have chiefly justified their denial of Providence and Gods supreme Rule over the World First say they 't is a thing beneath the excellent Being of God for him to concern himself with the affairs of this inseriour world and to take notice of every little passage here below nor can he as Pliny sayes be supposed without great disorder to himself and being withdrawn from his own delight and content to perform the charge tam multiplicis tristis Ministerij Of so multiplicious and ungrateful a function Secondly say they the posture of things in this World is such good men often suffering and bad men prospering wickedness succeeding and Virtue miscarrying 't is so often bene malis male bonis that we cannot believe this World to be governed from above and that all the affairs of it should be under the conduct of such perfect and excellent attributes as those we ascribe to God The first is soon answered 'T is an absurd diminution of infiniteness and inconsistent with it to limit or distinguish its comprehension God hath an infinite Comprehension and cannot but know all things together or else his Knowledge were not infinite Nor can there be any distinction made in the manner of his comprehension great things and small things are all alike and upon even terms as to his comprehension and Knowledge of them Nothing can be above him or below him in any such respect 'T is foolish to say any thing is too mean for God to take Cognizance of because an universal Cognizance of all things past present and to come is included and necessarily implied in the infinity of his Knowledge So far the mistake is plain and visible nothing can possibly happen of which we can say God takes no notice But supposing all things that come to pass are known to him yet say the Epicureans 't is not fit to conceive he any way concerns himself about them or that he will so far trouble or discompose himself as to undertake the Rule and Regulation of them which lazy slothful dream of Epicurus above all his other Hypotheses has exposed him to the just contempt of all sober and intelligent men 't is so gross and unworthy a conception of the supreme Being and so great an indignity offered unto him and most evidently contrary to all those notious that result from the true exercise of our Reasons about him and that will easily appear several ways First I acknowledge there are some things God cannot do God cannot deny himself nor do any thing against the Nature of his own Being That results from the perfection of his Being and is included in the necessity of it But to say that whatsoever God can do that is can do as being no way contrary to his Being to do and so has a possibility he may do I speak not of the bare Imaginary supposition of what God can do in respect of his unlimited power for so we may conceive he may destroy the World in a Moment but his power cannot be actually so exerted that 's but a vain santasm unless it be correspondent to his Justice his Mercy and his other excellent attributes but to say whatever God can do in such a sense that is whatever is not inconsistent with his Being to do and so may be done by him he cannot do without trouble to himself and disorder to his own excellent Nature is to deny the essentiality of his Being The inseperable and essential property of Gods Being is perfection Now if he cannot perfectly act whatever he can act he is not essentially perfect but has a possibility of imperfection annexed to his Being To say God could govern this World if he pleased 't were no way contradictory to his
wise people laughed at those Mysteries Never any man scorn'd any thing more than Caesar himself did his own gods and as Tertullian observes pleased himself often in that he was able to make his gods feel the power of his anger What a Childish folly 't was then to believe that a Roman Consul lost his whole Army because he slighted the feeding of some young Chickens or that Marcus Crassus was therefore slain by the Parthians because he despised some fopperies of Atteius If we look off from their publick Religion and the general practice of their Divinity and take a view of what the Wisest and Best thought what a poor product were all their Notions compared with the Bible What a Midnight were men in in respect of Religion in that clear Sunshine of Humane Knowledge Socrates who saw the furthest of any man in the Age wherein he lived into the vanity of the Heathen Theology and died for a pretended Contempt of it for the Charge that Melius one of his Accusers brought against him at Athens as Laertius sayes was Jura violat Socrates quos ex majorum instituto suscepit Civitas Deos esse negans alia vero nova Demonia inducens The first Philosophical Martyr that we read of has yet left but little better Divinity behind him Nor can I perceive he had any design or ability to reform the World that way for he Answers his Charge by a flat denial as appears by his Apology in Plato and his whole carriage sufficiently assures us 't was out of choyce and not out of fear that he did so Sometimes also before he advised others to content themselves with the Religion of the Countrey they lived in And we find likewise in Plato how uncertain and doubtful he was about that great point of the Soul's Immortality and a future state of Men after this life and could determine nothing with himself positively about it though he seems to incline that way and to think it the more probable opinion that the Soul is Immortal Much in the same way that Cicero speaks of it in his Tusculane Questions who gives it but a probability And as Plato does in his Phaed who sayes in the Conclusion of his discourse that he is not certain about it nor will not be confident of it 'T was doubtless a high degree of uncertainty in his thoughts about those matters that made him say He knew not whether 't were better to dye or to live and that 't was a foolish thing to be troubled about that of which we have no certain Knowâ—edge whether it be to be desired or feared And when he came near to his end he expressed great contentment in the hopes of being with Hercules and Palamedes in the next World but still qualified those Hopes with this doubtfull Parenthesis In case the Soul be not extinguished with the Body He chose indeed to be rather a good Moralist and to deal in those Notions wherein he found some certainty then to attempt much in the speculative part of Divinity being wholly unable to frame any satisfactory Notions to himself about the Being of God and Divine Worship He often plainly declares that of the Nature of God and the business of another World he was wholly ignorant and many of the wisest Philosophers acknowledged as much and thought those things utterly beyond the reach of all Humane Knowledge all Notions about them to be full of uncertainty and therefore chose to submit to the Vulgar Sentiments rather then perplex themselves with doubtful and unsatisfying Speculations and run the hazard of contradicting the publick Religion of those Countreys where they lived Plato the famous Divine Philosopher who exceeded all the Graecian Philosophers as much in the Speculative part of Religion as Socrates did in the Practick though there was more true Divinity uttered by him then by any of the Philosophers where he first had it is not hard to determine yet attended with marvellous vanities and intollerable Errours ' T is not easie to forbear smiling in reading over the account he gives of the Creation of the World the matter of which he makes to be Eternal the fabulous conceits he has about that and many other things of that Nature 't would tire out any ordinary patience to read A great promoter he was of that gross Idolatry of Damon-Worship for he sayes That when men die their Souls become Daemons and if their merits be good they are Lares if Evil Lemures if different Manes Of which St. Austin gives a large account De Civ Dei lib. 9. Ch. 11. Though he speak much of one God yet himself then as all the Platonists since held that many gods are to be Worshiped and in his Timaeus he calls Saturn Ops Juno and others Gods and sayes the Daemons and Heroe's are to be Sacrificed to and the good Estate of the City commended to them Cicero observes likewise out of his Timaeus that he spake with great obscurity and uncertainty about this one God Sometimes calling him an Eternal Mind And sometimes calling the Sun Moon and Stars all parts of the World the Souls of men and whatever the Heathens worshipped Gods And at last concludes that the whole of his Principles per se sunt falsa sibi invicem repugnantia Are in themselves false and self contradictious Aristotle that great Luminary of the Rational World a man of a most sagacious wit who travelled with such unparallel'd success through all the Theorems of Nature and all parts of Humane Knowledge what Mushrom-Divinity has he left behind him With what obscurity uncertainty and confusion with himself has he spoke of those two great fundamentals of all Religion the Being of God and the Immortality of the Soul to such a degree that many of his Disciples since have avowed that he denied the latter If out of Aristotles Books we should but extract a Model of his Religion it might be for a Monument of wonder that such a Giant in all Natural Knowleage should die such a Child in Divinity Cicero who carried the Top-Sail of Learning in the Age wherein he lived to whom the elder Pliny gave this Testimony That he only had a Wit equal to the greatness of the Roman Empire why did not he compose a right Systeme of Divinity and leave a good account of those things to posterity behind him from whom might we with more Reason have expected it he designing the Nature of the Gods and Divinity for his Subject In the beginning of his Book he tells us with what unequal Sentiments men had debated those matters Some of the Philosophers doubted whether there were any Gods as Protagoras Some possitively affirmed there were none as Diagoras and Theodorus Cyrenaicus â—â—â—i vero Deos esse dixerunt tanta sunt in varietate ac dissentione constituti ut corum molestum sit annumerare Sententias Nam de siguris Deorum de locis atque sedibus Actione vitae multadicuntur Deque
Methods by which Mankind came since to be saved things beyond all natural kenn and which only served to reproch the wisest thoughts and to tell men how little they could discover of what they were most concerned to know Moses having told us more in two Pages then the whole World ever discovered by the utmost of all Humane search Nor has the world any way improved it self in this kind of Sience to this day However men by experience and industry have meliorated the condition of Humane Affairs in other things whatever advance they have made in Natural Theories or in any Mechanick contrivance whatever Rust of Errour or Ignorance that stuck to former Ages may be worne off by an improvement of Natural Speculation in this yet where the Scriptures are either not Known or Rejected they are at the same Loss in point of Divinity they are as Ignorant of the True God as ever And the Result of all Natural Theology without the help of some Revelation has been and still is no other then this That while men have been most busily contemplating the nature of an Infinite Being and contriving Ways to gain Acceptance with him they have Lost themselves in the Crowd of their own vain Imaginations Secondly Such have been the Principles and Practices of all Nations in all ages that it evidently appears The world men themselves have generally found and acknowledged a Necessity of Revelation and out of an experimental sense of their own Impotency without it have still lived in expectation of somewhat Supernatural to be Revealed from Above Mankind since the Fall have been still listening after some further discovery of God then what the Work of his hands does afford them and some more perspicuous Notices of his pleasure then what their own Natural Abilities could dictate to them as that which Gods goodness and his own excellent Nature seemed to promise to the World and mans natural Tendency to some Supernatural happiness as the great end of his being continually call'd for The Genius of the World has been so suited to the notion of Revelation and mens thoughts have been so constantly taken up with an Expectancy of some Divine Instruction that they have been still in danger to fall into all the extreams of deluding Enthusiasme Not only their Religion but whatever else they thought well off they were ready to Father it still upon Revelation Scarce was there a Mechanick Invention but they ascribed it to a Discovery made by the Gods Pythagoras when he had found out an excellent Demonstration in Geometry sacrificed a hundred Oxen in gratitude to the Gods who had favoured him with such a Discovery Whatever was in it self difficult or Excellent they imputed the Accomplishment of it to a Supernatural Power Homer the great Oracle of the Heathen Divinity not only ascribes to the gods the Invention of all abstruse matters and all the Heroical motions of the mind but referrs our Ordinary Cogitations to Divine Impulses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Talis nempe mens est Terram incolentium hominum Qualem in dies indit pater hominumque Deumque And his Book is filled throughout with Enthusiastick Advertisements directed to Men from the Gods Cicero in the end of his 2. Book De Nat. Deor. is large in his expression this way Nec unquam Magnus vir sine aliquo Afflatu Divino Never was there any great Man sayes he without some Inspiration Not only were the Poets who seem to be the Divines of the Pagans and the Priests of their Mysteries all Inspired Men but not an eminent Physician or a Souldier was there among them nor a Man any way excellent but they derived his Abilities from some Supernatural Gift and thought his Qualities from Above Socrates that excellent person often says That virtue and Religion are not things to be learnt as Arts and Sciences are but to be had by inspiration being Divine and Heavenly gifts He avowed himself raised up by God to Philosophize and by his Precepts to Reforme the Athenian manners And when condemned to dye and sentenced to the Poisonous Cup Resolutely protested Though the Prison-dores should be opened to him with an injunction never more to Philosophize he would wholly refuse his Liberty upon those Termes and would chose to obey God rather then Men. We read not of an eminent Legislator in a Commonwealth but pretended he received his Laws from the gods Solon's Laws were said to come from Minerva Lycurgus derived his Laws from Jupiter And much more was their Religion and the Rites thereof still fathered upon some Deitie or other and handed down to the world with a Supernatural Stamp Numa Pompilius the first founder of the Romane Ceremonies declared he received them from the Goddess Egeria No Religion in any Nation but has made some pretence to Revelation That absurd Imposter Mahomet was wise enough to father his Medley Divinity and all the confused trash of his Alchoran upon Revelation Nothing else could have cheated so many into a belief of such a Religion but that they were first perswaded it came from Above and that Mahomet had it Revealed to him from Heaven The Heathen world were in Truth without any Revelation in Religious affairs that is They had no Divine Laws given them from Heaven to direct their Religious obedience Whether it pleased God to Reveal any particular matters at any time to any of them I dispute not But He gave his Statutes his Divine Laws to Israel and he did not deal so wit◠any Nation besides And yet nothing more general then the expectation of it and nothing more common then Pretensions to it This seems to have been a Catholick Maxime that the true knowledge of the Deity and the right way of serving him must be revealed from Above All the Nations of the Earth seem to have concenter'd in this belief that Divine Revelation and a Supernatural intercourse between God and Man was necessary for the present and future good of Mankind 'T is well expressed by the Learned Camero Omnium Gentium etiam Barbararum consensu receptum est ut homini bene sit praeter eam Rationem quam nimis magnifico superbo Titulo vitae Ducem vocant requiri Coelestem quandam Sapientiam inde Nata est Religio Ritus Cerimoniae quae sola Sanctitate se commendant Praelect de Verb. Dei 'T is a thing says he agreed to by the consent of all Nations yea the most Barbarous that in order to mans well being there should be a heavenly Wisdome to direct him besides the guide of his own Reason and from thence comes Religion c. 'T was from this General apprehension that the World came to be so often and so easily imposed upon by deluding pretensions to inspiration and the many gross Cheats of Enthusiasme the greatest Impostors still setting up for Enthusiasts 'T was upon this account that the Heathen parts of the World were so enslaved to their Oracles
and did so greedily embrace whatever they thought came from above The truth is there is in every man not besotted with sensuality and brutishly degenerated an earnest thirst after the knowledg of God and Supernatural things And there is as clear a Conviction upon every Reasonable man that without some further discovery from God himself then what this World and our own contemplations thereupon will afford us no satisfying account of those things can be attained Thirdly Man is a Creature designed by his own Faculties for a Converse with the Diety and by Natural Obligation Tends to an Intercourse with God To serve him acceptably and to pay the Homage due from us in such away as we may be fully ascertained is pleasing to him and will be rewarded by him is absolutely necessary to all humane welfare That is The greatest concern we have in this world is to be fully instructed about Divine Worship And this seems no way attainable without some Revelation That God is and that he is to be Served my Reason will tell me But What he is and after what Manner he Exists the knowledge whereof is indispensibly necessary in all our Approches to him as that without which we shall be sure to Debase his Excellency and to represent to our selves some vain Idea's and Fantasmes of our own imagination I must be taught from above And for the manner how he is to be served and what will be acceptable to him therein I must look upward and expect a full and compleat direction from thence Mankind seem una voce to have concenter'd in this as a thing most sit yea necessary that God should from Heaven reveal to us the way of his own Worship and Teach us the Methods of our Converse with Him Where can we find a Religion in any Nation not founded upon some Pretences to Revelation and established upon this Admission 'T were indeed a most irrational thing and a great Indignity offered to the Supreme Majesty to make Men their own Judges in that case and to suppose it left to the Arbitrary Determinations of Humane Discretion How God should be worshipped The consideration of the Wisdome and Sovereignty of God and our own Dependance upon him is singly sufficient to evince this Truth that we ought to be under a Law and a Stated Rule for the Manner of our Serving of him Without which we can never intitle the best of our Services to Obedience or upon any good Grounds be secured of Acceptance Not ought we to judge that any Worship ever found favour with God that had not the stamp of his own Command and was not by himself some way or other Appointed Though 't is fit to believe that God was well pleased with the Moral goodness of the Heathen world and any real conformity there was amongst them to that Natural Diâ—inity that is originally annexed to every mans Being and greatly displeased with the contrary and rewarded and punished them upon their Good and Ill behaviour in those things yet t is not to be doubted but that the whole of their own contrived Worship with all the Rites and Ceremonies of it was a thing to God most Odious and Detestable And of this we are well assured not only from the Reason of the thing considered in it self but from a very Authentick Determination that tells us The whole of that Worship was a Service performed to Devils Nor could any the best Intentions that any men ever yet had since the world began sufficiently excuse for Will-worship and Idolatry There are but two ways by which any worship can be aâ—pointed by God Either by a Law Natural given to us in our first Constitution or by some Revealed Laws since The Foundation of all Worship must be either in Nature or Institution The Point then to be proved will be this That God has not by any Natural Laws given to Mankind a sufficient direction about his Worship and that Intercourse between Himself and the World that respecting either his own Honour or mans Happiness is necessary to be maintained and all mankind naturally tend to But has left us to expect it in a Supernatural way That God by a Law Natural binds us to acknowledg his Being and has given us sufficient notices of it in General and binds us to acknowledg that there is an Honour and Worship due to his Being and has given us some General Innate directions about the performance of it I grant And has also obliged us to Live according to the Dictates of our Rational Nature which shews to us Good and Evil by that very Nature which becomes Obligatory to it self In these things our own Reason is our Law and according to that Law men without Revelation are Rewarded and Punished And so I doubt not but all the Heathen Nations were But the Laws of Nature the dictates of the best Reason are not intrusted with such a plenary direction about Worship as 't is necessary for us to have and we all tend to Nor can any man be a sufficient Law to himself in those things And that may be thus made to appear All Worship must either be confined to Words Thoughts and Bodily Gestures and simply Terminated there or else it must be extended to some further expressions of Service by an Appropriation of some other Mediums unto it First No part of the World have ever yet thought it a thing Reasonable that God should be no otherwise served then by Thoughts Gestures and Words Both the Principles and Practices of all Nations have in all times declared the contrary Nor has any Worship in any Place been established or such a constitution framed as that we call Religion without some other expressions of service and some other External Mediums appropriated to it And this seems to have arisen from two things First Men have never supposed their Words or their Thoughts or their Gestures to be alone a sufficient expression of that Homage they are naturally sensible they owe to the Greatness and Bounty of God for their own Beings and the Donation of this world which he has visibly bestowed upon Man in making the Whole in a subserviency to Him and giving him the plenary and quiet possession of it But they still thought themselves bound to a further expression of Gratitude and Subjection Secondly Mankind in every Age have applied to God under a sense of Sin and of Guilt contracted by it and upon that account have still adjudged it as necessary to make some further Offering to God for their sins and by some other Mediums then bare Thoughts and naked Expressions to apply to Him about them No man ever yet imagined such a service a sufficient Compensation for Sin but have still attempted a further Satisfaction to the Justice above and by some other ways have indeavoured to appease Divine Anger Now the Reason of the world does not issue it self into any positive Certainty about such things as it does about things
has and in its own Antiquity answering that antiquity we may justly expect to accompany Gods First Revelations the Bible I say upon this account has a singular evidence given in to its Credibility and its antiquity does strongly affirm its Divine Authority Secondly The Antiquity of the Bible does point us to its Divinity because 't is not reasonable to believe that the First Writen account the world had of Religion should be a Cheat that the First eminent Record of Religion should be a Lye and not only a Lye but the Worst of Lies and the most Pernicious and Destructive falshood for so it must needs be to impose a Law upon the world in Gods name without his Authority that ever was published amongst mankind 'T is not in the judgment of right Reason consisting with the Wisdom and Goodness of God to suffer the world to be Originally Cheated in point of Religion to suffer a publick open Counterfeit of his Name and Authority to the highest degree First to possess the world and take the Precedence of all truth to permit the Devil to publish a Systeme of Lies and erect a Monument of Falshood Before there was any written Record of Truth We must needs suppose Gods care of Men and the concern's of his own honour to engage him to the contrary and that God should First establish his own Truth to which mankind might still have a recourse and by which as a Standard all Delusions and False Pretensions might be Tried 'T were as one says well very absurd to think God should permit the Devil to set up a Chappel before he had built a Church If the Bible were originally composed by Impostors and be not a Divine Book 't will then undeniably follow that the most Primitive and Ancient account we have of Religion is connterfeit And that in the Earliest notices we have of God of the worlds Original Mans fall and the way of his Recovery for we have none so early as what the Bible gives us of any of these and of some of them no other the world is Deceived and Abused and that God suffer'd the Devil in the first place and before any thing was publiquely extant from him to contradict it in his name and with pretence of his Authority to abuse and deceive Mankind with a false and delusive account of all those things they are most concern'd to know and upon the right Knowledge of which their present and future happyness does unavoidably depend This very one consideration will prevail much upon every impartial judgment Who can believe the first Religion should be the worst when True Religion must needs be as old as the World And the Earliest notions of God the falsest when we must needs think it reasonable that God should reveal himself to the World from the beginning Or that the first book we sind writ should contain the Highest imposture in point of Religion and more dishonour God and abuse the World then any or all the Books written since 'T is a thing beyond all compass of credit That God should suffer false informations to be given in his own Name of himself and his own Revelations from the first beginning of the World for about 4043 years for about so long a time it was from that first intercourse between God and Man the Scripture gives us Historically an account of till the last Revelation of St. John And that this account should begin with the first book that the world had and be gradually carried on into such a complete Systeme as now we see it is in a Written way by several hands in several Ages for a thousand and six hundred years together for about so long a time it was from Moses his first Writing to St. Johns Closing the Bible Nor is it supposable that the vilest falshood for such is the Bible if it be not from God a Religion whereby if it be false God would be more dishonoured and men more deluded then by any that ever was yet extant should have this to say in its justisication That 't is of all others the most Ancient and has been longest lasting amongst Mankind The consideration therefore of this Book in the Time of its conveyance the Antiquity of it in respect of the matter it contains and the Antiquity of it self as a Book written long before all others and of so early a Date in the World does with great Evidence point us to its Divine Original and very strongly tends to perswade us that God himself was the Author of it Secondly The way and manner of this Books conveyance to us The Method of Gods thus Recording his pleasure has been such that we shall find we have all those reasonable inducements and in some respects more to credit it upon which we receive any Humane Authors and acquiesce in them as true And all such farther Evidence as we can well expect to insure us of the truth of a Book that pretends to come from God and be Divint And this will appear to be so if we consider first the Instruments God imploied in the writing of it and such humane Circumstances as attended their doing it And Secondly The Divine witness God himself has in the most eminent way given to this Book in its conveyance to ascertain us of the truth of it and of the sincerity of those that wrote it First If we consider the Pen-men of this Book those Amanuenses God made use of for the writing of it and such Circumstances as attended their doing it How unlikely a thing is it that they either did or could abuse the world in this matter if we reflect upon these several things First the unblemished Credit and Reputation of these Writers Secondly the several Qualifications and Qualities of them Thirdly their Interests as moral and reasonable men Fourthly their Number and that great distance of Time in which many of them wrote one from another For the first Nothing we know does more credit Ancient Authors then the good Report of those Ages wherein they lived transferred to posterity Not one of those Holy Pen-men God imploied in writing the Bible was that ever we find upon any good grounds tainted in Reputation or convicted of any sort of Impostor in their own or future ages but were men of acknowledged Integrity and Sanctity in those times wherein they lived and very many of them gave the highest Testimony to their integrity in becoming Martyrs in justification of what themselves writ For the Second the various Qualities and Conditions of these Writers seems much to secure us against so vile a design as this book must needs be composed with if it be not from God Some of them were Kings and men of the greatest quality before they writ and not very likely to be guilty of so much baseness and meanness to carry on such a work and also men of deepest Learning and Knowledge Others of them many of the Prophets and most of the
same terms must I believe all things Divine and Supernatural unless God give me new faculties or some way extraordinarily assist me and make me somewhat more then I was Nor did any man that was not himself Divine and Infallible as the Apostles were and inspired infallibly to know that he was so ever receive any Revelation upon any higher terms then that we call Moral assurance and Humane credibility For first If I receive a Revelation upon Motives External and Foreign to it self such Motives are all granted to be in themselves of a Humane and fallible Nature If I receive it upon any Motives Internal any Testimony resulting from such Revelation it self to justifie its own Divinity to me yet I must of necessity without extraordinary inspiration judge of such Internal Testimony by Moral considerations and from Humane and Rational Argumentation with my self come at last to make a judgement about it Those that lived in the first times that saw the Miracles and heard the Doctrine delivered from the mouths of the Apostles themselves were yet without inspiration but upon Humane and fallible terms of judging and believing because those Mediums by which they did judge and believe were in their own Nature so for 't is not a thing in it self infallibly certain but that any man may be mistaken in the judgement he makes of a Miracle or in that faith whereby he embraces any Doctrine as Divine First This Objection as 't is urged by those of the Roman Church does not disturb us at all Indeed returns directly upon themselves nor does the remedy they provide any way cure that inconveniency which they suppose will otherwise accrue to Religion by it They tell us God has placed an unerring Judgement a faculty of making an infallible determination in the Church and from thence this Objection is Answered by that means we are perfectly at an end of all doubts about this matter for if the Church that is in it self Infallible tells us that this is the word of God and as it was at first delivered we come upon that account to a Divine and Infallible faith as built upon a Divine and Infallible Testimony and are infallibly assured about it But this kind of reasoning brings us but just where we were and is indeed in it self but a very mean sort of trifling for 't is to erect another infallibility to be assured of which there is ten times greater difficulty then in the former case The Scriptures we say are in themselves Divine and Infallible as coming from God The Question is about out way of coming to know this that they are so 'T is confessed by us it must be without inspiration by means in themselves Humane and Fallible and from thence results the strength of this Objection That supposing the Scriptures to be in themselves Divine yet we coming in a Humane way to the Knowledge that they are so and to solve all Objections against them our belief of them is still resolved into no more then that we call a Humane and Rational credibility And do we not come to the very same point in the other case The Church say they is Divinely inspired but how came I to know it To say by the Scriptures is in this case ridiculous If upon Providential and Probable Motives as themselves do acknowledge we are thereby pitched upon a fallible bottom still are we not upon the same Humane and Fallible means of judging 'T is not enough in this case to make the Pope or any else Infallible but before we can that way perfectly enervate this Objection we must make every man infallibly to know that they are so infallible Can any man more infallibly judge of the Churches infallibility then of the Bibles Are there not as many nay more questions that must necessarily be determined by Fallibly and Humanely judging in the one Case then in the other as first whether there actually be any such thing as an infallible Church extant or no Secondly if there be what Church it is that is so and Thirdly whether that Church be universally infallible or only in some things and under what sort of constitution it must be when it so infallibly acts so that admit the Churches infallibility in it self yet 't is utterly impossible that a man should believe any thing upon its infallible determination with any other then a Humane and Fallible Faith because 't is upon Humane and Fallible Motives upon which men primarily and previously come to an assurance of such infallibility And therefore whatsoever faith in the Roman Church is grounded upon the Churches infallible Judgement it must unavoidably be ultimately resolved into such Grounds as are in themselves of a Humane and fallible Nature So that the Roman infallibility as 't is in it self an absurd and fictitious pretension so were it admitted 't is to no purpose at all for that end for which 't is intended so far as 't is urged in this matter Secondly a rational Belief of the Bible and a rational Satisfaction about it founded in a Moral assurance is all we can have and all that in this case we ought to expect I demand of all such Objectors by what means they come to any Assurance in any Point of Religion To one of these three things they will be unavoidably forced Either to deny that there is any certainty at all in Religion and thereby to subvert all Religion To pretend to extraordinary Inspiration or else to acknowledge they come to it in a Moral way And indeed the founding our belief of Revelation upon Moral and Rational Assurance is so far from subverting the certainty of our Religion that the grand Fundamentals of all Religion must of necessity be originally established upon that Bottom and can be upon no other for we come to an Assurance of the Being of God and the future state of mens Souls upon no other Grounds then Moral and Rational conclusions from whence there can possibly result no more then a Moral Assurance Whoever attemps a Rational proof of the Being of God is obliged to disclaim all pretence to Infallibility in the way of his Proof because Infalibility is wholly relative to God himself The notion of it cannot exist without the admission of such a Being and therefore to talk of an Infalible way of proving his Being would be grosly absurd for 't were openly to beg the Question and take that for granted which we oblige our selves to prove So that whoever upon rational terms and the grounds of Moral Assurance believe the Bible to be sent us from God believes it upon the same Grounds upon which he must necessarily believe the first Principles of all Religion and believe it upon the highest terms God either requires or enables him without Inspiration to believe it upon such as ought sufficiently to fix him in his belief and upon such as if duely pursued will certainly produce all those excellent ends God intends by this Book This