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
Truths are visibly concenter'd in it Here is indeed a perfect Rendesvouz of all such Truths as were any where scattered and the World imperfectly has had and all such as they were in need to have All such natural Truths both of a Moral and Divine Nature as the Reason of the World does acknowledge and a full discovery of all such supernatural Truths as the minds of men naturally pursue and are inquisitive after Whatever is written in mans heart or upon the Works that God has made is here after an excellent manner Transscribed Justified and Improved And many defects of natural Knowledge supernaturally supplyed by a most suitable Revelation So that if we'lâ— judge of this Book either by what we certainly do know or by what we need and desire to know and expect should be revealed to us concerning God our selves and this whole World We shall find great reason to derive this Book from Above and subscribe to it as Divine For the First Never any Book contained such a System of natural Truth since the World began nor ever so far interpreted to us what truly is so And of this every mans own Reason becomes a proper and competent Judge Secondly Never any Book has told us so much nor gone so far to fix the restless minds of men about all such supernatural things as they are most inquisitive after 'T is here we have a certain account of God's Nature and the manner of his Existence how and when he created the World With what Designs and to what Ends he disposes and governs it Whence all our disorder first came How 't is to be cured Sin removed and Man reconciled to God! 'T is here we are certainly assured of the Resurrection of our Bodies the Immortality of our Souls and the condition of our future being for ever 'T is here we know all we can know and all we need to know both of this World and the next From no other but God himself could such a Beam of Light have broke forth so to enlighten the World Nor will it seem any way tolerable to an unprejudiced Judgment to father such a Book upon the highest principle of Falshood and derive it from the worst design that ever the World was defiled with Secondly I shall endeavour to shew that this Book so far as it relates to matters of Fact wherein an Etxernal justification is necessary is so far witnessed unto that there can be no room left for any reasonable doubt to be made about it First That there was such a man as Moses and such a People as the Jews in Egypt in those times which the Scripture mentions That Moses was their Leader and that he led them out of Egypt wrote their Story and gave Laws to them we have attested to us by the most Ancient Records of the Egyptians the Phenicians the Caldeans and the Grecians By Sanchomathon the famous Phenician Antiquary Berosus a Caldean Ptolomeus and Manetho Writers of the Egyptian-Chronicles The latter of whom Manetho speaks very particularly both of the Jews coming into Egypt and their departure thence And amongst the Grecian Writers by Artapanus Polemo Eupolemus Diodorus Siculus with many others as is at large proved by Josephus in his first Book against Appoin And one of these Artapanus is so large in his Relation of the Story of Moses that he sets down much of the business of his whole life and many of his Miracles his contesting with the Magicians before the King of Egypt his carrying the Jewâ— thorow the Red Sea and the drowning of the Egyptians who pursued them his dwelling with the Jews after in the Wilderness Who were there says he fed with a certain Snow that God rained from Heaven And at last describes particularly the very Person of Moses and sets down his Stature his Countenance and his Complexion Many of the same things are Recorded by Eupolemus Demetrius and others Numemus a Pythogorean-Philosopher whom we find quoted in Origens's fourth Book against Celsus tells us he had read the Life of Moses in many good Histories And relates many particulars of him as his being taken out of the Water his being bred up in the Court that he wrought many Miracles and that certain Magicians called Jannes and Jambres attempted to do the like No one Story amongst the Heathen of any Nation has been so witnessed unto by Writers Forraign to that Nation as the History of the Jews has been who from their greatest enemies have received a sufficient Testimony in point of Fact to the truth of Moses and what he wrote And indeed considering how great and eminent a Common-wealth was at first first established by the Writings of Moses and what a notorious and visible conâ—mâ—â—nce and succession there was of it ' Tiâ— Morally impossible that the business of Moses and his Writing in those times in matter of Fact should be fictitious and false Of so much of the History written by Moses as relates to things transacted before the Flood we cannot expect to find any exact and punctual account in a Traditional way Because of the great disadvantage of Oral Tradition especially by the confusion of Babel And yet 't is very evident that some considerable Remainders of the Ancient Story of the first World about the Creation the long lives of men in those first times and divers other things were preserved amongst the several Nations after the dispersion at Babel And we find many things relating thereto in Hermes Orpheus Homer Hesiond and the most Primitive Writers Of which Vossius Bochartus and many others have given a very satisfying account Concerning the Flood that there was such a Deluge nothing has been more universally credited And because the Tradition of it was That it befel in the prime time of the World and men were generally ignorant of the right account of times Therefore they applyed it still to that time they thought most ancient So the Thebans to the times of Ogyges and the Thessalians to the time of Deucalion which Floods of Ogyges and Deucalion were not two other distinct Floods as some have supposed but the same Flood of Noah applyed to those times and called by those Names which they thought of greatest Antiquity One sayes well What Nation has not believed it Even amongst the remotest Indians we find the Tradition of it has remained And what Author has not spoken of it Amongst the Egyptians Phenicians Grecians and Romans nothing more common And well may we suppose it should be so For Those who attempted the rearing of that Structure at Babel had probably a particular respect in what they did to the Flood that was past resolving to prevent the danger of another which sprang from their own Infidelity For God by his Promise to Noah had secured them against all fears of that kind and therefore had sufficient occasion wheresoever they came to preserve and continue the memory of it Berosus one of the most antient Writers after
of Imposture Nor is it any way reasonable to think That such who designed to Personate the Holy Ghost in writing a Book should chuse to compose it in such a prophetick way and so positively and plainly deliver themselves about so many future events Indeed about most of the great things that have come to pass amongst Man-kind For the first miscarriage in that kind a palpable mistake in any one particular must needs ruine the credit of the Whole No man can believe that God can lie or that an Infinite Knowledge can ever give a wrong Divination about what is to come He therefore that personates the Holy Ghost in such a foreknowledge of things must be sure never to miss or else resolve to take the shame of his own Imposture That in the Heathen-World there have been great pretentions to a fore-knowledge of things is not to be doubted But upon very different terms to what we find of that kind in the Bible First Many things pretended to therein in a prophetical way were such as might humanely be fore-seen and were only the regular Consequents of some natural and then extant though more remote and less visible Causes The first Discoverers of many secret workings in Nature might upon that account have soon arrived to a great prophetical Credit Thales who first amongst the Heathens foresaw an Eclipse of the Sun might easily have passed for an eminent Prophet before the knowledge of its natural cause grew common 2dly The Heathen Predictions were generally clothed with Expressions so enigmatical and so unintelligible as in truth render'd them Problems rather than Prophesies They seemed to be framed more to confound and amuse than to inform or satisfie and to be chiefly calculated to abuse the weaker part of the World who are apt to adore what they least understand and to suppose some extraordinary Matter to be wrapt up in all such clouded Expressions According to that of Lucretius Omnia enim stolidi magis admirantut amantque Inversis quae sub verbis latitantia cernunt Thirdly Their oraculous Divinations of future things were for the most part so delivered that they had divers Aspects carryed in them divers intricate Senses manifold Ambiguities And to secure their Credit were made capable of divers and those contrary Interpretations Which made the Heathens themselves call their great Oracle at Delphos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Thwarter or Crooked-speaker Fourthly Many of their plainest and most intelligible Predictions have been consequently found to be false and mistaken and others of them have had a direct tendency to a perfect subversion of their own Religion and to establish the truth of the Bible so 't was when the Oracle of Apollo which we find repeated by Porphiry declared that All other Godds were but Airy Spirits and that the God of the Hebrews was alone to be worshipped Which Direction had it been followed had put a final end to all their own Religion So 't was when the Sybills prophesied so fully of the coming of Christ which we find repeated out of their Works in the 4th Eglogue of Virgil. We deny not but that for some secret and to us unknown ends God who as the Heathens generally acknowledge could onely do it for they still ascribed it even Porphiry himself unto their Godds might and did sometimes reveal some future events which no other way could be known as he did the death of Saul and his Son at Endor to the Devil or to others which they might communicate But nothing that ever was extant in that kind can be any way put in ballance with that Prophetick Spirit we find in the Bible 'T is much in this case as 't was in the business of Miracles The Heathen-world were filled with Pretensions both wayes Some of them real and true but most generally fictitious and false And when true both the Miracles and the Prophesies from whence we derive a proof of the Bible have been so differently circumstanced and there is such a superior eminency and lustre in the one as renders the other no Objection at all in this case Here we have clear plain and positive predictions of most of the greatest things that have happened Predictions of such things as could have no dependance upon any natural cause then extant when they were made Such as must needs have their rise from the unbounded Will of God or the free choice of men A multitude of such Predictions with marvalous variety and great exactness and particularity concerning Persons and Things in all Ages and throughout a constant and un-erring Success without a Failure in a Tittle And the accomplishment and truth of the most of them recorded in the general Story of the World Who but God himself can we suppose could pronounce with such a positive certainty upon all future events Not to foretell once or a second time what shall be here or there but to speak with a positive prophetick determination about all the Great Things that were to happen and write of the future state of the World as men write Histories of Ages past And to have things alwayes rightly come to pass Never to mistake Constantly to give right Divination This is singly the property of God Nor can any other be reasonably though the Author of such a Prophetical Book but He that grasps all Ages with an Infinite Knowledge spans all Times and Seasons from whom nothing can be concealed and who with the saine Infinite Eye equally beholds all things past present and to come To conclude this Matter If the supposition of some Revelation in the general be reasonable If it be not fit to believe that God should wholly leave the World to the conduct of Nature which hath been largely made to appear If then we find a Book that is of all others the most Ancient contains the most Primitive notions of things and from which the earlyest Authors as from the great Fountain and Spring-head of all Divine Learning and Knowledge appear to have drawn out much of what they have writ That gives us the most punctual account of the Worlds Original With an exact Historical Narrative of all the great Successive Revolutions of it long before any other Writers were extant with such an adjustment of Times all along that without it no certain Knowledge can be attain'd in Chronology and the study of it would become more intricate than a Labyrinth If we find a Book written by several Men of several Qualities Conditions and Interests in several distant Ages with wonderful variety both for Matter and Manner promoting by an unparallel'd agreement with it self one and the same Design and that the most excellent in the judgment of every mans own Reason that can descend from Heaven or be embraced by men terminating all in the Glory of God and Man's utmost Happiness A Book leading us to the farthest confines of all natural Truths our own Reasons comprehend and approve and revealing such supernatural Truths to
any account of in story we shall find them lost in a strange mist of Ignorance about all points of Religion and we shall find Idolatry to be an Early as well as an Epidemical disease The worship of the Suâ— beginning probably not long after the Babylonian dispersion And the Caldaans who are upon good grounds supposed to be the first people that associated themselves into a national government after the stood hasted apace into all kind of Idolatry Bell or Belâ— for it is the same Name the next successoâ— of Nimred and first King of Babel after him being Canonized for a Daemon and Deifyed bâ— them after his death It has fill'd some Volumes with tedious and nauseous vanities the Narrative of the Divinity and Mythology oâ— those and other Nations the Names and Derivations of their Gods the most Rationaâ— of which were the Sun Moon and Stars witâ— all their wild and fabulous Theological inventions and fancies about the worship and servicâ— of them This we find by the most Ancienâ— writers of their own and have also a large account thereof in Diodorus Siculus the firsâ— that made a collection of general History and as Eusebius says of him was Vir apâ—â— Gracos clarissimus quippe qui Universam Historiam ad unum commodissime corpus collegit Nor was this ignorance and blindness wherewith the world in its more barbarous condition was benighted any way Cured by the increase of Knowledge and the propogation of humane Science But Idolatry grew up with Philosophy The Number of their gods increased with their Philosophers The more they knew the more gods they worshipped The more men improved toward the utmost strength of humane abilities the more visible was their impotency about Divine things and the more did principles of superstition and idolatry expatiate themselves amongst Mankind The Reason of which seems to be that being unable by their natural enquiries to arrive at a right knowledge of the true God and a Certainty in Divine things their contemplations did but multiply their mistakes and mens greatest abilities proved but a prolisick Nursery of Errours Yea the more devotion they had from a clearer knowledg of a deity in general and the farther discovery they made of a state of mankind after this life the more propense they were to an universal Apostacy to all the ills of Superstition and Idolatry by representing false Images of those things to themselves and dilating those Apprehensions into Multiplied Objects both of Fancy and Sence having no clear and fixed notions whereby to rescue themselves from their own fluctuations about those matters That we call Learning which is nothing else but acquired Knowledg resulting from the improvement of our rational faculties if we consider its rise 't is not to be doubted but that the several parts of it had their first preductions from the Nations the Graecians caled barbarous and were begun amongst them as the position of each Countrey and the inclination of each people variously led to them If we consider the progress learning hath taken it came from all other parts and first concenter'd in Graece removed thence to Rome and in the Declension of that Empire diffused it self into all these European parts of the World To make the Graecians the first Authors of it as some do and to derive it originally from them is to abuse the World with a false and fictitious pretention as if all the rational part of the World had been in a Lethargie but themselves and all mens intellectuals had lain in a Trance and been first awakened in Graece 'T is true that what lay scatter'd in several hands was their first eminently united and greatly improved by the singular abilities and industry of their Philosophers but to all parts of the known world were they indebted for the general grounds of their Knowledge Ab omnibus fere Barbaris Artes utilia ad vitam Documenta Graecos didicisse sayes Eusebius And he tells us after their Astronomy they had from the Chaldeans their Geometry from the Egyptians without doubt the most learned of all the barbarous Nations their Letters from the Phaenicians and the notion of one God from the Hebrews Clemens Alex. sayes Vita me deficiet si velim sigillatim Graecorum furta persequi Stromat Pag. 149. Two famous benefactors they had that all Story makes visible Cadmus who first brought them the inestimable Treasure of Letters and instructed them in the Phaenician Religion and Learning and Orpheus who instructed them in all the Egyptian Knowledg Some of themselves as Democritus Heraclitus Pythagoras and others who travelled much into remote parts acknowledg the great Forreign helps they received But especially Plato of whom Clemens Alex. sayes Clarum est autem semper inveniri Platonem magni facere barbaros utqui meminisset se Pythagoram plurima eaque praestantissima nobilissima dogmata didicisse apud Barbaros Stromat Lib. 1. Lactantius tell us that Pythagoras and after him Plato were so inquisitive after Truth that they travelled into Egypt and Persia and other Countreys to be informed of their Religion and Learning and wonders they never went to the Jews Which if you believe Strabo Pythagoras did for he tells us that Pythagoras went into Jewry and dwelt a long time at Mount Carmel Aristotle plainly owns the rise of Phylosophy to be forreign to Graece and sayes Persis Magos Babylonijs Assyriss Caldaos Indis Gymnosophistas Celtis seu Gallis Druidas qui Semnothei appellabantar ejus rei fuisse Authores Many of the Graecians we know boast much to the contrary Diogenes Laertius in the beginning of his Works seems more positive against it then any for for he tels us that such who think other Nations before the Graecians began to Philosophizâ— Per imprudentiam Graecorum recte facta inventaque Barbaris applicant ab ijs enim non solum Philosophia verum ipsum quoque humanum genus initio manavit Two things well joyned and of equal credibility the latter as probable as that fabulous tradition amongst the Egyptians That Mankind came first out of Egypt and were there originally produced by the River Nile And the former against the best and most ancient History and positively disproved by some of the chiefest Graecian Philosophers themselves Nor are the Reasons he gives after for it so considerable that they deserve either to be confuted or named Whatever could be done without supernatural help by the Wisdom and industry of Men seems to be attained to between that time wherein Learning flourished in Graece and the declension of the Roman Empire The most famous Men that the World hath had for all natural acquirements flourishing in that compass of time in Graece and in Rome And yet there needs no greater or other Evidence of mans defect without Revelation then the Records of those very times If we consider first how mean confused and uncertain an account they gave of the first cause of things and of the Origine of
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
to him and teaches us in a duemanner how to perform the Duties of Nature he does not only do this not only rectifie but far exceed all natural dictates of worship and induceth much into his service that receives its Virtue and worth singly from Institution and no otherwise Never since Man was first made has God left him singly to the Natural Laws of his own Being for the payment of that Homage he owes him Even to Adam in his Innocent state God thought fit to give a Law Supernatural A Law which for the matter of it had no foundation at all in Adams Nature further then that he was by his own nature generally obliged to do whatsoever God required of him Much more may we expect it since the fall the whole Method of our Recovery being Supernatural Nor is it fit to be thought that God who has made man not only under an Obligation to the performance of all moral goodness but has also implanted in his Being a desite of a peculiar and supernatural converse with him and given him such noble faculties so capable of it should not promulge some particular Laws by which he might receive a full and satisfying direction for the attainment of it or indeed that God should not direct men to the furthest approches they were able to make toward him and glorifie himself by appointing a way to the utmost Homage and Service their rational Beings are capable of Fourthly Some things most essentially necessary to the Being of all Religion and to the present and future good of Mankind are not discoverable but by Revelation And 't were a barbarous conception to think that God should leave the World wholly in the dark about those matters wherein their greatest conceruments lie I will not speak particularly of the Nature of God how indiscoverable it is without Revelation and yet how necessary to be known according to our capacity in order to all true worship Mens Ignorance in that particular having evidently been the root of all Polytheisme and Idolatry nor what marvelous dark absurd yea prophane and blasphemous conceptions the World had of it without Revelation Nor will I speak further of the Worlds Original how useful and necessary the Knowledge of it is to us to be truly informed how our selves and all things else came first to exist What marvellous instruction to our selves and what a natural Homage to God results from it which yet depends purely upon Revelation and the Knowledg of it is impossible to be attained without it Nor will I mention those uncertainties the World hath been and must without Revelation be still intangled with all about Death to know whether it be a Natural accident a thing originally appurtenant to Humane Nature and annexed to our Beings in their first constitution or hath been as a punishment or upon some other account introduced since and the many difficulties that will arise to our meditation either way nor will I much insist upon that uncertainty we must needs be in about a future Condition after this life unless particularly infoâ—med therein by Revelation Though my Reason will tell me and it may safely be collected from the unequal disposition of rewards and punishments here that there is some future estate of things beyond this World without a supposition of which I must either depose God from his Government or else admit him unjust both which are absurd yet how conducing is it to all true Religion and how necessary for the incouragment of Virtue and the supression of Vice to be fully informed about these things and not to be left fluctuating about with every blast of uncertain guess and conjecture What wild conceptions had the Heathen world about their Infernal Regions and their Elisian Fields Nor were they only fictions peculiar to the Poets but admitted by their Wisest men and best Philosophers who were able to frame very little better Ideaa's of those things To give one Instance of many Plutarch one of the wisest and best of the Heathens in the Treatise he wrote upon this Motto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gives no better an account of the future state of mens Souls then that the Wicked are only overwhelmed in the perpetual Oblivion of all things And for the Place and Condition of such as shall be happy hereafter in his Consolation directed to Apollonius he adheres to the opinion of Pindar who describes those things in the same Fictious and Ridiculous way that Virgil does directly imitate Pindar therein Epicurus indeed pretended to some Wiser Sentiments But the end of them was to render all Notion of a Future condition Fabulous and to Allegorize all that was said of another World into this And to make men believe that whatever was said of the Sufferings and Pains of the Infernal Regions it was nothing else but what was suffered in this Life by Covetous Ambitious and Fearful Minds Exâ—gitated with their own Exorbitant Passions Which was a most effectual way to banish out of the World all Fear of Vice and all Love to Virtue which even by those Obscure notions they had of a Future State was much upheld and maintained But to go farther How necessary must we needs grant it to have the certainty of a Future condition after this Life established by Revelation when we consider how Unfixed some of the Wisest have been about the very Being of any such thing at all Such men as Socrates and Cicero were Doubtful and Unresolved in the case and came to no more but That they inclined to that opinion and judged it the more Probable And Aristotle discoursed of it with much more Obscurity The Resurrection of mens Bodies is a thing of farr Harder belief stands in greater need of Revelation to credit it 'T is not the easiest task to possess men with a through perswasion about It when 't is revealed Saducisme is a weed very apt to grow and not soon Eradicated We find St. Paul sufficiently Laughed at at Athens for Preaching the Resurrection 'T was a New notion to the Philosophers And yet if there were any Glimmerings of it amongst any of the Philosophers it was amongst the Stoicks who were one of the Sects he encountered I know there have been some remote apprehensions amongst the Pagans tending this way But neither the Pagan-world in General nor any considerable part nor indeed any part of it at all ever agreed in a positive distinct belief of any such thing Some fancied there would come to be such a Revolution of the Heavens as that all the Stars would be precisely returned to the very exact Punctum in which they were when all things began first to be and that then all that ever had been should return in Order Time and Nature to their former Condition and Station and be just as they had been Some tell us the Magi who were the Caldaean Philosophers had some obscure notions that all men should one day revive and become Immortal And some
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
his riper years and as Plutarch tells the Athenians if Themistocles had been punished as the enormities of his Youth deserved and Miltiades for his rebellion in Chersonesus where had been sayes he those great Victories those two afterwards obtained in the Plains of Marathon on the Coasts of Arlesia and at the River Eurimedon The truth is in all humane Judgment we are bounded by particulars Individual actions are the Grounds upon which Men proceed Nor can they look forward to know what any will be hereafter But God has the whole of every Man before him and has not only respect to the All of every Action but to the All of every Man in the whole of of his Actings from the First to the Last Thirdly There is a Harmony in Providence which unless we knew All from its Beginning to its Ending we can never fully comprehend 'T is one intire System a compleat Bottom wherein all Ends are exactly wound up A rare contrivance of Divine Wisdom A curious piece of Divine Workmanship wherein all particulars are so Interwoven as to make up the beauty of the whole All the passages of the world from first to last have in the providential Dominion of God over them some dependency each upon other and are not to be fully judged off singly and a part No One Action but relates to Millions of others nay has some reference to all others from the first to the last of the world Each particular hath some reference to the whole like the Parts of a Natural Body where every Part refers to the Whole And is not in its use to be fully comprehended without an exact knowledge of the Whole Every part of Providence hath somewhat in it Relative to all the rest Though God be Just in each particular yet he still executes his Justice to every part with reference to the Whole And so Times and Orders all particulars that the beautiful season of every part is when it bears its exact proportion to the Oeconomy of the Whole Nor can we suppose this to be otherwise but that God who by an Infinite comprehension had all things present and before him should so rank and dispose them that at last the whole business of the World should appear but One complicated and orderly united Means to bring about the first designed Ends. This consideration of our own incapacity to make a full and compleat Judgment of the whole or of many parts of Divine Providence ought to prevent such rash Censures as Men are too apt to make upon it And to perswade them not to deny it where they cannot fully comprehend it And to answer in many cases the doubts men may propose to themselves about this matter but does not answer this Objection fully Because 't is not to be denied but that there are very many particular cases wherein Gods Justice and his Providence are visibly not to be reconciled together in this World And upon that consideration I say 't is much more reconcileable and natural to suppose the Being of a future state after this life by which all Objections against Providence are fully answered then to make that an Objection against Providence and deny the Being of it thereupon and that upon these two grounds First the existence of a general Providence is upon convincing evidence proved to us We have as good Reason to believe God Rules the World as we have to believe that he is Just And in that case when we find we cannot here in this World accommodate his Rule and his Justice together 't is not reasonable to oppose the one by the other when neither can be rationally denied but to admit a state beyond this World by which they are both safely reconciled Secondly there is nothing in the admission of a future state in it self any way unreasonable Nay the existence of such a future state after this life besides the evidence it has from the notion of Providence has also many other rational proofs peculiarly appurtenant to it and is a thing in it self upon other grounds highly probable He that will bottom a denial of Providence singly upon this Objection must prove that there is no state of things after this life or at least have it granted to him The proof of it is impossible and the grant of it were very unreasonable when 't is a natural and necessary consequent to all that rational proof that is made of a Providence in general and I cannot deny the one without rejecting the other the thing in its own Nature is greatly credible and has been believed in all Ages not only by the greatest part of the wisest and best but even of the rudest and most barbarous 〈…〉 which strongly tend to perswade us the belief of it is founded in the dictates of right Reason and the common Sentiments of Nature 'T is to be taken as an undeniable Truth that the existence of Providence and the Being of a future state have a necessary dependency each upon other and are no way seperable If there be a Providence there must be a future state after this life And if there be a state hereafter it must relate to a Providence here The Epicureans therefore deny both Epicurus under all his pressures made his retreat to this Maxime That there had been a time when we were not in Being and there would be a time when we should exist no more Of how little a signification to the World the bare notion of a Deity would prove abstracted from the belief of a Providence here or any state hereafter is easie to discern The Truth is whoever admits the existence of a Supreme and first being will be rationally forced to acknowledge the other two If there be a God he must Rule Infinite power cannot be set by and if he do Rule there must be a reversion of rewards and punishments after this life so Plutarch observes The same Reason which confirms Providence doth likewise confirm the immortality of the Soul And if the one be taken away the other follows so that the great fundamentals of all Virtue and Religion will appear sufficiently justified to us from the regular determinations of right Reason Upon these and many other invincible proofs is Gods providential Rule over the World established The true notion of which frees us from the manifold absurdities of Epicurus his chance and Chrysippus his destiny the two wide extreams on either hand The first is the poorest account that ever was given of such Oeconomy as we see in this World and a monstrous piece of folly to think Chance should be Predominant whilst infinite wisdome is existing The other such an unreasonable and abusive fiction of Providence if related to God as renders it inconsistent with the freedom of a Rational Agent The one denies all providence and makes God to do nothing The other destroys mans freedome and makes God to do every thing Both equally false 'T is true that God Rules over
the Whole And 't is as true that his Rule no way destroys the freedom of mans will Nor is the world subjected to any such thing as a Stoical Fate from any necessary connection of causes but all the actions of men proceed from the free choice and determinations of their own breasts Every mans own Will being the true cause of his own doings Thus much may serve to silence and shame all the ignorant doubts and profane denials of providence to assure men there is a God that Rule 's in the earth and to justifie the exercise of a supreme ' Dominion over the world Upon the truth of which the validity of all Divine Laws must necessarily depend Such who in the third place admit the being of God of Providence and Religion but reject the Christian-religion and consequently the Bible as not true and close with some other in opposition to it against those the whole of this discourse will chiefly tend If the Divine Authority of the Bible be sufficiently made good and the Scriptures proved in trueth to be what themselves tell us they are Laws sent us from God by which he will Rule and judge the world two things will result from it first All other Religions but the Christian will thereby appear to be false and fictitious Secondly Such who have embraced the Christian Profession will be abundantly confirmed in the verity thereof freed from all such doubts as may arise about it and be ascertained of the truth of those grounds upon which it is established In the prosecution of this matter when we deal with Antiscriptural men such as pay no homage at all to the Bible nor yield any obedience to its Authority two things are to be avoided and ought not to be insisted on in order to their confutation First 'T is not a reasonable step towards it to say the Scriptures are the Principle upon which our Religion is built and therefore ought to be granted to us Because in every particular Science some Principles must be granted as the Substratum without which it cannot be upheld and by a denial of which the being of it is subverted This unwary demand is the ready way to six every man in his own profession whatever it be and to prevent the most important Discourse of Religion amongst all such who have already embraced any Religion for there is no Religion without some prime Principles upon which 't is erected and by the grant of which it will be established And as we are sure 't will be equally expected so there is no better ground upon which it can be denyed Nor no less reason why we should admit the principles of other mens Religion then they grant ours And if so we shall soon come to a full point in all our debates about different Religions To such who have already closed with the Christian-profession this holds good And he that admits not the Scriptures as the first Principle and Rule of all discourse upon any internal point of the Christian-Religion is not to be disputed with Because in disowning that principle he destroys the being of the Religion he is contending about and subverts the whole by the manner of his disputing about a part But when we deal with men out of the Church and Enemies to it and the doubt is about the Scripture it self we cannot otherwise defend it then by admitting it a matter Debateable and indeavouring its justification upon principles common to us both and such rational grounds as carry in them the greatest aptness to convince such opponents 'T is not to be denied but that in all Rational enquiries after truth and all humane-debates there must be some common maxims and principles acknowledged on all sides without which there can be no due measures of any discourse nor any Standard by which a man can proceed either to satisfy himself or convince another and 't will be utterly impossible ever to come to a rational end of any debate whatever For If one thing be to be proved as it must be where things are in controversy by another and every thing may be still denied we must prove in infinitum He that opposeth needs nothing to help him but a bare Negative and he that is to prove will be lost in an endless circle Some principles therefore there are which govern all mens thoughts and discourses as things granted by them and are of absolute necessity to the rational conduct of the World And they are of two sorts First Such as are in themselves so obviously true to our Senses and Reason that they gain an Universal Assent and are approved by the common Vote of Mankind These are such things as no man can be supposed to deny if he would no more then he can deny himself to be Reasonable and do discover to us the truth of the rational faculty by the natural Emanation of which we fix upon many positions as undoubtedly true and beyond all question or dispute and from thence measure out the truth of all other things Therefore Aristotle says that in all acquisition of knowledg there is a proceeding from premisses known and agreed to conclusions that before were not known nor agreed These first principles are secured by the innate rectitude of the rational faculty These prove themselves by their consonancy to the rational Nature and cannot be otherwise proved because they are the ground and foundation of all other proof And of these 't is true what the Schools say A posteriori possunt manifestari non per aliquid prius probari Whatever knowledge we find attained to amongst Mankind 't is deduced from these first principles and is a Science subalternated to them 'T is from hence that all thoughts and debates are steered to some end and guided to some conclusion These principles are not to be confined to any enumeration being of equal extent with the rational capacity it self and are occasionally produced by our reason according to the various objects 't is conversant about Nor can any other Character be given of them but that they are such genuine Issues of Reason as become self-evident Maximes to the universal Reason Secondly There are acquired principles amongst mankind which are taken as granted truths and proceeded upon as such that are not of this first nature These secondary principles lye more remote from the first view of our reason and are discovered by a chain of Inductions and our assent to them proceeds from an Industrious exercise of reason by which we come at length to acknowledg their verity as agreeing to that idaa of truth we find seated in the rational Nature and corresponding to those primary dictates of Reason and equally true with them These things men accidentally make principles to themselves and laying them aside from debate as things granted and agreed to proceed to superstruct other notions and principles upon them such principles as these in the pursuit whereof mankind doth greatly differ and often mistake
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
of the Stoicks thought should be burnt to Ashes and then would follow an immediate restoration of all things But these were but wild and â—oveing Guesses in general no certain determination was Mankind able to make about this matter in particular And yet of how great use is the assurance of it to all the ends of Virtue and Religion and how Sovereign a remedy is it against the terror of Death which Aristotle calls the terriblest of all Terrors to be assured upon safe grounds our Bodies shall be raised again and all the Friends we part with here shall in their Souls and Bodies Re-united Exist for ever But waveing the prosecution of these there be two things in themselves of absolute necessity to the being of all Religion and beyond all possibility of a Natural discovery from whence I shall endeavour to demonstrate the necessity of a Revelation in order to the present and future happiness of Mankind First a certain distinct Knowledge how that Evil we find in Mankind came first to Exist whence the Corruption of Humane Nature came In short how there came to be such a thing as Evil and Sin in the World Secondly how Sin and Guilt arising from the Conscience of it may be removed and Men brought to a Reconciliation with God! and an inward Acquescency about it For the first That there is such a thing as Evil and Sin in Men and Guilt resulting from it needs no proof every mans own Reason determines the Case and the whole transaction of the World is too sad an Evidence of We find in the Prayers of all Nations a Confession of Sin And no worship but some way or other tending to the removal of it which is a publick protest in the Case entered by the whole World against themselves 'T is visible our Inferiour faculties do combate our Superiour and our Wills over Rule us to that which our own Reasons determine against Aristotle in the end of the last Chapter of his first Book of Ethicks confesseth There is somewhat in our Nature that opposeth right Reason Whatever directions the Philesophers and Moralists gave to Conquer our Passions and subdue our Sensual Appetites and to conduct us to Virtue they are all grounded upon this supposal Hierocles a Stoical Philosopher in his Discourse upon the Golden sayings of Pythagoras speaks fully and excellently to this point His words are these Man sayes he is of his own motion inclined to follow the Evil and leave the Good There is a certain strife bred in his affections He hath a free Will which he abuseth bindang himself wholly to encounter the Laws of God And this Freedom it self is nothing else but a Willingness to admit that which is not good rather then otherwise That a certain Knowledge of the Origine of this we call Evil and a clear discovery of the first rise and Cause of it is of absolute necessity to the Being of all Religion and that a Man cannot be Religious as he ought without it is easily proved and will be sufficiently so by a due consideration of these four things First how can we acknowledge Gods Justice in Punishing Mankind and without repining submit to it as we ought unless we know whence this Evil first came what Author it had and how and upon what terms man comes to be guilty of that for which he is punished Secondly how can we be as we ought to be sensible of Gods general or particular favours and adore his goodness in preserving us and providing for us unless we be rightly informed of our own demerits and rebellion again him and that Mankind have deserved a total ruine and subversion which we can never be unless we know the first entrance of evil and the original Cause of it Thirdly how can we properly address our selves to God to repair our ruines unless we perfectly know how the first breach came to be made Lastly how is it possible upon reasonable Grounds to restrain Mankind from Impeaching the Wisdom Power and Goodness of God in making and Governing the world unless we know the first rise and primary Cause of all the disorder we see which is not to be known till we come to the Spring-head of evil and sin With what Impatience did Men use to reproch God and Nature about it as if there were a kind of Malevolens and ill will in the Deity to the happiness of Men One sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And a third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor indeed can we well blame the disorder of mens minds that contemplate the present posture of the World and are able to give no satisfying account to themselves how things came at first so to be And that a certain account of evil in its original is impossible to be had without revelation will appear very evident How should any man ever come to discover whence that internal conflict first arose between the Will and the Judgment How a man came to be first so divided against himself one condemning the other No man naturally knows any thing of its Causality nor more of it then that it is so How should any man ever find out from whence or by what means those unrnly lusts and passions those evil and crooked inclinations that naturally infest the minds of men and are a part of themselves that create a guilt in mens own Breasts and prove so ruinous to others came first to exist What footsteps are there in Nature to conduct us to the first cause of these things and the miseries that attend them something indeed we may say Negatively of the Origine of evil but we cannot affirm possitively the least thing about it VVe can much less tell how Mankind came to be wicked then we can tell how they came first to be and yet 't is impossible to know that but by revelation 'T is easie to derive the beings of men in general from some Supreme maker though we can never find out the time when nor the manner how they came first to be made but we can no way at all imagine from whence to derive the evil of their beings or upon what to father the Corruption of humane Nature nor what Date to give it From a Being infinitely perfect and good evil it self could not originally come that is Men could not at the first be made so That we may safely say in the Negative to assert mans Apostacy however any part of the world may dream otherwise 't is demonstrable that man is some way or other degenerated from his Primitive state from the clear evidence of which if we duly consider it results the absolute necessity of a revelation 'T is impossible evil it self should be Con-created with him and be originally appurtenant to him as part of him And 't is thus demonstrable if man had been at the first made as now he is naturally inclined to evil and
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
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
the Jews in the time of our Saviour and the Apostles nor before and 't is certain if there had been any Books then extant in truth written by him they would have been in great esteem and veneration in the Jewish Church though they had not been within their Canon which we are sure they were not and Philo or Josephus most diligent searchers of their Antiquities would have made some eminent mention of them in whose Works we find altum silentium about any such Books and therefore 't is not to be supposed they believed there were any such real Books then extant But 't is most probable that after the Apostle Jude had in his Epistle quoted a Prophecie of Enoch which Prophecie without doubt he came to the knowledge of either purely by Revelation which I rather believe or else by a Tradition the truth of which was ascertained to him by Revelation by which means came others also of the Sacred Writers in after-times to be ascertained of what they writ about divers things that relate to the History of Moses that were not to be found in his Books for in the Psalms we find mention of some things done in Moses his time that are not recorded in his Books St. Paul in the 9 to the Hebrews sayes that when Moses had spoken every precept according to the Law he took the blood of Calves and Goats with Water and Scarlet Wool and Hyssop and sprinkled bâ—th the Book and all the People saying this is the Blood of the Testament c. In which the Apostle has added several things that are not inserted by Moses in the selation of this passage in the 24 of Exodus So Stephens Speech set down in the 7 of the Acts tells us that Moses in killing the Egyptian supposed that his brethren would have understood how that God by his Hand would deliver them but they understood not By which we have a Reason given for Moses killing the Egyptian that he himself has no where set down and by which we come to understand that before Moses went into the Land of Midian God revealed to him that he was to be the deliverer of that people which Moses himself has not any where told us I say 't is probable that some Hereticks in the Church most likely the Gnosticks who much cryed up those Spurious Writings to promote their own corrupt Opinions and Interests took occasion from thence to frame certain counterfeit Books just as some others did under the names of Jaâ—nes and Jambres after St. Pauls mention of them as written by Enoch before the Flood which Books have sufficiently betrayed themselves for those that were published under his name were stuft as St. Austin sayes with such absurd and fabulous Stories of Angels and such ridiculous relations of Gyants whose Fathers were Angels and no men that they are to be justly rejected as pâ—lpably counterfeit and fictitious Of the same mind is Jerom Chrysostom and Epiphanius and when Celsus alledged some absurd Stories out of those writings in reproch to the Christians Origen in his fifth Book answers him by shewing what a mean esteem the Jews as well as the Christians then had of them For the second those Pillars of the Sons of Seth 't is beyond all compass of credit that any such Pillars should be set up with an intention to outlast the Deluge or that they should so do or that any Engravings upon them should be visible some thousands of years after especially upon one of Brick for Josephus tells us there were two at first erected one of Brick and another of Stone and that of Stone they made on purpose to last if the other should decay how he came to such an exact account of their minds the Reader may guess and yet he sayes 't was that of Brick that then remained upon which he does not absolutely say there was any thing written in Letters but that the Sons of Seth Engraved upon them such things as they had invented which might be by many other representations and other ways then by Letters for I doubt not but that a Symbolical representation of mens thoughts one to another was extream early in the World though they wanted Alphabetical Letters Nor does Josephus say that He saw it it himself or give any punctual account what it was that was engraven upon it or any certain Place where the Pillar was to be seen but only in general that it was then in the Countrey of Syria where he left men of leisure to enquire after it The truth is there are so very many improbable and unlikely if not impossible Circumstances do attend this vain Story that 't is plain Josephus though in the general a Historian of deserved credit took it upon bare report from others some late Authors think and perhâ—ps not amiss from the fabulous relation of Manetho who sayes he took his History from some Pillars set up before the Flood and was marvailously abused in that Countenance he seems to give to it nor ought it to seem strange that he should be so for we sind many of the best Historians have taken up things upon trust and fallen thereby into very great mistakes Suetonius and Tacitus are both eminent Historians amongst the Romans yet both guilty of strange mistakes Tacitus tells us in his History That the Jews worshipped an Asses Head with the highest veneration then which nothing could be more untruly and upon less ground affirmed and Suetonius so mistook that he thought Christ lived in the time of Claudius for he sayes In the time of Claudius Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes civitate expulit That Claudius expelled the Jews out of Rome who were continually making uproars being stirred up thereunto by Christ Then which there could not be an absurder mistake nor a greater falshood well uttered For the third The mention that Moses makes in the 21 of Numbers and the 14 of the book of the wars of the Lord as a Book then extant his words are wherefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord what he didin the red Sea and in the brooks of Arnon First divers probable senses are given of the place that render it no Objection in this case The Geneva Translation not much differing from some others renders it thus Wherefore it shall be spoken in the book of the Battles of the Lord c. If so then 't is Prophetical and may relate to Joshuah who is said to sight the Battles of the Lord and to the Relations in the books of Joshuah or Judges that were to be after Junius reads the words thus Idcirco dici solet in recensione bellorum Jehovae c. Wherefore it is wont to be said in the rehearsal of the Wars of the Lord c. And so understands it not of any particular book but that amongst the Wars that God disposed for the good of the Israelites there was in those times a famous mention in the